2010-Enhancing Rigour in Delphi Researchl

Cover_Metal Forming 2010.pdf 09.08.
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This book contains papers presented at the 13th International Conference on Metal Forming, which
was held in Toyohashi, Japan on September 19-22, 2010. The series of Metal Forming Conferences
is organized since 1974, previously by Akademia Grniczo-Hutnicza in Krakw, Poland, later since
1994 jointly with the University of Birmingham, UK, and since 2008 also jointly with the Toyohashi
University of Technology, Japan. The Conference intends to create a platform for contact between
scientists, researchers and engineers working in the field of forming of metals. The Metal Forming
Conference is well-recognized as a forum for the exchange of knowledge on the progress of research
on various forming processes such as rolling, forging, extrusion, drawing, sheet forming, joining,
shearing, etc. The papers published in this volume represent the state-of-the-art in the field of metal
forming science.
Volume 81, Number 9
Special Edition 2010

Including computer files
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Publishing Company Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA
K. Mori, M. Pietrzyk
J. Kusiak, J. Majta,
P. Hartley, J. Lin
Edited by
K. Mori, M. Pietrzyk,
J. Kusiak, J. Majta,
P. Hartley, J. Lin
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Metal Forming_Japan.indb 2
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Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Metal Forming
METAL FORMING 2010
September 19 22, 2010, Hotel Nikko Toyohashi,

Toyohashi, Japan
09.08.2010 14:15:40 Uhr
09.08.2010 14:15:40 Uhr
Edited by:
Ken-ichiro Mori
Maciej Pietrzyk, Jan Kusiak, Janusz Majta
Peter Hartley
Jianguo Lin
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Metal Forming
METAL FORMING 2010

September 19 22, 2010, Hotel Nikko Toyohashi, Toyohashi, Japan
Organizing institutions:
Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan
AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland
University of Birmingham, UK
Imperial College London, UK
09.08.2010 14:15:41 Uhr
Pr
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Metal Forming Metal Forming 2010
September 19 22, 2010, Hotel Nikko Toyohashi, Toyohashi, Japan
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2010 Publishing Company Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA
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steel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
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Preface
Metal forming has for many years maintained its position as the most efficient method of shaping metals and
alloys. The possibility of controlling the properties of final products by careful control of the conditions of deformation is now the principal advantage of metal forming which makes this technique competitive. Therefore,
metal forming continues to be an important industrial process attracting the interest of scientists and researchers
throughout the world.
The series of Metal Forming Conferences organized since 1974 by Akademia Gorniczo-Hutnicza in Krakow,
Poland, and since 1994 jointly with the University of Birmingham, UK, is intended to create a platform for contact
between scientists, researchers and engineers working in the field of forming of metals. During 36 years after the
first meeting in Krakow, the Metal Forming Conference is well-recognized as a forum for the exchange of knowledge on the progress of research into various methods of shaping of metals. Four years ago the decision was made
at Birmingham that the Toyohashi University of Technology would join the organisation team, which has strongly
contributed to increase of popularity of the Conference.
The special edition of the journal steel research international contains papers submitted to the 13th International Conference on Metal Forming, which was held in Toyohashi, Japan on September 19-22, 2010. 366 papers
including 4 plenary lectures and 9 special session keynotes submitted from authors representing universities,
research institutes and industry in 27 countries was published in this book and nearly 60% of these papers were
submitted from Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan. Although the contributions from European countries were major
in the previous conferences, we had a lot of new participants in this conference.
A review of the published papers also shows that there is a continuous progress in conventional forming processes such as rolling, forging, extrusion, drawing, sheet forming, joining, shearing, etc. Theoretical and technological
problems connected with new aspects and capabilities of these processes are addressed. Beyond this, researches
on new processes, which have recently become very popular due to their specified capabilities, for example hot
stamping, micro forming, incremental forming, hydroforming and plastic joining, are presented in some of the
papers. Forming processes of not only composites and powders but also high strength steels, aluminium alloys
and magnesium alloys are critical. New numerical modelling approaches such as multi scale analysis, advanced
constitutive equations and microstructure evolution are also discussed.
We would like to express our gratitude to the reviewers of the papers submitted, to the Members of Scientific
Committee of the Conference, for their hard work and critical but constructive remarks, which helped the Conference to maintain a high scientific level. We hope that this book will become a source of valuable information
useful in scientific works for researchers, engineers and students and we are pleased to welcome everyone in
Toyohashi to the 13th Metal Forming Conference.
Ken-ichiro Mori
Maciej Pietrzyk, Jan Kusiak, Janusz Majta
Peter Hartley
University of Birmingham, UK
Jianguo Lin
Imperial College London, UK
ed
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09.08.2010 14:15:41 Uhr
International Scientific Committee
Yohei Abe
Julian Allwood
Mohammad Bakhshi-Jooybari
Niels Bay
John Howard Beynon
Bruno Buchmayr
Jose M. A. Cesar de Sa
Yvan Chastel
Jean-Loup Chenot
Didier Claude Farrugia
Masahiro Fukumoto
Jean-Claude Gelin
Anne Marie Habraken
Gerhard Hirt
Peter Damian Hodgson
Yong-Taek Im
ManSoo Joun
Rudolf Kawalla
Youngsuk Kim
Andrzej Zdzislaw Kocanda
Reiner Kopp
Antti Samuli Korhonen
Toshihiko Kuwabara
Lihui Lang
Jianjun Li
Jerry Lord
Michael Lovell
Janusz Luksza
Ken-ichi Manabe
Ryo Matsumoto
Fabrizio Micari
Wojciech Zbigniew Misiolek
Pierre Montmitonnet
Hideshi Miura
Kozo Osakada
Masaaki Otsu
Pat Phelan
Yi Qin
Gow-Yi Tzou
Hiroshi Utsunomiya
Robert H. Wagoner
Baoyu Wang
Roger N. Wright
Fusahito Yoshida
VI

Cambridge University, UK
Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Iran
Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
University of Loeben, Austria
University of Porto, Portgal
Mines ParisTech, France
Corus Research, UK
ENSMM Besacon, France
University of Liege, Belgium
RWTH Aachen, Germany
Deakin University, Australia
KAIST, Korea
Gyeongsang National University, Korea
TU Berakademie Freiberg, Germany
Kyungpook National University, Korea
Politechnika Warszawska, Poland
RWTH Aachen, Germany
Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan
Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, China
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
National Physical Laboratory, UK
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan
Osaka University, Japan
University of Palermo, Italy
Lehigh University, USA
Kyushu University, Japan
Kumamoto University, Japan
University of Limerick, Ireland
University of Strathclyde, UK
Kao Yuan University, Taiwan
Ohio State University, USA
University of Science and Technology Beijing, China
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
Hiroshima University, Japan
09.08.2010 14:15:41 Uhr
Table of contents

Page
Plenary lecture
Masayuki Miyanishi
Manufacturing of light weight cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Kozo Osakada
Application of servo presses to metal forming processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Gerhard Hirt, Stephan Heppner
Selected trends for metal forming innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Zbigniew Pater
Development of cross-wedge rolling theory and technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Rolling
Peter D. Hodgson, Ilana B. Timokhina, Hossein Beladi
Nanostructural engineering of steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Sung-Hoon Cha, Jong-Bong Kim, Sa Sung Park, Jong-Ho Kim, Nak-Kyu Lee
Design of micro pattern forming process on thin sheet metal for electronic device panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Joerg Brecht, Peter Finge, Andreas Hauger
Tailor rolled products Innovative lightweight design technology for
body structures and chassis applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Shigeru Ogawa, Kenji Yamada, Toshiyuki Shiraishi, Takayuki Otsuka, Yutaka Sadano,
Hisataka Uto, Kazuto Yamamura, Yoshiaki Shia, Kenji Sorao, Takeo Hoshino,
Kunihiko Wakatsuki, Kouichiro Takeshita, Keishiro Ikeda, Kanji Hayashi, Akira Sako,
Yutaka Matsuda, Yuji Ikemoto, Hideaki Furumoto
Development of intelligent mill and realization of Oita plate leveler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Zongan Luo, Guangming Xie, Guodong Wang, Guanglei Wang,
Hongguang Wang, Lijun Wang
Interface of heavy gauge plate by vacuum cladding rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Falko Vogler, Alexander Duschka, Peter Groche
Part accuracy of hollow profiles manufactured through flexible roll forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Bogdan Garbarz, Jarosaw Marcisz
Thermomechanical processing of Al-alloyed structural steel with reduced
susceptibility to copper hot brittleness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Dian-yao Gong, Zheng-yi Jiang, Jian-zhong Xu, Xiang-hua Liu, Di Wu
Setup models of finishing temperature and rolling speed for hot strip mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Li Yan-mei, Zheng Dong-sheng, Zhu Fu-xian
Effect of finish rolling temperature ranges on microstructure
and mechanical properties of hot rolled multiphase steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Krzysztof Muszka, Bradley P. Wynne, Eric J. Palmiere, W. Mark Rainforth
Effect of deformation mode on microstructure evolution in Nb-microalloyed steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Yun Bo Xu, Yong Mei Yu, Bao Liang Xiao, Guo Dong Wang
Microstructural modeling and processing optimization during hot strip rolling of high-Nb steels . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Fumio Fujita, Takero Watanabe, Hiromasa Shimoyama, Lili Guo
Effects of rolling and heat treatment conditions on
texture structure and formability of magnesium alloy sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Alexander Pesin, Victor Salganik, Denis Pustovoytov
Modeling of surface crack form change of continuously
cast slabs in roughing rolling at wide strip mill 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
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Matthias Dnckelmeyer, Christian Krempaszky, Ewald Werner ,

Gerald Hein , Karl Schrkhuber
Analytical modeling of thermo-mechanically induced residual
stresses of work rolls during hot rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Mahan Qwamizadeh, Mahmoud Kadkhodaei, Mahmoud Salimi
Analysis of curvature development in asymmetrical plate rolling
in free and forced horizontal entry conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Shinya Kanemori, Hideaki Furumoto, Kanji Hayashi, Takao Owada
Reduction of impact force in threading of strip front end and
stabilization of mill vibration by mill stabilizer device in hot rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Yasumitsu Kondo
Suppression of surface hot shortness caused by copper in hot-rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Dongbin Wei, Junxia Huang, Aiwen Zhang, Zhengyi Jiang,
Kiet Tieu, Xu Shi, Sihai Jiao, Libin Chen
Deformation of oxide scale and roll-strip interface characteristics
in hot rolling of stainless steel 304 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Victor Mendoza
FEM analysis of defects and microstructure evolution
during hot working of specialty alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Zicheng Zhang, Fuxian Zhu, Yanmei Li, Zhigang Liu
Effect of thermomechanical processing on ferrite
grain size and retained austenite morphology of Si-Mn TRIP steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Akio Segawa, Takao Kawanami
Visualization of deformation characteristics of oxide
scale in hot rolling process by scale transfer method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Ui Gu Kang, Shin Woong Jeong, Won Jong Nam
Evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties
in Al 5052 alloy during warm rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Marcel Graf, Rudolf Kawalla
Simulation system for fast analysis of multistage hot rolling processes strip and rod/wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Masanori Kobayashi, Tomoya Tsuchihashi, Yoshio Morimoto, Takashi Ishikawa
Prevention of sheet perforation in universal gap rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Somrerk Chandra-ambhorn, Thanasak Nilsonthi, Yves Wouters, Alain Galerie
Oxidation kinetics, mechanical adhesion and pickling behaviour
of thermal oxide scales on hot-rolled conventional and recycled steels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Qiang Zhu, Hongtao Zhu, Kiet Tieu, Cheng Lu
High temperature oxidation behaviour of a high-speed steel material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Xiaoming Zhang, Zhengyi Jiang, Dongbin Wei, Xianghua Liu, Guodong Wang
Analysis of casting roll during twin-roll thin strip casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
D. Mirahmadi Khaki, A. Akbarzadeh, A. Eftekhari, K. Koroshfar
Coiling temperature effect on formability of Nb-microalloyed steel sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Yongfeng Shen, Wenying Xue, Yanhui Guo
Effect of cold rolling and annealing on texture evolution and
mechanical properties of if steel sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
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Haibo Xie, Zhengyi Jiang, Daniel Yuen

Analysis of edge cracks initiation and propagation during cold rolling of thin strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
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Mahmoud Salimi, Mohammad Mehdi Sahebifard

Optimization of strip profile and flatness using hybrid neural-GA algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Hiroshi Utsunomiya, Tsuyoshi Yukimoto, Tetsuo Sakai,
Shinsuke Suzuki, Hideo Nakajima
Pore closure in multi-pass cold rolling of lotus-type porous copper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Mohammad Reza Niroomand, Mohammad Reza Forouzan,
Mohammad Fasihfar, Mahmoud Salimi
Chattering control based algorithm for nonlinear optimization of
5-stands cold strip rolling process parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Sang Min Byon, Jae Hyeon Lee, Youngseog Lee
Experimental and numerical studies of edge cracks of a silicon steel strip in cold rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Jari Larkiola, Jari Nylander, Martti Verho, Mika Judin
Virtual rolling quality system for cold rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Amir Hosein Sakhaei, Mahmoud Salimi, Mahmoud Kadkhodaei
Caliber design in shape rolling by finite element method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Fritz Klocke, Bjrn Feldhaus, Hagen Wegner, Vladimir Bcker
Rolling of defined riblet structures on compressor blades of Ti6Al4V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
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Hiroshi Ona, Ryuhou Sho, Takuo Nagamachi, Kiyomasa Hoshi

Development of flexible cold roll forming machine controlled by PLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
10
Keinosuke Iguchi, Kazuki Nishida, Takayuki Hama,

Hideyuki Nakamura, Yukihisa Kuriyama, Hirohiko Takuda
Finite element analysis of strip deformation in roll forming of
electric resistance welded pipe with vertical rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
14
Radoslaw Patyk
Theoretical and experimental basis of regular asperities
about triangular outline embossing technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
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Toshifusa Nakamizo, Ichiro Takasu, Morihiko Nakasaki, Hiroshi Utsunomiya

Three-rolls-type hot ring rolling process of large seamless rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
22
Lianggang Guo, He Yang

Numerical simulation of inhomogeneous deformation in cold ring rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
26
Hendrik Schafstall, Christian Barth

An innovate approach to automated simulation of full 3D ring
rolling process and other incremental forming processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
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Jarosaw Bartnicki, Jarosaw Magryta, Zbigniew Pater, Grzegorz Samoyk

Rotary compression processes of hollowed parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
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Abdullatif Al-Salmi, Peter Hartley

The influence of roll inclination angle in three-roll rotary rolling of bi-metallic rod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
38
MinCheol Lee, SooJin Jang, SeungSang Han, DukJae Yoon, ManSoo Joun
New finite-element model of thread rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
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Agnieszka Kulakowska
Problems of surface preparation under burnishing rolling in aspect of product quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
46
Wang Baoyu, Zheng Zhenhua, Hu Zhenghuan, Lin Jianguo

Methodology on precision cross wedge rolling of camshaft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
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Carolin Binotsch, Andreas Feuerhack, Birgit Awiszus, Heinrich Potthoff

FEM simulation of planetary cross rolling process for production of seamless tubes of steel and copper . . . . 226
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Matthias Schmidtchen, Rudolf Kawalla

Multiscale modeling of rolling processes and bond strength development for layered materials . . . . . . . . . . . 230
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Masahiro Saito, Motoo Asakawa, Yoshifuru Sunaga,

Masaru Kobayashi, Masahito Kato, Kunio Matsuzaki
Manufacturing of Mg/Al clad sheet with pure titanium foil as inserts by hot pressing and rolling . . . . . . . . . . 234
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Tamer El Nadi, Bernd-Arno Behrens, Richard Krimm

Simulation of levelling with adjustable roll bending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
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Motoo Asakawa, Motohiko Urabe, Kotaro Nishimura, Ryota Hamada,

Shigeyuki Aizawa, Masahiko Amari
Theoretical and experimental analysis of roller leveller straightening for coiled bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
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Zdzislaw Cyganek
Influence of induced strain path on force-energy parameters of rolling process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
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SeungSang Han, JaeGun Eom, SoonTae Ahn, SeongMin Jang,
YoHun Son, Hyuk Kim, DukJae Yoon, ManSoo Joun
Plastic deformation behavior of pre-heat-treated high-strength steel for application in forging . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Koh-ichi Sugimoto, Junya Kobayashi, Goro Arai
Development of ultra high-strength low alloy TRIP-aided steel for hot-forging parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Shiro Torizuka, Eijiro Muramatsu
Formability of ultrafine-grained steel : Forming microscrews by cold heading and rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Sylwia Wiewirowska
Determination of content of retained austenite in steels with
TRIP effect deformed at different strain rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Qiushi Li, JaeGun Eom, YeongSu Kim, EungZu Kim, ManSoo Joun
Causes of die fracture in automatic multistage cold-forging of high-strength ball-studs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Yuji Kume, Makoto Kobash, Naoyuki Kanetake
Refinement of grains and second phases in aluminum alloys by compressive torsion processing . . . . . . . . . . 270
Jaboska Magdalena, Bednarczyk Iwona, Bernstock-Kopaczyska Ewelina
Microstructural analysis of alloys from Fe-Al system by means of electron back scatter diffraction . . . . . . . . 274
XiaoWu, Jian-Jun Li, Zhi-Zhen Zheng, Hua-Min Zhou
Formability of Zr-based bulk metallic glass under different loading modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Zhichao Sun, He Yang, Xiaofeng Guo
Modelling of microstructure evolution in AISI 5140 steel triple valve
forming under multi-way loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Joseph Sehinde Ajiboye, Ki- Ho Jung and Yong- Taek Im
Selection of cold forging lubricants by tip test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Marcus Bistron, Bernd-Arno Behrens, Hanno Paschke
Reduction of wear by boron based multilayer coatings on forging dies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Soo-Young Kim, Satoshi Kubota, Masahito Yamanaka
Tool life evaluation of cold forging dies using numerical
prediction model based on fatigue characteristics of tungsten carbide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Jong-Taek Yeom, Jee-Hoon Kim, Jeoung-Han Kim, Jae-Keun Hong, Jae-Sik Lee
Hot forging design of cam for vessel engine using finite element analysis and ductile fracture criteria . . . . . . 298
Grzegorz Samoyk, Jarosaw Bartnicki, Andrzej Gontarz
Fracture model for FEM modelling of cold metal forging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
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Elena Lyamina, Sergei Alexandrov, Dragisa Vilotic, Dejan Movrin

Effect of shape of samples on ductile fracture initiation in upsetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Jung Min Seo, Jeong Hoon Noh, Beong Bok Hwang
Sensitivity of dimensional changes to ring geometry using FE simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
38
Seong-Hoon Kang, Sang-Woo Kim, Young-Seon Lee

Application of modified hydrostatic stress model to internal void
crushing in forging of large-scale ingot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
42
Thomas Kroiss, Ulf Engel, Marion Merklein

Simulation-based determination of deflection characteristic of
tooling system and its modeling in FE simulation of cold forging process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
46
50
54
58
62
66
70
74
78
Takashi Ishikawa, Yoshinori Yoshida, Nobuki Yukawa, Michiaki Kamiyama,

Hirotaka Ogitani, Tomoaki Suganuma
Cold forge bonding of steel and aluminum alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Huachang Wang, Hongfu Wang, Yuxi Tang
Variation in temperature distribution of die from unsteady to steady
states in hot-forging of car front-wheel-hub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Cheng Xiu-quan, Huo Yu-lin, Xia Qin-xiang, Kuang Bei-gu, Cheng Wen-xuan
Closing of central cavity in shaft heavy forging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Tung-Sheng. Yang, Sheng-Yi. Chang, Zong-Xian. Jiang
Predictions of maximum forging load and initial billets
dimensions of near net-shape of near net-shape bevel gear forging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Satoru Kuwaharada, Kenji Nakanishi, Takehiko Matsuda, Yasumichi Matsumoto
Net shape forging of light weight LED light housing developed by physical forming simulation . . . . . . . . . . 338
Wei-Shin Lin, Chun- Feng Tseng
Effect of hot forging deformation rate to carburizing treatment for hot forging parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Hanns Kache, Rouven Nickel, Bernd-Arno Behrens
Development of variable warm forging process chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Bernd-Arno Behrens, Dirk Odening
Material influence on shrinkage behaviour of precision-forged parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Tomoyoshi Maeno, Hiroyuki Fujii, Ken-ichiro Mori, Masahiro Sato
Control of slide motion in hot impression die forging of aluminium alloy billets using servo press . . . . . . . . . 354
Gontarz Andrzej, Pater Zbigniew, Samoyk Grzegorz, Tofil Arkadiusz
Forging of connecting rod without flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
82
Emi Onodera, Yunping Li, Tadayoshi Odahara, Hiroaki Matsumoto, Akihiko Chiba
Intelligent hot forging process of artificial hip joint made of Ni-free Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N alloy . . . . . . . . . . . 362
86
Zhang Bao-hong, Zhang Zhi-min

Theoretical analysis and experimental verification of tooth parameters
of die cavity for cold sizing process of spur gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
90
Yunping Li, Emi Onodera, Tadayoshi Odahara, Hiroaki Matsumoto, Akihiko Chiba
Friction correction of deformation curves in hot forging process of cylindrical sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
94
Fanjuan Meng, Carl Labergere, Pascal Lafon

Parameters optimization of metal forming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
98
Takahiro Ohashi, Yusuke Tsurumi, Yasushi Murata,

Heihachi Ueki, Soju Matsumoto, Kenji Iwata
VR system for aiding preform design of hot forgings using haptic device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
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09.08.2010 14:16:32 Uhr
Mohammad Kazem Kouroshfar, Daavood Mirahmadi Khaki

Investigation of effects of thermomechanical processing
parameters on restoration behavior in X210Cr12 steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
K Zhu Chun-dong, Cheng Meng-biao
Optimization of tie-bar end forming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Extrusion and drawing
Byung-Min Kim, Seon-Bong Lee, Sang-Kon Lee
Curved profile extrusion process for Al6xxx automotive suspension arm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
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Beong Bok Hwang, Jeong Hoon Noh, Ho Yong Lee

Forming load characteristics in combined extrusion process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Zb
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Vishara Ruchiranga Jayasekara, Jeong Hoon Noh, Beong Bok Hwang

Material flow characteristics of combined tube extrusion process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
M
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Mario Epler, Wojciech Misiolek

Combined physical and numerical simulation of bimetallic tube extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
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Takeshi Yoneyama, Masaya Takahashi

Effect of ultrasonic vibration on metal compression and extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Takahiro Ishiguro, Masayuki Yoshimura, Yoshinori Yoshida, Nobuki Yukawa, Takashi Ishikawa
Influence of slide motion on dimensional accuracy in cold backward extrusion by using servo press . . . . . . . 410
Kenji Hirota, Kumiko Maeda, Akira Shirai
Forming of stepped shaft by sheet extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Dyi-Cheng Chen, Ming-Wei Guo, Chih-Hsuan Jao, Ci-Syong You
Use of Taguchi method to study deformation mechanisms during
indirect extrusion of seamless tube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Farhad Parvizian, Tobias Kayser, Bob Svendsen
Modelling and simulation of dynamic microstructure evolution of
aluminium alloys during hot forming processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Isaac Flitta, Terry Sheppard
Prediction of substructure influencing static recrystalisation using FEM analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Marita Karimi, Faramarz Fereshteh-Saniee, Naeemeh Fakhar
Experimental and numerical parameter studies on plane-strain backward extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Jung Min Lee, Jung Hwan Lee, Dae Cheol Ko, Dong Hwan Kim, Byung Min Kim
Application of powder pad and die design with ribbon-shaped
chamber for direct extrusion of multi-cell tube using porthole die . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Jianmin Yu, Zhimin Zhang, Lihui Lang, Baohong Zhang
Influence of plastic deformation on mechanical
properties and microstructure of annealed ZL102 alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Ya Cui, Zhimin Zhang, Baohong Zhang, Jianmin Yu, Qiang Wang
Effect of multiple plastic deformation on microstructure
and mechanical properties of 7A04 ultra-high strength aluminum alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Ping-Hsun Tsai, Wan-Chi Chang, Guogi Li, Jaebong Yang, Jin Yong Oh, Michael Foster, Wei-Tsu Wu
3-D FEM simulation of aluminum extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Jeong-Hoon Noh, Beong Bok Hwang
Surface stress profiles and forming limit in radial extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Kai Kittner, Carolin Binotsch, Birgit Awiszus
Models for determination of interface strength and quality of aluminum-magnesium compounds . . . . . . . . . . 454
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86
Pawel Kazanowski
Evaluation of fracture surface features in support of extrusion tools design optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Akira Yanagida, Keisuke Ishikawa, Kensaku Okazaki, Akira Azushima
Effect of Ti addition on tensile properties of C-Mn steels subjected to ECAE and heat treatment . . . . . . . . . . 462
Yan Zhao, Hongzhen Guo, Yongqiang Zhang, Zekun Yao, Zhifeng Shi
Influence of ECAP processing parameters on microstructure of TA15 titanium alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
90
Andrzej Rosochowski, Malgorzata Rosochowska, Lech Olejnik, Bert Verlinden

Incremental equal channel angular pressing of sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
94
Zbigniew Gronostajski, Maciej Zwierzchowski, Marek Hawryluk, Tomasz Skubiszewski

Aluminum bronze BA1032 deformed by ECAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
98
Mehmet Okan Grtan, Enrico Bruder, Peter Groche, Clemens Mller

New severe plastic deformation process to produce ultrafine grained materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
02
Shinsuke Suzuki, Juan Lobos Martin, Hiroshi Utsunomiya, Hideo Nakajima

Effect of pass route and pass number of equal-channel angular
extrusion on structure and strength of lotus-type porous copper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
06
Kazunari Yoshida, Shunichi Kikuchi

Alternate drawing of aluminum wires for wiring harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
10
Micha Wielgus, Janusz Majta, Janusz Luksza, Pawe Pako

Effect of strain path on mechanical properties of wire drawing products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
14
Sonomi Shirasaki, Motoo Asakawa, Ryosuke Komami, Yuichi Tanaka

Theoretical analysis of high dimensional accuracy in cold wire drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
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30
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38
42
46
50
54
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Dae Woon Kim, Sang Kon Lee, Byung Min Kim, Jin Young Jung, Deok Young Ban
Prediction model of axial residual stress in multi-pass high carbon steel wire drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Tsuyoshi Furushima, Yuta Noda, Ken-ichi Manabe
Effective heating conditions for high speed dieless tube drawing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Janusz Luksza, Katarzyna Szajding, Maciej Rumiski
Drawing process with ultrasonic activation of sectional drawing
die perpendicularly to axis of wire subject to deformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Tube forming
Jean-Loup Chenot, Elisabeth Massoni, Patrice Lasne
Finite element simulation and optimization of the hydroforming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Majid Elyasi, Pouya Zoghipour, Mohammad Bakhshi-Jooybari,
Abdolhamid Gorji, Seyed Jamal Hosseinipour, Salman Nourouzi
A new hydroforming die design for improvement of die corner filling of conical stepped tubes . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Cong Han, Yongchao Xu, Shijian Yuan, Yong Wang, Shuai Yang
Effect of feeding pressure on hydroforming of crank-shaped tubes with ultra-small bending radius . . . . . . . . 520
Mehran Kadkhodayan, Ahmad Erfani Moghadam, Mehdi Heidari
Loading path optimization of T-shape tube hydroforming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Atsushi Shirayori, Michiharu Narazaki
Hydraulic bulge forming of small diameter tubes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Shi-Hong Zhang, An-Ying Yuan, Yong Xu, Ming Cheng
Influence of new hydroforming loading on formability in auto parts manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
Gang Liu, Junyang Peng, Guannan Chu, Shiqiang Zhu, Haitao Xiao,Shijian Yuan
Deformation patterns in hydroforming of thin-walled Y-shaped tube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
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09.08.2010 14:16:32 Uhr
Shen-Yung Lin, Jhih-Cheng Shih

Hydro-formability investigation of bellows with more convolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
Ju
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Ghader Faraji, Karen Abrinia

Analytical investigation of metal bellows forming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544
Po
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Shijian Yuan, Xin Liu, Yongchao Xu, Xiaosong Wang, Jun Qi, Xiaojun Sun
Warm hydroforming of aluminum alloy part by axially different heating zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Vadillo Leire, Prez Iaki, Hori Izuru, Zarazua Jose Ignacio,
Mangas ngela, San Jos Juan, Paar Uwe
Gas forming of boron steel tubes at low pressure - Applasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Rainer Steinheimer, Carsten Mller-Bollenhagen, Xuelan Schrder,
Martina Zimmermann, Bernd Engel, Hans-Jrgen Christ
Closed-loop control of deformation induced martensite in
complex tube forming process for optimized fatigue properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
Hasan Khanlari, Majid Elyasi, Mohammad Bakhshi-Jooybari,
Abdolhamid Gorji, Behnam Davoodi, Ghorban Mohammad Alinegad
Investigation of pressure path effect on thickness distribution
of product in hydroforming process of SS316L seamless tubes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Se-Ho Kim, Kee-Poong Kim
Simulation-based process development of tube press forming
for coupled torsion beam axle of rear suspension assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Zicheng Zhang, Ken-ichi Manabe, Fuxian Zhu, Mingya Zhang
Determination of circumferential mechanical properties of TRIP steel tube by ring tensile test . . . . . . . . . . . . 568
Dong-Hak Kim, Man-Bin Moon, Hyo-Sub Kim, Dong-Choon Hur, Jea-WooYang
Development of 4-way pipe stress reduction machine for improved
submerged arc welding pipe dimensional accuracy and reduced residual stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Heng-Sheng Lin, Chia-Jung Lin, Yuan-Chuan Hsu, Jiing-Herng Lee,
Bean-Yin Lee, Yu-Chiang Chen
Feasibility of sinking with rotary swaging for high pressure gas cylinders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576
Kazuhito Takahashi, Takashi Kuboki, Makoto Murata, Kouzo Yano
Influence of initial thickness of circular tube in rotary-draw bending
adding axial pushing force for suppression of flatness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Takashi Kuboki, He Huang, Makoto Murata, Yohei Yamaguchi, Kouichi Kuroda
FEM analysis of tube straightener adopting implicit scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Sheet metal forming
Beom-Soo Kang, Seong-Chan Heo, Ja-Kyung Ku, Jung-Won Park, Tae-Wan Ku
Multi-stage deep drawing process for rectangular cup
with extreme aspect ratio using 3003-H16 aluminum alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
Hu Wang, Guangyao Li
Reduction of wrinkling and crack of sheet forming based
on least square support vector regression and cross validation sampling approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
Woo-Jin Song, Seong-Chan Heo, Young-Seop Byun, Tae-Wan Ku, Beom-Soo Kang, Jeong Kim
Prediction of forming limits considering temperature and strain rate effects
for magnesium alloy sheet based on local and diffuse plastic instability conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
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Mahmoud Abbasi, Mostafa Ketabchi, Hamid Reza Shakeri, Mohammad Hossein Hasannia
Investigation into formability of tailor welded blank consisted
of IF steel sheets with different thicknesses- Experiment and simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
Yo
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44
Jui-Chang Lin, Yu-Chun Chen, Shih-Fong Chiou

Optimization of double-square-slot deep drawing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
Pongpan Kaewtatip, Varunee Premanond, Anak Khantachawana,
Nattapong Boonthongchan, Ratchanee Hato, Nobuhiro Koga
Surface quality improvement of ironed aluminum cups by using surface-modified tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
48
Claus-Peter Eckold, Bernd-Arno Behrens, Sven Hbner,

Fabian Lange, Peter Groche, Metin Ertugrul
Development of blank holder with hydro-elastic segments for deep drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
52
Sinan Serdar Ozkan

Neuro-fuzzy control of blank holder force to improve formability in deep drawing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
56
Takayuki Muranaka, Masato Okada, Kazuhiko Tanaka

Stretch-draw forming of cylindrical cups for improvement of shape accuracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620
Zhibing Zhang, Yuqi Liu, Ting Du
Fast flanging defects predict and process optimization in sheet metal forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
60
Abdolh-Hamid Gorji, Hassan Alavi-Hashemi, Mohamad Bakhshi-Jooybari,

Ghorban Mohammad-Alinejad, Salman Nourouzi
Development of hydrodynamic deep drawing assisted by
radial pressure for conical-cylindrical parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
64
Xu Yong-chao, Han Cong, Liu Xin, Yuan Shi-jian, Kang Da-chang

Effects of radial pressure on 5A06 aluminum alloy cup hydroforming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
68
72
76
80
84
Jang-Ping Wang, Guo-Ming Huang, Hsien-Der Lee, Tsung-Han Wu

Integrated optimal design method for drawing limit of stainless steel
in hydro-mechanical deep drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636
Hasan Ali Hatipolu, Naki Polat, Arif Kksal
A methodology to determine friction coefficient in fluidcell forming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640
Rong Min, Yongjun Wang, Ximing Gou, Junbiao Wang
Ageing regulating process for 2024 aluminum alloy
thin workpiece formed using rubber fluid forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
Morteza Hosseinzadeh, Mohammad Bakhshi-Jooybari,
Mohsen Shakeri, Hamid Mostajeran, Hamid Gorji
Application of Taguchi method in optimization of new hydroforming die design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647
Asghar Shamsi-Sarband, Seyed Jamal Hosseinipour, Mohammad Bakhshi-Jooybari
Theoretical and FEM investigation of superplastic blow forming in conical die . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
Bao-sheng Liu, Li-hui Lang, Sergey Alexandrov, Hu Zhang, Elena Lyamina
Experiment determination of two unified fracture criteria for hot sheet hydroforming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655
88
Mohamed Mohamed, Alistair Foster, Liliang Wang, Jianguo Lin,

Daniel Balint, Trevor Dean
Formability for hot stamping of Al-alloy panel parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
92
Kanji Ueno, Ken-ichiro Mori, Seijiro Maki, Naotaka Arisawa

Resistance heating of side wall of cup for warm and hot spline forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663
96
Farhad Haji Aboutalebi

Numerical and experimental determination of forming limit diagram for DIN 1623 St14 steel . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
00
Yoshinori Yoshida, Takahiro Ishiguro, Nobuki Yukawa,

Takashi Ishikawa, Zhigang Wang
Influences of sheared surface properties and induced strain
on hole expansion limit of steel sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670
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Naoto Hagino, Junichi Endou, Shunji Katoh, Seiji Okudera,

Masao Maruyama, Makoto Kubota, Chikara. Murata
In-process monitoring for press forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674
Wei Wang, Gang Zhao, Fazhong Shi
Die surface design CAD software oriented for sheet metal stamping FEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
Takashi Nakano
Press machine trends and servo press forming examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
Yoshikiyo Tamai, Yuji Yamasaki, Akihide Yoshitake, Takaaki Imura
Improvement of formability in stamping of steel sheets by motion control of servo press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686
Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Atsumori Inada, Naoya Kawachi, Jun-ichi Endou
Effect of parallel control of press with eccentric load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690
Wen-Hsiang Hsieh, Chia-Heng Tsai
A novel mechanical press of stephenson type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
Tsuyoshi Yokosawa, Seiji Kataoka, Takashi Sato, Kenji Tamaoki,
Kengo Fujimaki, Tadao Kato
Dry press forming using CVD diamond film coated tool polished
by non abrasive ultrasonic vibration polishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698
Kunio Hayakawa, Kazumi Saito, Tamotsu Nakamura,
Shigekazu Tanaka
Detection of tribological condition during sheet metal forming
using fractal property of acoustic emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
Hyun-Min Lee, Young-Ho Seo, Jae-Nam Kim, Woo-Jin Song,
Tae-Wan Ku, Beom-Soo Kang, Jeong Kim
Development of electromagnetic forming apparatus and
experimental application to sheet metal forming processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
Marek Burdek, Marcin Miczka
Influence analysis of 3D roughness parameters on physical
and technological properties of steel sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710
Michael P. Pereira, Paul C. Okonkwo, Wenyi Yan, Bernard F. Rolfe
Deformation and frictional heating in relation to wear in sheet metal stamping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
Dongsheng Li, Liang Wang, Hongyu Luo, Yanwen Lin, Lianfeng Chen
Development on dent resistance testing system for auto-body panel parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
Heng Jian Xu, Yu Qi Liu, Zhi Bing Zhang, Ting Du
Solid-shell finite element method for progressive die forming simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Reimund Neugebauer, Welf-Guntram Drossel, Lutz Lachmann,
Sebastian Hensel, Matthias Nestler
Experimental and numerical study on efficient forming operations
of sheet-metal-compounds with integrated piezo-modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
Zbigniew Zimniak
Influence of high density electric currents pulses on plastic deformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
Jung Min Lee, Jung Hwan Lee, Dong Hwan Kim, Byung Min Kim
Effect of galvannealing temperatures on frictional characteristic of GA coating in flat-friction test . . . . . . . . . 733
Ali Alavi Nia, Reza Emami
Explosive forming of steel cone using ALE method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
Chul Kim, Beom-Cheol Hwang, Won-Byong Bae
Torsional characteristic and manufacturing process for sleeve spring of torsional vibration damper . . . . . . . . 741
XVI
09.08.2010 14:16:32 Uhr
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78
82
86
90
94
98
02
06
Weijun Yang, Dongsheng Li, Xiaoqiang Li, Dehua He

A springback compensation method for complex-shaped flange components in fluid-cell forming process . . . . . 745
Juan Liao, Chi Zhou, Feng Ruan, Yin Zhu
Springback reduction of blade part using measuring based compensation methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Takayuki Hama, Eiji Isogai, Tohru Yoshida, Hirohiko Takuda
Experimental verification of springback simulation using local interpolation for tool surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . 753
Kazunari Imai, Jin Yingjun, Hiroki Tsuruta, Junichi Koyama, Takashi Kuboki, Makoto Murata
Computational method of springback in V-bending of sheet having bausching effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757
Lei Liu, Yongjun Wang, Rui Liu, Qizheng Kang, Zhixue Qiu
Springback analysis of stretch-bending forming of complex section profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
Yingjun Jin, Takahiro Shibata, Hitoshi Omata, Junichi Koyama
Analysis of longitudinal cambering in V-bending of sheet metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765
Sutasn Thipprakmas
Effect of ratio of punch height to workpiece length in partial V-bending process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769
Atsushi Ogata, Yingjun Jin, Takahiro Shibata, Yasushi Yamaya, Junichi Koyama
Effect of die shoulder radius on material surface scratch in V-bending of sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773
Jung-Won Park, Ji-Woo Park, Hak-Gon Noh, Beom-Soo Kang, Tae- Wan Ku
Press-braking bending process of thick plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777
Domingo Morales, Carpforo Vallellano, Andrs J. Martnez-Donaire,Francisco J. Garca-Lomas
Prediction of forming limit strains in metal sheets under stretch-bending conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781
Andrs J. Martnez-Donaire, Carpforo Vallellano, Domingo Morales, Francisco J. Garca-Lomas
Experimental detection of necking in stretch-bending conditions:
A critical review and new methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785
Matthias Weiss, Chunhui Yang, Bernard Rolfe
Effect of skin passing on bending and tension: An experimental investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789
10
Kuang-Jau Fann, Ming-Hsiung Chen, Yu-Sheng Tu

Bending of bi-metal sheets in plane strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793
13
Wanjin Chung, Sungjin Lim, Jongho Kim, Daeyong Seong, Dongyol Yang
Forming analysis of L-bending of sandwich sheet with pyramid core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
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21
25
High strength steel sheet forming

Mehmet Ali Guler, Firat Ozer, Mustafa Yenice, Mesut Kaya
Springback prediction of DP600 steels for various material models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
Sung Il Kim, Sang Heum Cho, Youngseog Lee
Influence of microstructure on springback of cold-rolled TRIP steel sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
Jrme Chottin, Eric Hug, Mohamed Rachik
Influence of stress state on mechanical properties of dual phase steel sheets.
Experimental and finite element analysis approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809
29
Ke Chen, Jianping Lin, Liying Wang

Influence of mechanical properties of AHSS on springback in sheet forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813
33
Monika Hyrcza-Michalska
Drawability of advanced high strength steel and creep-resisting nickel superalloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817
37
Masato Takamura, Ayako Fukui, Takayuki Hama, Yuji Miyoshi, Masashi Sakata,
Hideyuki Sunaga, Akitake Makinouchi, Motoo Asakawa
Twisting in curved hat channel products made of high strength steel sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821
41
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09.08.2010 14:16:33 Uhr
Takeshi Uemori, Satoshi Sumikawa, Shohei Tamura,

Hiroyuki Akagi, Tetsuo Naka, Fusahito Yoshida
Springback simulation of high strength steel sheets
calculated by Yoshida-Uemori model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825
Bhadpiroon Sresomroeng, Varunee Premanond, Pongpan Kaewtatip,
Anak Khantachawana, Nobuhiro Koga
Evaluation of Ti-based ceramic coated tools to reduce adhesion in
U-channel forming process of high strength steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829
Chin Joo Tan, Yohei Abe, Ken-ichiro Mori, Michiyuki Suzuki
Forming of tailor blanks for increase in wall thickness
at corner of stamped high strength steel products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
Emrah Uysal, Fahrettin Ozturk
Analysis of forming limit diagrams of DP600 steel at various deformation speeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837
Tetsuo Naka, Takanori Kurose, Takeshi Uemori, Ryutaro Hino, Fusahito Yoshida
Prediction of fracture for high strength steel sheets under stretch bending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841
Takayuki Ogawa, Atsushi Hirahara, Fusahito Yoshida
Reduction of springback by bottoming and ironing on high strength steel sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 845
Kaoru Inoue, Masahiro Suzuki, Souichiro Nishino, Kunio Ohya, Yo Tomota
Effect of coating microstructure of press-working dies on sliding damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849
Takashi Matsuno, Yukihisa Kuriyama, Hiroya Murakami,
Shouta Yonezawa, Hisanobu Kanamaru
Effects of punch shape and clearance on hole expansion ratio and
fatigue properties in punching of high strength steel sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853
Donghoon Yoo, Dongun Kim, Kanghwan Ahn, HongGee Kim,
Hyun-sung Son, Gyo-Sung Kim, Kwansoo Chung
Characterization of mechanical properties for hot press forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857
Hong-seok Choi, Ki-ju Nam, Dong-hui Lee, Se-yoon Ha,
Chung-gil Kang, Byung-min Kim
Development of hot stamped center pillar by optimization
of process parametersin form type of 4 piece die sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861
Mats Oldenburg, Gran Lindkvist
Micro-structure evolution in the press hardening process
with respect to tool and contact thermal properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865
Katsuyoshi Ikeuchi, Jun Yanagimoto
Characterization of die quenching process by
water-cooled dies and high-precision compression testing machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869
Masahiro Nakata, Toshiya Suzuki, Kazuo Hikita,
Kazuo Uematsu, Nobusato Kojima, Yozo Hirose
Effects of punch shape on hole-expansion formability in hot stamping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872
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Kazuhisa Kusumi, Shuji Yamamoto

Stretch formability of steel sheets in hot stamping process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 876
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Ralf Kolleck, Wolfgang Wei, Robert Vollmer

A new method in manufacturing near-surface cooling channels for tempered tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 880
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Sang-Hyun An, Chung-Gil Kang, Byung-Min Kim

Temperature distribution design of partial die quenching
for bump part fabrication and process analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 884
XVIII
09.08.2010 14:16:33 Uhr
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Satoshi Hirose, Shunji Hiwatashi, Akihiro Uenishi, Hiroshi Yoshida

Optimal geometry of sheet-metal specimen for elastic-bar-type high strain-rate tensile testing . . . . . . . . . . . . 888
Zhanli Guo, Gyeongpil Kang, Nigel Saunders
Modelling of materials properties used for simulation of hot stamping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892
Ninshu Ma, Bonyoung Ghoo, Yuko Wanatabe and Yasuyoshi Umezu
CAE approach to hot stamping process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 896
29
Ning Ma, Ping Hu, Wei Guo, Guozhe Shen, Liang Ying, Rong Fan
Coupled models of hot forming of ultra strength steel sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900
33
Naruhiko Nomura, Kazuhisa Kusumi, Masayoshi Suehiro

Improvement of accuracy of hot stamping simulation
based on analysis of heat transfer by hot drawing tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 904
37
41
45
49
53
57
61
65
69
Incremental forming
Masaaki Otsu
Flexible forming of sheets and foils by laser forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908
Paolo Bosetti, Stefania Bruschi
Some remarks on formability and microstructural features
of incrementally formed sheets as a function of geometrical parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 914
Babak Taleb-Araghi, Alexander Goettmann, Markus Bambach,
Tim Biermann, Gerhard Hirt, Andreas Weisheit
Development of hybrid incremental sheet forming processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 918
Yongjun Wang, Xudong Xiao, Zhenyi Yuan, Weichao Wu
Incremental sheet metal forming with multiple-head tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 922
Minoru Yamashita, Toshio Hattori, Kenji Yamada, Naoya Nishimura
Frictional effect on deformation behavior in incremental sheet forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926
Valentin Oleksik, Adrian Pascu, Daniel Mara, Octavian Bologa, Gabriel Racz, Radu Breaz
Influence of geometric parameters on strain and thickness
reduction in incremental forming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 930
Tuomas Katajarinne, Arto Komulainen, Seppo Kivivuori
Force and frictional conditions in incremental forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 934
Steeve Dejardin, Jean-Claude Gelin, Sbastien Thibaud
On-line thickness measurement in incremental sheet forming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938
Masaaki Otsu, Hiroki Matsuo, Mitsuhiro Matsuda, Kazuki Takashima
Friction stir incremental forming of aluminum alloy sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 942
Ryutaro Hino, Naoaki Nagaishi, Yuki Yamamoto, Tetsuo Naka, Fusahito Yoshida
Incremental forming with local heating for aluminum-magnesium alloy sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 946
72
Andrea Ghiotti, Stefania Bruschi

A novel experimental set-up for warm incremental forming of AZ31B magnesium alloy sheets . . . . . . . . . . . 926
76
Young-Ho Seo, Seong-Chan Heo, Tae-Wan Ku, Jeong Kim, Beom-Soo Kang
Numerical analysis for stretch forming process using flexible die . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 954
80
Ana Mara Camacho, Carpforo Vallellano, Francisco Javier Garca-Lomas,Miguel ngel Sebastin
Effect of punch geometry on strain/stress state induced in workpiece
by localised-incremental forging operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 958
84
Mohd Azri, Shigekazu Tanaka, Kunio Hayakawa, Tamotsu Nakamura,

Yasushi Yamaya, Asami Morino, Hitoshi Omata
Rapid laser bending with line-shaped beam spot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 962
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09.08.2010 14:16:33 Uhr
Yoshihiro Sagisaka
Thin-sheet-metal bending by laser peen forming with femtosecond laser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 966
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Hiroshi Kawakami, Hiroki Inoue, Muneharu Kutsuna,

Kiyotaka Saito, Yasuaki Sonoda, Hitoshi Ozaki, Jippei Suzuki
Dimple formation on stainless steel by indirect laser peening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 970
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Lin Wang, Hui Long, Dave Ashley, Martyn Roberts, Peter White
Analysis of single-pass conventional spinning by Taguchi and finite element methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 974
Takashi Kuboki, Naoto Takahashi, Kazuhito Takahashi, Kazuhiko Sanda,
Susumu Moriya, Keisuke Ishida, Makoto Murata
Effect of initial thickness deviation on deformed tube shape in tube spinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 978
Akihiro Ando, Shinobu Karino
Reduction in diameter of ferritic stainless steel pipe by spinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982
Yoichi Takahashi, Shigefumi Kihara, Takuo Nagamachi, Yoshiaki Takada
Effect of taper angle on occurrence of cracking in spinning of pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 986
Ming He
Design and validation of forming high-precision cylindrical
components by three-roll flow forming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990
Xia Qinxiang, Lai Zhouyi, Zhan Xinxi, Cheng Xiuquan
Research on spinning method of hollow part with triangle
arc-type cross section based on profiling driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 994
Sebastian Hrtel, Birgit Awiszus
Numerical and experimental investigations of production of
non-rotationally symmetric hollow parts using sheet metal spinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 998
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In
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M
Pl
Su
Fi
Hu
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Ja
De
Jo
Gi
Fi
Ye
Fr
Chow Cher Wong, Atsushi Danno, Kai Soon Fong

Deformation behavior in flow forming of cylindrical cups using finite element method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1002
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Ken-ichiro Mori, Hirokazu Osako, Osamu Ebihara, Takayuki Nonaka, Daigo Sugiyama
Hot shear spinning of cast aluminium alloy parts with inclined roller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1006
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Akio Sekiguchi, Hirohiko Arai

Synchronous die-less spinning of curved products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1010
Thomas Hatzenbichler, Bruno Buchmayr, Stefan Weiss
FEM-simulation of high-speed corrugation process with Abaqus/Explicit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1014
Reimund Neugebauer, Markus Bergmann
Graded ultrafine grained materials by incremental bulk metal forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1018
Shearing
Tae-Wan Ku, Joo-Young Jung, Woo-Jin Song,
Jeong Kim, Beom-Soo Kang
Prediction of force-sustaining endurance for
micro half-blanking component with thin sheet material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1022
Kenji Tamaoki, Ken-ichi Manabe, Seiji Kataoka, Tatsuhiko Aizawa
Dry small hole shearing of cold rolled steel sheet with electroconductive ceramic tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1026
Teruie Takemasu
Precision piercing of small holes by striking punch having conical
portion at cutting edge using ultrasonic vibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1030
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Se
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Yo
Ef
To
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Masahiro Sasada, Isamu Aoki

Influence of sheet constraint on punch deflection in shearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1034
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09.08.2010 14:16:33 Uhr
66
70
74
Varunee Premanond, Ratchanee Hato, Sompop Lohnab

Wear mechanism on stepped coated piercing punch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1038
Kunlachart Junlapen, Pongpan Kaewtatip, Nobuhiro Koga
Reduction in blanking noise using nc servo press machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1042
Dong Hwan Kim, Jung Min Lee, Byung Min Kim
Investigation on shear deformation of polycarbonate sheet in blanking process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1046
Satoshi Kajino, Tomoya Tanaka, Motoo Asakawa
Effect of torsion on shear droop and burr in shearing of bars and wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1050
78
Masahiko Yoshino, Naoki Yoshikawa, Kazuaki Uchida

Plastic forming of hard brittle materials under external hydrostatic pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1054
82
Sutasn Thipprakmas, Wiriyakorn Phanitwong

Finite element analysis of shaving direction effects in reciprocating shaving process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1058
86
Hui-cai Long, Yi-lin Wang

Parametric CAD system for rapid design of fine-blanking progressive dies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1062
90
94
Myung-jin Chang, Hong-seok Choi, Sang-hoon Lee, Byung-min Kim,

Jae-ho Bae, Bong-hwan Kim, Dae-cheol Ko
Development of fine blanking process for manufacturing sector tooth with inner deep gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1066
Joining
Gianluca Buffa, Livan Fratini, Fabrizio Micari
Finite element simulation of friction stir welding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1070
98
Yeong-Maw Hwang, Chien-Hua Lin

Friction stir welding of dissimilar metal sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1076
02
Milan Vukcevic, Mileta Janjic, Miroslav Plancak, Nikola Sibalic

Optimization of friction stir welding parameters on aluminium alloys AlSi1MgMn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1080
06
Yoshihiko Uematsu, Keiro Tokaji, Yasunari Tozaki

Fatigue behaviour of cast aluminium alloy surface-modified
by friction stir surface processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1084
10
Izabela Kalemba, Mateusz Kopyscianski, Stanislaw Dymek, Carter Hamilton

Investigation of friction stir welded Al-Zn-Mg-Cu aluminum alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1088
14
Jae-Keun Hong, Chae-Hun Lee, Jeoung-Han Kim, Jong-Taek Yeom, Chang-Gil Lee
Friction stir welding of dissimilar Al 5052 to Ti-6Al-4V alloy with WC-Co tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1092
18
Masahiro Fukumoto, Masami Tsubaki, Toshiaki Yasui,

Katashi Miyagawa, Keitaro Miyagawa
Observation on plastic flow in friction stir spot welding between aluminum alloy and steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1096
Sergey Mironov, Yutaka S. Sato, Hiroyuki Kokawa
Microstructural evolution during friction stir welding of Ti-6Al-4V alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100
22

Numerical simulation of friction stir welding of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104
26
Yoichiro Shimoda, Masami Tsubaki, Toshiaki Yasui, Masahiro Fukumoto, Tomoyuki Fujita, Jiro Osawa
Effect of tool shape on material flow in welding between aluminum and steel by friction stirring . . . . . . . . . 1108
30
Toshiaki Yasui, Fahridin Usmonov, Kazuo Oouchida, Masami Tsubaki, Masahiro Fukumoto
Temperature distribution and material flow in friction surfacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1112
34
Haruki Sano, Noboru Nakayama, Hiroyuku Takeishi

Effect of probe shape on joint strength of friction stir welded cold-worked die steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1116
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Masaki Okane, Yuichiro Takami, Katashi Miyagawa, Toshiaki Yasui, Masahiro Fukumoto
Fatigue behaviors of aluminum alloy/steel dissimilar joint by friction stirring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1120
Ulrike Beyer, Birgit Awiszus
Flat-clinching New possibility for joining different kinds of components
in flexible and effective way to planar material compound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1124
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Yohei Abe, Toru Kato, Masaya Kishimoto, Ken-ichiro Mori

Joining of hot-dip coated high-strength steel sheets by mechanical clinching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1128
Pi
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Zbigniew Gronostajski, Sawomir Polak

Comparison of impact energy absorption by double-hat thin-walled
specimens made of HSLA steel joined by clinching and spot welding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1132
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Toru Kato, Yohei Abe, Ken-ichiro Mori

Plastic joining of aluminium alloy sheets by aluminium alloy cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1136
Nanjiang Chen, Jean-loup Chenot, Min Wan, Julien Malrieu,
Maxime Thonnerieux, Richard Ducloux
Numerical and experimental studies of riveting process and strength of riveted joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1140
Hiroyuki Kinoshita, Koichi Kaizu, Tomohiro Yoshihara,
Ryusuke Kawamura, Kiyohiko Ikeda
Joining of cold-reduced carbon steel sheet and aluminum
sheet by impulsive riveting method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1144
Thibaut Van Hoof, Mohamed Ben Bettaieb, Frederic Lani, Philippe Dufour,
Pascal J. Jacques, Astrid Lenain, Anne Marie Habraken
Comparison of mechanical efficiency of two microstructures of Ti5553
alloy in case of bolted flanges submitted to tensile loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1148
Dominic Gru, Rouven Nickel, Bernd-Arno Behrens
Integration and control of arc stud welding in sheet metal tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1152
Hidenobu Gonda, Yasuhiro Shirai, Toshiaki Yasui, Osamu Ohashi, Masahiro Fukumoto
Effect of joining condition on plastic deformation, microstructure and
bonding strength for WC-Co to WC-Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1156
Micro forming
Jian Cao, Kuniaki Dohda, Rui Zhou, Takehiko Makino, Masaru Futamura
An investigation on bump formation in forming of micro dimples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1160
Mohamed Sahli, Xiangji Kong, Thierry Barrire, Chrisitne Millot, Jean-Claude Gelin
Micro-manufacturing of metallic micro-fluidic devices by soft embossing replication process . . . . . . . . . . . 1165
Tatsuhiko Aizawa, Kuniyoshi Itoh, Eiji Iwamura
Nano-laminated dlc coating for dry micro-stamping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1169
Clement Keller, Mohammed Bettaieb, Mitica Afteni, Mihaela Banu,
Anne-Marie Habraken, Eric Hug, Sylvie Castagne, Laurent Duchne
Effect of decrease in sample dimensions on plasticity: Application to nickel micro-forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173
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Chunju Wang, Bin Guo, Debin Shan, Ying Yao, Feng Gong
Size effect of tribology behaviour in micro U-deep drawing with T2 copper foil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1177
S.
In
Xiangji Kong, Thierry Barrire, Jean-Claude Gelin

Manufacturing of stainless steel and Cu bi-material micro-components
with micro-powder injection molding process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1181
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Jie. Zhao, Andrew. Brockett, Akhtar. Razali, Yi. Qin, Colin. Harrison and Yanling. Ma
Micro-sheet-forming and case studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1185
Li
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20
Jung-Kuei Tseng, Tsung-Tien Wu, Cheng-Tang Pan,Zong-Hsin Liu,

Yi-Chian Chen, Chia-Jung Wu, Jia-Lin Chen, Jacob Chih-Ching Huang
Multi-functional hot-embossing of bulk metal glasses at low temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1189
24
Christoph Hartl, Gerald Anyasodor

Experimental and numerical investigations into micro-hydroforming processes and machine design . . . . . . 1193
28
Piotr Macio, Maciej Pietrzyk

Numerical modeling of thixotropic flow with internal variable convection method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1197
32
36
40
44
48
52
56
Ji Zhong, Shi Huigang, Liu Ren

Atomistic simulation for nanoupsetting process of copper block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1201
Antonio. J. Sanchez-Salmeron, C. Ricolfe-Viala
A bi-linear-vibratory feeder system for micro-bulk-forming applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1205
Chao-Cheng Chang, Chien-Kuo Huang
Preform design for cold forging of micro gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1209
Mahmoud Farzin, Hamid Montazerolghaem, Alireza Fadaei Tehrani
Manufacture of miniature bulge test apparatus suitable for micro-sheet metal forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1213
Chao Zheng, Sheng Sun, Zhong Ji, Wei Wang, Jing Liu
Microscale laser peen forming of titanium foil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1217
Mohammad Ali Mirzai, Ken-ichi Manabe
Conical expanding process of metallic microtube by axial compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1221
Tetsuhide Shimizu, Masahiro Ogawa, Kuniyoshi Ito, Ken-ichi Manabe
Effect of plastic anisotropy on micro-deep-drawability of ultra-thin metal foils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1225
Daniel S. Balint, Shiwen Wang, Jianguo Lin
Size effects in micro-forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229
Magnesium forming
Ryo Matsumoto
Development of forging processes of magnesium alloys on servo press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
Christian Schmidt, Rudolf Kawalla
Influence of rolling temperature on texture and
microstructure development of twin-roll-cast magnesium AZ31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1239
60
Yasumasa Chino, Xinsheng Huang, Kazutaka Suzuki, Kensuke Sassa, Mamoru Mabuchi
Texture evolution and enhanced stretch formability of AZ31 Mg alloy rolled by cone-shape roll . . . . . . . . . 1243
65
Takashi Iizuka, Nobuo Hatanaka, Norio Takakura

Deep drawing of high cup of magnesium alloy AZ31 by compressive force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1247
69
Andrzej Milenin, Piotr Kustra

Mathematical model of warm drawing process of magnesium alloys in heated dies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1251
73
Ryo Matsumoto
Forging process of cast magnesium alloy with consideration of grain refinement and texture evolution . . . . 1255
77
S. Mizunuma, T. Iizuka, K. Mitsui, H. Okumura, M. Kohzu

Influence of die-hole diameter on grain structures of Mg alloy AZ31 in torsion extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1259
81
Motoki Terano, Kazuhiko Kitamura, Ryo Matsumoto, Yoshito Mizuno

Estimation of plastic anisotropy and compressive stress-strain curve of AZ31B magnesium alloy extruded bar
for high-accuracy FE analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1263
85
Li-ping Lei, Na Wang, Pan Zeng

Experiment and modeling of plastic anisotropy for AZ31B Mg-alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1267
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09.08.2010 14:16:33 Uhr
Yoichi Murakoshi, Kanichi Hatsukano, Toru Shimizu, Kunio Matsuzaki

Forging of magnesium billets consolidated dry chip with hot press and extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271
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Mitsunobu Shiraishi, Makoto Nikawa

Forging of magnesium alloy covers with ribs and flanges from thin plate using servo press . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1275
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Hajime Iwasaki, Naobumi Saito, Michiru Sakamoto, Masataka Hakamada, Kenji Higashi
Hot forging of continuously cast AZ91 magnesium alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1279
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Powder forming
Katsuyoshi Kondoh, Kantarou Kaneko, Toru Akita
Advanced powder metallurgy light metals by metal working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1283
Renata Wlodarczyk, Agata Dudek
Sintering stainless steel as bipolar plate material for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell . . . . . . . . . . . . 1288
Mohamed Sahli, Guillaume Larsen, Thierry Barrire, Jean-Claude Gelin, Grard Michel
Analysis and characterisation for 316L stainless metal micro-structure
replication of micro-components produced by micro-powder injection moulding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1292
Hisashi Imai, Sufeng Li, HaruhikoAtsumi, Katsuyoshi Kondoh,
Yoshiharu Kosaka, Akimichi Kojima
Effect of bismuth addition on machinability and mechanical properties
of lead-free brass via powder metallurgy process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1296
Kazuo Isonishi
Manufacturing of WC alloys by consolidation of MA
powders made from W-C-Co or W-C-Fe-Al powder mixture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1300
Ayman Elsayed, Hisashi Imai, Junko Umeda, Katsuyoshi Kondoh
Microstructure and mechanical properties of hot extruded ZK61 alloy
produced by rapid solidified powder metallurgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1304
Hideshi Miura , Kenta Okawachi, Hyun Goo Kang, Fujio Tsumori, Kosaku Kurata
Laser forming technique for medical devices of Ti alloy powders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1308
Shufeng Li, Katsuyoshi Kondoh, Hisashi Imai, Haruhiko Atsumi
Effects of Ti addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of
extruded Cu40Zn-2.2Bi brass by powder metallurgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1312
Kyung-Hun Lee, Dae-Won Hwang, Kyung-Hee Ruy, Byung-Min Kim
Hybrid powder extrusion process for improvement on formability of MA Zn-22wt Al powder . . . . . . . . . . . 1316
Thotsaphon Threrujirapapong, Katsuyoshi Kondoh,
Hisashi Imai, Junko Umeda, Bunshi Fugetsu
Hot extrusion of pure titanium reinforced with carbon nanotubes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1320
Terukazu Tokuoka, Toshihiko Kaji, Takao Nishioka
Development of P/M aluminum alloy with fine microstructures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1324
Li-hui Lang, Yong Xue, Gu-liang Bu, Hui Yang
Densification behavior of Ti-6Al-4V powder during hot isostatic pressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1328
Toru Shimizu, Kunio Matsuzaki, Naoyuki Kanetake
Production of high porosity stainless steel foams from powder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1332
Yoshihiro Kubota, Tamotsu Nakamura, Shigekazu Tanaka, Kunio Hayakawa
Net shape forming of thin walled cylindrical can by DC
pulse resistance sintering process of titanium powder metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1336
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Michel Bellet, Pamla Mondalek, Luisa Silva

Numerical modelling of SPS process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1340
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Hans-ke Hggblad, Pr Jonsn

Modeling of tensile crack formation in metal powder pressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1344
75
Kazunari Shinagawa
A combined phase-field/discrete-element method for simulating sintering process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1348
79
Le Xu, Lei Chen, Dirk Steglich, Bruno C. De Cooman, Frdric Barlat

Modeling the behavior and formability of high Mn steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1352
Dorel Banabic, George Dragos, Ioana Bichis
Influence of variability of mechanical data on forming limits curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1356
83
Ji Hoon Kim, Ji Hyun Sung, David K. Matlock, Daeyong Kim, Robert H. Wagoner
Simple analytical model of shear failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1360
88
Guillaume Altmeyer, Farid Abed-Meraim, Tudor Balan

Investigation of some localization criteria and their
relevance to prediction of forming limit diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1364
92
Bekim Berisha, Pavel Hora, Longchang Tong

Constitutive modeling of dynamic strain aging effect under various loading conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1368
Deok Chan Ahn, Yang Jin Chung
Relation between uniaxial and biaxial tensile properties of ferritic stainless steel sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1372
96
Yasuhiro Hanabusa, Hideo Takizawa, Toshihiko Kuwabara

Evaluation of accuracy of stress measurements determined
in biaxial stress tests with cruciform specimen using numerical method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1376
00
Kunio Hayakawa, Kentaro Sawano, Tamotsu Nakamura, Yasuyuki Imai,

Yoshihiro Kubota, Yasuo Namba, Yusuke Tabuchi
Influence of anisotropic property of plastic-deformation-dependent
Youngs modulus of stainless steel sheet on analytical accuracy of springback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1380
04
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Takeshi Moriya, Toshihiko Kuwabara, Seika Kimura, Susumu Takahashi

Effect of anisotropic yield function on predictive accuracy of
surface deflection of automotive outer panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1384
Lihua Zhan, Jianguo Lin, Kar Cheong Ho, Daniel Balint
Prediction of springback in creep age forming of aluminum alloy plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1388
16
Albert VanBael, Philip Eyckens, Jerzy Gawad, Giovanni Samaey,

Dirk Roose, Paul VanHoutte
Evolution of crystallographic texture and mechanical anisotropy during cup drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1392
20
Muhammad Niazi, Harm Wisselink, Timo Meinders, Carel ten Horn

Implementation of an anisotropic damage material model using
general second order damage tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1396
24
Wang Xinyun, Tang Na, Zheng Zhizhen,Tang Yingying, Li Jianjun

Constitutive equation of Zr-based bulk metallic glasses in supercooled liquid region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1400
28
Haibo Wang, Min Wan, Yu Yan, Xiangdong Wu

Experimental and numerical investigation of biaxial behavior of B170P1 steel sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1404
32
Jing Liu, He Yang, Mei Zhan, Ning Ren

Material parameters identification of thin-walled seamed tube under biaxial stress state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1408
36
Emre Esener, Fahrettin Ozturk, Mustafa Yenice

An investigation of use biaxial data in sheet metal forming simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1412
40
Dehua He, Donsheng Li, Xiaoqiang Li, Chaohai Jin, Weijun Yang
Identification of material parameters for stretch forming of aircraft skin using punch stretch test . . . . . . . . . 1416
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Modelling
Roland Log, Heba Resk, Zhidan Sun, Laurent Delannay and Marc Bernacki
Modeling of plastic deformation and recrystallization of polycrystals
using digital microstructures and adaptive meshing techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1420
Lukasz Madej, Danuta Szeliga, Lukasz Sztangret, Maciej Pietrzyk
Validation of parameters of cellular automata finite element model
dedicated to strain localization phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1426
Jerzy Gawad, Albert VanBael, Philip Eyckens, Paul VanHoutte, Giovanni Samaey, Dirk Roose
Effect of texture evolution in cup drawing predictions by multiscale model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1430
Akinori Yamanaka, Tsuyoshi Kawanishi, Atsuki Oto, Masahiko Yoshino
Crystal plasticity finite element analysis of deformation behavior of single crystal copper by nano forming . . . . 1434
Lukasz Madej
Influence of microstructure features on strain distribution
during micro forming on basis of digital material representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1438
Marc Milesi, Yvan Chastel, Elie Hachem, Marc Bernacki,
Roland E. Log, Pierre-Olivier Bouchard
Digital microstructures matching statistical distributions of
features in real materials Example of forgings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1442
Lukasz Rauch, Lukasz Madej, Jan Kusiak
Modelling of microstructure deformation based on digital material
representation integrated with watershed image segmentation algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1446
Chetan Nikhare, Alireza Asgari, Matthias Weiss, Peter D. Hodgson
Fracture of DP590 steel: A multi-scale modeling approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1450
Sergei Alexandrov, Tsuyoshi Furushima, Ken-ichi Manabe
A theoretical-experimental approach for improving predictive
capacity of models for free surface roughness evolution in metal forming
processes under plane strain conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1454
Guillaume Larsen, Zhi Qiang Cheng, Thierry Barriere,
Bao Sheng Liu, Jean-Claude Gelin, Mohamed Rachid Laydi
Modelling and numerical simulation of biphasic fluid flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1458
Mehrdad Foroutan, Mohammad-Amin Bahrami
Analysis of plane strain upsetting by hermitian meshless collocation method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1462
Mohsen Loh-Mousavi, Farhad Teymoori, Ali Etesam
3-D finite element simulation of water jet tube forming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1466
Keiji Manabe
PSPG rigid-plastic FEM analysis of large deformation in cutting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1470
Mehrdad Foroutan, Rahim Sotoodeh Bahreyni, Mahmoud Farzin
Forward extrusion analysis by rigid-plastic meshless method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1474
Amir Reza Khoei, S. Mohadeseh Taheri-Mousavi, S. Omid Reza Biabanaki, Masood Anahid
An enrichedFEM technique for large frictional contact deformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1478
Leon Kukielka
New damping models of metallic materials and its application
in non-linear dynamical cold processes of metal forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1482
Xiangyang Cui, Guangyao Li, Gang Zheng, Zhou Fang
Cell-based smoothed radial point interpolation method
for contact problems in metal forming analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1486
XXVI
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.9
09.08.2010 14:16:34 Uhr
09.08.2010 14:16:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Manufacturing of Light Weight Cars

Masayuki Miyanishi
Stamping Engineering Department No.1, Stamping Production Engineering Div, Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota / Japan
Much industry developed with the development of civilization, and many people came to use cars all over the world. As for the development
of the human, the balance is kept as far as natural environments enjoy it, but the balance is changed into global warming, depletion of the
ozone layer. The improvement of the correspondence of technology to the global environment is an unavoidable situation these days. A
high aim to "reduce the discharge of the whole world by 50% by 2050 in greenhouse gas reduction target in No. 15 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change contracting party meeting (popular name COP15) is raised. As for vehicle developing, it is necessary to act on
the problem to reduce discharge of CO2 with better collision safety and better vehicle function using lightweight technology. The application
of high tensile materials is one of the methods to make the body of the car lightweight. In that method, develop a 980MPa grade super high
tensile materials stamping process that has the merit of cold press and mass productivity, while dealing with the formability and accuracy
control difficulty.
Keywords: Mass reduction, High tensile steel, 980 MPa supper high strength steel, Dimensional accuracy, Chamfer shape, Polyhedron
shape, Mass productivity, Stress, Springback, Sustainable
Introduction
1,900
Improve Engine
Thermal Efficiency
Lean Burn
Direct Injection
Multiple Function
Multi-cylinder, VVT
Aerodynamics
Body Weight Reduction
Body Shape Improvement
Body Structure
Light Weight Material
Friction Reduction
PistonRing
Engine Oil
Large class
Car weight
1,700
Japanese Car Ave.
1,600
00 Roll over
1,500
96 Side Impact
1,400
93 Air bags
Mid class
1,300
84 Seat Belt
1,200
78 NCAP
1,100
Compact class
1,000
900
1973
1977
1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1997
2001
Figure 2. Vehicle weight and safety assesment.

CO2 Emission [g- CO2 /km]
Under the recent needs and trend for a better global environment, the European committee has set a high target to
reduce CO2 emission by 20% from 1990 level till the year
2020. In the case of car CO2 emission, target level is 120
g/km till the year 2012, and 95 g/km until 2020. It is
known that several major car technologies of CO2 emission are developed, the hybrid technology which has the
combination of conventional gas engine and electronic
motor (HV), plug-in hybrid which can be charged from
outside electric source (PHV), and the battery car (EV).
However, each system still needs the basic performance up,
light weight car body, reducing frictional resistance of the
engine and the power train, and also better aerodynamics.
(Figure 1)
(Kg)
1,800
500
AT
400
300
CVT
MT
2012 Target of CO2 Emission

by European Commission
HV
200
120g / km
100
HV
CVT
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
95g / km
on 2020
Vehicle Weight [kg]
Figure 3. CO2 Emission.

Powertrain
CVT, Multi-speed shift
Friction Reduction
Other Technology
Rolling Resistance
EV, PHV, HV, Idling
Pattern Development
Figure 1. Light Weight Car Technology.
However, as we have pursued comfort and collision

safety performance improvements, as shown in Figure 2,
the body mass has increased. It is definite that the vehicle
mass is related to CO2 emission deeply as shown in Figure 3. When we look at the weight ratio of each car component, as shown in Figure 4, we can see the body has a
large portion of the vehicle mass. Therefore the first step
to make the CO2 emission better is to make the body
lighter. Reducing the body mass has become a high priority for vehicle development.
Others 26
Body components
30
Window glass 3
Tires 3
Engine
12
Seats 4
Wheel, Hubs
4
Fuel tank
4
Suspension
7
Powertrain
7
Figure 4. Car component part weight ratio.
09.08.2010 14:17:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Activities to make the body weight lighter are shown in
Table 1. Among them, the application of a high tension
steel (a high strength steel sheet having pulling strength
usually more than 440 MPa) to the structural part of the
body, is thought of as a method which will meet our needs
for both cost and productivity.
Table 1. Light weight materials.
Light Weight
Materials
Cost
Technical issue
Material
Car structure Machine
Stampability
Manufacturing
Productivity Global
-ization
High Tensile
Steel
Hot Stamp
Aluminum
Plastics
Figure 5 shows areas of the body structure which we are

considering to apply high tension steels. However, recent
demands for safety performance has increased drastically.
To meet such demands, applying steels under 590 MPa
increases the body mass and contradicts our target for a
lighter vehicle.
Therefore applying steel with strength over 980 MPa is
thought of a measure to decrease reinforcement parts and
achieve our target. As an example, shown in Figure 6,
applying the 980Mpa steel to the rocker outer can decrease
steel thickness and eliminate reinforcement parts, by
which we can expect a decrease of approximately 6 to 7 kg.
R/F rail outer
R/F roof center
Stamping Challenges upon Applying High Strength

Steel
Upon increasing the strength of steel, stamping will face
the following challenges: splits and wrinkle issues due to
the decrease of ductility, galling on contact surfaces
caused by the increase of surface pressure, trim defects
caused by increase of shear resistance, and wear, all leading to productivity issues. Regarding formability, a 980
MPa steel forming limit is half of 270 MPa steel, which
will add restrictions to part designs. (Figure 7) Also, as
shown in Figure 8, galling and chipping will occur in a
higher rate, which adds die durability to our concerns list.
These will lead to increase in maintenance man hours, so
we need to change the part shape to make the forming
easier and decrease the defect ratio.
Test Piece
270MPa
590MPa
980MPa
Max Depth
H=55mm
H=40mm
H=25mm
Test Piece
440MPa
590MPa
980MPa
Good
Acceptable
No Good
Result
Result
Wrinkle Level
Figure 7. Forming limit.
Galling
Die mark after weld
Chipping of trim edge
Die maintenance time ex. Ctr pillar R/F
R/F Fr pillar outer

R/F ctr pillar hinge
R/F Fr pillar inner hinge
R/F ctr pillar outer

Door beltline R/F
Member side
Maintenance time
590MPa
980MPa
Rocker inner, R/F rocker outer
Figure 5. Application of high strength steel.
RL
1mm
RL
440MPa case
Eliminate reinforce parts

( 5kg )
Reduce metal thickness ( 1kg )

980MPa case
Figure 6. Rocker sub assy.
2
RL
RL
RL
RL
b c
RL
RL
RL
RL
d e
Figure 8. Defect on production.
The most important issue we are anticipating is panel

accuracy issues caused by the increase of elastic recovery
(Figure 9). Figure 10 is the results of a formability test
conducted to a hat shaped piece. This graph shows the
panel accuracy difference between different tension property steels. The flange position accuracy is proportional to
the tension strength, higher the tension, lower the accuracy.
Although the shape is the same, the tendency differs when
the 980 MPa material is applied. This accuracy issue is
caused by the panel springback and warping due to the
stress difference between both sides of the panel. Thus the
dimension is far out of the normal tolerance of +/-0.5 mm
(Figure 11).
09.08.2010 14:17:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
270MPa
High Tensile
270MPa
Stress gap : Smaller

High Tensile
elastic recovery
Stress-Strain Curve
Stress gap : Bigger
Figure 9. Elastic recovery.
To develop stamping technology, it will be better for us

to analyze the cause and come up with a countermeasure
by studying each defect separately. Since the warp defect
can be solved by changing the forming method from draw
to bend and most 980 MPa processes utilize the bending
process to ease the trim condition, we have decided to
develop our methods by solving each defect individually.
We believe that by establishing this technology to solve
the 980MPa stamping defects, we will be able to solve all
cold press accuracy issues as well.
Tensile Strength
Spring back
980MPa
Camber
590MPa
440MPa
270MPa
H(depth) = 60mm
t (thickness) = 1.4mm
Nominal
Figure 10. Panel accuracy due to property.
Spring back [mm]
40
Figure 12. Example of major body components.
980MPa
30
590MPa
20
1. Spring back (cut section)
Required Tolerance
0.5mm
270MPa
10
0
Tensile
Compress
Compress
250
500
750
1000
Tensile Strength [MPa]

Figure 11. Tensile strength and accuracy defect.
With the increase of material tension, the mechanical

properties vary. Elastic recovery will vary as well, but this
is not allowed for stamping panel accuracy. Therefore we
are challenged to develop a forming technology robust
enough to withstand material property variation.
More over, in overseas production, local procured material variation increases by 1.5 to 2 times. The robust technology is required much more in such situations.
By establishing countermeasures to these stamping issues, we have studied the application of the 980 MPa steel
to production.
Developed Technology, Countermeasures to Issues and Selection of application parts
Filtering Which Technology to Develop, Depending
on Shape Features of Body Structure. Most structure
parts have a box shaped section as shown in Figure 12,
which is constructed by spot welds. The stamping component parts have a hat shaped section. Most stamping accuracy defects can be grouped with relation to the shape
features, as followings (Figure 13): (1) springback in short
section direction, (2) springback in long section direction,
(3) twist consisting of a 3 dimensional curvature in long
section direction, (4) warp on the wall surface. In some
cases, combination of the above occurs, based on the
shape feature and the forming method.
2. Spring back (L direction)
Tensile
Stress gap of t-direction
3. Twisting
4. Warp
Compress
Tensile
Compress
Tensile
Stress gap on surface
Compress
Tensile
Figure 13. Defects of high strength steel.
Methodology to Develop Stamping Methods Considering Mass Production. Upon thinking of the countermeasure for the springback in the short section direction,
we have started from our current forming methods. For
example, as shown in Figure 14, applying an extra amount
to the forming area by predicting the panel to springback
to nominal works when the amount is not so large. However, when applying this method to 980 MPa steel, the
extra amount will be large. Predicting the panel to springback will be difficult, requiring many repairs to be conducted to the die.
In addition, the material property variance will affect
the accuracy directly, making this issue difficult to solve
under mass production condition. A different countermeasure, as shown in Figure 15, which has bead shapes on the
wall that may help to keep the nominal shape with better
stiffness, but they may cause galling defects.
09.08.2010 14:17:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 18 shows the press die section of the flanging
process. The flange process has a pre-flange of about 30
degrees, followed by a normal flange process, which has a
pad putting pressure on the top surface during flanging. In
this process, the panel shows a springback effect, which is
due to the difference of the stress orientation caused by the
elastic recovery of the steel property. At bottom dead center, the difference of stress in the thickness direction becomes maximum. After the upper die ascends, the elastic
recovery effect causes the stress to work in the opposite
direction causing the panel to spread out. The amount of
the springback can be calculated from the flange formula (Formula 1), which is dependent on the material and
shape factor.
Spring back
After
forming
Norminal
Die surface
Expectation for spring back

Figure 14. Springback expectation
2nd Process
Bending
1st Process
Pre-Bend
Figure 15. Springback countermeasure with stiff bead.
Press
Hence, starting from our current methods requires many

re-work during the die making process and production
maintenance work, which implicates that it is not suitable
under production situations. So, we decided to find a
method which is fit for production and can be applied to
plants globally. Not a way to solve issues forcefully, but to
know the characteristics of the defect. A way to decrease
the occurrence of defects and to pursue an easier way to
make the die. To be specific, we have tried a method to
control the stress caused during the forming process, by
cancelling the stress and solving the issue.
Selection of Application Parts. We have selected a part
which produces the defects mentioned in Figure 3, (1) to
(3), as our test piece to work on the 980MPa steel application. (Figure 16)
3. Twisting
After forming
Norminal
Sec A-A
Pad
Lower steel
Lower die
Figure 18. Cut section of bending dies.
M
R
EI
R
~
~
E t
Spring back
M Bend Moment
I Geometrical Moment of Inertia
Yield Point
E Young's Modulus
t Thickness
Bend Angle
R Radius
--- Formula 1.
A
A
R/F Rocker outer
Upper die
R/F Roof center
C
R/F Rail outer
View B
In Figure 19, you can see the springback amount becomes small when the flange angle is small, not relating to
material properties. This behavior is the key upon solving
our accuracy issue.
Sec C-C
Figure 16. Selection of application parts.
Development Points and Test Methods, Result and Analysis

Short section direction springback countermeasure
- Rocker outer R/F (Figure 17).
Spring back []
Accuracy
concern
Parts
Spring back
2. L-direction
1. Cut section
Press
Upper
steel
High end
7
6
Low end
Required Tolerance
980MPa
590MPa
440MPa
270MPa
4
3
2
1
Springback
0
0
30
60
90
Bend Angle []
Figure 19. Bend angle and springback.
Figure 17. Rocker outer Reinforce.
4
09.08.2010 14:17:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
When using a 980 MPa steel, at a 90C flange, which is
common in vehicle structure, the springback amount becomes large, and the property variation makes the situation
worse. This makes it difficult to form the shape in production constantly. This stresses the importance of lessening
the dependency of the mechanical property.
Viewpoint of Measures Technology. The feature of the
measure we have developed is to use the springback effect.
The first process flanges a portion of the panel. In the next
process, the flanged area is pressured against a flat area
and bent the other way. This process causes the elastic
recovery to start, but drives the shape to spring toward the
actual shape. Therefore the part shape was changed to add
a flat "chamfered" area on the flange profile (Figure 20).
2nd process Bend
1st process Pre-Bend
Upper
steel
Upper die
Lower die
Pad
Lower steel
Reform the pre-bend point

Upper R
open
Reform point
close
Old shape
New shape
Chamfer shape
Figure 21. Chamfered shape (developed shape)
In Figure 22, at the upper end radius (R1), and the

lower end radius (R2), the outer side of the panel has tension and the inner side has compression, causing the panel
to return to it's original form. It also causes the panel to
open out. On the contrary, the "chamfered" area has compression on the outer side and tension on the inner side,
causing the panel to close in. Each individual springback
amount can be controlled by the flange angle from Formula 1. Therefore by controlling each springback amount
at the 3 points, we believe the best condition to meet the
accuracy target can be obtained.
After reforming
Norminal
After reform
Chamfer point
close
Flange location : Nominal
Tensile
Compress
Lower
open
Tensile
Compress
Tensile
Upper
open
Compress
Norminal shape
Lower R
(open
After reform
Nominal shape
Figure 20. Features of developed measure.
Using the elastic recovery behavior on the "chamfered"

area (Figure 21), the upper end radius, and the lower end
radius, the springback effect is cancelled out. This is not
dependent on material properties, and this is the feature of
the method we have developed. In the past there has never
been a method using a negative effect to panel accuracy to
countermeasure the same issue.
Figure 22. Mechanism of developed measure.
Evaluation and Results. To obtain the best cut section

condition, first we will study the upper end radius (R1)
(Figure 23).
R1
Chamfer
R2
Figure 23. View point of cut section shape
The flanging applied to this area is a simple flange.

From the formula, by minimizing the angle 1, the springback amount will be less, and the dependency to the material property can be limited.
Next, the chamfered area and the lower radius (R2). This
area is not a simple flange, so we have used CAE stress
analysis to confirm the stress condition. From the CAE
results, as shown in Figure 24, the stress relation between
the chamfered area and R2, shows they are balanced, by
5
09.08.2010 14:17:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
quantity and direction (faces the opposite direction) in any
condition.
Ave. stress on surface [MPa]
Tensile
Long section direction springback countermeasure

Roof center R/F (Figure 26).
OPEN
2000
R2 stress
1500
41 47
65
25
1000
R1 stress
500
same volume,
opposite stress
70
0
-500 20
30
40
50
60
Total stress (chamfer + R2)
-1000
-1500
Stress at Chamfer point
-2000
CLOSE
Bend angle on R1 - 1 []
Compress
Total stress R1 stress
A
B
Figure 26. Roof center rainforce
This part has the gradual bow-shaped W hat crosssection that was constituted along roof long direction
design curvature. By a product length difference of the
long distance direction, the flange surface has tensile stress
and the bottom surface has compressed stress during panel
stamping. (Figure 27), It becomes a problem that
springback by elastic recovery occurs when the part taken
out from die.
Stress balanced in
this area
Spring back
R1
Tensile Stress
Chamfer
Tensile Stress
R2
Figure 24. Stress balance between chamferd area and R2 on CAE.
From the graph indicated, the total stress value of the

two areas (chamfer area and R2) is small. From the formula, the impact to the upper radius springback amount is
small, thus the material property dependency is small as
well. In Figure 25, we have used the stress value calculated by CAE to calculate the total springback amount
using the flange formula. (i.e. summed up each springback
amount)
The developed shape shows improvement in various
conditions compared to the previous shape. As explained
previously, the upper radius determines the whole springback amount. The smaller the flange angle, the less the
springback and the less dependency to material. As shown
in Figure 25. We have calculated 25 as the best angle.
Spring back volume []
Best condition
1(R1
Compressive Stress
Sec A-A
View B
Figure 27. Defects of accuracy.
Viewpoint of Measures Technology. For the decrease

of the volume of elastic recovery occurring in the whole
area, the polyhedron shape, that lets the whole curved
surface be similar in a plane and several small radiuses, is
adopted in this development (Figure 28). It lowers the
effect of material property value unevenness by decreasing
the absolute values of the volume of springback. In addition, accuracy modifications are easier because of small
amount differences. The die shape that consisted of only a
plane and a point does not need the three dimensions
curved surface expectation. In addition, the reduction of
lead time should be expected.
New shape
Standard shape
w/o chamfer
2.5
Compressive Stress
Polyhedron
Natural round
A
1.5
41
small radius
Open
standard shape
0.5
25
Norminal
47
-0.5
flat surface
65
-1
20
30
40
50
60
70
small radius
80
Bend angle on R1 - 1 []
90
Close
flat surface
New shape
View A (symmetrical)
Figure 28. Polyhedron shape (developed shape).
total
R1+Camfer+R2
Figure 25. Springback culculation.
6
09.08.2010 14:17:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Round shape
Polyhedron
flat surface
M
flat surface
New Polyhedron Shape
small radius
2
Spring back
total
R2
Rn
total = 1 + 2 ++ n =
M1
EI
1 R1 +
M2
EI
1
R1
2 R2 + +
Mn
EI
n Rn
Figure 29. Springback culculation.
Round shape
Tensile Stress
1 motion round
Tensile stress
on general surface
Polyhedron shape
small radius
Compressive
Stress
Tensile Stress
small radius
flat surface
Tensile stress
on limited portion
Compressive
Stress
Figure 30. Stress map by CAE.
Evaluation and Results. Figure 30 shows a stress map

at the time of the press forming end by the CAE analysis.
For conventional shape, tensile stress occurs in the whole
curved surface, but for the development shape, stress occurs only in the small R part. It understands that the stress
influence decreases to the total panel accuracy. As result
of panel accuracy analysis, it is possible to adjust volume
of accuracy change using the average tensile stress value
of the flange area as a representative characteristic (Figure
31).
However, it is insufficient to minimize the value of
springback for 980MPa tensile strength materials. It is
necessary to carry out the optimization of the number of
panel points or the placement or the further countermeasures in the stamping process.
590MPa
Joint
980MPa
small radius
Change volume H
big round shape
Change volume
[mm]
standard
6 joints
4 joints
0
8
6
4
2
4 joints
standard
6 joints
0
0
00
200
00
400
00
600
Average tensile stress on the flange [MPa]

Figure 30. Accuracy analysis by CAE.
Summary
Under the recent needs of light weight vehicles, the high
strength steel ratio is going up year by year. In the stamping process of todays mass production plant of vehicle,
the high speed cold press process is still main stream.
Stamping shops still have lots of concerns with high
strength steel because of the materials characteristic reason,
such as quality control of formability and accuracy and the
durability and maintenance of stamping dies. By this development, the measures technology by 980 MPa for two
dimensional springback on the cross section and long
direction has been elucidated. The prospect was in sight
for the mass production practical usage of high strength
materials that I overcame the main problem of accuracy.
The main points of the development are as follows:
1. By adopting chamfering shape in a part having the hat
cross-section, it will improve robust characteristics of
the part accuracy that are not controlled by materials
characteristic.
2. The adoption of the chamfering shape makes the die
tuning more controllable and total lead time could be
shorter. As the result, the die modification cost can be
saved.
3. The incidence of manufacturing defects such as galling,
which occur at the time of a mass production, is improved drastically by making the part shape simple
without depending on the measures such as shape
freeze beads.
4. By adopting polyhedron shape in a consistent curved
part surface, It will improve the volume of springback.
Arranging final measures for the accuracy and fixing
the defects in the early stage is possible.
5. This development improve high strength steel application technology to 980 MPa of the main body structure
and can contribute to the weight reduction of the body
and CO2 reduction without hanging a burden in the
production plant.
09.08.2010 14:17:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
Steel supplier up to 980MPa
This development helps to enlarge the coverage of super

high strength materials to the body of the car. However,
the vehicle body structure consists of a great many parts
and materials. Part thickness, size and shape are all different. Different demand performance is required in each part.
There are few things of the comparatively simple shape
that I took up this time. Higher technology development is
necessary for the dimension accuracy improvement to the
part, in particular which have complicated three dimensions shape of 980MPa grade. In addition, there are structure components and shell design part as shown in Figure
31. We cannot ignore these shell parts because of comparatively much weight ratio. Then development range
becomes an expanse of three dimensions with nonferrous
metal, such as the aluminum and resin, part fit rigidity,
dynamic performance and more.
Compornent
Parts
120kg
30%
280kg
Luggage
Roof side rail
Skin Parts
Roof
Fr Pillar
70%
Cneter Pillar
Beams
Locker
Hood
Fr Side Member
Fender
Doors
Each part has each function
Figure 31. Vehicle structure and weight ratio.
When we look from the viewpoint of the production

plant, which is automated highly and sped up by pursuit of
the production efficiency, we should care of productivity
and maintenance of the stamping dies as well as part
formability and dimensional accuracy. Additional developments are necessary such as die component materials,
die structure, and coating technology, in not only the forming process but also the trim/pierce process (Figure 32). In
todays advanced globalization, we cannot avoid the local
supply of those raw materials (Figure 33). It is necessary
that the future technology development is not same. It
must consider the needs and the environment of the user
and adjust the balance accordingly.
Piercing
Europe
Pad
North America
South America
up to 590MPa
up to 440MPa
Figure 33. Hight tensile steel supplier.
Humans accomplished a big development by the Industrial Revolution, and the life of people became rich. However, looking at the aggravation of the global environment
of the past and the surge of a global argument of the present, I wonder if society would be self-satisfied with the
technology reform that it was represented by mass production / mass consumption? The global environment is turning worse when we leave it. For the next generation, it is
necessary to look at the real situation well, and to create
innovations that is sustainable. It is not good to be only
highly technical. Sometimes, it will be necessary to think
seriously about the infrastructure maintenance (Figure 34)
that balances with technology at that time. It is not the
technology forcing new to fit in. It is the manageability
that many people could receive a good thing easier and
timely. Balancing materials development, manufacturing
technique, and production technology well is necessary.
Management of this balance and offering the things that it
is necessary when it is necessary. Today, the first message
from the earth to us, engineers, is to develop a highdimensional technology that is sustainable.
Personal mobility
High speed shuttle

with pre-crash
safety system
Zoning (never crash)
More safety
Light weight
Better CO2emmission
Commuter park
pierce punch
Punch
Japan
Asia
Car sharing
City commuter
Town speed
Figure 34. Advanced inflastructure.
References
chipping
Lower die
Material strength higher, trim edge damage easier

burr
[1] Toyota Motor Corporation: Development of stamping technologies

for high strength steels.
[2] Toyota Motor Corporation: Application 2008-03930 Vending form
method of panel and equipment.
[3] Nippon Steel Corporation/ Toyota Motor Corporation: Rollout Japanese patent 2007-90940 design method of hat type metal panel which
has superior shape freeze characteristics.
Panel cut section after pierce
Figure 32. Chipping on pierce puch edge.
8
09.08.2010 14:17:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Application of Servo Presses to Metal Forming Processes

Kozo Osakada
School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka / Japan, k.osakada@hm.h555.net
Servo presses driven by AC servo motors, developed in the last decade, are spreading very fast in Japan. Because of their flexible motions,
they are expected to change the technology of metal forming, similarly to the CNC metal cutting machine tools. In this review, the effects of
servo presses are explained from the viewpoint of the type of press motion. When the ram retreats in the stepwise or oscillating motion, the
work-piece surface is re-lubricated by liquid lubricant, preventing fracture and wrinkling in deep drawing and lowering the load in cold forging. It is also possible to reduce the noise and burr in shearing of sheet by changing the punch velocity in processing. Together with the
heated tools or electric heating devices, it is possible to raise the work-piece temperature within a stroke of forming. Using the servo
presses with two or more moving axes, it is possible to extend the limiting drawing ratio in deep drawing by changing the blank holding
force, and to reduce the punch pressure in enclosed die forging by driving the container. By combining with hydraulic systems, the extruded
lengths from multiple exit holes are equalized, and fracture is prevented in piercing and cold forging of magnesium alloys.
Keywords: Servo press, Sheet metal forming, Bulk metal forming
Introduction
Mechanisms of Servo Presses
The servo motor system has been applied to metal cutting machine tools since 1950s, but the first servo motor
driven metal forming press appeared only in 1998, although the hydraulically controlled servo presses were
built in the 1970s. The reason for the late coming of the
servo motor driven press is that metal forming processes
necessitate low speed and high torque motors, which were
realized after the powerful magnets were developed in the
1980s. From around 2000, many of the press machine
builders in Japan, and subsequently in Germany, started to
construct various types of servo presses.
The flexible ram motion of servo press brings about the
following merits:
1) reduction of forming load by changing the frictional
condition, flow stress and deformation mode,
2) reduction of noise by easing the sudden change of
load due to initial contact and final breakthrough,
3) improvement of product accuracy by reducing or
cancelling elastic spring back and thermal distortion,
4) improvement of production speed by using shortest
ram stroke suitable for each process,
5) increase in die life by reducing impact load and ram
inclination which causes additional die stress, and
6) reduction of number of processes by synchronizing
the secondary forming operations, assembly, die
cushion, and transfer systems using sensors.
The mechanical servo presses have advantages over the
hydraulic servo presses in terms of:
1) easy maintenance due to the simple structure without
fly wheel, clutch, brake and hydraulic systems,
2) accurate ram motion by digital control without oil
compressibility which hinders accurate positioning,
3) smaller installation space without large hydraulic unit,
4) lower energy consumption by utilizing energy regeneration and avoiding steady running of motors, and
5) cleaner and more silent working environment.
Since various new forming methods are expected to be
developed by utilizing the flexible motion of servo press,
this article focuses on the effective use of the ram motion.
Ball Screw Type Presses. The simplest method to convert the rotational motion of a motor to the linear movement of ram is to use ball screws. Figure 1 is the first
servo motor driven press developed by KOMATSU in
1998. This 800 kN press with two rams is driven with two
servo motors. Tilting of the ram due to unbalanced loading
can be modified by controlling the speeds of the two motors. Similarly to the hydraulic presses, the maximum
capacity of load can be attained at any ram position.
Since the power supplied through a ball screw is limited,
numbers of motors and ball screws should be increased to
attain a large power. Four and eight point presses with
maximum capacities up to 5000 kN are now produced.
Figure 1. Two point ball screw type press (KOMATSU).
Crank and Link Presses. To increase the maximum

attainable load of a press without increasing the number of
servo motors, crank and link mechanisms are used to amplify the force as the conventional mechanical presses.
Figure 2 is an example of the servo press driven with a
crank shaft. The rotation of the servo motor is directly
transmitted to the crank shaft axis. Compared to the conventional crank press, this press does not necessitate flywheel, clutch and brake systems.
The existing mechanical presses can be replaced easily
with this type of servo presses because the same operations are possible. Similarly to the conventional presses,
the maximum load capacity can be attained only around
the bottom dead centre.
09.08.2010 14:17:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
Stepwise Ram Motion for Improving Lubrication
Stepwise Motion. In many of the servo presses, stepwise motion shown in Figure 5 is prepared. In this motion,
the work-piece surface leaves from the tool surface when
the ram retreats and liquid lubricant may come into the
gap.
Backward
Figure 2. Mechanical servo press driven through crank shaft

(AIDA).
Hybrid Type Press. To increase further the power of

press, ball screws and mechanical links are combined.
Figure 3 demonstrates a 25000 kN press with ball screws
and mechanical links made by AMINO to replace a hydraulic press for enclosed die forging. It is reported that
the die life was tripled by employing the servo press.
Stroke
Forward
End of
Forming
Start of
Forming
Time
Figure 5. Stepwise motion.
Tamai et al. [1] carried out sliding tests using the apparatus illustrated in Figure 6. The sliding tool was detached
from the sheets after sliding 125 mm, and the tests were
continued with and without re-lubrication with rust preventive oil.
Figure 6. Sliding test for stepwise contact.
Figure 3. 25000 kN servo press with driving mechanism combining ball screw and mechanical link (AMINO).
Tandem Servo Press Line. By utilizing the merit of

servo press that any number of presses can be controlled
simultaneously, plural presses may be operated as a large
transfer press.
Figure 4 shows a 42000 kN press line for plate forging
consisting of seven 6300 kN presses located side by side.
Each press is designed to have large rigidity, and is driven
with two servo motors using a link mechanism. Since each
forming process is carried out with an independent press,
the motion and deflection of the press is not affected by
other processes and the product accuracy is improved.
As shown in Figure 7, it was found that about 15%

drops of friction were observed in both cases, while relubricated case (Test B) kept low friction for a longer
sliding distance after detaching than that without relubrication (Test A). This result suggests that the stepwise
motion helps to introduce lubricant into the gap between
the work-piece and the tool when liquid lubricant is used.
Figure 7. Change of friction coefficient by detaching [1].
Application to Deep Drawing. The stepwise motion

was applied to deep drawing of 780MPa grade galvannealed steel sheet [1], and fracturing of the sheet was
avoided as illustrated in Figure 8.
Figure 4. 42000 kN servo press line with seven 6300kN presses

for sheet forging (KOMATSU).
10
Figure 8. Effect of press motion on fracture in deep drawing of 780

MPa steel sheet [1].
09.08.2010 14:17:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
Komatsu et al. [2] reported a case that wrinkling in deep
drawing was prevented as shown in Figure 9 by applying
the stepwise motion. The sheet thickness was 0.8 mm and
various clamp holding forces were examined. It was found
that, using the servo press, wrinkling could be eliminated
with a smaller flange clamping force than the conventional
press.
(a) Conventional press

(b) Servo press
Figure 9. Prevention of wrinkling in sheet forming by stepwise
motion of servo press [2].
Application to Extrusion. For forming splines, FM

forming (Figure 10), patented by FELSS, can be used. In
this process, the tool moves forward about 2 mm and then
back 1 mm in each step. The work-piece is re-lubricated
with liquid lubricant when the tool retreats.
Application to Upsetting. Maeno et al. [5] applied the

stepwise motion to upsetting of thin plates. They found
that the periphery of the workpiece is separated from the
tool surfaces as shown in Figure 13 (a) when the load was
reduced, and liquid lubricant was sucked into the gaps.
Figure (b) illustrates the load stroke curve in upsetting of
an aluminium billet of 2 mm in thickness and 20 mm in
diameter on a servo press. In the oscillating motion, the
load is lowered significantly at large reductions.
(a) Recovery of elastic deformation of tool during load reduction
(b) Change of load in upsetting with stepwise motion

Figure 13. Upsetting of thin plate with oscillating loading [5].
Figure 10. FM Forming with oscillating motion.
By using the oscillating motion, the forming load can

be reduced by about 40% as shown in Figure 11. In the
case of forming outer spline on a shaft, the load drop can
extend the forming limit due to buckling of the shaft.
Forming Load kN
Conventional Press
Machine for FM Forming
Time
Reduction of Noise in Metal Forming

Causes of Noise in Forming. In metal forming, large
noise is caused when sudden change of load takes place in
such cases as contacting of tool to the work-piece and
breakthrough in shearing.
Otsu et al. [6] carried out frequency analysis (FFT) of
noise in shearing as given in Figure 14. In the upper figure,
the spectrum of noise at every 0.02 s is plotted. Noise
starts at the times of contact and breakthrough. It was
found that the frequencies of 330 and 700 Hz were associated with the vertical vibration, and 500 Hz was caused by
the horizontal vibration of the forming machine.
Figure 11. Forming load with conventional press and machine for
FM forming [3].
Application to Ironing. Koga et al. [4] applied the

stepwise motion to ironing of cup, calling vibratory
ironing. As Figure 12, they showed that a larger reduction in thickness could be attained with vibratory ironing,
but ring shape marks were left on the cup surface.
Figure 12. Cups made by conventional ironing and vibratory ironing with servo press [4].
Figure 14. Short-time FFT analysis of blanking noise and load

history during shearing [6].
11
09.08.2010 14:17:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Two Step Shearing. To reduce the noise in shearing, a
two step ram motion calling as variable punch speed
was proposed [6] as shown in Figure 15. The ram is once
stopped and then accelerated to finish shearing.
Figure 18(a) and (b) are the motions examined by Mori

et al. [7-9]. The motion (a) which keeps the ram at the
bottom dead centre for a while after bending does not have
significant influences on springback in V-shape bending.
This motion may be effective to stabilize the movement of
large sheets when the dynamic effects cannot be neglected.
(a) Holding at Bottom
(b) Finishing Reduction
Distance Change
Figure 15. Punch motions with constant velocity and variable

punch speed motions in shearing [6].
Figure 16 shows the change of noise level by the stopping position in the variable punch speed motion. It is seen
that the noise level is lowered especially when the punch
is stopped at the end of shearing. Although the proposed
mode is significantly effective for carbon steels and copper,
it is less effective for 18-8 stainless steel.
(c) Re-striking
Figure 18. Ram motions for reducing springback in bending of

sheet metal.
In the motion (b), a finishing reduction in thickness after bending is given. By compressing to the thickness
direction, the stress state at the bent corner becomes more
uniform and springback is reduced. This motion can decrease the spring back angle effectively with a finishing
reduction less than 0.2 % as shown in Figure 19.
Constant
Variable
Figure 16. Change of noise level by stopping position in variable

punch speed shearing [6].
Stroke
Lowering of Contacting Speed. In many of the servo

presses, the contacting speed can be lowered as shown in
Figure 17. This sort of ram motion is considered to be
effective to reduce the noise and to extend the die life
because impact loading is avoided.
Start of
Forming
Time
Figure 19. Effect of finishing reduction in V-bending of sheet on

spring back angle [7].
In U-shape bending or draw-bending, finishing reduction of thickness cannot be applied. Suganuma [10] proposed a method of re-striking (motion Figure 17(c)) to
compress the side wall height in the second strike as Figure 20 (a). This process was realized by installing a device
to change the tool distance between the bottom surface and
the flange surface after the first strike. Figure (b) shows
the bent sheets with and without re-striking. It is clear that
spring back is reduced significantly by re-striking.
End of
Forming
Figure 17. Ram motion for reducing contacting speed.
Reduction of Springback in Bending

In bending of sheet metal, the bent angle is decreased
during unloading as is called springback because the
final stress state in loading is not uniform. The amount of
spring back increases with the strength of the sheet metal,
and thus the problems associated with springback became
serious as ultra-high strength sheets are more and more
used. To reduce the angle of springback, some press motions were proposed and are used in the industry.
12
(a) Re-striking of bent channel
With re-striking
Without re-striking
(b) Channels after bending with and without re-striking

Figure 20. Reduction of spring back by re-striking in bending of
channel shaped product [10].
09.08.2010 14:17:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
Prevention of Burr Formation in Shearing
In shearing of plate or sheet, it is known that burr formation is prevented if the shearing direction is reversed twice
as shown in Figure 21 [11]. Koga et al. [12,13] used a
servo press to realize this process and showed that burr
free shearing was possible if the working condition is
carefully chosen.
To utilize the work softening characteristics of the extruded Mg rods, a method shown in Figure 24 was proposed [17]. The billet is compressed freely without touching the die wall first, and then it is constrained at the end
of forming when the flow stress is lowered. The experimental results proved the effectiveness of this method.
Figure 24. Forging of Mg alloy which exhibits work softening [17].
Ram motion for burr free motion
Deep Drawing of Mg Sheet with Heated Tools. The

method of heating a work-piece by high temperature tools
was applied to deep drawing of magnesium sheet by Kay
et al. [18] using the apparatus illustrated in Figure 25. The
ram stays still for a while until the sandwiched sheet is
heated and then drawing is carried out. It was reported that
large drawing ratios were attained with this method.
Figure 21. Burr free shearing method [12].
Combination with Heating Devices

Forging of Mg Plate with Heated Dies. Since magnesium alloys are brittle at around room temperature, it is
necessary to form them after heating to 200 300C. To
carry out heating and forming of a Mg plate with heated
tools, the process shown in Figure 22 is used [14,15].
billet
Mg
Mg billet
(room temp.)
(room
temp.) Tool
Tool
Mg
(200 Mg
Heater
(200)
billet Heater
300C) billet
(a) Tool movements in deep drawing with heated tools
Mg billet
Mg billet
(200300C)
Lubricant
Lubricant
(1)(1)Lubrication
Lubrication
(2) Heating
(2)Heating
(3)Forging
Forging
(3)
Product
Product
Figure 22. Forging of Mg alloy with heated tools [14].
Matsumoto et al. [16,17] found that the extruded magnesium rod had significant anisotropy and the flow curves
exhibited work softening due to dynamic recovery as Figure 23. When billets from the extruded rod are forged in
closed dies, the final loads may be lowered if the billets
are preliminarily deformed to a large strain without constraining in the early stage of forging.
(b) Ram motion for deep drawing with heated tools

Figure 25. Deep drawing of Mg alloy with heated tools [18].
Electric Resistance Heating in Bending. Mori et al.

[19,20] used a heating method with electric resistance for
bending of a high strength steel sheet as shown in Figure
26(a). In this case, the sheet is first contacted with the
electrode by the motion of the ram and it is heated by
electric current, and then bending is carried out. The
spring back angle becomes very small when the sheet is
heater above 740 C as shown in Figure (b).
Room temperature
550 C
740 C
980 C
(a) Heating method

Figure 23. Flow stress of Mg alloy AZ31 at elevated temperatures
[16]
(b) Bent sheet
Figure 26. Bending of high strength steel sheet with electric resistance heating [18].
13
09.08.2010 14:17:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
Electric Resistance Heating in Shearing. Similar
method was applied to shearing of high strength sheet
[21,22] as Figure 27(a). As shown in Figure (b), the burnished surface increases with the temperature.
(1)Preliminary Acceleration
Maximum
Stroke
Control
Forming
Stroke
Position
(2)Pressure Change
(a) Heating Method
(b) Burnished and fractured surfaces in sheared

surface at various heating
temperatures
Figure 27. Change of sheared surface by resistance heating [21].
Electric Resistance Heating in Pipe Forming. Electric

resistance heating was also applied to pipe shaped workpiece as shown in Figure 28 [23]. The side wall of the cup
was successfully shaped into a spline shape by the warm
and hot forming process as shown in the figure.
Press
Slide
Motion
Die Cushion
Stroke
(5) Shock less Stop
(5) Returning to
Waiting Position
(3) Preparatory Lift
Pressure
Position
(4) Position Locking
Figure 30. Motion of servo die cushion used for flange holding in
deep drawing (KOMATSU).
Enclosed Die Forging. In enclosed die forging, actuators for die closing and for moving upper and lower
punches are needed as shown in Figure 31: at first the
upper and lower dies are closed and then the upper and the
lower punches are pushed into the cavity.
Upper Punch
Upper Die
Lower Die
Lower Punch
Figure 31. Method of enclosed die forging process and product

(NICHIDAI).
Figure 28. Spline forming of heated pipe after electric heating [23].
Combination with Mechanical Actuators

Servo Die Cushion. The servo die cushion shown in
Figure 29 is an actuator driven by a servo motor and it can
be attached to a servo press. Although the maximum load
attained with this cushion is limited, it is easily controlled
simultaneously with the press motion.
For enclosed die forging, hydraulic servo presses were

constructed in the 1970s. Although the process of enclosed
die forging has spread widely since then, specially designed die-sets are mainly used now to move the plural
axes.
Enclosed Die Forging with Axially Driven Container.
In many of the enclosed forging processes, the product
corners cannot be filled well. To fill the corners in enclosed die forging with a straight container, a method to
drive the container in parallel to the punch as shown in
Figure 32(a) was proposed [24,25]. The frictional force
between the work-piece and the container helps to push
the material into the corners, and the punch pressure to fill
the cavity is reduced very much as shown in Figure (b) .
Figure 29. Servo die cushion (KOMATSU).
Figure 30 shows an example of the motion when applied to deep drawing. The position controlling and force
controlling can be switched during a process. The blank
holding force is changed to prevent wrinkling of flange
while moving the cushion with the same speed as the ram.
Actuators driven by servo motors can be applied in various ways by driving the secondary moving axis in the
servo processes as explained in the followings.
14
(a) Motion of container
(b) Punch pressure
Figure 32. Enclosed die forging with driven container [24].
This method is applied to forming outer spline and gear.

By moving the container, the frictional force over the gear
teeth changes from the radial direction to the axial direction as shown in Figure 33, and this brings about more
uniform deformation of the teeth [26,27].
09.08.2010 14:17:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Combination with Hydraulic Actuator
(a) Fixed Die
(b) Driven Die
Figure 33. Enclosed die forging of spline with axially driven die
and flow of gear tooth [26].
Container Driving in Double Cup Extrusion. If the container is moved in forward-backward extrusion of double
cup as Figure 34, the
frictional force helps
to change the extruded lengths of the
cup walls [28,29].
In extrusion of a
double cup product
with the usual fixed
container, one of the
cup walls is first Figure 34. Double cup extrusion with
stopped when the axially driven container.
length reaches the
objective value and
then only the other
wall is extruded. As
shown in Figure 35,
the punch pressure is
raised suddenly when
the flow is changed
in the fixed container.
By moving the container with an appropriate velocity, the Figure 35. Forward-backward combined
highest punch pres- extrusion with container driving [28].
sure can be kept low.
Extrusion with Reversed Ram Motion. Otsu et al.

[30,31] proposed an extrusion method of forward rod and
backward cup. The speed of the counter punch was controlled to form the length of the forward rod accurately as
shown in Figure 36. As an extension of this method, reversed ram extrusion was proposed, in which the extruded
forward rod is pushed back while the main punch is kept at
the final position. It was reported that a longer forward rod
was obtained without under-filling with this method.
Figure 36. Extrusion with reversed ram motion [30].
Forward Extrusion with Counter Force. When a

work-piece is extruded through multiple exit holes, the
extruded lengths are different from each other. By using a
counter tool supported by a proper pressure, it is possible
to obtain the same extruded lengths as shown in Figure 37
[32]. The extruded lengths can be equalized with an average counter pressure less than 5 % of the flow stress. It is
also possible to flatten the end surface of the extruded part
by applying a relatively high pressure, almost as great as
the flow stress, to the counter tool [33].
(a) Extrusion method against pressure supported tool
(b) Extruded product

Figure 37. Forward extrusion against pressure supported tool [32].
Prevention of Fracture of Mg Alloy by Counter Pressure. Matsumoto et al. applied counter pressure to prevent
fracture in backward extrusion [34] and piercing [35].
When a counter force is applied in piercing as shown in
Figure 38(a), brittle fracture is prevented and a long
smooth shear surface is obtained [35] as shown in Figure
(b). The deformation mode is changed from pure shear to
forward-backward extrusion, and the slug is shortened.
(a) Equipment for piercing against counter pressure
(b) Effect of pressure on smooth shear surface and slug length

Figure 38. Piercing of Mg alloy against counter pressure [35].
15
09.08.2010 14:17:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Combination with Robot
References
Robots are often used with presses as transferring

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formed products. For incremental metal forming processes,
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incremental forging as shown in Figure 39.
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(a) Equipment
(b) Product of
incremental forging
Figure 39. Free forging with robot and servo-press [36].
Concluding Remarks
Although the history of AC servo press is short, it is
spreading very fast in Japan. At the moment, the servo
presses are mainly used in the sheet metal industry to
extend the forming limit, to obtain better product accuracy
and to reduce forming noise.
Since the servo presses can realize completely different
motions from the existing ones, they have a great potential
to change metal forming technology if new forming methods and new applications are developed.
Judging from the development process of NC and CNC
cutting machine tools, the number of driving axes of servo
presses will be increased to provide them with larger flexibility. The forming machines will be controlled as a group
with the cutting machine tools and other machines in the
manufacturing systems. This may change the concept of
metal forming to a great extent.
Since the ram velocity can be varied freely, the servo
presses may be effective in the case that the forming velocity gives great influences. Because the flow stress at
high temperature is strain rate sensitive and heat conduction is time dependent, warm and hot forming methods
may be changed greatly by the servo presses.
To realize new forming technologies using the servo
presses, advancement of the related technologies are essentially important, in such areas as tool structure, tool
material, heating method, lubrication and work-piece material.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to express sincere thanks to Prof.
T. Ishikawa (Nagoya University), Prof. K. Mori and Mr. T.
Maeno (Toyohashi University of Technology), Dr. M. Otsu
(Kumamoto University), Dr. R. Matsumoto (Osaka University) for providing with the illustrations and advices for
improving the manuscript.
16
09.08.2010 14:17:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Selected Trends for Metal Forming Innovations

Gerhard Hirt, Stephan Heppner
Metal Forming Institute (IBF), RWTH-Aachen University, Aachen / Germany, hirt@ibf.rwth-aachen.de
Clean and regenerative power generation, low-emission and energy-saving mobility modes, and resource-conserving production techniques are selected areas in which modern metal-forming can contribute to solving global challenges. The paper intends to demonstrate
how these challenges stimulate advances in metal forming and how metal forming can in its turn help to meet these challenges. The examples discussed include new flexible bulk and sheet metal forming technologies for large components, online process and product property
control, lightweight design opportunities provided by new materials and processes as well as the continuously growing importance of materials and process modeling and simulation.
Keywords: Ring rolling, Open die forging, Incremental sheet forming, Lightweight design, Tailored strips and tubes
Introduction
One of the most important long term global challenges is
to achieve sustainability with respect to the use of natural
resources. Recognized decades ago but repeatedly ignored,
the need for action is increasingly impacting public awareness in view of the now visible effects of climate change
and the foreseeable exhaustion of fossil energy sources.
Clean and regenerative power generation, low-emission
and energy-saving mobility modes, and resourceconserving production techniques are selected areas in
which modern metal-forming can contribute to solving
global challenges.
For many years, resource-conservation has already been
a key driver of forming technologies in metal production
and processing for economic as well as technical reasons.
Metals remain one of the most important categories of
engineering materials to this day. In industrial nations like
Germany, their production and processing accounts for
about 9 % of the annual energy consumption in the household/retail, industry and transport sectors (Figure 1) [1].
Energy consumption in Germany:
about 9.1 mill. TJ
Metal industry fractions:

about 0.8 mill. TJ
Manufacturing industries
Household, retail and services
Transport
29%
Metal production
NF metals, foundries
Metalworking
14%
27%
16%
44%
About 9% of
total energy
70%
Figure 1. Energy consumption in Germany 2006 [1].
Since most of this energy is used for the production of

the metal it is essential to minimize wastage in the following processing steps, i.e. to allow as little oversize and
flash percentage as possible. In addition, further energy
savings can be achieved by shortening process chains and
by using the process heat for downstream process steps.
Examples of this include thin strip casting or annealing
with deformation heat. Although the material and energy
efficiency of process chains have been significantly improved in the past, it can be assumed that new materials
and new process modeling and control possibilities will
yield considerable potential for further savings in the future. At the production stage, metal forming has two important tasks: producing the specified geometry and establishing the required material and product properties. In
both respects, the goal is to overcome existing constraints
and to implement new solution approaches.
Besides the frequently cited and long-established megatrend of miniaturizing components and systems, an equally
major trend can also be observed at the other end of the
scale where the manufacturing of ever larger components
and systems regularly demands new technologies and
engineering concepts. The growing size of systems is
evident in many engineering sectors, the most recent and
striking example being the Airbus A380 which also caught
public imagination. Particularly in energy technologies,
but also in shipbuilding and offshore structures, aerospace
and architecture, the dimensions of the required metal
products are steadily increasing. In energy technologies,
many different approaches are being pursued with the aim
of achieving greater sustainability. In addition to developing the renewable solar, wind and sea energies, major
efforts toward reducing resource consumption and climatedamaging emissions will have to be made by increasing
the efficiency of conventional power plants, promoting
decentralized cogeneration of heat and power, and intensifying the use of nuclear energy. The challenges here will
be to overcome the current constraints in metal forming
related to product size, material to be formed, product
quality and complexity.
For this paper the following examples have been chosen
to demonstrate how the new challenges stimulate advances
in metal forming and how metal forming can in its turn
help to meet these challenges:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Flexibility in near net shape ring rolling

In-process product property control for large metal
parts
New forming processes allowing lightweight design
for efficient mobility
New forming process for drag reducing functional
riblet surfaces
Hybrid incremental sheet forming for individual large
scale components
17
09.08.2010 14:17:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Shipments
100%
1990 1995
2005 2009
50%
<2 2-4 4-6 >6
Rolling force in MN
0%
< 2 2-4 4-6 >6

Max. diameter in m
Figure 2. Size range of delivered ring rolling machines [source:

SMS-Meer].
Since the mentioned fields of application frequently

process expensive and high-strength materials, saving of
material and reduction of the machining effort takes on a
major economic significance. With these goals in mind,
pilot scale research was conducted on the flexible axial
and radial profiling of rings, using 42CroMo4 and S235JR
as representative materials, with the aim of enlarging the
variety of ring cross-section shapes. As shown in Figure 3,
three process principles, which had been developed using
a model machine for wax rings [4] were successfully
transferred to the industrial scale.
The results shown at the left of Figure 3 were obtained
by using a specialized flanged roll instead of the upper
taper roll. The advantage of this process strategy is the
possibility to produce different and relatively complex
profiles with the same tooling. Disadvantages are the more
complex roll positioning control and the necessity to preroll the ring blank to achieve the desired ring diameter.
The ring shown in the middle of Figure 3 was produced
with standard rolls by changing only the rolling strategy
and exploiting the fact that small relative height reduction
promotes bead formation due to spread close to the surface . This method is especially suitable for the production
18
Modifizierte
Dornwalze
Modified mandrel
roll
218 mm
63 mm 73 mm
Durch
Wulstbildung
With
bead
formation
132mm
Mit Kragenwalze
With
flange roll
120mm
Seamless rings as used for large-diameter roller bearings,

offshore platforms, connection flanges in wind power
towers or reactor vessels are less visible but highly important central elements for the mentioned key technologies
of power generation (see Figure 2). These rings are produced by radial-axial ring rolling on specialized machines.
While in the early 1980s seamless rings from 2 m to 4 m
diameter could only be produced on about 20 % of the ring
rolling machines delivered in this period and larger diameters were practically not produced, this situation has
changed dramatically. Today, 30 % of ring rolling machines are designed for diameters of more than 4 m, and
about 15 % are being built for diameters of over 6 m.
These machines are now being used to produce seamless
rings of up to 10 m diameter [2].
Not only the diameter but also the height of the rings has
increased continuously. This can be inferred from the
rolling force of the machines: While in the 1980s, about
90 % of the machines delivered had a force lower than 2
MN, this share has decreased to less than 40 % today. On
the other hand, the market segments of machines with 4
MN to 6 MN and above 6 MN account for almost 12%
each. The largest rings being produced today have a unit
weight of about 160 t and are used particularly for largediameter roller bearing rings, and in mining, power plant
and aerospace applications [3].
of axial beads with different heights on the top and bottom

faces. Radial profiles, on the other hand, can be produced
by modifications on the mandrel roll (Figure 3 at right).
62mm
70 mm
87 mm
80 mm
Figure 3. Cross sections of rings produced by varied processes.
Online Product Property Control for Large Open Die

Forgings
The development of online-monitored open die forging
processes allows a better quality and lower oversize, resulting in lower waste. This combines non-contacting
measurement of part geometry with computer modeling of
the forging process as it progresses, so that it can be optimized online. The aspired minimization of trial and error
could improve the economics and resource efficiency in
this kind of process, which mostly involves small-series
production of very large parts.
The vision is an assistant system which evaluates the
current forging pass on the basis of the predicted
microstructure. If necessary, the system would calculate
the optimal continuation of the initial forging schedule and
suggest it to the forging press operator. To predict the
microstructure during the process, fast models for
calculating the equivalent strain and the temperature
within the workpiece are required. Figure 4 shows a
possible concept of how the intended assistant system
could work.
forging pass schedule
Measuring
System
operator
Flexible Near Net Shape Ring Rolling
Interface
Assistant System
Microstructure
Model
Strain
Model
Visualisation
Temperature
Model
Optimisation
Figure 4. Concept of ntended assistant system for open die forging processes.
The basic principles of the models for equivalent strain

and temperature have been discussed in [6] and their
accuracy was improved during the recent work. Today
09.08.2010 14:17:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
they deliver not only information about the deformation
distribution, but also about the temperature field and the
microstructure distribution, even after multiple forging
passes. Figure 5 (top part) shows the deformation
distribution of the center fiber of a forged block after three
forgings. FE simulation with calculation of deformation,
microstructure and temperature field would take about 30
minutes. The calculation time of the fast algorithm is
negligible by comparison.
The temperature field can similarly be calculated very
quickly by using a reduced FD model (Figure 5, center)
[6]. This allows the interfacing of the microstructure
model StrucSim [7] and so a possibility to calculate the
grain size distribution along the center fiber (Figure 5,
bottom).
Equivalent strain
1.2
Here, ld refers to the length of contact and b is the width

of the strip. The average yield stress kfm describes the influence of the material on the rolling force. The geometry
factor Qp describes the influence of the geometry inside
the roll gap. This correction factor includes the loss of
power due to friction and shearing. In a collaborative project with Dillinger Htte GTS the change in the geometry
factor Qp was analyzed by FE simulations as a function of
the roll gap ratio ld/hm from the local stress and deformation ratios (hm refers to average plate thickness). This provides an opportunity to determine the geometry factor Qp
for different roll gap ratios without having to perform
many complicated laboratory rolling experiments. Keeping
the other process parameters constant, a first outcome of
this procedure is the resistance to forming (rolling
force/contact surface) for different plate thicknesses as a
function of the roll gap ratio (see Figure 6).
Resistance to def. kwm [MPa]
0.6
0.0
Temperature in C
1190
Fast models
FEM
1160
40
70
Specific length in %
100
Figure 5. Comparison of effective strain, temperature and grain

size in the center fiber after two forging passes; sB0/h0 = 0.8.
Fast Models for Optimization of Plate Rolling. Plates

are used in a broad range of dimensions and with many
different demanding materials to build large-scale structures in many areas. Outstanding bridge constructions,
high-rise buildings and other infrastructure projects are,
like ships and oil rigs, mostly built using specialized plate
products. The variety of possible combinations of materials and dimensions makes it extremely difficult to plan
processes and ensure efficient manufacturing. Precalculation of the rolling schedules for each individual
product requires precise prediction of the rolling parameters and the microstructure evolution. In industry, "selflearning" online models are therefore often used. These
models use measurements from the first few rolling passes
to improve the prediction of the following passes. For such
applications it must be ensured that the adaptive postcalculation of the rolling force is completed within the
short time between two rolling passes. The rolling force
equation from elementary theory is ideally suited for this
purpose:
F = ld bk fmQ p
100
0
2
3
Shape factor ld/hm[-]
Figure 6. Resistance to forming as a function of the roll gap ratio
and the initial plate thickness.
500
0
200
Grain size in m
1000
(1)
Using equation (1), Figure 7 shows the results for the

geometry factor Qp as calculated from these FE simulations for the whole process range of plate rolling. Also
plotted are the factors determined experimentally by Sims
[8] in rolling experiments and Lugovskoi [9] (plane strain
compression test).
3
Geometric factor Qp [-]
1220
thickness
Initial thickness
20 mm
30 mm
50 mm
100 mm
200 mm
400 mm
600 mm
900 mm
300
FEM
Sims
Lugovskoi
0
0
1
2
Shape factor ld/hm [-]
Figure 7. Geometry factor as function of roll gap ratio compared to

analytical models.
It can be seen that the FE simulation reflects the influence of external friction (ld/hm>1) as well as the internal
shearing (ld/hm<1) on the increased rolling force. Further
variations of process parameters (friction coefficient and
rolling speed v) and material properties of the rolling stock
can be calculated with relatively little effort. In the future
it will thus be possible to make better predictions for the
rolling force by using the geometry factors calculated by
means of FE simulations.
19
09.08.2010 14:17:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
2003: NSB-Study
New Steel Body
AHSS and HPTH-parts
2002: atlas space-frame
steel space-frame with
HPTH parts in conventional carriages
Process chain
Prozesskette
2004: ABC-Study
Arcelor Body Concept
Tailored blanks und
sandwich steels
1998: ULSAB Study
high-strength steels (HSS)
2002: ULSAB AVC Study

AHSS (advanced HSS)
Source: ATZ 2009
Figure 8. Development of new autobody concepts; HPTH: highpressure tube hydroforming.
This development is still a very current topic, as can be

seen from the cooperative research project between the
IBF and the "Institut fr Kraftfahrzeuge" (IKA) of RWTH
Aachen University with the aim of engineering a new Bpillar concept for mid-range cars (Figure 9).
This project may also be seen as an example of the increasing importance of numerical modeling and simulation
in engineering developments. In this case, the whole study
was performed using finite element modeling of the forming process as well as the crash performance. For this
purpose, as described in [10] the simulation included the
manufacturing of the tube followed by prebending of the
tube, the tube hydroforming process, as well as the crash
simulation. All the numerical models were validated using
experimental results for similar structures, for which tools
and equipment were available. Then, using the validated
models, design optimization was performed in various
simulation loops taking into account the mapping of material data from step to step as well as the package requirements defined by the reference solution.
Thus it could be shown that the use of near net shape tailored tubes made of higher-strength steels and highpressure tube hydroforming enables a weight reduction of
about 38% in comparison to the deep-drawn reference
solution, while maintaining the crash performance as well
as all package requirements. This results in a weight sav-
20
Cost of material
Materialkosten
Cost of
Fertigungsmanufacturing
kosten
Cost of joining
Fgekosten
Overall cost
Gesamtkosten
Weight
Gewicht
Number
of parts
Bauteilanzahl
Reference
ReferenzB-pillar
B-Sule
Deep
Deep
TiefTiefdrawing
drawing
ziehen
ziehen
20.47% 0.74%
0.74%
20.47%
19.05%
19.05%
7.43%
48.27%
48.27% 7.43%
20.88%
20.88%
31.26%
31.26%
100%
100.00%
100.00%
100%
9
9
43.63%
43.63%
91.74%
91.74%
62.00%
62%
2
2
Dachanbindung
Roof connection
IHU-B-Sule
HPTH B-pillar
2009: SuperLIGHT-CAR
Composite design of
aluminum, steel,
magnesium and plastics.
IHU-B-Sule
HPTH B-pillar
Inner part
Innenteil
Stiffening 1-7
Outer part Versteifung
Auenteil
17
There are many different areas where metal forming can

contribute to sustainable mobility. These are, for example,
further optimization of lightweight products, the processing of new materials and material composites, and maybe
functional surfaces. Future developments like electric
powered or hybrid cars will pose increasing demands on
lightweighting strategies for future structural design concepts. Solution approaches include customized semifinished products (e.g., the current tailored blanks & tubes)
and the use of higher-strength steel grades in innovative
structure concepts. This has already been impressively
demonstrated by the different studies on new lightweight
autobodies (Figure 8).
ing of about 6 kg for the two B-pillars in the car. The

number of single parts has been reduced from nine to two,
and the production cost is nearly the same.
Referenz-B-Sule
Reference B-pillar
Lightweight Designs through New Materials and

Forming Processes
HPTH
IHUdesign
Bauweise
IHUHPTH
Figure 9. Cost-benefit analysis of the newly engineered B-pillar (at

right) in comparison to a conventional one produced by deep
drawing. Data from [10]
Innovative profiles through strip profile rolling. In

earlier projects [11] it was already shown that strip profile
rolling is able to produce strips whose thickness varies
across the width and that these strips can be processed into
simple profiles (Figure 10). The process makes use of a
series of disc-shaped rolls which create material flow
perpendicular to the rolling direction (spread) instead of
longitudinal elongation. Thus the formation of buckles is
avoided in thin strips also, allowing thickness profiles as
shown in Figure 10.
Profile
roll
Material
flow
Groove
Rolling direction
Strip / blank
Figure 10. Process principle and sample results from strip profile
rolling.
However, this process requires many rolling passes to

produce the desired thickness distribution. In cooperation
with the PtU (TU Darmstadt, Germany) and several companies the feasibility of process chains combining strip
profile rolling and roll forming to produce tailored profiles
and tubes was investigated.
In a first step tailor rolled strips (TRS) were produced by
strip profile rolling. The material used was a DC01 steel
09.08.2010 14:17:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
and the geometry was a rectangular profile with a width of
170 mm and homogeneous thickness of 2 mm.
Processing was done in a strip profile rolling machine
built by Dreistern equipped with twelve profile rolls (see
Figure 11). Using optimized geometries for the discshaped rolls [12], the TRS with a width of 186 mm and a
64 mm wide groove in which the thickness is reduced
from 2.5 mm to 1.5 mm was achieved in 25 rolling passes.
Figure 11. Strip profiling machine at IBF (top); TRS produced

(bottom).
The TRS coils of 60 m in length were then further processed by roll forming the TRS to pipes. This was possible
by the cooperation between the PtU and a Swiss company
(JANSEN AG), which processed the TRS to pipes using
its industrial production system. The result is a TRS pipe
with a diameter of 60mm and changing wall thickness in
the circumferential direction. The formed TRS pipe
showed a small deviation from the ideal pipe of only 0.3
mm.
Functional Fluid Drag-Reducing Surfaces

The aerospace industry is without a doubt one of the
most challenging areas for lightweight design. Here, the
competition between different materials and their implementation is becoming ever more apparent. Although it
seems that carbon fiber laminates are replacing classical
metallic structures, there are new fields of application to
be found, for instance for functional metallic surfaces.
Todays carbon fiber laminate structures still require metals. A good example is the copper netting necessary to
protect airplanes against lightning. It would be an interesting alternative to bond thin aluminum foils with riblet
structures onto carbon fiber laminate wings. This way, the
same lightning protection could be guaranteed, while additionally improving abrasive wear resistance and reducing
the frictional drag by approximately 5 %. Other potential
applications for large area metallic riblet surfaces could be
high speed trains or pipelines.
ICE, Deutsche Bahn
Pipelines, Indiamart A380, Airbus
Figure 13. Possible applications for sheet and foil riblet surfaces
The semicircular riblet shape shown in the centre of

Figure 14 is a promising compromise between riblet effectiveness and manufacturability. The spacing between
single riblets should be double their height and, depending
on the fluid flow characteristics, be 60 to 100 m.
Triangular
Semicircular
Optimal
0.2 < riblet height (h) / riblet spacing (s) < 0.7
70 m s 100 m
Frictional drag reduction increase
Figure 14. Three distinct riblet profiles providing different dragreduction potential.
Figure 12. TRS pipe produced in cooperation with PtU (Darmstadt,

Germany) and the company JANSEN AG (Swiss).
Both the strip profile rolling and the roll forming process
can be operated continuously. This offers the potential of
cost-effective production of such tailored tubes and profiles.
Producing these precise structures over large-scale areas

requires an effective structuring method such as rolling.
However, structuring the roll surface itself is still a challenging task. As the tip radii of the riblets should be as
small as possible and because tool wear must be taken into
account, this cannot be achieved by conventional machining (Figure 15, top). Instead, a novel MicroWind process,
which winds a thin high-strength steel wire spirally around
the work roll, is used (Figure 15, bottom). For this purpose
a specific setup has been designed, which is mounted on a
CNC controlled lathe. Using this device, wires as thin as
100 m can be wound around the roll with predefined
tension. This procedure delivers the negative imprint of
the semicircular profile, which can be transferred positively to the rolling stock.
21
09.08.2010 14:17:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
hardened and 1.2 mm thick material). For the opposite
material a thickness reduction of 36 % is required to obtain
the same form filling. The final thickness of the entire
rolling stock becomes respectively 0.92 mm and 1.28 mm.
Figure 15. Comparison between conventional machining of upper

work roll and the MicroWind process.
Using this roll structuring method, aluminum sheet

(AA1050) measuring 1000 x 200 x 2.0 mm, shown in
Figure 16, has been successfully structured by cold rolling.
Depending on the rolling parameters (specific reduction in
thickness, work roll diameter, friction and strip tension)
the riblet structure achieved by rolling approaches the
desired geometry.
Figure 16. Intended riblet profile and riblet rolled surface.
The effectiveness of a riblet surface is related to the

height of its riblets. The increase of riblet height on the yaxis is expressed as form filling. The definition of form
filling is made visible in Figure 16 with hmax as the maximal achievable riblet height and hreal as the obtained riblet
height.
Figure 18. Riblet rolling experimental results and an illustration of

the form filling definition.
What can be distinguished is that a linear relationship

between form filling and thickness reduction exists. Besides this relationship, another one exists between normalized rolling force and form filling. When a form filling of
65% is desired, a rolling force Fnorm = 2.4 kN/mm is required in the case of strain hardened aluminum of 1.2 mm
thickness, whereas the softer and thicker aluminum demands a rolling force Fnorm = 2.9 kN/mm.
Consequently, thinner rolling stock requires less thickness reduction to achieve the same riblet height. Also, a
thinner material requires a smaller rolling force to achieve
the same riblet height than a thicker sample. However, the
opposite can be said when a harder material is compared to
a softer material. A harder material requires more force to
achieve the same riblet height than a softer material, which
is entirely logical. However, because both factors play a
role in Figure 18, it happens that the thinner strain hardened material lies above the thicker, softer material in
Figure 18. It may be concluded that in this particular case
the thickness of the rolling stock has a stronger impact on
the rolling force required to achieve a certain riblet height
than the material characteristics.
Small-Series Components for Aerospace and Architecture
Figure 17. Form filling definition.
Experimental results as well as numerical process simulation [13] reveal that decreasing the thickness of the rolling stock, or increasing the rolling force, ensures that the
riblet height will increase. The relationship is presented in
Figure 18. The plot of thickness reduction versus form
filling shows that a form filling of 65 % can be achieved
for a thickness reduction of 24 % (in the case of the strain
22
Aerospace as well as modern architectural visions call

for parts which have a number of common requirements:
1. Large structures and parts are needed.
2. Small quantities of individual parts are required.
3. Often free-form geometries are desired.
4. Lightning protection could be important.
5. There is competition between materials (metals, composites, glass, etc.).
09.08.2010 14:17:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Incremental sheet forming (ISF) as a method for manufacturing geometrically complicated sheet parts with minimal tooling effort can provide new opportunities for
designing lightweight structural sheet components [15].
However, application of the process is currently limited by
excessive sheet thinning in steep component areas and by
the very long processing time. These limitations are now
to be overcome by combining incremental sheet forming
with multi-axial stretch-forming, so that the sheet thickness distribution can be modified specifically and the
process time can be reduced (Figure 19).
Figure 21.Large free-form structures often require extensive

supporting structures. The goal is to achieve self-supporting structures.
Simulation of Processes, Tools and Materials

The modeling and simulation of materials and processes
are today essential aids in designing new metal forming
processes or optimizing existing technologies. In fact,
there are two diverging trends for simulating and modeling.
On the one hand, the development focus is becoming
broader, i.e. calculation of the interaction between workpiece, tool and machine, while on the other hand, evolution is tending toward the microscopic scale in order to
compute the metal physics processes or the local boundary
conditions more and more precisely. These trends can be
discussed with the following examples:
Figure 19. Left: Hybrid sheet forming center with 13 CNC axes for
ISF, stretch forming and milling. Right: stretch forming of a clamp
attachment cover of work vehicle.
Sheet thickness in mm
A typical result is given in Figure 20 showing that the

thickness distribution after the combined process is significantly more homogeneous than after conventional
incremental sheet forming. In addition, the combined
process reduces springback significantly because of more
homogeneous tensile strain imposed by the tangential
stretch forming operation.
Section line
Section line in mm
Figure 20. Comparison of thickness distribution of pure incremental sheet forming and incremental sheet forming combined
with stretch forming.
In combination with alternative concepts for loadbearing structures in architecture, the incremental sheet
forming method could become a key to self-supporting
shells, whose free formed surfaces are fragmented into
individual sheet elements braced by folding with the help
of suitable algorithms. Their economic manufacture using
ISF would allow novel constructions and building designs
(see Figure 21).
Modeling of Metal Forming Processes with Deformable Tools. At present, commercial FE simulation programs are capable of considering elastic tools within the
forming simulations. However, modeling such processes
considering the workpiece and tool as deformable bodies
in a single FE model will not only complicate the computation but also affect the convergence criteria. The situation becomes even more complex when the contact region
size is very small and if the tools themselves are subject to
significant rotations or additional contact conditions. For
example, in cold rolling the elastic deformation of the rolls
significantly influences the product quality as it may be
responsible for the occurrence of flatness defects like
center buckles or edge buckles. To model such processes,
very fine discretization is necessary for both the workpiece
and the tool which in this case requires taking into account
not only the work roll but also the backup rolls. However,
as the FE mesh size decreases, the computation time increases exponentially.
Considering the above mentioned effects, an optimized
modeling technique is being developed to precisely take
into account the interaction effects between tool and work
piece while separating the computation of the forming
process and elastic tools into two different simulation
models. In this context, the process simulation consists of
the work piece and the rigid tools. On the other hand, an
additional elastic simulation model is considered for the
tools. At predefined time steps, the contact forces are extracted from the process simulation and automatically
applied to the corresponding contact nodes in the elastic
tool simulation model (see Figure 22). The deformed tool
geometry is then updated back into the process simulation.
Thus, instead of one very large finite element problem two
significantly smaller problems are being solved, which
reduces the overall computational effort [19].
23
09.08.2010 14:17:27 Uhr
FE-Model for
process simulation
(With rigid tool)
LARSTRAN/SHAPE
Increment
FE-Model for
elastic tool simulation
DOELTOSIM
LARSTRAN/SHAPE
Continuum FEM
Metal Forming
Deformation*
damping
Elastic-plastic
material model
Mapping table
Pure elastic
material model
CP-FEM
Contact-pressure
Figure 22. Concept of FEM-FEM coupling for computation of

metal forming processes with elastic tools.
As representative applications of the concept, cold rolling and also impression die forging were investigated. For
the comparison of computation time, flat rolling process
simulation with identical FE meshing was computed with
PEP/LARSTRAN and a commercial FE program (ABAQUS STANDARD 6.7). With the help of 200 coupled
cycles, the simulation results from the new concept model
correlate very well with the results from single FE models
(see Figure 23). The computation time was reduced to half
(610 min with ABAQUS and 334 min with LARSTRAN)
with the new concept.
LARSTRAN
ABAQUS
Figure 23. Stress distribution in work rolls in strip thickness direction.
Microstructure Modeling. Modeling of microstructure

evolution during forming processes is becoming more and
more important, and a large variety of methods exist. On a
macroscopic scale, these involve mainly phenomenological models covering static and dynamic recrystallization
and recovery [7].
Other models like 3IVM [16] are based on a representative volume element behavior, taking into account internal
variables for various types of dislocation densities [17]. In
other cases, crystal plasticity models have been applied
successfully to model the deformation behavior of individual grains more realistically than classic continuum
finite element models could do (see Figure 24) [18].
Even though modeling on the microscopic scale still requires long computation times, it will gain increasing
importance for modeling of microforming processes as
well as for material and process development on the macroscopic scale.
24
Figure 24. True strain distribution in plane strain compression,

based on continuum finite element modeling (top) compared to
crystal plasticity model using EBSD measurement of grain orientation as initial conditions [18].
References
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Wirtschaftsforschung .
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[3] J.M. Allwood, T.F. Tekkaya: Steel Research International. 76-2/3
(2005), 111-120.
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[6] M. Franzke, D. Recker, G. Hirt: Steel Research International, 78-10
(2008), 753-757.
[7] K. Karhausen, R. Kopp: Steel Research, 63-6 (1992), 247-256.
[8] R.B. Sims: J. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng., (1954), 191-214.
[9] A. Tselikov: Stress and Strain in Metal Rolling, Univ. Press of the
Pacific, (2004), 109-117.
[10] M. Urban, G. Hirt: Steel Research International, 80-1 (2009), 16-21.
[11] R. Kopp, G. Hirt, F. Jackel: Advanced Technology of Plasticity, Proc.
8th ICTP, Verona, (2005), 493-494.
[12] D.H. Dvalos Julca, G. Hirt, M. Mirtsch, P. Groche: Proc. XII National Sheet Forming Conference, Porto Alegre, (2009), 203-216.
[13] G. Hirt, M. Thome: Production Engineering Research and Developement, 1 (2007), 351-356.
[14] G. Hirt, M. Thome: CIRP Annals Manufacturing Technology, 57-1
(2008), 317-320.
[15] B. Taleb Araghi, G.L. Manco, M. Bambach, G. Hirt: CIRP Annals
Manufacturing Technology 58-1 (2009), 225-228.
[16] F. Roters, D. Raabe, G. Gottstein: Acta Mater., 48 (2000).
[17] P. Gurla: Dissertation RWTH Aachen, (2007).
[18] K. Putten: Dissertation RWTH Aachen (Umformtechnische
Schriften 141), (2008).
[19] M. Franzke, S. Puchhala, H. Dackweiler: Proc. 9th International
Conference on Numerical Methods in Industrial Forming Processes,
Porto, (2007).
09.08.2010 14:17:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of Cross-Wedge Rolling Theory and Technology

Zbigniew Pater
Mechanical Department, Lublin University of Technology, Lublin / Poland, z.pater@pollub.pl
This paper summarizes the development of the theory and technology of Cross-Wedge Rolling (CWR) over the last twenty years. The problems discussed in detail are related to the modeling of CWR processes using engineering methods, finite-element method and Authors
methods of layer modeling. The computational capabilities of various methods are discussed and examples of applications are given. When
the development of the CWR technology is considered, the focused is put on new rolling methods, forming axially asymmetrical products,
rolling hollow parts, rolling shafts with an eccentric step, no-waste division and forming parts from non-iron metals and their alloys. Brief information is also given in the paper regarding the topic of the development of machines needed to perform the CWR processes. Finally, directions that, in the Authors opinion, will define the development of the cross-wedge rolling in the future, are shown.
Keywords: Cross wedge-rolling, Theory, Finite element method, Technology, Applications, Machines, Future trends
R p = 100% (S0 S ) S0 ,
Introduction
Cross-wedge rolling (CWR) is the metal forming of axially symmetrical products by tools in the shape of wedges.
The tools are mounted on shafts, or on flat or concave rolling mill plates.
The basic geometric parameters of the process are given
in Figure 1, showing the CWR scheme of the elementary
shaft (with one, central necking). These parameters include forming angle , spreading angle , charge diameter
d0, diameter of the formed shaft step d and the length of
the rolled step l. The following basic zones are distinguished in the tools utilized in the CWR process: knifing,
forming, and sizing. In the knifing zone, the wedge gradually sinks into the material at a depth of r, reducing the
charge diameter to the established value d. In the forming
zone, as a result of the reaction of the wedge side walls,
spiral reduction expands over the whole length l, of the
rolled part. In the sizing zone, however, the workpiece is
subjected to rotational compression, during which all irregularities in the shape resulting from the previous phases
are removed.
The basic measures of the materials plastic working in
the CWR process are:
reduction ratio , defined as
(1)
= d0 d ,
relative reduction of the cross-section equal to
Top tool
r
Bottom tool
Charge
Workpiece
2l
Sizing zone
Forming zone
d0
Knifing zone
Figure 1. Cross-wedge rolling (CWR) process scheme.
(2)
where d0 it the charge diameter, d is the diameter of the

rolled part step, S0 is the charge cross-section area and S is
the rolled step cross -section area.
The idea of the CWR was launched in XIXth century in
Germany. The first patent concerning rolling mills with
flat wedges was granted to Lebek in 1879. Six years later,
the first test of the industrial application of the CWR technology in the production of stepped shafts, used in the
automobiles of the time, was carried out. However, since
the CWR requires high technological capabilities, the real
development of this technology came much later. It is
agreed that the first fully industrial application of the
CWR technology occurred in 1949, when, under the direction of Balin in the Car Factory in Gorki (what is now
Russia), the method was implemented to form forging preforms of connecting rods. In the 60, 70 and 80s of the last
century, much research and development work was done
on the CWR. The effect of this work is the elaboration of
several rolling methods, shown in Figure 2, as well as
machines allowing their realization. The CWR technology
was then widely implemented to producing steel machine
parts such as stepped axles and shafts as well as forging
preforms for die forging of parts such as constructional
spanners, connecting rods, levers, forks, cranks for bike
pedals, etc. A complete description of the development of
the theory, technology and machines for CWR up to 1992
was presented in an extensive work [1] by Fu and Dean.
Significant development in the CWR application has
been observed in the recent years. Extensive research in
this field has been performed under the Authors supervision [2-5]. Thus, the objective of this paper is recapitulation of this research and pointing out future capabilities of
the CWR processes. The paper is a compilation of the
most important results of research regarding this processes,
which have been carried out over the last twenty years.
Theory
Engineering Analysis. Due to the complexity of the
CWR process, its theoretical analysis is difficult. It is for
this reason that the primary models of this method of
forming were based on many simplifications, among
25
09.08.2010 14:17:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
a)
b)
d)
the formed material is a rigid-plastic body;

mass forces and friction from the slats or lead rolls are
neglected;
the friction coefficient is constant on the side and sizing
surfaces of contact of the material and the tool.
The method of layer modeling allows calculations of the
basic force parameters for each phase of the CWR process.
It can also be used to predict any changes in rolling stability due to uncontrolled slip or core necking. Using the
method of layer modeling, it has also become possible to
conduct multi-criterial optimization of CWR process parameters [13].
c)
e)
Figure 2. Schemes of CWR processes realized in following systems: a) two rolls, b) roll concave segment, c) three rolls, d) flat
wedges, e) concave wedges.
which assumption of plane or axially symmetrical state of

strain was the most frequently used. This type of procedure was still applied in the early 90's in the XXth century,
when equations that allowed the calculation of material tool contact surface area [2], mean surface pressure [3],
increases in diameter of formed products [4], and limits of
stability of the CWR process (in the form of uncontrolled
slipping, core necking, and the cracking of inside material)
[5-8] were derived. In these analyses, geometrical relationships describing the deformation zone were used together
with methods of engineering analysis such as: energy, slab,
slip-line fields and characteristics and upper bound. With
the development of the computational techniques in the
last decade of the XXth century, all these simplified methods were gradually loosing their meaning.
Layer Method. This method developed by the author
[9-12], can be applied in the analysis of the CWR processes. The layer method is based on the similarity of the
material movement in cross-sections of products formed
by the CWR method and those compressed rotationally.
On the basis of this similarity, it is assumed that the zone
of deformation in any CWR process can be modeled in the
form of adhering layers Figure 3. The main assumptions,
on which construction of the solution is based, are:
the deformation zone is divided into layers;
the contact pressure in any selected layer of the deformation zone is simulated by analyzing the process of the
rotational compression of the bar in the plane strain
conditions;
Finite Element Method. Due to its complexity, the

CWR process has to be modeled in the 3D domain. Additional difficulties related to calculations result from: a
large pitch of the tools (exceeding the dimensions of the
product many times), a complicated shape of the rolled
product, and the character of contact (slip) between the
formed material and the tools. The listed factors have
caused that the FE models of the CWR process have been
proposed relatively late, at the end of the XXth century.
Currently, there are a series of solutions in which the CWR
process is modeled using the commercial programs: Ansys/LS-DYNA [6, 7,14-22], DEFORM-3D [23-28], Forge3
[29], MSC.SuperForm and MARC. AutoForge [30-39].
Most of the published analyses concentrated on the modeling of the limits of the stability of the CWR process resulting from the presence of uncontrolled slip, core necking,
and cracking of the material - Figure 4. A comparison of
the most important forming parameters in relation to the
occurrence of the listed limitations is given in Table 1.
Additionally, by using the FEM, the following parameters
are analyzed in the cross wedge rolled products: temperatures [26,31], microstructure [25,27], stress state
[15,28,35,39] and the state of strain [35,37].
Currently even relatively complex cases of the FEM
analysis of the CWR processes can be performed on personal computers. The process of rolling of a transmission
shaft, implemented in an industrial company in Poland,
modeled in the DEFORM-3D program, is an example of
such a simulation. It is realized in a ULS70 rolling mill,
equipped with rolls of a diameter of 700 mm. In this proc-
a)
Contact area
b)
b
z
c)
x
2h
Figure 3. Layer model of the deformation zone in CWR, introduced by author.
26
Figure 4. FEM calculations of deformation of rolled products as effect of the occurrence of: a) uncontrolled slipping, b) cracking inside material, c) core necking (breaking).
09.08.2010 14:17:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
t = 0.00 s
Figure 6. Transmission shaft produced by CWR method.

t = 0.75 s
t = 1.50 s
CWR parameter
Uncontrolled
slipping
Core necking
(breaking)
Crack formation
where: - increase, - decrease.
Technology
t = 2.25 s
t = 3.00 s
t = 3.75 s
New Rolling Methods. A new variation of CWR, called

Wedge-Rolls Rolling (WRR), was developed in Lublin
University of Technology in the last decade. This is the
forming of axially symmetrical shaft type products using
only one wedge tool and two rollers, the function of which
is keeping the product in the proper position during rolling
- Figure 7. In comparison to the CWR methods used up to
this point, wedge-rolls rolling is distinguished by numerous advantages, the most important of which are: less inclination for cracks on the inside of the rolled product to
occur, lower implementation costs, easy scale removal.
Based on the research [34,40], it was stated that the WRR
process can be successfully used to produce axially symmetrical parts (eg. forging preforms), especially hollow
parts with a wall thickness of up to 0.2 d0 Figure 8.
t = 4.50 s
Figure 5. FEM calculations of progress of forming of transmission

shaft during CWR process, t - time.
ess, the extreme steps of the shaft are formed with reduction ratios of = 2.45, which are unobtainable with only
one wedge passage. This is why it was established that the
rolling process is performed in two operations. The FEM
calculation results of the rolling process of the analyzed
transmission shaft are shown in Figure 5. Due to the shape
of the product, it was necessary to use the rolling scheme
with the separating of the final scrap materials with the
frontal funnels shaped in them. Because they are located
on the ends of the rolled part and due to their size, the
scrap parts play a stabilizing role during rolling, protecting
the product from skewing. Figure 6 shows a transmission
shaft obtained from the industrial rolling tests.
Figure 7. Schema of wedge-rolls rolling (WRR) process.
The process of axial feed bar rolling [41] is another developed recently method based on the CWR. In this
method rollers turning around their axes also move in the
radial and axial directions of the rolled product. In consequence, it is possible to form stepped shafts and axles us
ing tools of relatively simple geometry.
Figure 8. Examples of steel parts produced by WRR method.

Table 1. The effect of the most important CWR process parameters on the possibility of the occurrence of forming limits.
Rolling of Axially Asymmetrical Products. Elongated

products very often have steps with a cross-section that is
not circular (square, oval, hexagonal, etc.). Such steps can
be rolled using wedges with suitably profiled forming sur27
09.08.2010 14:17:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
5
1 2
3
r1
a = 18
Cross- section profile

after rolling
5
r0 = 1
Cross- section profile

of billet
Figure 9. Scheme illustrating the method of determining rolling

depth ri, in CWR process of part with non-circular cross-section.
faces. Figure 9 shows the outline of the cross-section of a

forging step (with side a = 18 mm), to be obtained through
the CWR process from a charge with a diameter of 30
mm. Due to the double symmetry of the outline in the analyzed case, it is sufficient to define a tool profile ensuring
the rotation of the workpiece by 1/8 of a rotation, that is,
an angle of =45. This angle is divided into n equal parts,
then the value of rolling depth ri, is determined in the
longitudinal planes defined by subsequent lines i= 0,1,2.... .
In the analyzed example, this is
a
.
(3)
ri = r0
2 cos(i )
The sizing tool is lowered by the value of ri (in the way
shown in Figure 10), accepting that the distance xi (defining the displacement of the wedge during the rotation of
the workpiece by the angle ) can be calculated as:
(4)
xi = rt ,
where rt is the workpiece rolling radius.
r0
r1 r
2 r3 r
r5
4
x1 x2 x3x4 x5
Center line of workpiece

Figure 10. Method of profiling wedge sizing surfaces, ensuring
rolling of a product with non-circular cross-section.
The numerical simulations and experimental studies [42]

have proved the usefulness of the developed CWR method
in forming axially asymmetrical products. An oscillatory
change in force, resulting from a constantly changing rolling depth, is a typical feature of these forming processes.
Examples of the obtained axially asymmetric parts are
shown in Figure 11.
In certain situations, charges used in the CWR process
can have cross-sections that are not circular. It is not efficient to produce elongated parts that have shaped cross
sections along the major part of their length, (the cylindrical step has an insignificant length) from a cylindrical
28
Figure 11. Stepped parts with non-circular cross-section obtained

from rolling tests (left) and FEM calculations (right).
charge. In this case, the designing process of the wedge

tools is identical to the typical processes realized with the
cylindrical charge. It should be remembered however, that
in this case of forming, the plastic working of the material
should be described by using relative reduction Rp instead
of the reduction ratio . Examples of products rolled from
shaped charges are shown in Figure 12.
Machine parts having steps such as threads, worms or
teeth are other products, which are often used in the machine industry, and which do not fulfill the condition of
axial symmetry. These parts can also be rolled using crosswise method [42-44]. In such cases, grooves are made on
the surface of the tools, having the function of forming the
winding. A new method of producing screw spikes, developed in Lublin University of Technology, is an example of
this technology. It is composed of two operations. The first
is the flashless hot forging of heads in a two component
system, from a bar with a circular cross-section. In this
operation, only the ends of the bar are heated, while the
central segment remains in the room temperature. The next
operation is the cross-wedge rolling of the threaded segment and the separation of the two rolled products in the
final phase of the operation. The new method of rolling of
threads (from the center to the ends of the product) is illustrated in Figure 13. Results of numerical simulation are
showing in this figure. The screw spikes obtained in this
process have good quality, the proper alignment of fibers,
and a favorable coned ending (see Figure 14).
Rolling of Hollow Products. Hollow elements are more
and more frequently used in machine constructions. The
automotive industry is the main recipient of parts of this
type. Obtained decrease in the construction mass improves
the vehicle dynamics, decreases fuel consumption and limits emission of pollutants. In recent years, methods of
crosswise rolling have also started to be used for producing axially symmetrical hollow elements - Figure 15. As a
Figure 12. Parts made from non-cylindrical charges obtained

from rolling tests (left) and FEM calculations (right).
09.08.2010 14:17:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Inner diameter dw = 0,5 d0

Figure 13. FEM calculations of shape progression of screw spike
during thread rolling.
result of numerous research [16,20,32,34,36,38,42,45], the

following observations can be made:
The CWR and WRR methods can be used to form axially symmetrical hollow parts with precision comparable
to that obtained in processes of rolling of solid parts.
The stability of the forming processes for hollow parts
can be disturbed by uncontrolled slipping (crushing),
necking (breaking) of the rolled step, as well as deformation of the inside free surface.
A larger ovalization of the cross-section occurs in the
CWR method with two tools for hollow parts, comparing to the rolling of solid parts. In order to remove the
ovalization, it is recommended to lengthen the sizing
zone to a value giving 3 - 3.5 rotations of the workpiece
in the sizing phase.
Using triple tool methods in forming hollow products is
fully justified. These methods are characterized by better
stability and dimensional accuracy of the hollow part, in
comparison to that obtained in double tool processes.
When designing CWR tools for hollow products, it is not
recommended to used designing rules developed for
CWR processes for solid parts. The rules describing the
method of designing CWR tools for hollow parts are
given in the literature [36,38,42].
CWR of Shafts with Accentric Steps. The rule for rolling shafts with eccentric steps is to change the location of
the charge axis at the same time as the wedges sink into
the material (in a direction perpendicular to the plane of
tool motion). This effect can be obtained by using special
guides as it is shown in Figure 16. The outline of the
Figure 15. Wall thickness in axial section of cutter body (calculated

by FEM and obtained from experiment).
lead insert depends on the size of the eccentric e, as well

as on the charge radius r0. For a system in Figure 16 it can
be calculated from the following equations:
upper guide
(5)
y = r0 + e sin( x r0 ) ,
lower guide
(6)
y = r0 + e sin( x r0 ) .
Figure 17 shows the numerically simulated process of
rolling an eccentric shaft in which a charge with special
cone endings is used. It has been found that the lead inserts (guides) allow for the effective cutting of the wedges
into the charge eccentrically relative to its axis. The further
course of forming (after leaving guides) is stable and does
not deform the eccentricity. It has also been found that using charges with conical endings is favorable, because the
frontal surface of the forging obtained in this way is relatively perpendicular to the axis of the shaped forging's step.
The experimental work performed in laboratory conditions
have confirmed the accuracy of the applied solution (Figure 18).
y
Upper guide
Billet
Bottom wedge
r0
0
Upper wedge
Bottom guide
Figure 16. Designed by author scheme of CWR process for shaft

with eccentric step.
Cold CWR. By the end of the 80s in the XXth century,

cold CWR technology was developed and implemented in
the industry. Beyond the difference in material temperature,
the other differences between the two processes are [42]:
Figure 14. View of axial section of screw spike obtained through
CWR process.
29
09.08.2010 14:17:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 17. FEM calculations of development of shape of shaft with eccentric step in CWR process.
limiting the cold CWR technology to the rolling of axially symmetrical products with small dimensions (maximum diameter less than 10 mm);
in cold CWR processes, cooling-lubricating agents are
used in order to raise the tool life and to remove metal
chips;
lack of technological serrations on the side surfaces of
the wedges used in cold CWR processes;
differences in wedge angles used in forming (generally
< 2).
The no-waste division of round bars, shown on Figure
19, is another method based on the cold CWR process,
which has recently been studied at Lublin University of
Technology. In the first phase of this process, the wedges
move in the opposite directions and make a groove in the
shape of the letter V on the circumference of the bar. Then,
using specially shaped tools, the part of the bar to be separated is rotated and bended. On the basis of studies [46], it
has been found that using this method, segments of the bar
with a length of l larger than 1.3 times the bar diameter d0,
can be effectively separated from the bar. Metal separation
took place as the effect of brittle cracking, which can be
intensified by increasing the bending angle and/or the
rolling depth r.
Figure 20 shows bar segments separated by the discussed method. Two characteristic zones can be distin-
guished on the surface of metal separation: the outside

zone (glossy) formed during the rolling of the V groove,
and the inside zone (matte) formed during the cracking of
the metal. Based on the experimental tests, it has been
found that metal cracking takes places spirally, from the
outside to the bar axis. The larger the bending angle is,
the less rotations the bar has to make (in the bending
phase) to separate the metal.
CWR of Parts Made from Non-Iron Metals and their
Alloys. On the basis of the Author experience and the
analysis of specialized literature, it can be stated that the
development of CWR technology to this point has been
concentrated on the forming of carbon and alloyed steels.
Consideration of non-ferrous metals and their alloys is
marginal. Until now, attempts have been made to use
CWR to roll parts from titanium alloys [47,48], copper
spheres [49] and shafts made from zinc alloys used in nuclear reactors [50]. It is expected that manufacturing of
non ferrous metals using CWR method will be one of the
main directions of development of this technique.
CWR Machines
The constructions of machines used in the CWR technology were developed by the 80s of the XXth century.
Over the last twenty years, these machines were automated,
equipped with numerical control and developed. Currently,
industrial rolling mills are manufactured by the following
companies: Smeral (Czech Republic), Beche (Germany),
Top
tool
Bar
Bottom
tool
Figure 18. Course of CWR process for eccentric shaft performed
in laboratory at Lublin University of Technology.
30
Figure 19. Scheme of no-waste separation of round bars based on

CWR method.
09.08.2010 14:17:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 20. Bar segments made from steel grade C45 cut in process of no-waste separation with parameters: =45, r=2 mm,
=2 (top) and =3 (bottom).
VNIMETMASH (Russia), Xianfend Machine Tool Works

(China), Beltechnology and M (Belarus) and AMT Engineering (Belarus). Forming of parts with diameters of 5 to
190 mm and a length of 30 to 1000 mm is possible in these
machines. Rolling mills with flat wedges and working in a
system of two rolls are the most common.
It should be mentioned here that there is another possible solution, proposed by companies equipped with the
relevant technological facilities. Due to the simple kinematics of the CWR mills, these companies manufacture
machines on their own, based on the owned machine stock.
An example of such a rolling mill developed based on a
carriage-drawing machine, designed under the Authors
supervision by one of the Polish companies, is shown in
Figure 21. This machine is currently successfully used on
the industrial scale in the production of housings for rotational cutters.
Conclusions
This paper characterized results of selected research regarding cross-wedge rolling done over the last twenty
years. In that period, effective methods of numerical modeling of CWR processes, basing on personal computers
were worked out. Moreover, the assortment of rolled products was increased mainly by adding parts not fulfilling
conditions of axial symmetry (screw spikes, shafts with
eccentric steps and with sections in the shape of a rectangular, hexagon, etc.). Research works connected with the
issue of hollowed parts rolling and forming in lowered
temperatures were also started.
Many of the problems pointed out in the paper have not
been satisfactorily explained and studies regarding them
are continued. An experience of a narrow group of technologists with this difficult production technology, supplemented will be recompensed by modern computational
methods and possibility to conduct a series of virtual tests.
Expansion of this modern production technology to new
users will be possible. In the Authors opinion, studies resteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
Figure 21. Virtual project (top) and prototype (bottom) of flat wedge
rolling mill produced in Polish industrial establishment.
lated to the CWR in the nearest future will focus on the

following fields:
Eliminating phenomena disturbing rolling stability as a
result of using thermo-mechanical and structural simulations, taking into account the real forming conditions in
the maximum degree.
Intensification of the application of CAD/CAM/CAE
technology when developing new forming processes.
Increasing rolling effectiveness by simultaneous forming
with several wedges (so called synchronized rolling).
Producing parts with smaller masses, that is, from hollow or welded charges or from non-iron metals or their
alloys.
Linking CWR with other production processes (rolling
teeth, worms, splines, etc.) in order to decrease production costs.
Acknowledgements
This research work was financed by funds from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland over
31
09.08.2010 14:17:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
years 2009-2012, as a project for development no.
0457/R/T02/2009/06.
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187-188 (2007), 392-196.
[32] Z. Pater, J. Bartnicki: Archives of Metallurgy and Materials, 51-2
(2006), 205-211.
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201-208.
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Technology, 177 (2006), 550-554.
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Technology, 164-165 (2005), 1235-1240.
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155-156 (2004), 1867-1873.
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walcowania klinowo-rolkowego, Pub. INOP, Pozna 2007 (in Polish).
[41] C.G. Xu, G.H. Liu, G.S. Ren, Z. Shen, C.P. Ma, W.W. Ren: Acta
Metallurgica Sinica, 20-6 (2007), 463-468.
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of Technology, Lublin 2009 (in Polish).
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(2007), 307-312.
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Technology, 153-154 (2004), 722-728.
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09.08.2010 14:17:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Nanostructural Engineering of Steel

Peter D. Hodgson, Ilana B. Timokhina, Hossein Beladi
Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds / Australia, peter.hodgson@deakin.edu.au
This paper reviews current research that aims to understand and manipulate the properties of advanced steels through control of the
nanostructure, with an emphasis on thermomechanically produced steels. While the concepts of such strengthening mechanisms have
been understood and used for many years, it is now possible through advanced characterisation methods to gain detailed insights. Similarly, our knowledge of phase transformations supported by improved modelling also allows us to design microstructures that have length
scales in the range of 10s to 100s of nanometres. Examples are provided that relate to application of this concept in Advanced High
Strength Steels of precipitation hardening, bake hardening, the development of ultrafine ferrite microstructures, nanoscale dispersed multiphase steels and nanoscale bainite.
Keywords: Steel, Microstructural engineering, Thermomechanical processing, Bainite, Atom probe tomography, Precipitation
Introduction
Steel continues to evolve its response to new consumer
demands. Recently the major focus has been on achieving
weight reduction in the transport industry, but there are
examples, such as more earthquake resistant steels and
higher strength pipeline steels where there have been significant innovations. The integrity of steel products, not
only from fracture but also corrosion, continues to place
increased demands. At the same time steel continues to
maintain a significant market share because it has responded to these challenges without major increases in
cost to the customer.
Historically, the basis for most advances in steel product
performance has fallen under the general heading of microstructural engineering. This is because many of the
properties in steels are determined by features at the micron scale there are obviously nanoscale features that
have been used for some time and these will be discussed
later, but the majority of research focus has been on engineering at the micron scale.
The major basis for most thermomechanical controlled
processing (TMCP) research has been to control the evolution and state of the austenite grain structure and to then
control the subsequent phase transformation. Steel has a
major advantage over most competitive metals as it has a
very high Hall-Petch slope. Hence any reduction in the
ferrite grain size leads to significant enhancements in
strength and, as it turns out, toughness. Therefore, thermomechanical processing has been used in many different
types of rolling mills to produce ferrite grain sizes down to
a few microns.
More recently in advanced high strength steels (AHSS)
for the automotive industry the objective is to obtain steels
with a fine ferrite microstructure but containing other
micron scale particles of secondary phases such as martensite, retained austenite and bainite.
There have always been nanoscale structures that have
impacted on the product performance of steel. One could
argue that pearlite is an excellent example of a self assembled nanostructure as the ferrite and cementite grow in a
seemingly co-operative manner and it is possible to obtain
sheets of these phases that are only 10s of nanometres in
the thickness direction. Tyre-cord is an example where
this structure is then subjected to intense severe plastic

deformation (SPD) to obtain a metal with remarkable
tensile properties. Of course another clear example is precipitation hardening.
The objective of this paper is not to ignore that steel already relies on nanoscale features but to focus on recent
research more deliberately aimed at engineering the microstructure at this scale length. This is, in many ways,
still a work in progress as much of the work is still observing what is happening as the design and control is still to
be developed.
Increased Strength by Ultra Grain Refinement
The past decade has seen considerable interest in the development of processes to produce sub-micron grain sizes.
These range from very simple thermomechanical processes [1], through to complex multistage processes [2].
The activation of dynamic strain induced transformation
(DSIT) has been widely studied in Japan, Korea, China
and Australia [1].
Here the aim is to deform the steel below the equilibrium transformation temperature but above the Ar3, such
that deformation is taking place in undercooled austenite.
The resulting structures can be very fine - typically around
1m (Figure 1). This can easily lead to a doubling of
yield strength and has broken the typical minimum grain
size level seen in most steels of around 5 m with a conventional ferrite microstructure [3]. However, as is now
well documented these simple microstructures have very
limited work hardening capacity and hence limited ductility.
They also require very large reductions and, hence, high
rolling loads which have made it difficult to implement in
practice.
33
09.08.2010 14:18:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
between deformations and to have almost instantaneous
cooling after the final stand [4].
High Strength through Transformation to Nonferritic
Microstructures
The above followed the traditional concepts of increasing strength by refining the ferrite grain size and in reality
the microstructure scale is not really at the nano level
except for the more extreme cases such as in Figure 2.
However, it is possible to control the transformation to
other microstructures. This has been shown most elegantly
in the recent papers by Bhadeshia and co-workers [5]
where a thermodynamic approach was taken to design a
composition where high temperature transformations
could be avoided but where it was then possible to form
bainite without martensite. This led to a nano bainitic
composite microstructure, where the layers of bainite were
separated by layers of retained austenite. The steel produced an amazing combination of strength (e.g. 2 GPa)
and ductility.
Figure 1. Grain structure of DSIT 0.06 C steel.
Figure 2. Nanoscale structures introduced by cold rolling and

annealing of martensite.
Figure 3. Mechanical properties of nano-bainitic steels.
C
1
Steel
wt%
at%
Steel
wt%
at%
Steel
wt%
at%
0.8
3.5
0.3
1.2
0.2
0.95
Si
Table 1. Composition of nanobainite steels.

Mn
Co
Cr
Al
1.51
1.98
2.9
1.9
1.96
3.8
1.9
1.2
1.5
2.3
1.5
1.06
2.08
0.57
1.15
It is possible to develop such microstructures by cold

rolling and annealing of martensite (Figure 2) but again
limited ductility was present. Also any technique that uses
rolling to a low thickness markedly reduces the range of
applications to automotive where a high level of formability is required or light structural applications where cost is
a major issue.
There have been recent attempts to develop the DSIT for
commercial applications, although this has required a
major redesign of the rolling process to minimise the time
34
Mo
Ni
Cu
Nb
1.6
0.98
0.24
0.1
0.1
1.4
1.0
0.13
0.09
0.08
0.1
0.31
0.01
0.01
0.1
0.17
0.01
0.01
0.3
0.02
0.04
0.165
0.02
0.02
Our group has also been exploring this alloy and other
similar concepts. Some examples will be described here
based on three approaches. The first repeated the original
work of Bhadeshia with a high C content alloy (Steel 1,
Table 1). In the second approach a leaner composition
(Steel 2) was used and the first stage of the TCMP schedule involved partial transformation prior to holding at the
bainite transformation temperature. For the examples
shown here, both of these approaches used a bainite transformation temperature of 350C; the transformation time
09.08.2010 14:18:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
was reduced from 1 day to 2hrs in moving from Steel 1 to
2. The third approach (Steel 3) was based on a simple
TMCP approach utilising controlled rolling partial transformation to ferrite and then a coiling simulation at 470 C.
The tensile properties show that each approach leads to
similar strength levels but that the ductility is markedly
changed. TEM of the bainite phase for each approach
(Figure 4) shows that the 350 C a relatively aligned structure of alternating bainitic ferrite and retained austenite
with bainite lath widths from 200 to 400 nm. The retained
austenite (RA) was significantly coarser in Steel 2; it is
important to remember that RA is the residual from the
transformation, and hence this implies a lower fraction of
bainitic ferrite. Also this steel had ~20% ferrite from the
high temperature transformation.
These structures also provided fascinating atom probe

maps (Figure 5) which provide a great deal of insight into
the levels and distribution of C in the various phases, as
well as clear evidence of the formation of various carbide
phases. The main point of current interest is to understand
the various carbide phases being seen in the bainitic ferrite
to gain insights into the transformation mechanisms and
understand their effects on the mechanical behaviour.
We have also found that the this combination of atom
probe tomography (APT), TEM along with FEGSEM
EBSD is necessary to be able to understand the nature of
the complex multiphase steels. Each technique has obvious advantages and disadvantages.
Figure 4 TEM of microstructure of (a) Steel 1, (b) Steel 2 and (c) Steel 3.
The poor ductility of Steel 1 is believed to be due to

other undesirable phases that were present in the structure
and the austenite was over stabilised and did not transform
during deformation. For Steel 2 there was clear evidence
of the austenite transforming to martensite during deformation.
Steel 3 had coarser bainite (200-500 nm) and austenite
films/islands (200-400 nm) along with ~15% polygonal
ferrite. The high strength is somewhat surprising but emphasises the importance of having the the correct level of
stability of RA so that it transformed gradually, leading to
an optimum work hardening compared with the other two
steels.
Throughout these studies the importance of all aspects

of steel processing and the transformation sequence have
become increasingly clear. The deformation of the austenite will distribute the sites and rate of proeutectoid ferrite.
In effect, this then sets up the subsequent islands of austenite and their carbon contents prior to subsequent transformation. Also the high temperature deformation under
conditions where pancaking of the austenite occurs also
introduces dislocations into the austenite that will remain
through the transformation sequences.
It will also potentially introduce fine strain induced preFigure 5 APT maps of (a) Steel 1, (b) Steel 2 and (c) Steel 3 cipitates
RA: retained austenite, PF: polygonal ferrite and
that will remain in the microstructure and while
BF:= bainitic ferrite.
these are unlikely to affect the properties or subsequent
35
09.08.2010 14:18:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
transformation events they will be present in further analysis of the microstructure and may confuse the nature and
formation of precipitates in the subsequent phases.
The formation of proeutectoid ferrite leads to carbon rejection into the austenite, and hence the amount will depend on the amount of ferrite formed. As shown in the
examples above managing this aspect of the transformation can have a very profound effect on the final microstructure and properties.
Much of the interest in most modern steels is to use Si or
other elements to promote the formation of a carbide free
bainite. This leads to further rejection of carbon into the
austenite and the potential to have islands of high carbon
austenite which are then stable at room temperature (ie
they dont transform to martensite). The above APT maps
and other work soon to be published question whether the
bainite can really be said to be carbide free. There is some
debate about whether the high carbon areas are precipitates or just clusters but most of our work does suggest a
wide range of carbides being present in the bainitic ferrite.
For Steel 1 under the current conditions the average
number density of C-rich clusters was - 7 x 1011 m-3. Most
of the fine carbides had a plate-like shape with average
thickness of 3.3 0.9nm. The carbon level in the fine
particles varied from - 20 to 80 at%C, with the balance Fe.
Most of these carbides had a composition close to that of
low-temperature Fe32C4 carbides and Fe3C. The bainitic
ferrite formed in Steel 1 had a higher carbon content (0.35
0.05at%) compared to the para-equilibrium level, which
suggests diffusionless type of transformation of austenite
to bainite. However, this is still an area of active investigation and debate.
For Steels 2 and 3 there was also a high level of C in the
bainitic ferrite. While these steels are seen by many as
futuristic even some of the new TMCP TRIP steels have
complex nanoscale microstructures (Firgure 6) that can be
highly manipulated to achieve a range of properties.
High strength low alloy (HSLA) steels have relied on

the formation of nanoscale precipitates since they were
first developed. However, recent work in Japan [6] has
shown that the levels of precipitation hardening can be
radically improved through careful design of the alloy and
one assumes the production process details are a little
hard to completely ascertain.
From what they have presented that are able to radically
refine the size and spacing. This suggests also a strong
interaction between the transformation and the precipitation. If we consider interphase precipitation as the optimum form for hardening then the rate of movement of the
interphase has to be at a speed that is not too slow or the
precipitates will be coarse and not too fast or it will not
occur and precipitation will occur later in the matrix. Also
the step size of the moving interface will determine the
interparticle spacing. We have also used APT to study
precipitation. One of the major limitations with TEM is
the magnetic effects of steel which can make it difficult to
detect these precipitates, particularly if there is a high
background dislocation density. Figure 7 shows a composition density map and an individual precipitate characterised using this method. The clustering of individual atoms
can be analysed using a range of methods to determine if
they are randomnly distributed or are likely to be clusters
or full precipitates.
Also shown in this diagram is the individual precipitate
with the arrangement of atoms. By analysing the number
of different types of atoms in the volume the composition
of the precipitate can be determined. We can also clearly
work out a typical size and spacing. It is possible to then
monitor the changing composition and size of precipitates
as a function of holding time.
Figure 7. APT map showing individual precipitate and arrangements of precipitates.
Figure 6. TEM of a TMCP TRIP steel showing nanoscale distribution of the various phases.
Challenging Understanding of Precipitation Hardening
36
Figure 8 shows the same type of APT maps but in this

case for a more conventional HSLA steel. A lot more processing of the data has been undertaken in this case to remove the atoms not involved with the precipitates but they
are clearly larger and, interestingly, of a more elongated
morphology. As APT allows the precipitate/cluster to be
viewed much more clearly in 3D (eg the box can be rotated in all directions to view the precipitate or cluster) we
09.08.2010 14:18:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
are now seeing a much more complex range of precipitate
morphologies that may appear as simple round objects
under TEM. Here, though, we see that the precipitates are
more randomly spaced and are much larger.
Figure 8. APT map for conventional HSLA steel.
It is interesting that the fundamental work to understand

precipitation strengthening in steels is mostly quite old and
as we develop quite different systems where we may also
move from a simple spherical particle to those with different shapes then we also need to consider the planes that
these particles are aligned along and how these then intersect with the slip planes. In this work we believe it is also
possible to distinguish pre-precipitation clusters that have
been shown in non-ferrous alloys [7] to have the potential
for significant strengthening.
Working with Atoms
Our recent work on AHSS has focussed on the arrangement and nature of phases and their detailed composition
using APT and other techniques. At the same time we
have been interested in how TMCP and the transformation
sequence affect not only the elemental distribution but also
the bake hardening behaviour. This is due to the fact the
distribution of C and the internal dislocation structures
vary and we, like others, have observed very different
levels of bake hardening strength increase (Figure 9(a)).
With APT we have been able to examine the local carbon levels in the ferrite and then also the clustering along
linear defects that we assume to be dislocations (Figure
9(b)). With this it is clear that the carbon supersaturation
level within the ferrite can be altered to maximise ageing.
It is also possible to follow the formation of carbides during ageing.
Future
The above has shown that we now have the ability to
understand the effects of the manipulation of the austenite
microstructure and the transformation sequence on the
nature and properties of advanced steels. As has happened
for many decades steel continues to undergo further enhancements in not only the property package which has
been discussed but also the process optimisation for both
performance and cost.
Figure 9 Bake Hardening behaviour of Dual Phase (DP) and

Transformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP) steels after pre-strain
(PS) and bake hardening, (a) stress strain behaviour and (b) C
distribution along a dislocation.
In reality steel is probably underpriced as a material; this

has allowed it to maintain a large market share but in some
ways it has also stiffled innovation. Most materials look
for exciting properties and then worry about cost, but the
mentality of the steel industry is often opposite. This is
not to say either is correct as they are both flawed. Also
what will cost mean in the future there is no doubt
there will be societal costs added to all materials. This
will include the energy and environmental costs not just of
production but of downstream manufacturing, product
performance and then material reuse.
Steel has shown a remarkable ability to adapt to all challenges and there are many exciting developments in thefuture. For example, strip casting is still in its commercial
infancy but it offers some very interesting future options:
A very small physical footprint
Ability to process scrap with higher levels of residual elements
Aside from the initial melting phase a very low C
footprint
The higher cooling rates mean that you can even use
impurities to provide strengthening. For example, in previous work related to thin slab casting [8] it was shown
that S could act to directly strengthen steel if it was maintained in solid solution and then precipitated as fine nanoscale MnS in the ferrite.
This opens up a very different paradigm based on relatively rapid solidification to lock in and evenly distribute
37
09.08.2010 14:18:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
normally harmful elements to provide new steel products.
Combining this concept with some of the above clearly
opens up many potential areas for the industrial nanoscale
engineering of steels for the next few decades.
Conclusions
The work presented here highlights the potential for the
engineering of steel structure at all scale lengths to improve the properties; particularly strength and ductility.
Atom Probe Tomography can now be used to sample relatively large volumes in reasonable time and therefore is
more amenable to obtaining new insights. This supported
by conventional TEM and FEG-SEM with advanced
EBSD can allow us to more fully understand the relationships between processing and structure. In the future these
techniques could be combined with new processes such as
strip casting with inline rolling to create materials that
maximise their potential while minimising their environmental impact.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Australian Research
Council through grants and Professor Hodgsons Federation Fellowship. Much of this work has also involved
extensive collaboration with Professor E. Pereloma at the
University of Wollongong.
References
[1] H. Beladi, G.L. Kelly, P.D. Hodgson: International Materials Reviews,
52-1 (2007), 14-28.
[2] N. Tsuji, R. Ueji, Y. Minamino: Scripta Materialia, 47-2 (2002), 6976.
[3] R. Priestner, P.D. Hodgson, Materials Science and Technology, 8-10
(1992) 849-854
[4] K. Miyata, M. Wakita, S, Fukushima, M. Eto, T. Sasaki, T. Tomida:
Materials Science Forum, 539-543 (2007), 4698-4703.
[5] H.K.D.H. Bhadeshia: Materials Science and Engineering A, 481-482
(2008), 36-39.
[6] Y. Funakawa, T. Shiozaki, K. Tomita, T. Yamamoto, E. Maeda: ISIJ
Int., 44 (2004), 1945-1951.
[7] S.P. Ringer, K. Hono: Materials Characterization, 44 (2000), 101-131.
[8] L.D. Frawley, R. Priestner, P.D. Hodgson: Minerals, Metals and
Materials Society/AIME (USA), (1997) 2169-2175.
38
09.08.2010 14:18:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
Design of Micro Pattern Forming Process on Thin Sheet Metal for Electronic Device
Panels
Sung-Hoon Cha1), Jong-Bong Kim2), Sa Sung Park3), Jong-Ho Kim3), Nak-Kyu Lee4)
1)
Graduate School of NID Fusion Tech., Seoul National Uni. of Tech., Seoul / Korea; 2) Dept. of Automotive Eng., Seoul National Uni. of
Tech., Seoul / Korea, jbkim@snut.ac.kr; 3) Dept. of Product Design and Manufac. Eng., Seoul National Uni. of Tech., Seoul / Korea; 4) Dept.
of Manufac. Convergence Tech., Korea Institute of Industrial Tech., Ansan-si / Korea
A roll-to-roll forming process is one of important metal processing technologies, because the process is simple and economical. These
days, a roll-to-roll forming process is tried to be employed in the manufacturing of the circuit board, barrier ribs and other electronic device.
In this study, the roll-to-roll forming process for the micro scale pattern in electronic device panel is designed and analyzed. Because the
electronic devices such as flexible display have millions of cavities, the analysis of forming process considering all the cavities is impossible
due to the high computational costs and memory limit. Therefore, the optimum analysis conditions that guarantee the analysis results and
computational efficiency are found. Also, the analysis is carried out for indentation process instead of the roll-to-roll forming process for the
computational effectiveness and the reliability is verified. The macro scale experiments are carried out to validate the analysis results. Then,
the pattern shapes are designed in viewpoint of formability. The effect of punch shapes such as pitch and draft angle on crack initiation are
investigated. Crack initiation is evaluated by Cockcroft-Latham damage values. The effect of temperature on formability is also investigated.
From the analysis for various punch shape at various temperature, the successful forming conditions are found.
Keywords: Roll-to-roll forming, Micro pattern forming, Damage
Introduction
With the increasing demands on the small sized electric
products, a lot of studies have been carried out for forming
of micro-scale or sub-micron scale feature on parts. For
the forming of micro-sized parts, micro extrusion [1],
micro embossing [2,3] and micro punching [4] processes
have been studied. In these studies, the shape and size
effects on formability are mainly investigated together
with the effect of grain size. In addition to these microscale parts, the forming of macro-scale parts having microsized features also has become one of the major research
topics. The forming processes of micro channels for fuel
cell [5], a micro-reactor component containing miniature
pins [6] and barrier ribs in PDP (Plasma Display Panel) [7]
are the examples.
A thin metal sheet is considered to be used for flexible
display substrate [8] in these days. In display panel, barrier
ribs, spacers and periodic patterns are needed to be formed.
In this study, the pattern forming on thin metal sheet using
roll-to-roll process is investigated. A metal roll forming
process that is similar to the roll-to-roll forming process is
simple and can be effectively used for mass production
with its high productivity [9]. In a roll forming process, a
sheet strip is passed through the rolls and desired shape of
the product is formed incrementally by a pair of rotating
rolls. In most of the conventional roll forming processes,
sheet products having constant cross-section are formed
and the major forming mechanism is bending [10].
The roll-to-roll forming process is a little bit different
from the conventional roll forming process. By the roll-toroll forming process, array features such as embossing,
groove, or cavities are formed. The roll-to-roll process was
frequently used in printing process in display industry [11].
In this study, the roll-to-roll forming process is introduced
for the forming of micro cavity arrays on a thin micro
metal sheet metal. Arrays of micro pattern are formed by
two rotating rolls. Positive protrusions are shaped in one
roll, and the other roll is cylindrical. Therefore, one side of

the sheet product is flat and micro arrays of cavity are
formed on the other side. With this reason, the forming of
micro cavities on a metal sheet by the roll-to-roll forming
is different from the conventional roll forming of constant
cross-section. Therefore, while the main forming mechanism is bending in conventional roll forming, the forming
of micro cavities by roll-to-roll process is similar to indentation. The shape of cavity and the distance between cavities are major design variables. When the distance between
cavities is too small, cracks may take place on the corner
of the cavity or on the wall. When the cavity wall is too
steep, cracks or under-fill defects can be caused.
Because a display panel has millions of cavities that
should be formed, it is impossible to analyze the forming
process considering all the cavities by finite element
analysis. The authors investigated into the effective computation methods of the pattern forming and decided the
minimum numbers of rows and elements that guarantees
the analysis reliability [12]. In the case of that all the cavities have the same shapes and are periodically arranged, it
was shown that the analysis with only eight rows gives
reliable results that can be used in the process design.
Experiments are also carried out to verify of the analysis.
And then, the cavity shapes are designed in viewpoint of
crack (damage) defects. For the computational effectiveness, all of the analyses are carried out for indentation
process instead of the roll-to-roll forming process. It is
reasonable because the roller radius is much greater than
the cavity size. Finally, the temperature effect on the formability is investigated.
Model Description and Simplification
Analysis Model. Analyses are carried out by well
known commercial software Deform-3D. Figure 1(a)
shows the schematic illustration of the roll-to-toll forming
of cavities. Aluminium (Al6111-T4) sheet of 0.2 mm
thickness is used in the forming. Johnson-Cook [13] plas39
09.08.2010 14:18:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Indentation
0 .0 5
0 .0 5
0 .1 5
X coordinate [mm]
75.05
Roll-to-roll
0 .1 5
D= 150
Unit : m m
Figure 3. Comparison of effective strain distributions obtained in

the analysis of the roll-to-roll forming and the indentation.
2
D= 150
D
strain distributions along the path AB shown in Figure 2. It

is shown that the strain distribution obtained from the
indentation analysis is almost same with that from roll-toroll forming analysis. Therefore, it is considered that the
indentation analysis can be used in the design of the rollto-roll forming process.
Effective strain
tic constitutive model is used to describe the temperature

dependent hardening and the model coefficients for the
sheet are listed in Table 1. The diameter of the upper and
lower rolls is 150 mm. The upper roll has protrusions of
0.05 mm height. The shape of the protrusion and arrangement are shown in Figure 1 in detail. These positive protrusions in upper roll make negative cavities on upper side
of the sheet. In contrast to the upper roll, the lower roll
does not have any protrusions, and therefore, the lower
side of the deformed sheet is nearly flat. Figure 1(b) and
(c) show the whole shape of the upper roll and detailed
shape of a protrusion, respectively. Because the protrusion
is very small compared to the roll, it is very difficult to
figure out the protrusions in Figure 1(b).
Analysis Verification
L
P
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 1. Configuration of (a) the roll-to-roll process for cavity
forming, (b) the upper roll and (c) a protrusion.
Table 1. Johnson-Cook coefficients for Al6111-T4 [14].
A
B
C
n
m
Melting Temperature
150 MPa
412 MPa
0.10
0.66
2.16
662 C
Simplification. In the roll-to-roll forming of cavities,

two defects are forecasted. The one is the crack initiation,
and the other is the warpage. The warpage is the global
problem and can be analyzed by global analysis with a lot
of elements. Therefore, it is difficult to analyze. On the
hand, crack initiation is the local problem and can be analyzed comparatively easily. In this study, the roll-to-roll
process is designed from the view point of the crack and
the study on the warpage is leaved for future work.
The crack initiation is a local problem but not a global
problem. And, because the diameter of the roller is far
greater than the protrusion size, the analysis is carried out
for the indentation process instead of the roll-to-roll forming process for the computational effectiveness. Figure 2
shows the analysis results for the roll-to-roll forming process and the indentation process for 4 rows of cavity.
Experiment and Verification. Experiments are carried

out to verify the analysis results. For the convenience in
experiments and measurement, the forming is carried out
in macro-scale with Al sheet of 2 mm thickness. Figure 4
shows the punch shape and the formed sheet. Figure 5
shows the sectional view along the section S-S shown in
Figure 4(a) at the punch displacement of 0.64 mm. It is
shown that the analyzed shape predict the experiment very
well. The under-fill defects shown in Figure 5(b) and (c)
are also predicted well. Therefore, the analysis results are
considered reliable.
S
(a) Punch shape

(b) Formed sheet
Figure 4. Tool and formed sheet for verification experiments
(D=1.0, L=1.5, P=2.0mm, 2=30o).
A
ni t
(a) Deformed shape
A
B
(a)
(b)
Figure 2. Analyzed shape during (a) the roll-to-roll forming process and (b) the indentation process.
(b) Region A
(c) Region B
Figure 5. (a) Comparison of the deformed shape and the filling
status for the region (b) A and (c) B (Pitch=4 mm, Cavity Length=3
mm, Draft angle=30o).
In order to verify the equality of the indentation process

with the roll-to-roll forming process, the analysis results
are compared in Figure 3. Figure 3 shows the effective
40
09.08.2010 14:18:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analysis Results
Punch Stroke Decision. The analyses are carried out for
the indentation process in micro-scale. For the computational effectiveness, only 8 cavities are analyzed as shown
in Figure 6. The maximum punch strokes are decided
from the load-displacement curve for various punch
shapes and are given in Table 2 [12]. The analyses are
carried out up to the maximum punch stroke shown in
Table 2.
Figure 6. Analysis domain for the indentation process.

Table 2. Forming stroke for various punch shapes.
Punch Shape
Maximum
Draft angle
Punch Stroke
10o
33 m
Length = 150 m
20o
35 m
Pitch = 200 m
30o
37 m
45o
41 m
10o
40 m
20o
42 m
30o
44 m
Length , Pitch
Length = 100 m
Pitch = 150 m
In Eq. (2), ND is the normalized damage value and C is

the CL value obtained by the analysis of tensile test. If the
ND value is greater than 1.0, we can consider a crack takes
place. In order to obtain the value of C, analysis is carried
out for uniaxial tensile test. The analysis is carried out up
to fracture displacement and the CL value at that point is
considered as the critical damage value of C. The fracture
displacements at various temperatures are obtained from
the work of Li [14] and the calculated critical damage
values at various temperatures are shown in Figure 7.
Analysis Results for Various Punch Shape. Figure 8
shows the predicted strain distributions for various draft
angles along the path A-B shown in Figure 6. By intuition, we guessed that the maximum peak stress increases
as the draft angle decreases. However, we could not figure out big difference between the results for various
draft angles in Figure 8 and 9. Figure 9 shows the average value of peak effective strain. When the pitch is 150
m, we can see that more severe deformation takes place
than in the case of 200 m of pitch.
Definition of Damage. In order to predict the initiation

of crack, Cockcroft-Latham (CL) damage value is introduced. The Cockcroft-Latham damage is defined as follows:
f
CL= 1d
(1)
ND= 1d / C
(2)
2.0
1.5
1.0
Pitch=150
0.5
Pitch=200
0.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
o ]
0.60
Figure 9. Peak effective strain for various punch shapes.
0.55

2.5
In Eq. (1), 1 is the principal stress and f is the strain at

fracture. The CL value defined in Eq. (1) does not directly
indicate the initiation of crack. In order to check if crack
takes place or not, the CL value is normalized by the CL
value obtained in tensile test as follows:
0.50
0.45
0.40
0.35
0.30
0.25
0.20
0
100
200
300
400
o ]
Figure 7. Critical damage value (CL) at various temperatures.
Figure 8. Effective strain distribution along section A-B (see Figure

6) for various draft angles (pitch=150 m).
Figure 10 shows the normalized Cockcroft-Latham

damage value (ND in Equation (2)) distributions at room
temperature for only one cavity. High ND value is predicted near the steep wall region. The detailed ND value
distributions along the section C-D are shown in Figure 11.
In contrast to effective strain shown in Figure 9, the normalized damage values show big difference for various
punch shape. The normalized damage value increases as
the draft angle decreases. This is because the wall becomes
steeper as the draft angle decreases. For both the case of
150 m and 200 m of pitch, crack initiation is predicted
when the draft angles are 10o and 20o. Therefore, it is
41
09.08.2010 14:18:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
recommended that the draft angle should be greater than or
equal to 30o.
Figure 12 shows the maximum normalized damage values
at various temperatures for the draft angle of 10o. Because
the critical damage value, C, increases as temperature (see
Figure 7), the normalized damage value decreases as temperature. For the case of 10o of draft angle and 200 m of
pitch, it is predicted that crack does not take place at temperature over 400 oC. For the case of 10o of draft angle and
150 m of pitch, crack does not take place at temperature
over 100 oC.
D
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
Normalized damage
(a) Draft angle 10 (b) Draft angle 20 (c) Draft angle 30

Figure 10. Normalized ND value distributions (Pitch=200 m).
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Draft = 10
Critical value = 1
20
45
30
0.05
0.10
Distance [mm]
0.15
Normalized damage
Normalized damage
This research was financially supported by the Ministry

of Knowledge Economy (MKE) through the Strategic
Technology Development Project, and also was financially
supported by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE)
and Korea Industrial Technology Foundation (KOTEF)
through the Human Resource Training Project for Strategic Technology.
References
0.05
0.10
Distance [mm]
0.15
(b) Pitch = 150 m

Figure 11. Normalized damage value distributions along the section C-D.
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Finite element analyses are carried out for the design of

roll-to-roll forming of micro cavities. For the computational effectiveness, the analysis is carried out for the
indentation process instead of the roll-to-roll forming
process. The equality of the indentation and the roll-to-roll
forming are proved by analyses. The analysis results are
also verified by experiments. The effects of punch shape
such as pitch and draft angle on the maximum strain and
damage are investigated, and following conclusions are
obtained:
1. The draft angle of the protrusion has no effect on the
maximum effective strain.
2. However, the maximum Cockcroft-Latham damage
values increases a lot as the draft angle decreases. For
both the cases of 150 m and 200 m of pitch, crack
initiation is predicted when the draft angle is 10o or 20o.
3. As the forming temperature increases, the damage value
decreases with good ductility at higher temperature.
For the case of 10o of draft angle and 200 m of pitch,
it is predicted that crack does not take place at temperature over 400 oC. For the case of 10o of draft angle
and 150 m of pitch, crack does not take place at temperature over 100 oC.
Acknowledgments
(a) Pitch = 200 m
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Conclusions
Pitch = 200 m
Pitch = 150 m
100
200
300
400
500
Forming temperature [oC]

Figure 12. Maximum Normalized damage values at various temperatures (Draft angle = 10o).
42
[1] J.Y. Kim, S.M. Joo, H.K. Kim: Trans. of Kor. Soc. Machine Tools
Eng., 17 (2008), 1-7.
[2] M. Geiger, M. Kleiner, R. Eckstein, N. Tiesler, U. Engel: Annals of
the CIRP, 50-2 (2001), 445-459.
[3] H. Ike, M. Plancak: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 8081 (1998), 101-107.
[4] B. Y. Joo, S. I. Oh, Annals of the CIRP, 50-1 (2001), 191-194.
[5] L. Peng, X. Lai, D. Liu, P. Hu, J. Ni: J. of Power Sources, 178 (2008),
223-230.
[6] G.Y. Kim, J. Ni, R. Mayor, H. Kim: J. of Manuf. Sic. Engrg. Trans.
ASME, 129 (2007), 246-251.
[7] J.J. Park, H.S. Hwang, Y.S. Kim, H.C. Jeon: Int. J. of KSME, 26
(2002), 2082-2088.
[8] I.S. Kim: Information Display, 9 (2008), 29-36.
[9] B.Y. Joo, S.W. Baek, S.I. Oh: Trans. Kor. Soc. Mech. Eng., 30 (2006),
157-163.
[10] K.H. Kim: J of Ocean Engrg. Technol., 13 (1999), 75-81.
[11] C.-Y. Lo, J. Hiitola-Keinanen, O.-H. Huttunen, J. Petaja, J. Hast, A.
Maaninen, H. Kopola, H. Fujita, H. Toshiyoshi: Microelectronic Eng.,
86 (2009), 979-983.
[12] S.-H. Cha, M.-S. Shin, J.-H. Kim, H.-J. Lee, J.-B. Kim: Elastomers
and Composites, 44-4 (2009), 384-390.
[14] G.R. Johnson, W.H. Cook: Proc. of the 7th Int. Symp. on ballastics,
Den Haag, Netherlands (1983), 541-547.
[14] D. Li, A. Ghosh: Mater. Sci. Eng., A 352 (2003), 279-286.
09.08.2010 14:18:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Tailor Rolled Products Innovative Lightweight Design Technology for Body Structures and Chassis Applications
Joerg Brecht1), Peter Finge2), Andreas Hauger3)
1)
Tailor Rolled Products - Division Body, Mubea KG, joerg.brecht@mubea.com;

Tailor Rolled Products - Division Body, Mubea KG
2)
Tailor Rolled Products, Mubea Japan Technical Center;
3)
After starting mass production of Tailor Rolled Blanks (TRB) in 2001 for automobile uses, a lot of car manufacturers are using this technology for structural parts today to reduce the component and vehicle weight. Many applications have been found, at first mainly for premium
vehicles, but the growing demand for weight reduction and lower CO2 emissions have also made applications in smaller vehicles possible.
Because tubes are also in common use for components of the vehicle, such as tubes for instrument panel beams and exhaust pipes,
Mubea has started to produce Tailor Rolled Tubes (TRT) from TRB in 2004 as an extension of the product line. Further development of this
tube manufacturing process and optimizations in the TRB and TRT production made it possible to produce more complex tube geometries
and different tube materials. In order to investigate the weight reduction potential and other advantages of such TRT in use as complex,
assembled instrument panel beams or as stainless steel exhaust pipes, two studies were performed and the results are being presented in
this paper. It was found that using a TRT for a complex, assembled instrument panel beam can lead to a weight reduction of more than
20 % while maintaining the stiffness properties of the steering column. Also for the TRT made of stainless steel as an exhaust pipe, a possible weight reduction of more than 25 % seems feasible without negative effect on the part performance.
Keywords: Tailor rolled blanks, Tailor rolled tubes, Tailored products, Flexible rolling, Instrument panel beam, Exhaust pipe, Exhaust system, Weight reduction, Cold rolling
Introduction
The strong need for further improvements of emission
and reduction of fuel consumption as well as for increased
passenger safety for cars requires new product concepts
for the automotive industry.
As an expansion of the Tailored Products for structural
parts in automotive use, Mubea has developed the process
of flexible rolling to provide new possibilities of weight
reduction while maintaining or even improving vehicle
safety at the same time. With this technology, the mass
production of Tailor Rolled Blanks (TRB) was started in
2001. During the first years, many applications of TRB for
structural parts were put into mass production, mainly for
premium vehicles. The growing demand for weight reduction and the optimizations in the TRB and TRT production
have also opened the market for medium size and small
cars recently.
In this study, the technology and its possibilities are explained and application studies for new possible applications are presented, focusing on the use of Tailor Rolled
Tubes (TRT).
Principle of Flexible Rolling
Flexible rolling is a new manufacturing technology, producing a semi-finished product for light weight structures
of automotive car body parts. The weight reduction is
based on the varying sheet material thickness of the products. The material thickness variation comes from load and
function requirements for the specific part and offers a
weight reduction potential of 20 % - 30 %.
Within a joint research project with the Institute of
Metal Forming (IBF) of the University of Aachen in Germany, Mubea developed this cost effective rolling process
for metal sheets and set it into large scale series production.
The manufacturing principle is based on a cold rolling

process with a continuously variable rolling gap. By
changing the size of the rolling gap continuously over
large distances, cold rolled material with thickness differences of up to 50 % can be produced.
Figure 1. Illustration of flexible rolling.
In order to have an economic production of Tailor

Rolled Blanks, the process had to be designed as a coil to
coil rolling process. At the point of producing cold rolled
strip material out of hot rolled strip material, which is
usually done by the conventional cold rolling process, the
flexible rolling will be applied. Thereby, no new processing step has been added to the process chain, but an existing one has been substituted.
43
09.08.2010 14:18:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
The process is designed to generate sheet material with
smooth thickness transitions that, in an ideal case, are
exactly adapted to the load case of the finished part.
Generally, the process can be applied to all rollable metallic materials and hereby offers a great variety of applications.
Properties of Tailor Rolled Blanks (TRB)
Flexibly rolled blanks are an expansion of the Tailored
Products for automotive use. Material thicknesses are
varying in the rolling direction and can therefore be chosen freely in the produced blank. The ideal application for
TRB can be found, where body or chassis parts have different loads applied over their length.
When using flexible rolling, the number of thickness
changes is not limited and also does not affect the production costs. Because of this, the development target for
every application is to reduce the part weight as much as
possible, using as many thickness changes as necessary,
thus creating the maximum possible benefit at constant
manufacturing costs.
By continuously changing the size of the rolling gap
during the rolling process, thickness runs with different
slopes can be generated. Possible slopes start from 1:3000,
meaning 1 mm thickness change on 3000 mm length, and
can go up to 1:100, meaning 1 mm thickness change on
only 100 mm length. The process provides very tight
thickness tolerances, so that easy further processing of the
TRB is guaranteed.
1,8
can be modelled very precisely in the FE-simulation.

Within the capabilities of the flexible rolling process, the
thickness run has to be adapted as good as possible to the
load case of the finished part. If the possibilities of flexible
rolling are considered during the design and the dimensioning of body or chassis parts, the substitution of additional reinforcements is possible, if its function can be
integrated into the thickness run of the main part. In case
of members or panels, additional reinforcements can be
avoided by an appropriate design of the thickness run.
This integration of parts does not only give additional
possibilities for weight reduction, but also generates cost
advantages, because manufacturing steps and the involved
tools can be saved.
Especially in the field of car body parts, TRB offers
many advantages, such as weight reduction, integration of
parts and improvement of crash performance. Therefore,
many applications have been found in this area and put
into mass production.
Applications of TRB
TRB for Pressed Parts. A front connecting member, extending a side member in the underbody towards the front
end of the vehicle is an example of a TRB application,
resulting in a weight reduction of more than 20 %, compared to conventional design. At the same time, also the
crash performance is improved, since the TRB thickness
run is designed in a way that results in a certain deformation behaviour and energy absorption in case of a front
crash.
Thickness in mm
1,4
1,2
1,0
0,8
2,00
1,50
1,00
0,50
0
0,6
200
400
600
800
Blank Length in mm
Figure 3. TRB connecting member.
nominal value
0,4
gewalzte
Bandkontur
nominal
value
actual
value
Sollprofil
actual
value
0,2
0,0
0
200
400
600
Meweg
in mm
mm
Length in
800
1000
Figure 2. Possible thickness runs with flexible rolling.
This characterizes the main advantages of the TRB. The

thickness transitions are very smooth and the transition
length will be adapted to the length of the part. Hereby, no
abrupt changes of thicknesses are existing and no notch
effect is generated, causing a very harmonic stress distribution in the thickness transition area when a load is applied to the part. The material properties throughout the
TRB are homogenous, also in the thickness transition
areas, making it easy to form and being advantageous for
the finished part. The position of thickness transitions in
TRB have no limitations in regards to high tension loads
during the forming process or tension load being applied
to the finished part and can therefore be positioned optimal,
creating additional weight reduction and the possibility of
improving crash performance.
The smooth thickness transitions with homogenous material properties of TRB also have a positive effect on the
simulation results when designing the vehicle, since they
44
Another example for a TRB application is a center pillar.

Since the requirements in the lower, middle and upper
parts of a center pillar are different, this is always an interesting application for TRB. In this case, a weight reduction
of 24 % has been achieved and also, an extra reinforcement patch has been integrated into the TRB design. At the
same time the crash performance of the car in case of a
side impact is improved.
Thickness in mm
Thickness
Banddickein
inmm
mm
1,6
2,10
1,90
1,70
1,50
1,30
1,10
0,90
0,70
0,50
0
200
400
600
800
1000
Blank Length in mm
Figure 4. TRB center pillar.
TRT for Tube Applications. In order to extend the

range of possible applications, Mubea has set the first
discontinuous tube production line for TRT into mass
production in 2004. In this production line, a TRB is being
formed into a tube, using a stamping tool, and then being
welded with a specially adapted laser welding machine.
09.08.2010 14:18:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
The result of the stiffness simulation with the new design is shown in Figure 7.
Thickness Run
conventional tube driver side
2.5
thickness /mm
By this, a tube is produced, which has different material

thicknesses in longitudinal direction, offering high potential of weight reduction, if the thickness is adapted optimal
to the requirements. Since the process of flexible rolling
does not create any scrap when changing the material
thickness and the tube is also being formed without generating scrap, this principle is very efficient, because all of
the used raw material is utilized.
Figure 5 shows the first TRT that went into large scale
mass production in 2004, an instrument panel beam made
out of a TRT, resulting in a weight reduction of 30 %.
conventional tube passenger side
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
length /mm
Thickness in mm
2,00
Position of steering wheel with 0.89 mm

displacement
1,50
1,00
0,50
0,00
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Tube Length in mm
Figure 5. TRT instrument panel beam.
This TRT application is relatively simple, since the outer

tube diameter is constant over the tube length and it is
made out of a standard steel material. Other applications
may be possible, if more complex geometries are produced
or if the material can be changed. In the following, studies
for such more complex tubes are being presented.
Figure 6. Elastic displacement of steering wheel with conventional

tubes.
TRT driver side

TRT passenger side
2.50
thickness /mm
Instrument Panel Beam. Instead of using a tube with a

constant outer diameter as an instrument panel beam,
many car manufacturers are using an assembly of two
tubes with different diameters in order to get maximum
stiffness on the driver side with a big diameter and save
designed space on the passenger side with a smaller diameter.
For such a design, Mubea has performed a study, showing the light weight potential, if TRTs are used instead of
conventional tubes. In this example, an assembled tube
with 70 mm diameter on the driver side and 50 mm on the
passenger side is used.
At first, with the assembly conditions in the vehicle, the
elastic displacement of the steering wheel was simulated
with a static, vertical load applied to it in case of conventional tubes (Figure 6). The tube material thickness over
the length of the complete beam is shown in the diagram.
In this simulation, the elastic displacement is 0.89 mm.
In the next step, the weight of the tubes was reduced by
using variable material thicknesses such as provided by
TRTs. The target was to reduce the weight as much as
possible while maintaining the same stiffness performance
as with the conventional tube design in the given boundary
conditions. Sensitive areas of the assembly are being reinforced with higher material thickness, while other areas
can be weakened without decreasing the stiffness. On the
passenger side, both tube ends have a material thickness of
1.2 mm in order to maintain weldability in the manufacturing process.
Thickness Run
3.00
New Applications of TRT
conventional tube driver side

conventional tube passenger side
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00
0
250
500
750
length /mm
1000
1250
Position of steering wheel with 0.89 mm

displacement
Figure 7. Elastic displacement of steering wheel with TRT.
With the selected thickness run, the elastic displacement

of 0.89 mm is the same as with the conventional design. At
the same time, the weight of the tube assembly has been
reduced by 21 %.
This result shows that the utilisation of TRTs in case of
an assembled instrument panel beam can also lead to a
significant weight reduction without negative effects on
the stiffness properties of the part. Also, the requirements
of the manufacturing process are still met, because the
thickness run was adapted in an appropriate way.
45
09.08.2010 14:18:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Exhaust Pipes. Since the process of flexible rolling is
applicable to all kinds of rollable metallic materials, also
applications of stainless steel TRTs are possible, for example as exhaust pipes.
The exhaust system in the vehicle has to fulfil many different requirements such as durability, good NVH performance, processability in production and all this with the
minimum possible weight. A reduction of material thickness in all areas of the tube is not possible, since weldability and bendability under mass production conditions and
also fatigue life will not meet the requirements. However,
straight sections, where no welding operation is performed,
may not need the full material strength. Also in bended
areas, where the bending radii are big, less material thickness may be sufficient. The achieved weight reduction can
lead to reduced vibration due to less mass involved and
therefore higher fatigue life. Also the mode of vibration
can be tuned in a positive way by specifically reinforcing
or weakening certain areas of the tube.
The following illustrations show the approach of a performed study to investigate the possible weight reduction
when using stainless steel TRT for an exhaust system.
welding
operations
bending
operations
combination of both
requirements
Figure 8. Combination of different requirements for TRT exhaust
pipe design.
When using conventional tubes, the minimum material

thickness is defined by the minimum thickness required in
welding areas and sections with small bending radii. In
case of TRT, this thickness is maintained in these sections
to ensure a safe manufacturing process. In sections with
big bending radii, the thickness can be gradually reduced
and in the straight sections minimal thickness can be used
to maximize the weight reduction.
A huge variety of geometries in every car, depending on
the given packaging for different derivates of engine and
chassis makes it difficult to give a certain amount of
weight reduction as a result of this study. At the same time,
by using the flexibility of the rolling process, many derivates of tubes with the same outer diameter can be manufactured by simply changing the thickness run during the
rolling process. By this, a very efficient way of producing
derivates can be generated, always resulting in the maximum possible weight reduction for each application.
The study has shown that, depending on the design and
the length of the exhaust system, the usage of TRT can
lead to a weight reduction of more than 25 % in the tubes.
46
In case of a medium size car, this can be more than 1.5 kg

in total.
With stainless steel being a very expensive material, the
full utilisation of it in the manufacturing process and the
saving of a significant amount in every tube make this
application also very interesting in regards to costs.
Conclusions
Talior Rolled Blanks and Tailor Rolled Tubes have already established themselves as a valuable technology for
the automotive industry to fulfil the demand for lower
vehicle weights. Many applications in mass production
vehicles can prove this. Especially for the TRT, more possible applications can be seen when looking into more
complex tube assemblies or tubes out of stainless steel.
The performed investigations show that with the TRT
technology, significant weight reduction can be achieved
in case of the assembled instrument panel beam and the
exhaust pipe. In both cases, the performance of the parts
can be maintained with the TRT design, so that there is
significant weight reduction without a negative influence
on the performance of the parts. At the same time, limitations and requirements from the manufacturing process
were taken into account when designing the tubes, so
processability in mass production is still guaranteed. Since
the TRT production has a full utilisation of the raw material without generating any scrap when changing the material thickness or forming the tube, it is also a manufacturing process that uses the natural resources in a very efficient way.
In order to reduce CO2 emissions, the TRB technology is
already contributing to weight reduction in vehicles and
with the extension of the product line to TRT, even more
weight reduction will be possible.
References
[1] R. Kopp, P. Bhlke: Entwicklung der flexiblen Walztechnologie und
anschlieender Weiterverarbeitungsprozesse bis zur Serienreife,
Abschlussbericht
des
BMBF-Vorhabens
Nr.
02PV16035,
Rahmenprogramm Produktion 2000, (2001).
[2] A. Hauger: Proc. 2nd European Practice Conference, Automotive
Circle International, (2002).
[3] M. Gie: Tailor Rolled Blanks, Eine innovative Technik, 21.
Fachtagung Prozesskette Karosserie, Internationaler RohbauExperten-kreis (2004).
[4] Pressespiegel DaimlerChrysler, The new Mercedes-Benz E-Class,
Everything about the bodywork, (2002).
[5] S. Chatti et al.: Forming and further processing of Tailor Rolled
Blanks for lightweight structures, (2002)
[6] A. Shirayori, S. Fujisawa, M. Narazaki: Experimental Investigation
into a Tube Forming Method for Providing Tubes with Thickness
Distribution in Axial Direction, (1999)
09.08.2010 14:18:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of Intelligent Mill and Realization of Oita Plate Leveler

Shigeru Ogawa1), Kenji Yamada1), Toshiyuki Shiraishi1), Takayuki Otsuka1), Yutaka Sadano1), Hisataka Uto1),
Kazuto Yamamura1), Yoshiaki Shia1), Kenji Sorao1), Takeo Hoshino1), Kunihiko Wakatsuki1), Kouichiro Takeshita2),
Keishiro Ikeda2), Kanji Hayashi3), Akira Sako3), Yutaka Matsuda3), Yuji Ikemoto3), Hideaki Furumoto3)
1)
Technical Development Bureau, Nippon Steel Corporation, Futtsu / Japan, ogawa.shigeru@nsc.co.jp;

tion, Oita / Japan; 3) Mitsubishi-Hitachi Metals Machinery, Inc., Hiroshima / Japan
2)
Oita Works, Nippon Steel Corpora-
A new concept rolling mill for flat products, NSC Intelligent Mill (NIM) has been developed. The NIM concept is that it can estimate and
control roll force distribution across the width acting between the work roll and rolled material during rolling. The roll force distribution reflects longitudinal stress distribution in the rolled material, which has direct relationship with flatness of the rolled material. Hence NIM
enables real-time flatness detection and control, and therefore NIM can get rid of limitations of conventional flatness control technology:
delay of control response mainly due to transporting time from rolling mill to flatness sensor, non-control portion of head end of the rolled
material, and limitations of flatness control accuracy due to accuracy of flatness sensor. Oita Plate Leveler (OPL) has been realized based
on NIMs concept. OPL improves flatness of plates immediately after cooling bed before shear-cut processes with extremely small reduction in thickness, 0.2%. OPL has established an in-line leveling process of steel plates, which renders improvement in quality of products
and productivity.
Keywords: Flatness control, Roll force distribution, Intelligent mill, Plate leveler, In-line leveling process, Divided backup rolls
Introduction
The crown and flatness control technology for rolling of
flat products of steel has been made significant progress
through development of powerful actuators such as pair
cross mill, HC mill and high capacity work roll bender. In
particular, for hot strip rolling, combination of powerful
crown control actuators and sophisticated crown set-up
models have brought us complete technology of flexible
crown control.
On the other hand, flatness control technology is not satisfactory level in a sense that, even with above-mentioned
technologies, flatness actuator of a rolling mill needs frequent adjustment according to current flatness measured
by flatness sensor located behind the rolling mill to get
satisfactory flatness. This is mainly because control allowance of roll gap profile required for flatness control is
extremely tight compared with the one for crown control
[1]. With this type of flatness control system, transporting
time of rolled material from rolling mill to flatness sensor
is regarded as dead time for the control system. Due to
this dead time, it inevitably becomes rather slow control
system, then product yield aggravation may occur, or additional leveling process may be needed due to flatness defect remained in the rolled material after rolling.
With this background, in this work, to get rid of limitations of the conventional flatness control technology, completely new concept of rolling mill is proposed. The rolling mill has capability of detecting and controlling flatness
by itself; the rolling mill is named NSC Intelligent Mill
(NIM).
Concept and Structure of NIM
Concept of NIM. Flatness defect arises due to uneven
distribution of longitudinal strain across the width of rolled
material, and flatness is precisely described by longitudinal
strain distribution. Longitudinal strain distribution corresponds quantitatively with roll force distribution through
feedback effect of longitudinal stress distribution [2].
Hence, to realize real-time flatness control technology,

NIM is required to have capability of real-time measurement and control of roll force distribution acting between
work roll and rolled material.
Structure of NIM. Though there is no way of measuring directly roll force distribution acting between work roll
and rolled material, force distribution acting between work
roll and backup roll can be measured by adopting divided
backup rolls structure, where each backup roll has force
measuring load cells. From the measured divided backup
roll force distribution, NIM instantly estimates roll force
distribution between work roll and rolled material, and
then controls it according to target roll force distribution.
Divided backup rolls are adopted for top roll assembly,
and each divided backup roll has load cells and individual
positioning system called As-U mechanism as shown in
Figure 1. To avoid mutual interference of the backup rolls,
and to support work roll densely in the axial direction, the
divided backup rolls are positioned on the entry side and
on the delivery side of NIM alternately.
(a) Plan view

Position control system
Load cell
A
Divided BUR
Top WR
Bottom WR
Bottom BUR
(b) Front view (A-A)
(c) Side
Figure 1. Typical structure of NIM.
Algorithm for NIM Real-Time Flatness Control and

Formulation for Estimating Roll Force Distribution
47
09.08.2010 14:18:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
Algorithm for NIM real-time flatness control is shown
qi
in Figure 2. Based on measured backup roll forces
and
As-U positions
set
by
individual
backup
roll
positioning
ui
system, absolute positions of divided backup rolls
in
u iB
the direction of common normal to work roll and backup
roll are calculated according to the following equations.
uiB K ijB (q j q 0j ) (ui U i0 )
(1)
where K ijBis a matrix describing mill deformation characteristics, which is measured by kiss-roll tightening test prior to
rolling operation. q i0 and U i0 are divided backup roll forces
and absolute backup roll positions respectively at zero
adjustment timing of As-U positions. In this paper, usual
summation convention is adopted for repeated indices.
Work roll deflection u iWin the direction of common normal to work roll and backup roll is given by composing
horizontal deflection x iWT and vertical deflection y iWT.
(2)
uiW T(ix) xiWT T( iy) yiWT
xiWT K ijWT T( xj ) q j c x zi d x
y
WT
i
WT
ij
y
( j)
( p j T q j ) c zi d
(3)
y
(4)
T cos i T sin i ,
(5)
where K ijWT is the deformation matrix of top work roll, pi is
roll force distribution, and i is angle formed by rolling
direction and common normal to work roll and backup roll.
Compatibility equations between top work roll and divided backup rolls are given by the following equations.
K ijfT q j uiW uiB CiWT
(6)
where K ijfT is a roll indentation matrix,
expresses
CiWT
work roll profile.
Substituting Eqs. (1)-(5) into Eq. (6), the relationship
between pi and qi can be formulated. And then utilizing
measured value of qi , considering constraint conditions
i.e. equilibrium equations for vertical force and moment of
top work roll,
x
(i )
y
(i )
where
and
are the vertical work roll bending forces
of work-side and drive-side respectively, then current roll
force distribution pi as well as current work roll deflection
is obtained. This concludes real-time estimation of roll
force distribution.
After obtaining current roll force distribution, introducing target roll force distribution, target backup roll force
distribution is calculated to attain target work roll deflection, which is calculated from current work roll deflection
considering change in roll force distribution. Then utilizing compatibility Eq. (6), target absolute backup roll positions are calculated. Finally target As-U positions are calculated from equation (1) considering mill deformation
characteristics. Control is done according to the target AsU positions considering adequate scale factor.
NIM Prototype Mill and Its Performance
Specifications of NIM Prototype Mill. Figure 3 shows
schematic layout, and Table 1 shows roll dimensions of
the NIM prototype mill, which was temporarily remodeled
from the conventional 2 high mill in a commercial line.
Four of seven divided backup rolls are on entry side, and
three of them are on delivery side. On each side, backup
rolls are positioned at 480mm pitch in the roll axial direction, and hence, combining both sides, work roll is supported by divided backup rolls at 240mm in pitch. Each
divided backup roll is supported by linear bearing whose
sliding movement is in the direction of common normal to
work roll and backup roll. Each divided backup roll is
equipped with two load cells, and its eccentric axis can be
rotated by hydraulic position control system to set the
backup roll to desired position.
Hyd. cylinder
Load cells
Detect AsAs -U positions & BUR forces
Calculate BUR deformation
BURs
M ill deformation
characteristics
Calculate absolute BUR positions
WR
Pinch rolls
Calculate top WR deflection

Calculate roll force distribution
Calculate target BUR forces
Target roll force

distribution
Calculate target BUR

deformation
M ill deformation
characteristics
Figure 3. Schematic layout of NIM prototype mill.
Calculate target AsAs -U positions
Table 1. Roll dimensions of NIM prototype mill.

Top roll assembly
Bottom roll assembly
WR
BUR(7)
WR
BUR
Diameter (mm)
200
300
200
650
Barrel length (mm)
1960
230
1960
2180
Chock Span (mm)
2835
2835
2835
Execute AsAs -U position control
Figure 2. Algorithm for real-time flatness control.
I i ( p i T( iy) q i ) F W F D 0
(7)
zi ( pi T(iy) qi ) a ( F W F D ) / 2 0
(8)
FW
48
FD
Performance of NIM Prototype Mill. The real-time

flatness control system has been installed in the NIM
09.08.2010 14:18:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
prototype mill. The control scheme has worked out
successfuly for rolling of steel plate (SS400) of 2.3-16.5
mm in thickness and 1060-1650 mm in width.
Figure 4 shows flatness of rolled plate of 8.9 mm thickness and 1635 mm width. It has been found that rolling
with NIM can improve flatness of rolled plate drastically
with extremely small reduction in thickness, 0.2%.
Steepness (%)
before
rolling
after
rolling
C
4
15
Flatness Gauge
Dividing Shear
150
Cooling Bed
( 6567m )
OPL
2
2204
BUR number
5.5m Rolling Line

Figure 6. Installation site of OPL.
Figure 4. Flatness of rolled plate (t8.9mmw1635mm).
For this rolled plate, residual stress distribution has been

investigated by pasting strain gauge onto the rolled plate at
every backup roll position and longitudinaly cuting the
plate apart into seven strips corresponding to divided backup
roll positions. The result is shown in Figure 5. It is also
found that residual stress is practically negligible in the
rolled plate.
20
20
Residual stress (MPa)
Plan-view Gauge,
Thermo-tracer
E
E
Installation site of OPL is shown in Figure 6. OPL is

located immediately after cooling bed, and it improves
flatness of mother plate with extremely small reduction in
thickness, around 0.2%.
Residual stress
0
0
000
BUR number
0
0
20
20
0
Figure 5. Residual stress of rolled plate (t8.9mmw1635mm).
Realization of Oita Plate Leveler (OPL)

Concept of OPL. Main production line of steel plate is
composed of reheating, rolling, cooling, and shear-cut
processes. When flatness defect is remained in cut sheet
product, it has to be leveled by off-line roller leveling
process. In this case, there may be problems of flatness
defect remained on head-end and tail-end of the cut sheet
after leveling process, delay of delivery due to additional
leveling process, and surface scratch on the sheet induced
through traveling awkwardly on roller table with poor
flatness.
To solve these problems, in-line leveling of mother plate
before shear-cut process is desirable. Since this in-line
leveling process needs high productivity to match finish
rolling, conventional roller leveling process was not
promising candidate. Hence NIM technology has been
adopted in Oita Plate Mill as in-line leveling process to
establish Oita Plate Leveler (OPL).
Specifications of OPL. Rolling conditions required for

OPL is shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Rolling conditions required for OPL.
Plate Size
Thickness
Width
Length
Plate temperature
Reduction in thickness
Rolling speed
10-65 mm
1400-5500 mm
6-63.5 m
R.T.-250 C
0.2 %
10-120 m/min
The work roll diameter, 330 mm, was determined

through elaborate work from the following viewpoints.
1. OPL should have enough sensitivity of backup roll
load cells for detecting roll force distribution.
2. Work roll should have enough capacity of rolling
torque.
3. Plastic strain should be induced even at the center
of thickness when steel plate of 65mm thickness is
rolled with reduction in thickness, 0.2%.
The number of divided backup rolls, 19, and arrangement
of backup rolls at 295 mm pitch (backup roll barrel length:
320 mm) are determined by taking account of the following requirements.
1. Five divided backup rolls or more should exist in
the width range of rolled plate even when minimum
width (1400 mm) plate is rolled. This requirement
is to keep sufficient freedom of flatness control by
divided backup rolls.
2. With practical range of backup roll force distribution, work roll can be deformed to fit various thickness profile across width of plates actually rolled by
finishing mill. This requirement is to keep sufficient
flexibility of roll gap control pattern.
3. Smaller number of divided backup rolls is preferable in view of cost of equipment.
Structure of Top Roll Assembly of OPL. For maintenance
purpose, top roll assembly is composed of a carriage relatively light in weight containing divided backup rolls with
load cells, and a massive frame supporting the carriage
containing hydraulic positioning systems of divided backup
rolls. Frame and carriage configuration has been determined
through meticulous investigation to reduce hysteresis behaviour in view of roll force and carriage deflection.
49
09.08.2010 14:18:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Structure of Bottom Roll Assembly of OPL. Divided
backup roll system is also adopted for bottom roll assembly to control horizontal and vertical deflection of bottom
work roll. As is for top roll assembly, bottom backup rolls are
positioned on the entry side and on the delivery side alternately to reduce horizontal deflection of bottom work roll.
Moreover crown adjustment function is incorporated to bottom divided backup rolls to control vertical deflection of
bottom work roll. Figure 7 shows schematic view of OPL
structure.
Main Cylinder
BUR Cylinder
Without OPL
Grade K36A
As-roll size 26/23.5464027100
Gauge1 (26mm)
Gauge2 (23.5mm)
Turn-up
Dome/Dish
5.1m
10.2m
15.3m
20.4m
25.5m
Wave
Buckling
With OPL
Grade K36A
As-roll size 26/23.5373026180
Gauge1 (26mm)
Gauge2 (23.5mm)
Frame
Carriage
Load Cell
4.8m
Work Roll
9.6m
14.4m 19.2m
24.0m
Figure 8. An example of leveling of LP plate with OPL.
Backup Roll
Housing
Plate Temp.
Figure 7. Schematic view of OPL structure.
Performance of OPL. OPL system operates fully automatically; it extracts a plate from cooling bed, measures
temperature distribution and plan view configuration of the
plate, and then rolls the plate to improve flatness with single
pass rolling. During rolling, control algorithm shown in
Figure 2 is consecutively activated every 30 ms.
Features of OPL are as follows: 1) powerful capacity for
flatness improvement with high productivity, 2) applicable for
wide range of thickness (10-65 mm) of plate, 3) excellent
surface quality of rolled plate with no exfoliation of surface
scale, 4) capable of improving flatness of a Longitudinally
Profiled (LP) plate, 5) capable of improving flatness of a plate
with temperature distribution.
Figure 8 shows an example of improving flatness of LP
plate by OPL. While conventional roller leveler cannot
improve flatness of LP plate, it has been found that OPL
can remedy LP plates with poor flatness.
Figure 9 shows schematic illustration of thermal strain
compensation. With this function, longitudinal strain distribution induced by OPL is controlled according to measured
temperature distribution to assure flatness of plates after cooling to room temperature. This function is crucial for in-line
leveling processes.
Lighter reduction
at the cooler region
Heavier reduction
at the warmer region
Figure 9. Schematic illustration of thermal strain compensation.
Conclusions
A completely new concept rolling mill for flat product,
NSC Intelligent Mill (NIM) has been developed. The concept and performance of NIM have been verified with a
NIM prototype mill which was temporarily remodeled
from conventional 2 high mill in a commercial line.
NIM has been realized as Oita Plate Leveler (OPL) to
improve flatness of plates immediately after cooling bed
before shear-cut processes with extremely small reduction
in thickness, 0.2%. OPL has established in-line leveling
process of steel plates, which renders improvement in
quality of products and productivity.
References
[1] H. Suzuki: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity,
20-217 (1979), 83.
[2] H. Matsumoto, K. Nakajima, T. Kikuma, U. Uehori: Journal of the
Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 23-263 (1982), 1201.
50
09.08.2010 14:18:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Interface of Heavy Gauge Plate by Vacuum Cladding Rolling

Zongan Luo 1), Guangming Xie 1), Guodong Wang 1), Guanglei Wang 1), Hongguang Wang 2), Lijun Wang 3)
1)
State Key Laboratory of Rolling Technology and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004 / Peoples Republic of
China, luoza@ral.neu.edu.cn; 2) Baosteel Co., Ltd, Shanghai, 210190 / Peoples Republic of China; 3) AnShan Steel Co., Ltd, Anshan,
114001 / Peoples Republic of China
A cladding steel plate was successfully made using vacuum cladding rolling technique. Vacuum level in the cladding interface has a significant effect on the microstructures and properties of cladding plate after plastic joining by vacuum cladding rolling. With increasing vacuum
level in the cladding interface, inclusion size of the interface reduced and the strength of cladding plate were enhanced. When vacuum level
reached to 110-2 Pa, the tensile strength in the thickness direction and the contraction of cross area closed to the basal material, fracture
occurred in the basal material and the inclusions in the interface disappeared.
Keywords: Cladding interface, Plastic joining, Cladding steel plate, Vacuum cladding rolling, Inclusions in interface, Electron beam welding,
Heavy Gauge Plate
Introduction
Experimental Procedure
The heavy gauge steel plate with high strength has been
widely applied to large building, ship lock and heavy nuclear power plan [1,2]. Heavy gauge plates having thickness exceeding 100mm are hardly able to be achieved by
the continuous casting method due to the restriction of
reduction ratio. At present, the casting ingot method is the
main technique to produce heavy gauge plates, whereas
this method will take on the obvious drawbacks of complicated procedure and low efficiency [3,4].
The vacuum cladding rolling technique producing heavy
gauge plates which thickness is larger than 240 mm was
invented by JFE Steel Corporation [5,6]. Figure 1 shows
the following producing processes: (a) the surfaces of two
continues casting slabs used to cladding were machined;
(b) the surfaces of two continues casting slabs were electron beam welded; (c) welded continues casting slabs were
rolled at low speed and high reduction rolling.
Because the research report of JFE Steel Corporation
only briefly introduces producing process and do not investigate in detail on relationship between the microstructure and mechanical properties of heavy gauge steel plate.
Therefore, our investigation mainly focused on the effects
of vacuum level on the microstructures and mechanical
properties of a heavy gauge steel plate.
The continuous casting slab with a chemical composition

of
0.2C-0.14Si-1.06Mn-0.03Cr-0.02Ni-0.03Al0.01Mo-0.01Ti-0.01Cu was used for this study. The plates
of 50 mm in thickness, 200 mm in length and 120 mm in
width were machined from continuous casting slab. In
order to remove the rust and oil on the surfaces of continues casting slabs, the surfaces of two continues casting
slabs were machined. Two continues casting slabs were
electron beam welded at 110-2, 110-1 and 100 Pa. The
welding current, focusing current, welding voltage and
welding speed are 25 mA, 264 mA, 80 kV and 200
mm/min, respectively. The welded continues slab was hotrolled at a low rolling speed of 0.9m/s and high reduction
ratio. The rolling temperature is about 1200 C. Reduction
ratio of each pass is 12%, and six passes was carried out.
Total reduction ratio is 53.6%. To compare with the mechanical properties of the basal material (BM), a continuous casting slab of 100 mm in thickness was rolled under
the same rolling parameters as the cladding plate.
The microstructural features were characterized by the
optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.
Observed cladding interface was located in the horizontal
centerline of the sample. Distribution of element was analyzed by the Oxford type energy dispersive spectroscopy
(EDS). The tensile test was carried out at a strain rate of
110-3 s-1.
Results and Discussion
(a) Machining surface (b) Vacuum electron

beam welding
(c) Low speed and high

reduction rolling
Figure 1. Schematic of vacuum cladding rolling processing period.
Figure 2 shows the microstructures of the cladding interface produced at different vacuum level. In 110-2 Pa,
none defect was detected and the cladding interface was
replaced by recrystallized grains, indicating a sound heavy
gauge plate can be achieved by vacuum cladding rolling
under the investigated parameters. Where the vacuum
levels are 110-1 and 100 Pa, a large number of inclusions
appeared in the cladding interface. With decreasing vacuum levels, size and amount of the interface inclusions
gradually enhanced. This is attributed to severe oxidation
reaction under low vacuum level.
51
09.08.2010 14:18:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
aluminum and silicon elements will react firstly with oxygen element to produce oxide [4].
(b)
(c)
Figure 2. Microstructures in cladding interfaces under various

vacuum levels: (a) 100 Pa, (b) 110-1 Pa and (c) 110-2 Pa.
Figure 3 shows the EDS results of the interface inclusions at different vacuum levels. The EDS analyses revealed that the interface inclusions contained a lot of Al
and Si elements beside Fe, O and Mn elements. This is
attributed to high oxidizability of Al and Si elements. The
oxidizing ability of each element in steel is different. The
sequence of their oxidizing ability is in turn aluminum,
silicon, manganese and iron, thereby resulting in generation of the selective oxidation mechanism. Therefore,
52
Figure 3. EDS analysis of inclusions in cladding plates interfaces:

(a) 110-1 Pa and (b) 100 Pa.
Figure 4. Z direction mechanical properties of BM and cladding

plates at various vacuum levels.
The Z direction tensile properties for the BM and cladding plates at various vacuum levels are shown in Figure
4. Compared to the BM, the cladding plates exhibited low
strength and reduction of area. With decreasing vacuum
level, the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and the reduction
area reduced. Figure 5 shows the fractural locations of the
tensile samples at different vacuum level, indicating the
different fractural locations at different vacuum levels. At
high vacuum level of 110-2 Pa, fracture occurred in the
BM and the sample has high plasticity, whereas at low
vacuum levels of 110-1 and 100 Pa, fracture appeared in
09.08.2010 14:18:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
the interface and the plasticity of sample remarkable reduced with reduction of vacuum level. This is attributed to
the weakening effect of inclusions on mechanical properties of cladding plate.
Conclusions
1. Heavy gauge steel plates without any defects were successfully produced after plastic joining with total reduction ratio of 53.6% using vacuum cladding rolling
method at high vacuum level of 110-2 Pa.
2. With decreasing vacuum level, size and mount of the
interface inclusions increased and the mechanical properties reduced.
3. At vacuum level of 110-2 Pa, the interface inclusions
disappeared and the mechanical properties of cladding
plate closed to the BM.
References
(a)
[1] C.Z. Sha: Wide Thick Plate (In Chinese), 5-6 (1999), 6.
[2] D.X. Cai, J.F. Li: Bao Steel Technology, 4 (2007), 45, (in Chinese).
[3] P. Liu, K. Liu and L.H. Feng: Journal of Anshan University of Science and Technology, 30-5, (2007), 473, (in Chinese).
[4] G.M. Xie, Z.A. Luo, H.G. Wang, G.D. Wang, L.J. Wang: Advanced
Materials Research, 97-101, (2010) 324-327.
[5] JFE technical report, 5, (2004), 65.
[6] Z.A. Luo, G.M. Xie, Z.H. Hu, T. Jia, G.D. Wang, L.J. Wang: Journal
of Plasticity Engineering, 16 (2009), 125, (in Chinese).
(b)
(c)
Figure 5. Fractural locations of Z direction tensile samples at
different vacuum level.(a) 100 Pa, (b) 110-1 Pa, (c) 110-2 Pa.
53
09.08.2010 14:18:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
Part Accuracy of Hollow Profiles Manufactured through Flexible Roll Forming

Falko Vogler, Alexander Duschka, Peter Groche
Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines, Technische Universitt Darmstadt, Petersenstrae 30, 64287 Darmstadt /
Germany, vogler@ptu.tu-darmstadt.de
To further improve the performance of lightweight profiles used in automobile production technologies have been developed to increase the
diversity of profile shapes. One of these technologies is flexible roll forming. With this modified roll forming process profiles with nonconstant cross section in lengthwise direction can be manufactured. Several typical form deviations are known for roll formed profiles.
Because of the increased deformations in the area of changing cross-section the deviations are amplified and additional phenomena arise.
In flexible roll forming, in opposition to conventional roll forming, the shaping of the flange leads to considerable non constant lengthwise
plastic deformation of the flange. The resulting stresses in the parts lead to typical warping of the profiles which can be regarded as an
imprinted spring-back effect for this process. Geometric ratios and material properties of the profile allow an estimation of this phenomenon
which needs to be considered during profile design. Other difficulties lie in the forming radius and variation of the flange height. One major
challenge for manufacturing is the closing of the flexible roll formed profile due to variations in the flange height.
Keywords: Flexible roll forming, Closed profiles, Part accuracy, Laser welding
Introduction
In automotive industry due to well known requirements
of ecological matter, performance and comfort, production
processes have to be further improved. To achieve more
rigid and light structures, complex forms and high strength
materials are being used. Actually this favours stamping
processes in many cases. Roll forming which is a continuous production process with the advantage of high output
with low tooling costs is limited to constant cross section
of profiles. This limits the application of roll formed parts
considerably. Several developments have been conducted
to supply a wider range of parts geometries of profiles
with non constant cross section.
State of the Art Production of Profiles with Lengthwise Non
Constant Cross Section
Roll Forming. The roll forming process can be described as bending with rotating tools. Starting from a flat
sheet the forming is done in several discrete steps. The
intermediate forms can be depicted in a flower diagram.
Typical prismatic profiles are shown in Figure 1.
One well known example is the Kronenberg-Method,

developed to form chassis carriers for light-duty commercial vehicles [3]. A profile is formed in a conventional roll
forming line. In line a press is placed through which the
profile strip is guided (Figure 2). The line stops and the
press forms a recess into the profile. After opening of the
press the roll forming line transports the strip further until
it can be cut and the next part can be pressed. This process
is capable of producing complex parts, but needs considerable amount of tooling because both roll forming and
stamping operations are performed, and one big advantage
of roll forming continuity is omitted.
roll forming of
stamping
trimming roll forming of
U-profile
of recess
of flange
cap profile
Figure 2. Kronenberg-Method for production of lengthwise non
constant profiles [3].
Flexible Roll Forming. A process which does not reduce the advantages of roll forming is the development of
flexible roll forming [4]. In contrast to conventional roll
forming the forming tools are moved translatorically and
rotatorically to allow the forming of lengthwise non constant profiles (Figure 3).
connecting line
between roll
shafts is always
orthogonal to
trajectory
rolls in
90 angle
centre of rotation 2
linear movement
Figure 1. Example of flower diagram [2] and part variety for roll
formed products [1].
As shown, a great diversity of profiles can be manufactured. Due to the inflexibility of the tooling system, variations and additional operations are difficult to achieve.
None the less many process combinations are known, like
cutting and joining [2]. The variation of cross sections can
be achieved in stamping-like operations which though
need to halt the roll forming line to execute this process.
54
pure rotation
linear movement
lateral axis, y
centre of rotation 1
height axis, z
x, longitudinal axis
Figure 3. Principle of flexible roll forming.
09.08.2010 14:18:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
Principal Total
Strain Major
movement of rolls
4.555e-2
2.903e-2
-4.005e-3
-7.008e-2
forming rolls
fix
ed
U-O Bending. Processes to produce profiles in smaller

scale are discontinuous sheet bending processes. These
processes are capable of producing tubes with complex
shapes. As one example Tailored Tubes from Thyssen
Krupp are mentioned [5]. Pre-cut sheets are bent in dies
with two steps. The upper die consists of two halves.
Through a gap between these the part is closed using laser
welding (Figure 4) [5].
phenomena, where flange height, sheet thickness, transition radius and material properties are important factors
[4]. For the chosen design this has been considered and the
design has been found to be feasible. Finite element analysis (FEA) has been conducted to verify the prediction and
to plan the flower diagram. For the FEA the commercial
software Marc Mentat 2007r1 was used. Solid shell elements are used with isotropic elastic-plastic material formulation of the micro-alloyed steel HL320LA.
Conventional roll forming is being used to close the profile. The layout of this process was conducted with the
commercial software Copra RF which allows laying out a
suitable flower diagram and tooling design. A linking of
the FEA allows the consideration of hardening during the
flexible roll forming (Figure 6).
ele
m
en
ts
For flexible roll forming a defined pre-cut of the blank is

needed. This can be conducted by laser cutting or roller
cutting. The enhanced flexibility of the forming line
allows varying the profile geometry part to part, because
the machine control allows extremely flexible usage of the
line. Limitations in this process occur through the geometrical conditions of the part, which lead to plastic deformation both in tensile and compressive form in the sheet
plane of the flange of the profile. One major concern is the
warping of the flanges and of the profile web. Hence transition forms and profile geometries are limited because of
limited formability.
tension
compression
mesh
-3.704e-2
-3.704e-2
-4.005e-3
-4.005e-3
Figure 6. FEA model and result of flexible roll forming using half
symmetry.
Figure 4. Forming steps to produce Thyssen Tailored Tubes [5].
Other processes are known for the production of profiles

with lengthwise non constant cross section, such as hydroforming, spinning, swaging and drawing. These are though
processes which do not deal with profile manufacturing as
they all use such as semi-finished parts. In an objective to
reduce manufacturing complexity and to create usable
process chains in order to produce flexible profiles, these
processes have severe disadvantages.
Flexible Roll Forming of Closed Profiles
Using flexible roll forming alone, the production of
closed profiles is not feasible. After forming a u-shaped
part with lengthwise non constant cross section by flexible
roll forming, a conventional roll forming process with
seven passes is being used for closing the profile. Laser
welding serves to join the sheet edges (Figure 5). For
industrial use these processes can be performed in one line.
90 m
m
960 m
m
60 m
m
material: H320LA
sheet thickness: 2mm
m
60 m
Figure 5. Intermediate stages of fabrication.
As mentioned before, critical deformations in the flange

of the profile lead to residual stresses in the sheet which
can lead to warping or excessive deflection of the profile.
Zettler showed that analytical calculations basing on buckling theory allow an approximated prediction of these
The results from the FEA show, that forming occurs in

the flange area of the non-straight line bend and in the
bends itself (Figure 6). Additional deformation resulting
from longitudinal stresses during roll forming is insignificant.
The examination of the profile geometry in the FEA
showed, that considerable deviations in the flange height
occurred, which constrict a successful laser welding operation. Therefore different measures were performed.
The evaluations of the adaptations are carried out on
four characteristic positions as shown in Figure 7.
position 1:
position 2:
in front of
compression
changing cross zone
section
2
1
y
position 3: position 4:
tension
middle of blank
zone
4
3
z
x
Figure 7. Deformation of flange during flexible roll forming.
Process Adaptation
The reference flange height of the U-shaped intermediate stage for the treated profile is 30 mm. Deviations
showed to be up to 2 mm, while varying extensively along
the profiles length. This resulted from the unsatisfactory
shaping of the bending radii. The produced radii, measured
at several specific points on the profile were too small
(Figure 8).
55
09.08.2010 14:18:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
constant radius
forming starting at the
outer end of the bend
y*
constant radius
forming starting at the
inner end of the bend
up
pe r
up
per
10
z [mm]
20
10
10
z [mm]
position 1
position 2
position 3
position 4
reference
6
4
2
0
10
y' [mm]
10
20
10
15
position 1
position 2
position 3
position 4
reference
8
z [m m ]
z [m m ]
25
10
5
6
4
2
y' [mm]
10
4 6 8
y' [mm]
additional roll
y
10
Figure 9. Bending radii reached with additional forming roll.
Pre-Cut Adaptation
In flexible roll forming considerable longitudinal strain
is induced in the profile flange (Figure 7).
In the transition zone depending on convex and concave
shape tension or compression occurs.
As a result transverse strain leads to height deviations of
the flange which can not be counterbalanced by process
optimization, as the longitudinal strain is process imprinted and necessary to reach the profile geometry.
The method to compensate this deviance is to adopt the
pre-cut of the blank. The longitudinal strain can be calcu56
tension zone
P3**
x
flat blank
Figure 10. Nomenclature for calculation of offset of pre-cut.
The calculation is exemplarily carried out for the compression zone. The correlations are valid for the tension
zone as well, with inverse algebraic sign.
The longitudinal strain in the compression zone can be
calculated by [4].
R RDa y
(1)
x ( y) = ln1 + Dm
RDa
l
Assumption of constant volume and homogenous material behaviour leads to the following equation:
R RDa y
1
1
(2)
y* ( y) = x ( y) = ln1 + Dm
2
2
RDa
l
y*
V1 (l)
u (l)
y
V0 (l)
y* = b
y*
y
u (y*)
y
y* = y*
V1
(y*)
V0 (y*)
flat blank
formed blank
y*
V0 (0) = V1 (0)
y* = 0
Figure 11. Schematic depiction of deformation in compression
zone.
u (0) = 0
blank
upper roll
lower roll
RZm
RZi
Because of the tooling used for the first forming approaches, a clearance exists, into which the blank can give
way. A tooling modification using an additional roll avoids
this clearance. This roll supports the blank outside in the
bend. Implementation of this tooling in the FEA resulted
in significantly smaller deviations in the flange height
(Figure 9).
2
P3
Tooling Adaptation
RZa
The forming was first done using constant radius forming starting at the outer end of the bend. Due to the tooling
used the blank lost contact to the forming roll. An
adaptation was therefore made to use constant radius
forming starting form the inner end of the bend. The guidance of the blank could thereby be improved significantly.
As a result the forming was improved to reach a flange
height with sufficient accuracy (Figure 8).
y*
P2
RDm
P2**
Figure 8. Bending radii reached with different roll forming strategies.
30
RDa
10
4 6 8 10
y' [mm]
compression zone
formed blank edge P1**

RDi
inner bending line
15
10
P1
y*
l
outer bending line
z [m m ]
z [m m ]
15
blank edge
25
20
30
6
2
y' [mm]
blank
support
25
l
r ol
l
rol
l
rol
30
er
low
l
rol
er
low
clearance
blank
support
lated analytically. Subsequently the transverse strain can

be determined as well. Bringing together strain, geometry
and material properties allows computing an offset to the
original pre-cut for consideration of the deformation by
transverse strain.
The following analytical approaches and equations are
based on the nomenclature of Figure 10.
For every height increment y a further increase of the

displacement u will occur (Figure 11). Written in logarithmic form, we have;
y + u ( y)
(3)
y ( y) = ln
y
Inserting into Eq. (3) and solving leads to the following
description (Eq. (4)).
1
R
y
(4)
Dm
Da
1 y
u ( y) = 1 +
RDa
l
To obtain the total displacement, an integral from 0 to l

is obtained by
1
l
RDm RDa y 2
(5)
1 dy
utot = 1 +
0
R
l
Da
09.08.2010 14:18:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
Solving the integral leads the following equation:
2 RDa l RDm RDa
1 +
1 l
utot =
RDm RDa
RDa

(6)
When inserting the flange height l (Eq. (7)), the final

term can be found (Eq. (8)).
(7)
RDm RDa = l

l
(8)
1 l
utot = 2 RDa 1
RDa
The value utot states the constant offset of the flange

height due to transverse strain. Adjacent flange areas
which do not lie in the transition zone experience no
transverse strain, thus they do not vary in height. The
offset in the pre-cut has therefore to be transformed into a
continuous curve. The procedure is shown for the compression zone in Figure 12.
P1
P1
R2
P2
R 2*
PRm
PRm*
P2
Figure 13. Movement of laser along the profile.
Pm *
flange height y* [mm]
utot
Pm
20,4
original pre-cut
modified pre-cut
20,2
20
19,8
19,6
0
100
200
300
profile length x [mm]
400
Figure 12. Change of blank pre-cut due to transverse strain.
The original blank edge is defined by the points P1, P2,

Pm and the centre of the segment of the circle PRm. The
displacement of point Pm about utot leads to a new tangent
point Pm*. Subsequently PRm* and R2* can be calculated,
which define the modified pre-cut of the blank.
A comparison with the FEA revealed that the analytical
calculation shows good correlation. Height deviations
were 0.238 mm from the analytical model and 0.257 mm
in the FEA. Doing a pre-cut modification resulted in
maximum flange height deviation of 0.1 mm from the
reference value, as depicted in Figure 11.
Laser Welding
For successful welding of the sheet edges by laser welding a close gap and good positioning of the edges is necessary. In the established process chain the laser welding can
not be done in the roll forming line. The profile has to be
transported to the laser station, where a clamping device
has been built up to compensate spring-back of the profile.
The gap between the blank edges must be less than 0.1
mm wide for successful welding operation with the used
equipment. This was reached through the described adaptations and the clamping device.
Further the position of the flanges in vertical position is

crucial. A deviation of less than 0.4 mm was though still
acceptable for a good weld. Finally it has to be ensured,
that the weld lies in a straight line longitudinally.
As the profile has a variable height the weld can not be
done using a linear movement of the laser optics. Best
results were achieved with a movement which dispensed
with the rotation of the optic to let the laser beam remain
vertical on the blank surface. As the maximum angle to the
horizontal was less than 15, the laser weld held good
quality with the executed movement (Figure 13).
Conclusion
For the production of closed profiles with lengthwise
non constant cross section one suitable approach is to use
flexible roll forming. To reach high precision shape several aspects have to be considered.
Due to the deformation during flexible roll forming and
the limitations in the tooling system special attention has
to be paid to the roll forming strategy. Constant radius
forming starting form the inner end of the bend was found
to achieve good results. Alternatively an additional forming roll can be used, which reduces clearances in the forming area.
Because of the fraction of transverse strain in the flange
resulting from flexible roll forming, a height difference in
the flange occurs. This deviation is critical for closing of
the profile, especially if laser welding is applied. An analytical calculation was found to adapt the pre-cut of the
blank. This ensures close tolerances for the joining of the
blank edges.
References
[1] M. Lindgren: Experimental and Computational Investigation of the
Cold Roll Forming Process, Lule , (2009).
[2] G. Halmos: Roll Forming Handbook, CRC Press, (2006).
[3] H. Tolle: Proc. 6. Fachtagung Walzprofilieren 2008, Darmstadt,
(2008), 9-25.
[4] A.-O. Zettler: Grundlagen und Auslegungsmethoden fr flexible
Profilierprozesse, Shaker Verlag Aachen, (2007).
[5] C. Dohr: Tailored Products fr den kostengnstigen Leichtbau,
ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks, (2003).
57
09.08.2010 14:18:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Thermomechanical Processing of Al-Alloyed

Susceptibility to Copper Hot Brittleness
Structural
Steel
with
Reduced
Bogdan Garbarz, Jarosaw Marcisz

Instytut Metalurgii elaza, Gliwice / Poland, bgarbarz@imz.pl
The effects of thermomechanical processing and addition of 1-8% Al on microstructure and on mechanical properties of low-carbon
structural steel were investigated. Experiments were carried out on laboratory melted steels based on 0.1%C-0.5%Mn-(0-8%Al)
composition, with up to 0.5% addition of Cu and 0.05% addition of Sn representing increased level of residual metallic elements. The first
stage of the work comprised an investigation of oxidation products in the surface layer of steel specimens exposed at temperatures above
900C. In the surface layer of the experimental steels containing no Al or less than 4% Al, Cu-Sn-Fe phase containing 80-90% Cu was
identified which weakened the sub-surface grain boundaries. It was shown that the Al-alloyed structural steel exhibited an increased
resistance to the copper hot cracking. An addition of Al to the experimental steels in quantities of 4% or 8% prevented the low temperature
melting Cu-rich phase to be formed. For the simulation of hot rolling of the experimental steels containing increased level of metallic
impurities of Cu and Sn and alloyed with 1% Al or 4% Al, various cycles of compression under plane strain conditions were carried out in
the Gleeble 3800 simulator. Parameters of thermomechanical processing leading to a good combination of strength and ductility of the
investigated low carbon structural steels alloyed with Al are proposed.
Keywords: Low-alloyed structural steel, Thermomechanical processing, Effect of Al on properties, Mechanical properties, Microstructure,
Copper brittleness
Introduction
Recycling of steel causes an accumulation of more noble
than iron elements in steel scrap. Some of so-called tramp
elements of which the most common and, under some
conditions, harmful, are Cu and Sn, can deteriorate the
quality of steel products manufactured from scrap. The
most adverse influence of the tramp elements on quality of
steel semi-products and products is the occurrence of
surface hot cracking or copper hot brittleness (shortness)
[1-5]. A direct reason for the occurrence of surface hot
cracking is the formation of liquid Cu-rich phase at the
oxide-steel interface as a result of selective oxidation of
iron [6-8]. Alloying elements changing the mechanism of
the oxidation of steel at high temperature can influence the
susceptibility to the copper hot brittleness. It has been
shown that addition of Al to unalloyed or low-alloyed steel
changes the mechanism of oxidation of the iron solid
solution at high temperatures [9]. Based on such findings a
hypothesis has been put forward in the present work about
the beneficial effect of Al addition on lowering
susceptibility of steel to the copper hot brittleness.
In recent years a new class of structural steels containing
aluminium in the range of 0.510.0% (always mass % if
not stated otherwise) as the main alloying element has
become a subject of numerous investigations. Steel grades
containing typically 0.15%C, 1.5%(Si+Al) and 1.5%Mn
(TRIP) are used in the automotive industry. It was found
that substitution up to 1.2%Al for Si produced better
technological properties of the steel and improved final
properties of sheets [10]. A steel grade containing 3.5%Al
and 0.5%Si having the dumping factor 1525 times larger
than traditional carbon steel has been developed by NKK
company. Because the addition of Al causes also
substantial solution hardening at reduced density research
work aimed at developing structural steel containing Al in
58
the range of 5.0-8.5% as the only alloying element has

been undertaken [11]. Reported values of the Al solid
solution hardening effect differ from 40 MPa to 70 MPa
per 1% of Al addition.
The main aim of this work was to investigate the effect
of thermomechanical processing and heat treatment
parameters on microstructure and mechanical properties of
low-carbon structural steel containing Al addition in the
range of 1-8%. Experiments were carried out on laboratory
melted steels based on 0.1%C-0.5%Mn-(0-8%Al)
composition, with 0.5% addition of Cu and 0.05% addition
of Sn representing increased level of residual metallic
elements. The first stage of the work comprised an
investigation of oxidation products in the surface layer of
steel specimens exposed at temperatures above 900C. To
establish susceptibility of the investigated steels to surface
cracking under tensile stress at high temperature the strain
induced crack opening (SICO) compression tests [12] in
the Gleeble 3800 simulator were carried out. For
simulation of hot rolling of the experimental steels various
cycles of compression under the plane strain conditions
were performed in the Gleeble 3800 simulator.
Experimental Procedures
Materials Preparation. Experimental steels were
melted in a vacuum induction furnace and cast as 25 kg
ingots. Chemical composition of the experimental steels
are given in Table 1. Steel B is a basic (reference) alloy
containing no Al and low level of Cu and Sn impurities. To
prepare the experimental material for investigation the
ingots were hot forged at temperature range of
9501200C into 10 mm, 15 mm and 40 mm diameter
round bars followed by cooling in still air.
09.08.2010 14:18:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. Chemical composition of experimental steels.
B (basic)
0Al
1Al-a
1Al-b
4Al-a
4Al-b
8Al-a
8Al-b
C
0.095
0.097
0.082
0.110
0.068
0.100
0.107
0.100
Mn
0.54
0.48
0.54
0.52
0.51
0.52
0.52
0.57
Si
0.25
0.26
0.35
0.26
0.22
0.21
0.22
0.23
mass %
P
S
0.009 0.009
0.010 0.011
0.013 0.009
0.010 0.010
0.010 0.009
0.013 0.006
0.012 0.005
0.016 0.006
Al
0.017
0.004
1.06
1.10
4.12
4.13
7.91
7.97
Cu
0.03
0.52
0.52
0.53
0.50
0.50
0.50
0.50
Experimental Methods. Phase transformations in the

experimental steels were investigated using a deformation
dilatometer DIL 805 Bhr Thermoanalyse, a simulator of
metallurgical processes GLEEBLE 3800 and a laboratory
furnace to carrying out heat treatments. To assess susceptibility of the investigated steels to the surface hot cracking
oxidizing annealing in the laboratory furnace at temperatures 950C, 1050C, 1100C, 1150C and 1250C during
0.5 h and 2.0 h and the strain induced crack opening
(SICO) tests in the GLEEBLE 3800 simulator were carried
out. For the simulation of hot rolling of the experimental
steels multi-stage deformation by compression under
plane strain conditions were performed. From the test
pieces subjected to the thermomechanical treatment in the
GLEEBLE 3800 small tensile specimens were cut out to
assess mechanical properties. The test pieces were also
subjected to a detailed microstructural examination.
Microstructures of the specimens transformed in the dilatometer, processed in the GLEEBLE 3800 and heat
treated in the furnace were analysed using optical microscopes, a scanning electron microscope PHILIPS XL30, a
transmission electron microscope JEM 2000FX and a Xray diffractometer SIEMENS D5005. For the X-ray diffraction analysis bulk specimens were applied and in the
transmission electron microscope thin foils of chosen
specimens were examined. Both the electron microscopes
were equipped with EDS attachments for chemical microanalysis.
Semi-Equilibrium
and
Continuous
Cooling
Transformation Diagrams. A part of the semiequilibrium diagram Fe-Al (+0.1%C + additives and
impurities: Mn, Cu, Sn, Si, P and S) is shown in Figure 1.
The diagram has been experimentally developed using
steels listed in Table 1. The semi-equilibrium character of
the diagram means that the phases shown in particular
fields of the diagram has been identified after rather short
times of isothermal heating, comparable with the times
used in industrial thermal and thermo-mechanical
treatments.
It is seen from the phase diagram in Figure 1 that during
heating a complete transformation to one-phase austenitic
structure occurs in Fe-Al-0.1%C alloys containing up to
about 1.8% Al. For such steels standard continuous
cooling transformation diagrams (CCT) could be prepared.
In this work the CCT diagrams for steels B, 0Al and 1Al-a
were developed (not shown in the paper). As a result of
slow cooling from the one-phase austenite filed ferrite-
Sn
<0.01
0.050
0.054
0.050
0.052
0.051
0.050
0.050
observed. An increase in cooling rate

resulted in increased amount of bainite
and appearance of martensite. In the two
phase + field austenite constituent has
an island-type morphology. After cooling
to room temperature the austenite islands
transformed, depending on the rate of
cooling, to martensite/bainite or to ferrite
and cementite.
ppm
N
O
27
26
23
30
42
18
27
22
18
15
22
18
10
23
11
15
pearlite and
tures were
Temperature, C
Steel
1400
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
ferrite-pearlite-bainite mixed microstruc-
+ (Fe,Al)3C
+ Fe3AlC0.69
Al content, mass %
Figure 1. Part of tentative semi-equilibrium phase diagram for

Fe-Al-0.1%C (+additives and impurities at levels shown in Table 1).
Effect of Al Alloying on Surface Hot Cracking. On

surface of specimens of the experimental steels containing
0.5% Cu and 0.05% Sn and 0% or 1% Al, i.e. 0Al, 1Al-a
and 1Al-b, after high temperature annealing in the range of
950-1250C in oxidizing atmosphere low temperature
melting Cu-rich phase formed. It was established that the
phase is a solution of Sn and Fe in Cu with varying content of Sn in the range of 7.1-11.4% and of Fe in the range
of 3.6-9.1%. No Al in the Cu-based phase was identified.
The ratio of atom % of Cu to atom % of Sn in the Cu-rich
phase and the same ratio in the examined steels were
found to be very close what means that the Cu-rich phase
formed by selective oxidation of metals present in the
steels with higher affinity to oxygen than Cu and Sn, i.e.
Fe, Mn and Al. In the surface layer of the steels containing
4% Al and 8% Al (steels 4Al-a, 4-Al-b, 8Al-a and 8Al-b in
Table 1) no Cu-rich phase was found. Oxidizing at temperature 1250C resulted in occluding of the Cu-rich phase
particles in the layer of oxides.
The strain induced crack opening (SICO) tests carried
out in the GLEEBLE 3800 simulator in an oxidizing atmosphere were used to assess susceptibility of the investigated steels to high temperature surface cracking. During
the SICO test a high level of tensile stress in the surface
layer of deformed specimen is introduced and this causes
any microcracks or discontinuities to open and propagate.
It was established that the highest tendency to the surface
hot cracking showed the experimental steels containing
additions of Cu and Sn and containing no Al. The direct
reason of the cracking was decohesion along grain
boundaries caused by infiltration of liquid Cu-rich phase.
59
09.08.2010 14:18:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Physical
Simulation
of
Thermomechanical
Processing of Al-alloyed Experimental Steels. In the
diagram in Figure 1 three ranges of Al content could be
distinguished: with full transformation for Al content
approximately 0-1.5%, with partial transformation
for Al content approximately 1.5-5.5% and without
transformation for Al content above approximately 5.5%.
Existence or non-existence of transformation
decisively affects the results of thermomechanical
treatment. The main consequence of transformation
is the possibility to refine grain size. In the part of the
diagram for Al content exceeding about 5.5% precipitation
of complex carbide Fe3AlC0.69 occurs below a specific
temperature. It was found that Fe3AlC0.69 particles
precipitated from supersaturated ferrite even on very fast
cooling. These particles of Fe3AlC0.69 precipitated mainly
on grain boundaries producing poor toughness of the
specimens. Basing on the results of analysis of the
microstructures which can be generated in the
experimental steels for simulation of thermomechanical
processing 1Al-a/b and 4Al-a/b compositions were chosen.
In Figure 2 a scheme of the complete cycle of
thermomechanical treatment carried out in the GLEEBLE
3800 simulator comprising four-stage plane strain deformation is shown. In the scheme TA stands for temperature
of annealing lasting for 5 minutes, T1,2 stands for tempera-
ture of deformations 1 and 2 and T3,4 stands for temperature of deformations 3 and 4. Values of the deformation
temperatures and amounts of the deformation for particular tests as well as designations of the tests for steel 1Al-b
and for steel 4Al-b are given in Table 2.
V=10C/s
TA
Temperature
Addition of 1% Al caused the surface cracks to decrease

by about half in number and in depth. On the surfaces of
the specimens made of the experimental steels containing
additions of Cu and Sn and containing 4% or 8% of Al
subjected to the SICO test no surface cracking occurred.
V=10C/s
T1,2
5s
T3,4
5s
V=5C/s
1s
1s
Water spray
cooling
V=2.5C/s
Time
Figure 2. Scheme of cycle of thermomechanical treatment carried
out in GLEEBLE 3800 simulator.
For steel 1Al-b with full transformation, application

of the four-stage deformation finished at temperature of
900C or 800C (i.e. in the two-phase + field) and
followed by cooling at a rate equivalent to cooling rate of
a 100 mm thick section in still air (variants 02, 03 and 04
in Table 2) resulted in values of yield strength at a level of
350 MPa and with very good ductility indicators. Typical
final microstructure obtained for the described above
treatment is shown in Figure 3.
Table 2. Parameters of thermomechanical tests carried out in Gleeble 3800 simulator for steels 1Al-b and 4Al-b according to sequence
shown in Figure 2. Starting thickness of specimens was 15 mm and rate of deformation was 10 s-1.
Test
no.
Annealing
temperature
TA, C
Temperature of
deformations
1 and 2,
T1, 2 , C
01
11
02
12
03
13
04
14
05
15
1150
1150
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1000
1000
900
900
850
850
800
800
1000
1000
900
900
800
800
800
800
700
700
06
16
07
17
08
18
09
19
10
20
1150
1150
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
1100
900
900
850
850
850
800
800
800
1000
1000
800
800
800
800
800
700
700
700
Temperature of
deformations
3 and 4 ,
T3, 4 , C
Steel 1Al-b
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
Steel 4Al-b
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
0.55
Further increase in yield strength and a reasonably good

ductility have been achieved by applying accelerated
cooling rate from a temperature of the last deformation at
60
Programmed deformation
Final
thickness of
specimen in
room
temperature,
mm
Cooling rate
after
deformation,
C/s
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
3.82
4.00
4.01
4.01
4.03
4.02
4.01
4.28
4.19
4.22
2.5
water spray
2.5
water spray
2.5
water spray
2.5
water spray
2.5
water spray
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.45
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.36
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.34
3.55
3.58
3.83
4.35
4.02
4.14
3.91
4.07
4.48
4.39
2.5
water spray
2.5
water spray
2.5
water spray
2.5
water spray
2.5
water spray
900C or 800C (variants 12, 13 and 14 in Table 2). The

water
spray
cooling
produced
bainite-ferrite
microstructure and resulted in increased yield strength to
09.08.2010 14:18:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
the range of 450-480 MPa. Such treatment could be in
practice effective in case of rather small sections up to
about 10 mm. Another method for increasing yield
strength of steel 1Al-a/b above 450 MPa is to apply final
deformation in the field, at or below 700C (variants 05
and 15 in Table 2).
Figure 3. Microstructure of specimen of steel 1Al-b subjected to

thermomechanical treatment according to variant 03 described in
Table 2. Optical microscopy.
Because of a substantial solid solution strengthening

caused by addition of 4% Al for all variants of
thermomechanical treatment applied to specimens of steel
4Al-b obtained values of yield strength exceeded 400 MPa.
High yield strength and good ductility were achieved after
applying following parameters of the thermomechanical
treatment (variants 07, 08 and 09 in Table 2): initial
annealing in the temperature range of two-phase + field,
final deformation at temperature in the lower part of +
field, slow cooling after final deformation preventing
transformation of the constituent into brittle martensite or
upper bainite. Example microstructure obtained in steel
4Al-b as a result of applying variant 09 of the
thermomechanical treatment is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Microstructure of specimen of steel 4Al-b subjected to

thermomechanical treatment according to variant 09 described in
Table 2. Optical microscopy.
The highest tendency to the surface hot cracking showed

the experimental steels containing additions of Cu and Sn
and containing no Al. The direct reason of the cracking was
decohesion along grain boundaries caused by infiltration of
liquid Cu-rich phase. Addition of 1% Al caused the surface
cracks to decrease by about half in number and in depth.
On surface of experimental steels containing additions of
Cu and Sn and containing 4% or 8% of Al subjected to the
high temperature SICO test no surface cracking occurred.
For steel containing 1% Al application of the four-stage
deformation finished at temperature of 900C or 800C (i.e.
in the two-phase + field) and followed by slow cooling
produced values of yield strength at a level of 350 MPa
and very good ductility. Further increase in yield strength
to the range of 450-480 MPa and reasonably good ductility
have been achieved by applying accelerated cooling from
temperature of the last deformation at 900C or 800C.
Another method for increasing yield strength above 450
MPa of the steel containing 1% Al is to apply final
deformation in the field, at or below 700C.
For the steel containing 4% Al obtained values of yield
strength for the applied variants of thermomechanical
treatment ranged from 420 to 450 MPa. High strength and
good ductility were achieved after applying following
parameters of thermomechanical treatment: initial
annealing in the temperature range of the two-phase +
field, final deformation at temperatutre in the lower part of
+ field, slow cooling after final deformation preventing
transformation of the constituent into brittle martensite or
upper bainite.
Acknowledgements
Financial support of the Ministry of Science and Higher
Education of Poland under grant No 4 T08A 033 23 is
gratefully acknowledged.
References
[1] D.A. Melford: J. Iron Steel Institute, (1962), April, 290-299.
[2] D.A. Melford: J. Iron Steel Institute, (1966), May, 495-496.
[3] A. Nicholson, J.D. Murray: J. Iron Steel Institute, (1965), October,
1007-1018.
[4] S. Akamatsu, T. Senuma, Y. Takada, M. Hasebe: Mater. Sci. Technol.,
15 (1999), 1301-1307.
[5] B.A. Webler, S. Sridhar: ISIJ Int., 48 (2008), 1345-1353.
[6] W.J.M. Salter: J. Iron Steel Institute, (1966), May, 478-488.
[7] Y. Kondo: ISIJ Int., 44 (2004), 1576-1580.
[8] S.W. Kim, H.G. Lee: Steel Research Int., 80 (2009), 121-129.
[9] S.W. Banovic, J.N. DuPont, A.R. Marder: Metall. Mater. Trans. A,
31A (2000), 1805-1817.
[10] M. De Meyer, D. Vanderschuern, B. C. De Cooman: ISIJ Int., 39
(1999), 813-822.
[11] G. Frommeyer, E. J. Drewes, B. Engl: La Revue de MetallurgieCIT,
97 (2000), 1245-1253.
[12] R. Kuziak, M. Pietrzyk: Ironmaking and Steelmaking, (2002), October, 39-44.
Summary and Conclusions

On surface of the experimental steels containing 0.5% Cu
and 0.05% Sn and 0% or 1% Al after high temperature
annealing in the range of 950-1250C in oxidizing atmosphere the low temperature melting Cu-rich phase containing Sn and Fe formed.
61
09.08.2010 14:18:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Setup Models of Finishing Temperature and Rolling Speed for Hot Strip Mill
Dian-yao Gong1), Zheng-yi Jiang2), Jian-zhong Xu1), Xiang-hua Liu1), Di Wu1)
1)
2)
State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004 / China, liym@ral.neu.edu.cn;
School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522 / Australia
For the requirement of highly accurate finishing temperature control during accelerating hot strip rolling, the finishing temperature and
rolling speed setup models have been successfully established. The relationship between the threading speed and finishing temperature
was obtained, and a method to determine the speed, acceleration rate and high acceleration zone distance was proposed when the strip is
rolled at high acceleration period using iteration calculation. A method to determine the starting and ending points of speed drop was discussed in the paper. In order to ensure the available characteristics of setup and control models, the self-learning strategies including the
self-learning of the model coefficients, acceleration rate and slab temperature slope were built up in this study. According to the on-line
control results of strip temperature composing of feed-forward and feed-back control models which was employed in a plant, the control
accuracy of finishing temperature satisfies the requirement well.
Keywords: Finishing temperature setup, Speed setup, Self-learning, Hot rolled strip
Introduction
Process control and setup model are the core components
of automation control system of hot strip mill, especially
the finishing rolling process setup model. All the temperature setup models are the first part of the finishing setup
model. Strip temperature is closely related to the rolling
speed, because after the thread rolling process, the finishing temperature of strip should be set up and controlled
through tuning inter-stand water flows based on the acceleration setup curve. The setup process of temperature and
speed theme is called finishing temperature setup, and it is
one of the important components of the finishing setup
model. The acceleration process is carried out by FTC-1,
and the water flow tuning process is actualized by FTC-2,
where FTC is abbreviation of finishing temperature control. The set accuracy of finishing rolling temperature is a
result of all of finishing temperature setup model, FTC-1
and FTC-2 components. If the task of the finishing setup
model contains only the thread process, a lot of problems
will affect rolling products, for example, when the strip
product is very thin, the temperature of strip tail may drop
significantly because of unavailable acceleration setup.
There is no dropping point in the setup model, which may
cause dropping steel with a constant speed at high speed
zone, or a sharp drop of the temperature when the steel is
dropped out. Sometime, the setup model is simplified, and
the acceleration rate is set up without considering temperature. When the threading process is ended, the acceleration
rate will be adjusted according to the measured finishing
rolling temperature. As a result, the rolling speed becomes
irregular. Therefore, the research on finishing rolling temperature and rolling speed setup models are useful in improving quality of hot rolled strips.
Temperature Setup during Threading Process
When the strip is threading on the finishing rolling mill,
the strip temperature is affected by the threading speed,
inter-stand cooling flow and pass reduction etc, and the
temperature changes relate to the air cooling, water cooling in the descaling box, inter-stand cooling and the tem-
62
perature increase due to metal plastic deformation, and the

temperature drop due to contacting with the roll surface,
and the temperature increase resulting from the friction at
the roll and the strip interface. The temperature change is
described in Eqs. (1) through (6). The calculation starts at
the pyrometer in front of finishing rolling mill, and ends at
the pyrometer after the finishing mill. The temperature
change is accumulated [1].
1/3
t1 + 273 3
6
+
t2 = 100
(1)
273
100
100c p h
where t2 is the strip temperature after cooling, C, t1 is the

strip temperature before cooling, C, is the blackness of
strip, is the Boltzmanns constant, W/m2K4, is the
cooling time, s, c p is the interpolation value of strip specific heat, kJ/(kg K), is the strip density, kg/m3, h is the
strip thickness, mm.
2
(2)
t w = t1 t0 + (t1 t0 ) exp 1

c h
w0.355 (2.50 1.5 log tw ) D
ts tw
0.645
1.163
(3)
where tw is the temperature drop of strip due to water

cooling, C, is the coefficient of heat transfer, W/m2K,
w is the volumetric water flux, m3/s, ts is the surface
temperature of strip, C, tw is the water temperature, C,
is a constant of the spray layout, D is the diameter of the
spray, mm.
tf = d
H (i 1)
Km
ln
cp
H (i)
(4)
where tf is the temperature increase caused by plastic

deformation, C, d is the coefficient, K m is the deformation resistance, kN/mm2, H (i 1) is the strip thickness
09.08.2010 14:18:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
(5)
where is the strip temperature increase caused by

friction, C, f is the coefficient, B is a constant, is the
friction coefficient, VCal the strip speed, m/s, Fs is the forward slip, Fsb is the backward slip.
( R )
k
s
C = c
{H (i 1) + 2 H (i)} 3
k = Ram
s cp G
(6)
where C is the strip temperature drop caused by the

contact with roll surface, C, c is the coefficient, is a
constant, R is the average temperature of work roll, C,
is the strip temperature, C, ks is the coefficient of conductivity of strip, m2/h, Ram is the heat conduction coefficient of strip, kcal/m.hr. C,
If the finishing rolling temperature cannot be obtained
under the initial threading speed, unless the inter-stand
water flow has reaches the limit (100 percent open or
totally shut down), the initial threading speed should be
adjusted by the setup model. The adjusted value of the
initial threading speed can be calculated as described in Eq.
(7). After the threading speed is changed, the rolling parameters should be recalculated.
P C
(7)
C C C
where C is the adjusted value of the initial threading
speed, m/sec, P is the target finishing temperature of
steel, C, C is the calculated value of the finishing rolling
temperature, C, C is the calculated value of the strip
temperature at entry of the finishing rolling mill, C, C is
C =
the initial threading speed, m/s.

If the target thickness of strip is very thin, the inter-stand
cooling water should be totally shut down to ensure the
stability of the threading process. Under this condition, the
threading speed is very fast, and the finishing temperature
during threading is totally depends on the choice of the
threading speed.
Temperature Setup after Threading
The velocity theme of hot rolled strip contains a constant

speed stage after the threading, normal acceleration stage,
high acceleration stage, high constant speed stage and one
or two deceleration stages [2]. The relationship between
the rolling speeds, strip length and time indicating a TimeVelocity-Distance curve illustrated graphily in Figure 1.
-1
K m VD
= f B c G { H (i 1) + 2 H (i )} / 3
p
2
VCal ( Fs + Fsb 2 )
=
D 2 ( Fs + Fsb ) (1 + Fs )
5
Rolling speed (ms )
before rolling, mm, H (i) is the strip thickness after rolling,

mm.
7
4
Accumulative distance (m)
Figure 1. Time-Velocity-Distance curve.
The temperature setup during the normal acceleration

segment seems easy, the key problem is the setup of acceleration rate and distance of acceleration during high acceleration segment, as well as the distance of high constant
speed segment and the starting point of deceleration segment, or the deceleration distance
(2-1)of the strip dropping out.
All the setup calculations are based on the evaluation of
the entry strip temperature which should be measured by a
pyrometer. However, almost the strip temperature is measured after the setup is finished. For determining the entry
temperature for the setup calculation without measured
value, the concept of the temperature slope of the slab
should be introduced firstly, and the temperature slope is
the ratio of the temperature difference between the head
and the tail and the distance of the strip. When the reheating furnace, the rolling schedule and other conditions tend
to be stable, the temperature slope is trusted, and the temperature along the slab length can be calculated using the
following equation:
tS = d
(8)
where tS is the temperature of single point of slab, C, d

is the distance from the head of slab, m, is the temperature slope, C/m.
Setup of Normal Acceleration Segments. The normal
acceleration is also called temperature acceleration and
the first acceleration. The normal acceleration begins
after the threading process and rolling data acquisition are
finished, and the rolling speed is increased from the
threading speed to the biting speed of the down coiler.
This acceleration rate is so small (0.025-0.072 m2/s) [3] to
affect the strip finishing temperature, but it is a preparation
for high acceleration, and it can save time. Therefore, the
inter-stand cooling water flow does not need to be changed.
Since the acceleration distance is almost a constant (from
starting point to down coiler), the start speed and target
speed are almost a constant, and the acceleration rate is
also a constant.
High Acceleration and Deceleration Segments. The
high acceleration is also called power acceleration and
the secondly acceleration. The high acceleration segment
starts after the down coiler bite finishes, and the strip has
been coiled. In order to obtain high productivity and the
roll speed changes in a wider range, the acceleration rate
can reach 0.5 m/s2 or higher, and the speed changes so
significantly that the inter-stand cooling water flow should
63
09.08.2010 14:18:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
be changed according to the speed change. The real time

water flow change is the task of the finishing temperature
control function, as well as the setup of the roll speed.
When the speed system is available, the finishing temperature can be ensured by the water flow change under cooling ability permission.
The iteration calculation of acceleration rate and acceleration distance during high acceleration segment is shown
in Figure 2. Before the calculation, the strip is divided into
many samples, and a method to divide the strip into samples can refer to reference [4]. The maximum rolling speed
and the deceleration rate for dropping out are initialized
firstly based on the device ability permission, and the
dropping speed is determined based on the experiment and
rolling mill capability. As a result, the deceleration distance can be obtained. Before the calculation, the high
acceleration rate should also be initialized. Considering
the biting speed of the down coiler and the maximum
rolling speed, the distance of high acceleration segment
can be calculated. According to the strip entry temperature
calculated by the slab temperature slope, the temperature
calculation model is used to calculate the evaluated finishing rolling temperature of each sample of the strip. When
the finishing temperature of all the samples satisfies the
accuracy of the finishing temperature error, the iteration
calculation is ended. If the evaluated finishing rolling
temperature is out of temperature error, the cooling water
flow, the acceleration rate should be changed, and the
calculation should be restarted using new condition until
the calculative finishing rolling temperature of each sample satisfies the requirement. Since the computing speed
has been improved, the iteration number is not more than a

limit condition.
Self Learning Strategy
The factors which affect the strip finishing temperature are

complicate, some factors are uncertain e.g. the effect of
roll surface temperature on strip temperature, the partition
ratio of the roll deformation heat etc. The self-learning
strategy is very important to improve the calculation accuracy of the mathematical model. The self-learning strategy
contains the objects and method. The self-learning objects
have three parts: the model coefficient of strip temperature
calculation, the acceleration rate and the temperature slope
of the slab.
The smooth exponential method is used to carry out the
self-learning of the coefficient of temperature model, application instance shows that this method is available [5].
When the threading process is finished, the data are gathered for a short period, and the measured data of the strip
finishing rolling temperature, strip entry temperature,
rolling speed, rolling force and inter-stand cooling water
flow and pressure are compared with the setup reference
values. For different classes divided for different product
thickness and grades of steels, the coefficient of temperature model is updated respectively. The new coefficient
will be used in the calculation of the online control model,
and the setup calculation of next steel with the same class
of the current strip.
Self-learning
Start
Product
Distance
Temp. Slope
Dropping out
Distance
Acc Distance
Initialize
Acc. Initialize
Acc. or Water Flow out of

N
Limit
Acc. Adjusted
Finishing Temp
Deceleration Seg. Ajusted
Note
Acc. for Acceleration
Seg. for Segment
Temp. for Temperature
Acc. Distance
Y
Adjusted
Deceleration Seg.
Distance
Finishing Temp. Good

Y
Acc. rate and
Distance
Decided
N
Deceleration Rate Good
High Acc. Seg. distance
End
Figure 2 Sketch of Inter-stand cooling unit
When the finishing temperature setup is performed, the

slab head is at the pyrometer before finishing mill, and the
whole slab temperature cannot be obtained, so the experimental value is used. Since the rolling process is finished,
all part of the slab passed the pyrometer at the entry of
finishing mill, the real measured value is obtained, and the
slab temperature slope should be adjusted based on the
64
measured value. For avoiding uncertainty of the single

sample, the weighing method is used, and the new slope is
calculated as follows:
S n = SOld + S1
(9)
09.08.2010 14:18:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
where S n is the new tempeature slope, SOld is the old

temperature slope, S1 is the instant temperature slope and
ture curve, finishing rolling temperature curve and the

inter-stand water flow curve are shown in Figure 3.
and are constant.

The slab temperature slope and acceleration rate are relevant. When the original temperature slope class table
and acceleration rate class table are built up, the acceleration rate is obtained by mass off-line calculation. The
acceleration rate in the class table is the original value of
the online iteration calculation, and the original value is
adjusted. When the temperature slope is adjusted by selflearning, the original value of acceleration rate is also
adjusted. When the acceleration rate is obviously unreasonable, the acceleration rate is needed to be adjusted.
It can be seen that the target finishing temperature is 850

C. The 20 C hitting rate of finishing rolling temperature
of the whole length of strip is 100.0%. The difference
between the measured value and the target temperature in
a range of 15 C is 99.7%. If the target thickness is thicker, it is hard to obtain a high accuracy.
After the test and adjusting process, the checked results
for different thickness are summarized in Table 1 respectively.
Online Control Model
The temperature setup model is built based on the slab

temperature slope and the speed and rolling force forecast
value, so when the strip is rolled, the inter-stand cooling
water flow should be adjusted by feed-forward and feedback control. The main task of the temperature setup is to
establish the speed curve of the strip rolling considering
the temperature.
The feed-forward control is carried out since the threading process is finished, based on the measured value of the
strip at the entry of finishing mill and the real time rolling
speed and acceleration rate, and the sample tracking, the
inter-stand cooling water flow is adjusted, the real time
water flow is given during the rolling process.
The task of feed-back control is to adjust the opening of
the regulator valves arranged after down stream (F5 and
F6 stands), and make sure that the control works well
when the acceleration is started.
Application
Table 1. Assessment result of finishing temperature control model

Thickness
<3.0mm
3.5-5.0mm
5.0-7.0mm
7.0-10.0mm
Rate, %
99.33
99.75
97.96
98.39
Conclusion
The finishing temperature setup and control model as

well as the speed setup model were successfully established, and the iterative calculation of the temperature and
rolling speed in the high acceleration segment was discussed in detail. The developed model was applied in a
1780mm hot strip mill, and the obtained results were satisfactory. The accuracy of the finishing temperature 20 C
meets the requirement well.
References
[1] Y. Sun: Metallurgical Industry Press, (2002), 105-110, (in Chinese).
[2] D. Gong, J. Xu, X. Cai, H. Zheng, X. Liu, G. Wang: Key Engineering
Materials, 340-341 (2007), 633-638.
[3] R. Guo: Iron and Steelmaker, 20-8 (1993), 49-59.
[4] D. Gong, J. Xu, X. Liu, G. Wang: Journal of Northeastern University
(Natural Science), 27-7 (2006), 763-767, (in Chinese).
[5] D. Gong, J. Xu, L. Peng G. Wang, X. Liu: Journal of Iron and Steel
Research International, 14-4 (2007), 11-14.
Figure 3 Strip temperatures at entry and exit of mill and interstand cooling flow
This finishing temperature model was used in Steel

Plant 1780mm mill since 2008. To present the application
effectively, one strip is selected, the grade is low carbon
steel (yield strength 235 MPa), the target thickness is
5.0mm and the target width is 1575 mm. When the strip
was rolled, the water-flow of regulator valves arranged
after F4 and F6 stands were changed. The entry tempera-
65
09.08.2010 14:18:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Finish Rolling Temperature Ranges on Microstructure and Mechanical

Properties of Hot Rolled Multiphase Steel
Li Yan-mei, Zheng Dong-sheng, Zhu Fu-xian
State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang / China, liym@ral.neu.edu.cn
The effects of finish rolling temperature ranges on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Nb-containing microalloyed experimental
steels were investigated by hot rolling experiment. The results showed that the mixed microstructure containing ferrite, bainite, martensite
and a small amount of residual austenite can be obtained by thermomechanical controlled processing (TMCP). Under the condition of similar
TMCP parameters, with the finish rolling beginning temperature and final rolling temperature decreasing, the tensile strength of steel
decreases, and the yield strength, elongation and product of tensile strength and ductility increases. When TMCP is adopted, including finish
rolling in the temperature range of 850-800 C, combined with laminar cooling, air cooling and ultra-fast cooling, the yield strength, total
elongation and product of tensile strength and ductility reaches the maximum values for experimental steel. The composite strengthening
effects result from the simultaneous presence of a soft tough ferrite matrix with bainite and martensite as hard second phase. There is the
most amount and finest ferrite grain and finest bainite bundle zone in the microstructure of the sample corresponding to 850-800 C. When
bainite bundle zone size decreases, the misorientation of bainitic ferrite laths increases and the interaction of dislocation increases,
consequently the resistance of dislocation motion increasing.
Key words: Finish rolling Temperature range, Hot rolled multiphase steel, Microstructure, Mechanical properties
Introduction
The development history of High Strength Low Alloy
(HSLA) steel has been more than 100 years. As a type of
mass and widely used engineer structural material, HSLA
steel has a prominent function in the production and use of
steel in the world [1]. However, with the strength level of
steel increasing, its formability has decreased [2,3]. The
appearance of the multiphase steel with hard phase of
martensite, bainite or metastable residual austenite in
matrix of soft tough phase of ferrite has opened up a new
approache for the development of HSLA steel with
excellent formability [4-6].
In recent years, the continuous development of
microalloying and controlled rolling technology provides
favorable conditions for the development of multiphase
steels [3-5]. For multiphase steels, microalloy elements
can effectively control the austenization, recrystallization,
grain growth, transformation of austenite to ferrite or
bainite, and the volume fraction and stability of residual
austenite [6]. By thermomechanical control processing
(TMCP), especially appropriate rolling process combined
with ultra-fast cooling, phase composition of different
characteristic can be obtained in multiphase steels and
consequently more superior performance combination can
be obtained.
In this paper, based on micro-alloy steel containing Nb,
the microstructure consisting of ferrite, bainite, martensite
and a little amount of residual austenite was obtained by
TMCP of finish rolling in three different temperature
ranges combined with laminar cooling, air cooling, and
ultra-fast cooling. The effects of the controlled rolling
temperature ranges on the microstructure and mechanical
properties of micro-alloy steel containing Nb have been
analyzed in order to develop an optimized production
process of multiphase steels.
Material and Experimental Procedure
The experimental materials were taken from an 150kg
weight ingot, smelted in vacuum furnace. The chemical
composition of experimental material is given in Table 1.
66
Before rolling, the ingot was forged and cut to billets of

70mm (width) 85mm (thickness) 150mm (length).
Table 1. Chemical composition of experimental steel (mass%).
C
Si
Mn
Nb
Als
<0.2
1.31
1.45
0.028
0.04
0.005
0.010
The TMCP schedule is shown in Figure 1. The samples

were austenitized at 1200 C for 2 h in a KO10 electrical
resistance furnace. It was followed by two-stage rolling
with nine-pass deformation. In rough rolling, similar
TMCP parameters were taken, and in finish rolling, three
finish rolling temperature ranges of 900-840, 880-800 and
850-800 C were taken as controlled rolling temperature
range, from finish rolling beginning temperature to final
rolling temperature. The final thickness of the samples
was 14 mm. The three-step controlled cooling process of
laminar cooling - air cooling - ultra-fast cooling was
conducted after hot rolling. The end temperature of
laminar cooling is 710 C, and the beginning and the end
temperature of ultra-fast cooling is 680 and 440 C,
respectively. The cooling rate of laminar cooling, air
cooling, and ultra-fast cooling is 10, 2 and 80 C/s. The
samples were preserved by asbestos after cooling.
Figure 1. Thermomechanical control processing schedule

(LC-Laminar Cooling, AC-Air Cooling, UFC-Ultra Fast Cooling,
AHP-Asbestos Heat Preservation).
09.08.2010 14:18:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Tensile testing was performed using GB/T 228-2002
standard samples with a crosshead speed of 2.5 mm/min at
room temperature. After grinding and polishing, the
metallographic samples were etched by 4% nital and
LePera reagent [7]. The microstructures of the samples
were observed by LEICA Q550IW Optical Metallography
(OM) and LEICA Q550IW Scanning Electron Microscopy
(SEM). The grain size of ferrite was measured by the
linear intercept method. The volume fraction and carbon
concentration of residual austenite was measured with
conventional X-ray procedure.
Experimental Result
Mechanical Properties of the Samples after TMCP.
The process parameters and the mechanical properties of
the samples are listed in Table 2. The samples of Nos. 1, 2
and 3 are rolled in temperature range of 900-840, 880-800
and 850-800 C, respectively. As shown in Table 2, for
Nos. 1, 2 and 3 sample, the yield strength increases in turn.
However, the change of the tensile strength is just the
opposite, the tensile strength decreasing in turn. The
elongation of Nos. 1, 2 and 3 sample is 27, 33 and 35%,
respectively. Namely, with finish rolling beginning
temperature and final rolling temperature lowering, the
yield strength and elongation of the samples increases,
while the tensile strength decreases. In addition, for Nos. 1,
2 and 3 samples, the product of tensile strength and
ductility, characterization of comprehensive performance
of material, increases in turn, respectively, 20331, 24321
and 25235 MPa%.
Table 2. Process parameters and mechanical properties of
samples.
Sample
FRBT
(C)
FRT
C
YS
MPa
TS
MPa
EL
%
TSEL
(MPa%)
No.1
900
840
470
753
27
20331
No.2
880
800
491
737
33
24321
No.3
850
800
513
721
35
25235
As can be seen from Figure 2, the microstructures of

the samples consist of ferrite and bainite. Ferrite in the
samples consists of polygon ferrite and axial ferrite, and
the grain size of the former is larger than that of the latter.
Most axial ferrite is surrounded by polygon ferrite, and
little exists among polygon ferrite. Comparing the
microstructures of the samples, it can also be found that
with the finish rolling beginning temperature and final
rolling temperature lowering, the amount of axial ferrite
increases and the distribution of ferrite becomes more
intensive. With the amount of axial ferrite increasing, the
average size of ferrite grain becomes smaller. By
measuring, the average sizes of ferrite grain in the samples
of No. 1, 2 and 3 are 8.4m, 8m and 7.8m, respectively.
Figure 3 shows the SEM structures of the samples. The
depressed gray part is ferrite and bainite ferrite, and the
bright white raised part is residual austenite.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 3. SEM micrographs of samples (a) No. 1, (b) No. 2 and (c)
No.3.
As can be seen from Figure 3, there is no residual

austenite in the Nos. 1 and 3 samples. Most of the
martensite particles distribute among the bainite ferrite
lath, little among ferrite grains. No.2 sample contains
some martensite particles and a little amount of residual
austenite.
Figure 4 is X-ray diffraction spectrum of the No. 2
sample. The e residual austenite exists in the
microstructure of sample. The diffraction peak of
austenitic is weak, which means that the amount of
austenite is very low.
(FRBT- Finish Rolling Beginning Temperature, FRT- Final Rolling

Temperature, YS-Yield Strength, EL-Elongation, TS-Tensile
Strength, TSEL- product of tensile strength and ductility)
Microstructure of Samples after TMCP

The optical microstructures of the samples for different
finish rolling temperature ranges are shown in Figure 2.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 4. X-ray diffraction spectrum of No.2 sample.
Figure 2. Optical microstructures of samples (a) No.1, (b) No.2

and (c) No.3.
Etched by traditional nital, it is difficult to distinguish

ferrite and Martensite-Residual Austenite (M-A). The
microstructures of the samples etched by Lepera reagent
are shown in Figure 5, in which ferrite presents gray black,
bainite is gray, and M-A island is white.
67
09.08.2010 14:18:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 5. Microstructures of samples etched by Lepera reagent (a)

No. 1, (b) No. 3 and (c) No. 3.
As can be seen from Figure 5, M-A island presents

block or elongated. The block M-A island distributes
along ferrite grain boundary or phase boundary of ferrite /
bainite, while the elongated M-A island distributes along
the boundary of bainite lath. From the graph it also can be
seen that the bainite bundle zone size of No.1 sample is
larger than that of Nos. 2 and 3. Measured by image
analysis software, M-A island area fraction in Nos. 1, 2
and 3 sample structures is 7.1, 6 and 5.7% respectively.
Discussions
Formation of Multiphase Structure in Samples. For
containing microalloy element of Nb, non-recrystallization
temperature of austenite in the experimental steel is
increased, and austenite non-recrystallization region is
expanded. Therefore, 900-840, 880-800 and 850-800 C
were taken as the finish rolling temperature range of the
samples. At the stage of rolling in austenite
non-recrystallization region, austenite recrystallization
does not happen, therefore, austenite grains are deformed
along the rolling direction, and deformation band is
formed in grain. Reference [8] indicates that deformation
band is high-density dislocation cell consist of entangled
dislocation, effective nucleation site for ferrite. For No.1
sample, the finish rolling beginning temperature and final
rolling temperature are both higher than that of No.2 and
No.3 sample. During finish rolling, the softening degree of
austenite recovery is higher, and the density of
deformation band in austenite grain is relatively low. The
final rolling temperatures of Nos. 2 and 3 are both 800 C,
however, the finish rolling beginning temperature of No. 2
sample is higher than that of the No. 3 sample. Therefore,
for the No. 2 sample, rolled in temperature range of
880-800 C, austenite recovery mostly happened for the
long pass time interval which leads to the decreasing of
dislocation density in deformed austenite. Therefore, for
the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 samples, deformation band density in
initial austenite grain increases, consequently the
nucleation site for ferrite grain increases in turn.
After final rolling, the samples directly enter laminar
cooling zone to be rapidly cooled to austenitic/ferrite
two-phase region and start air cooling, where ferrite
separates from boundary and nucleation site in grain of
austenite. Due to more defects such as vacancy,
dislocation, etc. and high diffusion speed of atom on
austenite boundary [9], when the samples enter
austenitic/ferrite two-phase region and subsequently
phase-transformation occurs, ferrite grains firstly form on
austenite boundary, and after that grow up during air
cooling. The defects on deformation band in austenite
grain are less than those on austenite boundary, and ferrite
nucleated on deformation band grows up more slowly, in
68
addition the subsequent ultra-fast cooling suppresses

ferrite grain separating along initial austenite boundary
growing up further and make ferrite grain nucleating on
deformation band have no enough time to grow up until
the transformation of austenite to ferrite is over. Therefore,
polygon ferrite separating along initial austenite boundary
and axial ferrite separating along deformation band in
initial austenite grain as shown in Figure 2 appears, and
the grain size of the former is larger than that of the latter.
For the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 samples, after final rolling, the
deformation band density increases, consequently the
amount of axial ferrite separating on that site increases in
turn.
During ultra-fast cooling, axial ferrite separates on
deformation band, and bainite only forms among the
smaller size of deformation band. The higher deformation
band density in initial austenite grain means the stronger
surpress effect of bainite growing suffering from.
Therefore, the size of bainite bundle zone in the Nos. 2
and 3 sample structure is smaller than that in the No. 1
sample structure. Ultra-fast cooling makes the samples
rapidly enter bainite temperature region and a small part
austenite remains in structure, as a result, the multiphase
structure containing ferrite, bainite, residual austenite or
martensite is obtained finally.
Effect of Microstructure on Mechanical Properties.
For experimental steel, after finish rolling in such three
temperature ranges, austenite becomes pancake, and much
deformation band forms in grain, which divides austenite
into several parts, namely, crush of austenite grain before
deformation. The crush degree of austenite grain in the
Nos. 1, 2 and 3 sample is different, increasing in turn. The
higher crush degree of austenite grain means more
nucleation sites of ferrite, therefore, the effect of ferrite
grain refinement in No. 3 structure is better. The ferrite
grain average size in the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 samples is 8.4 m,
8m, and 7.8m, therefore, by Hall-Petch formula, the
yield strength of the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 samples increases in
turn, agreeing with the results of the mechanical property
tests.
In addition to ferrite grain size, bainite structure also
affects the yield strength. As shown in Figure 5, the size
of bainite bundle in the No. 1 sample structure is bigger
than those in the Nos. 2 and 3 samples. The smaller bainite
bundle size means the increasing of bainite ferrite laths
misorientation and more severe cut each other of moving
dislocation, which make the resistance of dislocation
motion increase. Therefore, the yield strength of the Nos.
2 and 3 samples is higher than that of the No. 1 sample.
The soft tough phase of ferrite in the Nos. 1, 2 and 3
sample microstructure in proportion is measured to be
50.5, 51.5 and 53.2 %, respectively. Accordingly, the hard
phase in proportion reduces in turn. Therefore, the tensile
strength of the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 sample decreases in turn. In
No.1 sample, the amount of ferrite is least, and ferrite
average grain size is the largest. During plastic
deformation, the stress concentration of grain is the
greatest, and when the strain hardening of ferrite grain
reaches certain level, the deformation extends into the
hard phase. Due to the poor ability of the hard phase to
absorb energy, additionally, the hard phase content of the
No. 1 sample is the most, the elongation of the No. 2
09.08.2010 14:18:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
sample is the lowest. Due to slightly more ferrite content,
lower hard phase in proportion, and finer ferrite grain in
the No. 2 sample compared with the No. 1 sample, the
elongation of the No. 2 sample is higher. While due to the
most ferrite content, the lowest hard phase in proportion,
and the weakest stress concentration of finer ferrite grain
in the No. 3 sample, the elongation is the highest. In
addition, the small size of bainite bundle zone in the Nos.
2 and 3 sample structure also contributes to the elongation.
Small size bainite bundle zone means bainite ferrite laths
misorientation increase, bainite ferrite lath become thin
and short, bainite bundle shorten, resulting in its ability to
resist dislocation moving increasing and delaying the
plastic deformation of adjacent area.
Conclusions
1. The mixed microstructure consisting of ferrite, bainite,
martensite and a small amount of residual austenite can
be obtained in microalloy steel containing Nb by TMCP
of two-stage rolling combined with laminar cooling, air
cooling, and ultra-fast cooling.
2. Under the condition of similar TMCP parameters, with
the finish rolling beginning temperature and final
rolling temperature decreasing, the tensile strength of
the experimental steel decreases, and the yield strength,
elongation and product of tensile strength and ductility
increases. When TMCP is adopted, including finish
rolling in the temperature range of 850-800C,
combined with laminar cooling, air cooling, and ultra
fast cooling , the yield strength, total elongation and
product of tensile strength and ductility reaches the
maximum values (513 MPa, 35% and 25235 MPa%
respectively) for the experimental steel.
3. The composite strengthening effects result from the
simultaneous presence of a soft tough ferrite matrix
with bainite and martensite as hard second phase. There
is the most amount and finest ferrite grain and finest
bainite bundle zone in the microstructure of the sample
corresponding to 850-800 C. When bainite bundle
zone size decreases, the misorientation of bainitic
ferrite laths increases and the interaction of dislocation
increases, consequently the resistance of dislocation
motion increasing.
References
[1] Z. Wang, T. Dong tao: High Strength Low Alloy Steels [M]. Beijing:
Atomic Energy Press, (1996), 112.
[2] T. Senuma: ISIJ International, 41-6 (2001), 520-532.
[3] B. Maek, H. Stakov, Z. Nov, et al.: Journal of Materials
Engineering and Performance, 18-4 (2009), 385-389.
[4] H.J. Koh, S.K. Lee, S.H. Park, et al.: Scripta Materialia, 38-5 (1998),
763-768.
[5] P. Jacques, X. Cornet, P. Hartley, et al.: Metallurgical and Materials
Transactions, 29A (1998), 2383-2393.
[6] P. Jacques:Current opinion in Solid State and Materials, 8-3/4 (2004),
259-265.
[7] F.S. LePera: Journal of Metals, 32-3 (1980) 38-39.
[8] I. Tamura, H. Sekine, T. Tanaka T,: Thermomechanical Processing of
High-Strength Low-alloy Steels [M]. London: Butterworths, (1988),
44.
[9] Z. Cui: Beijing: Machinery Industry Press, (2003), 31.
69
09.08.2010 14:18:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Deformation Mode on Microstructure Evolution in Nb-Microalloyed Steel

Krzysztof Muszka, Bradley P. Wynne, Eric J. Palmiere, W. Mark Rainforth
Institute for Microstructural and Mechanical Process Engineering (IMMPETUS), The University of Sheffield, Sheffield / United Kingdom,
k.muszka@sheffield.ac.uk
During most metal forming processes, metal undergoes a complex deformation history that may introduce high inhomogeneity of both
deformation and microstructure. For example, recent observations show that the strain reversal in a Nb-microalloyed steel affects significantly, and in a complex way, not only dynamic and static recrystallisation kinetics, but also strain-induced precipitation, whereas the austenite-ferrite phase transformation kinetics seem to be rather insensitive to the change of the deformation mode. It is already known that the
recrystallisation stagnation is a consequence of the competition between the driving pressure for recrystallisation and the pinning pressure
caused by the strain-induced precipitation of Nb(C,N) precipitates. Both of these parameters depend in turn on the local dislocation density.
Thus, it is expected that a variation of the local dislocation density due to reversal of the strain will affect at the same time, the local driving
and the pinning pressures, which will cause the difference in the hardening levels. In the present paper, the influence of strain mode
change on microstructure evolution and mechanical behaviour in microalloyed steels will be studied. The purpose-built Arbitrary Strain Path
(ASP) machine will be used to carry out forward/reverse torsion tests at elevated temperatures to study the effect of complex deformation
modes on the phenomena occurring during microstructure evolution of Nb-microalloyed steel. This will provide data for the modification of
existing constitutive equations that mostly do not account for the strain path changes. Better through-process modelling will enable to
achieve better properties and quality of the final product.
Keywords: Deformation mode, Strain reversal, Austenite deformation, Phase transformation, Microalloyed steel
Introduction
In the industrial hot working processes, e.g. at the
roughing stage of hot rolling, material undergoes complex
deformation modes that leads to gradients of both microstructure and properties across the rolled plate thickness.
Therefore, strain path history represent one of the most
important processing parameters that characterise hot
metal forming processes, and is very often underestimated
in the microstructure evolution modelling process. Previous studies have revealed that the deformation mode affects both dynamic and static recrystallisation kinetics[1-3].
It has been found in both C-Mn and Nb-microalloyed
steels that strain path change delays the onset of the dynamic recrystallisation. The effect of strain reversal on the
static recrystallisation was found to be more complex and
depends on the magnitude of the reversal [1]. The kinetics
of the static recrystallisation can be either delayed - when
the strain is not fully reversed, or even accelerated when
the applied strain is fully reversed. It can be explained in
terms of the stored energy that changes based upon the
magnitude of the strain reversal what, in turn, provides
different number of possible nucleation sites for recrystallisation.
Plastic deformation, in principle, can also affect the kinetics of phase transformations in steels via: an increase in
nucleation site density (due to a change in grain shape) and
an increase in the stored energy within the grains (due to
dislocation substructure development)[2-5]. Recent studies
of strain path effect on transformations in C-Mn steels
show that full reversal of strain retards the transformation compared to the monotonic deformation up to the
same total strain but accelerates it compared to the undeformed material [4]. In Nb-microalloyed steel, the delaying effect of the reversal on transformation disappears as a result of the temperature decrease during the test
[3] and transformation products are rather insensitive to
70
the applied strain path [3]. The only difference in

transformation products was observed in case of the material that has been deformed above the recrystallisation-stop
temperature - its microstrucutre was characterised by different refinement levels - what was attributed to the delayed dynamic recrystallisation kinetics (in case of the
reversed deformation mode), rather than to the transformation itself [2]. When the material was deformed in the
unrecrystallised austenite region, no effect of deformation
mode on transformation product was found. Also pearlite
was found to be insensitive to strain reversal and its transformation kinetics are only a function of total strain [4].
In terms of bainite transformation, it was observed in
Nb-steel that with the same total cumulative strain and
cooling rate, strain path reversal by cyclical torsion leads
to lower temperature transformation by a displacive
mechanism, comparing to deformation with simple strain
path which produces higher temperature transformed
products by reconstructive transformation. The possible
reason is the reduction of the nucleation sites due to a
lower dislocation density caused by the strain reversal.
In the present work, the effect of different deformation
modes on the strain-induced precipitation process and
transformation behaviour of an API X-70 microalloyed
steel was studied. Forward/forward (FF) and forward/reverse (FR) torsion tests were conducted using the
torsion component of the Arbitrary Strain Path (ASP)
testing machine at The University of Sheffield [5]. The
results were also compared with the monotonic deformation test. The proper understanding of the strain paths
changes effect in hot working conditions will enable more
accurate through-process modelling.
The effect of strain path change on the strain-induced
precipitation process and subsequent austenite-ferrite
phase transformation was studied using an API grade X-70
09.08.2010 14:18:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
microalloyed steel with the basic chemical composition
that is summarized in Table 1. In the present work, the
material was received as-hot rolled plate with a thickness
of 19mm. Prior to specimen machining, the plate was
solutionised at 1200 C for 3 hours in an argon protective
atmosphere followed by immediate water quenching to
ensure complete dissolution of existing Nb(C,N). Also,
thanks to that procedure all torsion specimens prior to
deformation, were austenitised at 1200 C for 2 minutes
only what, in turn, prevented extensive surface oxidation.
Solid torsion specimens were machined to a gage length of
20mm and gauge diameter of 10mm, with a thermocouple
inserted offset from the deformation zone for temperature
control purpose. All tests were carried out at an equivalent
constant strain rate of 1 s-1 at the critical radius corresponding to 72.4% of the total gauge radius according to
Barraclough et al [7]. This helped to minimize the complexity of converting the recorded machine torque and
rotation angle data into flow stress and strain. The deformation schedules (Figure 1) were designed in order to
study an effect of different deformation mode on the
strain-induced precipitation process and austenite-ferrite
transformation behaviour.
Table 1. Chemical composition of the investigated steel (in wt.%).
C
Si
Mn
Cr
Cu
0.13
0.49
1.49
0.018
0.004
0.061
0.012
Ni
0.019
Mo
Nb
Ti
Al
0.002
0.035
0.003
0.039
0.071
0.006
<0.001
<0.0005
In the first part of this work, the effect of strain reversal

on strain-induced precipitation process was analysed. After
soaking at 1200 C for 2 minutes, the specimens were
cooled down to deformation temperature TD with a cooling
rate of 15 C/s.
The specimens were deformed below the recrystallisation-stop temperature (at 900 C) with the strain of 0.4 in
the forward direction (F), and then held for 3 minutes in
order for the strain-induced precipitation process to occur,
and then deformed again with different torsion directions
(forward - F or reverse - R). The interpass holding time
required for the strain-induced precipitation process to
start was calculated using Dutta-Sellars' model [8]. Additionally, monotonic torsion test was carried out at 900C
up to the total strain of 0.8.
Figure 1. Deformation schedules.
After deformation, compressed air flow was directed to

the specimen to achieve an average cooling rate of 1 C/s
from deformation temperature down to 200 C. The
changes of the specimen lengths during cooling were also
recorded to study the transformation behaviours.
Subsequently, all the specimens were sectioned parallel
to the longitudinal direction of the torsion specimens and
then mechanically ground and polished using diamond
pastes to 72.4% of the radius. Nb(C,N) particles size and
distribution was analysed on carbon extraction replicas
method using Philips 420 TEM operated at 120kV. Additionally, concentrations of niobium and titanium as precipitates were determined using matrix dissolution method
(ICP-EOS facility at Corus RD&T Swinden Technology
Center, Rotherham, UK).
In order to study the effect of deformation mode on
transformation behaviour, optical microscopy and
SEM/EBSD analysis were preformed. Ferrite microstructures were revealed using 2% Nital solution. Electron back
scatter diffraction (EBSD) mapping were conducted on the
tangential plane at the critical radius within the gauge
length. The EBSD data were collected using a FEI field
emission gun scanning electron microscope (FEGSEM)
equipped with a HKL Nordlys CCD camera. HKL Channel 5 software package was used for both data acquisition
and analysis.
Results
Effect of Deformation Mode on Strain-Induced Precipitation Process. The first part of the present study
focused on the effect of strain reversal on the straininduced precipitation process. Figure 2 presents the
equivalent strain-stress curves obtained for the specimens
after different deformation at 900 C. The change in the
hardening rate during the second deformation indicates
that the interpass holding time (180 s) was long enough for
the strain-induced precipitation process, what supports the
accuracy of the calculations using Dutta-Sellars model. It
can be also seen that in the case of the forward/forward
test, the stress level during the second deformation is
higher, compared to that of the forward/reverse test. For
comparison, the monotonic deformation flow stress is also
presented.
Figure 2. Equivalent strain vs. equivalent stress curves obtained

from forward/forward, forward/reverse and monotonic torsion tests.
71
09.08.2010 14:18:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 3. Bright field TEM image of strain-induced precipitates

found in FF specimen (carbon extraction replica).
Figure 4. Size distribution of particles in specimens subjected to

forward/forward (FF) and forward/reverse (FR) deformation modes.
The detailed study of the formation of Nb(C,N) in microalloyed steels is very difficult [9]. The transformation
of the austenite to low temperature products removes the
prior dislocation structure that is fundamental to the generation of the refined final microstructure.
Cooling after deformation results in the interphase precipitation during phase transformation and subsequent
precipitation may also occur in the ferrite. As a result, it is
difficult to differentiate precipitates formed in austenite
from those formed subsequently, especially for the smallest ones as those formed during the strain-induced precipitation process, that are the most effective in the recrystallisation retardation. Nevertheless, having in mind all above
mentioned problems, the authors attempted to do the detailed analysis of the precipitates to assess the differences
in their size and distribution (of those formed in the austenite and during cooling) resulting from the different
history of applied strain path. The detailed TEM analysis
of deformed specimens using carbon extraction replicas
revealed the presence of finely dispersed strain-induced
precipitation (Figure 3). EDS analysis confirmed the presence of NbC, TiC as well as more complex Nb,Ti(C) particles. Histograms of the precipitate size distribution can be
seen in Figure 4. Although the extraction replicas do not
reliably remove the precipitates <5nm, it was found that in
72
the case of the forward/forward deformation mode, the

average particle size is smaller (13.9nm) compared to
forward/reverse route (19.4nm). Additionally, the matrix
dissolution method to determine the concentration of Nb
as precipitates. It revealed a slightly higher concentration
of Nb as precipitates (carbonitrides) in the forward/reverse
deformed specimen (293.2 g per g of solution) compared
to the forward/forward case (261.2 g per g of solution).
However, due to the fact that in the latter case the particles
were found to be much smaller, it can be assumed that the
total density of the precipitates (formed during straininduced precipitation process and during subsequent cooling) was higher in forward/forward test, and thus, the
overall precipitation hardening effect was more pronounced in this case -what was observed on the flow curve
(see Figure 2). Assuming that the recrystallisation stagnation is a consequence of the competition between the driving pressure for recrystallisation and the pinning pressure
caused by the strain-induced precipitation of Nb(C,N)
precipitates, that in turn depend on the local dislocation
density. Consequently, a variation of the local dislocation
density due to a reversal of the strain will affect them at
the same time the local driving and the pinning pressures,
which could explain the observed results in the hardening
levels.
Effect of Deformation Mode on Austenite-Ferrite
Phase Transformation. To assess the effect of the deformation mode on the austenite-ferrite transformation, cooling curves were recorded and plotted against the change in
the specimens length - Figure 5. The local minima of the
curves indicate the onset of the phase transformation
which causes the interruption of the linear contraction.
During the austenite decomposition, despite the continuous decreasing temperature, the specimens expand due to
the volume increase caused by the phase transformation.
The maxima at lower temperature suggest the completion
of the phase transformation, therefore the specimens resume contraction with decreasing temperature afterwards.
It was found that in the case of forward/reverse torsion, the
onset of the transformation is slightly delayed, compared
to the forward/forward test (756 C in FR and 770 C in
FF). Also, the transformation stop temperature in this case
is lower (729 C in FR and 717 C in FF).
Figure 5. Transformation behaviours of samples subjected to FF

and FR torsion. TS, TF - transformation start and stop temperatures.
09.08.2010 14:18:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
nel 5 software (Table 2) also support this observation. In
terms of grain shape, it can be observed that the strain
reversal leads to more equiaxed microstructure (Figures
6(a) and 7(a)).
Table 2. Results of grain size measurements.
Figure 6. Optical microstructures of the specimens subjected to

FF (a) and FR (b) route.
Figure 7. EBSD results showing high- and low-angle grain

boundaries in specimens subjected to FF (a) and FR (b) deformation routes.
Method
FF
std. dev. FR
std. dev.
EBSD (Channel 5)
14.8 m
11.8
14.1 m
9.6
Linear intercept
19.2 m
7.8
18.5 m
9.2
Misorientation angle distribution measurements (Figure

8) show a higher volume fraction of low angle boundaries
(below 15). It can be explained that full strain reversal
applied below the recrystallisation-stop temperature causes
decrease in stored energy within the grains. However,
during the progress of transformation it becomes a second
order effect, as the austenite grains need to be "filled"
with the ferrite grains.
Conclusions
The effect of strain path change on strain-induced precipitation process and austenite-ferrite transformation
behaviour in Nb-microalloyed steel was studied. To assess
the effect of strain-path change, two deformation passes of
torsion with different twist directions were conducted and
compared with the monotonic torsion test. It was found
that in the specimen deformed with the FF route, the mean
particle size is smaller, and the total number density of the
precipitates is higher compared to the FR route, and thus
the precipitation strengthening effect in the first case is
more pronounced. A variation of the local dislocation
density due to a change of deformation mode affects at the
same time the local driving and the pinning pressures,
which could explain the differences in the hardening level
after application of different strain path.
The strain reversal delays the onset of the transformation. However, the transformation products themselves seem to be insensitive to the applied deformation
modes.
Acknowledgements
Financial support provided by EPSRC, UK (grant
EP/F023464/1) and the supply of the experimental materials by Corus Group plc are gratefully acknowledged.
References
Figure 8. Grain boundaries misorientation profiles.
However, detailed microstructure analysis using optical

microscope (Figure 6), and SEM/EBSD (Figure 7), show
for both deformation modes, that the transformed microstructures are nearly the same. Ferrite grain size measurements using both the linear intercept method and Chansteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
[1] D. Jorge-Badiola, I. Gutierrez: Acta Materialia, 52 (2004), 333-341.

[2] K. Muszka, L. Sun, B.P. Wynne, E.J. Palmiere, W.M. Rainforth:
Materials Science Forum, 638-642 (2010), 3418-3423.
[3] J.L. Lanzagorta, D. Jorge-Badiola, I. Gutierrez: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 527 (2010), 934-940.
[4] S.B. Davenport, D.N. Hanlon, S. van der Zwaag: Scripta Materialia,
46 (2002), 413-417.
[5] L. Sun, E.J. Palmiere - Personal Communication.
[6] http://www.immpetus.group.shef.ac.uk/index.php/facilities-m/.
[7] D.R. Barraclough, H.J. Whittaker, K.D. Nair, C.M. Sellars: Journal of
Testing and Evaluation, 1 (1973), 220-227.
[8] B. Dutta, E.J. Palmiere, C.M. Sellars: Acta Materialia, 49 (2001),
785-794.
[9] W.M. Rainforth, M.P. Black, R.L. Higginson, E.J. Palmiere, C.M.
Sellars, I. Prabst, P. Warbichler, F. Hofer: Acta Materialia, 50 (2002),
735-747.
73
09.08.2010 14:18:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Microstructural Modeling and Processing Optimization during Hot Strip Rolling of

High-Nb Steels
Yun Bo Xu1), Yong Mei Yu2), Bao Liang Xiao1), Guo Dong Wang1)
1)
State Key Laboratory of Rolling Technology and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang / P R China, xuyunbo@mail.neu.edu.cn; 2)
Mechanical Engineering School, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, Shenyang / P R China
The microstructure modeling during thermo-mechanical processing of high-Nb HSLA steels has been developed to predict austenite
recrystallization, grain size and precipitation. When rolled at higher temperatures with reasonable rolling schedule, high-Nb steels often
display the typical behaviour of dynamic and metadynamic recrystallization (DRX+MRX) followed by strain accumulation again, which can
not only intensely refine austenite grain size but also greatly increase the strain accumulation effect. The transformed microstructures in
high-Nb steel, comprising fine acicular ferrite and quasi-polygonal ferrite in a relatively wide range of cooling rate, are markedly different in
shape, morphology and volume fraction of each phase from those in low-Nb steel.
Keywords: High-Nb steel, Recrystallization, Precipitation, Microstructure Evolution, Modeling
Introduction
A new high-Nb microalloying technology has been
adopted in the development of high strength pipeline steels,
which allows Nb content up to 0.1% in steels and using
high temperature processing (HTP) in rolling [1]. The
high-level addition of Nb strongly inhibits high
-temperature transformation, promotes the formation of
acicular ferrite, and allows using non-Mo alloying and
high-temperature rolling to produce high strength and
toughness pipeline steel [2,3]. This can solve the
bottleneck problems of the traditional pipeline steels
development, greatly reduce production costs and mill
load, improve rolling efficiency, enhance the upgrading of
pipeline steels, and show a good development prospects
and potential. There are, however few reports on
microstructural evolution models of high-Nb HTP steels
and the comparison between this material and traditional
low-Nb steel.
In this work, a new physical metallurgical model was
developed to predict microstructure evolution and
mechanical properties of high-Nb steels during HTP
process. These models can permit the quantitative
description of the recrystallization kinetics, recrystallized
grain size and precipitation behavior for the present steels.
The overall microstructure model was then applied to
examine the effects of several possible modifications to
the current rolling practice for the present steels, and some
significant differences compared to the traditional low-Nb
steel are presented. The aim of performing these
calculations was to explore the potential for refining the
austenite grain size, increasing the retained strain and the
content of solute Nb before transformation in high-Nb
steel.
Physical Metallurgical Model
The recrystallization behavior of austenite, consisting of
dynamic, static and metadynamic recrystallization (DRX,
SRX and MRX), controls the evolution of microstructure
during thermo-mechanically processing of steels,
especially for microalloyed steels. The added
microalloying element, e.g. Nb, play a major role in
74
retarding, or even stopping recrystallization. This leads to

a high retained strain in austenite, thereby further refining
ferrite grain size during subsequent transformation. The
microstructure models referred in Table 1 were used in the
analysis of metallurgical phenomenon [4-14]. The
meaning or numerical value of some symbols or
coefficients in Table 1 is shown in Table 2. The main
parameters in these equations can be obtained from Ref.
[15] by fitting experimental results.
Table 1. Basic formulas in prediction models.
Sub Model
Equation
p = Cd 0p Z b , Z = exp(Qd / RT )
c p = 0.8 10.8Nbeff + 64.4Nbeff , Nb = Nb Mn/ 120+ Si / 94
DRX
eff
X s = 1 exp[ 0.69(t / t 0.5 ) k ]
SRX
t0.5 = A1 A2 d 0A3 exp(Qrex / RT )
d SRX = 1.9 0.67 d 00.67
t 0.5 = 4.42 10 7 0.59 exp(153000 / RT )

MRX and
grain growth
d MRX = 1400 Z 0.13

4.5
23
d 4.5 = d SRX
( MRX ) + 4.110 t gg exp ( 435000 / RT )
d0i +1 = X i4 / 3 d SRX + (1 X i )2 d0i

= K acc (1 X i ) i
t ps = A[ Nb]1 1Z 0.5 exp ( 270000 / RT ) exp B /(T 3 ln k s2 )
i
Precipitation
Ferrite
grain size
Table 2.
Symbols
d 0 , d SRX , d MRX
d, dF
Q
,Q
rex
t , R , T , t ps
, c , P
, , K acc , k s
X s , t 0 .5 ,
Constants
n
X P = 1 exp ln(0.95) ( t / t ps )
0.5
d F = [b1 + b2
+ b3 (1 exp( 0.015d ))] (1 0.45 )
Symbols or coefficients of equation in Table 1.

Meaning or numeric value
Initialgrain size, grain size after SRX and MRX, grain size,
grain size,m
deformation and SRX activation energy (J/mol), Zener-Hollomon
Parameter
time(s),gas constant, temperature(K), precipitation start time
Strain, critical strain, peak strain
Strain rate, residual strain, constant, supersaturation ratio
SRX fraction, an empirical time constant for 50% SRX, cooling rate
A=3.910-6, B=1.610-10, n=1.5, A1=7.2210-18, A2=-1.4, A2=2.1 for
high-Nb steel; A=1.110-7, B=9.4109, n=2.0, A1=1.6410-11, A2=
-2.0, A2=1.1 for low-Nb steel. b1=2.5, b2=3.0, b3=20, k=0.6.
The critical strain for DRX is calculated to determine

whether or not DRX (followed by MRX) is initiated when
09.08.2010 14:18:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
the workpiece is in the roll gap. If it occurs, the fraction
and grain size of DRX and MDRX between passes are
calculated, otherwise only the SRX kinetics is calculated
during interpass intervals. The results obtained at the end
of one interpass period are considered as the input for the
next rolling pass. In such a manner, the pass-by-pass
evolution of grain size, fractional softening and retained
strain at each step were analyzed until the calculation for
all of the passes was finished.
Applications of the Model to Hot-strip Rolling Conditions
Table 3 shows the chemical composition of the present
steels. The grain sizes after recrystallization and
coarsening between passes are calculated as initial values
for the next pass. As shown in Tables 4-6, the hot-strip
rolling simulations were provided to calculate the grain
size, fractional softening, and the precipitation of niobium
carbonitride during the schedule, in a pass-by-pass
analysis. Here, the initial grain size of 80m at the
entrance of finishing and the absence of precipitation
before finishing rolling are assumed in the present
calculations.
Table 3.Chemical composition of present steels (mass %).
The results obtained for the case of the entry finishing

temperature of 982 C and end finishing temperature of
867 C are presented in Table 4. In high-Nb steel A,
although precipitation starts between the 4th and 5th
passes (using the 5% precipitation criteria here), there is
already a heavy incomplete recrystallization occurred in
the early passes, which likely attributes to the relatively
large initial grain size and so short interpass interval time
in hot-strip rolling in addition to the retarding effect of
dissolved Nb on recrystallization. A DRX+MRX cycle is
observed in the 3rd stand. This is a typical example of
strain accumulation followed dynamic softening, where
the total strain can exceed the critical strain and then DRX
is initiated after some strain accumulation due to
incomplete softening between passes if the Nb remains in
solid solution. It must be pointed that the present models
consider that there is no further softening when
precipitation occurs. After the 5th pass, this amount of
precipitates increased evidently and a full strain
accumulation in the last passes was achieved. The final
retained strain reaches to 0.40 and the high solute Nb
content (Nbsol), 0.087 (in wt%), can be attained after
finishing rolling. This is desirable in order to produce a
large amount of fine acicular ferrite after transformation,
because the solute Nb could suppress the formation of
polygonal ferrite and/or pearlite, and promote the
formation of acicular ferrite and at the same time, high
retained strain would also further refine the final
microstructure.
However, the result obtained for the low-Nb grade (Steel
D) displayed SRX only and no precipitation throughout
rolling. That is to say, there was a total absence of DRX
for the current rolling schedule, according to the present
model. This is commonly called as conventional

controlled rolling, where the aim is to produce
work-hardened austenite, and is distinguished from
DRX(+MRX)-controlled rolling, where the main purpose
is to refine the austenite grain size. It is noteworthy here
that the critical strains in steel B for DRX to take place
appear to be slight higher than those in steel A. This is
because that high-Nb grade has a lower c/p ratio than
low-Nb grade, despite of the higher peak strain observed
in former. On the other hand, the low Nb content is
responsible for the absence of precipitation behavior. For
this particular level of Nb, a low supersaturation level
would lead to a small driving force for precipitation and tps
can not be attained, even in final passes. This causes the
increase in fractional softening taking place between the
final passes, compared with the high-Nb version, which
results in the retained strain of 0.29 and the final austenite
grain size of 12 m predicted in Table 4. It can be also
seen that, although the nearly same ferrite grain size are
obtained in both steels, the different levers of solute Nb at
the exit of the final stand would determine the final
transformed
products
and
their
microstructural
characteristics. Additionally, it is necessary to explain
more about what no precipitation means. In fact, no
precipitation here refers to the case that the precipitation
amount is less than 5%, not in the strict sense of no
precipitation. Indeed, it is very difficult to say there is no
precipitation in many cases, and Table 4 gives only the
relatively accurate calculation results based on the classic
D-S equation. However, it is completely reliable if being
applied in the analysis of hot-strip mill.
Table 4. Predictions of grain size, retained strain and precipitation
at the intermediate finishing temperature.
Steel A
Pass
T/
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
982
973
959
942
912
893
867
0.17
0.20
0.14
0.15
0.18
0.14
0.15
982
973
959
942
912
893
867
0.17
0.20
0.14
0.15
0.18
0.14
0.15
Steel B
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
0.024%C-1.49%Mn-0.169%Si-0.10%Nb
DRX
/s-1
c
t0.5/s
0.00 10.14 0.49

52.14
0.14 5.09 0.41
17.14
yes
0.27 5.75 0.40
0.48
0.02 8.76 0.21
1.40
0.08 12.70 0.35
4.20
0.26 14.08 0.41
4.04
yes
0.40 17.53 0.53
0.84
X
0.14
0.21
0.94
0.53
0.00
0.00
-
ferrite grain size5.4m
0.072%C-1.60%Mn-0.23%Si-0.022%Nb
0.00
0.13
0.21
0.22
0.24
0.28
0.29
10.14
5.09
5.75
8.76
12.70
14.08
17.53
0.90
0.76
0.68
0.66
0.70
0.68
0.71
24.64
5.86
4.24
3.18
3.00
3.01
3.17

d
Nbsol/
Ip/s
tps/s
/m
mass%
80.0 4.2 12.81
0.100
67.7 2.8
6.37
0.099
50.6 2.0
3.33
0.098
9.0
1.6
4.29
0.096
13.3 1.2
1.63
0.095
13.3 1.0
0.88
0.092
0.52
13.3
0.087
-
0.21
0.36
0.36
0.37
0.33
0.30
-
80.0
64.6
43.2
30.1
21.4
15.7
12.1
4.2
2.8
2.0
1.6
1.2
1.0
-
2.9104
4.6103
82.12
18.65
4.78
3.27
2.21
0.022
0.022
0.022
0.022
0.022
0.022
0.022
In conventional-controlled rolling, lowering the

temperatures of the finishing passes is one of several ways
of raising the retained strain and refining the final ferrite
grain size. A spreadsheet is shown in Table 5 where the
reduction of finishing temperature is close to
approximately 40 C and two different rolling schedules
are compared. It can be seen from this table, the high-Nb
grade experienced a sooner precipitation in schedule I than
in schedule II because of the relatively higher strains and
the lowered temperatures in finishing passes of schedule I.
All the dissolved Nb in austenite is nearly precipitated at
the end of finishing mill in rolling schedule I. In the case
75
09.08.2010 14:18:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
of schedule II, even through the solute Nb after the final
stand is heightened to about 0.047 by lowering the
reductions of finishing passes, the relatively low retained
strain and coarse austenite grain size at the start of
transformation leads to the coarsening of ferrite grain size.
Regardless of rolling schedule, when finishing rolling is
carried out at lowered temperatures, the accelerated
precipitation could stop the recrystallization between
finishing passes and hence the coarse non-recrystallized
grains are kept until to the start of transformation. Thus,
the calculated results suggest that, the high-Nb steel are
not applicable to be rolled at relatively lower temperatures
of finishing passes, because this not only exhausts a great
deal of solute Nb but also causes the coarsening of the
final ferrite grain size.
at low finishing temperature.
Steel A
t0.5/s
0.00
Rolling Schedule I
DRX
c
12.90 0.53
-
18.32
0.25

Nbsol/
d
Ip/s
tps/s
mass%
/m
80.0 4.2
4.28
0.100
0.29
0.54
0.86
1.06
1.30
1.45
5.15
8.34
9.93
15.10
14.96
12.68
0.49
0.48
0.60
0.70
1.03
1.74
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-
55.8
55.8
55.8
55.8
55.8
55.8
Pass
T/
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
978
0.38
963
942
916
886
859
830
0.25
0.32
0.20
0.24
0.14
0.08
Steel A
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
978
963
942
916
886
859
830
/s-1
0.40
0.52
0.65
0.90
1.11
1.37
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
0.00
0.15
0.28
0.42
0.57
0.75
0.88
10.14
5.09
5.75
8.76
12.70
14.08
17.53
0.50
0.44
0.46
0.61
0.84
1.06
1.43
2.95
0.91
0.47
0.25
0.21
0.22
0.096
0.093
0.080
0.056
0.018
0.006
Rolling Schedule II
0.17
0.20
0.14
0.15
0.18
0.14
0.15
2.8
2.0
1.6
1.2
1.0
-
57.71
22.39
17.14
22.56
36.69
65.88
132.60
0.13
0.18
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-
80.0
68.1
52.5
52.5
52.5
52.5
52.5
4.2
2.8
2.0
1.6
1.2
1.0
-
10.95
4.67
2.25
0.93
0.48
0.36
0.27
0.100
0.099
0.097
0.094
0.084
0.067
0.047
condition that DRX occurs. As an example, in the present

model a DRX cycle is observed in pass 6 attributable to
the raised strains of the last passes, thereby leading to so
low retained strain of 0.01 and austenite grain size of
10.6m obtained at the end of the schedule. This effect,
associated with high temperature and low supersaturation
ratio, essentially eliminates the Nb carbonitride
precipitation. The final ferrite grain sizes predicted in the
two steels are respectively 4.4m and 6.5m.
This work shows the conventional-controlled -rolling
characterized by low-temperature and heavy-deformation
is not applicable in high-Nb material. Therefore, a new
controlled-rolling theory suitable for high-temperature
processing, that is, DRX+MRX followed by strain
accumulation, has been firstly proposed here. This can not
only cause intense grain refinement and strain
accumulation at the exit of mill but also enhance the
formation of fine acicular ferrite and precipitation
strengthening effect of Nb carbonitride, thereby greatly
heightening the combination mechanical properties of
high-Nb steel.
at high finishing temperature.
Steel A
Pass
T/
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
1000
982
960
945
934
929
920
0.13
0.18
0.18
0.17
0.40
0.37
0.15
Steel B
As we know, high-Nb steels are more suitable for rolling

in the higher temperature window and thus Table 6 gives
the results at finishing temperature of 920 C in the two
steels. The strongly retarding effect of solute Nb in
high-Nb steel enhances the strain accumulation in the first
passes making it possible for DRX to occur in
subsequently passes. High-temperature processing slows
down the precipitation kinetics and thus the relatively
obvious precipitation often takes place in the last stands.
As a consequent, steel A displays the typical behaviour of
DRX+MRX followed by strain accumulation again, which
is seemingly the most attractive schedule for hot strip
rolling. This is because that the DRX cycle occurred in the
early passes could cause the intense grain refinement, and
strain-induced precipitation presented subsequently leads
to full strain accumulation, thus also offering a probability
of increasing the strain of last passes. This heavy strain
accumulation is desirable in order to produce a fine ferrite
grain size after transformation. Again, the other advantage
of high-temperature rolling is that there is sufficient Nb
dissolved in austenite at the end of schedule, favorable for
the forming of acicular ferrite and precipitation
strengthening effect. For the case of low-Nb steel, the
entire finishing rolling is still carried out in partial
recrystallization region due to extremely short interpass
interval in hot-strip rolling. However, the relatively high
level of fractional softening between passes greatly
reduces the strain accumulation effect, particular in the
76
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
1000
982
960
945
934
929
920
0.024%C-1.49%Mn-0.169%Si-0.10%Nb
DRX
/s-1
c
t0.5/s
0.00 7.37
0.41
45.86
0.11 3.91
0.36
17.50
0.23 5.34
0.40
yes
0.50
0.03 7.62
0.20
1.13
0.08 16.38 0.31
yes
0.35
0.48 22.12 0.35
yes
0.32
0.85 17.53 0.35
yes
0.41
0.15
0.21
0.94
0.57
0.00
0.00
-

d
Nbsol/
Ip/s
tps/s
/m
mass%
80.0 4.2 46.74
0.100
68.7 2.8 11.88
0.100
52.3 2.0
3.51
0.099
9.1
1.6
4.35
0.098
13.4 1.2
1.01
0.097
13.4 1.0
0.46
0.091
0.39
13.4
0.078
-
0.19
0.33
0.37
0.39
0.57
0.98
-
80.0
67.5
47.2
31.8
21.8
13.6
10.6
0.072%C-1.60%Mn-0.23%Si-0.022%Nb
0.13
0.18
0.18
0.17
0.40
0.37
0.15
0.00
0.11
0.19
0.23
0.25
0.28
0.01
7.37
3.91
5.34
7.62
16.38
22.12
17.53
0.79
0.71
0.70
0.65
0.65
0.56
0.50
yes
-
29.48
7.04
4.02
2.75
0.88
0.32
7.46
4.2
2.8
2.0
1.6
1.2
1.0
-
9.7106
2.7102
87.46
21.89
5.46
3.83
12.40
0.022
0.022
0.022
0.022
0.022
0.022
0.022
Metallurgical Features of High-Nb and Low-Nb Steels

The acicular ferrite is defined as a low-carbon bainitic
structure with lath characteristic that forms during cooling
through a combined mode of diffusion and shear
transformation at a temperature range slightly higher than
upper bainite. However, the acicular ferrite observed in
optical micrographs is not isolated but commonly
combined with polygonal ferrite, quasi-polygonal ferrite
and bainitic ferrite, etc. For a strain value of 0.4 at 900C
(average austenite grain size 10-13 m, strain rate 1 s-1),
the comparison of optical micrographs between high-Nb
steel (steel C) and low-Nb steel (steel B) at different
cooling rates (5 and 20 C/s) is shown in Figure 1. At the
cooling rate of 5 C/s, the transformed products in low-Nb
steel include acicular ferrite, irregular bainitic ferrite and a
small amount of quasi-polygonal ferrite. The
corresponding transformed microstructures in high-Nb
steel, comprising a great deal of acicular ferrite and
quasi-polygonal ferrite, are markedly different in shape,
morphology and volume fraction of each phase from those
in low-Nb steel. The acicular ferrite matrix is characterized
09.08.2010 14:18:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
by the non-equiaxed ferrite, which has various size grains
distributed in a random manner and the sizes are greatly
reduced with the substantial increase of the Nb content.
When cooling rate is heightened to 20 C/s, the
transformed microstructure of low-Nb steel consists of
mainly bainitic ferrite and small amounts of
quasi-polygonal ferrite, and prior-austenite grain
boundaries are faintly visible. The packet size of bainitic
ferrite is about 10m and the volume fraction of acicular
ferrite abruptly decreases. With increasing the cooling rate,
the matrix phase in high-Nb steel remains unchanged as
acicular ferrite and a small amount of quasi-polygonal
ferrite, while the average grain size is further decreased,
and bainitic ferrite is scarcely observed.
The difference of transformation products between the
two steels is related to the level of austenite work
-hardening during hot deformation. As the Nb content
increases abruptly, the softening behaviors during hot
deforming such as recovery and recrystallization are
strongly suppressed and the flow stress increases, and so a
heavy deformation in austenite non-recrystallization
region produces a large number of defects such as
dislocations and stacking faults within the deformed
austenite grain, it is likely to be the most effective means
of acicular ferrite formation. Next, the high lever of Nb
content in austenite is capable of suppressing the
coarsening of acicular ferrite grain by solute drag effect
and the pinning effect of precipitation particle.
Additionally, although the average sizes of prior austenite
grain are in the narrow range of 10-13 m in the present
work, the sizes in high-Nb steel are slightly smaller
compared to the low-Nb steel even at the same
austenitization temperature, which also has a definite
effect on the formation of fine acicular ferrite.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Conclusions
A microstructural model describing recrystallization and
precipitation of high-Nb HSLA steels has been developed
to evaluate the effects of modifications to processing
parameters in industrial conditions. The following
conclusions are drawn from this work.
1. High-Nb steels are not suitable for being rolled at
low-temperature and heavy deformation conditions due
to accelerated precipitation kinetics and fairly coarse
non-recrystallization grain size in austenite. By contrast,
when rolled at higher temperatures high-Nb steels often
display the typical behaviour of DRX+MRX followed
by strain accumulation again.
2. The presence of sufficient solute Nb at the end of
schedule, favorable for the forming of acicular ferrite
and precipitation strengthening effect, is the other
significant advantage of high-temperature rolling.
3. The transformed microstructures in high-Nb steel,
comprising fine acicular ferrite and quasi-polygonal
ferrite in a relatively wide range of cooling rate, are
markedly different in shape, morphology and volume
fraction of each phase from those in low-Nb steel.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (N090407001)
and the National Key Project of Scientific and Technical
Supporting Programs (No.2007BAE51B07). This work
also was supported by Benxi Iron & Steel Corp., China.
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be published.
Figure 1. Comparison of optical micrographs between low-Nb steel

and high-Nb steel at different cooling rates. Prior austenite grain
size: 10-13m, strain:0.4, strain rate: 1 s-1; (a) steel C, 5 C/s, (b)
steel B, 5 C/s, (c) steel C, 20 C/s and (d) steel B, 20 C /s.
77
09.08.2010 14:18:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effects of Rolling and Heat Treatment Conditions on Texture Structure and Formability
of Magnesium Alloy Sheets
Fumio Fujita, Takero Watanabe, Hiromasa Shimoyama, Lili Guo
1
Department of Metallurgy, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai / Japan, f-fujita@material.tohoku.ac.jp
The low formability of magnesium alloy sheets prevents them from being used in a wide range of applications. The hot press processes
generally used in forming of magnesium alloy sheets result in poor size precision and surface roughness. To date, many researchers have
focused on the improving rolling processes to increase the formability of magnesium alloy sheets at low temperature. Hot rolling results in
a hexagonal crystal system with a basal plane mainly parallel to the sheet surface. This basal texture structure makes it difficult to work with
the rolled sheets of magnesium alloys. Besides texture structure, grain size is an important factor in the formability of these alloys. To improve the texture structure and obtain more desirable grain sizes, authors have focused on a variety of techniques, including normal rolling,
differential speed rolling (DSR), and periodical strain rolling (PSR) in combination with heat treatment.
Keywords: Commercial magnesium alloy sheet, Rolling, Formability, Periodical strain, Differential speed rolling
Introduction
The magnesium alloys have low formability because active slip plane is limited to only basal plane at room temperature, and symmetrically rolled sheets have basal texture, basal plane is almost parallel to sheet surface. And
low formability at room temperature narrows the application fields of magnesium alloy sheets [1,2]. To obtain
other texture and microstructure with fine gain size in
rolled sheets, several kinds of rolling and combination
with heat treatments have been examined. It is known that
the shear strain by differential speed rolling (DSR) has
effect to make grain size fine and texture with basal plane
inclined to rolling direction [3]. And combination of small
strain rolling and high temperature heat treatment makes
sheets with relatively uniform texture but large grain size
and larger elongation [4,5]. Large grain size results low
yield stress, and it is not desirable to apply magnesium
alloy sheets to industrial use.
On other hand, bending process called CCWP (Continuous Cross wavy Pressing) can make grain size finer and
random texture [6]. Friction Stir Process (FSP), Severe
Plastic Deformation (SPD) and Equal Channel Angular
Extrusion (ECAE) are accomplish making fine grain size
[7]. But by these ways, it is hard to make large size sheets
which are needed for industrial products.
Rolling is one of the suitable techniques to make large
size sheet. A new way of rolling can be proposed by introducing non-uniform straining to obtain finer grain size
microstructure and texture different from basal plane texture. In the present paper, differential speed rolling and flat
rolling with periodical straining of magnesium alloy sheets
are examined.
Periodical straining can be performed by rolling with

rolls grooved parallel and/or perpendicular to roll axis as
shown in Figure 2. Rolling by the rolls grooved parallel to
roll axis makes thickness strain periodical to rolling direction, and by the rolls grooved perpendicular to axis does to
width direction. Combination of two types rolls make biaxial periodical straining. And finally periodical strained
sheet is flat rolled and periodical straining applied by the
flat rolling again. For rolling of Magnesium alloy sheets
hot rolling is necessary. So sheets is heated upper about
570K and rolls are also heated desirably. By this way several periodic directions straining can be applied to magnesium alloy sheets continuously.
Figure 1. Schematic view of Normal Rolling and Differential Speed

Rolling
Differential Speed Rolling (DSR) and Periodical Straining and Rolling (PSR)
Differential speed rolling (DSR) is a rolling way with
differential circumferential speed between upper and lower
work roll shown in Figure 1. Large shear strain can be
introduced in the rolled sheets by differential rolling. The
merits of DSR are lower rolling force than that of symmetric normal rolling, and fine grain microstructure and different texture from basal plane texture.
78
Figure 2. Schematic view of Periodical Straining and Rolling.
09.08.2010 14:18:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental Conditions
Periodical Straining Rolling (PSR). In the experiments,

periodical straining is performed by hot pressing as shown
in Figures 3 and 4. The upper die is flat and lower die has
dimples on where steel pins are arranged. Dies with steel
pins and magnesium alloy sheet are set in a furnace set in
a compression test machine, and both dies and test sheet
are heated to test temperature.
The temperature and procedure sequence of the experiment is shown in Figure 5.
Rolling
Heat treatment
Periodical
Straining
25mm1mm
reduction:15%/pass
Temperature[K]
Differential Speed Rolling (DSR). DSR is realized using work rolls with 5% different diameters. The initial
thickness of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheet is 10 mm, and
the sheet is rolled to 2 mm thickness by several passes of
symmetric normal rolling (NR), and from 2to 1 mm thickness 7 passes DSR is applied. The sheets are heated in a
furnace at 673 K for 5 minutes before each pass. At larger
thickness reduction, the pure shear region ratio decreases
and effect of DSR becomes smaller. So 10% thickness
reduction for each pass is selected to make the pure shear
region ratio about half of roll contact area. Higher larger
roll is set to under side, and one DSR roll condition (DSRuni) is same sheet surface side and same rolling direction,
another condition (DSR-rev) is reversed sheet surface side
at each pass alternately and same rolling direction. By first
DSR condition large same directional shear strain may be
applied, and second condition may make more random
directional shear strain. Micro structure and texture structure are observed by microscope and X-ray diffractometer.
And forming limit diagram (FLD) is obtained by ERICHSEN test with different specimen widths.
and rolled to 1mm thickness by passes with 15% thickness

reductions, and annealed at 673K one hour.
Periodical straining press is performed under 573K. After pressing, flat rolling is applied by 4 passes with 15%
thickness reduction ratio per pass.
Specimen is heated to 673K between each pass and average specimen temperature while rolling is calculated as
about 513K 460K. Micro structure and texture structure
of initial, periodical strained and flat rolled specimens are
observed by Electron Back Scatter Diffraction (EBSD).
Pin diameter:3 mm
Pitch :3 mm
1h
Flat rolling
Reduction:15%/pass
4 pass
673 K
673
573
AZ31B
Starting
material
as cast
Process
PS material
PSR material
Microstructure observation
and
Texture analysis
Figure 5. Temperature and procedure sequence of experiment.
Experimental Results
DSR Results. After rolling incomplete pole figures are
obtained with X-ray diffractometer as shown in Figure 6.
TD
RD
(a) Initial specimen
(b) Symmetric normal rolling
Figure 3. Schematic view of experimental periodical straining and

Rolling.
(c) DSR-uni, lower speed side (d) DSR-uni, higher speed side
(e) DSR-rev, lower

speed side at last pass
(f) DSR-rev, higher

speed side at last
Figure 4. Pins having diameter of 3 mm set on a hot press die.
Figure 6. Incomplete (0001) pole figures of specimens after each

rolling.
AZ31B-O magnesium alloy sheet is prepared for experiments. 25mm thickness sheets are preheated at 473K
After symmetric normal rolling (b) basal plane texture

develops and basal plane accumulation intensity becomes
strong. DSR-uni specimens (c) and (d) show weaker inten-
79
09.08.2010 14:18:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
sity than that in NR specimen especially at higher speed
side. DSR-rev specimens (e) and (f) show more weaker
intensity and wide scattered distribution of basal plane to
rolling direction.
peak, and dead metal regions are appeared quarter positions of one period and dimple bottoms. At inner of dimple
bottom relatively large strain occurs.
0.25
0.2
0.15
Initial
thickness
0.1
0
-0.15
Figure 10. Specimen profile after periodical straining press
DSR-uni-RD
DSR-uni-TD
DSR-rev-RD
DSR-rev-TD
0.05
-0.1
-0.05
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
Figure 12 shows equivalent strain distribution after PSR

also calculated with FEM. Dead metal occurs also at rolling process at almost same position of PS process.
Figure 7. FLD of DSR specimens.
Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) obtained by using

ERICHSEN test machine with different specimen width is
shown in Figure 7. Largest formability is appeared at the
specimens DSR-uni-TD whose major strain direction is
tangential direction. But same specimens DSR-uni-RD
whose major strain direction is rolling direction show
lowest formability. It concludes that the specimens DSRuni have large anisotropy. Better formability and isotropy
are shown by DSR-rev specimens because of their weak
basal texture intensity. Lankford values of DSR-uni is
from 1.35 to 1.4, and that of DSR-rev is from 1.25 to 1.35.
Those values are larger than that of NR (normal rolling),
from 1.2 to 1.25.
Figure 11. Equivalent strain distribution after periodical straining

(PS) calculated with FEM (DEFORM-3D).
PSR Results. The (0001) pole figure and microstructure

of starting specimen are shown in Figures 8 and 9. Figure
8 shows typical basal texture obtained by symmetric normal rolling. The average grain size is 10.5 m.
d=10.5
m
20 m
ND
Figure 8. (0001) Pole figure of

initial specimen.
Figure 9. Microstructure of initial

specimen.
Figure 10 shows a specimen profile after periodical

straining by hot press. The pin axis direction is perpendicular to rolling direction. The thickness at dimple bottom
is about 0.7 mm, the top height is about 2mm and the pitch
is 3 mm. Top height becomes about twice of initial specimen thickness.
Stress and strain by periodical straining is calculated by
FEM (DEFORM-3D). Equivalent strain result is shown in
Figure 11. Large equivalent strain is shown at near top
80
Figure 12. Equivalent strain distribution after PS and PSR calculated using FEM. (DEFORM-3D)
Figure 13 shows (0001) pole figures for positions (1) to

(4) examined with EBSD. After periodical straining (PS),
at bottom of dimple ((a) position (1)), basal planes face to
specimen surface (ND), and at top peak ((b) position (2)),
basal planes incline about 45 degree to rolling direction. It
is observed that between positions (1) and (2), basal planes
incline parallel to the dimple inclination.
After periodical straining and flat rolling (PSR), at position (3) corresponding to position (1) of PS specimen,
basal planes scatter widely and weak intensity appear
around 45 degree inclined direction to rolling direction. At
09.08.2010 14:18:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
position (4) corresponding to position (2) of PS specimen,
basal planes face almost to normal direction.
(3). This stress condition may cause to induce (

)
tensile twin deformation. Same mechanism may work to
make non basal texture at PS process, shown in Figure 13(c).
This kind of texture formation is expected to make magnesium alloy sheets suitable for cold forming. The formability of PSR magnesium alloy sheet must be examined
with wide specimens.
Summery
(a) Position (1)
(c) Position (3)
(b) Position (2)
(d)Position (4)
Figure 13. Pole figures of each position after PS and PSR using
EBSD
The differential speed rolling (DSR) is effective to make

magnesium alloy sheets with weak peak of basal plane
texture, but same directional rolling of DSR may cause
anisotropy of plastic deformation.
1. Reverse rolling direction of DSR can weak the anisotropy.
2. DSR also increases Lankford value about 0.15 from that
NR specimen.
3. The periodical straining and rolling can make large
strain periodically along rolling direction respectively.
4. Large strain includes much shear strain and grains become fine efficiently by applying PSR.
5. PSR can scatter basal planes to rolling direction and
weaken peak intensity of basal plane accumulation.
6. (
) tensile twin deformation may occur around
bottom of PS dimples at rolling process after PS
because of occuring of complession stress along to
rolling direction.
7. Formability of PSR specimens will be presented after
preparing wider specimens.
Position
y
x
Figure 15. Stress distribution calculated using FEM for rolling
process in PSR
References
Figure 14. Reverse pole figure of position (3) after PSR using
EBSD
Figure 14 shows reverse pole figure at position (3). In

this figure twin deformation can be observed, that causes
non basal texture as shown in Figure 13(c). Stress distribution in the specimen PSRed is calculated using FEM as
shown in Figure 15. Compression stress appeared large to
rolling direction and small to normal direction at position
[1] The Japan Institute of Light Metals: Handbook of Magnesium, (2007).

[2] The Japan Institute of Metals: Iron and Steel, (1985).
[3] H. Watanabe, T. Mukai, K. Ishikawa: Journal of Material Processing
Technology, 182 (2007), 644-647.
[4] Y. Chino, K. Sassa, M. Mabuchi: Material Transactions, 49-7 (2008),
1710-1712.
[5] Y. Chino, K. Sassa, M. Mabuchi: Material Transactions, 49-12 (2008),
2916-2918.
[6] A. Yamamoto, M. Terashita, H. Tubakino: Journal of Light Metals,
57-3 (2007), 99-104.
[7] Y. Yoshida, L. Cisar, S. Kamado, Y. Kojima: Material Transaction, 44
(2003), 468-475.
81
09.08.2010 14:18:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
Modeling of Surface Crack Form Change of Continuously Cast Slabs in Roughing

Rolling at Wide Strip Mill 2000
Alexander Pesin, Victor Salganik, Denis Pustovoytov
Department of Metal forming, State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education Magnitogorsk State Technical University,
Magnitogorsk / Russia, pesin@bk.ru
In production at the wide-strip rolling and plate mills of hot rolling, most parts of finished sheets and strips develop some surface defects
such as minor scabs (-defects) and cracks. The formation of such defects on the surface of finished product depends on the surface
quality of an incoming billet and longitudinal and transverse cracks on the slab lateral face that are hidden under the cinder layer. Deformation leads to crack transformation, growth and shift from lateral face of the slab to the base surfaces of finished product. Understanding the
change in form and the mechanism for surface crack growth during deformation enables the engineer to take effective measures for their
prevention and elimination. The work shows numerical investigation of the form change peculiarities in the transverse angular cracks of the
continuously cast slab in the roughing group of wide strip mill 2000. The slab deformation has been implemented according to the following
model: V1-H1-V2-H2-V3-H3 (where V- reduction in the vertical stand, H- reduction in the horizontal stand), using the finite element method
with software DEFORM 3D V6.1. The work gives a form change mechanism of transverse corner cracks of slabs during roughing rolling.
Cracks are shown to shift to the ingot center in deformation. Further crack growth during rolling is assessed due to Cockroft-Latham criteria.
Keywords: Hot rolling, Transversal corner crack, VH rolling process, FEM
Introduction
In strip production at the wide strip hot rolling mills big
metal losses are caused by surface defects that cover considerable part of finished product and usually occur in a
shape of cracks in the edges [1-3]. For some steel grades
mainly produced of pipe steel (17G1S-U, 10G2FBU,
22GU, X70, etc) the percentage of strips affected by such
defects can even exceed 25-30%.
The origin of the hot rolling defects can be defined
mainly by the quality of the surface of the incoming billet
(Figure 1). Surface and internal defects occur in the continuously cast slabs due to a number of reasons and can
often interact with each other and reinforce this effect.
Some of these originate from the defects in the operation
of the continuous casting machine including wear and
mechanical axis misalignment, inadequate mold taper etc
whereas the others deal with the peculiarities of chemical
composition of various steels (for instance, such microalloying elements as Nb, Mo, Ni, Cu reinforce the tendency
of steel to crack formation), their strength and plastic
properties or thermo physical conditions of the metal consolidation.
Figure 1. Transverse corner cracks on surface of continuously

casted slabs [4].
At present most Russian metal processing plants do not

apply an automatic quality management system to the
continuously cast slabs in the continuous casting machine
therefore metal with surface defects of various morphol-
82
ogy comes to the rolling division. Each distinctive surface

defect of the continuously cast slab unless it is identified
and removed transforms into a surface defect of the strip
bar. Consequently, such metal is regarded as second-rate
production which is generally not scrapped.
Numerous researches have shown [5] that considerable
percentage of wide-strip production made of low-alloyed
pipe steel grades has defects on the surface that originate
from sides of the slab. If the width of the transit lines is
large, the defects remain at the edges of the trimmed
sheets and strips. Another issue is that slab defects are
concentrators of tensions in strip rolling therefore new
cracks can appear in rolling. Thus, the aim of this work is
to quantitatively investigate the change in form of the
transverse corner cracks of the slab in the rolling system
vertical-horizontal rolls of the roughing stands at Mill
2000 and to estimate the crack shift and their further
growth during rolling.
Finite Element Simulation by Utilizing Deform 3D
Simulation Conditions of FEM. The change in form of
the slab transverse cracks in hot rolling was simulated
through the finite element method with the use of DEFORM 3D software (developed by SFTC, Columbus,
Ohio, USA), which is particularly suitable to solve problems with large plastic deformations [6]. For the simulation the following assumptions were made: the process
under consideration is symmetrical and isothermal; rolls
are incompressible; the strip material is homogeneous and
isotropic; deformable medium is viscoplastic; the crack is
V-shaped [7], the length of the crack on the top surface of
the slab equals the length of the crack on the side surface.
Friction was described according to Shears law. The friction index was constant and equal to 0.7. As an equation of
deformation resistance for steel X70 (%:0.07C, 1.6Mn,
0.07Nb, 0.03V, 0.2Mo) the following function was used
[8]:
09.08.2010 14:18:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
s = 1530 u 0.1019 0.1344 exp(0.0025t )
(1)
where u is the strain rate, 1/s, is the reduction and t is
the temperature, 0.
The slab in the roughing group of the wide strip mill
2000 was rolled according to the scheme V1- H1-V2-H2V3-H3 (Table 1), where V1 rolling in the vertical scale
breaker (see Figure 2); H1 rolling in the two-roll stand;
V2-H2 rolling in the universal stand No 1; V3-H3 rolling in the universal stand No 2.
Figure 4. Finite element model of slab with transverse corner
crack.
Calculated Results and Analysis

Figure 5 shows the results of form change simulation of
the transverse corner crack during the slab rolling in the
system of vertical horizontal rolls.
Figure 2. Roll pass of vertical scale breaker (V1).
Figure 3. Geometrical model of the transverse corner crack of slab.

Table 1. Rolling conditions in FEM simulation.
Parameter
Radius of working
rolls, mm
Reduction, mm
Rolling velocity, m/s
Temperature, 0
V1
H1
Pass No
V2
H2
V3
H3
600
700
500
590
500
590
90.0 50.0 50.0

1.0 1.5
1.5
1170 1160 1140
26.0
1.5
1130
30.0 30.0
1.5
1.5
1100 1090
In the initial sizes of the slab, the thickness was 250 mm,
the width was 1500 mm and the length was 500 mm. The
initial sizes of the transversal corner crack (see Figure 3)
are the following: the length of the crack through the
thickness of the slab l0 =20 mm, the width of the crack in
the direction of rolling w0 =1.5 mm, the depth of the crack
d0 =14.1 mm. Due to symmetry only a of the slab model
was considered. The number of elements was 180845, and
the number of nodes was 40089. The mesh near the crack
was refined with coefficient 0.04 (see Figure 4).
Figure 5. Predicted form of transverse corner crack of slab in

rolling according to scheme (V1)-(H1)-(V2)-(H2)-(V3)-(H3).
Figure 5 shows the results of form change simulation of

the transverse corner crack during the slab rolling in the
system of vertical horizontal rolls. The metal predicts
that the crack edges join together during rolling in the
vertical scale breaker (V1). It should be noted that if there
is scale on the surface of the real slab, the cracks in deformation do not weld. Then the edges of the crack open
during rolling in the horizontal two-roll stand (H1): the
distance between points P2 and P3 extends to 4.9 mm.
During rolling in the vertical rolls (V2) of the universal
stand No1 the crack form does not change significantly.
During further rolling in the horizontal rolls (H2) points P2
and P3 shift to the middle of the metal at the distance 4.6
83
09.08.2010 14:18:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
mm, meanwhile the width of the crack increases to 7.4 mm.
During further rolling in the vertical rolls (V3) of the universal stand No 2 the crack form does not change significantly. Furthermore the edges of the crack join together on
the top facet of the slab during rolling in the horizontal
rolls (H3). Thus, it can be concluded that there is considerable transformation and the defect shifts from the edge to
the middle of the ingot occur during rolling in the horizontal rolls.
Estimate of Crack Propagation During Hot Rolling
Any cracks on the surface of the slab are concentrators

of tensions that can lead to the material potential destruction in rolling. The possibility of further growth of the
crack during slab rolling was estimated using the CockroftLatham criterion [9]. This criterion allows the location of destruction to be predicted when tensile stresses are
present. The model is based on the following equation:
(2)
0 max d = C
i
According to the results of the analysis the maximum

indices of the CockroftLatham criterion correspond to the
horizontal passes and vary between 0.736-0.844 (Figure 6
b, d, f) during roughing rolling with the transverse corner
crack. During rolling in the vertical rolls the maximum
indices vary between 0.186-0.343 (Figure 6 a, c, e). To
estimate which specific indices of the CockroftLatham
criterion influence the crack growth special further laboratory research is done using the plastometer and tensile
machine. However certain preliminary conclusions show
that high indices of this criterion show unfavourable indications in this area and predict further crack growth during
rolling. Thus, it can be concluded that considering further
crack growth the highest risk is rolling in the horizontal
rolls.
Figure 7 shows the effective strain distribution in the
crack area during the slab rolling in the system verticalhorizontal rolls.
where max is the maximum main tensile stress, i is the

stress intensity, is the strain intensity and C is a material
constant.
Figure 6 shows the indices of CockroftLatham criterion in the crack area during the slab rolling in the system
vertical-horizontal rolls.
Figure 7. Effective strain in crack area: a during rolling in vertical

scale breaker; b in two-roll stand; c in vertical rolls; d in
horizontal rolls; e in vertical rolls; f in horizontal rolls.
Experimental Simulation and Result Discussion
Figure 6. CockroftLatham criterion in crack area: a during

rolling in vertical scale breaker; b in two-roll stand; c in vertical
rolls of universal stand No 1; d in horizontal rolls of universal
stand No 1; e in the vertical rolls of universal stand No 2; f in
horizontal rolls of universal stand No 2.
84
The experimental study of the change in form of the

transverse corner crack of the slab during rolling in the
system vertical-horizontal rolls was done using two-roll
mill (the radius of the work rolls 75 mm). The lead slab
with the following initial sizes was used as modeling material: thickness 30 mm, width 180 mm, length 380
mm. The rolling rate was 86 mm/s in accordance with the
schedule given in Table 2. V-shaped corner crack with
width w0=0.5 mm and length l0=4 mm (Figure 8) was
applied on the surface of the lead slab.
09.08.2010 14:18:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
In Figure 9, the opening of the transverse corner crack
is clearly seen after each deformation pass. After rolling
the crack transforms into a fold on the face. Thus, forming
of the transverse corner crack in rolling calculated trough
the finite element method shows the same trend as that
observed in the laboratory experiment.
Conclusions
Figure 8. Transverse corner crack on surface of lead slab.

Table 2. Drafting schedule at test mill.
Pass No
Thickness
[mm]
Reduction, %
30.0
25.0
21.0
17.5
14.5
10.0
16.7
16.0
16.7
17.1
31.0
The finite element method provides a three-dimensional

simulation of the change in form of the transverse corner
crack during slab rolling in the system vertical-horizontal
rolls of the roughing group of the wide-strip mill. The
form change mechanism of the transverse corner crack of
the slab during rolling was shown according to the scheme
V1-H1-V2-H2-V3-H3. As a result the transverse corner
cracks of the slab open and shift towards the middle of the
ingot during rolling in the horizontal rolls. The results of
the FEM simulation and experimental rolling at the test
mill agree well.
During roughing rolling of the slab with the transversal
corner crack the maximum indices of the Cockroft
Latham crack formation criterion correspond to horizontal
passes and vary between 0.736-0.844. In the vertical
passes the indices of this criterion does not exceed 0.1860.343. High indices of the crack formation criterion denote
the unfavourable indications for further crack growth during deformation.
References
[1] J.K. Brimacombe, K. Sorimachi: Metall. Trans., 8B (1977), 489-505.
[2] C.M. Chimani, H. Resch, K. Mrwald, O. Kolednik: Proc. European
Continuous Casting Conf., (2002), 213-220.
[3] N.E. Hannerz: Transactions ISIJ, 25 (1985), 149-158.
[4] A. Kainz, E. Parteder, K. Zeman: Journal of Steel Research International, 79 (2008), 861-867.
[5] N.B. Skorokhvatov: Journal of Rolling Production, 8 (2005), 43-48.
[6] DEFORM 3D V6.1, Trademark of SFTC (Scientific Forming Technologies), 5038 Reed Road, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
[7] E. Ervasti, U. Sthlberg: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
101 (2000), 312-321.
[8] V.M. Salganik: Journal of Rolling Production, 6 (2007), 15-18.
[9] M.G. Cockcroft, D.J. Latham: Journal of the Institute of Metals, 96
(1968), 33-39.
(I) Laboratory experiment

(II) FEM
Figure 9. Form change in transverse corner crack of slab during
rolling at test mill: a pass No 1; b pass No 2; c pass No 3; d
pass No 4; e pass No 5.
85
09.08.2010 14:18:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analytical Modeling of Thermo-Mechanically Induced Residual Stresses of Work Rolls

during Hot Rolling
Matthias Dnckelmeyer1), Christian Krempaszky1), Ewald Werner2) , Gerald Hein3) , Karl Schrkhuber3)
1)
Christian-Doppler-Laboratory of Material Mechanics of High Performance Alloys, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Munich / Germany,
duenckelmeyer@wkm.mw.tum.de; 2) Institute for Materials Science and Mechanics of Materials, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Munich /
Germany; 3) voestalpine Stahl GmbH, Linz / Austria
An analytical model is set up to predict the surface-near thermo-mechanical stresses in work rolls during hot rolling. The quantification of
the temperature distribution and the residual stresses in circumferential direction allow for an optimization of the rolling process in order to
reduce banding. Besides influences of mechanical loading, banding is primarily caused by high temperature differences between the roll's
surface and colder layers underneath the surface. Since a steady-state is not reached in the relevant time domain the model accounts for
the instationary case. Calculated thermally induced residual stresses are related to the mechanical properties of the roll's material. Analytically calculated temperature distributions on the roll surface are predicted by the model and compared with experimental results. The influence of the rolling speed and strip temperature are discussed with respect to plastic strains in circumferential direction of the roll.
Keywords: Residual stress, Banding, Hot rolling, Analytical model, Constitutive law
Introduction
The performance of work rolls for hot rolling depends
on several degradation phenomena, like mechanical fatigue, wear, thermal fatigue, and oxidation. Therefore
much effort had been undertaken in order to describe and
classify thermo-mechanically induced roll damage like
banding [1]. Debarbadillo et al. [2] define banding as the
surface deterioration of early finishing stand work rolls
brought about by the tearing out of very small pieces of
roll material. Walmag et al. [3] described that in a common
rolling mill 0.6 % of coils are rejected due to rolled-in
work roll scale. Erickson et al. [4] summarized that the
thermo-mechanical fatigue of the roll surface due to temperature cycling and the resulting mechanical stresses are
the main cause of wear associated with banding. Reip [5]
showed, that the main reason for banding of work rolls is
the high temperature gradient induced in the rolling gap
and primarily rolls in the first stands are susceptible to
banding. Several models were developed in order to predict the temperature fields and the resulting residual
stresses in work rolls during hot rolling to analyse and
reduce damages like banding [6]. Narita et al. [7] proposed
a simplified mathematical model to estimate the temperature history within the strip and work rolls under transient
heat transfer conditions, dealing with several hundreds of
overrollings. Tseng [8,9] modelled the hot rolling process
with steady state heat transfer equations and the finite
element method. Serjzadeh et al. [10] created a twodimensional finite element model to predict the work roll
temperature during the continuous hot slab rolling process.
Sun et al. [11] studied the thermal behaviour and roll life
of a work roll during strip rolling. These models assume
stationary heat transfer conditions and are based on numerical approaches which are computationally intensive
and hence cannot be used for real-time evaluation of the
rolling process.
This paper introduces an analytical approach to compute
instationary temperature distributions and circumferential
stresses of a work roll surface, which can be used for fast
real-time evaluation and an optimization of the hot rolling
process. An analytical approach seems to be preferable
86
since several authors report on significant computational

efforts to model the problem with standard structural mechanics software [5,8,10,12].
Mathematical Model
An analytical model is used to calculate the maximum
surface temperature, the temperature distribution and
strains and stresses in circumferential direction for the
instationary case. It allows the modelling of plastic strains,
which correspond with the damage of the roll surface. The
model consists of three parts: the first sub-model describes
the thermal interaction between work roll and strip and is
used to determine the maximum temperature on the roll
surface [13]. With the second sub-model the temperature
distribution on the roll surface is calculated. With the
knowledge of the temperature distribution it is possible to
calculate strains and stresses via thermo-elastic and constitutive equations with the third sub-model, similar as has
been done in [14,15]. Figure 1 shows the segmentation of
the work roll according to [12]. The regions are as follows:
represents the rolling gap, and the cooling zones and
, , regions without heat transfer to the environment.
Figure 1. Thermal loading and classification of segments of work

roll.
Thermal Interaction between Work Roll and Strip.

The maximum temperature is reached after the rolling gap
(, see Figure 1). The curved contact in the rolling gap is
simplified as follows: Two plane bodies are in contact for
a certain time, whereby heat is transferred according to
[13]. The following simplifying assumptions are made:
Constant thermal material properties, constant contact
09.08.2010 14:18:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
resistance between work-roll and strip, no heat flow perpendicular to the contact surface, no slip between strip and
work roll, no geometry change of the strip and no heat
production by plastic deformation of the strip or by friction. Additionally, a constant initial temperature in the
work roll and the strip before the thermal contact is assumed. This is acceptable since the temperature profile of
the roll is nearly constant when re-entering the rolling gap
[5]. The development of the temperature distribution in
depth direction is given by
Troll
K 1 10.5T0
=
K 1 10.5 + K 2 20.5
| x |
erfc
2 2 t
h x + h 2 t
e 2 2 2 erfc | x | + h2 2 t ,
2 t
(1)
where index 1 denotes the strip and 2 the roll, K1 and K2 are
the thermal conductivities, erfc is the complementary error
function, 1 and 2 are the thermal diffusivities, t is the
contact time, x is the distance from the roll surface, T0 is
the initial temperature of the strip, H is the thermal resistance and the quantity h2 is defined as
H ( K110.5 + K 2 20.5 )
(2)
.
h =
2
K1 K 2 20.5
A comparison of the analytical results with measured

temperatures on the roll surface [16,17] shows good
agreement and thus justifies the simplifying assumptions.
Surface Temperature Distribution of Work Roll.
FISCHER et al. [12] proposed a plane configuration by representing the roll as a straightened disk in order to avoid
mathematical difficulties which arise from the use of Bessel functions. This is acceptable since one is mainly interested in the temperature distribution near the surface due
to the small surface-near heat affected layer. Boundary
conditions are selected as follows [12]: Quasi-stationary
for one revolution n, roll as a halfplane with horizontal
surface, no heat conduction in axial direction of the roll
and cooling is so intense, that the roll surface reaches the
cooling medium temperature Tcm at the two points (++
and ++++), see Figure 1. The temperature distribution is schematically shown in Figure 2. Calculated temperature differences are displayed as overlined quantities,
whereas temperatures are not overlined. The reference
temperature T,n-1 is introduced, since all temperatures
within this model correspond to a certain reference temperature, which is the start temperature for each revolution.
Exemplarily, the expression for the end temperature is
according to [12]:
2 ( + )
2
2 ( + )
2
1 TMaxK1,n
T ,n = T ,n
2 ( + + + )
2 ( + + + )
TMaxK2,n
1 .
(3)
TMaxK1,n and TMaxK2,n are extreme temperatures corresponding to the two cooling intervals. In order to simulate the
instationary case the last value of T,n becomes the input
value T,n-1 for the next revolution.
Mechanical Loading of Work Roll Material. For a
rough thermo-mechanical analysis in the thin surface layer
of the roll, the total strain (i.e. the sum of thermal, elastic
and plastic strains) in axial and circumferential directions
as well as the normal stress component in radial direction
can be assumed to be zero.
Figure 2. Schematic temperature distribution for one revolution.
In the linear elastic case the tangential and axial stress

components can be estimated by
EaT
(4)
=
,
1 v
where E, and a denote Youngs modulus, Poissons ratio

and the coefficient of thermal expansion, respectively. It
can be shown, that the equivalent stress within the rolling
gap at positions near the roll surface exceeds the yield
strength in compression of the work roll material [11, 18].
In this work, plastic deformations are calculated via J2
standard plasticity. According to the assumptions of
FISCHER et al. [12] a plane configuration is considered. The
equivalent v. Mises stress in the plane configuration is
(5)
V = x2 +y2 xy +3xy2 .
Since the stresses in tangential and axial directions are
equal and an infinitesimal small cube is regarded, it is
valid to introduce polar coordinates into Equation (5),
which then reduces to
(6)
V = .
Cyclic mechanical tests performed in [19] justify the application of a kinematic hardening law according to LEMAITRE and CHABOCHE [15]. The flow criterion is
(7)
0 = V q Y(T,),
where q is the backstress and Y is the yield strength as a
function of the temperature T and the loading direction
(tension: 1, compression: -1) The evolution equation for
the hardening variable q is [15],
C
C
(8)
q = + q exp[b( )],
b
p0
where C and b are characteristic coefficients for kinematic

hardening describing the gradient and the saturation of the
flow curve, q0 is the initial back stress, p is the plastic
strain and p0 is the accumulated plastic strain, both in
circumferential direction. This approach allows the simulation of the strain-stress hysteresis for materials exhibiting a Bauschinger effect. Stresses due to the roll pressure
are neglected since they are approximately up to 15 times
smaller than thermally induced stresses [5].
Results
Roll material data are taken from monotonic and cyclic
mechanical tests [5,19] as well as thermo-physical tests,
measured with the laser flash method [20]. As an example,
typical rolling mill values are taken for kinematical, geometrical and thermo-mechanical data. Material data for a
HSS roll are taken from [5,18,19], see Table 1. In the
following the development of the temperature distribution
and of the stress strain distribution will be discussed ex87
09.08.2010 14:18:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
emplarily for such a HSS roll. Data for the temperature
dependent compression yield strength are taken from [5],
where t and c denote tension and compression, respectively.
E (GPa)
220
Table 1. Material data of HSS roll [5,18,19].
a (1/K)
1.3 x 10-7
C (GPa)
250
b ()
800
Yc (MPa)
1700 (20C)
1100 (500C)
Yt (MPa)
800
Development of Temperature Distribution. A combination of the analytical approaches thermal interaction

between work roll and strip, Eq. (1), and surface temperature distribution of work roll, Eq. (3), allow a calculation
of the development of the temperature distribution over
several revolutions. In order to keep the simulation close
to reality, two cooling zones are taken into account, Figure
1. Figure 3 shows a comparison of the simulation with
experimental data of Stevens et al. [16]. There, temperatures beneath and at the surface of work rolls were measured via thermocouples over several revolutions, however
with only one cooling zone. Therefore and just in this
comparison our model is adapted to one cooling zone.
Continuous rolling leads to a heating of the roll until a
stationary temperature distribution is reached, which
means that the maximum temperature approaches a limit
asymptotically. Figure 3 shows that the model agrees well
with the experimental findings.
Figure 3. Comparison of analytically calculated temperature distribution and measurements of Stevens et al. [16] (roll surface).
Development of Stress-Strain Distribution. The temperature distribution is the input parameter for the calculation of the mechanical loading of work roll material,
whereby stresses and strains (elastic and plastic) can be
determined. The surface heating in the rolling gap leads to
axial and circumferential compressive loads in the roll
material. As the material starts to yield a load reduction
caused by thermal softening with superimposed strain
hardening can be seen. The cooling of the surface leads to
relaxation (the surface becomes cooler than surface near
layers) and by means of this the compressed material is
loaded in tension. In this regard two possible consequences should be mentioned: the material reaches its
tension yield stress or not. Here, the roll material does not
reach its tension yield stress during the first revolution.
Conduction of heat from the roll interior to the surface
after the two cooling zones (Figure 2) causes compressive
stresses again. After each revolution residual stresses with
a certain displacement remain in the roll surface, which is
caused by the thermal boundary conditions. Figure 4
shows the calculated stress-strain hysteresis loop for 50
revolutions. Here, elastic shakedown can be observed after
88
25 revolutions. Elastic shakedown denotes a steady state

of the hysteresis loop after several cycles with purely elastic strains due to strain hardening, which means no further
accumulation of plastic strains.
Figure 4. Strain-stress hysteresis loop of roll surface for 50 revolutions. Slab temperature 1000 C, rolling speed 2 m/s.
Parameter Study. Thermo-mechanically induced plastic deformations of surface near regions of a work roll
correlate with banding [5]. It is coherent to correlate damage with the plastic deformation in circumferential direction. In the following the influence of the rolling speed and
the slab temperature on the plastic deformation of the roll
surface are discussed. Separately, both parameters can be
affected by the rolling schedule in the rolling mill. It is
assumed that the roll is new or refinished. The accumulated plastic strain in circumferential direction is calculated as follows,
Cycles
(9)
~
pl , =
(
1
pl , , t
+ pl , , c .
Influence of Rolling Speed. Figure 5 shows the accumulated plastic strain in circumferential direction in dependency of the rolling speed for a fixed slab temperature
of T0 = 1000 C (a typical value for steel slabs in hot rolling mills when entering the first stand). Here, it can be
seen that a slower rolling speed causes a steeper increase
of the accumulated plastic strain at the beginning of rolling
caused by the higher heat input in the rolling gap due to a
longer contact time. A saturation - elastic shakedown can
be seen for 2, 4 and 10 m/s (Figure 5). The strain-stress
hysteresis loop for 2, 4 and 10 m/s shows plastic flow due
to compression, until the strains become fully elastic, see
Figure 4, exemplarily for 2 m/s. Figure 5 shows an increase of the accumulated plastic strain for 1 m/s plastic
shakedown - which is driven by alternating plastic flow in
tension and compression. If always the first revolution is
considered it seems to be preferable to roll at higher
speeds [5]. This conclusion can be falsified with the following consideration: Although lower rolling speeds may
cause a higher heating of the roll surface and therefore a
higher deformation, it is crucial that it takes a certain time
until a stationary temperature distribution of the work roll
is reached. Until this time is reached an arbitrary point on
the roll surface has undergone several revolutions, where
the number of revolutions depends on the rolling speed.
Although the increment of plastic strain as function of
number of revolutions is lower for faster rolling, the total
plastic strain is higher (more revolutions until stationary
state is reached), as long as the speed is not too slow,
whereby flow by tension is induced. It can be assumed that
an optimal rolling speed can be found.
09.08.2010 14:18:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 5. Accumulated plastic strain in circumferential direction for

different rolling speed, slab temperature 1000 C.
Influence of Slab Temperature. Figure 6 shows the

accumulated plastic strains in circumferential direction in
dependency of the strip temperature. High strip temperatures cause an intense increase of plastic deformation.
Here, 1100C causes an approximately linear and steep
increase. This can be interpreted as ratchetting. Marginal
changes of the temperatures in the range from 1000 to
1050 C have a strong influence on the mechanical response of the roll material. This is comprehensible since
the materials are designed for loads near their collapse
load.
Figure 6. Accumulated plastic strain in circumferential direction for

different strip temperatures for rolling speed 2 m/s.
Conclusions
An analytical model was set up in order to estimate the
instationary temperature distribution and residual stresses
in circumferential direction on the surface of a work roll.
Due to its fast algorithms it can be used for online evaluation of the rolling process, unlike computationally intensive numerical approaches. The model takes elastic and
plastic strains (including kinematic hardening) into account. As a result, it can be seen as an extension of the
FISCHER approach [12], which estimates purely elastic
strains. According to observations of Debarbadillo et al.
[2] a correlation between thermo-mechanical loads plastic strains in circumferential direction - and banding exists.
This allows the use of the accumulated plastic strain in
circumferential direction as an evaluation criterion for
banding. Many authors calculate stresses and strains
(mainly elastic) via a stationary temperature distribution
[5,8,11,22,23], whereas the instationary temperature development of this model allows a more accurate calculation.
The parameter study presented in this work shows:
1. A high rolling speed can cause higher accumulated
plastic deformations and an optimal rolling speed can
be found, specific for the characteristics of a rolling

mill.
2. The strip temperature is the main factor inducing
thermo-mechanical damage. High strip temperatures
may lead to ratchetting of the roll material.
In the next step, the model should take into account the
initial residual stress state of the work roll induced by the
manufacturing process [5,16,24], as well as material data
identified in LCF tests performed at elevated temperatures.
Since this model is fully based on analytical solutions it is
fast and suitable for online applications, whereby an optimisation of the rolling process regarding the rolling speed
and the strip temperature can be realized.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Christian Doppler Research Society (CDG).
References
[1] Roll Failures Manual: Hot Mill Cast Work Rolls. The European
Foundry Association, Roll Section, 1st edition (2002).
[2] J.J. deBarbadillo, C.J. Trozzi: Iron and Steel Engineer, (1981), 63-72
[3] G.Walmag, R.J. Skoczynski, J.P. Breyer: La Revue de MetallurgieCIT 2001, S. 12, 295-304.
[4] L.C. Erickson, S. Hogmark: Wear Journal, 165 (1992), 231-235.
[5] T. Reip: Thermomechanische Schdigung von Arbeitswalzen in
Warmbreitbandstraen, Technische Universitt Mnchen, WKM
(2006).
[6] A. A. Tseng, F. H. Lin, A. S. Gunderia, D. S. Ni: Metall. Trans. A,
(1990), 2305-2320.
[7] N. Narita, K. Yasuda, T. Saitoh, S. Yasunai: Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. on
Mod. of Metal Rolling Proc., London (1996), 522-529.
[8] A.A. Tseng: Numerical Heat Transfer, 35 (1999), 135-155.
[9] A.A. Tseng: ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, 106 (1984), 512-517.
[10] S. Serajzadeh, F. Mucciardi: Modelling and Simulation Materials
Science and Engineering, 11 (2003), 179-194.
[11] C.G. Sun, C. S. Yun, J. S. Chung, S.M. Hwang: Metallurgical and
materials transactions A, V29A (1998), 2407-2424.
[12] F.D. Fischer, W.E. Schreiner, E.A. Werner, C.G. Sun: J. of Mat.
Processing Technology, 150 (2004), 263-269.
[13] H.S. Carslaw, J.C. Jaeger: Conduction of heat in solids, Clarendon
Press, Oxford, Second Edition (1959), 87-89.
[14] H. Parkus: Thermoelasticity, Blaisdell Publishing, Waltham (1968).
[15] J. Lemaitre, J.-L. Chaboche: Mechanics of solid materials, Cambridge University Press, English Edition, Reprint (2000).
[16] P. G. Stevens, K. P. Ivens, P. Harper: I. work-roll life by improved
roll-cooling practice, Journal of The Iron and Steel Institute (1971),
1-11.
[17] S. E. Lundberg: Scandin. J. of Metall., 26 (1997), 26, 20-26.
[18] T. Reip, C. Krempaszky, E. Parteder, H. Sondermann, E. Werner:
Proc. Mat. Sci. & Techno. (2005), Roll Techno., ASM, 25-29.
[19] W. Zhang, C. Krempaszky, E. Werner: Proc. of 7th Int. Congress on
Thermal Stresses, (2007), Nat. Taiwan Uni. of Sci. and Techno.,
Taipei.
[20] W. Zhang, M. Dnckelmeyer, C. Krempaszky: R. Report of the
CDL of MMHPA, Quality related aspects in hot rolling of sheets for
automotive applications, August (2008).
[21] J.K. Saha, S. Kundu, S. Chandra, S.K. Sinha, U. Singhal, A.K. Das:
ISIJ Internat., 11 (2005), 1641-1650.
[22] R. Cols: Mater. Sci. Eng. 3, (1995), 437-453.
[23] Z.C. Lin, C.C. Chen: J. of Mater. Processing Technology, 49 (1995),
125-147.
[24] C.F. Peck, Iron Steel Engineering, (1956), 121.
89
09.08.2010 14:18:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analysis of Curvature Development in Asymmetrical Plate Rolling in Free and Forced

Horizontal Entry Conditions
Mahan Qwamizadeh, Mahmoud Kadkhodaei, Mahmoud Salimi
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan / Iran, kadkhodaei@cc.iut.ac.ir
Slab method analysis of asymmetrical sheet rolling is presented to evaluate the outgoing curvature especially when the horizontal entry
condition is maintained. Considering large bite angle, and assuming linear normal stress and parabolic shear stress distributions through
the thickness direction, equilibrium relations as well as yield criterion are derived as the governing equations. Variations of axial and shear
strains within the roll gap are considered to cause the strip curvature at exit. This model is also able to anticipate deflection of the freely
entered sheet in asymmetrical rolling conditions as free horizontal entry of sheet can only occur in particular conditions. Generally, specific
force and/or moment have to be applied to the ingoing plate to maintain horizontal entry. In present work, various conditions leading to free
or forced horizontal entry of the sheet are investigated, and the resultant outgoing curvatures are studied by varying different rolling
parameters including the inlet thickness, percentage reduction in thickness, friction factor and work rolls radii. The results indicate that the
free and forced horizontal entry conditions lead to different outgoing curvatures. The predicted rolling force and outgoing curvature are in
good agreement with those reported experimentally by previous investigators.
Keywords: Slab method, Free horizontal entry, Outgoing curvature, Asymmetrical rolling
Introduction
Asymmetrical rolling, in which the radius, surface
roughness and surface velocity of the upper and lower
rolls are different, has become one of the remarkable
processes in metal forming industries. Despite many useful
and desirable advantages, asymmetrical sheet rolling
experiences the disadvantage of bending the sheet at entry
to and exit from the roll gap. Based on slab analysis,
Hwang and Tzou [1-4], Hwang and Chen [5], and Hwang
et al. [6] have presented methods to determine the roll
force and torque in asymmetrical rolling. Ghobrial [7]
used photo-elasticity to study the contact stresses in
asymmetrical rolling process. Salimi and Sassani [8]
presented a modified slab method to anticipate the
outgoing curvature of the sheet. Mishke [9] proposed a
model which was able to consider an arbitrary entry angle
of the sheet. Salimi and Kadkhodaei [10] showed that, in a
free asymmetrical rolling, the sheet would be tilted at entry
and studied forced horizontal entry of the sheet into the
roll gap. They [11] also found that free horizontal entry of
the sheet may be maintained by adjusting the process
conditions. Further, Kadkhodaei et al. [12] used a genetic
algorithm to calculate the rotation angle of the ingoing
plate when freely enters the roll gap. However, they [1012] focused on the ingoing plate and did not study the
effect of entry conditions on the outgoing curvature.
In the present work, slab method is used to calculate and
compare the outgoing curvature of the sheet in free and
forced horizontal entry conditions. The anticipated rolling
force and outgoing curvature are shown to be in good

agreement with the experimental findings of others.
Mathematical Modeling
In this analysis, work rolls are considered to be rigid.
Plane strain condition is assumed so that any spread in
transverse direction is ignored. Friction at contact areas is
considered to be sticking. Von-Mises yield criterion is
applied, and the material is assumed to be rigid-perfectly
plastic with no strain hardening effects.
Figure 1 (a) shows the geometry of the asymmetrical
rolling. In Figure 1 (b) the stress field of an element at
distance x from the exit section is given, and Figure 1 (c)
shows the slab geometry. From the geometry we have:
L=
1
(hi ho)(2Ru + ho hi)
2(Ru + Rl + ho hi)
(1)
(2Ru + ho hi)[2(Ru + Rl) + (ho hi)]
hu =
ho +
Ru Ru x
(2)
hl =
ho + 2 2
Rl Rl x
(3)
h = ho + (Ru + Rl) ( Ru2 x2 + Rl2 x2)
(4)
Large bite angle is used to express the exact geometry of

the process, and the governing equations are obtained
using the force equilibrium relations in x and y directions
and the moment equilibrium equation taken at the
midpoint of the vertical side of the element shown as O* in
Figure 1 (b). These relationships are as follows:
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 1 (a). Geometry of the asymmetrical rolling and (b) stress field of each vertical element and (c) geometry of each slab.
90
09.08.2010 14:18:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
Fx = 0 (
Pu
x
2
Ru2 x
x
2
+ Pl
F y = 0 (
x
2
2
Rl x
Mo
2
2
Ru x
x
2
Rl2 x
x
2
2
Ru x
x
2
2
Rl x
h
5l) + (u +l)
2
(5)
) +h
d
+ (Pl Pu) +
dx
(6)
=0
2
d d h
=0h ( u l) (
12 dx
h d d
)(u l) ( u + l ) +
2 dx dx
( u + l) = 0
2
2
Ru x
x
2
2
Rl x
dx
x
2
2
Ru x
12
x
2
Ru x
h
+h + (Pl
2
x
2
Rl x
x
2 2
Rl x
Pu
)(u +
x
2
2
Ru x
)+
(7)
h
( u l) = 0
2
Figure 2 shows the basic element for extracting the

yield equation at the upper roll surface of each slab. Using
the horizontal and vertical equilibrium equations for the
upper and lower portions of the element shown in Figure 2
and combining these equations, we have:
hu dy = h
hl xy
@ y = h : = S
u xy
u
@ y = hl : xy = Sl
where
(10)
S u = u + ( u P u ) tan u
and
S l = l + ( l P l ) tan l .
Calculation of Outgoing Curvature. The strip

curvature is developed due to two phenomena:
1. Difference between the shear strains in upper and lower
portions of each slab.
2. Difference between the axial strains in upper and lower
portions of each slab.
Shear strain portion of curvature (r1) and axial strain
portion of curvature (r 2) can be expressed as:
l
1/ r1 = 0(d xyu d xyl) / l
1/r2 = 0(d xu d xl) / ho
(11)
in which 0l (d xyu d xyl ) is the net rotating angle of the

elements through the three zones within the roll gap, and
l
0 (d xu d xl ) is the net difference of axial strains in the
upper and lower portions of the elements. From the flow
rule one can write:
d xy = xy
dy
d x = x
dy
(12)
where d y = dy/ y , y is the deviatoric stress in y direction

which is equal to 0.5( y x) , and x is the deviatoric
stress in the x-direction which is equal to 0.5( x y) .
Figure 2. Basic element for extracting yield equation at upper

point of the slab.
(Puu)2(1+ (tanu)4 + 2(tanu)2) + (Pu u)(4u tanu

3
4(tanu) ) + (4 u(tanu) 4k2 + 4 u2) = 0
(8)
Similar equation for the lower element of the slab can be

obtained. Substituting the yield equations in the governing
equations, three first-order ordinary differential equations
are obtained. By solving the differential equations
numerically, the values of u , l and are calculated at
any point within the roll gap. A trial and error method
according to [10] is used to find the accurate locations of
the two neutral points within the roll gap. Once the
accurate location of the neutral points is determined, the
pressure distribution of the work rolls and the average
shear stress throughout the roll gap are obtained and then
the rolling force and torque can be calculated.
Shear stress distribution is assumed as:
2
xy(x, y) = A(x) y + B(x)y + C(x)
(9)
in which the coefficients A(x) to C (x) can be calculated

using the following relations:
Substituting xy from relation (9) and ( y x) from

yield relation (8), finally the resultant strip curvature ( )
and curvature index (K ) are respectively presented as
below:
1
r1 r2
K=
ho
2
+ ho
(13)
(14)

Figure 3 (a) shows the pressure distribution on the
upper and lower work rolls as well as the average shear
stress distribution within the plastic zone. As it is seen, the
pressure distribution of each roll has more than one
relative maximum and the global maximum position is not
located at any neutral points. In addition, at these positions,
the distribution is smooth and continuous. These findings
were also reported by Ghobrial [7]. As it is shown in
Figure 3 (b), the shear stress within the exit and entry
zone is linearly distributed. However, in the cross shear
91
09.08.2010 14:18:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
region, the distribution is parabolic. This is due to different

directions of upper and lower shear stresses in this zone.
(a)
horizontal entry, and Figure 5 (b) and Figure 6 (b) show

the outgoing curvature of the sheet in these conditions. As
it is observed in Figure 5 (a), the required speed ratio of
the rolls decreases by increasing the work rolls radii and
increases by increasing the friction factor. Figure 5 (b)
shows that, by increasing the work roll radii, the deflection
of the outgoing sheet will be decreased. Also, in a
specified work rolls radius, by enhancing the surface
roughness of the rolls, the outgoing curvature will be
decreased.
(b)
Speed Ratio
1.2
1.16
1.12
2.2
(a)
2
1.8
1.6
1.06
1.04
1.02
25
30
35
Reduction (%)
Present Model
Experiment [13]
FEM [14]
Modified Slab Method [8]
(b)
Radius of Curvature (mm)
-500
-600
105 120
150
175
Rolls Radii (mm)
200
Figure 5 (a). Variation of speed ratio due to variation of work rolls

radii to maintain horizontal entry of the sheet and (b)
corresponding variation of radius of curvature of the sheet at exit
section (hi=6 mm, k=98.1 MPa, r=30%, Ru=Rl).
As it is shown in Figure 6 (a), the required speed ratio of

the rolls increases by increasing the inlet thickness and the
friction factor. As it is observed in Figure 6 (b), for thicker
input plates, less deflection of the sheet at exit is occurred.
Moreover, by increasing the friction factor, the outgoing
curvature of the sheet is increased.
1.18
1.16
0.98
0.94
0.96
0.98
1
Speed Ratio (Vu/Vl)
Figure 5 (a) and Figure 6 (a) present the variation of

the required work rolls speed ratio with respect to the work
rolls radii and input thickness of the sheet to maintain
(a)
m=0.35
m=0.45
m=0.6
1.14
1.12
1.1
0
Figure 4 (a). Comparison of rolling force obtained by the present

model and experimental findings (Ru=Rl=105 mm, hi=6 mm) and
(b) comparison between Finite Element data, analytical and
experimental results for curvature index upon speed ratio
(Ru=Rl=193.802 mm; mu=ml=1; hi=63.5 mm; r=25%).
-400
1.2
0.96
92
-300
0.94
m=0.35 (b)
m=0.45
m=0.6
-200
Curvature Index
Present Model
Experiment[4]
100 120 150 175 200

Rolls Radii (mm)
-100
Speed Ratio
Rolling Force (kN/ mm)
In Figure 4 (a) the rolling force is presented, and the

results are compared with those reported by Hwang [4].
The effect of speed mismatch on strip curvature is shown
in Figure 4 (b). As it is shown, there is a good agreement
between the results of the present model and experimental
findings.
(a)
1.14
1.1
Figure 3 (a). Pressure and average shear stress distribution in the

roll gap (Ru=Rl=150 mm, mu=ml=0.35, hi=6 mm, k=98.1 MPa,
r=30%) and (b) shear stress distribution at any point of the roll gap
(Ru=Rl=150 mm, mu=ml=0.35, hi=6 mm, k=98.1 MPa, r=30%).
m=0.35
m=0.45
m=0.6
1.18
2
4
6
Input Thickness (mm)
(b)
-100
-200
-300
-400
m=0.35
m=0.45
m=0.6
2
3
4
5
6
Input Thickness (mm)
Figure 6 (a). Variation of speed mismatch ratio due to variation of

inlet thickness of the sheet to maintain horizontal entrance of the
sheet and (b) corresponding variation of radius of curvature of the
sheet at exit section in (a) condition (Ru=Rl=105 mm, k=98.1 MPa,
r=30%).
09.08.2010 14:18:58 Uhr
Rolls Radius Ratio (Ru/ Rl)
Figure 7 (a) shows that, for asymmetrical rolling

condition with unequal work rolls radii but equal angular
velocities, the required ratio of the work roll radii
increases by increasing the lower work roll radius. Figure
7 (b) represents the variation of radius of curvature at exit
due to the variation of lower roll radius. Figure 7(b) shows
that by increasing the work rolls radii, the outgoing strip
curvature is decreased while it is increased by increasing
the friction factor.
0.95
(a)
0.9
0.85
m=0.35
m=0.45
0.75
105 120
150
175
200
Lower roll Radius (mm)
0
m=0.35 (b)
m=0.45
-20
-40
-60
-80
105 120
150
175
200
Lower Roll Radius (mm)
Figure 7 (a). Variation of work rolls radii ratio for freely horizontal
entry of the sheet into the roll gap and (b) corresponding variation
of radius of curvature of the sheet in (a) condition (hi=2 mm,
k=98.1 MPa, r=30%).
Figures 8 and 9 represent the variation of radius of

curvature at exit with respect to the variation of speed ratio.
It is concluded that, only in a particular speed ratio, free
horizontal entry of the sheet into the roll gap is possible. In
other speed ratios it is required that a tensile force or a
bending moment to the sheet at entry is imposed for
horizontal entry. Figure 8 shows that in some process
conditions, the maximum curvature of the outgoing sheet
occurs when the sheet is forced to enter horizontally.
However, in some different conditions, as it is seen in
Figure 9, the deflection of the sheet at exit in free
horizontal entry condition is greater than that of the forced
horizontal entry condition.
-200
-400
0
-200
-400
m=0.35
m=0.45
m=0.6
m=0.35 free
m=0.45 free
m=0.6 free
-600
-800
-1000
1.1
1.14
1.18
Speed Ratio
Figure 9. Variation of outgoing curvature of sheet due to variation

of speed ratio in free and forced horizontal entry conditions in a
particular inlet thickness (Ru=Rl=105 mm, hi=4 mm, k=98.1 MPa,
r=30%).
Conclusion
0.8
Metal Forming
This paper presents a method for calculating the strip

curvature at exit for free and forced horizontal entry in
asymmetrical plate rolling for different radii, thicknesses,
friction factors and speed ratios. The results show that in
general the outgoing curvatures in free and forced
horizontal entry of the sheet are different. Adjusting the
rolling conditions for free horizontal entry may lead to
increase in curvature at exit. Comparison of the results
with the experimental findings indicates reasonable
validity of the present model.
References
[1] Y.M. Hwang, G.Y. Tzou: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
52 (1994), 399-424.
[2] Y.M. Hwang, G.Y. Tzou: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
62 (1995), 249-259.
[3] Y.M. Hwang, G.Y. Tzou: J. Mater. Eng. Perform., 4-3 (1995), 265-274.
[4] Y.M. Hwang, G.Y. Tzou: Int. J. Mech. Sci., 39-3 (1997), 289-303.
[5] Y.M. Hwang, T.H. Chen: JSME Int. J., Ser. A, 39-4 (1996), 598-605.
[6] Y.M. Hwang, T.H. Chen, H.H. Hsu: Int. J. Mech. Sci., 38-4 (1995),
443-460.
[7] M.I. Ghobrial: Int. J. Mech. Sci., 34-10 (1989), 757-764.
[8] M. Salimi, F. Sassani: Int. J. Mech. Sci., 44 (2002), 1999-2023.
[9] J. Mishke: J. Mater. Proc. Techn., 61 (1996), 382-394.
[10] M. Salimi, M. Kadkhodaei: J. Mater. Proc. Techn., 150 (2004), 215222.
[11] M. Salimi, M. Kadkhodaei: Steel Grips. 150 (2004), 75-81.
[12] M. Kadkhodaei, M. Salimi, M. Poursina: Int. J. Mech. Sci., 4 (2007)
622-634.
[13] G.E. Kennedy, F. Slamar: Iron and Steel Engineer, (1958) 35-71.
[14] R. Shivpuri: Int. J. Mech. Sci. 30 (1988), 625-635.
m=0.35
m=0.45
m=0.6
m=0.35 free
m=0.45 free
m=0.6 free
-600
-800
-1000
1.1
1.14
1.18
Speed Ratio
Figure 8. Variation of outgoing curvature of sheet due to variation

of speed ratio in free and forced horizontal entry conditions in a
particular rolls radii (Ru=Rl=150 mm, hi=6 mm, k=98.1 MPa,
r=30%).
93
09.08.2010 14:18:59 Uhr
Metal Forming
Reduction of Impact Force in Threading of Strip Front End and Stabilization of Mill
Vibration by Mill Stabilizer Device in Hot Rolling
Shinya Kanemori1), Hideaki Furumoto2), Kanji Hayashi2), Takao Owada2)
1)
Technical Headquarters Hiroshima R&D Center, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan;
M-Hmm.co.jp
2)
Mitsubishi Hitachi Machinery, Japan, h-furumoto@
The larger reduction in thickness is needed to obtain harder and thinner strips, and as the rolling force increases, the strip-crown and shape
control mills have been developed. When the rolling force becomes larger, the impact force in the threading of strip front end becomes
larger and mill vibration tends to occur. In order to solve these issues, Mill Stabilizer Device which consists of the hydraulic cylinder with
orifices has been developed. The hydraulic cylinders are installed between the work roll chock and entry side of housing to eliminate the
clearance between the work roll chock and housing. The hydraulic cylinders with orifices have also the damping effect. The test was carried
out by a test mill and production line, and it was found that the impact force in the threading and the amplitude of mill vibration can be
reduced. Calculated results of the impact force agree well with the experimental ones. Mill Stabilizer Device can be installed not only newlybuilt plant but also revamped plant.
Keywords: Impact force, Mill vibration, Acceleration, Mill Stabilizer Device, Hot rolling
Introduction
2.
In hot rolling, the strips have been needed to be rolled

harder and faster to obtain thinner and higher quality strips,
such as high strength steel or dual phase type high strength
steel and so on. As the flow stress and reduction in
thickness become larger, the rolling force has increased
and the strip crown and shape control are strongly required.
And so, high performance mills, which have powerful
actuators for the strip crown and shape control, have been
developed in order to obtain the harder or thinner rolled
strips.
As the strips move faster and are rolled harder, the larger
impact force in the threading occurs and suddenly mill
starts to vibrate with enormous amplitude. The larger impact force or mill vibration causes not only the reduction
of life time of the mechanical parts but also reduction of
operational stability and manufacturing efficiency. The
damping system, which is called Mill Stabilizer Device
[1,2] has been developed to solve these issues and put into
the production line. Mill Stabilizer Device consists of the
hydraunic cylinder with orifices.
The effects of Mill Stabilizer Device on reduction of the
impact force and stabilization of mill vibration are described in this report.
3.
Stabilization of mill vibration and increase of the

reduction in thickness during rolling.
Increase of operational stability during rolling.
Reduction of Impact Force in Threading

Impact Force. Rolling torque in the threading is acting
on the work roll. As the moment of inertia of the back-up
roll is larger than that of the work roll, the work roll speed
becomes smaller than that of the back-up roll. And so, the
horizontal force is generated and that from the back-up roll
is acting on the work roll in the direction of entry housing.
The work roll moves in the direction of entry housing.
After the work roll chock strikes on the entry side of housing, it moves in the direction of delivery side of housing.
The largest impact force is generated when the work roll
chock strikes on the delivery side of housing. The impact
force in the threading is increased when the clearance
between the work roll chock and housing is larger. The
Mill Stabilizer Device, which eliminates the clearance
between the work roll chock and housing, has been developed to reduce the impact force.
Verification Test by Test Mill. The verification test was
carried out by using the test mill in which the Mill
Concept and Features of Mill Stabilizer Device

Pair Cross Mill (PC mill) [3] has been developed for the
strip crown and shape control. Figure 1 shows the
structure of PC mill. The structure of roll crossing has
been simplified and the hydraulic cylinders for roll
crossing are installed at the entry side of housing instead
of mechanical roll crossing system. The work rolls are
always pressed to the delivery-side of housing by the
hydraulic cylinders. The hydraulic cylinders with orifices
eliminate the clearance between the work roll chock and
housing. Mill Stabilizer Device has 3 main features
described as follows. 1) and 2) are described in this report.
1. Reduction of the impact force in the threading of
the strip front end and saving maintenance cost.
94
motor
work side
housing
drive side
rolling
direction
M SD
work side
drive side
cross head
skrew
worm gear
Figure 1. Pair Cross Mill with Mill Stabilizer Device.
Stabilizer Device was installed. The hydraulic cylinders

were installed in the entry side of housing, and the load
09.08.2010 14:19:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1.
Main specification of test mill and rolling condition.
Work roll diameter and barrel length (mm)
252610
Backup roll diameter and barrel length (mm)
580610
Cylinder diameter and stroke

of Mill Stabilizer Device (mm)
702
Cylinder Pressure (kgf/cm2)
50130
Test material
Al1050
Strip thickness before and after rolling(mm)
6.0 , 3.9
Strip width (mm)
200400
Rolling speed (mpm)
50100
Impact force (Tonf/Roll)
15
Experiment
Calculated
0
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
Time from threading of strip front end (sec)

(a) Mill Stabilizer Device: OFF
:Mill Stabilizer : ON
:Mill Stabilizer : OFF
10
0
0
0.5
1.5
Changes of rolling torque (Tonfm)
Figure 3. Relationship between changes of rolling torque and

impact force.
Analytical Model of Impact Force. Figure 4 shows the

analytical model of torsion vibration in the threading of
the strip front end. The assumptions are as follows.
1. Speed of motor is constant during rolling.
2. The work roll and back-up roll are vibrated as onedegree of torsion motion.
The differential equation of torsion vibration is
(1)
I total C I K I Tin
where is torsion angle of spindle shaft, I total is

summation of moment inertia of the work roll and back-up
roll, C is damping constant of the system, K is torsion
(2)
Mx 2C R x 2 K R x Fin F
where M is mass of the work roll, CR is damping

constant of the system, K R is the horizontal rigidity of the
15
15
rigidity ,and Tin is torque on the work roll from the rolled
strip. The torque at spindle shaft is obtained by solving the
Eq. (1). The horizontal force from the back-up roll to the
work roll is obtained by using the spindle torque and the
torque acting on the work roll from the rolled strip.
Figure 5 shows the analytical model of the impact
force.The differential equation of horizontal motion is
Impact force 13.23 TonfRoll
10
half as large as that with Mill Stabilizer Device OFF.

The validity of Mill Stabilizer Device for reduction of
the impact force was verified through the experiment and
the analysis, and analytical method was also verified
through the comparison of the analyzed results with the
experimental ones.
cells were also installed in the delivery side of housing to

measure the impact force. Table 1 shows the main
specification of test mill and rolling condition. The diameter of work roll is 252 mm and the size is about the one
third as large as the production mill. Figure 2(a) shows the
impact force with Mill Stabilzer Device OFF. The impact
force, which is measured by load cells, fluctuates in the
frequency which corresponds with the frequency of
fluctuated spindle torque. The impact force is 13.2
tonf/roll. Figure 2(b) shows the impact force with Mill
Stabizer Device ON. The impact force is 7.45tonf/roll and
that is defined as the deviation of fluctuated impact force
as shown in Figure 2(b). The impact force with Mill
Stabilizer Device ON is smaller than that with Mill
Stabilizer Device OFF.
The analyzed results are also shown in Figure 2. Those
agree well with the experimental ones. The relationship
between the changes of rolling torque and the impact force
are shown in Figure 3. It is thought that there is a linear
relationship between the changes of rolling torque and the
impact force.
Impact force 11.47-4.02=7.45 TonfRoll
housing, Fin is the force from the back-up roll, and F is

the force of hydraulic cylinder and offset force from the
10
Spindle shaft (Torsion rigidity: K)

5
0
0.00
Experiment
Calculated
0.05
0.10
0.15
BUR
Motor
WR
0.20
Time from threading of strip front end (sec)

(b) Mill Stabilizer Device: ON
Figure 2. Relationship between time from threading and impact
force.
Strip
Torsion angle
Figure 4. Analytical model of torsion vibration.
The impact force with Mill Stabilizer Device ON is almost
95
09.08.2010 14:19:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
influenced by the dynamic rigidity of mill housing in the
horizontal direction. When the dynamic rigidity becomes
larger, the area spreads where the mill vibration is
stabilized.
WR+ bearing box
Hydraulic cylinder
Fin
(Reduction in height) (Tonf/mm)
2CR
Rolling direction (x)
Orifice
Delivery housing
Entry housing
rigidity 2KR
rigidity 2KR
Figure 5. Analytical model of impact force.
back-up roll. The impact force is obtained by solving the

equation (2).
Acceleration of housing post at entry

and delivery side in rolling direction
[G]0-p
Measured Results by Production Mill. The Mill

Stabilizer Device has already been installed at Kwanyang
works in POSCO. Figure 6 shows the results of measured
acceleration at entry and delivery side of housing. The
accelerations in the rolling direction are measured by the
accelerators which are attached on the post of entry and
delivery housing. When the Mill Stabilizer Device is OFF,
the impacted acceleration is generated in the threading.
When the Mill Stabilizer Device is ON, the impacted
acceleration can be reduced in the threading. This means
that the impact force on the mechanical parts around the
work roll chock can be reduced in the threading, and so it
is expected that the damage around the work roll chock
can be reduced and the maintenance costs would be saved.
Entry
Delivery
Mill StabilizerOFF
Time
Mill StabilizerON
50msec
Kd=60 Tonf/mm
(Dynamic rigidity with
Mill Stabilizer Device)
1.0
Region without
mill vibration
0
200
Kd=30 Tonf/mm
(Dynamic rigidity without
Mill Stabilizer Device)
400
Rolling Speed
Rolling
speed(mpm)
(mpm)
Figure 7. Relationship between rolling speed and (rolling force per
unit width) (reduction in thickness)
Measured Results by Production Mill. Figure 8 shows

the measured results of mill vibration at Kwanyang works
in POSCO. The accelerations are measured by accelerators
on the work roll chocks in the rolling and thickness
direction. After the strip comes into the mill, mill
vibration suddenly starts. The acceleration in the rolling
direction is much larger than that in the thickness direction.
When the Mill Stabilizer Device is ON, the acceleration in
the rolling direction becomes about half as large as that
with Mill Stabilizer Device OFF.
The Mill Stabilizer Device consists of the hydraulic
cylinder with orifices. The orifice has the much damping
effects on the stabilization of mill vibration.
Mill Stabilizer
Mill Stabilizer ON
Acceleration in rolling direction
4g
Acceleration in thickness direction

Time
4g
50msec
Stabilization of Mill Vibration during RollingMill

Vibration. As the strips move faster and are rolled harder,
mill suddenly starts to vibrate with enormous amplitude. It
is understood that the mill vibration in hot rolling is the
following phenomenon. The upper and lower work rolls
vibrate to the opposite direction each other, and the
direction is mainly in the horizontal direction.
The mill vibration is self-excited type and the frequency
is mainly from about 60 to 90Hz. The criteria curve of mill
vibration obtained from the actual measured data is shown
in Figure 7. It can be evaluated whether the mill vibration
is stabilized or not. Mill vibration occurs above the criteria
curve which is expressed by rolling speed and load
parameter. Load parameter is defined as rolling force per
unit width reduction in thickness. The criteria curve is
Expansion of region
without mill vibration
4g
Figure 6. Acceleration of housing post at entry and delivery side in

the rolling direction
96
Region with mill vibration
Threading at strip front end
Entry
Deliver
2.0
Acceleration of
work roll chock
2CR
(Rolling force per unit width)

(Rolling Force per unit width)
(reduction in thickness)
5sec
Figure 8. Measured acceleration of work roll chock in rolling and

thickness direction in production mill.
Analytical Model and Results of Dynamic Rigidity.

The differential equation of horizontal motion for calculating the dynamic rigidity is solved, taking into account the
disturbing force( F0 sin t ) acting on the work roll and
the force ( Foil ) at hydraulic cylinder. The amount of flow
at orifice is
Qor c o Aor
(3)
where P is difference pressure between entry and

delivery side of orifice, co is coefficient factor, Aor is area
of orifice and is density of oil. The disturbing force is
applied to the work roll and the displacement of the work
roll x is obtained taking into account the hydraulic flow in
09.08.2010 14:19:04 Uhr
the cylinder and orifice. x is the displacement in the

rolling direction. The dynamic rigidity is defined as
follows.
Kd
2 F0
2x
(4)
Table 2 shows the main specification of production mill

and rolling condition for calculating the dynamic rigidity.
Figure 9 shows the calculated results of the dynamic
rigidity. The dynamic rigidity with Mill Stabilizer Device
ON becomes about twice as large as that with Mill
Stabilizer Device OFF.
Application to Production Line. Figure 10 shows the
cumulative number of Mill Stabilizer Device installed in
PC mill since 2000 [4]. As the Mill Stabilizer Device at the
back-up roll is also installed to eliminate the clearance
between the chock of the back-up roll and housing, the
thrust force along the axial direction of rolls is reduced.
And so, the difference of the rolling force between drive
side and work side is reduced. As a result, the
improvement of strip steering stability is expected.
Table 2. Main specification of production mill and rolling condition
for calculating dynamic rigidity.
Dynamic rigidity (Tonf/Roll)
Work roll diameter

Backup roll diameter
Work roll weight / Assy
Housing rigidity
Cylinder diameter (Head/Rod)
Cylinder stroke
810 mm
1600 mm
23.3 ton
244 tonf/mm/post
240 / 190
88 mm
100
80
60
40
Cumulative
number
of mill
device
Cumulative
Number
of stabilizer
Mill Stabilizer
installed in PC mill
Device installed in PC Mill
Metal Forming
120
()
Backup
Backup Roll
roll (Newly-built)
(Newly-built)
100
Backup roll
Backup
Roll(Revamped)
(Revamped)
()
80
Work
()
WorkRoll
roll (Newly-built)
(Newly-built)
60
WorkRoll
roll (Revamped)
Work
(Revamped)
()
40
20
0
2000
2005
2010
Figure 10. Cumulative number of Mill Stabilizer Device installed in

PC mill since 2000.
The Mill Stabilizer Device of work roll has made it

possible not only to stabilize the mill vibration but also to
stabilize the strip steering in threading and tailing. It is
expected that reduction in thickness could be increased.
The number of PC mill with Mill Stabilizer Device has
achieved more than 50 stands.
Conclusions
Hot rolling of harder and thinner strips is increasingly
required. The impact force in the threading becomes larger
and mill vibration might occur. In order to solve the issues,
the
Stabilizer Device has been developed. The
performance of Mill Stabilizer Device has been verified by
test mill and production line. It was found that the impact
force with Mill Stabilizer Device ON becomes about half
as large as that with Mill Stabilizer Device OFF and the
amplitude of mill vibration can be reduced. The Mill Stabilizer Device can be easily installed in not only newlybuilt plant but also revamped plant. The number of PC
mill with Mill Stabilizer Device has achieved more than
50 stands.
References
20
0
Mill Stabilizer Device OFF
Mill Stabilizer Device ON
Figure 9. Comparison of dynamic rigidity between Mill Stabilizer

Device OFF and ON.
[1] T. Usugi, K. Hayashi: Journal of Industry Machinery, (2005), 43.

[2] H. Furumoto, J. Nishizaki, A. Higashio, K. Hayashi, J. Kim: MHI
Technology Review, 41-3 (2004), 174.
[3] S. Omori, H. Tsukamoto, H. Hino, K. Nakajima, Y. Nakazawa:
Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 28-321
(1987), 1067.
[4] K. Horii: Proc. 270th Symposium for the Technology of Plasticity,
(2008), 71.
97
09.08.2010 14:19:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Suppression of Surface Hot Shortness Caused by Copper in Hot-Rolling

Yasumitsu Kondo
Steel Rolling R&D Div. Environment & Process Technology Center, Nippon Steel Corporation, Futtsu / Japan, kondo.yasumitsu@nsc.co.jp
Since copper content in steel causes hot shortness, it is important to understand the effect of copper behaviour during high-temperature
oxidation, in order to control the precipitated copper. Through oxidation tests, this study examines copper distribution during the oxidation of
steel. From the oxidation tests, it is shown that precipitated copper existing in the scale/steel interface is absorbed into the magnetite layer
or diffused inward into the steel. Then, the two proposed methods to suppress hot shortness are tested by oxidation-tensile tests at high
temperature. The methods for suppressing hot shortness using the above technique are proven to be effective.
Keywords: Hot shortness, High-temperature oxidation, Copper, Rolling, Diffusion, Tensile test, Water vapour, Dry atmosphere
Introduction
Experimental
Scrap recycling is a useful process from an environmental perspective. However, the recycling of steel scraps
accumulates copper within such steel resources, which is
subsequently difficult to remove during steel production
processes and can cause the problem of hot shortness
during hot-rolling. When steel slabs are reheated in furnaces, copper is enriched at the scale/steel interface and
precipitated as liquid metal. Following the hot-rolling
process, liquid copper penetrates into the steel grain
boundaries and causes cracks at the steel surface. However,
it is reported that the addition of certain elements, such as
nickel, silicon, boron, carbon, and phosphorus, is effective
in controlling this problem [1-6]. Furthermore, controlling
the reheating conditions, such as temperature and the atmospheric water vapor concentration, have also yielded
benefits in resolving this problem [7,8]. Therefore, it is
important to understand how copper is distributed when
steel is oxidized. The author has previously reported that
copper is distributed in the magnetite layer and precipitates along wustite grain boundaries during scale formation [9]. Hot shortness is suppressed if more copper is
distributed inside a scale, while scale structure formed at
high temperature is influenced by atmospheric conditions.
During this study, two methods were employed in an attempt to suppress surface hot shortness utilizing copper
behaviour during oxidation.
A section of steel containing about 0.1 mass % copper

was used for the oxidation tests, with the analyzed compositions of the material shown in Table 1. Specimens were
cut to rectangular shapes of 30 mm 30 mm 4 mm, and
oxidation was performed in an infrared heating furnace.
The oxidation test conditions are shown in Table 2.
Rod samples with a 10 mm diameter were used for the
oxidation-tensile tests, and the analyzed compositions of
the material are shown in Table 1. A tensile test machine
with an infrared furnace was used for the oxidation-tensile
tests, which were carried out at a high temperature
continuously after oxidation. The tensile tests were
performed at 1150C with a tension speed of 10 mm/min-1.
The oxidation-tensile test conditions are shown in Table 3.
Oxidation test
Oxidation-tensile test
No.
A
B
Name
Base
Scale removal
C
D
Air atmosphere
Air retention
No.
E
F
Name
Base
Method 1
Method 2
98
C
0.0020
0.0033
Oxidation Test Results

The Electron Probe Micro-Analysis results of condition
A are shown in Figure 1. Copper exists not only in the
scale/steel interface, but also in the magnetite layer. In
condition B, the second oxidation was carried out after
removing the scale formed by the first oxidation. The
Electron Probe Micro-Analysis results near the scale/steel
Table 1. Chemical composition of samples. (mass %)

Si
Mn
P
S
Ni
Cu
0.009
0.067
0.012
0.0065
0.038
0.096
0.008
0.069
0.012
0.0079
0.020
0.28
Al
0.039
0.033
Ti
0.037
0.035
N
0.0020
0.0011
Table 2. Oxidation test conditions.

Experimental procedure
(1200C, 2%O2+12%H2O+bal.N2) 120 min. oxidation
Scale removal at room temp. (1150C, air) 10 min. reheating.
(1200C, air) 120 min. oxidation
(1200C, 5%O2+12%H2O+bal.N2) 120 min. oxidation (1200C, air) 20 min.
Table 3. Oxidation-tensile test conditions.
Experimental procedure
(1200C, 5%O2+12%H2O+bal.N2) 60 min. oxidation Tensile test (1150C)
(1200C, 5%O2+12%H2O+bal.N2) 60 min. oxidation Scale removal at room temp.
1150C, air1 min. reheating Tensile test (1150C)
(1200C, air) 20 min. retention Tensile test (1150C)
09.08.2010 14:19:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Scale and resin
0.4
0.2
0
0
(b)
2500
O intensity
[arb. unit]
1000
2000
Distance [m ]
1000
2000
Distance [m]
3000
Figure 1. Electron Probe Micro-Analysis results of cross section of

oxide scale oxidized in oxidation condition A.
1.5
1
0.5
0
(b)
Cu concentration [mass %]
Enriched Cu
0.11mg cm-2
25
50
Distance [m]
3
Enriched Cu
0.02mg cm-2
2.5
6000
4000
2000
500
1000
Distance [m]
1500
Enriched Cu
0.11mg cm-2
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0
Enriched Cu
0.10mg cm-2
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
25
50
Distance [m]
0
0
25
50
Distance [m]
ScaleSteel
Figure 4. Electron Probe Micro-Analysis results at cross section of

oxide scales near scale/steel interface. (a) Oxidation condition A
and (b) Oxidation condition D.
1.5
1
Methods to Suppress Hot Shortness
0.5
0
0
25
50
Distance [m]
ScaleSteel
The Electron Probe Micro-Analysis results of condition

C using a dry air atmosphere are shown in Figure 3. Compared to Figure 1, the copper concentration at the
scale/steel interface seems low. This indicates that
oxidation in a dry atmosphere decreases the precipitated
copper at the interface. In condition D, the sample was
oxidized in dry air for 20 minutes after oxidation in an
atmosphere consisting of oxygen and water vapour. An
Electron Probe Micro-Analysis results near the scale/steel
interface are shown in Figure 4. The enriched copper
amount at the scale/steel interface in condition D is almost
same as that in condition A. However, the copper concentration was lower, and the peak width became broad compared to that in condition A. This indicates that copper at
the interface diffuses backward during air oxidation.
(b) 3
ScaleSteel
Figure 2. Electron Probe Micro-Analysis results at cross section of

oxide scales near scale/steel interface. (a) Oxidation condition A
and (b) Oxidation condition B.
Steel
(a)
1500
Figure 3. Electron Probe Micro-Analysis results of cross section of

oxide scale oxidized in oxidation condition C.
500
2.5
500
1000
Distance [m]
Scale and resin
8000
Steel
1000
1500
(a)
0.2
10000
(b)
3000
Scale and resin
2000
0.4
Precipitated
Cu at the
scale/steel
interf ace
Steel
Precipitated Cu at the
scale/steel interf ace
0.6
Steel
Fe3 O4 layer
0.6
Scale and resin
0.8
Cu concentration
[mass %]
0.8
O intensity
[arb. unit]
(a)
(a)
Cuconcentration
[mass %]
interface are shown in Figure 2. Compared to condition A,

the amount of copper present in the scale/steel interface in
condition B is reduced dramatically. This indicates that
oxide scale absorbs some copper and that removing the
oxide scale decreases the precipitated copper at the interface. This result implies that descaling is beneficial for the
suppression of hot shortness.
Two methods are proposed. The first method consists of

performing descaling twice before the first rolling, as
precipitated copper at the scale/steel interface is decreased
by this descaling. Usually, one descaling is performed in
actual industry practice. The second descaling decreases
the chance of more precipitated copper.
In the second method, reheated steel slabs are kept in a
controlled atmosphere such as dry air. During this oxidation, precipitated copper at the scale/steel interface begins
to diffuse backward into the steel inside.
Oxidation-Tensile Test Results
The appearances after the oxidation-tensile tests, which
simulate the approaches described above and the base
condition, are shown in Figure 5. There are fewer surface
cracks in conditions F and G compared to base condition E.
Figure 6 shows the surface cross sections of the oxidationtensile test samples. Severe cracks formed in base condition E, while in conditions F and G, the surfaces only
show tiny cracks. These results indicate that both methods
are effective in suppressing hot shortness.
99
09.08.2010 14:19:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
1cm
(b)
1cm
(c)
1cm
Figure 5. Surface appearance after oxidation-tensile tests. (a)
Base condition (Condition E), (b) Method 1 (Condition F) and (c)
Method 2 (Condition G).
Electron Microscope analysis. Areas where FeO contains

copper in the layer were also determined. Using Focused
Ion Beam technique, a small piece of the oxide sample
containing copper was removed and made into a Transmission Electron Microscope samplethere were two
copper particles in the Transmission Electron Microscope
sample. Figure 8 shows a Transmission Electron Microscope image of the scale containing a copper particle. The
copper particlesmetals with an FCC structureare
located at the grain boundaries in the FeO layer as determined by the energy dispersive spectrometry and the electron diffraction pattern (Table 5). The diameter of the
copper particles is about 100 nm. These results suggest
that liquid copper migrates along the grain boundaries of
the FeO scale. From this result, a mechanism is proposed
that copper migrates through the scale and dissolves in the
Fe3O4 layer. Tanaka et al. [10] reported that liquid copper
has extremely good wettability with FeO. He also explained that such wettability may be due to the chemical
absorption of oxygen in liquid copper. Referring again to
Table 5, the oxide around the copper particle and along the
FeO grain boundary is Fe3O4. Thus, it is considered that
released oxygen from the copper particle during the cooling process oxidizes the FeO into Fe3O4.
2 O 3
3 O4
(a)
400m
(b)
phase
boundary
1cm
3
400m
(c)
2m
400m
Figure 6. Cross sections of sample surfaces after oxidation-tensile

tests. (a) Base condition (Condition E), (b) Method 1 (Condition F)
and (c) Method 2 (Condition G).
Discussion
Transmission Electron Microscope analysis was performed on the cross section of the scale at the Fe2O3/F3O4
interface in condition A. The Transmission Electron Microscope image shown in Figure 7 reveals two layers in
the scale, while energy dispersive spectrometry and electron diffraction analysis results are shown in Table 4. The
energy dispersive spectrometry results reveal that copper
exists in Fe3O4 as a solid solution. It is well known that
Fe3O4 has a spinel structure, and the spinel oxide of FeCu-O has a complete solid solution system between
Fe2CuO4 and Fe2FeO4. This explains why copper may
exist as a solid solution in the upper part of the Fe3O4 layer.
In order to find a path of copper migration through the
scale, a detailed Electron Probe Micro-Analysis mapping
was performed on the FeO layer prior to a Transmission
100
Figure 7. Transmission Electron Microscope image of oxide cross

sections at magnetite/hematite interface after oxidation in condition
A.
Table 4. Identified species at points in Transmission Electron
Microscope imaga of Figure 7 by energy dipersive spectrometry
analyses and electron diffraction patterns.
Location Species Detection of Cu
Cu is detected.
Point 1
Fe3 O4
Cu is not detected.
Point 2
Fe2 O3
Cu is detected.
Point 3
Fe3 O4
Cu is detected.
Point 4
Fe3 O4
Cu is not detected.
Point 5
Fe2 O3
Cu is not detected.
Point 6
Fe2 O3
Following the change to a dry air atmosphere, the

amount of enriched copper remained nearly constant, but
the concentration profile became low and broad (Figure 4),
while the oxidation rate decreased dramatically after the
atmospheric change. These results are derived based on
the assumption that a slowdown in the oxidation rate stops
the scale/steel interface movement and that the copper
begins to diffuse inward into the steel. Such a decrease in
09.08.2010 14:19:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
100nm
Grain boundary
Figure 8. Transmission Electron Microscope image of oxide cross

sections along wustite grain boundary after oxidation in condition A.
Table 5. Identified species at points in Transmission Electron
Microscope image of Figure 8 by energy dipersive spectrometry
analyses and electron diffraction patterns.
Location in Figure 8 Species
Point 1
Fe3O 4
Point 2
Cu
Point 3
Fe3O 4
Point 4
Fe3O 4
Point m
FeO
In order to verify this assumption, the copper diffusion

behaviour has been numerically simulated. The calculation
simulates oxidation and copper diffusion, and two kinetic
regions are considered. In a moist oxygen atmosphere, the
oxidation rate follows the parabolic rate law, whereas in a
dry air atmosphere, oxidation is almost nil. Iron is oxidized, and the alloying element of copper remains as metallic copper at the scale/steel interface during oxidation.
The value of the upper limit of the copper solution/copper
concentration is retained at the scale/steel interface in -Fe,
which is about 10% at 1200C. Copper tends to diffuse
into the steel, but the interface also moves inward as oxidation takes place. Less copper diffuses inward at a higher
oxidation rate and vice versa. The basic equation of copper
diffusion, the iron oxidation rate, and the initial and
boundary conditions are shown below.
Oxidation:
(0t7200s) (1)
w k pt
Oxidation rate
kp=6.510-6 g2 cm-4 s-1
dw
0
dt
Oxidation rate
Copper diffusion:
Basic equation
Initial condition
(t>7200s)
C
2C
D 2 , C C max
t
x
C C i
and
X 0
Boundary condition C D C M Fe dw C
2
2
Interface movement X
(at 1473K)
M O dt
M Fe
Fe M O
(2)
(x>X, t>0) (3)

(t=0)
(x=X)
(4)
(t>0)
(5)
per concentration in -Fe, Ci is the initial copper concentration in the steel, D is the diffusion coefficient of copper,
MFe is the atomic weight of iron and Mo is the atomic
weight of oxygen.
The calculation results are shown in Figure 9. Copper is
distributed near the scale/steel interface with a sharp peak
because the scale/steel interface movement is faster than
the diffusion rate of the copper movement into the steel
during oxidation in a wet atmosphere. The concentration at
the scale/steel interface reaches 10% of the maximum
copper concentration in -Fe, even after only 10-minute
oxidation. Once the oxidation stops, this simulates dry
atmosphere oxidation, the interface movement does the
same, and the copper diffuses inward toward the steel,
whereupon the copper peak becomes broad. This result
serves to positively explain the copper concentration profile (Figure 4).
10
8
Cu concentration
[mass%]
the oxidation rate within a dry oxygen atmosphere has

been reported before [11,12].
6
C
4
A
A : 7200s Moist oxygen

B: 7200s Moist oxygen
600s Dry air
C: 7200s Moist oxygen
1200s Dry air
0
0
5
10
15
Distance f rom scale/steel interf ace [m]
Figure 9. Copper diffusion calculation results into steel during

oxidation.
Conclusions
This study examines copper distribution during the oxidation of steel that contains copper. The following conclusions are drawn:
1. Precipitated copper at the scale/steel interface is absorbed into the scale magnetite layer or diffused inward
into the steel.
2. Two methods designed to suppress hot shortness using
the above techniques are tried and proven to be effective.
References
[1] A. Nicholson, J. D. Murray: J. Iron and Steel Inst., 203 (1965), 1007.
[2] S. Akamatsu, T. Senuma, Y. Takada, M. Hasebe: Materials Science
and Technology, 15 (1999), 1301.
[3] N. Imai, N, Komatsubara, K. Kunishige: ISIJ Int., 37 (1997), 217.
[4] T. Kajitani, M. Wakou, N. Tokumitsu, S. Ogibayashi, S. Mizoguchi:
Tetsu-to-Hagane, 81 (1995), 185.
[5] K. Shibata, S. Seo, M. Kaga, H. Uchino: Materials Trans., 43 (2002),
292.
[6] C. Nagasaki, H. Uchino, K. Shibata, K. Asakura, M. Hatano: Tetsu-to
Hagane, 89 (2003), 332.
[7] S. Seo, K. Asakura, K. Shibata: ISIJ Int., 37 (1997), 240.
[8] M. Hatano, K. Kunishige: Tetsu-to Hagane, 89 (2003), 659.
[9] Y. Kondo : ISIJ Int., 44 (2004), 1576.
[10] T. Tanaka, N. Takahira, S. Hara: CAMP-ISIJ, 6 (2003), 1376.
[11] J. Baud, A. Ferrier, J. Manenc, J. Benard: Oxidation of Metals, 9
(1975), 69
[12] C.W. Tuck, M.Odgers, K. Sachs: Corrosion Sci., 9 (1969), 271.
where w is the Mass gain, kp is the Parabolic constant, x is

the distance, t is the Time, X is the distance of scale/steel
interface from the original surface, C is the copper concentration, is the density of iron, Cmax is the Maximum copsteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
101
09.08.2010 14:19:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Deformation of Oxide Scale and Roll-Strip Interface Characteristics in Hot Rolling of

Stainless Steel 304
Dongbin Wei1), Junxia Huang2), Aiwen Zhang2), Zhengyi Jiang1), A Kiet Tieu1), Xu Shi2), Sihai Jiao2), Libin Chen3)
1)
School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong / Australia, dwei@uow.edu.au; 2)
Research Institute (R&D Center), Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., LTD., Shanghai / China; 3) Research Institute (R&D Center), Tangshan Iron &
Steel Co., LTD., Tangshan / China
The deformation of oxide scale affects roll-strip interface characteristics in hot rolling. Few studies have been carried out on the deformation
behavior of oxide scale in hot rolling of stainless steels. In this paper, the thickness, morphology of the oxide scale and the surface roughness of workpiece in hot rolling of stainless steel 304 under the condition of a single pass were investigated, and the friction coefficients
were calculated. The effect of humidity on the growth of oxide scale of stainless steel 304 has been identified. Outer and inner oxide layers
can be found when the water vapor content is over 7 vol.%. An incomplete oxide layer which is a transition layer between the inner oxide
layer and steel substrate can be distinguished in thick oxide scale when the water vapour content is over 12 vol.%. The oxide scale thickness decreases linearly with an increase of reduction. Surface roughness also decreases with an increase of reduction. After experiencing
20 and 30 % reduction, the surface roughness asperities are flattened, so the outmost surface of oxide scale after rolling is much smoother
than that before rolling. Generally, friction coefficients decrease with an increase of reduction.
Keywords: 304 stainless steel, Hot rolling, Oxide scale, Deformation, Surface roughness, Friction
Oxide scale plays a growing importance in determining

the surface quality of hot strip and contact mechanics. It
affects the friction coefficient and heat transfer at the interface between the strip and roll [1]. To some extent, the
rolling force and friction condition depend on the thickness and microstructure of oxide scale. However, few
studies have been carried out to characterise the oxidation
and deformation behavior of the oxide scale in hot strip
rolling of stainless steels.
Conventional stainless steels are grouped within the
chromia-forming alloys, which form a Cr2O3 layer that
protects the bulk against corrosion up to 627 C [2]. Two
major potential components of a stainless steel scale are
M2O3 rhombohedral phase and M3O4 spinel phase [3]. The
oxide scale structure and composition on 304 stainless
steel strip were found to be primarily influenced by the
temperature and oxygen concentration when the oxidation
time is short [4], however, the effect of humid environment was not studied. The presence of water vapor
changes the oxidation behavior of metals and alloys compared to the dry oxygen case by increasing the corrosivity
of the environment [5]. The exposure of Fe-Cr alloys to
O2/H2O mixtures in the temperature range 500-900 C can
result in Cr depletion of the protective oxide by evaporation of chromium species CrO2(OH)2 [6], which leads to
nucleation of non-protective Fe-rich oxide, and results in
an increase of oxidation rate. The mechanism of formation
of the complex multilayer structure of oxide scale of austenitic stainless steel 302 under the condition of hot rolling
in Steckel Mills was proposed as being associated with a
cycle oxidation pattern [7] and the effects of changes in
temperature, deformation, and furnace atmosphere including humidity were discussed [8].
Friction coefficient during hot rolling of 430 ferritic
stainless steel decreases as the oxide scale thickness increases at 900 and 1000 C, but increases as the oxide
scale thickness increases at 1100 C [9]. Friction coeffi-
102
cient increases significantly with an increase of the oxide

scale thickness at a reduction of 20%, while this increase
is much smaller at higher reduction. The effect of oxide
scale on friction of stainless steel may be more complicated than that of carbon steel [9].
This paper focuses on the deformation of oxide Scale
and roll-strip interface characteristics in the process of hot
rolling of austenitic stainless steel. The oxidation characteristic of stainless steel 304 in humid air at the temperature of finish rolling was studied. The microstructure and
thickness of oxide scale layer were obtained from hot
rolling tests. The friction condition at the roll-strip interface and the surface roughness of the workpiece in hot
rolling of 304 steel were investigated.
Experimental
Testing Material. The main chemical compositions of
304 steel are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Main chemical compositions of 304 (wt.%).
C
Cr
Ni
Si
0.048 18.14 8.15 0.36
Ti
0.004
Mo
Mn
0.15 1.09
Cu
Fe
0.026
0.19
71.6
Hot Rolling Test. The specimen size for hot rolling is

400 100 10 mm and the surface roughness Ra is around
0.5 m. Each specimen has a lead as shown in Figure 1. A
is the point where specimen starts to contact the roll when
it enters the roll gap and B is the point where the specimen
undertakes full set reduction.
B
A
1mm
Introduction
80mm
Figure 1. Lead of rolling specimens.
09.08.2010 14:19:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
Hot rolling tests were conducted on a 2-high Hille 100
experimental rolling mill and the roll diameter was 225
mm. The reheating temperature was 1100 C and the entry
temperature was 1050 C. The maxium reduction was 40%
and the rolling speed was 0.72 m/s. The specimens were
put in a cooling box full of nitrogen gas immediately after
rolling or reheating for preventing further oxidation. 304
steel displays high sensitivity to the humidity in the
furnace. A humid air generator was connected to the
furnace for adjusting the thickness of oxide scale formed
on the surface of specimens during reheating by changing
the water vapor content [10].
Observation and Measurement. The oxide scales of
austenitic stainless steels split away in the process of cooling, which may cause false observation results. An effective experimental method has been developed to obtain the
cross section of the oxide scale. Each specimen was immediately covered by a stainless steel block with smooth
and clean surface after hot rolling or reheating. It was
uncovered after cooling to ambient temperature then the
scale in the uncovered area was sealed in resin. The cross
section of oxide scale can be obtained by sectioning the
sealed area. The surface morphology of some rolled
specimens was photographed using an industrial digital
camera. The cross section of oxide scale before and after
rolling was observed and the thickness was measured
under Optical Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy. The surface roughness after hot rolling test was
measured using Hommel Tester T1000 wave and the vertical resolution is 0.01 m.
photographed positions. In the case of the thick oxide

scale formed in the humid air in which the water vapour
content is over 12 vol.%, another layer - incomplete oxide
layer can be distinguished from the inner oxide scale,
which is obvious in Figure 2(d). The incomplete oxide
layer is a transition layer between the inner oxide layer
and steel substrate.
The oxide scale is not uniform after oxidation in the
humid air containing 2.8 vol.%, and the thickness is about
1 - 12 m. The oxide scale tends to be uniform when the
water vapour content reaches 7 vol.%, and the average
thickness is about 40, 44 and 48 m when the water
vapour contents are 7, 12 and 19.5 vol.% respectively. The
humid air in which the water vapor content is 12.0 vol.%
was adopted to flow into the furnace at 15 L/min to obtain
relatively uniform oxide scale thickness on the surface of
each specimen. Considering the thickness of the specimen,
reheating time should be long enough to obtain uniformly
distributed temperature inside each specimen. The
reheating time was set as 25 and 35 min to obtain
relatively thin and thick oxide scales respectively.
Deformation of Oxide Scale and Surface Morphology.
The microstructure of the oxide scale of 304 steel before
and after rolling when reheating time is 25 and 35 min is
illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, respectively.

Generation of Oxide Scale and Effect of Humidity.
The structures of oxide scale of 304 stainless steels formed
in humid air at 1100 C after 20 min are shown in Figure
2. The water vapor content in the humid air was 2.8, 7.0,
12 and 19.5 vol.% repectively.
50m
50m
50m
50m
Figure 3. Deformation of oxide scale of 304 steel after hot rolling

for reheating time of 25 min and (a) before rolling, (b) 19.7 % and
(c) 29.3 %.
Steel
substrate
50m
Incomplete
oxide layer
Inner
oxide
layer
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Outer
oxide
layer
Figure 2. Oxide scale of 304 steel formed in humid air at 1100 C

after 20min, water vapour contents (a) 2.8, (b) 7, (c) 12 and (d)
19.5 vol.%.
At least two oxide layers can be found when the water

vapor content is over 7 vol.%, i.e. outer and inner oxide
layers. The resin separates the outer scale from inner scale.
This is because the bond strength between the outer and
inner scales is low after cooling to ambient temperature.
The unavoidable impact and buoyancy generated by the
resin flow in the process of cold mounting resulted in
separation between the outer and inner scales layers.
However, the relative displacement between the outer and
inner layers is usually small and can be neglected in most
Figure 4. Deformation of the oxide scale of 304 steel after hot

rolling when reheating time of 35 min and (a) before rolling, (b)
10.3 % and (c) 29.3 %.
As similar as above, there are at least two layers of oxide scale and the resin separates the outer scale from inner
scale not only in the case of oxide scale before rolling but
also after rolling under the reduction of 10%. The bond
strength between the outer and inner scales is still too low
to resist the impact and buoyancy generated by resin flow
during cold mounting even after 10% reduction. This
situation is improved with an increase of reduction. When
the reduction reaches 20%, the outer scale does not detach
103
09.08.2010 14:19:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
from the inner scale. However, there exist some gaps between the outer and inner scales. When the reduction
reaches 30%, the gaps tend to disappear and the boundary
between the outer and inner scales becomes vague in the
case of thin oxide scale when reheating time is 25 min.
After experiencing 20 and 30% reduction, the surface
roughness asperities are flattened, so the outmost surface
after rolling is much smoother than that before rolling.
Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy was adopted to
determine the presence of four important elements Cr, Ni,
Fe and O in the oxide scales. Line scan was carried out for
obtaining the concentration gradients of these four elements at steel substrate-oxide scale interface. The result is
one of the most important references for distinguishing
oxide scale layers, based on which the thickness of each
oxide scale layer can be measured. The oxide scale did not
distribute on the surface of each specimen uniformly after
reheating in some cases. Because in-situ observation could
not be carried out, it was impossible to measure the thickness of oxide scale at a certain position before rolling then
measure again after rolling at the same position. Measurement of the thickness of oxide scale before and after
rolling had to be dependent on different specimens.
90
Reheating time 25 min

Reheating time 35 min
oxide scale thickness, m
80
70
60
40
30
10
20
Reduction, %
30
The relationship between the oxide scale thickness and

reduction is shown in Figure 5. Basically, the oxide scale
thickness decreases linearly with an increase of reduction.
The decrease rates of oxide scale thickness when the reheating time is 35 min and 25 min are close, which is
different from the situation of 304L. In the case of 304L,
the decrease of oxide scale thickness when the reheating
time is 35 min is more rapidly than that when the reheating
time is 25 min [11]. One reason may be that the difference
of the oxide scale thickness of 304 steel when reheating
time is 25 and 35 min is smaller than that of 304L. Another reason may be that the structure and formability of
the oxide scale of 304 do not change much when the reheating time increases from 25 to 35 min although the
exposure of Fe-Cr alloys to O2/H2O mixtures can result in
Cr depletion of the protective oxide and the nucleation of
non-protective Fe-rich oxide on the surface [6].
Surface Roughness. Figure 6 shows that the surface
morphology of oxide scale at the lead when the reduction
changes from 0 to 40 % in the interval AB in Figure 1. The
distance from A to B is approximately 50 mm after rolling.
When the reduction is low, the hot rolled oxide scales tend
to break after cooling. The bonding between the remaining
scales and steel substrate is low, and there exist a lot of
macro cracks. This situation is improved with an increase
of reduction. When the reduction is larger than about 20 %,
0%
50mm
Figure 6. Surface morphology of oxide scale for reduction from 0

to 40%.
10.0
R- Profile Filter ISO 11562(M1) Lc = 0.800 mm
(a)
0.0
m
-10.0 Pick-up TKU Lt = 15.00 mm
10.0
(b)
0.0
m
m
10.0
(c)
0.0
m
m
20.0
0
Figure 5. Relationship between oxide scale thickness and reduction.
104
40%
Figure 7. Surface profiles of 304 steel specimens along rolling

direction after hot rolling under different reductions of (a) 10.0%,
(b) 19.7% and (c) 28.7% and reheating time of 25 min.
50
20
there are few macro cracks in the scale and oxide scales
remain intact, which is consistent with the results shown in
Figures 3 and 4.
(a)
0.0
m
20.0
(b)
0.0
m
20.0
(c)
0.0
m
Figure 8. Surface profiles of 304 steel specimens along rolling

direction after hot rolling under different reductions of (a) 10.3%,
(b) 19.8% and (c) 29.3% and reheating time of 35 min.
The previous study [12] investigated the surface roughness of oxide scale in hot rolling of plain carbon steel. The
situation of 304 steel is more complicated. The surface
roughness of oxide scale of 304 steel immediately before
hot rolling could not be acquired because the oxide scale
of austenitic stainless steel always breaks up during cooling process, which changes the surface roughness significantly. Only the surface roughness after hot rolling was
measured and shown here. The surface morphology does
not keep constant at all positions on each sample because
of the non-uniform distribution of oxide scale. It was
found that some surface area was relatively rougher than
other area especially when the reduction was 10 and 20%,
and the rougher area usually appeared dark red. This may
be because the outmost Fe2O3 oxide scale layer does not
experience enough compression, and still break up during
cooling. In order to compare the surface morphology under different reductions, the relatively smooth surface area
09.08.2010 14:19:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
Ra, m
on each sample was chosen for measurement in all cases.

However, the surface roughness measurement is more
qualitative than quantitative. The surface profiles along the
rolling direction when the reheating time is 25 and 35 min
are shown in Figures 7 and 8, respectively.
The above surface profiles are complicated and the
arithmetic average of the absolute values Ra was adopted
for the analyses of surface roughness in hot rolling. The
relationship between Ra along both rolling and transverse
directions and reduction is shown in Figure 9.
3.0
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
Reheating time: 25 min

Rolling direction
Transverse direction
Rolling direction
Transverse direction
10
15
20
25
Reduction, %
30
Figure 9. Relationship between Ra and rolling reduction.
Generally, the values of Ra along both rolling direction

and transverse direction decrease with an increase of reduction because the height of surface asperities decreases
with an increase of reduction. However, the oxide scale of
304 steel tends to be broken during cooling, which has
contribution to surface roughness measured at room temperature. The compactability of oxide scale increases with
an increase of reduction, which can help reduce the breaking in the oxide scale layer and surface roughness.
The values of Ra when the reheating time is 35 min at all
reductions are larger than that when the reheating time is
25 min. The thickness of oxide scale layers of 304 steel
before hot rolling is more uniform and thicker when the
reheating time is 35 min than that when the reheating time
is 25 min. Thick oxide scale layers result in relatively
rough strip surface after hot rolling because thick layers
especially thick outer oxide scale layers have relatively
low compactability and are prone to be broken.
0.55
Friction coefficient
0.50
0.45
0.40
0.35
0.30
0.25
10
15
20
25
Reduction, %
30
Figure 10. Relationship between friction coefficient and rolling

reduction during hot rolling of 304 steel.
Inverse Calculation of Friction Coefficient. A calculation code developed by Alexander on the basis of
Orowans model [13] has been adopted for inversely determining the coefficient of friction in the above processes
of hot rolling. The friction coefficients were varied until
the calculated rolling force has less than 1% error with the
measured one in each case. The relationship between the
reduction and calculated friction coefficient during the
process of hot rolling is shown in Figure 10. Generally,
the calculated values of friction coefficients decrease with

an increase of reduction, and the difference of the values
of friction coefficient between the reduction of 10 and
20% is larger than that between 20 and 30%. This may be
because the structure of oxide scale of 304 steel becomes
stable after hot rolling at the reduction of 20% and its
effect on the value of friction coefficient also tends to be
stable.
Conclusions
Humidity has significant effect on the growth of oxide
scale of stainless steel 304. Two oxide layers - outer and
inner oxide layers can be found when the water vapor
content is over 7 vol.%. An incomplete oxide layer which
is a transition layer between the inner oxide layer and steel
substrate can be distinguished in thick oxide scale when
the water vapour content is over 12 vol.%. The oxide scale
thickness decreases linearly with an increase of reduction.
Oxide scales remain intact when the reduction is larger
than about 20%. After experiencing 20 and 30% reduction,
the surface roughness asperities are flattened, so the outmost surface of oxide scale after rolling is much smoother
than that before rolling. Surface roughness decreases with
an increase of reduction. Generally, the calculated values
of friction coefficients decrease with an increase of reduction. The above results related to the deformation of oxide
scale were obtained under the condition of a single rolling
pass. Further work may be conducted before the results are
extended to industrial hot rolling with multiple passes.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the Baosteel financial support
for the current project.
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[11] D.B. Wei, J.X. Huang, A.W. Zhang, Z.Y. Jiang, A. K. Tieu, Fei Wu,
X. Shi, S.H. Jiao, X.Y. Qu: International Journal of Surface Science
and Engineering, 3 (2009), 459-470.
[12] W.H. Sun, A.K. Tieu, Z.Y. Jiang, C. Lu: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 155-156 (2004), 1307-1312.
[13] J.M. Alexander, R.C. Brewer, G.W. Rowe: Manufacturing Technology, Volume 2: engineering processes, Ellis Horwood, Chichester
(1987).
105
09.08.2010 14:19:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
FEM Analysis of Defects and Microstructure Evolution during Hot Working of

Specialty Alloys
Victor Mendoza
R&D Process Modelling Group, Carpenter Technology Co., 101 W. Bern Street, Reading, PA 19601 / USA, vmendoza@cartech.com
The main goals of process simulation in manufacturing are to reduce manufacturing/part development time and cost as well as increasing
quality and productivity. In this study, porosity evolution is modeled by introducing a porosity evolution parameter, which is function of strain
rate and stress triaxiality factor. Applicability is shown by simulating continuous hot shape rolling, where the geometry of the oval passes
and the roll gap are the variables. Validation is carried out through evaluation of samples from final products. Also, surface defects in hot
shape rolling are tracked by studying the instability during the rolling of the material. Plastic work approach was used to judge the occurrence of instability during the process. The effect of number of passes and roll gap was examined to predict the occurrence of surface
cracking. On the other hand, unrecrystallized grains and coarse grain problem are other significant problems in the metalworking industry.
A recrystallization model is implemented in a finite element system to study the effect of forging parameters on the microstructure evolution
during ingot conversion process of a superalloy.
Keywords: FEM modelling, Porosity, Surface cracks, Microstructure evolution, Hot bar rolling, Ingot conversion
Introduction
Forging and hot shape rolling are high temperature metalworking process that supplies the raw material as billets
or bars for subsequent forging, cold drawing and other
manufacturing processes. Among the quality problems
associated with ingot conversion and hot rolling are unconsolidated porosity, surface defects, coarse grain and
unrecrystallized grains. Very often, the quality problems
are discovered until the inspection stage, and not during
the forming processes. In some instances, some quality
problems, unlike metallurgical problems, tend to be discontinuous. Therefore sampling based inspection might
not be robust enough to assure the quality of the material
to be supplied. Thus, many researchers have been investigating the cause of such defects using different approaches
[1,2].
The main objective of this work is to present the applicability of process numerical modeling in the primary
metalworking industry to understand the cause of quality
problems and then how to implement the results in the
design of more robust processes. Continuous hot bar rolling process is the metalworking process chosen to study
porosity consolidation and surface cracks problems. Moreover, grain size evolution modeling is applied in ingot
conversion.
Experimental
Flow Stress and Recrystallization Behaviour. Efficient
plastic deformation of a given material requires a through
understanding of its mechanical and microstructural behavior during the metal forming process. Besides thermal
properties, flow stress data at a given testing matrix is
needed. The Carpenter Technology Corporation PYROMET alloy 718 was chosen for this work, which is a
precipitation hardenable nickel-chromium alloy. Flow
stress data was obtained from two sources: JMatPro [3]
and hot compression testing, which was conducted under
isothermal conditions at constant true strain rates from
0.001 to 20/s, and at temperatures from 850C to 1150C.
106
The specimens were sectioned in compression direction

and prepared for further analysis.
Stress - Strain Behaviour. Typical stress-strain curves
obtained at 850 and 1100 C and a different strain rates are
shown in Figure 1(a) and (b), respectively. The curves are
of flow softening type in which the flow stress reaches a
peak at a critical strain and decreases with further strain.
For comparison, the plots show both experimental and
modeling data from JMatPro. Although the work hardening obtained from JMatPro is more rapid than shown by
experiment, the agreement with creep controlled behavior
is very good.
On the other hand, there are some concerns about comparing the flow stress at 850 C for the simple fact that it is
in a temperature range where rapid gamma precipitation
may occur. The results depend on the prior condition of
the alloy before testing, i.e. is it quenched from the solutioning temperature or tested after ageing heat treatment.
Either way, the metallurgical state of the specimen will be
different and testing will produce two different results. For
example, if the material is quenched from the solutioning
temperature, gamma may precipitate during testing. The
amount will depend on factors such as holding time before
testing, and strain rate during testing, which affects how
long it is held at temperature. Moreover, if the prior state
alloy is in the heat treated condition, significant coarsening
of the gamma is likely to occur during testing, which will
cause it to soften as a function of time. The flow stress of
the alloy at 850 C, and also to certain extent at 900 C,
will therefore be history dependent and any calculated or
experimental result should be used with caution.
Very often experimental data show some inconsistencies.
For example, in some cases detailed analysis shows negative values for strain rate dependence. Discrepancies
among experimental data are due to the fact that the thermomechanical history of the samples is widely different.
Medeiros at al [4] presents a detailed matrix of the conditions used for different researchers. Therefore, although
09.08.2010 14:19:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
the model used in JMatPro to predict flow stress data is
not perfect, it is considered that the approximations are
realistic and avoid some incoherencies observed in experimental data. Based on this, it was decided to use
JMatPro data in the calculations presented in this work.
(a)
(b)
Figure 1. True stress-true strain curves from JMatPro and compression of PYROMET alloy 718.
Modeling of Grain Growth and Quality Defects

Modeling of Recrystallization and Grain Growth.
Microstructure change during the hot working of PYROMET alloy 718 is mainly controlled by recrystallization and grain growth. Based on the experimental data
obtained from compression tests and isothermal heat
treatment, recrystallization and grain growth models of
PYROMET alloy 718 were established. Classical recrystallization and grain growth theories serve as the foundation of the recrystallization model implemented into
FORGE2009 [5]. Equations and material constants all
three forms of recrystallization were extracted from literature [6-8].
Testing and validation of the recrystallization model was
carried out by comparing with results available in the open
literature [6,7], and with results obtained from in house
laboratory and industrial size trials.
Modeling of Surface Cracking in Bar Rolling. In
cold working processes, there are several ductile fracture
criteria. Cockcroft-Latham (CL) and plastic work are
widely used for predicting the location and propagation of
possible defects. The CL criterion integrates the first principal stress with respect to effective strain. The effective
plastic work is represented as integration of effective
stress with respect to effective strain. Direction of stress is
a critical factor for crack initiation in the CL criterion. On
the other hand, the amount of energy is more important
than direction of the stress in hot working processes because many metallurgical phenomena are involved to
dissipate the accumulated deformation energy. The plastic
work criterion represents the amount of deformation energy. The effective stress is a function of temperature,
strain, strain rate and microstructure and it changes when a
metallurgical phenomena takes place. For example, the
total amount of deformation energy can be decreased
when recrystallization occurs. Another important mechanism of dissipation energy is flow instability such cracks,
shear bands and surface defects.
The specific plastic work was selected as a criterion to
estimate the flow instability of the material under hot
shape rolling conditions. The fundamentals are proposed
by Lee et al. [9]. Eq. (1) describes the model.
C1 = ( , , T )d
(1)
In this approach the limiting value C1 is determined by

coupling the local plastic work per unit volume accumulated with the surface irregularity obtained from testing,
depending on the strain and temperature. If the accumulated specific plastic work is bigger than C1, then the unstable flow might happen during the metalworking process
according to this criterion.
The specific plastic work for PYROMET alloy 718 at
each temperature, strain, and strain rate values were calculated from flow stress plots by calculating the area under
the curve. Data used was that obtained by JMatPro. The
specific plastic work values were calculated for different
strain levels; Figure 2 shows examples for strain 0.8, 2
and 3. The contour levels indicate the specific plastic work
C1, units are Nm/m3. As expected, C1 value is larger at low
temperature and high strain rate because of higher value of
the flow stress.
The flow instability areas are differentiated by inspecting the surface defects and formation of shear bands in the
testing specimens. Based on these observations, the critical
value was decided to be 450 Nm/m3, which was based on
surface irregularity and flow instability of shear deformation. Poor quality surface can be explained in terms of
energy dissipation. To keep equilibrium the material under
deformation dissipates energy in some ways. When deformation conditions are such that recrystallization happens, deformation energy mostly dissipates by microstructural changes. However, if recrystallization does not occur,
deformation energy is dissipated by creating extra surface,
for example. Figure 2 shows the instability map for PYROMET alloy 718 for various strain values; the hatched
area represents the unstable area.
Modeling of Porosity Consolidation in Hot Bar Rolling. One method to track the porosity evolution during a
forming operation is the modeling of the variation of the
geometry of the porosity. In this case the volume variation
of the porosity is tracked during the forming operation.
Another method is the use of a model which allows predicting the size evolution of the porosity during the process. The first method requires a very fine mesh to represent the porosities; this leads to a very long computation
time. Another disadvantage is that new computations must
be done if new statistical positions for the initial porosities
want to be considered.
In order to reduce computation time and to predict the
evolution of porosity in the whole part, a model of porosity evolution has been considered [5]. This model considers the evolution of the volume of porosity compared with
the initial volume of the porosities. During the simulation,
the relationship between the volume of the current porosity and the initial volume of the porosity is tracked. Equation 2 describes the model.
P

= K c
if p > 0
t
(2)
= K P
if p < 0
t
t
107
09.08.2010 14:19:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
In Eq. (2), is the relative porosity volume (initial values
is 1), p is pressure, is the effective stress, is the strain
rate. The parameter Kc and Kt in the model are for compression and tension, respectively. These values were
obtained through numerical trials. A cylindrical billet
with small spherical porosity was meshed and then a series
of calculations with different stress states were run. From

the results, the values for Kc and Kt were obtained. In the
model it is assumed that initial cavity is spherical, the
porosity ratio is very low, and each cavity is very small
and that there is no anisotropic effect due to the deformation of the cavity. This model was implemented in
FORGE2009.
(b) Strain 2
(c) Strain 3
(a) Strain 0.8
Figure 2. Instability map in terms of specific plastic work for PYROMET alloy 718.
(a) First drawing after upsetting
(b) End of cogging
(c) Microstructure close to the surface
Figure 3. Calculated average grain size distribution and final microstructure close to the surface.
Application to Industrial Processes

Modeling of Ingot Conversion Process. To demonstrate the capability of the present model, the complete
PYROMET alloy 718 conversion process was simulated
using FORGE2009. The process includes several upsetting and drawing operations with reheating in between.
The simulation is fully coupled and includes the calculation of mechanical, thermal, and evolution of grain size
variables. Initial ingot size is 508 mm round, initial temperature is 1175 C, initial grain size varies from 500 m
to 1000m, tooling temperature is variable, and friction
factor is 0.7. Heat transfer coefficient with air and at the
interface between workpiece and tooling is 10 W/m2/C
and 2000 W/m2/C, respectively.
Figure 3 shows the calculated average grain size for two
conditions: (a) after two passes following the upsetting
operation and reheating, and (b) at the end of the entire
cogging process. Figure 3(a) clearly shows how the dead
zones created in the upsetting at the ends of the ingot start
getting smaller due to the side pressing. Moreover, a number of dead zones are developed near the surface due to
the friction at the die-ingot interface. Figure 3(b) shows
uniform fine grain size around the centre; however, close
to the surface the grain size is mixed. Actual microstructure is shown in Figure 3(c), which is necklace type. This
condition represents a quality problem than can be ad-
108
dressed through modelling. Different tool geometry and

forging sequence can be numerically evaluated to design a
robust process.
Wrinkles and Surface Cracks in Hot Bar Rolling.
The plastic work approach was implemented into
FORGE2009. Application consists in investigating the
cause of wrinkles and cracks obtained in the reverse rolling of PYROMET alloy 718. Initial billet size is 203 mm
round and final geometry is 102 mm square. The reverse
rolling schedule consists in ten passes. Results in terms of
specific plastic work for passes 8-10 are shown in Figure
4.
It was assessed from the simulations that instability resulted from pass 8 might cause the surface cracks in the
final geometry. Since the instability was accumulated in
every pass, it was necessary to reduce the instability wherever a change can be implemented based on equipment
and process constraints. It was observed that a significant
increment in specific plastic work at the edge of the oval
in Pass 7 might cause the formation of wrinkles. Uneven
deformation from center to edge in the oval pass gives
differential elongation which leads to surface defects resulting from the shear forces set up. In the present work,
the objective was focused on improvement of the roll pass
design to reduce the possible surface defects.
In this study, geometry of the rolls was kept constant,
and the only variables were the number of passes and roll
09.08.2010 14:19:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
gap. Figure 5 shows the simulation results for pass 8 to 10
of a modified schedule; note that pass 9 is empty. It is
observed that there was a reduction of instability for the
improved roll pass design compared to the original roll
design. However, this reduction of instability was not to a
great extent.
Figure 6 shows comparison between the simulated and
actual geometry of the final upper vertical corner. For the
original pass schedule, Figure 6(a), the simulation accurately predicts that the roll groove remains unfilled, and
that the maximum plastic specific work corresponds with
the location of wrinkles and cracks. On the other hand,
Figure 6(b) shows that the modified pass schedule leads to
a complete filled roll groove and that cracking is much
less, which corresponds to a lower specific plastic work.
final is 78 mm round. Figure 7(a) and (b) shows the initial

porosity level around the center and the resulting porosity
obtained with the original pass schedule. The pass design
was optimized by calculating the effect of the geometry of
the rolls on the porosity evolution. The plot in Figure 7(c)
shows the evolution of the relative porosity volume; note
that the value at the end of the rolling process is zero,
which means full consolidation of the porosity. Figure
7(d) shows the actual porosity obtained by the optimized
rolling schedule; the material is fully consolidated.
(a) Initial porosity at centre
Pass 8
Pass 9
(b) Original pass schedule
Pass 10
(c) Porosity evolution at centre
(d) Modified pass schedule
Figure 7 Actual initial and final porosity obtained for original and
modified pass schedules.
Conclusions
Figure 4 Accumulated specific plastic work of the original PYROMET alloy 718 rolling schedule.
Pass 8
Pass 9
Pass 10
Figure 5 Accumulated specific plastic work of the modified PYROMET alloy 718 rolling schedule.
(a) Original pass schedule
(b) Modified pass schedule

Figure 6. Defects and roll groove filling at pass 10.
Porosity Evolution in Hot Bar Rolling. Validation of

the porosity evolution model was carried out by simulating
the rolling process of a continuous cast 17-4PH stainless
steel, where the initial geometry is 104 mm square and
The microstructural model has been demonstrated to be

effective in predicting the microstructure observed. The
process model accurately predicts the dead zone immediately below the die/ingot interface and extending someway into the cross section. Wrinkles and surface cracks
was another topic studied. A numerical model based on
the specific plastic work approach was applied in hot
shape rolling simulation. The model accurately predicts
the location and extension of such defects in the process.
Also, a new porosity evolution model was applied to cogging and hot rolling to predict the porosity consolidation.
Finally, this work clearly demonstrates that modeling
tools are mature enough to be routinely used for process
improvement.
References
[1] S.E. Clift, P. Hartley, C.E.N. Strugess, G.W. Rowe: Int. J. Mech. Sci.
32 (1990), 1-17.
[2] R. Raj: Metall. Trans. A, 12 (1981), 1089-1097.
[3] Z. Guo, N. Saunders, J-P. Schille, A.P. Miodownik, Materials Science and Engineering A, 499-1-2, (2009), 7-13.
[4] S.C. Medeiros, Y.V.R.K. Prasad, W.G. Frazier, R Srinivasan: Materials Science and Engineering A, 293 (2000), 198-207.
[5] FORGE2009, TRANSVALOR, www.transvalor.com.
[6] B. Antolovich, M. Evans: Proc.9th International Symposium on
Superalloys, (Warrendale, PA:TMS), (2000), 39.
[7] C.A. Dandre, S.M. Roberts, R.W. Evans, R.C. Reed: Mater. Sci.
Technol., 16 (2000), 14.
[8] D. Huang, W.T. Wu, D. Lambert and S.L. Semiatin: Proc. Microstructure Modeling and Prediction during Thermomechanical Processing, (2001), 137.
[9] H.W. Lee, H.C. Kwon, M. Awais,Y.T. Im:J. Mech. Sci. Technol, 21
(2007), 1534-1540.
109
09.08.2010 14:19:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Thermomechanical Processing on Ferrite Grain Size and Retained Austenite

Morphology of Si-Mn TRIP Steel
Zicheng Zhang1),2), Fuxian Zhu1), Yanmei Li1), Zhigang Liu3)
1)
State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, 3-11 Wenhua Road, Shenyang / China, zhufuxian@163.com; 2)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo / Japan; 3) Department of Production, Medium
and Heavy Plate Plant, Jigang Group Co., Ltd, 21 Gongyebeilu Road, Jinan / China
To study the effect of thermomechanical processing on ferrite grain size and retained austenite morphology in low carbon Si-Mn TRIP steel,
the hot rolling process followed by a four-stages cooling process (Laminar Cooling-Air Cooling-Ultra-Fast Cooling-Asbestos-HeatPreservation) was carried out using Fe-0.2C-1.44Si-1.32Mn steel. The steel microstructure possessing fine and uniform equiaxed ferrite
grain with a size of 5m in diameter as well as a high retained austenite volume fraction of more than 13.5% was obtained. The steel also
exhibited a good balance of tensile strength with total elongation, e.g. 665 MPa and 41%. As a result, the lower finish rolling temperature,
laminar cooling finish temperature and shorter air cooling time was found to lead to the refining of ferrite grain and changing of retained
austenite morphology from film-like to granular shape. The latter was proved favourable to the plasticity of the steel.
Keywords: Thermomechanical processing, TRIP steel, Retained austenite morphology, Si-Mn TRIP Steel, Ferrite grain
Introduction
In recent years, the transformation induced plasticity
(TRIP) steels have been receiving increasing attentions for
their good balance of tensile strength and total elongation
as well as good formability. As we know, the TRIP steels
possess a multiphase microstructure consisting of ferrite,
bainite, and retained austenite. The so called TRIP effect,
which can result in the increase of uniform elongation of
these steels, arises from the martensitic transformation of
the metastable retained austenite phase induced by external stress [1-4]. Based on this, most of researchers have
carried out their work on the relationships between the
mechanical properties and the volume fraction as well as
the stability of retained austenite [5-8]. Moreover, the lowcarbon Si-Mn TRIP steels have been studied in most of
researches with relatively coarse ferrite microstructure
bearing a considerable amount of bainite with coarse bainitic ferrite [9,10]. The morphology and distribution of
retained austenite as well as the ferrite grain size and its
volume fraction have been expected to be optimized. The
manufacturing technique should be improved to produce
the TRIP steels with better microstructure. In this study, to
investigate the effect of thermomechanical processing
(TMP) on the ferrite grain size and retained austenite morphology of Fe-0.2C-1.44Si-1.32Mn TRIP steel, the hot
rolling process followed by four-stages cooling process
was carried out. As a result, the optimized TMP and the
TRIP steel with an excellent tensile strength-total elongation balance of 663 MPa-41% were obtained.
Experimental Procedure and Material
The chemical composition and transformation temperature of the steel used in this study are given in Table 1.
The samples with a thickness of 80 mm were austenitized
at 1150 C for 2h in a KO10 electrical resistance furnace.
It was followed by three-pass deformation in the recrystallized austenite region and six-pass deformation in the nonrecrystallized austenite region and high temperature sec-
110
tion of the two-phase region to obtain pancake austenite

with a 450 hot rolling mill. The final thickness of the
sample was 14 mm. The four-stages cooling process
(Laminar Cooling-Air Cooling Ultra-Fast Cooling
Asbestos-Heat-Preservation) was conducted after hot rolling. The rolling process and TMP schedule is shown in
Figure 1. The temperature control schemes are shown in
Table 2.
The microstructure of the sample was studied via optical
microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and
scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The ferrite grain
size was measured by the linear intercept method. The
volume fraction and carbon concentration of retained austenite was measured with conventional X-ray procedure.
Tensile test was performed using the standard specimen
(GB/T 228-2002) with a constant crosshead speed of 2.5
mm/min at room temperature.
Figure 1. Thermomechanical control processing schedule (LC,

Laminar Cooling; AC, Air Cooling; UFC, Ultra-Fast Cooling; AHP,
Asbestos-Heat-Preservation).
Table 1. Chemical composition of the steel (mass, %).
C
Si
Mn
0.20
1.44
1.32
0.0079 0.012
Al
Ac1 (C)
Ac3 (C)
0.093
680
820
09.08.2010 14:19:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 2. Temperature control schemes.
Sample
Finish rolling temperature, C
Finish temperature of
LC, C
AC duration time,
s
Temperature after
AC, C
Finish temperature of
UFC, C
770
710
58
680
420
800
740
85
680
420
Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of both
Samples after TMP. The microstructure of both samples
formed after laboratory rolling are similar, consisting of
polygonal ferrite, carbide-free bainitie, retained austenite
and a little martensite as shown in Figure 2. The volume
fractions of ferrite in both samples are also similar, about
60%. The ferrite grain in the microstructure of sample A is
uniform and fine, about 5 m in diameter. Granular bainite
is also very uniform, and its volume fraction is low. Most
retained austenites are granular shape distributing in the
triple junction of fine ferrite grain boundaries and between
the bainitic ferrite grains in granular bainite (Figure 4).
However, ferrite grain in sample B is not so uniform also
with a bigger size, about 8 m in diameter. Granular bainite is characterized by the absence of carbide. And retained
austenite and martensite distributed between coarse, long,
parallel bainitic ferrite lathes (Figure 4). Figure 3 shows
the SEM micrographs of the samples. The bainite content
of sample A is lower than that of sample B and the distribution of bainite in former shows more uniform.
(a) Sample A
(a) Sample B
Figure 3. SEM micrographs of sample A and B after TMP.
F
RA
M
F
RA
(a) Sample A
(1 11)
(331)
(a) Sample A
PF
(b) Sample B
Figure 2. Optical micrographs of sample A and B after TMP.
Figure 4 shows the TEM micrographs of both samples.

Retained austenite in the microstructure of sample A is
B = [1 2 3]
RA
BF
(642)
B
(422)
[1 5 7]
(b) Sample B
Figure 4. TEM micrographs of sample A and B after TMP (Fferrite , PF - polygonal ferrite, BF - bainitic ferrite, RA - retained
austenite, M martensite).
111
09.08.2010 14:19:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
observed mainly as blocky islands between polygonal
ferrite grains and islands at the interface of polygonal
ferrite and bainite. While, retained austenite in sample B is
observed mainly layers between acicular ferrite laths and
very small islands in granular bainite. The volume fractions of retained austenite of both samples are more than
13.5% confirmed by X-ray diffraction, as Table 3 shows.
The carbon contents of the retained austenite in both samples are about 1.2%.
The mechanical properties of both samples are listed in
Table 3. Although the volume fractions of retained austenite in the microstructure of both samples are similar, sample A exhibits better mechanical properties. Sample A has
a bit lower ultimate tensile strength (UTS) as well as yield
strength (YS) and higher total elongation (EL) than that of
sample B. The dissimilarity of microstructure such as the
ferrite grain size and retained austenite morphology in
both samples results in the different mechanical properties.
(a) Sample A
Microstructure of both Samples after Tensile Test.

Figure 5 shows the SEM micrographs of both samples
after tensile test. After tensile test, the martensite phase is
observed as white blocky islands between the polygonal
ferrite grains. It can be seen that the size of martensite lath
and ferrite grain in the microstructure of sample A is
smaller and more uniform than that of sample B.
(a)Sample B
Figure 5. SEM micrographs of both samples after tensile test.
Table 3. Mechanical properties and volume fraction of retained austenite (VRA) of both samples after TMP.
EL,
(%)
UTSEL,
(MPa%)
VRA Before
Testing, (%)
Carbon Content
of RA, (Wt%)
VRA after
Testing, (%)
Sample
UTS,
(MPa)
YS,
(MPa)
660
465
41
27,060
13.53
1.21
4.15
680
480
39
26,520
14.72
1.18
3.20
Discussions
Effect of TMP on Ferrite Grain Size. After being austenized at 1150 C for 2 h, the microstructure of the samples mainly was austenite. Then, three-pass rolling was
carried out in the austenite recrystallization region. The
reduction of per pass was set to be about 19%, which was
more than the critical reduction of static recrystallization,
to obtain the fully refined austenite grains. Then the sample was cooled in the air to the austenite nonrecrystallization region, the deformation with total reduction of 58% was exerted to obtain as much deformation
bands as possible, which could provide more ferrite nucleation sites. Simultaneously, the driving force of /
transformation can be also increased. This is one of important factors for subsequent refinement of ferrite grains.
It is generally accepted that the increase of nucleation
rate of ferrite grain is one of vital factors for refining the
ferrite grains during hot rolling process. The increase of
nucleation site is one effective way to improve the nucleation rates. In the two-phase region, for the undeformed
austenite grains, the ferrite nucleation sites only formed in
austenite grain boundaries. However, for the deformed
austenite, the ferrite nucleation sites formed not only in
austenite grain boundaries but also the internal of austenite
grains since a large number of deformation bands and twin
boundaries were produced during hot rolling process
112
which is favourable to the formation of ferrite nucleation

sites. Moreover, the increase of mobile dislocation density
leads to the increase of defects in austenite inevitably. The
strain energy was accumulated because of these defects in
the internal of austenite grains, and finally resulted in the
increase of ferrite nucleation rate. On the other hand, since
the deformation temperature was relatively low, recrystallization and recovery are not sufficient. A amount of defects retained in austenite grains lead to the increases of
free energy and solute diffusion rate during the redistribution process. In this way, the ferrite nucleation rate is accelerated. That is to say, the / transformation was accelerated after the deformation in the critical region.
The finish temperature of rolling and LC for sample A
was lower, as well as AC duration time was shorter, than
that of sample B. The ferrite grains in sample A are smaller
and more uniform than that in sample B, as Figure 2
shows. For the rolling process in the critical region, the
lower finish rolling temperature not only resulted in a
greater undercooling and the increase of the mobile dislocation density, but also the great decrease of recovery.
These provided a favourable condition for ferrite nucleation. Moreover, the undercooling of deformed austenite
grains was also increased by the lower LC finish temperature. On the other hand, the ferrite grains over-grown up
can be effectively prevented with shorter AC duration time.
Thus, after TMP the ferrite grains in sample A are fine and
uniform.
09.08.2010 14:19:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of TMP on Retained Austenite Morphology.
The pancake austenite was obtained after the rolling process in the non-recrystallization region. This pancake austenite characterized by the increase of dislocation density,
deformation bands and destroyed annealing twins at the
junction matrix. These characteristics had a significant
influence on diffusion/non-diffusion phase transformation
of steel which determined the final retained austenite morphology.
Since the deformation temperature of sample A is low,
more deformation bands formed after TMP, which can not
only lead to the ferrite grains refining but also results in
the final retained austenite refining. With lower finish
rolling temperature, LC finish temperature and shorter AC
duration time, the bainite lath sizes became smaller and
volume fraction decreased, as Figure 4 shows. With the
finish rolling temperature decrease, the retained austenite
morphology was changed from film-like between coarse,
long and parallel bainitic ferrite laths to granular shape at
the triple junction of the fine ferrite grain boundaries and
between the refined bainitic ferrite grains in the granular
bainite, as Figure 4 shows. Because the retained austenite
grain at the ferrite grain boundaries is spherical, it has
been speculated that the stress relaxation around the austenite grain would easily occur. So, the retained austenite
shows high stability during the deformation. This is a
reason why sample A exhibits a higher elongation than that
of sample B. However, the thin austenite film between
bainite laths as in sample B would transform to martensite
by a lower stress due to the assistance of local stress concentration caused by slip deformation. The martensites
formed at low stress results in the premature local hardening, and finally lead to the premature finish of the transformation process of retained austenite to martensite.
Therefore, the work hardening started at very early stage
of the deformation since a amount of prematurely formed
martensite. Ultimately, the tensile strength increased and
total elongation decreased. These are similar to the investigation results in reference [11].
The effect of the TMP on the retained austenite morphology can also be analyzed by the martensite morphology after tensile test. The martensite laths in the microstructure of sample A, which transformed from granular
refined retained austenite, are small and uniform as Figure
5 shows. However, the martensite laths in sample B transformed from film-like retained austenite distributed in the
coarse bainites are coarse and also show an uneven distribution.
Effect of Ferrite Grain Size and Retained Austenite
Morphology on Mechanical Properties. The mechanical
properties of the samples were determined by the multiphase microstructure formed after TMP. The presence of
martensite increases the strength of the sample, while a
significant amount of polygonal ferrite and retained austenite results in the high total elongation value. Generally,
a high volume fraction of retained austenite leads to the
high total elongation due to the strain-induced transformation during deformation. In this study, the volume fraction
of retained austenite, the carbon content of the retained

austenite and ferrite of both samples are similar. However,
sample A shown a higher value of total elongation as well
as better combination of the strength and ductility than that
of sample B. For sample A, more uniform microstructure
with smaller ferrite grain size than that of sample B is one
vital factor that contributes to the higher total elongation
value. Moreover, the granular retained austenite distributing at the triple junction of fine ferrite grain boundaries
and between the refined bainitic ferrite grains of granular
bainite in sample A is considered to be the most favourable
morphology for the TRIP effect and ultimately leads to the
excellent combination of strength and ductility.
Conclusions
The effect of thermomechanical processing on ferrite
grain size and retained austenite morphology in low carbon Si-Mn TRIP steel was investigated via optical microscopy, SEM, XRD and TEM. The main conclusions were
summarized as follows.
1. The TRIP-aided multiphase steel with the ferrite grain
size of nearly 5m and the retained austenite volume
fraction of more than 13.5% was successfully produced
by multipass hot rolling with a finish rolling temperature of 770 C followed by four-stages cooling process
with a AC duration time of 58s and LC finish cooling
temperature of 710 C. The steel showed an excellent
combination of tensile strength-total elongation of
660MPa-41%.
2. The retained austenite morphology was changed from
the film-like shape between coarse bainitic ferrite laths
to the granular shape at the triple junction of fine ferrite
grain boundaries and between the bainitic ferrite grains
in the granular bainite due to the decrease of the rolling
and cooling temperature as well as shorter AC duration
time. The retained austenite with latter morphology was
proved to be favourable to the plasticity of the steel.
References
[1] P.J. Jacques, J. Ladriefe, F. Delannay: Metallurgical Transactions A,
32A-6 (2001), 2759-2768.
[2] X.D. Wang, B.X. Hung, L. Wang, Y.H. Rong: Metallurgical and
Materials Transactions A, 39A-1 (2008), 1-7.
[3] E. Girault, P. Jacques, P. Harlet: Materials Characterization, 40-2
(1998), 111-118.
[4] H.H. Zhou, R.R. Fu, L. Li: Heat Treatment of Metals, 28-1 (2003),
59-63.
[5] K. Sugimoto, N. Usui, M. Kobayashi, S.I. Hashimoto: ISIJ International, 32-12 (1992), 1311-1318.
[6] K. Sugimoto, M. Kobayashi, S.I. Hashimoto: Metallurgical Transactions A, 23A-11 (1992), 3085-3091.
[7] H.C. Chen, H. Era, M. Shimizu: Metallurgical Transactions A, 20A-9
(1989), 437-445.
[8] E. Girault, P. Jacques P. Harlet, K. Mols, J.V. Humbeek, E. Aernoudt,
F. Delannay: Materials Characterization, 40-2 (1998), 111-118.
[9] Y. Sakuma, O. Matsumura, H. Takechi: Metallurgical Transactions A,
22A-2 (1991), 489-498.
[10] A. Itami, M. Takahashi, K. Ushioda: Tetsu-to-Hagane, 81-6 (1995),
673-678.
[11] I.B. Timokhina, P.D. Hodgson: Pereloma. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 35A-8 (2004), 2331-2341.
113
09.08.2010 14:19:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Visualization of Deformation Characteristics of Oxide Scale in Hot Rolling Process by

Scale Transfer Method
Akio Segawa, Takao Kawanami
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Nonoichi / Japan, a-segawa@neptune.kanazawa-it.ac.jp
A scale transfer method for observing deformation of the oxide scale during hot rolling was proposed. This method uses a vacuum hot
rolling mill reproducing an oxide scale within a vacuum heating furnace, and can clarify deformation of the oxide scale. As a result of changing the oxide scale thickness and observing deformation of the oxide scale, the deformation behavior of the oxide scale was changed by
the scale thickness. The unevenness of the oxide scale on the surface was flattened by the rolling. As the scale thickness and the reduction
in thickness increase, the elongation of the oxide scale by the rolling increases. In addition, the scale after the rolling locally became thick
due to the fracture during rolling.
Keywords: Oxide scale, Hot rolling, Vacuum, Scale thickness, Scale transfer method, Surface property, Deformation behavior
Introduction
Modeling of Oxide Scale by Scale Transfer Method
It is worried that the oxide scale, which is formed at hot

rolling process, may exert some defect on the surface
property of the end products. Generally, although oxide
scale is primary scale which consists of the three-phase
components of FeO, Fe3O4, and Fe2O3, this is obviated by
high tension water before rolling process. However, after
that, reoxidated in atmospheric air and secondary scale is
formed. In comparison of primary scale and secondary
scale, composition and scale thickness differs, and the
latter is bit by the roll with material. There is the oxide
scale defect as surface discontinuity resulting from an
oxide scale [1]. The oxide scale defect is positioned as a
chronic defect in which influence on operation is great.
Because, a worker's confusion with the alternation of operational conditions (the oxide scale component at the time
of rolling, descaling conditions, rolling conditions, sheet
temperatures, etc.) is caused, and the advent of a new
oxide scale configuration and the measure time towards
the cause investigation become long. However, many
problems, like that the quantitive clarification of causal
relationship with an operational condition are incomplete
[2, 3], that the factors which control oxide scale generation
are insufficient, a deformation and peeling the separation
at the time of a roll of the oxide scale itself, and the information of the mechanical action of a fracture is scarce are
still left behind, and solution serves as pressing need [4].
In this study, the scale transfer method [5] using a vacuum hot rolling mill [6] was proposed in order to model
the oxide scale formed during hot rolling and to visualize
deformation and the peeling action of the oxide scale during rolling itself. This method is rolled while the state had
been kept after the thin scale which is equivalent to a secondary scale.
The scale transfer method is recommended and the relationship between deformation of the oxide scale during
rolling and rolling conditions and the effect on steel sheet
surface property are discussed.
Vacuum Hot Rolling Mill. The external appearance of

a vacuum rolling mill is shown in Figure 1, and the main
specifications of its performance are shown in Table 1.
The vacuum rolling mill is composed of a heating zone
which installs three heaters for heating, a rolling zone
where rolling rolls are installed, a cooling zone of samples
which have been processed, two motors for driving rolls,
and vacuum pumps.
114
Vacuum
pump
Rolling
zone
Heating
zone
Cooling
zone
0.5m
Figure 1. External appearance of vacuum hot rolling mill.
The vacuum rolling mill turns out a vacuum atmosphere

by using jointly both a rotary pump and an oil diffusion
pump. When using only the oil rotary pump, the degree of
vacuum to be able to attain is about 1.33 Pa (10-2 Torr) or
so, but using it together with the oil diffusion pump,
1.3310-3 Pa (10-5 Torr) can be achieved. The atmosphere
becomes a state of high vacuum after one hour later from
the start of driving the pumps, and then, another one hour
later, the atmosphere temperature becomes1273 K, the best
arrival temperature. A specimen is pushed by a bar, and
rolling in the rolling zone.
09.08.2010 14:19:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Because the degree of vacuum is 0.133Pa in this
experiment conditions, the dissociation pressure is more
than oxygen pressure is Fe2O3.
Table 1. Specifications of vacuum hot rolling mill.

Mill type
2high mill:165150L
2high mill:
Roll material
Table 3. Rolling and experiment conditions.
roll:SKD61, SiAlON
Roll speed
2high mill:max. 10 mmin-1
Mill type
Degree of vacuum
max. 1.3310-3Pa ( 10-5Torr )
Work roll
Rolling load
max. 390 kN
Heating temperature
max. 1373K
Cross rolling
Functions
(Cross angle: max. 2deg.)
Specimen
Grooved rolling
Scale Transfer Method. The schematic illustration of

the scale transfer method is shown in Figure 2. This
method places a mother sheet after pickling and a hot
rolled sheet without pickling in the vacuum heating
furnace, and the mother sheet surface is oxidized by
oxygen dissociated from the oxide scale on hot rolled
sheet by heating in vacuum atmosphere.
Heating zone
Oxidation
/mmin-1
/%
/K
/hour
Rolling speed
Heating temperature
Aging time
Differential roll speed rolling
Dissociation
Mother sheet (pickling) /mm
6t50w200l
Hot rolled sheet
6t50w200l
Test sheet No.
Target scale thickness

/ m
Push
bar
Oxygen
Both materials used hot rolling experiments are low

carbon steel sheets. These chemical compositions are
shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Chemical compositions of low carbon steel sheets.
C
Si
Mn
Fe
0.05
0.006
0.18
0.012
0.004
Bal.
0.05
0.01
0.14
0.014
0.006
Bal.
The rolling and experiment conditions are shown in Table 3 and Table 4. The heating temperature is 1273K near
the sheet temperature before rolling in the actual hot rolling process, production the oxide scale is controlled by
changing heating time and aging time, number of hot
rolled sheets. A hot rolled sheet before experiment which
differentiate thick scale and from thin scale, was used.
In this method, the dissociation pressure (as shown in
Table 5) [7] of the oxide scale is regarded as an important
index. It will dissociate, if dissociation pressure is more
than oxidization
pressure, and it will oxidize, if
dissociation pressure is less than oxidization pressure.
4
8
20
20
20 *
20 *
Scale thickness
(Hot rolled sheet) /m
356
356
356
356
/%
40
25
40
25
* It is made to attach a scale within a 1 time vacuum heating
Figure 2. Schematic illustration of scale transfer method by using

the vacuum hot rolling mill.
SPHC
(pickling)
SPHC
(hot rolled)
Hot rolled sheet

/blocks
Reduction in
Thickness
Hot rolled
sheet
/mm
Table 4. Classifications of test sheets.
Aging time
/hours
Mother
sheet
2 high
SKD61
165
0.35
1.4
25,40
1273
0-2
Material
Diameter
/mm
Surface roughness Ra /m
furnace, and is made to attach further on the same conditions

once again, and rolled by the 2 times.
Table 5. Dissociation pressure of compositions of oxide scale.

Composition of
oxide scale
FeO
Fe3O4
Fe2O3
Dissociation pressure /Pa

1.72 10-10
2.84 10-8
0.172
Like the following equations, by discharging the oxygen,

when the metal oxide of high order dissociates, it changes
in the low-level oxide in which the oxygen content is low
[8].
6Fe2O3=4Fe3O4+O2
(1)
2Fe3O4=6FeO+O2
(2)
Therefore, the mechanism of this method is to reduce

oxygen in Fe2O3 on the scale of the hot rolled sheet.
Advantage of this method, it is possible to while the
production is of the oxide scale are kept, research
deformation characteristics of scale itself.
115
09.08.2010 14:19:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
Deformation Characteristics of Oxide Scale in Hot
Rolling
Cross-Section Analysis. The microstructure of crosssection of sheet before rolling and after rolling was
observed using an optical microscope, with stopping in
roll bite during rolling. The observation points after
experiment are shown in Figure 3.
after rolling
10
during roll bite
100
30
before rolling
[mm]
10
Test sheet No.
Scale thickness of
section A /m
3.731
4.193
6.864
8.076
Scale thickness of
section B /m
3.956
4.134
6.770
7.491
Scale thickness of
section C /m
2.809
3.299
3.446
5.164
Scale thickness of
section D /m
3.339
3.599
3.155
4.619
The photographs which observed the scale surface and

the cross-section were shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6.
Figure 5 shows 4 m as target scale thickness, Figure 6
shows 8m as target scale thickness, and both reduction in
thickness are 25%.
20
60
Table 6. Average of the scale thickness of each test sheet.
Figure 3. Observation points of cross-section and surface on steel

sheet.
Example Results of scale compositions of hot rolled

sheet detected by X-ray analysis are shown in Figure 4.
From results, two-phase are composed for FeO, Fe3O4,
however, the FeO single phase is mostly composed, this
composition is same as the oxide scale produced when
heating temperature is 1273 K, was detected.
Rolling direction
5m
Surface before rolling
Rolling direction
5m
Surface after rolling
6000
Fe
FeO
Fe3O4
Fe2O3
X-ray intensity /cps
5000
4000
Rolling direction
5m
Rolling direction
5m
Rolling direction
5m
Rolling direction
5m
3000
2000
1000
0
20
B
40
60
80
100
2 /deg.
Figure 4. Example result of X-ray diffraction analysis.
Deformation Characteristics of Scale. Table 6 shows

the result with which the scale thickness by the crosssection observation before and after rolling in each sample
was compared.
From the results, the oxided scale with target thickness
was formed before rolling. The difference of thickness also
has few section A and section B, and it is clear that their a
scale is uniform. Moreover, after rolling, the scale
thickness is decreasing (the section C and D), and is
extended by rolling.
116
Figure 5. SEM micrographs of cross-section and surface by scale

transfer method (scale thickness: 4 m).
09.08.2010 14:19:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
Rolling direction
Surface before rolling
Rolling direction
5m
5m
Surface after rolling
Rolling direction
5m
Rolling direction
Scale pit
20m
(a) Scale thickness: 4m, reduction in thickness: 25%
Rolling direction
Scale pit
20m
(b)Scale thickness: 4m, reduction in thickness: 40%

Figure 7. SEM micrographs of scale pit on steel sheet surface.
Rolling direction
5m
Rolling direction
5m
Rolling direction
5m
Figure 6. SEM micrographs of cross-section and surface by scale

transfer method (scale thickness: 8 m).
From the photographs, although the crystal grain was

seen in the scale surface before rolling, then, after rolling,
a grain boundary is indistinct, moreover, although an
unevenness was seen in the scale surface before rolling,
the surface was made flat after rolling. It is guessed that
the scale is extended fragmentarily, because the cracks are
seen in the surface, are confirmed also inside scale and
there is also a crack which does not appear in the surface
after rolling. The crack is increasing, as the scale thickness
is thick and the reduction in thickness is high, it was
confirmed that extensions of the oxide scale differ by the
influence of the scale thickness and the rolling conditions.
In addition, the values of the scale thickness after rolling
shown in Table 6 are mean value, and there were parts
where some of scales are thickening from the cross-section
observation after rolling. As described above, the crack is
seen inside scale. The oxide scale is fractured and peeled
during rolling, with progress of rolling, the scale invades
in the roll bite. The fractured scale constitutes a solid again
and will be pushed into the steel sheetl surface. As a result,
after rolling, the scale pit remains as shown in Figure 7.
This scale pit will cause a surface defect and the end
products will deteriorate.
Conclusions
The scale transfer method using a vacuum hot rolling
mill was proposed in order to investigate the deformation
characteristics of the oxide scale in hot rolling process.
This method makes rolling possible immediately, with a
state which that oxide scale formed in a vacuum heating
furnace, kept. It is the most advantage to observe deformation of the oxide scale. Modeling of the secondary scale
was performed and the following results were obtained
from the observation during rolling:
1. Modeling of the secondary scale formed after descaling
was successful, and the thickness control of the oxide
scale formed is possible.
2. Before rolling, although unevenness existed in the
formed oxide scale surface, after rolling, scale was extended and the surface was made flat.
3. Extension of a scale was affected to scale thickness and
rolling conditions.
4. The oxide scale during rolling was pushed into the
sheet-steel surface as a scale pit, and constituted a surface defect.
References
[1] H. Okada: Journal of Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 44505 (2003), 94-99.
[2] H. Okada, T. Fukagawa, H. Ishihara, A. Okamoto, M. Azuma, Y.
Matsuda: Journal of The Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, 80-11
(1994), 849-854.
[3] H.Okada: Proc. 185th plastic processing symposium, (1999), 7.
[4] H. Hidaka, T. Nagagawa, T. Anraku, O. Otsuka: Journal of Japan
Institute of Metals, 64-5 (2000), 291.
[5] A. Segawa, T. Kawanami, T. Taguchi: Current Advances in Materials
and Processes, 20-2( 2007), 350.
[6] T. Kawanami, A. Segawa: The Iron & Steel Society 44th Mechanical
Working and Steel Processing Conf. (8th Int. Rolling Conf.) Proc.,
Vol.XL (2002), 761-768.
[7] Japan Society of Corrosion Engineering: The High temperature
oxidation and high temperature corrosion of metal material,
Maruzen, (1982), 21-23.
[8] Y. Saito, T. Atake, T. Maruyama: The high temperature oxidation of
Metals, Uchida-roukakuho, (2003), 3-17.
117
09.08.2010 14:19:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
Evolution of Microstructure and Mechanical Properties in Al 5052 Alloy During Warm

Rolling
Ui Gu Kang, Shin Woong Jeong, Won Jong Nam
School of Advanced Materials Engineering, Kookmin University, Chongnung-dong, Songbuk-ku, Seoul / Korea, wjnam@kookmin.ac.kr
The evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties of cold rolled and warm rolled aluminium 5052 alloys were investigated. The
work-hardening behaviour was closely related to the evolution of microstructure. Special emphasis was put on the relation between mechanical properties and substructure development during warm rolling. A warm rolled Al 5052 alloy showed higher strength and higher
work-hardening rate than a cold rolled Al 5052 alloy. The increased strength and work-hardening rate in a warm rolled Al 5052 alloy would
be attributed to the presence of fine precipitates and the higher amount of microbands. The contribution of precipitates and inhomogeneous
microstructures to work-hardening was discussed. In the intermediate strain region, well defined double wall dislocation microband and
inhomogeneous microstructures were observed.
Keywords: Al 5052 alloy, Mechanical properties, Work-hardening rate, Inhomogeneous microstructure, Microbands, Warm rolling
Introduction
Over the past years, noticeable progress has been made
in developing a frame for modeling strength and workhardening of aluminum alloy. It is generally accepted that
strength reflects dislocationdislocation interactions and
work hardening represents a competition between storage
of dislocations [1,2]. The studies of work-hardening have
been focused on a prediction and an explanation of mechanical properties. The work-hardening behavior is related to the evolution of microstructure, especially dislocation substructures.
A one-parameter model introduced by Kocks [3], was
further improved by Mecking and Estrin and Kocks [4,5].
However, this model took only the general dislocation
density of the material into account. Thus, the models
involving more detailed dislocation parameters have been
proposed by other authors [6-9]. Humphrey et al. [10]
carried out an experimental work to examine the development of dislocation substructures in a cold rolled singlephase aluminum with various reductions. Duckham et al.
[11] described the formation of copper-type or grain-scale
shear bands in Al-1Mg during plane strain compression
(PSC) as a function or strain, strain rate and deformation
temperature. Liu [12] investigated the development of
dislocation substructures and its influence on mechanical
properties in a cold rolled aluminum alloy 3004. He described the development of deformation substructures in
terms of a "two-phase" model.
Meanwhile, the variation of deformation temperature
would cause the changes in the relation between the evolution of microstructures and mechanical properties during
plastic deformation. Especially, the authors [13] found that
the combination of cryogenic and warm rolling would
result in the notable increase of strength in Al 5052 alloy,
compared with cryogenic rolling. This increase of strength
would be attributed to the formation of fine precipitates
during warm rolling at 448K. Accordingly, we expected
that dislocation substructures and mechanical properties in
a warm deformed Al 5052 alloy significantly differed from
those deformed at room temperature. Thus, it is necessary
to understand the evolution of the microstructure during
118
warm rolling and its influence on strength and workhardening behavior of an Al 5052 alloy.
The purpose of the present work was to investigate the
evolution of microstructures and its related strength and
work-hardening behavior in Al 5052 alloys deformed at
different temperatures. Dislocation substructures were also
characterized with different deformation temperatures, in
order to understand deeply on the behaviors of strength
and work-hardening.
A commercial 5052 Al alloy used for structural applications was chosen for the present work. The chemical
compositions of Al alloy are 2.50 mass% Mg, 0.40 mass%
Fe, 0.25 mass% Si, 0.25 mass% Cr, 0.10 mass% Cu, 0.01
mass% Zn and 0.10 mass% Mn. The material was annealed at 813K for 2 hours and then quenched in water
resulting in a grain size of 65m.
The plates, 8mm in thickness, were deformed at the different reductions of 20% ~ 90% by cold rolling and warm
rolling. Warm rolling was performed at 448K by dipping
the plate into silicon oil for 10min and then water
quenched before each rolling pass.
The micro hardness was measured on the rolling planes
of the sheets using a Vickers micro hardness tester. Fifteen
measurements were made on each sheet. For tensile tests,
the sheets rolled at various temperatures were machined
into the ASTM subsize specimen of the 25mm gauge
length. Uniaxial tensile tests were conducted with the
initial strain rate on an INSTRON machine operating at a
constant crosshead speed.
For a detailed understanding of the microstructural evolution, a transmission electron microscope (TEM) was
used. Thin foils parallel to the transverse cross section of
the transverse cross section of the sheets were prepared by
utilizing a conventional jet polishing technique in a mixture of 70% Methanol and 30% HNO3 at the temperature
of 243K.
09.08.2010 14:19:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
Mechanical Properties. The hardness of cold rolled and

warm rolled Al 5052 alloys were plotted against deformation strain in Figure 1. From the Hv- curves, the variation of work-hardening rate ( = dHv/d ) with deformation strain in a warm rolled Al 5052 alloy was investigated,
compared with a cold rolled sample. In a cold rolled Al
5052 alloy, work-hardening rate initially showed rapid
increase up to 150 HV, at a strain of 0.2, and subsequently
decreased to 10 HV, and, then, maintained a constant value
up to a strain of 1.76.
Microvickers Hardness (Hv, 200g)
Warm rolling
Cold rolling
130
150
120
110
100
100
90
50
80
70
60
50
40
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
-50
Work Hardening Rate, dHv/d [Hv]
200
140
Deformation Strain ()
Figure 1. Micro Vickers hardness Hv and dHv/d as function of

deformation strain for warm rolled at 448K and cold rolled Al 5052
alloys.
The shape of work-hardening rate curves in a warm

rolled sample (Figure 1) was similar to that in a cold rolled
sample. However, work-hardening rate in warm rolled Al
5052 alloys showed the relatively higher values than that
of cold rolled Al 5052 alloys for a whole deformation
strain range. It is well known that strength of warm rolled
metals reflects hardening due to the generation of dislocations by the plastic deformation and softening due to the
occurrence of dynamic recovery during warm rolling.
Thus, the increase of rolling temperatures leads to the
decrease of strength due to the increased contribution of
softening due to dynamic recovery or dynamic recrystallization. Thus, it is interesting to note that warm rolled Al
5052 alloys show higher hardness than cold rolled Al 5052
alloys in Figure 1. The higher work-hardening rate in
warm rolled Al 5052 alloys can be attributed to the occurrence of precipitation during warm rolling. The dispersion
hardening in warm rolled Al 5052 alloys led to higher
hardness and higher work-hardening rate than a cold rolled
Al 5052 alloy. The presence of fine precipitates in Figure
2 provided the evidence of the formation of fine precipitates in an Al 5052 alloy rolled at 448 K.
According to Ashby et al. [14], during deformation, additional numbers of dislocations are stored in a particle to
maintain geometrical compatibility at the matrix-particle
interface. These dislocations give rise to elastic back
stresses in the slip planes. In the initial stages of deformation, the density of these geometrically necessary dislocations increases more rapidly than that of the statistically
stored dislocations characteristic of the matrix. Thus, it can
be expected that higher work-hardening rate of a warm
rolled Al 5052 alloy would be closely related to the formation of fine precipitates and change of substructures.
Figure 2. TEM micrographs of Al 5052 alloy deformed at 448K

with a strain of 0.66. (a) bright field with SAD pattern (arrows
indicate precipitates) (b) dark field.
Figure 3 shows yield strength and tensile strength of

cold rolled and warm rolled Al 5052 alloy as a function of
deformation strain. Additionally, the variations of workhardening rate in cold and warm rolled Al 5052 alloys
were also shown in Figure 4. From figures, workhardening behaviour can be distinguished as different
stages. Below a strain of 0.22, the 6- curves reflected
stage II and the earlier behaviour of stage III. In previous
works, stage II was characterized as a linear workhardening rate, which was weakly sensitive to temperature
and strain rate [4,5,15]. And stage III started when the
flow curve deviates from linearity.
400
350
Strength(MPa)
300
250
200
Yield Strength in Cold Rolled Samples

Tensile Strngth in Cold Rolled Samples
Yield Strength in Warm Rolled Samples
Tensile Strength in Warm Rolled Samples
150
100
0.00
0.22
0.44
0.66
0.88
1.10
1.32
1.54
1.76
Figure 3. Variations of mechanical properties as function of deformation strain under different deformation temperatures in Al
5052 alloys.
The subsequent part of the curves ( = 0.22-0.66) was

related to stage III, where work-hardening rate, , decreased rapidly. Between two Al 5052 alloys, workhardening rate of a warm rolled Al 5052 alloy decreased
more slowly and the values of work-hardening rate were
higher than a cold rolled Al 5052 alloy.
When deformation strain increased above a strain of 0.66,
work-hardening changed its behaviour from stage III to
stage IV. Arkens et al. [12] reported that the transition
from stage III to stage IV took place, when the volume
fraction of microbands reached 3%. It suggested that the
formation of microbands would start a new stage of a
further hardening mechanism. During plastic deformation
at stage IV, the occurrence of microstructural instabilities,
which was closely related to inhomogeneous deformation,
led to the formation of microband and shear band.
119
09.08.2010 14:19:25 Uhr
Work Hardening Rate, d/d (MPa)
Metal Forming
700
Cold Rolled Samples

Warm Rolled Samples
600
500
400
300
200
100
scale dislocation cells, linked up along the direction of the

band. The elongated cells were subdivided into smaller
cells by the formation internal boundaries. And dense
dislocation walls were well developed in a cold rolled Al
5052 alloy.
The microstructure of a warm rolled Al 5052 alloy, Figure 6(b), resembled the shape of cold rolled Al 5052 alloy.
The microstructure consisted of continuous walls of dense
tangles surrounding areas of relatively smaller dislocation
density.
0
0.00
0.22
0.44
0.66
0.88
1.10
1.32
1.54
1.76
Figure 4. Variations of work-hardening rate, in cold and warm

rolled Al 5052 alloys.
The transition from stage III to stage IV in a warm

rolled Al 5052 alloy in Figures 3 and 4 occurred at a
higher deformation strain than a cold rolled Al 5052 alloy.
This implied that the formation of microbands would be
delayed in a warm rolled Al 5052 alloy, compared with a
cold rolled Al 5052 alloy. Thus, the delayed transition
from stage III to stage IV meant the postponed formation
of microbands during rolling.
Figure 5. TEM micrographs of Al 5052 alloy deformed at different

temperatures with a deformation strain of 0.66. (a) cold rolled, (b)
warm rolled Al 5052 alloys.
TEM micrographs in Figure 5, showing more density of

microbands in a warm rolled Al 5052 alloy, provided the
evidence of the delayed transition.
Substructure Evolution. The evolution of microstructure during plastic deformation is closely related to the
variations of mechanical properties. In this section, the
characterization of microstructures in Al 5052 alloys deformed at different temperatures was performed.
At a deformation strain of 0.22 (early stage of plastic deformation), the dislocations were arranged in cell walls.
This would be a result of the continuous superposition of
thermally activated softening processes such as cross slip.
It is well known that dislocation walls are well developed
and have an orientation of about 35 to the rolling direction (RD), according to the work of Hansen et al. [16].
The cell size and shape of dislocation substructures
would be influenced by a dynamic balance between two
competing processes, namely cell formation and cell annihilation. A TEM micrograph in Figure 6(a) revealed that
each band in this regular array consisted of a string of fine-
120
Figure 6. TEM micrographs of Al 5052 alloy deformed at different

temperatures with a deformation strain of 0.22. (a) cold rolled, (b)
warm rolled Al 5052 alloys.
The linear decrease of work-hardening rate in stage III,

corresponded to the strain range of 0.22-0.66 in a cold
rolled Al 5052 alloy. Dislocations were arranged and the
development of cell structures was locally disturbed by the
formation of microbands (Figure 5(a)), because of the
increased instability of substructure. The alignment of the
cell band walls and the microbands to the rolling plane
were parallel within the grain, the structure was quite
uniform over a large area. When deformation strain increased, the microbands grew in length and increased in
number. However, in spite of the increased deformation
temperature, the microstructure in an Al 5052 alloy deformed at 448K showed the similar characteristics to that
deformed at room temperature, consisting of parallel cell
band walls and microbands (Figure 5(b)). The observed
differences were the presence of fine precipitates, about
50-100 nm in diameter (indicated as arrows in Figure 2)
and the higher density of microbands. Thus, it can be expected that the higher work-hardening rate of a warm
rolled Al 5052 alloy would be attributed the formation of
fine precipitates and these microstructural evolution including microbands.
The work-hardening rate in stage IV up to a strain of
1.76 was much less than stage III in Figure 4. According
to Mecking [17], stage IV is a collective term for large
strain effects. Among factors, the inhomogeneous deformation which lead to the formation of microband and
shear band, would play an important role in controlling
work-hardening rate. At a strain of 1.76, the presence of
elongated cell bands was still identified in some areas,
although they tended to have been broken up by the intersecting micro shear bands. Both micro-shear bands and
cell bands became aligned almost parallel to RD within the
grain (Figures 7(a) and (b)).
The microstructure of a warm rolled Al 5052 alloy (Figures 7(c) and (d)) showed the similar trend to that of a
cold rolled Al 5052 alloy received a strain of 1.76. Warm
09.08.2010 14:19:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
rolling at 448 K led to the formation of parallel bands of
severely elongated substructures, 100-200 nm in width,
containing the high density of dislocations.
microbands. The observed differences were the presence

of fine precipitates, about 50-100 nm in diameter, and
the higher density of microbands.
3. The work-hardening behaviour in stage IV was found to
be closely related to the formation of microbands and
shear bands.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported partly by Priority Research
Centers Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education,
Science and Technology (2009-0093814) and partly by
Industrial Source Technology Development Programs
(funded by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, MKE,
Korea).
References
Figure 7. TEM micrographs of Al 5052 alloys deformed at different

temperatures with deformation strain of 1.76. (a) and (b) cold
rolled, (c) and (d) warm rolled Al 5052 alloys.
Conclusions
The evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties in an Al 5052 alloy deformed at different temperatures
were investigated. As a consequence, the following conclusion could be drawn:
1. A warm rolled Al 5052 alloy showed the higher strength
and higher work-hardening rate than a cold rolled Al
5052 alloy. The increased strength and work-hardening
rate in a warm rolled Al 5052 alloy would be attributed
to the presence of fine precipitates and the higher
amount of microbands.
2. The microstructure in a warm rolled Al 5052 alloy
showed the similar characteristics to that in a cold rolled
Al 5052 alloy, consisting of parallel cell band walls and
[1] U.F. Kocks, H. Mecking: Progress in Materials Science, 48 (2003),

171-273.
[2] E. Nes: Progress in Materials Science, 41 (1997), 129-194.
[3] U.F. Kocks: Trans. ASME, (1976), 76-85.
[4] H. Mecking, U.F. Kocks: Acta Materialia, 29 (1981), 1865-1875.
[5] Y. Estrin, H. Mecking: Acta Materialia, 32 (1984), 57-70.
[6] H. Mughrabi: Materials Science and Engineering, 85 (1987), 15-31.
[7] G. Gottstein, F. Roters, D. Raabe: Acta Materialia, 48 (2000), 41814189.
[8] E. Nes, K. Marthinsen: Materials Science and Engineering A, 322
(2002), 176-193.
[9] J. Friis, B. Holmedal, . Ryen, E. Nes, O.R. Myhr, . Grong, T. Furu,
K. Marthinsen: Materials. Science. Forum, 519-521 (2006), 19011906.
[10] P.J. Hurley, F.J. Humphreys: Acta Materialia, 51 (2003), 1087-1102.
[11] A. Duckham, R. D. Knutsen, O. Engler: Acta Materialia, 49 (2001),
2739-2749.
[12] L. Yi-Lin, L. Delaey, E. Aernoudt, O. Arkens: Materials Science and
Engineering, 96 (1987), 125-137.
[13] U.G. Gang, S.H. Lee, W. J. Nam: Materials Transactions, 50 (2009),
82-86.
[14] M. F. Ashby, A.Kelly and R. B. Nicholson: Strengthening Methods
in Crystals, Elsevier Applied Science, London, (1971), 137.
[15] H. Meckin, U. F. Kocks: Acta Materialia, 29 (1865), 1981.
[16] Q. Liu, D. J. Jensen, N. Hansen: Acta Materialia, 46 (1998), 58195838.
[17] H. Mecking, C.S. Hartley, M.F. Ashby, R. Bullough, J.P. Hirth
(eds.): Dislocation Modelling of Physical System, Pergamon Oxford,
(1981), 197.
121
09.08.2010 14:19:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Simulation System for Fast Analysis of Multistage Hot Rolling Processes Strip and
Rod/Wire
Marcel Graf, Rudolf Kawalla
Institute for Metal Forming, Department of Material Science and Technology, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg / Germany, office
@imf.tu-freiberg.de
The fast process simulation can forecast the global and local properties of the material after each deformation step. To derive the material
specifications the process chain must be seen as whole, that means beginning from the cast over the individual processing steps up to the
final product. The effects and parameters of the individual stages are so complex that the employment of numeric procedures makes sense.
Experiments over the whole process are too expensive. The objective is to calculate the process in real time, so that an In-Line-simulation
is possible. That results in a program which controls, manages and regulates the technical processes. Therefore the fast simulation systems must be developed. The program is configured in modular segments with individual and independent calculation algorithms, which
makes it possible to display and calculate many technical hot rolling configurations. Empirical or physical models worked satisfactorily, so
that a forecast about the material and property development can be provided for the cross section of the profile and in combination of successive metal forming steps. In particular, new simulation methods allow to plan the future process and processing steps along the process
chain ahead - forward or backward - and to coordinate the technology. There is a great need of fast simulation systems which consider and
appraise the effects of the technology at the material development, material properties and at the machines and plants, in order to design
new materials and technologies with the main aim to protect the environment and the resources.
Keywords: Simulation system, Hot rolling, Flat products, Rod, Wire, Microstructure, Modelling
Introduction
The properties of each deformed product are essentially
influenced by their production process. With the directed
control of the various steps of the process it is possible to
obtain the wanted properties. In order to reach this purpose
and to estimate the properties of the final product the complete process chain must be presented as a whole set. This
integrated approach starts with the solidified melt and
covers each production stage including the transport and
deformation phase up to the end-product.
In order to constantly increase quality and quantity demands already on the stage of planning and also during the
production, the models with appropriate software can be
used, which allows to predict the local and global processes in interactive connection. For this reason it is necessary to develop a tool which is sufficiently precise and
reliable for a variety of materials (steel, non iron and other
alloyed materials) as they are being deformed at the various stages. In addition, this instrument must offer an opportunity to calculate the processes approximately in real
time.
Aims of Development of Simulation Systems for Production of Semi-Finished Products
The developed system is designed to serve as a tool to
be used by the technicians and scientists for designing new
technologies and concepts of devices as well as for the
testing of new materials. The application of simulation
systems allows to achieve optimization which is important
for the reduction of the duration of the process stages. The
system also improves productivity by raising the efficiency at the same time; this contributes significantly to
the protection of the environment. The objective of the
models is to consider the individual steps or phenomena in
their interaction, not independently from each other. By
122
means of the developed software the general design of the

whole process must be obtained and also interaction of
various stages of the process must be determined. Here it
is possible to ascertain the behavior of the material across
the cross section under practice-oriented conditions.
The modular structure of the software allows to present
very rolling mill (for flat products and profile) as the chain
of models for each technological step. For this reason the
calculation strategy follows the process line of hot rolled
semi-finished products. The simulation of forming processes consists of two loops. There is a loop over the process steps and a loop over the time steps. In each step the
development of temperature, microstructure, deformation
and the interactions of these physical fields are observed.
The last calculation phase is the modelling of the final
mechanical properties of the product due to the final microstructure state and calculation of the surface quality of
the hot rolling product. The software makes it possible to
vary the parameters of the process. This is even the more
important, because due to the large number of deformation
parameters a countless number of combinations are possible. These combinations are impossible to monitor and to
be predicted further. This is the reason for developing the
simulation system of appropriate precision that can operate
in real-time and, if necessary, control the processes.
Segmentation of Entire Production Process into Separate Stages of Deformation Technology
In manufacturing engineering it is possible to classify
the production process and processing technologies from
the point of view for various features. These criteria present the evolution of the material. Therefore under the
evolution of material means the complete change of state
which describes the whole process line beginning from the
initial material up to the end-product. This includes the
changing in geometry, surface, structure and also the re-
09.08.2010 14:19:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
sulting properties. Every part of the process consists of a
multitude of segments, in which changes in the state of
material, geometry, structure and properties take place.
These can be used for example in rod and wire production
with a variety of forming stages along with the reduction
of cross section, amongst other cyclic alterations of strain
hardening and strain softening processes. With the proper
alloys these processes will be accompanied by precipitation processes, which are induced by the deformation. The
alteration and change of the strain hardening and strain
softening processes influences the transformation processes which in turn change the microstructure. In this way
the mechanical properties und their dependence on the
direction are changed.
Figure 1 shows an example of the process chain for
strip production with all separate process steps, subprocesses and the resulting alteration of the deformed
product beginning from the continuous casting over the
successive forming and up to the finish rolled product.
Each of these separate steps influences the specific product properties as geometry, structure, texture and the quality of surface. It is clear that it is not possible to observe
the properties, dimensions of geometry and other parameters only in the last production step, which have influence
on the finish product.
Figure 1. Classification of production chain by example of strip of

non-alloyed steels.
Complex changes of the material and the diversity of

relevant options with various depths are possible. They are
connected with the various methods and approaches and
require different calculation time.
Modeling and Simulation of Process Chain of the HotRolled Strip
The software regards all phenomena along the technological line of the rolling process in which a single cross
section disc is examined throughout the deformation

stages and transport phase up to the cooling line.
During the various steps of the process several ways of
heat transmission (convection, radiation and heat conduction) are possible, single or combined. These processes
are taken into account by the FEM. Coefficients of heat
transfer can be obtained from the literature references.
Significant numbers of experiments were carried out and
the temperature topography inside the rolled product (with
an integrated/welded thermocouple in the middle of the
strip) and the surface of the strip (with a pyrometers or a
thermography camera) can be measured. This facility is
able to diagnose the temperature profile along the cross
section in experimental way.
As a result of the increasing demands on the quality of
the rolled products and also the high deformation rates, the
prediction of the material flows becomes more important.
In order to fulfill these requirements the local strain and
local temperature distribution of the deformed volumes
were analyzed with the theory of visioplacticity or the
strategy of FEM. Based on this information the process
forces and the resulting torques can be forecast and a conclusion of the wear of rolls, the friction and the production
rate can be given.
The widening and stretching of the specimen can be
described by relevant models. According to this, either the
layer model in combination with the additionally stripes
model for flat products or the widening model, which was
developed in Freiberg by Hensel and Spittel, is used [1-3].
Depending on the diameter of rolls the widening behavior
changes. At the same time the chemical composition of the
material, friction conditions and also the geometry of the
rolled product have significant influence on the material
flow [4].
The predicted mechanical properties, for example tensile
strength, yield stress, fraction strain and fraction stress are
very important criteria for the further process stages.
These properties of the deformed materials can be determined by the combined observation of the austenization
conditions, the overall deformation process linked with
longitudinal tensile stresses, the conditions of cooling and
the analysis of the microstructure (parts of the different
phases). At the same time the chemical composition, grain
growth of austenite and ferrite and the kind of perlite initiations (for example, distance of perlite lamellas) play an
important role for the characterization of the final mechanical properties of the rolled product.
Over the cross section there are inhomogeneities in the
temperature (the edges cool down faster than the core) and
the deformation degree distribution. This leads to differences in the phase transition (softer phases are in the middle of the strip and harder phases at the edges) and their
influence on the mechanical properties over the strip cross
section. The respective irregularities can negatively affect
the further processing and the flow behavior.
The description of the microstructure, which forms at
the cooling line, is based on the CCT and D-CCT diagrams.
In order to present these diagrams it is necessary to determine the temperatures at the beginning of structure transformation and the transformed parts of phases at the characteristic points of the CCT. Because of the nonhomogeneity of the temperature and deformation distribu-
123
09.08.2010 14:19:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
temperature in C
tion over the cross section, D-CCT diagrams for the characteristic point of the cross section must be prepared in
order to interpolate the data across the profile [5,6]. In this
way it is possible to calculate the phase composition at the
end of the production process (Figure 2 and 3).
800
750
700
650
600
550
500
450
400
350
300
Figure 4. Schematic representation of scale development with

example of top of scaled surface from an experiment.
0,1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
time t 8-5 in sec.

Ferrit
P_start
P_end
Bainit
Figure 2. D-CCT-diagram for D = 40 m [7]
phase fractions X i in %
100
80
60
40
20
0
0,1
10
100
1000
10000
X Martensit
X Bainit
100000
time t 8-5 in sec.

X Ferrit
X Perlit
Figure 3. Development of phase fractions in C45
The modeling can be carried out by means of semiempirical models (options are presented by Kuziak, Campbell and Umemoto) and on the basis of the completely
recrystallized structure in order to decrease the complexity
of the calculations.
In order to be able to characterize all properties of the
semi-finished products - not only after deformation but
also at the end of the cooling line - information about the
tension conditions in the strip and also the scale growth is
obtained. Both characteristics are important for the further
processing of the flat profile.
The scale development is an important part in the description of the surface roughness. In order to be able to
assess the surface quality of the hot rolled product the
scale development must be controlled along the whole
process chain, beginning from the furnace up to the cooling line, because the scale can seriously damage the surface quality. The scale layer will be deformed plastically
during the deformation process but it can be limited due to
the insignificant ductility of the oxide. That is why the
scale layer breaks up after every processing step in various
places, for the reason that the hot core material emerges
towards the surface and gets in contact with the relatively
cold rolls (Figure 4). At the free surface of the material the
scale grows faster than the original iron oxide [8].
The amount of the scale cracks increases due to the

higher pass reduction, the greater cooling rate and the
thicker initial oxide film. Therefore, the roughness of the
surface of the end-product grows.
The other characteristic of the strip quality in hot rolling,
especially in the hot rolling of flat products, can be obtained by the possible stresses that can be developed during the processing at the cooling line. The run-out table in
this model is described with mathematical lows. For each
kind of cooling (air, water from headers etc.) the zone
lengths and heat transfer coefficients for zones are specified. The model of the temperature field during the cooling
line is solved in the cross section of the strip as a 2D thermal problem, where the linear 2D thermal elements with
the logarithmic rule of distribution of elements length in
the width direction are used. The temperature distribution
can be the reason for such stresses and creates defects in
the rolled metal such as dents, curvature and waves in the
middle and at the edges of the strip. The investigated residual stresses are stresses of the first-order. The information about the possible stress in the particles is important
not only for the description of the geometry but also for
proper implementation of the further production process
and the determination of the strip properties. The theory is
based on the strip model which takes into account the
thermal expansion. Mechanical and metallurgical properties as well as flatness do not only change along strip
length, but also in strip width. To obtain a homogeneous
final product, the temperature of the strip must be constant
in longitudinal direction (from head to end) and transversal to the rolling direction (from the outer edge to the
opposite site). But these theoretical conditions are not the
same like in the real rolling process. So the temperature in
the strip edges decreases faster than in the rest of the width.
The basis of this model is a rectangular sheet. The strip is
divided into longitudinal strip elements in the width direction of the strip (Figure 5) [9-11].
Figure 5. Theory for calculation of flatness at end of cooling line.
For each strip element the deflection function is assumed.

The wave distribution in the rolling direction can be ex124
09.08.2010 14:19:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
pressed as a sine wave form an in-the-width-direction as
the third-power spline-curve function. After that, the problem is solved by the minimum potential energy principle
of elastic systems. The consequence from this information
is to change the process parameters or to subsequently
interlink the heat treatment for the decrease of the stresses.
With this software and edge masking device the cooling
process can be optimized. The residual stress produces the
formation of the waves in the middle or at the edge of the
strip [12,13].
At the end of every hot rolling process the cooling of
material is usual. The results from the calculation of the
cooling line are transfered to modules for stress and temperature estimation during the cooling of the coil. The
temperature field transfer to the coil is based on Archimedes spiral and is used as input for the calculation of
precipitations, too [14].
Conclusion
The simulation system does not consider the influence
of longitudinal tensile stresses, but this phenomenon
changes the microstructure and consequently the mechanical properties [15].
The simulation model considering the stages of the process is a very important tool in the area of deformation
technology which serves for creating new products with
significant potential.
By means of the presented rapid simulation system one
must gather a comprehensive understanding of all process
stages along the processing line itself. The gained knowledge will be used for the optimization of the production
steps and technology.
Due to the variable arrangement of various segments,
the system can be applied for different deformation technologies in the processing of rolled products.
After completion of the model and forwarding to the

physical simulation it is possible to describe more precisely and reliably the particular steps or the procedures of
the ever increasing complex process.
The presented software was designed as part of the project Simulation system for fast analysis of multistage hot
rolling process of flat products and rod/wire within the
program Algorithms for fast, material specific processchain design and -analysis in metal forming and supported since October 2006 by the German Research Foundation (DFG). We would like to express our thanks to DFG.
References
[1] M. Schmidtchen, R. Kawalla: Tagungsband MEFORM, 2008, TU
Bergakademie Freiberg.
[2] B.V. Linov: Dissertation, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, 2004.
[3] B. Schmidt: Freiberger Forschungshefte B 282, 1997.
[4] G. Krause, R. Kawalla, L. Chabbi, U. Urlau, A. Stber, R. Diederichs,
P. V. Hllen: Steel Research International, 78-10-11 (2007), 745- 750.
[5] R. Kawalla, H. Gutte, G. Lehmann, G. Krause, A. Doktorowski;
Tagungsband MEFORM 2005; Freiberg, 2005.
[6] A. Kern: Habilitationsschrift, TU Berlin, 1997.
[7] U. Prahl: unverffentlichter Untersuchungsbericht, IEHK Aachen, 2008
[8] R.Y. Chen, W.Y.D. Yuen: Oxidation of Metals, Vol. 59, June 2003, 433-467.
[9] H.-M. Liu, P. Yan, C. Yu-Peng, W. Ying-Rui: Communications in
numerical methods in engineering, 20-9 (2004), 709-720.
[10]F.D. Fischer, N. Friedl, A. No, F.G. Rammerstorfer: Steel Research
International, No. 4 (2005).
[11] J. Paakari: TT Elektronics, thesis, University of Oulu, 1998,
pp.
11-14.
[12] S. Peregrina, J.-M. Garca Redondo, P. Fdz Quiroga, D. Glz Garca,
D. Garca: Revue de Metallugie Cahiers d Information Techniques, 9
(2006), 381-387.
[13] S.P. Marquez, U. Mller, A. Sprock: EUR. ISSN 1018-5593, 2007,
no 22403 , 1-69.
[14] K. Tokmakov: Disseration in Vorbereitung, Freiberg.
[15] R. Kawalla, M. Graf, K. Tokmakov: Tagungsband MEFORM, 2010, TU
Bergakademie Freiberg, 238-251.
125
09.08.2010 14:19:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Prevention of Sheet Perforation in Universal Gap Rolling

Masanori Kobayashi1), Tomoya Tsuchihashi2), Yoshio Morimoto1), Takashi Ishikawa3)
1)
Research & Development Laboratory, Kobe Steel Ltd., Kakogawa / Japan, kobayashi.masanori@kobelco.com; 2) Kakogawa Works, Kobe
Steel Ltd., Kakogawa / Japan; 3) Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya / Japan
The universal gap rolling system to the hot finishing mill which consists of 7 stands was applied. In the universal gap rolling, the crown of
the work rolls is controlled by shifting the work rolls. In actual operations of the universal gap rolling, perforation of the sheet appears. From
observation of this phenomenon, the rolled sheet tends to be perforated under three conditions: a wet surface of the work roll, a large reduction in sheet crown ratio and high rolling speed. The centre-buckle formed in the rolled material at the entry side of roll bite is filled with
the roll cooling water. The centre-buckle pool trapped between the rolled material and the work roll causes the friction change in the sheet
width direction. The rolled material is perforated according to the tensile stress occurred by this friction change. In order to prevent the
sheet perforation and reduce the sheet crown, it is necessary to wipe out the water in the centre-buckle pool. Slower rolling speed in the
first and second stands than the third one leads to a good performance to wipe out the water in the centre-buckle pool, and the large
change of the sheet crown ratio is required in these stands.
Keywords: Sheet perforation, Universal gap rolling, Hot rolling
Introduction
The demands for dimensional accuracy of the steel sheet
have increased, and the steel sheet crown tolerances have
become severe. We had installed the sheet crown control
equipments to the hot strip mill at Kakogawa Works, and
developed the sheet crown and shape control technologies.
The Universal Gap Rolling (UGR) system is one of the
technologies to control sheet crown based on the similar
concept of the CVC rolling mill [1-3].
To apply the UGR system to the actual rolling operations, we had the sheet perforation problem [4]. This report presents the mechanism of the sheet perforation in the
actual rolling operations and a solution to prevent the
phenomenon.
Sheet Perforation in Actual Rolling
UGR System. The UGR system consists of a set of
work roll shifting equipments and a pair of work rolls
formed special shapes. In the axial direction, one side of a
work roll is shaped a convex crown, and the other side is
shaped a concave crown. Upper and lower work rolls are
set in a rolling mill to be point symmetry as shown in
Figure 1. The upper and lower work rolls are shifted in the
reverse directions each other according to the rolling condition. In the UGR system, the roll gap profile is changed
according to the work roll shift position.
Work
Roll
Shift
Back-up Roll
Work Roll
Rolled
Material
Work Roll
Back-up Roll
Figure 1. Universal gap rolling system.
126
Work
Roll
Shift
Sheet Perforation. The sheet crown of the hot rolled

products are usually controlled at the finishing mill train
which usually consists of 5 or 7 stands of tandem rolling
mills, some or all of which are installed crown controlling
systems.
We installed the work roll shifting equipments to the
No.3 to No.7 stands of the hot finishing mill train at Kakogawa Works in 1987, and the UGR system was first
tested in the actual rolling operation at its No. 3 stand,
where a rolled sheet crown was considered to be reduced
without bad flatness.
But we experienced steel sheet perforation when strips
were largely reduced their crown at No. 3 stand of finishing mill train. Figure 2 shows one of the appearances of
sheet perforations. Once a steel sheet perforation occurred,
the rolling operation could not be continued, because the
work rolls in the rolling mill were seriously damaged and
needed to be changed not to print roll marks on the next
rolled products.
Perfotations
Tail End
Sheet
Width
Sheet
Rolling direction
Perforation
10mm
Figure 2. Steel sheet perforation.
The steel sheet perforations occurred in the following

situations.
1. In many cases, the sheet perforations were found at the
centre of the width of the rolled steel sheets, often in
the tail ends and sometimes in the head ends of the
strips.
09.08.2010 14:19:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
2. When the sheet perforations occurred, the centrebuckled sheet shapes were also recognized, as results
of reduction of the sheet crown by the UGR setting.
3. Parabola-shaped dents were often seen in front of the
sheet perforation, and thicknesses of the sheet at the
dents were thinner than around as shown in Figure 3.
4. In many cases, before sheet perforations occurred,
water and steam splashed out from the roll bite to the
entry side of the rolling mill.
Dents
Perfotations
Tail End
Sheet
Width
Rolling
Direction
A
Sheet
Product Thickness /mm
2.8
2.7
A
B
2.6
were always centre-buckled. Though a centre-buckled

shape was considered to cause a compressive stress toward
the rolling direction at the sheet centre in a roll bite, a
tensile fracture was actually found at the perforated part of
the sheet.
Besides, the shear deformation observed at the perforated part told us that the rolling boundary conditions
varied between upper and lower surfaces of the rolled steel
sheet.
The observed splash of water and steam suggested that
water existed between the rolled material and the work roll
when the sheet perforation occurred.
It is considered as follows.
1. When the sheet shape at the delivery side of the roll
bite is centre-buckled too much and the backward tension is lost, the backward slip at the centre of the strip
is larger than that at the edge.
2. The rolled material of the sheet centre is buckled in
front of the roll bite. And then, the centre-buckle
formed in the rolled material at the entry side of the
roll bite is filled with the roll coolant water.
3. The rolled material is perforated by a too much tensile
stress occurred by the friction change.
Experiment on Laboratory Rolling Mill
2.5
2.4
-500
0
Width /mm
500
Experimental Method. In order to clarify the above

mentioned hypothesis, the following experimental rolling
tests were performed. A schematic diagram of the experimental rolling is shown in Figure 5.
Roll Coolant
(Water)
Figure 3. Thickness distribution along width direction.
The metal flows around the perforated part are shown in

Figure 4. Both tensile fractures and shear deformations
were recognized at the sections of A-A and B-B.
Rolling Direction
Work Roll
Projection
t
Test Piece
t
350mm
Perforation
Sheet
Width
800 900mm
Rolling
Direction
A'
B'
a)A-A'
b)B-B'
Figure 4. Metal flow of perforated steel sheet.
Hypothesis of Mechanism of Sheet Perforation. When

the sheet perforation occurred, the rolled sheet shapes
t: Thickness of the test piece

t: Height of the projection
100mm
Figure 5. Schematic diagram of experimental rolling.
As the centre-buckled shape of the rolled material was

considered to be a key condition to cause a sheet perforation, the material at the centre of the width had to be more
extended than that at the edge of the width in the experimental rolling. To make centre-buckle shapes to the workpieces in experimental rolling, artificial projections were
formed on them by machining at the centre of the width.
The width of the workpiece was 350mm, and the thickness
of the workpiece t was 8.6mm. The heights of the artificial
projections t were 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0mm to change the
centre-buckle condition, and the width was 100 mm. The
workpieces were heated up to 1000 C, and rolled by a
pair of flat rolls with 40% reductions. The roll coolant was
sprayed toward the upper roll at the entry side of the test
127
09.08.2010 14:19:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
mill, and the spray conditions of the roll coolant water
were jet, film, drop, and dry. The rolling velocities were
set 100, 50 and 20 m/min.
Exit of Roll Bite
Entrance of Roll Bite

Contact Length
Experimental Result. By the experimental rolling,

sheet perforation occurred under certain rolling conditions.
The appearance of the perforated part of a workpiece is
shown in Figure 6.
Thickness = 8.6mm ( = Entry thickness)

Thickness =11.4mm ( > Entry thickness)
Figure 8. Section of workpiece in rolling direction.
Discussion
Figure 6. Perforation of workpiece.
In the rolling experiment, the steel sheet perforations

were recognized in the following conditions.
1. The work roll surface was wet.
2. The height of the projection was large, it is considered
to be equivalent to the case that the sheet crown ratio
was largely reduced in actual rolling condition.
3. Rolling velocity was high.
The experimental results are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Rolling condition and the experimental result.
Height of
projection
(mm)
2.0
1.5
1.0
Spray condition
of roll coolant
water
Dry
Jet
Film
Wet
Drop
Jet
Jet
Dry
Wet
Jet
Wet
Jet
Rolling
velocity
(m/min)
100
50
20
100
100
100
Sheet
perforation
Not occurred
Occurred
Occurred
Not occurred
Occurred
Not occurred
Not occurred
Occurred
Not occurred
To observe the fracture and deformation, the rolling operation was stopped while the workpiece was between the
roll bite, and a sample of the workpiece was obtained.
Figure 7 shows that a parabola-shaped dent was found
at the entry side of the roll bite.
When the reduction at the centre of the width of the

rolled sheet is larger than that at the edge, the sheet shape
gets centre-buckled at the delivery side of the roll bite. At
the entry side, the distribution of the backward tension
applied along sheet width direction is similar to that at the
delivery side [5]. As a result, the shape of the rolled sheet
at the entry side is considered to be also centre-buckled.
While an inter-stand backward tension is applied to the
rolled sheet, the centre-buckled shape at the entry side is
considered to be latent.
Once the inter-stand backward tension is lost, the centrebuckled sheet shape comes to appear and the rolled sheet
waves up and down at the entrance of the roll bite. At the
sheet centre, when the waved sheet contacts to the upper
work roll, water on the sheet surface is trapped between
the upper work roll and the rolled material and is drawn
into the roll bite.
Then, if both the quantity of trapped water and the rolling speed exceed the thresholds, the trapped water
splashes out toward the entry side of the roll bite. If the
quantity of the trapped water or the rolling speed is less
than the threshold, the trapped water splashes out to the
delivery side of the roll bite and a dent is observed, where
the water was trapped in.
In the roll bite, the work roll and the rolled material do
not contact each other where trapped water exists, and the
coefficient of friction becomes small by the condition of
hydrodynamic lubrication. On the other hand, delivery
side in the roll bite from where the trapped water exists,
the coefficient of friction is relatively large because of the
rolling condition of boundary or mixed lubrication.
By the two-dimensional rolling theory, the following
force balance is assumed in the steady rolling condition [6],
l
xn
2 pdx + T f = 2 pdx + Tb + 2 p tandx ,

xn
Figure 7. Appearance of workpiece between roll bite.
And, at the entry side of the roll bite, Figure 8 shows

the thickness of the workpiece was thicker than that before
rolling test.
128
(1)
where x is the distance from the exit toward the entrance

of the roll bite, is the coefficient of friction, Tf is the
front tension, Tb is the back tension, = sin 1 (x R ) , R is
the roll radius, l is the length of contact and xn is the position of the neutral point. Figure 9 shows the coordinate
system of Eq. (1).
09.08.2010 14:19:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Work Roll
R
Neutral
Point
Material
x
xn
l
Figure 9. Coordinate system of rolling operation.
All the left hand terms of Eq. (1) represent the force
which draws the rolled material into the roll bite from the
entry side, and all the right hand terms represent the force
which draws the rolled material into the roll bite from the
delivery side. When the water trapped between the roll bite
splashes out to the entry side, the coefficient of friction
becomes small and the force represented by the first term
of the left hand of Eq. (1) is lost. The force which draws
the rolled material into the roll bite from entry side is lost
at sheet centre, and the material does not go out to the
delivery side of the roll bite. As a result, a too large tensile
stress is applied to the rolled material at the sheet centre,
and the part thinner than around which trapped the water
fractures by this tensile stress (Figure 10).
Water
Steam
Roll
Hydrodymanic
Lubrication
Boundary / Mixed
Lubrication
Material
Speed / Low
Dent
Speed / High
Tensile Stress
Figure 10. Mechanism of sheet perforation.
Consider the case that the rolled material is thin and the
contact length l is small. The third term of the right hand
of Eq. (1) is also small, and rolled material can go through
the roll bite if the first term of the left hand of Eq. (1) is
small. As a result, sheet perforation does not occur.
We have discussed based on the two-dimensional rolling
theory, now, consider the three-dimensional force applied
to the rolled material when a perforation occurs.
When the sheet crown ratio is reduced by a rolling
operation, a compressive stress is applied to the rolled
sheet at the sheet centre. But the effect of compressive
stress is small when a centre-buckled shape appeares.
Next, the edge part of the rolled material with a large

coefficient of friction draws the centre part of the material
with a small coefficient of friction into the roll bite, and a
shear stress is applied between the edge and the centre of
the material. The observed parabolic shape of the dent
which traps the water in is thought to be due to this shear
stress.
Therefore, in order to reduce the sheet crown without
sheet perforation, it is necessary to wipe out the water in
the centre-buckle pool. As the lower rolling velocity is
applied to the rolling operation, more easily the water goes
out from the entrance of the roll bite. And a large change
of the sheet crown is expected to be realized successfully
at the formers stand of the hot finishing mill train without
sheet perforations. And at the latter stands, edge-waved
rolled sheet shape has to be kept to avoid the centre-buckle
pool to be formed at the entrance of the roll bite.
Conclusions
The mechanism of the sheet perforation is considered as
follows.
1. The centre-buckle formed in the rolled material at the
entry side of roll bite is filled with the water which exists around the roll bite.
2. The centre-buckle pool trapped between the rolled
material and the work roll causes the friction change in
the sheet width direction.
3. The rolled material is perforated according to the tensile stress occurred by this friction change.
In order to reduce the sheet crown without any sheet
perforations, the following rolling procedures are effective.
1. The sheet crown has to be changed largely at the former stands of the hot finishing mill train.
2. An edge-waved rolled sheet shape should be kept at
the latter stands of the hot finishing mill train to prevent the sheet perforations.
According to the above considerations, we have installed the work roll shifting equipments and UGR system
to the No.1 and No.2 stands of hot finishing mill at Kakogawa Works. As the result, an excellent performance on a
sheet crown and shape control has been achieved.
References
[1] K. Tsuji, Y. Yamaguchi, T. Mizuta, S. Hattori: Rolling mill, Japanese
Patent Disclosure, 56-030014 (1981).
[2] Ma. Kobayashi, T. Tsuchihashi: SEAISI Quarterly 2007, 36-3 (2007),
59.
[3] W. Wilms, L. Vogtmann, J. Klckner, G. Beisemann, W. Rohde:
Metallurgical Plant and Technology, 6 (1985), 74.
[4] T. Tsuchihashi, Y. Oike, J. Sato, M. Komatsu: CAMP-ISIJ, 8 (1995),
453.
[5] H. Matsumoto, K. Nakajima, T. Kikuma, Y. Uehori: Journal of the
Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 23-263 (1982), 1201.
[6] E. Orowan, K.J. Pascoe: Iron & Steel Inst. Spec. Rep., 34 (1946), 124.
129
09.08.2010 14:19:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Oxidation Kinetics, Mechanical Adhesion and Pickling Behaviour of Thermal Oxide

Scales on Hot-rolled Conventional and Recycled Steels
Somrerk Chandra-ambhorn1), Thanasak Nilsonthi1),2), Yves Wouters2), Alain Galerie2)
1)
Department of Material and Production Technology Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology North
Bangkok, Bangkok / Thailand, sca@kmutnb.ac.th; 2) Science et Ingnierie des Matriaux et Procds, CNRS/INP-Grenoble/UJF, F-38402,
Saint Martin dHres Cedex / France
The objective of this work was to investigate oxidation kinetics, oxide scale mechanical adhesion and pickling for hot-rolled low carbon steel
strips produced from slab elaborated by the blast-furnace route (conventional steel) and by the electric-arc-furnace route (recycled steel).
Thermogravimetric measurements were conducted for both steels in 20%H2O/Ar between 600 and 900C. Parabolic oxidation kinetics was
observed. The measured activation energies were 147 and 131 kJ.mol1 for the conventional and the recycled steels respectively. Scale
thicknesses on the hot-rolled conventional and recycled steels were 8 and 11 m. The room temperature in-situ tensile test was performed
to investigate the mechanical adhesion of these scales on steel substrates. Mechanical adhesion energies of scale actually formed on the
hot-rolled conventional and recycled steels were 1850 and 2530 J.m2, respectively. Picklability was examined using immersion in a
10 %v/v HCl solution at 80C. The scale dissolution rate on the as-received recycled steel was slower than that of the scale on the asreceived conventional steel. The period of time for the complete pickling on the former steel was also longer than that on the latter one. The
inferior picklability of scale on the hot-rolled recycled steel might relate to the higher thickness, less initial crack density, and superior mechanical adhesion of scale on this steel substrate. The better mechanical adhesion of scale on this steel was possibly due to the existence
of silicon-containing oxide at the internal scale-steel interface.
Keywords: Thermal oxide scale, Low carbon steel, Recycled steel, Oxidation, Mechanical adhesion, Pickling behaviour
Introduction
In a hot rolling process, a raw material is a slab which
can be produced by different routes [1,2]. It can be produced by a blast-furnace route starting from converting
iron ores to be pig iron using blast furnace. The pig iron is
further refined in a steelmaking process resulting in the
slab called in the present paper conventional slab. The slab
can also be produced by an electric-arc-furnace route. In
this path, the slab is made of recycled steels, or scraps,
using an electric arc furnace and secondary refining process. The slab obtained can be further classified by its
thickness: the medium slab in case that its thickness is ca.
80-100 cm, and the thin slab in case that its thickness is ca.
50 cm [1]. Since scraps are used as raw material in the
electric-arc-furnace route, some elements exist in steel
made from this route with the higher content than the one
produced using the blast-furnace route, e.g. Si, Cu, Sn, Pb
or As [1,3].
Due to the process temperature in the hot rolling line of
ca. 600-1250 C, thermal oxide scale forms on steel surface. It is de-scaled by high pressure water jet firstly before the entry of slab into the roughing mill and secondly
before the entry of steel bar into the finishing mill. After
the second de-scaling, thermal oxide scale still rapidly
grows during the steel strip coiling and storage, until the
temperature has fallen under ~ 400 C. Existence of this
scale plays a critical role on the quality of the product. In
case that the product is delivered as hot-rolled coil for the
application in this form, good mechanical adhesion of
scale on steel substrate is preferred. In contrast, in case
that a clean steel surface is required, e.g. for further cold
rolling, scale must be completely removed by mechanical
and chemical means. In this case, poor mechanical adhesion and good pickling ability of scale on the steel substrate are favoured. These two properties can be controlled
by chemical composition of steel [4-8] or by process pa130
rameters [9-11]. The effect of Si [4-6] and Cu [7,8] on

oxidation kinetics of low carbon steel has been extensively studied, particularly by using model alloys oxidised
in laboratory. There have been some works investigating
thermal oxide scale actually formed in the hot rolling line,
but typically on steel produced from the slab made from
the BF route [12-14]. In those works [4-14], no systematic
effort has been paid to investigate mechanical adhesion of
scale on steel substrate at room temperature. Our group
has developed the micro-tensile test operating in the
chamber of a scanning electron microscope. This is to
investigate mechanical adhesion of scale on steel substrate,
particularly on stainless steel
[15-17]. No extensive
work has been applied to the case of low carbon steel. The
present work then aims at investigating thermal oxide
scale actually formed on the steel strip produced from slab
made from the EAF route, focusing on the one made from
medium slab. Oxidation kinetics, mechanical adhesion and
pickling behavior of scale on such recycled steel was studied and compared with scale on steel strip produced from
slab made from the BF route.
Experimental
Materials. Materials used in this work was a steel strip
produced from slab made from the blast-furnace route (the
hot-rolled conventional steel), and a steel strip made from
the medium slab (the hot-rolled recycled steel). Chemical
composition of these two steels is listed in Table 1. Steels
A and B in the Table stand for hot-rolled conventional and
recycled steels respectively. It should be noted that Si in
the hot-rolled recycled steel was 0.267 wt%, higher than
that of the conventional steel which was 0.013 wt%. Cu in
the hot-rolled recycled steel was 0.168 wt%, higher than
that of the conventional steel which was 0.059 wt%.
09.08.2010 14:19:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. Chemical composition of studied hot-rolled steels (wt%).
steel
C
Si
Cu
Mn
Al
P
S
0.033
0.013
0.059
0.232
0.043
0.006
0.009
A
0.058
0.267
0.168
0.347
0.020
0.013
0.004
B
(A = conventional steel, B = recycled steel)
For studying oxidation kinetics, samples were prepared

with width and length of 10 and 15 mm respectively. They
were polished by SiC-papers up to 1200 grit, cleaned by
ethanol, dried in air and immediately placed in the furnace
of the thermal gravimetric analyser. Oxidation kinetics
was investigated in flowing 20%H2O/Ar at 600-900C
during 16 hours. For studying the mechanical adhesion,
the as-received oxidised steel was prepared to be in the
special shape fitting the micro-tensile testing machine
sitting in the chamber of the scanning electron microscope.
During tensile loading, evolution of the failure of the scale
was monitored by scanning electron microscope. The
experimental method of this test was explained in our
previous papers extensively [15,16]. For pickling immersion testing, samples were prepared with the width and
length of 10 and 20 mm respectively, cleaned by alcohol
and dried in air before immediately immersed in a 10%v/v
HCl pickling solution at 80C during 1-60 seconds. Weight
loss per unit area was measured as a function of pickling
time.
Figure 2 depicts the surface of scales on the as-received

hot-rolled conventional and recycled steels subjected to
the imposed strain during the tensile test. SEM images in
each row shows the comparative scale surface of the two
steels after straining by the similar value. During tensile
loading, transverse cracks perpendicular to the tensile
loading were first observed, followed by local scale spallation. The spallation resulted from the compressive stress
exerted to the scale due to transverse straining. This failure
behaviour was similar to that of scales on stainless steel
substrates [15-17]. Table 2 lists information on the two
steels concerning the thickness of scales actually formed
on the hot-rolled steels, strain at the first spallation, and
mechanical adhesion energy calculated using our model
[15,16].
Conventional steel
=3.48%
Recycled steel
=3.00%
100 m
100 m
=4.15%
=4.39%
=4.73%
=5.20%

From thermogravimetry, oxidation kinetics of the conventional and recycled steels in 20%H20/Ar at 600-900 C
was found to be parabolic. Relationship between a parabolic rate constant (kp) in mg.cm4.h1 and an inverse of
absolute temperature (T) in Kelvin according to the Arrhenius relation was shown in Figure 1. The parabolic rate
constants of the two steels were as follows.
kP = 81.5exp(147.2/RT ) for conventional steel
(1)
kP = 66.7exp(130.5/RT ) for recycled steel
(2)
ln kp / kp in mg2.cm4.h1
where R is a gas constant (8.314 J.mol-1.K-1). Apparent

activation energies of the conventional and recycled steels
were 147.2 and 130.5 kJ.mol1 respectively. From
Figure 1, it was found that the parabolic rate constant of
these two steels at 700-900 C seemed to be identical. At
600 C, a parabolic rate constant of the recycled steel was
higher than that of the conventional steel.
6
conventional steel
recycled steel
4
2
0
-2
8.52
(900C)
9.32
(800C)
10.28
(700C)
10 000.T1 / T in K
11.45
(600C)
Figure 1. Parabolic rate constants of conventional and recycled

steels in 20%H20/Ar at different temperatures.
=6.06%
=6.12%
Figure 2. Evolution of scale failure on as-received hot-rolled

conventional steel (left) and as-received hot-rolled recycled steel
(right) as a function of imposed strain.
Table 2. Scale thickness of as-received hot-rolled steels and
information obtained from tensile test.
Type of the as-received
Parameters
hot-rolled steel
conventional
recycled
steel
steel
8
11
Scale thickness (m)
Strain at the first spallation (%)
4.15
4.35 0.04
Mechanical adhesion energy (J.m2)
1850
2530 600
In each SEM image taken during the tensile test, the

spallation ratio was quantified as the area where scale was
spalled out normalised by the total area taken in the picture. Spallation ratio as a function of the imposed strain is
shown in Figure 3. From Table 2, it was found that strain
provoking the first spallation on the conventional steel was
131
09.08.2010 14:19:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
6
9
12
Imposed strain / %
15
Figure 3. Spallation ratio in function of imposed strain of scale on

the as-received hot-rolled conventional and recycled steels.
Crack density / crack.mm1
In each SEM image taken during the tensile test, crack

density and number of crack boundaries were also counted.
A crack density was defined as number of cracks counted
per unit length on scale parallel to loading direction. A
number of crack boundaries was the total length of cracks
measured in unit area of scale surface. These two parameters are plotted as a function of the imposed strain as
shown in Figures 4 and 5. It was found that initial cracks
existed in the scale. Initial crack density and number of
crack boundaries of scale on the conventional steel were
higher than those of scale on the recycled steel. The higher
initial crack density found in scale on the conventional
steel might be from the process in the plant. It might also
be from the poorer adhesion of scale on steel substrate
previously reported in this work. After straining, it was
further observed that, at a given imposed strain, crack
density and number of crack boundaries of scale on the
conventional steel were also higher than that of scale on
the recycled steel.
160
120
80
conventional steel
recycled steel
40
0
0
6
9
Imposed strain / %
12
Figure 4. Crack density as function of imposed strain of scale on

as-received hot-rolled conventional and recycled steels.
132
Crack boundary per area /

mm.mm2
6
9
Imposed strain / %
12
Figure 6 presents the results from the immersion test.

This figure plots weight loss per unit area as a function of
the pickling time. The initial slope corresponds to the
dissolution rate of the scale. This value is represented in
Figure 7. The slope at long pickling times, graphically
observed to be identical for the two lines in Figure 6,
corresponds to the corrosion rate of the steel substrate.
conventional steel
recycled steel
0
conventional steel
recycled steel
0
5
4
3
2
conventional steel
recycled steel
1
0
0
10
20
30 40
50
Pickling time / s
60
70
Figure 6. Weight loss for as-received hot-rolled samples in 10%v/v

HCl solution at 80 C as a function of pickling time.
From Figure 7, the dissolution rate of scale on the conventional steel was faster than that of scale on the recycled
steel. This might be due to the higher crack boundary
observed on scale on the conventional steel. From Figure
6, it was also observed that the period of time for the complete pickling of scale on the conventional steel was ca.
20-25 seconds. It was faster than that of the recycled steel,
which was ca. 30-40 seconds. The longer period of time
for the complete pickling the hot-rolled recycled steel
might relate to the thicker scale with less initial crack
density of this steel. It might also relate to the superior
mechanical adhesion of scale on this steel.
Dissolution rate of scale /
g.cm2.s1
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Figure 5. Crack boundary number as a function of the imposed

strain of scale on the as-received hot-rolled conventional and
recycled steels.
Weight loss / g.cm2
Spallation ratio / %
4.15%, slightly lower than that for scale on the hot-rolled

recycled steel which was 4.35%. From the strain provoking the first spallation to strain of ca. 6%, the gradient of
the spallation ratio with respect to the imposed strain of
scale on the conventional steel was higher than that of
scale on the conventional steel. This might indicate the
higher susceptibility of scale on the conventional steel to
spall out with the increment of the imposed strain. From
Table 2, the mechanical adhesion energies of scale on the
hot-rolled conventional and recycled steels are 1850 and
2530 J.m2 respectively. These results indicated the higher
mechanical adhesion of scale actually formed on the hotrolled recycled steel than that of scale actually formed on
the hot-rolled conventional steel.
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
Conventional
steel
Recycled
steel
Figure 7. Dissolution rate of scale on as-received hot-rolled conventional and recycled steels in 10%v/v HCl solution at 80 C.
09.08.2010 14:19:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 8 depicts the scale on the hot-rolled recycled
steel after the tensile test. A spectrum from an energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) of the white zone in Figure 8
corresponding to the scale-steel interface is shown in
Figure 9. On that area, the EDS spectrum included the
peaks of Fe, O, C as well as Si and Al. It was found in our
work [18,19] that there existed oxide containing Si, Al and
Cu at the internal interface between scale and the hotrolled recycled steel. It has been widely reported that the
oxide containing Si, i.e. fayalite, existing at the scale-steel
interface, promoted mechanical adhesion of scales on steel
substrates [4-6] and worsened the picklability of scale [6].
One significant factor resulting in the superior mechanical
adhesion and poorer picklability of scale on the recycled
steel might be from the existence of Si in this steel, even in
the amount of 0.267 wt%.
2530 J.m2 respectively. These results indicated the

higher mechanical adhesion of scale actually formed
on the hot-rolled recycled steel.
3. The pickling test of the as-received hot-rolled steels
was conducted in 10%v/v HCl solution at 80C. The
dissolution rate of scale on the recycled steel was slower than that of scale on the conventional one. One reason for this effect might be due to the less initial crack
density observed in scale on the recycled steel. Period
of time for the complete pickling scale on the recycled
steel was longer than that on the conventional one.
This inferior pickling behaviour related to the higher
thickness and superior mechanical adhesion of scale on
the recycled steel. This better adhesion might significantly be due to the existence of oxide containing Si at
the internal interface between scale and the recycled
steel substrate.
Acknowledgements
100 m
Figure 8. Scale on the steel subjected to the strain of 12.62%.
The authors appreciate the French embassy in Thailand

for granting Thanasak Nilsonthi the Thai-French Innovation Institute (TFII) Excellent Scholarship (2010-2012).
Research grants from a government budget given to King
Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok and
from the Iron and Steel Institute of Thailand (contract
number 042/1553) are acknowledged.
Count
References
Energy / keV
Figure 9. EDS pattern of internal interface between scale and
substrate (White area in Figure 8) focusing on range of energy
where Al and Si peaks were observed.
Conclusions
Hot-rolled steel strips produced from slabs elaborated by
the blast-furnace route (conventional steel), and electricarc-furnace route (recycled steel) were studied. The
following conclusions can be drawn.
1. Thicknesses of scale actually formed on hot-rolled
conventional and recycled steels were 8 and 11 m
respectively. Oxidation kinetics of the two steels in
20%H2O/Ar was studied. At 700-900C, oxidation rate
of the two steels was rather identical. At 600C, oxidation rate of the conventional steel was lower than that
of the recycled steel.
2. Mechanical adhesion of scale on steel substrate was
investigated by micro-tensile test. Strains provoking
the first spallation of scale actually formed on the hotrolled conventional and recycled steel were 4.15% and
4.35 % respectively. Mechanical adhesion energies of
scale on the former and latter steels were 1850 and
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[9] R.Y. Chen, W.Y.D. Yuen: Oxidation of Metals, 27-4 (2000), 47-53.
[10] R.Y. Chen, W.Y.D. Yuen: Oxidation of Metals, 57-1-2 (2002), 53-79.
[11] S. Chandra-ambhorn, S. Ieamsupapong, V. Thanateponake, W.
Suksamai: Key Engineering Materials, 410-411 (2009), 669-676.
[12] R.Y. Chen, W.Y.D. Yuen: Oxidation of Metals, 56-1-2 (2001), 89112.
[13] M.J.L. Gines, G.J. Benitez, T. Perez, E. Merli, M.A. Firpo, W. Egli:
Latin American Applied Research, 38-4 (2002), 281-288.
[14] M. Zhang, G. Shao, Materials Science and Engineering A, 452-453
(2007), 189-193.
[15] F. Toscan, L. Antoni, Y. Wouters, M. Dupeux, A. Galerie: Materails
Science Forum, 461-464 (2004), 705-712.
[16] S. Chandra-ambhorn, F. Roussel-Dherbey, F. Toscan, Y. Wouters, A.
Galerie, M. Dupeux: Materials Science and Technology, 23-4
(2007), 497-501.
[17] G. Bamba, Y. Wouters, A. Galerie, F. Charlot, A. Dellali: Acta Materialia, 54-15 (2007), 671-674.
[18] S. Chandra-ambhorn, J. Tungtrongpairoj, T. Nilsonthi, A. Somrak:
Proc. 216th ECS Meeting, Vienna, (2009).
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Thai-German Graduate School of Engineering, King Mongkuts
University of Technology North Bangkok, Bangkok, (2010).
133
09.08.2010 14:19:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
High Temperature Oxidation Behaviour of a High-Speed Steel Material

Qiang Zhu, Hongtao Zhu, Kiet Tieu, Cheng Lu
School of Mechanical, Materials & Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong / Australia, hongtao@uow.edu.au
The high temperature oxidation behaviour of a high-speed steel material, used to manufacture work rolls in hot rolling, was investigated by
means of in-situ observation and Gleeble 3500 Thermal-Mechanical Simulator system under both dry and moist atmosphere conditions.
The in-situ observation of oxidation experiments was carried out in a High Temperature Microscope with a CCD camera as a detector; the
mechanics of oxide scale formation and growth can be observed in-situ and recorded from the beginning until the end of oxidation. By using
a Gleeble 3500 Thermal-Mechanical Simulator, the effect of high water vapour constitution atmosphere on the oxidation kinetics of the highspeed steel can be identified. In-situ observations show that the oxidation of the high-speed steel is initiated at the carbides/matrix interfaces, and then rapidly spreads to cover over the carbides and followed by continuous growth over the whole surface. Results of the Gleeble tests indicate that the water vapour in the atmosphere has a significant influence on the morphology and phase composition of oxide
scale.
Keywords: High-speed steel, Oxidation, Hot rolling, Carbides, Dry and moist atmosphere
Introduction
Experimental
With increasing demand of high productivity and high

quality of hot rolled strip, the high-speed steel materials
have been widely used to manufacture work rolls in hot
rolling, replacing the conventional high chromium and
indefinite chill cast iron rolls [1-3]. High-speed steel rolls
contain a high content of carbon (1.5-2.0 wt%) and strong
carbide forming elements such as V, Mo, and W, which
form hard carbides that improve significantly hardness,
mechanical stress and wear resistance [4-6].
However, hot rolls undergo extremely arduous working
conditions. The thermal cycling of the rolls between 50 to
650oC [7] causes hard oxide scale to form and provide a
protective effect against wear. Numerous experimental and
numerical studies have been carried out to investigate the
tribological behaviour of the oxide scale on the roll surface
[8-11]. The results of these studies indicate that the physical properties and mechanical behaviour of oxide scale
have a significant effect on the deterioration of roll surface
and change the contact mechanics between the rolls and
the strips [12,13]. Therefore, in order to achieve the full
potential of high-speed steel rolls for hot strip mills, it is
necessary to study their oxidation behaviour.
In this paper, the oxide scale evolution and kinetics of a
high-speed steel roll material at high temperature was
studied not only in dry air but also in moist atmosphere, as
the roll is cooled with water during the hot rolling process.
Oxidation tests were carried out in a High Temperature
Microscope with a CCD camera as a detector and Gleeble
3500 Thermal-Mechanical Simulator, respectively. By
using the High Temperature Microscope, the mechanics of
oxide scale formation and growth can be observed in-situ
and recorded from the beginning to the end of the oxidation process. However, the water content is limited to
below 12.5% to avoid damage of the furnace chamber. By
using the Gleeble Thermal-Mechanical Simulator, the
effect of high water vapour constitution atmosphere on
oxidation behaviour of high-speed steel can be identified.
The oxidized samples were examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction.
Material. The chemical composition of the high-speed

steel roll material consists of C 1.96 wt%, Cr 4.85 wt%,
Mo 4.47 wt%, W 3.4 wt%, V 4.00 wt%, Mn 1.26 wt% and
balanced Fe. Figure 1 shows the backscattered microstructure of as-received high-speed steel. There are mainly
three types of carbides identified as slender-petal like Vrich MC carbides, bright fibrous like Mo-rich M2C carbides, and net-work like Cr-rich M7C3 carbides. Image
analysis of the microstructure determined that the total
volume fraction of all carbides is about 13%, in which MC
carbides occupy 9% and another 4% for M2C+M7C3
carbides.
134
M2C
MC
M7C3
Figure 1. Backscattered microstructure of high-speed steel.
In-Situ Observation of Oxidation. The in-situ observation of oxidation was carried out in a High Temperature
Microscope with a CCD camera as a detector in order to
investigate the mechanics of oxidation formation and
growth of the high-speed steel. The cubic samples with
dimension 2.72.72 mm3 were cut from the as-received
material and one of the broad faces on the samples was
polished and finished with 1-m diamond polishing suspension. Figure 2 shows a schematic illustration of the
setup of the experimental facility. The sample was put into
a 4-mm diameter alumina crucible with the polished surface facing upward in the gold-plated ellipsoidal infrared
heating furnace. One end of the gas entry tube was placed
09.08.2010 14:19:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
just above the crucible, in order to apply the oxidizing gas
(dry air or water vapour) directly onto the sample surface.
Except introducing the oxidizing gas, heating and cooling
were conducted in an inert atmosphere of high-purity
argon gas (Ar, 99.999% pure). The flow rate of the oxidizing gas was set at 96 cm-3.min-1. The in-situ observation of
oxidation tests were carried out in two different atmospheres (dry and 12.5% water moisture) at 700 oC for 30
min. The heating and cooling rate were 100 oC per minute.
A compressed industrial air was used as the dry oxidizing
gas, and the moist atmospheres were obtained by passing
industrial air through distilled water by means of a temperature controlled bath. By adjusting the bath temperatures, moistures with different humidity can be obtained.
Figure 3. Snapshots from an in-situ recorded video indicating
formation and growth of oxide scale on sample surface in dry air at
700 oC. Time indicated in figures is program proceeding time
rather than oxidizing time. (a) 0 s, (b) 5s, (c) 10 s and (d) 15 s.
Computer
CCD camera
Objective lens
?
Gas exist
Gas entry
Sample
Infrared lamp
Figure 2. Schematic illustration for in-situ observation of oxidation.
Oxidation Test in Gleeble. The oxidation tests were

also carried out in the Gleeble 3500 Thermal-Mechanical
Simulator. Dry air or humid air with 12.5 and 46.5% water
vapour was introduced in the experiment. The oxidation
period was extended up to 120 min to identify the kinetics
of oxidation.
A JEOL JSM 6490 Scanning Electron Microscope
equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis was employed to characterise the surface morphology of sample
before and after the oxidation and microstructures of oxide
scale formed on the sample surface. An X-ray Diffraction
using a GBC MMA diffractometer with monochromated
Cu K radiation was used to analyze the phase composition
of oxide scale.
In-Situ Observation of Oxidation. Figure 3 provides a
series of in-situ frames of the oxidation experiments from
the beginning in dry air at 700 oC, showing the formation
and growth of the oxide scale on the sample surface. Figure 3(a) shows the microstructure of the clean high-speed
steel sample before introducing the dry air which indicates
the carbides distribution in the martensite matrix. The
oxidation initially takes place at the carbides/matrix interfaces once the oxidizing gas is introduced. And then the
oxide scale rapidly spreads over the carbides into the matrix, as shown in Figure 3(b) after the dry air was introduced for 5 seconds. As the oxidation time progresses 10
and 15 seconds in Figure 3(c) and (d) respectively, the
oxide scale continuously grows further to cover the matrix.
It takes about 20 s for the oxide scale formation, from
initiation at carbides/matrix interfaces to cover the whole
surface. After that, the oxide scale grows thicker with the
oxidation time. As for the case with 12.5% water vapour
moisture, a similar phenomenon can be observed.
Figure 4. Surface morphologies of high-speed steel samples after

in-situ observation of oxidation at 700 oC for 30 minutes. (a) in dry
air and (b) in 12.5% water moisture.
The surface morphologies after oxidation in different

oxidizing atmosphere (i.e. dry air and 12.5% moist atmosphere) appear quite different, as shown in Figure 4. After
oxidation in dry air, a continuous oxide scale covers over
the high-speed steel sample surface with many parallelepiped grains protruding above the oxide scale in dry air, as
shown in Figure 4(a). The energy-dispersive X-ray analysis indicates that these crystals are rich of vanadium elements. Compared with the original morphology of highspeed steel sample in which the V-rich MC carbides appear with slender-petal structure, it can be concluded that
the V-rich MC carbides are oxidized to form parallelepiped grains. The same phenomenon was reported by Kim et
al. [4]. The oxide scale formed in 12.5% water vapour
moisture appear more porous than that in dry air, and the
135
09.08.2010 14:19:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
V-rich MC carbides are oxidized severely with the morphology of oxidized MC carbides elongated to lager
shapes. The presence of water vapour accelerates the oxidation of high-speed steel. Menterio [3] mentioned that a
protective chromium oxide layer can be formed on the
scale/matrix interface in dry air, which prevents highspeed steel being oxidized; while water vapour breaks this
layer increasing the oxidation of high-speed steel. Pujilaksono et al. [15] suggested that the water vapour will affect
scale microstructure and morphology, as well as increase
the oxidation rate at 500 and 600oC. Figure 5 shows the
cross-sections of oxide scale after oxidation both in dry
and moist atmospheres. The oxide scale formed in dry air
has a compact structure as shown in Figure 5(a), while in
the case of 12.5% water moisture it has a porous structure
as shown in Figure 5(b). It can be seen that there is a clear
scale/substrate interface appearing after oxidation in dry
air, however it disappears in the case of moist atmosphere.
This implies that the presence of water vapour not only
affects the morphology of oxide scale, but also affects the
bond behaviour between the scale and the substrate.
moist atmosphere, the oxygen partial pressure is decreased

compared to the dry air, so the growth of iron oxide is
limited. With increasing water vapour in the oxidizing
atmosphere, the oxide scale is becoming more and more
porous, and the iron oxide grains becoming finer. The
morphology of oxide scale formed in moist atmosphere
shows a honeycomb-like structure, and V-rich MC carbides are oxidized more severely and spread among the
oxide scale without a clear grain shape as shown in Figure
6(b) and (c).
Oxide scale
Interface
Resin
Substrate
Oxide scale
R esin
Substrate
Figure 5. Cross-sections of oxide scale formed at 700 C for 30

min; (a) in dry air and (b) in 12.5% water moisture.
Oxidation Test in Gleeble. Figure 6 shows the topographies of oxidized high-speed steel sample surfaces after
oxidation at 700 oC for 120 min in dry air, 12.5% and
46.5% moisture respectively. The oxide scale formed in
different atmospheres shows a significant difference in
morphology. The oxide scale formed in dry air is compact
and iron oxide grains grow well. The oxidized V-rich MC
carbides also can be found on the top of oxide scale as
shown in Figure 6(a). Because water vapour exists in the
136
Figure 6. Surface morphologies of high-speed steel samples after

oxidation at 700 oC for 120 min; (a) in dry air, (b) in 12.5% water
moisture and (c) in 46.5% water moisture.
Figure 7 shows the X-ray diffraction patterns of oxidized high-speed steel sample surfaces after oxidation at
700 oC for 120 min in different atmospheres. The results
indicate that the main phases found in oxide scale are
Fe3O4 and Fe2O3. Because the X-ray diffraction tests were
conducted directly on the oxidized surface, the Fe phase
appearing in the X-ray diffraction pattern indicates that the
oxide scale formed in dry air after oxidation is not thick
enough to prevent the X-ray transferring through the oxide
scale and detecting the metallic part underneath. It is nosteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:19:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
ticed that with increasing water vapour constitution in the
oxidizing atmosphere, Fe3O4 phase decreases while Fe2O3
phase increases in the oxide scale. This phenomenon can
be explained as following: as discussed above, the microstructure of the oxide scale is getting more porous with
increasing water vapour in the oxidizing atmosphere; and
it is much easier for oxygen to diffuse inward through
more porous oxide scale and reacting with Fe3O4 further to
form Fe2O3.
Fe2O3
Fe3O4
Fe
30
in 12.5% H2O moisture
in dry air
40
50
60
70
80
90
2 Theta / degree
Figure 7. X-ray diffraction patterns of oxidized surfaces of highspeed steel samples at 700 oC for 120 min in different atmospheres.
10
in dry air
Thickness / m
7
6
10
12
1/2
Oxidation period / min

Figure 8. Thickness of oxide scales formed at 700 oC in different
atmospheres.
Figure 8 indicates the kinetics of oxidation in different

atmospheres at 700 oC. It is evidenced that the growth of
oxide scale on high-speed steel sample surface follows the
parabolic law in both dry and moist atmospheres. The
thicknesses of oxide scale formed in moist atmospheres
are always thicker than that in dry air. The growth rate of
oxide scale seems similar for dry air and 46.5% water
moisture. However, it is different with the case of 12.5%
water moisture where the growth of the thickness is lower
at 30 min and becoming higher at 120 min. The acceleration of oxidation in moistures can be explained that water
molecules act as carriers of oxygen by gas phase transport
across the pores in the scale [15]. But a much higher water
vapour in the atmosphere decreases the oxidation rate for a
longer period due to the oxygen partial pressure decreasing significantly.
The oxidation behaviour of a high-speed steel roll material at high temperature was investigated by means of insitu observation and Gleeble 3500 Thermal-Mechanical
Simulator. The following conclusions were obtained:
1. The in-situ observation by a High Temperature Microscope indicates that the oxidation is initiated at the carbides/matrix interfaces, and then rapidly spread to
cover over the carbides and followed by continuous
growth over the whole surface in both dry and 12.5%
water moist atmosphere.
2. V-rich MC carbides are oxidized as well as the matrix.
In dry air, V-rich MC carbides are oxidized to form
parallelepiped grains; while in 12.5% water moisture
V-rich MC carbides are oxidized more severely.
3. The oxidation tests on the Gleeble indicate that the
water vapour in oxidizing atmosphere has a great influence on the morphology and phase composition of
the oxide scale. With increasing water vapour in atmosphere, more porous oxide scale forms, and more
Fe2O3 formed in oxide scale.
4. The oxidation rate of high-speed steel sample in 12.5%
water moisture is higher than those in dry air and
46.5% water moisture. The water moisture has a significant effect on the oxidation rate of high-speed steel
material, but higher water vapour constitution at a long
experiment time decrease the oxidation rate.
References
Conclusions
[1] D.N. Hanlon, W.M. Rainforth: Wear, 255-7-12 (2003), 956-966.

[2] K. Goto, Y. Matasuda, K. Sakamoto, Y. Sugimoto: ISIJ International,
32-11 (1992), 1184-1189.
[3] M.J. Monteiro, F.C. Rizzo: Materials Science Forum, 522-523 (2006),
171-180.
[4] C.K. Kim, S. Lee, J.Y. Jung, S. Ahn: Materials Science and Engineering A, 349-1-2 (2004), 1-11.
[5] Y.J. Kang, J.C. Oh, H.C. Lee, S. Lee: Metallurgical and Materials
Transactions A, 32-10 (2001), 2515-2525.
[6] J.W. Park, H.C. Lee, S. Lee: Metallurgical and Materials Transactions
A, 30-2 (1999), 399-409.
[7] O. Kato, H. Yamamaoto, M. Ataka, K. Nakajima: ISIJ International,
32-11 (1992), 1216-1220.
[8] A. Molinari, G. Straffelin, A. Tomasi, A. Biggi, G. Corbo: Material
Science and Engineering A, 280-2 (2000), 255-262.
[9] R. Cols, J. Ramvrez, I. Sandoval, J.C. Morales, L.A. Leduc: Wear,
230-1 (1999), 56-60.
[10] B. Picqu, P.-O. Bouchard, P. Montmitonnet, M. Picard: Wear, 260-3
(2006), 231-242.
[11] C. Vergne, C. Boher, C. Levaillant, R. Gras: Wear, 250-1 (2001),
322-333.
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957-975.
[13] J.H. Lee, J.C. Oh, J.W. Park, H.C. Lee, S. Lee: ISIJ International,
41-8 (2001), 859-865.
[14] Y. Oike, J. Sato, K. Minami, K. Yoshitake, S. Yamanaka: ISIJ International, 32-11 (1992), 1211-1215.
[15] B. Pujilaksono, T. Jonsson, M. Halvarsson, J.-E Svenssson, L.-G.
Johansson: Corrosion Science, 52-5 (2010), 1560-1569.
137
09.08.2010 14:19:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analysis of Casting Roll during Twin-Roll Thin Strip Casting

Xiaoming Zhang1), Zhengyi Jiang2), Dongbin Wei2), Xianghua Liu1), Guodong Wang1)
1)
State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004 / China; 2) School of Mechanical, Materials
and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522 / Australia, jiang@uow.edu.au
In twin-roll thin strip casting, the temperature of a casting roll affects the roll thermal stress, and influences the thermal deformation, the
generation of roll surface cracks, the strip shape and the service life of the casting roll. In this paper, the features of the clad materials of the
casting roll have been analysed, the effect of the clad thickness on the temperature field and thermal stress of casting roll has been simulated and discussed. The results show that the thick clad results in the increase of thermal resistance and then causes higher surface
temperature of the clad layer, but lower temperature of copper roll sleeve. The heat expansion of the clad layer increases when the clad
thickness decreases. The developed temperature model of the casting roll is helpful in optimising the design of the casting roll during twinroll thin strip casting.
Keywords: Twin-roll strip casting, Casting roll, Thermal stress, Modelling
Introduction
The technology of twin-roll casting of thin strip has developed greatly in recent years, and its importance has
been recognised broadly. Its application will have significant effect on steel manufacturing industry. However,
many topics still need to be further investigated, which
include optimal design of casting roll structure and cooling
method for obtaining homogenous microstructure, mechanical property and good strip shape, determining optimal roll profiles, roll sleeve materials and surface state,
establishment of high precision mathematical model, investigation of the effects of roll casting process parameters
on the quality of strip and the process stability, pouring
technology, surface status of the molten pool and control
of impurity etc. Previous research on casting roll covered
the topics including heat transfer and distortion of casting
roll, fatigue and life-expectance analysis, and structure
design and materials choice etc. However, little research
has been conducted on numerical simulation of casting roll.
Kopp et al. [1] conducted research on casting roll profile.
They found the size of casting roll affects the roll crown.
The study on the twin-roll casting of 4.5 % silicon steel
shows that the service life of casting roll can be significantly increased by employing Ni-Cr clad on the roll surface, increasing cooling strength and applying copper
alloy roll sleeve etc. Miyake et al. [2] studied the shape of
roll sleeve influences the roll crown, and then strip crown.
Kang et al. [3-5] analysed the temperature distribution
using 2D finite element method (FEM), studied the heat
distortion of casting roll and predicted the service life of
casting roll. Park et al. [6] established a 2D coupling
mathematical model to analyse the heat conductivity and
distortion of casting roll, and calculated the thermal stress
and displacement using FEM. Vogt et al. [7] studied the
distributions of temperature and stress using implicit finite
difference and 2D FEM. Yogeshwar and Amit [8, 9] simulated the heat conductivity and liquid flow in the molten
pool by employing commercial software FIDAP. The obtained temperature field has been input into the system as
a thermal load to study the influences of pouring speed
and contact conductivity coefficient between the roll and
strip on stress field.
138
The solidification behavior in early stage has significant

effect on the surface quality of the casted strip, and the
premature solidification of molten metal at meniscus can
result in surface defects. A large degree of superheat can
help decrease the premature solidification at meniscus and
formation of skull, but it is harmful to the whole process.
One solution may be using the metal clad with low heat
conductivity on the surface of casting roll, which will not
only decrease the premature solidification at meniscus, but
also increase the service life of the casting roll. However,
this kind of clad layer may be damaged due to the formidable work environment at very high temperature. It is
crucial to choose appropriate clad materials and determine
clad thickness. The effect of clad materials and clad thickness on the temperature of casting roll is studied here for
this purpose.
FEM Model
Casting roll is consisted of roll sleeve and roll mandrel.
36 cooling water holes were used in this study [10,11].
Due to the effect of the cooling water holes, the temperature distribution of casting rolls is non-uniform and the
temperature at a certain position changes with the variation of the equipment and processing parameters. The
temperature variation of the roll sleeve is significant, while
that of the roll mandrel is small. If the cooling rate is high
enough, the temperature of the part away from the roll
sleeve cannot change significantly, and the temperature at
this part is almost the same as the cooling water. In order
to reduce the calculation time without compromising accuracy too much, the part of the roll mandrel away from the
roll sleeve was ignored. The assumptions in this simulation include:
1) Both roll sleeve and roll mandrel are isotropic.
2) Temperature distribution is symmetrical along the central axis of roll mandrel.
3) Because the roll sleeve and roll mandrel are hot assembled with the interference connection, only thermal stress
is taken into account, and the interface is assumed as
smooth and continuous regardless the slip and gap between the different interfaces.
09.08.2010 14:19:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Due to the symmetry of casting rolls, only half roll is involved in the calculation. FEM software package ANSYS/Multiphisics was employed and SOLID70 elements
were adopted. Figure 1 shows the finite element mesh of
the model.
effect on the calculated results. However, the influence of

a small variation of the value is not obvious.
Table 1. Simulation parameters of twin-roll strip casting.
Parameters
Symbols
Values
Diameter of casting roll, mm
D1
500
Barrel length of casting roll, mm
L
254
Inner diameter of roll mandrel, mm
D2
340
Outer diameter of roll mandrel, mm
D3
440
Distance from roll surface to centre
Le
15
of coiling water hole, mm
Strip thickness, mm
H
2
Contact angle between the molten
40
pool and casting roll,
Number of cooling water holes
N
36
Diameter of cooling water hole, mm
Dh
10
Clad thickness, mm
0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0
Other simulation parameters and boundary conditions

refer to the literatures [14,15].
(a)
Effect of Clad Materials on Temperature Distribution

of Casting Roll. Nickel-base alloy and nickel were chosen
as the clad materials respectively. Figure 2 shows the
temperature distribution at the central plane of casting roll
in the case of 0.2 mm thick clad after the roll rotates 60
turns at 20 rpm.
Clad
Roll mandrel
Roll sleeve
(b)
Figure 1. FEM mesh of casting roll (a) 3D model and (b) local
mesh.
In Figure 1(b), position a1 indicates the outmost surface

of the clad, a the interface between the surfaces of the clad
and roll sleeve, c the top point of cooling water holes, and
d the bottom point of cooling water holes, b indicates the
middle position between the roll sleeve surface and the top
point of cooling water holes, e the middle position between the bottom point of cooling water holes and the roll
mandrel surface, f the roll mandrel surface.
The indirect coupling method was applied in the analysis
of thermal stress. The temperature distribution of casting
roll can be solved after the boundary conditions of heat
transfer were specified. This temperature distribution was
applied to the structural analysis model as a body load.
The original SOLID70 thermal element was transformed
into the SOLID45 structural element, as it is not suitable in
the structural analysis.
Casting material is stainless steel. The casting roll is divided into 36 parts based on the number of cooling water
holes. The time increment t varies with the casting roll
speed n and the relationship between them is t = 1 / 6 n .
Table 1 shows some simulation parameters. The heat exchange coefficients refer to Kang et al. [12] and Bennon &
Incropera [13]. It should be mentioned that the heat exchange coefficient value of roll sleeve has significant
(a)
(b)
Figure 2. Temperature distributions of caster roll under different
coating layer (a) nickel-base alloy clad and (b) nickel clad.
139
09.08.2010 14:19:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effects of Clad Thickness on Temperature and Thermal Stress Distribution of Casting Roll. Figure 3 shows
the temperature distribution along the radial direction in
the case of nickel-base alloy clad. The heat conductivity of
nickel-base alloy clad is lower than that of the copper roll
sleeve, and the thicker clad results in higher thermal resistance, so the surface temperature of casting roll increases
with an increase of clad thickness. The temperature difference between the clad layer and copper roll sleeve depends
on the clad thickness. The temperature of the copper roll
sleeve becomes low with an increase of the clad thickness.
However, the clad thickness does not affect the temperature of the roll mandrel very much.
Figure 5 shows the temperature variation at position c.

The temperature inside the roll decreases with an increase
of clad thickness, which is consistent with the results presented in the literature [15] where different roll sleeve
materials were investigated.
250
150
50
0
0
10
20
30
Time,s
40
50
60
Figure 5. Temperature variation at position c.
Figure 6 shows von Mises stress distribution of casting

roll along the radial direction under the conditions of different clad thickness. von Mises stress increases with an
increase of clad thickness at position a which indicates the
surface of roll sleeve. This is because the thick clad results
in a large difference between the clad layer and copper roll
sleeve, which results in large thermal stress. So the von
Mises stress distribution at other positions from b to f has
the same feature.
0.2mm
500
Temperature,
1-0.2mm
2-0.5mm
3-1.0mm
4-2.0mm
100
600
0.5mm
400
1mm
300
2.0mm
200
100
0
a1
400
Figure 3. Temperature variation of casting roll along radial direction.
Figure 4 shows the temperature variation at the interface

between the clad and roll sleeve in 0 20 s, and the effect
of the clad thickness is significant. Too thick clad will
result in low cooling efficiency in roll and then low productivity. On the other hand, too thin clad will result in
overcooling of the skull contacting with the roll, which
decreases the surface quality. So it is important to determine appropriate the clad thickness value.
300
250
200
150
0.2mm
0.5mm
1.0mm
2.0mm
100
50
0
0
10
Time,s
15
20
Figure 4. Temperature variation at interface between clad layer

and copper sleeve.
140
Equivalent stress, MPa
Position, -
Temperature,
1
2
3
4
200
Temperature,
It can be seen that the surface temperature of casting roll

with nickel-base alloy clad is much higher than that with
nickel clad. This is because that the thermal resistance of
nickel-base alloy is larger than that of nickel material. The
difference increases with an increase of clad thickness.
0.2mm
350
0.5mm
300
1.0mm
250
2.0mm
200
150
100
a1
c
d
Position, -
Figure 6. von Mises stress distribution of casting roll under conditions of different clad thickness.
Effect of Clad Thickness on Thermal Distortion of

Casting Roll. The thermal distortion of casting roll affects
the strip shape significantly. The clad thickness is one of
the most important parameters relating to the thermal
distortion. It is necessary to understand these effects and
the mechanisms in order to optimise the casting roll design
for remaining adequate thermal camber during twin-roll
casting of thin strip. Figure 7 shows the relationship between the heat expansion at the central plane of casting
roll and the thickness of nickel-base alloy clad after the
roll rotates 60 turns at 20 rpm.
The heat expansion at the central plane of casting roll
decreases with an increase of the clad thickness. Actually,
this heat expansion of casting roll is the sum of the heat
expansion of the clad layer and copper roll sleeve. The
09.08.2010 14:19:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
increase of the clad thickness that results in the increase of
thermal resistance causes higher surface temperature of
clad but lower temperature of copper roll sleeve. The heat
expansion of the clad layer decreases when the clad thickness increases. As a result, the total heat expansion decreases. The total heat expansion is low when the clad
thickness is 1-2 mm.
Heat expansion, mm
0.33
0.325
0.32
0.315
0.31
0.305
0.3
0.295
0
0.5
1.5
2.5
Coating thickness, mm
Figure 7. Relationship between heat expansion at central plane of

casting roll and thickness of nickel-base alloy clad.
Conclusions
The thermal mechanical coupled simulation has been
conducted using ANSYS to investigate the distribution of
temperature and stress of casting roll during twin-roll
casting of thin strip. The results show that the thick clad
results in an increase of thermal resistance, and then
causes higher surface temperature of the clad layer but
lower temperature of copper roll sleeve. The heat expansion of the clad layer increases when the clad thickness
decreases. As a result, the total heat expansion decreases.
Very thin clad will result in overcooling of the skull contacting with the roll, which decreases the surface quality.
The use of nickel-base alloy clad can increase the service
life of the roll sleeve. The thickness of the roll sleeve
should not be less than 30 mm for repeat use, and the total
heat expansion is low when the clad thickness is 1-2 mm.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Project No.: 50734001) and National Key Fundamental Research Development 973 Plan
(Project No.: 2006CB605208).
References
[1] R. Kopp, U. Albrecht-Fruh, L. Hentschel, U. Rudolphi, J.W. Schmitz,
D. Senk, F. Simon: Proceedings of the International Conference on
Thermomechanical Processing of Steels and Other Materials, THERMEC97 (1997), 2201-2208.
[2] S. Miyake, H. Yamane, M. Yukumoto, M. Ozawa: ISIJ Int., 31-7
(1991), 689-695.
[3] C.G. Kang, Y.D. Kim, S.W. Lee: The Minerals, Metals & Materials
Soc, (1996), 65-86.
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28B (1997), 1213-1225.
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Conference on Thermomechanical Processing of Steels and Other
Materials, THERMEC97 (2007), 2193-2199.
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[7] E. Vogt, H. Schenk, H. Gellenbeck: Materials Science & Engineering A, 133 (1991), 653-656.
[8] S. Yogeshwar, S. Amit: The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society,
(2002), 643-650.
[9] S. Amit, S. Yogeshwar: Materials Transactions, 43-2 (2002), 214221.
[10] X.M. Zhang, Z.Y. Jiang, X.H. Liu, G.D. Wang, A.K. Tieu: Materials
Science Forum, 505-507 (2002), 1315-1320.
[11] X.M. Zhang, Z.Y. Jiang, L.M. Yang, X.H. Liu, G.D. Wang: Journal
of Materials Processing Technology, 187-188 (2007), 339-343.
[12] C.G. Kang, Y.D. Kim, S.W. Lee: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 66 (1997), 277-286.
[13] W.D. Bennon, F.P. Incropera: International Journal of Heat Mass
Transfer, 30-10 (1987), 2161-2170.
[14] X.M. Zhang, Z.Y. Jiang, H. Li, Z. Fan, X.H. Liu, G.D. Wang: Advanced Materials Research, 32 (2008), 169-172.
[15] X.M. Zhang, Z.Y. Jiang, H. Xie, D.B. Wei, X.H. Liu, G.D. Wang:
Steel Research International, 2 (2008), 772-779.
141
09.08.2010 14:19:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Coiling Temperature Effect on Formability of Nb-Microalloyed Steel Sheets

Daavood Mirahmadi Khaki1), Abbas Akabarzadeh1), Amir Abedi2), Alireza Eftekhari1), Mohammad Kazem Kouroshfar3)
1)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran / Iran, d.mirahmadi@gmail.com; 2) Department
of Metallurgy, Shahid Rajaee University, Tehran / Iran; 3) Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tehran University, Tehran / Iran
Microalloyed steels can be defined as carbon-manganese steels containing deliberately added small amounts of vanadium, niobium and/or
titanium generally less than 0.10% for modifying steel properties. Hot rolling of microalloyed steels is a thermomechanical process that
converts cast metal ingots into a plate, sheet, rod, etc. The main goal is to achieve required shape specifications, but careful control of
deformation conditions at high temperatures can also have beneficial results in terms of microstructure and hence the mechanical properties. Thermomechanical processing and controlled rolling of microalloyed steel sheets are affected by several factors. In this investigation,
coiling temperature which is considered one of the most effective parameters on the final formability of hot rolled products was examined.
For this purpose, four different coiling temperatures 550, 600, 650 and 700 C were chosen and then the stretchability was studied. It was
observed that decreasing the coiling temperature caused an increase of mechanical properties and a decrease of total elongation. It also
reduced the ratio of tensile strength to yield strength and n-value. Since the Erichsen test makes a better analogy of forming treatments, it
is used as a complementary test. Test results indicated that with increasing coiling temperature, the dome height as the stretchability criteria
increases. These results confirmed information related to ultimate tensile to yield strength ratio and n-value. Furthermore, decreasing coiling temperature resulted in more grain refinement and the morphology was changed from polygonal ferrite to acicular one. Findings of this
research provide suitable connection among microstructural features, mechanical properties and formability of steel sheets.
Keywords: Thermomechanical processing, Hot rolling, Nb-microalloyed steel, Formability, Coiling temperature.
Introduction
Controlled hot rolling is considered as a thermomechanical process for rolling of microalloyed steel sheets at
non-recrystallization temperature (Tnr) region. Deformation at temperature above Tnr leads to the structural homogeneity and refining of austenite grains through continuous recrystallization. But more deformation at temperatures below recrystallization temperature causes to pancake austenite grains, as well as to increase substructures
propagation and dislocations density. These two parameters increase efficient nucleation surface for the next
phases when transformation occurs, and as a result cause
more refinement in the final microstructures [1-3].
In most industrial applications of hot rolled microalloyed sheets, especially in automotive industry, formability of sheets is one of the significant characteristics. In this
case, a common forming method includes press forming.
This process often is performed by two basic techniques;
namely deep drawing and stretching. Since industrial parts
have often complex forms, therefore forming process is
implemented by a combination of both methods [4,5].
Stretchability of metals depends on material resistance
against localized necking. Here, metal is under uniform
deformation and resists against non-uniform changes. This
property of metal is basically related to strain hardening
factor or n-value. In practice, it has been indicated that
stretchability control often correlates with controlling
grain size. Larger grain sizes is preferred, But there is a
limit degree for grains being big. Large grain sizes more
than ASTM 6 cause flaws and create poor finished surface.
Material and Experimental Procedure
In this investigation, a microalloyed steel containing
Niobium with chemical composition shown in Table 1
was used.
142
Table 1. Chemical composition (wt%) of steel.

C
Mn
Si
Cu
Ni
Nb
N
ppm
0.05
0.5
0.2
0.01
0.02
0.002
0.006
0.04
80
For performing hot rolling process in laboratory scale,

first specimens with 10 mm thickness, 100 mm width and
120 mm length were machined from steel billets which
have been produced in Folad-e-Mobarake (steel making
factory). The thickness of the specimens were reduced
from 10 mm to 3 mm by five rolling passes (Roughing = 2
passes & Finishing = 3 passes). The processing schedule
for hot rolling is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Schematic representation of laboratory hot rolling cycle.
For dissolving of precipitates (e.g. NbC & NbCN) and

more homogenizing of structure before rolling, the specimens were reheated for 30 min at 1200 C, and then rolled
in austenitic conditions on a reversible Metal Rolling Mill
(20 Ton) (with rolls of 300 mm diameter). Approximately
40% of reduction was given under the non-
09.08.2010 14:19:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
recrystallization temperature (Tnr) of austenite. The cooling rate (water spray cooling) of the specimens between
the finishing temperature and the coiling temperature was
about 15 C/S. After cooling of specimens to the coiling
temperatures, specimens were cooled down slowly in
furnace at the medium cooling rate from the coiling temperature to the room temperature. The total transmission
time from the coiling temperature to the room temperature
was approximately 20 hrs.
The various critical transformation temperatures, i.e. the
start and finish of the austenite transformation (Ar3, Ar1)
and the non-recrystallization temperature (Tnr), were determined by continuous cooling compression testing.
Tensile tests were performed on the sub-sized samples
according to standard ASTM-E8M. Tests were carried out
by an INSTRON machine. Work hardening exponents
were calculated from the strain-stress curves obtained
according to ASTM-E646-93.
The microstructures of hot rolled specimens were subjected to metallographic examination and studied by an
optical microscope model OLYMPUS. In order to investigate the microstructures, the samples were chemically
etched just after grinding and polishing.
To conduct the Erichsen test, specimens were prepared
with dimension 100 X 100 mm by cutting from hot rolled
sheets with 3mm thickness according to standard ASTM
E643-84 and Din-5010. In this research, the Erichsen test
was carried out by Folad-e-Mobarake instrument having a
spherical end of penetration.
Figure 3. Relation between ferrite grain size and coiling temperature.
Accelerated cooling of the specimens (approx. 15 C/s)

after the last pass of rolling to low coiling temperatures
creates acicular ferrite or the same bainitic ferrite [6].
Acicular ferrite is known as a non-polygonal phase with
high substructures which appears through continuous and
high cooling rate. Acicular ferrite is generated under combined conditions shear and diffusion simultaneously at
temperature a little above upper bainite formation area.
Because of the closeness of these two limits, there is no
significant difference between acicular ferrite and bainite
structures [7].
In summary, decreased cooling temperature and consequently increased temperature difference between coiling
and finishing temperatures cause the following changes:
1. Lower coiling temperature causes a quick transition in
structure after the last rolling pass, into bainite area. It
occurs without any pause in steady state areas of ferrite
phases at higher temperatures such as Widmanstatten
ferrite and polygon ones [8].
2. Higher temperature difference (between the last rolling
pass and coiling temperature) leads to increase cooling
speed, and therefore increase of thermodynamic potential of nucleation of ferrite phases [6].
All these parameters, however, make greater refinement
of the final microstructure [7].
Figure 2. Microstructures of hot rolled sheets at coiling temperatures; a=550 C, b= 600 C, C=650 C, d= 700 C.

Microstructure Analysis. In this section, the final microstructure of hot rolled sheets is evaluated at four different coiling temperatures. Figure 2 shows metallographic
images of microstructures produced on the mid-thickness
sections of the rolling plane of the sheets which are made
by rolling and transverse directions, i.e. RD and TD.
It is clear with increasing coiling temperature the grain
size of ferrite increases. Figure 3 shows the relation between ferrite grain size and coiling temperature.
Strength Properties. In this section, tensile properties

of the rolled specimens are studied. The true strain-stress
curves were used to extract yield strength, ultimate tensile
strength, overall elongation and ultimate tensile strength to
yield strength ratio. The results are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Tensile properties of rolled specimens at different
coiling temperatures.
CT
Ave.
Y.P. (0.2%)
Ave.
U.T.S.
538.9
510.7
MPa
U.T.S./ Y.S.
28.1
1.34
403.1
MPa
600 C
350.1
MPa
30
1.46
650 C
329.3 MPa
489.9 MPa
30.6
1.49
700 C
278.1 MPa
431.2 MPa
32.9
1.55
550 C
MPa
Ave.
Total El. (%)
Note: The above mentioned quantities are average of three

performed test results for each situation.
143
09.08.2010 14:19:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
It can be concluded that increased coiling temperature
causes decrease yield strength, as well as ultimate tensile
strength and increase overall elongation. Also it is observed the yield strength changes are significantly more
severe than ultimate tensile strength. It means that yield
strength change is more sensitive to coiling temperature.
As it is discussed in previous section, increasing coiling
temperature causes the grain sizes being larger and
changes ferrite morphology. Furthermore, high coiling
temperature results in amount of diffusion phenomena in
proportion to shear phenomena becomes more. So, these
factors decreases material strength and improve flexibility.
Ultimate Tensile Strength to Yield Strength Ratio
(U.T.S/Y.S). Ultimate tensile strength to yield strength
ratio is usually described as the sheet formability factor. In
other words, it shows the strain hardening exponent.
Whenever yield strength decreases and ultimate tensile
strength increases, this ratio showing the material deformation range develops and the sheets formability improves
[7]. The relationship between ultimate tensile strength to
yield strength ratio at different rolling conditions has been
illustrated in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Effect of coiling temperature on ultimate tensile strength

to yield strength ratio.
It is observed that mentioned ratio has a direct relationship with coiling temperature; increased coiling temperature leads to increase ultimate tensile strength to yield
strength ratio.
Micro-structural analysis was used to investigate the results. As coiling temperature increases, ferrite grains get
larger and more uniaxial. This grain growth causes to
increase fracture strain, as well as percentage of overall
elongation. Mr. Qin, in his researches, showed parameters
affecting on elongation percentage include size and morphology of ferrite grain and size and shape of precipitations. Overall elongation often includes two parts; uniform
strain and localized strain after necking (El.= u+t) [9].
The model below was obtained from theoretical studies by
Morrison [10];
u = n = 5 /(10 + d 0.5 )
As it was previously seen the trend of ultimate tensile

strength changes is less sensitive to the process conditions
than yield strength. It means that changes during process
conditions affect more on yield strength rather than ultimate tensile strength, and ultimately trend of their changes
is incremental and impressible by yield strength. Figure 5
typically shows relationship between yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and their ratio at different coiling
temperatures.
Strain Hardening Exponent (n-value). Strain hardening is represented by the exponent n in the flow stress
equation = Kn, which approximates the relation between
true stress, , and true strain, , during plastic deformation
of a metal. It is a material constant which is used in calculations for stress-strain behavior in work hardening. True
uniform strain or amount of work hardening exponent
indicates work hardening characteristic of material. Generally, average gradient of uniform strain area is measured
to calculate work hardening exponent. This amount is
considered as sheet formability factor while stretching
(biaxial stretching) [5]. Figure 6 shows changes of the
strain hardening exponent in terms of different process
conditions.
Figure 5. Effect of coiling temperature on yield strength and ultimate tensile strength.
Just like the ultimate tensile strength to the yield

strength ratio, the strain hardening exponent also increase
by coiling temperature increase, Figure 6. In Figure 2, it
was shown that decreased coiling temperature makes fine
ferrite grain size, as well as changes ferrite-pearlite microstructures in polygonal grains into acicular ferrite microstructure with a high density of substructure [6,8]. These
structural features make ultimate tensile strength to yield
strength ratio and consequently n-value to be decreased.
As the grain size increases, uniform strain or the same
strain hardening exponent increases. High strain hardening
exponent increases diffuse necking, so sheet stretch formability improves [5]. This conclusion matches well with
Morrison's theory model [9.10].
(1)
Therefore, increased grain size leads to more uniform

strain and consequently more overall elongation which
shows material flexibility increase [9,10].
144
09.08.2010 14:19:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
Figure 6. Effect of coiling temperature on n-value.
Stretch Formability. Sheet stretch formability test (biaxial stretching) was conducted through the Erichsen test.
Since this test is a better simulation of press forming, it
was used here as a complementary test [5]. Figure 7 illustrates dome height changes under different coiling temperatures.
1. In general, the decrease in coiling temperature makes

microstructures more refined and changes ferritepearlite microstructures in uniaxial grains into complex
acicular ferrite microstructure.
2. As the coiling temperature decrease, strength properties
of products increase. The increase rate in yield strength
in proportion to the ultimate tensile strength is more, so
that their ratio is influence by yield strength. The maximum ultimate tensile strength was obtained in 550 C
coiling temperature.
3. Decreased coiling temperature causes the strain hardening exponent decrease. These results were confirmed by
calculating U.T.S./Y.S.
4. Getting more refinement and changing morphology in
microstructure from polygon ferrite into acicular ferrite
along with coiling temperature increase, the flexibility
of rolled sheets improve.
5. Because of increase in strain hardening exponent as
well as U.T.S./Y.S. ratio, stretch formability increases
as coiling temperature increases, So that the highest
point of the dome was achieved at CT=700 C.
References
Figure 7. Effect of coiling temperature on dome height.
It was observed that increased coiling temperature leads

to increase on dome height. Considering that dome height
has a direct relationship with the strain hardening exponent, it can be concluded that increasing in dome height is
due to n-value increase. As the direct relationship between
dome height and overall elongation in investigated specimens, we can conclude that impressibility of sheet formability from efficient parameters is similar to impressibility of elongation in tensile test [5]. Figure 8 shows the
curve of dome height changes in terms of overall elongation.
[1] J. Zrnik, T. Kvackaj, D. Sripinproach, P. Sricharoenchai: Journal of

[2] A.J. DeArdo.: Proc. International Conference Micro alloying 95,
(1995), 15-34.
[3] S. Yue, C. Roucoules, T.M. Maccagno, J.J. Jonas: Proc. International
Conference Microalloying 95, (1995), 355-364.
[4] S. Mishra, C. Darmann: International Metals Review, 27- 6 (1982),
307-321.
[5] W.F. Hasford, R.M. Caddell: Metal Forming, Second Edition,
Prentice Hall, (1993), 5-214.
[6] M.-C. Zhao, K. Yang, Y. Shan: Materials Science and Engineering A,
335 (2002), 14-20.
[7] H. Tamura, H. Sekine, T. Tanaka, C. Ouchi: Thermomechanical
Processing of High-Strength Low-Alloy Steels. Butterworth, (1988),
12-145.
[8] M.-C. Zhao, K. Yang, F.-R. Xiao, Y. Shan: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 355 (2003), 126-136.
[9] X. Qin, Z. Ru, X. Wang: Proc. International Symposium on Hot
Workability of Steels and Light Alloys-Composites, Edited by
McQueen H.J., (1996), 301-308.
[10] W.B. Morrison: Transaction ASM, 59, (1966), 824-831.
Figure 8. Curve of dome height change in terms of elongation.
145
09.08.2010 14:19:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Cold Rolling and Annealing on Texture Evolution and Mechanical Properties
of IF Steel Sheet
Yongfeng Shen1), Wenying Xue2), Yanhui Guo3)
1)
Key Laboratory for Anisotropy and Texture of Materials (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004 / P.R.
China,shenyf@smm.neu.edu.cn;2) The State Key Lab of Rolling & Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004 / P.R. China, 3)
Shanghai Institute of Technology, 200235 / P.R. China
The dependence of textural evolution, deformation microstructure and flow stress on cold-rolling reductions of an interstitial-free (IF) steel
sheet has been investigated using the X-ray diffraction and the transmission electron microscopy techniques as well as tensile tests. The
development of both - and -fiber orientations is observed during cold-rolling to reductions of 13% to 75%. It is also noted that deformation
microstructures consist of geometrically necessary boundaries and incidental dislocation boundaries. Dislocation and grain boundary
hardening leads to increase in flow stress with the rolling reduction. A fall in ductility seen between rolling reductions of 13% to 46% is
attributed to the onset of localized shearing. The re-gaining ductility is concerned with the more uniform size of cell blocks in two dimensions
with an increase of rolling reduction to 57%. Further annealing tests were carried out for the sample with 75% of rolling reduction to obtain an
improved ductility. However, the sample exhibited a very small increment in ductility (~3%) and an obvious decrease in strength under an
annealed temperature of 500oC. With an increase in annealing temperature to 750oC, the ductility impressively increased to 29% at the
expense of strength, decreasing from 710 MPa to 210 MPa due to the process of recovery and recrystallization. These results clearly
demonstrate that, without geometrically necessary boundaries and incidental dislocation boundaries, the lack of strain hardening at room
temperature is related to dynamic recovery.
Keywords: IF steel, Texture, Cold rolling rate, Annealing, Strength
Introduction
One of the promising ways to produce ultrafine-grained
materials with bulky shape is the severe plastic
deformation processes. The obtained ultrafine-grained
materials generally performed a very high strength
compared with the materials having conventional grain
sizes larger than several tens micrometers [1,2]. Among
them, the accumulative roll-bonding has a potential to be
applied to continuous production of large bulky materials
[3]. In recent years, with the development of the
automobile industry, both the designed shape and
successful punch in one time of car panel parts attract
more attentions of researchers and car manufacturers to
develop new technology for improving properties of steel
[4]. In order to optimize the formability of steel sheets,
control of the crystallographic texture is essential so that a
pronounced texture can be formed during the
thermo-mechanical processing [5,6].
It is well known that, by traditional processing, the
equiaxed grains in steel sheet were elongated along the
rolling direction to form a typical texture mainly
comprised by -fiber structure during cold-rolling [7,8]. In
low carbon steels, rolling deformation usually leads to a
texture including the fiber which comprises the
orientations with a common <110> direction parallel to the
rolling direction, and the -fiber comprising the
orientations with {111} parallel to the sheet normal
direction [9]. Furthermore, the -fiber increases at the
expense of the -fiber orientations during the subsequent
recrystallization annealing, which gives rise to the desired
high-planar-anisotropy resulting in good-deep-drawability
of low carbon steel sheets [10]. On the other hand, IF
steels have been widely used in automotive industry and it
is believed that, the excellent deep drawability is due to
the existence of a strong -{111}//ND fiber texture [11].
146
Recently, hot-rolling of IF steel in the ferrite region has

attracted extensive attentions for the features of texture
and microstructure have considerable influence on its
subsequent annealing and recrystallization behavior [12].
A few studies have been carried out to observe the detailed
microstructural evolution in IF steels after rolling
deformation over a wide range of strains [7,12].
To date, investigations, associating with the deformation
in the IF steel sheet, have mainly been focused on the
substructures. Consequently, it has resulted in the lacking
of measure mechanical properties. The previous
investigations indicated that the hot rolling of IF steel in
the ferrite region with the subsequently annealing could
obtain ferrite structure, which has remarkable
work-hardening ability. Thus, it is possible to effectively
accumulate strain and result in a new texture by ARB, and
the variation of mechanical properties associated with the
evolution of texture can be expected.
Experimental
The as-received material is hot rolled IF sheet steel
(3mm thick; 004% C, 0.001% N, 0.026% Si, 0.12% Mn,
0.005% S, 0.063% P, 0.058% Ti, 0.028% Al, wt.%)
supplied by the Centre of Anshan Technology. A IF sheet
was cold-rolled to different reductions in a twin roll mill
with a final thickness of 1.25 mm. Texture measurement
of all samples was conducted in Pro-pert X-ray
diffractometer (Philips) in order to analyze the textural
evolution after variously cold-rolling reductions. For
texture measurement, mid-thickness specimens were
prepared by machining and paper grinding. Macroscopic
textures were measured on an XPert Pro X-ray
diffractometer and three incomplete pole figures ({200},
{211} and {110}) were obtained. Orientation distribution
functions (ODFs) were then evaluated using Roes method
09.08.2010 14:19:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
necessary boundaries lying parallel to the rolling plane
cross-linked by the incidental dislocation boundaries [14,
10
2
2
4
(b)
(a)
10
10
7
6
5
1
2
2
2
3
5
1
(e)
{110}<001>
{554}<225>
{332}<113>
{111}<112>
{112}<111>
{113}<332>
(d)
{114}<221>
{001}<110>
(c)
18
13
25
47
56
75
16
14
12
%
%
%
%
%
f(g)
10
8
6
4
2
0
-2
-4
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
(deg.)
10
9
14
12
10
6
f(g)
16
-2
10
20
30
40
50
(deg.)
(g)
60
70
80
90
{111}<112>
{112}<110>
{110}<110>
{331}<110>
{332}<110>
{111}<110>
{223}<110>
18
{112}<110>
{114}<110>
{113}<110>
{001}<110>
(f)
f(g)
Microstructural Properties. Systemic TEM observations

have been carried out to explore the microstructural
properties of the IF steel sheet. Figure 2(a) shows the
deformation microstructure over a large area for the steel
with a cold-rolling reduction of 75%. Obviously, the
deformation microstructure is considerably more
complicated. High-density dislocations and cell structures
are found in the intervals. Extensive localized shearing can
be clearly observed. We found a cell/sub-grain structure of
elongated ribbon shape with distinct evidence of
microscopic shear bands, which were limited to single
grains. In general, comprehensive TEM observations
reveal that, with an increase in the thickness reduction,
both cells and sub-grains continue to become smaller. The
structure at a strain of 75% is well developed into a
ribbon-like sub-grain and cell structure. Many of the cell
boundaries have recovered into higher misorientation
subgrain boundaries that exhibit a distinct boundary
contrast instead of the dislocation character of cell walls.
A well-defined lamellar dislocation boundary structure is
involved into a structure of a lamellar deformation
microstructure, defined by a set of geometrically
Results
Texture Evolution. According to the convention, only
the 2 =45 ODF sections are presented here. Figure 1(a)
-1(e) shows the 2 = 45o ODF sections of texture in center
of IF sheets cold-rolled with a reduction of 13%, 25%,
47%, 56% and 75%, respectively. One can see that, at low
reduction of 13%, the texture mainly consisted of and
fiber. The intensity of {001}<110> texture increases
with increasing cold-rolling reduction while that of
{110}<110> goes along with a reverse trend. Figure (f)-(h)
summarize the relative texture evolution of the steel for
different thickness reduction. Impressively, the {111}//ND
texture decreases with an increasing rolling reduction and
disappears while the reduction is up to 47%. The
{001}<110> texture initially decreases from f(g)max 12.5
to 10 as rolling reduction increases to 25%, and then it
becomes more intense with the increasing reduction,
sharply increases to f(g)max 17. Choi and Jin [16]
recently reported the texture for a low carbon steel sample
with a cold-rolling reduction of 50%. The recrystallized
texture (samples annealed 1 hr at 750 oC) is characterized
by the -fibre with a reinforcement for the {111}<110>
component f(g)max = 16, f(g) = 5 for the {111}<112>
component. Very interestingly, the same texture was also
observed by Etter and his co-workers in a cold-rolled and
fully recrystallized IF steel [17].
10
with lmax=16 [13]. TEM (Tecnai G2 20) was employed to

reveal the microstructures of samples after the cold rolling
or annealing. The specimens were thinned by
two-jet-polish technique. Tensile tests were employed to
assess the impact of processes on the resulting sheet
formability as well as strengths. Samples with a gauge
dimension of 1530.15 mm3 were strained on an Instron
5848 mechanical testing system at a constant cross-head
velocity of 810-4 s-1 and with tensile axis at angles of 0o
to the rolling direction (RD).
0
60 70 80 90
(deg.)
(h)
Figure 1. Constant 2 = 45o ODF sections for centre layer of IF

steel sheets with different cold rolled reductions (a) 13%, (b) 25%,
(c) 47%, (d) 56% and (e) 75%. Corresponding intensity distribution
of (f) -fibre, (g) -fibre and (h) - fibre at centre of IF-steel shows
evolution of fibre at various reductions.
147
09.08.2010 14:19:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
15]. The average spacing between the geometrically
necessary boundaries or the incidental dislocation
boundaries can be determined from the TEM pictures
along line scans perpendicular to each set of boundaries. It
is found that the average lamellar spacing and cell size
decrease from ~ 700 nm and 1 m to 300 nm and 400 nm,
respectively, with increasing rolling reduction from 13%
to 75%.
After 600 s min annealing at 500 oC, nuclei begin to
grow at the expense of neighboring lamellar bands. Thus,
large recovered lamellar bands, namely intra-granularly
lamellar sub-grains are widely observed. Dislocation
clearing is firstly observed inside the lamellar band cells.
In addition, many sub-boundaries between cells are
vanishing (Figure 2(b)). The microstructure for the 75%
pre-strained specimen developed at 500 oC is partially
recrystallized. Following heating at 750 C for 600 s, the
recrystallization process has been enhanced, local
orientation of partially recrystallized samples shows cells
separated by a vanishing wall or dense dislocation walls.
The large sub-grains (equiaxed dislocation cells) are
growing at the expense of their first neighbors whose size
is smaller. Dislocations inside the grains can still be
discerned (Figure 2(c)). Simultaneously, the densities of
geometrically necessary boundaries and incidental
dislocation boundaries significantly decrease after the
current annealing process. The parallel lamella structure
can rarely be observed. However, the obtained image
indicates that the specimen is still not fully recrystallized
due to the limited annealing time, though the average
grain size of the specimen subsequently decreases. The
reason that annealing for short time does not promote
continuous recrystallization is that the rearrangement of
dislocation at these temperatures is slow, resulting in less
efficient formation of sub-boundaries. Indeed, the results
reported from another group have well documented the
processes observed during recovery in an IF-steel [b].
Independent of cell morphology, the microstructures
(a)
1 m
(b)
1 m
(c)
1 m
Figure 2. TEM morphologies of the specimens after cold rolling

with a thickness reduction of 75% (a), annealed at a temperature of
500 C (b) and 750 C (c), respectively.
148
mainly present a complex character of dislocation clearing

inside the cells, cell wall refinement and cell coalescence
and cell growth. This growth leads to a viable nucleus. In
the case of the lamellar bands, coalescence and/or
migration of the short sub-boundaries that are
perpendicular to the elongated walls have been observed
inside the bands. Nevertheless, their postmortem
observations have not noted the growth or coalescence
between two adjacent bands.
Tensile Properties. Tensile properties were measured in
a series of samples with different rolling reductions and
typical true stress - true strain curves were summarized in
Figure 3(a). It is clearly seen that both the flow stress (y,
measured at 0.2% offset) and the ultimate-tensile-stress
(UTS) increase significantly as rolling reduction
increasing from 13% to 75%. For the sample with a
reduction of 75%, the yield stress y reaches as high as
610 MPa and the UTS is 710 MPa, which are remarkably
higher than those (y = 430 MPa and UTS = 460 MPa) of
the sample with a reduction of 13%. Repeated
measurements using different samples showed a rather
small error bar (- 10 MPa) for the strength values. Very
interestingly, it is observed that a long plateau from the
curve of sample with a reduction of 13%. It is assumed
that the stress during straining tends toward a saturation
stress because of a dynamic equilibrium between athermal
work hardening and thermally activated work softening.
The onset of the work-softening regime is considered to
occur at the strain to the peak stress. Thus, the observed
plateau can be related with the balance between the work
hardening and the work softening. In addition, the strength
increments between y and UTS, denoted by the term y
= UTS - y, also increase with an increasing rolling
reduction. The y of the sample with 75% reduction is as
high as 100 MPa, which is more than three times higher
than that of the sample with a reduction of 13%, indicating
an enhanced work hardening with increasing rolling
reductions. From a physical perspective, the work
hardening rate of a cold rolled specimen is the result of a
competition process between the work hardening and
thermal softening of the specimen during its plastic
deformation. In the present specimens, the work hardening
effect is thought to be the result of dislocation
multiplications and the interactions related with the
average spacing between the geometrically necessary
boundaries and the incidental dislocation boundaries
during the deformation process. As indicated by Figure
4(a), both y and UTS linearly increase with increasing
rolling reduction in the IF steel specimens
One can see the sample with a rolling reduction of 75%
shows a considerable tensile ductility, reaching to 13.5%.
This plasticity with a high strength is impressive in
comparison with the reported mechanical properties of
ultrafine-grained specimens, in which a strength-ductility
trade-off is difficult to avoid [18]. However, the
elongation-to-failure (f) decreases considerably with an
increasing rolling reduction between 13% and 47% prior
reductions. Thereafter, it is interesting to note that f
increases from about 6% to more than 13% with
increasing reductions. However, the samples after the
09.08.2010 14:19:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
800
(a)
work hardening
work softening
r =75%
r =56%
r =47%
True stress /MPa
600
r =25%
r =13%
400
200
10
15
20
True strain / %
r =75%
(b)
750
r =75% + 500 C annealed 600 s

o
r =75% + 750 C annealed 600 s
True stress / MPa
600
450
300
150
10
15
20
25
True strain / %
Figure 3. Tensile true stress-true strain curve for five IF-steel

samples with different rolling reductions: 13%, 25%, 47%, 56%,
75% (a), and for the sample with a rolling reduction of 75% after
annealing for 600 s under 500 C and 750 C, respectively (b).
(a)
800
y
UTS
Stress /MPa
700
600
500
References:
400
300
200
10
20
30
40
-1/2
/mm
50
60
70
-1/2
(b)
800
y
UTS
600
400
200
200
400
600
800
Temperature / C
Figure 4. Effects of cold-rolling reduction (a) and annealing

temperature (b) on tensile strengths of IF steels.
recovery and recrystallization exhibit a very different

tensile scenario (Figure 3(b)). The strain increases with
increasing annealing temperature at the expense of tensile
strength (both y and UTS). The fundamental
strengthening mechanism and the related fracture factors
Concluding Remarks IF-steel samples with different

cold-rolling reductions were investigated by XRD texture
analysis, TEM observations, and tensile tests. Localization
is especially pronounced at medium strains, and the
frequency decreases as the strain is increased, in parallel
with a probable increase in the number of operating slip
systems, resulting in pronounced work-hardening ability.
Enhanced work hardening delayed the dynamic recovery,
allowing for an increasing stress and homogenization of
the strain.
Acknowledgements This research is supported by the
open program of the state key lab of rolling & automation
(Grant No. 2009006), the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (Grant No: N090402007) and
Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research
Team in University (Grant No. IRT0731).
900
Stress /MPa
can be found in detail from [19].

The variations of tensile strengths were plotted against
the three temperatures for the specimens, as shown in
Figure 4(b). It is obvious that the effects of annealing
temperatures on dynamic softening are significant. The
tensile strengths decrease with the increase of temperature.
A recent research has shown that the softening fraction in
a low alloy steel is as high as 87% at 850 oC for 50 s [20].
In practice, flow softening can be the result of both
dynamic recrystallization and the temperature rise induced
in the specimen during the deformation process. In the
current study, the thermal softening of the specimens is
thought to be caused by a dramatic decrease in the density
of the geometrically necessary boundaries and the
incidental dislocation boundaries resulted from the
annealing process.
[1] R.Z. Valiev, A.V. Korznikov, R.R. Mulyukov: Mater. Sci. Eng., A
168 (1993), 141.
[2] N. Tsuji, Y. Saito, H. Utsunomiya, S. Tanigawa: Scripta Mater., 40
(1999), 795.
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893.
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[5] H.J. Bunge, W.T. Roberts: J Appl Crystallogr, 2 (1969), 116.
[6] R.K. Ray, J.J. Jonas, R.E. Hook: Int. Mater. Rev., 39 (1994), 129.
[7] S. H. Lee, D. N. Lee: Mater. Sci. Eng. A249 (1998), 84.
[8] F. Emren, U. Von Schlenbach, K. Lucke: Acta metal, 34 (1986)
1205.
[9] L.S. Toth, J.J. Jonas, D. Daniel, P.K. Ray: Metall. Trans., A 21
(1990), 2985.
[10] D. Raabe, K. Lucke: Scripta Metall 27 (1992) 1533.
[11] I. Samajdar, B. Verlinden, L. Kesten, P. Van Houtte: Acta Mater., 47
(1999), 55.
[12] B. Peeters, B. Bacroix, C. Teodosiu, P. V. Houtte: Acta Mater., 49
(2001), 1621.
[13] R. J. Roe: J. Appl Phys, 36 (1965), 2024.
[14] D.A. Hughes, N. Hansen. Acta Mater., 48 (2000), 2985.
[15] Q. Liu, X. Huang, N. Hansen: Acta Mater., 50 (2002), 3789.
[16] S.H. Choi, Y.S. Jin: Mater. Sci. Eng., A 371 (1-2) (2004), 149.
[17] A. Samet-Meziou, A.L. Etter, T. Baudin, R. Penelle: Mater. Sci. Eng.,
473 (2008), 342.
[18] E. W. Hart: Acta Metall Mater., 15 (1967), 351.
[19] Y.F. Shen, W.Y. Xue, Y.D. Wang, Y.D. Liu, L. Zuo: Mater. Sci. Eng.,
A 496 (2008), 383.
[20] Y.C. Lin, M. Chen, J. Zhong: J. Mater. Proc. Tech., 209 (2009),
2477.
149
09.08.2010 14:19:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analysis of Edge Cracks Initiation and Propagation during Cold Rolling of Thin Strip
1)
1)
2)
Haibo Xie , Zhengyi Jiang , Daniel Yuen
1)
2)
School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong / Australia, hx899@uow.edu.au;
BlueScope Steel Research, BlueScope Steel Limited, Port Kembla / Australia
Cracks in metal product decrease the strength, rigidity, toughness, plasticity and residual life, which affect the thin strip quality and productivity significantly. An experimental investigation was performed on the mechanics of edge crack initiation and propagation for thin strip
during cold rolling. The effects of key rolling parameters on edge crack evolution were examined with data obtained from experiments. The
high resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique provides an effective tool for observation and analysis of the edge crack
initiation and growth. The proposed method for predicting edge crack contributes to the production of defect-free products in rolling, and
provides insights into the mechanics of edge crack growth that has been occasionally encountered in thin strip rolling. The results show that
the cracks of the cold rolled strip are generated due to metallurgical defects and the accumulation of work hardening during rolling. The
maximum total reduction before the occurrence of edge cracking is discussed.
Keywords: Edge crack, Crack initiation, Thin strip, Rolling parameters, Mechanics, Experimental analysis
Introduction
Cold rolling is one of the essential elements in the
manufacturing of plate, and sheet products of steel and its
alloys. One of the important aspects in improving the
quality of rolled strips is to ensure that the surface of the
cold rolled product is free of defects. Edge crack which
forms mainly at the edges of a rolled product is thought to
be due in part to local tensile stresses occurring in the
rolled products. This defect occurs with increasing frequency in the cold rolling of thin strip. Edge-crack induced mill crashes and non-prime products lead to significant productivity losses, and a method of dealing with
these defects is of considerable interest. The evolution of
edge cracking during rolling is complicated, depending on
rolling conditions and mechanical properties of the rolled
strip. It is necessary to provide sufficient information
about the edge crack mechanisms relevant to the rolling
process. Limited ductility, variation of stresses across the
width of the rolled material and uneven deformation at the
edges are some of the main reasons for such defects. There
are numerous publications in the literature on cracks research. The physical defects in the metal forming processes were reported in Refs [1, 2]. Oyane et al. [3] presented criteria for ductile fracture and their application,
Jenner and Dodd [4] reported cold upsetting and free surface ductility. An experimental investigation of crack initiation was reported by Daly et al. [5]. The analysis and
prevention of cracking phenomena during bending and
cold forging were proposed in Refs [6, 7]. Le et al. [8]
carried out the research on surface oxide fracture in cold
aluminium rolling. Refs [9-12] conducted study on edge
cracks during metal forming. In situ SEM application on
crack research was presented in Refs [13-15]. However,
very few publications reported a systematic research on
edge cracking during thin strip rolling.
In this study, the mechanisms of edge cracking are investigated using optical and scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) on edge-cracked samples prepared from a laboratory rolling mill. The progressive nature of edge crack and
the influence of rolling parameters etc. on the initiation
and growth of edge cracks have been studied. The mecha-
150
nism of the crack initiation has been observed by metallographic and scanning microscopy analysis. By understanding the evolution of the edge crack through the rolling schedule, the optimum rolling parameters can be found
to reduce the occurrence of edge cracks for thin-gauge
products.
Material and Experiment
Experiments were conducted to determine the crack initiation, crack location and crack orientation along the thin
strip edge. The experimental material was low-carbon steel.
Edge-trimmed hot-rolled samples of 2 mm thick were
collected from a commercial production line and cut to
100mm wide (with the side-trimmed edges preserved) for
cold rolling on a Hille 100 laboratory rolling mill. In order
to examine the evolution of different features of the
trimmed edges and to identify the point of initiation of the
edge cracks, a total of 9 passes have been employed to
achieve an overall thickness reduction of 90% for the strip.
Rolling was performed on two-high mill configuration
with the diameter of 250mm and pass reductions of around
30%. After each pass, a sample was collected for further
analysis. The microscopic analysis of the cold-rolled samples was conducted on Optical Microscope and SEM.
Micro Hardness across Rolled Strip Width. The micro-hardness HV5 across the strip width is shown in Figure 1 after various rolling passes. It is observed that the
micro-hardness decreases with the distance from the edge.
At the same time, it can be seen that the micro-hardness
increases with rolling passes. Work hardening was significant from pass 4 to pass 5 during the laboratory rolling
with hardness increasing from 250 HV5 to 278 HV5.
Work hardening will affect the formation of edge cracks in
the subsequent passes. It is noted that the hot-rolled sample, the micro-hardness distribution is rather uniform
across the width as indicated in Figure 1.
Initiation and Propagation of Edge Crack. Figure 2
shows the SEM micrograph of the rolled strip edge after
09.08.2010 14:19:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
pass 4. It can be seen that there is no evident changes at
the strip edges and the cross section of normal direction
and transverse direction looks very tight, as shown in
Figure 2(a) and (b). No edge cracks occurred in pass 4.
aligned almost in a straight line perpendicular to the rolling direction, and coincide with the orientation of the edge
cracks.
(a)
Figure 1. Micro-hardness variation with the distance from edge

after various rolling passes.
(b)
(a)
(c)
(b)
(d)
Figure 3. SEM micrograph after pass 5: (a) magnification 30, (b)
magnification 100, (c) magnification 200 and (d) magnification 500.
(c)
Figure 2. SEM micrograph after pass 4 (RD: Rolling direction; ND:
Normal (thickness) direction; TD: Transverse direction): (a) section
of TD and RD magnification 50, (b) section of ND and RD and (c)
section of TD and RD, magnification 500.
The SEM micrograph of the surface of the strip edge reveals the presence of a large number of pores near the strip
edge, as shown in Figure 2(c). Some of the pores are
Figure 3 shows SEM image of the investigated edge

crack initiation after pass 5. It can be seen that this small
edge crack has been initiated from the side of the rolled
strip, and the depth of the edge crack is approximately
200m. It indicates the edge cracks are located at an angle
of approximately 45 with respect to the rolling direction.
The distance between adjacent cracks is variable along the
rolling direction. The main reason for the orientation of the
edge crack is that the shear stress has its maximum value
along localized shear planes at 45 with respect to the
rolling direction. At the same time, the lateral component
of the material flow decreases while the longitudinal
151
09.08.2010 14:19:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
component increases. This leads to open up the crack.
Combined with Figure 1, it can be seen that the effect of
micro-hardness is significant on the occurrence of edge
cracks. The large drop in micro-hardness of the rolled strip
across the width decreases the deformation of the rolled
strip, and increases the variation of stresses across the
width of the rolled strip.
The SEM micrograph after pass 6 is shown in Figure 4.
In the transverse direction, the edge cracks extend to the
bulk of the strip from the edge.
and secondary tensile stresses induced by uneven

deformation are sufficient to form edge crack [12].
As discussed before, the edge cracks inclined at 45 to
the travsverse direction, and propagated into the bulk of
the strips. As the thickness of the strip progressively
decreased, the cracks were found to curve around and
eventually were parallel, but their propagations were
opposite to the rolling direction, as shown in Figure 6.
During rolling, the constraint imposed by the work rolls
deforms the bulk of the strip in plane-strain condition,
together with transverse tensile stresses generated near the
strip edges [4]. In addition, the effect of rolling on the
cracked strip tends to push the cracked sections
transversely. The combination of these stresses gives rise
to propagation of the edge cracks.
(a)
Figure 6. Crack angle to rolling direction.
Crack Distribution. The edge cracks produced in the

laboratory specimens occurred at random on the edges.
The majority of the cracks were less than 4 mm deep, as
shown in Figure 7. A series of multiple microcracks
initially forms, and their propagation would decelerate or
retard after a few of them became longer and wider to
form the main cracks. The effect of stress concentration
generally increases both the size and the number of edge
cracks during rolling. Many small cracks are distributed
around the main edge cracks. Stress relief of the main
cracks will decrease the energy of edge crack extension,
and hence reduce the driving force of crack propagation of
the other minor cracks.
(b)
(c)
Figure 4. SEM micrograph after pass 6: (a) magnification 30, (b)
magnification 200 and (c) magnification 900.
Figure 7. Edge cracks distribution after cold rolling.

(a)
(b)
Figure 5. Edge profile change during cold rolling: (a) before rolling
(b) after rolling.
Figure 5 indicates the edge profile change during rolling.

The steel is deformed principally in plane-strain
compression, except near the edge where a rounded profile
develops, as shown in Figure 5(b). In a multi-pass
schedule when the edges of the plate are free to spread, the
edges are not compressed by the rolls, but are forced to
elongate with the bulk of the steel to maintain continuity,
152
Usually, well lubricated rolling results in near

homogeneous deformation during cold rolling, and lessens
the slope of the strain path. Figure 8 shows the crack
width and depth changes with the rolling passes under
different rolling conditions. It can be seen that lubricated
rolling reduces the growth rate of edge crack.
The experimental observations show no major edge
cracking in low carbon steel until a total reduction of
approximately 85% is reached, which is in agreement with
the results of Refs [12,16]. The maximum cracking
reduction is dependent upon the nature of the free edge
09.08.2010 14:19:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
and the ductility of the rolled strip. Tensile stress provides
the driving force for edge cracking, resulting directly from
the deformation process or induced by the effect of bulk
deformation on unsupported edges. The induced
longitudinal tensile stresses at the edges are responsible
for edge cracking. The outermost material at the edge is
partly uninfluenced by the compressive forces transmitted
by the rolls to the bulk of the strip. Deformation of this
strip edge results from the stresses transmitted with the
strip. As the strip is extended in the rolling direction,
longitudinal tensile stresses would be induced at the edges
which would eventually cause edge cracks.
cracking of low carbon steel is around 85%. Well

lubricated rolling results in near homogeneous
deformation during cold rolling, and reduces the growth
rate of edge crack. Edge cracking can be controlled by
optimizing both the ductility of the rolled material and the
deformation conditions to which the study is subjected. By
understanding the evolution of the edge crack through the
rolling schedule, the optimum setting of rolling parameters
could be found to reduce the occurrence of edge cracks.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank BlueScope Steel Metallurgy
Centre for seeding fund support for this research.
References
Figure 8. Crack size change with rolling pass under different

lubrication conditions.
Discussion. The mechanism of edge crack occurrence

will depend on the material and deformation conditions.
Cracks often form at the edges where deformation is
highly concentrated, such as those observed in the rolling
of thin strip where longitudinal tension may develop near
the edges. Work hardening reduces the ductility of the
rolled strip, and accelerates the edge cracking and
insreases the variation of stresses across the width of the
rolled strip. Lateral flow (spread) is bound to develop near
the edges. This results in a gradual drop of interface
pressure towards the edges. Therefore, the edges of the
strip deform longitudinally by way of internel stress
transmission through strip and yielding is initiated by a
combination of compressive and secondary tensile stresses.
The combination of these stresses eventually leads to edge
cracks in cold rolling of thin strip.
[1] M.M. Al-Mousawi, A.M. Daragheh, S.K. Ghosh, D.K. Harrison:

[2] J.H. Schmitt, J.M. Jalinier: Acta metalliygica, 30 (1982), 1789-1798.
[3] M. Oyane, T. Sato, K. Olimoto, S. Shima: Journal of Mechanical
Working Technology, 4 (1980), 65-81.
[4] A. Jenner, B. Dodd: Journal of Mechanical Working Technology, 5
(1981), 31-43.
[5] S. Daly, A. Miller, G. Ravichandran, K. Bahattacharya: Acta Materialia 55 (2007), 6322-6330.
[6] B.R. Ahn: Jornal of Materials Science Letters 17 (1998), 573-576.
[7] D.K. Kim, S.Y. Kang, S. Lee, K.J. Lee: Metallurgical and materials
transactions A, 30A (1999), 81-92.
[8] H.R. Le, M.P.F. Sutcliffe, P.Z. Wang, G.T. Burstein: Acta Materialia
52 (2004), 911-920.
[9] S. Ghosh, M. Li, D. Gardiner: Journal of Manufacturing Science
and Engineering, 126 (2004), 74-82.
[10] P.F. Thomson, N.M. Burman: Materials Science and Engineering,
45 (1980), 95-107.
[11] H. Riede, F. Andrieux, T. Walde, K.F. Karhausen: Steel Research Int.
78 (2007), 818-824.
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[13] Y. Xu, E.M. Schulson: Scripta Materialia, 36 (1997), 747-753.
[14] H. Vehoff, P. Neumann: Acta Metallygica, 27 (1979), 915-920.
[15] W.F. Li, X.P. Zhang: Material Science and Engineering A, 318
(2001), 129-136.
[16] Z.H.J. Gu, W.Y.D. Yuen: Proc. SEAISI2007 Conference 2007,
Session 12, Paper 1, (2007), Bali, Indonesia.
Conclusion
Edge cracking in rolling has been attributed to
secondary tensile stresses induced at the rolled strip
surfaces by inhomogeneous deformation. Work hardening
reduces the ductility of the rolled strip, and accelerates the
edge cracking. The large drop in micro-hardness of the
rolled strip across the width decreases the deformation of
the rolled strip, and increases the variation of stresses
across the width of the rolled strip. The edge cracks are
located at an angle of approximately 45 with respect to
the rolling direction where shear stress has its maximum
value. As the thickness of the strip decreased, the cracks
were found to curve around and be opposite to the rolling
direction. In this study, the critical total reduction for edge
153
09.08.2010 14:19:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Optimization of Strip Profile and Flatness Using Hybrid Neural-GA Algorithm

Mahmoud Salimi, Mohammad Mehdi Sahebifard
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan / Iran, salimi@cc.iut.ac.ir
Modelling of the strip profile and flatness with improved efficiency and accuracy is a matter of interest in achieving high quality flat-rolled
products. There exists a high degree of non-linearity between the strip shape characteristics and process parameters. In this work, an
Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model is presented which considers elastic deformation of the stand and the work rolls. The optimum
process parameters are achieved using a hybrid model with the combination of an analytical ANN and the Genetic Algorithm (GA). A new
fitness function is presented for the GA which consideres both the crown and flatness index criterion performing more satifactory than
previously proposed fitness functions. The results of the present optimization method are compared with that of the other methods
indicating that this method is a capable in improving the quality of flat rolled products.
Keywords: Strip flatness, Crown, Rolling control, Artificial neural network (ANN), Genetic algorithm (GA), Optimization
Introduction
In recent years, as the requirements have greatly
increased with regards to the dimensional accuracy along
the length as well as the width, crown and shape control
has become one of the most important factors affecting the
strip quality. Setup control on continuous strip mills must
establish the actual numerical values for the desired strip
crown, strip flatness, exit thickness. These controls are not
independent and performed in accordance with a complex
mathematical model. This has led to the accomplishment
of automation solution for all the most important processes
and optimization of different process parameters to
improve the quality of product.
Many different methods have been developed to control
profile and flatness of the strip. The most common method
is roll bending. In this method the strip profile is modified
by elastic bending of the work rolls. Roll bending is
achieved via a set of hydraulic jacks acting on the work
rolls and or backup rolls chocks located at the rolls end. To
modify the wear crown this method is usually combined
with axially roll shifting methods. A detailed description
of different method and tooling is presented by Ginzburg
[1].
flatness index is expressed as follows:

H + H2
C0 = H 0 1
2
and
(1)
L
H
5
I=
105 =
10
L
2L
(2)
where L is the difference between the longest and

shortest ribbons across the length of the strip, L is the
wavelength and H is the wave height (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Illustration of flatness index parameters.
In rolling process however the ratio of crown to

thickness at different stages is changed. In general, flatness
control method is accomplished on the basis of crown ratio
control. The criterion for acceptable strip flatness region is
given by [2]:
1.86
Figure 1. Strip crown.
Quality parameters of a strip consist of dimensional

variations such as, profile and flatness. The strip profile is
the variation of strip thickness along the width in a plane
perpendicular to the strip length (Figure 1). Flatness or
degree of planarity - is quantified in I-Units that smaller
values of I-Units stands for better flatness.
These imperfections are due to variations in reductions
across the strip width owing to the compressive or shear
stresses developed in rolling caused by a local difference
between the strip and the roll gap profiles. Crown and
154
1.86
C
C
h
h
(3)
80 o
< i o < 40 o
W
h
h

W
o
i
where indices i and o refer to stand input and output strip.
Mill performance depends on not only the selected
control devices, but also the control concept and algorithm.
Most of the models developed for prediction of flatness
are based on iterative approaches involving large
computational costs [3].
The strip profile is determined by the roll deformation
caused by the rolling load as well as the initial crown
camber, thermal camber and wear contour of the work
rolls and the backup rolls. Many different mathematical
09.08.2010 14:19:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
models have been developed to simulate the rolling mill.
Such deformation models are basically divided into three
groups; Simple Beam Methods, Slit Beam Method and
Finite Element Method. The simple beam method in which
the work rolls are considered as straight elastic beams is
not accurate enough as it does not take into account
important parameters such as initial strip crown, roll wear
etc. The slit beam method that first proposed by Shohet
and Townsend [4] is an effective method with satisfactory
accuracy. The required time is very low making it suitable
for online application. However, this approach has limited
accuracy.
The FEM is more accurate than the two obove
mentioned methods. The prediction accuracy of a precisely
formulated FE process model is excellent. However a FE
process model requires a large CPU time and not suitable
for online applications [1].
In recent years, models based on a combination of
artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithms
(GA) are developed. With the use of such advance process
models the required setting of the roll gap actuators can
be accurately calculated to optimise the roll gap profile
very quickly. GA is meant for the optimsation of few
selected process parameters afecting the flatness of the
strip and forms a closed loop with ANN [5].
Modeling
The aim of this work is to present a model for accurate
and quick prediction of strip thickness profile and flatness
index. The main parameters affecting strip shape are a
combination of roll camber, roll deflection, rolls flattening,
friction condition, strain-hardening of strip and interaction
of rolls which make the analysis very complicated. Hence,
nonlinear mapping is utilized rather than complicated
mathematical models. However, the training data is the
first step in developing a neural network.
Elastic Deformation of Rolls and Stands. Slit beam
method (SBM) is employed for computation of elastic
deformation of rolls and stands during successive steps.
The result of this validated model [4] includes the strip
profile and roll bending force.
The continuous variation of the unloaded roll gap profile
results from mechanical, thermal and wear camber effects.
Even though this method has its own limitations such as
simple bending assumptions, it is still the most convenient
one due to its acceptable accuracy and computation time in
determining the elastic deformations during the rolling
process. In the deflection analysis, symmetry is assumed
about the vertical centre line as well as the mid-thickness
of the strip. The work roll and back up rolls are divided
into a suitable number of m elements while the strip is
divided to n elements. Updated work roll gap profile is
obtained from the computation.
Neural Network Model. Artificial neural networks are
interconnected networks of a number of neurons or nodes.
A neuron is called a small processing unit that takes input
and gives output. A multi-layered perceptron (MLP) is a
feed-forward neural network consisting of one input layer,
one output layer and one or more hidden layers in between.
Each layer is composed of a series of neurons. The output

of neurons from one layer becomes input to the neurons of
the succeeding layer (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Layers of neural network.
Developing a NN model for the rolling process includes

the following steps:
Preparing a mathematical model to perform
training, validating and testing data or using
experimental data.
Selecting a suitable network model from structure
point of view as well as and training and
optimization algorithm.
Training and optimization of the network.
Validation and testing of the network.
After selecting the net-work architecture, the network is
trained using a learning rate and momentum factor. During
the training process the network adjusts its weights to
minimize the error between the targets and predicted
outputs. Back propagation algorithm is used to adjust the
weights. The model is developed using the Neural
Network Toolbox of MATLAB.
Optimization Algorithm. Genetic algorithm is a

powerful stochastic optimization technique that is recently
employed in rolling problems. The algorithm starts with a
set of solutions called population. The fittest among the set
of solutions is selected and allowed to reproduce to form a
new population. The process follows a specified
convergence criterion until the solution converges to a best
possible value. Owing to its robustness and precision
search tool in complex space and its ability to solve
non-linear problems, GA is gaining popularity in
engineering optimization problems.
Searching is performed to the control algorithm that
shown in Figure 4. By means of implementation of NN
the GA searches for acceptable working parameters that
give the minimum flatness index and optimum strip
thickness profile. Considering inaccuracies and
unpredicted effects, random values from the interval [-5
IU, +5 IU] are added to the flatness value.
155
09.08.2010 14:20:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
usually
equations
like
F = (x x 0 )
which
are
implemented in genetic algorithms and are minimized

about x0. In addition, rational functions are sometimes
used and their maximum values are looked up. In strip
shape control problems both function structures are acted
and a number of them are presented below:
Figure 4. Control algorithm.
Fitness Function. In optimization process with GA,

definition of fitness function has important effect on
algorithm performance. A few functions are utilized to
improve different rolling aspects. Fitness functions are
Table 1. Strip parameters and model input conditions for examination.
Parameter
Strip Number
1
Entry thickness at F1 (mm)
33.5
34
33.6
36.3
35.9
Exit thickness at F7 (mm)
3.2
2.8
1.9
2.5
2.5
Rolling force at F1 (MN)
15.8
13.3
16.4
12.6
10.4
Rolling force at F7 (MN)
6.6
5.6
6.9
5.3
4.4
Strip width (mm)
1125
1050
1000
950
778
Position in rolling program
88
102
115
125
138
Function f(x,) [6]

f (x , ) =
1
1+
I (x ) + C
i
i =1
aim
C (x )
(4)
where f(x,) is the fitness of solution x, I is the flatness

index at line i for solution x, Caim is the target crown, C(x)
is strip crown achieved in position x and is a constant
value for selecting the relative contribution of flatness and
camber, chosen to be 5000 for the experiments.
Function [5]
=
1
1 + (Fo Ft ) 10 3
(5)
where Ft is the target flatness value and Fo is the

optimized flatness value.
i =1
(h (i )
2
H (i )(1 r ))
0 .5
(6)
where H(i) is the entry thickness, h(i) is the actual exit

thickness, r is reduction in thickness and H(i)(1-r) is the
calculated exit thickness
156
F =
(C C t )2 + C in
hin
C out
hout
(7)
where C is the achieved crown, Ct is the target crown, Cin

the entry crown, Cout is the exit crown, hin is the entry
thickness and hout is the exit thickness.
Considering these parameters, the advantage of new
fitness function is the application of both the crown and
flatness index criterion in this function make it possible to
perform more satisfactory than the above mentioned
fitness functions.
Function [7]
=
As the exact value of the actual final thickness, h(i), is

not specified, Function is not applicable in optimization
algorithm.
In the present study, a new fitness function is presented
for the GA as defind by Eq. (7):
Function F
The neural model is MLP network that has one hidden

layer. Table 1 represents the model input conditions.
Inputs include rolling force and primary crown of the work
roll while bending jack force, strip crown and flatness
index are the model outputs.
Figure 5 shows the comparison between SBM and NN
results of calculation for a strip width of 1100 mm. Target
and output values have fitted properly.
09.08.2010 14:20:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 3. Strip flatness Index (IU).
Strip
Number
Function (4)
Function (5)
Function (7)
151
167
155
144
-71
-36
269
125
117
482
94
54
-297
102
88
Conclusions
Figure 5. Comparison between SBM and NN results.
Modeling and optimization have been performed using

some real data from the Mobarakeh Steel Company rolling
programs. Table 2 represents the strip crown percentage
resulting from functions 5, 6 and 7 and Table 3 indicates
the flatness indices for the functions indicated by equation
4, 5 and 7.
Regarding to standard interval of strip crown percentage
which is in the range of 0.5-2.5% [9], it can be seen that
results of fitness functions 5 and 7 are in acceptable range
while predicted values by function 4 is out of this range in
some cases.
Table 2. Strip crown (%).
Strip
Number
Function (4)
Function (5)
Function (7)
1.4
1.1
2.4
2
3
4
5
4.5
1.8
3.3
2.9
2.2
1.3
0.7
3.4
0.9
1.6
1.1
2.9
Referring to Eq. (3), the minimum value of flatness

index given by these function are satisfactory and target
index is almost zero. Therefore, it is concluded that the
new fitness function represented in this paper, optimizes
the condition so that strip will be produced with higher
shape quality.
Accurate mathematical models are not fast enough for

on-line application of strip rolling process control and
optimization purposes due to complicated and time
consuming analysis. In this study an analytical model is
implemented to setup data that are used in developing an
artificial neural network model. ANN model is combined
with GA and the optimized set points are evaluated based
on reduction in shape defects. A new fitness function is
defined for improving the search. The optimized values
were compared with those of existing methods which
indicate enhanced potential for improving the dimensional
accuracy of product.
References
[1] V.B. Ginzburg: Rolling Mill Technology Series, United Engineering
Inc. Pittsburgh, Pa. 1992.
[2] K.N. Shohet, N.A. Townsend: Journal of Iron Steel Institute, (1971),
769-775.
[3] Y. Liu, J. Biglou, J. Fan, J.J. Fitzpatrick, B.D. Nelson: Iron and
steel Technology, 2-4 (2005), 180-190.
[4] K.N. Shohet, N. A. Townsend: Journal of Iron Steel Institute, (1968),
1088-1098.
[5] S. John, S. Sikdar, P.K. Swamu, S. Das, B. Maity: Journal of
[6] L. Nolle: Knowledge-Based Systems, 20 (2007), 203208.
[7] D.-D. Wang, A.-K. Tieu, C. Lu, G. DAlessio: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, 140 (2003), 562568,.
[9] L. Nolle, A. Armstrong: Lecture notes in computer science, 1625
(1999), 435-452.
157
09.08.2010 14:20:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
Pore Closure in Multi-Pass Cold Rolling of Lotus-Type Porous Copper

Hiroshi Utsunomiya1), Tsuyoshi Yukimoto1),3), Tetsuo Sakai1), Shinsuke Suzuki2), 4), Hideo Nakajima2)
1)
Division of Materials and Manufacturing Science, Osaka University, Suita / Japan, uts@mat.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp; 2) Institute of Scientific and
Industrial Research, Osaka University, Ibaraki / Japan; 3) Present: Toyo Aluminium K.K., Osaka / Japan; 4) Present: Waseda Institute for
Advanced Study, Waseda University, Tokyo / Japan
Although forming processes of porous metals are demanded for industrial applications, the deformation characteristics have not been
understood sufficiently. It is important to suppress pore closure during forming. In this study, lotus-type porous copper plates with onedimensional pores were processed by multi-pass cold rolling. At the early stage of rolling, elongation in the rolling direction is small. The
porosity decreases almost linearly with increasing total reduction in thickness. It is found that the pass schedule with small draught on small
rolls is effective to suppress pore closure. It is also found that the internal deformation of the porous metal is not uniform. Some pores are
closed apparently, while others change little. The hardness increases almost linearly with the total reduction. If the effective total reduction
excluding volume change is considered, the hardness change is similar to that of a nonporous copper.
Keywords: Lotus copper, Densification, Contact length, Pass schedule, Effective strain, Vickers hardness, Plastic Instability
Introduction
Experiment
Porous metals have many possible industrial

applications such as lightweight structure, energy absorber,
heat exchanger, biomaterial, filter, etc. Gasar [1,2] and
lotus-type [3] metals are porous metals having
directionally elongated pores. These porous metals are
promising because of high strength in one direction [4].
However, as the porous metals are fabricated by
directional solidification, available shapes are limited. If
forming processes are established, porous metals with
complicated shapes can be supplied for applications. In
addition, cold-working of the porous metals may improve
the specific strength by strain hardening. However,
deformation behavior of the porous metals is not fully
understood. It may be neither similar to that of
conventional nonporous metals because of volume change,
i.e., pore closure, nor similar to that of the isotropic porous
metals by powder metallurgy. Anisotropic and
inhomogeneous deformation is expected because of the
pore morphology and distribution. However, studies on
forming of porous metals were limited. Suzuki et al.
applied Equal Channel Angular Extrusion (ECAE) to the
lotus-type porous copper in order to control pore
morphology and to improve mechanical properties [5].
Miyoshi et al. applied rolling process to aluminum foams
to enhance sound-absorbing ability [6].
In rolling processes, geometry of deformation zone
(Figure 1) is a key parameter. For example, steel slabs are
heavily rolled with large rolls to eliminate center voids [7].
On the other hand, in rolling with small rolls, cavities may
be formed around the midplane. This phenomenon is used
effectively in industrial piercing process where bars are
formed into seamless pipes. If the porous metals can be
formed to another shape without apparent loss of pores, it
would be a great help for industrial applications. In this
study, lotus-type porous copper plates are cold-rolled in
multi-pass operation with two pass schedules. The
deformation in the rolling processes is investigated in
detail.
99.99% electrolytic cathode copper nuggets (99.99%,

Sumitomo Metal Mining, Co., ltd.) were melted by
induction heating to 1573 K under hydrogen pressure of
1.0MPa. Lotus-type porous coppers were fabricated by
continuous casting at 50 mm/min. The cast slabs were 10
mm thick, 30 mm wide and 700 mm long. The porosity
was 40.9%. The cross section at the center is shown in the
top row of Figure 2. The mean diameter of pores was 155
m with the standard deviation of 46m. For comparison,
a nonporous copper was cast similarly in argon of 0.1 MPa.
The details of the casting conditions can be found in [8].
The cast slab was sectioned in length to produce plates
10 mm thick, 30 mm wide and 150 mm long. The plates
were cold-rolled by multi-pass operations under well
lubricated conditions with mineral oil. The rolling
direction was parallel to the casting direction in which
pores are elongating. The thickness was reduced from
10mm to 1mm by two pass schedules; (A) 20% per pass
with rolls 412 mm in diameter, and (B) 10.6% per pass
with rolls 100 mm in diameter. The aspect ratio of the
deformation zone (Figure 1) is defined as the projected
contact length L divided by the mean thickness. As the
interfaces between the rolls and the plate are chords, the
mean thickness hm is given by
158
hm = (hi 1 + 2hi ) / 3
(1)
Figure 1. Geometry of roll bite.
09.08.2010 14:20:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 2. Change in pore morphology on cross section.
where hi 1 and hi are the thickness before and after the i-th
rolling pass, respectively. The aspect ratio L/hm calculated
is 2.3-6.4 for the schedule A, while 0.8-2.3 for the
schedule B. The nonporous cast copper was also rolled
with the schedule A for comparison.
The changes in thickness, width and length were
measured. The small specimens were sampled from the
rolled plates when the total reduction in thickness was 36,
60, 80 and 90%. The weight and the volume of the
specimens were measured to calculate the density. The
specimens were also subjected to optical microscopy and
hardness test. Vickers hardness was measured on cross
section with an indentation load of 500 gf (4.9 N) at
positions sufficiently away from pores.
Results
Changes in (a) elongation, (b) porosity and (c) hardness
are shown in Figure 3. The elongation (nominal strain in
the rolling direction) of the nonporous copper is close to
the ideal curve of plane-strain compression due to

negligible width change. The elongation of the porous
copper is small until the total reduction of 60%. It means
that the reduction in thickness mostly turns into
densification in this stage. The pass schedule B, where
smaller rolls were used, shows slightly greater elongation
than the schedule A. Change in width, i.e., lateral spread,
is limited, especially with the schedule B. However the
lateral spread of the porous copper is slightly larger than
that of the non-porous copper. The elongation increases
rapidly after the total reduction of 60%. In Figure 3(b), the
porosity decreases almost linearly with increasing total
reduction up to 60%. The densification is retarded in the
pass schedule B at this stage. However, the pores are
closed mostly when the total reduction reaches 80%. From
the above-mentioned results, it is supposed that the
elongation of the plate becomes apparent when the
porosity is less than 5%. In Figure 3(c), strain hardening of
the porous metal in rolling is observed for all the cases.
Although the nonporous copper shows decrease in the
(a) Elongation
(b) Porosity
(c) Hardness
Figure 3. (a) elongation, (b) porosity and (c) hardness as a function of total reduction in thickness.
159
09.08.2010 14:20:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 4. Pore morphology at surface on cross section.
Figure 5. Deformation during the second pass of the schedule A. Thickness 7.9mm is reduced to 6.4mm.
slope of the curve, i.e., hardening rate, with the total

reduction, the porous coppers show almost linear increase
in the hardness with the reduction. The hardness of the
porous copper increases from 52 to 138 HV by cold rolling.
Change in cross section (on plane perpendicular to the
rolling direction) is shown in Figure 2. By the rolling, the
pores deform from circles into ovals in general. However,
the deformation is not uniform. Some pores are closed
apparently, some pores are merged, while others change
little. The pore closure is neither propotional nor homogeneous. At the reduction of 36%, the area fraction of the
schedule A is 25.0%, while that of the schedule B is 32.6%.
The retardation of the densification in the schedule B is
confirmed. Cross sections near surface at this stage are
compared in Figure 4. The fraction of the schedule A is
19.8%, while that of the schedule B is 15.9%. In both
schedules, pore closure is promoted near the surfaces,
especially in shedule B. In other words, porosity is more
uniformly distributed through the thickness of the plate by
the schedule A. The porosity distribution with the schedule
B is due to the smaller aspect ratio L/hm. The deformation
is more localized near the surfaces with the schedule B.
When the total reduction is 60%, most pores are closed,
while a few isolated pores remain. The fractions around
the center are 1.4% for the schedule A and 2.4% for the
schedule B.
In order to investigate the mechanism of such
inhomogenious behaviour of pore closure, the driving
motor of the mill is stopped during the rolling to obtain
partly rolled spcimen. The deformation on longitudinal
section during the second pass of the schedule A is shown
in Figure 5. In the pass, the thickness of 7.9mm was
reduced by 20%. From the volume change by deformation
charactersitics, it is estimated that the porosity of 33%
decreased to 22%. The contact length is indicated as roll
bite in the figure. An assumed entrance of plastic
160
gdeformation
r zone is shown
e with 45 de e inclined
dashed lines in the figure. Elongated pores are subjected to
shear deformation at the entrance. It is notable that not all
pores but some selected pores are closed severely. The
selected pores are arranged along the bands almost parallel
to the entrance. These bands are macroscopic shear bands.
It is also notable that this shear deformation is not
continuous but intermittent. Shear bands can be found
periodically as indicated by arrows. Slope of shear bands
becomes shallower with thickness reduction in the roll
bite. Therefore, the pore closure is an example of plastic
instability phenomena. This phenomenon is similar to
waviness of layer after rolling of multi-layered clad sheets
[9], so called sausaging, though more remarkable. After
passing the entrance, the deformation in the roll bite is
relatively uniform. As the thickness decreases gradually,
the shape pores changes from circles to ovals accordingly.
Discussion
In order to discuss the deformation characteristics
quantitatively, the total reduction in thickness r is
P
subdivided into the total reduction in pore rt and that in
Cu
copper rt . If the porous copper is regarded as a binary
alloy of pore and copper, the total reductions in pore
rt P can be defined as,
rt P =
0 (1 r )
0
(2)
where 0 and are the initial and the current porosities,

Cu
respectively. Similarly, the total reduction in copper rt is
given by,
09.08.2010 14:20:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) schedule A
(b) schedule B
Figure 6. Reductions in pore and that in copper.
rtCu =
(1 0 ) (1 r )(1 )
1 0
(3)
The changes in these total reductions are compared in

Figure 6. It is clear that the deformation of pore is much
greater than that of the copper. However the deformation
of copper is not negligible even at the small total reduction
of 36% and sensitive to pass schedule. The reduction in
copper with the schedule B is approximately twice of that
with the schedule A. It is found that pass schedule with
small draught on small rolls (low L/hm) is effective to
suppress pore closure at the early stage of rolling. As
explained above, if the reduction greater than 60% is
applied, most pores are closed so that further reduction is
achieved mostly by the reduction in copper. At this stage,
the deformation is not sensitive to the pass schedule and
close to that of the nonporous copper.
Change in hardness is shown against the effective total
Cu
reduction rt in Figure 7. It is clear that low hardness or
strength of cast porous metal can be improved by rolling.
The changes of the porous coppers are almost similar to
that of the nonporous copper. The hardeness of porous
metal can be predicted approximately if the effective strain
excluding volume change is considered. However, the
hardness of the porous copper is slightly greater,
especially at the early stage becuase of the redundant
inhomogeneous deformation as described above.
In summary, cold rolling is effective to improve weak
specific strength (strength/density) of porous metals without apparent loss of porosity. Small total reduction with
small rolls is the preferable condition for the cold rolling.
Conclusions
Lotus-type porous copper with a porosity of 40.9% has
been cold-rolled in multi-pass operation with two pass
schedules. Following concluding remarks are derived.
Figure 7. Change in hardness as function of r tCu

in Eq. (3).
2. Pass schedule with small draught on small rolls (low

L/hm) is effective to suppress pore closure at the early
stage of rolling. When the total reduction exceeds 60%,
the porosity is less than 5% so that the elongation
increases rapidly with the total reduction.
3. The deformation of the porous metal is not uniform due
to the plastic instability. Some pores are closed
apparently, while others change little. Closed pores are
mostly in macroscopic shear bands intermittently
introduced by the rolling.
4. Vickers hardness of the porous copper increases almost
linearly with total reduction in thickness. The change in
hardness can be explained approximately by the
effective total reduction in copper.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for
Exploratory Research 21656187 and Global COE Program
(Project: Center of Excellence for Advanced Structural and
Functional Materials Design) from from the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.
References
[1] V. Shapovalov: Proc. MRS Symposium, 521 (1998), 281-290.
[2] V. Shapovalov, L. Boyko: Advanced Engineering Materials, 6 (2004),
407-410
[3] H. Nakajima: Progress in Materials and Science, 52 (2007), 10911173
[4] S.K. Hyun, K. Murakami, H. Nakajima: Materials Science and Engineering A, 299 (2001), 241-248
[5] S. Suzuki, H. Utsunomiya, H. Nakajima: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 490 (2008), 465-470
[6] T. Miyoshi, M. Itoh, S. Akiyama, A. Akiyama: Advanced Engineering Materials, 2 (2000), 179-183
[7] M. Nakasaki, I. Takasu, H. Utsunomiya: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 177 (2006), 521-524
[8] J.S. Park, S.K. Hyun, S. Suzuki, H. Nakajima: Acta Materialia, 55
(2007), 5646-5654
[9] S.L. Semiatin, H.R. Piehler: Metallurgical Transactions, 10A (1979),
97-107
1. At the early stage of rolling, the elongation of the

porous copper is small, and the porosity decreases
almost linearly with the total reduction in thickness.
161
09.08.2010 14:20:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
Chattering Control Based Algorithm for Nonlinear Optimization of 5-Stands Cold Strip
Rolling Process Parameters
Mohammad Reza Niroomand, Mohammad Reza Forouzan, Mohammad Fasihfar, Mahmoud Salimi
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan / mr_niroomand@me.iut.ac.ir
Chatter is usually one of the most difficult tasks to overcome in a rolling mill. Chatter is often associated with high rolling speeds and high
reductions, conditions that are generally desirable in order to increase mill productivity. This paper presents the combination of various
methods to optimize the 5-stands rolling process parameters in order to increase the rolling speed, preventing chatter to occur. This study is
done in four stages: Dynamic modeling of rolling process, fractional factorial designing in order to address the response, developing a
statistical model to relate response and independent variables, and finally optimizing the process by simulated annealing algorithm. In the
first stage, a chatter model of 5-stands rolling process is presented. Every stand has two sub models for rolling process and structure. In
the second stage, fractional factorial design is carried out in order to compute the System Equivalent Damping (SED) parameter for various
conditions. SED is a parameter that can be used as a criterion to find safety margin to chatter. Selected design factors are friction coefficient and reduction of 5-stands and speed of strip. In this study a 2 11 5 design has been selected. In the third stage, a model has been
developed for SED using statistical analysis. In the last stage, an optimization algorithm called simulated annealing is applied to response
surface to optimize the rolling process parameters. In the optimization problem the rolling speed was defined as the objective function
which should be maximized. Various constraints exist in this problem: bounds that present the minimum and maximum values of each
variable, nonlinear constraint according to SED (response surface created by regression) and equality constraint according to total reduction of 50%. By using this combination method, significant improvement achieved in rolling speed.
Keywords: Chatter, Optimization, Strip rolling, Design of experiment, Statistical analysis, simulated annealing
Introduction
Chatter has been recognized as a major restriction to increase productivity of cold rolling processes. Particularly,
chattering limits the rolling speed, which is recognized as
one of the important factors in developing cold rolling
technology for thin steel strips with high strength. In order
to control and suppress chatter in cold rolling operations, a
comprehensive understanding of the dynamic nature of
plastic deformation of the strip and vibration in the mill
are required.
Chatter is a particular case of self-excited vibrations
which are believed to arise in rolling operations as a consequence of the interaction between the structural dynamics of the mill stand and the dynamics of the rolling operation itself [1]. So far Mathematical models for the plastic
deformation during rolling process have been established
with various degrees of simplification or limitation. Conventional models such as Alexander [2], Christensen et al.
[3], Gunasekera [4], and Lalli [5] offer fairly accurate
estimations of the rolling parameters, but are not suitably
applicable in dynamic analysis.
Tlusty [6] explained the dynamic behaviour of chatter.
They undertook the change in the contact length between
rolls and the strip during vibration and calculated the resulting roll force change. They also established a criterion
for system instability. Hu [7] further extended the analysis
of rolling chatter by using an enhanced rolling process
model.
A linear dynamic rolling process model has been proposed by Hu and Ehmann [8] that relaxes many of the
assumptions of the rolling process models reported in the
literature.
162
In [9], a new parameter, namely, System Equivalent

Damping (SED) was defined to quantitatively determine
the stand potential of chattering.
Suppose that the general response of the work roll centre
vibration can be written as:
(1)
x(t ) = X 0 e nt (t )
where ( t ) is a function of time less than unity which

defines the nature of the vibration of the work roll center.
As the exponential term again acts as an envelop for the
new vibration curve, by fitting an exponential through
local maximum points of any sample vibrational data, the
envelop can be estimated. For this propose, the maximum
points of the vibrational graph at 0.001 sec. time intervals
bt
are extracted. Then a curve in the form of ae is fitted to

these points. Since a one-degree-of-freedom system for
simulating third-octave chatter was used, by comparing
aebt with X 0 e n t , SED should be defined by:

b = n = SED
(2)
It is clear that SED values less than zero mean positive

damping or > 0 , and show that the vibration is going to
be damped. SED values greater than zero mean negative
damping where the chatter will arise. Defining the SED,
one can evaluate the damping of the rolling systems with a
continuous parameter. In other words, the SED can quantitatively talk about the tendency of a rolling mill to chatter.
Optimization of rolling process according to chatter
phenomenon was done in [10]. In this paper SED plays the
role of constraint in optimization problem.
09.08.2010 14:20:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
Dynamic Modeling of Chatter
The chatter model for a single stand can be formulated
by combining the rolling process model with an appropriate structural model. Block diagram of a single-stand chatter model is presented in Figure 1. Both of the sub-models
are linearized around the steady state working point and
their interaction is simulated using the SIMULINK tool of
the MATLAB software.
Figure 1. Block diagram of the stand module.
Chatter phenomena are usually observed during the final

stages of the rolling process on tandem mills. The tendency for chatter to occur on the fourth or 5th stands is
due to many different reasons, which are still not clear to
researchers. To study the influence of inter-stand activities
on overall system stability, a dynamic model suitable for
multiple-stand chatter analysis is established based on the
single-stand chatter model presented in the previous section. The chatter model of 5-stands rolling process is presented is shown in Figure 2.
The critical velocity according to default parameters is

13.2 m/s.
Data Preparation by Design of Experiment (DOE)
In performing a designed experiment, we will intentionally
make changes to the input process or machine variables
(or factors) in order to observe corresponding changes in
the output process. The information gained from properly
planned, executed and analysed experiments can be used
to improve functional performance of products, etc.
Very often experimenters do not have adequate time, resources and budget to carry out full factorial experiments.
If the experimenters can reasonably assume that certain
higher order interactions (third order and higher) are not
important, the information on the main effects and two
order interactions can be obtained by running only a fraction of the full factorial experiment. A type of orthogonal
array design which allows experimenters to study main
effects and desired interaction effects in a minimum number of trials is called a fractional factorial design. Fractional factorial technique is employed to perform the experimental design in this research.
Factors and their levels are shown in Table 1. Selected
design factors are friction coefficient and reduction of 5
stands and speed of strip. A proper design of experiments
is conducted to perform more accurate, less costly and
more efficient experiments. In this case a 211IV5 design has
been selected. Resolution of this design allows us to estimate all the main effects; also all main effects and two
factor interaction effects are unconfounded. This means
the effect of main factors and two factor interactions are
recognizable from each other. Thus, 64 executions were
conducted at parameter levels shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Process parameters and their levels.
1
0.045
7%
11.5
Figure 2. Chatter model of 5-stands rolling.
Rolling parameters are set according to work done by

Tlusty [6]. Figure 3 shows a stable case in 5th stand.
Level
2
0.095
21%
15.5
Factor
Friction in every stand

Reduction in every stand
Rolling speed (m/s)
Data Analysis and Discussion

Figure 4 shows the normal plot of residuals. This plot is
used to test the normal distribution of errors. The points in
this plot should generally form a straight line if the residuals are normally distributed. If the points on the plot depart
from a straight line, the normality assumption may be
invalid. The Anderson-Darling statistic (AD) on the plot
can indicate whether the data are normal. If the p-value is
lower than the chosen a-level (0.05 in this case), the data
do not follow a normal distribution. As can be seen in
Figure 4, p-value is 0.917 so and the error normality assumption is valid.
Figure 3. Stable case in 5th stand.
System sensitivity to the rolling speed variation is high

and instability grows up quickly by increasing the velocity.
163
09.08.2010 14:20:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 4. Normal plot of residuals.
The other two assumptions are shown to be valid by

means of plot of residuals versus fitted values. This plot is
illustrated in Figure 5. This plot should show a random
pattern of residuals on both sides of 0. If a point lies far
from the majority of points, it may be an outlier. Also,
there should not be any recognizable patterns in the residual plot. The following may indicate error that is not random:
- A series of increasing or decreasing points
- A predominance of positive residuals or a predominance of negative residuals
- Patterns, such as increasing residuals with increasing
fits
The structureless distribution of dots above and below
the abscissa (fitted values) in Figure 5 illustrates both the
error independency and variance constancy [11].
Figure 6. Effects of factors on SED.
The interaction plot for the SED can be observed in Figure 7. As has been stated, some interactions (F1* F2,
R4*R5, R1*V, R5*V,) are more significant.
Figure 7. Interaction effects of factors on SED.
As mentioned previous effects of speed and reductions

on SED are more important. Figure 8 shows the estimated
response of SED, varying the factors speed and reduction
in first stand in coded values (between (-1, 1)). It is indicated that by increasing the rolling speed values and increasing the reduction values, the amount of SED is maximized. Estimated responses according to factors speed and
reduction in other stands show a similar pattern.
Figure 5. Residuals vs. fitted values.
Regression analysis is performed to find out the relationship between factors and SED. A value of 0.783 was
obtained for the R 2 statistic, which signifies that the model
explains 78.3% of the variability of SED, whereas the
adjusted R 2 -statistic ( R 2 adj ) is 0.910.
Figure 6 depicts the plot of factor effects on SED. This
plot can be used to graphically assess the effects of factors
on response and also to compare the relative strength of
the effects across factors. Figure 6 indicates that all reductions and speed have significant effect on SED. Furthermore, it is seen from Figure 6 that all friction coefficient
are inversely proportional to SED. Of course unless in last
stand, they present little effect on SED.
164
Figure 8. Estimated response surface of SED vs. speed and

reduction of 1st stand.
09.08.2010 14:20:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
Optimization by Simulated Annealing
In this stage, an optimization algorithm called simulated
annealing is applied to response surface to optimize the
rolling process parameters. It has been shown that the
simulated annealing algorithm possesses several advantages in comparison with traditional search algorithms.
First, the simulated annealing algorithm does not need to
calculate the gradient descent that is required for most
traditional search algorithms. This means that the simulated annealing algorithm can be applied to all kinds of
objective and constraint functions. Next, the simulated
annealing algorithm with probabilistic hill-climbing characteristics can find the global minimum more efficiently
instead of becoming trapped in a local minimum where the
objective function has surrounding barriers. Furthermore,
the simulated annealing search is independent of initial
conditions. As a result, the simulated annealing algorithm
has emerged as a general optimization tool and has been
successfully applied in many manufacturing tasks [1214].
As mentioned previous the objective function for optimization is rolling speed. Various constraints exist in this
problem: bounds that present the minimum and maximum
values of each variable, nonlinear constraint according to
SED (response surface created by regression) and nonlinear equality constraint according to total reduction of 50%.
The optimization problem according to above constraints carried out by simulated annealing and optimum
values achieved. Table 2 presents the optimum values of
the parameters.
This paper presents the combination of various methods

and is done in four stages: Dynamic modeling of rolling
process in SIMULINK, fractional factorial design of experiment (211-5 array), developing a statistical model to
relate response and independent variables, and finally
optimizing the process by simulated annealing algorithm.
SED was the key to optimization problem of the rolling
process, where it enables one to mathematically define the
chatter occurrence. The SED also permits the designer to
define any safety margin from instability edge. Full quadratic model was proposed for SED from the results obtained in its corresponding R 2 and R 2 adj tests. Also a
study on the influence of the most relevant factors over
SED has been carried out. It was shown that all reductions
and rolling speed have significant effect on SED. Finally
simulated annealing algorithm is applied to response surface to maximize the rolling speed. SED was a constraint
in this stage. For the case studied in this paper more than
25 percent increase in rolling speed was achieved.
Table 2. Optimum values of parameters.

Design parameter
Optimum
value
Friction (stand1)
0.05
Friction (stand2)
0.07
Friction (stand3)
0.07
Friction (stand4)
0.09
Friction (stand5)
0.09
Reduction (stand 1)
0.08
Reduction (stand 2)
0.16
Reduction (stand 3)
0.11
Reduction (stand 4)
0.08
Reduction (stand 5)
0.21
Rolling Speed (m/s)
16.6
Using the outputs of optimization problem as the inputs

of the simulation code, the stability of the system for such
a high speed can be checked. Figure 9 shows response of
the optimal system to arbitrary excitation pulse.
The maximum possible rolling speed for default condition (related to SED=0) is 13.2 m/s, so that the rolling
speed is increased by more than 25% for the optimum
point.
Conclusions
Figure 9. Vibrational response of the system in optimal point.
References
[1] I. Yun: Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois,
(1995).
[2] J. M. Alexander: Proc. R. Soc. London, (1972), 535-555.
[3] P. Christensen, H. Everfelt, N. Bay: Annals of CIRP, 35 (1986) 141146.
[4] J.S. Gunasekera, J.M. Alexander: Annals of CIRP, 36 (1987), 203-206.
[5] L.A. Lalli: ASME Journal of Engineering Materials & Technology,
106 (1984), 1-8.
[6] J. Tlusty, S. Critchley, D. Paton: Annals of CIRP, 31 (1982), 195-199.
[7] P.R. Hu: Ph.D. Thesis, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois,
(1998).
[8] P.R. Hu, K.F. Ehmann: International Journal of Machine Tools &
Manufacture, 40 (2000), 1-19.
[9] M.R. Forouzan, I. Kiyani, M. Salimi, A.R. Ghasemi, Steel Research
International, Special Edition 79 (2008), 475-482
[10] M.R. Forouzan, I. Kiyani, M.R. Niroomand, M. Salimi: Steel Research International, Special Edition 79 (2008), 483-489
[11] D.C. Montgomery: Design and Analysis of Experiments, John Willy
& Sons Inc, (2000).
[12] R.A. Rutenbar: IEEE Circuits Devices Mag. 5-1 (1989), 1926.
[13] B.W. Lee, B.J. Sheu: Kluwer Academic Publishers, London, (1991).
[14] Y.S. Tarng, S.C. Ma, L.K. Chung: International Journal of Machine
Tools Manufacturing 35-12 (1995), 16931701.
Optimization of rolling process parameters base on chatter phenomena was achieved successfully using a new
combined method. Selected design factors are friction
coefficient and reduction of 5 stands and speed of strip.
165
09.08.2010 14:20:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental and Numerical Studies of Edge Cracks of a Silicon Steel Strip in Cold
Rolling
Sang Min Byon1), Jae Hyeon Lee1), Youngseog Lee2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dong-A University, Busan / Korea;
sity, Seoul / Korea, ysl@cau.ac.kr
2)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chung-Ang Univer-
We examined the edge cracking behavior in a silicon steel strip, caused by waviness using a pilot rolling test. The specific results of this
waviness are that the edge (or side) portions of the strip are stretched, and the center is compressed in the rolling direction due to different
deformation conditions. We designed roll grooves shaped to reflect the role of roll bending, which generates waviness in the strip in an
actual cold rolling process, into the pilot rolling test. The material used in the rolling test was high-silicon steel (about 3%). A series of threedimensional finite element analyses was also performed to quantitatively investigate the stress distribution in the strip specimen when
subjected to different deformation conditions during rolling. Results showed that fracture in the strip specimen initiated and propagated
when waviness occurred at its center. The tensile stress created on the strip edge by the center waviness toward the rolling direction is a
crucial factor that produces the edge cracking.
Keywords: Edge cracking, Silicon steel, Roll groove, Waviness, Finite element analysis
Introduction
A steel that contains a silicon component for example,
about 0.5-5 wt % is called a silicon steel. It has been
commonly used as a core material in all types of electric
transformers and motors because it has a highly efficient
magnetic field when it is charged with electricity. In general, the magnetic quality of silicon steel is proportional to
the amount of silicon component present. Therefore, highsilicon steel has been in great demand for energy-efficient
equipment.
Two problems occur when high-silicon steel in strip
form is manufactured through the rolling process. First, in
comparison with common carbon and stainless steels, the
deformation behavior of high-silicon steel has limited
ductility, even at room temperature, due to the high silicon
content. As a result, we have to consider the local failure
of material during rolling. Second, there is an aspect to the
shape problem of the strip during rolling. The ratio of
width to thickness of the silicon steel strip is very large in
an actual cold rolling. The width is about 1000 mm, and
the thickness is about 2.3 mm, even at the first pass of cold
rolling [1,2]. Hence, the work rolls bend elastically at its
middle and it causes waviness (lack of flatness) in the
thin-gage strip, depending upon the shape of incoming
strip, reduction ratios in a give pass, setup of roll bender
and the speed of forward and backward tension reels, and,
etc.
The results of this waviness are that the edge (or side)
portions of the strip are stretched in tension, and the center
is compressed in the rolling direction, and vice versa [3].
Hence, along the rolling direction, tensile stress is generated at the edge of the strip, while compressive stress is
generated at its center. Subsequently, the silicon steel strip
might fracture locally on the sides (or edges) during cold
rolling if the tensile stress exceeds the failure stress of the
silicon steel strip. In a cold rolling mill yard, the local
failure of the strip is called edge cracking [4].
High-silicon steel inevitably has many defects through
hot rolling due to its material characteristics. The defects
are apparent with the naked eye. If the strip is rolled again
166
in a cold rolling process, the defects have the potential to

form cracks in the strip during rolling because of the waviness. The cracks usually run toward the center portion of
the strip during rolling, once fracture initiates. Consequently, it strikes a deathblow to the productivity of a cold
rolling mill. Therefore, one of the pending issues in the
high-silicon steel strip rolling process is how to avoid edge
cracking.
Even though many steel makers had researched this issue, they did not publish their results due to technology
leaks. Recently, using an analytical model, Byon et al. [5]
reported the proper horizontal position of work rolls in a
backup roll-driven cold rolling mill, which can minimize
edge cracking. However, this work remained in the numerical analysis stage. Byon et al. [6] examined the tensile
elastic-plastic deformation behavior of high-silicon steel
with respect to anisotropy and proposed a pertinent constitutive equation. Specimens were obliquely cut relative to
the rolling direction, and the oblique angles were 00, 450
and 900. However, no experiment was performed to examine the edge cracking. Hereafter, we designate the highsilicon steel strip as simply strip for convenience.
Hence, an experimental study that investigates edge
cracking during cold rolling is highly desirable, since
understanding the edge cracking behavior is vital to increase the productivity of the strip. This study investigates
how waviness influences edge cracking during cold rolling
on the basis of the pilot cold rolling test. To realize the
waviness in the small strip specimen (25 mm 300 mm
and 2.3 mm thick), we have designed work rolls with
several grooves and machined them with a NC lathe.
These grooves, which are either convex or concave, play a
role in creating the waviness in the strip, and in turn generate tensile or compressive stress or strain during cold
rolling, even though the strip is thick and narrow.
We have conducted a series of pilot rolling tests with a
specimen that had some artificial notches machined on its
side. We examined the effect of the notch length on crack
initiation and growth, and we suggest conditions under
which we can avoid the local fracture during rolling in the
notched strip specimen. For comparison, we have also
09.08.2010 14:20:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
rolled a low-carbon steel (0.1 %C) to investigate the effect
of material characteristics on edge cracking. To analyze
the edge cracking from the perspective of mechanics, we
have also performed finite element analysis and examined
the stress distributions in the regions in which the waviness is significant.
RA=396
RB=396
Flat
roll
Unit : mm
Figure 3. Shape of roll grooves machined by the NC lathe.
Upper roll
Specimen. To prepare the specimen, we cut a hot-rolled

strip sheet into many rectangular pieces (300 mm long and
25 mm wide). It is important to keep the rolling direction
of the strip sheet pointing up when we cut out it. We selected some pieces originally located on the side of the
hot-rolled strip sheet. To investigate the effect of notch
length on the edge cracking behavior, we machined three
notches with different lengths (2, 4 and 6 mm), as shown
in Figure 4. We used the wire electro-discharge machining
(EDM) to produce these notches. Each notch has a radius
of 0.1 mm at the notch center.
200
760
120
Lower roll
Specimen
Roll gap gage
Unit : mm
Figure 1. Pilot rolling mill to test edge cracking of strip specimen
with narrow width.
Experiment
Pilot Cold Rolling Mill and Roll Groove. Figure 1
shows the pilot cold rolling mill with a single stand, driven
by an 11 kW constant torque DC motor. A ductile casting
iron (DCI) work roll was used, with a maximum diameter
of 120 mm and a face width of 200 mm. Upper and lower
rolls rotate in the opposite direction and bite a strip specimen.
Initial shape of strip
R
RA
RB Upper roll
Upper roll
RB
R A Lower roll
Roll center line
(a) Concave roll groove
Roll center line
Lower roll
Rolling direction
2
25 Unit : mm
6
300
Figure 4. Geometry of strip specimen with notches.
Finite Element Analysis

Figure 5 illustrates the geometry of the roll groove, FE
mesh, and boundary conditions used in FE analysis. We
adopted a half FE model to reduce the computational time.
Figure 5(a) and (b) indicates the analysis domain of the
concave type of roll groove and convex type of roll groove,
respectively.
Concave roll
r
(b) Convex roll groove
Figure 2. Two shapes of roll groove and geometric parameters.
Figure 2 indicates two types of roll groove geometry

and design variables. Figure 2(a) shows a concave type of
roll groove designed to generate waviness at the edge
region of the strip specimen. This type of roll groove gives
greater reduction at the edge portion of the strip, and subsequently less reduction at its center portion. RA denotes
the radius of curvature of the concave roll groove. Meanwhile, Figure 2(b) indicates a convex type of roll groove
designed to generate waviness at the center regions. RB
represents the radius of curvature of the convex roll
groove. Figure 3 shows the roll groove shape machined by
the NC lathe. The radius of curvature of both convex and
concave grooves is 396 mm.
0.2
n=t=0
RA
Symmetric
plane
un=t=0
(a) Concave groove
RB Convex roll
r
n=t=0
Symmetric
plane
un=t=0
(b) Convex groove
Figure 5. Three-dimensional finite element model.
The parameters used in FE analysis are in Table 1. For

FE simulation, we employed ABAQUS, which has a
167
09.08.2010 14:20:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
good capability to analyze the non-linear behavior of severe elastic-plastic deformation.
Table 1. Description of parameters for FE analysis.
Symbols
un
ut
n
t
r
RA
RB
Meanings
Normal displacement
Tangential displacement
Normal surface traction
Tangential surface traction
Angular speed of roll
Radius of concave curvature
Radius of convex curvature

Rolling Test with Flat Rolls. Figure 6(a) shows the
shape of notch deformed by flat rolls (rolls without
grooves) when the silicon strip specimen was deformed
between flat rolls. For comparison, the initial notches are
shown in Figure 6(b). The notch gap was open toward the
rolling direction, owing to tensile stress acting around the
notch. Thus, we know that we need work rolls with
grooves to observe the edge cracking in the narrow strip
specimen, because the groove roll can generate variation
in stress (tensile and compressive) distributions in the
specimen toward its width direction.
rolling, because compressive stress acts around the notch.

Hence, we can deduce that the edge cracking might be
inhibited if we set up the roll bender properly, so that
waviness is generated at the edge of the silicon steel strip
in an actual cold rolling process.
On the other hand, the convex groove roll, which creates
waviness at the specimen center and subsequently
stretches the edge (or side) portion of the strip, fractured
the notch, as shown in Figure 7(c). The notch growth did
not follow pure mode-I fracture, but rather kinked in the
rolling direction. This occurrence may be attributable to a
mixed mode loading condition prevailing at the notch tip
during rolling. Notably, the shorter the initial notch length
in the strip specimen, the greater the effect of tensile stress
in the specimen on the notch. This tensile stress, in turn,
tears the notch toward the rolling direction. For this reason,
we should avoid waviness at the center portion of the
material in order to restrain the edge cracking in an actual
cold rolling process.
Initial notch
Specimen
Concave roll groove
Specimen
Convex roll groove
Specimen
2 mm
2 mm
Specimen
Specimen
(a) Deformed notch

(b) Initial notch
Figure 6. Rolling test of notched specimen by flat roll.
Rolling Test with Groove Rolls. The strip specimens

were deformed inside groove rolls. The shape of the initial
notches is shown in Figure 7(a) for comparison. Deformed notches are shown in Figure 7(b) and (c). Note
that the initial notch lengths were 2, 4 and 6 mm, respectively.
Initial notch
Specimen
(a)
Concave roll groove
Specimen
(b)
Convex roll groove
Specimen
(c)
Figure 7. Rolling test for edge cracking of a silicon steel strip by

groove roll.
Figure 7(b) shows the strip specimens rolled by the concave groove roll. We can see that the notch closed during
168
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 8. Rolling test for edge cracking of low carbon steel
(0.1%C) strip by a groove roll.
To examine the dependency of the edge cracking on material characteristics, we have performed a pilot rolling test,
using a low-carbon steel (0.1 %C) specimen, as shown in
Figure 8. We used the same roll grooves and the reduction
ratio mentioned above. Even though the waviness was
created at the edge and center portions of the specimen, no
fracture at the notch tips was observed. We can reason that
the edge cracking of a material during cold rolling is
closely related to material characteristics, i.e., its low ductility.
Finite Element Analysis. We have performed finite
element analysis to better understand the edge cracking
behavior. Rolling conditions are summarized in Table 2.
We have performed FE analysis for the cases with a radius
of curvature of 200, 400, 600 mm and infinity (i.e., flat).
Figure 9 shows the rolling direction stresses across the
strip width during rolling. Positive stress represents tensile,
while negative stress is compressive. In the case of the
concave groove, the variations in the rolling direction
stresses along the strip width are shown in Figure 9(a).
Since the roll diameter at the edge portion is greater than
that at the center, compressive stresses prevail at the edge
09.08.2010 14:20:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
portion, and very weak tensile stresses are generated at the
center. As the radius of curvature (RA) of the concave
groove decreases, the deformation gradient between the
center and edge regions increases. This causes the slope of
stress distribution to increase along the strip width. The
simulation results also indicate that the concave grooves
have no effect on the occurrence of the edge cracking,
since the compressive stress acts at the edge part of the
strip.
Table 2. Rolling conditions used in FE analysis.
Initial thickness of strip
Thickness reduction ratio
Width of strip
2.3 mm
42%
25 mm
Flow stress of silicon strip
= 1119(0.001 + ) 0.107 MPa
Max. radius of roll

Angular speed of roll
120 mm
21 rpm
Figure 9(b) illustrates that the convex groove generates

very high tensile stress at the edge of the strip specimen
and compressive stress at its center. Their magnitudes are
inversely proportional to the radius of curvature (RB). This
type of stress distribution parallel to the strip specimen
length causes it to tear locally. Thus, we must control the
roll bender appropriately in an actual cold rolling process
to avoid the deformation condition mentioned above.
[MPa]
500
250
Edg
e
[MPa]
Center
RA
line
(a) Concave roll groove
1000
500
0
-500
-1000
-1500
Center
Acknowledgements
References
-250
Center
This study has performed a pilot cold rolling test to realize the waviness in the high-silicon steel strip occurring in
an actual operating situation of a cold rolling mill and to
observe edge cracking initiated by failure at the side of the
strip. For this purpose, we designed concave and convex
roll grooves. The strip specimen (300 mm long, 25 mm
wide and 2.3 mm thick) for the rolling test has notches on
the sides. With these specimens, we conducted a series of
rolling tests to find a condition that does not initiate failure
at the notches.
If we can set up a rolling condition that leads to waviness at the edge (or side) of the strip specimen; then, edge
cracking would not occur. This is because the rolling direction compressive stresses created during rolling inhibit
failure initiation at the notches. Hence, operators in a cold
rolling mill should control the roll bender to give some
waviness at the edge of the strip if keeping the strip flat
(uniform thickness along its width) during rolling is difficult. Meanwhile, in cases where waviness occurs at the
center of the strip, the edge cracking is significant due to
the rolling direction tensile stress acting near the tips of
the notches. Therefore, we must avoid situations where the
center of the strip has waviness during rolling.
This study was supported by research funds from DongA University.
RA=200mm
RA=400mm
RA=600mm
-500
Concluding Remarks
RB=200mm
RB=400mm
RB=600mm
Flat roll
RB
[1] H.G. Hilbert, H.J. Roemmen, K.E. Boucke: Iron and Steel Engineer,
(1976), 25-31.
[2] M. Espenhahn, G. Giermann: Metallurgical Plant Technology, 11-5
(1988), 70-76.
[3] G.E. Dieter: Mechanical Metallurgy, 3rd Ed., McGraw-Hill Inc,
(1986).
[4] N. Nishiura: Proceedings of Current Advances in Materials and
Processes, Proc. 136th ISIJ Meeting, September (1998), 1000.
[5] S.M. Byon, W.H. Lee, S.G. Choi: POSCO Technical Report, 8-1
(2003), 151-156.
[6] S.M. Byon, U.K. Yoo, Y. Lee: International Journal of Modern Physics B, 22-31-32 (2008), 5400-5405.
Edg
e
Center
line
(b) Convex roll groove
Figure 9. FE analysis of rolling direction stress (xx) across strip
width during rolling.
169
09.08.2010 14:20:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Virtual Rolling Quality System for Cold Rolling

Jari Larkiola1), Jari Nylander2), Martti Verho1), Mika Judin2)
1)
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo / Finland, jari.larkiola@vtt.fi; 2) Rautaruukki Oyj, Hmeenlinna / Finland
A prototype of virtual rolling quality system for a 4 stands cold rolling process is created. In this system, virtual sensors and models are
used to calculate quality features based on process information and analyzed history data. The virtual-sensor technology is developed for
estimating of hard-to-measure variables and further on to define methods to automatically detect and hierarchically classify deviations in
rolling values and strip quality related to thickness, flatness, profile, etc. The analysis of the process data is done by means of classical
rolling theories, statistical methods and databased methods such as artificial neural networks to identify and quantify the main effects on
strip quality. The flatness and hot strip thickness profiles are decomposed into independent components by means of Chebyshev polynomia
coefficients. The strip quality related measurements are also collected to the appropriate extent from up- and downstream processing lines.
Keywords: Cold rolling, Modelling, Friction, Monitoring, Setup calculations, Classification
Introduction
Instead of using average data of the coil, the advanced
process data acquisition system enables the exploitation of
the on-line data. These continuous measurements make it
possible to see variations of the process and setup models
can be then developed to be more accurate by using information from rolling conditions. In addition, different
velocity phases including threading in, low speed, acceleration, run speed and deceleration are taken into account
during analyzing process.
A processibility of the new steel grades and dimensions
can be predicted more accurate by utilizing up to date
results of analyzed process data e.g. the material flow
stress curves. This speeds up the development work of the
new steel product and shortens the time from enquiry to
trial and further on to the customer delivery. As well the
dimensional ranges can be extended using more exact
process parameters and constraints defined by analyzing
system
Monitoring System
Monitoring system for 4 stand tandem cold mill process
reads strip related data from the automation system after
the coil has finished and data stored into the database. This
time series input data is analysed by taking different velocity phases into account. Average parameter values describing strip properties, process parameters and rolling conditions like thickness, speed, strength, force and friction, are
calculated for each velocity phase. This averaged time
series data along with other coil and process characteristics is stored in the database.
The monitoring system software was implemented to
keep it flexible and user extendible. All the database interfaces are defined in external tables which the user can
easily define and modify. This covers the coil related process data read from the production database and the data
calculated by the monitoring system itself and stored in a
separate analysis database. If the user wants to add new
source data tables or new variables from existing tables,
there is typically no need to recompile the software. It is
enough just to add some new entries into the definition
tables.
170
In a similar way all the process data related variables

used by the program are defined and given unique names
in the definition tables. Such a variable is either read directly from a production database table or calculated internally during the processing of the coil data.
It is also fairly flexible to add new calculation routines
to the software. This is done by simply adding a new dynamic library to the list of external libraries. The functions
defined in these external libraries can access all the above
mentioned internal variables by predefiend access utility
functions.
The monitoring system has a graphical user interface.
The input files are processed, calculated data stored in the
database and a predefined monitoring window is updated.
By utilizing the database query capabilities and the graphical tools in the system, the user can the then analysize and
visualize the correlations in the stored data.
Virtual Sensors
Virtual-sensors are used to estimate hard-to-measure
variables and to detect automatically deviations in rolling
values and friction conditions. Sensors are also used to
explain strip quality related variables such as material
strength, flatness and hot strip profile.
Description of Deformation Resistance. Using the
measured data from the rolling process the deformation
resistance of the material can be solved utilizing Ford,
Ellis and Bland (FEB) solution, Eq. (1) [1]. This can be
done by setting measured parameters such as rolling force,
back and front tension, rolling speed, dimensions, reductions and friction to constant and iterating the deformation
resistance to fit the FEB-theory. Thus, one can get the
materials mean strength kfm at the mean reduction point
rkm for every stand.
1
n h
h
P = 2k R' 1 2 e H d + 1 1 e ( H1 H ) d (1)
2k
0 h2 2k
n h1
and
09.08.2010 14:20:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
,
r
= 0,4ret + 0,6ret
km
in
out
(2)
where retin and retout describes total reductions before and

after rolling pass.
The mean deformation resistance kfm for every pass is
calculated and curve is fitted through these four points,
Figure 1. An estimate of the materials yield strength is
also calculated from fitted curve [2,3].
Figure 2. Calculated friction parameters for stand 3. Models _Sie

and _jan are used in set-up calculation. Model _iter is calculated
using FEB-theory. Measured values are used for input data.
Figure 1. Example of fitted deformation resistance curve for C-Mn

steel as function of average total reduction.
Description of Friction Models. Friction influences to

the roll loads, roll gap setup values, surface quality,
thickness accuracy etc. At the same time many variables
like wear of the rolls, rolling velocity, type of the lubricant
and deformation geometry affect to the friction. Thus, the
friction model should take all these parameters into
account and to have an overview of the workable friction
model. Totally seven different models are implemented to
the monitoring system.
Model called Friction by iteration is based on Ford, Ellis
and Bland rolling force theory (FEB), Eqs. (1) and (2).
Friction parameters are solved by backward calculation
from the FEB-model where friction is iterated until the
calculated rolling force corresponds to the measured force
for each stand. During solving of friction material's
strength is constrained. To solve basic level of the friction,
experimental laboratory tests have been done for several
steel grades to define material flow stress curves. These
values are used to solve preliminary friction values by
backward calculation. This model is only useful if material's strength is defined correctly. An example of results
from cold rolled coil is shown in Figure 2.
Other models are called friction by forward slip (Bryant

and Osborn [4]), friction by moment (Roberts [5]) and
friction by force (Ford [6,7]). In these models the uncertainty of the material strengthening behaviour is neglected
and measured values are used for input.
Tandem cold mill automation system uses friction model
which takes following variables into account: roll roughness and wear, stand reduction, velocity and strip thicknesses. Model is more or less regression model, where the
influence of every parameter is observed. One of the objects of the monitoring system was to develop and define
parameters to the friction model so that the material
strengthening behaviour correspond reality better. Parameters can be defined for every stand separately.
To reach better stability during cold rolling the lubrication conditions should be monitored continuously. An
abnormal process state due to variation of the lubrication
can cause a lot of correction steps during process control.
Friction is effected e.g. by wear of the work rolls, speed and
stand reduction. The influence of these parameters should
be eliminated to get a normalized friction value which
should describe the rolling conditions as a lubrication index.
However, the eliminating of the parameters affecting to the
friction is complicated. If we want to see how friction depends on the chosen variable, all other process parameters
should be on comparable state. This means rolled length,
work roll roughness, rolling velocity etc. should be on same
level. Using monitoring system it is possible to find adequate data to study the correlation between parameters and
friction.
Description of Strip Flatness and Thickness Profile.
The flatness and hot strip thickness profiles are decomposed
into independent components by means of Chebyshev polynomia coefficients. Usually four terms can characterize
most common shapes of flatness and profile. In this case,
the following equation can be expressed for flatness as
Y ( x) = T1x + T 2(2x 2 1) + T 3(4x 3 3x) + T 4(8x 4 8x 2 + 1) (3)

where T1 is the linear camber (wavy edges on one side of
the strip), T2 is the parabolic shape (center loose (+) / edge
loose (-)), T3 is the asymmetric shape (quarter buckles and
edge loose on one side of the strip), T4 is the quadratic
171
09.08.2010 14:20:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
shape (quarter buckles or center and edge loose on both
sides of the strip) and x is the unitless widthvector [-1..1].
Coefficients of the polynom are solved by matrix calculation using the least square method.
Special solver is created to calculate 4x4 matrix and this
is done already in data acquisition server. Average and
standard deviation values of Chebyshev coefficients are
calculated from 3 rolling phases (thread-in, run and tailout). Quality indicators are calculated for flatness and
transversal thickness profile to be able to validate and
detect good and bad coils from large amount of data.
Flatness index is created for flatness classification using
Eq. 4. An example of flatness report is shown in Figure 3.
Flat _ idx = {(| T1 _ avg | + | T 2 _ avg | + | T 3 _ avg | + | T 4 _ avg | + (4)
| T1 _ dev | + | T 2 _ dev | + | T 3 _ dev | + | T 4 _ dev |) / sfac}* H _ comp)
where T1_avg - T4_avg are the average of Chebyshev

coefficients, T1_dev - T4_dev are the standard deviation of
Chebyshev coefficients, sfac is the scale factor and
H_comp is the thickness compensation for flatness values.
Figure 3. Flatness rsults of coil and calculated average Chebyshev coefficients T1-T4 and correlation R.
Feature Extraction Principle and Hierarchical Defect

Classification
There is a special mechanism to classify the calculated

coil data. The user can define special classifier variables
(ex. to detect various types of 'defects') which typically are
defined to get indicator type of values (0/1). These variables are calculated automatically during the coil data
processing based on user defined criteria tables and calculation rules. Criteria tables can be multi-row tables with
multiple search keys. The values for the search keys and
criteria can be point values or ranges. It is also possible to
define summary variables and this way to create a kind of
hierarchical system of classifier variables.
The data obtained in the feature extraction process and
hierarchical classification is very fragmented and it is very
difficult to generate overall picture of so-called indicators.
Even if it is possible to calculate summary values from
different defect variables it still needs further data process-
172
ing. Feasible methods to analyse results could be visual

techniques such as mapping (SOM; Self Organizing Map
or 2D defect grid). Correlations matrix is useful to reduce
data and select dependent variables for further analysis.
The target is to classify coils roughly to two classes, good
and bad cases taken into account measured rolling values,
goodness of setup values, qualitative information (e.g
thickness accuracy, flatness, profile), incoming material
properties and process condition (e.g friction estimate, roll
wear, manual interventions). Using so-called defects it will
be possible to find out relationships of operating conditions to product properties. The best operational practice to
achieve good quality is searched and analysed using information from summary classification of similar coils.
The result of the SOM analysis is shown in Figure 4.
Using component plane representation it is possible to
visualise the relationship between input parameters and
calculated flatness index. This helps to find out significant
controlling variables and their working ranges.
Figure 4. Component plane presentation for five inputs (1-5) and

flatness index (6). Inputs: Deformation resistance value kfm (1),
Iterated friction it (2), work roll bending #4 (3), hot strip profile
values T1 (4) and T2 (5).
SOM analyses (MATLAB R2009b, Neural Network

toolbox) show that the hot strip profile (T1 and T2, inputs
4 and 5) do not have any significant influence to the flatness index after cold rolling. However, parameter like
work roll bending seems to correlate well with flatness
index. This is desired because bending can be controlled
easily and improving bending setup calculations its possible to get better values instantly during rolling process.
Over 50 inputs (process parameters and defects) were
analysed by SOM and Figure 4 shows only small part of
the results.
Rollability Prediction
The external module is included in monitoring system

which calculates typical pass schedule values like forces,
torques, work roll bendings, forward slips etc. It consists
mill and process constraints of tandem cold mill and pickling line which are important when predicting rollability of
new steel grades or dimensions. Input data to off-line
module are material grade, entry and exit thickness, width,
09.08.2010 14:20:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
next line info, work roll wear and exit speed. Material data,
mill constraints and rolling directive values (reductions
and tensions etc.) are updated from tandem mill rolling
strategy.
The off- line prediction module can use input set which
consist of thousands of strips and is used to determine
dimensional ranges or to optimize rolling efficiency by
varying process variables like reductions and tensions.
Before simulation calculations, model parameters are
adjusted using measured data from earlier rolled similar
coils which have been analysed using monitoring system.
Output values are verified against constraints and special
rollability factors. These so-called decision variables include typical roll force, tensions, roll torque and work roll
bending limitations. Special effort is put to calculate practical limitations to factors which describe friction conditions and its influence to rollability in thread-in and run
states. Maximum possible reduction is achieved when the
neutral plane is close to the exit side. Also forward slip
and work roll flattening is checked using backward calculated values from measured coils. Flattening in the last
stand is difficult to predict when rolling hard and thin
material. Classical Hitchcocks formula is usable to some
extent but limit values are difficult to define. Better formula is needed for roll flattening calculations. Also pickling line and tandem mill coiler limitations are estimated.
All above described decision variables are checked against
violations and finally all restrictions are validated and
summarized to one result variable. If any of the constraints
are exceeded then result is 1 and the case is failed.
Conclusions and summary
In this work, a prototype of virtual rolling quality system

for 4 stand cold rolling process is created. System establishes virtual sensors and models to calculate quality features based on process information and analyzed history
data. The intelligent virtual-sensor technology is developed for estimating of hard-to-measure variables and fur-
ther on to define methods to automatically detect and

hierarchically classify deviations in rolling values and
strip quality related to thickness, flatness, profile etc. The
analysis of the process data is done by means of classical
rolling theories, statistical methods and databased methods
such as artificial neural networks to identify and quantify
the main effects on strip quality. The flatness and hot strip
thickness profiles are decomposed into independent components by means of Chebyshev polynomia coefficients.
The strip quality related measurements are also collected
to the appropriate extent from up- and downstream processing lines.
The continuous measurements and monitoring make it
possible to see variations of the process. Using defects its
possible to find out relationship of operating conditions to
product properties. The best operational practice to
achieve good quality is searched and analysed using information from summary classification of similar coils.
This leads to the one important goal of virtual rolling system and its a recipe of succeeded rolling.
One of the problems is to define threshold values for criterion and how to value classified defects together to work
out a quality performance index which describes also
customer-oriented requirements. The rule based methods
are very time consuming and difficult to carry out. Therefore, further analysis and better visual methods are needed
in the future.
References
[1] H. Ford, F. Ellis, D.R. Bland: J. Iron Steel Inst., 168 (1951), 57-72.
[2] J. Larkiola, P. Myllykoski, J. Nylander, A. Korhonen: Journal of
Materials Processing Tech., 60 (1996), 381-386.
[3] J. Larkiola, J. Nylander, M. Verho: Steel Grips, 2 (2004), 337-343.
[4] G.F. Bryant, Automation of tandem mills: The Iron and Steel Institute,
London, (1973), 411s.
[5] W.L. Roberts: Cold Rolling of Steel, Marcel Dekker Inc. New York
(1978).
[6] K. Weber: Grundlagen des Bandwalzens, Leipzig, (1973).
[7] E.C. Larke: The Rolling of Strip, Sheet and plate, McMillen Company, New York, (1957).
173
09.08.2010 14:20:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
Caliber Design in Shape Rolling by Finite Element Method

Amir Hosein Sakhaei, Mahmoud Salimi, Mahmoud Kadkhodaei
Department of mechanical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan / Iran, salimi@cc.iut.ac.ir
A group of 3-D finite element simulations using ABAQUS/Explicit is performed to study the parameters affecting the spread of working
material in shape rolling processes. The results are verified by other analytical researches and available experimental findings. In the next
step, a sample caliber design process to achieve a certain cross section is made. The minimum possible number of passes according to
the parameters affecting the spread is the main strategy for a new pass design. Then the production line for this new caliber is simulated
using ABAQUS/Explicit, and the geometry and dimensions of the exit cross section, the separation force, roll torques and the power consumption in each stage are calculated. A comparison for the new design and a practical caliber used in industry for the same cross-section
is made.
Keywords: Roll pass caliber design, Shape rolling, Finite element method, Spread
Introduction
In shape rolling, the deformation of material in each
pass is made by transmitting the ingoing billet through roll
grooves named caliber. In rolling of shape and profiled
bars, problems usually arise in achieving the full section in
a low number of passes. The design and adjustments of
multi-pass calibers are usually performed based on empirical methods and some trial and error that make such a
design expensive and time consuming.
Owing to the large CPU time required for simulating the
metal forming processes analytically, until 1980 most of
the studies on shape rolling were based on practical information [1-3]. The most famous investigator in this area is
Wusatowski who collected some experimental information
for sheet and shape rolling [1].
From the late 90th, finite element method was used for
modeling and analyzing of metal forming processes. The
first 3D finite element analysis on shape rolling was done
by Kobayashi and Chen [4], and then Lapovok and Thomson [5] used finite element method in caliber design. They
reached an optimized design for simple shape rolling according to the results of FE analysis.
In hot rolling processes, thermal conditions may be important. Kim and Im [6] studied the effect of heat transfer
on shape rolling and found out that this factor has a little
effect on geometry and force results due to the fact that the
contact length between rolling material and the rolls is
very short. Moreover, the oxide layer on the surface of
metals decreases the heat transfer between the two surfaces.
The spread of width of sheets is one of the most important factors in roll pass design in shape rolling. Spreading
in rolling processes is mostly based on independent factors
among which the most effective ones are the ratio of cross
section dimensions, reduction in height, friction between
metal and rolls, and the ratio of rolls radii to half of the
height of the ingoing bar. Some studies have been carried
out on the effect of these parameters on the lateral spread
in sheet and shape rolling, among which some have presented analytical solutions [7-9] and some have used numerical tools especially the finite element method [11,12].
In this article 3D finite element simulations were used to
find the relation between spread and reduction in different
174
aspect ratios and various ratios of the rolls radii to height

in rolling processes with different frictional conditions.
Then comparisons between the results of this study and
other analytical and experimental findings were made.
Investigating these results, the possibility of reducing the
number of passes in achieving the final profile was
checked. As a result, a new roll pass design and then a
comparison between the new caliber design and an available industrial design was made. Using this technique for
the roll pass design, it is possible to optimize the conventional roll pass design in reducing the number of passes
which leads to a more economical design.
Model Description and Considerations
Few models are presented to study the effects of different parameters on lateral spread. It is considered that these
parameters are independent, so that in each step one of
these parameters considered as variable and other parameters assumed to be constant. To study the effect of aspect
ratio (cross sectional shape factor w 0 h 0 ), three different
cross sections as shown in Figure 1 are studied.
(a) w 0 h 0 = 1.2
(b) w 0 h 0 = 2
(c) w 0 h 0 = 3
Figure 1. Different ingoing billets for different ratios of cross section dimensions.
As shown in Figure 1, the effect of shape factor of the

entering billet is analyzed by using the aspect ratios of 1.2,
2 and 3. To investigate the effect of the ratio of rolls radii
to half of the height of entering billet, similar simulations
with different rolls radii are carried out.
The friction effect on spread is studied by the FE simulations. In this research, constant shear stress in contact
surfaces is considered to simulate the frictional behavior
between the workpiece and the roll surfaces as follows:
contact = mk
(1)
Regarding the fact that the graphical interface of
ABAQUS/Explicit is unable to simulate the sticking frictional behavior between the rolls surfaces and the work
09.08.2010 14:20:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
piece, in simulating the different frictional conditions
expressed by Eq. (1), a VFRIC subroutine [10] is used for
ABAQUS/Explicit. According to equation 1, the amount
of shear stress in contact surfaces is defined with a constant factor m. In this subroutine the value of m is considered to be 0.2, 0.5 and 0.75 in different simulations. Thus,
it is possible to model different frictional conditions.
According to Kim [6], the heat conduction to rolls in
each pass is considered to be negligible so that the temperature during each pass is assumed to be constant. The
temperature of material in these simulations is assumed to
be 1285C that is a prevalent temperature in hot shape
rolling.
Well characterization of material behavior in FE simulations can guarantee the accuracy of results in finite element modeling. The material to be used in FE modeling of
the work-piece is AISI 1018 steel. Figure 2 shows the
stress strain curve of AISI 1018 steel in the temperature
of 1285 C.
initial cross section and then rectangle calibers are designed to make a reduction in cross section in 3 stages.
The designs are based on checking the spread of metal in
each caliber. Using a 3D finite element method, the new
multi pass design is simulated. Then the roll forces, working power, plastic strain and exit cross section in each
stage are explored from the finite element analysis.
Figure 3 illustrates the finite element model in which
the angular velocities of the rolls are and the velocity of
the workpiece prior to contacting the rolls surfaces is V0.
After that the rolling is sustained, the work-piece speed at
each point is related to the rolls surface speed and the
geometrical conditions within the roll gap.
Results and Discussions
In roll pass design, the amount of spread is an important
factor; as a result, before starting the roll pass design, it is
necessary to find the relation between spread and other
rolling parameters. Consequently, the effect of different
rolling parameteres such as w 0 h 0 , R h 0 , m and reduction
on lateral spread are investigated via finite element
simulations. Figures 4 to 6 show the amount of spread for
aspect ratios of 1.2, 2 and 3.
Figure 2. Stress- strain curve of AISI 1085 in the temperature of

1285C (data collected from [13]).
The element used for the workpiece in simulating the

process is C3D8R which is a 3-D deformable element
containing 8 nodes with reduced integration and capable to
overcome hourglass phenomenon. For simulation of the
rolls, R3D4 element is used that is a 4-node element suitable for modeling the three - dimensional rigid bodies
whose behavior is a function of a specified point named
"reference point".
Figure 4. Relation between spread and reduction for different
w 0 h 0 ratio with m=0.5.
w 0 h 0 ratio with m=0.75 & 0.2.
Figure 3. Shematic 3-D finite element model.
In this study a new caliber design is presented based on

the effect of rolling parameters on lateral spread. In this
work, a 200 200 mm section billet is considered as the
In Figure 4, the value of spread is given for different aspect ratios where m=0.5 and R h 0 = 176.6 . In Figure 5, the
amount of friction coefficient is considered to be 0.75 and
0.2 while R h 0 = 80 . As shown in Figures 4 and 5, the
amount of spread has an inverse relation with the shape
175
09.08.2010 14:20:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
factor of the cross section ( w 0 h 0 ) and a direct relation
with the reduction in height of the section.
For exhibiting the effect of friction on spread, different
simulations with different friction factors are performed.
The results are shown in Figures 6 and 7. As illustrated in
these figures, the amount of spread increases by increasing
the friction coefficient. Therefore, in same conditions in
rolling line, smoother surface rolls produce less spread
than rough surface rolls.
To study the validity of results in this research, the results of finite element simulations are compared with those
obtained by other researchers. Figures 9 and 10 show
comparison between the results from the finite element
simulations and predicted results by Hill [9] and available
experimental results. The FE simulation results are in good
agreement with experimental results.
Figure 9. Comparison between finite element simulations and Hill

equation and experimental results with m=0.75 and w 0 h 0 = 1 .
frictional conditions with w 0 h 0 = 1 .
Figure 7. Relation between spread and reduction in different

frictional conditions with w 0 h 0 = 2 .
The radius of roll is another parameter affecting the

spread of work piece. Figure 8 shows the effect of this
parameter on lateral spread. The ratio of rolls radii to half
of the height of entering work-piece has a direct effect on
lateral spread. Therefore by increasing this ratio the lateral
spread will be increased.
Figure 10. Comparison between finite element simulations and Hill

equation and experimental results in m=0.75 and w 0 h 0 = 2 .
In the next step, a design of calibers to attain a specific

cross section according to the factors affecting the lateral
spread is made. A 200mm200mm cross section billet is
considered as the initial cross section. Then rectangular
calibers are designed to apply equal reductions in three
stages.
For primary design of each caliber some empirical relations are employed. For example referring to Figure 11 it
is considered that Bb = Bp
0.95 and a p = Bp H1 . The corner radius of the roll calibers (groove) are considered to be
r = (0.1...0.15)H1 and r1 = (0.8...1)r .
Figure 8. Relation between spread and reduction in different ratio

of height of internal billet to roll radii.
176
Figure 11. Specific dimension of rectangle calibres.
09.08.2010 14:20:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
It is considered that the ingoing billet is made of St37
steel (according to the material that is used in Zob-Ahan
Esfahan Company production line). The temperature of
entering billet is assumed to be 1120 C and the temperature of the exit cross section is 1085 C. The mechanical
behavior of St37 steel depends on variables such as, the
plastic strain, strain rate and temperature [14].
The design of caliber geometry and the roll gap dimensions are based on checking the value of spread in each
caliber. In this step, with the use of finite element method,
each new pass design is simulated. The results of the new
design are shown in Table 1.
Table1. Dimension of new caliber design in 3 calibers.
Caliber 1
Caliber 2
Caliber 3
Bb(mm)
204
150
154
Bp(mm) H1(mm)
214
146
158
140
164
96
r(mm)
14
15
12
r1(mm)
14
12
8
S(mm)
26
20
16
The roll separating forces, working power, rolling torque,

plastic strain and the exit cross section in each stage are
some of the important factors that can be explored by the
finite element analysis. Investigating these results, one can
check the possibility of new pass design in achieving the
final profile with less number of passes based on the facilities and tools of a specific production site.
In this step a comparison between the new caliber design
and an available industrial caliber was made. In the industrial design, four stages are used in forming the
200mm200mm ingoing cross section to a near rectangle
with the cross section area of 16500mm2.
The separating forces of the rolls and the required
torques for rolling in each design are compared with those
of the industrial ones as shown in Figures 12 and 13. As
shown in Figure 12, the amount of roll separating force in
the new design with three number of passes presented in
this research is close to the roll separating forces of an
industrial design in Zobahan-Esfahan Company. This
means that the mechanical stresses induced to the rolls in
the new design is very similar to that of the industrial
design and therefore, without changing the rolls, new
calibers can be implemented in the production line. As
illustrated in Figure 13, the required torque for rolling in
new design is increased about 10%.
(a) Industrial design

(b) New Design
Figure 13. Comparison between roll torques in new caliber design
and industrial design.
Conclusions
In present investigation, a 3-D finite element simulation
is used to study the spread in hot shape rolling processes.
A comparison between the results of these simulations and
available experimental results shows the accuracy of this
method in predicting the lateral spread.
There are number of factors affecting the calibre design
in shape rolling. As a result, practical designs based on
trial and error method is more common in industry. In this
research, a new approach for the roll pass calibre design is
presented that is based on checking the main rolling parameters such as, spread, roll separating forces, the roll
torques, and the geometry of product.
It is shown that by using this technique, it is possible to
modify the caliber and optimize the number of passes
comparing to a conventional caliber design which can lead
to a more economical design in forming a billet.
References
[1] Z. Wusatowski: Fundamental of Rolling. Pergamon Press, (1969).
[2] P. Polukhin: Rolling Mill Practice. Peace Publishers, (1963).
[3] W.L. Roberts: Hot Rolling of Steel. CRC Press, (1983).
[4] F.-K. Chen, S. Kobayashi: ASME Journal of Engineering for Industry,
107 (1990), 249-263.
[5] R. Lapovok, P.F. Thomson: International Journal Machine Tools and
Manufacture, 32-8 (1997), 1143-1154.
[6] S.Y. Kim, Y.T. Im: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 127
(2002), 57-63.
[7] T.L. Zaharoff, R.E. Johnson, M.K. Karabin: International Journal of
Mechanical Science, 34 (1992), 435-442.
[8] K.F. Kennedy:ASME Journal of Engineering, 11 (1987) 305.
[9] M. Salimi, S.R. Yassini: Amir Kabir Journal, 39 (2000) 187-202.
[10] ABAQUS Reference Manuals Version 6.7., ABAQUS, Inc.
[11] L. Steban, M.R. Elizalde, L. Ocana: Journal of Material Processing
Technology, 14 -2-3 (2007) 390-398.
[12] S. Liao, L. Zhang, S. Yuan, Y. Zhen, S. Gou: Journal of University of
Science and Technology Beijing, Mineral, Metallurgy, Material, 15-4
(2008) 412-419.
[13] MSC. Super Forge 2002, Material Library.
[14] A.H. Sakhaei, M.Salimi, M.Kadkhodaei: Proc. 18th Annual International Conference on Mechanical Engineering-Tehran, Iran-ISME,
(2010).
(a) Industrial design

(b) New Design
Figure 12. Comparison between roll separation force in new
caliber design and industrial design.
177
09.08.2010 14:20:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
Rolling of Defined Riblet Structures on Compressor Blades of Ti6Al4V

Fritz Klocke, Bjrn Feldhaus, Hagen Wegner, Vladimir Bcker
Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen / Germany; b.feldhaus@wzl.rwthaachen.de
Surface structures like riblets are known to reduce friction drag in turbulent flow. The application of riblets on compressor blades would
increase the efficiency of turbo jet engines and thus reduce fuel consumption and CO2 exhaust. But, riblet structures are tiny grooves of
less than 100 m aligned in flow direction and lead to an increase of surface tensions at high dynamic loaded parts as e.g. compressor
blades. This problem is caused by the notch effect and can lead to a reduction of the fatigue strength. Thus, a technology based on an
incremental rolling process has been developed to cover compressor blades with defined riblet structures. The rolling process enables the
structuring of high strength materials like Ti6Al4V and induces strain hardening, compressive residual stresses and furthermore a continuously displaced grain flow, so that a reduction of the notch effect caused by the riblets is achieved. For structuring purposes a two-sided
acting rolling tool has been developed that can be used in common 3-axis machining centres. Due to the simultaneous structuring of both
blade sides a deformation of the blade during the rolling process is avoided and a distortion due to residual stresses after the rolling process is reduced. The riblet forming is realized by HSS rollers which are profiled with the negative riblet geometry. In consideration of economic aspects like time efficiency and process reliability an optimized roller geometry has been developed and optimal process parameters
have been determined. The capability to reduce friction drag with the produced riblets has been verified by large-eddy simulations above
the rolled riblet shapes. Furthermore fatigue strength tests with structured and non-structured test specimens show, to which extent the
notch effect of the rolled riblet structure can finally be reduced.
Keywords: Forming, Incremental Rolling, Riblets, Ti6Al4V, Compressor Blades
Introduction
Current forecasts assume, that the global air traffic will
grow about 4 to 5 % per annum in the coming years. Furthermore the Advisory Council on Aeronautics Research in
Europe (ACARE) has decided to halve the fuel consumption and CO2 exhaust by 2020 [1].
Hence one main challenge of the aviation industry will
be to increase the already high efficiency of turbo aircraft
engines. One possibility is the further reduction of profile
loss of the compressor blades. Profile loss, also called
friction loss, belongs to the primary flow losses in an axial
compressor of turbo aircraft engines [2,3]. A promising
possibility demonstrates the application of riblets to the
blade surface. Riblets, consisting of tiny grooves aligned
in the main flow direction, are known to reduce skin friction in turbulent flows [4,5]. In contrast to laminar flows,
turbulent flows exhibit additional shear stresses, which are
produced by a movement perpendicular to the wall and
which are coupled with a lateral movement closely along
the wall, see Figure 1 [4,6].
Figure 1. Viscous flow (longitudinal and lateral components)

across riblets according to [4,6].
178
These lateral movements close to the wall can be eliminated by riblets which finally lead to a reduction of wall
friction. Furthermore Klumpp et al. confirmed that riblets
effect a delay of transition from laminar to turbulent flow.
This leads to a greater ratio of laminar flow along the
blades surface and thus to a reduction of profile loss as
well [7].
Thereby it has to be considered that the riblet geometry
is only effective, if its dimensions are designed in correspondence to the respective application. For this purpose
the riblet height h has to be less than the thickness of the
viscous sublayer. For a controlled diffusion airfoil (CDA)
at Reynolds number Re = 860,000 according to the data of
Schreiber et al. [8] at typical flight conditions the riblet
height has to be in the range of h = 35 m.
A promising technology for structuring fan and compressor blades with defined riblet structures has been developed at the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL of RWTH Aachen University [912].
Rolling Technique
When developing a manufacturing process to generate
defined riblet structures on compressor blades, the predominant type of load, which occurs on the blades during
operation, has to be taken into account. Compressor blades
are parts of high tech turbo aircraft engines and thus, particularly relevant to product safety. Especially during take
off and landing compressor blades are loaded by various
mechanical stresses. These are tensile stresses, mainly
caused by the centrifugal forces, and high dynamic
stresses in form of vibrations. Cumpsty differentiates between two types of vibration, forced vibration and flutter
[13]. Whether in forced vibration or flutter the blades
vibrate in their natural modes at their natural frequencies.
The earliest studies of blade vibration considered axial
09.08.2010 14:20:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
blades in terms of beam theory and this has given rise to
the method of classifying the simpler modes [13]. These
are bending, torsional and edgewise modes, see Figure 2
[13,14].
Figure 2. Schematic of simplest modes for axial blades according

to [13,14].
However the different modes lead to high oscillating

tensile and compressive stresses in the blade rim zone [15].
In general, compressor blades are designed to possess a
sufficient fatigue strength. When structuring compressor
blades with riblets the fatigue strength is considerably
reduced by the notch effect. During the occurrence of
bending loads, local tensile stress peaks occur in the
notches, which will abet crack initiation and crack extension and finally lead to an early rupture of the blade.
Figure 3 shows two different geometrical influences of a
riblet structure on the notch effect. According to the beam
theory of Armstrong et al. [13] for these investigations a
2D-beam model has been generated using the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software ABAQUS 6.7. The 2Dbeam model has been validated with analytical calculable
standard notch cases. As constant values the riblet structure has a riblet height of h = 35 m, a riblet spacing of
s = 70 m and a riblet angle of = 55. The stress increase due to the riblet structure is defined by the stress
concentration factor k which is the ratio between the
maximum notch stress k,max and the nominal stress n [16].
concentration factor k. The maximum stress concentration

always appears in the outer riblet notches. The riblet ridges
itself are not charged with high stresses. Thus an increasing number of riblets leads to an enlarging of the notch
and therewith to homogeneous stress distribution. On the
other hand an increasing notch radius leads to a decrease
of the stress concentration. Hence, the conclusion of these
investigations is that for compressor blades a riblet structure should be designed with a minimum notch depth and
a maximum notch radius in order to geometrically minimize the notch effect. But nevertheless even a geometrically optimal designed riblet structure would finally lead
to a significant increase of tensile stresses and thus to a
reduction of the fatigue strength of a compressor blade.
Therefore it is necessary to select or develop a manufacturing process which is capable to further reduce the notch
effect of the riblet structure.
For this purpose a force controlled two-sided acting rolling tool has been developed. Two rollers which are profiled with the negative riblet geometry are mounted on an
axle and enable a simultaneous structuring of both blade
sides under a constant rolling force. The manufacture of
the profiled rollers has been investigated in [12]. Thereby
a deformation of the blade during the rolling process is
avoided and a distortion of the blade due to non-uniform
induced residual stresses is reduced. The incremental
forming process allows the cold structuring of highstrength materials, e. g. Ti6Al4V. A lateral offset of the
rollers after each rolling path enables the structuring of
entire compressor blades with riblets. The rolling tool is
designed that it can be used in common 3-axis machining
centres.
Figure 4. Force controlled two-sided acting rolling tool and principle of the incremental rolling process.
Figure 3. Geometrical influences on the notch effect of a riblet

structure on Ti6Al4V.
The notch effect is primarily affected by two geometrical factors, the notch depth and the notch radius. An increasing notch depth leads to a linear increase of the stress
Beneficial effects which result form the incremental rolling process are the favourable grain flow [10], the inducement of compressive residual stresses below the riblet
structure, and the strain hardening of the rim zone. These
effects further help to counter the arising notch effect. On
the one hand the strain hardening of the rim zone in combination with a clean surface leads to a delay of crack
initiation [17]. On the other hand the compressive residual
stresses below the riblet structure reduce the occurring
tensile stresses and lead in the case of an incipient crack to
a slowing of the crack extension [15,17]. Figure 5 demonstrates the creation of compressive residual stresses below
the riblet structure by the rolling process. For this purpose
a 3D-FEA-model with an elastic-plastic material behaviour, a kinematic strain hardening, the v. Mises yield criterion, and a flow curve which is defined as
kf = 967 MPa + 260 0.93 for Ti6Al4V has been developed.
179
09.08.2010 14:20:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
The simulation software DEFORM 3D was used and the
FE-rolling model is able to simulate one rolling path. The
dimensions of the riblet structure in simulation and experimental tests correspond to the effective riblet dimensions of the previously described CDA with a riblet height
of h = 35 m and a riblet angle = 55 To verify the
FEA-model the form filling FF obtained by simulations at
different rolling forces is compared with experimental
results. The form filling is defined as the ratio between the
actual riblet height h and the maximal achievable riblet
height H:
FF =
h
100%
H
(1)
The comparison shows a good agreement between simulation and experiment. Compressive residual stresses up to
500 MPa can be expected below the riblet valleys. The
value of the compressive residual stresses below the riblet
structure allows the assumption that the notch effect will
be presumably reduced.
Figure 6. Measurement of the hardness of Ti6Al4V with (right) and

without (left) riblets.
Efficiency of Rolled Riblets

In order to investigate the efficiency of the rolled riblet
structure to reduce the notch effect, bending fatigue
strength tests have been accomplished with structured and
unstructured test specimens using the resonant testing
machine CRACKTRONIK from Russenberger Prfmaschinen AG. The long life fatigue (LLF) strength has
been determined with a limit resonate cycle criterion of
NG = 106. For each transition region 12 test specimens
have been used. The structured test specimens possess
only one single riblet structure, see Figure 7. This induces
a maximum of notch stresses and avoids potential rolling
errors. Thus the influence of the rolled riblet structure to
the fatigue strength can be analysed isolated. Furthermore
the riblet structure possess an average notch radius of
rK = 7.5 m, an average notch depth of Kt = 45 m, and a
stress concentration factor of approx. k = 3.
Figure 5. FE-simulation of the residual stress distribution below a

riblet structure on Ti6Al4V and its verification.
Another mentioned influence which leads to a delay of

crack initiation and supports the reduction of the notch
effect is the strain hardening of the rim zone. Figure 6
shows hardness measurements of two Ti6Al4V sheets,
unstructured on the left side and structured with one riblet
on the right side. The basic hardness of the material is
365 HV. After the rolling process an increase of hardness
below the riblet structure of about 40 50 HV can be
identified. That means an increase of hardness of 11 - 14%,
which exists to a depth of approx. 200 m. The variation
of the measurement points can be traced back to the fact
that Ti6Al4V consists of two crystal-phases, a hexagonal
-phase and a body-centred cubic -phase.
Hence, it could be demonstrated that the developed rolling technique induces different effects that support the
reduction of the notch effect. In the following chapter the
rolled riblet structure will be tested regarding its efficiency
to reduce drag and the notch effect.
180
Figure 7. Structured specimen for bending fatigue strength tests.
The tests demonstrate that a probability of fracture of

P = 50 % is achieved for the unstructured test specimen at
a bending moment of Mb = 2.9 Nm, see Figure 8 (left). At
this bending load maximum tensile stresses of
max = 475 MPa, which are almost half the flow stress of
Ti6Al4V, occur at the surface. On the contrary the riblet
structured test specimens have a probability of fracture of
P = 50 % at a bending moment of Mb = 2.57 Nm. This is a
reduction of the bearable bending moment of 11.38% due
to the notch effect. But the maximum tensile stresses in the
riblet structure at this bending moment are
09.08.2010 14:20:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
max = 1167 MPa, which are 2.45 times higher tensile
stresses that the structured test specimens can bear in contrast to the unstructured test specimens. Figure 8 (right)
demonstrates the stress distribusion diagram of the structured and unstructured bending test specimens. The relationship between the bending moment Mb and the maximum surface stresses max is linear. The difference of both
graphs is caused by the stress concentration factor k of the
tested riblet structure. Due to the fact that an unstructured
test specimen has a 50 % probability of fracture at a
maximum stress of max = 475 MPa it can be assumed, that
a structured test specimen would also fracture at the same
stress state but at a much lower bending moment of
Mb = 1.03 Nm. Consequently the effects induced by the
rolling technique reduce the notch effect thus far that the
rolled test specimen can bear a bending moment of
Mb = 2.57 Nm at a maximum stress of max = 1167 MPa.
Figure 8. Long life fatigue strength and stress distribution of structured and unstructured LLF-test specimens.
In order to investigate the aerodynamic efficiency of the

rolled riblet structure Large Eddy Simulations (LES) have
been accomplished at the Institute of Aerodynamics
RWTH Aachen University [7,9]. For this purpose the riblet
structure has been simulated as a continuous riblet field,
see Figure 9. With a riblet spacing of s = 70 m, a riblet
height of h = 35 m, a riblet angle of = 55, and a blunt
riblet tip of b/s = 0.14, a drag reduction of approx. 5.6 %
can be achieved.
Conclusions
The LLF-tests have shown that the rolling technique is
able to produce a riblet structure whose notch effect is
significantly reduced. Furthermore LE-simulations with
the rolled riblet geometry demonstrated a drag reduction
of approx. 5.6 %. Hence, it seems that a capable manufacturing technology for the production of defined riblet
structrures on compressor blades of Ti6Al4V could be
developed in form of the incremental rolling technique.
Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for the ongoing project RibletSkin by the VolkswagenStiftung, Hannover, Germany.
References
[1] Advisory Council on Aeronautics Research in Europe ACARE, 2008
Addendum to the Strategic Research Agenda.
[2] W.J.G. Brunling: Flugzeugtriebwerke, Springer-Verlag Berlin
Heidelberg New York, 2001
[3] H. Grieb: Verdichter fr Turbo-Flugtriebwerke; Springer-Verlag
Berlin Heidelberg, 2009
[4] D.W. Bechert, M. Bruse, W. Hage, J.G.T. van der Hoeven, G. Hoppe:
J. Fluid Mech., 338, May1997, pp. 5987.
[5] H. Choi, P. Moin, J. Kim: J. Fluid Mech., 255, 1993, pp. 503539.
[6] M. Bruse: Zur Strmungsmechanik wandreibungsvermindernder
riblet-oberflchen, Dissertation, Technische Universitt Berlin, 1999
[7] S. Klumpp, M. Meinke, W. Schrder: Proc. Turbulence and Shear
Flow Phenomena 6, June 2009, Seoul, Korea
[8] H.-A. Schreiber, W. Steinert, T. Sonoda, T. Arima: J. Turbomachinery. 2004, Nr. 126, pp. 482-492
[9] S. Klumpp, M. Meinke, W. Schrder, B. Feldhaus, F. Klocke: Proc.
GT2009, ASME Turbo Expo 2009. Orlando, Florida, USA, 8.-12.
Juli 2009.
[10] F. Klocke, B. Feldhaus, S. Mader: Development of an Incremental
Rolling Process for the Production of Defined Riblet Surface Structures, In: Production Engineering. Research and Development
(Online). 1. Jg., 2007, Nr. 3, S. 233-237
[11] F. Klocke, B. Feldhaus, G. Hirt, M. Thome, S. Klumpp, W. Schrder:
Proc. 2nd International Conference on New Forming Technology.
Bremen, 20.-21. September 2007. Bremen: BIAS, 2007, S. 185-194
[12] F. Klocke, F. Schongen, B. Feldhaus: Herstellung mikrostrukturierter
Prgewalzen; wt-online 1/2-2010, pp. 067-073
[13] N.A. Cumpsty: Compressor aerodynamics, Longman Group Ltd,
Pearson Education Ltd, Harlow, Essex, U. K., 1998
[14] E.K. Armstrong, M.A. Stevenson: J. Royal Aeronautical Society, Nr.
64, pp. 117-30
[15] S. Mader: Festwalzen von Fan- und Verdichterschaufeln,
Dissertation, RWTH Aachen, 2006
[16] D. Radaj, M. Vormwald: Ermdungsfestigkeit, Grundlagen fr
Ingenieure 3, Springer Verlag, 2007
[17] M. Peters, C. Leyens: Titan und Titanlegierungen. Weinheim:
WILEY-VCH Verlag, 2002
Figure 9. Rolled and simulated riblet structure.
181
09.08.2010 14:20:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of Flexible Cold Roll Forming Machine Controlled by PLC

Hiroshi Ona1), Ryuhou Sho1), Takuo Nagamachi2), Kiyomasa Hoshi3)
1)
Faculty of Engineering, Takushoku University, Tokyo / Japan, ona@ms.takushoku-u.ac.jp; 2) Faculty of Engineering, Tokushima University,
Tokushima / Japan; 3) Sanyoseiki Co. Ltd, Saitama, Asaka / Japan
Products formed by a conventional cold-roll forming machine are those with cross-sectional profiles constrained to a single width along the
longitudinal axis. Products with cross-sectional profiles varying in width in the longitudinal direction, namely, flexible cross sections, cannot
be formed by a conventional cold-roll forming machine. In recent years, Research and development of a flexible cold roll forming machine
controlled by PLC (Progressive Logic Controller) Unit to form products with flexible cross sections has been carried out in Japan and Europe.
In this paper, a newly developed flexible cold-roll forming machine is introduced and shape defects such as swell distortion and edge
buckling occurred in forming with this machine are investigated.
Keywords: Conventional cold roll forming, Flexible machine, Swell distortion, Edge buckling
Introduction
(M3)
(a)
(M4)
(b)
( )
( )
f
(M2)
182
(M1)
()
d
Design of Flexible Cold Roll Forming Machine. A

tandem cold roll forming machine is controlled using a
programmable logic control system (PLC) to make it
possible to form cross-sectional profiles varying in width
in the longitudinal direction. The machine fabricated
consists of four units. A single unit of the cold roll
forming machine is schematically illustrated in Figure 1.
Each unit has two functions of bending and transverse
rotation, which makes it possible to bend the steel sheet
near the edge in (f) along the contour of the blank sheet.
A linear encoder (e) measures the varying width of the
blank sheet, and a rotary encoder (d) measures the feed
rate of the blank sheet. These measured data are fed to the
CPU (Central Processing Unit) (g) to compute values for
the control parameters. The rotational and transversal
motions of the stand are made by the spindles driven by
the servomotors (M3) and (M4). The servomotor (M1) is
used to roll a part of the flange and the web. The
( )
Flexible Cold Roll Forming Machine
Shape of Blank Sheet. The top figure in Table 1

shows the schematic diagram of the blank sheets varying
in width in the longitudinal direction. There are 16 width
profiles due to 4 different slope angles and 4 different
flange widths. The sheets are 1824 mm in length and 0.5
g
A conventional cold roll forming machine cannot form

products whose cross-sectional profile varying in width
along the longitudinal axis. Such products are ordinarily
made by the press forming machine. Our recent research
on the roll forming technology combined with the
controller technology has made it possible to form the
long-sized products whose cross section profiles vary in
width in the longitudinal direction. This flexible cold roll
forming method brings a number of advantages such as
higher production efficiency, low initial costs, and a wider
range of product size. In 2003 and 2008, researchers in
Germany and Japan introduced this revolutionary
roll-forming technology for making products with flexible
cross section [1-3]. First, in this paper, we introduce a
pilot tandem flexible cold roll forming machine that can
form various flexible channel sections. Next, we
investigate the shape defects appearing in those flexible
channel sections to find the cause of the defects. Then, we
improve the machine so as to significantly decrease those
shape defects.
servomotor (M2) is used to drive one pair of rolls.

The tandem machine consisting of such four units is
shown in Figure 2, where the four mount angles of rolls
are set to 20, 40, 60 and 80 degrees. The four unit
machines have the same specifications for the rotational
and transversal motions and for the time lag. The
transverse speed of the blank sheet is designed to be about
2m/min.
( )
Servo motors (M1) for light rolling, (M2) for driving rolls, (M3) for
rotating turn table and (M4) for translating base table, (a) Turn
table, (b) Base table, (c) Guide actuator, (d) Rotary encoder, (e)
Linear encoder, (f) Blank sheet, (g) Controller
Figure 1. Layout of unit of pilot flexible cold roll forming machine.
mm or 0.8 mm in thickness. They are cut with a CO2 laser

beam machine so as to have the contours shown in the
figure. Then, the straight edges of the sheets are bent by
90 degrees by the press brake, as shown in the
intermediate figure in the table.
09.08.2010 14:20:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experiments and Measurement
Experimental Results and Considerations
Forming of Flexible Channel Sections. Using the

straight edge part, which is 10 mm in width and bent by 90
degrees, as a guide, each of the blank sheets is passed
through the four units of the tandem machine to
incrementally bend the other edge part by up to 80 degrees.
The roll clearance between the upper and bottom rolls is
kept to the thickness of the blank sheet 0.5 or 0.8 mm. As
a result, the sheets have the flexible channel sections.
Occurrence of Swell Distortion and Edge Buckling.

Figure 3 is a picture of a sample formed by the tandem
flexible cold roll forming machine. The bend angle of the
flange on the variant edge side was kept to 80 degrees
within the allowance of 1 degrees. The flange width
formed completely agrees with the designed one. This
means that the PLC controls the behaviors of the 4 stands
as precisely as we design. However, the web part of the
formed product has the swell distortions as may be noticed
in Figure 3. Figure 4 shows a 3-D representation of the
swell distortions measured by the four depth sensors, in
which the coordinate of depth value has a different scale
from the longitudinal and the width axis to emphasize the
swell deformation. As shown in this figure, large swell
distortions appear at the convex shape parts of the blank
sheet, while they are very small at the concave shape
parts.Figure 5 shows the dependence of the swell
Measurement of Shape Defects. We can observe that

the flexible channel sections formed by this machine have
the characteristic shape defects occurring on the web and
the flange parts. The defect on the web part is swell
distortions, which looks like the pocket web. This swell is
Figure 3. Sample formed by tandem flexible cold roll forming

machine.
1 5 .0 0
Figure 2. Tandem flexible cold roll forming machine.

0 .0 0
Table 1. Dimensions of blank sheets (top), final shape

(intermediate), and values of parameters (bottom).
N O .1
N O .2
N O .3
N O .4
Figure 4. Swell distortion shown in 3D.

20
Swell S /mm
= 20
15
15
10
5
10
5
0
20
40
60
80
Distance from bend corner L /mm
5,
Slope angle
/degree
10, 15,
20
Flange width
F /mm
6.5, 10, 13.5, 17
Maximum width of
blank sheet W /mm
95 + F+126tan
often seen on the web parts in the wide sections. It is also

notable in the case of forming for wide width sectional
products. The other is the edge buckling appears at the
edge of convex flange corners. The magnitude of those
distortions is measured using the depth sensors.
Figure 5. Swell distortions appearing on web parts when forming

several blank sheets with thickness 0.5 mm and slope angle = 5,
10, 15 and 20 degrees into flexible channel sections with flange
width F = 10 mm.
distortions on the slope angle , which is shown in Table 1.

It can be known from the result that the magnitude of the
swell distortion becomes larger with increasing slope
angle , and it also increases on the web part closer to the
boundary between the web and flange where bending is
made. The products with the swell distortions less than S =
5 look flat on the web part with the naked eye. From the
practical point of view, we can regard such products as
183
09.08.2010 14:20:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
flawless. In this sense, the S < 5 is the criterion for us to be
able to neglect the swell deformation.
Figure 6 shows the maximum values of the swell
distortion as the function of the flange width for the four
values of the slope angle, where the same blank sheets as
those in Fig. 5 are used but they have four different flange
widths, F = 6.5, 10, 13.5 and 17 mm. The maximum value
means the highest depth value in Fig 4. It is seen from the
result that the magnitude of the swell distortion increases
with increasing width of the flange for each slope angle .
Applying the criterion S < 5 to the result in this figure, the
products with no swell distortion may be obtained for the
flange width of F < 10 mm for the case of = 5 degrees,
and for F < 5 mm for the case of = 10.
In order to investigate the influence of the thickness on
the occurrence of swell distortion, the forming was carried
out for the blank sheet with the thickness t = 0.8 mm and
= 10 degrees. It was confirmed in the experiment that the
magnitude of the swell distortion is the same as that of the
blank sheet with t = 0.5 mm and = 5 degrees.
As for the mechanism of the occurrence of the swell
deformation, lets consider, first, a paper model shown in
Figure 7(a). When the concave-shaped paper strip is bent
Swell S / mm
20
=5
15
20
15
10
quantitatively. In both of the results, the strains at the

concave and the convex parts are opposite in sign. But the
FEM analysis gives the maximum strains of about 2 to
3.3 % near the corners of the concave parts and those of
about -3.5 % near the corners of the convex parts, which
are very different from the case of using the paper model.
The mechanism of the occurrence of the swell distortion
may be as follows: the bending gives rise to the tension
membrane strain of 14% at the top edge of the concave
flange part, which causes to make the neighboring web
part swell, resulting in the reduced strain of 2 to 3.3 % in
the equilibrium state. This consideration was ascertained
in experiment. When the flange was notched in full width
at the concave parts using the metal cutting scissors so that
the flange had free boundaries, the swell distortion
disappeared. In this case no force applies to the web part.
The buckling visibly appeared at the corners of the
convex parts of the flange. In this case the paper model in
Figure 7(b) gives the theoretical membrane strain of -14%
at the corner of the convex part. The FEM analysis, on the
other hand, gives the maximum membrane strain of -3.5%.
10
Theoretical Membrane
strain shown in Fig.7
5
0
6.5
10
13.5
17
Flange width F / mm
Figure 6. Swell distortions appearing on web parts when forming

blank sheets with slope angle = 5, 10, 15 and 20 degrees into
flexible channel sections with flange width F = 6.5, 10, 13.5 and 17
mm.
l =In
a)
R2
R1
R2
R
R2
R1
b)
l =In
R2
R
Figure 7. Schematic illustrations for explaining occurrence of

swell deformation (a) and edge buckling (b).
by 90 degrees along the bending line, the length of the

paper strip edge shown by the dotted line is elongated
forcibly by the bending, giving rise to the logarithm strain
in the longitudinal direction, 1 = ln(R2/R1). This
theoretical membrane strain becomes tension strain. For
example, in the case of = 10 degrees, F = 20 mm and R1
= 130 mm, it follows that R2 = R1 + F = 150 mm and the
strain is calculated to be +14%.
The theoretical membrane strain is compared in Figure
8 with the membrane strain at the top edge of the flange
obtained by FEM analysis, where the bending strain is
also shown. The two results agree qualitatively but not
184
Figure 8. Profiles of longitudinal strain calculated by FEM analysis

for case of forming blank steel sheet with slope angle = 10
degree into flexible channel sections with flange width F = 20 mm.
Similarly to the case of swell distortion, the bending may

have given rise the maximum compression membrane
strain of -14%, which may have caused the flange to have
buckling, which in turn may have lessened the strain to
-3.5% in the state of equilibrium. If the steel sheets were
able to shrink in thickness to absorb the compressive strain,
the edge buckling would not appear. It was observed that
when the flange at the convex part was notched in full
width using the metal cutting scissors, the buckling
disappeared, leaving one edge of notched flange on top of
the other of it.
09.08.2010 14:20:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Solutions for Swell Deformation and Buckling. It is
sure that the lack of elongation or compression capabilities
of the material is primarily responsible for the occurrence
of swell deformation or buckling, respectively. Then, it is
considered that if the material has the enhanced
capabilities in elongation and compression, it might be
possible to eliminate these shape defects.
If additional strain is produced to make up for the lack
of strain at the concave part, the swell distortion may be
eliminated. First, the idea was put into practice by rolling
the flange near the concave part using the rolls mounted
on No.1 and No.3 forming stands. But, this was not as
effective as we expected, because the combination of the
overhung-spindle type stand and the fine roll shaft of 20
mm in diameter could not provide enough rolling effects.
So, the experiment was carried out by replacing with the
stands of outboard support type with the roll shafts of 30
mm diam.. Figure 9 shows the results, where the flexible
channel sections with thickness 0.5 and 0.8 mm are
formed under the condition of 0 and 5% rolling conditions.
It is seen that the swell distortions are reduced to about 50
to 65 % in comparison with the no-rolling forming.
Figure 10 shows the results, where the blank steel sheets
with thickness 0.5 and 0.8 mm are formed into flexible
channel sections with four different flange widths F = 6.5,
10, 13.5 and 17 mm, respectively. It is seen from the result
that those sections having less than 10 mm flange width
have no buckling. This means that the buckling in forming
of the flexible channel section is possible to avoid for the
blank sheet with less than about F/t = 12.5-20 for flange
width F and thickness t.
t = 0.5 mm
To eliminate the edge buckling, on the other hand, the

web part near the bend corner of the convex part was
rolled using the rolls mounted on Nos.2 and 4 forming
stands. This was aimed at reducing the longitudinal
membrane strain at the convex flange parts, but it was not
so effective as we expected. So the stand with the roll
shaft of 30 mm in diameter. was used instead. As a result,
the buckling was significantly reduced.
Conclusions
A pilot tandem flexible cold roll forming machine that
can form the blank steel sheet with varying width in the
longitudinal direction into the flexible channel sections
has been developed. The following results were obtained.
1. A pilot flexible cold roll forming machine that can form
products with cross section profiles of variable width in
the longitudinal direction, in which the four forming
unit machines consist of, have the same specifications
in rotational and transversal motions and in time lag.
The control unit used in this machine is the Progressive
Logic Controller.
2. When the flexible blank steel sheets are formed into the
flexible channel sections, the products had the swell
distortion on the web part. We found that the main
reason for the occurrence of the swell distortion is due
to the lack of elongation strain property of the flange
near the concave part, and it is possible to reduce it by
adding the longitudinal elongation strain by rolling the
flange near the concave part.
3. It is found that the buckling does not occur for the blank
sheet with less than F / t = 12.5-20 for the flange width
F and thickness t.
14.00
Swell S/mm
12.00
References
5%
10.00
5%
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
0.8mm
20
40
60
Distance from bend corner L /mm
80
[1] H. Ona: Technology on Forming of Light Gauge Steel, -Computer

Aided Design of Roll by Visual C++-, (2005), Published by
colonasha.co.jp.
[2] P. Groche, G. von Breitenbach, M. Jockel, P. Groche, A. Zettler: Proc.
ICIT2003, (2003), 121-126.
[3] H. Ona, I. Shou, T. Nagamachi, K. Hoshi: Proc. ICTP2008, (2008),
2021-2025.
Figure 9. Forming of blank steel sheet with slope angle = 15

degree, flange width F = 10 mm, thickness t = 0.5 mm and 0.8 mm,
Comparison of effects between no-rolling and light rolling for
decreasing swell deformation.
Buckling B / mm
0.4
0.3
t = 0.5mm
0.2
t = 0.8mm
0.1
0
6.5
10
13.5
17
Flange width F / mm
Figure 10. Edge buckling appearing on flange edge when forming
blank sheets with slope angle = 15 degree into flexible channel
sections with flange width F = 6.5, 10, 13.5 mm and 17 mm.
185
09.08.2010 14:20:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Finite Element Analysis of Strip Deformation in Roll Forming of Electric Resistance

Welded Pipe with Vertical Rolls
Keinosuke Iguchi1), Kazuki Nishida2), Takayuki Hama2), Hideyuki Nakamura1), Yukihisa Kuriyama1), Hirohiko Takuda2)
1)
Technical Development Bureau, Nippon Steel Corporation, Tokai 476-8686/ Japan, 2)Department of Energy Science and Technology, Kyoto
University, Kyoto 606-8501/ Japan
The formability of the electric resistance welded pipes depends on the amount of work-hardening, i.e. the strain of the material during the roll
forming process where a flat strip is deformed to a cylindrical form. In this paper, the strain evolution during the roll forming process is
investigated focusing on that just under the vertical forming rolls which are generally used for the initial bending. The strain evolutions for two
kinds of vertical rolls are examined by finite element analysis and experiment. One (type A) is the vertical roll stand that pinches the strip
entirely in circumferential direction by top and bottom rolls. Another one (type B) is the roll stand that pinches the strip only in the edge part of
the strip. In the case of type A, due to the pinch by the rolls, the longitudinal profile of the top roll is impressed to the strip just under the roll,
and the longitudinal strain and the influence of the roll diameter become large. In the case of type B, such a transfer of the longitudinal profile
of the top roll does not occur in the centre part of the strip, and the longitudinal strain and the influence of the roll diameter become small.
Accordingly, type B is preferable to make pipes with high deformability.
Keywords: Roll forming, Finite element analysis, Electric resistance welded pipe, High strength steel sheet, Vertical roll, Strain evolution,
Roll diameter
Introduction
Seam-welded pipes are widely used for line-pipe, oil
well tubular, automobile components etc. In the field of
automobile components, thin wall pipes with high strength
are increasingly needed because high strength pipes realize
both the improvement of the fuel cost and the car crash
safety. Also in the field of line-pipe and oil well tubular,
due to the decrease in oil reserve, high strength pipes are
needed in order to develop the deep wells of oil and gas.
The pipes for these fields require not only high strength
but also high deformability. That is because pipes are often
subjected to bending, pressing and expanding when
automobile components are manufactured and when line
pipes are laid into the deep sea. The deformability of the
pipe depends not only on the material ductility but also on
the amount of work hardening, i.e. the strain of the strip
during the deformation from flat to cylindrical form. For
this reason the production process of seam-welded pipes
using high-strength steel sheets is now a very important
process to be examined and established.
One of the popular production processes for seamwelded pipes is roll forming. The roll forming process is
superior in production cost and dimensional accuracy.
Therefore, the seam-welded pipes made by the roll
forming process are expected to be widely used in the
automotive and energy fields. The roll forming process for
pipes consists of three processes, forming, welding and
sizing. In the forming process, a flat strip is deformed
gradually to cylindrical form through series of rolls. Then
the edges are welded. The pipe whose edges are welded by
electric resistance welding is called electric resistance
welded (ERW) pipe. Finally in the sizing process, the
shape and size of pipes are adjusted accurately. To control
the forming process is very important to make pipes with
high deformability because most of the strain occurs in the
forming process. The forming process is geometrically
complicated. The sheet is subjected to not only transverse
bending but also longitudinal stretching and bending. In
186
spite of many researches [1-6] the strain evolution just

under the roll stands has not been clarified yet. It needs a
large amount of cost and time to find experimentally the
optimal design and conditions of the process. And it is
difficult to experimentally measure the strain evolution
because the strain gauges easily break by the roll pressure.
Therefore, the numerical simulation is highly needed.
In the previous study [7], the authors compared the
simulation results of the bending deformation of steel
sheets by using various types of finite-element codes. The
calculations were carried out also for the roll forming
process. As a result, it turned out that the static-implicit
code Marc is most preferable to the roll forming process.
In this study, the strain evolution during the roll forming
process is investigated by means of the static-implicit
finite element program Marc [8]. The calculations are
carried out for two kinds of typical vertical rolls for the
initial bending in the forming process (Figure 1). The
deformation behaviour of the strip and the longitudinal
strain evolution in roll gap are analysed in detail. The
influence of the roll diameter and the roll profile on them
is examined from the view point of making pipes with low
strain. Furthermore, the experiments are carried out and
the strain evolution is measured to confirm the simulation
results.
Simulation and Experimental Conditions
In this study simple single curvature bending by one
stand is dealt with. Two kinds of rolls shown in Figure 1
are used. The position of roll stand and geometry of rolls
are shown in Figures 1 and 2. The combinations of roll
diameters examined are indicated in Table 1. The size of
the sheet is 40 mm wide and 2 mm thick. The sheet length
is 900 mm. The sheet material is a high strength steel. The
true stress-true plastic strain curve obtained by the tensile
test is approximated by Swift law. Mechanical properties
are shown in Table 2. Simulations are carried out by the
static-implicit codes Marc. von Mises yield function and
09.08.2010 14:20:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
the associated flow rule with isotropic hardening are used.
Owing to the symmetry of the process, only the half part is
modelled by the shell elements with five Gauss integration
points through thickness. The element size is 2 mm both in
the width and longitudinal directions. Coulomb's friction
law is employed and the friction coefficient is set to 0.15.
In addition, the experiments are carried out to confirm
the simulation results. A longitudinal strain evolution of
the sheet centre at point a, which is 500 mm away from the
sheet top, and the cross-sectional profile at point b, which
is 300 mm away from the sheet top are measured (Figure
2). The length and width of the strain gauge are 2 mm and
0.9 mm, respectively. A narrow groove is cut at the centre
part of the bottom roll of type A to prevent the strain
gauge from breaking by the contact with the roll.

FE Simulation Accuracy. Figures 3 and 4 show the
experimental and simulated results of strain evolution at
point a and cross-sectional profile of the sheet at point b,
respectively, in the case where the top roll diameter is
300mm and the bottom one is 150 mm. The simulated
results agree well with the experimental ones both in the
strain evolution and the cross-sectional profile. The
reliability of the simulation is confirmed.
Next, the strain evolution and the longitudinal and
circumferential profiles of the sheet for various conditions
are examined by the simulated results.
Dt
23R
23R
230
25R
10
25R
250
Db
30
Vertical roll Type B
Vertical roll Type A
Guide roll
Figure 1. Schematic of roll geometries (mm).

Forming direction
START
350
Top
500
Point a
Adverse side
Tail
Back side
Figure 3. Simulated and experimental longitudinal strain

evolutions of back side at centre of strip.
900
Vertical roll
END
300
Guide roll
350
250
Forming direction
Strain gauge
20
Profile of cross section Vertical roll

(Point b)
Guide roll
Figure 2. Schematic of roll forming (mm).

Table 1. Combination of roll diameter.
Table 2. Mechanical properties of material used.
E GPa
y MPa
F MPa
206
0.3
231
765
0.26
0.01
1.0
* E is Youngs modulus, is Poissons ratio, y is the yield

stress, r is the r-value. The true stress-true plastic strain curve
is approximated by Swift law
n
= F + p .
Figure 4. Cross-sectional profiles at point b.
187
09.08.2010 14:20:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Roll Type A. As shown in Figure 3, in both roll types,
first the strain of back side surface becomes plus and the
strain of adverse side surface becomes minus. Then the
strain of back side surface becomes minus and the strain of
adverse side surface becomes plus just before the roll
pinch point. Such simulated results mean that the flat sheet
is first subjected to downward bending in the longitudinal
direction and is subsequently subjected to upward bending
just before the roll pinch point. After the roll pinch point
the deformation of the strip is very small.
The influence of roll diameter in the case of roll type A
is shown in Figure 5 which shows the strain evolution at
the strip centre. The influence of roll diameter on the first
downward bending is very small. On the other hand the
Figure 6. Simulated results of longitudinal and circumferential

deformation of strip just under roll in case of roll type A.
influence of roll diameter on the following upward

bending is fairly large. Upward bending just before the roll
pinch point becomes large with decrease in the diameter of
the top roll. The influence of the bottom roll diameter on
the upward bending is smaller than that of top roll
diameter.
From Figure 6 we can understand the longitudinal and
circumferential deformation of the strip just under the roll.
The strip begins to contact top roll before the roll pinch
point and at that time the circumferential profile of the
sheet becomes almost the same as the circumferential
profile of the roll. Subsequently the bottom roll presses the
strip to the top roll at the roll pinch point and bends the
strip in the longitudinal direction along the top roll. So, in
the case of roll type A, not only the circumferential profile
but also the longitudinal profile of the top roll is impressed
to the strip. Therefore, the influence of top roll diameter is
large.
Figure 5. Comparison of longitudinal strain evolutions at centre of

strip in case of roll type A for different combinations of roll
diameters.
188
Roll Type B. As shown in Figure 4, the cross-sectional

profile of the sheet formed by roll type B is almost the
same as that by roll type A. However, Figure 3 shows that
the strain evolution for roll type B is very different from
that for type A. The first downward bending for roll type B
is the same as that for roll type A, but the upward bending
for roll type B is very different from that for roll type A.
Figure 7 shows the strain evolution at the strip centre in
the case of roll type B. From the comparison between
Figures 5 and 7 it is clear that the upward bending just
before the roll pinch point is smaller for roll type B than
for roll type A for all the combinations of roll diameters.
In addition, the influence of the top roll diameter on the
strain evolution is smaller for roll type B.
The reason of such differences between types A and B
is explained as follows. Figure 8 shows the trace of the
centre of strip near the roll gap. The traces for types A and
B differ from each other, especially after the first contact
with top roll. In the case of roll type B, after the first
contact the strip centre removes from the top roll
immediately, because the strip is held by top and bottom
rolls only in the edge part. In the case of roll type B, only
09.08.2010 14:20:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 8. Simulated results of longitudinal and circumferential

deformation of strip just under roll in cases of roll types A and B.
Figure 7. Comparison of longitudinal strain evolutions at centre

of strip in case of roll type B for different combinations of roll
diameters.
the circumferential profile of top roll is impressed to the

strip without the longitudinal bending. Therefore, the
longitudinal strain and also the influence of top roll
diameter are smaller for type B than for type A. As a result,
the roll type B is preferred to reduce the work hardening
induced by the strain in the roll forming process.
Conclusions
The numerical simulations of the roll forming process of
high-strength steel ERW pipes were carried out by means
of the static-implicit finite element program Marc. The
bending processes in the initial one stand of roll forming
were simulated for two types of vertical rolls. One (type
A) is the vertical roll stand that pinches the strip entirely in
the circumferential direction by the top and bottom rolls.

Another one (type B) is the roll stand that pinches the strip
only in the edge part of the strip. The strain evolution at
strip centre and the deformation behaviour just under the
rolls were examined in detail. The obtained results are
summarized as follows.
1. The longitudinal bending occurs two times between the
rolls. The first one is downward bending just before the
first contact with top roll. The second one is upward
bending just before the roll pinch point.
2. While the influences of the roll type and diameter are
small on the downward bending, it is very large on the
following upward bending.
3. In the case of roll type A, the upward bending becomes
smaller with increase in the top roll diameter due to the
transfer of the longitudinal profile of top roll.
4. In the case of roll type B, the upward bending is much
smaller than that of roll type A. The influence of the
top roll diameter is small in case of the roll type B
because the transfer of the longitudinal profile of top
roll does not occur.
5. Consequently, the pipes with lower strain can be
produced by increasing the top roll diameter or by
using the roll type B.
References
[1] M. Kiuchi: Report of the Institute of Industrial Science, 23 (1973).
[2] M. Kiuchi, T. Koudobashi: Proc. Third International Conference on
Rotary Metalworking Process, Kyoto, (1984), 423-436.
[3] T.R. Walker, R.J. Pick: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
25 (1991), 35-54.
[4] M. Farzin, M.S. Tehrani, E. Shameli: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 125-126 (2002), 626-632.
[5] Z.W. Han, C. Liu, W.P. Lu, L.Q. Ren, J. Tong: Journal of Materials
[6] J. Jiang, D. Li, Y. Peng, J. Li: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 209 (2009), 4850-4856.
[7] T. Hama, K. Iguchi, H. Hoshida, H. Takuda: Metal Forming 2008
Steel Research International, 79-2 (2008), 587-594.
[8] MSC. Software Corporation, MSC.Marc Volume B: Element Library,
MSC. Software Corporation, (2004).
189
09.08.2010 14:20:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Theoretical and Experimental Basis of Regular Asperities about Triangular Outline

Embossing Technology
Radoslaw Patyk
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Koszalin University of Technology, Koszalin / Poland, radekpatyk@interia.pl; radoslaw.patyk@tu.koszalin.pl
A new technological operation using plastic formation of surface regular asperities for final rolling burnishing was proposed. The results of
theoretical considerations of the plastic formation process of regular asperities were obtained on the grounds of the method characteristics.
Formulae were derived on the first and second limiting depth of the embossing process for an ideal plastic material and lack of friction in
the contact zone. The application developed in the FEM Ansys/LS-DYNA system allows for an analysis of the process taking into account
the physical and geometrical nonlinearity. The results of theoretical and numerical analyses were experimentally verified.
Keywords: Burnishing process, Embossing process, Surface layer, Preparation of regular asperities, Finite element method
Introduction
At present, pressing, deep embossing etc. processes are
used for the production of the elements of machines or
functional objects, whereas surface plastic working is rarely
used in spite of its advantages. The main reason of this is
that there are no guidelines concerning the preparation of
the object for burnishing and concerning the conditions for
the execution of burnishing to ensure a product with the
intended technological quality. So far, studies have not
taken into account the quality of the surface for burnishing
with the following being assumed: the roughness profile
after preceding working has no substantial impact on the
burnishing process, the real surface is ideally smooth or the
real asperity outline is consistent with the theoretical outline.
Due to the random nature of the processes of surface preparation for burnishing, the real asperity outline is substantially different from the theoretical outline. The new method
as proposed in this paper concerning the preparation of the
surface for burnishing is free from the abovementioned
drawbacks. It consists in plastic forming of regular asperities with the aid of an embossing element with a suitable
geometry of the working part (Figure 1).
occur in the surface layer of the object which has been prepared for burnishing.
Theoretical Analysis
The process of plastic formation of surface regular asperities can be analyzed when plane strain and threedimensional stress states are assumed. For this purpose,
elementary sectors are isolated from the cylindrical workpiece and the embossing element by means of two parallel
planes being distant one from another by elementary distance dl (Figure 2). In these elementary sectors, the deformation of asperities in the work-piece occurs in the
axial plane (in the radial and axial directions) without the
occurrence of a flowing wave of the material in the
circumferential direction. The rounding of the cylindrical
surface is neglected, as well. The theoretical analysis of
the formation process of regular asperities was conducted
with the use of the method of the characteristic slide lines
of the material. Solutions were presented for the cases of
embossing of regular asperities with the use of a single
wedge or double wedges.
Figure 2. Elementary volumes separated from object and tool.
Embossing of Asperities with the Use of a Single Wedge
Figure 1. New technological operation: embossing and burnishing

of regular asperities.
The primary problem is to gain knowledge concerning the

mechanism of the plastic flow of the material and to determine the state of displacements, strains and stresses which
190
One of the elementary problems concerning surfacing

plastic forming is pressing of a rigid wedge with its vertical angle 2 > gr , (where gr is the critical angle of the
wedge, underneath which the cutting process follows) into
a semi-infinite ideal plastic medium (Figure 3). A theoretical solution of this problem may be applied to a theoretical analysis of the process of the plastic formation of
threads, preparation of regular asperities of a surface for a
09.08.2010 14:20:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
final burnishing process, and for an analysis of a plastic
cutting process of the material.
which possesses two wedges, each with vertical angle 2

(Figure 4).
A
C
a
C
E
D
D
B
Figure 3. Diagram of deformation with the wedge being pressed

into a plastic medium according to Hill [1].
The solution of this problem was introduced in papers

[1-3]. Concerning the assumption accepted, the formulas
presented apply to the case of a frictionless contact zone
and materials with rigid-ideally plastic properties (without
strain hardening). The advancement of the process is determined with plunging depth h of the blade of the wedge.
On both sides of the wedge, there occurs local pushing of
the material, and the volume of the elevations over the
initial surface is the same as the volume of the material
occupied by the plunged section of the wedge. It was assumed that the free edge of the elevations is straight. The
mesh of the slide line consists of two right-angled triangles,
with the homogeneous states of stresses and an ADE polar
section with vertical angle . The value of contact pressures was determined with the aid of Huber-MissesHenckies non-linear plasticity condition:
p = 2k( 1 + ) , where k = Y / 3 ,
(1)
where Y is the yield point. After the projection of AB and

AC intervals onto the wedge axis, a dependence was obtained for half-length contact interval a:
a=
h
,
cos sin( )
(2)
and the following dependence was obtained from the condition of constant area (incompressible material):
a 2 [cos( ) + sin ] sin( ) = a h sin .
(3)
Based on dependences (2) and (3), after conversions, the

following dependences were obtained:
cos( 2 ) = tg ( / 4 / 2) [3],
(4)
cos( 2 ) = cos /(1 + sin ) [1].
(5)
Dependences (4) and (5) are identical.

It is evident from these dependences that angle depends only from the vertical angle of the wedge 2. The
solution of these equations by means of an analytical
method is complex; therefore, an approximate iterative
solution was proposed, hence [3]:
= 0.004 2 + 0.748 8.4675 .
(6)
Embossing of Asperities with the Use of Multiple Wedges

A different plastic formation method of regular asperities is the pressing of a rigid tool into a plastic medium,
Figure 4. Diagram of the embossing process of triangular asperities with two wedges.
During the embossing process of triangular asperities

with two wedges, three following ranges can occur of the
changeability of the embossing depth as well as two limiting depths: 0 < h < hI , h = hI , hI < h < hII , h = hII , h > hII ,
where hI and hII are the first and the second limited depth
respectively. In the first embossing phase 0 < h < hI there
occurs an initial elevation of the material. With h = hI two
neighboring flashes get blocked. Embossing of regular
asperities with such depths which exceed the first limiting
depth hI < h < hII results in more elevations of asperities
and mapping of the tool geometry. For h = hII there is a
complete filling of the space created between the
neighboring wedges of the tool and the formation of a full
outline of asperities. Embossing of asperities with such
depths which cross the second limiting depth h > hII causes
a considerable increase of the forces and the occurrence of
unfavorable flashes of the material before the tool. Therefore, it is not recommended by the author. The limiting
depths of embossing were determined with the assumption
that the elastic strains are negligibly small. Then the first
limiting depth occurs when neighboring flashes are in
contact (Figure 4), i.e.: OC = 0.5 f , hence:
hI =
0.5 f [ cos sin ( )]

,
sin + cos ( )
(7)
At the same time, the second limiting depth is equal to the

half of the height of the triangular asperity:
hII = 0.25 f ctg .
(8)
The real embossing depth is different from the theoretical depth by the value of the elastic strains of the whole
system. The friction coefficient in the contact zone and the
hardening of the material has a significant impact on the
kinematics of the flow of the material. Therefore, in order
was presented with the use of the finite element method.
Numerical Analysis
In the application which was developed in Ansys/LSDYNA environment, the object was modeled as flat (2D),
191
09.08.2010 14:20:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 7. Testing workstation for the formation of regular asperities

(a) turning lathe NEF 400, (b) detailed view.
This solution is easy to realize because there is no need to

rebuild the existing machine tools. The drawback of this
solution is that it is impossible to form asperities on rods
characterized by a high degree of slenderness (due to a
small stiffness of the machining system).
Ra = 1.25
0.012 A
d1 = 45
A
Ux=0, Uy=0
30
Figure 5. Digitized models: tool and object.
20
70
70
Ra = 0.63
B2.15
d = 50
for the case of a plane strain and a three-dimensional state

of stress (Figure 5). The influence of the following was
neglected in the calculations: the roughness of the surface
of the object and the embossing element, vibrations as well
as the elastic strains of the system composed of the machine tool, the grip, the tool and the object. The tool was
treated as being ideally rigid (E), while the material
machined was treated as an elastic/ideally plastic body
(E/P) or an elastic/plastic body (E/P) with isotropic and
kinematic linear hardening [3]. The object machined and
the tool were digitized with finite elements of Solid type.
The translational and rotational degrees of freedom for the
nodes at the bottom of the object were subtracted. Displacement in y direction was imposed on the tool.
20
70
20
Figure 8. Research specimen.

A
A
A
A
A
B
B
B
B
CC C
A
B
C BB B
BB B
C D MX
C
B
CC
C C DC C
C C
B
B
A
B
BB
B
B B B B BB
B B B BB
B B
B B
BB
A
B
B
A
A
A
B
B
A
AA
B B BB
A AA
A
A
A
AA AA A
A
AAA
A A A AA
A
A
A
A
A A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
AA
A
A A
A
AA
AAA
A A AA
A
A=.078743
B=.236229
C=.393715
(b)
(a)
D=.551201
Figure 6. Distribution of reduced (Huber-Misses) strain during

embossing process with friction in contact zone ( = 0.1).
Considering unknown boundary conditions in the contact

zone, an updated Lagranges description [3] was accepted.
Calculations of the changes in the parameters of the outline
were conducted for the case when a wedge with an apex
angle = 2 = 152 was driven in. For this case, the wedge
was driven into depths g which were g=0.25 mm for f=2
mm/revolution and g=0.058 mm for f=0.5 mm/revolutions
respectively, for two friction factors =0.01 and 0.1. It was
assumed that the process is quasi-static (the reduced of
strain rate z = 0 ) and isothermal (T = 20 C). The mathematical model was accepted for yield stress with mixed (isotropic and kinematic) linear hardening Y = 374 .27 + 1000 z
MPa. The examples: results of the simulation are presented in Figure 6.
Experimental Research
The investigations of the process of the plastic formation of
regular, symmetrical triangular macro-asperities were conducted on a numerical turning lathe (CNC) NEF 400 type,
manufactured by Gildemeister with Fanuc 210i steering (Figure 7).
192
Figure 9. Embossing element: (a) general view, (b) detailed view.
The minimum diameter of the rod subject to the embossing

process depends on many factors including for example the
following: the type of the objects material, the size and the
shape of the asperities embossed, the length and fixing of the
work-piece, the stiffness of the whole machining system etc.
When a preceding operation is required on rods with a small
diameter, it is necessary to apply a different processing system,
for example a three-roller system for thread rolling. The investigations were conducted on annealed rods prepared in accordance with Figure 8. For the purpose of embossing regular
asperities, a roller (an embossing element) was used with an
outline of a single wedge in the axial section, which was manufactured in accuracy IT6 class from steel X210Cr12 which had
been hardened to 65 HRC. It is presented in Figure 9. For the
purpose of the investigations conducted, one should twist out a
roller which embosses regular asperities in relation to the axis
of the work-piece by the angle which results from the embossing feed, and which is calculated from dependence (9) [3-7]:
= arc tg
fw
(9)
09.08.2010 14:20:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
where is the twist out angle of embossing element,
fw is the embossing feed and d is the workpiece diameter .
The sample results of the embossing of regular asperities
are presented in the form of surface stereometry in Figure
10.
(a)
Table 1. Results of experimental tests and computer simulations

Conditions of realization
of embossing process
[] f [mm/obr]
152
0.5
0.01
152
2.0
0.01
152
0.5
0.10
152
2.0
0.10
Vertical angle of
asperity []
Asperity height
h [mm]
Tests
Simulation
Tests
Simulation
150.42
149.14
0.066
0.069
147.66
0.280
0.290
151.28
150.00
0.064
0.067
150.86
149.78
0.260
0.270
148.72
(a)
(b)
Length = 4.82 mm Pt = 1.47 mm Scale = 3 mm
0,63
5
0,42
5
0,21
5
0
0
[mm]
05
0,6
1
1,2
1,8
15
2
2,4
25
3,0
3
3,6
35
4,2
4
4,8
4 5 mm
5,4
Figure 10. Stereometry of surface after embossing of regular

asperities (a) and surface profile (b).
(b)
Results of Investigations and Simulations

The results of the investigations and simulations are presented in Table 1 and in diagrams (see Figure 12). The
impact was analyzed of the conditions of the process realized on the geometrical parameters of the regular surface
asperities formed: apex angle and asperity height h (see
Figure 11).
Figure 12. Comparison of results of experimental tests with results

of simulations for (a) changes of apex angle and (b) changes of
height h.
Tool
Conclusions
2'
h'
Workpiece
fw
Figure 11. Quantities measured: asperity height h and apex
angle of asperity =2.
A test was conducted concerning the significance of the differences for the results of the experiment and the simulation.
The following statistical hypotheses were put forward: H0
there are no significant differences between group means, i.e.
the results of the numerical analysis and the results of experimental tests are not substantially different, compared with
the following alternative hypothesis: H1 the group means
are substantially different from one another, i.e. the results of
the numerical analysis and the experimental investigations are
significantly different. The statistical analyses for the corresponding results did not exhibit any substantial differences on
significance level = 0.05. It can be therefore established that
it is possible to forecast the properties of the product as early
as on the designing stage of the technological process with an
accuracy being sufficient for engineering practice.
1. The results of the theoretical analysis of the process can

be used only with regard to those materials which do not
exhibit any strain hardening and for small friction factors in the contact area.
2. The application developed in the Ansys/LS-DYNA system allows for a time analysis of the process of embossing of regular asperities and for gaining knowledge of
the course of many accompanying phenomena.
3. Plastic formation is possible of regular asperities for
embossing with the aid of a roller with an outline of a
single wedge. At the same time, a better representation
was obtained for feed f=2.0 mm/revolution.
4. The experimental tests served to confirm the results of the
computer analyses.
References
[1] R. Hill: The mathematical theory of plasticity. Oxford at The Clarendon Press, (1986).
[2] W. Szczepiski: Mechanika plastycznego pynicia. PWN, Warszawa
(1978).
[3] R. Patyk: Doctors Thesis, Koszalin University of Technology, (2006).
[4] S. Okonski: Head to rolling or burnishing inertial thread. Home patent
UP PRL nr 102591, (1979), (in Polish).
[5] F. Makwka, W. Olszak: Head to plastic formation inertial threads,
Home patent (1996), (in Polish).
[6] Z. urawski, J. Sikora, J. Puek: Thread rolling. WNT, Warszawa,
(1962), (in Polish).
[7] K. yczko: The technology of tool and the inertial thread rolling,
Czestochowa University of Technology, (1999), (in Polish).
193
09.08.2010 14:20:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
Three-Rolls-Type Hot Ring Rolling Process of Large Seamless Rings

Toshifusa Nakamizo1), Ichiro Takasu1), Morihiko Nakasaki1), Hiroshi Utsunomiya2)
1)
Research and Development Center, Sanyo Special Steel Co., ltd. / Japan, tnakamizo@himeji.sanyo-steel.co.jp;
Japan
2)
Osaka University /
Hot ring rolling is one of useful processes for production of large seamless rings such as bearing races for ships, airplanes and windmills.
The ring rolling is classified into two types, a two-rolls-type and three-rolls-type, by the roll layout. In this study, deformation characteristics
on three-rolls-type ring rolling process have been experimentally investigated. FE analysis with the ALE method was also carried out for the
ring rolling. FE analysis with the ALE method can simulate deformation characteristics in the three-rolls-type ring rolling. It has been found
that deformation characteristics near the center of the width of the ring were similar to those of plane strain compression. In this region,
grain flow toward the outer side was observed. It was found that the three-rolls-type ring rolling process shows less lateral spread and
relatively uniform deformation than the two-rolls-type process.
Keywords: Ring rolling, Deformation characteristics, Grain flow, FE analysis, ALE method
Introduction
Hot ring rolling is one of useful manufacturing processes for production of a large seamless ring. During this
process, a ring is deformed continuously in the localized
plastic zone. Because of this feature, advantages of this
process include a short production time, smaller deformation energy and less material waste.
The ring rolling process is classified into two types such
as two-rolls-type and three-rolls-type by their roll layout.
The two-rolls-type ring rolling, also called radial-axial
type, is widely used, therefore a lot of studies were carried
out [1-4]. While those of three-rolls-type ring rolling were
few due to their less applications [5].
In this paper, deformation characteristics of material in
three-rolls-type ring rolling process were investigated by
experiments and FE analysis. Preformed ring which had
some artificial hollows introduced periodically was rolled
on three-rolls-type ring rolling mill. After this process,
their strains were obtained by the displacements of hollows. FE analysis using ALE method was conducted.
Three-Rolls-Type Ring Rolling Mill. Figure 1 shows a
schematic diagram of a three-rolls-type ring rolling mill
[6]. This mill consists of two main rolls, one mandrel and
some backup rolls. Two main rolls are fitted together with
shafts of which axes lean 20 degree from horizontal axis.
Each shaft rotates independently with a constant angular
velocity. Because of this leaning, circumferential velocity
on the surface of main rolls has distribution.
The mandrel moves perpendicularly with the backup
rolls by a hydraulically driven system and rotates by
frictional force on the inner surface of the ring. A
preformed ring is deformed in the closed roll pass which
consists of two main rolls and one mandrel.
Preformed Ring. A preformed ring was prepared by the
process shown in Figure 2. The ring was machined from
steel bar with 200 mm in diameter. Because of this procedure, grain flow in the preformed ring is parallel along the
194
Main rolls
Ring
Mandrel
Backup rolls
Front view
Side view
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of three-rolls-type ring rolling mill.
axis. Grain flow in the ring rolling process was clarified by

this preformed ring.
By electrical discharge machining, some hollows of
2mm in diameter were introduced periodically in TD and
ND on this preformed ring.
After heating, this preformed ring was rolled on a threerolls-type ring rolling mill. Experimental conditions are
shown in Table 1.
200
2 hollows
182
43
75
Grain flow
Turning
Hot ring rolling
( three-rolls-type mill)
Electrical discharge
machining
232
43
163.3
Figure 2. Preparation of initial ring and product after ring rolling.
09.08.2010 14:20:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. Experimental conditions.
-1
Main
rolls
Mandrel
Ring
14.2
330
2350
Angular velocity /rads

Max diameter /mm
Max circumferential speed
/mms-1
Diameter /mm
Average feed speed /mms-1
Material
Temperature/ C
Lubrication
72
3.8
0.45%C Steel
1150
Water
Investigating Procedure of Ring-Rolled Ring. Rolled

ring was repeatedly sliced in TD or ND by constant interval to investigate the displacement of hollows in the ring
rolling process. Figure 3 shows experimental procedure
for inner hollows investigation. On each section, the coordinates of deformed hollows were measured. Displacement and strain after three-rolls-type ring rolling process
were calculated from inner hollows displacement. In this
study, cylindrical coordinate system was adopted.
While Ur near the center of the width is larger than that

near the edge of width on the each hollows.
Slicing depth from edge of width
1.3mm
9.5mm
outer side
outer side
21.0mm
(center of width)
outer side
inner side
inner side
5mm
inner side
Figure 5. Distribution of inner hollows on cross-sections of ring.
hollows
hollows
(a) Slicing toward TD
(b) Slicing toward ND
Figure 3. Experimental procedure to observe inner hollows.
Result
Radial displacement Ur /mm
50
r =45
40
30
20
r =85 r =75 r =65
r =55
10
0
Experiments. Figure 4 shows overview of a ring-rolled

ring. As shown in previous study [5], advancement caused
by distribution of circumferential velocity of main roll
surfaces was observed on the outer side of ring. On the
side surface, advancement of outer side is larger than that
of inner side.
Rolling direction
Rolling direction
-30
Outer side
A row of hollows
Figure 4. Overview of rolled ring and hollow on surface.
Figure 5 shows each cross-section by slicing in the TD.

The interval between hollows changed on each crosssection compared to initial interval.
Figure 6 shows the radial displacement Ur as a function
of initial z coordinates on the RD cross-section. In this
figure, coordinates of hollows before ring rolling is also
indicated with the radial displacement Ur. Ur near the
inner surface is larger than that near the outer surface.
-10
10
20
30
z coordinate /mm
Figure 6. Radial displacement over z coordinate.
Figure 7 shows the radial displacement Ur, radial strain
r and circumferential strain over r coordinate before

ring rolling. Strain r and were calculated from Eqs. (1)
and (2). In Eq. (1), h0 is the interval between adjacent

hollows before the ring rolling and h1 is that after the ring
rolling.
r = ln
Width side
-20
h1
h0
(1)
Ur
+ 1
r
(2)
= ln
The solid line in the Figure 7 is an ideal curve of the

plane strain compression. The radial displacement Ur and
are very close to those of the plane strain compression
near the center of the width, while near the edge of the
width, they are smaller than the plane strain compression.
The radial strain r is also close to the plane strain state
except for the outer side where larger compression strain
was introduced.
195
09.08.2010 14:20:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
is reformed by axial rolls and main rolls alternately. Due to
the above-mentioned grain flow phenomena in the threerolls-type ring rolling may be easier to form rings with a
complicated cross-section.
Radial displacement Ur /mm
50
40
30
Three-rolls-type
outer side
Two-rolls-type
outer side
inner side
inner side
20
inner surface
10
outer surface
0
0
25
50
75
100
r coordinate before ring-rolling /mm
Z=-20.2
Radial strain r
-0.2
Z=-11.1
Z=0
-0.4
Z=11.1
-0.6
Z=20.2
-0.8
plane strain
compression
-1
0
25
50
75
100
Figure 8. Comparison of grain flow on RD cross-section between

three-rolls-type and two-rolls-type.
FE Analysis. 3D FE analysis was applied to the threerolls-type ring rolling by using the Arbitrary Lagrangian
Eulerian (ALE) method. ALE method is useful to reduce
the computing time without loosing accuracy. Figure 9
shows the FE analysis model. Brick mesh was adopted and
the total number of initial elements was 9,500.
Table 2 shows the FE analysis conditions of the ring
rolling. The mandrel feed speed shown in Figure 10 was
obtained as a result of fitting to the hydlaulic power to the
experiment.
Circumferencial strain
1
0.8
Main rolls
0.6
0.4
Ring
0.2
Mandrel
0
0
25
50
75
100
Figure 9. FE analysis model.
Figure 7. Radial displacement Ur, radial strain r and circumferential strain over r coordinate before ring rolling.
Figure 8 compares grain flows on the RD cross-section

between three-rolls-type and two-rolls-type. Grain flow in
the ring by three-rolls-type ring rolling shows a curved
shape bulged from inner to outer side at the center of the
width, while that spread from outer to inner side on the
edge of width. These phenomena were considered due to
structural feature of three-rolls-type ring rolling. In the
three-rolls-type ring rolling, the material at the center of
the width tends to flow from the inner to the outer. That by
two-rolls-type ring rolling shows straight line. In the tworolls-type ring rolling, large lateral spread, also called fish
tail, occurs during the thickness reduction. Lateral spread
196
Table 2. FE analysis conditions.
Main
rolls
Mandrel
Ring
Angular velocity /rads-1
14.2
Max diameter /mm

Max circumferential velocity
/mms-1
Diameter /mm
Feed speed /mms-1
330
2350
Movement control
Torque 0
72
Figure 10.
Material
AISI-1045
Temperature /C
Friction factor
1150
m=0.7
The mandrel load from FE analysis was compared to the

experimental mandrel load. The mandrel load was sensed
09.08.2010 14:20:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
as a hydraulic load that was detected during ring rolling.
The result is shown in Figure 11. The FE analysis results
show good agreement with the experimental ones.
-0.2
Radial strain r
Mandrel feed speed /mms
-1
6
5
-0.4
experiment
-0.6
FE analysis
-0.8
4
3
-1
25
50
75
100
1
0
0
Figure 10. Prescribed mandrel feed speed.
300
Mandrel load /kN
250
200
150
Circumferencial strain
Ring rolling time /s

0.8
0.6
experiment
FE analysis
0.4
0.2
0
100
50
experiment
FE analysis
0
0
25
50
75
100
Figure 12. Radial stain r and circumferential strain over r coordinate before ring rolling.
Ring rolling time /s

Figure 11. Mandrel load over ring rolling time.
The radial strain r and circumferential strain from the

FE analysis and experiment in the center of the width are
shown in Figure 12. The radial strain r calculated from
the FE analysis shows comparatively good agreement with
the experimental result, while shows smaller than experiment especially on the inner side of the ring. This is
due to the reduction of ring volume caused by introduction
of hollows or difference of friction factor in the edge of
the width.
Conclusions
References
[1] M. Hayama, T. Oshima: Journal of JSTP, 22 (1981), 71-79.
[2] H.K. Moon, M.C. Lee, M.S. Joun: Int. J. Mech. Sci, 50 (2008), 306314.
[3] T.F. Stanistreet, J.M. Allwood, A.M. Willoughby: J. Mater. Process.
Technol., 177 (2006), 630-633.
[4] L. Hua, D. S. Qian, L. B. Pan: Int. J. Mech. Sci. 22 (2008), 13741382.
[5] M. Nakasaki, T. Nakamizo, I. Takasu, H. Utsunomiya: Journal of
JSTP, 50 (2009), 873-877.
[6] T. Nakamizo: Sanyo Technical Report, 11 (2004), 70-73
Deformation characteristics in the three-rolls-type ring

rolling were experimentally and numerically investigated.
1. In the three-rolls-type ring rolling, deformation was
similar to that of the plane strain compression except
near the edge of the width.
2. Deformation in the three-rolls-type ring rolling was
almost uniform on the RD cross-section and the lateral
spread is smaller because of the closed roll pass
formed by the main rolls and mandrel.
3. The FE analysis with the ALE method made it possible
to replicate practical deformation characteristics in the
three-rolls-type ring rolling.
197
09.08.2010 14:20:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
Numerical Simulation of Inhomogeneous Deformation in Cold Ring Rolling

Lianggang Guo, He Yang
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University,
Xi'an / China, glgglg66@nwpu.edu.cn
During cold ring rolling process, excessive inhomogeneous deformation often leads to residual stress, distortion and even damage in the
rolled rings. It is essential to find the reason and mechanism for controlling the inhomogeneous deformation. In this paper, strain distribution
and evolution laws in the radial, circumferential, and axial directions of the rolled rings under different process parameters have been explored by 3D-FE numerical simulations based on the FE models developed under ABAQUS/Explicit platform. Then the inhomogeneous
deformation behavior of cold ring rolling has been revealed by analyzing the characteristics of strain distribution. The obtained results provide a profound insight into the reason and mechanism of the inhomogeneous deformation and an important basis for the optimum design
of the cold ring rolling process parameters.
Keywords: Cold ring rolling, Inhomogeneous deformation, 3D-FE numerical simulation, ABAQUS/Explicit
Introduction
Cold ring rolling, as shown in Figure 1, is an advanced
forming technology increasingly applied to manufacture
various precision seamless ring-shaped parts with nice
metal streamline, favorable grain flow and high strength
owing to repeated work-hardening from multi-steps rolling.
So it is widely used in bearings and gears industries [1].
However, in practice, excessive inhomogeneous deformation often leads to residual stress, distortion and even damage in the cold ring rolled parts. For controlling the excessive inhomogeneous deformation, it is essential to deeply
understand the reason and mechanism of the inhomogeneous deformation and thereby guiding the optimum design
of the process. This issue has apparently not been discussed in the literature, although some studies [2-5] on the
cold ring rolling process were carried out.
Figure 1. Schematic of cold ring rolling.
Because of the three-dimensional deformation and complex geometry, boundary and material nonlinearities of the
process, it is a challenge to investigate the inhomogeneous
deformation behavior by analytical method and experimental observations. FE modeling and simulation, which
has capabilities of providing detailed information of various field variables such as stress, strain and temperature,
and performing more comprehensive, profound and detailed research over the analytical and experimental methods, has been proven to be an accurate method to explore
the deformation behavior of various complicated metal
forming processes [6].
In the present study, the inhomogeneous deformation
behavior of cold ring rolling is investigated based on the
3D-FE models developed under ABAQUS/Explicit platform to gain a profound insight into the reason and
198
mechanism of the inhomogeneous deformation during the

cold ring rolling process.
3D-FE Model and Its Verification of Cold Ring Rolling
3D-FE Model of Cold Ring Rolling. For simulating the
cold ring rolling process to understand its deformation
mechanism, many works have been done for obtaining a
precise and efficient 3D-FE model of the process. Under
the ABAQUS/Explicit platform, the authors have developed a 3D-FE model for the process, and the reliability of
the model has been verified in terms of the geometry development of the ring and roll force [7]. The guide rolls
play a significant roll in the process stability and circularity of the rolled ring. But it is a challenge to determine the
motions of the guide rolls and thereby to achieve their
roles. So in the previous paper [8], a simple method has
been proposed to determine the motion tracks of guide
rolls. But the method only works well for simulating the
rectangular section ring rolling process. So Li et al. [9]
proposed an adaptive control method of guide rolls in 3DFE simulation of cold ring rolling. This method can be
applied to various ring rolling processes, with preferable
ring circularity and process stability. The used 3D-FE
model of cold ring rolling in this study, which is improved
based on all the modelling technologies adopted in [7-9],
is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. 3D-FE model of cold ring rolling.
Verification of Model. An experiment has been done to

further prove the improved model. The used equipment, as
shown in Figure 3 (a), is D56G90 ring rolling mill. Figure 3 (b) shows some experimental samples.
09.08.2010 14:20:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
given in [10]. vf, n1 and are varied in simulations to explore their effects on inhomogeneous deformation behavior of cold ring rolling.
(a) D56G90
(b) Samples
Figure 3. Experimental equipment and samples.
Experiment conditions: the ring blank material is GCr15

bearing steel; the radii of the main roll, mandrel and guide
roll are 103.6, 19.5 and 13.0 mm, respectively; the ring
blank size (OD*ID*H) is 67.3*47.86*11.96; the rotational
speed of the main roll is 146 r/min; the feed rate of the
mandrel is taken as 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 mm/s, respectively.
The deformed geometries of the samples from simulation and experiment are illustrated in Figure 4. The comparison of average spread deformation (as defined in [10])
between simulation and experiment under different feed
rate of the mandrel is shown in Figure 5. From the figures
it can be concluded that the accuracy of the FE model for
the prediction of plastic deformation is sufficient. So in
this study, the model is employed to deeply investigate the
inhomogeneous deformation behavior of cold ring rolling.
(a) Simulation
(b) Experiment
Figure 4. Deformed shapes of samples from simulation and
experiment.
Figure 5. Comparison of spread deformation between simulation

and experiment under different feed rate of mandrel.
Main Parameters Influencing Deformation Behavior of

Cold Ring Rolling and Calculation Conditions
Main Parameters Influencing Deformation Behavior.
During the cold ring rolling process, the ring blank produces desired plastic deformation owing to the collaborative actions of the main roll, the mandrel and the friction
between them. So the feed rate vf of the mandrel, rotational
speed n1 of the main roll, and friction coefficient between them may be the main parameters influencing deformation behavior of cold ring rolling. For a given reduction in thickness of the ring, the bigger vf or the smaller n1,
the faster the deformation of the ring. The bigger , the
easier the ring blank goes into the roll gap to produce
plastic deformation. And the friction coefficients between the ring blank and the rolls may play an important
role in material flow.
Calculation Conditions. For investigating the inhomogeneous deformation behavior of cold ring rolling by
simulations, the needed calculation parameters are summarized in Table 1. The material of the ring blank is aluminum alloy HE30WP, and relative material parameters are
Table 1. Calculation parameters for studying inhomogeneous

deformation of cold ring rolling by simulations.
Outer radius of ring blank
Inner radius of ring blank
Height of ring blank
Radius of driver roll
Radius of idle roll
Radius of guide roll
Feed rates of the mandrel
Rotational speeds of the main roll
61.9 mm
39.7 mm
25.4 mm
104.8 mm
34.9 mm
34.9 mm
32%
vf
n1
For successfully performing a ring rolling process and a

simulation, the calculation conditions are determined by
the procedures proposed in [10], and are listed as follows.
1. Take =0.3 and n1=146 r/min, select vf = {1.0, 2.0, 3.0,
4.0 mm/s} but retain other parameter values in Table 1
unchanged.
2. Take =0.3 and vf =3.0 mm/s, select n1= {60, 100, 146,
180 r/min} but retain other parameter values in Table 1
unchanged.
3. Take n1=146 r/min and vf =3.0 mm/s, select = {0.2,
0.3, 0.4, 0.5} but retain other parameter values in Table 1
unchanged.
Strain Distribution and Evolution. The strain distribution and evolution laws in the radial (R), circumferential
(C), and axial (A) directions of the rolled rings under different vf, n1 and have been obtained using a post processing function in ABAQUS that can transform field variables in global coordinate system into a user-defined local
cylindrical coordinate system following 3 nodes on a circle (an outer diameter circle of the ring blank in this study).
Under different vf, the strain distribution contours and
their evolution laws are illustrated in Figure 6. In the R
direction, the compressive strain (r<0) first occurs on the
inside and outside of the ring, and gradually extends
throughout the ring wall. And the small strain zone close
to the middle layer of the ring gradually reduces with the
increase of vf. This asynchrony of deformation often leads
to inhomogeneity of deformation. In the C direction, the
tensile strain (>0) gradually decreases from the inside to
outside of the ring, i.e., inside > outside. This means that the
growth rates of the diameters from inside to outside of the
ring gradually decrease. This development of deformation
at different velocities is another reason of inhomogeneous
deformation. In the A direction, most of the ring produces
tensile strain (z>0), but at the middle on the inside and
end-faces of the ring, the compressive strain (z<0) zones
occur and gradually expand with the increase of vf. This
indicates that r=+z changes to r+z = according to
r++z=0 and r<0, >0 for the ring rolling process. This
transformation of strain type also will lead to
inhomogeneous deformation for the cold ring rolling
process.
199
09.08.2010 14:20:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
compressive strain zones occur and gradually reduce with
the increase of n1, as shown in Figure 7.
(a) Radial direction

(b) Circumferential direction

(b) Axial direction
Figure 7. Contours of plastic strain in R and A directions of rolled
rings under different n1.
Under different , the strain distribution contours in R, C

and A directions are also similar to those under different vf,
but have negligible evolutions, as shown in Figure 8.
(c) Axial direction
(d) Equivalent plastic strain (EPS)

Figure 6. Contours of plastic strain in R, C and A directions and
contours of equivalent plastic strain (EPS) of rolled rings under
different vf.
Under different n1, the strain distribution contours in R,

C and A directions are similar to those under different vf,
but their evolution laws are different. In the R direction,
the small strain zone close to the middle layer of the ring
expands with the increase of n1; and in the A direction, at
the middle on the inside and end-faces of the ring, the
200
(b) Axial direction

Figure 8. Contours of plastic strain in R and A directions of rolled
rings under different .
09.08.2010 14:20:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
Inhomogeneous Deformation Behavior. An index parameter i is proposed to evaluate the degree of inhomogeneous deformation. i is defined as:
(1)
i = (maxmin) i
k
i = i (k +1)
(2)
i=1
In Eqs. (1) and (2), max and min are the maximum and
minimum signed values of strain in the strain contours; k
is the contour intervals; i is the strain value corresponding
to each contour interval; and i denotes the average deformation degree of the rolled ring. For example, in the
contour of EPS when vf =2.0 mm/s, as shown in Figure 6
(d), max=1.31 and min=0.31; the value of k is 6; the values
of i are 0.31, 0.48, 0.65, 0.81, 0.98, 1.15 and 1.31, respectively; and i =0.81. The bigger is i, the more inhomogeneous is the deformation of the rolled ring.
The variations of i in the R, C and A directions and the
variations of i of EPS in the rolled rings under different vf,
n1 and are given in Figure 9.
(a) Under different vf
(b) Under different n1
(c) Under different

Figure 9. Variations of i in R, C and A directions and variations of
i of equivalent plastic strain (EPS) in rolled rings under different vf,
n1 and .
From Figure 9, the following conclusions can be drawn.
(1) The degrees of inhomogeneous deformation i in the A
direction under different vf, n1 and are far bigger than
those in the R and C directions. This shows that the inhomogeneous deformation of the rolled ring is mainly caused
by the strain gradient in the A direction. (2) From the
variation of i of EPS, it is seen that i declines gradually
with the increase of vf, ascends slowly with the increase of
n1, and is negligibly influenced by . This indicates that
the smaller is the feed rate vf of the mandrel, the more

inhomogeneous is the deformation of the rolled ring, that
the bigger is the rotational speed n1 of the main roll, the
more inhomogeneous is the deformation of the rolled ring,
and that the frictions between the ring blank and the rolls
have negligible effects on the inhomogeneous deformation
of the rolled ring. (3) Besides n1 having relative obvious
effects on i in the A, R and C directions, vf and , especially , seemingly have not obvious effects on i in the A,
R and C directions.
Conclusions
By comprehensive simulations and elaborative analyses,
the strain distribution characteristics and evolution laws in
the R, C, and A directions of the rolled ring under different
vf, n1 and have been obtained, and thereby the inhomogeneous deformation behavior of the process has been
explored. The main conclusions are summarized as follows.
1. The radial compressive strain r always first produces
on the inside and outside of the ring and extends
through the ring wall at an increasing speed with the
increase of vf and decrease of n1. For the circumferential tensile strain , inside > outside always exists. At
the middle on the inside and end-faces of the ring, the
compressive strain (z<0) zones occur and gradually
expand with the increase of vf and decrease of n1.
2. The asynchrony of deformation in the R direction, the
development of deformation at different velocities in
the C direction, and the transformation of strain type in
the A direction are the main reason and mechanism of
inhomogeneous deformation in the cold ring rolling
process.
3. The inhomogeneous deformation is mainly caused by
the strain gradient in the A direction of the ring. Increasing vf and decreasing n1 are beneficial to gain
more homogeneous deformation in the rolled rings.
The friction has negligible effects on the inhomogeneous deformation and strain distribution.
References
[1] J.M. Allwood, A.E. Tekkaya, T.F. Stanistreet: Steel Research International, 76-2-3 (2005), 111-120.
[2] L. Hua, D.S. Qian, L.B. Pan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 209-11 (2009), 5087-5096.
[3] F.L. Yan, L. Hua, Y.Q. Wu: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 47-11 (2007), 1695-1701.
[4] H. Yang, L.G. Guo, M. Zhan, Z.C. Sun: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 177-1-3 (2006), 634-638.
[5] H. Utsunomiya, Y. Saito, T. Shinoda, I. Takasu: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, 125-126 (2002), 613-618.
[6] H. Yang, M. Zhan, Y.L. Liu, F.J. Xian, Z.C. Sun, Y. Lin, X.G.
Zhang: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 151 (2004), 6369.
[7] L.G. Guo, H. Yang, M. Zhan, H. Li: Proc. 6th Int. Conf. on Frontier
of Design and Manu., 2123 June, 2004, Xian, China.
[8] L.G. Guo, H. Yang, M. Zhan, H. Li, L.Y. Li: Materials Science
Forum, 471472 (2004), 760-764.
[9] L.Y. Li, H.Yang, L.G. Guo, Z.C. Sun: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 205 (2008), 99-110.
[10] L.G. Guo, H. Yang, M. Zhan: Modelling Simul. Mater. Sci. Eng., 13
(2005), 10291046.
201
09.08.2010 14:20:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
An Innovate Approach to Automated Simulation of Full 3D Ring Rolling Process and

Other Incremental Forming Processes
Hendrik Schafstall, Christian Barth
simufact engineering gmbh, Tempowerkring 3, D-21079 Hamburg / Germany, hendrik.schafstall@simufact.de
As the setting of ring rolling processes is influenced by a lot of parameters, the need to optimize conditions using forming simulation is
growing with the constantly raising demands to shorten the time to market and to simultaneously reduce the development costs. Especially
for huge workpieces or workpieces made out of expensive alloys experiments are no longer an adequate base for process setting and
optimization. This paper focuses on an aspect of the simulation of ring rolling and other incremental forming processes often neglected in
the discussion of the required models: Frequently these processes are not driven by predefined kinematics but controlled by tricky algorithms based on in-process information and feedback. For industrial relevant simulations this closed-loop process control of the real machine needs to be implemented enabling to use - and thus to optimize - the same setting parameters in simulation and reality. An innovative,
already implemented approach to include this process control into automated simulations of all kind of incremental forming processes is
presented. All control algorithms are integrated into the Finite Element Solver thus time consuming switching between post processing and
solution phase of the analysis is avoided and in time feedback and control is enabled within each increment which leads to stable and fast
simulations with results very close to the reality. Mostly ring rolling is used to demonstrate the efficiency of the current approach, but additional examples such as cogging processes are given, too.
Keywords: Ring rolling, Incremental forming, Forming simulation, Finite element method, Closed-loop process control
Introduction
Ring rolling processes are widely used in industry because they are an effective method to produce ring shaped
parts with a small cross section compared to the overall
dimensions.
Even with the ring rolling machine and thus the basic
kinematics are given, the setting of a rolling process is
influenced by a lot of parameters and may be difficult to
control. Initially the ring growth velocity the increase of
the ring diameter per unit time may be limited by the
machine power or stiffness. After this a high ring growth
velocity ensures an effective process. At the end of the
process a calibration phase may be needed to achieve the
ring roundness and the desired cross section. During the
whole process the rotation of the ring with minimum slip
and a stable movement of the ring center must be achieved.
Modern ring rolling machines use sophisticated inprocess measurement and closed-loop control to maintain
a stable and effective process based on higher-order settings like the desired ring growth velocity. But these
higher-order settings still need to be found, verified and
optimized. Additionally further development of the control
algorithm of the machine may be desired. With the constantly raising demands to shorten the time to market and
to simultaneously reduce the development costs, shopfloor testing is no longer adequate.
Thus there is a growing need for forming simulation of
ring rolling processes. The use of ring rolling simulation
was limited in the past. This was due to the excessive
calculation times of the needed 3d models and the required
huge number of calculation increments to reflect the incremental process characteristics. Additionally the complex kinematics and the demanding contact conditions are
a challenge for the simulation.
In [1], a summary of research activities to enable fast
and accurate ring rolling simulations is given. One approach for this is to use dynamic explicit finite element
202
simulations, e.g. [2]. But generally this approach is known

for its limited accuracy of calculated residual stresses and
process forces when mass scaling is used to achieve computational efficiency, compare [3].
V. Hehl [4] stresses the difficulties of finite element ring
rolling simulations as reason for his development of a
modular system for fast microstructure evaluation. He
points out that for finite element simulations the kinematics, thus the changing speeds and feeds, need to be considered very accurately.
Requirements on Ring Rolling Simulation
The requirements on the ring rolling simulation can be
separated into two groups:
1) General requirements on the model to achieve realistic
simulations based on the movement of the rolls.
2) Requirements regarding in-process measurement and
closed-loop control to avoid the need to predefine all
movements and to enable process control based on
higher-order settings similar to the real machine control.
This paper focuses on the second group of requirements
and how they are met.
Model Set-up for Ring Rolling Simulation
The commercial software simufact.forming is used for
the simulations presented in this paper. The software uses
customized versions of the finite element solver
MSC.Marc and of the finite volume solver MSC.Dytran.
For ring rolling the implicit finite element method is used.
The solver allows rigid body movements, thus the ring
can be rotated and there is no need to move the rolls
around the ring. Elastic-plastic material behavior is used in
fully mechanical-thermal coupled analysis which enables
to include the calibration phase in the simulation. Volume
constancy is not predefined but results form the accurate
09.08.2010 14:20:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
modeling of the physics. Contact and friction calculation,
including the release of nodes that leave a roll, is stable.
For the ring rolling simulations a special ring mesher is
used that produces a consistent mesh of hexahedron elements (Figure 1). For finite element analysis, hexahedron
element is known to produce better results. To speed up
the simulation the stabilizing effect of the rolling table can
be replaced by a spring stabilizer that adds tilting stiffness
to the model.
During the solution phase the solver knows the current

center positions and translational and rotational velocities
of all rolls, which are modeled as rigid bodies, as well as
the forces on them. Furthermore the bounding box dimensions of the deformable bodies can be queried. These and
some more values can be accessed by user subroutines,
which read input parameters, for example higher-order
settings, form the input file. Based on this theses subroutines calculate the desired position, velocity or force for
each rigid body. The calculated data is then used to control
to the rigid body in the next calculation step. The result is
a fast and robust closed-loop process control.
pre-processing
higher-order settings
Solver
current status:
positions, dimensions
velocities, forces
Figure 1. Finite element mesh produced automatically with ring

mesher, partly as cross sections to show the principle.
The models contain the real kinematics, including skewwhiff axes and the separation between driven rolls and
drag rolls. The drag rolls are rotated by friction and not
modeled as not rotating frictionless cylinders. As far as it
is predefined, the detailed movement of the rolls is used as
input including multi-dimensional forward and backward
movements.
As the loads and boundary conditions on the workpiece
are not symmetric during ring rolling full 3d models have
been used. Even in cases where symmetry perpendicular to
the ring axis may be a reasonable assumption, symmetry
should not be used because of the stabilizing effect of the
symmetry plane that would suppress all tilting effects.
Integration of Closed-Loop Control in Simulation
Typically the translational and rotational velocities of
the dies are used to calculate the finite element solution.
But for most incremental forming processes the velocities
are usually not pre-defined for the whole process. Within
the real machine the current status positions, dimensions,
and forces is continuously measured and used to calculate updated speeds and feeds using closed-loop control.
For industrial relevant simulations of such processes the
same control loop must be implemented in the simulation.
Positions, dimensions and forces are usually analyzed in
the post-processing phase of a finite element analysis,
whereas the definition of velocities is normally done in the
pre-processing phase. In the controlled simulation of incremental forming processes this would lead to continuous
ineffective jumping between the different phases and thus
probably to a control loop only every couple of increments.
To avoid this and to enable process control within each
increment the whole control algorithm was integrated into
the finite element solver, including the required measurement of positions, dimensions, forces and other status
quantities (Figure 2).
calculation of feeds and speeds
post-processing
results of the incremental forming process
Figure 2. Closed-loop control within finite element solver.
On the one hand simufact.forming is shipped with a set

of standard controls for the most common applications. On
the other hand this approach can be used to implement
special applications, for example to match a certain CNC
control. Because these special applications are confidential
only some standard controls can be presented here as examples to show the strength and effectiveness of this approach to model incremental forming processes.
Center Rolls. During radial axial ring rolling the ring is
guided by one or two center rolls to maintain the desired
position of the ring center. The center rolls themselves
move on an arc with the position controlled by the current
diameter of the ring or by other individual parameters
(Figure 3). Thus the ring diameter needs to be determined
continuously during the simulation and the updated position of the center rolls needs to be calculated and controlled. The diameter of the ring can either be determined
by the bonding box of the ring or by the position of a
spring loaded measurement roll. The later alternative is
especially useful for profiled rings and allows to match the
real measurement in the rolling machine. The center rolls
are free rotating drag rolls.
Infeed Velocity. For some radial profile ring rolling
processes additionally to the position of the center roll the
infeed velocity of the main roll is controlled by the current
ring diameter, including the switch to the calibration phase,
as shown in Figure 4.
203
09.08.2010 14:20:59 Uhr
Metal Forming
real control strategy may have differed from the implemented control resulting in justified differences. The calculation time of the shown model was about three days on
a standard workstation using only one CPU.
main
roll
mandrel
center
roll 1
ring
center
roll 2
start
velocity
of main
roll
end
velocity
of main
roll
calibration
velocity
of main
roll
potential diameter decrease at

the begin of the rolling process
Figure 3. Path of center rolls during axial radial ring rolling, axial
rolls omitted.
initial outer diameter

of the ring
Figure 5. Radial axial ring rolling model, initial position.
roll-out
rotations
of the main
roll without
infeed
1025C
switch
final
diameter diameter
Figure 4. Infeed velocity of main roll depending on ring diameter

for radial profile ring rolling.
1070C
edges
Results of Ring Rolling Simulation
204
1025C
980C
Figure 6. Temperature distribution at end of example process.

500
X coordinate of center of center roll [mm]
Center Rolls. Hot radial axial ring rolling of C60 steel

is used as an example to demonstrate the accuracy of
simufact.formings standard control of the position of the
center rolls for radial axial ring rolling. In this example the
outer diameter of a ring with rectangular cross-section is
increased by the factor 1.8 to 790 mm. Figure 5 shows the
model, Figure 6 the temperature distribution at the end of
the process.
The movements of mandrel and axial rolls and the rotation of the driven main roll and axial rolls were taken as
input form the real process. The position of the center rolls
was controlled by the current ring diameter thus that the
center rolls are always just touching the ring. If desired,
offsets can be specified to position the center rolls tighter
or looser or to offset the center of the ring from the line
through the centers of mandrel and main roll, which is
useful for profiled rings.
Figure 7 compares the simulated path of the center rolls
with their path in reality. It can be seen that simulation and
reality are in good agreement. It should be noted that the
path in reality
simulated, self controlled path
450
400
350
300
0
10
20
time [s]
30
40
Figure 7. Path of center roll.
09.08.2010 14:21:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
Infeed Velocity. Hot radial profile ring rolling of
42CrMo4 steel is used to demonstrate simufact.formings
standard control of the infeed velocity of the main roll. In
this example mainly the profile of the ring is formed, the
outer diameter is only slightly increased to 210 mm. The
main roll is the only driven roll and rotates with constant
frequency. Its movement was defined as function of the
current ring diameter as described in Figure 4. This included the determination of the end of the process, too.
The results shown in Figure 8 illustrate how this control
links the infeed velocity to the diameter and the form fill.
The calculation time of the used model was about a day on
a standard workstation using only one CPU.
infeed velocity of main roll

[mm/s]
12
decrease linear with diameter,

not linear with time
0
0
time [s]
of the process
start
inner profile filled
ring diameter starts to increase infeed velocity is reduced
nearly filled, ring switch diameter reached
profile
calibration starts
end of the process
Figure 8. Infeed control for radial profile ring rolling.
Adaptation of Simulation Approach to Cogging

Cogging and radial forging are incremental forming
processes that need in-process control, too, because the
number of blows in each pass is usually not predefined but
depends on the current length of the part. The principle
and the architecture of the described closed-loop control
can be used for this.
Simufact.formings standard control for cogging and radial forging calculates not only the required number of
blows in a pass but enables the input of comprehensive
forging plans consisting of several heats and passes using
standard forging nomenclature. All required movement
and rotations are calculated during the simulation based on
the current shape of the part. Heating and cooling processes can be included. Figure 9 shows the temperature
distribution during cold radial forging of a 9 kg pipe made
of 16MnCr5 steel.
37C
53C
70C
86C
136C
120C
103C
Figure 9. Temperature distribution in a radial forging process with

four forging heads, front head masked out.
Conclusions
Ring rolling and other incremental forming processes
are usually not driven by predefined kinematics but controlled based on in-process information. For industrial
relevant simulations this closed-loop control needs to be
implemented. An effective approach for this is to integrate
the whole control algorithm, including the required measurement of positions, dimensions, forces and other status
quantities, into the finite element solver. This way time
consuming switching between pre-processing, solution
and post-processing phase is avoided and control is enabled within each calculation increment.
This solver integrated closed-loop control enables real
process optimization using the same higher-order settings
in simulation and reality. Ring rolling, cogging and radial
forging can be simulated efficiently using the standard
controls of simufact.forming. But the concept and the open
architecture enable the adaptation of closed-loop control to
all kind of incremental forming processes. Further control
algorithms are in development, partly in cooperation with
machine manufactures to implement the same controls in
simulation and in reality.
Ring rolling simulation can be combined with the simulation of the pre-forming and heat treatment operations to
achieve the closed simulation of the whole process chain.
Changes in the microstructure can be included in the simulation, too. With parallel computing using the domain
decomposition method a considerable speed up of the
simulations is possible.
References
[1] P. Groche, D. Fritsche, E.A. Tekkaya, J.M. Allwood, G. Hirt, R.
Neugebauer: CIRP Annals, 56-2 (2007), 635-656.
[2] M. Wang, H. Yang, Z.C. Sun, L.G. Guo: Journal of Materials
[3] P. Pauskar: Proc. Workshop on Modelling of Incremental Bulk Forming Processes, Darmstadt, (2006).
[4] A. v Hehl,: Thermomechanische Behandlung beim Ringwalzen
Modelle zur schnellen Simulation der Gefgeevolution, Dissertation
RWTH Aachen, Shaker Verlag, Aachen (2010).
205
09.08.2010 14:21:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
Rotary Compression Processes of Hollowed Parts

Jarosaw Bartnicki, Jarosaw Magryta, Zbigniew Pater, Grzegorz Samoyk
Department of Computer Modelling and Technology of Metal Forming, The Lublin University of Technology, Lublin / Poland
j.bartnicki@pollub.pl
This paper discusses the analysis of rotary compression process of hollowed shafts made of steel C45 and titanium alloy Ti6Al4V.
In numerical research, a case of forming of a single necking of a part with initial diameter d0=25 mm reduced to df=20 mm was analysed.
MSC.SuperForm2005 software was applied in calculations, with considering 3D state of strain and thermo-mechanical phenomena present
during process conducted in hot forming conditions. After obtaining the satisfactory results of simulations by FEM, tools sets consisting of
two rolls and one tool segment were designed and made in metal. For experimental research on rotary compression process, a crosswedge rolling mill LUW-2 was used. Products with central necking, obtained in laboratory tests, were later analysed within the scope of
dimensional deviations and walls thickness distributions in longitudinal sections of obtained parts. This last parameter is extremely important in estimating the further possibilities of practical scope of application of rotary compressed hollowed products.
Keywords: Rotary compression, FEM, Cross-wedge rolling, Wedge-rolls rolling, Hot forming, Hollowed parts, Titanium shafts
Introduction
Hollowed products of shafts type are more widely used
in techniques instead of, applied so far, full elements.
Apart from favorable reduction of mass of this type of
hollowed products, their metal forming becomes more
often a bigger challenge.
At present, the most often used in industry methods of
obtaining of these products include: drawing, rotary forging, swaging, extrusion and hydrostatic forming [1-3]. At
the same time in many countries research centers conduct
research on the development of new metal forming methods of stepped hollowed products. The latest solutions deal
with technologies of cross rolling (including cross-wedge
rolling (CWR), wedge-rolls rolling (WRR) and rolling
extrusion proposed by Lublin University of Technology
[4,5].
Results of conducted research works [6,7] show wide
possibilities of application of the mentioned above methods, however, they also have certain limits, resulting
mainly from the possibility of billets squeezing in the
workspace between tools and slips causing disturbances of
obtained products shape. The stability of such obtained
products can also be disturbed by the appearance of uneven metal flow in the direction to axis of longitudinal
formed products, which leads e.g. to disturbances of
roundness of shafts steps. A certain solution of this problem in hollowed products forming is application of three
working tools, which are placed uniformly on the circumference. Application of this solution considerably limits
parts shape faults, resulting from not proper material flow
during the process [8,9].
Distributions of wall thickness in cross sections and longitudinal ones are an important issue concerning forming
of stepped hollowed products. As it was discussed in research works [5-7] in rolling processes with the application of wedge tools (CWR, WRR), thinning of the wall in
the area of diameters reduction is always present, yet, this
phenomenon depends directly on tools segments geometry.
In rolling extrusion processes, wall thickness can be predicted and designed by means of adequately chosen process parameters. Depending on rolls tools shape and value
206
of feed on rotation with which material is implemented

into workspace, it is possible to enlarge and reduce walls
thickness of the formed product in its given areas.
The authors assumed that the proposition of WRR
schema application for forming of hollowed products with
replacement of wedge segment with simple one (Figure 1)
leads to obtaining products of assumed external shape,
having at the same time local thickenings of walls in the
formed area. This is, however, the effect of directing metal
flow in radial direction with limitations of axial one. The
aim of conducted research on rotary compression was to
determine potential possibilities of this solution application for forming of elements in hot conditions from steel
C45 and Ti6Al4V titanium alloys.
Figure 1. Schema of the rotary compression process.
Research on rotary compression process

Laboratory Stand. In experimental research on rotary
compression process, research stand consisting of laboratory rolling mill LUW-2, furnace and measuring unit was
used. This rolling mill, which is the equipment at Lublin
University of Technology, was rebuilt in order to make
09.08.2010 14:21:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
forming by means of three working tools possible in practice.
An important advantage of this rolling mill design is the
possibility of its rebuilding for CWR and WRR processes
realization. For the WRR process the same rolls as in the
case of rotary compression can be used, only the upper
tool is replaced by wedge segment. However, for the realization of CWR process in the two flat wedges configuration, the rolls gear is replaced by lower tool slide driven by
the second hydraulic servo-motor. The lower tool slide
equipped with wedge segment is positioned by means of
guiding devices with shafts mounted on the lower plate.
The rolling mill LUW-2 in configuration for rotary compression process realization is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Laboratory rolling mill LUW 2 prepared for rotary compression process realization.
Tools and Billets Preparation. Using results of research on WRR technologies [6], tools segments shape for
rotary compression process was worked out. Both in flat
segment and in profiled rolls it was decided to apply side
wall inclination angle = 30. In CWR and WRR processes, this value of forming angle guaranteed obtaining
certain equilibrium between axial and radial metal flow.
The length of tool segment was determined on the basis of
numerical calculations FEM in such a way that appropriate
sizing of product, in order to remove cross section shape
disturbances presented during the process, was possible
[5].
A chosen course of numerical simulation of product cross
section disturbance in form of ovalization is given in
Figure 3.
segments length resulted from the application in conducted

research three different lead angles of forming zone front
surface. This angle, described in Figure 1 as had values
= 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0.
Figure 4. Tools used in experimental research on rotary compression processes of hollowed parts.
In research works it was decided to form a single, central necking of hollowed shafts with diameter reduction
from 25 to 20 mm.
Billets destined for research had the length lw = 80 mm
and the walls thickness go = 3 or 4 mm. Billets were made
from steel bar C45 type and titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V)
shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Hollowed billets used in experimental research.
Figure 3. Ovalization phenomenon presence in cross section of

formed product (section in symmetry axis of billet).
The designed and worked out tools set for rotary compression process is shown in Figure 4. Diversification of flat
Obtained Results. As the rotary compression process

research wes done in hot forming conditions, billets were
heated to temperature 1150 C (C45) and to 950C
(Ti6Al4V). During research basic kinematics and force
parameters were measured. Obtained in rotary compression process products were measured in order to analyze
shape faults (in the roundness deviations) and later they
were cut longitudinally in order to analyze wall thickness
distributions on the obtained product length. Examples of
207
09.08.2010 14:21:04 Uhr
Figure 6. Hollowed parts (with longitudinal sections) in workspace

of LUW - 2 aggregate.
Results of measurements of walls thickness changes of

products in longitudinal sections are presented in Figure 7.
The presented comparison of distributions of steel products walls thickness obtained in experiments and in FEM
shows good convergence of this parameter changes. Local
lowering of walls thickness, observed in zone of sections
6-6, 7-7 and 8-8 (for products with g=3 mm) points to
disturbances presence in axial metal flow. Differences
between calculated and measured, real walls thickness of
products formed from steel billets are within the range up
to 12%. Larger than in experiment variations of calculated
by FEM walls thickness of rotary compressed products
can be connected with higher plasticity of this material in
simulation conditions, where the billets assumed initial
temperature was 1150 C. In real conditions, the heated
billet, apart from covering the distance to workspace of
rolling mill, underwent intensive cooling while contacting
tools. Such lowering of temperature at the process beginning could lead to small changes in the process course.
This phenomenon, especially during forming of products
from titanium alloys, will be the subject of further research
works with temperature measurement during forming.
Analysis of the obtained experimental results for steel
and titanium alloy showed that walls thickness in such a
conducted rotary compression process increases proportionally at about 35/40%.This change had a repeated character and was only to a small extend dependable on walls
thickness of applied billet. Implementation of titanium
alloys billets in the place of steel billets did not considerably influence changes of this parameter. Simultaneous
introduction in experimental tests steel and popular titanium alloy showed only small differences in these metals
flow during forming.
208
Wall thickness, %
hollowed products after removing 1/4 of part in order to

show their walls is presented in Figure 6.
Total equivalent plastic strain FEM (C45 g=4 mm)
Metal Forming
145
140
135
130
125
120
115
110
105
Section, n
100
1 2 3 4 5
g=3mm C45 EXP
9 10 11 12 13
g=3mm C45 FEM
g=4mm C45 EXP
g=4mm C45 FEM
g=3mm Ti6Al4V EXP
g=4mm Ti6Al4V EXP
Figure 7. Distributions of walls thickness of rotary compressed

hollowed products from steel and aluminum alloys.
Figure 8 presents distribution of tangent (Fx) and radial

(Fz) forces (according to Figure 1) in rotary compression
process of steel C45 and Ti6Al4V titanium alloy parts with
wall thickness g=4 mm.
Values of tangent and radial forces increases in both
cases equally to finishing of forming stage of the process
(reduction of parts diameter). During forming in sizing
zone (diameter calibrating), values of forces (especially of
radial forces) decrease proportionally together with removal of cross section shape disturbances presented in
Figure 3. The efficiency of this process is connected with
length of this zone. By analogy with CWR and WRR processes, it was assumed that formed parts must be rolled in
this zone about 3/3.5 times in order to decrease shape
faults presence. Considering forces course, similar observations can be made during comparing experimental and
calculated by FEM results for steel billets. In this case,
calculated components of force are lower within the whole
range than values measured in experiment. This can be
connected with mentioned above preserved in calculations
higher temperature of formed product or with disturbances
09.08.2010 14:21:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
of working cycle resulting in oscillating course of real
forces.
Fx C45 EXP
Fx Ti6Al4V EXP
Fx C45 FEM
Fz C45 EXP
Fz Ti6Al4V EXP
Fz C45 FEM
25
Force values, kN
20
15
10
5
4,
9
4,
4
3,
8
3,
2
2,
2,
1,
6
1,
0
0,
0,
0
Time, s
Figure 8. Distribution of tangent and radial forces measured

(EXP) and calculated (FEM) in rotary compression process of
billets with wall thickness g = 4 mm.
As one of the most important factors concerning possible application of the analyzed forming method, roundness
deviation of obtained products was assumed, measured in
three sections: 9 9, 11 - 11 and 13 - 13 (according to
Figure 7) This parameter values did not exceed 0.3 mm in
all zones, which was regarded as a satisfactory result. The
manufacturing allowances predicted for the parts with the
same diameter range obtained by means CWR technology
are +0.6 mm and 0.4 mm [10] These allowances permit
to make a final parts by means of grinding operations.
Conclusions
Results of conducted experimental research confirmed
the possibility of hollowed products forming by means of
rotary compression. This process allowed for obtaining
products from steel and titanium alloys with local increase
of walls thickness in the area of diameter reduction. However, in CWR and WRR processes, it is impossible to
obtain such favourable enlarging of wall thickness which
limits significantly scope of applications of these methods.
Observed during rotary compression wall thickness enlarging can be useful for guaranteeing unchangeable mechanical characteristics, although products diameter is reduced.
This phenomenon can be also used for the further machining of these areas in order to produce e.g. toothed elements
as stepped, hollowed shafts.
Comparing the rotary compression with CWR and
WRR methods the length of flat tool segment for rotary
compression process is smaller then in CWR and WRR
technology. This fact can increase the productivity of this
process and it limits machine size. Designing and manufacturing of tools for this process is also easier, which
allows for reduction of implementation costs of this technology. The another possibility is using of multiple rolls
sets with parallel possibility of forming more then one part
at the same time.
The lack of axial metal flow during rotary compression
limits possibility of part shapes designed by this method
but results of conducted research point to the possibility of
obtaining satisfactory narrow scopes of dimensional tolerances of roundness, which is one of the key problems in
cross rolling processes of hollowed products. Rare presence of slide phenomenon during process, especially for
products with smaller walls thickness, shows the necessity
for the further works on tools design and on realization of
research on applied technological parameters influence.
Acknowledgements
Financial support of Structural Funds in the Operational
Programme Innovative Economy (IEOP) financed from
the European Regional Development Fund Project No
POID. 0101.02-00-015/08 is gratefully acknowledged.
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[10] Z. Pater: Walcowanie poprzeczno klinowe, Publ. Lublin University of Technology, Lublin, (2009), 1-471, (in Polish).
209
09.08.2010 14:21:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
The Influence of Roll Inclination Angle in Three-Roll Rotary Rolling of Bi-Metallic Rod
Abdullatif Al-Salmi, Peter Hartley
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
This paper focuses on the use of the finite element method to simulate and analyse the three-roll rotary rolling process for producing bimetallic rod. There are a number of variations on the basic rotary rolling technique which can incorporate three, four or more rolls. One of
these methods is PSW (Planetenschragwalzwerk), which is also referred to as planetary rolling. One of the major advantages of this process is the large area reduction that can be achieved by one rolling pass of a PSW mill, which is approximately equivalent to that of 68
rolling passes of a traditional rolling mill. The process has often been used in tube manufacture. Initially a basic geometric model of PSW
rolling that considered roll profiles and offset angles of the rolls was constructed. A full three-dimensional elastic-plastic finite element model
was then used to study the effect of the changes in inclination angles of the rolls on both the bar deformation characteristics, the distributions of stress and the roll bearing forces. In the examples here the inner core of the bi-metallic rod is C45, while the cladding layer is much
harder steel. The reduction of the bar from 40 mm diameter to 20 mm diameter requires an area reduction of 75%, much greater than
would be achieved in a single pass of normal bar rolling. A range of roll inclination angles between 9 and 18 are considered. The results of
the modelling show that an increase in the angle of inclination of the rolls will reduce the bearing force. Greater levels of stress are observed in the outer layer compared to those in the softer inner core. With the process conditions used here an undulating surface develops
in all cases resulting from the high twisting effect imposed during the process.
Keywords: FEM, Rotary rolling, Bimetallic bars, PSW, Roll bearing forces
Introduction
An increased interest in the use of bimetallic bars has
been observed in recent years. One of the most important
conditions for the industrial use of such bars is to assure
the high strength of the interfacial joint between the individual layers of the two materials. Also of importance are
corrosion resistance, high strength and electrical conductivity. One of the principal bar manufacturing methods
employs a Planetenschragwalzwerk (PSW) mill [1]. This
bimetallic bar rolling process is similar to the process of
rolling seamless tubes and is also referred to as rotary
rolling. The mechanism of flow is different to that in conventional groove rolling for example, due to the different
geometrical parameters in the roll gap. The PSW process
involves three conical rollers and an external ring, as
shown in Figure 1. The rollers are inclined and are equally
spaced around the axis of the workpiece.
piece during the process and to help maintain the roundness of the rods after rolling. The axis of the roll can be
adjusted to form a cross angle () and a feed angle ()
which causes the workpiece to move forward as the rollers
rotate as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Geometrical concept of cross angle () and feed angle

() of the three-roll planetary mill (PSW) [8].
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the three-roll planetary mill (PSW)

[1].
The ring encloses the rollers and rotates in the opposite

direction to that of the rollers. The main purpose of the
ring is to balance the twisting deformation of the work-
210
The axes of the three conical rolls are arranged at intervals of 120, and rotate around the deforming bar. The
surface of each roll is composed of two regions, one is the
reduction zone with a tapered cone, and the other is the
cylindrical smoothing zone, as shown in Figure 3. Various
cross-sectional reductions of the product can be obtained
simply by adjusting the axes of the three-rolls. An imporsteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:21:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
tant advantage of the three-roll mill is the low cost of operation and maintenance and the small plant space required
compared to more conventional bar rolling processes.
Furthermore, the advantages of PSW include flexibility of
ingot size, low rolling load, low lateral spread of material
and a low temperature drop between the leading and trailing end of the rolled bar [2-6].
Steel
C45
360L
Table 1. Coefficients of steels [4].

m2
m3
A0 (MPa) m1 (1/C)
1521.3
-0.00269
-0.12651
0.14542
4321.6
-0.00305
0.10835
0.08647
m4
-0.05957
-0.01270
360L
C45
Figure 4. Cross section showing the materials of the bimetallic bar.
Boundary Conditions
Figure 3. Roll profile of the roller for an inclination angle () of 18

degrees (dimensions in m).
Little research has been done on completely simulating

the planetary rolling process for bimetallic rod with threedimensional finite element analysis. Szota and Dyja [4]
carried out theoretical studies on bimetallic ribbed bar in
groove rolling to determine the effect of the shape and
dimensions of the feedstock on the metal flow in the roll
gap. Sawicki et al. [3] examined bimetallic bar rolling in a
three-high skew mill to determine the distributions of
stress and strain intensities in the rolled bar. The purpose
of the present study is to develop a suitable finite element
model and hence further analyze the planetary rolling
process. This will lead to a systematic assessment of various rolling parameters, in this case the inclination angle ,
on the rolling force and deformation of the bar. The numerical modelling was performed using Abaqus/CAE and
Abaqus/Explicit. One advantage of Abaqus/Explicit is the
option of automatic mass scaling for bulk metal rolling
that allows the optimum scaling to be selected based on
several parameters of the rolling process [7].
Material Properties
Figure 5. Effect of relative strength on rotary rolling for clad bar [8].
The materials chosen for this analysis are two grades of

steel as shown in Figure 4. The flow curves for different
strain rate and temperatures were modelled using the Norton-Hoff law [4]:
p = A0e m T m m e m
1
The operation of the PSW process includes the orbital

revolution of the three rollers, the rotation of the rollers
about their own axes and the rotation of the external ring.
The major boundary conditions include the contact between the three rollers and the workpiece and the contact
between rollers and the ring. Thus, a complete model will
make the finite element analysis very complex. In addition,
control over the rotation of each component and analysis
of contact between each component will incur a huge
computational time. The equivalent behaviour may be
modelled if the axes of the rollers are fixed and the orbital
revolution of the rollers is ignored, the external ring can
then be omitted from the PSW model. The orbital motion
provided by the external ring can be taken care of by the
relative motion of the workpiece with free rotational degrees of freedom. It was assumed that the cladding layer
was made of 360L steel with a softer core to eliminate the
possibility of the cladding layer separating as shown in
Figure 5. In order to treat the bimetallic bar as a homogenous part in Abaqus, the tie contact option between the
layers of the bimetallic bar during the simulation was
adopted, so that no separation will be permitted between
during the process.
[MPa]
The rolls are assumed to be rigid and the process isothermal (at 1000 C), any heat exchange between rolls and
the rod is excluded. The profiles of the rolls used in the FE
models are shown in Figure 6.
(1)
The coefficients of these materials are listed in Table 1.

The Poisson ratio and Young's modulus were respectively
0.3 and 90 GPa for each material.
211
09.08.2010 14:21:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
from 1 to 1e7 has been tested by measuring the ratio of the
kinetic energy to the internal energy for the model to be
quite negligible. A mass scaling factor of 103 was chosen
for the bimetallic bar, only to speed up the analysis. The
rollers and the pushing part were excluded from the mass
scaling to eliminate their inertia effect on the kinetic energy of the model [9].
Figure 6. Shapes and dimensions of work-rolls used in the analyses, showing the four different inclination angles.
The bimetallic bar is composed of a tube of a diameter

of 40 mm and a wall thickness of 4 mm and a round rod of
diameter 32 mm, Figure 7.
Figure 8. FEM model of three-roll rotary rolling, side view.
Figure 7. Longitudinal cross section shape and dimensions of the

original bar (dimensions in m).
The rotational speed of the rolls was 100 rpm around

their own axes. A pushing cup is introduced into the
model to ensure initial contact is made between the rolls
and the workpiece, and also as a guide tube for the bimetallic bar to keep it concentric with the entire model
(see Figure 8). The initial speed of the pushing cup with
frictionless walls was 1 mm/sec, this is reduced to zero
after the rod is gripped by the rolls. The friction factor
used in this analysis between the roll surfaces and the
outer surface of the bimetallic bar was 0.7 [3]. The whole
model comprised 16280 C3DSR elements, i.e. 8-node
solid finite element with reduced integration, Figure 9.
Since the PSW rolling process generates a high shear deformation on the bar surface which causes excessive element distortion, ALE adaptive meshing is adopted. This
provides control of mesh distortion without altering the
topology and maintains a high quality mesh even when
large deformations occur. A range of mass scaling values
212
Figure 9. Cross-section of mesh configuration for bimetallic bar

before rolling.
In all cases a reduction of 75% was applied in a single

pass. The initial diameter of 40 mm was reduced to 20 mm
by adjusting the roll gap to maintain the same reduction
for all inclination angles.
The total horizontal rolling reaction force, equivalent to
the bearing load, was determined. Figure 10 shows the
total reaction force on the rolls for each inclination angle.
In each case there is a gradual, almost linear increase if
force as the bar enters the roll gap, after which it levels out
to a near uniform value. In general there is a difference of
about 40kN between the steady state forces for inclination
angles 9 and 18. This is due to the difference in contact
area between the bar and the rolls. As the inclination angle
increases, the contact area reduces. Hence the smallest
contact area is for the case of an inclination angle of 18.
09.08.2010 14:21:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
The greater fluctuations in the curves for smaller angles
was due to the large contact area, because the bar suffers
large deformation faster in the larger bite area. The bar
with rolls having an inclination angle of 9 is subject to
greater oscillation throughout the process.
As the bar moves through the roll gap it is subject to a

shearing effect which causes a twisting of the bar. This
results in an uneven surface with an undulating profile.
Spiral marks are clear in Figure 13. The formation of a
cavity at the leading end of the bar can be observed which
is due to the variations on the speed of the metal flow of
the core and the cladding layer, which can be seen on the
cross-sections shown in Figure 12.
3e+6
2.59e+8
1.73e+8
Figure 10. Effect of inclination angle () on rolling load.
The progression of the bar through the roll gap is illustrated in Figure 11. The stress increases as the bar moves
through the roll gap until it reaches its maximum values in
the central part, and decreases in the later stages, as shown
in Figure 12.
Figure 12. Bar cross section shows von Mises stress [N/m2] for
different angles.
Figure 13. Deformed bimetallic bar surface shown the undulating

profile.
Conclusion
The use of Abaqus has made it possible to model the

bimetallic bar rolling process in the PSW rolling mill. The
inclination angle of the working part of the roll has a major affect on the bearing reaction force of the rolls. From
this study it can be concluded that rolling forces for increase if the inclination angle decreases. The Von Mises
stress was higher in the outer layer compared to the core
part of the bimetallic bar. The undulating profile on the
deformed bar surface is a result of highly twisted deformation.
References
Figure 11. Progressive deformation of bimetallic bar.
[1] C.-K. Shih, C. Hung, R.-Q. Hsu: Journal of Materials Processing

Technology, 113 (2001), 115-123.
[2] S.-J. Wu, Y.-M. Hwang, M.-H. Chang: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 123 (2002), 336-345.
[3] S. Sawicki, P. Szota, H. Dyja: Archives of Materials Science and
Engineering, 32-1 (2008), 53-56.
[4] P. Szota, H. Dyja: Journal of Achievements in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering 25-1 (2007), 55-58.
[5] C.-K. Shih, C. Hung: Journal of Materials Processing Technology 142
(2003), 702-709.
[6] Y.-M. Hwang, W.M. Tsai, F.H. Tsai, I. Her: International Journal of
Machine Tools & Manufacture, 46 (2006), 1555-1562.
[7] Abaqus Technology Brief TB-03-TPRS-1 Revised: April 2007.
[8] K. Nakasuji, K. Masuda, C. Hayashi: ISIJ International 37-9 (1997),
899-905.
[9] MS Mohebbi, A. Akbarzadeh: Journal of Materials Processing Technology 210 (2010) 389-395
213
09.08.2010 14:21:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
New Finite-Element Model of Thread Rolling

MinCheol Lee1), SooJin Jang2), SeungSang Han3), DukJae Yoon4), ManSoo Joun5)
1)
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju / Korea; 2) TIC of Gyeongsang National University, Sacheon / Korea; 3) Youngsin Metal Industrial Co., Ansan / Korea; 4) Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Incheon / Korea; 5) Corresponding author, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju / Korea, msjoun@gnu.ac.kr
This paper describes a three-dimensional finite-element analysis of thread rolling of a 12-point flange bolt using a rigid-plastic finite-element
method. The paper also presents a new analysis model for simulating the thread rolling of fasteners or bolts. The new analysis model is
characterized by a slice of material and two artificial symmetric planes and is based on negligible change in the longitudinal dimension of
the material during thread rolling. The approach was applied to simulating the thread rolling of a flange bolt with a relatively small pitch and
depth, and the predictions were compared to experimental results. The deformation of the concave crest at the top of the thread was observed during the final stage of thread rolling, and the predicted thread shape lines agreed closely with the experimental results. However,
the effective strain distribution was not reliable because of excessive remeshing, which was inevitable due to the intrinsic geometric complexity of the thread rolling of bolts.
Keywords: Thread rolling, Flange bolt, Finite element model, Concave crest
Introduction
Bolt-shaped products are mostly manufactured by machining and thread rolling. Machining is relatively inefficient in terms of product quality and manufacturing cost
and thus is restricted to applications such as non-standard,
small-lot and large bolts that cannot be metal formed.
Thread rolling, on the other hand, has the distinct advantages of minimized material loss, better product quality,
higher productivity, and higher strength, and is thus used for
the mass production of most standard bolts. In thread rolling,
long pieces of material are incrementally formed into final
products by two sliding or rolling dies that are either tapered or flat as they compress the material in the lateral
direction while moving perpendicularly.
The increasing demand for durable and reliable fasteners
has led to the use of new higher-strength materials such as
high-strength steel, stainless steel, and pre-heat treated steel
in automobile fasteners and bolts. The plastic flow behavior
must be considered in developing a thread-rolling process
for these new materials to optimize the process and guarantee product quality and economical die life. Thread rolling
is very complicated from the standpoint of numerical simulation, and an analytical approach is often not feasible for
predicting the mechanical details of thread-rolling processes.
Thread rolling is the same as cross-wedge rolling from the
standpoint of mechanics and numerical simulation. In general, however, the problem of simulating the thread-rolling
process is more difficult than for other metal forming processes, meaning that numerical approaches have many inherent limitations. For example, thread-rolling process simulation requires excessive computational time due to the many
solutions steps required to simulate most incremental forming processes. The problem of computational time has been
mitigated to some extent by advances in computer hardware
and should become less severe as computing technology
progresses. However, advances in computer hardware alone
can clearly not solve the problem of thread-rolling simulation of products that are quite long relative to the initial
material radius.
The thread-rolling process is characterized by its complicated repeated geometry and long stroke. The former
214
results in a large number of finite elements, and the latter

causes an excessive number of remeshings and computational time. Our experience shows that the number of
remeshings in thread-rolling simulation is 50 times greater
than that in common forging simulations. These facts have
tended to discourage the application of numerical simulation techniques to thread-rolling processes for fasteners
and bolts. Even so, several researchers have experimented
with various simulation techniques for the thread-rolling
process. Domblesky and Feng [1] and Kim et al. [2] studied the effects of process parameters on thread rolling
using a two-dimensional approach under the assumption of
plane strain. More recently, three-dimensional simulation
techniques have been studied for the thread rolling. Kao et
al. [3] used a three-dimensional approach to developing a
process design system for constructing thread-rolling dieplate geometry, and Pater et al. [4] applied both finite
element and finite volume methods to developing a manufacturing process that was a sort of cross-wedge rolling
process for the sleeper fixing screw characterized by single thread and large pitch and depth values. Kim et al. [2]
employed a three-dimensional approach to determining the
initial radius of material for a lead screw. However, all the
applications in these studies are quite different from real
fastening bolts with relatively small pitches and depths as
well as multiple threads. Joun et al. [5] tried to predict the
formation of an actual long fastening bolt by using the
finite-element method and found that the length of the
thread-rolled bolt was similar to that of the original material; this was verified by experiments.
Based on the results of our previous research, in this paper we propose a realistic model for simulating the actual
thread rolling of a flange bolt characterized by multiple
threads and small pitch and depth compared with the diameter of the bolt.
Introduction to Bolt-Manufacturing Process and Previous Study
Figure 1 shows the usual process for manufacturing bolt
fasteners. The first four stages of the process occur in an
automatic multistage cold forging machine, whereas the
09.08.2010 14:21:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
final stage involves forming the threads by thread rolling
between a piecewise tapered flat die and a flat die. The
first and second stages are the forward extrusion and upsetting processes, respectively, to form the preform. The
third and fourth stages are the heading and backward extrusion processes, respectively, to form the head of the bolt.
After forging, the material passes directly to the threadrolling process without any intervening processes such as
heat treatment or lubrication.
directions were assumed because of the very small contact

region relative to the overall material surface.
As shown in Figure 3, a two-dimensional approach for
the three early axisymmetric stages followed by a nonaxisymmetric stage for forming the bolt head was simulated by the 2D/3D combined simulation capability. Figure
3(d) is the initial tetrahedral finite element mesh system,
constructed by revolving the 2D results of Figure 3(c)
around the central axis.
As shown in Figure 4, the thread-rolling process involves a piecewise tapered flat die, a flat die, and an initial
forging. One die is fixed, while the sliding die maintains
its relative distance from and orientation to the fixed die.
a) Final mesh of stage 1
b) Final mesh of stage 2
c) Final mesh of stage 3
d) Initial mesh of stage 4
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4 Thread rolling
Figure 1. Sequence of processes in bolt manufacturing.
1200
True stress (MPa)
1000
Figure 3. Finite element mesh systems.
800
600
400
200
Compression test
Tensile test
0.2
0.4
0.6
True strain (mm/mm)
0.8
Figure 2. Flow stresses of ESW105.
The complete bolt manufacturing process was simulated

with AFDEX 2D and AFDEX 3D [6], general-purpose
metal forming simulator packages that use a rigid thermoviscoplastic finite-element method. The flow stress of
ESW105 shown in Figure 2, a special pre-heat-treated
steel, was obtained by tensile and compression tests [7,8].
The Coulombs law friction with a frictional coefficient of
0.05 was used for the four forging stages. However, sticking in the rolling direction and no friction in the other
Fixed die,
tapered and flat
Sliding die,
flat
Figure 4. Thread-rolling process.
Figures 5 and 6 show predictions of the thread-rolling

process. The length of the material increased by 0.02%,
and thus the change of length during thread rolling was
negligible. This result was qualitatively verified by experiments with five specimens, which showed that the
average initial 103 mm length of the material increased by
215
09.08.2010 14:21:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
0.04 mm on average, indicating that the change of length
during thread rolling can be neglected.
For the prediction of Figure 6, an intelligent remeshing
technique that minimizes the number of finite elements
was used. However, only about 500 of the approximately
25,000 nodes (110,000 elements) contacted the dies, and
this was not sufficient to guarantee stable contact between
the material and dies because the contact force or pressure
was relatively small.
The above simulation of the whole process demonstrates
that a distinct limitation exists in increasing the number of
finite elements sufficiently so that the process geometry
can be described in enough detail to guarantee an appropriate number of contact finite elements. This limitation
stems from the inherent geometric complexity of the
thread-rolling process of a bolt with a relatively small
pitch and depth.
metric side planes. The symmetric side planes are characterized by an absence of friction and no separation or
penetration of nodes, i.e., conditions of a theoretically
symmetric plane. This analysis model is based on the
negligible longitudinal elongation discussed above. Even
though the new model is quite simple, its practical application in a forging simulation is not trivial due to the geometrical complexity near the symmetric plane resulting in
remeshing failure. Therefore, a robust intelligent remeshing capability[9] is essential for the new analysis model.
Figures 8-10 show the predictions of the same process
considering contact conditions. Sticking in the rolling
direction was also assumed; however, Coulombs law
friction with a frictional coefficient of 0.1 was applied in
the other direction. Note that the contact region was still
not sufficiently large to consider the application of proper
frictional laws in the rolling direction, which may predict
the hill-like friction behaviors inherent in rolling.
Figure 8 shows the formation of the thread, and Figure 9
shows the shape of material with metal flow lines at the
instant when the material passes through the tapered region defined by the piecewise tapered flat die, i.e., the
major thread-forming region. Note that the sharp corner at
the top of the thread was more or less smoothed due to 450
remeshings, which cause a small amount of under-filling.
Excessive remeshings also resulted in too much smoothing
of the state variables including the strain distribution
shown in Figure 10, implying that the state variables may
not be reliable. The flow stress of the new material used in
this study had a very weak strain-hardening capability, and
thus all the results shown in Figure 8 and 9 were scarcely
affected by the numerical smoothing. The reason of nonuniform distribution of meshes in Figure 8 is due to geometric features of cutting in the early stage of thread rolling.
The experiments shown in Figure 11 illustrate that the
etched shape of the thread agreed well with the predicted
shape, especially at the top.
Figure 5. Thread formation with finite-element mesh system.
Figure 7. Proposed finite-element analysis model.

Figure 6. Finite-element mesh system at final stroke.
Realistic and Efficient Finite-Element Model and Its

Applications
Figure 7 shows the realistic and efficient finite-element
model proposed in this study, which is composed of a slice
of selected material, two tapered flat dies, and two sym216
09.08.2010 14:21:30 Uhr
Metal Forming

Figure 11. Thread-rolling process experiments.
Conclusions
Figure 8. Thread formation.
This paper has described a realistic and efficient finite

element analysis model for simulating the thread-rolling
process of fasteners. It is based on the observation that the
change in longitudinal length is negligible during thread
rolling and is supported by a strong and intelligent remeshing capability. The analysis model is characterized by a
slice of material, a flat die, a piecewise tapered flat die,
and two artificial symmetric side planes.
The finite element model was applied to simulating the
thread-rolling process for manufacturing a multi-point
flange bolt with very small pitch and depth relative to its
radius. An intermediate shape with distinct concave crest
at the top of the thread was predicted, which is one of
special deformation behaviors observed during thread
rolling.
The predictions agreed closely with the experiments in
terms of the shape of the top of the thread. However, too
many remeshings, which are inevitable and inherent in the
process, caused excessive smoothing of the state variables
including the effective strain. As a consequence, the effective strain is unreliable if it is calculated by a conventional
mapping technique during remeshing.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation (KRF) grant funded by the Korea government
(MEST) (No. 2009-0066590) and by the Ministry of
Knowledge Economy, Republic of Korea.
References
Figure 9. Metal flow lines and concave crest at top of the thread.
1.13
1.52
2.72
1.13
0.74
2.31
1.13
1.92
3.11
3.50
2.72
3.11 3.90
1.92 3.50
1.52
0.74
Figure 10. Distribution of smoothed effective strain.
[1] J.P. Domblesky, F. Feng: J. Mater. Proc. Technol., 121 (2002), 341349.
[2] K.H. Kim, D.H. Kim, D.C. Ko and B.M. Kim: Proc. KSPE 2002
Autumn Conf., (2002), 312-315.
[3] Z. Pater, A. Gontaz, W. Weronski: J. Mater. Proc. Technol., 153-154
(2004), 722-728.
[4] Y.C. Kao, H.Y. Cheng, C.H. She: J. Mater. Proc. Technol., 177 (2006),
98-103.
[5] S.J. Jang, M.C. Lee, S.S. Han, D.J. Yoon, M.S. Joun: Proc. Kor. Soc.
Tech. Plast. Conf., Gangneung, (2009), 292-296.
[6] www.afdex.com
[7] M.S. Joun, J.G. Eom, M.C. Lee, J.H. Park, D.J. Yoon: International
Journal of Modern Physics (IJMPB), 22-31 (2008), 5774-5779.
[8] D.J. Yoon, S.T. Ahn, Y.H. Son, E.Z. Kim, N.H. Kang, M.S. Joun:
Research on preheat treated steel for application to automobile fasteners, Technical Report (2009), Korea Institute of Industrial Technology.
[9] M.C. Lee, M.S. Joun: Advances in Engineering Software, 39-1
(2008), 35-46.
217
09.08.2010 14:21:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Problems of Surface Preparation under Burnishing Rolling in Aspect of Product Quality

Agnieszka Kulakowska
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Koszalin University of Technology, Koszalin / Poland, agnieszka.kulakowska@tu.koszalin.pl
The article concerns the problems of surface preparation in turning process under burnishing rolling. The experimental researches were
carrying out in aim to determine the dependence between chosen parameters of product surface roughness after burnishing and conditions
of turning process. Function of research object is unknown in analytical form. In aim to elaborate its form, analytical and experimental researches were carried out. The object of researches was defined as well as quality function. The variation range of examined factors and
the class of mathematical model of the research object were determined. Examined factors were coded. Five-level, rotatable plan of experiment was used. Samples in turning process according to matrix of experiment plan were prepared. Next the samples were burnished.
The samples after turning and after burnishing were measured at the profile measurement gauge Hommel Tester T8000 as well as optoelectronic measurement microscope Werth. The results of the researches were statistical elaborated. On the base of elaborated regression
function (polynomial of second degree with interactions) the graphs were prepared. Received function allow to determine condition of previous treatment realization in aim to receive profile with desired parameters or inversely to predict burnished product technological quality on
the basis of technological quality of the semi-finished product after previous treatment.
Keywords: Technological quality, Surface preparation, Turning process, Burnishing rolling process, Experiment plan, Mathematical model
Introduction
Burnishing rolling process [1], during which, finishing
properties of treated product surface layer are shaped, is
included to the group of very difficult processes, at the
portion random and incomplete information about mechanism which determine steering of its running. Great numbers of existing factors as well as complexity of physical
phenomena are the trouble to elaborate universal models
of dependence between the state of the product after previous treatment and condition of realization burnishing
rolling process and products technological quality (PTQ).
By reason of these, it is accepted that identification and
modeling of research object with increase characteristic
should be based on the experimental-statistical method.
This method allow to take into account, in researched
process of shaping surface roughness, relatively great
number of input data and results of researches. The basis
of this consideration is taking the burnishing rolling process as a black box, which contents mechanism of burnishing rolling process, is not fully identified [2-7]. Technological quality of the burnished product, in fact, depends
on the quality of the semi-finished product prepared in
previous treatment [6-11]. Therefore, turning and burnishing processes are considered together. The best outline
after previous treatment, which is next used during burnishing rolling, is periodical, symmetrical and determined
outline.
The first attempt of burnishing process modeling made
S. Fic [4]. Basing on dimension analysis method he elaborated regression function in the form of power function,
considering influence of initial height of roughness and
technological parameters of sliding burnishing on the
objects roughness and depth of strengthening layer.
L. Kukielka in papers [2,5] used modern methods of
experiment planning and statistical results study of measurements. Elaborated empirical models consider simultaneously influence of all technological parameters of burnishing rolling process, with taking into account interaction, on chosen objects technological quality parameters.
218
Author in [6,7] examined influence of 7 input factors on

the roughness parameters Ra and Rz. One used two-level
experiment plan. Mathematical models used in study were
power functions. In the papers influence of chosen conditions of turning process realization like: turning feed f and
depth a, rotation of the broche n and sample diameter d,
vertical angle of the tool , its radius of rounding r, material hardness HB, on the roughness parameters Ra and Rz
are shown.
In this paper five-level, rotatable plan of experiment and
regression function in the form of second degree polynomial with interactions were used. All samples were prepared from steel C45 (HB=227.5) with constant diameter
(d=24.5mm) while depth of turning a was calculated basing on geometry of the turning tool (, r) and feed f. Remaining parameters posses increased range, by this, analysis of the problem characterize greater precision of the
mathematical description of the researched object.
Surface Preparation in Turning Process
Quality Function. Sought is the II type formula, which
describes dependence of surface roughness parameter Ra
after burnishing rolling from chosen parameters of previous treatment: turning feed f , rotational n , vertical angle
of the tool and its rounding radius r . The formula is
written in the quality form:
Y = Y (r , , f,n ).
(1)
Eq. (1) of the research object is unknown in analytical

form. In aim to elaborate its form, analytical and experimental researches were carried out in XV stages.
Determination of Examined Factors Set, Constants,
Disturbance, and Result. As a result of conducted factor
analysis and preliminary researches, the set of the factors
which essentially influencing on the result factor Ra was
definite, what is shown in the Figure 1.
09.08.2010 14:21:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Burnishing
Turning
Disturbing factors
Disturbing factors
Random fluctuations of
System vibration,
machining parameters,
tool wear, inherency
inaccuracy of samples
of machining liquids, mechanical fixing, material heterogeneity, uncontrolled roller wear
chips interaction
Variable
factors
f feed,
n rotation,
vertical
angle of
the tool,
r rounding
radius
Ra
[m]
PTQ
Constant factors
Lathe Europe,
number of tool path:
i=1, material: steel
C45, diameter: d=24.5
[mm], kind of liquid to
cooling and greasing
Constant factors
Lathe - Jotes Typ: TSS 150,
number of tool path: i=1, burnishing roller: two-toroidal and
cylindrical, roller material: HS180-1, hardness of roller material:
62HRC, kind of liquid to cooling
and greasing, type of burnishing
Figure 1. Cybernetic model of research objects.
Examine Factors Variation Range (Research Zone) Establishing. Established research zone in considered case
comes: x 1 = r : 0-0.2 [mm], x 2 = : 60-120 [],
x 3 = f : 0.2-1 [mmrot-1], x 4 = n : 315-1800 [rotmin-1].

Acceptation of Mathematical Model Class. Dependence of object surface roughness after burnishing rolling,
according to Ra, from chosen condition of turning process
realization in form of second degree polynomial with
interactions characterize formula:
Y = b0 +
b x + b x
i =1
i i
i =1
2
ii i
N c = N r = (nk + n + no )p = (16 + 8 + 7)p = 31p.
(3)
According to experiment plan, 31 samples from steel

C45, at the lathe Europe made by FAMOT, were prepared.
Treatment with cooling liquid was held. Tools ISO 10 with
plate E6, ISO 12R and NNRs in the researches were used.
Tools edges were grinded and polished in aim to obtain
desired geometry. Exemplary view of the tool and its zoom
from optoelectronic microscope Werth in the Figure 2 is
shown.
Figure 2. Tools edge about vertical angle = 75.2 and rounding

radius r = 0.148 [mm].
The turning depth was different in each point of experiment plan. Diameters of the samples d=24.7 [mm] were
constant. The general view of the exemplary sample (a),
its zoom (b) and photo (c) after turning process are shown
in the Figure 3.
a)
b)
b x x .
i , j =1
i< j
ij i
(2)
Eq. (2) contains L=15 unknown coefficients b0, bi, bii and
bij.
c)
Coding of Examined Factors. True (T) and standardized (S) values of examined technological parameters are
shown in Table 1.
Table 1. True and standardized values of examined parameters.
Parameters
level
x1 = r
Stellar top
+2
0.2
Top
+1
0.15
Central
0.1
Bottom
-1
0.05
Stellar bottom
-2
True values (T)
x2 =
x3 = f
x4 = n
120
1800
0.45
0.8
1250
0.30
0.6
900
0.18
0.4
630
60
0.2
315
Realization of Right Researches Experiment Plan.

Realization of five-level, rotatable, compositive (PS/DSP:) experiment plan require measurements for: 16 systems (nk=2S=24=16) in top and bottom programs level, 8
systems in stellar points (n=2S=24=8), 7 parallel measurements for system in the programs centre (no=7).
Require is carrying out Nc=31p measurements according
to formula:
Figure 3. General view of the sample No. 3 after turning (a), its
zoom x35 (b) and photo of the surface (c).
The samples after turning at the profile measurement

gauge Hommel Tester T8000 and using advanced measurement system Talysurf CLI 2000 made by Taylor Hobson as well as optoelectronic measurement microscope
Werth were measured. One received roughness parameters,
sample diameters and profiles. Five replicates (p=5) of
each measure were applied. Exemplary roughness profile
of the sample No. 3 after turning and its meshed axonometry are shown in the Figure 4. The sample was characterized by following roughness parameters: Ra=25.2 [m],
Rz=119 [m], Rt=53.7 [m], RSm=0.799 [mm] as well as
waviness Wt=81.4 [m].
219
09.08.2010 14:21:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
m
m
400
400
300
200
200
100
0
0
-100
-200
-200
-300
-400
-400
-500
4
4
66
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30 mm
88 10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30mm
0.261 mm mm
0.261
4.5 mm
4.8 mm
2 mm
2 mm
Figure 4. Profile of sample No. 3 after turning and meshed axonometry.
Burnishing Rolling Process

Burnishing Rolling of Turned Samples. The samples
were burnished on a position with a T27 tangent head. An
important issue is to obtain, after burnishing, a surface
with a very good surface finish. For this reason, the analysis was conducted for burnishing depth a=0.5Rz. The samples were burnished with rotation n=420 [rotmin-1], so the
burnishing velocity v=32.3 [ms-1].
The burnishing depth for each sample was calculated
separately. The view of the samples after burnishing, exemplary roughness profile of the sample No. 3 and its
meshed axonometry are shown in the Figure 5.
a)
Elimination of Gross Mistakes. In aim to eliminate results with gross mistakes [12] the result factors from each
trial in ascending order were arranged. In relation to ignorance of parameters and , statistics: B6+ and B6 were
used. Critical value of b6+ statistic from statistical tables,
on the significant level =0.05 and form the number of
replicates p=5 equals b6+ = 0.642. The condition
B6+ b6+ ( 0.05;5 ) in all lines of results matrix is realized.
There are no grounds to reject the hypothesis about maximum values of experiment results for each point of the
plan. Similarly, because the condition B6 b6 ( 0.05;5 ) is
realized, there are no grounds to reject the hypothesis
about minimum values of experiment results.
Calculation of Among-Line Variation and Standard
Deviation. Next, the uniformity of variation in the trial
with using Cochrans test was checked. Maximum value of
2
variation equals s imax
= s 32 = 0.019 , sum of variation
31
s i2 = 0.182 and maximum value of standard deviation
i =1
s i = 0.138. On the basis of Cochrans test, there are no

grounds to reject the hypothesis about uniformity of variation G = 0.106 < g 0.05;31;4 = 0.134.
Calculation of Regression Function Coefficients. The
values of regression function coefficients as minimizing of
mistakes square sum were calculated. Regression function
in coded form, describing chosen roughness parameters of
the surface after burnishing rolling, depending on chosen
conditions of turning process was elaborated.
Statistical Analysis of Regression Function. Significance of each coefficient of regression function was
checked. t-Student test was used. All elements in regression formula are significant at the inconfidence level
=0.05 and degrees of freedom fE = n0 1= 71= 6, because
in each case inequality titkr(;fE), comes true (Table 2).
b)
m
m
00
-50
-50
-100
-100
Table 2. Significance of regression function coefficients.
-150
-200
-200
c)
-250
10
10
11 12mm
11
12 mm
d)
mm
2.34 2.34mm
4.99 mm
4.99 mm
2.5 mm
2.5 mm
Figure 5. View of samples after burnishing (a), zoom of the surface (b), exemplary roughness profile of sample No. 3 (c), meshed
axonometry (d).
The sample was characterized by following roughness

parameters: Ra=12.3 [m], Rz=58.3 [m], Rt=43.63 [m],
RSm=0.759 [mm] as well as waviness Wt=6.6 [m].
220
Symbol
b0
b1
b2
b3
b4
b12
b13
b14
b23
b24
b34
b11
b22
b33
b44
Value
0.7536
-2.7578
-0.0089
0.4271
-0.0003
0.01620
0.3406
0.00029
-0.0037
1.8951
8.2566
3.635
3.1508
0.0397
7.4175
t-Student
7.9571015
7.8861015
6.0121015
4.6591015
7.1451015
5.5461015
1.5541015
2.1271015
5.1181015
4.0311015
2.3421015
5.5051015
4.2941015
9.6271014
6.0821015
T critical
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
2.12
titkr
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Significance of Multivariate Correlation Coefficient

(R). Measure of matching degree of received results from
regression function to experiment results is examining of
multivariate correlation coefficient. Average value of all
09.08.2010 14:21:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Regression Function. Searched mathematical model

describing chosen roughness parameter Ra of the surface
after burnishing rolling, depending on chosen conditions
of turning process is shown in the full (with interaction)
form:

Y = R a = 0.754 2.758 r 0.009 + 0.427 f +
0.0003 n + 0.016 r + 0.341 r f +
+ 0.0003 r n 0.004 f + 1.895 n +
2
(4)
+ 8.257 f n + 3.635 r + 3.151 +

+ 0.04 f
+ 7.417 n 2 .
Eq. (4) is the mathematical model of the process at the

inconfidence level =0.05. Exemplary graphs of the function R a = R a ( , f ), R a = R a ( r , ) and R a = R a ( n, f ), for constant values of other factors are shown in the Figures 6
and 7.
Ra
R a = R a( , f ),
-1
[]
[mmrot ]
Ra
[]
[mm]
6.
Graphs
of
the
functions:
R a = R a ( r , ).
-1
n [rotmin ]
-1
f [mmrot ]
Figure 7. Graph of the functions: R a = R a ( n, f )
Conclusions
Experimental researches confirm significance of influence of turning process condition on the technological
quality of burnished product. Parameters of roughness
profile after burnishing rolling depend on turning conditions geometry of the tool edge (rounding radius r and
vertical angle of the tool ) and technological parameters
(turning feed f and rotation n ).
Elaborated regression function in the form

Y = Y (r , , f , n ) , allow definite values of roughness profile parameters (for example Ra, Rz, Rmax, Rt, RzISO, Rp,
RSm as well as waviness Wt) in the dependence on turning
conditions or definite optimal turning process condition
considering extreme values of roughness profile after
burnishing rolling.
Function (4) is the mathematical model, which identifies burnishing rolling process with definite condition of
its realization at the inconfidence level =0.05. This function in the form of second degree polynomial can be used
to optimization.
Received results have significant meaning for steering
of shaped during burnishing rolling process surface layer
properties, because make the possibility of effectively
integration in technological process design and adapting
technological quality to required exploitative product
conditions.
References
R a = R a ( r , )
Figure
R a = R a ( n, f )
Ra
measurements equals y = 0.145, average value of math

model results y = 0.145. Value of correlation coefficient
R=0.996. Significance of received correlation coefficient
was checked by F-Snedecor (F=9.74>Fkr(0.05;14;16)=2.37)
test. On the basis of received results it is discovered that
there are no grounds to reject the hypothesis about the
truth of regression function coefficients and received mathematical model is adequate to results of measurements.
R a = R a ( , f ), and
[1] W. Przybylski: Technology of burnishing process, WNT, Warsaw,

(1987).
[2] L. Kukielka: Basis of engineering researches, PWN, Warsaw, (2002) .
[3] K. Maczak: Methods of multilevel steering objects identification,
WNT, Warsaw (1979).
[4] S. Fic: Doctors thesis, Warsaw University of Technology, (1973).
[5] L. Kukieka: IV Congrs International de Tribologie Eurotrib 85,
Lyon, ed. Elsevier Amsterdam, 3 (1985), 1-5.
[6] A. Kulakowska, L. Kukielka: Journal of Measurements, Automatic,
Control, PAK, 54-7 (2008).
[7] A. Kulakowska, L. Kukielka: Journal Logistics, 3 (2009).
[8] A. Kuakowska: Doctors Thesis, Koszalin University of Technology,
(2006).
[9] A. Kuakowska, L. Kukieka: Steel Research International, Verlag
Stahleisen GmbH , 2 (2008), 42-48.
[10] A. Kuakowska, L. Kukieka: Journal PAMM, 7-1, (2008).
[11] A. Kulakowska, L. Kukielka, R. Patyk: Proc. 5th International
Symposium on Management, Engineering and Informatics: MEI
2009, USA, (2009), 63-68.
[12] http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/index.htm
221
09.08.2010 14:21:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Methodology on Precision Cross Wedge Rolling of Camshaft

Wang Baoyu1), Zheng Zhenhua1), Hu Zhenghuan1), Lin Jianguo2)
1)
School of Mech. Eng., University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing / China, bywang@ustb.edu.cn;
Imperial College London, London / UK
2)
Dept. of Mech. Eng.,
Traditional cross wedge rolling has been widely used for the production of various kinds of shafts with circular cross sections. However it
is normally considered that the shafts with non-circular cross section, such as camshafts and eccentric shafts, cannot be produced using
the process. A new and innovative method for forming camshafts that includes non-circular sections by cross wedge rolling is presented
in the paper. The procedure and technique of the process for production of camshafts are detailed, which include the detailed tool design
methods for the precision process. This design method of roller surface profiles for forming camshafts is developed based on the
analysis of relative motion between the roller and the camshaft, and a mathematical model of the tool surface has been set up. The
model for the precision process of the camshaft has been carried out using the commercial FEM software DEFORM-3D. The process of
forming a camshaft via cross wedge rolling is simulated. Tests have been carried out for forming the camshaft by the new developed
process. The test results confirmed the new method. The newly developed process can be readily used in the automotive industry for
large scale production of camshafts.
Keywords: Cross wedge rolling, Camshaft, Non-circular sections, Metal Forming
Introduction
Cross wedge rolling is a rotary metal forming process in
which a cylindrical billet is plastically deformed into a
shaft as shown in Figure 1. The process has gained
tremendous popularity and remains a major topic in metal
forming industries. In fact, in Europe and Asia, the process
has already replaced many conventional machining,
forging, and casting processes in the manufacturing of
rotational parts. The weight of products produced by the
process is over tens of thousands of tons per year, and
more than 400 types of products have been produced in
factories. Most of the parts rolled by the process for
automobiles are gear shafts in gear shift boxes and
camshafts for engines [1].
In the 1990s, some researchers have paid attention to the

forming of eccentric shafts by cross wedge rolling. They
introduced a technique of forming eccentric shafts by the
process for the first time [3-5]. The process consists of two
stages. Firstly, same as traditional cross wedge rolling, a
Figure 2. Camshafts formed by cross wedge rolling.
Figure 1. Diagram of traditional cross wedge rolling.
One of the typical products produced by cross wedge

rolling is camshafts for engines as shown in Figure 2.
Over 6 million camshaft blanks have been produced in
China since the technique for rolling camshafts with the
process has been put into application in 1991 [2].
However the cams of camshafts cannot yet be formed by
traditional cross wedge rolling. Even though the process
has been widely used in industry for producing various
shafts, it is usually considered that the shafts with
non-circular cross section are not able to be produced,
such as camshafts.
222
shaft with round cross section is formed. Secondly, the

concentric round section body is pushed to the eccentric
round section body by the roller profile surfaces. These
two stages are accomplished in one revolution of the
rollers. However, in the second stage, the metal needs to
be entirely transferred. Metal distortion is difficult during
this transformation, so this method is only suitable for the
small eccentric shafts. On the grounds of the forming
mechanism, this method is not able to be used to form
shafts with non-circular parts, such as camshafts.
Therefore, it has not actually been put into industrial
application yet.
A Method for Forming a Camshaft
A target camshaft formed by a new method is shown as
in Figure 3, in which there are some cams with cam cross
sections as shown in Figure 4. The new method for
forming a camshaft by cross wedge rolling is illustrated in
Figure 5 [6]. Two rollers with concave profile surfaces
and wedge-type dies rotate in the same direction. The
09.08.2010 14:21:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
heated metal bar (workpiece in Figure 5) is driven so it
revolves in the opposite direction to the roller rotation by
means of friction. The round metal bar will be compressed
Figure 3. Target camshaft formed by new method.
in the radial direction and the material spreads in the axial

direction. Finally, the camshaft includes the cams, is
precisely formed. This method generates the cam in one
revolution of rolling and consists of three stages: stage I,
stage II and stage III, as shown in Figure 6.
In Stage I, the roller gradually cuts into the rod which is
rotated by the friction of the side face of the wedge.
During this process, the rod is displaced at the contact face
and flows in both radial and axial directions. In stage II,
the geometry of the cam is half-way completed. Finally in
stage III, the cam is finished along the full length by the
top faces of the wedge.
Relationship between Camshaft and Roller
Figure 4. Cam cross section.
Unlike the traditional cross wedge rolling for forming

revolving parts, the top face of the wedge for forming
non-circular section parts, is no longer a cylindrical
surface. It is a particular surface which is deduced from
the conjugate movements between the cam and the top
surfaces of the rollers during the rolling process. This
surface is called roller profile surface.
In the rolling process, assuming a point k at the contact
surface between the rolled part and the roller, Radius at the
point k to the centre of rolled part is rk. . Radius of the
roller is Rk, shown as in Figure 7. Then the tangential
speed at the point k is,
v1 = 1 Rk
(1)
where 1 is the rotating speed of the roller and Rk is the
radius of the roller.
Figure 5. Method of forming cam.
Figure 7. Movement relationship between camshaft and roller.
The tangential speed at the point k can also be calculated

as,
v2 = 2 rk
(2)
Figure 6. Tool structure for forming cam.
where 2 is rotating speed of rolled part and rk is the

distance from the centre of rolled part to the point k.
At the point k,
v1 v 2 = 0
(3)
Therefore the point k is a pure rolling point in the
contact surface of the roller and the rolled part. It is
reasonable to assume that the radius at the point k on the
rolled part is rk , which is the rolling radius of rolled part,
and the radius at the point k on the roller is Rk , which is

the rolling radius of the roller.
When a roller rotates through 1 , the contact point on
the roller transfers from k to c1. At the same time, the
rolled part rotates 2 . The contact point on the rolled part
223
09.08.2010 14:21:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
transfers from k to c2. Then,
kc1 = kc2
Then
Rk d1 = rk d 2
d 2 Rk
=
d1
rk
Therefore
(4)
(5)
(6)
where ik = Rk / rk is defined as rotating ratio between

roller and rolled part.
Based on the previous analysis, the roller profile surface
can be determined by the relationship between the curve
of the cam and the profile of the roller. However in reality,
the process is affected by many factors which cause the
difficulties of knowing accurate motion between rollers
and rolled part. These factors include uncontrollable
friction, the condition of the contact surfaces between
rolled part and rollers, temperature of rolled part and
rollers, shape and size of rolled part, shape of rollers and
so on. It can be concluded that the rotate ratio ik between
rollers and rolled part changes with the time of the rolling
process. In order to simplify the problem, the rotate ratio
ik can be assumed to be a constant value during each
individual stage, but have different values for different
stages. Consequently, the equation of rollers profile
surface is easily obtained based on this hypothesis.
Design of Rollers Profile for Camshafts Forming
It is easy to understand the relative motion between a

roller and a cam in the process if it is assumed that a roller
is stationary. The cam rotates around the axis itself with
angular speed 2 and it rotates around axis of the roller
to angle 1 . Then the roller profile can be determined by
the tracks of cam movement shown as in Figure 8. If the
equation of a cam profile surface is:
x = x( )
1
(7)
y = y ( )
Then the equation of the tracks of the cam during the
camshaft rolling process is:
X = x cos 2 + y sin 2 + R0 cos 1
(8)
2
Y = x sin 2 + y sin cos 2 R0 sin 1
Figure 8. Tracks of cam during camshaft rolling process.
FEM Simulation of Forming Camshaft
Based on the mechanism of forming camshafts by cross

wedge rolling, the process of precision forming of
camshafts is researched, and the motion between rollers
and a camshaft is studied. The equation of roller profile
surface has been deduced. Geometrical model is built.
FEM simulation of precision forming of camshafts process
is performed using the commercial software DEFORM
3D.
It is assumed that the sample (steel C45) is heated to
1150 C and rollers temperature during the process is
constant 50 C. Other parameters include: rollers velocity
n=1 rad/s, friction factor between the camshaft - roller
surface of contact m=0.8, and model parameters of the
formed material (steel C45) is taken from the software
library. The shapes and dimensions are showed as in
Figure 4 and Figure 9, with r0=16.3 mm, R0=324 mm, and
diameter of the billet is 4 0mm.
(a) Step 12
(b) Step 24
(c) Step 36
(e) Step 86
(f) Step 117
where 2 = (1 + ik )d1 and R0 is distance from the

0
center of rolled part to center of a roller.

The tracks of the cam movement can then be deduced
from Eq. (8) as in Figure 8, and the roller profile surface
can be calculated by,
X = x( ) cos + y ( ) sin + R cos

2
2
0
1
.
Y = x( ) sin 2 + y ( ) cos 2 R0 sin 1
X Y X Y
=0
1 1
224
(d) Step 55
Figure 9. Simulation on camshaft forming.
(9)
Experiment on Cross Wedge Rolling of Camshafts
According to the preliminary studies, rollers for forming

camshaft are designed and manufactured for practical
experiments. The verification experiment was conducted
on H630 cross wedge rolling mill in the laboratory of
USTB, as shown in Figure 10. The rolling mill composes
09.08.2010 14:21:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
of two rollers that are widely used in industry in China.

The diameters of rollers and driving motor are 620 mm
and 40 KW, respectively.
Figure 10. H630 cross wedge

rolling mill.
Figure 12. Cross section of

camshaft.
Figure 11. Camshafts formed

by experiments.
Figure 13. Dimensional accuracy

of formed part.
The camshafts produced by experiment are shown as in

Figure 11. There are no defects observed in the cross
section under a microscope. The dimensional accuracy of
the formed part is from -0.21 mm to 0.66 mm with the
specified dimension at the design cam, as shown in Table
1. The cross section of the formed part is shown as in
Figure 12 and in Figure 13, which closes to the
dimension of the design profile of the cam. Where the
cross section a camshaft produced by tradition cross
wedge rolling can just only is a bigger circle that cover the
cam is shown as in Figure 4. So the new method could
save material about 0.8kg for a 4-cylinder engine camshaft
and 1.2kg for a 6-cylinder engine camshaft.
Table 1. Difference of the formed part with design profile.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
i
ri
0.0
0.0 0.0 -0.18 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.39 0.26
/mm
10
11
12
13
14
15
16 17 18
19
-0.32 -0.21 0.65 0.66 0.61 0.43 0.35 0.0 0.0 0.0
Conclusions
It is normally considered that shafts with non-circular

section are not able to be produced by cross wedge rolling,
such as camshafts and eccentric shafts. A new method for
forming camshafts that includes non-circular sections by
cross wedge rolling is presented in this paper. On the basis
of experiments and simulation with FEM, it is confirmed
that with this method it is feasible to form non-circular
section shafts. This innovative method makes a break
through to the conventional cross wedge rolling. The
following results are obtained:
1. The process of forming a cam is achieved in one
revolution and consists of three stages. The rod is
gradually cut in a depth by the side face of the wedge in
the stage I. Then in stage II, the cam is close to be
finished. Finally during stage III, the cam is formed
along the full length by the top face of the wedge.
2. The shape of rollers to form a camshaft can be captured
by considering that the roller is stationary, and the cam
rotates around axis itself with certain angular speed
same as rotating around axis of the roller. Then the
rollers profile can be defined by the track of the cam
movement.
3. The rotate ratio between rollers and rolled part changes
during the rolling process. It is influenced by the factors
including contact friction between rolled part and rollers,
temperature of rolled part and rollers, shape and size of
rolled part, shape of rollers and so on. In order to
simplify the problem and benefiting for designing the
tools for camshafts, the rotate ratio between rollers and
rolled part can be assumed to be a constant value in
each individual stage, but have different values for
different stages.
4. Numerical simulation and rolling experiments verify the
method for precision forming camshafts by cross wedge
rolling.
Acknowledgements
This research is financed by National Natural Science

Foundation of China (NSFC)(50675019), Natural Science
Foundation of Beijing (3082013), China and NSFC(China)
/ The Royal Society(UK) Joint Project (50811130216).
References
[1] Z. Hu, B. Wang: CSM 2005 Annual Meeting Proceedings (4).
Metallurgy Industry Press, Beijing, (2005), 533-537.
[2] K. Zhang, B. Wang, J. Liu, Z. Hu: Forging & Stamping Technology,
25-03 (2000), 28-30.
[3] J. Liang, Z. Bai, D.Li et al. Transactions of the Society of Agricultural
Machinery, 27-2 (1996), 154-156.
[4] Z. Bai, D. Li, Z. Hong: Journal of JiLin University of Technology
(Natural Science Edition), 30-4 (2000), 21-23.
[5] Y. Yu, X. Wan: Automobile Science and Technology, 3 (2003), 34-36.
[6] B. Wang, Z. Hu, K. Zhang et al.: Precision forming method for
camshaft by cross wedge rolling, Patent of China,
ZL200610112651.5, (2009).
225
09.08.2010 14:21:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
FEM Simulation of Planetary Cross Rolling Process for Production of Seamless Tubes
of Steel and Copper
Carolin Binotsch1), Andreas Feuerhack1), Birgit Awiszus1), Heinrich Potthoff2)
1)
Department of Virtual Production Engineering, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz / Germany; carolin.binotsch@mb.tuchemnitz.de; 2) FRIEDRICH KOCKS GmbH & Co KG, Hilden / Germany
Planetary cross rolling is a very complex deformation process to produce seamless tubes of steel and copper. By analyzing physical
interrelationships, to solve open questions and for the optimization of the process, the FEM simulation is an essential tool to achieve a
deeper process understanding. The aim of the common project between the FRIEDRICH KOCKS GmbH & Co KG and the Department
Virtual Production Engineering at the Chemnitz University of Technology is the optimization of a new, innovative and resource-saving rolling
process called Kocks Rotation Mill (KRM) by using the FEM. The basic prerequisite for the simulation is a 3D-model which characterizes
this process realistically. This paper describes the development of the 3D-model, some important simulation results and the difference in
modeling and production of steel and copper tubes.
Keywords: Planetary cross rolling, Kocks-Rotation-Mill, KRM, FEM, Simulation, Seamless tubes, Steel tubes, Copper tubes, Incremental
forming process, Elongation, Four-rolls elongator
Introduction
Numerical simulations are very important to achieve a
deeper process understanding by analyzing physical
interrelationships of the planetary cross rolling process and
to solve open questions. The basic prerequisite for these
simulations is a model which characterizes this process
realistically. Particularly, a precise representation of the
geometry and kinematics of the tools, a suitable material
model as well as appropriate friction and thermal conditions are essential for an adequate description of the
material behavior.
the feed cone of the rolls is at a small angle to the hollow

block axis (Figure 2). Due to the friction force, the material is moved to the forming zone. On the hollow block,
the rolls proceed in a spiral movement. Then, the material
is picked up by the forming cone and the wall thickness is
reduced between roll and mandrel. The roll gap between
the roll and the smoothing cone determines the degree of
the final wall thickness. In the rounding cone, the temporarily approximately square cross-section is formed into a
round tube.
Planetary Cross Rolling Process

KRM-Procedure Principle. Using the KRM, thickwalled hollow blocks made of steel (1.0553) or copper are
elongated to greatly reduce the wall thickness. During this
process, four rolls rotate on their own axis and as a whole
around the axis of the rolling stock (Figure 1). The inclination, the offset and geometry of the rolls characterize
this cross-rolling process and influence the rolling speed
and geometry of the rolled out tube.
Figure 2. Schematic description of each roll zone for production of
steel tubes.
Figure 1. Kinematics.
The heated hollow block, threaded on to a mandrel bar,

is transported to the roll pass via a shoulder at the end of
the mandrel or via a pusher which is driven independently
from the mandrel bar. To guarantee the grip of the material,
226
Advantages of the Four-roll Elongator. What distinguishes this process from planetary cross rolling systems
that already exist is the fact that there are four rolls instead
of three and better conditions concerning the stressing and
straining of the material in the forming zone. With a new
compact gear arrangement the rotor mass is reduced. Thus,
the rotation speed and as a result the throughput can be
increased significantly. Figure 3 shows the principal
cross-section formation by an elongator with three rolls (a),
with four rolls (b) and the comparison of both procedures
(c). The three-roll process causes a triangulation in the
cross-section in the forming area. With four rolls, however,
a nearly square form is produced. Due to the small diameter of the rolls, there are less redundant form changes in
09.08.2010 14:21:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
the roll interspaces. Compared to the three-roll process,
the material flows less in radial and circumferential
direction and the occurring shear strains are smaller.
The reasons for that are smaller contact areas and a
lower circumferential speed due to the smaller roll diameter. Thus, less material is transported to the roll interspaces.
Another advantage is the direct linking of the KRMprocess and the stretch reduction process. Thus, an intermediate re-heating is avoided, which results in a reduction
of energy costs. So, beside the improvement of the forming process, economic advantages can be achieved compared to the elongators of Diescher, Assel or PSW with
regard to the production of seamless tubes.
a) Triangulation
b) Square formation
c) Comparison of
by the four-roll KRM
both procedures
by three rolls
Figure 3. Material flow in circumferential direction.
The production of steel and copper tubes differ in the

hollow block dimensions and the final geometry, in the
geometry of the roll and rpm sequence of the rolls/rotor,
the initial temperature and the rolling speed (Table 1).
Table 1. Dimensions of steel and copper tubes.
Feature
Steel
Copper
initial diameter - external [mm]
168
100
average final diameter - external [mm]
127
56
initial wall thickness [mm]
26
25
final wall thickness [mm]
150
initial temperature of the hollow block [C]
980
ambient
rolling speed of the tube [mm/s]
850
400
mandrel speed [mm/s]
Preprocessing and Simulation Parameters

In a benchmark between different simulation systems
FORGE by Transvalor produced the best results. Further
advantages of this program are the great integration of
tools, the realization of complex kinematics as well as the
opportunity to cluster the system in order to reduce computation time.
Dies and Kinematics. When rolling copper tubes, the
transportation of the material is assisted by the pusher
during the entire process. As in the real system, the mandrel is allowed to rotate depending on the impact of the
hollow block, which rotates in the forming area. Comparative calculations revealed that the real kinematics of the
rotating rotor cannot be substituted by a defined rotation of
the hollow block. This is particularly due to the difference
of the rotation of the ingoing hollow block and of the
outgoing shell. It turned out that it is nearly impossible to
simplify the simulation. Thus, there were no simplifica-
tions of the roll geometry (for instance, radii and their

transitions). The correct roll arrangement is important for
the process results as well. Here, it has been taken into
account that a roll deflection occurs during the contact
with the hollow block and that, as a result, the roll axes are
deflected to some extent. This deflection has been considered for simulating the quasi-stationary phase.
Discretization. The fineness of the mesh plays an important role for the exact analysis of every simulated
process. The closer the discretization, the more exact the
results will be. For the more detailed analysis a Finite
Element mesh of 4 mm edge length has been used, in the
deformed zone of the hollow block the edge length is
2 mm using mesh boxes. Calculations were done on a 9node-cluster and a 16-node-cluster.
Material Model. One of the most important factors of
each simulation is the material model. It is decisive for its
quality that the dependencies on temperature, strain and
strain rate are based on sufficient characteristic values to
display a flow curve. At the beginning of the project, the
simulation has been done with the standard material
models for 1.0553 (St52) and Cu99.9 from the FORGE
material database. Its strain and strain rate, however, were
inadequate for this process. Thus, new material characteristics were determined [1]. Moreover, the new model
includes a partially adiabatic approach which considers the
rise of temperature during the forming process and corrects the flow curve for the modeling appropriately.
Copper Material Model. The planetary cross rolling of
steel is a pure hot forming process whereas the forming of
copper tubes starts with cold material at room temperature
(RT) and finishes at about 800 C. Thus, it is necessary to
employ a material model for the simulation which covers
this wide temperature range. Additionally, a realistic flow
curve of copper needs to consider very high strains (>10)
and strain rates (up to 800 s-1). Therefore, in order to
properly describe the material behavior in this forming
process, the use of flow curves according to the conventional scope of previously released copper material models
is not feasible.
Time Step. Concerning the KRM-process it is necessary
to carry out the simulation in very small time steps, because there are great deformations in a short period of time,
depending on the rotation speed and consequently on the
rolling speed effects. At a higher rotation speed, not more
than 5 of rotor movement per increment should be calculated. Experience from this [2] and other rolling processes
show that it is better to assume 2 for a stable simulation
(especially for copper) and that the time step can be
estimated by means of the following empirical formula:
t min/ max =
degrees per increment

rotation speed Rotor [s -1 ] 360
(1)
In this case, the minimal and maximal time steps need to

be identical. The extent of the time step for a detailed
analysis of the material behavior is at least 0.5 millisecond
(ms) and the increments are stored every 1 ms.
227
09.08.2010 14:21:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
Friction. For the cross-rolling process, it is important to
distinguish between the friction between tube and rolls as
well as between tube and mandrel. The surface texture of
each roll zone influences the feeding and transport behavior as well as the final geometry. Whereas the friction
between rolls and tube is desired, it has to be minimized as
much as possible on the mandrel. For the planetary crossrolling, the viscoplastic friction law according to Eq. (2)
has been applied. This law considers the sliding velocity
and the dependency of the used material.
= K(T, ) V p1 V
(2)
The friction coefficient on the mandrel has been determined through simulation calculations, by comparison
with the measured forces acting on the mandrel. Furthermore, different friction coefficients were assigned to the
roll surface, because in the real process there are different
surface textures (straight-knurled, sandblasted, rollerburnished) with different conditions. Scores of friction
variants have been calculated to achieve realistic results.
Simulation Results
For the verification of the FEM-model different calibration criteria have been determined. The simulation models
of steel and copper were calibrated using different experimental references. Accordingly, the final geometry of the
rolled out tubes varies as well. It is decisive for the evaluation and quality of the simulation model to compare data
from real tests with the results from the FEM-calculation.
For the comparison, percental and acceptable deviations of
the simulation results have been defined for the calibration
characteristics. The achieved deviations regarding the
geometrical dimensions (final diameter and wall thickness) as well as the rolling speed are below 2 %. Deviations regarding forces (roll force, mandrel force) are below
10 %. Due to the excellent accordance of simulation
results and real process results the simulation models are
regarded as calibrated and ready to use for phenomenological examinations.
Tools for Analysis. The system FORGE offers the possibility to examine the forming behavior of the material in
greater detail using marking grids and sensors (Figure 4),
which can be placed everywhere in the material. The
sensors, as so-called material particles, "travel" through
the whole forming process and store the following values
for each increment, i.e. displacements, velocities, temperature, equivalent stress, strain and strain rate, normal
stresses x, y and z as well as the shear stresses xy, yz
and xz. All recorded values are available as ASCII data.
The calculated data facilitate the evaluation of the forming
behavior because experience already gained can be confirmed and new relations can be discussed. The analysis
using more than one hundred sensors gives information
about how the final wall thick-ness depends on the local
contacts of the roll zones. These insights are used for an
optimization of the roll geometry.
228
Figure 4. Compressed area between roll and rolling stock,

sensors and markinggrid for detailed analysis (steel tube).
The examinations of the material behavior in the forming area have been carried out with different analyses of
the sensors [3]. Figure 5 exemplary shows the strain rates
for a sensor regarding to the contact between this material
sensor and the rolls by the copper simulation. It is noticeable, for instance, that the equivalent strain rate increases
to the middle of the forming cone and that it reaches a
maximal value of about 550 s-1. Furthermore, the results of
velocity and displacements shown in a vector representation in 3D contribute to a deeper process understanding.
Figure 5. Equivalent stress and strain rate of a copper-sensor.
As can be seen from the strain rate, the material is subject to great strain during the process. During the production of steel tubes roughly 850 mm are rolled out in the
quasi-stationary phase. One particle (sensor) travels
through the forming zone from 0.324 s (8 contacts with the
rolls) to 0.38 s (9 contacts with the rolls). In copper tubes
the particles have between 28 contacts (in 0.916 seconds)
to 33 contacts (in 1.054 seconds) in the quasi-stationary
phase, depending on their position when they come into
the deformed zone. In this short time great deformations
take place and thus large strain rates occur.
Equivalent Strain and Strain Rate. One quality of
incremental processes is the occurrence of so-called
redundant changes of shape which can be sub-divided by
additionally internal shear strains into tangential, axial and
torsion. These deformations have no influence on the final
measurements of the rolling stock. But they have a great
influence on the efficiency of the process. Especially in
09.08.2010 14:21:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
copper tubes appear great redundant changes of shape
besides the main changes in form in axial, radial and
tangential direction. These redundant changes of shape are
not necessary for achieving the final geometry, but they
can put extra strain on the material and limit the maximum
of possible deformations.
Great differences become apparent when comparing the
nominal effective strain with the one from the FEsimulation. A characteristic volume element for a detailed
deformation analysis has been defined using a marking
grid. This volume element consists of 124 points and
covers the entire wall thickness. From the normal strain a
equivalent strain equ acc. to Mises has been calculated.
Tangential and axial displacements as well as torsion
displacements are calculated acc. to Eicken [4] which
results in the enhanced equivalent strain *equ
2
1 2
2
*eqv= r2 +a2 +t2 + tor
+tan
+a2
3
2
steel
3.2
5.7
equ
copper
9.6
(3)
Including the partial displacements calculated from the

volume element referring to the start and end measures,
the enhanced equivalent strain concerning steel is 2.85.
Referring to the equivalent strain from the FE-simulation
of equ = 5.7 as presented in Figure 6, this shows a great
difference in this process of a factor 2. When rolling
copper tubes with above-mentioned measures the difference is even larger. The analytically calculated enhanced
equivalent strain is 4.4 and the FE results in values in
Figure 6 as high as 16. The larger difference in the copper
simulation is brought about by a much higher number of
roll contacts compared to steel. Using the analytical
method, only deformations caused by geometrical changes
in measures as well as compressions present in the final
state can be determined. All deformations in between such
as compressions and following elongations cannot be
taken into consideration using simple elementary methods
since they cannot be determined. This is so because all
incremental deformations, also between the rolls, are
included in the equivalent strain.
equ
15.8
Figure 6. Cross-section of tubes / FE-result: equivalent strain.
Conclusions
The applied simulation program FORGE renders it possible to realistically describe the complex KRM process of
planetary cross-rolling. The simulation results concerning
the geometry development of the forming area, the rolled
out tube and the velocities correspond very well to the
practical experience. Prerequisite for this is a material
model for high strain as well as high strain rates, and
especially for copper covering a great range of temperature. The material models as well as the further simulation
parameters (fine mesh, small time steps, real kinematics,
etc.) are necessary for a simulation which is sufficiently
safe from unforeseen runtime errors and which yields
results near to reality. At the moment, further examinations
with regard to the optimization of the roll geometry are
carried out: the material flow in the smoothing and rounding areas is monitored with sensors, particularly in order to
reduce the variation of the wall thickness of the produced
tube. Other main points are to analyze the limits of the
process in terms of stability and speed with the FEM and
to apply the found-out results for the configuration of
future rolling systems.
References
[1] L.W. Meyer, C. Kuprin, T. Halle: Mat.-wiss. u. Werkstofftech, 38-2
(2007), 97-100.
[2] B. Awiszus, C. Binotsch, S.; Willems: Proc. 9th International
Conference on Technology of Plasticity, Gyeongju, (2008), 609-610.
[3] C. Binotsch: Dissertation, Verlag Wissenschaftliche Scripten, (2008).
[4] A. Eicken: Dissertation TU Clausthal, (1971).
229
09.08.2010 14:21:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
Multiscale Modeling of Rolling Processes and Bond Strength Development for Layered Materials
Matthias Schmidtchen, Rudolf Kawalla
Institute for Metal Forming, Technical University of Mining and Technology, Freiberg / Germany, matthias.schmidtchen@imf.tu-freiberg.de
A general multiscale model for non-isothermal roll-bonding and rolling processes and the bond strength development will be given. The
model is used for optimization of rolling and especially for cladding processes in research and commercial applications. The computations
were performed on the basis of a new general n-layer asymmetric roll-bonding model. It is based on strip theory and simplified thermal
computations, while the bond strength model is a modified model of Bay and Zhang. In the used layer - model extensions of the roll
bonding model of Tzou etal. concerning number of layers, solution procedure, cladding geometry, temperature and layerthickness model
were made. Due to the possebility of a high number of individual layers, inhomogeneous deformation states can be approximated using
visioplasticity methods. The solution procedure will allow for the determination of residual stresses between connected layers. In the
presented examples for a Al / steel clad and the hot rolling of an inhomogeneous steel the computations will be given. In the paper
investigations are based on similarity considarations for 2-layers. Finally interrelationships for classical similarity considerations of cold
rolling and the new model are presented.
Keywords: Strip theory, Rolling, Roll bonding, Bond strength, Layer model, Similarity analysis
230
Zone I Zone II-N
Zone >N
FW
m1
m2
vw1
m3
hiE iE kfiE viE
mN-1
mN+1
x hiA iA kfiA viA
vw2
R
hi(x)
Exit
Roll bonding is one of most used production technologies for layered metallic composite materials. Due to a
process similar to pressure welding commercially up to 5
layers will be welded at one forming step. Beside surface
treatment and annealing steps the main parts of this technology are the processes of roll bonding and further rolling
of the layered structures [1].
On the one hand differences in mechanical und thermal
properties of the alloys used for each layer are the reason
for several technological problems. On the other hand
small tolerances are expected concerning variations in
layer thickness, bond strength and the maximum allowed
residual stresses.
Therefore in the past great effort was made to model the
roll bonding and the bond strength itself.
First models concerning the material flow inside the roll
gap assuming a constant ratio of the layer thickness computed from the initial ratio at the entrance section. In comparison to experimental data they failed especially for
structures with a large layer thickness and e.g. a large ratio
of the yield stresses of base to clad material. In actual
models the development of the layer thickness will be
computed within first zones starting from the entrance
were only materials with a lower yield strength will be
deformed. After the stress state fulfils the condition of the
yield criterion (e.g. von Mises) the harder materials will be
deformed also. This process will be repeated until the
entire cross section of the roll gap is within the plastic
state.
The models used for simulation of the stress state and
material flow can be subdivided into analytical and numerical models. In the sense of a fast computation for
optimization purposes we will focus here on models based
on strip theory and related approaches. While analytical
models will compute the stress and strain state with simplification, e.g. a constant thickness ratio after plastification of adjacent layers [2,3], numerical models will include
also the hardening effect in thickness development and
varying friction along the contact length [3-5]. In relation

to the intention of multiscale modelling these entire models have the disadvantage of a homogenised description of
the material flow within each layer. Thus the real deformation of the contact area as well as the shear strain affecting
the microstructure evolution couldnt be simulated properly.
First semi-empirical models for bond strength development were published by [6]. A first physical based approach where given by the work of Bay and Zhang [4,5].
Within these models the bonding process is subdivided in
relation to the structure of the bonding surfaces [4]. First
there was a certain area containing hard and brittle cover
layers assumed. These layers will fracture at an early state
of the deformation process and bonding will occur. Second
there are also areas containing adsorption layers only.
They will be thinned until a critical strain is reached and
bonding will also start. For these kinds of models no full
investigation of the whole deformation range are necessary.
But, there are several technological and material properties
which have to be investigated by extensive basic experimental research. These are e.g. the critical strain for fracture of adsorption layers and the ductility of the hard cover
layers. The effect of surface roughness on the development
of the bonding strength, known from experimental investigations, is also not directly included in these models.
Entrance
Introduction
FW
Figure 1. Sketch of used model.
09.08.2010 14:21:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Within this paper an extended layer model will be discussed, using up to 11 layers and a more physically based
modelling of the bond strength development for the simulation. As an advantage of this model the rolling of layered
structures can be simulated as well, using only an additional assumption for the relative movement of the layers
at the entrance and exit of the roll gap. During the computation of the roll bonding and rolling process the residual
stresses are also obtained.
semi-hot rolling using an analytical model for convective

cooling [12]. In cold rolling regime only constant values
for all layers were used.
Plastically deformed layer:
hi ( x ) dqdxi ( x )
k fe i ( x ) dhi ( x )
k fs
dx
C 1 + tan i ( x ) R i
2
C 1 + tan i +1 (x ) R i +1
2
(2)
Elastically deformed layer:

2
2
hi ( x ) dqdxi ( x ) C 1 + tan i ( x ) R i C 1 + tan i +1 ( x ) R i +1 = 0
Description of the Process Model
Roll gap:
h g ( x ) = 1 + A x 2 (1 + B )
In the present paper, the simulation model consists of

three sub models: material flow model, thermal model and
bond strength model. Additional a multiscale approach
were used to simulate the correlation between strain state
and microstructure evolution and between strain/ stress
state and micro contact resp. adhesion.
The model is used in dimensionless representation. All
entities necessary are given in Figure 1. In general all
layers and interfaces are numbered beginning at the upper
layer. Here we assume dissimilar diameters of the work
rolls R1 and R2. The inclination of the incoming strips will
be given by an angle i . Within similarity considerations
Layer thickness ration for individual layers:

j ( x ) = h pl new (x ) h pl j 1 ( x ) = F k F i ( x ),k Fe i (x ),mi ,hi ( x )
the following reference values are used: All length scale

factors in x-direction will be related to the length of the
roll gap Ld = R1 (hgE hgA ) (hgE hgA )2 4 . Length scale
factors measured in y-direction are related to the total
thickness at the exit hgA. Entities representing stresses are
related to the lowest yield strength at the entrance of the
roll gap. Temperature values are for hot deformation related to the maximum temperature difference at the entrance and for cold rolling to the room temperature itself.
Using these values within the basic equations and boundary conditions for material flow and thermal conduction
the following dimensionless Pi-values are available [3]:
g
L2d
,
A=
*
2hgesA R1 2(1 g )
R
L
B = 1 , C = *d ,
R2
hgesA
(1)

k
K i = Fi , m1 ,..., mN +1 , Ri , V
k Fs
k Fs k Fs
The meaning of the Pi values can easily be predicted
from Eq. (1). Values known from classical rolling theory
are also to be found. So e.g. A represents the total strain, C
is similar to the roll gap ration and mi are the friction factors. The basic equations for plastic and elastic deformation of the layers were derived in a similar way to [2-5].
The yield criterion of v. Mises and a parabolic description
of the roll gap geometry were used. During the solution
process there is a need for an additional semi empirical
equation describing the thickness variation of each individual layer during the deformation process. Therefore the
model of Zhang is used [5].
In a similar manner to [11] the temperature evolution
was computed using a quasi 1D-heat conduction equation
taking convective terms into consideration. These equations were modified for inner and outer layers respectively.
Initial values for each layer were computed for hot or
Friction: = m Min[k ,k ]
Ri
i
Fi
Fi +1
Yield condition: p + q =
i
2
3
(3)
(4)
Ki
Mean yield stress of whole plastic layer:

k Fe ( j ) = ( j )k Fe ( j 1) + (1 ( j ))K ( j )
(5)
Yield stress of individual layer [7]:
k F = A e m1 m9 m2 e(m4 + m7 ) (1 + )
m5
(m3 + m8 )
(6)
Equivalent plastic strain of layer i:

i = 23 ln[hi hiE ] + vorE i + vor i
Equivalent plastic strain rate of layer i: i = v w i Ld

Total strain: g = 1 hgA hgE
Temperature development within the outer layers:
c h0 v0
dT1
= k F,1 (x ) 1 h1 ( x ) W,1 (T1 T,1 ) +
dx
+
c h0 v0
b1
T T2
R,1 v1 vW + 2 1
b1 + bW,1
h1 + h2
dTN
= k F,N (x ) N hN (x ) W,N (TN T,N ) +
dx
bN
T TN
R,N v N vW + 2 N 1
bN + bW,N
hN 1 + hN
Inner layers (i=2, 3,..N-1):
+
c h0 v0
T T T T
dTi
= k F,i (x ) i hi (x ) + 2 i 1 i + i +1 i
dx
hi 1 + hi hi +1 + hi
Microstructure model for application to hot deformation: JMAK [8]

Q
Z = exp d
R T
p = 1.23 c
a1 = 4 104
a2 = 0.5
c = a1 D0a Z a Ddyn = d1 Z
3
X dyn
e2
c
= 1 exp e1
p
d2
,
,
a3 = 0.15
e1 = 0.8
e2 = 1.4
d1 = 1.6 104
d 2 = 0.23
Qd = 312000J / mol
Bond strength model:

extended model of Zhang [5],
Extension using of contact model after Greenwood [9] for static
contact of nominal flat surfaces, additional effect of relative movement by model of [10]
Substitution of the assumption of Conrad & Rice by models of
Kendall and Dupr [9]
BC
Y
=
kf
e Bk f
( p p E ) e R`
E`
E` ( A0 + B 0 AB 0 RT ( A + B AB ))
231
09.08.2010 14:21:54 Uhr
HH LL
0.24
b0
H L H L @D
K F2F2)
K(
m1
0.20
m2
0.18
m3
C
0.16
HL
A
C
A(C)
0.14
0.12
0.10
0
@D
modified_values_
modified
valuesK,_m,_C_
K, m, C [-]
Figure 2. Sensitivity study: effect of parameter changes on layer

thickness.
For a sufficiently good approximation of the initial temperature distribution the maximum number of layers necessary is 11.
Within the model a mean yield stress of the plastic layer
is used which is determined by a recursive approach following Eq. (5) using a linear rule of mixing. Therefore
from Eq. (6) the yield stresses of the single layers are
predicted.
During computation an equivalent plastic strain is used
consisting of the actual deformation state itself and two
additional terms arising from shear at the entrance region
vorE i [11,13] and from the prestrain vor i of a former deformation step. These terms are usually not always
mentioned in strip theory. For simulation tools in roll
bonding these terms are very important due to the different
angles of the strips in the entrance region in real processes
and have to be used.
Solution Procedure
The system of differential equations were numerically
solved using the computer algebra system METHAMATICA for implementation.
In analogy to the approach of Bay [4] or Tzou et al. [2]
all stress components were predicted using Eqs. (2)-(6)
within each deformation zone. The end of a deformation
zone is reached, if the yield condition for a new layer is
fulfilled. Using the residual stresses for each layer, the
position of this boundary can be shifted toward the entrance or exit of the roll gap. The equations for the residual
stresses of the welded layers are determined by e.g. the
conditions xbj=-1 within the region before the neutral line.
These conditions arise from the assumption of disappearing relative movement between adjacent welded layers.
Independent of the computation of the stress state the
layer thickness is determined by an additional equation (4).
In general all thermal equations are coupled with the
mechanical problem by a dissipative term. Due to the
additional equations for the layer thickness all thermal
equation can be solved without direct consideration of the
differential equations of the stress state.
Finally the solution will be computed within an iterated
approach: First, a simplified solution of the mechanical
problem is searched using the initial temperatures. Second,
the real temperature distributions were predicted as mentioned above. Third step is the computation of the finial
stress and strain state using the predicted temperature
distributions within the yield stress model.
232
HH LL
K(s F1
K
F1)
0.7
K F1F1)
K(
0.22
Bonding
_ strength B/ kf [-]
layer
layer_thickness
thickness_ ratio
ratio hh11x(x=0)/h
=0 hgesges
x=(x=0)
0 _ - [-]
Metal Forming
K(
K
s F2
F2)
0.6
m1
0.5
m3
m2
HH LL
0.4
0.3
A
C
A(C)
A(K)
A
K
0.2
0.1
0.0
modified values K,
m, C, A [-]
modified_values_
K,_m,_C,_A_
@D
Figure 3. Sensitivity study: effect of parameter changes on bond

strength.
After the iteration process is finished, for hot forming

microstructure and dynamic softening will be determined.
Application to Asymmetric Roll Bonding of Two Layers
For a general investigation of the roll bonding process
for asymmetric bilayer clad a sensitivity study was done.
For comparison purposes results of experimental roll
bonding trials for Al/Stclads were used as reference state.
Due to the general non-dimensional approach, the obtained
results are valid for general similarity considerations. In
the following results for layer thickness as well as bond
strength deviations are given in Figure 2 and 3 as an example. Beyond additional processing maps can be given
for temperature, roll forces, torque, energy consumption or
forming resistance. Whereas Figure 2 is a general valid
plot Figure 3 can be used for the surface state used within
the calculations only. For reference the initial ratio
0 = h1E hgE is plotted in Figure 2 to. The deviations between this value and the real ratio are obvious.
In the following the influence of strain A, roll gap ratio
C, yield stress ratio K and tribology will be shortly discussed.
Within the study the parameter A is the most important
factor. Its variation results in strong deviations of layer
thickness and bond strength as well. This parameter variation is typically done for practical investigations of optimized cladding conditions. Usually no additional changes
of the roll size are done. So within these trials two parameters will be changed at the same time (A and C). This is
due to the interrelation of the length of the roll gap and
strain: Ld R hgE g . In theoretical investigation, this
can be easily avoided (line A and A(C) in Figure 2 and
Figure 3). Concerning the effect of the local pressure on
the bond strength additional investigation were made using
a different approach. Therefore instead of using the local
pressure a mean value defined by p = kWm = F Ld B was
inserted into the bond strength equations Figure 3 line
A(K). Due to the strong interrelation of local pressure and
strain large deviation were obtained. The most important
region is to be found at the exit, were strain is large and
the local pressure decreases. Thus the higher results arising from the mean pressure were expected.
Another important factor arises from the ratios of the
yield stresses K. In commercial roll bonding processes this
09.08.2010 14:21:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
value is often used to control the final layer thickness
without significant changes in bond strength.
Figure 4. Effect of tribological inhomogeneity within interface of

work roll and harder Material (left- thickness deviation following the
written numbers at the outer layer for CuNi / CuSn -clad - right).
As a special case the initial layer thickness ration 0 is

reached for a yield stress ratio K = 1 only.
The importance of tribology is well known from practical experience. In Figure 2 the effect of tribology clearly
given. Therefore the most important factors are the tribology of the bonding zone m3 as well as the tribological
conditions between the rolls and the tougher material m2.
In commercial processes great effort is done concerning
a constant m2 condition especially for roll bonded materials for electronic applications. The sensitivity to local
inhomogeneities in friction is shown in Figure 4. Numbers
written on the surface of the tougher specimen are to be
found as deviation of the layer thickness within the interface of both materials.
Application to Fast Computation of Inhomogeneous
Material Flow during Rolling
Following the approach of the roll bonding model a
model for inhomogeneous deformation during rolling is
easily derived. Therefore e.g. within the region before the
neutral line all zones arising during cladding approach will
be forced to vanish using the condition xbj=-1.
All incoming layers will have the same angle at the entrance of the roll gap. As a result sketches similar to Figure
2 will be obtained for a sensitivity of the thickness of each
layer.
Due to differences within the layer thickness models the
results shown in Figure 5 for constant and variable thickness ratio will be totally different. Similar deviations are
obtained for strain rates and thus for microstructure evolution as well (Figure 6(b)). Thermal computations results
in a vertical distribution whereas the temperature within
the core of the strip slightly increases. The layers at the
outer region of the cross section are showing the expected
fast decrease of the temperature.
a)
b)
Figure 6. Development of temperature distribution during deformation (a) resp. grain size and recrystallized volume fraction X (b).
Given curves were computed using a symmetric 11-layer model.
Acknowledgment
As a member of the DGM working group Roll bonding the authors have to thank all companies involved as
well as Siemens VAI and DFG within SPP1204 contract
KA 1591/16-1for their support and fruitful discussions.
References
Figure 5. Comparison of different models for layer thickness for

hot rolling.
[1] R. Kawalla, M. Spittel, M. Schmidtchen: Proc. DGM-Symposium

Walzen von Flachprodukten, Aachen, (2001).
[2] G.-Y. Tzou, K.I. Lee, H.R. Jian, J.C. Lion: Proc. Metal Forming 2000,
(2000), 315- 321
[3] M. Schmidtchen: Proc. MEFORM 2004, Freiberg, (2004), 29-52.
[4] N. Bay: Annals CIRP, 34 -1 (1985), 221-224.
[5] W. Zhang: Bond Formation in Cold Welding of Metals; Diss. , TU of
Denmark, (1994).
[6] L.R. Vaidyanath, M.G. Nicholas, D.R. Milner: British Welding Journal, 1 (1959), 13-28
[7] A. Hensel: Technologie der Metallformung Eisen- und
Nichteisenwerkstoffe,
VEB
Deutscher
Verlag
fr
die
Grundstoffindustrie Leipzig, (1990).
[8] R. Kuziak, Y-W. Cheng, M Glowacki, M. Pietrzyk: NIST Technical
Note 1393, (1997).
[9] D. Maugis: Contact, Adhesion and Rupture of Elastic Solids, Springer,
(2000).
[10] S.-W. Lo, T.-S. Yang: ASME, J. Tribology, 125-10 (2003), 713-719.
[11] H. Pawelski; O. Pawelski: Technische Plastomechanik, Verlag
Stahleisen, (2000).
[12] F.P. Incropera, D.P. DeWitt: Introduction to Heat Transfer, John
Wiley and Sons, (1996).
[13] R. Kreiig: Einfhrung in die Plastizittstheorie, Fachbuchverlag
Leipzig, (1992).
233
09.08.2010 14:21:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Manufacturing of Mg/Al Clad Sheet with Pure Titanium Foil as Inserts by Hot Pressing
and Rolling
Masahiro Saito1), Motoo Asakawa1), Yoshifuru Sunaga2), Masaru Kobayashi3), Masahito Kato4), Kunio Matsuzaki4)
1)
Applied Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University / Japan,
s.masha@toki.waseda.jp; 2) Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo / Japan; 3) Nagaoka University of Technology / Japan; 4)
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology / Japan
The manufacturing process of an Mg/Al clad sheet, in which both faces of a magnesium sheet were covered with an aluminum sheet; such
a clad sheet is required to be good deformability and high corrosion resistance, was investigated. After the bonding, this Mg/Al clad sheet
could withstand heavy hot rolling. We measured the bonding strength of the bonded Mg/Al clad sheet and the formability and mechanical
properties of a 0.5-mm-thick rolled sheet. The obtained results were as follows: (1) the formation of Mg17Al12 at the bonding interface was
prevented by inserting pure titanium foil between the magnesium sheet and the aluminum sheets; (2) the bonding strength of the Mg/Al clad
sheet with titanium foil inserts was 1.5 times greater than that of a sheet without titanium foil at room temperature; (3) the fracture
elongation of the Mg/Al clad sheet with titanium foil inserts was about 2 times greater than that of AZ61; and (4), the formability in bending
at room temperature was improved remarkably.
Keywords: AZ61, A1100, Clad sheet, Corrosion resistance, Pre titanium, Frmability, Bonding strength
Introduction
Magnesium alloy is lightest metal with high specific
strength in practical use today. However, because the
wrought magnesium alloy is poor in formability and corrosion resistance at room temperature, the manufacturing
process of Mg/Al clad sheets with thin aluminium sheets
has been investigated [1]. In this combination, by selecting
the optimum process, high corrosion resistance and good
formability would be expected.
In previous investigations on direct bonding without the
use of an inserts, the magnesium sheet and the aluminum
sheets are peeled away from each other. This was
attributed to the formation of Mg17Al12 at the bonding
interface between the magnesium sheet and the aluminum
sheets [2]. In this experiment, to prevent the formation of
Mg17Al12, a pure titanium foil was inserted between the
magnesium sheet and the aluminum sheets. In a previous
investigation of the manufacturing process of a Mg/Al
clad sheet and direct bonding (Figure 1), the intermetallic
compound Mg17Al12 was formed (Figure 2) and the magnesium sheet and the aluminium sheets peeled away from
each other. To improve the bonding strength, we found it
to be effective to insert titanium foil between the magnesium sheet and the aluminium sheets to avoid the formation of Mg17Al12 and increase the bonding strength by
formation of a thin diffused layer.
Hot press
Al
Mg/Al
clad sheet
Mg
Al
Al
Mg17Al12
20 m
Figure 2. Microstructure of the bonding interface after direct bonding and its line analysis (SEM-EDX).
Process of Bonding. Three kinds of metals and alloys
(i.e., AZ61, pure aluminium A1100, and pure titanium)
were prepared. The specimens we used were an AZ61
magnesium strip made by twin-roll strip casting to a thickness of 4.0 mm, an A1100 pure aluminium rolled sheet 0.8
mm thick, and titanium rolled foil 0.04 mm thick. The
chemical compositions of the three specimens are shown
in Tables 1, 2 and 3. The AZ61 and A1100 were annealed
as shown in Table 4 and the mechanical properties are
shown in Table 5.
Table 1. Chemical compositions of AZ61 (mass %).
Mg
92.5
Al
6.26
Zn
1.03
Mn
0.234
Fe
0.001
Table 2. Chemical compositions of A1100 (mass %).

Al
99.1
Cu
0.15
Fe
0.61
Si
0.09
Ti
0.02
Table 3. Chemical compositions of pure titanium foil (10-3mass %).

Figure 1. The process of direct bonding.
234
Space
Mg
Ti
99.9 103
C
4.51
Fe
28.0
Ni
2.0
O
30.0
H
0.4
09.08.2010 14:21:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
AZ61
4.0 mm
400 C, 1 (h)
A1100
0.8 mm
350 C, 1 (h)
Ti
0.04 mm
As rolled
Table 5. Mechanical properties of the specimens.

Material
Tensile strength
Elongation
AZ61
201 MPa
12.1%
A1100
90 MPa
35.0%
The process of bonding with titanium foil inserts is

shown in Figure 3. The condition of hot pressing to obtain
good bonding is shown in Table 6. For comparison, direct
bonding by hot pressing without inserts was carried out in
the same conditions.
Ti
Al
Mg/Al
clad sheet
Al
Figure 3. Process of bonding with pure titanium foil as an insert.

Table 6. Conditions of hot pressing.
200
20
200
250
25
250
210
21
150
150
15
136
13
100
100
10
50
50
50
00
0
Without
Ti Ti foil
Without
3 min 5 min 7 min
150 MPa
400 C
3, 5, 7 min
Mg/Al clad sheet
Radius of punch: 2.0 mm
E I
i
Without
Inserted
Ti foil
Ti foil
Holding time 5 min

i
= i i 1
(1)
(2)
where M is the bending moment, E is Youngs modulus,

is the length of the centroidal axis, I is the geometrical
moment of inertia and is the bonding strength.
Figure 6. Specimen for tensile test.
Holding time 3 min
Figure 4. Three-point bending test apparatus.
M Ei
i =
20
60
Fracture elongation %
Evaluation of Bonding Strength by Bending. The

bnding strength was evaluated by a three-point bending
test at room temperature at a speed of 1 mm/min, using the
apparatus shown in Figure 4. The bonding strength is
calculated by Eqs. (1) and (2).
15 mm
7 min
5 min
Evaluation of Fracture Elongation by Tensile Test.

Tensile testing was carried out using the specimen shown
in Figure 6 at a speed of 1 mm/min at room temperature.
The fracture elongation of the Mg/Al clad sheet without an
insert was the same as or lower than that of the AZ61, as
shown in Figure 7. Conversely, the elongation of the
Mg/Al clad sheet with inserted titanium foil was 2 times
greater than that of the AZ61, as shown in Figure 7.
10
Pressure
Inserted Ti sheet
3 min
R5
Pressure
Temperature
Holding time
30
300
300
Figure 5. Results of calculated interlaminar shear stress.
Hot press
Mg
Ti
MPa
Material
Thickness
Annealing
condition
The calculated shear stress of the Mg/Al clad sheet is

shown in Figure 5. The bonding strength of the Mg/Al
clad sheet with titanium foil inserts was increased 1.5
times compared with that without the inserts.
Interlaminar shear stress
Table 4. Thickness and annealing temperature of AZ61 magnesium alloy sheet, A1100 aluminium sheets, and titanium foil.
AZ61
Holding time 7
min
AZ61
Figure 7. Fracture elongation obtained from tensile test.
Evaluation of Strength by Tensile Test. The tensile

strength of the Mg/Al clad sheet with and without titanium
foil inserts is shown in Figure 8. The tensile strength of
the Mg/Al clad sheet with titanium foil inserts was greater
than that of the clad sheet without titanium foil.
235
09.08.2010 14:22:00 Uhr
Tensile strength MPa
Metal Forming
20 m
Mg17Al12
Mg
Without
Inserted
Ti foil
Holding time 3 min
Holding time 5 min
Ti foil
Al
AZ61
(a) Without Ti foil (Holding time 5 min)
Holding time 7 min

AZ61
Mg
The strength of the Mg/Al clad sheet without titanium

foil inserts at a holding time of 3 min was 170 MPa. This
value was greater than the allotted strength calculated
from the strength of AZ61 by thickness ratio. However, the
strength decreased at the holding times of 5 and 7 min.
This is attributable to the formation of Mg17Al12 during the
longer holding times.
The strength of the Mg/Al clad sheet with titanium foil
inserts was 180 MPa. This is attributable to the lack of
Mg17Al12 and the formation of a diffused layer between the
magnesium and the titanium, and between the titanium and
the aluminium, as described later.
Microstructure Aalyses of Bonded Interface. In the
bonded interface of the Mg/Al clad sheet without titanium
foil inserts, the region showing a constant ratio of magnesium and aluminium (i.e., Mg17Al12) was observed by
SEM-EDX, as shown in Figure 9. This depth increased as
the holding time increased, as shown in Table 7. In the
bonded interface of the Mg/Al clad sheet inserted with
titanium foil, the formation of Mg17Al12 was not observed
in the interface.
Table 7. Relation between holding time and depth of Mg17Al12 layer
in bonded Mg/Al clad sheet without titanium foil inserts.
Holding time
Depth of Mg17Al12 layer
3 min
9 m
5 min
14 m
20 m
(b) Inserted Ti foil (Holding time 5 min)
Figure 9. Mapping pictures of structures and line analyses results
(SEM-EDX).
20 m
Mg
Ti
enlarged
5 m
Ti
Mg
Al
Figure 10. Mapping pictures of structures and line analyses results (Holding time 5 min, SEM-EPMA).
Table 8. Relation between holding time and depth of diffused
layers in bonded Mg/Al clad sheet inserted with titanium foil.
Holding time
Depth of diffused layer (Mg-Ti)
Depth of diffused layer (Ti-Al)
3 min
8.0 m
4.6 m
5 min
10 m
5.8 m
7 min
11 m
6.0 m
Table 9. Limiting compositions in diffused layers.
Diffused layer in
magnesium side
Diffused layer in
aluminium side
Al
7 min
16 m
In the bonded interface of the Mg/Al clad sheet inserted

with titanium foil, SEM-EPMA observation of the interfaces between magnesiumtitanium and titanium
aluminum was carried out as shown in Figure 10. The
depth of the observed diffused layer in each magnesium
titanium and titaniumaluminum interface increased as the
holding time increased, as shown in Table 8. These diffused layers were formed by diffusion from each side of
the metal; the limiting compositions in the diffusion zone
were defined as shown in Table 9. Furthermore, the intermetallic compound was not observed in the diffused layers
at 400 C.
236
Al
Ti
Figure 8. Tensile strength obtained from tensile test.
In the line of
magnesium
In the line of
titanium
Less
90.0%
Less
99.6%
Less
99.6%
than
than
than
In the line
of
aluminium
Less
than
99.0%
09.08.2010 14:22:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
Rolling of Mg/Al Clad Sheet with and without Titanium Foil Inserts
The V-bending tests revealed no difference between

Mg/Al clad sheets with and without titanium foil inserts.
Mg/Al clad sheets with and without titanium foil inserts

were rolled to 0.5 mm at 250 C, as shown in Table 10. All
of the specimens and the AZ61 were rolled satisfactorily.
Conclusions
Table 10. Total reduction of specimens.

Specimens
Total reduction
Temperature
Sheet thickness
Mg/Al clad sheet Mg/Al clad sheet

AZ61
(inserted Ti foil)
(without Ti foil)
80%
75%
77%
250 C
0.50 mm
V Bending Test of Rolled Sheets at Room Temperature.

The specimens for the V bending test were machined
from the rolled direction and the lateral direction of the
rolled Mg/Al clad sheets. The specimens were deemed
formable when they had no surface defects (labelled o),
necked in the outer side (labelled -), or fractured (labelled x), as shown in Figure 11.
The following results were obtained.

1. By inserting pure titanium foil between the magnesium
sheet and the aluminum sheets, the formation of
Mg17Al12 at the bonding interface was prevented.
2. The bonding strength of the Mg/Al clad sheet with
titanium foil inserts was 1.5 times greater than that of a
sheet without titanium foil at room temperature.
3. The fracture elongation of the Mg/Al clad sheet with
titanium foil inserts was about 2 times greater than that
of AZ61.
4. The formability in bending at room temperature was
improved remarkably.
References
[1] H. Matsumoto, S. Watanabe, S. Hanada: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 169-1 (2005), 9-15.
[2] X.B. Liu, R.S. Chen, E.H. Han: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 209-10 (2009), 4675-4681.
o : Formable
Necking
- : Necking of surface aluminum

Figure 11. V bending test results of Mg/Al clad rolled sheets.
Table 11. Results of V bending test.
Species
Holding
time
Ratio of punch by thickness

Rp / t
1.0
2.0
4.0
3 min
o
Mg/Al clad sheet
5 min
o
(inserted Ti foil)
7 min
o
3 min
o
Mg/Al clad sheet
5 min
o
(without Ti foil)
7 min
o
3 min
x
x
x
AZ61
5 min
x
x
x
7 min
x
x
x
o : Formable, - : Necking of surface aluminum, x : Fracture
237
09.08.2010 14:22:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
Simulation of Levelling with Adjustable Roll Bending

Tamer El Nadi, Bernd-Arno Behrens, Richard Krimm
Institute of Metal Forming and Metal-Forming Machines, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, An der Universitaet 2, 30823, Garbsen / Germany,
elnadi@ifum.uni-hannover.de
Increasing demands on the quality of sheet metal parts require increasing production standards. Sheet metal products often show geometrical defects. Hence, roller levelling of the material before further forming processes becomes more and more important to keep the required tolerances. Geometrical defects can be distinguished into two main categories. Sheet metal with defects of the first category is bent
around one axis. Edge and centre waves belong to the second category of geometrical defects. Precise adjustment of the leveller is complex but necessary to obtain best results and a reproducible levelling process. This paper focuses on edge and centre waves and the dependency between the topography of sheet metal after levelling and the adjustment of the machine. A roller leveller featuring adjustable
bending of the levelling rolls was simulated under different conditions.
Keywords: Rolling, Sheet metal forming, Modelling, Simulation
Introduction
Sheet metal often shows shape defects, which is not
complying with the increasing requirements for the quality
of products needing to satisfy high demands on tolerances.
As the computational power has increased over the past
years, simulation is playing an outstanding role in the
production process and is becoming much more effective.
Simulation proved to be a powerful tool for defining and
developing new methods.
Sheet metal defects can be distinguished into two main
types: surface-to-surface and edge-to-edge length differential shape defects. The first one can be eliminated using
conventional roller levellers [1], while the eliminating of
edge-to-edge length differential problems requires levellers featuring an adjustable bending of the levelling rolls
[2,3] (see Figure 1). By means of this, the centre and the
left or right edge zones of the sheet stripe can be stretched
to a different extent. A successful adjustment of these
machines is complex and depends mainly on the experience of the line operator [4,5].
In this paper, wavy edges and centre waves as well as
their causes and possible corrections are investigated. By
means of an analytic description, a three dimensional
simulation model of an adequate levelling machine was
developed using the MATLAB programming environment
to analyze the levelling process. Compared to the finite
element method, the use of this model considerably reduces the calculation effort while producing satisfactory
results [6]. The analytic description provides a wide range
of features to analyze the levelling process for different
types of sheet metal and levellers. A user-friendly graphical user interface was developed to facilitate entering the
required parameters for the simulation. The topography of
the sheet metal to be levelled is analyzed using a measurement system and is used as input for the simulation.
The optimal machine settings can be virtually determined
to save time and costs and the topography of the sheet
metal before and after virtual levelling can be visualized.
Different methods have been tested to investigate the effect of the levelling process on the sheet metal and to calculate the remaining defects after levelling. The simulation
results were validated with experimental results.
Levellers
238
Levelling Requirements. Levellers and straighteners

consist of levelling rolls deforming the sheet metal by an
alternating bending while it is passing through the machine. The bending strain reaches maximum values at the
entry of the machine and decreases to a minimum at the
exit [7]. Residual stress and geometrical defects can be
reduced to a minimum. During the levelling process, the
rollers are impacted by high mechanical load. To avoid an
undesired and uncontrolled bending of the levelling rolls
leading to unstable process conditions, levellers are
equipped with additional supporting rolls to increase both
vertical and horizontal rigidity (Figure 1) [2,8].
levelling rolls
supporting rolls
Figure 1. Leveller with supporting rolls.
The type of levellers discussed here features an adjustable bending of the lower set of levelling rolls by controlled vertical adjustment of the lower supporting rollers
[9].
By this, certain zones (virtual stripes) of the sheet metal
as the centre and the left or right edge zones can be
stretched to a different extent. This is necessary to eliminate edge-to-edge shape defects [9,10].
Furthermore the upper roll set can be adjusted in vertical
direction, but arranged linearly and without a bending of
the rolls. This enables the machine to straighten surfaceto-surface defects resulting from a coiled delivery of sheet
metal.
09.08.2010 14:22:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analytical, Three Dimensional Simulation Model

Development of Model. The analytic description of the
levelling machine as well as the calculation algorithms to
determine the course of motion of the sheet metal through
the machine were implemented and visualized in the programming environment MATLAB. The input parameters
are the geometrical aspects of the machine, properties of
the sheet metal material and the sheet metals surface topography before entering the leveller.
The surface topography of the sheet metal before levelling is measured in the form of points using a commercial
measurement system. A zero level is calculated for the
sheet metals surface and all points above or below this
level are identified as shape defects. The obtained data is
saved as ASCII-file and is used as input for the algorithm
[11]. Afterwards, the simulation of the levelling process
can be started. The sheet metal and the machine will be
visualized, contact regions between the sheet metal and the
rolls will be defined. Taking into consideration the expenditure in computing and storage capacity as well as problems of convergence, the sheet metal is virtually sectioned
in a number of longitudinal stripes representing a twodimensional problem [3,12,13]. The length of each stripe
is calculated while virtually passing the machine.
In order to obtain a flat sheet metal, the length of all
stripes after levelling must be the same. To give a simpli-
fied example, the sheet metal is virtually sectioned in three

virtual stripes [10,14]. For example, if the stripes at the
edges are longer than the middle one, the sheet metal
shows edge waves. In this case, the middle stripe must be
stretched to a greater extent than the edge stripes to obtain
the same length for all three stripes and accordingly a
planar surface (Figure 2).
edge stripes
edge stripes
centre stripes
centre stripes
edge stripes
edge stripes
(b) Sheet metal with edge waves
(a) Sheet metal with centre waves
Figure 2. Virtually sectioning the metal in stripes.
Based on parameters, the geometry of a leveller with

bendable rolls can be individually built up in the software,
so that constructive changes in the machine or different
types of levellers can be easily considered. The bending
line of the rolls is calculated based on the actual adjustments of the supporting rolls. In order to calculate the
contact points between each stripe and the rolls (Figure 3),
the surface of each bent roll will be calculated and assigned in three dimensions. In addition, the contact positions between each stripe and the rolls will be assigned.
This directed bending of the rolls causes plastic elongation
in single metal stripes.
The change in length of the different stripes during the
levelling process is calculated considering the machines
parameters and adjustments as well as the length of the
stripes before levelling [9]. Geometrical approach is used
to calculate the length of the different stripes. A constant
speed of the sheet metal while passing the machine (i.e.
the speed of all rolls is the same) as well as the absence of
lateral movement have been assumed.
50
Roll 2
mm
Simulation of Levelling Process. A theoretical description of the levelling process is complex due to different
sheet metal materials, the complexity of the levelling machine and the sensitive process itself [3,8]. The sheet metal
properties, especially the residual stresses and the potential
strain hardening before levelling are known only with
restricted exactness due to multiple wrapping or forming
of the sheet metal during its production (e.g. rolling and
multiple recoiling). The required forces on the levelling
rollers respective the machine settings to obtain acceptable
levelling results are accordingly variable [1].
The friction conditions within the machine vary from
roll to roll in a barely predictable way and the levelling
process is very sensitive. According to this, a m of variation of the rollers adjustment can be decisively whether
the sheet metal will be flat or still has shape defects after
the levelling process. Furthermore, comparative data of
real sheet metal as input and output parameters are difficult to gather. Measured bending, wavelengths or amplitudes of waves in a sheet metal are accurate only if the
sheet metal is not impacted by external forces [8]. This
condition is hard to achieve as in fact the self-weight of
the sheet metal may influence the value of the shape defects. Due to the reasons named above as well as high
computing times, the use of the finite element method for
the process simulation is not suitable for a quick analysis
and adjustment of a leveller [6]. At the Institute of Metal
Forming and Metal-Forming Machines of the Leibniz
University in Hanover, an analytic description of a leveller
was developed. The levelling process using a machine
with adjustable bending of the levelling rolls was analysed
on the basis of a geometrical approach to eliminate edgeto-edge length differential shape defects (edge waves and
centre waves).
Roll 6
Roll 4
Roll 8
0
Roll 1
-50
Roll 3
50
contact points
Roll 5
100
mm
Roll 7
150
Roll 9
200
Figure 3. Contact points.
239
09.08.2010 14:22:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 4. Graphical user interface.

To validate the simulated results, virtual and practical
levelling tests have been carried out of three trials. In the
following, the results are compared and discussed. According to the calculations explained above, a varying length
of the virtual stripes along the sheets width corresponds to
shape defects respective residual stress remaining in the
material. Hence, large length differences are undesired
whereas equal lengths represent a planar surface. In the
following figures, the length differences are depicted for
the sheet metal
I. before levelling (before)
II. after virtual levelling (virtual)
III. after levelling in a machine (experimental)
0.1
0.09
0.08
length difference (mm)
Graphical User Interface. A graphical user interface

(GUI) was developed to help the user entering the necessary inputs for the simulation.
With the help of this GUI, the machine setting and the
sheet metal before and after levelling can be visualized. A
screen shot of the user interface is shown in Figure 4. The
parametric structure of the developed model allows variable number, radius and spacing of both levelling and
supporting rolls. Furthermore, it is possible to adjust the
upper rolls. Based on the adjustment of the supporting
rolls the bending of the lower rolls is calculated.
Additional information concerning the sheet metal properties such as thickness, width, E-Modulus and the yield
stress of the material are necessary for the simulation.
0.07
before
0.06
0.05
virtual
0.04
0.03
experimental
0.02
0.01
0
0
200
400
600
800
sheet metals width(mm)
1000
1200
Figure 5. Reduction of edge waves.
According to this, large length differences were calculated for the edges. Virtual and experimental levelling was
done using the same adjustments for the real leveller as
well as for the virtual model.
The sheet metal after virtual levelling still had waves at
both sides, but considerably smaller than before. Accordingly, the length differences were decreased. The results of
the experimental tests correspond to the simulation. Small
edge waves remained in the material, even a little smaller
than those of virtual levelled sheet. A good accordance
between simulation and reality was found.
In Figure 6, the topography of the sheet metal is visualized with the help of the developed software.
Reduction of Edge Waves. Figure 5 shows the results

of reducing edge waves in simulation and experiment. The
sheet metal had waves before levelling at both the left and
the right edge.
Figure 6. Visualization of sheet metal.
240
09.08.2010 14:22:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
Reduction of Middle Waves. Figure 7 shows the results of levelling a sheet with middle waves using another
set of machine adjustments. The middle waves were eliminated by the experimental levelling process. As a result of
unsuitable machine settings, edge waves were generated
instead. In accordance, virtual levelling with the same
machine adjustments lead to similar results.
Acknowledgement
0.25
0.2
The research project with the title 'development of an

analytical 3D simulation model to control a leveller' was
promoted under BE1691/20-2 by the German Research
Foundation (DFG). The authors thank for the support.
virtual
0.15
experimental
before
0.1
References
0.05
0
0
800
600
Sheet metals width (mm)
400
200
1000
1200
Figure 7. Reduction of middle waves.
As mentioned above, the self-weight of the real sheet

material may cause an additional flattening of the edge
waves and hence be responsible for the difference between
virtual and practical results.
Eliminating Edge Waves. Figure 8 shows the results of
levelling a sheet metal having edge waves. After adjusting
the machine settings, virtual and experimental levelling
was carried out. By this, the edge waves were completely
eliminated without producing any further shape defects.
With both experimental and simulated process a planar
surface was obtained.
0.04
0.035
of determining shape defects are presented. Experimental

and virtual levelling tests were carried out and the approach was validated for different shape defects. The parametric structure of the model allows a quick individual
configuration of different machines and sheet metal properties. Simulated and experimental measured results agree
in a wide range with divergences in an expected range.
0.03
0.025
0.02
before
0.015
virtual
experimental
0.01
0.005
0
0
200
400
600
800
sheet metals width (mm)
1000
1200
[1] W., Guericke et al.: Wiss. Z. Techn. Hochschule Magdeburg, 27

(1983), 167-173.
[2] O.-W., Buchholz: Beitrag zur Frage der Eigenspannungen und der
Planheit von Kaltgewalztem Feinblech, Dissertation, Technische
Universitt Hannover, (1973).
[3] L.-S., Henrich: Theoretische und experimentelle Untersuchungen
zum Richtwalzen von Blechen, Dissertation Universitt Gesamthochschule Siegen, (1994).
[4] H., Brutigam: Richten mit Walzrichtmaschinen. 4. berarbeitete
Auflage (2009). Eigenverlag der Firma ARKU Maschinenbau GmbH.
[5] W., Guericke: Modell zur Simulation elastisch-plastischer
Biegeverformungen fr technologische Bearbeitungsprozesse.
Institute fr Maschinen- und Antriebstechnik, Otto- von- GuerickeUniversitaet Magdeburg, (1994).
[6] E., Doege; A., Zacharov: Entwicklung eines analytischen Simulationsmodells fr die Regelung einer Richtmaschine. DFG Forschungsbericht, IFUM Hannover, (2003).
[7] B.-A., Behrens; T., El Nadi; R., Krimm: Einstellung von Richtmaschinen, UTF Science, Ausgabe 3/2009, Meisenbach Verlag,
Bamberg, August 2009
[8] B.-A., Behrens; R., Krimm: Proc. 137th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, New Orleans, (2008).
[9] B.-A., Behrens; T., El Nadi; R., Krimm: ZWF Zeitschrift fr
wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb, 6 (2009), 478-481.
[10] B.-A., Behrens; T., El Nadi; R., Krimm: Einstellung von Richtmaschinen, Blech Rohre Profile, Ausgabe 10 (2009), 16-7.
[11] M. Averhage, M. Liewald, T. Stramann: Konstruktion eines Krmmungssensors fr den Einsatz an einer Walzrundmaschine. Interner
Bericht, Lehrstuhl fr Umformende Fertigungsverfahren, Universitt
Dortmund, (1995).
[12]K. Siegert, N. Dogan: Measurement of sheet and tool surfaces.
Zeitschriftensaufsatz: 90 (2000), 414-418.
[13] B. Denkena, H. Ahlers, F. Berg, Th. Wolf, H.K. Tnshoff: CIRP
[14] B.-A. Behrens, R. Krimm: Automatisierung des Richtprozesses mit
Hilfe einer computergesttzten Regelung unter Bercksichtigung der
Restkrmmung. DFG Forschungsbericht, IFUM Hannover, (2006).
Figure 8. Elimination of edge waves.
Conclusions
The intent of the presented work is the development of
an analytic simulation model of a levelling machine for
sheet metal to eliminate edge and middle waves. The
model allows a virtual determination of suitable settings
for levellers featuring adjustable bending of the levelling
rolls. By this, waves at the edges as well as in the middle
of the sheet metal can be eliminated. An adequate approach for the calculation and a graphical user interface
was developed and realized using the programming environment MATLAB. A description of modern levellers, the
acquisition of the sheet metal topography and the method
241
09.08.2010 14:22:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of Roller Leveller Straightening for Coiled Bar
Motoo Asakawa1), Motohiko Urabe2), Kotaro Nishimura2), Ryota Hamada2), Shigeyuki Aizawa2), Masahiko Amari3)
1)
Department of Applied Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo/ Japan, asakawa@waseda.jp; 2) Major in Applied Mechanics, Graduate School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo/ Japan, 3) Asahi Sunac Corporation,
Aichi/ Japan
Straightening is carried out industrially to eliminate or modify the curvature of bars and wires using, for example curved and twisted coiled
bars for wire rod rolling, and a wire drawing process. Roller leveller straightening is one of the most popular methods used for straightening
wires or coiled bars, because of its simple mechanical structure. The objective of this study is to investigate roller leveller straightening by
theoretical and experimental analyses. Three-dimensional FEM analysis of roller leveller straightening was carried out using multipurpose
nonlinear FEM software MSC. Marc.. The Chaboche model (by considering the Bauschinger effect) was used to improve the accuracy of
the analysis. Results of the theoretical FEM analysis were found to be in good agreement with the experimental result of bar tilting, and
thus, the obtained result provides an effective tool for estimating the limit value of straightness and bar tilt. The limit value of straightness
could be found only when the three-dimensional shape of a coiled bar was completely straightened. The limit value of straightness was
caused by the tilting of the bars during straightening. From the theoretical and experimental analysis, it is found the initial shape of a curved
and twisted coiled bar is the main factor causing bar tilting.
Keywords: Straightening, Tilting, Bar, Rod, Simulation, Roller leveller
Introduction
Recently, straightening has been widely used to remove
or change the curvatures of bars (cast or helix shaped) of
wires formed by wire rod rolling, or drawing. The demand
for straight automobile precision machine parts has particularly increased. Since straightening methods largely
depend on workers experience and precision, the machine
setting and process sequence is usually entirely left to the
workers discretion.
Straightening on a roller leveller is the most popular
method for straightening bars and wires because of the
simple mechanical structure and low cost of the device.
Several researches have been conducted on sheets and
plates, however, research conducted on bars and wires are
relatively few [1].
In this report, three-dimensional FEM analysis of
straightening on a roller leveller was investigated using
multipurpose nonlinear FEM software MSC. Marc.. The
Chaboche model (considering Bauschinger effect) was
used to improve the accuracy of the analysis results, which
were compared with previous experiments [2-6]. Limit
value of straightness and bar tilting during straightening were determined only when a coiled bar (curved and
twisted) was straightened.
Experimental Method
Figure 1 shows the roller leveller used for straightening
bars and wires in this study. The rollers were numbered
along the feed direction of the material. The roll intermesh
h was adjusted by moving even numbered rollers along the
Y-axis, but the odd numbered rollers were fixed. The
roller diameter and pitch was D = 55 mm, and L = 70 mm
respectively. V shaped roller groove was used. Medium
carbon drawn steel bar (0.45% C) with a diameter of 6 mm
was used as the material. Figures 2 shows 3 types of bar
shapes, one-dimensional straight bar, two-dimensional bar
(curved in one plane), and three-dimensional bar (curved
and twisted coiled bar). Tables 1 and 2 list the chemical
242
compositions, Youngs modulus E and 0.2% proof stress

0.2 measured from the tensile test.
Figure 1. Roller leveller for straightening bar and wire.
One-dimensional bar Two-dimensional bar
Three-dimensional bar
Figure 2. Bar shape using roller leveller.

Table 1. Chemical compositions and mechanical property of onedimensional and two-dimensional bars.
C
0.430
Si
0.190
Mn
0.700
P
0.011
E = 2.0 105 MPa 0.2 = 840 MPa
S
0.005
Table 2. Chemical composition and mechanical properties of

three-dimensional bar.
C
0.450
Si
0.200
Mn
0.770
P
0.019
S
0.023
E = 2.0 105 MPa 0.2 = 760 MPa
09.08.2010 14:22:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analytical Method
800
400
Strain gage
Tensile-Compress
test
200
0
-200
-400
Teflon sheet
Bar
-600
Isotropic hardening
-800
-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
True Strain %
Figure 3. Cyclic load test of medium carbon steel bar.
800
600
400
Experiment
200 Experiment
Stress /MPa
Stress /MPa
600
Die
0
-200
-400
-600
-800
-0.6
sotropicIsotropic
hardening
hardenin
Chaboche
model
Chaboche-model
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4 0.6
True Strain %
Figure 4. Comparison of material model and experimental
results of axial loading unloading.
The bar was divided into sections of 2.5 mm each in

longitudinal direction, and 6 sections each in Y direction
and Z directions. The leading end node was fed by forced
displacement. Coulomb friction between the bar and
material was assumed to be 0.05. The bar tilting before
straightener was assumed to be fixed with two rigid sheets
because the coiled bar was fixed with reel stand in actual
field operation (shown in Figure 5). The bar was fed
through a pinch roller after straightening and was free to
rotate. Therefore, bar tilting was allowed and the ends
center node could move only in X direction as shown in
Figure 6.
Back side
Rotation fix
Forced displacement
Front side
Figure 5. Boundary condition of bar tilting at entry side.
Prescribed displacement
otation is ree
Figure 6. Boundary condition for bar tilting analysis.
Figure 7 shows the straightness measuring set up and

the definition straightness (curvature ). As curvature
approaches 0, bar straightness increases. When the direction of bending was positive with respect to the Y axis,
this bending was defined as positive. The measuring apparatus was a parallel laser beam line sensor with accuracy
0.1 m. Theoretically, the straightness was calculated by
measuring 3 points of displacement of the center node
cross section. In order to evaluate the rotation of the bar, a
reference line was marked longitudinally. This line was
measured as the tilt angle . Before straightening, the tilt
angle was 0, and the positive tilt angle was defined. In
the theoretical analysis, tilting angle was evaluated by
measuring the node displacement in cross section (see
Figure 8).
0 deg.
LL
0 de
L/2
L/2
L/2
L/2
deg.
de
= 1/ = 4 / L2
Figure 7. Method for measuring Figure 8. Measurement of

straightness.
bar tilt in numerical analysis.
In the experiment, the surface strain s was measured

with a strain-gauge, and the plastic ratio was calculated.
is plastic zone ratio in radial direction at the section (see
Figure 9). was also calculated from the surface strain in
theoretical analysis. p was defined as plastic deformation
as shown in tensile test (see Figure 10).
Multipurpose nonlinear FEM software MSC. Marc. was

used for the analysis. This FEM program is static implicit
method, the formulation is the updated Lagrangian type
and the finite element is a hexahedral first order
isoparametric solid element used in the Chaboche model
(considering Bauschinger effect). Figure 3 shows the
result of cyclic load test. The buckling was prevented by
die supporting with teflon sheet. The Bauschinger effect
was found in this graph. Figure 4 shows the comparison
of the experimental results of cyclic load test with theoretical results of Chaboche and isotropic hardening models.
The Chaboche model was most similar to the experimental
results. Therefore, in this paper, the Chaboche model have
been used for theoretical analysis.
s
P P
Plasticit ratio r

Figure 10. Definition of strain.

Figure 9. Definition of plastic ratio .
Experimental Result
Figure 11 shows relationships between roll intermesh
h4 and straightness for 5 roll straightening, h2 = 3.0 mm.
Accurately straight bar can be obtained by only adjusting
h4 when one-dimensional and two-dimensional bars are
used. On the other hand, the limit value of straightness is
obtained when three-dimensional bar is used. The rotation
243
09.08.2010 14:22:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
12
Three-dimensional
- bar
Two-dimensional
2- bar
One-dimensional
1- bar
6
3
Analysis
of two
dimensional
2
bar
Analysis
one dimensional
of1-
bar
3
0
200
300
400
500
Displacement X /mm
Figure 13. Theoretical and experimental relation between
displacement and tilt angle.
100
10-4
2.5
2.0
-
Three-dimensional
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
One-dimensional bar
-0.5 1-
-1.0
bar
2-
Two-dimensional
-1.5
-2.0
-2.5
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
2.0
Figure 14. Difference between initial shape and straightness of

bar in theoretical analysis.
x-z=1/
x-z
X-Z 1/X Z
Z
Y
X
200 280 400

600
800
Displacement X /mm
1000
Straightness /mm-1
Figure 13 shows the theoretical and experimental results for tilt angle for 5 roll straightening, h2 = 3.0 mm,
and h4 = 0.7 mm. The theoretical analysis result was quantitatively similar to the experimental one. From both results, no rotation occurred when one-dimensional and twodimensional bar were used, but a large rotation occurred
when a three-dimensional bar was used. Figure 14 shows
the difference between the initial shape and straightness
of the bar in the theoretical analysis under for 5 roll
straightening and h2 = 3.0 mm. Maximum plastic ratio max
= 40.2% and curvature s = 38.010-4 mm-1. There was no
limit value of straightness when one and two-dimensional
bars were straightened by adjusting only h4. On the other
hand, there was a large limit value of straightness when
three-dimensional bar was straightened. Figure 15 shows
resolved straightness of a straightened three-dimensional
bar. Straightened three-dimensional bar straightness was
dissolved into X-Y and X-Z planes The curvature X-Y was
well straightened in X-Y plane. However, X-Z remained
even after straightening in X-Z plane. This residual bending is considered to be the reason for limit value of
straightness.
=1/
x-yX-Y=1/
x-yX-Y
Analytical Result
Analysis of three dimensional bar
Figure 12. Tilt angle for different initial bars shaped.
244
of three-dimensional
Experimental
-
No.4 Roll intermesh h4 /mm
12
-4
2.5 10
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
X-Y
0.0
-0.5
-1.0
-1.5
-2.0
-2.5
0.8
1.0
0.6
0.4
X-Z

Tilting angle /deg.
15
Figure 11. Straightness for different initial bar shapes.
15
Tilting angle /deg.
10
2.5
Three-dimensional
bar
-
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
-0.5
-1.0
-1.5
Two-dimensional
bar
2-
-2.0
One-dimensional
bar
1-
-2.5
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
Straightness /mm-1
-4
Straightness /mm-1
of the bar during straightening is the reason for obtaining

limit value of straightness. Therefore tilt angle was
measured at the best roll intermesh setting (see Figure 12).
A small tilt was traced when one and two-dimensional bar.
On the other hand, large tilting occurred during (X = 0-280
mm) and after straightening (X = 280-500 mm) when a
three-dimensional bar was used.
1.2
1.4
1.6

Figure 15. Analysis result of limit value of straightness.
Discussion and Countermeasure

Two methods were used to straighten a threedimensional bar. One method is by reducing tilt of bar. To
reduce tilting, the height of roller No. 1 was changed (see
Figure 16). Figure 17 shows the resulting tilt angle when
the height t1 of roller No. 1 by 2 mm was increased. This
result shows that changing the height roller No. 1 proves
as an effective measure for reducing bar tilting. The height
t1 as shown in Figure 18 is effective in improving limit
value of straightness.
The other method is by changing the plane of straighten-
09.08.2010 14:22:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
No.1
No.2
L=70 mm D=55 mm
No.5
No.3
No.9
No.8
h
Z
t1
Figure 16. Arrangement of rollers for roller leveller.
Tilting angle /deg.
8
6
t 1 = 0 mm
4
2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
-10 0
t 1 = 2 mm
Straightness /mm-1
t1 = 2 mm
t1 = 0 mm
Limit value of straightness

0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
No.8 roll intermesh h8 / mm
Figure 18. Improvement of limit value of straightness applying
change of height t1.
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
00
-0.5
-1.0
Limit value
-1.5
-2.0 (H straightening)
-2.5
0.4
0.6
0.8
Y
X
Limit value
(H-V straightening)
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
Figure 19. Limit value of straightness for horizontal straightening

and horizontal-vertical straightening
Circle
Straightene
Z
Straightness /mm-1
20 deg.
25 deg.
X
2.5
2.0
1.5 New type straightener
1.0
Limit value
0.5
0
-0.5
-1.0
-1.5
-2.0 Limit value of conventional straightening (H straightening)
-2.5
1.7
1.9
2.1
2.5
(a) A new type of straightener
(b) Effect of new type of roller
with circle guide
leveller straightener
Figure 20. New type of roller leveller straightener.
Roller leveller straightening of bars was investigated

and discussed using three-dimensional FEM analysis as
well as experiments. The following results are obtained:
Y
1. One-dimensional and two-dimensional bars could be
X
accurately straightened by a roller leveller. On the other
hand, the limit value of straightness could be
determined for a three-dimensional bar, because it is
tilted during straightening.
2. The limit value of straightening and the tilting of bars
could be simulated using FEM simulation. FEM is an
effective tool for simulation of bar straightening.
3. Aligning the straightening plane along the direction of
rotation of the bar led to effective straightening as
opposed to straightening only in the X-Y plane, because
changing straightening plane fits to bar initial shape and
bar rotation.
200
400
600
Displacement X mm
Figure 17. Relation between tilt angle and displacement X during straightening of three-dimensional bar.
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
-0.5
-1.0
-1.5
-2.0
-2.5
10-4
Conclusion
No.7
No.6
Straightness /mm-1
ing along the direction of bar rotation. The residual bending in the vertical plane is considered to be the cause of
limit value of straightness. Figure 19 shows the straightness values after straightening in the X-Y and the X-Z
planes; this method is commonly used industrially. The
bar was straightened in both planes and the limit value of
straightness was improved, but still had a large straightness limit value. The rotation of the bar caused bending in
the X-Y plane, nevertheless bending remained only in the
X-Z plane when the bar was straightened in the X-Y plane.
Therefore, the rotation of the bar adversely affected
straightening.
Finally, it was considered that aligning the straightening
plane along the direction of bar rotation would be effective,
and a new straightener was developed as shown in Figure
20(a). This straightener could change the straightening
plane every 5 rollers by the circle guide. The straightening
plane angle of first 5 rollers was calculated using the
formula given below from the pitch of the coiled bar p, its
the diameter 2, and the distance between the starting
point of the apparatus and the point of first bending X.
X
(1)
360 deg
=
2
2
p + (2 )
Figure 20(b) shows the effect of the new roller leveller.
Changing the straightening plane with the rotation of the
bar caused more effective straightening as compared to
straightening only in the X-Y plane.
References
[1] H. Suzuki, J. Araki, N. Yamamoto: J. Japan Soc. Technol. Plast., 15156 (1974), 35-42.
[2] T. Irisawa, M. Asakawa, T. Hama, S. Aizawa: Proc. 55th JSTP, (2004),
497-498.
[3] M. Nagahira, M. Asakawa, S. Aizawa, M. Motoda, H. Yoshida, M.
Amari: Wire J. Int., (2006), 124-131.
[4] R. Hamada, M. Asakawa, M. Nagahira, M. Amari: Proc. 58th JSTP,
(2007), 483-484.
[5] T. Aikawa, R. Hamada, M. Asakawa, M. Amari: Proc. 58th JSTP,
(2007), 485-486.
[6] R. Hamada, M. Asakawa, M. Nagahira, M. Amari: Wire J. Int.,
(2008), 81-87.
245
09.08.2010 14:22:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of Induced Strain Path on Force-Energy Parameters of Rolling Process

Zdzislaw Cyganek
Department of Materials Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Katowice / Poland, zdzislaw.cyganek@polsl.pl
Mechanical working of metals and metal alloys is a necessary stage in production chain of many products. Improving products functional
properties depends intimately on possibilities of forming and controlling metal properties during mechanical working. The results of research
conducted in many world research centers proved that these aims can be achieved during processes of metal forming with induced strain
path. These methods are named as Severe Plastic Deformation processes in scientific literature. One of the possibilities to conduct SPD
process in industry is rolling process with cyclic, transverse movement of working rolls. This process is also named as Metal Forming Aided
by Shear Stresses - MEFASS. Research of rolling process with induced strain path were conducted for easy-to-form metal (copper) and
hard-to-form metal (austenitic steel). Research results are presented in this paper. The main aim of this research was to obtain maximum
value of total equivalent strain during the process. This aim can be achieved when the process is conducted with low value of rolling velocity, maximum value of transverse rolls movement frequency and the biggest possible displacement of working rolls. Lowering of rolling force
and relative deformation work was observed as effect of induced strain path during the process.
Keywords: MEFASS rolling process, Induced strain path, Severe plastic deformation, Hard-to-form materials, Deformation work
Introduction
MEFASS Rolling Process
Used so far possibilities of influence on metal and alloys

properties in technological processes of metal forming,
trough selection of process parameters such as: stress state
rate, temperature, deformation velocity, value of strain
were almost exhausted. It is necessary to search alternative
reserves in new metal forming methods [1].
The effect of strain accumulation is used in forming
processes called Severe Plastic Deformation (SPD) in
literature. These processes are considered as one of the
possibilities to obtain materials with new microstructure
and utilitarian properties. Thanks to research, which are
conducted from many years, these methods are still developed [2] as well as first industrial application are revealed
[3,4].
Wider application of the Severe Plastic Deformation
process for processing of metals requires an analysis of the
structural phenomena occurring in the material during
deformation with induced strain path change, the impact of
these phenomena on the process of deformation, the economic efficiency of the process with the change of the
strain path and the most effective way to implement
changes of the strain path.
Department of Process Modelling and Medical Engineering of Silesian University of Technology conducts a
research in order to recognize phenomena, which are the
result of strain path change and also development of
manufacturing technology based on these processes. Because of strain leading method this processes are called
MEFASS processes, which means Metal Forming Aided
by Shear Stresses.
The results of studies on the effect of induced deformation path on force-energy parameters of rolling process
with cyclic, axial rolls movement are presented in this
paper. Earlier studies in this area have been carried out for
soft materials such as aluminium or copper [5]. Currently
the research focused on hard-to-form materials such as
magnesium alloys and austenitic steels.
Idea of MEFASS Rolling Process. Tested to date methods of metal forming with induced strain path such as:
ECAP or KOBO extrusion allowed to gain interesting
effects. However, these processes also have one disadvantage, which is a small volume of material that can be deformed during a single operation. Application of induced
strain path during the rolling process allows for deformation a much larger volume of material in one pass.
Presented in the article rolling process is characterized
by application of cyclic, transverse movement of the working rolls during forming of the material. The additional
movement of rolls produces shear stresses in the material hence the name of the process is Metal Forming Aided by
Shear Stresses.
246
Construction of Laboratory Rolling Mill. The rolling

stand, which was build in our laboratory, enable to move
working rolls, with 60mm diameter, in transverse direction
to direction of rolling. Frequency of this cyclic movement
can be regulated from 0 to 3 Hz. Maximum value of rolls
displacement is 2 mm, which allows to reach maximum
relative rolls displacement of 8mm. Kinematic scheme of
rolling stand action is presented on Figure 1. Construction
of rolling stand and mechanism, which is responsible for
axial roll movement is original and patented solution [6].
Other parameters of rolling process height reduction
value and rolling velocity can be regulated too.
Gaining of strain path change effect depends on the way
of additional rolls movement transfer to deformed material.
Because of this special groves were made on surface of
working rolls Figure 2. These groves causes friction
coefficient increase between working rolls and the strip
and ensure appropriate material flow conditions in transverse direction to direction of rolling.
09.08.2010 14:22:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 1. Diagram of rolling mill with cyclic and transverse rolls

movement.
Figure 2. Working rolls used during developed rolling process.
The conception of the present rolling mill was to obtain

the largest number of information about proceedings of
forming process. The rolling mill was equipped in measurement system, which allows to measure and acquire the
most important parameters of forming process such as:
rolling force, rolling torque, axial force and rotational
speed of working rolls.
Research of Rolling With Induced Strain Path Change For
Hard-to-Form Material
Rolling Process. The research of metal forming processes with induced strain such as MEFASS rolling process
[5] were carried out so far for the easy-to-form materials
such as aluminium or copper alloys. However, the results
of these deformation methods may be particularly interesting for the hard-to-form materials such as steel or magnesium alloys.
In the present paper, the research of rolling processes
with induced strain path was carried out for samples of EN
1.4301 austenitic steel (AISI304). Due to the possibility of
rolling mill drive and the ranges of sensors the sample
dimensions were 3670 mm (hwl). The results of this
research were compared with earlier research conducted
for easy-to-form material electrolytic copper.
The parameters of the rolling process have been identified on the basis of earlier laboratory tests [5]. So far during the research of MEFASS rolling process with maximal
parameters of additional movement were used to maximize the effects of induced strain path. However observations made during the research showed that a particularly
negative impact of using maximum amplitude of transverse displacement rolls on the shape of the rolled strip
obtained after the process [5].
Accordingly, in the research the following process parameters were applied:
rolling reduction - studies have shown that the effects of
induced strain in the MEFASS rolling process is recorded
for values greater than 10% - in research values of h=10,
15 and 20% were used,
rotational speed of rolls maximum number of additional rolls movement cycles must be executed during the
material were cross the rolling gap - the minimum rotational speed possible to get were used - v=1 rpm,
the frequency of transverse, cyclic rolls movement - in
order to obtain the maximum number of cycles per volume
of the rolled material the maximum frequency was applied
- f=3 Hz,
amplitude of transverse rolls movement - minimum value
of the amplitude of transverse rolls movement were used
for reasons explained above - A=0.8 mm.
Research Results. One of the most important advantages of metal forming processes with induced strain path
is high value of strain, which can be obtained in one operation. However, the calculation of deformation in these
type of process requires dependence, which can take into
account the characteristics of the process.
For calculating equivalent strain value in MEFASS rolling it was necessary to derive new relation, because existing relations for equivalent strain can be applied only for
conventional rolling process. By assumption of strain
macro-homogeneity the following relation (1) was derived:
ic =
4 f a
(h0 h1 ) D
2 + ln h1
h0
3 v w (h0 + h1 )
(1)
where ic is total equivalent strain in one pass of MEFASS

rolling, h0 and h1 are the strip height before and after the
pass, vw is the rolling velocity, D is the diameter of rolls, f
is the frequency of rolls transverse movement and a is the
amplitude of material axial displacement.
In Figure 3, the results of calculation total equivalent
strain gained during the research for austenitic steel are
presented. Total equivalent strain value is considerably
higher than in conventional rolling processes. The effect of
working rolls rotational velocity minimal value application
is large proportion of strain, caused by additional movement of rolls, in calculated value of total strain.
247
09.08.2010 14:22:21 Uhr
15%
20%
Rolling torque, [Nm]
total equivalent strain, ic
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
10%
10%
15%
20%
1 pass
2 pass
112
60
84
40
56
20
28
0
-20
0
14
14,5
15
15,5
16
-28
-40
-56
-60
-84
-80
-112
-100
-140
time, [s]
Rolling torque [Nm]
Upper axial force [kN]
Axial force and rolling force, [kN]
80
Lower axial force [kN]
Rolling force [kN]
140
80
112
60
84
40
56
20
28
0
-20
0
14
14,5
15
15,5
16
-28
-40
-56
-60
-84
-80
-112
-100
Rolling torque Nm
84
40
56
20
28
0
-20
14
14,5
15
15,5
16
0
-28
-40
-56
-60
-84
-80
-112
-140
time, [s]
Rolling force [kN]
Figure 7. Course of force parameters during MEFASS rolling

process of austenitic steel - h=20%, 2 pass.
MEFASS rolling process main parameters courses are

presented on Figures 4-7. The oscillations of all parameters during the process are result of working rolls cyclic,
axial movement. The decrease of rolling force value between first and second pass, which should be the effect of
induced strain path, was observed only for rolling process
conducted with height reduction value of 20%. For lower
values of height reduction rolling force was increasing
during the second pass. Confirmation of these studies were
the results of the microstructure research, where the greatest impact in terms of effects as deformation twins and
shear bands were observed for strips rolled with height
reduction of 20%.
Deformation work in conventional rolling process is determined by product of rolling torque and angle of rolls
rotation. In MEFASS rolling process it is necessary to
reflect not only energy needed to angular motion, but also
energy consumed by cyclic, transverse rolls motion. Work
related with transverse rolls motion was determined by
product of axial force and rolls displacement value.
Method of deformation work evaluation in MEFASS rolling was presented in Figure 8.
-140
time, [s]
Upper axial force kN

100
112
60
Rolling torque [Nm]
Figure 3. Total equivalent strain in MEFASS rolling of tested steel.

140
140
80
-100
deformation generated by height reduction

deformation generated by cyclic, tranverse rolls movement
100
100
Metal Forming
Lower axial force kN
Rolling force kN
100
140
80
112
60
84
40
56
20
28
0
-20
0
14
14,5
15
15,5
17
16
-28
-40
-56
-60
-84
-80
-112
-100
Rolling torque [Nm]
-140
time, [s]
Rolling force [kN]

248

Figure 8. Diagram of deformation work evaluation in MEFASS

rolling process.
In Figures 9 and 10, the comparison between relative

deformation work for easy-to-form material (electrolytic
copper) and hard-to-form material (austenitic steel) is
presented. The value of the deformation work required to
austenitic steel forming during the MEFASS rolling proc-
09.08.2010 14:22:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
1000,00
800,00
600,00
400,00
200,00
0,00
15%
20%
2 pass
10%
5000,00
4000,00
3000,00
2000,00
1000,00
0,00
Research conducted in Department of Material Technology Silesian University of Technology are the step forward
in direction to design the most effective mechanical working process build on induced strain path phenomena. Rolling mill with possibility of cyclic, transverse rolls movement is the unique construction around the world.
Carried out so far, studies show that it is particularly interesting effects of this deformation mode can be obtained
for materials such as advanced high strength steels, , magnesium or titanium alloys. Presented results are the first
attempt to use the MEFASS rolling process for this group
of materials.
Further studies of MEFASS rolling process will be focused on
impact evaluation of induced strain path on the mechanical and
physical properties of shaped material. In order to achieve even
greater results, related to the mode of deformation, it is also
planned to introduce certain changes to the device construction.
Acknowledgements
15%
20%
2 pass
10%
1 pass
Relative
Deformation
Work, [MJ/Mg]
Figure 9. Calculation results of relative deformation work for electrolytic copper.
Figure 10. Calculation results of relative deformation work for

austenitic steel.
These results are another confirmation that for easy-toform materials the effects of rolling with induced strain
path can be observed for processes conducted with height
reduction value greater than 10%. To obtain these effects
for hard-to-form materials it is necessary to apply 20%
height reduction at least.
Probably this is due to the need of increase the material
volume, which at the certain moment is undergoing a
process of deformation with induced strain path. Height
reduction increase enables to obtain such an effect because
it increases the length of rolling gap.
Numerical Modelling of Rolling Process with Induced Strain Path Change. Very important role in the
research of process with induced strain path have the FEM
analysis. Because of different behaviour of the material
numerical model development for these processes is more
difficult than in the conventional metalforming process.
However, taken so far works presented in the literature [79] have already given the first interesting results.
In work [9] the numerical model of MEFASS rolling
process is presented. Of particular importance in this
model proved to be a method for modelling a specific
shape of working rolls, which were used to induce changes
of the strain path. This required the application of anisotropic friction model, which allowed to differentiate friction coefficients for the rotation and transverse rolls
movement . Comparison of the strips shape obtained in
laboratory tests and numerical modelling has shown great
compatibility. Further development of this numerical
model could allow a better understanding of the phenomena occurring in the material during MEFASS rolling
process.
Conclusions
1 pass
Relative
Deformation
Work,
[MJ/Mg]
ess from 4 up to 8 times greater than that of electrolytic

copper.
For easy-to-form material in first pass with higher height
reduction increase of deformation work was observed than
for the second pass the deformation work is almost equal
for different height reduction values. For hard-to-form
material increase of height reduction always produce the
rise of relative deformation work.
Scientific work funded from science funds in years 2009-2011

as a research project
References
[1] F. Grosman, J. Pawlicki: Proc. FIMM 2005 Conference, Warszawa,
(2005), 83-88.
[2] L. Olejnik, A. Rosochowski: Steel Research International ,79-2
(2008), Special Edition, 439-446.
[3] J-Ch. Lee, H-K. Seok, J-H. Han, Y-H. Chung: Materials Research
Bulletin, 36 (2001), 997-1004.
[4] W. Bochniak, A. Korbel: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
134 (2003), 120-134.
[5] F. Grosman, Z. Cyganek: Steel Research International, 79-1 (2008),
Special Edition, 453-458.
[6] Application to the Polish Patent Office No. P-361148 of the
invention: Method of rolling, especially metals and mill stand for
rolling, especially metals.
[7] A. Rosochowski, L. Olejnik: International Journal of Material Forming, 1 (2008), 483-486.
[8] L. Madej, S. Wglarczyk, F. Grosman: Computer Methods in Materials Science, 9 (2009), 234-240.
[9] A. Milenin, L. Madej, F. Grosman, J. Pawlicki: Steel Research
International, 81 (2010), 204-209.
249
09.08.2010 14:22:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
Plastic Deformation Behavior of Pre-Heat-Treated High-Strength Steel for Application

in Forging
SeungSang Han1), JaeGun Eom2), SoonTae Ahn3), SeongMin Jang4), YoHun Son1), Hyuk Kim5), DukJae Yoon6), ManSoo Joun7)
1)
Youngsin Metal Industrial Co., Ansan / Korea ; 2) TIC of Gyeongsang National University, Sacheon / Korea; 3) Samhwa Steel, Busan /
Korea; 4) School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju / Korea; 5) Research Center, Hyundai
Motor Company, Korea; 6) Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Incheon / Korea; 7) Corresponding author, School of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju / Korea, msjoun@gnu.ac.kr
The plastic deformation behavior of ESW105 and SCM435 steels was examined by simulations and experiments. ESW105 is a special and
pre-heat-treated steel characterized by high initial yield strength and negligible strain-hardening behavior. The flow stresses of the two
steels for large strains were calculated from tensile tests with their associated material identification algorithm. Axial and lateral compression behaviors of cylindrical bars were tested and simulated, and the deformed shapes were compared to characterize the plastic deformation behavior of the two materials. A two-stages forward extrusion process of a cylindrical bar, which is a part of the ball-stud forging process, was also simulated to determine difference between the two steels. The findings showed significant differences in metal flow between
ESW105 and SCM435, which caused differences in strain-hardening capabilities, indicating that experience-oriented design rules for common commercial materials may lead to failures in process design if the new material ESW105 is used without considering its plastic deformation behavior.
Keywords: Prediction, Experiment, Strain-hardening exponent, Pre-heat-treated steel, Forgeability
Introduction
Various efforts have been made to reduce the generation
of CO2 gas during the manufacturing and servicing of
commercial goods. Indeed, this has become a global
megatrend. International rules and regulations to improve
the environment are gradually being implemented. Thus,
improving manufacturing processes is imperative, especially if they involve great energy consumption.
Of course, minimizing toxic material generation in the
servicing of automobiles and increasing their fuel efficiency have also become major interests in the automobile
and related industries. To increase the fuel efficiency,
weight reduction is an issue to consider, as is the use of
clean energy sources. Weight reduction is dependent on
the availability of light and/or high-strength materials and
optimized structural design. More economical and less
energy consuming manufacturing of high-strength mechanical parts will have a great influence on competitiveness in the industry in the near future. These goals provide
challenges to engineers in applying new materials in vehicles development.
The pre-heat-treated steel called Energy Saver Wire
(ESW) [1], a special steel pre-heat-treated in a highfrequency induction heating method, is very attractive, not
only because it is a new high-strength material, but its
manufacturing process also consumes less total energy.
This applies especially to several mechanical parts, including tie rods and bolt-form products. In particular, it is
advantageous for long slender parts because removal of
the final heat treatment process, which inevitably is followed by their bending or twisting, can save manufacturing costs by removing an additional straightening process
and reduce the output of environmentally toxic materials.
However, ESW is known to have a peculiar behavior,
particularly when it is a little drawn [2, 3]. It has relatively
high initial yield stress, but has negligible strain-hardening
behavior. In previous studies [2,3], deformation character-
250
istics (i.e., flow stresses) of two drawn ESWs (ESW95 and

ESW105) were determined, but the effects of such deformation characteristics on plastic flow in forging processes
need to be studied in more detail. In this paper, both numerical and experimental approaches were made to examine the macroscopic plastic flow behaviors of ESW105 in
forging, which can provide valuable insight about the
materials with very low strain-hardening exponents for
process design engineers. For comparison with ESW105, a
common special steel with moderate strain-hardening
behavior, SCM435, was selected and was investigated by
the same approaches.
Plastic Flow Behavior of ESW105
Tensile Test and Flow Stress Information. Joun et al.
[4] developed a new method of material identification for
large strains at room temperature using tensile tests of
cylindrical specimens and applied it to both ESW105 and
SCM435[5]. The resulting plastic flow stress curves are
shown in Figure 1. The initial yield stress of ESW105 was
2.8 times larger than that of SCM435, while the difference
in yield stress at the facture point between the two was so
little that it could be neglected. This behavior is the result
of both the high initial yield stress and negligible strainhardening performance of ESW105, as seen in Figure 1.
The elongation of SCM435, of course, was much greater
than that of ESW105. However, the toughness of ESW105,
defined by the integral of the flow stress with respect to
true strain, reached nearly two-thirds of the SCM435 value,
indicating that ESW105 has relatively high toughness
compared to other high-strength materials.
Longitudinal Compression Test of Cylinder. Most
forging processes are accompanied by the compression of
materials in the longitudinal direction to fit the generally
standardized diameters of initial materials into the proper
initial sizes of products or preforms. That is, cylinder com-
09.08.2010 14:23:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
pression or upsetting usually precedes the main forging
stages to enhance the initial billet for the following stages.
The cut cross sections can be more or less improved
through this process, but barreling inevitably occurs due to
friction between material and die. Predicting the barreled
diameter is sometimes important in the process design of
precision forging. Additionally, it is important because
barreling is deeply related to the materials properties,
including its strain-hardening capability.
In this study, barreling in cylinder compression was
studied by both predictions and experiments for two materials, SCM435 and ESW105. The diameter and height of
the cylindrical specimen tested were 16 mm and 24 mm,
respectively, and the specimens were not lubricated. A
mechanical press and a metal forming simulator AFDEX
[6] were used. The assumption was made that the frictional
coefficient was 0.15 [7] because no lubricant was applied.
The reduction in height in this test was 50%. The experiments were conducted under the same conditions.
Experiments are shown in Figure 2 and the predictions
in Figure 3. The predicted maximum diameters of
SCM435 and ESW105 were 23.6 mm and 24.1 mm, respectively. Thus, as shown in Figure 3, the barrelled surface of SCM435 should be the smoother of the two due to
volume consistency. This deformation behavior can also
be observed in the experiments in Figure 2. This plastic
deformation behavior may be advantageous or undesirable,
according to the situations, and the process designer must
consider this plastic deformation behavior. For an example,
the reduction in height of ESW105 in upsetting for consecutive backward extrusion should be more or less decreased compared to SCM435 for safe loading of the upset
material into the backward extrusion die cavity, which
may lead to advantageous or undesirable change of material flow near die corners, as the case may be.
as in Section 2.2 was tested by lateral compression of

cylinders under the same test conditions. Finite element
simulation was carried out using AFDEX 3D [6]. The
initial height of the cylindrical specimen was compressed
up to a 30% reduction. From the experiments shown in
Figure 4, distinct differences in the deformed shapes of
ESW105 and SCM435 can be readily observed. The same
differences can be found in the predictions shown in Figure 5. As indicated in the figures, the longitudinal edge of
ESW105 is nearly straight while that of SCM435 is much
more curved. Also, the deformed surface of the initially
flat end of ESW105 shows a very complex waved surface,
while that of SCM435 is quite smoothly curved. Figure 6
shows more details of the deformed surface of the flat end,
implying that low strain hardening materials may be exposed to local instability in terms of metal flow.
(a) SCM435
(b) ESW105
Figure 2. Experiments of cylinder axial compression.
1200
True Stress (MPa)
1000
800
600
(a) SCM435
400
SCM435
ESW105
200
0.4
0.8
True strain (mm/mm)
1.2
1.6
Figure 1. Flow stress curves of ESW105 and SCM435.
(b) ESW105
Figure 3. Predictions of cylinder axial compression.
Lateral Compression of Cylinder. Compression of the

cylinder in the lateral direction is not frequent, but is important in forging. It plays an important role in the forgeability test of materials. In this study, the same specimen
251
09.08.2010 14:23:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) SCM435
(b) ESW105
Figure 4. Experiments of cylinder lateral compression.
(a) SCM435
Forward Extrusion. Forward extrusion is very frequent

and important in forging, especially in forging of shaftform products. When the cylindrical billet or material with
flat end is extruded in axisymmetric forging, the flat end
becomes concave or convex, according to the situation.
Plastic deformation is dependent on the reduction of area,
flow stress of the material, and process conditions and
designs, including frictional conditions and the extrusion
angle of the die. Typically, the deformed end is convex for
the greater reduction of area, while it becomes concave for
a smaller reduction in area. Plastic flow behavior is also a
major factor affecting the pattern of the deformed shape.
To reveal the relationship between the flow stress and the
deformed shape of the flat end in forward extrusion, a test
forward extrusion process (see Figure 7) was used.
ESW105 and SCM435 were also used in this experiment
and prediction.
Figure 8 shows the predictions and experiments of the
forward extrusion process for ESW105 and SCM435. In
the simulation, the coefficient of Coulomb friction was
assumed to be 0.05. The comparison between the predictions and experiments for each material shows that they
are very close, indicating that the flow stresses shown in
Figure 1 reflect quite well the plastic behaviours of the
materials.
It is interesting to note that a distinct difference between
ESW105 and SCM435 can be observed from the figures in
terms of the deformed shape of the flat end. The figures
reveal that the final deformed surface of the flat end is
concave for ESW105, while that for SCM435 is convex,
revealing that the deformed shape of the flat end in forward extrusion has a strong relationship with the strainhardening capability.
CL
CL
(b) ESW105
Figure 5. Predictions of cylinder lateral compression.
20.0
7.5
45
7.495
R2.0
(a) SCM435
(a) Billet
(b) Die
Figure 7. Test forward extrusion process (mm).
(b) ESW105
Figure 6. Detailed view of deformed surface.
252
09.08.2010 14:23:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experiment
Prediction
(a) SCM435
A distinct difference in deformed shape between

ESW105 and SCM435 was observed by both experiments
and predictions. The axial compression test revealed that
low strain-hardening materials like ESW105 are exposed
to relatively more barreling and bulging. In the lateral
compression test of ESW105, the complexly waved surface of the flat end was observed, while the deformed
surface of the flat end of SCM435 was quite smooth. This
indicates that the inside metal flow lines of cold-forged
products of higher strain-hardening materials like
SCM435 are typically smoother, and that low strainhardening capability can cause local instability of plastic
flow in metal forming.
The findings from the forward extrusion showed that the
deformed surface at the end of the extruded material depended on the flow stress of the material. A concave end
was predicted for ESW105, while a convex end was predicted for SCM435. Of course, this phenomenon is deeply
related to the strain-hardening capability, indicating that
the relative magnitude of strain-hardening exponents of
different materials can be distinguished by an appropriate
forward extrusion test.
Application of high-strength materials to vehicles is
now a worldwide trend. For high-strength materials to be
used for such purposes, the initial yield stress should be
relatively high, but the strain-hardening capability should
be very low to ensure the tool life at the finishing stroke.
In this paper, a successful new material, ESW105, meeting
the above requirement was investigated in detail to determine its plastic deformation behavior. The effects of
strain-hardening capability on plastic deformation in metal
forming were revealed by both experimental and numerical methods; the results of the two approaches were very
similar to each other.
Acknowledgements
(b) ESW105
Figure 8. Comparison of deformed shapes between SCM435 and
ESW105.
Conclusions
Experimental and numerical studies were conducted on
the macroscopic plastic behaviors of the pre-heat-treated
steel ESW105 characterized by its low strain-hardening
capability and the common special steel SCM435 that is a
typical strain-hardening material at room temperature. To
reveal the macroscopic plastic behaviors of the two materials, basic formability tests including compression of
cylindrical specimens in the axial and lateral directions by
flat dies and forward extrusion of cylindrical specimen
were investigated.
References
[1] S.T. Ahn, Y. Yamaoka, KR-A-0056917, (2001), 10-2001-0056917,
09-14.
[2] J.T. Park, J.G. Eom, J.H. Kim, D.J. Youn, M.S. Joun: Proc. Kor. Soc.
Tech. Plast. Conf., KSTP, Kangwon, (2008), 439-443.
[3] S.M. Jang, J.G. Eom, M.C. Lee, M.S. Joun: Proc. Kor. Soc. Tech.
Plast. Conf., Jeju, (2008), 292-296.
[4] M.S. Joun, J.G. Eom, M.C. Lee: Mech. Mater., 40-7 (2008), 586-593.
[5] M.S. Joun, J.G. Eom, M.C. Lee, J.H. Park, D.J. Yoon: Int. J. Mod.
Phys. B, 22-31 (2008), 5678-5773.
[6] http://www.afdex.com.
[7] S.H. Corandall, N.C. Dahl, T.J. Lardner: McGraw-Hill, (1978).
253
09.08.2010 14:23:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of Ultra High-Strength Low Alloy TRIP-Aided Steel for Hot-Forging Parts
Koh-ichi Sugimoto1), Junya Kobayashi1), Goro Arai2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Shinshu University, Nagano / Japan, sugimot@shinshu-u.ac.jp;

Ltd., Chino / Japan
2)
Nomura Unison Co.,
An ultra high-strength TRIP-aided steel consisting of bainitic ferrite lath structure matrix and interlath retained austenite films possesses
high toughness and fatigue strength, as well as high resistance against hydrogen embrittlement. In this study, to develop the ultra highstrength TRIP-aided steel for hot-forging parts, the effects of hot-forging and subsequent austempering process on the microstructure,
retained austenite characteristics, tensile properties and impact toughness of 0.2%C-1.5%Si-1.5%Mn-Cr-Mo-B TRIP-aided steels were
investigated. The process achieved an excellent combination of yield strength of 700-800MPa and Charpy impact absorbed value of 110130 J/cm2 in these steels, as well as a good balance of yield strength and total elongation when subjected to austempering at temperatures
between 325oC and 375oC below martensite-start temperature (Ms). These combinations exceeded so much those of the steel subjected to
the conventional austempering without hot-forging. From examinations of microstructure and retained austenite characteristics, it was found
that these combinations are mainly caused by (i) refined mixed structure of bainitic ferrite and retained austenite without pro-eutectoid
ferrite (ii) high uniformity of the mixed structure and (iii) the increased volume fraction of metastable retained austenite.
Keywords: TRIP-aided steel, Ultra high-strength steel, Austempering process, Hot-forging, Retained austenite, Microstructure, Tensile
property, Impact toughness
Three kinds of vacuum-melted steel bars (32 mm in diameter) with chemical composition listed in Table 1 were
prepared in this study. CCT diagrams of the steel bars A-C
are shown in Figure 1.
Square thick plates of 20 mm in thickness, 80 mm in
length and 32mm in width were machined from the steel
254
Table 1. Chemical composition (mass%), martensite-start temperature (MS, oC) and PCM (mass%) of steels used.
Steel
Si
Mn
Cr
Mo
A
B
C
0.20
0.21
0.18
1.52
1.49
1.48
1.50
1.50
1.49
0.004
0.004
0.004
0.0021
0.0019
0.0029
1.00
1.02
0.20
Steel
Al
Nb
Ms
PCM
A
B
C
0.039
0.040
0.043
0.050
0.050
0.050
0.0018
-
0.0010
0.0012
0.0015
0.0011
0.0012
0.0010
420
397
407
0.335
0.385
0.368
1000
F
600
0
1000
F
M
(c)
200
10
10
100 1000 10
t (s)
F: ferrite
P: pearlite
B: bainite
M: martensite
600
400
10 2 0.5
20 5 1 0.3
800
0
1
M
o
40 C/
(b)
400
200
(a)
800
T ( oC)
Formable ultra high-strength low alloy steels associated

with the transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP [1]) of
retained austenite or TRIP-aided steels [2-9] have been
developed as steel sheet for automotive reinforcement
members. If matrix structure of the TRIP-aided steel was
changed to bainitic ferrite lath structure, the steel (TRIPaided Bainitic Ferrite steel; TBF steel) possesses not only
a good combination of tensile strength and stretchflangeability [7] but also high fatigue strength [8], high
impact energy [8] and good hydrogen brittlement performance [9]. So, it is expected that the TBF steel can be applied to some forging parts.
In order to develop a new type of TRIP-aided steel for
hot-forging parts, Sugimoto et al. [10] have investigated
the effects of hot-forging at temperatures above A3 on
microstructure and mechanical properties in a 0.40%C0.49%Si-1.48%Mn-0.10Mo-0.96%Al-0.024Nb TBF steel.
Resultantly, they reported that the hot-forging and then
austempering process results in good combination of yield
strength and toughness of the TBF steel by refining of the
microstructure. However, fine granular bainitic ferrite and
polygonal ferrite coexisted with bainitic ferrite lath structure in the matrix. Thus, high hardenability was required in
TBF steel for hot-forging.
In the present study, new types of hot-forging TBF
steels with high hardenability were developed. And, the
effects of hot-forging and then austempering process on
the microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated.
bars. The plates were forged at 900 oC with a reduction

strain of R=50% (one pass, strain rate: 50 %/s) using 400
ton hot press machine after austenitizing at 900 oC for
1200 s, followed by austempering at TA=300-450 oC for
tA=1000s and then quenching in oil (Figure 2). Die temperature of hot forging was about 350oC and press speed
was 40 cycle/min. Hereafter, the hot-forging and subsequent austempering process is called FA process and
process without hot-forging is named CA process.
T ( oC)
Introduction
100 1000 10
t (s)
Figure 1. Continuous cooling transformation diagrams of steels (a)

A, (b) B and (c) C. Numerals in (a) represent cooling rate in temperature range between 500 and 800 oC.
09.08.2010 14:23:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
C = (a-3.5780+0.00095xMn+0.0056xAl+0.0051xNb
+0.0006Cr+0.003xMo +0.0220xN)/0.0330
(1)
T (oC)
where Mn, Al, Nb, Cr, Mo and N represent solute concentration (mass%) in phase. For convenience, added
content of individual alloying elements was substituted in
Eq. (1).
T=900oC, 1200s
R=0% or 50% (50%/s)
In salt
40oC/s
TA=300-450oC,
tA=1000s
t (s)
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of hot-forging and austempering

process (FA process). TA and tA are austempering temperature and
time, respectively
reduced by FA process. There are a small amount of proeutectoid ferrite in steel A. When the image quality (IQ)
index of matrix (bcc) and retained austenite (fcc) in steel C
subjected to CA or FA process which was analyzed from
phase map of EBSP analysis (Figure 4 (c) and (d))), IQ
index of both the phases subjected to FA process become
lower.
Figure 5 shows typical TEM image of steel C subjected
to FA process. It is appeared that the FA process reduces
bainitic ferrite lath size and increases dislocation density
in the bainitic ferrite lath structure.
Figure 6 shows the variations in initial volume fraction
(f 0) and carbon concentration (C0) of retained austenite
of steel C subjected to CA or FA process. It is found that a
good combination of the volume fraction and carbon concentration can be obtained when austempered at 325-375
o
C. In this case, there is only a small difference between
CA and FA process.
Figure 7 shows the volume fraction and carbon concentration of three steels austempered at 325 or 350 oC as a
function of weld cracking parameter (PCM) which is defined by the following equation.
PCM =C+Si/30+(Mn+Cu+Cr)/20+Ni/60+Mo/15
+V/10+5B
where C, Si, Mn, Cu, Cr, Ni, Mo, V and B represent content
(mass%) of individual alloying elements.
The volume fraction of retained austenite increases with
increasing PCM. On the other hand, the carbon concentration decreases with increasing PCM. The FA process tends
to decrease the volume fraction although it increases
somewhat the carbon concentration. This result is opposite
to that of previous study referring to a 0.42%C-1.47%Si1.51%Mn-0.50Cr-0.20Mo-0.48%Al-0.052Nb TBF steel
with good hardenability [13].
(a)
(b)
specimen for microstructure observation

specimen for impact test
t/4
(2)
forging direction
Tensile specimens of 22 mm gauge length, 6mm width

and 1.2mm thickness and JIS-4 type of subsize Charpy
impact specimens of 55 mm length, 10 mm width and 2.5
mm thickness with V-notch of 2 mm depth were machined
from the square forged thick plates, as illustrated in Figure 3. Tensile tests were carried out at 25 oC and at a cross
head speed of 1 mm/min. Also, impact tests were employed at 25 oC. For comparison, thin plates of 3 mm
thickness with the same chemical composition were also
prepared.
Microstructure of the plates subjected to FA or CA
process was observed by FE-SEM, SEM-EBSP (electron
backscatter diffraction pattern) and TEM analysis. Volume fraction of retained austenite was quantified from
integrated intensity of (200), (211), (200), (220) and
(311) peaks of Mo-K radiation [11]. The carbon concentration (C, mass%) was estimated by substituting the
lattice constant (a, 10-1nm) measured from (200), (220)
and (311) peaks of Cu-K radiation into the following
equation [12].
specimen
for tensile
10m
(c)
(d)
Figure 3. Some specimens machined from hot-forged thick plates.
Results
Microstructure and Retained Austenite Characteristics. Figure 4 shows typical phase maps and inverse pole
figure maps of steel C subjected to CA or FA process.
When subjected to austempering at 325-375 oC after hotforging, the FA process makes the matrix structure fine,
although some of the bainitc lath structure is changed to be
indistinct or granular. In this case, blocky and filmy retained austenite phases exist uniformly on bainitic ferrite
lath and prior austenitic grain boundaries. Furthermore, it
is found that prior austenitic grain size is considerably
111
001
101
Figure 4. Phase maps (a,b) and inverse pole figure maps (c,d) of
steel C subjected to (a,c) CA or (b,d) FA process (TA=350 oC). In
(a) and (b), green and red regions represent matrix and retained
austenite, respectively.
255
09.08.2010 14:23:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
steels achieve extremely a superior combination of yield
strength and impact value by FA process. These good
combinations exhibit the same level as 0.4%C-TBF steel
[13] and are superior to SCM420 and SCM440 steels subjected to heat treatment of quenching and tempering.
Figure 10 shows weld cracking parameter (PCM) dependence of combinations of yield strength and total elongation (YSxTEl) and Charpy impact absorbed value (YSxCIAV) of steels (TA=325-350 oC). These combinations are
improved by FA process and increased with increasing
PCM, particularly for YSxTEl.
R
bf
200nm
900
C0 (mass%)
0.6
650
600
25
CA
0.4
300 350 400 450

TA (oC)
300 350 400 450

TA (oC)
Figure 6. Variations in (a) volume fraction (f0) and (b) carbon

concentration (C0) of retained austenite as a function of austempering temperature (TA) of steel C subjected to CA or FA process.
f0 (vol%)
15
CA
10
5
0
0.3
1.2
(a)
FA
thin plate
0.35
PCM (mass%)
C0 (mass%)
20
0.4
1.1
(b)
thin plate
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.3
CA
15
0.35
PCM (mass%)
FA
10
(b)
FA
CA
(d)
150
FA
100
50
CA
300 350 400 450

300 350 400 450
TA (oC)
T (oC)
A
Figure 8. Variations in (a) yield strength (YS), (b) tensile strength
(TS), (c) total elongation (TEl) and (d) Charpy impact absorbed
value (CIAV) as a function of austempering temperature (TA) of
steel C subjected to CA or FA process.
200
0.4
Tensile Properties and Impact Toughness. Figure 8

shows the variations in 0.2% offset proof stress or yield
strength (YS), tensile strength (TS), total elongation (TEl)
and Charpy impact absorbed value (CIAV) as a function of
austempering temperature (TA) in steel C. The FA process
increases both the yield strength and tensile strength, with
the increased strain-hardening rate. In case of FA process,
large total elongation is achieved by austempering at 350
or 375 oC, although the total elongation is lower than that
in case of CA process.
When austempering is carried out at lower temperatures
than 375oC in the FA process, high Charpy impact absorbed value is attained. When subjected to austempering
at higher temperatures than 425 oC, both the total elongation and absorbed value are considerably decreased for
both the CA and FA process.
Figure 9 compares the combinations of Charpy impact
absorbed value (CIAV) and yield strength (YS) in steels AC subjected to CA or FA process (TA=325-350 oC). These
20
FA
Figure 7. Variations in (a) volume fraction (f0) and (b) carbon

concentration (C0) of retained austenite as a function of weld
cracking parameter (PCM) in steels subjected to CA or FA process
(TA=325-350 oC). Dotted line is data of specimens machined from
thin plate of 3 mm thickness.
256
(c)
CA
0.2
0
CA
700
CIAV (J/cm2)
CA
(b)
TEl (%)
f0 (vol%)
10
FA
0.8
750
CIAV (J/cm2)
FA (a)
800
100
A(FA)
0.4%-TBF
C(FA)
YSxCIAV=
B(FA)
150
140GPaJ/cm2
A(CA)
C(CA)
SCM420
B(CA)
50
SCM440
0
400
120
100
80
60
40
20
800
1000
1200
1400
YS (MPa)
Figure 9. Relation between Charpy impact absorbed value (CIAV)
and yield strength (YS) of steels A-C, 0.4%C-TBF (0.42%C1.47%Si-1.51%Mn-0.50%Cr-0.20%Mo-0.48%Al-0.052%Nb),
SCM420 and SCM440 steels.
600
25
YSxTEl (GPa%)
15
FA
1700
1600
1500
1400
1300
1200
1100
1000
200
20
15
10
5
0.3
(a)
200
YSxCIAV (GPaJ/cm2)
(a)
850
YS (MPa)
Figure 5. TEM image of steel C subjected to FA process (TA=350

o
C), in which bf and R represent bainitic ferrite lath structure and
retained austenite, respectively.
TS (MPa)
bf
FA
150
CA
100
thin plate
0.35
PCM (mass%)
0.4
50
0
0.3
(b)
thin plate
FA
CA
0.35
PCM (mass%)
0.4
Figure 10. Variations in combinations of yield strength and (a)

total elongation (YSxTEl) and (b) Charpy impact absorbed value
(YSxCIAV) as a function of weld cracking parameter (PCM) in
steels subjected to CA or FA process (TA=325-350 oC). Dotted line
is data of specimens machined from thin plate of 3 mm in thickness.
09.08.2010 14:23:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Discussion
Effects of FA Process on Microstructure. In Fig. 4,
FA process considerably refined the bainitic ferrite lath
structure and retained austenite in steel C. Also, both the
phases were characterized by lower IQ index. DeArdo et al.
[14] had reported that IQ index of phase map is equivalent
to dislocation density of individual phases. So, it is expected that both phases of the steel C possess inherent
high dislocation density resulting from hot-forging. The
high dislocation density of bainitic ferrite lath structure
was also confirmed by TEM image (Figure 5).
According to Sugimoto et al. [2,3], mechanical stability of retained austenite (stability against the straininduced transformation to martensite) is controlled by its
initial carbon concentration, size and morphology. If the
retained austenite is fine and possesses high carbon concentration, its mechanical stability increases. As shown in
Figures 6(b) and 7(b), the FA process brought on somewhat higher carbon concentration than the CA process
when austempered at 325 or 350 oC. As mentioned above,
retained austenite phase of steel C subjected to FA process
was refined. So, it is considered that the retained austenite
possesses higher mechanical stability than that in steel
subjected to CA process.
In Figure 7, volume fraction of retained austenite was
increased with increasing PCM. On the contrary, the carbon
concentration was decreased with increasing PCM. Such
results were different from that of previous study referring
to 0.4%C-TBF steel [13]. This may be caused by that in
steels B and C carbon-enrichment into retained austenite
was suppressed due to addition of Cr or Cr-Mo. In Figure
7, volume fractions of retained austenite in steels A-C
were much more than those of specimen machined from
thin plate (dotted line). This may be responsible for a
small amount of pro-eutectoid ferrite which plays a role of
increasing volume fraction of retained austenite [15].
Effects of FA Process on Toughness. In Figure 9, FA
process improved the combination of yield strength and
Charpy impact absorbed value in steels A-C, although the
combination was nearly the same as that of 0.4%C-TBF
steel [13].
According to Song et al. [8], impact toughness of TBF
steel is mainly controlled by (i) sizes of prior austenitic
grain and bainitic lath structure and (ii) volume fraction
and stability of retained austenite. The retained austenite
plays the following roles to improve the impact toughness.
(1) Stress relaxation or plastic relaxation on the straininduced transformation of retained austenite suppresses an initiation and growth of void at interface of
matrix and second phase. The void initiation is further
suppressed by refining of the microstructure.
(2) The strain-induced transformation contributes to increase the upper shelf absorbed value through increasing the strain-hardening rate at an initial stage.
As shown in Figure 4, the steel C subjected to FA
process can be characterized by refined uniform bainitic
ferrite structure matrix and a large amount of retained
austenite, with a small amount of pro-eutectoid ferrite. So,
it is considered that the high combination of steels A-C is

mainly associated with the refined microstructure and a
large amount of stabilized retained austenite. If tensile and
impact specimens were prepared from thin plate to reduce
volume fraction of pro-eutectoid ferrite in steels A-C, the
combination of yield strength and impact absorbed value
(dotted line in Figure 10(b)) decreases with increasing PCM.
This PCM dependences of the combination of yield strength
and impact absorbed value are different from results of the
steels A-C subjected to CA or FA process. Furthermore,
the difference in PCM dependences of these combinations
is the largest in steel A. So, the above different PCM dependence may be caused by poor hardenability of steel A
which increases volume fraction of pro-eutectoid ferrite.
Conclusions
1. The FA process considerably improved the combination
of yield strength and impact absorbed value in the steels
A-C, as well as the combination of yield strength and
total elongation, particularly when subjected to austempering at temperatures between 325oC and 375oC lower
than MS temperature. These good combinations exceeded so much those of SCM420 and SCM440 steels
without retained austenite.
2. The excellent combination of yield strength and impact
absorbed value of the steels A-C was mainly caused by
(i) refined mixed structure of bainitic ferrite and retained austenite, (ii) high uniformity of the mixed structure and (iii) a large amount of stabilized retained austenite, due to FA process.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by the grants from Japan Science and Technology Agency.
References
[1] V. F. Zackay, E. R. Parker, D. Fahr, R. Bush: Trans. Amer. Soc. Met.,
60 (1967), 252-259.
[2] K. Sugimoto, M. Kobayashi, S. Hashimoto: Metall. Trans. A, 23A
(1992), 3085-3091.
[3] K. Sugimoto: Materials Science and Technology, 25 (2009), 11081117.
[4] O. Matsumura, Y. Sakuma, Y. Ishii, J. Zhao: ISIJ Int., 32 (1992), 11101116.
[5] P. Jacqes, K. Eberle, P. Harlet, F. Delannay: Proc. 40th Mech. Work.
Steel Proc. Conf., ISS, PA, (1998), 239-250.
[6] W. Bleck, A. Frehn, J. Ohlert: Proc. Int. Sympo. Niobium 2001, TMS,
Warrendale, PA (2001), 727-752.
[7] K. Sugimoto, J. Sakaguchi, T. Iida, T. Kashima: ISIJ Int., 40 (2000),
920-926.
[8] S. Song, K. Sugimoto, M. Kobayashi, H. Matsubara, T. Kashima:
Tetsu-to-Hagane, 86 (2000), 563-569.
[9] T. Hojo, K. Sugimoto, Y. Mukai, S. Ikeda: ISIJ Int., 48 (2008), 824829.
[10] K. Sugimoto, M. Ito, S. Hashimoto, S. Ikeda: Mat. Sci. Forum, 539543 (2007), 4309-4314.
[11] H. Maruyama: J. Jpn. Soc. Heat Treat., 17 (1977), 198-204.
[12] D. J. Dyson, B. Holmes: J. Iron Steel Inst., 208 (1970), 469-474.
[13] K. Sugimoto, S. Sato, G. Arai: Mat. Sci. Forum, 638-642 (2010),
3074-3079.
[14] J. H. Wu, P. J. Wray, C. I. Garcia, M. J. Hua, A. J. DeArdo: ISIJ Int.,
45 (2005), 254-262.
[15] K. Sugimoto, M. Murata, S. Song: ISIJ Int., 50 (2010), 162-168.
257
09.08.2010 14:23:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
Formability of Ultrafine-Grained Steel: Forming Microscrews by Cold Heading and Rolling

Shiro Torizuka, Eijiro Muramatsu
Materials Reliability Center, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba / Japan, TORIZUKA.Shiro@nims.go.jp
While uniform elongation is a measure of ductility of the material, the reduction in area in tensile tests is also an important measure of
ductility. Ultrafine-grained steels with different carbon contents from ultralow carbon to high carbon were produced by warm caliber rolling. It
was found that the reduction in area- tensile strength balance is far better than the conventional ferrite+pearlite steels and even superior to
martensite steels for all materials. Formability of ultrafine-grained steel is examined by applying to form an M 1.7 micro screw using these
ultrafine-grained steels. The screws are formed by the process of cold heading and rolling. The relationship between cold heading, rolling,
uniform elongation and reduction in area are investigated to clarify the formability of ultrafine-grained steels. Low-carbon ultrafine-grained
steel has excellent cold headability and favorable rolling properties, i.e., excellent formability. The reduction in area is a measure to
determine formability on cold heading.
Keywords: Ultrafine-grained steel, Reduction in area, Ductility, Uniform elongation, Formability, Screw, Heading, Rolling
Introduction
It is known that uniform elongation and total
elongation decrease with decreasing in ferrite grain size,
though an excellent combination of high yield strength
and low ductilebrittle transition temperature can be
achieved by grain refinement [1-9]. Ohmori et al. have
successfully demonstrated that the balance of yield
strength and uniform elongation for ultrafine-grained
structures could be improved by the dispersion of
cementite particles by an enhancement of strain
hardening rate [10].
Figure 1 shows that reduction in area in tensile tests is
also an important measure of ductility as well as uniform
elongation. However, measurement of the reduction in
area requires standard tensile specimen which means
bulk material for the preparation of the specimen. This
may be the reason why there are no detailed reports on
the reduction in area of ultrafine-grained materials
obtained by severe plastic deformation. Reduction in
area is expected to be an indicator of the formability as
well as uniform elongation.
Reduction in area is affected by second phases and
inclusions. Ultrafine-grained steels usually consist of
ferrite and dispersed cementite particles. These
cementite particles are formed through the fragmentation
of pearlite by the large strain deformation process and
get dispersed in ultrafine-grained ferrite matrix.
(1)Uniform
elongation
s
s
e
rt
S
550 C
Introduced strain3
(21 passes)
(2)Non-uniform
elongation
(3)Reduction in area
S0 S
x100 (%)
S0
Strain
Figure 1. Three factors regarding formability.
80? 18
20m F+P
RA =
258
Therefore, the volume fraction of the cementite as a

second phase in ultrafine-grained steel is far less than the
volume fraction of pearlite of starting ferrite-pearlite
steels. Therefore, ultrafine-grained steels have higher
reduction in area, compared to conventional grain size
ferrite - pearlite steels [11].
When parts are formed from raw materials, cracks are
often occurred in the parts. In this case, the raw material
is evaluated not to have enough formability. Indicators
of ductility, uniform elongation, non-uniform elongation
and reduction in area in tensile tests are closely related to
formability. However, it is not clear which indicator
predominantly controls formability. Regarding forming
thin sheets, uniform elongation is controlling factor. On
the other hand, regarding forming bar or wire, it is not
clear that uniform elongation is controlling factor.
In this research, ultrafine-grained steels having various
uniform elongation and reduction in area are produced
and M1.7 screws (microscrews) are formed using these
ultrafine-grained steels. To form a screw, cold heading
and rolling are performed. Relationship between cold
heading, rolling, uniform elongation and reduction in
area are investigated to clarify the formability of
ultrafine-grained steels.
Figure 2. Warm multipass caliber rolling and condition to

obtain ultrafine grained structure and appearance of ultrafine
grained steel bar with cross section of 18x18 mm and length of
20 m [2].
09.08.2010 14:23:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Microstructure of Ultrafine-Grained Steel
Effect of Carbon Content on Stress-Strain Curves
The chemical composition of the steels used is 0.3Si 1.5Mn - 0.01P - 0.002S with varying carbon contents viz.
0.05, 0.15, 0.30 and 0.45 wt%. The composition of steel
with 0.02C has a slightly different chemical composition
with 0.3Si - 0.2Mn wt%. Initial microstructures are
ferrite or ferrite +pearlite structure. Rectangular bars
with 80mm square were produced by vacuum melting
and hot forging, and pieces 600 mm in length were
sampled as rolling material for warm multi-pass caliber
rolling. The rolling process is shown schematically in
Figure 2.
The materials were heated to 823 K and subsequently
rolled by 21 passes of warm rolling from 80 x 80 mm in
cross section to a final of 18 x 18 mm (cumulative
reduction 95%). This caliber rolling procedure resulted
in microstructures consisting of ultrafine ferrite grains
with dispersed cementite.
Figure 3 shows microstructures of caliber rolled bars
at a fixed strain of 3.0 for 0.02, 0.05, 0.15, 0.3 and 0.45
wt% carbon contents in L-cross section [11]. It can be
seen from these microstructures that cementite particles
are uniformly distributed in the ferrite matrix. It can be
clearly seen that the grain sizes of specimens with 0.02
and 0.05C are slightly coarser, 0.7 and 0.6 m,
Figure 4 represents the nominal stress - strain curves

of ultrafine-grained steels with carbon contents of
0.02-0.45%. When carbon content is 0.02%, lower yield
strength is 700 MPa and the total elongation is as small
as 5%. Uniform elongation does not appear in the
stress-strain curve. This indicates that immediately after
yielding, plastic instability occurs. However, when
carbon content is slightly increased to 0.05%, yield
strength increased to 830 MPa and total elongation
drastically increased to 14%. Further, uniform
elongation of 3% appears in this stress-strain curve. No
plastic instability immediately after yielding as observed
for 0.02% material is noticed. This is attributed to strain
hardening by cementite dispersion. When carbon content
is 0.15%, strain hardening is evident. Strain hardening
becomes more evident with a carbon content of 0.3%.
Ultimate tensile strength is clearly observed in steels
with carbon content of 0.3 and 0.45%. The tensile
strength of 1000 MPa and total elongation of 18% is
obtained at the carbon content of 0.45%. The failure
stress also increases with an increase in carbon content
monotonously.
Figure 5 shows the variation of percentage elongation
as a function of the volume fraction of cementite. Here,
the volume fractions of cementite particles for the steels
with the various carbon contents were evaluated roughly
a) 0.02C
b) 0.05C
1m
1m
d) 0.30C
c) 0.15C
1m
Nominal stress (MPa)
1200
1000
800
0.45C
600
400
0
0
0.00
1m
e) 0.45C
0.05C
0.02C
200
5
0.05
0.30C
0.15C
Carbon content
10
0.10
15
0.15
20
0.20
Nominal
strain
Nominal
strain
(%)
Figure 4. Nominal stress - strain curves of ultrafine grained

steel with carbon content in the range of 0.02-0.45wt% [11].
1m
respectively, while the grain sizes of specimens with

carbon contents of 0.15, 0.30 and 0.45 are almost same,
0.5 m. The average size of cementite particles in all
specimens is in the range of 100-200nm. Regarding
carbon contents (viz. 0.02, 0.05, 0.15, 0.30 and 0.45%),
it was noted that more than 70% of the boundaries are
high angled ones [11]. Therefore, it is clear that these
microstructures that caliber rolling produces bulk
ultrafine-grained steels having uniform microstructures
predominantly consisting of high angle grain boundaries.
20.0
15.0
Nonuniform elongation
)
(%
n
io
t10.0
a
g
n
o
l
E
Elongation (%)
Figure 3. Microstructure of ultrafine grained steels with various

carbon contents of a) 0.02, b) 0.05, c) 0.15, d) 0.3 and e) 0.45%
processed by warm multi-pass caliber rolling [11].
5.0
Uniform elongation
0.0
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
Volume fraction of cementite (%)
Figure 5. Effect of volume fraction of cementite on uniform

elongation and non-uniform elongation.
259
09.08.2010 14:23:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
by the thermodynamic equilibrium calculations. It can be
clearly seen that while the uniform elongation gradually
increases as the volume fraction of cementite increases,
the non-uniform elongation drastically increases from
the specimen with zero cementite (0.02C) to specimen
with about 0.5 volume percent cementite (0.05C). This
rapid rise in non-uniform elongation is followed by a
gradual decrease with further increase in the volume
fraction of cementite.
Tensile Strength-Reduction in Area Balance
Figure 6 shows the relationship between the reduction
in area and tensile strength of ultrafine-grained steels
with the carbon contents of 0.02-0.45% [11]. The test
data of conventional ferrite-pearlite steel [12] and
tempered martensite steel [12] are also plotted in Figure
6. It is clear from this figure that 0.02C steel has strength
of 700 MPa and a reduction in area of 80%. For the case
of 0.05C steel, the strength has increased to 825 MPa
with a slight decrease in reduction in area to 76%. On
the other hand, the strength of 0.15C steel has increased
to 850 MPa and a reduction in area of 70%. Finally, the
0.45C steel has strength of almost 1000 MPa while the
reduction is still about 60%. For the case of conventional
0.15C ferrite+pearlite steel, the strength is 450 MPa and
the reduction in area is 82%.For the case of conventional
S45C ferrite+pearlite steel, when the tensile strength is
650 MPa, the reduction in area is 55%. The usual trend
for conventional steels is as the pearlite volume fraction
increases, the strength increases, however with a drastic
decrease in reduction in area. Therefore, the balance of
reduction in area and tensile strength for ultrafine-grain
steels is far better than the conventional ferrite+pearlite
steels and martensite steels for all materials tested in the
present study. It is attributed for the combination of
ultrafine ferrite grains and fine dispersed cementite of
ultrafine-grained steels.
100
) 90
%
( 80
a
e
r 70
a
60
n
i
n 50
o
it
c 40
u
d 30
e
R 20
10
0
Reduction in are (%)
0.0
0.05
0.15
0.30
0.45C
Tempered
martensite of
S35C,S45C, S5512)
F+P, S25C-S45C12)
SM490
200
400 600 800 1000 1200

Tensile strength (MPa)
Figure 6. Reduction in area and tensile strength balance of

ferrite - pearlite steel, tempered martensite and ultrafine-grained
steel [11].
It is impossible to determine the formability of a

material solely on the basis of the characteristics
determined by a tensile test. Formability can be
initially determined only when the parts of a material
have been formed. Screws are suitable for confirming
the formability of a material because a large deformation
is created on the screw heads when they are produced by
a compression process (cold heading). Moreover, the
recess present on the screw head for the screwdriver bits
is also formed by a large deformation. Furthermore, the
formation of threads on screws by rolling also results in
a large deformation. Therefore, the formability of a
material can be evaluated by forming a screw made of
that material.
In general, low-carbon spheroidized soft steels are
used as the screw material to prevent the formation of
cracks. Steel having a tensile strength of 500 MPa or
less is used.
When steel types with poor formability
are used, crack often occur while forming screw heads.
Screws are formed by cold heading and rolling. Then,
these screws are quenched and tempered to enhance their
strength by changing microstructure to martensite [13].
In order to manufacture an M 1.7 screw, a rod of 1.3
mm in diameter was cut from 18 18 mm bars with an
ultrafine structure (Figure 3). The double header method
illustrated in the Figure 7 was used for forming screws.
This method involves preliminary forming to obtain the
overall shape of the screw head and a main forming
process in which the recess is formed and the screw head
is processed according to the desired size. Screw threads
with a thread pitch of 0.6 were formed by rolling. Such
small screws are commercially known as microscrews.
The steel used in this study had an ultrafine structure and
a high strength of 7001000 MPa; low elongation values
Ultrafine grained steels
260
Formability
(a) Double heading
(a) Double heading

Figure 7.
(b) Rolling
(b) Rolling
Schenmatic drawing of heading and rolling.
of 20% or lower have been reported for this ultrafine

structure. Whether screws with no crack can be formed
from such strong materials is an interesting topic of
investigation [13-20].
Cold Headability. The following results are shown
in Figure 8. The screw recess showed a large crack in
the case of (a) 0.45C steel, which corresponds to the
largest elongation. A similar result was obtained for (b)
0.30C steel. The cracks became much smaller for 0.15C
steel and were not observed for 0.05C and 0.02C steels.
Although (c) 0.05C and (d) 0.02C steels do not exhibit
uniform elongation, no cracks were formed by the
header. On the other hand, in the case of 0.45C steel, the
09.08.2010 14:23:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
100.0
Reduction in area (%)
greatest uniform elongation and a large crack were

observed. This indicates that uniform elongation is not
associated with the generation of cracks in screw head
formation.
TS=700 850
0.02 0.05
900
0.15
980
0.30
1000MPa
0.45C
80.0
60.0
No crack
40.0
small crack
crack
large crack
20.0
0.0
0.0
Figure
8.
(a) 0.45C
(b) 0.30C
(c) 0.05C
(d) 0.02C
Relationship
between
carbon
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
Figure 9.
Relationship between reduction in area and
occurence of crack in heading.
content
and
Figure 9 shows the relationship between the reduction

in area of the material and cracking. Increased reduction
in area and a fewer cracks were observed on the screw
heads made of materials with lower carbon content. This
indicates that reduction in area determines the
formability of screw heads. In addition, Figure 6
indicates that there is no special relationship between
local elongation and cracking. In compressive
processing of screws (in this case, cold heading),
reduction in area, rather than uniform elongation, seems
to determine the limits on plasticity in such deformation.
Rolling Property. All types of steel exhibited
favorable rolling properties; no problems were
encountered as shown in Figure 10.
Summary
We prepared ultrafine-grained steel by varying the

carbon content in steel over a wide range and
manufactured microscrews to study the formability of
these materials. As the carbon content increases, the
volume fraction of cementite particles in the
ultrafine-grained steel also increases, and this results
in increased strength and uniform elongation.
Meanwhile, reduction in area decreases as the carbon
content increases. Ultrafine-grained steels have high
reduction in area and tensile strength balance, superior to
conventional ferrite+pearlite steels, bainitic steels, and
even tempered martensitic steels.
In compressive processing of screws (in this case,
cold heading), reduction in area, rather than uniform
elongation, seems to determine the limitation in
plastic forming in such deformation. Thus, it is
surmised that low-carbon ultrafine-grained steel has
excellent cold headability and favorable rolling
properties, i.e. excellent formability. Reduction in
area is a measure to determine formability on cold
heading.
2.0
Volume fraction of cementite (%)
occurrence of crack in heading
1.0
Figure 10.
Appearance of M1.7 screw produced by Furiya
Micro Fastening Systems [14].
Ackowledgement
We would like to thank President Y. Suzuki of Furiya
Micro Fastening Systems, T. Nozawa and E. Tsuchiya of
NIMS for their great coopeartion to complete this
research.
References
[1] A. Ohmori, S. Torizuka, K. Nagai: Testu-to-Hagane, 89 (2003),
765-772.
[2] A. Ohmori, S. Torizuka, K. Nagai, N. Koseki, Y. Kogo:
Tetsu-to-Hagane, 89 (2003), 781-788.
[3] P.D. Hodgson, M.R. Hickson, R.K. Gibbs: Scripta Materialia, 40
(1999), 1179.
[4] K.T. Park, Y.S. Kim, J.G. Lee, D.H. Shin: Materials Science and
Engineering, 293 (2000), 165.
[5] K. Nagai: J. Mater. Process. Technol., 117 (2001), 329.
[6] N. Tsuji, Y. Ito, Y. Saito, Y. Minamino: Scr. Mater., 47 (2002),
893.
[7] T. Hanamura, Y. Fuxing, K. Nagai: ISIJ International, 44 (2004),
610-617.
[8] A. Howe: Mater. Sci. Technol., 16(2000), 1264.
[9] T. Hayashi, K. Nagai: Trans. Japan Soc. Mech. Eng. A, 68 (2002),
1553-1558.
[10] A. Ohmori, S. Torizuka, K. Nagai: ISIJ International,
44(2004),1063-1071.
[11] .S Torizuka, E. Muramatsu, S.V.S. Narayana Murty, K. Nagai:
Scripta Materialia, 55(2006), 751-754.
[12] NIMS data base, Materials Information Technology Station,
National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan.
[13] NHK Business-jyuku committee, Textbook of NHK
Business-jyuku V, NHK, Tokyo, (2003), 190-198.
[14] S. Torizuka : Materia Japan, 45(2006), 438-443.
[15] S. Torizuka, E. Muramatsu : CAMP-ISIJ, 20(2007), 1395.
[16] S. Torizuka, E. Muramatsu : CAMP-ISIJ, 21(2008), 712, 1654.
[17] S. Torizuka, E. Muramatsu : CAMP-ISIJ, 22(2008), 709, 1741.
[18] S. Torizuka, E. Muramatsu: Proc. 2008 Japanese spring conf. for
the technology of Plasticity, (2008), 339-340.
[19] S. Torizuka, E. Muramatsu: Proc. 60th Conf. the Japan Society
for Technology of Plasticity, (2009), 389-390.
[20] S. Torizuka, E. Muramatsu: Material Science Forum, 638-642
(2009), 3543-3548.
261
09.08.2010 14:23:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
Determination of Content of Retained Austenite in Steels with TRIP Effect Deformed at

Different Strain Rates
Sylwia Wiewirowska
Faculty of Materials Processing Technology and Applied Physics, Institute of Modelling and Automation of Plastic Working Processing,
Czestochowa University of Technology, Al. Armii Krajowej 19, 42-200 Czestochowa Poland, wiewior@wip.pcz.pl
The dynamically developing automotive industry requires new materials with very good correlation between mechanical and plastic properties. TRIP steels are one of the example such materials. The structure of the TRIP steel consists of a continuous ferritic matrix with inclusions of precipitates of retained austenite and hard phases, i.e. martensite and bainite. Information about low and medium-carbon steels
with TRIP effect for manufacturing strips by rolling, which are used for the production of car body elements, can be found in scientific literature. These sheets are used in so called crash zones to increase the level of passive safety of passengers in the case of collision. Contrary,
information about research concerning wires made of these steels is scarce. It is known that in drawing processes the total strain and strain
rate are much higher than those in rolling. This influences the TRIP effect and, in consequence, the material properties. After the cold deformation the retained austenite occurs in steel. The volume fraction of this component depends on the carbon content in the steel. The
retained austenate converts into matensite in the zones strain concentration. The influence of strain rate on the volume fraction of retained
austenite in structure of steel with TRIP effect is shown in the work. Cold upsetting tests were carried out on the Gleeble 3800 thermomechanical simulator for different deformation rates and different values of strain. The distribution of the amount of retained austenite (in%) in
structure of deformed samples was determined next, with the use of MET-ILO software. Obtained distributions are compared with distributions of the effective strain rate obtained from numerical simulation of the upsetting tests. FORGE 3D software with viscoplastic material
model was used in simulations.
Keywords: TRIP steel, Wire drawing, Strain rate intensity, Retained austenite.
Introduction
Development of the automotive industry and the development of new manufacturing technologies create a need
of searching for even better materials with increasingly
high mechanical properties, while appropriately high plastic properties are maintained. The investigation described
in the paper concern steel with the TRIP effect, which is
classified into the group of AHSS (Advanced High
Strength Steel) multiphase steels. Comparing to conventional microscopic steels, the TRIP steels exhibit an unique
correlation of high strength combined with good workability [1-3].
TRIP steels are an example of multiphase steels, whose
structure consists of ferritic matrix, which contains precipitates of hard phases, i.e. martensite and bainite and
retained austenite. These particles are directly responsible
for material high strength, with preserved high plasticity.
The TRIP effect in low- and medium-carbon steels can be
achieved through appropriately conducted two-stage heat
treatment. This heat treatment consists in the annealing of
steel in the inter-critical (+) interval and then soaking it
in the bainitic transformation range. These steels are composed of a larger amount of carbon and silicon and/or
aluminium, or manganese, comparing to DP (Dual Phase)
steels. Manganese mechanically stabilizes the retained
austenite and retards the process of pearlite formation in
the structure. On the other hand, silicon promotes the formation of ferrite during cooling after annealing in the
inter-critical interval, and prevents or retards the process
of carbides precipitation during the formation of bainite in
the structure [4-6].
During the cold deformation, the retained austenite in
TRIP steels intensively transforms into martensite, thus
leading to an increase in hardening. This property enables
this type of steels to be considered for the manufacturing
262
of car body sheet elements, which are characterised by

high energy accumulation, and which are used in crash
zones. During a collision, this material absorbs the impact
energy to use it in the phase transition of retained austenite
to martensite, thereby causes its gardening, which considerably enhances the safety of the passengers.
For many products made from steel wires, such as ropes,
cables, springs and fasteners used in the motor car industry,
an optimal combination of their mechanical and plastic
properties is required, as well. The use of TRIP-effect
steels for drawn products offers a possibility of producing
a new grade of wires with very good mechanical properties (comparable with those of high-carbon steel wires)
and, at the same time, good plasticity. Wires with the preserved TRIP effect (a large quantity of retained austenite),
in which the transition of the retained austenite into martensite, causing an increase in mechanical properties, occurs during plastic deformation taking place in the course
of operation.
The rate of transition of retained austenite into martensite depends mainly on the extent and velocity of deformation. Therefore, a need arises to determine the effect of
these parameters on the content of retained austenite in the
structure of steel intended for drawn products.
A theoretical and experimental analysis of this process is
presented in the paper. The objective is the determination
of the content of retained austenite in the medium-carbon
TRIP-effect steel in processes conducted at different rate
and intensity of deformation. Simulation of the cold upsetting process using the Forge 3D software and cold upsetting tests for different deformation velocities and deformation degrees using the Gleeble 3800 thermomechanical
simulator were carried out to reach the objective.
09.08.2010 14:23:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experiment
Tests were carried out for a wire rod having 5.0 mm in
diameter produced form a steel bar of chemical composition given in Table 1. The wire rod was produced at the
Centre of Research in Metallurgy, Belgium.
variants were obtained from these simulations. Figure 2

shows selected example of this distribution at the crosssection of a sample subjected to the cold upsetting process.
bainite
martensite
Table 1. Chemical composition of low carbon steel.

C
0,293
Mn
1,430
Si
1,320
Ni
0,122
Cr
0,100
Al
0,045
S
0,011
retained
austenite
Upsetting on Gleeble 3800 Thermomechanical Simulator

For the cold upsetting process using the Gleeble 3800
simulator, the samples measuring 5x10 mm taken from
an ingot, were used. Then, in order to obtain the structure
with TRIP effect, the test pieces were heat treated using
parameters determined in previous studies [7]. These parameters are consistent with the optimal ones that assure
the maximum volume fraction of retained austenite to be
obtained in the structure. The heat treatment was conducted using a DIL 805 A/D dilatometer.
The cold upsetting tests were carried out for three ram
velocities with height reduction of 20% from 10 mm to 8
mm. The time of deformation of each of the test pieces
was calculated from the ram velocity.
Based on the performed tests, the equation of the workhardening curve was determined. After analysis of various
flow stress models, the nine-parameter Hansel-Spittel
equation [8] was selected for the description of this stress:
a3
aT a aT a
exp(a 4 )(1 + ) 5 6 7 T 8 exp(a9T )
ferrite
Figure. 1. Structure of TRIP steel after cold upsetting process, as

etched with Lichtenegger and Bloech reagent. Magn. 500x.
p = a1 a2 exp
(1)
The parameters of the equation were as follows: a1=
847.39; a2= -0.0783; a3= -0.0137; a4= -0.0484; a5= 0.0061; a6= -0.0663; a7= -0.0003; a8= -0.0405; a9= 0.00093
A metallographic analysis was performed after the upsetting tests. It involves the evaluation of the volume fractions of retained austenite in the structure of the deformed
steel.
The experimental procedure included the etching of the
test pieces with the Lichtenegger and Bloech reagent [9]
and quantitative analysis of volume fractions in the test
piece structure. Since the upsetting process is an axially
symmetrical, a quarter of the test piece was subjected to
the analysis. Figure 1 shows a sample structure illustrating
particular components of the steel structure.
Simulation of Upsetting Process
Simulation of the cold upsetting process was performed
using the commercial finite element based Forge 3D software. Eq. (1) was used for the description of the workhardening curve.
The conditions of simulation of the variants of upsetting
process were the same as for the experimental tests on the
Gleeble 3800. Effective strain distributions for particular
Figure. 2. Effective strain distribution at cross-section of a test

piece undergoing cold upsetting process for time of t = 0.00197 s.
Testing Methodology
The testing methodology described in the paper consisted in plotting of the effective strain distributions, obtained from the simulation, on a grid corresponding to the
photographs of structures for particular regions obtained
from the tests carried out on the Gleeble 3800. Then, the
values of the retained austenite volume fractions in the
structure, as calculated based on the experimental tests,
were assigned to respective segments of isolines representing the effective strain. If an isoline segment is situated at
the boundary between the two elements of the grid, then
the average value of volume fraction of retained austenite
in the structure was taken for the analysis of the results.
The method of interpretation of these results is shown in
Figure 3.
The values of deformation times, as obtained from the
tests, were used for the calculation of the deformation rate
for respective deformation stages, according to following
relationship:
(2)
t
where is the effective strain and t is the time of the deformation.
263
09.08.2010 14:23:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
The equation of the function approximating the obtained
results is as follows:
v = 28.015 26.708 0.003 + 53.516 2

0.018 1.06 10
5
Figure. 3. Strain intensity distribution on cross-section of a test

piece undergoing upsetting process for a duration of t=0.0282 s,
together with plotted grid showing method of reading out retained
austenite percentage shares in structure.
From these calculations, relationship which describes

the volume fraction of the retained austenite ( v ) in the
structure of steel as a function of the effective strain and
deformation rate was obtained (Table 2). The approximation of the obtained results with was also made and is
Table 2. Amount of retained austenite (in %) as a function of strain
intensity for different deformation velocities.
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
v
[%]
25.21
24.92
24.76
24.56
24.51
23.93
23.57
23.50
23.99
22.41
21.19
20.07
[s-1]
5.3
7.0
8.8
10.6
76.1
101.5
126.9
152.2
195.5
260.7
325.9
391.1
(3)
From the investigation carried out it has been found that

the volume fraction of the retained austenite in the structure depends slightly on the total deformation degree of
the test piece, but is strongly dependent on the deformation rate.
With increasing deformation rate, an intensive decrease
in the content of the retained austenite in the structure is
observed as the degree of total deformation increases.
Thus, for the effective strain of 0o30, the difference between the initial retained austenite content approaches 8%
for a deformation rate above 240 s-1, which, for a deformation rate of about 5 s-1, is contained within the range of up
to 3.5%.
Summary
The methodology of relating experimental tests to theoretical modelling results, as discussed in this paper, should
lend itself to be used for the analysis of the multi-stage
process of drawing wires of the TRP-effect steel.
Since the wire drawing processes are performed at high
strains and very high strain rates, there is the potential for
these parameters to be controlled in a wide range. The
presented method of determining the content of retained
austenite should enable the control of the structure of
material being deformed, thereby allowing wires of expected mechanical properties to be obtained. The preliminary results of simulation of the drawing process are
shown in Figures 5 and 6. These results were obtained by
implementation of Eq. (3) into the finite element code. The
code developed by Milenin [10,11], dedicated to the drawing process, was used in the simulation. The drawing parameters were as follows: initial diameter d0 = 5.5 mm,
final diameter d1=4.73 mm, drawing velocity v = 0.86 m/s,
= 0.03 and die angle 2=12.
Calculated distributions of the effective strain and the
effective strain rate along the deformation zone in the
three locations through the radius of the wire are shown in
Figure 5. Differences in the strain history in various locations can be observed in this figure, although the total
strain is relatively homogeneous at the cross section of the
wire. Significant differences are observed in the local
strain rates. Resulting distribution of the content of the
retained austenite along the radius of the wire are shown in
Figure 6. It is seen in this figure that the volume fraction
of the retained austenite decreases towards the surface of
the wire.
The further research on the drawing processes, both
theoretical and experimental ones, will be the subject of
the future work.
Figure. 4. Plane representing relationship between retained austenite percentage share in structure and strain intensity and deformation velocity during the cold upsetting test of TRIP-effect
steel.
264
09.08.2010 14:23:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
References
[1] F. Grosman F.: Obrbka Plastyczna Metali, 13 (2002), 5-15.
[2] M. Jang, G.W. Rathenau: Acta Metallurgica, 7 (959), p246-253.
[3] M.R. Berrahmoune, S. Berveiller, K. Inal, A. Moulin, E. Patoor:
Materials Science and Engineering A, 378 (2004), 304-307.
[4] F. Grosman, J. Herian: Inzynieria Materialowa, 10 (1990), 68-71.
[5] S.S. Hecker, M.G. Stout, K.P. Staudhammer, J.L. Smith: Metallurgical Transactions A, 13 (1982), 619-635.
[6] S. Hiwatashi, M. Takahashi, Y. Sakuma, M. Usuda: Proc. 26th
ISATA, Dec. Conf. On New and Alt. Mater. for Auto. Ind., (1993),
263.
[7] S. Wiewirowska: Hutnik Wiadomoci Hutnicze, 76 (2009), 122125, (in Polish).
[8] A. Hansel, T. Spittel: Kraft- und Arbeitsbedarf Bildsomer
Formgeburgs
Verfahren,
VEB
Deutscher
Verlag
fur
Grundstoffindustrie, Lipsk, (1979).
[9] P. Skocovsky: Colour Contrast in Metallographic Microscopy, Ed.,
Blaha J., Slovmetal, Zilina, (1993).
[10] A.A. Milenin: Russian Metallurgy, 5 (1998), 38-43.
[11] A. Milenin, P. Kustra: Steel Research International, 79-2 (2008),
717722.
Figure. 5. Distributions of effective strain (top) and effective strain

rate (bottom) along deformation zone in three locations through
the radius of the wire.
Figure. 6. Amount of retained austenite at cross section of drawn

wire (from initial diameter 5.5 mm to final diameter 4.73 mm) calculated by the FE code with implemented Eq. (3).
265
09.08.2010 14:23:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Causes of Die Fracture in Automatic Multistage Cold-Forging of High-Strength Ball-Studs

Qiushi Li1), JaeGun Eom2), YeongSu Kim3), EungZu Kim4), ManSoo Joun5)
1)
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju / Korea; 2) TIC of Gyeongsang National Univer5)
sity, Sacheon / Korea; 3) Taeyang Metal Industrial Co., Ansan / Korea; 4) Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Incheon / Korea;
Corresponding author, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju / Korea,
msjoun@gnu.ac.kr
A thermoelastic finite-element method was applied to a geometrically simple ball-stud forging process to quantitatively examine the causes
of longitudinal fractures in die inserts during cold forging. The same forging processes and die designs developed and empirically optimized
for SCM435 alloy steel were used to make a geometrically equivalent ball-stud of the much higher strength alloy ESW105. A thermoelastic
finite-element method for die structural analysis, coupled with a forging simulator, theoretically based on a rigid-plastic finite element
method, was used to compare the two materials. The study showed that the longitudinal fractures in the die inserts were due to a nonoptimized shrink fit value, which emphasizes the importance of optimal die design in the cold forging of high-strength materials.
Keywords: Die fracture, Die structural analysis, Shrink fit, Ball-stud, Comparative study, SCM435, ESW105
Introduction
Die life in cold forging is dependent on the fracture,
wear, and plastic deformation of the die inserts [1], with
fracture being the major determining factor. Die fracture
during cold forging can cause serious accidents, as well as
major increases in manufacturing costs, so the die fracture
problem is an issue of considerable importance.
Quantitatively investigating the possible causes of die
fracture is complex, with the choice of die material, the
metal-forming process design, the die-making process, and
the field service history of the manufacturing process all
potentially being major contributors. Although many problems resulting from process or die design can be detected
by structural analysis of the die, it is difficult for researchers or engineers to find or access appropriate tools because
of the complexity of die mechanics; few investigations
have satisfied the needs of process design engineers. Further, the inability to sufficiently specify the die fracture
conditions, due to the complexity of both the die geometry
and the process conditions, has left most studies inapplicable to other situations and researchers.
Several researchers have used finite-element based approaches to die structural analysis [2-11]. With the exception of the work of Lange et al. [7], Nagao et al. [8] and
Qin and Balendra [11], where commercial forging simulators were used, most studies have made assumptions and
simplifications about the contact conditions of the diepressure distributions. Several researchers have employed
boundary-element methods [12-14] to investigate the elastic mechanics of forged or extrusion dies. Joun et al. [15]
proposed a varying penalty method to analyze complex
shrink-fitted die structures. They developed a generalpurpose die structural-analysis software AFDEX/DIE,
which is theoretically based on the rigidthermoviscoplastic finite-element method, and is one of
modules of the general-purpose metal-forming simulator,
AFDEX [6]. The method of die structural analysis proposed here has been verified both for accuracy and numerical stability. Also, recently, considerable research has
been done on shrink fit die structures using commercial
software [17-20].
266
In this study, the die structural analysis software AFDEX/DIE was used to examine the causes of die fracture
during cold forging of a high-strength ball-stud. The example forging process used in this paper was simple and
geometrically well-defined, with well-characterized results
making this study academically quite attractive, because
related process information can be shared with other researchers.
Problem Description and Analysis of Die Fracture
Causes
Problem Description. Figure 1 depicts an automatic
four-stages cold-forging machine process for manufacturing ball studs. Figure 2 presents the associated detailed
design of the lower die of the fourth stage where all the
shrink rings were preloaded by a 0.4% uniform initial
strain. Note that the die design has been empirically optimized for SCM435 alloy steel; the process and die designs
are sound and guarantee moderate and economical tool life.
Indeed, no unpredicted die fractures have been reported
with SCM435.
Billet
1st stage
2nd stage
3rd stage
4th stage
Figure 1. Cold-forging process design for a ball-stud.
Conversely, when a new alloy, ESW105, having much

higher initial yield strength and negligible strain-hardening
capability was used [16], only 600-700 ball-studs could
normally be manufactured before a longitudinal die fracture occurred in the lower die (point A in Figure 2). Photographs of the cracked die and a scratched ball-stud are
09.08.2010 14:23:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
shown in Figure 3. These results suggest that a comparative study between SCM435 and ESW105 under the same
conditions may quantitatively reveal the cause of the die
fracture.
Punch
26 mm
Shrink
ring
AFDEX 2D [16] was used to obtain traction information

along the die-material interface (i.e., the exerted load information for the die structural analysis). A 0.05 Coulomb
friction coefficient between die and material was assumed.
The simulation results for ESW105 are shown in Figure 5;
the metal flow lines obtained by tracing the originally
straight lines imprinted in the initial material and the forming load variation of the fourth stage with stroke for both
materials is emphasized in Figure 6. The traction exerted
on the die-material interface was used for the die structural
analysis (see Figure 8).
77 mm
A
Die
insert
13 mm
Figure 2. Detailed design of fourth-stage lower die.
Material
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Figure 5. Metal flow lines for ESW105.

(a) Fractured die
(b) Scratched product
Figure 3. Fractured die and associated scratched product.
150
SCM 435
ESW 105
125
100
Load (ton)
Simulation of Forging Process Design. Figure 4 shows

the variation of flow stress with strain for SCM435 and
ESW105, as obtained by the tensile test-based materialidentification method developed by Joun et al. [21]. To
ensure the validity of the study, the ready-to-form materials were drawn and heat-treated in preparation for cold
forging. As can be seen in Figure 4, just prior to forging,
the deformation characteristics of the two materials are
quite different; SCM435 shows a typical strain-hardening
behavior while ESW105 does not. The latter has a much
higher initial yield stress and negligible strain-hardening
capability.
75
50
25
10
15
Stroke (mm)
20
25
Figure 6. Comparison of fourth-stage forming loads of SCM435 a

nd ESW105.
1000
The comparison in Figure 6 shows that although the pattern of increase in forming-load is quite similar, the load
for ESW105 was considerably higher than that for
SCM435. The steep jump in the ESW105 forming load,
ranging from the stroke at 15 mm to around 16 mm, is
remarkable, compared with that of SCM435. Interfacial
stress information and the effective strain for the critical
case at a stroke of 16 mm are compared in Figure 7, indicating that the interfacial stress at the cracked region of the
ESW105 was twice that of the SCM435.
Die Structural Analysis. Figure 8(a) shows a fourthstage lower die design, where the die fracture occurred at
the point marked A, and Figure 8(b) shows the related diestructural finite-element analysis model. The die design is
composed of three separable layers clamped by the outer
cylinder numbered 4. Each layer has three parts, a die
True stress (MPa)
1200
800
600
400
200
SCM 435
ESW 105
0
0.4
0.8
True strain
1.2
Figure 4. SCM435 and ESW105 flow stress information.
1.6
267
09.08.2010 14:23:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
insert and two shrink rings. All die inserts, numbered as 1,
5, and 8 in Figure 8(a), were made of tungsten-carbide
(WC), while the other die parts were all made of SKD61.
The material properties are listed in Table 1 [14,17] with
an assumed 0.1 Coulomb coefficient of friction between
die parts [19]. The fit of all the shrink rings was equivalent
to 0.4% homogeneous initial compressive strain. Along
with the shrink fit, the mechanical load induced by the
material was included in the exerted load. In an actual
industrial situation, the shrink-fit is usually made by cooling the assembled die system after assembling the die
insert and the thermally expanded shrink rings. Considering the shrink-fit procedure, the initial normal strain oj ,
due to the shrink fit, was evaluated by its corresponding
thermal load T , and calculated as:
The general die-structural analysis software AFDEX/DIE, based on the thermoelastic finite-element
method, was used for the die-structural analysis. Variation
in the effective stress and circumferential stress component with stroke were chased to choose the strokes where
fracture was suspected. The fractured region marked by
point A was selected as the chase point. As can be seen in
Figure 9, the peak stress values were observed at the 2
mm and 16 mm strokes as well as at the final stroke. The
structural analysis of the die system was therefore focused
at the selected strokes.
4000
ESW105 - Effective stress

ESW105 - Circumferential stress
SCM435 - Effective stress
SCM435 - Circumferential stress
3500
3000
(1)
Stress (MPa)
2500
T
oj = T
T
2000
1500
1000
where oj and are a normal strain vector with components in the r z coordinate system and the thermal
expansion coefficient of the shrink ring, respectively.
500
0
-500
-1000
CL
CL
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.6
0.2
B
0.2
1267
0.4
0.8
0.6
2740
2.0
1.6
1.2
1.8
0.6 1.0 1.4
1207MPa
1602MPa
(a) SCM435
(b) ESW105
Figure 7. Effective strain and interfacial stress at 16 mm elapsed s
troke.
CL
3
1
A
5
10
(a) Drawing of lower die

(b) Finite element model
Figure 8. Detailed drawing of last stage lower die and finite-eleme
nt model.
268
Stroke=16mm
10
15
Stroke (mm)
20
25
Figure 9. Dependence of effective stress and circumferential stres

ses on stroke at fracture point.
0.6
0.2
0.4
Stroke=2mm
In Figure 7, it can be seen at the 16 mm stroke, the effective strain reached 0.15 near the fracture point, indicating that the yield stress of ESW105 was almost 1.9 times
that of SCM435, as seen in Figure 4. Additionally, the die
pressure for ESW105 was 1.3 times that for SCM435. At
the final stroke, the ESW105s yield stress was 1.7 times
that of SCM435, with an effective strain value nearly the
same as the 16 mm stroke case.
The effective stress and circumferential stress components of the 16 mm stroke are shown in Figure 10, where
the maximum effective stress for ESW105 reached 2850
MPa, while that of SCM435 reached only 779 MPa. In
particular, the ESW105 circumferential stress component
was in tension, with a magnitude exceeding 871 MPa.
Conversely, the circumferential stress components, (i.e.,
another of the principal stresses) are almost entirely in
compression. Investigation of the stress distribution at the
final stroke showed the same phenomena; these results are
presented in Figure 10.
It is well known that the tungsten carbides used for dieinsert material have relatively low strength in tension,
compared with their strength in compression. For example,
the compression fracture strength of a commercial tungsten carbide reaches 2680 MPa, while its fracture strength
in tension is only 340 MPa (i.e., about 13% of the compression fracture strength) [22]. These general characteristics of tungsten carbide alloys lead us to conclude that the
reason for the die fracture shown in Figure 2 was likely
due to a poor shrink-fit of the die system for the new
higher strength material, which was optimized for the
common steel SCM435. That is, the first cause of the die
fracture was likely the increased circumferential stress due
to the increased flow stress of the material; the increased
09.08.2010 14:23:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
high pressure along the die-material interface also contributes. This emphasizes the importance of having an optimal
die design, which considers die geometry and the shrinkfit in cold forging.
It is believed that the die life in this example may be much
increased if much stronger shrink fit for the die insert numbered 5 is applied. This can be seen from the stress distribution in Figure 11, which was obtained with the improved
shrink-fit (increased by 20%) of the die parts numbered 6 and
7. With this stronger shrink fit the maximum effective stress
was reduced from 2800 MPa to 2400 MPa and the maximum
circumferential stress from 1600 MPa to 1200 MPa.
According to related studies [23], the extruded end of the
material with low strain-hardening exponent is concave and
flows down more readily due to its low strain-hardening
capability. In the case of SCM435, the relatively high strainhardening behavior causes the bulging of part B in Figure 7,
which is supposed to reduce the rate of forming-load increase between the 15 mm and 16 mm strokes.
CL
Table 1. Elastic property of die materials.

Material
Youngs modulus (GPa)
Poissons ratio
WC
696
0.24
SKD61
200
0.28
Conclusions
In this paper, the cause of die fracture in cold forging of
higher strength ESW105 alloy ball-studs was revealed by
thermoelastic finite element analysis. To ensure reproducibility, an empirically-optimized forging process and associated mass-production die designs for a geometrically
simple ball-stud with special SCM345 steel were selected.
A comparative study between ESW105 and SCM435 revealed that a non-optimized shrink-fit that inherently causes
large circumferential stress in tension is the major cause of die
fracture. Of course, material properties, such as the strainhardening exponent, can also be a major factor in die fracture.
The strain-hardening exponent can change the pattern of
plastic deformation, leading to changes in the forming loadstroke curve, which, in turn, directly influences the die mechanics and fractures.
Acknowledgements
Unit: MPa
References
(a) SCM435
CL
Unit: MPa
(b) ESW105
Figure 10. Effective stress and circumferential stress at possible di
e-fracture stroke.
CL
400
-1000 -600
200
200
400 800
800
800 800
2400 1200 200
400 1200
400
-200
-600
200
600
-600
400
200
-600
Unit: MPa
-600
-200
ESW105
Figure 11. Effective stress and circumferential stress at
possible die-fracture stroke for 20% increased shrink-fit of die
parts 6 and 7.
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[2] J. B. Hawkyard, T. Hirai, T. Ishise, T. Katayama: Adv. Tech. Plast., 2
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: Adv. Tech. Plast., 1 (1990), 355-360.

[5] U. Engel, M. Hansel
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(2002), 1213-1222.
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(2004), 102-110.
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[19] O. Eyercioglu, M.A. Kutuk, N.F. Yilmaz: J. Mater. Proc. Technol.,
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[23] D.J. Yoon, S.T. Ahn, Y.H. Son, E.Z. Kim, N.H. Kang, M.S. Joun:
Research on preheat treated steel for application to automobile fasteners, Technical Report, (2009), Korea Institute of Industrial Technology.
269
09.08.2010 14:23:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Refinement of Grains and Second Phases in Aluminum Alloys by Compressive Torsion Processing
Yuji Kume, Makoto Kobashi, Naoyuki Kanetake
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya / Japan, kume@numse.nagoya-u.ac.jp
In the compressive torsion process, a cylindrical workpiece is subjected simultaneously and continuously to compressive and torsional
loading at elevated temperatures without changing its shape. As the workpiece was deformed under hydrostatic pressure, the compressive
torsion process causes severe plastic deformation even to poor ductile metals, such as hypereutectic Al-Si alloy which has many brittle
second phase particles, without any difficulty. Therefore, the compressive torsion process is a very attractive process for the refinement of
not only grains but also brittle second phase. In the present work, the compressive torsion process was applied to a pure aluminum and a
hypereutectic Al-Si alloy. The grain refinement, the second phase refinement and subsequent tensile properties of these alloys were investigated. As a result, The grain size of annealed pure aluminum was around 100 m. After processing, fine grains below 10m were observed homogeneously over the radial cross section. The grain size was decreased with decreasing process temperature. The tensile
strength was increased due to the grain refinement. On the hypereutectic Al-Si alloy, initial particle sizes of primary and eutectic Si were
around 30 and 10 m, respectively. After the processing, both Si particles were refined below 5 m in the severely deformed region of the
specimen. The total elongation was remarkably increased due to the Si particle refinement.
Keywords: Severe plastic deformation, Compressive torsion processing, Grain refinement, Second phase refinement, Aluminum alloy
Introduction
In recent decades, severe plastic deformation process
has developed for obtaining ultrafine grained materials.
There are many severe plastic deformation process such as
equal channel angular pressing/extrusion [1-3], accumulative roll bonding [4] and high pressure torsion [3,5]. Utilization of some scientific knowledge of these processes,
enhancement of productivity and developing a new severe
plastic deformation process is expected.
We have developed the compressive torsion process [611] in which compressive and torsional loadings are applied to specimens simultaneously. This process is similar
to the high pressure torsion. However, compressive torsion
process use low pressure (several hundred MPa) and apply
to cylindrical shape specimen not only disc shape. This
process has the great advantage of providing severe plastic
deformation without change in the specimen shape.
Many metal materials are multiphase alloys. For example, hypereutectic Al-Si alloy, which has many brittle
second phase particles, has good mechanical properties
such as high temperature strength, high wear resistance
and low thermal expansion. Applying this alloy to automobile components was effective to reduce their own
weight. However, it is difficult to use a plastic deformation
process for mass production of the components because of
the low ductility of the alloy. It is well known that the size
and distribution status of second phase of multiphase alloys are an important factor for obtaining both high
strength and elongation simultaneously. Applying the
severe plastic deformation to the multiphase alloys, there
is some difficulty because of the poor ductility of the alloy.
As the work piece was deformed under hydrostatic pressure, the compressive torsion process can apply severe
plastic deformation even to poor ductile metals without
any difficulty. Therefore, the compressive torsion process
is very attractive process for the refinement of not only
grains but also brittle second phase. The second phase
270
refinement of multiphase alloys would become new research topic for severe plastic deformation process.
In the present work, the compressive torsion process was
applied to a pure aluminum and a hypereutectic Al-Si alloy.
The grain refinement and the second phase refinement and
subsequent tensile properties of these alloys were investigated.
Compressive Torsion Processing. Figure 1 shows a
schematic drawing of the facility for compressive torsion
processing. The cylindrical specimen is set into the container. The upper and lower basal planes of the specimen
contact the upper and lower dies and the lateral side of
specimen is surrounded with container. Upper and lower
dies move vertically to apply the compressive loading and
the both dies also rotated in the opposite direction to apply
the torsional loading. The combined compressive and
torsional loadings are simultaneously applied to the specimen. Continuous large share deformation under hydrostatic pressure can make the severely deformed specimen
Compression load
Upper die
Thermocouple
Container
Heater
Specimen
Lower die
Torsion load
Figure 1. Schematic drawing of facility for compressive torsion
processing.
09.08.2010 14:23:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
in short time without change of shape. Top of the both dies
has a rugged face with 1mm depth so that the torsional
loading can be sufficiently imposed on the specimen.
Materials and Process Condition. The materials used
in this study were extruded bars of commercially pure
aluminum (A1050) and hypereutectic Al-Si alloy. The
hypereutectic Al-Si alloy used in this experiment contains
14.5wt.%Si, 4.5wt.%Cu, 0.62wt.%Mg, 0.2wt.%Fe and
0.01wt%P. Cylindrical specimen with the size of
4010mm was cut from the extruded bar. Pure aluminum was annealed at 618 K for 5 min before processing.
The compressive torsion process experiments were performed by flowing condition for each aluminum alloy:
different processing temperature, room temperature, 373,
473 and 573 K with 10 rotations for pure aluminum, at
473K with different rotation numbers ranging from 0 to 20
rotations for hypereutectic Al-Si alloy. The others processing conditions were fixed as follow; the compressive pressure: 100MPa, the rotation times: 10 times, the rotation
speed:5 rpm.
After processing, the specimens were cut along the radial
direction. The microstructure on the longitudinal cross
section was investigated by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscope. Particles size of primary and
eutectic silicon on hypereutectic Al-Si alloy was evaluated
by image analyzing software.
Tensile Test Condition. The tensile tests were performed

before and processed specimen using small test pieces.
Four test pieces were machined and numbered as (i) to (iv)
sequentially from the center to the outer as shown in Figure 2 The tensile test condition was at room temperature
with a strain rate of 8.310-3s-1.
Result and Discussions
Grain Refinement of Pure Aluminum. Figure 3 shows
optical micrographs of specimens before processing. The
starting grain size of pure aluminium was around 100 m.
Figure 4 show optical microphotographs of the cross
sections of specimen of pure aluminum processed at 573 K
with 10 rotations. Microphotographs were taken on the
observation points shown in the figures. The microstructures which had around 10 m refined grains were almost
same on the every observation points. The compressive
torsion process has a geometrical gradient of torsional
deformation in the radial direction. Torsional deformation
is relatively large in the outer part and small around the
rotation axis of the cylindrical specimen. The microstruc
ture homogeneity seems to be not depending on the geometrical gradient at 573 K with 10 rotations processing.
(iv)
unitmm
(i)
Figure 2. Cutout position from compressive torsion process
specimen and shape of tensile test piece.
25m
(a) Processed at 473 K (b) Processed at 573 K
Figure 5. Optical microphotograph of pure aluminum processed at
different temperatures.
100m
Figure 3. Optical micrograph of pure aluminum before processing.
5m
(a) Processed at room temperature (b) Processed at 373 K
Figure 6. Scanning electron microscope image of pure aluminum
processed at different temperatures.
Stress, /MPa
200
Observation point
of microphotograph
Tensile strangth
Proof stress
150
100
50
0
300
50m
Figure 4. Optical micrograph of pure aluminum processed at 573K

with 10 rotations.
400
500
600
Processing temperature, T/K
Figure 7. Tensile strength and proof stress of specimen as function of processing temperature.
271
09.08.2010 14:23:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
0.8
0.3
0.6
0.2
0.4
0.1
0.2
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
0.4
0.8
0.3
0.6
0.2
0.4
0.1
0.2
0
0
0
0.4
0.8
0.3
0.6
0.2
0.4
0.1
0.2
0
0
10
20
30
40
Diameter, Dp / m
50
Frequency ( -)
20
30
40
50
Diameter, Dp / m
0.5
Cumulative frequency (- )
Diameter, Dp / m
10
0.5
0.4
0.8
0.3
0.6
0.2
0.4
0.1
0.2
0
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
0.5
0.4
Frequency ( -)
0.5
Frequency ( -)
Second Phase Refinement of Hypereutectic Al-Si alloy. Figure 8 shows optical microphotograph and Si particle diameter (Dp) histogram of hypereutectic Al-Si alloy
before processing. Primary Si particles with irregular
shape of around 30m and eutectic Si particles with needle-like shape less than 10m were observed (Figure 2(a)).
The histogram has bimodal peaks around 5m and
25~40m.
Figures 9 and 10 show the optical micrograph and frequency distribution of Si particle size of processed specimen with 5 rotations at 473K. Figures 11 and 12 show the
same observed data of processed specimen with 20 rotations at 473 K. Optical micrograph was observed at 4
observation points illustrated in the figures. Particle diameter was evaluated from the each observation points.
The size and distribution status of primary and eutectic
Si was modified by compressive torsion process. Applying
5 rotations (see Figure 11), microstructure improvement
on the upper outer point was the most significant among
all observation points. The shape of primary and eutectic
Si which was observed on before processing was disappeared and became finer. These fine particles were also
dispersed
homogenously in the matrix. The histogram (see Figure

10) of the upper outer point had a single sharp peak around
2m. The cumulative frequency curve did not show the
distinct steps and exhibited a smooth curve. Most of the
particles (more than 80%) were apparently smaller than
5m.
The other points seemed to exhibit almost the same microstructure. The particles were dispersed homogenously
in the matrix. The peak around 5 m became sharp and
large particles (more than 30 m) were disappeared in the
histogram. However, particle size at upper points tended to
be slightly finer than at middle points and, furthermore,
the one at outer points was also finer than at rotation axis
points.
As for the specimen with 20 rotations, the microstructures at the upper points (see Figure 11) were refined effectively. A sharpe peak around 2 or 3 m was observed in
the histogram (see Figure 12). The most of cumulative
frequency was occupied with fine particles less than 10m.
At middle points, the particles were also refined. The peak
around 5m became strong and large particles more than
30m was disappeared in the histogram. Small particles
less than 5m correspond to 0.5 in the cumulative frequency.
The microstructures of the hypereutectic Al-Si alloy
with rotation numbers were varied because of geometrical
gradient of torsional loading. The differences between
rotation axis and outer points on the radius direction were
quite small with increasing rotation numbers.
Frequency ( -)
Figures 5 and 6 show optical microphograph and scanning electron microscope image of pure aluminum processed at varius tempeature with 10 rotaions. These
microphotographs were taken on the most refined points
on the longitudinal sections of the specimen. The grains
refined around 10m were observed on the speimen processed at 573 K (Figure 5(b)). Slightly smaller grains were
observed on the 473 K processing (Figure 5(a)) comparison with 573 K. The grain size was reduced with reducing
processing temperature. Processed at 373K, grains became
around 5m (Figure. 6(b)). 1 to 2m grains were obtained
at room temperature processing (Figure. 6(a)). The
grainrefinement of pure alumium is caused by the
continuous recrystallization and the grain size is depend
on the processing temperature. Lower processing
temperature was effective to obtain finer microstructures.
Tensile strength and proof stress as a function of processing temperature is shown in Figure 7. The tensile
strength and proof stress of before processing were around
70MPa and 30MPa, respectively. Tensile strength and
proof stress were increased with reducing processing temperature. At room temperature processing, the strength and
proof stress were significantly increases. It was twice as
high on the tensile strength and four times as high on the
proof stress comparison with before processing.
Diameter, Dp / m
Figure 9. Optical micrograph of hypereutectic Al-Si alloy processed at 473 K with 5 rotations.
0.5
0.4
0.8
0.3
0.6
0.2
0.4
0.1
0.2
0
Eutectic Si
50m
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Diameter, Dp / m
(a) Optical micrograph

(b) Si particle diameter histogram
Figure 8. Hypereutectic Al-Si alloy before processing.
272
Frequency ( -)
Primary Si
Observation point
of microphotograph
50m
Figure 10. Si particle diameter histogram of hypereutectic Al-Si

alloy processed at 473 K with 5 rotations.
09.08.2010 14:23:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 13 shows the stress-strain curve of hypereutectic
Al-Si alloy pro cessed at 473K with various rotations.
Before processing, tensile strength and elongation were
about 220MPa and 3%, respectively. For the 5 rotations,
the tensile strength was almost the same as before processing. However, the elongation that was about 10% was
significantly increased. The elongation of after 20 rotaions
was more than four times comparison with before processing. This is cause of the refinement and distribution improvement Si particles.
Observation point
of microphotograph
Conclusions
0.6
0.2
0.4
0.1
0.2
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
0.4
0.8
0.3
0.6
0.2
0.4
0.1
0.2
0
0
0
0.4
0.8
0.3
0.6
0.2
0.4
0.1
0.2
0
0
0
10
20
30
40
20
30
40
50
Diameter, Dp / m
0.5
50
Diameter, Dp / m
Frequency ( -)
Diameter, Dp / m
10
0.5
0.4
0.8
0.3
0.6
0.2
0.4
0.1
0.2
0
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
0.5
0.3
Frequency ( -)
0.8
Frequency ( -)
0.4
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26-28 (2007), 107-110.
0.5
Diameter, Dp / m
Figure 12. Si particle diameter histogram of hypereutectic Al-Si

alloy processed at 473 K with 20 rotations.
300
250
Stress, /MPa
References
50m
Figure 11. Optical micrograph of hypereutectic Al-Si alloy processed at 473 K with 20 rotations.
Frequency ( -)
The compressive torsion processing was applied to a pure

aluminum and a hypereu-tectic Al-Si alloy. The grain
refinement, the second phase refinement and subsequent
tensile properties of these alloys were investigated. The
following results were obtained.
1. For the pure aluminum, fine grains below 10m were
observed homogeneously over the radial cross section.
The grain size was decreased with decreasing process
temperature. The tensile strength and proof stress were
significantly increased due to the grain refinement.
2. For the hypereutectic Al-Si alloy, primary and eutectic
Si particles were refined under 5 m on severely deformed region of the specimen. Total elongation was
remarkably increased due to the Si particle refinement.
200
150
Before
100
5 rotations
50
20 rotations
0
0
10
15
Strain, e(%)
Figure 13. Stress-strain curve of hypereutectic Al-Si alloy processed at 473 K with various rotations.
273
09.08.2010 14:23:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Microstructural Analysis of Alloys from Fe-Al System by Means of Electron Back Scatter Diffraction
Jaboska Magdalena, Bednarczyk Iwona, Bernstock-Kopaczyska Ewelina
1)
Department of Materials Science, Silesian University of Technology, Katowice / Poland, magdalena.jablonska@polsl.pl
A microstructural analysis of multicomponent alloys from the Fe-Al system after axial compression tests, carried out using a scanning electron microscope equipped with Electron Back Scatter Diffraction (EBSD) sensor. The EBSD technique has been applied in order to determine the influences of deformation parameters (deformation temperature, deformation value and deformation rate) on structural changes.
The microstructure has been examined in order to disclose the phenomena taking place during the strain. Results of the investigations of
Fe-28Al-5Cr alloy microstructure revealed domination of dynamic recovery process. The process was confirmed by EBSD research, which
allowed to ascertain presence of the subgrains. A different structure recovery process was observed in the case of Fe-38Al domination of
dynamic recrystallization was revealed.
Keywords: Fe-Al alloys, Deformation, Rebuilding mechanism, Structure mechanism, EBSD map
Introduction
Ordered intermetallics from the Fe-Al system (iron aluminides) are investigated as new materials for hightemperature and corrosion atmosphere applications. Currently, their development and their usefulness for industry
is restricted, because low plasticity of Fe-Al intermetallics
is still a problem [1,2]. Many causes of the low plasticity
are known: environmental brittleness [3-5], even in the
room temperature, grain boundaries internal brittleness
and vacancy hardening [6-8].
Attempts to improve the technological plasticity of iron
aluminides are based on introduction of micro- and macroadditions to the base alloys, and on selection of optimum
parameters of heat treatment, ensuring preparation of the
material for further shaping with plastic working [9-13].
As it is know, properties of a material depend strongly
on orientation, size, and shape of grain, and also on type of
the phases forming in the alloys during solidification or
annealing processes. Information concerning crystallographic orientation of materials may be obtained using
Electron Back Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) as a tool of
scanning electron microscopy. Nowadays, EBSD becomes
a powerful method for investigation of microstructure and
texture of materials. This technique provides, among others, information on relative and absolute orientations of
grains, and misorientation angle. It also allows for phase
identification [13-17].
The article presents an analysis of changes in microstructure of alloys based on Fe-Al system after hot deformation, using the EBSD method. Results of EBSD analysis, such as grains size, dimensions of grains boundaries,
relation between low and wide angle grains, maps of
misorientation of the structure with indicated misorientation angles, after supplementing by LM and TEM, were a
basis for establishing a new model of structure rebuilding
after hot deformation in Fe-Al alloys.
Fe-Al system. The chemical composition of these alloys is

shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Chemical composition of investigated alloys.
Content of chemical elements [%at.]
Al
Cr
Mo
Zr
Fe
28
5.0
0.20
0.1
0.05
0.01
66.64
38
0.20
0.1
0.05
0.01
61.64
The alloys were prepared using a technique of gravity

casting to cold graphite moulds. The samples after casting
were annealed at 1000 C for 48h, and then they were
furnace-cooled. The material after annealing was used to
prepare samples for strength tests. The samples subjected
to an axial compression test using a Gleeble 3800 simulator. In the tests, cylindrical samples with 10 mm in diameter and 12mm in height were used. The tests were carried
out in the temperature range of 900-1100 C with strain
rate of 0.1, 1.0 s1, up to deformation value of =1.0.
The microstructural analysis after compression was carried out using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy using EBSD sensor, and transmission microscopy. The surface of metallographic microsections for
observation using EBSD method was prepared with ion
polishing technique. The results obtained from individual
observation spots were presented as maps of crystallographic orientation, maps with angles of grains misorientation, and histograms of grains misorientation and size.
Results
The microstructures of the investigated alloys after homogenizing (at 1000 C with time of 48 h) after cooling in
furnace are presented in Figure 1. The alloys exhibited
coarse grains with a diversified size. For the Fe-28Al-5Cr
alloy, a primary dendritic structure was characteristic even
after homogenizing Figure 1(a).
Materials for the investigations were multicomponent

alloys on the base ordered intermetallic phases from the
274
09.08.2010 14:23:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
(b)
Figure 1. Microstructure after homogenizing (a) Fe-28Al-5Cr and

(b) Fe-38Al.
Deformation of the investigated alloys at 900 C caused

significant changes in their microstructure. In Fe-28Al-5Cr
alloy, we observed elongated primary grains and intensive
grains boundaries migration shown in Figure 2(a). In Fe38Al alloy, we observed recrystallization process starting
on the grain boundaries and progressing towards the interior of the grains shown in Figure 2(b).
Results of the investigation of microstructure using

EBSD technique are shown in Figures 3 and 4. Elongated
primary grains were found. Grains with size in the range
of 200-250 m were prevailing, constituting about 50% of
the analyzed surface Figure 3(b). Average grains diameter
was D=30.3 m. Based on the EBSD analysis of Fe-38Al
alloy deformed at 900C with strain rate 0.1 s-1 (=1),
recrystallization process was confirmed on the microstructures maps. The process progresses towards the interior of
the material, and it encompasses larger and larger area
Figure 4(a). In the histogram of the grains area, majority
of the grains with diameter from 10 to 20 m was indicated, constituting about 70% of the analyzed area,
Figure 4(b). Average diameter of all analyzed grains is D=
4.8 m.
The EBSD technique allowed for determination of
grains misorientation angles and definition of dominant
type of boundaries. Figures 5 and 6 present misorientation
maps for both alloys. In the case of Fe-28Al-5Cr alloy,
wide angle boundaries constitute about 65% of the analyzed area. About 35% of this area is constituted by low
angle boundaries with misorientation angle of 15 (see
Figure 5). The histogram of distribution of grain boundary
misorientation angle indicates that grains with misorientation angle higher than 15 prevail, constituting about 87%
of the analyzed area. Presence of a fine-grained structure
with prevailing wide angle boundaries Figure 6 was ascertained.
(a)
(a)
(b)
0.3
Area Fraction
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
Grain size [m]
Figure 2. (a) Fe-28Al-5Cr and (b) Fe-38Al (=1 z strain rate 0.1 s-1,
T=900 C). Grains boundaries migration. Progress of recrystallization.
(b)
Figure 3. (a) EBSD map for Fe-28Al-5Cr (900C, strain rate 0.1 s1)
and (b) histogram of the grains area.
275
09.08.2010 14:23:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Grain boundaries
Fraction
Angle
Min
Max
5
15
15
(a)
180
0,874
(a)
0.6
0.25
0.5
0.2
0.4
Number Fraction
Area Fraction
0,125
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
100
Grain size [m]
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
Misorientation Angle [deg.]
(b)
(b)
Figure 4. (a) EBSD map forFe-38Al (900 C, strain rate 0.1 s1)
and (b) histogram of the grains area.
Figure 6. (a) EBSD microstructure map for Fe-38Al: T=900 C,

rate 0.1 s1 and (b) histogram of grain size distribution.
LOW ANGLE
BOUNDARIES
5 - 15
Grain boundaries
Fraction
Angle
Min
Max
5
15
0.347
15
0.652
180
(a)
0.35
Number Fraction
0.3
0.25
As a result of increase in strain temperature (1000 C),

formation of a fine-grained structure in the microstructure
of Fe-28Al-5Cr alloy was observed in Figure 7. Presence
of subgrains or grains inside the deformed original grain
was ascertained. EBSD analysis confirmed existence of
subgrain structure. The subgrains are located on the
boundaries of the original grains and inside them Figure
7(b). It was ascertained that subgrains constituted 35% of
the analyzed surface. In the case of annealing at 1000C,
a recrystallized structure was observed in the microstructure of Fe-38Al alloy. EBSD examinations confirmed
presence of the recrystallized structure with equiaxial
grains with prevailing boundaries having misorientation
angle greater than 15 (82%).
Application of higher strain rate (1 s1) and strain temperature of 1100C, in the case of Fe-28Al-5Cr resulted in
similar effects as the ones observed for lower strain rate
0.1 s1. Inside the original grains, subgrains and/or grains
are visible, whereas Fe-38Al alloy was characterized by
a fully recrystallized structure.
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
Misorientation Angle [deg.]
(b)
Figure 5. (a) EBSD microstructure map for Fe-28Al-5Cr:
T=900 C, rate 0.1 s1 and (b) histogram of misorientation angles
between grains.
276
09.08.2010 14:23:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
COALESCENCE
SUBGRAINS
(a)
Figure 8. Microstructure after homogenizing annealing at 1000 C
for 48h (a) Fe-28Al-5Cr and (b) Fe-38Al.
SUBGRAINS/GRAINS ON
THE BOUNDARIES OF
THE ORIGINAL GRAINS
NEW GRAIN RECRYSTALLIZATION
SUBGRAINS/GRAINS
INSIDE THE
ORIGINAL GRAINS
Figure 9. Microstructure after homogenizing annealing at 1000 C

for 48h (a) Fe-28Al-5Cr and (b) Fe-38Al.
References
Grain boundaries
Fraction
Angle
Min
Max
5
15
0.351
15
0.638
180
(b)
Figure 7. (a) Fe-28Al-5Cr microstructure deformation =1, strain
rate 0.1 s1, T=1000 C and (b) microstructure map of missorientation angles between subgrains/grains.
Conclusions
In the case of both examined alloys, after the process of
hot deformation, dynamic processes of structure reconstruction were observed. Investigations of Fe-28Al-5Cr
alloy microstructure revealed domination of dynamic
recovery process (see Figure 8). The process was confirmed by EBSD research, which allowed to ascertain
presence of the subgrains. A different structure recovery
process was observed in the case of Fe-38Al domination
of dynamic recrystallization was revealed in Figure 9.
Microstructural analysis of Fe-38Al using EBSD technique allowed for demonstration of effects connected with
recrystallization through nucleation and grain growth.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
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[7]
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N.S. Stoloff: Materials Science and Engineering A, 258 (1998),

1-14.
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K. Stpie, M. Kupka: Scripta Materialia, 59 (2008), 999-1001.
K. Stpie, M. Kupka:Scripta Materialia, 55 (2006), 585-588.
W.C. Luu, J.K. Wu: Journal of Materials Science, 35 (2000),
4121-4127.
J.L. Jordan, S.C. Deevi: Intermetallics, 11 (2003) 507-528.
M.A. Morris, D.G. Morris: Scripta Materialia, 38-3 (1998), 509516.
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P.R. Munroe, C.H. Kong: Intermetallics, 4 (1996), 403-415.
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71-82.
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Materials, 54 (2009), 731-739.
Y.D. Huang, W.Y. Yang, Z.Q. Sun: Intermetallics, 9 (2001), 119124.
M. Jaboska, K. Rodak, G. Niewielski: Journal of Achievements in
Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, 18-1-2
(2006), 107-110.
M. Faryna: Engineering of Materials, 1 (2009), 5-11.
P.J Hurley, F.J. Humphreys: Acta Materialia, 51(2003), 10871102.
B. Han, Z. Xu: Material Science and Engineering A, 447 (2007),
119-124.
J.A. Small, J.R. Michael: Journal of Microscopy, 201 (2001), 5969.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education
and Science of Poland under grant No. N N507 270436.
277
09.08.2010 14:23:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Formability of Zr-based Bulk Metallic Glass under Different Loading Modes

XiaoWu1),2), Jian-Jun Li1) a, Zhi-Zhen Zheng1), Hua-Min Zhou1)
1)
State Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Die and Mould Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan /
China,2)Department of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan / China,
wuxiao0697@sina.com
The effect of a loading mode on the formability of a Zr-based bulk metallic glass was investigated through uniaxial compression in the
super-cooled liquid region. The constant load with a certain dwell time, the cyclic load with a vibration force and the load controlled by
velocity were employed in the experiment. The maximum diameter to which the bulk metallic glass ecimen can be formed during
compression experiment was taken as a measure of formability. The results indicated that the formability was enhanced by employing the
cyclic loads with a vibration due to the reduction on the viscosity of the bulk metallic glass, both amplitude and frequency of the vibration
are the key influence factors for the formability. Under the constant load, creep phenomenon was found in the bulk metallic glass during the
dwell phase and the diameter of formed specimen increasing with the dwell time.
Keywords: Bulk metallic glass, Formability, Loading mode, Viscosity.
Introduction
New metallic glasses are recently being recognized as
promising micro-materials because of their homogeneity
on a micro- and nano-scopic scale [1]. In the application of
the materials to micro/nano-machines or micro- electromechanical-systems (MEMS), such as various optical
devices, micro-chemical reactors or analyzers, threedimensional micro/nano-structures are required. The scope
of its application is dependent on the formability of a Bulk
metallic glass (BMG) which is controlled by the viscosity.
Many studies show that the viscosity of the BMG in supercooled liquid region is strongly dependent on the
temperature and strain rate [2,3], therefore, the formability
of the BMG can be improved by employing the
reasonable temperature and strain rate. Many people
studied the effects of temperature and strain rate on the
formability of the BMG, but no study about the effect of
loading mode on the formability of the BMG has been
reported. In fact, the viscosity of some materials can be
reduced by applying vibration and their formability can
then be improved. Literature [4] reported that the kinetic
viscosity of plastic melt during extrusion forming can be
significantly reduced by introducing vibration stress field,
and increasing the amplitude and frequency will be
beneficial to the reduction on the viscosity. Deshpande and
Barigou [5] investigated the effects of vibration on flow
characteristics of shear- thinning fluid and reported that
flow enhancement was observed by applying vibration to a
flowing tube. Prior to this report, Goshawk [6] and Thien
[7] studied the flow of non-Newtonian fluids in a pipe
under the influence of an oscillation, and concluded that
the flow rate is increased if the pipe is subjected to an
oscillation. In addition, Suh et al. [8] studied the effects of
vibration on blood viscosity and reported that blood
viscosity was reduced as much as 10-12% by applying
vibration. Shin et al. [9] used a mixture of zeolite and
silicone oil as the test fluid, studied the effect of vibration
on the viscosity of the fluid. The experiment results
suggest that artificial vibration technique can reduce oil
viscosity, and the viscosity reduction rate is related to the
vibrating parameters.
278
In this paper, the effect of vibrating load on the

formability of a BMG was studied. The maximum
diameter which the specimen can be deformed to by the
compression test with a standardized set of vibration
parameters (frequency and amplitude) is applied to
characterize the formability of the BMG. The formability
under a vibration loading mode was compared with that
under a constant loading mode and the influence of the
above-mentioned parameters on the formability was
discussed.
Experiment and Method
A Zr65Cu15Ni10Al10 quaternary alloy was used in the
present study because of its large super-cooled liquid
region (SCLR). The alloy ingot was prepared from a
mixture of pure metals with purities above 99.9% by arc
melting in a purified argon atmosphere. Bulk metallic
glass rods with a diameter of 3 mm were prepared by the
copper mold casting method. The glassy state of the cast
bars was confirmed by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and
thermal analysis using differential scanning calorimetry
(DSC). The glass transition temperature (Tg) and the onset
temperature of crystallization (Tx) were determined to be
628 K and 729 K respectively, by DSC at a heating rate of
20 K/min. Then the as-cast rod was precisely ground under
water cooling to 2.2 mm-diameter, and cut into 2.2 mm
height respectively, the two ends of the specimen were
then carefully polished to ensure the parallelism and made
the cylinder specimens with an aspect ratio of 1 .
The formability characterization method is sketched in
Figure 1. The BMG is positioned between platens. A
constant load with certain dwell time, the cyclic loads with
a vibration force and the loads controlled by cross velocity
were employed in the experiment. For a constant load,
there are two phases, i.e. initial phase and dwell phase.
The load increases from zero to maximum value
controlled by the cross velocity in the initial phase and
then the load is kept unchanged in the dwell phase until
the end of test; for the cyclic loading mode, a vibration
load introduced and it can be approximately expressed as:
09.08.2010 14:23:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
0.4v
(1)
t ))
A
where F is the load, F is the average load, A is the
F = F (1 + A sin(
amplitude of the load and v is the velocity of the crosses.

The vibration frequency of the load is given as:
= 0.4v A , which is proportional to v and inversely
proportional to the amplitude A.

Generally, there are two methods to introduce vibration,
one is ultrasonic vibration characterized by high frequency
and low amplitude, the other is mechanical vibration
characterized by low frequency and high amplitude. For
polymer melt [10], both the two vibration modes can be
employed because of the low viscosity of about 104 Pa.s. It
is difficult to employ high frequency vibration in the
forming of BMG fluid because of high viscosity of about
109 Pa.s. In present study, we choose mechanical vibration
which caused by the cross of the testing machine. The
forming fluid is subject to oscillations of low frequency
which ranges from 0 to 46 min-1.
the deformed specimen. A large variation of d values is

observed by using different loading modes. The smallest d
value, 2.4 mm, was observed under the loading mode C0,
which no vibration was introduced, and all others were
bigger than this value. The largest d value for cyclic
loading mode C8 reaches 3.45 mm, which was 44% bigger
compared with the smallest d. It reveals that the
formability of the BMG can be increased by introducing
the cyclic loading mode.
Table1. The loading parameters and diameters of the deformed
specimens.
A
V ((m/s) (/min)
Dwell time (s)
d
(mm)
C
0
6
0
0
2.4
C0 0
6
0
98
2.74
C1 0.5
6
4.6
_
2.82
C2 0.83
6
2.76
_
2.77
C3 0.5
10
7.67
_
2.96
C4 0.83
10
4.6
_
3.0
C5 0.5
20
15.3
_
3.03
C6 0.83
20
9.2
_
3.15
C7 0.5
40
30.6
_
3.28
C8 0.5
60
46
_
3.45
Load
3mm
C1
C0
C3
Thexperiment was carried out at the temperature of 698

K using a Zwich materials testing machine equipped with
an air furnace. Specimens were heated to each test
temperature and maintained for 90 s for thermal
equilibration before testing. All the test time were set for
140 s.
The formability of the BMG is characterized by the final
diameter, d, to which the BMG deforms under different
loading modes.
The results of the characterization method are
summarized in Figure 2. The magnitude of d, together
with other parameters, is summarized in Table 1.
Theoretically, the formability of a BMG in its SCLR can
be described by the maximum strain the BMG can reach
under some process conditions. In the present study, the
maximum strain can be described by the diameter (d) of
C2
3mm
3mm
Figure 1. Sketch of experiment principle of specimen heated to

test temperature and maintained for 90 s for thermal equilibration
before testing.
3mm
C5
C4
3mm
C6
3mm
C7
3mm
3mm
3mm
C8
3mm
3mm
Figure 2. Top views of BMG specimens.
Figure 3 shows the displacement-time curves for

different loading modes. Open rhombus (C) and solid
rhombus (C0) indicate the displacement data of the
velocity-controlled loading and a constant loading
respectively without applying vibration (=0), the others
indicate the displacement data of the cyclic loads with
vibration. The amplitude was set as a fixed value of 0.5 for
C3, C5, C7 and C8, but there is a linear increase in the
frequency. The corresponding vibration parameters are
summarized in Table 1. It can be found from Figure 3 that
there exists approximate linear increase in the
279
09.08.2010 14:23:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
C8
C7
C5
C3
C0
C
1.0
0.8
0.6
Dwell time
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Test time /s
Figure 3. Displacement-time curves as a function of vibration
frequency.
As is well know, the formability is strongly viscosity

dependent. We have measured the viscosity ( ) of the
compression process in-situ. The viscosity is calculated by
Eq. (2):
F (l0 x) 2
3V0 v
(2)
where is the stress of the BMG, F is the average load, V0

is the volume of the specimen, l0 is the initial length of the
specimen, x is the displacement of the cross, v is the
average velocity of the cross and is given by the slope of
the displacement-time curve. The x when the strain
reaching 40% were adopted for the estimation of the
viscosity.
Figure 4 shows the viscosity reduction with varying
vibration frequency for the fixed amplitude of 0.5. It can
be seen that the viscosity rapidly decreases and reaches
asymptote as the frequency increases. The result implies
that properly increasing frequency is effective to reduce
the viscosity. However, applying too high frequency is not
advisable due to the inefficacy for reducing viscosity by
increasing frequency at a high frequency range. In fact,
according to = 0.4v
4.0x10
2.0x10
0.0
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
-1
Frequency /min
Figure 4. Viscosity calculated by Eq.(2) vs. frequency curve at the

fixed amplitude of 0.5.
Figure 5 shows the displacement-time curves at a fixed

frequency of 4.6 per minute. Solid circle symbols indicate
the displacement data at the amplitude of 0.83; open
square symbols indicate those at the amplitude of 0.5.
C1
C4
1.0
0.2
0
6.0x10
1.2
0.4
0.0
8.0x10
, high frequency means high v
Displacement /mm
Displacement /mm
1.2
difficulties due to the increasing in resistance of the

material.
Viscosity /Pa*s
displacement under the constant loading mode, and the

increasing speed is slower at the dwell phase than that at
the initial phase. It implies that there exists creep
phenomenon in the BMG during the dwell phase. The
displacement, which is 0.8 mm, under the loading mode
C0 (holding load for about 100 s) is about two times of that
under loading mode C (dwell time is 0 s). In addition, the
displacement can be increased by applying vibration,
specially, the displacement under the loading mode C8
(A=0.5, =46 min-1) is 1.2 mm, which increased as much
as 50% compared with that under the without vibration
loading mode C0. It implies that the formability of the
BMG can be enhanced by applying vibration load.
Furthermore, the increment of the displacement increased
with the increasing in frequency of vibration at low
frequency range but there is almost no vary at the high
frequency range (see C7 and C8). The result suggests that
increasing frequency is efficacious for improving the
formability of the BMG until it reaches a specific value
which is about 46 min-1 in this test.
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Test Time /s
Figure 5. Displacement-test time curves at the fixed frequency of

4.6 min-1.
It shows that the maximum displacement obtained when

the amplitude is 0.83 was increased as much as 30%
compared with that obtained at the amplitude of 0.5, it
indicates that a high amplitude is beneficial to the
enhancement of the formability of the BMG. This result is
in agreement with the conclusion generalized by Shin et al.
[9].
Conclusion
The present study investigated the effect of the loading
mode on the formability of the BMG by using
compression experiment. A constant load with certain
dwell time, the cyclic load with a vibration force and the
loads controlled by cross velocity were employed in the
experiment. The results revealed that there exists creep
phenomenon in the BMG during the dwell phase under the
constant load mode; vibration loading can reduce the
viscosity of the material thereby enhancing the formability.
Both frequency and amplitude of vibration were found to
be the main parameters causing viscosity reduction.
and high strain rate, and it will cause deformation

280
09.08.2010 14:23:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
Viscosity reduction due to vibration was greater at high
frequency than at low frequency.
Acknowledgement
The research is supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China under grant No. 50635020
and by the Science-Technology Foundation of Education
Bureau of Hubei Province, China (Grant No. B20091703),
it is also supported by Technology Research Program of
Ministry of Education of China No.107075.
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281
09.08.2010 14:23:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Modelling of Microstructure Evolution in AISI 5140 Steel Triple Valve Forming under
Multi-Way Loading
Zhichao Sun, He Yang, Xiaofeng Guo
State Key Lab of Solidification Processing, College of Materials Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, P.O. Box 542, Xian / China,
zcsun@nwpu.edu.cn
Multi-way loading forming of AISI 5140 triple valves is a complicated hot working process due to the complex and alternation of loading path.
The metal undergoes complicated unequal deformation and microstructure evolution, including dynamic recrystallization in the deforming
zone, metadynamic recrystallization and static recrystallization in the undeformed zone as well as grain growth after recrystallization, which
will determine the quality, mechanical property and usage life-span of the formed valve. A 3D finite element model of the multi-way loading
forming process of the triple valve has been developed based on the DEFORM-3D platform, and some key technologies have been solved.
The microstructure models of AISI 5140 steel was established and successfully integrated into the finite element model, and a coupled
simulation of deformation, heat transfer, and microstructure evolution was subsequently realized. Taking dynamic recrystallization volume
fraction, dynamic recrystallization grain size, and average grain size as parameters, the microstructure evolution and distribution law in
multi-way loading forming process of triple valve body were studied.
Keywords: Triple valve, Multi-way loading, Microstructure evolution, Finite element model, AISI 5140 steel
Introduction
Triple valves with high performance are widely used in
the marine, petrochemical and power industries. Multiway loading technology, in which the billet is loaded in the
horizontal and vertical direction at the same time or in
sequence, provides an efficient approach to form integral
triple valves with high strength [1,2]. However the multiway loading forming of the AISI 5140 triple valve is a
complicated hot working process due to the complex and
alternation of loading path. The metal undergoes complicated unequal deformation, especially microstructure evolution, such as dynamic recrystallization in the deforming
zone, metadynamic recrystallization and static recrystallization in the undeformed zone as well as grain growth
after recrystallization, which will determine the quality,
mechanical property and usage life-span of the formed
valve.
Xu [3] and Hu et al. [1] investigated the multi-ram forging of tee joint by means of 2D finite element modeling,
and found that horizontal rams were under nonequilibrium force. Guo et al. [4] carried out a coupled
thermo-mechanical FE analysis on multi-way loading
forming process of triple valve body. Gontarz [2] executed
physical experiment and numerical simulation of forming
of valve drop forging with three cavities, and found that
the magnitude of the strain had a significant influence on
the forming quality and work done.
Although multi-way loading forming process has been
studied by experiment, theory, and finite-element techniques, and some study of AISI 5140 steel microstructure
evolution of has been made on strip rolling, forging process etc. [5-7], relatively little work related to microstructure evolution in multi-way loading forming of triple
valves has been presented.
In this paper a macro-micro coupled finite element
model of an AISI 5140 triple valve multi-way loading
forming has been developed by combining a microstructure evolution model based on the DEFORM-3D platform
for the prediction and control of quality, process parameters optimization and precise control.
282
FE Modelling
vertical punch
female die
horizontal punch
billet
(a) Triple valve body

(b) FE model
Figure 1. Size of triple valve body and FE model.
Table 1. Parameters used in simulation.
Diameter of billet
66 mm
Length of billet
145 mm
Temperature of environment
20 C
Initial temperature of billet
1050 C
Initial temperature of die
400 C
Speed of male die
10 mm s-1
Friction factor
0.3
Heat transfer coefficient between 0.02 kW (m2K)-1
billet/dies and environment
Contact heat conductor coefficient 11 kW (m2K)-1
Heat transfer coefficient between 35.5 W (m K)-1
billet and dies
Thermal capacity of billet
6.1 J (kg K)-1
Macroscopic Finite Element Model. Figure 1(a)

shows the design of a triple valve of AISI-5140 steel to be
studied in this paper. Based on finite element software
DEFORM-3D, a coupled thermo-mechanical 3D finite
element model of the multi-way loading forming process
of the triple valve has been established using rigidviscoplastic finite element method as shown in Figure
1(b). In order to reduce computational time and save storage capacity only half of the billet and dies are modeled
and the constraint is applied at the symmetry plane. The
material of the billet and die used are AISI-5140 and AISIH13 steel, their properties come from the material library
in DEFORM-3D. In the model, the die is treated as a rigid
09.08.2010 14:23:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
body, and the billet as a rigid-plastic material. The shearing friction model is adopted to describe the friction at the
die-billet interface, but the friction between the punches
and the female die is ignored. The invariable and variable
process parameters used in the simulation are listed in
Table 1 according to the relevant literature and the process
characteristic of multi-way loading forming. In order to
validate the finite element model, the multi-way loading
forming process of triple valve was simulated under the
same forming conditions as in the literature [2], using a
punch loading speed v=13 mm/s; friction factor=0.2; diameter of billet=66 mm; length of billet=54 mm. It can be
seen from Figure 2 that the shapes of the deforming body
at different forming stages in simulation (Figure 2(b)) are
in good agreement with those obtained by experiment in
the literature [2](Figure 2(a)).
intervals of hot working, the softening behavior of the

materials is based on the static recrystallization process,
and:
(5)
X srex = 1 exp 0.693 (t / t0.5 )1.5
and we have
1.0103
t 0.5 = 1.9962 10 15 d 0
1.2012 0.3549
(6)
exp(3.4766 10 5 /( R T ))
The grain size for static recrystallization is described as

0.4124
d srex = 315.74 0.4855 d 0
exp(51600 /( R T )) (7)
After complete recrystallization, the microstructure is
subjected to grain growth, and this progress is driven by
the decrease of the free energy associated with the grain
boundaries. The related equation to describe this grain
growth progress is:
(8)
d g7 = d 07 + 1.65 10 24 t exp(347000 /( R T ))
where d0=119m [6].
(a) Experimental results [2]
(b) Simulated results

Figure 2. Shapes of forging at the different forming stages.
Microstructure Evolution Model. Microstructure evolution during multi-way loading process is very complex,
and involves dynamic recrystallization, metadynamic
recrystallization, static recrystallization as well as grain
growth after recrystallization. Through experiment, the
microstructure evolution of AISI 5140 steel can be described as follows [5-7]: For dynamic recrystallization:
according to the Avrami equation:
(1)
X drex = 1 exp[3.9057 ( 0.83 p )1.0421 ]
where p = 5.162 10 Z
3
0.128
The variables are defined as follows: p, peak strain; c,

critical strain; , strain rate; Q, activation energy of dynamic recrystallization; R, ideal gas constant; t, time; t0.5,
time for 50% recrystallization; T, temperature; Z, Zener
Holloman parameter; Xrex, volume fraction of recrystallization; Xdrex, volume fraction of dynamic recrystallization;
Xmre, volume fraction of metadynamic recrystallizetion;
Xsrex, volume fraction of static recrystallization; drex, grain
size for recrystallization; ddrex, grain size for dynamic
recrystallizetion; dmrex, grain size of metadynamic recrystallization; dsrex , grain size of static recrystallization; d0,
original grain size; dg, grain size after grain growth; d,
average grain size. Based on the microstructure evolution
model of AISI 5140 steel above the flow chart for microstructure evolution simulation is shown in Figure 3.
start
Input:
Effective strain
Effective strain rate
Temperature
Initial grain size
Deformation
, c = 0.8 p ,.
Z = exp(Q /( R T )) .
The grain size for dynamic recrystallization is
d drex = 2.5 10 4 Z 0.211 , where Q is activation energy
of dynamic recrystallization, 370.6KJmol-1.
No
as
t0.5 = 8.2648 10 6 0.3549 exp(1.0924 105 /( R T )) (3)
The grain size for metadynamic recrystallization is
(4)
d mrex = 1.4513 105 Z 0.2417
For static recrystallization, after deformation or between
Yes
Yes
> c
X d + X m < 0.95
X d + X m < 0.95
No
Yes
MRX
No
No
X s < 0.95
No
Yes
SRX
yes
DRX
where t 0.5 is the time for 50% recrystallization, described
> c
Yes
For metadynamic recrystallization, metadynamic recovery and metadynamic recrystallization will occur after
dynamic recrystallization, described by
(2)
X mrex = 1 exp 0.693 (t / t0.5 )1.5
No
> 0
Residual strain
Growth
No
t < ttotal
Yes
end
Figure 3. Flow chart of subroutine for microstructure evolution

simulation.
The microstructure evolution module and macrodeformation module were integrated by using DEFORM-
283
09.08.2010 14:23:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
3D software interface program written using Fortran language, and the finite element model for coupled analysis
of deformation, heat transferring and microstructure evolution was developed.
Research Objective. During the triple valve multi-way
loading forming process, dynamic recrystallization may
occur in the deforming zone, and in the undeformed zone
metadynamic recrystallization and static recrystallization
may occur due to high temperatures. Thus there exists
several kinds of grains such as dynamic recrystallization,
metadynamic recrystallization, static recrystallization in
addition to the ones without recrystallization. The average
grain size d can be used to describe mixed grain size,
which is defined as:
(9)
d = X rex d rex + (1 X rex ) d 0
If the average grain size is fine and its distribution is

uniform, through proper heat treatment after forming it is
possible to obtain the triple valve with good mechanical
properties.
During the multi-way loading process, because the time
for the undeformed zone at high temperature is short, the
degree of metadynamic recrystallization and static recrystallization is very small. The average grain size, volume
fraction of recrystallization and its distribution in the deforming body are mainly determined by dynamic recrystallization. So here the main focus of the work is on the
volume fraction Xdrex and grain size ddrex of dynamic recrystallization, and average grain size d.
The standard deviation is also adopted to describe the
nonuniformity of the microstructure evolution,
S .D =
(X
i =1
dynamic recrystallization. In the later forming stage, the

material flows into the vertical cavity to form the vertical
branch pipe of the triple valve. This results in large deformation in most of this region and relative full dynamic
recrystallization occurring (Figure 4 (d)).
(a) Punch feed amount=30mm (b) Punch feed amount=45mm
(c) Punch feed amount=60mm (d) Punch feed amount=69.5mm

Figure 4. Distributions of dynamic recrystallization volume fraction
at different forming stages.
X a ) 2 /( N 1) , here Xa is the average of

N
variable X, X = X / N , N is number of the variables.

a
i
i =1
The larger the value of the S.D the greater the nonuniformity and the variation in grain size.
Microstructure Evolution Law. Numerous simulations
of the triple valve multi-way loading process and metal
microstructure evolution were done by changing the forming conditions. Figures 4-7 show typical microstructure
evolution and distribution law under forming condition:
initial temperature of billet, 1050 ; punch loading speed,
10mm/s; frictional factor, 0.3.
Figure 4 shows the distributions of dynamic recrystallization volume fraction Xdrex at different forming stages in
the multi-way loading forming process. With the forming
process progressing, the regions where dynamic recrystallization occurs, increase gradually and merge due to the
increasing deformation. In the early forming stage (Figure
4 (a)), only in regions in front of the horizontal punches
and the surface area around the punches dynamic recrystallization occurs adequately due to deformation mainly
concentrating in the vicinity of the horizontal punches.
There exists a small part of the region in front of the
horizontal punches (as marked in Figure 4 (a)), which is
equivalent to the rigid zone in upsetting, and the strain
here is difficult to meet the value of the critical strain for
284

Figure 5. Distributions of dynamic recrystallization grain size
at different forming stages (m).
Figure 5 shows the distributions of dynamic recrystallization grain size ddrex at different forming stages in multiway loading forming process.
In the initial forming stage (Figure 5 (a)), in the inner
layer of both ends of the horizontal branch pipes the size
of the dynamic recrystallization grains is large due to
small strain rate here, while the size of dynamic recrystallization grains is the small in the core of the billet due to
the large strain rate. With the deformation progressing
those regions in which dynamic recrystallization occurs
increase and the distribution of dynamic recrystallization
grain size becomes more uniform (Figure 5 (b) and (c)),
and the distribution of dynamic recrystallization grain size
is of the best uniformity (Figure 5 (d)) at the end of forming.
Figure 6 provides the standard deviation value of the
recrystallized grain size, it can be seen that the S.D value
decreases gradually as forming progressing, i.e. the distribution of recrystallized grain size becomes more uniform.
09.08.2010 14:23:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
S.D value of recrystallized grain size
This is because as the deformation progressing, the region with occurrence of dynamic recrystallization expands
(Figure 4), and the number of recrystallized grains increases. So the distribution of recrystallized grain size of
deforming body is more uniform.
25
20
15
10
30
40
50
60
70
Feed amount of punch /mm
Figure 6 S.D value of dynamic recrystallization grain size at different forming stages.
The average grain size d and its distribution are a combination of recrystallized grain size and the original grain
size and will determine the mechanical properties of
formed part.
Figure 7 shows the distribution of the average grain
size d of billets at different forming stages.
Conclusions
A 3D finite element model of the multi-way loading

forming process of triple valve has been developed based
on DEFORM-3D platform, and some key technologies
have been solved. The microstructure models of AISI
5140 steel was applied and successfully integrated into the
finite element model. The microstructure evolution and
distribution laws were studied and the following results
were obtained:
1. In the early forming stage in a small region around the
horizontal punches dynamic recrystallization occurs
fully, with relative large-size dynamic recrystallization
grain due to the small strain rate, while the average
grain size here is the smallest. In the core of the billet a
certain amount of dynamic recrystallization also takes
place, with relative small-size dynamic recrystallization
grain due to the large strain rate, and the average grain
size in this region decreases a little.
2. As the deformation progresses, dynamic recrystallization occurs mainly in the core of billet and its distribution region continues to expand, and the distribution of
dynamic recrystallization grain size becomes more uniform. Thus grains with small size increases, and the average grain size decreases.
3. In the final forming stage, dynamic recrystallization
takes place in most of the vertical branch pipe and core
of billet, and the distribution of dynamic recrystallization grain size becomes the most uniform. The number
of small-size grains reaches a maximum, and the average grain size of billet becomes the minimum.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the

support of Natural Science Foundation for Key Program of
China (50735005, 50935007), Natural Science Foundation
(50905145), National Basic Research Program of China
(2010CB731701), NPU Foundation for Fundamental Research.
Figure 7. Distributions of average grain size at different forming stages (m).
In the early forming stage (Figure 7 (a)), in the vicinity

of the horizontal punches the average grain size is small
and between 15-35m due to adequate relatively dynamic
recrystallization occurring. In the core of the billet where
dynamic recrystallization occurrs to a certain amount, the
average grain size is between 80-100m. In other regions
as a result of little or no dynamic recrystallization, the
average grain size is almost the same as the original grain
size. As the region with dynamic recrystallization expands
(Figure 7 (b) and (c)), the number of small-size grains
increases, mainly in the core of billet and its distribution
range expanding gradually, with dimension between
10~35m. At the end of forming the number of small-size
grains reach a maximum, mainly in the core of billet and
vertical branch pipe of triple valve.
References
[1] Z. Hu, B.-Y. Wang, Z. Liu Zhaung: Journal of Plasticity Engineering,
3-2 (1996), 33-40. (in Chinese)
[2] A. Gontarz: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 177 (2006),
228-232.
[3] J.-S. Xu: Forging & Stamping Technology, 4 (2002), 11-14. (in
Chinese)
[4] X.-F. Guo, H. Yang, Z.-C. Sun, D.-W. Zhang: Journal of Plasticity
Engineering, 16-4 (2009), 85-90. (in Chinese)
[5] M.-T. Wang, X.-T. Li, F.-S. Du, Y.-Z. Zheng: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 379 (2004), 133-140.
[6] M.-T. Wang, X.-T. Li., F.-S. Du, Y.-Z. Zheng: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 391 (2005), 305-312.
[7] J.-W. Ren, FEM simulation and grain size predication of bar rolling,
Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 2005 (in Chinese).
285
09.08.2010 14:23:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Selection of Cold Forging Lubricants by Tip Test

Joseph Sehinde Ajiboye1), Ki- Ho Jung2), Yong- Taek Im2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Lagos, Lagos / Nigeria, joesehinde@yahoo.com; 2) Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 373-1, Gusongdong, Yusonggu, Daejeon / Korea
Determination of reliable friction data associated with a given lubrication system is core to successful process design and simulation by FE
analysis. The dependable performance evaluation of cold forging lubricants is largely dependent on the suitability of the test procedure to
accurately model the severe deformation conditions that occur in actual cold forging operations. The tip test experiment emulates these
practical conditions (severity of deformation and surface expansion) found in most cold forging operations better than the ring compression
test. Also, the differential frictional condition at the punch/billet and billet/counter punch interfaces makes it more authentic for selection of
cold forging lubricants than the double cup extrusion test. For the test, cylindrical specimens made of aluminium alloys of 6061-O, 1050-O
and copper alloys and four lubricants such as grease, corn oil, VG100 and VG32 were used. Two different deformation speeds of 0.1 and
1mm/s were used for the test to evaluate the performance of each lubricant. It is seen that, using tip test, we can simultaneously know the
interface frictional conditions (high or low) at the punch/billet and billet/counter punch interfaces without resulting into elaborate instrumentation. That is, the farther or closer the tip distance is from the die wall, the higher and or lower is, comparatively, the frictional stress at the
punch/billet than at the billet/counter punch interface. It is found that in the choosing lubricant for cold forging operations the type of alloy
and deformation speed should be properly considered. The present study shows that tip test can, however, be utilized not only to differentiate among lubricants performance but also select appropriate lubricant for a particular alloy under increasing speed magnitude. For increasing deformation speed, the best of the four lubricants investigated for annealed copper, AL6061-O and AL1050-O is corn oil.
Keywords: Speed, Tip test, load, Evaluation, Type of alloy, Lubricant selection
Introduction
In cold forging operations, punch/workpiece interface
pressures can be very high with enormous surface enlargement and temperature rise due to deformation heating
[1]. Since the friction at the punch/workpiece interface
plays such an important role in the process, it is essential
that the lubricants used in cold forging withstand the interface conditions encountered in production, in order to
form good quality parts. Failure of the lubricant can lead
to part surface defects and significant die wear or even die
failure. A good lubrication system is, therefore, essential
for successful cold forging. The evaluation of friction is a
complex matter, which depends on both material and interface local conditions, such as temperature, strain, strain
rate, flow stress, normal pressure and surface roughness.
In addition, choosing the proper metal forming lubricant
for non ferrous metals such as aluminum, copper and brass
has become a difficult and complicated decision.
Several tests are commonly used to evaluate the performance of cold forging lubricants. Two common tests
used for this purpose are the ring compression test (RCT)
and the double cup extrusion test (DCET). In order to
evaluate lubrication in cold forging it is useful to have a
test method that represents the actual forging conditions
realistically. In the well-known ring compression test, the
amount of strain and new surface generation are relatively
small compared with the actual conditions present in cold
forging [2]. Thus, the ring test has a limited value in evaluating lubrication in cold forging. In double cup extrusion,
the test better models the severe deformation conditions
that occur in actual cold forging operations. The ratio of
the height of the upper cup to the height of the lower cup
is extremely sensitive to friction. However, the friction on
both punches is the same. Thus, only the friction along the
container wall influences the metal flow. However, a pre-
286
vious study [3] shows that at this interface, the surface

expansion during the process is only 120% compared to
the 730% surface expansion between the punch/billet
interface, and the maximum contact pressures are only
about 25% the magnitude of the contact pressures at the
punch/billet interface. Another work [4] shows that the
normal pressures at the container/workpiece interface are
low enough to make the friction predominantly Coulomb
friction, which is not representative of most cold forging
operations. These observations indicate that the double
cup extrusion test does not evaluate how the lubricant
performs in the region where large interface pressures
exist (punch/billet interface) but only at the container/billet interface, where pressures may not be very
large.
Recently, Im et al. [5,6] proposed a tip test based on
combination of simple compression and backward extrusion in which a radial tip was formed on the extruded end
of the specimen to evaluate the friction and lubrication
more accurately. Because of large surface expansion generation during the backward extrusion, this test can be
more suitable for lubricants evaluation in cold forging
operations compared to ring compression and double cup
extrusion tests. According to these studies, notable feature
of the tip test relies on the linearity between the shear
friction factor, radial tip distance, and maximum load
measured. In addition, the tip test characterized friction
conditions at the punch and counter punch interfaces separately. It was also found that the friction condition on the
punch/billet interface (mfp) was higher than the one on the
billet/counter punch interface (mfd) in the case investigated
earlier based on numerical calibrations using the finite
element analyses.
The overall objective of the present study is to show that
tip test is a reliable and practical method to both evaluate
and select suitable lubricant for specific alloy in cold forg-
09.08.2010 14:23:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
ing operations. By using the tip test, qualitative and quantitative evaluations are made to determine the effectiveness of lubricants, based on the maximum punch load
attained at varying speed and material (the lower the load,
the better the lubricant).
40-40.5oC, and the shear strain rate is 50(HAAKE Rheostress RS600).

Centring device
CL
Experimental
Materials Preparation and Equipment Used. Commercially available AL6061-O, AL1050 and copper alloy
bars with 12mm diameter were annealed by heating from
room temperature to 415, 310 and 475 oC for 3 and 1/2 h
residence time, respectively. Then, AL6061-O bars were
cooled at a cooling rate of 30 C/h to 265 C and then
finally exposed to air-cool to room temperature while
AL1050 and copper were furnace cooled to room temperature. The bars were then machined to final specimen size
of 10mm in diameter and 5mm in height. In order to reduce size irregularity, vernier calipers (Mitutoyo CD15CPX) were used to re-check the dimension of the specimen, and the tolerance of specimens was maintained to
be less than 0.03 mm.
The punch and counter punch including the container
used for the tip test were made of tool steel alloy AISI D2
and were chromium coated and polished. The punch used
in the experiment has roughness magnitude Ra of 0.17m
while the counter punch produced by lapping has roughness magnitude Ra of 0.08 m. For the measurement, a
confocal laser microscope (Olympus OLS-3000) and
white-light scanning interferometer microscope were used.
Computer-controlled MTS machine (Alliance RT/100)
with a maximum load of 100 kN was used for the tests.
Extrusion Test. The tip test (extrusion test) experiments
were performed on a computer-controlled MTS machine
(Alliance RT/100) with a maximum load of 100 kN. The
die assembly, illustrated in Figure 1, is centrally mounted
on the MTS machine. Each of the four kinds of lubricants
of grease (AMSOIL GLC-12), cooking corn oil, VG100,
and VG32 (shell Tellus), was manually brushed on both
faces and sides of the specimen and on the punch face and
stem. The specimen is then located centrally on the counter punch surface via a centering device to avoid eccentricity. The upper punch is subsequently placed on the specimen and a preload of 44N is applied to keep the specimen
firmly in position before the centering device is lifted
above the specimen to allow free backward flow when the
punch descends into the material. The upper punch was
moving downward at the speed of 0.1, or 1 mm/s up to the
stroke of 4. 3mm/s for AL6061-O, AL1050 and copper
alloy while the counter punch and container were stationary. For each lubricant, four experiments were carried out,
and the average used in this present work. After each lubricant, the surface of the punch, centering device and dies
were thoroughly cleaned by a wiper (Kimtech wipers)
soaked with ethanol to avoid adulteration among lubricants, and hot air, using hair dryer, were blown on the
tools to remove residue of ethanol. The ambient temperature and humidity were carefully monitored during the test.
Average viscosities of grease, corn oil, VG100, and VG32
was 10.55, 0.033, 0.079, and 0.027 Pa s, respectively, at
Specimen
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of a tip test experimental set-up.
The tip distance d of the deformed specimen was measured as shown in Figure 2, with an optical microscope
(Olympus B201) which has an extended focal imaging
function to integrate pictures of different focuses. Because
centering was critical in measurement of the test data, the
tip distance d was measured at four different poles in the
present investigation. The average value of these four data
was used in the present work.
Figure 2. Definition of tip distance, tip thickness t and deformed

specimen obtained from experiment.
Discussions. Figure 3 shows plot of the load versus the

punch stroke in the tip test of annealed copper alloy at ram
speed of 0.1 and 1mm/s using different lubricants. Because
the billet diameter is smaller than the die diameter, there is
the initial upsetting of the workpiece as the punch pierce
into the billet, leading to a gradual increase of load from
zero to approximately 25 kN at the punch stroke of 2.25
mm. Beyond this stroke, the deforming billet touches the
side wall inducing a sudden increase of load to 60 kN and
50kN at the strokes of 2.8 and 2.6 mm for grease and corn
oil, respectively. From these strokes, each curve rises differently to a maximum load depending on the degree to
which each lubricant can perform under increasing ram
speed. For VG100 and 32, the curves simply rose, after
upsetting stage, together to maximum load at about the
same stroke of 3.87 mm without significant change in the
maximum load at increasing ram speed. However, it is
generally observed, in this figure that increasing ram speed
leads to increasing maximum load for all the lubricants
with varying degree of influence on load reduction. From
the tribological point of view, the immediate reason adduced to this phenomenon will be that these lubricants
failed to flow sequent to the rate new surfaces are generated with increasing deformation speed and hence failed to
lubricate these surfaces leading to greater boundary contact area. Though the result seems different from expectation, it nonetheless, consistent with Sims and Arthurs [7]
287
09.08.2010 14:23:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
2
3
Stroke (mm)
Load (kN)
Load (kN)
100
Copper alloy annealed @ 475 C

VG100
80
0.1mm/s
1mm/s
60
40
2
3
Stroke (mm)

VG32
80
0.1mm/s
1mm/s
60
Load (kN)
20
0
2
3
Stroke (mm)
(b)
30
20
70 AL1050 annealed at 310 C

60 VG32
0.1mm/s
50
1mm/s
40
30
20
10
Stroke (mm)
(c)
80
Stroke (mm)
Stroke (mm)
(a)
40
AL1050 annealed at 310 C

60 VG100
0.1mm/s
50
1mm/s
40
(d)
Figure 4. Load versus punch stroke curves in tip tests of AL1050

alloys showing effect of each lubricant on load.
Load (kN)
50 Al6061-O annealed at 415oC

Grease
40
0.1mm/s
1mm/s
30
20
20
10
2
3
Stroke (mm)
(a)
60
2
3
Stroke (mm)
(b)
AL6061-O annealed at 415 C

50 VG100
0.1mm/s
40
1mm/s
30
20
10
0
AL6061-O annealed at 415 C

Corn oil
0.1mm/s
40
1mm/s
30
50
10
Load (kN)
Figures 4 and 5 show plots of load versus punch stroke

in the tip test of annealed AL1050 and 6061-O respectively at ram speed of 0.1 and 1mm/s using different lubricants. During the upsetting of the workpiece, there is the
initial but gradual build up of deformation pressure from
zero to approximately 16 and 15 kN at the punch stroke of
2.0 and 2.2 mm, respectively. Beyond this stroke, the deforming billet touches the side wall causing a sudden increase of load to 35, 48, 50 and 55 kN at the strokes of 2.5,
3.2, 3.2, and 3.2 mm for grease, corn oil, VG100 and
VG32, respectively for AL1050. While for AL6061-O,
each load increases at the end of upsetting stage to 40 kN
at constant stroke of 3.2mm. From these strokes, for the
two materials, each curve rises differently to a maximum
load depending on the influence of each lubricant to
changing magnitude of ram speed. Generally, for the two
materials, AL1050 and AL6061, increasing ram speed
leads to decreasing maximum load except in the isolated
case of grease. The reason is probably due to inability of
this lubricant to stress and replenish the new surfaces
generated during the process, thereby, leading to a greater
boundary contact area and hence, load increase at higher
speed. Also, it has been reported [8,9] that grease has a
yield stress and hence will not readily flow to replenish the
track when it is pushed aside by a rolling ball. Similarly,
grease failed to lubricate the new surfaces generated at the
rate sequent to surface expansion during metal-forming
operation due to its yield stress, therefore, creating boundary contact area. Aside, in contrast to liquid lubricant
where hydrodynamic behaviors can be applied with some
confidence, it is difficult to predict the elastohydrodynamic film thickness obtained with grease. Further,
grease is both shear-thinning and thixotropic (i.e., less
viscous when stressed), which makes the film thickness
speed-sensitive and time-dependent. Regarding the ability
of these lubricants to function under severe interfacial
pressure and increasing deformation speed, the type of
alloy tends to play a major role. Normally, the lubricant
squeezes out of the billet/tools interfaces as surface expan-
10
(d)
(c)
Figure 3. Load versus punch stroke curves in the tip tests of
copper alloys showing the effect of each lubricant on load.
288
70
20
20
30
Stroke (mm)
(b)
(a)
100
60 AL1050 annealed at 310 C

50 Corn oil
0.1mm/s
40
1mm/s
10
10
Load (kN)
20
Load (kN)
20
30
Load (kN)
40
90 Copper alloy annealed @ 475oC

80 Corn oil
70
0.1mm/s
1mm/s
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
1
2
3
4
Stroke (mm)
60 AL1050 annealed at 310oC

Grease
50
0.1mm/s
1mm/s
40
Load (kN)
Load (kN)
Load (kN)

80 Grease
0.1mm/s
1mm/s
60
sion progresses during metal-forming operations, leading

to a metal to metal contact
Load (kN)
experimental work on cold rolling of copper using colloidal graphite as lubricant that the roll load tends to increase
significantly with increasing speed. Hence, the effect of
alloy is presumably the probable reason for this observation.
60 AL6061-O annealed at 415 C

VG32
50
0.1mm/s
40
1mm/s
30
20
10
2
3
Stroke (mm)
2
3
Stroke (mm)
(c)
(d)
Figure 5. Load versus punch stroke curves in tip tests of AL6061
alloy showing effect of each lubricant on load.
However, at higher deformation speed, there is no sufficient time for the lubricant to be squeezed out, resulting in
favorable lubrication conditions and low values of friction.
While this is observable in AL1050 and AL6061-O for all
the lubricants investigated except for grease, the reverse
was the case with copper alloy lending credence to the fact
that the type of alloy should be considered before selection
of lubricant for cold forging operation under increasing
ram speed.
Figures 6-8 show the plots of experimental data of normalized maximum load (L/1000) versus tip distance (d/t)
obtained from the tip test of copper and aluminum
(AL1050 and AL6061-O) alloys under various lubrication
conditions and different ram speed. In these figures, the
measured load and tip distance were normalized by 1000
kN and 1,214 mm (tip thickness t), respectively.
Although two of the materials are different from previous works [5,6], linearity between the normalized load and
tip distance was maintained for the two ram speeds and
materials considered. The interface frictional condition
(high or low) between the deforming billet and the punch
can be deduced without resulting into instrumentation.
09.08.2010 14:23:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Dimensionless maximum load (L/1000)
0.085
0.1mm/s
1mm/s
Pure copper annealed @ 475 C
0.084
VG32
0.083
0.082
VG32
VG100
Grease
Corn-oil
VG100
0.081
0.080
0.079
0.078
Grease
0.077
Conclusions
Corn-oil
0.305
0.310
0.315
0.320
0.325
Dimensionless tip distance (d/t)
Figure 6. Plot of normalized maximum load versus normalized tip

distance in tip test experiment of copper alloy.
0.070
VG32
AA1050 annealed @ 310 C
0.065
0.1mm/s
1mm/s
VG32
VG100
0.060
Corn oil
0.055
0.050
VG100
Grease
Corn oil
0.045
0.31
Grease
0.32
0.33
0.34
0.35
0.36
0.37
0.38
0.39
0.40

distance in tip test experiment of AL1050 alloy.
0.058
0.056
VG32
AA6061-O annealed @ 415 C
0.054
0.1mm/s
1mm/s
0.052
VG100
0.050
0.048
Grease
Grease
VG100
0.042
Corn oil
0.30
0.31
0.32
0.33
0.34
0.35
0.36

distance in tip test experiment of AL6061 alloy.
That is, the larger the tip distance, the higher is the frictional stress at the punch and the billet interface. For increasing speed magnitude, corn oil is seen to be the best of
the four lubricants for copper alloy as it gives the least
measured tip distance and load, showing low frictional
stress at the billet/punch interface. Similarly, for AL1050
and AL6061-O, corn oil gives the lowest measured tip
distance and load with increasing speed magnitude. According to these figures, while increasing ram speed leads
to increasing load and tip distance for copper, increasing
ram speed leads to decreasing load and tip distance for
AL1050 and AL6061-O except in the case of grease under
the same lubrication conditions. One of the important
findings, therefore, in this study is that in choosing lubricant for cold forging operations the type of alloy and deformation speed should be properly considered. Also, from
the foregoing, while grease may serve as good lubricant in
gears and journal bearings, it may not be recommended for
bulk metal-forming operations especially under increasing
The effects of deformation speed, type of lubricants and

alloy on the normalized load and tip distance are clearly
seen in the present tip test study. It is clear in this investigation that, type of alloy plays important role in the selection of cold forging lubricants. The relative performance
of cold forging lubricants not only depends on the speed of
deformation but on the type of alloy undergoing deformation. Therefore, in the selection of lubricant for cold forging operations, the type of alloy as well as deformation
speed must be critically considered. The present study
shows that tip test can, however, be utilized not only to
differentiate between lubricants performance but also
select appropriate lubricant for a particular alloy. It was
observed that the effect of hydrodynamic lubrication pockets for liquid lubricants was effective in AL1050 and
AL6061-O alloys leading to reduction in measured tip
distance and load level except in grease for higher deformation speed. But this was very different for copper as
increasing speed leads to increasing measured tip distance
and load for all the lubricants investigated.
Acknowledgement
VG32
Corn oil
0.046
0.044
speed magnitude. This is consistent with past researchers

finding as documented in [10].
Generally, another reason why increasing ram speed
leads to decreasing maximum extrusion load is probably
due to thermal softening arising from increasing interface
temperature, especially for liquid lubricants. However, this
will require further investigation to ascertain whether this
trend will continue should the speed go beyond 1mm/s.
This work was supported by the National Research

Foundation of Korea through the National Research Laboratory program funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. R0A-2006-10240-0). Prof.
Ajiboye appreciates the visiting scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology through the
BK21 program.
References
[1] N. Bay: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 46 (1994), 1940.
[2] M.I. Ghobrial, J.Y. Lee, T. Altan, N. Bay, B.G. Hansen: CIRP Annals
42-1 (1993), 347-351.
[3] T. Schrader, M. Shirgaokar, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 189 (2007), 36-44.
[4] C. Vigso, H. Kim, K. Sweeney, G. Shen, T. Altan: Report No.
ERC/NSM-B-94-59, Ohio State University, (1994).
[5] Y.T. Im, J.S. Cheon, S.H. Kang: Trans ASME, Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, 124 (2002), 409-415.
[6] Y.T. Im, J. S. Cheon, S. H. Kang: Trans ASME, Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering 125 (2003), 378-383.
[7] R.B. Sims, D.F. Arthur: Journal of Iron and Steel Institute, 172 (1952),
285-295.
[8] Y. Meng, J. Zheng: Tribology International, 31-10 (1998), 619-625.
[9] P. M. Cann: NLGI Spokesman, 61-2 (1997), 22-29.
[10] S. Kalpakjian: Manufacturing processes for engineering materials,
Addison-Wesley Publishing co. Menlo Park, California London.
289
09.08.2010 14:23:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
Reduction of Wear by Boron Based Multilayer Coatings on Forging Dies

Marcus Bistron1), Bernd-Arno Behrens1), Hanno Paschke2)
1)
Institute of Metal Forming and Metal-Forming Machines, Department of Massive Forming, Leibniz Universitt Hannover, An der
Universitt 2, 30823 Garbsen / Germany, bistron@ifum.uni-hannover.de; 2) Fraunhofer-Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films,
Bienroder Weg 54E, 38108 Braunschweig / Germany, hanno.paschke@ist.fraunhofer.de
The near surface area of forging dies is exposed to high mechanical loads. Additionally thermal and chemical stresses occur during the hot
forging process. Depending on the number of forged parts several kinds of damage develop in the near surface area, which lead to initial
failures of forging dies. Die wear is the main reason of initial failure with a 70% ratio. Additionally, thermal and mechanical cracks as well as
plastic deformation occur. The abrasion resistance of the surface area of forging dies has to be increased in order to reduce wear.
Therefore, different methods were examined such as the increase of the abrasion resistance by plasma nitriding and by coating with thin
hard coatings (TiN, TiCN, TiC, TiBN and TiB2). These layers are applied to the forging die by using the plasma activated chemical vapor
deposition (PACVD) treatment. A wear reduction of factor 3.5 compared to nitrided forging dies was achieved by using these thin multilayer
coatings. A further reduction of wear can be achieved by using a thermal steady boron multilayer coating. For the investigations the
thicknesses and number of layer repetitions were varied. To receive realistic wear values under industry-related conditions, an automated
eccentric press was used for the testing. After 3000 forged parts, the coatings were examined by tactile measurement, SEM and EDX
analyses to characterise the occurring wear.
Keywords: Forging, Multilayer coatings, PACVD, Wear resistance
Introduction
Forging dies are exposed to high mechanical loads,
which are superposed within the near surface areas by
thermal and tribological loads. Depending on the number
of forged parts these stresses cause different kinds of damage on the forging die [1]. If the damage reaches a critical
value, it causes the failure of the forging tool and the die
has to be replaced or refurbished. Thermal and mechanical
crack formation, plastic deformation as well as wear are
the main failure causes at the shaping area of forging dies
(Figure 1) [2]. With a percentage of 70% wear is the
major occurring failure cause of a hot forging die.
Figure 1. Causes of failures of forging dies [1].
A main reason for the occurrence of wear is the loss of

stability within the forging dies near surface area caused
by thermal stresses. These result from the high heat
transfer from the hot billets to the comparatively cold
surface of the forging die during the pressure dwell time.
Within this period locally occurring temperature peaks can
exceed the annealing temperature of the tool material and
cause a permanent loss of strength in the die material
within the near surface area.
Furthermore, the surface of the forging die is exposed to
high, shock-like temperature changes due to the use of
cooling lubricants. Consequently, net-like cracks evolve in
the shaping area of the die which can be related to the high
290
temperature gradients. These cracks act as a starting point

for abrasive wear. To increase the tool lifetime of conventional dies, made of hot working tool steel, the wear resistance of the die surface has to be increased. This effect can
be achieved by nitriding the forging tools. Salt bath or gas
nitriding are commonly used techniques. Recent research
activities also consider plasma nitriding as a promising
technique gaining more and more importance [3,4].
A further advancement in increasing the tool lifetime is the
combination of plasma nitriding and hard coating. This
paper deals with the wear-resistance performance of the
near surface area using hard material coatings.
Motivation and Planning of Wear Investigations
Motivation for Using Boron-Containing Coatings. In
order to increase the wear resistance of forging dies,
different methods of surface treatments such as the already
mentioned nitriding are carried out. In addition, surface
coating methods such as Physical Vapour Deposition
(PVD) or Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition
(PACVD) are used to deposit single hard material layers.
With these techniques coating materials like titanium
nitride (TiN), titanium carbon nitride (TiCN), titanium
carbide (TiC) and chromium nitride (CrN) are applied to
the nitrided forging dies [5]. The nitrided layer becomes a
supportive layer while the hard material layers serve as a
wear protection as depicted in Figure 2. This type of
surface treatment can reduce the wear of forging dies
significantly.
Nevertheless, cracks will appear and lead to sudden
crack propagation due to the layer-substrate compound
failure. To counteract this effect, a multilayer system
consisting for instance of TiN, TiCN and TiC can be used.
The layers are applied separately to the die surface by
using PACVD. The stacked structure of the hard material
layers forms phase transitions leading to crack deflection
and a delay of the layer-substrate compound failure. For
previous investigations a multilayer system of TiN, TiCN
09.08.2010 14:23:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
and TiC in combination with plasma nitriding was applied
to forging dies. Compared to a nitrided forging die after
2000 forgings a reduction of wear by factor 3.5 was
achieved with this coating system [6].
of ~0.2 mm) and a forging die with the gradient TiB2

coating (V2 layer thickness of ~2 m) from the previous
investigations were integrated in this part of the study.
Additionally, two new multilayer coatings (V3/V4) were
applied (see Table 1). Variant V3 is an eight-time variation
from TiNB-TiB2-TiBN with an overall thickness of
~1.8 m. By its combination of materials this version
features a high micro hardness and ductility. The material
combination of V4 is an eight-time variation from
TiNB-TiBN with a total thickness of ~2.8 m and a lower
micro hardness.
Table 1. Surface treatment and layer thicknesses of the used
forging dies.
Figure 2. Reasons for using coatings on forging dies.
Furthermore, first wear investigations with boroncontaining layers were made. As references a nitrided and
a variant coated with the TiN-TiCN-TiC multilayer system
were used. To improve the thermal resistance of the
coating the reference multilayer coating was reinforced
with a hard, thermal steady toplayer of titanium boron
nitrid (TiBN) or titanium diborid (TiB2) [7]. Additionally,
gradient layers of TiBN and TiB2 were applied on helical
gear forging dies for testing purposes. Figure 3 depicts the
results of the wear tests. It is obvious that the toplayer on
the multilayer coating only affects the wear behaviour in
the beginning. After 1000 forging cycles there is no real
difference between the forging dies with and those without
toplayer. The best results were obtained by using the
gradient boron-containing coatings. This led to the idea of
using boron-containing multilayer coatings for the
reduction of wear and optimisation of the tribological
surface properties of forging dies.
Variant
Surface treatment
Layer thickness
V1
Nitrided reference
PACVD coating
TiN-TiB2
TiN-B / TiB2 / TiB-N
TiN-B / TiB-N
~0.2 mm
Repetition of
layer system
-
~2.0 m
~1.8 m
~2.8 m
1
8
8
V2
V3
V4
Based upon the results of these investigations another

two boron-containing multilayer coatings will be added to
the study to further improve the effect of the coatings.
Experimental Forging Tests. The forging tests were
carried out at the Institute of Metal Forming and
Metal-Forming Machines (IFUM). Raw parts made from
C45 (1.0503 / AISI 1043) with a diameter of 30 mm and a
height of 40 mm were used on an eccentric press with
315 tons pressing force (Figure 4). This press is equipped
with an automated billet handling suitable for long term
tests. Constant and reproducible process parameters are
guaranteed by additional equipment like a tool heating
device and automated cooling and lubrication. The heating
of the billets up to 1150 C takes place in an inductive
furnace. The process is running with an average cycle time
of about 7 seconds for each forged part.
Figure 3. First wear investigations on forging dies coated with

boron containing layers [8].
Experimental Design. Based on the good results

obtained, multilayer coatings containing boron were
designed and applied to specimens for a basic characterisation of their properties by the Fraunhofer-Institute for
Surface Engineering and Thin Films (IST) (friction,
bonding, micro hardness, thermal stability etc.). The most
promising variants were chosen to be applied on a model
die geometry (see Figure 5).
As references a nitrided die (V1 nitriding hardness depth
Figure 4. Automated forging line for long term tests.
291
09.08.2010 14:23:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
Measurement of Wear. The inspections of the used
forging tools were made previous to the investigations in
an unused die condition as a reference and after a given
number of forging cycles. The contour of the dies is
investigated by a 3D coordinate measuring machine to
quantify the die wear. For that purpose the tools are
measured every 500 forging cycles and by comparing the
measured data of the worn-out tool with the reference data
the progression of wear can be analysed. The resulting
wear is determined by calculating the mean value of the
eight measured contours of the die surface. Figure 5
depicts a typical wear profile, the positioning of the
measured contours and the 3D measuring machine used.
measured adhesions and abrasions are depicted as an

average value. The maximal and minimal measured values
for each measurement are indicated by the white bars.
Figure 7. SEM radius of nitrided and coated (V4) forging die.
Figure 5. Wear measurement of a contoured forging die.
After 1000 forging cycles there is no big difference

between the nitrided reference die and the coated dies. All
show nearly the same wear behaviour. After 2000 forgings
the behaviour of the adhesions still seems to be similar for
all forging dies. However the nitrided die shows much
more abrasions than the coated dies which still feature a
nearly identical abrasion behaviour. At the end of the investigations after 3000 forged parts the nitrided die shows
an obviously worse wear behaviour than the coated dies.
Results of Wear Investigations

Wear Behaviour. All forging dies show obvious
differences in their surface structures after forging 3000
parts. Figure 6 depicts a nitrided die on the left hand side
and a coated forging die on the right hand side. The bolt
radius of the nitrided die seems to be flattened and rough.
However the radius of the coated die seems to be in a
better shape.
Figure 8. Wear investigations on forging dies with boron containing multilayer coatings.
Figure 6. Visual comparison of nitrided and coated forging die
after 3000 forgings.
Nevertheless the surface of the coated radius is badly

damaged as well. Small radial fissures evolving from the
radius to the middle of the bolt can be detected.
Comparing the fissures at the radii of the nitrided die and
the one coated with variant V4, which contains the shortest
fissures, it seems that the fissures of the nitrided die evolve
at the beginning of the radius and extend far into the top of
the bolt (see Figure 7). The fissures in the coated die start
evolving at the upper part of the radius and seem to be
much shorter than at the nitrided die.
The wear measurements confirm these observations.
Figure 8 illustrates the ongoing increase in wear up to
3000 forged parts. For each investigated variant the
292
In fact the mean value of the adhesions and abrasions is

similar to the other dies but taking all measurements into
account there is no constancy in the shape of the surface.
In comparison with the coated dies the adhesion behaviour
seems to be similar but with a smaller variance for the
coated dies. A big difference is noticeable in the abrasion
behaviour. While the nitrided die shows an extensive
spreading of abrasions the coated dies all stay in a good
shape. After investigating all wear profiles the profile of
the nitrided die mostly resembles the profile depicted in
Figure 5. The measured wear values are mostly results of
plastic material deformations and material abrasions
within the area of the radius. Also material adhesions at
the top of the bolt are common for the nitrided die. The
coated dies show almost no sign of adhesions on the top.
Most of the wear values of the coated dies were measured
09.08.2010 14:23:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
within the area of the radius and result from a plastic
material deformation. The best overall performance was
achieved by variant V4.
the nitrided forging die are very unequal compared to the

coated forging dies. This tendency continues up to 3000
forging cycles. The abrasions at the nitrided forging die
are still very unequal while the measured abrasions at the
coated dies stay within a close range to each other. For the
adhesions all forging dies show equal depositions. The
nitrided die and the one coated with the gradient boron
containing system exibit the widest distribution of
measured values. The coatings V3 and V4 feature almost
the same behaviour but coating V4 shows a slightly
reduced spreading of the measured data. An EDX analysis
proved the destruction of the coating within the radius
section and the intact coating on the top of the bolt. SEM
pictures reveal a difference between the fissures at the
radii. The fissures in the nitrided die evolve from the
beginning of the radius while the fissures of the coated
dies start at the end of the radius. Further investigations
will include two more boron containing multilayer
coatings with the aim of reducing wear even further as
well as, suppressing crack formation and adhesions. To
achieve this objective the microstructure and micro
hardness of the shown forging dies will be examined and
the results will be used to design the new multilayer
systems.
Acknowledgements
Figure 9. EDX analysis of coating V4 after 3000 forgings.
By the measured titanium ratio the EDX analysis

depicted in Figure 9 proves that the coating is mostly
destroyed within the area of the radius and is still intact on
the top of the bolt. Metallographic pictures will be made in
order to verify the EDX analysis. This will show the kind
of deformation at the radii and reveal how the
microstructure of the base material has changed during the
cyclic stresses. Additionally, the micro hardness of the
base material will be investigated to point out differences
within the near surface area.
Conclusions
This paper presents the first results of wear
investigations at hot forging dies using boron-containing
multilayer coatings. Based upon first investigations using
boron-containing gradient coatings two multilayer
coatings were designed and compared to a nitrided die and
a die with the best gradient coating from the first
investigations. The references were necessary to compare
the behaviour of the coatings, since another die geometry
was used than for the first investigations. The wear
investigations show first differences in the wear behaviour
after 2000 forging cycles. While the measured adhesions
stay almost identical for all forging dies the abrasions at
The presented investigations were partially carried out

within the collaborative research centre 489 Process
chain for the production of precision forged high
performance components sponsored by the German
Research Foundation (DFG). The other part of the
presented investigations was carried out within the
Industrielle Gemeinschaftsfrderung (IGF) project
No. AiF 15759 N Increase of Tool Life by Boron
Containing PACVD-Multilayer Coatings on Forging Dies,
sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Economics and
Technology (BMWI) via the AiF. We are thankful for the
assistance provided.
References
[1] T. Bobke: Dissertation, Universitt Hannover, (1991).
[2] A. Huskic: Dissertation, Universitt Hannover, (2005).
[3] W. K. Liliental, G. J. Tymowski, C. D. Morawski: Industrial Heating,
62-1 (1995), 39-44.
[4] K. S. Fancey, A. Leyland, D. Egerton, D. Torres, A. Matthews: Surface & Coatings Technology, 76/77-1-3 (1995), 694-699.
[5] E. Doege, E. Westkmper, et. al.:, Proc. 4th International Conference
on Tooling, 4 (1996), 373-383.
[6] B.-A. Behrens, L. Barnert, A. Huskic: Production Engineering,
Research and Development, 12-2 (2005), 131-136.
[7] B.-A. Behrens, Fr.-W. Bach, K. Mhwald, T. A. Deier, M. Bistron:
Numerical Methods in Industrial Forming Processes, AIP Conference
Proceedings, 908 (2007), pp. 1047-1052.
[8] B.-A. Behrens, Fr.-W. Bach, B. Denkena, K. Mhwald, T. A. Deier,
N. Kramer, M. Bistron: Steel Research International, 80-12 (2009),
878-886.
293
09.08.2010 14:23:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Tool Life Evaluation of Cold Forging Dies Using Numerical Prediction Model Based on
Fatigue Characteristics of Tungsten Carbide
Soo-Young Kim, Satoshi Kubota, Masahito Yamanaka
Solution Engineering Group, Yamanaka Engineering Co., Ltd., Sakura / Japan, sykim@yamanaka-eng.co.jp
A simple tool life prediction model was proposed for the fatigue crack failure of tungsten carbide tool in the cold forging process. To model
the fatigue characteristics of tungsten carbide material, the axial tension-compression tests and the 4-point bending tests were carried out
under several cyclic loading conditions to cover various stress variations. The proposed tool life prediction model was based on a simple
stress-life theory using the mean value and the amplitude of stress variation during a forging cycle. To calculate the tool stress distributions
at the initial and the loading status, the general-purpose forging simulation software DEFORM-2D/3D was used for the forging process and
the elastic tool stress simulations. The proposed model was applied to several forging process examples to evaluate its accuracy and
robustness.
Keywords: Tool life of cold forging dies, Fatigue characteristics, Tungsten carbide, Tool stress analysis, Forging process simulation
Introduction
Tool life is one of the most important factors, which
should be considered carefully in the forging process design. The typical tool life patterns of forging tools are
depicted in Figure 1. In general, the fatigue crack is considered as most dominant failure pattern of the cold forging tools. Accurate prediction of tool life is still difficult
for the tool design engineers since it can be affected by
many factors complexly related with process and tool
manufacturing conditions as shown in Figure 2. Many
researchers have studied about the mechanism of tool
failure and the prediction of tool life in cold forging process [1-3], but more improvements should be necessary in
this field to be used for the industrial applications in practical point of view.
compression tests were carried out under several cyclic

loading conditions to have various mean stresses and
stress amplitude conditions. Also, 4-point bending tests
were carried out to consider more complex stress conditions. By analyzing the test results, multiple S-N curves
with respect to various mean stress conditions were obtained and applied to the current tool life prediction model.
The proposed tool life prediction model was applied to
several test examples to evaluate its accuracy and robustness.
Tool
life
Production
conditions
Workpiece
material
Process
design
Human skill
Crack
(Vertical)
Vertical
crack
Crack
(Horizontal)
Unknown
Other
Tool quality
-Press
-Lubricant
-Temperature
Tool design
Tool
manufacturing
Tool material
Heat treatment
Ring
crack
CAE
Surface
treatment
Wear
Seizure
Chipping
Figure 2. Factors affects to tool life of cold forging tools.
Seizure
Wear
Number of Cases*
(*In-house data)
Figure 1. Tool life patterns in cold forging tools.
In the present study, a simple tool life prediction model

for tungsten carbide tool was proposed and applied to
several cold forging processes. The parameters used in the
prediction model were mean value (m) and amplitude (a)
of the stress variation between the initial status and the
maximum loading condition during one forging cycle.
These values were calculated from the result of tool stress
analyses at the pre-stressed and maximum loading conditions. The general-purpose forging simulation software
DEFORM-2D/3D was used for the forging simulations
and tool stress simulations. To model the fatigue characteristics of tungsten carbide material, the axial tension-
294
Experiments
Axial Tension-Compression Fatigue Test. To obtain
the basic S-N curve data, the axial tension-compression
tests were carried out for various loading conditions. The
MTS fatigue test machine as shown in Figure 3 was used
for the test. All test specimens were manufactured to have
sufficiently small surface roughness. The shape of test
specimen is shown in the same figure. The detailed test
conditions were listed in Table 1. The loading conditions
were selected to cover various mean stress conditions
since the variation of tool stress during usual forging process is not completely reversed (zero mean stress) condition.
09.08.2010 14:23:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Mirror
Region
Initiation
Point
Mist
Region
Hackle
Region
Figure 5. Crack surface of a test specimen after axial tensioncompression test.

(a) Fatigue test machine
(b) Test specimen

Figure 3. (a) Fatigue test machine and (b) test specimen used in
axial tension-compression test.
Bending Fatigue Test. To consider more complex stress

condition, 4-points bending test was applied for the same
tungsten carbide material used in the axial tensioncompression test. The test machine, jigs, and specimen
used in the bending test were depicted in Figure 6 and the
test conditions were listed in Table 2. Only the lower side
of specimen, stretched during bending, was carefully
lapped to ensure good surface quality. Comparing with the
axial tension-compression test, the manufacturing cost of
test specimen in the bending test can be reduced significantly because of its simple manufacturing process.
Table 1. Test conditions of axial tension-compression test.

Load cell
Test material
Co wt.% 19~21, HRA 84.5

Tensile strength 1,650 MPa
Compressive strength 3,630 MPa
Test facility
MTS material testing system
Temperature condition
Room temperature
Loading condition
1 - 10Hz, Sine wave
Maximum limit cycles
105 cycles
Mean stress m
500, 0, -250, -500 MPa
Stress amplitude a
900 - 2,100 MPa
Hydraulic
control
(a) Fatigue test machine and jigs

Lower side (Mirror surface)
Figure 4 shows the S-N data obtained from the axial

tension-compression tests. The results clearly show that
the effect of mean stress cannot be ignorable and should be
considered carefully to predict tool life accurately. The
crack surface of the test specimen, located at the longitudinal centre having the smallest radius, is shown in Figure
5. The crack is initiated from the upper region, propagated
downward, and finally broken generating hackle region
shown in lower half side of the crack surface.
a /MPa
2500
m [MPa]
2000
500
0
-250
-500
1500
1000
1.E+02
1.E+03
1.E+04
1.E+05
1.E+06
Nf /cycles
Figure 4. S-N data obtained from axial tension-compression test.
Upper side
8 mm
30 mm
2 mm
(b) Test specimen
Figure 6. (a) Fatigue test machine, jigs and (b) test specimen
used in 4-point bending test.
Table 2. Test conditions of 4-points bending test.

Test facility
Servopac SFH-20 fatigue test machine
Temperature condition
Room temperature
Loading condition
1Hz ~10Hz, Sine wave
Maximum limit cycles
105 cycles
Stress ratio R (min/max)
0.1
The stress value of specimen was obtained from the

elastic stress analysis as shown in Figure 7. Nodal
coordinates of specimen were adjusted to contact clearly
with each rigid pin object. Sufficient number (12,160) of
brick elements was applied to reduce the size effect of
mesh layout.
295
09.08.2010 14:23:59 Uhr
0.5F
2
8
24
Contact nodes 30
where ar is the means stress amplitude at zero mean stress

condition and Nf is number of cycles. The coefficients f
2
1
and b can be found easily by linear curve fitting of

log(ar)-log(Nf) data as shown in Figure 10. For the tungsten carbide material used in this study, f and b were
F = 280 kgf
0
0 5 10 15
Number of elements
(x1000)
Figure 7. FE model used for elastic stress analysis of 4-points

bending process.
Figure 8 shows S-N data using maximum principal

stress (p) obtained from the elastic stress analysis. It
shows similar tendency but the data points are more scattered than the result of axial tension-compression test.
Considerable reasons of the large turbulence are, (1) increasing complexity of applied stress conditions, (2) unstable surface condition in sharp corner region, and (3)
lateral fluctuation of specimen during test.
The SEM photographs of cracks generated around the
crack surface are shown in Figure 9. The type of crack
propagation can be separated into two patterns: (i) propagating along the interface between cobalt and carbide
(Figure 9a), and (ii) propagating straight through carbide
(Figure 9b). To model the crack propagation of tungsten
carbide material accurately, more investigation would be
necessary for better understanding about the mechanisms
of these two crack patterns.
p /MPa
2000
1500
1000
1.E+03
1.E+04
1.E+05
Nf /cycles
1.E+06
WC
Co
5 m
(a) Crack pattern (i)

(b) Crack pattern (ii)
Figure 9. SEM photographs of cracks generated during 4-point
bending test.
Numerical Applications
Modelling for Tool Life Prediction. In the present
study, a simple fatigue life prediction model was constructed based on the stress-life analysis theory. In case of
zero mean stress condition (completely reversed loading),
the fatigue life is usually approximated as the following
equation.
ar = f (2 N f )b
3.3
3.2
log(a) = {log(f ) + b log(2)}+ b log(N f)

= 3.431 -0.06051 log(N f)
R2 = 0.9280
3.1
3.0
0
4
6
log(Nf)
Figure 10. Determination of coefficients f and b in eq. (1).
Several models are proposed to consider mean stress effect in stress-life analysis. Goodman and Morrow equations are well known and widely used for fatigue life prediction [4].
a m
~
+
= 1 Goodman = u , Morrow ~ = f
ar ~
(2)
where u is the ultimate tensile stress of the material, and

f is the true fracture strength which can be approximated
as the coefficient f of Eq. (1).
The relationship between (a/ar) and m obtained from
the axial tension-compression tests and 4-point bending
test is shown in Figure 11. As shown, the Morrow model
agrees reasonably in the compressive mean stress condition, while the Goodman model shows good agreement in
the tensile mean stress. Thus, the following equation is
proposed for the mean stress adjustment.
2817.2 MPa if m < 0
1650.0 MPa if m > 0
~ f =
(3)
The fatigue life can be calculated simply by applying

Eqs. (1) and (3).
WC
10 m
3.4
a m
+
=1 ,
ar ~ f
Figure 8. S-N data obtained from 4-point bending test.
Co
determined as 2817.2 MPa and -0.06051, respectively.
log(a)
12,160 elements
(1)
1
N f = ar
2 f
ar = a 1 m ~
(4)
By applying Eq. (4), the experimental data can be transferred to ar-Nf space as plotted in Figure 12. The result
shows reasonable correlation with S-N line at m = 0 MPa.
2
Axial T -C
4pt Bending
Morrow
Goodmam
1.5
a/ar
0.5F
Max. principal stress

/GPa
Metal Forming
1
0.5
0
-1000
1000
2000
m /MPa
3000
4000
Figure 11. Normalized stress amplitude-mean plot ([a/ar] - m).
296
09.08.2010 14:24:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
10000
ar/MPa
Approx. line
Axial (sm<0)
Axial (sm>0)
4pt-Bending
1000
1.E+02
1.E+03
1.E+04
Nf
1.E+05
1.E+06
Figure 12. Mean stress correlation using the proposed model.
Numerical Examples. The tool life prediction model

proposed in this study was firstly applied to the 4-point
bending test. The simulation result and its comparison
with experiment were shown in Figure 13. Figure 13a
shows the prediction result under the loading cycle of 24
kgf ~ 240 kgf. The predicted crack initiation position is
located at point A, where the stress amplitude and mean
stress are highest. Comparison of the predicted fatigue life
with the experimental result is depicted in Figure 13b. The
current model shows reasonable prediction accuracy for
certain stress range but underestimates the fatigue life for
relatively high stress conditions.
[a (MPa)]
The current prediction model was further applied to cold

forging processes. Figure 14 shows an example of tool life
prediction for the upper die of a ball stud forging process.
The result shows that the crack is initiated from the upper
corner of the die after about 54,954 cycles. In this example,
the crack was initiated from the same location after around
60,000 cycles. Figure 15 shows a comparison of predicted
tool life cycles between two types of upsetting dies for nut
forging process. As shown in this figure, the tool life of
0.75% shrink fit condition is about twelve times longer
than the tool life of 0.65% shrink fit.
Shrink fit condition

Original: 0.65%
Improved: 0.75%
Shrink fit 0.65% Shrink fit 0.75%
107
[log(f)]
105
300
700
300 500 700
[m (MPa)]
(Lower side)
100
500
p /MPa
1500
Exp.
Sim.
1000
1.E+02
1.E+03
1.E+04 1.E+05
Nf /cycles
1.E+06
(b) Comparison with experimental result

Figure 13. Tool life prediction for 4-point bending process.
4th
Process
(a) Forming simulation

-100
-200
-400
600
300
900
(b) Die structure
[m (MPa)]
-500
300
103
105
Figure 15. Example of tool life prediction for nut forging die.
Conclusions
2000
[a (MPa)]
1,230
Point A
103.89 =7,762
(a) Simulation result (F = 24 kgf ~ 240 kgf)
3rd
Process
107
100
-500
[log(f)]
-300
-400
-200
-300
104.74 = 54,954
100
-100
0
Tool life in cold forging process is important factor affecting to production cost of forged part. Accurate prediction of tool life is essential to exclude inadequate tool
designs and to improve tool life. In this study, axial tension-compression tests and 4-point bending tests were
carried out to find out fatigue characteristics of tungsten
carbide tool materials. Based on the experimental results, a
simple tool life prediction model was proposed and applied to several example processes. From the results, it
was found that the current tool life model predicted the
location of crack initiation point correctly. The current
model showed reasonable accuracy in the case of simple
stress conditions with well-defined mean and amplitude
values. More evaluations for various forging processes and
tools will be required to improve prediction accuracy and
robustness of the current developed model.
References
[1] K. Lange, L. Cser, M. Geiger, J.-A.-G. Kals: CIRP Annals, 41-2
(1992), 667-675.
[2] M. Meidert, C. Walter, K.Phlandt: Proc. 6th Int. Tooling Conference,
Karlstad, (2002), 815-828.
[3] M.A. Saroosh, H.-C. Lee, Y.-T. Im, S.-W. Choi, D.-L. Lee: Journal of
[4] H.-O. Fuchs, R.-I. Stephens: Metal Fatigue in Engineering, 1st edition,
Wiley-Interscience, (1980).
(c) Tool life prediction

Figure 14. Example of tool life prediction for ball stud forging die.
297
09.08.2010 14:24:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
Hot Forging Design of Cam for Vessel Engine Using Finite Element Analysis and Ductile Fracture Criteria
Jong-Taek Yeom1), Jee-Hoon Kim1), Jeoung-Han Kim1), Jae-Keun Hong1), Jae-Sik Lee2)
1)
Special Alloys Research Group, Korea Institute of Materials Science(KIMS), Changwon / Korea, yjt96@kims.re.kr;
Seongdo Co., Ltd., Gimhae / Korea
2)
Research Institute,
The hot forging process of an exhaust cam for a vessel engine was designed by finite element simulation and experimental analysis. An
aim of process design was to achieve the near-net shaped cam forgings by hot forging process. From deformation processing map based
on the dynamic materials model and instability criterion, the initial heating temperature of the cam material was determined as 1200oC. In
order to predict safe processing conditions, the modified Cockcroft-Latham criteria were utilized. Critical damage values varying with process variables of the cam material were generated by analyzing hot tensile tests. The critical damage values, local state of stress, strain,
strain rate and temperature were then determined at the point of necking. FE analysis coupling with the modified Cockcroft-Latham criteria
model was simulated to predict the formation of forming defects and deformed shape with different forging designs. Optimum process
design suggested in this work was made by comparing with the cam for vessel engine manufactured by actual process.
Keywords: Exhaust cam, Vessel engine, Near-net shape, Hot forging design, Ductile fracture criteria, Finite element analysis, Modified
Cockcroft-Latham criteria
Introduction
In a hot forging process, near-net shape design is an essential prerequisite for obtaining the lowest possible cost
and minimum possible lead times [1,2]. With the development of computer simulation techniques, the optimization of metal-forming processes such as forging, extrusion,
and rolling is widely attempted nowadays by means of the
finite element method, which can minimize extensive
experimentations. Previous design and control methods
have been concerned mainly with the shape and size of the
final product without considering the generation of various
forming defects such as shear bands, cavities, cracks, and
other non-uniformities. If the processing variables are not
controlled carefully, it is usual to observe the forming
defects in the formed parts [3].
Previous manufacturing processes of a large cam for
vessel engine were carried out by the gas cutting for making the cam hole after semi-closed die forging process for
forming the outside shape of the cam. In that case, the
formation of the cam hole joining with the shaft by gas
cutting process results in a significant material loss. Therefore, in order to minimize the material loss, the previous
gas cutting process should be replaced by a piercing process.
In this work, the optimum process design for hot forming of an exhaust cam for vessel engine was attempted by
performing a FE simulation along with an experimental
verification. Several designs for piercing process were
considered important in this work.
Hot Workability Analysis of Cam Material
Hot Workability Tests. The material for an exhaust cam
used in this work was Cr-Mo steel (KS or JIS SCM415).
In order to analyze the hot workability of the material with
state variables such as strain, strain rate and temperature,
high temperature tensile and compression tests were carried out. The compression tests were carried out in the
temperature ranges between 850 and 1250 oC at 50 oC
298
intervals and in the strain rate ranges between 10-3 and 10

s-1. The tensile tests were performed at the temperature
range of 1050-1200 oC on a GLEEBLE-3500 hot deformation simulator. The tensile tests were conducted at strain
rates of 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 s-1. Cylindrical compression
specimens of 8mm in diameter and 12 mm in height were
machined from forged bars, and tensile specimens were
machined to 6 mm 101 mm. The flow stress curves
obtained from the compression tests were corrected for the
deformation heating effects using the following expression
[4].
T =
0d
Cp
(1)
where is the fraction of plastic work converted to heat,

taken here to be 0.9. is density and Cp is heat capacity.
The flow curves are then plotted against T0+T, where T0
is the nominal test temperature and the isothermal flow
stress data are obtained by interpolation from these plots.
In the analysis of the corrected flow curves, it can be
found that the flow softening behaviours were observed at
the temperature conditions above 900 oC. It was due to
dynamic recrystallization behaviour. The flow stress data
obtained from the compression tests were utilized as the
input data of finite element analysis.
Process Deformation Map. In order to determine the
optimum condition in hot forming of Cr-Mo steel, the
processing maps was generated using the combination of
the dynamic materials model [5,6] and instability criterion.
The dynamic materials model includes an important dimensionless parameter called the efficiency of power
dissipation.
2m
=
(2)
m +1
09.08.2010 14:24:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
(3)
where m is the strain-rate sensitivity parameter, is the

flow stress, is the strain rate (s-1), T is temperature (K),
and is the strain. The parameter indicates the dissipating ability of the workpiece as normalized by the total
power absorbed by the system. For an ideal linear dissipater, m=1 and =1. In a given condition, the maximum
range of indicates the most favourable conditions for the
processing of materials. However, the dynamic materials
model indicates a significant limitation in describing the
unstable regions including the forming defects such as
shear bands, inner or surface cracks, flow localization, etc..
To predict the occurence of such defects, the instability
criterion proposed by Ziegler [7,8] was coupled with the
dynamic materials model. Zieglers instability criterion is
based on the continuum principles as applied to large plastic flow. In the unstable deformation regime, the dimensionless instability parameter is defined by the following
equation.
() =
ln(m/ m +1)
ln
+ m< 0
(4)
This criterion indicates that unstable flow can occur during hot deformation when the parameter ( ) becomes
negative. Figure 1 shows the processing map for the CrMo steel at a true strain of 0.7. In Figure 1, the contour
indicates the iso-efficiency lines for power dissipation
and crosshatched areas present unstable forming regions.
In the general ram speed ranges of a hydraulic press (strain
rates = 0.1-10 s-1), the map shows a maximum value of
about 0.378 at 1200 oC and the strain rate ranges of 0.010.1 s-1, which means that this regime is an optimum
condition for hot working. The microstructure at this
region indicated a refined grain structure by dynamic
recrystallization. However, the micrographs of specimen
deformed at the unstable regions showed flow localization.
Therefore, the initial hot forming process conditions were
suggested as the heating temperature of 1200 oC at normal
ram speed of the hydraulic press.
tests with the strain rate of 1.0 s-1 and various temperature
conditions. The fracture strain (f) at the temperature of
1250 oC is lower than that at other temperature conditions.
From the analysis of tensile tests result, the forming temperature for manufacturing the cam was confirmed as
1200 oC.
160
-1
strain rate = 1.0s
140
1050 C
o
1100 C
o
1150 C
o
1200 C
o
1250 C
120
Stress(MPa)
log = ln
log T, ln T,
m=
100
80
60
40
20
0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
Strain
Figure 2. Tensile stress and strain curve of Cr-Mo steel at different

temperature condition and strain rate of 1s-1.
In order to predict the forming defects during the forming processes of the cam, the modified Cockcroft-Latham
criterion was utilized. The model is related to both maximum normal tensile stress and plastic strain by the following equation [9].
f
Dcrit = maxd
0

(5)
where max is the maximum principal stress, is the

effective stress, is the effective strain and f effective
fracture strain. For a given strain rate and temperature, this
criteria predicts ductile fracture when a critical damage
value, Dcrit is exceeded. In order to determine the critical
damage value (Dcrit), the simple approach developed by
Park and Lee [10] was used with the tensile test results
obtained from various strain rate and temperature conditions. With Bridgmans analysis, the critical damage value
(Dcrit) at tensile condition is simplified by the following
equation.
f
Dcrit = UTS + UTS
r
d
2R
max
f ln 1 +
d = f + UTS
r / R = 0.148+ 0.979 0.112

(7)
(6)
where UTS denotes the strain for necking formation.

1.0
0.64
0.61
-1
Log(strain rate, s )
0.5
Figure 1. Deformation processing map of Cr-Mo steel.
Tensile Tests and Ductile Fracture Criteria. Figure 2

shows the typical flow curves obtained from hot tensile
0.0
-0.5
0.49
0.52
0.58
0.55
0.46
-1.0
-1.5
-2.0
0.43
1050
0.40
1100
1150
1200
1250
Temperature( C)
Figure 3. Critical damage map for Cr-Mo steel.
299
09.08.2010 14:24:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 3 show critical damage map for the Cr-Mo steel.
The contours represent the critical damage value, Dcrit,
above which cracking or porosity is likely to occur. The
critical damage values (Dcrit) at different temperature and
strain rate conditions were used to predict the forming
defects during hot forming processes of the cam.
Hot Forming Design of an Exhaust CAM
Initial Hot Forming Design. Final forged shape of an
exhaust CAM is shown in Figure 4. Cam hole joining
with the shaft is 200 mm. Previous manufacturing processes of the cam are semi-closed die forging for forming
the outside shape of the cam and gas cutting for making
the cam hole. However, in the process, the gas cutting
process for making the large cam led to a significant material loss. Several design concepts for hot forging process
of an exhaust cam were suggested to obtain the near-net
shaped cam forgings as shown in Figure 5.
distribution of several variables such as strain, strain rare,

temperature and Cockcroft-Latham damage. An initial preform heating temperature of 1200 oC was selected by the
deformation processing map. A die temperature of 150oC
was used. The simulation results of semi-closed die forging process for forming the outer cam shape are shown in
Figure 6. In effective strain distribution at final stage,
most forged parts except for flash formation areas indicate
a uniform strain distribution. Also, simulation results for
Cockcroft-Latham damage represent a similar tendency
with that for the strain distribution. The maximum damage
value at he forged parts except for the flash areas is 0.114.
This value is less than the critical Cockcroft-Latham damage (~ 0.4) at forming temperature ranges. It implies that
the semi-closed die forging suggested in this work can be
carried out well.
(a) Effective strain
Figure 4. Schematic illustration of exhaust cam for vessel engine.

t GWUXX[
(b) Damage
Figure 6. FE simulation results for the semi-closed die forging
process of cam.
Design of Piercing Process for Cam. Figure 7 shows

the deformed shape obtained from FE simulations for
three cases. The simulated shape for piercing process
without outer cam shaped frame on closed-type bottom
foundation (Figure 7(b)-Case II) results in a considerable
distortion. The deformed shapes for Case I and Case III,
meanwhile, indicate a sound deformation.
Figure 5. Several design concepts for hot forming process of
exhaust cam suggested in this work.
Hot forming of the cam is progressed by two typical

processes, that is, semi-closed die forging and piercing
process for a cam hole. Piercing processes suggested in
this work are summarized as follows:
(i) Case I : Piercing process with outer cam shaped
frame on closed-type bottom foundation
(ii) Case II : Piercing process without outer cam shaped
frame on closed-type bottom foundation
(iii) Case III : Piercing process without outer cam
shaped frame on open-type bottom die
In this work, a commercial finite element code, DEFORM-3D, was used to simulate the effect of process
variables in the manufacturing processes of the cam on the
300
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 7. Deformed shapes obtained at different process designs:
(a) Case I, (b) Case II and (c) Case III.
09.08.2010 14:24:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
0.8%. Especially, the dimension difference between the
experimental data and target dimensions represents a mean
error ratio of 1.3%. It means that hot forming process of an
exhaust cam is proceeded by near-net shape.
Conclusions
Figure 8. Load and time curve obtained at different process designs.
Figure 8 shows the load versus time curves obtained

from FE simulations for three cases. Maximum piercing
load of Case I and Case II is almost the same (3,500 ton)
in spite of the difference in confinement of the frame. On
the other hand, that of Case III represents about 400 ton.
From these simulation results for three piercing process
designs, piercing process design without outer cam shaped
frame on open type bottom die (Case III) are better than
other piercing process designs in achieving a uniform
shape and lower load.
Hot Forming Process of an Exhaust Cam
Actual hot forming process for an exhaust cam was carried out by considering the hot workability analysis results
and relatively good piercing process(Case III) designed by
FE simulation. The initial heating temperature of the preform was selected as 1200 oC. The die was heated to
150oC. Figure 9 shows the hot formed exhaust cam and
FE simulated cam shape. Note that the actual hot formed
cam indicates a relatively uniform shape without forming
defects such as fishtail, fold, crack, etc. .
The process design for the hot forming of an exhaust

cam was carried out by finite element simulation and
modified Cockcroft-Latham damage model based on the
ductile fracture criteria. Optimum process design was
validated by actual hot forming for the cam, the following
results were obtained:
1. In order to determine the hot forming conditions of an
exhaust cam, the deformation process map of the dynamic materials model including Zieglers instability
criterion was used. The process map of the cam material
generated from hot compression test results indicated
that the highest efficiency of power dissipation () is
obtained at the temperature of 1200 oC with strain rate
condition corresponding to ram speed of hydraulic press.
2. To predict the forming defects during the hot forming
process of the cam, the modified Cockcroft-Latham criterion was used. The critical damage value (Dcrit) for CrMo steel cam was determined by generating the hot tensile test results.
3. Hot forming of the cam suggested in this work was
progressed by the piercing process after semi-closed die
forging. In order to save the material loss, the piercing
process instead of previous gas cutting method was utilized for making the cam hole.
4. From finite element simulation for the piercing process
design, piercing process without outer cam shaped
frame on open type bottom die were better than other
piercing process designs in obtaining a uniform shape
and lower load.
5. The actual hot forming of the cam carried out by optimum process design represented a relatively uniform
shape without forming defects and good dimension accuracy.
References
(a)
(b)
Figure 9. Comparison between (a) actual exhaust cam and (b)
finite element simulated shape.
Table 1. Comparison between main dimensions for forged cam.
Main
Dimension
Target (mm)
Experimental
Simulation
data (mm)
data (mm)
389.0
393.4
380.0
~320.0
323.0
322.0
170.0
171.0
173.7
Table 1 compares accuracy between experimental data

measured from actual formed cam, finite element simulation results and target dimensions in the dimensions (A, B
and C) shown in Figure 9(b). The dimension difference
between the experimental data and finite element simulation results indicates a mean error ratio of approximately
[1] T. Altan, R. A. Miller: Annals of the CIRP, 39-2 (1990), 609-620.

[2] N.A. Waterman: Materials & Design, 3 (1982), 552-557.
[3] T. Udagawa, E. Kropp, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 33 (1992), 155-174.
[4] J.A. Hines, K.S. Vecchio: Acta Materialia, 45-2 (1997), 635-649.
[5] Y.V.R.K. Prasad, H.L. Gegel, S.M. Doraivelu, J.C. Malas, J.T. Morgan, K.A. Lark, D.R. Barker: Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 15A (1984), 1883-1892.
[6] Y.V.R.K. Prasad, T. Seshacharyulu: International Materials Reviews,
43-6 (1998), 243-258.
[7] H. Ziegler: Progress in Solid Mechanics, (1963), 93-193.
[8] J.K. Chakravartty, G.K. Dey, S. Banerjee, Y.V.R.K. Prasad: Journal of
Nuclear Materials, 218 (1995), 247-255.
[9] C.M. Sellars, W.J.M. Tegart: International Materials Reviews, 17
(1972), 124.
[10] J.J. Park, Y.S. Lee: Transactions of the Korean Society of
Mechanical Engineers, 21-7 (1997), 1021-1029.
301
09.08.2010 14:24:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Fracture Model for FEM Modelling of Cold Metal Forging

Grzegorz Samoyk, Jarosaw Bartnicki, Andrzej Gontarz
The Department of Computer Modelling and Metal Forming Technologies, Lublin University of Technology, Lublin / Poland, g.samolyk@pollub.pl
This paper presents significant aspects of modelling metal forming processes in which the material cracking phenomenon occurs. The
analysis is based on the examples of relatively simple forming methods such as the uniaxial tensile test of a profiled specimen as developed by the authors and the upsetting of a ring workpiece. It is assumed that the billets are made from made from Ti6Al4V titanium alloy
and they undergo cold deformation. Such assumptions result from the need to develop an FEM model which can be transformed into an
analysis of the orbital forging process. The conducted numerical analysis uses the normalized Cockroft-Latham criterion as the condition for
fracture occurrence in the deformed material. This phenomenon is modelled in two ways which are alternative to the popular method based
on the removal of elements which are positively related to the cracking criterion.
Keywords: Fracture model, Cold metal forming, Titanium alloy, Ti6Al4V alloy, FEM
Introduction
The cold-forming of certain non-ferrous alloys is limited
due to an imminent occurrence of cracks in the material.
However, there exist technologies which require the material to be formed in room temperature. An example of such
a technology is orbital forging of a forged workpiece, e.g.
by means of presses with an oscillating upper die. Unfortunately, the studies concerning limitations of forming by
means of this technology are not thoroughly systematized
[1,2]. Conducting research (especially of a theoretical
character) on this technology first requires developing an
adequate numerical model for the finite element method
(FEM). Given that the material used is Ti6A14V titanium
alloy, it is important to adopt an optimal model of cracking.
In order to do this, preliminary laboratory tests should be
carried out to develop an FEM model based on relatively
simple methods of forming that alloy, where the cracking
phenomenon is taken into consideration [3,4,5,8,9].
The most common method of fracture modelling in the
FEM simulation is the application of the element removal
method [4,8,10], where the characteristic parameter calculated in accordance with the determined cracking criterion
will exceed the limiting value. Unfortunately, such a
method of crack modeling cannot be applied to many
metal forming processes, including orbital forging. For
this reason, alternative ways of modelling the cracking
phenomenon in which element removal is not required
should be found and verified.
The simplest alternative way of modelling metal forming processes is running a simulation in which only the
value of characteristic parameters is calculated, and then,
on the basis of the calculation result, the material condition in certain zones is verified (procedure I). On the basis
of the calculated value, e.g. the Cockroft-Latham integral
[2,4,5, 9,11,12], the probability of crack occurrence can
thus be calculated. A more advanced procedure of crack
modelling involves first determining the characteristic
parameter value and then comparing it with the limiting
value, which results in treating a given element as a special one (procedure II). In other words, this element is still
considered in the calculations (it is not removed), yet it is
treated as void.
302
Taking the above into consideration, it should be determined which of the two presented fracture modelling procedures is optimal for simulating cold-forming of titanium
alloys. Hence, the authors of the paper present a certain
philosophy of material fracture modelling which is based
on two exemplary methods of forming Ti6Al4V titanium
alloy in room temperature. The research has been done as
project no.: NN508439036, financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Modelling of Selected Metal Forming Procedures
Tensile Test of Profiled Specimen. Applying to the research work a cylindrical billet with a constant cross section in the measured zone made according to the standard
requirements, e.g. [5,6,7,11,12], is not the best solution in
terms of crack modelling. This results from the lack of
possibility of estimating the zone where cracking occurs
during the FEM calculations. The authors of the present
paper have hence developed a billet of a special shape,
which is shown in Figure 1(a).
The proposed specimen, whose main dimensions (d x L)
equal 10mm x 110mm, has two convergent conical surfaces in the measured zone, where the convergence angle
is 3 degrees. In the middle part, where the previously
mentioned surfaces converge, the rounding of the radius R
of about 10 mm has been used, which results in limiting
the notch influence. The billet diameter d0 is the lowest in
this zone it equals 7.5mm.
(a)
(b)
Figure 1. Profiled specimen made from Ti6Al4V titanium alloy

before tensile test (a) and after tensile test till fracture (b).
The profiled specimen is then stretched on a tensile testing

machine with its mean velocity of v = 0.03mms-1 till fracsteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:24:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
ture. The shape of the fractured specimen is shown in
Figure 1(b). Although titanium alloy is regarded as the
material which is difficult to deform in room temperature
[3], the moment of cracking is preceded by distinct plastic
strains a characteristic necking appears in the specimens
middle part. On the basis of the numerical analysis, it can
also be assumed that a uniaxial stress state is present in
this zone. Given the results of the conducted laboratory
experiments, an FEM model of the tensile test has therefore been built, which is schematically presented in Figure
2.
where is the real (equivalent) strain, 1 is the largest

main stress, m is the mean stress. It is assumed that if the
calculated Cockroft-Latham integral CCL exceeds the limiting value (which corresponds to the limiting cracking
strain gr), cracks occur in a given area. At this point, it
may seem necessary to estimate the limiting value of the
Cockroft-Latham integral. According to the authors, the
discussed method of the tensile test allows to resolve this
question.
Figure 3 shows the distribution of the Cockroft-Latham
integral CCL in the tensile tested billet at the moment corresponding to the real specimen fracture. The value distribution is obtained on the assumption that the simulation is
being made in accordance with the fracture model defined
as procedure I. Comparing the calculations with the experimental results, it can be observed that the critical value
of the Cockroft-Latham integral CCL in the neighborhood
of point p1 is 0.196.
Figure 2. FEM model of tensile test of real specimen shown in

Figure 1, where: v = 0.0143 mms-1; L = 110 mm; l0 = 54.4 mm, d0
= 7.5 mm; d = 10 mm; lk = 29.5 mm; = 2,9; p1, p2, p3 are the
measuring points.
The FEM simulation has been made in DEFORM-3D on

the assumption that it is a mechanical analysis without
thermal effects. The billet made from Ti6Al4V titanium
alloy was divided into 30 thousand tetragonal solid elements, considering the following work hardening curve
(obtained from the authors independent tests, right for the
temperature of 20C):
p = 1893 (0,0063 + )
0 , 2273
e (0, 0985 ) 0,0404
(1)
where p is the yield stress, is the equivalent strain, is

the strain rate.
Applied to the FEM model, clipping rings A and B
(shown in Figure 2) represent the clipping parts of a tensile testing machine which move with the velocity of v =
0.0143 mms-1. Unfortunately, in the case of the discussed
method of billet deformation, these tools are not able to
impose material displacement, and their presence is necessary for the stability of the calculations made in DEFORM-3D. Due to this fact, the nodal points located in the
clipping zone of the billet should have edge conditions
ascribed as the displacement velocity of value v.
In order to obtain a precise simulation result, three measuring points p1, p2, p3 on the billets longitudinal axis are
defined (Figure 2). Points p2, p3 overlap with the lines
(Figure 1(b)) defining the measuring point calculating
the distance between them will allow to determine the
moment of fracture of the real specimen. Point p1, on the
other hand, is used to read the value of the normalized
Cockroft-Latham integral CCL, as calculated according to
the equation [4,5,8,9,12]:
C CL =
(2)
Figure 3. Distribution of normalized Cockroft-Latham integral (2)

read at the moment corresponding to real specimen fracture.
The subsequent calculations are made in accordance

with crack modelling as outlined under procedure II, assuming that the relevant elements are to be treated as voids at reaching the limiting value of CCL = 0.196.
The comparison of the calculated tensile force with the
force measured in the experiment is illustrated in Figure 4.
Bearing in mind the presence of the uniaxial stress state in
Figure 4. Comparison between tensile force calculated in FEM

analysis under procedure I and II and the force measured in the
experiment.
the neighbourhood of point p1, the load value is determined

as a result of multiplying the largest main stress by the
value of the specimen cross section.
303
09.08.2010 14:24:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
In the case of modelling the billet tensile test under procedure II, the force starts decreasing quickly after having
reached the moment corresponding to the real specimen
fracture. It can be explained by the fact that under procedure II the material begins to behave similarly to the real
object. This means that a considerable material necking is
to be observed in the neighborhood of point p1 just before
the specimen fracture. Such a behaviour of the material
modelled in FEM is consistent with the experiment (Figure 5). Moreover, the character of those cracks proves the
effectiveness of applying the Cockroft-Latham cracking
criterion to simulate the titanium alloy tensile test.
(a)
(b)
Figure 5. Local necking of fractured specimen made from Ti6Al4V

alloy: (a) cylindrical specimen according to standard recommendations [5-7], (b) specimen of profiled shape developed by authors.
A special attention should be paid to the change of values in the function of time for such calculated parameters
as the strain and normalized Cockroft-Latham integral
value. The values of the calculated strain and CockroftLatham integral (Figure 6) begin to rise suddenly when
the stage corresponding to the moment of specimen fracture has been reached.
Figure 6. Calculated value of normalized Cockroft-Latham integral

(damage function) in point p1 (as shown in Figure 2).
Summarizing, modelling the tensile test of Ti6Al4V titanium alloy under procedure II helps obtain the results
which are largely consistent with reality. This method of
modelling, however, requires that the critical value of the
Cockroft-Latham integral CCL be calculated. On the other
hand, modelling billet deformations by means of procedure I is more universal and can be employed in preliminary research, together with experiments, as a method of
determining the critical value of the Cockroft-Latham
integral CCL.
Upsetting of Ring Workpiece. In the case of stretching
a profiled billet in the materials whole volume (in the
measuring zone), a uniaxial stress state in the form of
tension is present. In this context, a question may arise
304
concerning the way in which the proposed FEM model

will behave when the stress and strain states of the material are general, or complex. To resolve the issue, the authors have undertaken to do research on ring workpiece
upsetting.
It is assumed that the billet is made from Ti6Al4V titanium alloy and its initial dimensions (the external and
internal diameter as well as height) equal 25mm,
12.5mm, and 9mm respectively, and the billet is to be
upset between two flat anvils of a press with a hydraulic
drive. It is assumed that the velocity of one tool is 0.3
mms-1 and friction appears on the tool-material contact
surface, where the friction factor is m = 0.65. The other
data concerning the material as well as the crack modelling procedures are the same as in the case of modelling
the profiled specimen tensile testing.
The shape of the upset ring workpiece obtained after
reaching the logarithmic strain at the level of = 0.35 is
illustrated in Figure 7(a). The photography shows visible
material cracks, located near the workpiece external (cylindrical) surface. Their character is specific. The first
fractures (the main ones) are always located on the ring
external surface, and the cracking line is inclined axially,
which is consistent with the direction of the upsetting
force, at the angle of 45. It can be assumed that this line is
in the plane of the principal shear stresses. It is also observed that the titanium alloy indicates a rapid stratification when it is experimentally upset, which is shown in
Figure 7. This gives rise to additional cracks defined by
the authors as the secondary ones which run circumferentially at the workpiece external surface, and their presence is strictly connected with the appearance of the main
fracture.
A calculated shape of the workpiece together with the
distribution of the Cockroft-Latham integral CCL is shown
in Figure 7(b). In contrast to the tensile test where it is
fairly easy to interpret the obtained results, the situation in
this particular case is more difficult. On the basis of the
obtained results it is only possible to estimate the material
zone where fractures may appear. The character of those
cracks cannot, however, be estimated in the FEM simulation, either under procedure I or procedure II, if the distribution of the normalized Cockroft-Latham integral value
is the only parameter given.
Figure 8 shows the calculated stress state in point p4 at
the moment corresponding to the appearance of fracture in
the real workpiece. As the figure demonstrates, the extreme
Figure 7. Shape of upset workpiece and calculated distribution of

normalized Cockroft-Latham integral when the logarithmic strain is
= 0.35, where p4 is measuring point.
09.08.2010 14:24:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 8. Calculated stress state in point p4 (as seen in Figure 7)

at the moment corresponding to fracture appearance.
plane of the maximum principal shear stress 13 [5] determines the course of the workpiece cracking lines. Moreover, the tangential stress 1 is the largest principal stress
in the form of tension. Hence, the calculated stress state
fully explains the behaviour of the titanium alloy during
the upsetting tests. To sum up, the processes where the
general stress state is involved require that both the distribution of the normalized Cockroft-Latham integral CCL
and the direction of the maximum principal shear stresses
13 should be known.
What is more, it should be emphasized that the observed
tendency to change such upset parameter values as the
strain and Cockroft-Latham integral CCL corresponds to
the calculations obtained from modelling the tensile test of
the profiled billet. The calculated course of the CCL integral
value change in point p4 is shown in Figure 9. As for modelling the process under procedure II, the CCL value increases rapidly after a hypothetical material cracking
operation.
the course of experimental tests. In the case of modelling

under procedure II, the limiting value of the assumed
cracking criterion should be introduced in the FEM model.
Moreover, the research done by the authors independently
demonstrates that modeling fractures in this way reflects
the character of material behavior better than when done
under procedure I.
Given the results of the theoretical and experimental research presented in this paper, the following conclusions
can be drawn:
1. Preceded by an experiment, fracture modelling under
procedure I using the tensile test of a profiled specimen
(which is of the shape developed by the authors) can
constitute a methodological tool for estimating the limiting value of the material cracking criterion in numerical
modelling of forming processes.
2. In terms of metal forming processes which are characterized by the general strain and stress state, the calculations pertaining to cracking distribution only allow to
localize the zone in which fracture will possibly appear.
The course of the fracture can be additionally estimated
by determining the extreme plane of the maximum principal shear stress 13 in the point (zone) determined on
the basis of the calculated cracking criterion.
Acknowledgments
The research work was financed from the funds granted
by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education
over years 2009-2012. Project No.: N N508 439036.
References
Figure 9. Calculated value of normalized Cockroft-Latham integral

in point p4 (as seen in Figure 7).
Conclusions
This paper presents the analysis of two procedures of
fracture modelling illustrated by selected cases of forming
Ti6Al4V titanium alloy in room temperature. Both procedure I and procedure II allow to obtain the desired effect
whose precision is comparable to the results obtained in
[1] T. Canta, D. Frunza, D. Sabadus, C. Tintelecan: Journal Materials

Processing Technology, 80-81 (1998), 195-198
[2] G. Samoyk: Ores and Non-ferrous Metals, 54-11 (2009), 806-808
[3] R. Mielchow: Titanium and Its Alloys (in Polish), Czestochowa
University of Technology Press, Czestochowa (Poland,) 2009
[4] G. Samoyk, Z. Pater, J. Bartnicki: Metallurgy Metallurgical Engineering News, 76-1 (2009), 95-97
[5] Z. Pater, G.. Samoyk: Fundamentals of Metal Forming (in Polish),
edition I, PWSZ Press, Chem (Poland), 2007.
[6] PN-EN 2002-001:2006: Tensile test in ambient temperature, PKN,
Poland, 2006
[7] PN-EN ISO 6892-1:2009: Metals. Tensile test in room temperature,
PKN, Poland, 2009
[8] F.M. Andrafe Price, M.A. Csar de S, L. Costa Sousa, R.M. Natal
Jorge: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 45 (2003), 273294
[9] T. Wierzbicki, Y. Bao, Y.W. Lee, Y. Bai: International Journal of
Mechanical Sciences, 47 (2005), 719-743
[10] S. Murakami: Journal of Applied Mechanics, 55 (1988), 280-286
[11] J. Lemaitre: Nuclear Engineering and Design, 80 (1984), 233-245
[12] M.G. Cockroft, D.J. Latham: Journal of the Institute of Metals, 96
(1968), 33-39
305
09.08.2010 14:24:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Shape of Samples on Ductile Fracture Initiation in Upsetting

Elena Lyamina1), Sergei Alexandrov1), Dragisa Vilotic2), Dejan Movrin2)
1)
A. Ishlinsky Institute for Problems in Mechanics, Moscow / Russia, lyamina@inbox.ru;

Sad, Novi Sad / Serbia
2)
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi
Upsetting is a typical test for determining parameters of ductile fracture criteria. Although axisimmetric samples are mostly used for the
upsetting tests, the shape of samples has a significant effect on the ductile fracture initiation. The fore, a greater variety of sample geometry
leads to more accurate values of parameters involved in ductile fracture criteria. A difficulty here is that a theoretical treatment of samples in
which three-dimensional flow occurs is more difficult and time consuming as compared to axisymmetric samples under axisymmetric
loading. This difficulty can be overcome in the case of the modified Cockroft-Latham ductile fracture criterion. The paper presents an
experimental-theoretical method for verifying the modified Cockroft-Latham ductile fracture criterion.
Keywords: Upsetting, Ductile fracture, Experimental-analytical method
Introduction
Ductile fracture criteria are usually used for predicting
fracture initiation in metal forming processes in
conjunction with finite element analyses. Reviews of
ductile fracture criteria can be found in [1-3]. Fracture
often occurs at free surfaces. To study free surface fracture,
axisymmetric samples subject to axisymmetric loading are
usually used [4 - 10]. An obvious advantage of this type of
tests is that the corresponding theoretical analysis is
relatively simple. However, it is known that nonaxisymmetric shapes of samples may have a great effect
on the fracture mode [11]. Therefore, it is of importance to
develop an efficient method for determining parameters
involved in ductile fracture criteria with the use of
experimental data from non-axisymmetric upsetting. In the
case of the ductile fracture criterion [12] such a method
can be based on the theoretical result obtained in [13]. The
ductile fracture criterion [12] is a modification of the
Cockroft-Latham criterion [14]. The modified CockroftLatham criterion is often used in applications [3,12],
including hot metal forming processes [15]. The
significance of the result obtained in [13] is that it relates
the state of strain at the fracture site to the material
parameter involved in the fracture criterion if fracture
occurs at the intersection of two planes of symmetry on a
free surface. Thus the stress of state is excluded from
consideration. Since it is relatively easy to measure the
state of strain in experiment, the material parameter
involved in the ductile fracture criterion can be directly
found from experiment.
In the present study, five non-axisymmetric samples are
tested in upsetting between parallel flat dies. Then, the
theoretical procedure proposed in [13] is used to identify
the material parameter involved in the ductile fracture
criterion [12].
process is not axisymmetric. Three identical specimens of

each type have been tested up to fracture. The material
investigated is the steel C45E (the nominal composition of
0.46% C and 0.65% Mn). The nominal dimensions of
samples in mm, the initial shape of samples, the shape of
samples when fracture occurs, and the fracture sites are
shown in Figures 2 6 for a representative sample of each
type. Upsetting of one sample of each series was stopped
when a crack appeared on the surface of the sample. From
this test the maximum height reduction was approximately
found and, then, the magnitude of height increments for
subsequent tests was specified as 10% of the maximum
height reduction.
Figure 1. Initial shape of samples (five types).
Experimental
Five different types of samples have been tested in
upsetting between parallel flat dies. All five types of nonaxisymmetric samples are shown in Figure 1. Actually,
one of the samples has the axis of symmetry. However, the
motion of dies is orthogonal to this axis. Therefore, the
306
Figure 2. Sample of type 1.
09.08.2010 14:24:11 Uhr
Metal Forming

The site of fracture initiation in all cases was in the very

vicinity of the intersection of two planes of symmetry on
the free surface. Therefore, the method proposed in [13] is
applicable. In order to use this method, it is necessary to
determine from experiment the principal natural strains to
fracture. The axial strain at the fracture site is one of the
in-surface principal natural strains due to symmetry. This
strain is denoted by 2 . It is obvious that 2 < 0 . The other
in-surface principal natural strain is 1 . To measure the insurface strains two pairs of grid lines were applied in the
vicinity of the intersections of planes of symmetry of the
processes. These lines formed a square with its side of
4mm before deformation.
Measurements of the current distance between each pair

of the grid lines were made after each increment in height
reduction and the surface was examined for cracks by the
naked eye. Using current distances measured and the
initial distance between the grid lines the in-surface
principal natural strains were determined. Experimental
data are summarized in Table 1 where the strains to
fracture only are shown, as required according to the
method developed in [13].
Theoretical
The modified Cockroft-Lahtam ductile fracture criterion

has the following form [12]
307
09.08.2010 14:24:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
t
eq
eq dt = C
(1)
that the modified Cockroft-Lahtam ductile fracture

criterion is not suitable for the steel investigated.
Table 1. In-surface strains to fracture.
where 1 is the maximum principal stress, eq is the

equivalent stress, eq is the equivalent strain rate, t is the
time, and C is a material constant. A difficulty with
experimental verification of this criterion, as well as any
other ductile fracture criterion, and/or determination of the
value of C is that it is necessary to measure the stress
invariants involved in equation (1). However, the general
theoretical method developed in [13] reduces equation (1)
to
3
21 + 2 = C
2
No. of
Strain 1 to
Strain 2 to
sample
sample
fracture
fracture
1.13
-1.21
(see Figures
2 to 6)
1
(2)
When free surface fracture occurs at the intersection of

two planes of symmetry of the process. Here 1 and 2
are the in-surface principal natural strains at the end of the
process (i.e. when ductile fracture initiates), and the
principal directions corresponding to 1 and 1 coincide.
Eq. (2) is valid for strain-hardening materials obeying the
Mises-type yield criterion and its associated flow rule. It is
seen from Eq. (2) that the value of C can be determined
experimentally by measuring the in-surface strains at the
end of the process which is a relatively simple task. Eq. (2)
constitutes the basis for verifying the validity of the
modified Cockroft-Lahtam ductile fracture criterion. To
this end, however, it is necessary to find at least two
different tests in which all the requirements involved in the
derivation of Eq. (2) from the general form of the fracture
criterion (1) are satisfied and in which the strain paths at
the fracture sites are not similar. In all the processes
considered in the previous section the fracture site is on
the free surface and in the very vicinity of the intersection
of two planes of symmetry of the process. Therefore, Eq.
(2) is valid for these processes. Substituting the data from
Table 1 into Eq. (2) gives the value of C in each case. The
final result of this calculation is shown in Table 2. If the
modified Cockroft-Lahtam ductile fracture is valid for the
material tested, the value of C should be the same in all the
processes. It is seen from Table 2 that samples of types 2,
3, 4, and 5 (Figures 3 to 6) predict that C 0.36 . The
scatter of experimental data for this group of samples is
rather low. Exceptions are just sample 2 of type 4 and
sample 2 of type 5. However, it is seen from Table 1 that
not only the value of C is almost the same for samples of
this group but the in-surface principal strains as well.
Therefore, it is not reliable to solely use samples of types 2,
3, 4, and 5 to verify the fracture criterion in question. On
the other hand, it is seen from Table 1 that the in-surface
principal strains to fracture are much higher for samples of
type 1 (Figure 2) as compared to samples of the other
types. It is seen from Table 2 that the samples of type 1
predict that C 0.7 . Again, the scatter of experimental
data for this group of samples is rather low. Because the
values of C found for samples of type 1 and samples of the
other types are very different, it is necessary to conclude
308
Type of
1.16
-1.29
1.14
-1.18
0.64
-0.72
0.61
-0.68
0.63
-0.72
0.65
-0.78
0.66
-0.75
0.64
-0.76
0.67
-0.78
0.68
-0.93
0.72
-0.85
0.68
-0.8
0.74
-0.77
0.68
-0.8
Table 2. Value of C for the samples tested.

Type of sample
No. of sample
Value of C
(see Figures 2 to 6)
1
0.7
0.69
0.73
0.37
0.36
0.36
0.35
0.38
0.35
0.37
0.29
0.39
0.37
0.47
0.37
Conclusions
An efficient method for the identification of the

modified Cockroft-Lahtam ductile fracture criterion has
been proposed. The method is based on Eq. (2) and a
series of upsetting tests with the use of non-axisymmetric
samples/processes. The method has been applied to verify
the applicability of the modified Cockroft-Lahtam ductile
fracture criterion for the steel C45E and it has been shown
that it is not applicable. It follows from the measurement
of the in-surface strains to fracture that samples of types 2,
3, 4, and 5 (Figures 3 to 6) show very similar behaviour
with respect to free surface ductile fracture. Therefore, it
09.08.2010 14:24:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
makes sense to use just one type of such samples in ductile

fracture studies. On the other hand, ductile fracture
behaviour of samples of type 1 (Figure 2) is very different
from that of samples of types 2, 3, 4, and 5. Therefore, it
may be recommended to use a series of samples of type 1
and a series of samples of any other type considered for
the identification of various ductile fracture criteria. In
particular, in addition to the modified Cockroft-Lahtam
ductile fracture criterion, the identification without
measuring stress components is possible for the fracture
criterion based on the workability diagram proposed in
[16]. The corresponding theoretical background for this
criterion is given in [17].
Acknowledgment
E.L. and S.A. acknowledge support from grants RFBR10-08-00083- (Russia). D.V. and D.M. are thankful to the
Ministry of Sciences of Republic of Serbia for support
through grant TR 14050 Development and application of
contemporary approaches of forging technology design
with purpose of quality products advancement and
production cost reduction.
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309
09.08.2010 14:24:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Sensitivity of Dimensional Changes to Ring Geometry Using FE Simulation

Jung Min Seo, Jeong Hoon Noh, Beong Bok Hwang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, Incheon / Korea, bbhwang@inha.ac.kr
The sensitivity of dimensional changes to changes in ring geometry has been investigated in the ring compression test. The main objective
of this study is to examine the sensitivity of dimensional changes to frictional conditions for different ring heights in conventional calibration
curves and provide alternative ring geometries which are more sensitive to the changes in frictional shear factor. Traditionally, ring geometry
employed in experiments has a fixed ratio of 6 : 3 : 2, i.e. outer diameter : inner diameter : thickness of the ring specimen, which is
generally known as standard specimen. Various combinations of dimensional ratio have been analyzed to investigate discrete sensitivities
of the dimensional changes of the specimen to the interfacial friction. Sensitivities of dimensional changes at four different positions in the
ring specimen have been also investigated and they include the changes in internal diameter at the middle and top section of the specimen,
and outer diameter at the middle and top section, respectively. The results of investigation in this study have been summarized in terms of a
dimensionless gradient, which indicates the sensitivity of dimensional changes to the friction condition.
Keywords: Ring compression test, Ring geometry, Friction calibration curve, Sensitivity, Dimensional change
Introduction
Ring compression tests have been widely used for evaluating friction effects in bulk metal forming among all
common methods for measuring the interface frictional
shear factor [1]. The tests are relatively easy since there is
no need for force measurement during the test and also nor
knowledge of material properties such as the yield strength
and work hardening characteristics. Basically this method
measures the dimensional changes of a specimen to arrive
at the magnitude of friction coefficient or factor. Male and
Depierre [2] proposed a set of calibration curves for various ring geometries and compared with experimental results of their previous work [3]. The friction calibration
curves developed by them gained wide acceptance for
evaluating coefficient of friction regardless of material
properties such as work hardening effect. Hasan and Jahan
[4] investigated whether generalized calibration curves are
applicable to all types of materials and test conditions. Rao
and Sivaran [5] conducted a research on the effects of
different ring geometries on the calibration curves in terms
of sensitivity and noted that a particular geometry is applicable within a definite range of friction due to the barreling and discrete changes of the specimen to the interfacial
friction.
Sensitivity analysis is considered as an effective tool for
optimum design. Sensitivity analysis has been widely
performed for calculating the gradient of the objective
function and for studying the effects of process parameters
or input parameters in the states of the final products [6].
Most of the contributions in the area of sensitivity have
been devoted to structural analysis, where the information
coming from the sensitivity analysis can readily be used
and has an immediate interpretation [7].
In the present study, the ring compression test has been
numerically investigated to analyze the effects of ring
geometries on dimensional changes to interfacial friction
at different positions of specimen. Movements of neutral
positions were also investigated to explain variations of
sensitivity of dimensional changes over the whole range of
friction factor. The main objective of this study is to reveal
the effects of the ring specimen height on the sensitivity of
310
dimensional changes to interfacial friction at different

positions of the ring specimen. A commercially available
FEM tool, i.e. Deform2-DTM [8], has been used for analysis, programmed in rigid plasticity theory [9].
Deformation Patterns
In order to investigate the deformation characteristics of
ring compression process and then determine the frictional
calibration curves of the model materials with different
work-hardening properties, a commercially available finite
element code was used in the simulation of simple
compression of a cylindrical ring, 50.8 mm in outer
diameter, 25.4 mm in internal diameter, and the specimen
heights in the range of 4.23 mm and 25.4 mm. Due to the
nature of symmetry, one quarter of the ring specimen was
represented to construct a 2-D model. The top and bottom
platens were modeled as a rigid body. The friction factor
was employed at every increment of 0.05 from 0.0 to 0.9,
i.e. from frictionless to almost sticking for every specimen
height. A perfectly plastic material was adopted as a model
material for simulations. The compression process ended
when the reduction in height reaches at 50%. Figure 1
depicts the FE model and different locations of ring
specimen measured for analysis.
Initial outer diameter (D2, D4)
Initial internal diameter (D1, D3)
Initial
height (H)
Folding area
hs
Current internal diameter (D3)

Current internal diameter (D1)
Current outer diameter (D2)
Current outer diameter (D4)
Figure 1. FE model and locations measured for analysis.
09.08.2010 14:24:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
Neutral position [mm]
20
H (0.5) = 4.23 mm
H (1.0) = 8.47 mm
19
18
H (2.0) = 16.93 mm
H (3.0) = 25.40 mm
17
16
15
14
m = 0.3
m = 0.8
13
12
0
Neurtal position [mm]
17.0
16.5
10
20
30
40
Reduction in height [%]
50
Reduction in height : 50 %
H (0.5) = 4.23 mm
H (1.0) = 8.47 mm
16.0
15.5
15.0
H (2.0) = 16.93 mm
H (3.0) = 25.40 mm
14.5
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Friction factor (m)
Figure 2. Neutral positions vs. reduction in height (top) and friction
factors (bottom) for various specimen heights, respectively.
Folding. Figure 3 shows the folded area as function of

reduction in height for various friction factors and specimen heights (top) and as function of friction factors at
50% reduction in height for various specimen heights
(bottom), respectively. Note that the dashed and solid lines
denote folded area around inner and outer periphery of the
specimen, respectively. It is easily seen in the figure that
folding is more severe near outer periphery regardless of
specimen height and friction factor. It is also revealed that
folded area increases gradually and the reduction in height
and friction factor increase and the tendency is amplified
with increasing the specimen height.
0.5
Friction factor (m)

0.2 0.5 0.9
H (0.5) = 4.23 mm
H (1.0) = 8.47 mm
H (2.0) = 16.93 mm
H (3.0) = 25.40 mm
Folded area (Af/A0)
0.4
0.3
0.2
Inner periphery
Outer periphery
0.1
0.0
0
0.5
0.4
Folded area (Af/A0)
Neutral Positions. The neutral position is a unique

boundary such that the part of the ring with radius greater
than the neutral radius flows outward while the remainder
flows inwards toward the center. Movements of the neural
radius are shown in Figure 2 as function of reduction in
height (top) and as function of friction factor (bottom) for
various specimen heights, respectively. It is generally
revealed in the figure that the neutral radius increases as
the reduction in height increases and this trend is intensified with decreasing friction factor and increasing the
specimen height. It is also seen in the figure that the neutral radius increases at low friction regardless of specimen
heights. However, the neutral radius decreases at higher
friction for short specimen height while it still tends to
increase at higher friction for long specimen height. It can
be also seen in the figure that the interfacial friction is
proportional directly to the neutral radius for longer
specimen height and can therefore be estimated by measuring the changes of internal or outer diameter and using
the calibration curves which are usually plotted as friction
factor versus reduction in ring height and decrease in internal diameter.
0.3
0.2
10
20
30
40
H (0.5) = 4.23 mm
H (1.0) = 8.47 mm
H (2.0) = 16.93 mm
H (3.0) = 25.40 mm
50
Re : 50 %
Inner periphery
Outer periphery
0.1
0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Friction factor (m)
Figure 3. Folded area vs. reduction in height (top) and friction
factors (bottom), respectively.
Dimensional Changes
Response Parameters Used in Analyses. In the course
of conventional ring compression, as a response parameter
to interfacial friction, the internal diameter at the middle
section of ring specimen increases or decreases if friction
is low or high, respectively. However, different dimensional changes may be measured at different positions of
ring specimen and thus lead to different friction calibration
curves. In the present study, four different response parameters are selected such as dimensional changes of internal diameters at the top (D1) and middle (D3) sections, and outer diameters at the top (D2) and middle
(D4) sections, respectively, and their dimensional
changes to interfacial friction have been investigated for
various specimen heights.
Dimensional Changes and Linearity. Simulation results have been recorded at 50% reduction in height of
ring specimen for all response parameters in terms of the
relationship between friction factors and dimensional
changes for various specimen heights as shown in Figure
4. It is seen in the figure that the dimensional changes
seem sensitive to the change of interfacial friction for
internal diameter at the middle section and outer diameter
at the top section. It is generally seen in the figure that the
dimensional changes decrease as the friction factor increases regardless of the locations of specimen. However,
it is also easily known from the figure that the dimensional
changes for internal diameter at the middle section decrease as the specimen height decreases while the dimensional changes for outer diameter at the top section increase as the specimen height decreases, respectively.
Dimensional changes at four different positions of ring
compression test are placed on curves which are plotted as
reduction in height vs. changes in dimensions for various
311
09.08.2010 14:24:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Dimensional change (Di) [mm]
35
D1
D2
D3
20
Dimensional change(D1) [mm]
40
D4
m=0.3
m=0.6
m=0.9
m=0.6
m=0.9
m=0.6
m=0.9
m=0.6
m=0.9
15
30
25
5
40
Dimensional change (D4) [mm] Dimensional change (D3) [mm] Dimensional change (D2) [mm]
15
H (0.5) = 4,23 mm
H (1.0) = 8.47 mm
H (2.0) = 16.93 mm
H (3.0) = 25.40 mm
10
H (0.5) = 4,23 mm
H (1.0) = 8.47 mm
H (2.0) = 16.93 mm
H (3.0) = 25.40 mm
20
10
5
m=0.0
m=0.0
H (0.5) = 4,23 mm
H (1.0) = 8.47 mm
H (2.0) = 16.93 mm
H (3.0) = 25.40 mm
35
30
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Friction factor (m)
Figure 4. Dimensional change vs. friction factors for various
specimen heights at 50% reduction in height.
specimen heights and friction factors as shown in Figure 5.

It is easily revealed from the figure that the changes of
internal diameter at the top section and outer diameter at
the middle section are relatively insensitive to the changes
in the interfacial friction for high frictions, i.e. friction
factors greater than 0.3. However, the dimensional
changes of internal diameter at the middle section and
outer diameter at the top section appear more sensitive to
the changes in interfacial friction over the whole range of
friction. It is seen again in the figure that the dimensional
changes for internal diameter at the middle section and for
outer diameter at the top section decrease as the specimen
height decreases and increases, respectively.
The regression analyses have been made to investigate
the linearity and the overall trend of dimensional changes
as well as sensitivity of each response and the results of
linear regression analyses are summarized in Table 1. It is
known in the table that the linearity of each response parameter increases as the specimen height increases. However, the overall sensitivity of dimensional changes of
outer diameter at the top section increases as the specimen
height increases while the sensitivity for internal diameter
at the middle section decreases as the specimen height
increases. Note that * and ** denote the greatest value for
a particular response parameter and among all response
parameters, respectively.
m=0.3
25
m=0.0
18
m=0.3
13
H (0.5) = 4,23 mm
H (1.0) = 8.47 mm
H (2.0) = 16.93 mm
H (3.0) = 25.40 mm
3
40
m=0.0
m=0.3
H (0.5) = 4,23 mm
H (1.0) = 8.47 mm
H (2.0) = 16.93 mm
H (3.0) = 25.40 mm
35
30
25
0
10
20
30
40
50
Figure 5. Dimensional changes vs. reduction in height for various
friction factors and specimen heights.
Sensitivities to Interfacial Friction and Specimen

Height
In order to see the magnitude of sensitivity (see Figure
6) the gradient in the direction of friction factor, m, was
calculated by dividing the corresponding diemnsional
changes by the incrment of friction factor. It should be
Table 1. Summary of linear regression analyses over whole range of friction factors for various specimen heights.
Response parameters
Speciman
Height
D1
D2
D3
D4
ratio
Sensitivity
Linearity
Sensitivity
Linearity
Sensitivity
Linearity
Sensitivity
Linearity
H (0.5)
0.328*
0.318
0.277
0.731
H (0.75)
0.281
0.299
0.354
H (1.0)
0.249
0.292
0.418
H (1.25)
0.234
0.307
0.474
0.686
0.705
0.159
0.460
0.840
0.711
0.756
0.179
0.558
0.892
0.735
0.790
0.191
0.620
0.920
0.750
0.816
0.198
0.665
H (1.5)
0.229
0.332
0.519
0.936
0.751**
0.837
0.201*
0.698
H (1.75)
0.228
0.352
0.555
0.945
0.739
0.851
0.198
0.721
H (2.0)
0.232
0.371
0.587
0.948
0.725
0.861
0.195
0.737
H (2.5)
0.251
0.422
0.637
0.949**
0.677
0.879
0.185
0.771
H (3.0)
0.273
0.476*
0.671*
0.945
0.586
0.894*
0.169
0.801*
312
09.08.2010 14:24:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
1.2
1.2
1.0
D3
D4
H (0.5) = 4,23 mm
H (1.0) = 8.47 mm
H (1.5) = 12.71 mm
H (2.0) = 16.93 mm
H (3.0) = 25.40 mm
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.0
0.0
Re : 50 %
0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2 2.25 2.5 2.75 3 3.25
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Friction factor (m)
Figure 6. Sensitivities vs. friction factors over whole range of
friction factors for various specimen heights.
Initial specimen height (H)

Figure 7. Sensitivities vs. specimen heights over whole range of
specimen heights for various friction factors.
noted that the magnitude of gradient in the figure denotes

relative magnitude of sensitivity of each response
parameter for a particular value of friction factor for
various specimen heights. It is easily seen in the figure that
the sensitivity decreases as the friction factor increases
regardless of specimen height and location of response
parameter. It is also known in the figure that short
specimen is more sensitive at low friction, i.e. friction
factors less than 0.1, and more insensitive at high friction,
respectively. Sensitivities versus specimen heights are
shown in Figure 7. It is generally seen again in the figure
that the sensitivity increases as the friction factor
decreases. It is interesting to note that the sensitivity for
outer diameter at the top section increases as the specimen
height increases over the whole range of friction factor.
Conclusions
Sensitivities Over Definite Ranges of Friction Factor

and Specimen Height. Sensitivities to changes in
interfacial friction over definite ranges of friction factor
such as 0.1 m 0.3, 0.4 m 0.6, and 0.7 m
0.9, are summarized in Table 2 for two dominant response
parameters such as outer diameter at the top section and
internal diameter at the middle section. It is easily known
in the table again that sensitivity generally increases as the
specimen height increases and the friction factor decreases.
However, the sensitivity is greater at low friction for short
specimen while it is greater at high friction for long
specimen, respectively. It should be noted in the table that
* denotes the highest value of sensitivity within a particular range of friction factors and specimen height.
References
It can be concluded that (1) the estimation accuracy of

interfacial friction is strongly related to the sensitivity of
dimensional changes to interfacial friction, ring geometries,
and the positions measured for dimensional change, (2) the
sensitivity generally increases as the specimen height
increases and the friction factor decreases, and (3) the
sensitivity is greater at low friction for short specimen
while it is greater at high friction for long specimen.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by INHA University Research
Grant.
[1] S. Hasan, G. Hasan, R. Jahan: Journal of Engineering Materials and

Technology, 123 (2001), 339-348.
[2] A.T. Male, V. Depierre: Transaction of ASME Journal of Lubrication
Technology, 92 (1970), 389-397.
[3] A.T. Male: Symposium on Experimental methods in Tribology Report-8, (1968), 64-67.
[4] S. Hasan, R. Jahan: Tribology International, 32 (1999), 327-335.
[5] K.P. Rao, K.Sivaram: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 37
(1993), 295-318.
[6] S. Badrinarayanan, N. Zabaras: Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 129 (1996), 319-348.
[7] H.J. Antnez, M. Kleiber: Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics
and Engineering, 137 (1996), 189-206.
[8] SFTC: Scientific Forming Technologies Corporations Inc., (2004).
[9] C.H. Lee, S. Kobayashi: Transaction ASME Series B, 95 (1973), 865873.
Table 2. Sensitivity for various specimen heights and friction factors.

H (1.0)
H (1.25)
H (1.5)
H (1.75)
H (2.0)
D2
D3
D2
D3
D2
D3
D2
D3
D2
D3
D2
D3
D2
0.1
0.20
0.45*
0.28
0.49*
0.34
0.53*
0.40
0.56*
0.44
0.57*
0.47
0.57*
0.49
0.2
0.15
0.30
0.22
0.33
0.27
0.36
0.31
0.38
0.34
0.39
0.37
0.39
0.3
0.13
0.22
0.18
0.25
0.22
0.26
0.26
0.27
0.28
0.28
0.30
0.28
0.4
0.11
0.17*
0.15
0.19*
0.19
0.20* 0.22*
0.20
0.24*
0.21
0.25*
0.5
0.09
0.13
0.13
0.14
0.16
0.15
0.18
0.15
0.20
0.15
0.6
0.08
0.10
0.11
0.11
0.14
0.11
0.15
0.11
0.16
0.7
0.07* 0.07* 0.09*
0.08
0.11*
0.08
0.12*
0.08
0.8
0.05
0.04
0.07
0.05
0.08
0.05
0.09
0.05
0.9
0.03
0.02
0.04
0.02
0.04
0.02
0.04
0.02
m = 0.0
m = 0.1
m = 0.3
m = 0.6
m = 0.9
D4
0.4
0.2
D3
0.6
0.2
H (0.75)
D2
0.8
H (0.5)
D1
1.0
Sensitivity
Sensitivity
D2
D1
D3
H (2.5)
D2
H (3.0)
D3
D2
D3
0.56* 0.53*
0.52
0.56*
0.45
0.39
0.40
0.42
0.38
0.43
0.34
0.31
0.28
0.33
0.27
0.34
0.25
0.20
0.25*
0.20
0.26*
0.19
0.25*
0.17
0.20
0.15
0.20
0.14
0.20
0.13
0.19
0.12
0.11
0.16
0.10
0.16
0.10
0.15
0.09
0.15
0.08
0.13*
0.07
0.13*
0.07
0.12*
0.07
0.12*
0.06
0.11*
0.05
0.09
0.04
0.09
0.04
0.09
0.04
0.08
0.03
0.07
0.03
0.04
0.02
0.04
0.02
0.04
0.01
0.03
0.01
0.03
0.01
313
09.08.2010 14:24:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Application of Modified Hydrostatic Stress Model to Internal Void Crushing in Forging

of Large-Scale Ingot
Seong-Hoon Kang, Sang-Woo Kim, Young-Seon Lee
Materials Deformation Group, Materials Processing Division, Korea Institute of Materials Science, Changwon / Korea, kangsh@kims.re.kr
In general, the voids are formed in a solidification process of a large-scale cast ingot. These voids have to be eliminated from the ingot by
forming processes such as upsetting and cogging, because these would become stress intensity factor which induce the sudden fracture of
the part in operation. It has been well recognized that these voids evolve in response to the tri-axiality of the remote stress state. In this
point of view, three dimensional FE analyses by considering non-axisymmetric deformation of the spherical-shaped void with the diameters
of 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0% compared to the ingot diameter of 2,000 mm were carried out in this work. From the simulation results, it was found
that even though there is slight difference in volume fraction ratio of void according to reduction ratio, void elimination takes place at almost
the same reduction ratio of about 31% regardless of void size. This means that if the void is located in the same position, the void can be
eliminated at the same reduction ratio regardless of void size. In order to find the reason, the modified hydrostatic stress model considering
the effective stress, void surface area with compressive hydrostatic stress and effective strain was newly proposed. According to this modified model, it was revealed that there is no difference in volume fraction ratio of void according to the reduction ratio and void size since the
same critical value of the modified hydrostatic stress model is predicted. In addition, the effects of void position and void shape were investigated through FE simulation in this work.
Keywords: Void crushing, Modified hydrostatic stress model, Large-scale ingot, Void size, Void shape and position, FE analyses
Introduction
One of main objectives of open die forging such as upsetting and cogging is to eliminate voids which are localized mostly near the ingot centre during the solidification
process of the large-scale ingot. Otherwise, this defect
may cause catastrophic damage of the final product in
operation. Thus, extensive compressive deformation of the
ingot by forming processes is necessary in order to eliminate such the internal voids.
It has been well recognized that the voids evolve in response to the tri-axiality of the remote stress state. In this
point of view, some researchers have been trying to find
the relationship between the internal variables (effective
stress, hydrostatic stress and effective strain) and void
crushing by adopting the numerical approach with assumption of axi-symmetric plastic deformation of spherical-shaped void or two dimensional plastic deformation of
cylindrical-shaped void [1,2]. However, this is not realistic
in the point of view that even though the void has a spherical or cylindrical shape, three dimensional deformation of
the void takes place during forging process.
It has been also investigated by numerical approaches
such as upper bound method and finite element simulation
that effective strain and hydrostatic stress are the major
factors which dominate void crushing during forging [3-5].
Park et al. revealed from FE simulation of upsetting of the
large-scale ingot that volume fraction ratio of void is independent of void size and effective strain is more efficient
than hydrostatic stress for void crushing [6]. Ono et al.
carried out three dimensional FE analyses to investigate
the effects of strain and stress distributions on crushing of
void within the pre-cooling ingot during forging [7]. More
recently, Nagasaki et al. proposed the integral hydrostatic
stress model to describe the relationship between the internal variables and void crushing [8]. They found that the
cross-sectional area of the void decreases with increasing
integral value of hydrostatic stress in terms of effective
314
strain and proved the effectiveness of the hydrostatic stress

model for void crushing.
This work was only focused on the modification of the
hydrostatics stress model by investigating the effect of
void size, shape and position. Since the tensile hydrostatic
stress is directly related with void growth, modification of
the hydrostatic stress model was made considering only
surface area with compressive hydrostatic stress. From the
FE simulation with the modified model, it was revealed
that void crushing takes place at the same reduction ratio
regardless of void size since the same critical values of the
modified hydrostatic stress model are predicted.
Simulation Conditions
Modeling of Ingot and Void. The ingot was assumed to
have the cylindrical shape with both the diameter and
length of 2,000 mm. Even though void size can be controlled by less than 2.0 percent compared to the ingot
diameter during solidification process, it was exaggeratedly assumed that the spherical void has the diameters of
2.5, 5.0 and 10 percents in order to investigate the effect of
void size on void crushing and is located in the centre of
ingot as depicted in Figure 1. This assumption may be
helpful to analyze the effects of internal variables such as
effective stress, hydrostatic stress and effective strain on
Spherical-shaped
void
Cylindrical-shaped
ing ot
Figure 1. Modeling of Ingot and void.
09.08.2010 14:24:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
(1)
Anvil
Ing ot
Void (po sition 1)
4x10
3x10
2x10
1x10
Position 1
d = 200 mm
d = 100 mm
d = 50 mm
100 200 300 400 500 600
Stroke (mm)
Figure 3. Void volume vs. stroke according to the size of void

located in the centre of ingot (position 1).
120
100
Simulation Results of Void Crushing
80
60
Position 1
d = 200 mm
d = 100 mm
d = 50 mm
40
20
0
10 15 20 25 30 35
H / Ho (%)
Figure 4. Volume fraction ratio of void vs. reduction ratio according

to size of void located in the centre of ingot (position 1).
For this, values of three internal variables of node 1 on

the top surface of void were traced according to reduction
ratio as shown in Figure 5. This node might be finally
contacted with opposite node during deformation. Without respect to void size, effective strain increased gradually with increasing reduction ratio. On the other hand,
(a) 5%
An vil
Void
Nod e 1
Nod e 2
In g ot
Effective strain
Deformation Patterns of Void. Deformation shapes of

ingot and internal void located in the centre of ingot according to the reduction ratio were shown in Figure 2. It
can be seen that the spherical-shaped void located in the
centre of ingot was three dimensionally changed to elliptical shape according to the stress state. It can be also seen
that because of larger tensile stress in the transverse direction of ingot than that in the longitudinal direction, the
void was more expanded in the transverse direction.
V / Vo (%)
where , , and T represent the effective stress, effective strain, effective strain rate and temperature in that
order. The constants of A and m1-m5 were taken as 1872.07,
-0.00289, -0.1123, 0.14368, -0.04879 and 0.0, respectively.
The temperatures of ingot and anvil and anvil speed
were taken as 1200 and 250 oC and 100 mm/s. Friction
coefficient of 0.4 (no lubricant condition) was assigned in
simulation.
5x10
= Aem1T m2 m3em4 (1+ )m5T
there was slight difference in volume fraction ratio of void,

void elimination took place at the almost same reduction
ratio of about 31% as shown in Figure 4. This means that
if the void is located in the same position, the void can be
eliminated at the same reduction ratio regardless of void
size. From this, it is need to investigate the roll of major
internal variables on the reason why the void elimination
occurs at the same reduction although void size is different.
V (mm )
volume fraction ratio of void, because the different values

of three internal variables on the void surface are estimated according to void size.
Simulation Conditions. For FE simulation of void
crushing, commercial program Forge 3D was used. Upsetting process was employed for forging of the large-scale
ingot with internal void. Flow stress of AISI 4140 used in
simulation was given as Hansel-Spittel model of the following equation:
(b) 20%
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0
Effect of Void Size. Volume fraction ratio of void (V/Vo)

was defined as ratio of deformed void volume (V) to initial one (Vo). The volume fraction ratio of void vs. stroke
according to void size was summarized in Figure 3. The
void volume located in the centre of ingot (indicated by
position 1 of Figure 3) gradually decreased to the certain
stroke and then steeply decreased. Finally, the void volume became almost zero at the stroke of about 620 mm
regardless of void size. On the other hand, even though
60
50
40
30
Node 1
d = 200 mm
d = 100 mm
d = 50 mm
20
10
0
0
10 15 20 25 30 35
Reduction ratio (%)
(c) Effective stress
Hydrostatic stress (MPa)
(c) 25%
Figure 2. Deformation shapes of ingot and void according to
reduction ratio.
Effective stress (MPa)
(a) Definition of nodes 1 and 2
Node 1
d = 200 mm
d = 100 mm
d = 50 mm
10 15 20 25 30 35
Reduction ratio (%)

(b) Effective strain
40
30
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
Node 1
d = 200 mm
d = 100 mm
d = 50 mm
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Reduction ratio (%)
(d) Hydrostatic stress
Figure 5. Change in the values of three internal variables of node

1 according to reduction ratio.
effective stress exponentially increased. In case of hydrostatic stress, it decreased exponentially and then rapidly
increased after contact of node 1 with opposite node. Ac-
315
09.08.2010 14:24:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
gm =

( ) d
(2)
where h represents hydrostatic stress. The hydrostatic

integration gm can be utilized to evaluate the void crushing
in open die forging.
In this model, the node on the void surface was assumed
to be contacted if gm value is higher than the critical value.
However, it is difficult to explain the reason why there is
no effect of void size on the volume fraction ratio of void,
because absolute value of calculated gm at the node 1
increased when void size increased and this value at the
node 2 decreased on the contrary. That is, since gm is different at each node positioned on void surface, it is not
enough to explain why void elimination takes place at the
almost same reduction ratio as shown in Figure 4.
0.4
Hydrostatic stress/
Effective stress
0.2
Node 1
d = 200 mm
d = 100 mm
d = 50 mm
0.1
Effective strain
0.00
0.0
g m = 0.011
g m = 0.012
Before
contact
After
g m = 0.012
Node 2
d = 200 mm
d = 100 mm
d = 50 mm
0.1
Gm
316
d ds
0.2
where S =
Position 1
d = 200 mm
d = 100 mm
d = 50 mm
80
60
40
20
0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Gm
Figure 8. Calculated Gm when the whole surface area of void is
considered.
0.3
ds
s
=
s
d ds
where S =
ds with
s
<0
(4)
80
0.4
Therefore, the hydrostatic stress model of Eq. (2) was

modified considering the whole surface area of void in
Figure 7 as follows:

h
s 0
100
100
Effective strain
(b) Node 2
Figure 6. Change in gm in nodes 1 and 2.
Here, S means the whole surface area of the void in the

current deformation state.
According to the modified model, However, the
calculated values of Gm are not the same. For example, the
calculated Gm decreased with increasing void size. Thus,
one can easily guess that this is due to tensile hydrostatic
stress considered. In other words, the effect of tensile
hydrostatic stress have to be excluded from the modified
model and the effect of compression hydrostatic stress
only should be considered because only compressive
hydrostatic stress is involved with void crushing.
V / Vo (%)
hydrostatic stress/
Effective stress
0.12
0.03
Figure 7. Surface area of void considered in Eqs. (3) and (4).
According to the above equation, almost the same Gm

was calculated regardless of void size in Figure 9, which
is very similar with Figure 4. Thus, it can be concluded
that the reason why void elimination occurs at the almost
same reduction ratio regardless of void size is due to the
same Gm, which can be calculated from Eq. (4).
(a) Node 1
0.06
h > 0
Gm
0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
0.09
Thus, second modification considering suface area of

void with compressive hydrostatic stress was made as
follows:
g m = 0.103
g m = 0.092
g m = 0.075
0.3
h < 0
V / Vo (%)
cordingly, the compressive hydrostatic stress was transformed into tensile one. With respect to void size, larger
effective strain and effective stress were required in case
of larger void size in order that node 1 can be contacted
with opposite node. On the other hand, lower absolute
hydrostatic stress was needed. Thus, it can be confirmed
from Figure 5 that void crushing is strongly dependent
upon the three internal variables.
Using three internal variables, Tanaka proposed the integral hydrostatic stress model at the node of the void surface as defined by [8],
(3)
60
40
20
Position 1
d = 200 mm
d = 100 mm
d = 50 mm
0
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
Gm
Figure 9. Calculated Gm when the surface area of void with compressive hydrostatic stress is considered.
Effect of Void Position. The effect of void position was

also investigated based on the modified model. This is
important in the point of view that even though the same
external load or reduction was applied to the ingot, different stress state and strain would be generated according to
the void position. Thus, the different deformed shape and
volume fraction ratio of void would be induced.
09.08.2010 14:24:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
100
Ing o t
Position 1 2 3 4 5
V / Vo (%)
Anvil
80
60
40
(a) Definition of void position
10
20
30
H / Ho (%)
40
50
(b) Volume fraction ratio of void

vs. reduction ratio
100
V / Vo (%)
80
d = 100 mm
Pos. 1
Pos. 2
Pos. 3
Pos. 4
Pos. 5
60
40
20
0
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30
Gm
(c) Volume fraction ratio of void vs. Gm

Figure 10. Effect of void position on volume fraction ratio of void
and Gm.
168 m m
29 m m
Effect of Void Shape. Effect of void shape was also investigated. FE simulation with certain shaped void in
Figure 11 was carried out. This void is placed between
positions 1 and 2 in Figure 10 and has length of 324 mm,
max. height of 168 mm and min. height of 29 mm.
324 m m
Figure 11. Modeling of void shape located in positions 1 and 2.
The deformed shapes according to reduction ratio were

shown in Figure 12. Void surface with compressive hydrostatic stress only was illustrated in this figure. As expected, void crushing took place from position with minimum height. Figure 13 describes the resultant graphs
showing the volume fraction ratios of certain shaped void
according to reduction ratio and Gm during upsetting of
ingot. Reduction ratio and Gm for void crushing were
about 35% and 0.20. It can be checked that reduction ratio
for crushing of certain shaped void was slightly larger than
those of voids located in the position 1 and 2. Moreover,
the calculated Gm was similar to that of position 2. Thus, it
100
100
80
80
60
40
20
0
20
0
(a) 7.5%
(b) 22.5%
(c) 30%
Figure 12. Deformed shapes of the certain shaped void according
to reduction ratio.
V/Vo(%)
d = 100 mm
position 1
position 2
position 3
position 4
position 5
can be confirmed FE investigation that there is no effect of

void shape because void crushing happens at the almost
same reduction ratio and Gm regardless of void shape.
V / Vo (%)
Since the voids are generally formed along the centre

line of the ingot during solidification, it was assumed in
this work that the spherical-shaped voids are located along
the centre line of the ingot(between the positions 1 and 5)
as depicted in Figure 10. As can be seen, when the void is
located far from the position 1, larger reduction ratio and
Gm were required for void crushing. However, if the void
is located on position 5 (the surface of ingot), no void
elimination occurred. This is due to the lower Gm compared to the other. And Gm increased gradually and then
suddenly decreased at the certain reduction ratio. This
sudden drop of Gm might induce no void crushing. In addition, maximum Gm of 0.275 in position 4 can be critical
value for elimination of voids located along the centre line
of ingot as shown Figure 10.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
H / Ho (%)
60
40
20
0
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
Gm
(a) Volume fraction ratio of void (b) Volume fraction ratio of void
vs. reduction ratio
vs. Gm
Figure 13. Volume fraction ratios of certain shaped void according
to reduction ratio and Gm.
Conclusions
In this work, the relationship between the internal variables and void crushing was investigated based on the FE
simulations and the following conclusions were obtained:
1. From the FE investigation of void size, modified hydrostatic stress model was proposed considering the surface
area of void with compressive hydrostatic stress.
2. Void crushing is strongly dependent on position of the
void. On the other hand, there is almost no effect of
void size and shape on the void crushing.
3. Regardless of void size, reduction ratio of 40% was
enough to elimination of void along the centre line of
ingot.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank for support from the Basic Research Program of the Korea Institute of Materials Science.
References
[1] B.J. Lee, M.E. Mear: Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids,
40-8 (1992), 1805-1836.
[2] S.P. Dudra, Y.T. Im: International Journal of Machine Tools and
Maunfacture, 30-1 (1990), 65-75.
[3] U. Sthlberg: journal of Mechanical Working Technology, 4 (1986),
51-63.
[4] M. Tanaka, S. Ono, M. Tsuneno: Journal of Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 27 (1986), 927-934.
[5] M. Tanaka, S. Ono, M. Tsuneno: Journal of Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 28 (1987), 238-244.
[6] C.Y. Park, J.R. Cho, D.Y. Yang, D.J. Kim, I.S. Park: Transactions of
the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers, 16-10 (1992), 18771889.
[7] S.I. Ono, K. Minami, E. Murai, T. Iwadate: Journal of Materials
[8] M. Nakasaki, I. Takasu, H. Usunomiya: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 177 (2006), 521-524.
317
09.08.2010 14:24:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
Simulation-Based Determination of Deflection Characteristic of Tooling System and its

Modeling in FE Simulation of Cold Forging Process
Thomas Kroiss, Ulf Engel, Marion Merklein
Chair of Manufacturing Technology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen / Germany, T.Kroiss@lft.uni-erlangen.de
An approach for the simulation-based determination of the deflection characteristic and modeling in the FE process simulation was developed for a tooling system with end stops on a force-controlled press. The approach was validated by experiments for an exemplary backward can extrusion process on this tooling system. First, parts of the tooling system subjected to deflection were modeled as elastic bodies
by FEM. A force was applied in order to get load-deflection curves. The simulation results show a nearly linear behavior of the components.
This makes a modeling with constant stiffnesses possible that can be summarized to substitute stiffnesses. These are modeled as spring
elements in the FE process simulation of the case study. The resulting integrated FE simulation model represents the whole deflection
characteristic of the tooling system on a force-controlled press. A comparison of the simulation results with experiments of the example
process on a force-controlled press shows a considerable improvement in simulation accuracy. This integrated FE simulation model is also
the base for a mathematical description of the process behavior of the whole system depending on several influencing factors with the help
of response surfaces. In a subsequent optimization step, applicable values of the influencing factors are defined, so that high workpiece
accuracy can be achieved.
Keywords: Cold Forging, Process-tool-machine interactions, Process modeling
Introduction
Cold forging offers the potential to manufacture parts
with high dimensional accuracy and surface quality as
well as high strength due to work hardening. Thus, the
industry increasingly demands high strength cold forged
parts that do not need any machining after the forming
process. This kind of net-shape production can help saving
machining resources and material costs. For this reason,
net-shape production in cold forging is an important target
in research [1,2].
However, the high flow stress of the workpiece material
causes a high loading of the press and the tooling system.
As a consequence, the whole system is subjected to considerable deflections that can cause deviations in the
workpiece dimensions. These interactions between process,
press and tooling system due to deflections make it difficult to achieve a high workpiece accuracy solely based on
process simulation [3].
Hence, the achieving of high workpiece accuracy without comprehensive adjustment at production start requires
the consideration of the elastic behavior of the whole system already in the phase of laying out the cold forging
process. This can be done with a combined FE modeling
of process and tooling system. Based on this comprehensive simulation model, an adjusted process and tool design
can be determined so that high workpiece accuracy is
achieved by a compensation of the deflections of the tooling system. To avoid experimental investigations on the
tooling system, a determination of its elastic behavior in
the simulation is desirable.
In this paper, an approach for the determination of the
deflection characteristic of a tooling system with mechanical end stops is presented for a backward can extrusion
process on a force-controlled press. The deflection characteristic is determined by FE simulation and then integrated
into the FE simulation of the process by spring elements.
With the resulting integrated FE model, a detailed description of the process behavior can be realized.
318
Determination
Tooling System
of
Deflection
Characteristic
of
For the production of cold forging parts, strokecontrolled as well as force-controlled presses are commonly used. Besides the deflection of the tooling system
under process load, the elastic behavior of the press frame
itself can have an influence on the accuracy of the cold
forging process. The modeling of these deflections and
their influence on the workpiece dimensions is subject of
several recent research projects in bulk and sheet metal
forming [4-6]. On a stroke-controlled press, these deflections directly lead to a reduced actual punch stroke and, in
turn, to deviations in the workpiece dimensions. In contrast, the deflection of the frame of a hydraulic press in
force-controlled mode can be compensated by the hydraulic control. However, the deflections of the tooling system
itself and the end stops still affect the workpiece dimensions in this case.
For the determination of the deflection characteristic of
the tooling system with mechanical end stops on a forcecontrolled press and its modeling in the FE process simulation, the following methodical approach was developed.
The tooling system mounted on the press can change frequently. Thus, to avoid experimental investigations on
various tooling systems and to consider the tooling system
characteristic before its production in the phase of laying
out the forming process, the determination of its deflection
characteristic is carried out by FE simulation.
The tooling system in consideration is illustrated in Figure 1, showing the experimental setup. The tooling system
is based on a pillar die-set. Between its bottom plate and
the prestressed die with ejector, spacer plates are mounted.
On the top plate, a piezo-electric load cell is mounted to
measure the punch force (Kistler 9091A; max. load 1200
kN). For the workpiece ejection, a hydraulic cylinder with
an ejector pin was mounted under the bottom plate of the
die-set. The bottom dead center of the press is limited with
09.08.2010 14:24:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
two steel end stops. At the end of the forging process, the
top plate of the die-set touches the end stops with a certain
force depending on press force and forming load.
For the modeling of the tooling system characteristic,
two different stiffnesses, for the end stops and the components in the flow of the punch force, respectively, have to
be taken into account. Hence, the tooling system is split up
into two superior assemblies that are investigated separately: the mechanical end stops loaded by the entire press
force and the tool components loaded by the forming force.
bottom tool plate contain the parts of the tooling system in

the flow of the forming force. The simulation model at the
top (Figure2(b)) includes tool plate, load cell, load cell
adapter and two spacer plates.
punch
top tool plate

load cell
workpiece
punch
prestressed
die
end stop
end stop
load cell
bottom tool plate

hydraulic
cylinder
Figure 1. Tooling system with end stops for backward can extrusion process on force-controlled press.
Furthermore, the tool components affected by the forming load are split up into the top and the bottom tool plate.
The mentioned components are modeled by elastic bodies
in the FE simulation and then loaded according to the real
forming process. Based on the simulation results, loaddeflection curves are generated. The curves show a nearly
linear characteristic. Their gradient represents the constant
stiffness of the respective assembly. The stiffness of the
end stops can be directly integrated into the FE process
simulation as a spring element. For the tool components in
the flow of the forming force, an equivalent value as substitute quantity is calculated based on the stiffnesses of the
top and bottom assemblies. This substitute stiffness is
integrated into the FE process simulation as a spring element, too. Below, the approach is carried out for a backward can extrusion process on a force-controlled press.
Backward Can Extrusion Process on ForceControlled Press. The tool and punch layout as well as
the resulting workpiece geometry of the backward can
extrusion example process are shown in Figure2(a). The
punch has an undercut so that the workpiece does not
touch the punch behind the forming zone. The punch diameter in the forming zone is 8.5 mm. The die diameter is
12 mm with an angle of 45 at the shoulder. The die is
prestressed with two shrink rings.
FE Modeling of Tooling System Characteristic. For
the determination of the load-deflection curves in simulation, the investigated tooling system is divided into three
assemblies that include the parts mounted on the top and
the bottom plate of the tooling system, respectively, as
well as the end stops. The FE simulations were performed
in simufact.forming 9. The two FE models of top and
backing device /
ejector
load cell adapter

top tool plate
die
spacer
punch head
Figure 2. (a) Backward can extrusion process and (b) loaded 2D

axially symmetric FE-model of top tool plate.
To reduce the simulation effort, a 2D axially symmetric

FE model was used. The model at the bottom contains tool
plate, spacer plate and two bars, on which the tool plate is
mounted (Figure 3(a)). The bolted joints between tool
plate and bars are considered with boundary conditions in
simulation. As the bars cause a bending of the bottom tool
plate when loaded, a 3D FE model was created for this
assembly. The 3D model of the end stops consists of top
and bottom tool plate, end stops and the bars as well (Figure 3(b)). The three assemblies are loaded through rigid
bodies with the shape of the punch head (top), the
prestressed die (bottom) and the press ram, respectively
(end stops) in the effective direction of the press.
Figure 3. (a) 3D FE-models of bottom tool plate and (b) end stops.
The stiffness of punch and die is not included in the

simulations, as they are considered as elastic bodies in the
FE process simulation. The gradient of the load versus the
displacement of the rigid contact bodies in press direction
represents the stiffness of the respective assembly. The
linear load-displacement curve for the end stops is shown
in Figure 4. The resulting stiffness for the end stops is
Cstop = 2970 kN/mm. Figure 5 shows the stiffness of the
assemblies of top and bottom tool plate, respectively. The
top tool plate has a stiffness of Ctool_top = 2189 kN/mm, the
bottom plate a stiffness of Ctool_bottom = 4218 kN/mm. The
two latter stiffnesses behave like two serially arranged
spring elements. Therefore, the reciprocals of the stiffnesses add up. This leads to a stiffness of
Ctool = 1441 kN/mm for top and bottom tool plate. Ctool
and Cstop, describing the deflection characteristic of the
whole tooling system, can be integrated into the FE simulation of the backward can extrusion process.
319
09.08.2010 14:24:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
(1.7131). Both materials noticeably differ in their flow
stresses, leading to different punch forces. In simulation,
the forming force is varied using flow stress data of the
two workpiece materials.
stop
Cstop
C tool
prestress ring 2
Figure 4. Load-displacement curve of end stops for determination

of stiffness.
rigid punch
prestress ring 1
die
elastic punch
tool_bottom
backing device / ejector

workpiece
symmetry line
Figure 6. Integrated FE simulation model.
tool_top
tool
Figure 5. Load-displacement curves of top and bottom tool plate

and the whole tooling system for determination of stiffness.
Integrated FE Simulation Model

The backward can extrusion process was modeled 2D
axially symmetric in the FE simulation program simufact.forming 9. The FE model features a combined workpiece and tool analysis. The tool consists of the elastic die
and two elastic prestress rings with interference fit. Thus,
the model includes the influence of the die deflection on
the workpiece dimensions. The punch is modeled as an
elastic body. Its stroke is applied by a rigid body at the top
of the punch. Ctool was integrated into the FE process
simulation as a spring element that is located at the bottom
of the die reducing the actual punch stroke when loaded.
The end stop (Cstop) is modeled with a spring element and
a rigid contact body. The rigid punch hits the end stops at
the end of the forming process. After reaching a certain
force limit when compressing the end stops, the simulation
is stopped and the workpiece is ejected. The integrated FE
simulation model is shown in Figure 6.
Experimental Validation of the Simulation Model
To validate the presented approach consisting of the FEbased determination of the deflection characteristic and its
integration into the FE process simulation, a comparison
between experiment and simulation results was carried out.
To be able to check the correctness of both stiffnesses Cstop
and Ctool of the integrated FE simulation model, the influencing factors press force (force on end stops) and forming
force were varied in experiment as well as in simulation.
In experiment, the press force is varied by the press control. The forming force is varied by using two different
workpiece materials 100Cr6 (1.3505) and 16MnCr5
320
The experimental investigations on the backward can

extrusion process were carried out on the hydraulic press
Lasco TSP 100. Five workpieces were formed at each
parameter setting. The press was used in force-controlled
mode at a punch velocity of 50 mm/s. The press forces
were set to 391, 612 and 867 kN for 16MnCr5, corresponding to potentiometer settings of 50, 75 and 100 %.
The experiments with 100Cr6 were carried out at a press
force of 612 kN. In simulation, these press forces were set
as termination condition, too. The workpieces in the experiments were coated with a phosphate conversion layer
as lubricant carrier, on which soap was applied for lubrication. The friction factor in the FE simulation was identified
numerically. The experiments were carried out with tool
and workpieces at room temperature. The four parameter
settings were assigned to the integrated FE simulation
model as well. To show the improvement in simulation
accuracy, additional FE simulations with rigid tool (Ctool
) and end stops (Cstop ) / elastic punch and rigid
tool and end stops / rigid punch, respectively, were run.
However, the prestressed die remained elastic in all simulations. The accuracy of the simulation models is evaluated using the workpiece dimensions thickness at bottom
(Figure 7) and depth of can (Figure 8). Thickness at bottom is a characteristic for the actual punch position including the deflections. The figures show the workpiece dimensions resulting from the experiments and the FE simulations.
The investigation of the thickness at bottom (Figure 7)
shows, that the integrated FE simulation model, considering the whole deflection characteristic, achieves the highest accuracy compared to the experiments for almost all
parameter settings. However, at a press force of 867 kN
(16MnCr5), the simulation model with rigid tool and elastic punch shows a similar deviation from the experiments
(0.03 mm) compared to the entirely elastic model (0.04
mm). The reason for this is the compensation of the tool
deflection in the flow of punch force by the increasing
compression of the end stops at high press forces. At low
forces on the end stops due to low press forces, mainly the
elasticity of the tool in the flow of the forming force is
crucial for the total deflection. Therefore, the deviation of
09.08.2010 14:24:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
the rigid models compared to the experiments is considerable at a low press force of 391 kN (0.20 and 0.31 mm,
respectively). The entirely elastic model shows a significantly lower deviation in this case (0.03 mm). The simulation models with rigid tool or additionally rigid punch lead
to the same workpiece dimensions at different press forces,
because the increasing compression of the end stops at
higher press forces is not represented.
Figure 7. Thickness at bottom of backward can extruded part

comparison between experiment and simulation models depending
on workpiece material and press force.
The high flow stress of 100Cr6 leads to a higher forming

force, a higher punch deflection and, thus, to a higher
remaining thickness at bottom and a smaller depth of can.
The integrated FE simulation model shows the highest
accuracy for this parameter setting, too (0.05 mm of deviation). However, even the simulation with rigid tool and
punch results in a bigger thickness at bottom for 100Cr6
compared to 16MnCr5 due to the radial elastic deformation of the prestressed die. An elastic modeling of the
punch already helps increasing the simulation accuracy
compared to a rigid punch, as its long and thin shape contains a high compliance.
Conclusions and Outlook

The presented approach permits an exact calculation of
the deflection characteristic of a tooling system on a forcecontrolled press based on FE simulations of tool assemblies without experimental investigations.
First, load-deflection curves of the tool components were
determined with the simulation models. The characteristic
of the tooling system can be described with two stiffnesses
for the end stops and the remaining tooling system, respectively, as substitute quantities. The stiffnesses were integrated into the FE simulation of an exemplary backward
can extrusion process by spring elements. This kind of
modeling has only a little influence on the speed of the
process simulation. The modeling was validated comparing the resulting part dimensions in experiment and simulation.
The results show for the thickness at bottom of the investigated can, that a consideration of the deflection characteristic in the FE process simulation reduces the deviations between experiment and simulation by up to 90%
(workpiece material 16MnCr5; press force 391 kN) compared to the rigid tooling system. The deflections of the
punch due to the forming load as well as the compression
of the end stops due to the press force are represented
adequately.
The present integrated FE simulation model is able to
represent the entire process behavior including the interactions between process, force-controlled press and the tooling system. With the help of a set of simulations varying
the influencing factors, such as the die dimensions, data
points can be generated as base for a mathematical description of the process behavior by response surfaces. The
mathematical model can be used for optimizing the values
of the influencing factors to achieve high workpiece accuracy.
Acknowledgements
Figure 8. Depth of can of backward can extruded part comparison between experiment and simulation models depending on
workpiece material and press force.
A comparison of the depths of can between experiment

and simulation (Figure 8) shows similar results like the
thickness at bottom. However, the deviation of the integrated FE simulation model is slightly higher. The cans of
the real workpieces show an increased depth. The reason
for this may be the retraction of the punch after the forming process. This step was not considered in the simulation
model. In the experiments, the retraction can lead to a kind
of ironing of the can leading to an increase in its depth. In
future investigations, a consideration of this behavior in
the simulation model is desirable.
The authors would like to thank German Research

Foundation (DFG) for their financial support. This work
has been carried out during the Priority Programme
SPP1180 Prediction and Manipulation of Interactions
between Structure and Process.
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321
09.08.2010 14:24:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
Cold Forge Bonding of Steel and Aluminum Alloy

Takashi Ishikawa1), Yoshinori
Tomoaki Suganuma3)
Yoshida2),
Nobuki
Yukawa1),
Michiaki
Kamiyama1),
Hirotaka
Ogitani1),
1)
Deformation Processing of Materials Laboratory, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya / Japan,
ishikawa@numse.nagoya-u.ac.jp; 2) Manufacturing System Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical and Systems Engineering, Gifu University,
Gifu / Japan; 3) Chubu Reikan Co Ltd., Okazaki / Japan
The possibility of bonding between dissimilar materials in a cold forging process is investigated. A two-layered cylindrical cup of steel and
aluminum alloy is forged by cold backward extrusion, and the bonding strength and diffusion zone are investigated under various forging
conditions. FE analyses for the backward extrusion in a similar experiment are also conducted and the interface expansion ratio, interface
pressure and their history during forging are calculated. The condition of strong bonding is obtained and the diffusion zone of several micrometers at the interface of the steel and the aluminum alloy is observed.
Keywords: Forging, Bonding, FEM, SEM, TEM
Introduction
Weight saving, cost saving and secure reliability are the

most important issues in the automobile industry in regards to global environmental problems. It is necessary to
solve these problems for each auto-component and to
create compound functions in an auto-part. The need for
components with various functions, such as strength, corrosion resistance, heat resistance and magnetic properties
are on the rise. But its realization is very difficult for one
material so bonding or joining technology of different
materials is necessary welding on hot forming. Hot forming is generally used in the bonding two parts because the
diffusion of metallic elements is easy at high temperatures.
However, the appearance of scale and brittle inter-metallic
compounds are a problem in hot bonding. These disadvantages will be dissoluble in cold bonding. There are many
papers which focus on the bonding strength of various
metals in cold roll bonding [1-3], but the bonding strength
and bonding mechanism of different materials in cold
forge bonding is not clear. The bonding of the same materials was investigated through compression or upsetting
test [4,5] and it was found that diffusion heat treatment
after upsetting is effective in obtaining strong bonding
strength [6]. Unfortunately, there are few papers which
investigate the mechanism and condition of the bonding of
different materials in cold forging without any heat treatment.
In this paper, the possibility of bonding dissimilar materials in cold forging process is investigated. A two layered
cylindrical cup of steel and aluminum alloy is forged
through cold backward extrusion, and bonding strength,
microstructure and diffusion zone are investigated under
various forging conditions. FE analyses for backward
extrusion of the two-layered cup in a similar experiment
are also conducted and interface expansion ratio, interface
pressure and their history during forging are calculated.
The relation between the bonding strength and these parameters is discussed and a bonding condition in actual
forge bonding process is proposed.
Backward Extrusion. A two layered cylindrical cup of

steel and aluminum alloy is forged through cold backward
extrusion (Figure 1). Bonding strength, microstructure and
diffusion zone are investigated under various forging conditions. A cylindrical billet of steel, 42mm in diameter and
17mm in height, and that of aluminum alloy, 42mm in
diameter and 9mm in height, are stacked in a container and
extruded at 40mm/sec.
322
(a) Initial state

(b) After extrusion
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of cold forge bonding.
Influence of Brushing of Contact Surface. In this section, the upper and lower billets are S10C steel and A6061
alloy, respectively. And the chemical compositions of the
materials are shown in Tables 1 and 2.
The experimental conditions are shown in Table 3.
Brushing was conducted on the contact surface of billets
using an emery paper of #400 with the aim of establishing
a newly-formed surface appearance. Bottom thickness
conditions of the extruded product were chosen as hbottom=12.0 and 6.0mm to investigate the influence of the
condition in the strength of the joint between the upper
and lower billets.
Figure 2 shows an example of the extruded product.
Both of the materials were bonded at the contact surface,
this is labelled as bonding interface in this study.
09.08.2010 14:24:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
C
Table 1. Chemical compositions of S10C steel(/mass%).

Si
Mn
P
S
Cu
Ni
Cr
Mo
Fe
16
44
12
Bal.
Table 2. Chemical compositions of A6061 alloy(/mass%).

Si
Fe
Cu Mg
Cr
Al
0.7
0.3
0.3
0.1
Bal.
sTS =

Brushing of
contact
surface
hbottom
Case No.
Upper billet
Lower
billet
S10C
A6061
12.0
S10C
A6061
Lower and
upper
12.0
S10C
A6061
Lower only
12.0
S10C
A6061
Lower only
6.0
Steel (S10C)
Tensile Test. Each specimen for tensile test were cut

from each extruded billet shown in Figure 2 with a wire
cutting machine (Figure 3) to measure the bonding
strength. The thickness of each specimen is about 2mm
and the average strength value is used for comparing investigation. Bonding strength sTS is defined as follows,
/mm
P
A0
(1)
where P is the maximum load and A0 is the original cross

sectional area of the specimen.
Tensile direction
Cut off
Steel
Bonding interface
Aluminum
Bonding interface
Figure 3. Procedure of tensile test.
EDS Analysis. EDS analysis on bonding interface was

carried out for the specimens in cases 2 and 3 of Table 3
on P4 and P6 (Figure 4). The width of the diffusion zone
is measured and the elemental composition in that zone is
identified.
Aluminum alloy (A6061)

(a) Outer view
(b) Cross sectional view
Figure 2. Appearance of extracted product.
Influence of Interval Time between the Operating

Brushing and Backward Extrusion. In this section, in
order to make easy to observe with TEM, the upper and
lower billets are KTCF10A steel (pure iron) and A1070
alloy (pure aluminum), respectively.
The experimental conditions are shown in Table 4.
Brushing was conducted by the same way of previous
section. Both bottom thickness and upper thickness conditions of the extruded product were chosen as h=16.0 mm.
Figure 4. Observation location on bonding interface.

Case
No.
Upper
material
Lower
material
Time
Compression
/s
/mm
KTCF10A
A1070
10
22
KTCF10A
A1070
30
22
KTCF10A
A1070
50
22
KTCF10A
A1070
70
22
KTCF10A
A1070
90
22
KTCF10A
A1070
KTCF10A
A1070
3600
(1 hour)
172800
(2 days)
22
22
Numerical Simulation
In order to calculate the interface expansion ratio, interface pressure and their history during forging, rigid-plastic
FE analysis was carried out using DEFORM-2DTM. Billet
dimension is the same as in the experiment and has a bottom thickness of hbottom=12.0 mm. The friction coefficient
between tools and material is 0.1 and that between the
steel and Al alloy is 0.2. Figure 5 shows initial FE mesh.
The eight observation points on the interface of the two
materials are set from the center to the edge of the cup
shown in Figure 4 and the relations between reduction and
interface pressure and interface expansion ratio at each
point are investigated.
323
09.08.2010 14:24:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
In case 2, there were some specimens in which bonding
surface separation occurred. Figure 6 shows a SEM observation of the fractured surface and a typical dimple
pattern is found. Material layer at the bonding interface
deforms relative ductile in this case.
Dpunch=36.2mm
Punch
Table 5. Influence of Tbf on bonding strength.
Upper billet
(S10C)
Dbillet=42mm
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8
Lower billet
(A6061)
Container
Figure 5. Example of FE mesh for cold forge bonding.
Results
Influense of Brushing of Contact Surface on Bonding
Strength. Table 4 shows the results of tensile test in cases
1-4 of table3. In the case 1, separation of billets occurred
at bonding interface during wire cutting. A successful cold
forge bonding is impossible without brushing the billet
contact surface.
In case 3, bonding surface separation was found in tensile test. Otherwise, fractures occurred in the Al alloy
matrix material in cases 2 and 4. It is easy to understand
that bonding effect is nurtured by brushing both the upper
and lower billets on the contact surface. Tensile strength
also increases with the increase of extruded amount (case
4) and it correlate with the increase of contact pressure and
surface expansion ratio on bonding interface.
Table 4. Results of tensile test.
sTS
Brushing of
hbottom
/mm
/MPa
contact surface
12.0
-
Case
No.
1
No.
7
172800
(2
days)
Tbf/s
10
30
50
70
90
3600
(an
hour)
TS/MPa
113
110
111
111
107
68
38
Bonding
Table 5 shows the influence of the interval time Tbf between brushing and forging on bonding strength. Bonding
strength increases with the decrease of Tbf. Because the
oxide layer on the surface of the billet increases as time
advances after brushing, bonding has to be performed
under the short Tbf condition to reinforce metal bonding.
Analysis of Bonding Interface by TEM-EDS. Figure
7 shows the TEM image and intensity distribution near the
interface of two materials under the condition of case 3 in
Table 4. The cross area of intensity distribution of Fe and
Al is 50 nm. Because of this very narrow area, intermetallic compound layer or diffusion area doesnt exist or
hardly exist.
A
B
Bonding
state
Lower and upper
12.0
199
good
Lower only
12.0
82
peeling
Lower only
6.0
117
good
Distance/nm
Figure 7. TEM image near interface two materials and intensity
distribution of the case3 of Tabel4.
Figure 6. SEM observation of fractured surface (case 2 in Table 4).
324
09.08.2010 14:24:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influense of Interface Expansion Ratio and Interface
Pressure on Bonding Strength. Figure 8 shows an
example of result of FEM analysis for cold forge bonding,
and Figure 9 shows the ralationship between the contact
surface pressure and punch stroke at P1~P8. that is obtained from FE analysis until punch stroke hbottom=6.0 mm.
Contact surface pressure increases with the decrease of
distance from the center axis of the product.
Figure 10 shows the relationship between the average
contact surface pressure and surface expansion ratio at
each segment of P1-P8. Contact surface pressure of P4-P6
is lower, but surface expansion ratio is larger. Average
contact surface pressure and surface expansion ratio at P4P5 segment are 672 MPa and 540%, respectively. At P5P6 segment, they are 127 MPa and 706%. This result is
similar in concept with the result of Nakamura et al. [6]. In
addition, area of cold forge bonding success is shown in
the upper right region of Figure 10. The boundary is described by a dotted line.
Punch
P8
P7
P6
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8
P1
(a) Container
P5
Punch
P2
P3
P4
(b) Container
Figure 8. Example of result of FEM analysis for cold forge bonding.
Figure 10. Relationship between contact surface pressure and

surface expansion ration (hbottom=12.0 mm).
Conclusions
A two layered cylindrical cup of steel and aluminum alloy is forged by cold backward extrusion, and cold forge
bonding was performed. The bonding strength and diffusion zone are investigated under various forging conditions. As a result, the following conclusions were obtained.
1. Brushing of contact surface is necessary to complete the
cold forge bonding. It is beneficial to brush the contact
surface of the upper and lower billets.
2. Bonding strength increases with the decrease of interval
time between brushing on the contact surface of the billet and cold forge bonding operation.
3. Because the cross area of intensity distribution of Fe
and Al is very narrow, intermetallic compound layer or
diffusion area doesnt exist.
4. Interface pressure above a certain level and a surface
expansion ratio of more than 500% are necessary to obtain strong bonding.
References
[1] N. Bay, C. Clemensen, O. Juelstrop: Annals of the CIRP, 43-1 (1985),
221-224.
[2] W. Zhang, N. Bay: Annals of the CIRP, 41-1 (1992), 293-296.
[3] W. Zhang, N. Bay: Annals of the CIRP, 45-1 (1996), 215-218.
[4] H. Kudo, Y. Kikuchi, K. Miyazaki: Annals of the CIRP, 27-1 (1978),
165-168.
[5] T. Tabata, S. Masaki: Journal of JSTP, 28-322 (1987), 1094-1099.
[6] T. Nakamura, K. Kondo: Journal of JSTP, 28-322 (1987), 1150-1157.
Figure 9. Relationship between contact surface pressure and

punch stroke (hbottom=12.0 mm).
325
09.08.2010 14:24:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Variation in Temperature Distribution of Die from Unsteady to Steady States in HotForging of Car Front-Wheel-Hub
Huachang Wang, Hongfu Wang, Yuxi Tang
School of Materials Science and Technology, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan/P.R. China, wanghch_whut@qq.com
In order to design and manufacture dies in hot-forging of car front-wheel-hubs, it was necessary to calculate the distributions of temperature, stress and strain under real working conditions. This paper simulated the whole working process in hot forging of front-wheel-hubs of
cars by DEFORM-2D program. The temperature distribution varying from unsteady to steady states was simulated. The variable parameter was analyzed quantitatively. The corresponding relationship and difference of temperature distribution between the unsteady and
steady states were revealed.
Keywords: Temperature distribution, Simulation, Thermal balance, Hot forging die
Introduction
In the modern hot-forging industrial production, hot
forging die continuously works; temperature distribution
of hot-forging die continuously changes. There are correlation and essential distinction between unsteady and
steady state temperature distribution. But until now, the
knowledge about temperature distribution of hot-forging
die is limited to unsteady state temperature distribution
without system analysis about steady state. The knowledge about temperature distribution of hot-forging die is
far form overall and concrete.
In order to remarkably improve and increase the service
life span of hot forging die, this paper employ Functionally Gradient Materials to manufacture hot-forging die.
The temperature and stress distribution of hot-forging die
are important parameters to design and manufacture hotforging die. According to the parameters, the preparation
method of Functionally Gradient Materials for this hotforging die could be explored.
This paper simulated the whole working process of hotforging die of a front-wheel-hub by Deform-2D program
and calculated the distributions of temperature, stress and
strain.
Simulation of Car Front-Wheel-Hub Hot-Forging Die
Working Process
Simulation Model. Because the forging workpiece is
axisymmetric, the simulation of half section is enough as
shown in Figure 1. The material of the forging workpiece
is 35# steel (carbon 0.35%wt). The material of hot-forging
die is 4Cr5MoSiV1 steel (H13 or SKD61). The initial
forging temperature of the workpiece is 1220 C. The
finish-forging temperature is 1100 C. The ambient temperature of finish-forging is 20 C. The finish-forging
equipment is 20 MN die-forging machine. The friction
factor between the workpiece and the die is 0.3 under
flowing deformation condition. The heat exchange coefficient is 11 W/(mC) between the workpiece and die under
the deformation condition. Without the deformation, it is 1
W/(mC). The preheating temperature of finish-forging
die is 300 C.
326
Figure 1. Model of workpiece and hot-forging die.
Unsteady State Temperature Distribution in 1st

Forging Cycle Period. After the 1st forging cycle period,
the temperature distribution of the lower die is shown in
Figure 2. A, B, C, L are respectively 295, 315, 334...,
509 C isotherm. From the distribution of isotherm, a
conclusion could be that the variation of temperature takes
only place in inner-surface zone of lower die chamber.
The region where the temperature varied could be named
as temperature fluctuation zone. The region without temperature variation in the lower die could be named as
temperature stable zone. The characteristic of temperature
distribution in the 1stst forging cycle period is shown as
follows:
i) The temperature fluctuation region is constituted with
surface and near-surface zone of die. The range of temperature variation is the least, but the stable temperature
region is the most.
ii) In the temperature fluctuation region, the point of the
highest temperature lied in the surface of the lower die.
From the surface to inner zone, the temperature decreased rapidly. The temperature gradient between surface and near-surface is huge. The maximum temperature point in the surface of lower die is the point 2,
which is 526.5 C. The second maximum temperature
point lied in the entrance of the bridge (Point 1, 494.2
C). The high temperature of two points could be
caused by friction.
iii) The temperature of surface is higher; the thickness of
temperature fluctuation region is thicker. As is shown in
Figure 2, the maximum temperature point (Point 3) is
the thickest temperature fluctuation region.
09.08.2010 14:24:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
creased, but fluctuation range is decreased. The surface
temperature of die chamber receded, but it was still
higher than the pre-heating temperature. For example,
the temperature of Point 2 increased from 300C to
526.5 C (fluctuation range: 226.5 C) in the first forging cycle period as shown in Figure 2, but it was increased from 427.2 to 568.9 C (range: 141.7 C) in the
second forging cycle period as shown in Figure 3. The
range of point 2 was decreased.
Figure 2. Unsteady state temperature distribution in 1st forging

cycle period.
Unsteady State Temperature Distribution in 2nd

Forging Cycle. During the 1st and 2nd forging cycle
periods, the heat exchange takes place between forging die
and operating ambient. The temperature of die chamber
surface is descending. The inner temperature distribution
of the die is changing.
According to the actual forging process of front-wheelhub, the pre-forging workpieces were going to finalforging deformation stage after 4 s. After the final-forging
stage, the finishing part was ejected in 2 s. Then after 2
seconds more again, a new workpiece was put into the
lower forging die. The whole forging process was recycling again and again. The unsteady state temperature
distribution in the second forging cycle was shown in
Figure 3. The difference was shown as follows comparing
to the first forging:
Steady State Temperature Distribution. After the

third, fourth, fifth.forging simulation of process, the
temperature distribution of hot forging die was going to be
steady as shown in Figure 4. During times of forging
cycle period, the characteristic of temperature distribution
of hot-forging die was shown as follows:
i) Temperature fluctuation region gradually become larger;
while temperature stable region gradually become
smaller. Finally the whole forging die turned into temperature fluctuation region.
ii) Maximum temperature of each point on the surface of
the die chamber gradually increased, but the range of
increasing was gradually smaller. Finally, it could be
neglected. Maximum temperature of each point on the
surface of the die chamber approached to a constant
value. The range of temperature variation on each point
on the surface of the die chamber was gradually decreases. Finally, it was a constant value, as is shown in
Figure 5.
iii) When the temperature at each point has a peak, the
range at each point is stable. The car front-wheel-hub
hot-forging die was going to stable temperature distribution after 100 times forging cycle, which accorded
with the industrial production.
Figure 4. Steady state temperature distribution.

Figure 3.Unsteady state temperature distribution in second forging cycle period.
i) The depth of temperature fluctuation region was enlarged. The boundary of temperature region was further
away from the surface of die chamber.
ii) The temperature of the die surface slightly increased.
Maximum temperature point in the surface of die is also
on point 2, which is 568.9 C. Second maximum temperature point is on point 1, which is 540.4 C. The temperatures of two points increase to 42.4 and 46.2 C, respectively.
iii) The temperature on each point in the die slightly in-
Figure 5. Temperature variation curve of each point on die surface.
327
09.08.2010 14:24:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analysis of Steady Temperature Distribution of HotForging Die
When the temperature distribution of hot-forging die
was steady, heat transforming from workpiece to forging
die was equal to that from forging die to surrounding
media. The forging die turned into thermal equilibrium
condition.
Temperature Distribution on Die Surface. When the
hot forging was stable, the summit temperature distribution of the die in every forging cycle is shown in Figure 6
and Table 1.
so Tbf is another important index of thermal load on

forging die surface.
Temperature Fluctuation Region. The temperature
fluctuation region was attaching closely with the die surface (see Figure 6). The temperature fluctuation region
consisted of die surface and hot flow effusing surface. The
hot flow effusing surface could be indicated as following:
There were many thermo isopleths in steady temperature distribution. Those thermo isopleths had inflexion
points near die surface. The inflexion points made up a
series of curves; the curves made up surface. The surface
was flow effusing surface of temperature fluctuation region.
The thickness of temperature fluctuation region could
be defined as following: pick a point A in forging die
surface, from which emits a curve. The tangent of that
curve is the direction of hot flow (vertical to thermo isopleths). That curve and hot flow effusing surface intersect
in the point A'. The distance between point A and point A
was defined as the temperature fluctuation region thickness HB. HB was positive correlated with Tbf , the more
Tbf , the more HB. The HB at point B is about 6.8 mm,

while the HB at point C is only 2.9 mm.
Figure 6. Summit temperature distribution of die in every forging
cycle.
Table 1.Temperature peak of nods on die surface.
Numb B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B6
B7
B8
B9
Numb C1
B10
Temp 731.4 722.1 635.3 605.1 595.1 631.6 678.8 775.0 732.3 700.0
Numb B11
B12
B13
B14
B15
B16
B17
B18
19
Table 2.Temperature of each point on surface of heat flow.
B20
Temp 661.1 677.5 687.6 640.0 592.0 598.2 608.4 681.2 627.2 555.2
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6
C7
C8
C9
C10
Temp 703.7 685.8 604.2 588.9 577.2 617.7 664.4 665.1 661.4 662
Numb C11
C12
C13
C14
C15
C16
C17
C18
C19
C20
Temp 649.2 642.8 638.7 614.2 567.3 559.1 553.8 546.9 545.2 521.7
The temperature peak distribution of forging die surface

is very disparity, in which the temperature of point B8 is
775C at the highest point, while the point B20 is 555.2C.
The characteristic of die surfaces temperature distribution
is shown as following:
1) The place where surface contour was protruding was
the highest temperature point. The friction of metal flow
made the place hotter and hotter. For example, the temperature of points B1, B8 and B18 (Figure 6) were higher
than their the peripheral points;
2) The place, where surface contour was concave and
metal flows slowly, was lower temperature, for example,
the points B3, B5 and B15.
The variation laws of forging die surface temperature
could be described with three characteristic parameters:
summit temperature Tbf , amplitude of temperature variety Tbf and average temperature Tbj . Different points in
die surface have different characteristic values. At the
same point, the above three characteristic values have the
following relationship:
Tbj +
1
Tbf = Tbf
2
(1)
where Tbj could be used to judge thermal load and to

choose die material. Thermal stress is linear with Tbf ,
328
Figure 7. Variation in temperature of each point on the directin of

hot flow.
09.08.2010 14:24:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
The temperature distribution of hot flow effusing surface in the temperature fluctuation region was shown as
Figure 6 and Table 2. Comparing Figure 6 with Tables 1
and 2, the centre of forging die had the highest temperature while it declined gradually along with diameter
(There were 4 specific points excluded). However, the
difference between highest and lowest temperature of flow
effusing surface was relatively less than that of forging die
surface, which indicated that temperature in flow effusing
surface would be more uniform. So, the temperature fluctuation range of hot flow effusing surface can be omitted
comparing with forging die surface.
Picking up a certain point in forging die surface, the
variation of temperature and temperature fluctuation range
of each point are shown in Figures 7 and 8, respectively.
What is shown in Figure 2 is variation of temperature and
temperature fluctuation range of each point along the hot
flow direction of Point 1.
4 was steady state temperature distribution.

The main similarity is as follows:
5) They had the same position of maximum temperature
on the forging die surface.
6) There were two different temperature regions in both
temperature distributions. The two temperature distributions had the similar boundary of the division surface between the two regions.
Results and discussion
There were some differences between the simulation results and the practice, but according to the authors experiences and knowledge, the simulation results reveal the
varying process and laws of the car front-wheel-hub hotforging die temperature distribution. The above analysis
was used to instruct the production in a France car company (The manufacturing factory is in Wuhan in China).
The final forging part was shown in Figure 9.
(a) Top
(b) Down
Figure 9. Final forging part of car front-wheel-hub.
The varying laws of steady temperature distribution of

this hot forging die enlighten us as fellows:
The hot-forging die material in existence cannot endure
high-temperature, high pressure, so we need use FGM to
design hot-forging die. In the temperature gradient dividing line between fluctuating and stable region, the forging
die material continuously works over 550C condition.
The temperature was too high to decrease even by cooling
system. So, some of the performances of materials in the
zone were required to improve.
Figure 8.Temperature fluctuation range at each point in direction
of hot flow.
Acknowledgements
Compare between Steady and Unsteady State Temperature Distributions
This research was supported by the National Natural

Science Foundation of China (No. 50675165)
From a comparison between temperature distributions

in Figure 2 and Figure 4, we can conclude that the main
difference and similarity between unsteady and steady
state temperature distribution.
The main difference is as follows:
1) The temperature in forging die surface had obviously
difference. The temperature in Figure 4 is much higher
than in Figure 2.
2) The fluctuation range of temperature in forging die
surface has difference; the fluctuation range in Figure
4 is much less than in Figure 2. The ratio is 2/3.
3) In Figure 2, there were temperature fluctuation region
and temperature stable region, but in Figure 4 the
whole forging die was fluctuation region.
4) The temperature distribution in Figure 2 varied rapidly.
The heat which forging die absorbed was much more
than it released. The temperature distribution in Figure
References
[1] B.I. Tomov, V.I. Gagov, R.H. Radev: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 153-10 (2004), 352-358.
[2] W.R.D.Wilson, S.R. Schmid, J.Y. Liu: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 155-11 (2004), 1912-1917.
[3] G.H. Krempaszky, E. Werner: Computational Materials Science, 36-4
(2006), 480~489.
[4] P. Ulysse: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 209-8 (2009),
5584-5592.
[5] J. Liu, Z. Cui: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 209-9
(2009), 5871-5880.
[6] M.L. Long: FEM Analysis of the Integrated Stress Exerted on Forging Dies, Wuhan University of Technology, (2004).
[7] Y.X. Tang: Temperature Field & Stress Field Simulation and Optimization of Hot Forging Die, Wuhan University of Technology, (2008).
[8] M.S. Shirgaokar: Technology to Improve Competitiveness in Warm
and Hot Forging Increasing Die Life and Material Utilization [D],
The Ohio State University, (2008).
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Advanced Technology for Plasticity, 245-248 (2007).
329
09.08.2010 14:24:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
Closing of Central Cavity in Shaft Heavy Forging

Cheng Xiu-quan1), Huo Yu-lin2), Xia Qin-xiang2) , Kuang Bei-gu3), Cheng Wen-xuan3)
1)
Guangzhou Civil Aviation College, Guangzhou / China, chengxiuquan@yahoo.com.cn; 2) School of Mechanical and Automotive
Enginnering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou / China; 3) Guangzhou Shipyard Company Limited, Guangzhou / China
Inner defects of heavy forgings are the main reason of leading the service life shortening or even discarding, and the central cavity is the
primary defect of the shaft heavy forgings. The closing of the central cavity during the shaft heavy forgings stretching was researched
based on the finite element simulation and practical experiment. The effects of the blow energy of electric-hydraulic hammer and the
relative reduction of stock on central cavity closing were analyzed. The results indicate that the central cavity tends to be closed with the
increase of the relative reduction of stock; the difference of the lateral and axial deformation of the cavity is inconspicuous, and the lateral
compression is a bit larger than the axial one; the effect of blow energy on the cavity closing is small, and the cavity closing is decided
directly by the relative reduction of stock.
Keywords: Shaft heavy forgings, Stretching, Cavity closing, Blow energy, Relative reduction of stock
Introduction
Stretching is the key forging process affecting the inner
quality and improving the inner defects of the shaft heavy
forgings. The main purpose of the heavy forgings stretching is not only to make the overall sizes of stock close to
the sizes of final forgings, but, in terms of forging quality,
also to eliminate the inner defects of forgings to achieve
the uniform distribution of stress and strain.
The heavy forgings generally refer to the 5-ton above
shaft forgings or 2-ton above disc forgings [1]. Inner
defects of heavy forgings are the main reason of leading
the service life shortening or even discarding, and the
central cavity is the primary defect of the shaft heavy
forgings. The distributions of stress and strain and the
various factors affecting the cavity closing during small
forgings stretching have been investigated, but the established model is only a two-dimensional one, and the deformation of the cavity along the axial direction hasnt
been analyzed [2]. Lots of researches show that the shape
of anvil is the most important factor to influence the
stretching efficiency, the distribution of stress and strain,
and the capability of cavity closing [3,4].
The cavities can be forged and closed by reasonable
forming process during high-temperature deformation,
and the closed cavities can be welded further through the
atomic diffusion and re-crystallization under high temperature, then the continuity of the material can be restored. Therefore, the pre-condition of cavity welding is
cavity closing [5].
The influences of the blow energy of electric-hydraulic
hammer and the reduction of stock on central cavity closing are analyzed through establishing a reasonable finite
element model of the shaft heavy forgings stretching.
Based on the analysis of the numerical simulation software, DEFORM-3D, the manufacturing technique of the
shaft heavy forgings is optimized to guide the actual
produce.
330
Numerical Simulation of Central Cavity Closing during Shaft Heavy Forgings Stretching
Establishment of Finite Element Model. The mesh
size has significant influence on the simulation results.
Generally, to guarantee the simulation accuracy, the side
length of mesh must less than the 1/3 of the minimum
feature size of the model. The flat anvil is usually adopted
to stretching the shaft heavy forgings in the practical
produce. The width of the anvil is 300 mm. The smallest
feature size is the fillet radius, 30 mm. Thus, the side
length of the mesh cant be greater than 10 mm. The cross
section dimension of the stock is 375 mm375 mm. The
numbers of mesh are more than 400,000 if meshing the
forging according to the actual size, which leads to an
over long simulation time. Therefore, the length of the
stock is simplified the 3 times of the anvil width, 900 mm
(as shown in Figure 1).
Figure 1. DEFORM-3D finite element model.
The stock material is steel 35, the initial forging temperature is 1200 20 C. The anvil material is steel H-13.
The anvils and clamping are regarded as rigid body, there
is no plastic deformation. They are meshed only for simulating the temperature conduct.
Establishment of Central Cavity Model. Thermal
contraction occurs during the molten steel cooling and
solidifying, the cavity defects form in the central area of
solidifying lattermost due to lack of complementary
liquid metal. Therefore, the central cavity defect is inevitable. The diameter of the cavity is generally 1-2 mm. The
09.08.2010 14:24:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
cavity of the shaft heavy forgings always lies near to the
axes. Accordingly, only the case near to the axes is analyzed when establish the cavity closing model. The mesh
size near to the cavity is refined to 0.2 mm (see Figure 2).
(a) Cavity model
(b) Mesh refinement of cavity area
Figure 2. Central cavity model.
The shape of central cavity of the heavy forgings is

generally spherical or approximate to spherical. For the
convenience of research, the cavity is considered as
spherical. The diameter of the cavity in the model is 2
mm (see Figure 2). Comparing with the size of forgings,
the size of cavity is too small, which leads to a rapid
increase in the mesh numbers. Consequently, the symmetrical treatment is adopted when modeling and only a half
model is analyzed. In the finite element model, the cavity
is located right below the flat anvil, and the mesh is refined within the cavity area.
Analysis of the Cavity Closing. Applying the concept
of geometry on ellipsoid, two parameters, closure c and
compression f, are put forward to describe the cavity
closing during forging. Suppose the sphere diameter of
the cavity before deformation is d; the spherical cavity
becomes ellipsoidal after deformation, then the dimension
in the direction of reduction (z axis) is h, and the cavity
dimension in its vertical direction (x: axial or y: lateral) is
stretched to Lx or Ly, respectively as shown in Figure 3.
Hereby defines:
closure
c = (d-h) / d 100%
(1)
compression
f=L/h
(2)
When blowing along z axis, the dimension h tends to 0,

c tends to 100%, the cavity tends to close and the dimension L lengthens, the compression f increases, the cavity
deformation becomes large.
hammer which capability parameters are shown in Table

2. The movement parameters of the upper anvil in the
finite element model are set according to Table 2.
Table 1 Material parameters of finite element model.
Parameters
Value
Initial temperature of the forgings
1200C
Initial temperatures of the upper and lower anvils
300 C
Temperature of the environment
28 C
Shear friction coefficient
0.3
Heat transfer coefficient between the forgings and

upper & lower anvils
11000
W/m2 C
Heat transfer coefficient between the forgings and

environment
20
W/m2 C
Table 2 Capability parameters of 4T electric-hydraulic hammer.

Parameters
Value
Maximum blow energy
140 KJ
Blow frequency
40~55 time/min
Maximum hammer stroke
1450 mm
Weight of the falling part
4200 Kg
Maximum blow speed
7.63 m/s
The blow speed of the electric-hydraulic hammer is obtained by adjusting the blow energy of hammer. The cavity closing model with 3 different blow energy, viz. 140,
100 and 60 KJ, are selected and the corresponding maximum blow speed are 7.63, 6.42 and 5.14 m/s. The cavity
dimensions in different deformation stages are recorded,
and the cavity closure c is calculated according to Equation 1, and the curve of the closure c varying with the
relative reduction of the stock is obtained as shown in
Figure 4, where = b / b 100 % , b and b is the crosssection dimension of stock and its variation, respectively
(see Figure 2).
Figure 4 shows that the central cavity tends to closing
(c100%) with the increase of relative reduction , and
the closure c is basically in direct proportion to the relative reduction . Therefore, when the relative reduction
reaches a certain value, the cavity will be closed inevitably, and the central cavity of the forgings can be welded
in the condition of high temperature and pressure.
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of cavity dimension.
To obtain a smooth and flat forging, the feed should be

0.4-0.8 times the anvil width. While manufacturing shaft
heavy forgings, the feed is generally taken as 0.85 times
the anvil width to improve the stretching efficiency [6].
So the anvil width is selected as 300 mm (calculated by
0.85 times anvil width), the feed is 250 mm, the relative
feed is 0.38. The other parameters are shown in Table 1.
The forging equipment used is a 4T electric-hydraulic
Figure 4. Relationship betwwen closure and relative reduction.
331
09.08.2010 14:24:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 4 also shows that the difference of the closure c
is very small for different blow energy, and when the
relative reduction is 28.5%, all the closure values c
reach 100%, namely the cavity is closed. Therefore, the
effect of the blow energy on cavity closing is very small,
and the central cavity will be closed when the relative
reduction reaches 28.5%.
The deformations of the cavity are analyzed quantificationally by using the compression f. The larger the f, the
longer the cavity stretched, and the better the closing
result. Figure 5 is the curve of the variation of the cavity
compressions f with different relative reduction .
gets small, during 5th to 10th blow, size a gets small and
size b gets large.
(a) c=41.5% , = 12.8%
(b) c =61.5% , =18.8%
(c) c =81.8% , =24%

Variation of cavity compression f with relative
Figure 5.
reduaction (blow energy: 60KJ).
Figure 5 shows that the difference of cavity compression along the axial and lateral direction is less obvious.
The lateral compression fy is a bit larger than the axial
one fx. This is because that the axial dimension of heavy
forgings is much bigger than the lateral one, and the flow
resistance of material along axial direction is bigger than
lateral one.
Figure 6 shows the lateral deformation of the cavity.
The spherical cavity is changed into an ellipsoidal one
with the increase of closure c, and when the relative reduction reaches 28%, the cavity starts to close, and the
whole cavity becomes an arc-shaped slender gap along
the cross-section. When reaches 28.5%, the cavity disappears.
(d) c =98% , =28%

Figure 6. Cavity closing process along lateral cross-section.
Experimental Investigation
Experimental Conditions. Two groups of dimensions
a and b and their variation during stretching of the shaft
heavy forging are simulated by finite element method and
measured actually as shown in Figure 7. Then the result
is compared for checking the rationality of the finite element model of the central cavity closing.
The experiment was carried out in a 4T electrichydraulic hammer, and its capability parameters are
shown in Table 2. The rest conditions is the same as being
descripted in the establishment of the finite element
model.
Comparison of Simulation and Experiment Results.
Figure 8 shows the simulation and experimental results
of size a and b of forgings. The forging was given a
quarter turn after 4th and 10th blow. So during 1st to 4th
and 11th to 12th blow, the size a gets large and the size b
332
Figure 7. Measurement of experimental data during stretching.
On the whole, Figure 8 shows that the simulation results conform well to the experimental one. But the variation slope of the simulation curve is slight bigger than the
experimental one. That means the deformation by each
blow from simulation is slight larger than from experiment. The maximum difference is about 2%, and appears
at 4th and 10th blow, respectively. The main reason for
the difference is that the actual energy of each blow has
some fluctuation, and that the blow energy in simulation
is steady and always the maximum.
The Comparison result indicates that the simulation finite element mode is reasonable.
09.08.2010 14:24:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
(a) Size a
1) The central cavity of shaft heavy forgings tends to be

closed with the increase of the relative reduction of
stock. In the condition of this paper, when the relative
reduction researches 28.5%, the cavity will be totally
closed.
2) The difference of the lateral and axial deformation of
the cavity is less obvious, and the lateral compression
is a bit larger than the axial one.
3) The effect of the blow energy of electric-hydraulic
hammer on cavity closing is very small, and the cavity
closure is decided directly by the relative reduction of
stock.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding obtained from Industrial Science and Technology Program
Project of Guangzhou City (Project No.: 2008Z1-D221),
and Major Science and Technology Specific Project of
Guangdong Province (Project No.: 2009A080304004).
References
(b) Size b
Figure 8. Simulation and experiment results of size a and b of
forgings.
[1] D. Zong, Q. Fu: Marine Forgings. Heavy Casting and Forging. 1

(1982), 1-11.
[2] Z. Cui, B. Xu, G. Ren: Journal of Plasticity Engineering, 9-1 (2002),
49-52.
[3] Z. Liu, J. Zhu: Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 30-5
(1994), 83-86.
[4] H. Sun: Heavy Casting and Forging, 2 (2001), 31-39.
[5] Z. Jian, G. Ren, C. Xu, G. Liu: Journal of Plasticity Engineering, 12-1
(2005), 47-49.
[6] Z. Liu: Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 30-5 (1994), 4749.
333
09.08.2010 14:24:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Predictions of Maximum Forging Load and Initial Billets Dimensions of Near NetShape of Near Net-Shape Bevel Gear Forging
Tung-Sheng. Yang, Sheng-Yi. Chang, Zong-Xian. Jiang
1)
Department of Mechanical and Computer-Aided Engineering, National Formosa University, 64, Wunhau Rd., Huwei, Yunlin 632, Taiwan
This study applies the finite element method in conjunction with an abductive network to predict maximum forging load and billet dimensions during near net-shaped bevel gear forging. The initial billets dimensions and maximum forging force of the near net-shape bevel gear
are determined for different process parameters such as modules, number of teeth and nondimentional teeths length. The abductive
network is then applied to synthesize the data sets obtained from the numerical simulation. The predicted results of the initial billets
dimensions and maximum forging load of near net-shape bevel gear forging from the prediction model are consistent with the results
obtained from the FEM simulation quite well. Finally, prediction models are established for predicting maximum forging load and the billet
dimensions under an appropriate range of process parameters.
Keywords: Bevel gear, Near net-shape forging, Finite element analysis, Abductive network
Introduction
Analysis Method
There has been an increased interest in the production of

gears by the precision forming technique. This is because
of their inherent advantages compared with conventional
cutting methods, which include improved strength and
reduced material and production costs. The precision
forging of gears can produce near net-shape forgings with
no chipping of their teeth, so it has been used widely in the
automobile and astronavigation industrial fields.
For the forging of bevel gears, the way to complete
filling up of the material into a die cavity is regarded as
the most important aspect for improving the dimensional
accuracy of gears. For complete filling up, predicting the
power requirement and improving the dimensional
accuracy of the gear are an important feature of the forging
process. Computer aided engineering (CAE) techniques
have been increasingly applied with great success in
metal-forming research to predict the forming load, stress
and strain distribution. Mamalis et. al [1] used the implicit
FE code MARC and the explicit FE code DYNA 3D to
simulate the bevel gear forging process, the simulation
results by MARC seem to be in good agreement with the
experimental results. Lee et. al [2] analyzed the precision
gear forging of a bevel gear by using the rigid-plastic
finite element method. Yang [3] used FEM software
DEFORM-3D to simulate the spur gear forging process.
The DEFORM-3D is appropriated to simulate the forging
process of gear. Yang and Hsu [4] used a finite element
analysis to investigate the maximum forging force and
final face width under different process parameters. The
abductive network is then applied to synthesize the data
sets obtained form the numerical simulation, and a
prediction model is established ultimately.
In this paper, the abductive network is applied to
synthesize the data sets obtained from the numerical
simulation. The predicted results of the maximum forging
load and initial billets dimensions of near net-shape bevel
gear forging from the prediction model are compared with
the results obtained from FEM simulation under a suitable
range of process parameters.
Finite Element Molding. The FEM software

DEFORM-3D [5] has been applied to simulate the plastic
flow of materials during the forming process. For the near
net-shape bevel gear forging process of a plastic
deformation problem, the governing equations for the
solution of the mechanics in plastic deformation for
materials involve equilibrium equations, yield criterion,
constitutive equations and compatibility conditions. The
duality of the boundary value problem and the variation
problem can be seen clearly by considering the
construction of the function:
334
dv
F
s
(1)
u i ds
where is the effective stress, is the effective strainrate, Fi represents the surface tractions and ui is the
velocity components. The variational form for finiteelement discretization is given by [6]:
(2)
= dv + k v v dv Fi u i ds = 0
v
v
s
where is the volumetric strain rate, is functional of
the total energy and work, and k, a penalty constant, is a
very large positive constant. Eqs. (1) and (2) are the basic
equation for the finite element formulation.
Finite Abductive Networks Synthesis and Evaluation.
In the abductive network, a complex system can be
decomposed into smaller, simpler subsystems grouped into
several layers using polynomial functional nodes. The
polynomial network proposed by Ivakhnenko [7] is a
group method of data handing (GMDH) techniques. It
consists of sigma (summation) units in the hidden layer
and pi (product) units in the output layer. Output of a
sigma unit is a weighted sum of its inputs, and output of a
pi unit is a product of its input. Let the kth input pattern to
the network be specified by Xk = [x0k, x1k, x2k, ..., xnk], and
general polynomial function in a polynomial functional
node can be expressed as:
n
y k = c 0 + c i x i + c ij x i x j + c ijk x i x j x k +
i =1
i = 1 j =1
i =1 j = 1 k = 1
(3)
09.08.2010 14:24:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
Schematic diagram of the bevel gear forging process is

shown in Figure 1. The punch is the cylinder shape and
the die insert are tooth-shaped. The material is upset by the
punch, and as a consequence the billet material flows into
the teeth region. Note that N is the number of teeth, m is
the module, D is the diameter of root circle (also the
diameter of billet), H is the length of teeth of bevel gear, R
is the nondimensional teeths length R (R = H / D), is
the cline angle of bevel gear and H0 is the height of billet.
Yang [6] showed the DEFORM-3D is appropriated to
simulate the forging process of the gear. Thus DEFORM3D is used in the present simulation for bevel gear forging.
(a)
in Figure 3(b) is trimmed after the bevel gear is formed

completely, and the finite element analysis is then returned
back to the first step to obtain the desired preform, as
shown in Figure 3(c). The Di and Hf are the diameter and
height of the desired preform for near net-shape forging,
respectively, and the volume of billet is therefore
determined. The obtained modified shape of preform is
then used to form the bevel gear again, and the near netshape of bevel gear is obtained. Figure 3(d) shows the
near-shape bevel gear obtained from the mentioned above
method. Therefore, the prefoms dimensions and volume
of near shape forging are then determined by the current
method. The value of Hf is 17.2mm and the volume of
billet in present simulation are determined.
H0
where xi, xj, xk are the inputs, yk is the output and ci, cij, cijk
are the coefficients of the polynomial functional nodes. To
build a complete abductive network, the first requirement
is to train the database. The information given by the input
and output parameters must be sufficient.
Initial billets shape
(b) Formed by
initial billets shape
Die
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of bevel gear forging process.
Effective stress
400
360
Al5056
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
(c) Modified shape

(d) Final shape
Figure 3. Method to determine near net-shape of bevel gear.
Figures 4 shows the effective stress and effective strain

distributions in the near net-shape of bevel gear forging for
the number of teeth 12, the modulus 0.3 and the
nondimensional teeths length R of bevel gear 0.45. The
values of effective stress and effective strain increase as
the distance from the center increases.
Effective stress
strain rate=4(1/sec)
strain rate=100(1/sec)
280
0.0
H1
Billet
320
55.6
03D
2.0
Effective strain
Figure 2. Schematic Flow stress of AL-5056.
In order to form the near net-shape of bevel gear, a

reverse forming method for obtaining the initial billets
dimensions according to the forward forging of bevel gear
was used. During the analyses, the die and the punch are
assumed to be rigid. The billet used in present simulation
is AL-5056 and the flow stress is shown in Figure 2. The
constant friction factor is assumed 0.1, and the punch
velocity Vp is 0.075 mm/s in this study. The diameter and
height of billet are 15.44 mm and 24 mm respectively. The
forged billet is molded using approximately 6999 nodes,
28781 elements and surface polygons 8104 elements.
The initial shape of billet is shown in Figure 3(a), in
which Di and Hi are initial diameter and height of forged
billet, respectively. Figure 3(b) shows the result of the
bevel gears forging under the condition of the number of
teeth is 12, the modulus is 0.3 and the nondimensional
teeths length R of bevel gear is 0.45. In order to obtain the
near net-shape bevel gear, the height above the black line
Punch
Effective strain
3.1
37.3
2.06
19.1
1.03
0.822
0.0029
0.822
0.0029
55.6
3.1
(a) Effective stress

(b) Effective strain
Figure 4. Effective stress and effective strain distributions.
Effects of Process Parameters on Forging Force and

Billets Volume of Near Net-Shape Bevel Gear Forging.
To investigate the effects of process parameters such as
module m, number of teeth N, and nondimesional teeths
length of bevel gear H on the forging force and volume of
billet of near net-shape bevel gear. Numerical analysis was
performed for each change in these values. The material is
AL-5056 and the flow stress is shown in Figure 5. The
constant friction factor is assumed 0.1 at the billet/punch
and billet/die interfaces. Figure 5 shows the effect of the
number of teeth on the forging load under the condition of
m = 0.3 mm, H = 0.4 and = 150o . Large values of the
number of teeth of gear result in high values of the
335
09.08.2010 14:24:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
maximum forging load. Figure 6 shows the effect of the
number of teeth on the volume of billet of the near netshape helical gear forging. The volume of the billet increases as the number of teeth increases.
Volume of billet(mm3)
16
5000.0
Punch Load(N)
m=0.3 R=0.4
N=12
N=17
N=22
4000.0
3000.0
12
0
0.2
0.0
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
2.0
1600
Punch Stroke(mm)
Figure 5. Effect of number teeth on forging force.
1200
Punch Load(N)
0.4
1.0
0.8
0.6
module
1.2
Figure 8. Effect of module on volume.
1000.0
m=0.3
m=0.6
m=1
16
12
8
800
12
14
16
18
Number of teeth
20
22
m=module of bevel gear

N=number of teeth
R=rate
m=0.3 N=12
R=0.4
R=0.45
R=0.5
400
0
0.0
4
0
m=module of gear
N=number og teeth
R=rate
m= module of gear
N=number of teeth
R=rate
2000.0
N=12 R=0.4
N=17 R=0.45
N=22 R=0.5
0.8
0.4
1.2
1.6
Punch Stroke(mm)
Figure 9. Effect of nondimensional teeths length on forging load.
Figure 6. Effect of number teeth on volume.
20000
Punch Load(N)
16000
10
Figure 7 shows the effect of the module of gear on the

forging load under the condition of N=12, R = 0.4 and
= 150o . Large values of the module of gear result in
higher values of the maximum forging load. Figure 8
shows the effect of the module of gear on the volume of
billet of the near net-shape bevel gear forging. The volume
of billet increases as the module increases. Figure 9 shows
the effect of the nondimesional teeths length of bevel gear
R on the forging load under the condition of m = 0.3, and
N = 12 and = 150o . Large values of the nondimesional
teeths length of bevel gear result in slightly high values of
the maximum forging load. Figure 10 shows the effect of
the nondimesional teeths length of bevel gear on the
volume of billet of the near net-shape helical gear forging.
Large values of the nondimesional teeths length result in
slightly higher value of the volume of billet.
12000
0.42
0.44
0.46
0.48
Rate
0.50
Figure 10. Effect of nondimensional teeths length on volume.
N1
S7
N2
D8
R
m
N3
N4
4000
T6
F1/3
(a) Prediction model for maximum forging force
8000
00
2
0.40
m=module of bevel gear

N=number of teeth
R=rate
N=12 R=0.4
m=0.
m=0.
m=1
m=0.3
N=12
m=0.6
N=12
m=1 N=12
Punch Stroke(mm)
Figure 7. Effect of module on forging force.
N1
N2
R
n
N3
N2
N3
N1
W10
T9
V1/3
D11
(b) Prediction model for the billets volume

Figure 11. Abductive networks built for prediction of near netshape bevel gear forging.
336
09.08.2010 14:24:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
Prediction model for maximum forging force and billets dimensions. The number of teeth N is varied in the
range of 12-22, while the other process parameters are
selected by varying the module of teeth m and the
nondimensional teeths length of bevel gear R in the
ranges of 0.3-1 mm, and 0.4-0.5, respectively. There are
three process variables and each of theses variables was
set at three levels. Therefore, 27(333) combinations of
process parameters are constituted totally and are shown in
Table 1. Basing on the training database regarding to
process parameters, the maximum forging force and initial
billets volume of near net-shape bevel gear forging,
shown in Table 1, the abductive networks with a criterion
of minimum square error can be developed for predicting
the initial billets dimensions and maximum forging force
of near net-shape bevel gear under a suitable range of
process parameters. Two networks shown in Figure 11 are
built for predicting the maximum forging load and initial
billets volumes of near net-shape bevel gear forging. All
of the associated polynominal equations corresponding to
theses networks are listed in Appendix 1. The predicted
square errors are 0.00313493 and 0.000638521 for the
predictions of the initial billets volumes and maximum
forging load of near net-shape bevel gear, respectively.
Table 1. Effect of process parameters on maximum forging force
and volumes of billet.
around the border of suitable range. The predicted results

of the maximum forging force and the billets volume of
near net-shape bevel gear are consistent with those
obtained from FEM simulations quite well. Therefore, the
developed networks have a reasonable accuracy for the
modeling of the near net-shape bevel gear forging process
for the maximum forging load and the billets volume.
Table 2. Comparison of maximum forging load and billets volume
between abductive network prediction and FEM of near net-shape
bevel gear forging.
Conclusion
A prediction model has been established for predicting
the maximum forging force and the billets volume of near
net-shape bevel gear forging by using the finite element
method in conjunction with an abductive network. The
number of teeth, modules and nondimesional teeths
length of bevel gear were taken into account as the process
parameters. The finite element method is used to
investigate the influences of the process parameters such
as the number of teeth, the modules, and the
nondimesional teeths length of bevel gear on the
maximum forging force and the billets volume of near
net-shape bevel gear forging. The abductive network was
then applied to synthesize the data sets obtained from the
numerical simulation. The predicted results of the
maximum forging load and the billets volume from the
prediction model are in good agreement with the results
obtained from the finite element simulation. By employing
the prediction model, it can be provided valuable
references to the prediction of the maximum forging force
and the billets volume under a suitable range of process
parameters in near net-shape bevel gear forging.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank the support from the National
Science Council under grants NSC- 98-2622-E-150-014CC3.
References
In order to validate the accuracy of the prediction model,

another 6 data sets of the suitable range are tested for the
maximum forging force and billets volume of near netshape bevel gear forging predictions. Table 2 shows the
comparison of the maximum forging force and the billets
volume of near net-shape bevel gear forging between the
abductive network prediction and FEM simulation under
various combinations of process parameters, which are
[1] A.G. Mamalis, D.E. Manolakos, A.K. Baldoukas: Journal of Materials

[2] Y.K. Lee, S.R. Lee, C.H. Lee, D.Y. Yang: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology 113 (2001), 59-63.
[3] T.S. Yang: Journal of Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineers, 26
(2005), 547-552.
[4] T.S. Yang, Y.C. Hsu: Journal of Material Science Forum, 532-3
(2006), 861-864.
[5] DEFORM-3D Users Manual, Version 5.1, Scientific Forming
Technologies Corporation, Columbus, OH, (2004).
[6] S. Kobayashi, S.I. Oh, T. Altan: Metal Forming and Finite-Element
Method. Oxford University Press, (1989).
[7] A.G. Ivakhnenko: IEEE Trans. Syst. 1 (1971), 364-378.
337
09.08.2010 14:24:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Net Shape Forging of Light Weight LED Light Housing Developed by Physical
Forming Simulation
Satoru Kuwaharada1), Kenji Nakanishi2), Takehiko Matsuda1), Yasumichi Matsumoto3)
1)
Kagoshima Prefectural Institute of Industrial Technology, Kirishima / Japan, kharada@kagoshima-it.go.jp;

shima City / Japan; 3) Kumamoto University, Kumamoto City / Japan
2)
Kagoshima University, Kago-
A net shape hot forging process and the apparatus to form an LED light housing made of aluminium (JIS-A1050) or magnesium alloy (JISAZ31B) were developed. First, the housing was designed to one-piece construction composed of the heat sink fins and the platform, on
which the electronic circuit to drive an LED light and LED device were fixed. Then, we carried out a series of physical forming simulation
and die modification to form the above housing by net shape hot forging using a hydraulic press machine. The model materials, which were
mixture of wax and powder, were used in the physical forming simulation. The model materials were prepared so that the model materials
represent the similar flow curves to those of aluminium and magnesium alloy deformed at forming temperature. Then, the forging process
and apparatus to form sound products were developed successfully. The LED light housing made of aluminium or magnesium alloy could
be formed by using the proposed hot forging process and the apparatus.
Keywords: Hot Forging, Physical forming simulation, model material, flow curve, material flow, magnesium alloy, aluminium, Housing of
LED light housing
Introduction
LED light is used increasingly because of its less electric energy consumption and its longer life time comparing
to the prevalent tungsten and fluorescent lights. [1-3].
While, LED is weak device at high temperature operation,
and operating temperature should be kept within moderate
temperature range. Then, a proper heat sink is attached to
the LED light housings. Aluminum and magnesium alloy
hold preferable physical properties, such as high strength
with less weight, for material of LED light housings. Thermal conductivity of aluminum is higher than that of magnesium alloy. On the other hand, specific gravity of magnesium alloys is lower than that of aluminum.
In the present investigation, we developed a net shape
hot forging process and the apparatus to form an LED light
housing made of aluminum (JIS-A1050) or magnesium
alloy (JIS-AZ31B). The housing was designed to onepiece construction composed of the heat sink fins and the
platform, on which the electric circuit to drive an LED
light and LED device were fixed. Then, we carried out a
series of physical forming simulation using the model
materials and made die modification to form sound product by the proposed net shape hot forging using a hydraulic press machine. The model materials, which were mixture of wax and powder, were prepared so that the flow
curves of the model materials measured at room temperature represented the similar configurations to those of the
flow curves of aluminum and magnesium alloy deformed
at forming temperature. While, stress level of the flow
curves of the model materials were very low compared to
those of aluminum and magnesium alloy. The apparatus of
physical forming simulation was made of acryl resin. The
apparatus to form an LED light housing made of aluminum or magnesium alloy was slinked to half of actual size
and made of tool steel. The products made of model material and those made of the actual metallic materials were
compared mutually, and performances of the forming
process and apparatus were confirmed.
338
Housing of LED Light Housing

Figure 1 shows the LED light housing which was designed to one-piece construction composed of the heat
sink fins and the platform, on which the electronic circuit
to drive an LED light and LED device was fixed.
Slight modification
of
the
product
design was allowed
in the process of die
modification made
with referring to the
results of physical Figure 1. LED light Housing.
forming simulation.
Physical Forming Simulation Using Model Material
Forging Apparatus and Forming Conditions. Schematic sketch of the forging apparatus, workpiece, product
and dies are shown in Figure 2. The forming apparatus
consists of punch (e), upper die (a), lower die (b), outer
container (c) and base plate (d). The outer container was
made of acryl resin, and forming condition between the
upper and lower dies could be observed in the forging
process. The other components are made of nylon resin.
The dimensions of the cylindrical workpiece were thediameter, Do=84 mm and the height, Ho=12mm. the
height of the product was H1=28mm. The upper die and
lower die would be slightly changed from original design
as a result of modification referring to the results of
physical forming simulation. The upper dies with two
different configurations; i.e., the flat type (a1) and the
circular truncated cone type (a2) were prepared. Dimensions of D1, D2 and H2 in Figure 2 are D1=54 mm, D2=46
mm and H2=6 mm respectively. While, the lower dies
with two different corner designs; i.e., the rectangular
corner (b1), and the slant corner of C=3mm, (b2), were
prepared. Temperature of model material was kept to 25
09.08.2010 14:24:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
o
C and punch speed in forming simulation was 0.5 mm/s.

Lubricant was soapy water.
the well-known empirical following equation in a strain

range of 0.05-0.7.
0 n
(2)
where n is the work-hardening exponent. Figure 6 shows

the value of powder content Pw (mass%) with regard to
the value of n in Eq. (2).
Figure 2. Schematic sketch of forging apparatus, workpiece,

product and dies.
True stress / MPa
Workpiece Materials and Model Materials. The flow

curves of aluminium (JIS-A1050) and magnesium alloy
(JIS-AZ31B) measured by the uniaxial compression tests
are shown in Figure 3. Deformation temperature was 300
o
C and punch speed was 0.5 mm/s in the uniaxial compression tests. Lubricant used in the tests was MoS2 lubricant.
80
AZ31B
60
A1050
40
20
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Referring to the previous research results [4], the model

materials of aluminum and that of magnesium alloy could
0.8
Ture strain /
Figure 3. Flow curves of aluminium, (JIS-A1050) and magnesium

alloy, (JIS-AZ31B). Deformation temperature: 300 oC and punch
speed: 0.5 mm/s.
Physical forming simulation of a metal forming process

could be carried out by using the model material when the
model material represents the similar strain dependence of
flow stress to that of actual workpiece material. In the
previous investigation [4], the authors had developed the
model materials which were fabricated with wax and the
powders. Figure 4 shows the flow chart explaining fabrication process of model material, confirmation of the flow
curves of that material and application to forming simulation. Furthermore, the authors had proposed the method to
predict the flow curve of the model material containing the
powder, Pw mass%, by using the following equation:
0
( q )
K ex p
(1)
where the value of parameter q was determined as 6.0 and

K is a function of the powder content Pw [mass%]. Figure
5 shows the value of parameter K with regard to powder
content, Pw mass%. The flow curve of the model material
with Pw mass% can be calculated numerically by using Eq.
(1) and K-Pw relation. The flow curve is represented by
Figure 4. Flow chart explaining fabrication process of model material, confirmation of flow curves of that material by uniaxial compressive test and application to forming simulation.
Figure 5. Value of parameter K

with regard to powder content,
Pw.
Figure 6. Value of powder

content, Pw with regard to
parameter n.
be prepared by the following procedure written below.

First, the flow curves of aluminum and magnesium alloy
shown in Figure 3 were represented by Eq. (2), in the
strain range, 0.05-0.7. Then, the values of 0 and n were
determined as 0 =53.8 MPa and n=-0.14 for magnesium
alloy AZ31B and 0 =62.5 MPa and n=0.21 for aluminum
A1050. Referring to Figure 6, the value of Pw in the
model material of AZ31B was estimated as 40 mass%, and
that value in the model material of A1050 was 75 mass%.
Then, the model materials with the above powder contents
were fabricated, and confirmation of the flow curves of the
models were made by uniaxial compressive tests. The
values of 0 and n were calculated as 0 =46.0 kPa and n =
-0.11 for the model material of AZ31B and as 0 =166.5
kPa and n =0.20 for the model material of aluminum.
Figure 7 shows mutual comparisons of the flow curves
of the model materials and the actual materials represented
by relative stress /0 and strain curves. We could confirm that the (/0) curves of the models coincides with
those of the actual materials respectively.
339
09.08.2010 14:24:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 7. Mutual comparisons of flow curves of model materials

and actual materials.
Results of Physical Forming Simulation and Modification of Die Design

Corner Design of Lower Die and Modification of
Product Design. A series of forming simulation was carried out by using the model materials, and modification of
die design was made so that the sound products could be
formed by the proposed forming process. Figure 8 shows
the photographs of the workpiece and product made of
model material (of AZ31B) with powder content, Pw =40
mass%.
Figure 9 shows the photographs of the cross sectional
views of the products formed by using three different
combinations of the lower and upper dies which are illustrated by the die shapes. The photographs I shows the
result when the upper die of the flat type, (a1) in Figure 1,
and the lower die with the rectangular corner, (b1) in Figure 1,
II shows the results when the upper die of the flat type and
the lower die with the slant corner of C=3 mm, (b2) in
Figure 1, were used. Then, the cross section of the product
shows that shearing deformation is not observed at the fin
section. Photographs III shows the results when the upper
die of the circular truncated cone type, (a2) in Figure 1,
and the lower die with the slant corner of C=3 mm were
used. Then, remarkable material flow to the fin section can
be observed between the upper die and the lower die. Furthermore, shearing deformation at the fin section is not
observed. Incremental forming experiments were carried
out to observe forming conditions in the forging process
when the upper die and the lower die shown in III in Figure 9 were used. Figure 10 shows the products partially
formed when punch strokes are changed from 0 to 14.3
mm, 0 to 18.2 mm, 0 to 20.4 mm and 0 to 21.0 mm, respectively in the incremental forming experiments.
Figure 11 shows the punch load and stroke curves
measured in the experiments. The numbers attached to the
curves correspond to those of the incremental forming
experiments in Figure 10. Insufficient material flow to the
fin section is observed even in No. 5 in Figure 10 and
steep increment of punch load is observed in Figure 11.
Figure 8. Photographs of (a) workpiece and (b) product.

Figure 10. Configuration of product partially formed in forming
experiment using upper die and lower die, III in Figure 9.
Figure 9. Photographs of the cross sectional views of the products

formed by using three different combinations of the lower die and
upper die.
were used. Deformation of workpiece between the upper

die and the lower die was little and shearing deformation
occurred at the fin section in the product. The photographs
340
Figure 11. Punch load and punch stroke curves measured in

incremental forming experiments.
Modification of Die Design and Product Design. Figure 12 shows the photograph of the reverse face of the
product made of model material (Pw=40 mass%) formed
by using the upper die and the lower die, III in Figure 9.
09.08.2010 14:24:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
A funnel appeared at the back end of the fin part formed
by extrusion process. Then the flow guide plate with thickness 1 mm was attached to the lower die so that the above
defect could be eliminated. Figure 13 shows the illustrations of front end view of the lower die seen through the
product and photographs of reverse face of the product.
The ordinal lower die was used in (A). While, the lower
die with the flow guide plate was used in (B). As a whole,
optimization of die design could be accomplished by the
above modification procedure made with referring to the
results of a series of forming simulation.
to the results of the physical simulation using the model

materials.
Figure 14. Photographs of products made of magnesium alloy,

AZ31B. (A): without flow guide plate, (B) with the flow guide plate.
Figure 12. Photographs of reverse face, enlarged corner area and
cross section of product corresponding to No. 5 in Figure 10,
arrows indicate funnels appeared at back end of fin parts formed
by extrusion process.
Figure 15. Punch load and punch stroke curves. (A): without the
flow guide plate, (B) with the flow guide plate, workpiece: AZ31B.
Conclusions
Figure 13. Schematic illustrations of plastic flow and macrophotograph of model materials with or without flow guide.
Confirmation of Forming Process, Dies and Product.

The configurations of the dies and product, which had
been optimized by the physical forming simulations using
the model materials, were confirmed by carrying out the
forming experiments using the magnesium alloy workpiece. Forming apparatus was half scale of that used in the
forming simulations using the model materials. Forming
temperature was 300 oC, press ram speed was 0.5 mm/s
and lubricant was MoS2. Figure 14 shows the photographs
of the products. (A) shows the product formed by the upper die and lower dies which were the same configurations
as those of (A) in Figure 13. (B) shows the product formed
by the upper die and lower die (attached the flow guide
plate) which were the same as those of (B) in Figure 13.
Figure 15 show the punch load and stroke curves measured in the above forging processes. Forming load is
slightly lower in (B) than that in (A).
The funnels are observed in the back end of the fin parts
in (A). On the other hand, the funnels are not appeared in
(B). We confirmed that the modification of die design and
product design could be made successfully with referring
The model materials, which represent the similar flow

curves to those of aluminium (JIS-A1050) and magnesium
alloy (JIS-AZ31B), deformed at temperature 300 oC and
punch speed 0.5 /mm, were prepared. Stress level of the
flow curves of the model materials are in the order of kPa
and deformation temperature is around 25 oC. A series of
physical forming simulation of net shape forging of LED
light housing were carried out by using the above model
materials. Then, modification of the upper die and lower
die to form sound product could be made successfully with
referring to the results of the forming simulations. The
performances of the forming process and dies developed
by the above procedure were confirmed by the forging
experiments using the actual materials.
References
[1] K. Bando: Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan,
92-6 (2008), 307-310.
[2] T. Taguchi: Journal of the Color Science Association of Japan, 31-2
(2007), 95-98.
[3] Y. Ohtani: Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan,
90-12 (2006), 896-902
[4] S. Kuwaharada, K. Nakanishi, Y. Mure, Y. Matsumoto: Proc. 59th
Japan Conference for Technology of Plasticity, (2008), 351-352, (in
Japanese).
341
09.08.2010 14:24:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Hot Forging Deformation Rate to Carburizing Treatment for Hot Forging Parts
Wei-Shin Lin1), Chun- Feng Tseng2)
1)
2)
Department of Mechanical and Computer-Aided Engineering, National Formosa University, Huwei, Yunlin / Taiwan, linwhs@nfu.edu.tw;
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Formosa University, Huwei, Yunlin / Taiwan
Low carbon-steel specimens were hot forged with different forging deformation rate and forging direction by hot forging, and the forged
specimens were carburized in carburizing atmospheres with different carbon potential. The carburized specimens were examined with
microstructures observation and hardness measurement. The reaults show the forging deformation rate will affect the microstructures of
carburized layer and non-carburized interior. The carburizing depth was decreased as forging deformation rate increased, and the higher
the carbon potential, the higher is the carburizing depth. The surface hardness of carburized and quenched specimens through hot forging
was significantly increased as forging deformation rate increased at 0.4% carbon potential; while it slightly increased at 0.8% or 1.2%
carbon potential as the forging deformation rate was below or above 30%, respectively.
Keywords: Forging deformation rate, Carburizing atmospheres, Microstructures, Carburizing depth, Surface hardness
Introduction
The forging process was completed by impacting or
extruding, the metal materials shape could be changed
with different die and tool under plastic deformation. After
the forging process, with the shape changed and the mass
as well as constituent of the material remaining unchanged,
the shape, dimension and mechanical property were fit in
with the requirement. The metal flow and grains structure
could be controlled to get the product with combination of
good strength and toughness through the forging process.
The machine parts with high load and high using
frequency were almost manufactured by forging process.
Steel parts were heated frequently to recrystallizational
temperature through the hot forging process. Since steel
parts were forged under the high temperature, they may
have the fine workability and low deformation energy.
After the forging process of the low carbon-steel,
carburizing and quenching treatment must be taken in
order to increase the surface hardness of the parts.
Carburizing treatment is a surface hardening method,
which will increase carbon contents of surface layer of
steel parts with the diffusion of carbon atoms, and
carburized steel parts then were quenched to produce
hardening case. The grain size will become small after hot
forging process as a result of recrystallization.
Furthermore, the grain size and grain orientation of the
forged specimen will be changed. These phenomena may
affect the diffusion of carbon atoms through carburizing
treatment, but the effect is not known [1]. Carburizing is a
diffusion process of carbon atoms at surface layer of steel
parts. A majority of carburizing operations utilize a gas
carburizing process. The process involves interchange of
carbon atoms between carburizing atompheres and iron in
austenite state [2]. Gas carburizing is a process of carbon
adsorption on surface and diffusion into interior of iron in
austenite state. This will cause carbon atoms in the gas
phase transfer to the solid phase. Accordingly, carbon
content on surface layer of steel parts will be increased,
then follows quenching to produce a hardening case [2-5].
In this study, the hot forged specimens of different hot
forging deformation rate for low carbon-steel JIS-S20C
were carburized under different carbon potential (CP). The
342
carburized specimens were examined with observation of

microstructures and measurement of surface hardness, to
reveal the effect of different forging deformation rate and
carbon potential conditions on carburizing phenomena of
hot forged steel parts.
A low carbon steel JIS-S20C was used in this study. The
chemical composition of the steel is given in Table 1.
Table 1. Chemical composition of JIS-S20C carbon-steel.
Element
C
Mn
Si
P
S
Fe
Wt%
0.20
0.82
0.20
0.03
0.03
Bal.
First, the specimens were heated to 1000 C and hold

30 minutes in order to the uniform of temperature. Hot
forging process was completed with hydraulic press by
free forging type. The hot forging deformation rate (HW)
were selected as 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%. In this study, hot
forging deformation rate (HW) is defined as
HW (%) =
H0 H
100%
H0
(1)
where H0 is the initial thickness before hot forging and H

is the final thickness after hot forging.
The hot forged specimens were carburized at carburizing
atmospheres with 0.4, 0.8 and 1.2 % carbon potential respectively in a batch-type sealed (methanol, CH3OH)
dripping carburizing furnace. The carburizing treating was
carried out at temperature 930 C for 2 h. Then some
specimens were cooled directly to room temperature after
carburizing in order to the measurement of the carburizing
depth and observation of carburizing microstructures. And
some specimens were cooled to 820 C from carburizing
temperature and then water quenched for surface hardness
measurement.
09.08.2010 14:24:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental Results and Discussion
Effect of Forging Deformation Rate to Carburizing
Microstructure. In order to understand the effect of the
forging deformation rate to carburizing microstructure of
hot forging parts, the carburizing microstructures were
observed by optical microscope. The results were shown
in Figures 1-3. From Figure 1 to Figure 3, it can be found
that the microstructures of carburizing layer near surface
consist of pearlite and ferrite for CP = 0.4 and 0.8%, but
more pearlite for CP=0.8%, while pearlite and Fe3C for
CP=1.2%. Also, we can find that the forging deformation
rate will affect carburized microstructure and even noncarburized interior microstructure.
The larger the forging deformation rate, the finer is the

microstructure (fine pearlite and ferrite) at same carbon
potential (CP). This is due to recrystallization of deformed
grains through hot forging process. While the larger the
forging deformation rate, the finer is the grain.
Accordingly, this will present a finer microstructure after
carburizing.
Microstructure of carburized layer (left side in figures)
is finer than that of non-carburized interior (i.e., right side
in figures) under same forging deformation rate and
carbon potential. This is due to carbon content of
carburized layer is higher than that of non-carburized
interior, more Fe3C was formed in carburized layer to
impede the motion of grain-boundary and resulted in
fining of carburizing microstructure.
(a) HW=10%
(a) HW=10%
(b) HW=30%
(b) HW=30%
(c) HW=50%
Figure 1. Carburizing microstructure for CP=0.4%.
(c) HW =50%
Figure 2. Carburizing microstructure for CP=0.8%.
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09.08.2010 14:24:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) HW=10%
(b) HW=30%
difficult than that of along grain-boundary as a result of

the difference of grains orientation. The finer the grain, the
more is the grain-boundary. The grain-boundary is a
barrier of atoms diffusion, which will impede carbon
atoms diffusion. Hence grain-boundary increasing will
reduce carbon atoms diffusion rate, this leads to a
decreasing of carburizing depth. The larger the forging
deformation rate, the finer is the grain and also the more is
the grain-boundary. The grain-boundary effect responds a
decreasing in carburizing depth. Furthermore, we can find
that as forging deformation rate is larger than 20%,
carburizing depth is slightly affected by the forging
deformation rate at 0.4% carbon potential, the carburizing
depth is only about 0.2mm. However, carburizing depth is
significantly affected by the forging deformation rate at
0.8% and 1.2% carbon potential.
The carburizing depth will be increased while carbon
potential is increased at a fixed forging deformation rate.
The higher the carbon potential, the more is the absorption
amount of carbon atoms on surface of steel part. The more
the absorption amount of carbon atoms on surface of steel
part, the higher is the concentration gradient of carbon
atoms on carburizing layer. From Fick's diffusion first law
J = - D (dc/dx), it can be known that a higher
concentration gradient of carbon atoms (dc/dx) will be
having a higher diffusion flux (J). A higher diffusion flux
will cause more carbon atoms diffusion into interior of
specimen. Therefore, no matter what the forging
deformation rate is high or low in hot forged steel
specimens, carbon atoms can diffuse with high diffusion
rate at a higher diffusion flux due to a higher carbon
potential. This responds a larger carburizing depth.
(c) HW=50%
Figure 3. Carburizing microstructure for CP= 1.2%.
Effect of Forging Deformation Rate and Carbon Potential on Carburizing Depth. The carburizing depth of
carburizing specimens can be measured with micro-ruler
by optical microscope observation. The carburizing depth
of carburizing specimens at different forging deformation
rate and carbon potential was shown in Figure 4. From
Figure 4, it can be found that the carburizing depth was
decreased as forging deformation rate increased at 0.8 and
1.2% carbon potential. This implies the carburizing depth
will be decreased as a result of hot forging process. Hot
forging may cause grains deformation and recrystallization
simultaneously, result in grains fining. The fining grains
after recrystallization will increase grain-boundary.
Carbon atoms diffusion across grain-boundary is more
344
Figure 4. Effect of forging deformation rate to carburizing depth.
09.08.2010 14:24:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Forging Deformation Rate to Surface
Hardness of Hot Forged Parts. The surface hardness of
hot forged steel specimens, which were carburized and
water quenched, was shown in Figure 5. From Figure 5, it
can be found that the surface hardness was increased as
forging deformation rate increased at 0.4% carbon
potential. This is due to grains fining after recrystallization
through hot forging. The higher the forging deformation
rate, the finer is the grain size. Accordingly, the specimens
will obtain a higher surface hardness as a result of fine
martensite after carburizing and quenching. While carbon
potential is 0.8%, the higher the carbon potential or the
forging deformation rate, the higher is the surface hardness,
but the increasing scope was small. Furthermore, the
surface hardness keeps constant as the forging deformation
rate is below 30% at 0.8% carbon potential. However,
surface hardness keeps constant as the forging deformation
rate is above 30% at 1.2% carbon potential. This implies
that surface hardness of the steel specimens was less
sensitivity to the forging deformation rate as the forging
deformation rate is below 30% or above 30% under 0.8%
or 1.2% carbon potential, respectively .
Conclusions
The carburizing and quenching treatments with different
carburizing condition were conducted to the hot forged
steel parts with different forging deformation rates. The
carburized steel specimens were examined with
microstructures observation and hardness measurement.
From the experiment results, it can be found that:
1. Microstructure of carburized layer is finer than that of
non-carburized interior under same forging deformation
rate and carbon potential. And the larger the forging
deformation rate, the finer is the microstructure.
2. The carburizing depth was decreased as the forging
deformation rate increased. But no matter what forging
deformation rate is high or low in hot forging parts, the
higher the carbon potential, the higher is the carburizing
depth.
3. The surface hardness of carburizing specimens through
forging was increased as the forging deformation rate
increased at 0.4% carbon potential. And the surface
hardness of the specimens will present less sensitivity
to the forging deformation rate as the forging
deformation rate is below 30% or above 30% at 0.8%
or1.2% carbon potential, respectively.
Acknowledgement
The financial supports of this study by National Science
Council (Taiwan) (NSC97-2221-E-150-035) was acknowledged.
References
[1] D. Jandov, R. Diviov, L. Sklov, J. Drnek: Journal of Achievements in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, 16 (2006),17-24.
[2] ASM: Metals Handbook, ninth ed., Heat Treating, ASM International,
Metals Park, OH, 3 (1981), 135-175.
[3] F.J. Harvey: Metallurgical Transactions A, 9A (1978), 1507-1513.
[4] J.H. Kaspersma, R.H. Shay: Journal of Heat Treating, 1-4 (1980), 2128.
[5] C.A. Stickels, C.M. Mack, M. Brachczek: Metallurgical Transactions
B, 11 (1980), 471-491.
Figure 5. Effect of forging deformation rate to surface hardness of

hot forged steel parts.
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09.08.2010 14:24:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of Variable Warm Forging Process Chain

Hanns Kache, Rouven Nickel, Bernd-Arno Behrens
Department of Production Technology, IPH - Institute of Integrated Production Hannover gemeinntzige GmbH, Hannover / Germany,
kache @iph-hannover.de
Warm forged parts have advantages in comparison to conventional hot forged parts: Closer tolerances, reduced surface roughness, no
scale and reduced decarburization. However, the geometrical spectrum of warm forged parts is restricted by high flow stress. To overcome
this geometrical limitation, new rolling and forging processes are developed in the European research project DeVaPro Development of a
Variable Warm Forging Process Chain. In the focus is layout of warm preforming operation by cross wedge rolling followed by an intermediate heating and warm final forming in conventional dies. To get an idea of the effect of lower temperatures on process parameters, e. g.
force, die wear and microstructure as opposed to hot forging processes, Finite Element Analysis and experimental tests with a model are
performed. In this paper a new warm cross wedge rolling process is introduced and results of initial experimental tests (e. g. mechanical
characteristics and microstructure), FEA and simulations of process forces are shown.
Keywords: Warm forging, Cross wedge rolling, Intermediate heating
Introduction
Many automobile components e. g. for engine, power
train and chassis are high duty parts with high requirements concerning mechanical properties and quality. They
are mostly produced by forging. The standards for these
parts are permanently increasing, thus the products and
processes in forging also have to fulfill rising demands.
Additionally, the globalization of economic life has intensified the suppliers competition. The increasing prices for
energy and steel cause a rising interest on the side of the
manufacturers to reduce these cost factors. Next to the
costs, another challenge is to meet the ecologic demands
for the reduction of energy and material [1].
The majority of parts made of steel are hot forged at
temperatures between 1000 C and 1300 C. The main
disadvantage of this temperature level is the occurrence of
scale, which leads to bad surface qualities and a waste of
valuable material. Additionally, scale exerts a negative
influence on the durability of the tools. This can be
avoided using warm forging processes. Warm forging is an
economical alternative to the conventional hot forging
technology. It offers several advantages that contribute to
economic, environmental and social issues. These are:
closer tolerances IT 9 to IT 8, improving the material
utilization and decreasing the allowances for subsequent machining operations,
reduced surface roughness (less than 20 m),
no scale, reduced decarburization improving the
product quality and
reduced energy input.
There are numerous definitions for the warm forging
process of steel. They all have in common that the temperature range is considered to be approximately 600 C to
900 C. This temperature range is limited by major material specific properties e. g. flow stress, fracture strain and
scale formation. The lower limit of the temperature range
is given by a significant increase in flow stress and a decrease in formability of material. The upper limit is set by
an increase of scale formation and decarburization, which
346
has a negative impact on the final work piece surface quality [2-4].
The geometrical spectrum of warm forged parts is limited. The more the mass distribution varies along the longitudinal axis, the more forging operations are necessary,
as the tool material can only withstand limited loads. Additional forming operations cause a negative impact on the
achievable tolerances. This is caused by cooling in each
forming step [5].
New Warm Forging Process Chain
To overcome this geometrical limitation of warm forging a new process chain is developed in the EU-founded
project DeVaPro Development of a Variable Warm
Forging Process Chain. In this project a common hot
cross wedge rolling process is adapted to the special requirements of warm forming. This preforming operation
allows a wider mass distribution in one step in comparison
to die forging. Furthermore, an intermediate heating operation is integrated in the process chain to compensate loss
of heat. The following process chain configuration results:
cutting, induction heating, rolling, intermediate heating,
forging, punching and cooling (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Warm forging process chain including rolling and intermediate heating.
In the project DeVaPro two long flat parts (steering link

and connecting rod) were chosen as sample parts. Long
flat pieces are according to the definition of [6] part of
shape class 3, parts with pronounced longitudinal axis.
Additionally, the work pieces are not axis symmetric to the
09.08.2010 14:24:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
longitudinal axis and have subsidiary elements. A steering
link is currently hot forged and is transferred into the new
warm forging process chain in this project. This part is a
typical long flat piece and its forging sequence is shown in
Figure 2.
(b) CWR
(a) Raw part
(c) Preforming
(d) Final forming
Flash
Figure 2. Forging sequence of sample part steering link.
Initial Investigation of Material Properties

Before starting experimental tests, first practical test
with a conventional cross wedge rolling machine were
done and work pieces of the material 38MnVSi5 were
investigated. Theses tests and analyses were conducted in
order to study the effect of the temperature reduction on
the micro structural and mechanical characteristics of the
slugs forged at temperatures between 900 and 1200 C.
The results are described in the following.
The micro structural analysis was performed on cross
section of forged parts. The sample surface was prepared
by polishing and etching. Etching reagent was nital 2 %.
The micro structural analysis was done using a field emission gun scanning electron microscope (FEGSEM) Quanta
Inspect FEY equipped with energy and wavelength dispersive X-ray spectrometers. The structure is generally fine
grained with grain size ranging from 8-9 m (samples
formed at 900 C), 7-8 m (samples formed at 1080 C) to
5-7 m (samples formed at 1230 C). Selected micro
structure pictures are shown in Figure 3 and 4.
Figure 4. Microstructure of cross wedge rolled piece at 1230 C.
The microstructure of the analysed samples is fine lamellar pearlite with outlined ferrite. The amount of ferrite
is within the limits for this steel alloy (10-30%) and did
not reveal significant modifications due to different heating temperatures other than slight differences in grain size.
The morphology of the pearlite and interlamellar distances
as well as ferrite aspect are rather similar for all the forming temperatures.
A typical defect during cross wedge rolling is the occurrence of internal defects or voids, which influence the
forged parts negatively [7,8]. In the project DeVaPro no
internal defects or voids were detected at this stage of
forming.
The mechanical characterization was done by tensile test
and impact test. Tensile test was performed using an universal testing machine EU40tf type. 10 mm diameter tensile test bars were cut from the preformed sample and
tested at 20 C. Charpy U bending impact test (EN 100451) was done on impact testing machine WPM30 type. The
test bar has a 3 mm notch (KCU 3). For every forging
temperature three test bars were cut from the preformed
billets.
The tensile strength decreases as forging temperature
decreases. At a forging temperature of 1230 C tensile
strength is 870 N/mm, at 1080 C tensile strength is 860
N/mm and at 900 C tensile strength is almost 800 N/mm.
The fracture mechanism of the cross wedge rolled samples
was ductile-fragile. The fracture surface analysis showed a
small ductile fracture area and crystalline brittle fracture
surface for the rest of the cross section of samples. No
significant differences in the fracture surface were observed for samples heated at different temperatures.
FEA of Forging Process
Figure 3. Microstructure of cross wedge rolled piece at 900 C.
FEA with the simulation program FORGE 2009 are used

to investigate the effect of lower temperature during the
rolling and forging process in comparison to hot forging.
The main focus is rolling forces, die stress and the temperature distribution, because these are the most important
parameters in the forging industry.
The mass distribution of the rolled billet in the forging
sequence is parameterized and shown in Figure 5 relating
347
09.08.2010 14:24:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
70
Horizontal force in kN
to Table 1. This billet shape allows minimum flash occurrence after final forming (see Figure 2 - Final forming).
850 C
60
50
900 C
40
30
1,250 C
20
10
0
0
Figure 5. Parameterized cross wedge rolled billet.
Parameter
Diameter of cross section
Original size
60 % Scale
30 mm
18 mm
Diameter of raw material
d0
42 mm
25 mm
Length of work piece
188 mm
113 mm
Length of inner cylinder
LI
62 mm
37 mm
Length of side area
L II
13 mm
8 mm
For the new cross wedge rolling process an optimum design of the rolling tools is derived from the billet geometry
(see Figure 6). The wedge angle was iteratively varied
between the maximum of 12 and the minimum of 3.
Criteria, which have to be met, are a minimum wedge
length to reduce temperature loss and a rolled billet free
from structural defects. The optimum wedge angle was
found at 7. The forming angle is fix and is 25 because
its influence to the mass distribution of the billet should be
eliminated. Otherwise, the final form including the flash
would be influenced negatively.
Vertical
Sizing zone
Horizontal
Forming zone
Serrations
Knifing
zone
Distance in mm
Figure 7. Horizontal force (original size).
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
850 C
Vertical force in kN
Table 1. Dimensioning of cross wedge rolled billet for different

scales.
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550
900 C
1,250 C
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550
Distance in mm
Figure 8. Vertical force (original size).
Scaling down Cross Wedge Rolling Process

To margin technical and monetary effort of the experimental equipment the wedge and work piece geometry are
scaled down. The challenge was to represent the original
process. The most essential criterion during the scaling
procedure is the surface-volume-ratio. This ratio has an
impact on the temperature distribution in the work piece.
The temperature distribution in the down scaled model
must be qualitatively equal to the original process. An
adequate compromise was found using FEA (FORGE
2009) at 60 %. The temperature distribution of the rolled
original sized and down scaled billet are shown and compared in Figure 9.
Wedge angle : 7
Forming angle : 25
Workpiece
Figure 6. Wedge tool.
To identify the effect of lower temperatures on the load

of the rolling machine, horizontal and vertical rolling
forces are analysed. The simulations show that the maximum horizontal force increases from 20 kN (1250 C) up
to 50 kN (900 C) and is more than doubled. At 850 C the
horizontal force is 60 kN (see Figure 7). The maximum
vertical force increases from 60 kN (1250 C) to 140 kN
(900 C) and is shown in Figure 8. Overall the horizontal
force is a third of the vertical force.
Figure 9. Temperature distribution in rolled billet.
348
09.08.2010 14:24:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental Tests
The aim of the experimental tests is the applied investigation of the effect of different temperatures, wedge configurations, materials and raw part diameters on the cross
wedge rolling process.
The experimental equipment is integrated in a hydraulic
press from the manufacturer NEFF. The wedge tools are
designed in a flat wedge configuration and moved linear
by the force of two hydraulic cylinders. This experimental
equipment configuration is much simpler and economical
in comparison to a cross wedge rolling machine with two
rollers.
The wedge fixture allows mounting of different wedge
tools in order to test different wedge geometries. Two
hydraulic cylinders (50 kN each) are connected with bearing blocks to the wedge fixture and deliver the forming
force. Hence, the direction of the hydraulic cylinders and
the forming force are in the same plane. Thereby shear
force and negative torque are avoided. The bearing block
allows clearing in the case of overturning.
To record the forming forces between wedge fixture and
hydraulic cylinder force probes are mounted. The upper
system of the experimental equipment is equal to the lower
system and is mounted to the press ram directly. Lower
and upper systems compose the complete experimental
equipment (see Figure 10).
40
Horizontal force in kN
This scale factor allows analogically showing of the developed cross wedge rolling process. Rolling time in both
cases is 1.5 seconds and is an expedient compromise between industrial approved CWR times of one or two seconds.
The geometric parameters of the cross wedge rolled
work pieces are given in Figure 5 relating to Table 1.
Knifing
zone
30
Forming zone
Sizing
zone
20
10
0
0
50
100
150
200 250
Distance in mm
300
350
Figure 11. Experimental measurement of horizontal force at

900 C (60 % scale).
Conclusions
A warm cross wedge rolling sequence was introduced
and integrated into a warm forging process chain to overcome the limitation of the geometric spectrum of warm
forged parts. Cross wedge rolled samples were tested at
different temperatures. Analyses of microstructure and
mechanical properties of rolled pieces were performed and
the following results were obtained:
1. The structure of the analysed samples is rather similar
for all forging temperatures.
2. The samples forged at lower temperature have a finer
grain size, but the amount of outlining ferrite is higher.
3. No voids or internal defects were observed in the warm
cross wedge rolled pieces.
4. The rolling forces in horizontal and vertical direction
increase by the factor 2.5 while decreasing the billet
temperature from 1250 C to 900 C.
Acknowledgement
Force direction
(horizontal)
Upper system
Billet
Hydraulic
cylinder
References
Lower system
Force direction
Figure 10. Complete experimental equipment in hydraulic press.
The distance between the wedge tools implicates the

area reduction of the work piece and is controlled by the
press ram. Therefore, different area reductions can be
tested by moving the press ram before a rolling operation.
In this project the area reduction is 50 %.
The measurements of rolling forces, which occur in
horizontal direction in the downscaled process at 900 C
are shown in Figure 11. Maximum horizontal force is 43
kN and the maximum force (50 kN) of the hydraulic cylinders is almost reached. This measurement of the horizontal force includes additional force, which is caused by
the friction between the tool and the guiding plate. So, the
forming force by itself is lower than in the measurement.
The authors thank the European Union for the funding

of this project within the 7th Framework Programme (Research for the Benefits of SMEs).
[1] S. Mller, P. Lau, R. Nickel: TMS Annual Meeting and Exhibition:

Proceedings of the Eights Global Innovations Symposium, 25th February 1st March 2007, Orlando, USA, 47-52
[2] International Cold Forging Group: ICFG Document, No. 12/01,
Erlangen 2001.
[3] M. Geiger, R. Neugebauer: Studiengesellschaft Stahlanwendung,
Forschungsbericht P 452 , Dsseldorf, Germany 2003.
[4] P. Hustedt, J. Kohlstette: Schmiedejournal, 3 (2003), 24-26.
[5] B.-A. Behrens, P. Suchmann, A. Schott: Production Engineering,
Springer Verlag Berlin, 2-3 (2008), 261-268.
[6] K. Spies: Westdeutscher Verlag, Kln, Germany 1959.
[7] Q. Li, M.-R. Lovell, W. Slaughter, K. Tagavi: Journal of Materials
[8] Q. Li, M. Lovell: International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing
Technology, 3-4 (2008), 265-278.
349
09.08.2010 14:24:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
Material Influence on Shrinkage Behaviour of Precision-Forged Parts

Bernd-Arno Behrens, Dirk Odening
Institute of Metal Forming and Metal-Forming Machines - Department of Massive Forming, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover / Germany,
odening@ifum.uni-hannover.de
Precision forging is an innovative manufacturing process for the flashless and near-net-shape production of high performance components.
Outstanding material characteristics as well as a reduced process chain and a high material efficiency are the essential advantages of
precision forging. Subsequent to the forming process, only final hard-finishing of specific functional surfaces with minimum cutting volumes
is necessary. The increased demands on the dimensional and geometric accuracy of precision forgings result in increased requirements for
the applied forging tools, the forming machines as well as for the specific design and control of the process. Precise tool and process design requires a detailed knowledge about material-specific heat balance resulting in a process and tool-related heat transfer. Hence, the
influences of geometry and material on the shrinking of the hot-forged parts are an important part of the current research work.
Keywords: Massive forming, Bulk metal forming, Near-net-shape forming, Precision forging
Introduction
The growing worldwide competition in the processing
industries leads to a constant increase in cost pressure.
Research and technological developments in manufacturing technologies are the basic prerequisites to meet cost
and quality requirements to maintain a favourable market
position. Forgings have outstanding material and component characteristics. They feature a high mechanical and
dynamical strength due to the process-related grain refinement, the unbroken grain flow as well as the absolute
freedom from cavities. An increased power density of
forgings forwards the trend of light weight construction.
The emerging industrial nations China and Japan as well
as Germany belong to the top producers of forgings worldwide. The German production in 2006 amounted to 2.6
million tons of forgings. 1.4 million tons accounted for
drop forgings. More than 80% of the total production are
supplied to the automotive sector and system producers [1].
The customer's desire for near-net-shape products with
high mechanical strength and dynamic load carrying capacity can be met by precision forging production processes. Precision forging belongs to the die forging group of
technologies and is carried out using closed dies without a
flash. By means of precision forging, production accuracies up to IT 7 (according to DIN EN 10243-1) can be
obtained [1]. Already in the 1950s, a process was developed for forging suitably shaped bevel gears with teeth
that required only little or no metal to be removed to
achieve final geometry. Later attention has turned to the
forging of spur and helical gears, which are more difficult
to form due to the disposition of their teeth [2]. Thanks to
increasing geometric, positional and dimensional accuracy
and the improved surface finish of the precision-forged
components, increasingly more functional elements and
complete parts can be manufactured ready to be installed
without, or with only minor finishing operations. For this
reason, the precision forging production process competes,
in many cases, with entire production sequences and no
longer with only individual production processes [3].
Figure 1 shows a selection of parts which were precision-forged at the Institute of Metal Forming and Metal-
350
Forming Machines of the Leibniz Universitaet Hannover

(IFUM).
Steering gear
Planet gear
Helical
gear wheels
Constant
velocity joint
Claw pole
Bevel gear
Figure 1. Selection of precision forged parts (IFUM).
Compared to conventional machining processes a reduced process chain and a high material efficiency are the
advantages of precision forging. Process and cost analyses
for conventionally machined and precision-forged gear
wheels show a notable saving potential favouring the
forged parts [4].
Within the Collaborative Research Centre 489 Process
Chain for Production of Precision-Forged High Performance Components the development and qualification of
innovative technological, logistical and economical methods for manufacturing precision-forged high performance
components is the subject of current research work. The
IFUM fundamentally elaborates the process design and
process control of precision forging processes.
Process and Tool Design for Precision Forging
To attain the complex component geometries of geartoothed parts, the forming takes place at process temperatures of up to 1250 C to increase the deformability. A
process and geometry-related inhomogeneous cooling can
already be established during the forming process. Due to
the locally heightened contact pressures and the adverse
surface-volume ratio the heat loss in the teeth is increased.
This leads to a local cooldown during the forging process.
Thermography investigations prove a decrease of surface
09.08.2010 14:24:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
temperature down to ~800C in the toothing directly after
the forging operation (Figure 2).
Root diameter dr [mm]
73.5
16 Mn
C
73.4
r5
42 CrM
o
73.3
73.2
1 00 Cr6
73.1
73.0
Real pitch modulus:

Number of teeth:
Tip diameter:
Root diameter:
Helix angle:
Blank part:
mn
z
dt
dr
An abstract of the graphical analysis of measurement results for this gear wheel is presented in Figure 4. The plot
shows the measured root diameter for the gear wheels
made of 16MnCr5, 42CrMo4 and 100Cr6 and the forging
temperatures 1150, 1200 and 1250 C after cooldown.
(1)
Figure 5 shows the component size versus the computed

carbon equivalent CE of the tested forging steels 16MnCr5,
42CrMo4 and 100Cr6.
o4
Cr
M
42
73 .5
73.5
73 .4
73.4
1 250
73 .2
73.2
Cr
6
1 200
10
0
11 50
73 .3
73.3
C
C
73.1
73 .1
73 .0
73.0
0.50
2
37
82.749 mm
73.300 mm
20
Tube
Figure 3. Investigated gear wheel geometry.
C E = C + 0,2Mn + 0,25Cr + 0,33Mo + 0,1Ni +
0,2V + 0,2(Si 0,5 ) + 0,2Ti + 0,1W + 0,1Al
nC
r5
Forging Tests. Forging tests with different forging steels

revealed an extensive material influence on the forming
and shrinking behaviour and the resulting deviations of
hot-forged parts [7,8,9]. Even the use of an alternative
delivery batch can alter the shrinking characteristics and
affect the achievable production accuracy. To specify this
material effect on shrinking four different gear wheel geometries with spur and helical gearings selected from the
forging steels 16MnCr5, 42CrMo4 and 100Cr6 were precision-forged at raw part temperatures of 1150C to
1250 C and measured tactile after cooldown. The real
pitch modules of the forged gearings range from 1.2 to 4.5.
The used forging die was adjusted to 16MnCr5 and
1250 C. All measured gear wheel geometries show similar
effects. The gear wheel geometry with the real pitch
modulus 2 is shown in Figure 3.
1250 C
The gear wheels made of 100Cr6 finally feature the

smallest dimension. An increasing raw part temperature
causes a smaller component size. This is ascribable to a
higher subsequent shrinking of the hot forged parts.
For the expression and comparison of the applied forging steels the alloy compositions were described by the
carbon equivalent CE of Ruhfus and Pflaume. The alloying
components are given here in %wt [10].
16
M
Material Influences on the Shrinkage Behaviour of

Precision-Forged Parts
1200 C
Temperature T [C]
Figure 4. Deviations in components dimensions versus forming

temperature.
Fukreisdurchmesser [mm]
In addition to the fundamental forming properties, forces

and die loads this inhomogeneous cooldown influences the
subsequent shrinking of hot-forged parts and thus the final
component sizes after cooldown. To alleviate these quality-jeopardizing effects and to ensure the dimensional
accuracy of hot-forged parts after all the shaping die has to
compensate these process deficiencies by a geometric
correction of the die contour [5,6].
1150 C
Root diameter dr [mm]
Figure 2. Thermography picture of a precision-forged gear

wheel directly after forging.
0.5
0.70
0.7
0.90
Ko hlens toffquivalent C
1.10
1.30
0.9
1.3
1.1
Carbon equivalent CE [-]
Figure 5. Deviations in components dimensions versus forging
steel (carbon equivalent CE).
An advancing carbon equivalent tends to result in a decreasing part dimension. The gear wheels made of 100Cr6
comparatively feature the maximal carbon equivalent and
the smallest part dimension. This can be traced back to a
material-related higher subsequent shrinking of these forgings.
Material Investigation. The cooling and shrinkage behaviour of the hot-forged parts is essentially determined
by the thermal expansion and the heat balance of the applied materials. The heat balance can be described via a
combination of the thermo-physical properties heat capacity cp and thermal conductivity . To verify and widen the
351
09.08.2010 14:24:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
Thermal Expansion. Literature researches revealed

varying and incomplete specifications for the thermal
expansion of forging steels. Especially for the relevant
forging temperatures above 1000 C reliable data are not
available. For this reason the thermal expansion of the
investigated forging steels has to be analysed particularly
by process-adapted dilatometer-tests.
Figure 6 shows an abstract the the experimentally determined thermal expansion coefficients of the selected
forging steels during the heating-up from 400 C to 1200 C.
Thermal expansion
-6
coefficient [x 10 1/K]
17
phase I
16
phase II
100Cr6
phase III
42CrMo4
15
14
C60
16MnCr5
C45
13
12
11
10
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
Temperature T [C]
Figure 6. Thermal expansion coefficient of selected forging
steels.
All investigated forging steels feature three characteristic phases in thermal expansion determined by the occurring phase transformation.
Phase I (400- 700 C): Previous to the phase transformation the thermal expansion of all tested steels features
similar characteristics. The expansion coefficients for
temperatures up to 700 C are depicted versus the carbon
equivalent CE in Figure 7.
Thermal expansion
-6
17
16
phase I
15
14
600 C
700 C
13
12
400 C
11
10
0.5
0.7
500 C
0.9
1.1
1.3
1.5
Carbon equivalent C E [-]
Figure 7. Thermal expansion coefficient versus carbon equivalent CE (Phase I: 400-700 C).
The range of thermal expansion is nearly constant for all

tested forging steels. No distinct correlation between thermal expansion and alloy composition is ascertainable.
The resulting thermal expansion coefficients varies between 11.812.5x10-61/K (400 C) and 12.713.6 x10-61/K
(700C) depending on the temperature range.
Phase II (700- 900 C): Due to the allotropy of steel and
the phase transformation from bcc- to fcc-crystal at about
352
800 C the material contracts abruptly. All tested steels

feature similar characteristics in this point. After the -transformation the resulting thermal expansion coefficients
varies between 10. - 11.8x10-6 1/K (900C).
Phase III (900- 1200 C): After the phase transformation
to the fcc-crystal the tested steels feature different characteristics (Figure 6). Whereas the low alloyed C45 and C60
show nearly constant expansion properties, the thermal
expansion of higher alloyed 42CrMo4 and 100Cr6 is significantly increased at higher temperatures. The expansion
coefficients for temperatures above 900 C are depicted
versus the carbon equivalent CE in Figure 8.
17
Thermal expansion
-6
functional dependency currently established, two delivery

charges of the forging steels C45, C60, 100Cr6, 16MnCr5
and 42CrMo4 were each investigated as to their alloy
composition and analysed with respect to their thermal
expansion and their heat balance.
16
phase III
0 C
120
15
110 0
14
13
10 00 C
12
900 C
11
10
0.5
0.7
0.9
1.1
1.3
1.5
Figure 8. Thermal expansion coefficient versus carbon equivalent CE (Phase II: 900-1200 C).
For higher temperatures there is a significant correlation

between the alloy composition described by the carbon
equivalent CE and the resulting expansion coefficient . At
forging temperatures of 1200C the determined thermal
expansion coefficients varies between 12.2 x 10-6 1/K for
low alloyed steel (CE 0.55) and 16.6 x 10-6 1/K for higher
alloyed steel (CE 1.35). Increasing temperatures tend to
enhance this effect.
For temperatures above the phase transformation the
analysed samples of 100Cr6 (CE=1.33; CE=1.37) show
comparatively the highest expansion coefficients . A high
thermal expansion causes a high subsequent shrinking
during cooldown and finally the smallest part dimensions.
Previously conducted forging tests confirm this characteristic of hot forged gear wheels made of 100Cr6 (Figure 4,
Figure 5).
Heat Balance. By measuring the specific heat capacity
cp using a heat flux differential calorimeter and the thermal
conductivity a using a laser-flash apparatus as well as the
density at room temperature, the heat conductivity was
computationally determined as a function of the temperature T by using the following equation:
(T) = (T) c p (T) a(T)
(2)
Up to 1100 C occurring phase transformations in steel

interfere with the measurement results of the heat capacity.
Hence, the determination of definitive physical correlations is not feasible. The graphical analysis of remaining
measurement results above 1100 C are presented in Figures 9 and 10.
09.08.2010 14:24:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Heat capacity cp [J/(gK)]
0.70
5
C4
r5
nC
M
0
16 C6
0.65
o4
rM
C
42
1300 C
r6
0C
0
1
Conclusions
1200 C
1100 C
0.60
0.55
0.5
0.9
1.1
1.3
1.5
Figure 9. Heat capacity cp versus the carbon equivalent CE.
0.7
The measured heat capacity cp varies between 0.6 -0.65

J/gK (1100C) and 0.64 - 0.67 J/gK (1300 C) depending
on the temperature range. Higher temperatures tend to
result in a slightly increased heat capacity cp. All analysed
steel samples show similar heat capacities. No correlation
between heat capacity cp and alloy composition is ascertainable. Thus, the influence of heat capacity cp on the
observed different shrinking characteristics is negligible
within the assessed range of parameters.
5
C4
Heat conductivity [W/(mK)]
32
31
M
16
r5
nC
0
C6
o4
rM
C
42
30
1 30 0
29
1 20
28
r6
0C
10
0 C
11 00
27
26
25
0.5
0.7
0.9
1.1
1.3
1.5
Figure 10. Heat conductivity versus carbon equivalent CE.
The computed heat conductivity varies between 26.53

-29.21 W/mK (1100C) and 28.4 - 31.6W/mK (1300 C)
depending on the temperature range. Higher temperatures
tend to result in an increased heat conductivity . In contrast to the measured heat capacity cp the graphical analysis of the heat conductivity shows a correlation to the
alloy composite, expressed as carbon equivalent CE. The
heat conductivity decreases over the course of the carbon
equivalent CE.
The analysed samples of 100Cr6 (CE=1.33; CE=1.37)
show comparatively the lowest heat conductivity . As a
consequence of a reduced heat transfer and heat loss in
workpieces during the forging process the forgings from
100Cr6 are formed at higher workpiece temperatures and
the subsequent shrinking during the cooling period is increased. Previously conducted forging tests confirm this
assumption (Figures 4 and 5).
In hot forging the applied raw part material extensively

influences the forming and shrinking behaviour and the
resulting deviations of forgings. To ensure the dimensional
accuracy of hot-forged parts these process deficiencies
has to be compensated by a geometric correction of the
shaping die contour.
The cooling and shrinkage behaviour of the hot-forged
parts is essentially determined by the thermal expansion
and the heat balance of the applied materials. Material
investigations reveal a correlation between the alloy composition of the applied forging steel, the thermal expansion
and the final shrinking behaviour at high process temperatures. In the range of hot-forging temperatures above
900 C higher alloyed steels feature a significantly increased thermal expansion compared to lower alloyed
steels. This effect implicates a subsequent higher shrinking
and reduced component size after cooldown for forgings
made of higher alloyed steels like 42CrMo4 or 100Cr6.
Furthermore, the reduced heat conductivity of higher
alloyed steel restricts the heat loss during forging and thus
even enhances this effect.
Acknowledgement
The presented research results were elaborated within
the Collaborative Research Centre 489 Process Chain for
Production of Precision-Forged High Performance Components, funded by the German Research Foundation
(DFG).
References
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Springerverlag, Berlin (2006).
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[5] B.-A. Behrens, D. Odening: Proc. 12th International ESAFORM
Conference on Material Forming, (2009).
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International, 80 (2009), 869-877.
[7] B.-A. Behrens, E. Doege, S. Reinsch, K. Telkamp, H. Daehndel, A.
Specker: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 185 (2007),
139-146.
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Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs., 205 (1991), 171-178.
[10] M. Riehle, E. Simmchen: Grundlagen der Werkstofftechnik. 2.
aktualisierte Auflage, Deutscher Verlag fr Grundstoffindustrie,
(2000).
353
09.08.2010 14:24:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
Control of Slide Motion in Hot Impression Die Forging of Aluminium Alloy Billets
Using Servo Press
Tomoyoshi Maeno1), Hiroyuki Fujii1), Ken-ichiro Mori1), Masahiro Sato2)
1)
Department of Production Systems Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi / Japan, maeno@plast.pse.tut.ac.jp;
SHOTIC EUROPA Industria de Aluminio, Vendas Novas / Portugal
2)
Slide motion in hot impression die forging of an aluminium alloy billet was controlled by a servo press to improve the filling of die cavities
and the forging load. The filing of a die cavity in hot die forging of a piston was changed by the slide speed. The spike forging test generally
used for evaluation of lubricants in cold forging was applied un order to investigate the effect of the slide motion in hot impression die
forging. The degree of the filling has a peak for the slide speed, because the distribution of temperature influencing the metal flow was
changed by the slide motion. Plastic deformation is caused during the holding of the dies at the bottom dead centre by the elastic recovery
of the tools and press induced from the decrease in flow stress, and thus the maximum forging load necessary for a product shape was
decreased. In addition, a die quench forging process having the holding at the bottom dead centre was developed to eliminate the solution
heat treatment in the conventional T6 process of aluminium alloy products.
Keywords: Forging, Aluminium alloy, Slide motion, Servo press, Die quench, Solution heat treatment, Spike test
Tensile strength /MPa
400 C
350 C
300 C
Elongation
100
100
80
60
40
50
400 C
350 C
300 C
Tensile strength
20
0
10-2
10-1
1
Mean strain rate /s-1
Figure 1. Variations in tensile strength and elongation with heating
temperature obtained from tensile test of Al-Si alloy specimen.
0 -3
10
The tools used for a miniature experiment of hot

impression die forging of a piston are shown in Figure 2.
The size of the forged product is almost half of the actual
compressor pistons. The billet was heated at 440C in the
electric furnace. The temperature of the billet just before
the forging and the die temperature are 400 and 250 C,
Billet
(400C)
1748
Lower die
(250C)
33
14
A
50
9.25
Upper die
(250C)
Sec A-A
(a) Just before forging

Flash
t
Hot Impression Die Forging of Piston Model
9.25
CNC servo presses having high flexibility for control of

motion have been recently developed [1]. In these presses
driven by servo motors, the slide motion is accurately
controlled by real-time feedback of ram position measured
with sensors like the conventional machine tools, and thus
complicated motion is attainable. Otsu et al. [2] have
reduced a noise of the blanking by controlling the motion
of the punch. The authors [3] have reduced the springback
in bending of high strength steel sheets by holding of tools
at the bottom dead centre. Although the servo presses are
mainly applied to stamping processes of sheet metals, such
complicated motion of the presses is useful for forging
processes.
Aluminium alloy compressor pistons are used for
automobile air conditioners to reduce the weight. Since
these pistons are made of aluminium-silicon alloy, the
ductility is small at room temperature, and thus hot
impression die forging is employed [4, 5]. During the hot
forging, the distribution of temperature in the billet varies,
and the filling behaviour of material into die cavities is
influenced by the distribution. Since the distribution of
temperature is changed by the side speed, the control of
the slide motion is effective in improving the filling into
die cavities.
In the present study, the effect of the filling into the die
cavity in impression die forging of an aluminium alloy
billet was examined by means of a CNC servo press. In
addition, a die quench forging process by the holding at
the bottom dead centre was developed.
150
Elongation /%
Introduction
Hot Impression Die Forging. Hot impression die forging

of an Al-Si alloy billet was performed. The variations in
tensile strength and elongation with the heating
temperature measured from the tensile test of an Al-Si
alloy specimen are illustrated in Figure 1. The effects of
the temperature and strain rate on the tensile strength and
the elongation are comparatively large.
354
Sec A-A
(b) Bottom dead centre

Figure 2. Tools used for miniature experiment of die forging of
piston.
was used for the forging. The slide speed v is an average

from the contact with the upper die to the bottom dead
centre.
09.08.2010 14:24:59 Uhr
Metal Forming
The cross-sectional shapes of the forged parts for v = 6.6
and 82.5 mm/s are shown in Figure 3. The filling into the
die cavity for v = 6.6 mm/s is larger than that for v = 82.5
mm/s.
Cavity of parts
Flash
10
(a)Piston forging
y /mm
8
6
Flas
h
v = 6.6 mm/s
82.5 mm/s
sec AA
Measuring area
Spik
e
(b)Spike forging
Figure 5. Spike forging test for evaluation of motion control.

10
The variations in temperature in the billet with the

forging time measured by thermo couples for v = 6.6 and
82.5 mm/s are given in Figure 4. The two thermo couples
were attached to the portions equivalent to the flash and
cavity, respectively. The difference in temperature between
the cavity and flash for v = 6.6mm/s is about 50 C,
whereas that for v = 82.5mm/s is small.
450
400
Temperature /C
350
300
6.6 mm/s
v = 82.5
mm/s
250
200
Cavity
150
100
Flash
50
0
Sec A-A
0.5
1
1.5
Time /s
2.5
Figure 4. Variations in temperature in billet with forging time for v =

6.6 and 82.5 mm/s.
Evaluation for Control of Slide Motion Using Spike

Hot Impression Die Forging
Spike Forging Test Evaluation for Slide Motion
Control. The spike forging test generally used for
evaluation of lubricants in cold forging [6] was applied to
investigate the effect of the slide motion in hot impression
die forging (see Figure 5). The flows in the axial and
radial directions in the spike forging are equivalent to
those for the die cavity and flash in the impression die
forging, respectively.
The tools used for the spike forging test are illustrated in
Figure 6. the filling into the die cavity was evaluated from
the spike height h.
Upper die(250 C)
22
Billet(400 C)
1620
16
Figure 3. Cross-sectional shapes of forged parts for v=6.6 and

82.5 mm/s.
10
R3
Lower die(250 C)
Figure 6. Tools used for spike forging test
Effect of Slide Speed on Filling into Die Cavity.

Plastic deformation and the temperature distribution in the
spike forging test were simulated by the commercial FEM
software LS-DYNA. The billet and tools were modelled to
be elastic-plastic and rigid, respectively. The flow stress of
the billet is dependent on the temperature and strain rate. It
was assumed that 90% plastic energy is converted into
heat generation. The thermal conductivities of the billet
and tools were 134 and 37.8 W/(mK), respectively. The
heat transfer coefficient at the interface between the billet
and tool is 60 kW/(m2K).
The relationship between the spike height and the slide
speed obtained from the finite element simulation is given
in Figure 7. As the coefficient of friction increases, the
spike height increases and has a peak around v = 15 mm/s.
16
= 0.2
14
12
0.1
10
0.05
8
6
4
4
6
x /mm
Spike height h /mm
2
0
20
40
60
80
Slide speed v / mms-1
Figure 7. Relationship between spike height and slide speed
obtained from finite element simulation.
355
09.08.2010 14:25:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
100
80
0
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
Flash thickness t /mm
Figure 8. Effect of slide speed on spike height for spike forging
obtained from experiment.
The distribution of calculated temperature in the billet

and tools in the spike forging for t =2.0 mm is shown in
Figure 9. The temperature in the whole billet for v = 6
mm/s is low. The decease in temperature in the flash
portion for v = 15 mm/s is large. The decrease in
temperature for v = 75 mm/s is small, and the temperature
in the flash potion is higher than tat in the spike portion.
0
32
26
0
0
34
(a) v = 6 mm/s
260
300
280
(b) v = 15 mm/s
320
30
0
42
0
40
0
0
40
0
38 80
2
0
26
380
(c) v = 75 mm/s
Figure 9. Distribution of calculated temperature in billet and tools
in spike forging for t =2.0 mm.
The distributions of calculated equivalent stress in the

billet in the spike forging for t = 2.0 mm are shown in
Figure 10. The equivalent stresses near the corner of the
spike portion for v = 6 and 75 mm/s are larger than those
in the flash portion, and thus the flow into the spike
portion becomes small. On the other hand, the flow into
356
14
0
120
10
0
100
80
80
80
(c) v = 75mm/s
Figure 10. Distribution of calculated equivalent stress in billet in
spike forging for t = 2.0 mm.
Decrease in Maximum Load by Holding of Bottom

Dead Centre. The variation in forging load with the
holding time at the bottom dead centre is shown in Figuer
11. The forging load gradually decreases during the
holding of the slide motion at the bottom dead centre.
Since the flow stress decreases with decrease in strain rate
as shown in Figure 2, plastic deformation is caused during
the holding by the elastic recovery of the tools and press.
500
400
420
420
140
Forging load /kN
28
0
360
300
300
320
34
0
30
0
280
300
2
26 80
0
300 /C
260
280
300
320
26
0
280
(b) v = 15 mm/s
100 140
120
140
120
100
(a) v = 6 mm/s
140
80
80
120
100
lower die
120
100
75 mm/s
80
120
100
12
0
v = 15mm/s
140
100 Upper die
12
0
Spike height h /mm
10 6 mm/s
120/MPa
100
12
the spike portion for v = 15 mm/s becomes large due to the

increase in equivalent stress in the flash portion.
1
100 20
The effect of the slide speed on the spike height for

spike forging obtained from the experiment is shown in
Figure 8. The spike height is the largest for v = 15 mm/s
in the experiment as well as the calculation shown in Fig.
7, i.e. the slide speed exhibits an optimal value.
300
200
100
0
Holding at bottom dead center
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
Time /s
Figure 11. Variation in forging load with holding time at bottom
dead centre.
The effect of the holding time at the bottom dead centre

on the maximum load in the experiment of the spike
forging is given in Figure 12, where h is the die height.
As the holding time increases, the thickness of the flash
decreases, i.e. the forging load is decreased by the holding
at the bottom dead centre.
09.08.2010 14:25:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
200
600
Vickers hardness /HV10
400
Hardness B
Hardness A
100
300
th=0 s
1s
5s
200
100
0
T6 heat treatment
150
50
A
1.2
1.4
1.6
flash thickness t /mm
Figure 12. Effect of holding time at bottom dead centre on maximum load in experiment of spike forging.
Elimination of Solution Heat Treatment by Die

Quenching Forging. In hot stamping of ultra high
strength steel automobile parts, the die quenching was
employed. The die quenching was applied to the hot
forging of aluminium alloy bars to eliminate the solution
heat treatment process as shown in Figure 13. In the
conventional T6 process of Al-Si alloys, the solution heat
treatment of forged products is required. In the die
quenching forging, the solution heat treatment is
simultaneously carried out by the holding at the bottom
dead centre. The temperature of the billet just before the
forging was 500 C, and the temperature and holding time
of the aging treatment were 180 C and 6 hours,
respectively.
Heating
1.8
Water cooling
Heating
Heated die
2
3
Holding time th /s
Figure 14. Relationships between Vickers hardness after aging

treatment and holding time at bottom dead centre.
200
T6 heat treatment
150
Vickers hardness /HV10
Maximum load /kN
500
Hardness B
Hardness A
100
B
50
A
0
150
50
100
200
Temperature of dies Td /C
250
Figure 15. Relationships between Vickers hardness and temperature of dies for th = 5 s.
Conclusions
1) Forging
Forging and holding
2) Solution heat treatment
3) Aging treatment
(a) Conventional T6 process

Heating
cold die
1) Forging + quench
2) Aging treatment
(b) Die quenching forging
Figure 13. Die quenching forging of aluminium alloy billet for

elimination of solution heat treatment.
The relationship between the Vickers hardness after the

aging treatment and the holding time at the bottom dead
centre is illustrated in Figure 14. Although the hardness
for th = 0 s without the holding at the bottom dead centre is
insufficient, a hardness of 150 HV10 was obtained above
th = 0 s.
The relationship between the Vickers hardness and the
temperature of the dies for th = 5 s is given in Figure 15.
The temperature of the dies for the die quenching is
required to be below Td = 200 C.
The filling of metal into the die cavity in the hot

impression die forging of aluminium alloy was examined
by means of a CNC servo press. Since the distribution of
temperature is changed by the side speed, the filling into
the die cavity was improved by optimising the slide speed.
In addition, the die quenching forging is attractive for the
hot die forging of aluminium alloys due to the elimination
of the solution heat treatment.
References
[1] C. Murata, T. Machida, S. Futamura, J. Endou: Steel Grips 2 (Suppl.)
(2004), 371374.
[2] M. Otsu, C. Yamagata, K. Osakada: Annals of the CIRP, 52-1 (2003),
245248.
[3] K. Mori, K. Akita, Y. Abe: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 47-2(2007), 321-325..
[4] T. Hayashi, Y. Takeda, K. Akechi, T. Fujiwara: SAE Technical Paper,
No.900407, SAE, (1990).
[5] H.S. Lee, J.S. Yeo, S.H. Hong, D.J. Yoon, K.H. Na: Journal of
[6] S. Isogawa, A. Kimura and Y. Tozawa: Annals of the CIRP, 41-1
(1992), 263-266.
357
09.08.2010 14:25:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
Forging of Connecting Rod without Flash

Gontarz Andrzej1), Pater Zbigniew1), Samoyk Grzegorz1), Tofil Arkadiusz2)
1)
Department of Computer Modelling and Metal Forming Technologies, Lublin University of Technology, Lublin / Poland, a.gontarz@
pollub.pl; 2) Technical Institute, State School of Higher Education in Chelm, Chem / Poland
This paper presents results of theoretical and experimental research of a forging process of a connecting rod without flash in a three-slides
forging press. In order to design a process guaranteeing obtaining a proper product, numerous simulations and experiments were made, in
which material flow kinematics, strain and stress distributions and forming forces were analyzed. On the basis of obtained results, a preform
shape was designed, guaranteeing proper filling of the impression. It was assumed that a preform can be obtained in a cross-wedge rolling
process. A model of such process was worked out and, on the basis of simulation, it was stated that obtaining the preform proper shape is
possible. Experimental and theoretical results within the range of forming force and material flow kinematics were compared and their
conformity was obtained. On the basis of conducted research, it was stated that forging without flash of connecting rod in the three- slides
forging press is possible.
Keywords: Connecting rod, Fleshless forging, FE analysis, Lead, Aluminium alloy
As shown in Figure 2(a), a connecting rod from 2017

aluminum alloy used for machines building was chosen as
research object. Due to 610 kN three-slides forging press
force limitation, research was conducted for the forging
358
(a)
(b)
11
5
13
15
106
77
A-A
O 16,2
Research Characteristics
Figure 1. Three-slides forging press.
15
Connecting rods are components of machine and play a

crucial role in modern day industrial economy. They
transmit the drive from the engine to the driven machine.
As connecting rods work character results mainly in fatigue loads transmission, it should have a good mechanical
properties that requires the use of die forging manufacturing method. For example, 90% of all connecting rods in
China are made from billets forged in hot conditions [1].
Powder forging and casting technology [1,2] is used in the
rest 10% parts. Connecting rod manufacturing processes
utilizing forging with flash [1,3,4] and forging without
flash [5-9] have been analyzed in the specialized literature.
Recently, more and more papers dealing with the issue of
connecting rods manufacturing by means of powders
pressing has been observed [10,11]. Large interest in technologies of connecting rods forging results from the fact
they are manufactured in large series. Even small decrease
of manufacturing costs for a single part or increase of
mechanical properties would result in enormous effects on
a global scale. Considering the above, the authors of this
paper did research on the technology of connecting rod
forming without flash. This process should guarantee
lower material consumption in comparison with forging
with flash and better mechanical characteristics due to the
preservation of fiber continuity in forging (operation of
flash trimming is not present here). It was assumed that
forging without flash can be realized in threes slides forging press, for which prototype was designed and manufactured at Lublin University of Technology in Poland (Figure 1). This press has three movable slides which considerably increases its technological properties. The description of machine design and various forming technologies
are discussed in details in work [12-16].
two times smaller, of the shape and dimensions presented

in Figure 2(b). Physical modeling of forming process was
made for lead of Pb1 type. Tests of forging of parts from
6101A aluminum alloy of the chemical constitution given
in the Table 1 were carried out.
39,9
Introduction
B-B
Figure 2. Connecting rod forging from aluminum alloy (a) and

drawing of model worked out for research (b).
09.08.2010 14:25:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. Chemical composition of 6101A aluminum alloy (%wt).
Si
0.30.7
Fe
0.4
Cu
0.05
Mg
0.40.9
Other
0.1
Al
rest
Considering technological possibilities of three-slides

forging press, tools were designed and made. The set consists of two side and two vertical tools (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Graphical model of tools for forging of connecting rod

without flash.
The most important stage of the process designing was

working out preform shape, which would guarantee proper
filling of the impression. In order to do this, following
preforms were designed, and next, on the basis of results
of numerical simulations and experimental research on
lead, their shape and dimensions were verified. The following preforms are presented in Figure 4.
formed in hot conditions by heating preform to a temperature of 470 C and tools to a temperature of 250 C.
Research Results
Forging Process Analysis. The main aim of model research on lead was working out of preform shape and
dimensions, which guarantees obtaining a product of assumed quality. The first shape of the preform (Figure 4(a)) was worked out on the basis of forging cross
sections diagram, changing concave surfaces into convex
ones and retaining constant volume. It should be noticed
that dimensions of the preform small head are larger from
dimensions of impression in this place. Because of that the
first stage of the process is based on flattening of preform
small head by side tools movement. Only at the second
stage of the process upper tool movement and forming of
final part take place. The comparison of theoretical and
experimental shape at the following stages of the process
is shown in Figure 5. As it can be seen, good conformity
of shape is present, which informs about proper formulating of numerical model of the process. On the basis of
conducted research it was stated that the application of
preform nr 1 led to lack of filling the impression in the
shank and small head. This fault removal is relatively
simple and it is based on the appropriate increase of material volume in places of its lack.
(b)
O 16
O 11
(a)
O 22
(a)
44,5
24,5
O 11,5
O 22
(b)
O 17,3
102
38
22
100
R50
O 18
37
99
O 11,8
(c)
O 24
R20
21,4
Figure 4. Shapes and main dimensions of preforms: (a) nr 1,

(b) nr 2 and (c) nr 3.
The software Deform 3D, based on finite element

method, was used in simulations. In calculations concerning lead, material model based on own research was used
[16]. Friction conditions between tools and formed material were described by model of constant friction, assuming friction factor m=0.4 for the pair lead - tool steel. As
the lead forging process was realized at room temperature,
thermal calculations werent considered in simulation. For
preform guaranteeing proper filling of the impression,
numerical simulations and experimental research of forging of the analyzed part from 6101A aluminum alloy were
made. In calculations, material model from the software
library and friction factor m=0.3, corresponding with friction conditions for the friction pair aluminum alloy - tool
steel with lubrication, were applied. Aluminum alloy was
Figure 5. Comparison of shape of forging forged from preform

nr 1: (a) results of numerical simulation, (b) experimental results.
It was stated that overlapping appears in the area of connecting rod large head (Figure 6). This fault can be analyzed during the process simulation. As it can be seen in
Figure 6, in the area of overlapping presence, die impression is filled at the last stage of forming. Material flows
into that area from opposite directions, which is the cause
of overlapping presence.
In order to eliminate this fault, a preform of shape nr 2
was designed (Figure 4(b)), which better corresponded to
material volume placement in the forging. This preform
did not, however, guarantee obtaining the proper forging.
In the forging process, due to similar material flow as in
the case of preform 1, overlapping appeared in the same
area, which was observed both in calculations and in experimental research.
359
09.08.2010 14:25:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
(b)
be noticed that these stresses values were relatively small

and, at guaranteeing appropriate temperature conditions of
the process for analyzed aluminum alloy, they did not
appear, which was confirmed by experimental research.
Simulation
1000
Considering the above problems, the shape of preform

nr 3 was designed (Figure 4(c)). It was assumed that if in
the area of overlapping presence the preform would have
considerably large section, the dangerous area would be
filled the first, and the rest of the impression would be
filled by material at the last stage of the process. In that
way, different kinematics of material flow would be imposed, which would allow for omitting the fault presence.
Both numerical calculations and experimental research
confirmed this assumption. Forging of proper shape was
obtained, without faults in the form of overlapping (Figure 7).
800
Force, kN
Figure 6. Overlapping appearing in connecting rod large head

made from preform nr 1: (a) experimental results, (b) results of
simulation with marked velocity vectors of material displacement.
Experiment
Limiting force of TSFP
600
400
200
0
0
10
15
20
25
Stroke, mm
Figure 8. Comparison of forming force obtained in simulation and

in experimental test for the forging case of 6101A aluminum alloy.
Figure 9. Forging shape from 6101A aluminum alloy at the process stage corresponding with forming force equal 610kN.
Figure 7. Forging shape made from preform nr 3 obtained in the
experimental research for lead.
For the preform nr 3 also the analysis of connecting rod

forging from 6101A aluminum alloy was made. On the
basis of conducted simulation, it was stated that the force
necessary for proper filling of impression was 820 kN,
hence it exceeds technical possibilities of three-slides
forging press.
However, experimental test of forging in hot conditions
was made, with the application of maximal load force of
value 610 kN. Figure 8 shows comparison of theoretical
and experimental course of forces. On the basis of presented results, good conformity between theoretical and
experimental forming forces was stated. Figure 9 shows
forging shape obtained in experimental test for the process
stage corresponding with maximal value of force. Differences of impression filling at both sides of forging axis
resulting from non-symmetrical placement of the preform
in the impression should also be noticed. This is an unfavorable phenomenon, which should be considered during
process designing.
Figure 10 presents distribution of strains and mean
stresses in forging from aluminum alloy. The largest
strains are present at the large head web, and the smallest
ones are in the forging small head, which results from
preform and forging dimensions in these areas. Analysis of
mean stresses showed that their largest positive values
during the process were in free material surfaces in the
area of oval rib forming in the large head area and longitudinal rib forming on forging shank. These are the areas of
the largest danger of potential cracks presence. It should
360
(a)
(b)
Figure 10. Calculated distribution of effective strain after forging

(a) and mean stresses in the middle of process (b) in connecting
rod forging from 6101A aluminum alloy.
Analysis of Preform Manufacturing Process. Preform

nr 3, worked out on the basis of forging process research,
is characterized by a head of large volume and cross section in comparison with the shank. Obtaining such a preform by means of forging methods is very difficult. However, in order to make realization of the process of connecting rod forging without flash possible in practice,
technology of designed preform manufacturing should
also be worked out. It was assumed that it is possible in
the cross-wedge rolling process, which has been developed for many years at Lublin University of Technology
(Poland) and successfully implemented in industrial plants
[16-18]. In order to confirm this assumption, tools were
designed and simulation of rolling process of preform nr 3
was made. Due to a large reduction of cross section (77%)
forming of connecting rod preform by means of crosswedge rolling process in one wedge working cycle is very
difficult. Because of that it was assumed that rolling would
be realized in two steps. In the first step, shank diameter
09.08.2010 14:25:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
would be reduced to value 17 mm, in the second step to
the final value 11.8 mm. Verification of preform rolling
possibility was made by means of numerical simulation in
software DEFORM-3D. Material parameters the same as
during simulation of forging process were assumed in
calculations. It was also assumed that: both wedges moved
in the opposite direction with the velocity 0.2 m/s each,
friction on the material-tool surface of contact was maximal and characterized by friction factor m=1, billet temperature (cylinder of dimensions 24 x 66 mm) was
450 C, and tools temperature equaled 150 C. In the conducted calculations results, it was stated that in the proposed cross-wedge rolling process it was possible to obtain preform of the assumed shape (Figure 11).
simulation of preform cross-wedge rolling also reflect

real process. The further optimization of cross-wedge
rolling process and experimental verification are
planned.
4. In the process of forming of connecting rod consisting
of cross-wedge rolling of preform and forging without
flash are also present unfavorable phenomena. They
include the necessity of application of material technological allowance at rolling, which is cut at both sides
of rolled forging, and presence of front flash during
forging operation, which should be removed. This flash
height can be diversified at forging circumference, due
to difficulties with preform axial placement in impression and non-symmetrical material flow. Preform volume variations may also appear, which should be considered at determining tolerance of connecting rod vertical dimension.
Acknowledgements
Financial support of Structural Funds in the Operational
Programme - Innovative Economy (IE OP) financed from
the European Regional Development Fund - Project
"Modern material technologies in aerospace industry", No
POIG.0101.02-00-015/08 is gratefully acknowledged.
References
Figure 11. Aluminum alloy 6101A preform progression of shape in

cross-wedge rolling process - simulation results.
Conclusions
On the basis of theoretical and experimental analyses,
the following conclusions were made:
1. It is possible to make connecting rod forging without
flash in three-slides forging press due to application of
tools with 3 parting planes. Three movable tools in this
press allow for the application of preform of diameter
larger than cross dimension of impression. At the first
stage horizontal tools movement flattening the preform
has to take place. At the second stage, upper tool forms
ready forging. Such a process is not possible for realization when typical forging machines equipped in one
movable tool are applied.
2. Process of connecting rod forging without flash is not
material consuming and takes place in one working cycle of the press. The lack of flash guarantees fibers
continuity, which should allow for better characteristics to obtain in other connecting rod manufacturing
methods. This is especially important for this type of
elements, which work at fatigue load.
3. On the basis of numerical analysis results it was stated
that it is possible to make preform for connecting rod
forging in cross-wedge rolling process. Good conformity of theoretical and experimental results obtained
for forging process allows for presuming that results of
[1] Q.Wang, F. He: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 151

(2004) 192-195.
[2] F. Yin, G.X. Wang, S.Z. Hong Z.P. Zeng: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 139 (2003) 462-464.
[3] H. Grass, C. Krempaszky E. Werner: Computational Materials Science, 36 (2006) 480-489.
[4] T. Hatzenbichler, B. Buchmayr: BHM Berg- und Httenmnnische
Monatshefte, 153 (2008) 413-417.
[5] T. Takemasu, V. Vazquez, B. Painter, T. Altan: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, 59 (1996) 95-105.
[6] V. Vazquez, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 98
(2000) 81-89.
[7] V. Vazquez, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 98
(2000) 212-223.
[8] E. Doege, R. Bohnsack: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
98 (2000) 165-170.
[9] B.A. Behrens, E. Doege, S. Reinsch, K. Telkamp, H. Daehndel, A.
Specker: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 185 (2007)
139-146.
[10] M. Bellet: Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 175 (1999) 19-40.
[11] J.R. Dale: Metal Powder Report, 60 (2005) 14-17.
[12] A. Gontarz: Effective forming processes on three slide forging press,
Edited by Lublin University of Technology, Lublin, 2005 (in polish).
[13] W. Weroski, A. Gontarz, Z. Pater: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 177 (2006) 214-217.
[14] A. Gontarz: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 177
(2006) 228-232.
[15] A. Gontarz, Z. Pater, W. Weroski: Journal of Material Processing
Technology, 153-154C (2004) 735-739.
[16] A. Gontarz, K. ukasik, Z. Pater, W. Weroski: Technology of
forming and modeling of the manufacturing process of screw spikes,
Edited by Lublin University of Technology, Lublin, 2003 (in polish).
[17] Z. Pater, A. Gontarz, W. Weroski: Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 8 (2008) 139-148.
[18] Z. Pater: Cross-wedge rolling, Edited by Lublin University of Technology, Lublin, 2009 (in polish).
361
09.08.2010 14:25:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Intelligent Hot Forging Process of Artificial Hip Joint Made of Ni-free Co-29Cr-6Mo0.12N Alloy
Emi Onodera, Yunping Li, Tadayoshi Odahara, Hiroaki Matsumoto, Akihiko Chiba
Deformation Processing, Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai / Japan, a.chiba@imr.tohoku.ac.jp
On the basis of processing map and FEM analysis, artificial hip joint stem of Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N alloy was fabricated by a non-isothermal
hot semi-closed die forging method. The optimum hot forging conditions (initial temperature of workpiece, forging speed) were determined
by processing map and FEM simulation. Microstructure of the produced stem is composed of both dynamic recrystallized fine grains and
deformed microstructure. The formation of deformed microstructure in the stem is thought to be due to the decrease in temperature during
the hot forging. It is found that processing map and FEM simulation enable to predict the microstructural formation of Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N
alloy during hot forging process into the shape of artificial hip joint.
Keywords: Hot semi-closed die forging, Biomedical cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy, Artificial hip joint stem, Microstructure, FEM,
Processing Map
Introduction
Co-Cr-Mo alloys have been widely used for biomedical
implants, such as artificial hip joint and coronary stent due
to their excellent corrosion resistance, wear resistance and
blood compatibility. The products of Co-Cr-Mo alloys
were manufactured by precision casting followed by machining because of the poor formability at room temperature.
In general, Ni was added in biomedical Co based alloy
to improve the plasticity. However, it has been reported
that the release of Ni ions into human bodies showed the
possibility for causing the allergy [1]. Near-net shape hot
forging to manufacture into the various complex shaped
products has been applied extensively. However, in this
process, the microstructure of the final products will be
sacrificed if a high precision in the shape of products is
kept. We have presented that near-net shape hot forging of
artificial hip joint stem of Ni-Free Co-Cr-Mo alloy at a
low forming speed and a forging temperature of 1100 oC
was possible [2].
Processing map proposed by Prasad et al [3-5] has been
proved a very powerful method to predict the optimum
parameters such as temperature, strain rate, as well as
strain in hot forging process of metallic materials. Processing map of Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.16N (in mass %) alloy has
been established and exhibited good reliability to the microstructural formation [6]. Processing maps, expressed by
both the power dissipation and the instability, are developed on the basis of the Dynamic Material Model (DMM).
This model considers that the workpiece is a power dissipater and that the instant power dissipated at a given strain
rate ( ) consists of two complementary parts: the G content and the J co-content, which are related to temperature
rise and the microstructure dissipation. The J and the G are
expressed by using the parameter of strain rate sensitivity
(m). And the flow instability of () is obtained as following equation:
( ) =
log(m / m + 1)
+m<0
log
362
(1)
Regarding the flow stability, the negative values of

() means that plastic deformation proceeds under instable manner. Instability map is expressed by the values of
() as functions of a strain rate and a testing temperature.
The efficiency of power dissipation of a nonlinear dissipater is expressed as a dimensionless parameter as following equation:
=
2m
m +1
(2)
The variation of is strongly related to the microstructural evolution during the hot deformation process [3-5].
Thus, utilizing the processing maps, expressed by the
parameters of and () , enable to predict the optimized
hot working condition without consuming the cost and the
time for the trial-and-error methods in industrial manufacturing process.
As well as the processing map technique, FEM simulation also gives the effective prediction of the effective
strain, effective stress, effective strain rate and the change
in temperature in the products under plastic deformation.
So, summarizing the result of processing map into a database and subsequently combining this database with the
FEM simulation makes it possible to optimize the condition of hot forging for obtaining the optimized microstructure.
In the current research, the optimum condition of hot
forging process of Ni-free Co-Cr-Mo alloy into the shape
of artificial hip joint stem was determined by using both
the FEM analysis and the database of processing map in
relation to microstructural evolution.
Processing Map of Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.16N Alloy
Figure 1 shows the power dissipation maps and instability maps of Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.16N alloy at 1050 oC and
1200 oC, respectively, in which X-axis is true strain, and
Y-axis is logarithmic strain rate. In the previous research,
it has been shown that the power dissipation coefficient
exhibited the value ranging from 0.15 to 0.3 in the optimum hot forging condition due to low stacking fault energy of Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.16N alloy [4]. The stable region
predicted by the Dynamic Material Model (DMM) was
09.08.2010 14:25:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
also shown in Figure 1, correspondingly. These processing
maps in temperatures ranging from 950 to 1200 oC at
various strain levels and strain rates were summarized into
the FEM software as a database, and the plastic state in a
workpiece could be predicted successfully.
When Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.16N alloy is held at a temperature below 1000 oC and followed by cooling at low rate,
high fraction of phase which is harmful for ductility
formed [2]. Therefore, a rapid cooling of the workpiece
just after the forming is required for suppressing the formation of phase.
1050 oC
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
1.0
0.5
0.0
-1.0
-1.0
Stable
1050 oC
1200 oC
20 mm/s
-2.0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
True strain
(a)
A
1200 oC
Metastable
1.0
0.5
0.0
1.0
0.5
(c)
Metastable
Metastable
-1.5
-1.5
-2.0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
True strain
0.1 - 1.0
1050 - 1080
72.5
1.0
0.8
1100
True strain
1050
0.4
20
16
1000
950
900
Temperature
(d)
12
-2.0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Figure 1. The Processing Maps for Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.16N alloy at

temperature of 1050 and 1200 oC; (a) and (c): Power dissipation
map, (b) and (d): Instability map.
3 - 20
1150
(b)
Effective
strain
Stable
Stable
0.0
-1.0
-1.0
Load
ton
0.0
1200 oC
-0.5
-0.5
Temperature
Effective
oC
strain rate s-1
0.2
True strain
1.5
Log (Strain rate, s-1)
1.5
Effective
strain
0.6
-2.0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
(d)
Simulation result
Unstable
-1.5
-1.5
1.5
Simulation
condition
-0.5
-0.5
(c)
(b)
(a)
Table 1. Summary of FEM simulation (initial temperature of workpiece: 1200 oC, forging speed: 20 mm/s).
4
0
Forging Simulation of Hot Semi-Closed Die Forging

Process of Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N Alloy
In order to determine an optimum working condition
(Initial temperature of workpiece and forging speed) from
processing map, FEM simulations, analyzed by using the
DEFORM-3D software, of semi-closed die forging process were carried out. Figure 2 shows the appearances of
the workpiece and die cavity drawn by CAD software.
Non-isothermal rigid-plastic model was used in the FEM
simulation. In the FEM simulation, the decrease in temperature during hot forging of workpiece is considered.
(a)
(b)
Figure 2. Appearances of (a) workpiece shape (after bending) and

(b) die cavity shape (semi-closed die) drawn by CAD software.
Table 1 shows the result of FEM simulation of the

forged Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N alloy in the case that the
initial temperature of workpiece is 1200 oC and the forging
speed is 20 mm/s. Figure 3 shows the distributions of (a)
effective strain, (b) temperature, (c) effective strain and
Effective
Stable region
Strain rate
o
s-1 simulation at 1200 C, 20 mm/s; (a)
Figure 3. Results of FEM
effective strain, (b) temperature, (c) effective strain rate and (d)
instability map.
(d) plastic stability in the forged stem obtained by FEM

simulation. The effective strain rate of the workpiece was
observed to be from 3 to 20 s-1. And the temperature in the
stem is found to be remained above 1000 oC during forging. Therefore, the processing condition in this work (the
initial temperature of workpiece: 1200 oC and forging
speed: 20 mm/s) was considered to be the optimal processing condition, which meets the three conditions (temperature, strain rate, plastic stability) obtained from processing
map.
As shown in Figure 3(d), we can see that almost area in
cross section A consists of a stable region. While a large
unstable region at surface of the stem can be observed at
cross section B. By combining the result of the instability
maps of Figure 1(b) and (d) with the distributions of effective strain (Figure 3(a)), temperature (Figure 3(b)) and
effective strain rate (Figure 3(c)), it is found that the condition of plastic instability in the forged stem (Figure 3(d))
can be precisely expressed.
363
09.08.2010 14:25:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
Hot Semi-Closed Die Forging of Artificial Hip Joint
Stem
Hot semi-closed die forging of Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N alloy into the shape of artificial hip joint stem was carried
out in the optimum processing condition determined in the
previous section.
Table 2. Chemical composition of the present ingot [mass%].
Co
Cr
Mo
Ni
Fe
Bal.
29.95
5.89
<0.01
0.04
0.051
0.120
0.0152
which B-1 area corresponds to the region with a low strain.

The value of KAM map with a nearly 0 o (B-1(b)) also
exhibited that deformation did not undergo at the location
of B-1. Microstructure at the location of B-2 was also
observed to be very coarse, in which grain size was almost
similar to that at the location of B-2. And the striations in
grain were observed at location of B-2, indicating that
deformation underwent without an occurrence of dynamic
recrystallization in accordance with the distribution of
plastic instability (Figure 3(d)).
From the above results, the microstructure of the forged
stem is composed of dynamic recrystallized fine grains
and deformed grains dependent on the location in the stem.
The heterogeneous microstructural formation during hot
forging is thought to be strongly caused by the decrease in
temperature.
Figure 4. Appearance of artificial hip joint stem produced by hot

semi-closed die forging.
Before hot forging, the bar of Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N alloy with diameter of 15 mm was solution treated at 1250
o
C and quenched in ice water to obtain the microstructure
consisting of single phase. Table 2 shows the chemical
composition of the present alloy. Workpiece was cut out
from the bar, and was heated at 1200 oC for 5 min in Ar
gas. And then, hot semi-closed die forging was carried out
using optimum processing condition determined in previous section and followed by quenching in ice water after
forging. Initial die temperature was 100 oC. Figure 4
shows an appearance of hot forged stem. We can confirm a
smooth surface, no wrap and no crack of the stem, indicating that the hot semi-closed die forging of Co-29Cr-6Mo0.12N alloy into the shape of artificial hip joint stem is
successfully conducted.
50 m
Figure 5. Microstructure of swaged Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N alloy
(before hot forging).
A-1(a)
A-1
10 m
B-1(a)
Microstructure of Artificial Hip Joint Stem Made of

Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N alloy
Figure 5 shows the microstructure of Co-29Cr-6Mo0.12N alloy before hot forging, in which equiaxed grains
with an average grain size of approximately 30 m, was
observed. Figure 6 shows the microstructures of the hot
forged stem analyzed by EBSD at the various regions
demonstrated by A-1, B-1 and B-2. A-1(a), B-1(a) and B2(a) show the image quality maps, and A-1(b), B-1(b) and
B-2(b) show the kernel average misorientation (KAM)
maps expressing the distributions of local misorientations.
Microstructure at location of A-1 exhibited a fine
grained morphology with an average grain size of approximately 2 m (A-1(a), A-1(b)). This result indicates
that a dynamic recrystallization completely occurrs at
location of A-1. According to the processing maps (Figure
1), the location of A-1 corresponds to the region with high
power efficiency and a stable manner of plastic deformation.
On the other hand, microstructure at location of B-1 exhibited a coarse grained morphology. This result is thought
to be in good agreement with the simulation results, in
364
A-1(b)
B-1(b)
B-1
50 m
B-2(a)
B-2(b)
B-2
0
5
50 m
Figure 6. Microstructure of the Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N alloy analyzed
by EBSD after forging; A-1(a), B-1(a), B-2(a): image quality, A-1(b),
B-1(b), B-2(b): kernel average misorientation.
Figure 7(a) shows XRD profiles of specimens at a cross

section of B (Figure 3 and Figure 6) before and after hot
forging, and Figure 7(b) shows the XRD profile of
2 ranging from 40 to 48o before forging. In addition to
the peaks of phase (fcc), the small peaks of phase (hcp)
and phase is confirmed in specimen after forging. In the
Co-29Cr-6Mo alloy without addition of nitrogen, it is well
known that athermal martensitic transformation from to
09.08.2010 14:25:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
occurred during rapid cooling form temperature higher
than 1000 oC [7]. In the present alloy, phase is stabilized
by the addition of nitrogen. So, it is thought that the
amount of the formation of martensite phase is very
small in the present alloy as compared with the Co-29Cr6Mo alloy without nitrogen.
(a)
Intensity(arb.uni)
(111)
After-forging
(200)
As-swaged
Intensity(arb.uni)
Diffraction angle, 2/ degree(Cu-K)
40
(b)
An artificial stem of Ni-free Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N (in

mass%) alloy was produced by semi-closed die forging
under the condition optimized by processing map and
forging FEM simulation. The obtained results are as follows.
1. The semi-closed die forging was successfully carried
out under a condition optimized by processing map and
FEM simulation. That is, there cannot confirm any
cracks on surface of the forged stem.
2. Microstructure after hot forging is good agreement with
predicted microstructure by processing map and FEM
simulation.
3. In order to obtain the homogenized microstructure consisting of the fine dynamic recrystallized grains after
hot forging, it is found to be important to consider the
initial shape of workpiece for giving an enough strain
to enhance the dynamic recrystallization, and to keep
the temperature of the workpiece above 1000 oC.
References
(410)
(1010)
41
42
43
(1011)
44
45
46
47
48
Diffraction angle, 2/ degree(Cu-K)

Figure 7. XRD profiles of the Co-29Cr-6Mo-0.12N alloy: (a) asswaged and after hot forging and (b) phase peak after hot forging.
Conclusions
[1] T. Hanawa, T. Yoneyama: Kinzoku-Biomaterial, (2007), 1-33.

[2] S. Kurosu, K. Yamanaka, H. Matsumoto, N. Nomura, A. Chiba:
Journal of the JSTP, 50-578 (2009), 96-100.
[3] Y.V.R.K. Prasad, T. Seshacharyulu: International Materials Reviews,
43 (1998), 243-258.
[4] Y.V.R.K. Prasad, H.L. Gegel, S.M. Doraivelu, J.C. Malas, J.T. Morgan: Metallurgical Transactions, 15A (1984), 1883-1892.
[5] H. Ziegler: Progress in solid mechanics, (ed. I. N. Sneddon and R.
Hill), Wiley, 4 (1965), 91-193.
[6] Y. LI, E. Onodera, K. Yamanaka, H. Matsumoto, N. Nomura, A.
Chiba: Journal of the JSTP, 51-590 (2010), 221-226.
[7] S-H. Lee, E. Takahashi, N. Nomura, A. Chiba: Materials
Transactions, 46 (2005), 1790-1793.
365
09.08.2010 14:25:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Verification of Tooth Parameters of Die Cavity

for Cold Sizing Process of Spur Gear
Zhang Bao-hong1), Zhang Zhi-min2)
1)
School of Materials Science and Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan / China, nuczbh@gmail.com;
Research Center for Intergrated Precision Forming of Shanxi Province, Taiyuan / China
2)
Engineering Technology
Design equations of tooth parameters of die cavity for cold sizing process of spur gear have been proposed according to the parameters of
a sized gear, the interference between shrinkage ring and die insert, the elastic strain of workpiece by the method of elastic-plastic mechanics. Verification experiment shows, the errors of theoretical value and experimental value of three-tooth normal length, diameter of addendum circle and diameter of root circle are less than 0.035%, which means that it is possible to rapidly and precisely design the tooth cavity
of a spur gear cold sizing die.
Keywords: Spur gear, Cold sizing, Tooth parameters of die, Elastic recovery
Introduction
Precision forging of gear is one part of less chip or nonchip machining. Gears made by this method have the advantages of lower cost, less energy consumption, require
less raw materials, and result in higher productivity and
dynamic properties than conventionally cut ones [1]. Metal forming of bevel gears has been used in industry and
great efficiency and profit margin have been achieved.
However, most spur gear production continues to adopt
the method of cutting, which causes a great loss of energy
resources and raw materials.
In order to form high precision spur gears, the methods
of floating die [2,3] and divided flow [4,5] have been
proposed. High precision spur gears have also been
formed using the above two methods in a laboratory. But
the two methods have not been widely applied in industry
production as the methods have not been mastered, and the
forming load is very high for large gears. Recently more
investigations into a combined hot/cold forming process
have been carried out [6,7]. In this process, the cold forming is very important because it defines the precision of
the gear which is formed. E.R.H. Stone et al studied the
influence of cold ironing on the surface finish and dimensions of thick-walled cylinders [8]. Chang et al. studied the
changes of geometrical profile, dimensions and surface
finish when a single tooth is sized by the method of cold
ironing [9]. Hu et al. designed the cold sizing die on the
basis of numerical simulation, and formed high precision
spur gears using the die [10]. Kang et al. studied the spur
gear forging tool manufacturing method considering elastic deformation due to shrink fitting by finite element
analysis and forging test [11].
In this paper, the design equations of die tooth cavity for
spur gear sizing have been proposed based on the elastic
deformation of die and elastic recovery of workpiece.
Verification experiment has been done to check the agreement of proposed equations with the experimental results.
Relations between Tooth of Sized Gear and Tooth Cavity of Die Insert
At present, there are three design methods for the tooth
cavity of precision spur gear formation [12,13], namely, to
366
change the pressure angle, to change the module and to

change the modification coefficient. To change the involute base circle is the essence of the first two methods,
which considered that the change of tooth is linear and the
change only occurs in radial direction. In other words, the
change of base circle leads to the changes of points on the
involute. Influence of tooth parameters changes on the
involute profile is shown in Figure 1.
Module change
standard tooth
pressure angle
change
Rb
Positive
addendum
modification
Standard tooth
Negative
addendum
modification
Rb
(a) Module and pressure angle
(b) Addendum modification
Figure 1. Influence of tooth parameters change on involute profile.
Unfortunately, the above three methods didnt give a

determined formula for the design of tooth cavity. The
method of changing the modification coefficient has been
widely used in the actual production of gears, so this
method will be used in this paper to propose the design
formula for the tooth cavity.
The procedure to obtain the theoretical equations of
tooth parameters of the die cavity for cold sizing is as
follows. First, the parameters of the die insert before
shrink fitting are given. Then the parameters of the gear
after shrink fitting are derived. Next the parameters of the
gear after sizing, including elastic recovery, are derived.
Finally, the relations between tooth parameters of the gear
after sizing and the tooth cavity parameters of die insert
before shrink fitting are obtained.
Tooth Dimension Analysis of Die Insert Pressed into
Shrinkage Ring. In this paper, two-layers assembled die
is used for the cold sizing, as shown in Figure 2, and the
wire cutting of the teeth of die insert is conducted before
shrink fitting. The interference between the shrinkage ring
and the die insert in radial direction is d2.
The tooth cavity parameters of the die insert is as
follows: number of teeth is Z, module is m, pressure angle
at reference circle is , modification coefficient is x,
diameter of addendum circle is da, diameter of root circle
09.08.2010 14:25:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
is df, circular thickness at reference circle is S, reference
diameter is d, diameter of base circle is db.
S' is contracted from the circular thickness at the

diameter of (d+ da), which can be expressed as
d3
S1 = S
d2
d + d a
(d + d a )(inv 1 inv )
d
where 1 is the pressure angle at the diameter of (d+da)

before the die insert is pressed into the shrinkage ring
which can be expressed as
db
d + d a
(6)
+ 2 x tg ) m
(7)
1 = cos 1
df
d
da
Shrinkage ring
In Eq. (5),
Die insert
S =(
Figure 2. Two-layers assembled die of cold sizing.
After the die insert is pressed into shrinkage ring, the

tooth cavity parameters (m, Z, , d and db) of die insert
will not change, but the parameters of x, df, da, S will
change into x, df, da, S. The extent of the contraction of
da at da can be obtained by Lames equation
2
2 d2 da p2
d a = 2
E d 2 d a2
(1)
where E is Youngs Modulus, p2 is the radial stress of the

die insert produced by shrinkage ring. From the equation
of strain compatibility, p2 can be expressed as
p2 =
2
3
2
2
2
2
2
a
E d 2 (d d )(d d )
d2
2d 22 (d 32 d a2 )
(2)
From Eqs. (1) and (2), it can be obtained that

d a =
2
3
2
3
2
2
2
a
d 2 d d
da
d2 d d
(3)
Assumed that the tooths contraction is uniform when

the die insert is pressed into the shrinkage ring as shown in
Figure 3, the extent of contraction at the root circle is also
da. After the die insert is pressed into the shrinkage ring,
the circular thickness at the reference circle S' can be expressed as
d a
Pre-pressing
Post-pressing
d a
Figure 3. Tooth cavity before and after pressing die insert into
shrinkage ring.
S = (
+ 2 x tg ) m
(5)
(4)
then
S1 = ( + 2 xtg )m
2
d + d a
(d + d a )(inv1 inv ) (8)
d
As the (d+da) is contracted to d when the die insert is

pressed into shrinkage ring, the circular contraction extent
is (d+da)-d=da. Assuming that the circular
contraction mainly happens at the tooth cavity, the
contraction extent of every tooths circular thickness at the
reference diameter is da/Z. It can then be obtained that
S1
d a
Z
= S
(9)
From Eqs. (4), (8) and (9), and d=mZ, it can be obtained
that
x=
d a
d
Z
x +
+
(inv1 inv ) (10)
d + d a
4tg d + d a 2tg
Analysis of Tooths Dimension of Sized Gear. Tooth

parameters m, Z, , d, db of a gear sized by the die insert
that has been pressed into the shrinkage ring are same as
that of tooth cavity of die insert, but the modification coefficient changes into x0, diameter of addendum circle
changes into da0, diameter of root circle changes into df0,
circular thickness at reference circle changes into S0. It can
be assumed that elastic deformation does not occur in the
tooth cavity of the die insert during the process of cold
sizing because the sizing force is very low [14]. However,
elastic recovery occurs in the tooth of the sized gear, as
show in Figure 4. As the plastic deformation extent is
small during the process of sizing, work hardening can be
neglected and the elastic limit strain can be considered to
be a constant. Assuming that the sized gears extent of
elastic recovery at reference circle is d', it can be
obtained that
(d d )(1 + ) = d
(11)
then
367
09.08.2010 14:25:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
d =
d
1+
(12)
Tooth of sized gear
pressed into the shrinkage ring x and the modification

coefficient of sized gear x0 can be obtained
Tooth of die cavity
x=
Figure 4. Comparison between tooth of sized gear and ttooth

cavity of die insert.
It also can be said that the circular thickness of the sized

gear at the reference circle is the result of elastic recovery
from the diameter of (d-d') of the die insert at the state of
being pressed into shrinkage ring. If the circular thickness
of the die insert at the diameter of (d-d') is S, it can be
expressed that
S = S
d d
(d d )(inv inv )
d
(13)
where is the pressure angle of tooth cavity of the die

insert at (d-d'), it is defined as
db
= cos 1
d d
(15)
From Eqs. (4), (12) and (13), it can be obtained

1
d
S = ( + 2 x tg ) m
(inv inv )
2
1+ 1+
(16)
Circular thickness at the reference diameter of the

formed gear can be expressed as
S0 = (
+ 2 x0 tg ) m
(17)
As the circular thickness of the sized gear at the

reference circle is formed by elastic recovery from the
diameter of (d-d') of the die insert at the state of pressed
into shrinkage ring, it can be obtained that
(1 + ) S = S 0
(18)
From Eqs. (16), (17) and (18) and d=mZ, it can be

obtained that
x = x0 +
Z (inv inv )
2tg
(19)
Relations between Tooth Parameters of Sized Gear

and Tooth Cavity Parameters of Die Insert. From Eqs.
(10) and (19), the relation between the modification
coefficient of the tooth cavity of the die insert before being
368
d a
Z (inv inv )
x0 +
+ 4tg d + d
2tg
Z
(inv 1 inv )
2tg
(20)
where da, 1 and are determined from Eqs. (3), (6) and
(15).
The sized gears addendum circle diameter and root
circle diameter also have the relations of elastic recovery
between the corresponding parameters of the die inserts
tooth cavity. Then, the follow equations can be obtained
(21)
d a 0 = (d a d a )(1 + )
(22)
d f 0 = ( d f d a )(1 + )
From Eq. (21), the relationship between the diameter of

the addendum circle of the die insert da and the diameter of
addendum circle of sized gear da0 can be expressed as
da =
(14)
From Eqs. (12) and (14), and db=dcos, it can be

obtained that
= cos 1 [(1 + ) cos ]
d
d + d a
d a0
+ d a
1+
(23)
From Eq. (22), the relationship between the diameter of

the root circle of the die insert df and the diameter of the
root circle of the sized gear df0 can be expressed as
df =
df0
1+
(24)
+ d a
It can be seen from Eqs. (20), (23) and (24) that da is

the main parameter which influences the final shape of
spur gear. It also can be seen from Eq. (3) that da is
determined by the interference between shrinkage ring and
die insert on radial direction. Thus the interference between shrinkage ring and die insert is the main parameter
influencing the final shape of spur gear.
Experimental Verification
Experimental Conditions. The cylindrical billet of
20CrMnTi steel, which is widely used for the commercial
manufacture of gears, was compressed to round sample at
900 C and then the samples were treated by annealing.
The annealed samples were made into workpieces with
teeth by HS-WEDM. The unilateral interference in the
direction of tooth thickness between the tooth of the
workpiece and the tooth cavity of the die insert is 0.1mm.
The diameter of the root circle, diameter of addendum
circle, and fillet radius of workpieces is equal to the
corresponding parameters of the tooth cavity of die insert.
Next, a commercially available cold forming lubricant was
applied to all workpieces.
The setup of the cold sizing is shown in Figure 5. The
material of die insert is W6Cr5Mo4V2. The die insert is
heat treated by quenching and triple tempering at 560 C.
09.08.2010 14:25:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
The hardness of the die insert is HRC60. The tooth
parameters of the die insert are as follows:
number of teeth: 18
module: 2.5mm
pressure angle: 20
modification coefficient: -0.04
diameter of addendum circle: 50 mm
diameter of root circl: 38.75 mm
The tooth cavity of the die insert was machined by LSWEDM before it was pressed into the shrinkage ring. The
punch is cylindrical without a tooth. The interference
between the shrinkage ring and the die insert in radial
direction is 0.471 mm.
Locating Ring
Punch
Die Insert
Workpiec
Shrinkage
Ring
Adjusting
Block
Table 1. Comparison between theoretical and experimental results.

Parameter Experiment result /mm Theoretical value /mm Error /%
W3
18.950
18.949
da
49.908
49.925
0.03407
df
38.640
38.643
0.00776
0.00528
Conclusions
On the base of considering the elastic deformation of the
die and the elastic recovery of the workpiece, the tooth
cavity design equations of modification coefficient,
diameter of the addendum circle and diameter of the root
circle have been derived from the parameters of the gear
that will be sized, the interference between the shrinkage
ring and the die insert, and the elastic strain of the
workpiece by the method of elastic-plastic mechanics. The
results obtainded from the proposed equations are in very
good agreement with the experimental ones. It is possible
to rapidly and precisely design the tooth cavity of a spur
gear cold sizing die.
Acknowledgements
Block
This work was funded by the National Natural Science

Foundation of China (No. 50375049).
Figure 5. Schematic diagram of sizing die-set for spur gear.
At the time of experiment, the punch and locating circle

were first taken away from the die-set and the workpiece
placed on the die insert. Next, the locating circle and
punch were placed in the die-set. Finally, the die-set was
put in the press. The workpieces were pushed through the
die insert using a BY62-63 hydraulic press.
Comparison of Theoretical Values and Experimental
Results. Three-tooth normal length W3, diameter of the
addendum circle da, diameter of the root circle df of the
sized gear have been measured three times respectively by
a micrometer gauge of normal line and vernier caliper. The
measured average value is used as the experimental value.
W3 represents the value of modification coefficient, which
can be expressed as
WK = m cos [( K 0.5) + z inv ] + 2 xm sin
(25)
where K is the number of teeth.

The elastic limit strain of 20CrMnTi steel at the state of
annealing can be derived from the elastic limit and
Youngs modulus because it is the ratio of the elastic limit
to Youngs modulus. The value is 0.002828 [15]. From
Eqs. (3), (6), (15), (20) and (25) and the experimental
parameters, the theoretical value of W3 of sized gear can
be obtained. From Eqs. (3), (23) and (24), the theoretical
values of da and df also can be obtained. Table 1 shows the
experimental results and the theoretical values calculated
by the authors proposed equations. It can be seen from
Table 1 that the proposed equations are in very good
agreement with the experimental results. Thus the
proposed equations can be used in the design of the tooth
cavity in the cold sizing process of spur gears.
References
[1] Z.M. Hu, J. Cai, T.A Dean: Proc. International Conference on
Mechanical Transmissions, Chongqing, (2001), 123-127.
[2] C. Tuncer, T.A. Dean: International Journal of Machine Tools &
Manufacture, 27-1 (1987), 65-76.
[3] J. Cai, T.A. Dean, Z.M. Hu: International Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, 150-1-2 (2004), 48-55
[4] K. Kondo, K. Ohga: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences,
35-8 (1995), 1105-1113.
[5] K. Ohga, F.Murakoshi, H. Ando, K.Miyoshi, K. Kondo: Proc. 7th
ICTP, Yokohama, (2002), 43-48.
[6] T.A. Dean: Materials and Design, 21-4 (2000), 271-278.
[7] B.H. Zhang, Z.M. Zhang: Proc. 3rd JSTP International Seminar on
Precision Forging, Nagoya, (2004), 115-118.
[8] E.R.H. Stone, J. Cai, Z.M. Hu, T.A. Dean: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, 135-2-3 (2003), 278-283.
[9] Y.C. Yang, Z.M. Hu, B.S. Kang, T.A. Dean: International Journal of
Machine Tools & Manufacture, 42-8 (2002), 945-952.
[10] Z.M. Hu: Journal of Plasticity Engineering, 9-4 (2002), 79-83
[11] J.H. Kang, K.O. Lee, J.S. Je, S.S. Kang: Journal of Materials
[12] H.B. Li, M. Lu, J.T. Luo: Die and Mould Technology, 1 (2003), 7-9.
(in Chinese)
[13] S.Q. Kou, S.H. Yang, L.J. Huang. P.F. Fu: Nature Science Journal of
Jilin University of Technology, 30-2 (2000), 19-23, ( in Chinese).
[14] B.H. Zhang, Z.M. Zhang: Proc. 2nd International Conference on
New Forming Technology, Bremen, (2007), 111-118.
[15] Compilation Committee of Heat Treatment Handbook: Heat
Treatment Handbook, 4th ed., Mechanical Industry Press, Beijing,
(1978), 1023, (in Chinese).
369
09.08.2010 14:25:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
Friction Correction of Deformation Curves in Hot Forging Process of Cylindrical Sample

Yunping Li, Emi Onodera, Tadayoshi Odahara, Hiroaki Matsumoto, Akihiko Chiba
Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, a.chiba@imr.tohoku.ac.jp
FEM analysis was performed by analyzing the relationships between the shape change of a cylindrical sample and friction factor, as well as
stress change with the friction factor due to the friction between the sample and the anvil in simulated compression tests. A new method
regarding determination of friction factor and friction correction evaluation was proposed. In the current research, a series of compression
tests were performed in 6056B aluminum alloy by controlling the friction factor at room temperature. Determination of friction factor and
friction correction in the stresses of samples in various conditions was carried out by this method. The results showed that stressstrain
curves obtained in different conditions (friction factor, sample height) could be corrected with good results.
Keywords: Finite element analysis, Compression, Cylindrical sample, Friction factor, Friction correction
Introduction
In metal forming, the friction forces developed between
the workpiece and the forming tools play an important role.
Ebrahimi and Najafizadeh developed an upper-bound
theory to determine the average friction factor by conducting a barrel compression test [1].
Rth
b
h
m=
4
2b
3 3 3
(1)
where m is the average Tresca friction factor for a hot

working process: its value ranges from 0 (perfect sliding)
to 1(sticking friction). Rth and h are the theoretical radius
and final height of the sample, respectively. The barreling
factor, b is given by the following equation:
b=4
R h
,
Rth h
(2)
where R is the difference between the maximum radius

Rm and the top radius Rt, and h is the reduction in the
height of the cylindrical sample after compression. However, it was found that this theory is not applicable at high
strain levels because the portion from original top surface
to contacting top surface was not an arch shape and was
formed from the barreling of the side surface and its further contact with the anvil at higher strain levels. Since
now, theoretical analyses based on the geometrical change
of the cylindrical sample during deformation seems not
applicable to obtain the correct value of the friction factor
in a large strain range. Therefore, a different method for
evaluating the friction factor must be proposed.
In addition, obtaining the stress-strain curves of a workpiece under various temperatures and strain rates without
the influence of the interfacial friction is always a key
problem for hot-working researchers. Rowe [2] analyzed
the influences of the interfacial friction between a workpiece and a tool, and the relationship between the average
axial pressure and the stress without the influence of friction in the case of a circular disc was found to be
370
z = (1 +
2m r
)
3 3 h
(3)
where r and h are instantaneous radius and height, respectively, of the billet; and z are the stresses without friction and the average axial stress under frictional conditions,
respectively; m is the shear (or Tresca) friction factor.
Dieter proposed that there is a Coulomb stress distribution
at both the end-surfaces of the cylindrical sample [3], and
the average axial stress (mean height of the friction hill)
with respect to the stress without friction was given by
C 2 z
2[exp(C ) C 1]
2 r
.
C=
h
(4)
(5)
In the above equation, denotes Coulomb friction factor. It

should be noted that Eqs. (3) and (4) were based on the
assumption that there is no barreling at the edges of the
sample, and the thickness of sample is small enough that
the average axial stress z is constant throughout the sample thickness. However, in an actual working process, sample thickness is generally greater than its radius, and the
stress across the height of a sample is considered to vary
greatly. Therefore, these two theories are not applicable in
actual test. A more precise equation for compensating
stress-strain curve is required in cylindrical compression
test.
In the current study, DEFORM-3D FEM software was
used to simulate the behavior of flow stress and shape
changing behavior under compression in a cylindrical
sample by adjusting the average Tresca friction factor m.
In order to analyze the variation of flow stress and sample
change with respect to the initial height/diameter ratio of
sample, a series of simulations were carried out on samples with various initial heights (same diameter). A pragmatic and simple approach for compensating the stressstrain curve will be proposed. Stress-strain curves obtained
in compression tests of 6056B aluminum alloy at ambient
temperature in different lubricating condition will be compensated to evaluate this new compensation method.
09.08.2010 14:25:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Determining the Friction Factor
A model of the aforementioned samples was generated

using DEFORM-3D v6.13. In order to reduce the calculating time, one-eighth of the cylindrical sample with a sufficient mesh number of 30000 was considered for analysis
in the current study. The values of the Tresca friction factors m selected for each simulation were 0 in the case of
perfect sliding, and 0.11, in increments of 0.1, in the case
of sticking. The parameters of the radius of original flat
end surfaces of samples Rt, the radius of the contact surface of sample, Rc, and the maximum radius of sample, Rm
were calculated at various strain levels, and a new relationship between these parameters and the friction factor
was obtained.
On the basis of our fundamental studies using DEFORM-3D FEM simulations, it was found that at a given
strain level and friction factor, the stress variation due to
friction is proportional to the intrinsic stress of materials;
therefore, actual materials with any stress level can be
extrapolated using the same linear behavior on the basis of
current results. For example, at a given strain level, if the
stress with the influence of friction (exp. m = 0.5) is 120
MPa, while the stress without the influence of friction is
100 MPa, then in the case of a stress of 600 MPa with the
same friction factor and strain level, the stress without
We used various values of friction factor m to calculate

the shape change of the cylindrical sample by means of the
DEFORM-3D FEM; in this case, m was considered to be
constant or in other words, independent of strain in each
compression process. The maximum radius Rm, originally
flat end surface radius after expansion Rt, and the contact
radius Rc are also indicated schematically by arrows in
Figure 1, respectively.
friction could be calculated to be 500 MPa from
120 600
.
=
100
To simplify the analysis for determining the influence of

friction on stress variation, an ideal material with a constant true stress of exactly 100 MPa was considered in the
simulation process, the ratio between the stresses with and
without influence of friction will be taken into account.
The compression processes were carried out using a true
strain-rate controlling process of 0.01 s1. In addition,
adiabatic heating (temperature rise) was set to not take
place inside of the compressed sample in the simulation
process (heat efficiency was chosen to be 0) because it
lead to softening of the flow stress in the deformation
process [4].
Extruded 5056B Al-5Mg alloy was used in the current
study. Cylindrical specimens, 8 mm in diameter and 12
mm in heights, were cut by electro-discharge machining
(EDM) respectively. Concentric ridges with a depth of 0.1
mm were machined on the flat ends surface of the specimen so that the profile of sample surface can be easily
recognized after deformation. Compression tests were
carried out at ambient temperature in a computer-aided hot
forging simulator (Thermecmaster-Z) to a true strain level
of approximately 1.2 (approximately 70%). The strain rate
was set as 10-3 s-1. In order to control the friction factor we
conducted compression test in various lubricating conditions: no lubricating (A sample), plastic rubber (B sample),
graphitic sheet (C sample), as well as compression lubricated by MoS2 spray (D sample) between sample top
surface and anvil. Before compression test the grooved top
surface of sample was painted by red ink so that the original top profiles could be recognized easily before calculating the friction factor.
Figure 1. Schematic figures of end surface of deformed samples

at large strain level.
Figure 2. (a) Rc, (b) Rm of sample calculated as function of true

strain, and (c) Rc as a function of friction factor at specific strain.
Figure 2(a) and (b) shows Rc and Rm calculated as a

function of true strain by simulation, respectively. It can be
observed that the trends of both Rc and Rm as a function of
strain are very similar: when m is larger than 0.2, there is
almost no variation in these parameters with increasing
friction factor at a certain strain level. It is well known that
the friction factor in most of the hot forging process is
usually higher than 0.4, even in the well lubricated test.
The variations of Rc as a function of friction factor at different strain levels are shown in Figure 2(c); at a certain
strain level, Rc tends to become constant, even though m
371
09.08.2010 14:25:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
varies in a wide range from 0.3-1.0. It should be noted that
the changing trends of Rm as a function of friction factor at
a specific strain level are extremely similar to that of Rc as
shown in Figure 2(c). Since both Rc and Rm are important
parameters in the determination of shape of compressed
sample, the above-mentioned observations imply that the
overall shape of the compressed sample does not vary
significantly, even though the friction factor might be
extremely different. Thus, in order to obtain a correct
method to evaluate the friction factor in hot forging process, parameter Rt should also be taken into account as in
Eq. (1). The variations in Rt are expressed as a function of
strain and m as shown in Figure 3(a) and (b), respectively.
Rt shows an extremely larger variation than both Rc and
Rm: Changing trends of Rt as a function of true strain are
quite different compared to that for either Rc or Rm (Figure
3(a)), and at a specific strain level, Rt decreased gradually
with the increasing friction factor, implying a strong dependence of friction factor m (Figure 3(b)).
A = a + bm + cm 2 ,
(7)
B = a + bm + cm ,
(8)
C = a + bm + cm ,
(9)
Figure 4. m calculated from Eq. (10) (triangles) and value used in

simulation process (open circles) and the value calculated from Eq.
(2) (open squares).
Table 1. Parameters used in the fitting processes.
a`
b`
c`
0.991
0.0164
-0.00572
a``
b``
c``
-0.840
0.927
-0.518
a```
b```
c```
0.221
-0.505
0.320
Suitable parameters for these equations after fitting are

given in Table 1. By inserting Eqs. (7), (8), and (9) in Eq.
(6), the relationship between m and P can be summarized
as
( a + a + a 2 P ) + (b + b + b 2 )m +
(c + c + c 2 )m 2 = 0
Figure 3. Rt calculated in simulation process as a function of (a)

true strain at different friction factors, and (b) friction factor at
different strain levels.
When considering the relationship between m and the

geometry of deformed sample, since there are similar
trends between Rc and Rm from the simulation results as
shown in Figures. 2(a) and (b) we just considered Rm in
this study and combined it with other parameters such as
sample height after compression, H, Rt and the initial
height of the sample H0 into
Rm H
for each process as a
Rt H 0
function of the true strain level. If P =
Rm H
, therefore, the
Rt H 0
relationship between true strain and P in each compression

process can be exactly expressed by a second order spline
equation as follow
P = A + B + C 2 ,
(6)
where A, B, and C are variables dependent on m. It was

found that after the fitting process, the relations between the
variables A, B, and C with m could be expressed by other
second order spline equations as follows, respectively:
372
(10)
wehre P is able to be obtained easily by measuring the

geometry of deformed sample.
In order to evaluate the accuracy of Eq. (10), we selected each strain level in each simulation process in
which the friction factor was assigned to be equal to the
values of the strain levels for a convenience of plotting the
results from Eq. (10); for example, in case of a simulation
process with a pre-set m of 0.5, the strain level will also be
selected to be 0.5, where m will be calculated by using Eq.
(10) to compare with the actual value of m in the simulation process. m recalculated by using Eq. (10) (triangles)
was plotted along with its value in the simulation process
(circles) as shown in Figure 4. m calculated from Eq. (1)
at above conditions are also plotted together in squares. It
can be observed from that m calculated by Eq. (10) is in
good agreement with the actual value in simulation process. However, the results obtained from Eq. (1) show a
large variance when compared to the result obtained by
using Eq. (10).
Friction Correction
The plot of flow stresses/stress without friction as a function of average Tresca friction factor m at different strain
levels is shown in Figure 5. A very good linear relation
can be observed between these two parameters when the
slopes of these lines are closely related to the nominal
strain levels. The relation between the average axial stress
09.08.2010 14:25:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
under frictional conditions and the Tresca friction factor m
can be given by
(11)
z = (1 + K ( ).m)
friction conditions were compensated by using Eq. (14), it

was observed that the curves could be compensated to the
same level, indicating the extremely high precision of the
present method.
where the slope K() of the line is dependent on the strain:

(12)
K ( ) = f ( )
Figure 6. True stress-true strain curves of (a) 5056B Al-5Mg alloy

with various friction factors, (b) Stress-strain curves corrected by
Eq. (14).
Figure 5. (a) Relationship between friction factor m and true stress
at various nominal strain levels; (b) The slope K as a function of true
strain and the fitting result by second-order polynomial equation in
case of rastegaev geometrical sample.
Table 2. Values of parameters used for Eq. (11).
Parameter
Value
0.0419 -0.242 0.0455 0.305
The plot of the slope K(), calculated at different strain

levels as a function of true strain is shown in Figure 5. It
was found that the curve for this relation can be well fitted
using a second-order spline equation as follows:
K = f ( ) = A + B + C 2 + D 3
(13)
Conclusions
1. By calculating the friction factor from the parameters of
P at different strain levels, a new equation for obtaining
the friction factor based on the simulation process was
obtained.
2. The friction factors calculated from Eq. (14) were found
to be in good agreement with the actual values in simulation process and gave better results than those obtained by using Eq. (1).
3. An equation for compensating the influence of friction
on the flow stress of materials was proposed on the basis of the simulations, and the results applied to 5065B
alloy were observed to have extremely high precision as
compared to those obtained using Eq. (1).
where A, B, C and d are constants that were determined by

the fitting process, and suitable values are listed in Table 2.
By combining Eq. (13) and Eq. (11), an equation for correcting the stress-strain curve was obtained as follows:
z
=
(14)
1 + ( A + B + C 2 + D 3 ).m
Acknowledgements
The average Tresca friction factor m can be calculated

using the methodology from Eq. (10). The stress without
the influence of friction could be compensated by inserting
the other parameters in Table 2 regardless of the experimental conditions or the characteristics of the material.
Figure 6 (a) shows the true stress-true strain curve of an
5056B Al alloy sample with an average Tresca friction
factor of 0.23 to approximately 0.523, which were determined from Eq. (11). The influences of friction on the
flow stress could be observed clearly, particularly at a high
strain level. If these true stresstrue strain curves under
References
This research was supported by a Cooperation of Innovative Technology and Advanced Research in Evolutional
Area from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
and Technology of Japan.
[1] R. Ebrahimi, A. Najafizadeh: J. Mater. Proc. Techn., 152-1 (2004),

136-143.
[2] G.W. Rowe: An introduction of the principles of the metalworking, p.
243, Edward Arnold, London, (1965).
[3] G.E. Dieter: Mechanical Metallurgy, 3rd ed., McGraw Hill Book Co.,
New York, NY, (1986), 539;
[4] H. Monajati, M. Jahazi, S. Yue, and A.K. Taheri: Metall. Mater. Trans.
A, 36A-3 (2005), 895905.
373
09.08.2010 14:25:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
Parameters Optimization of Metal Forming Process

Fanjuan Meng, Carl Labergere, Pascal Lafon
University of Technology of Troyes, Institute Charles Delaunay LASMIS FRE CNRS 2848, France, fanjuan.meng@utt.fr
In metal forming processes, initial shapes of billets are usually simple. Even for some complicated parts, the cylinder is always be used.
But defining the dimension of the initial cylinder billet is the most important step for product quality control. Reasonable initial billet dimension can not only reduce raw material cost but also improving mechanical properties of the part. In this paper, a metal forming parameters
optimization system was developed. It arrives at the optimum values by numerical simulation using finite element analysis and response
surface method (RSM). To develop this optimization system, several numerical tools are required: geometric modelling (CATIA V5), FE
analysis (ABAQUS), and optimization computation (ModeFRONTIER). A two-step axisymmetric forging project was studied as an example by using proposed method.
Keywords: Metal forming process, Numerical simulation, Optimization, Initial billet dimension, Response surface method
Introduction
Nowadays, in metal forming processes the numerical
simulation is used to avoid long and expensive experiments and many research works have been made in this
aspect [1,2]. In this paper, the main objective is to simulate
metal forming processes coupled with an optimization
procedure in order to obtain the optimal parameters. In the
mechanical system and concurrent engineering laboratory
of university of technology of Troyes, an extensive work
has been developed since ten years. A finite element package has been developed to solve thermo-visco-elastoplastic problems with ductile damage in large deformation.
This package allows realizing automatically numerical
simulation of metal forming processes. In order to avoid
large mesh distortions and achieve properly the convergence of calculation, meshing and re-meshing procedure
are also included [3-5].
The whole model of a metal forming process optimization system is shown in Figure 1. In order to connect all
these operations together automatically in ModeFRONTIER, the different macro commands are used to realize
it. First, the CATIATM macro command is used to create
the geometry of the tools and define the parameters that
we want to optimizer. Then, the ABAQUS macro command is used to input the shape and processing parameters
into a software package based on ABAQUS to simulate
the metal forming process. Finally, the advanced optimization algorithm is performed to reach the optimum variable
values on the response surface established.
constitutive equations is formulated in the framework of

the thermodynamics of irreversible processes together
with the continuum damage mechanics theory [4-6].
Numerical Aspect. The fully coupled thermomechanical constitutive equations presented above have been implemented into Abaqus/Explicit FE code using the Vumat
user subroutine. The dynamic explicit resolution procedure
has been used in order to solve the thermomechanical
problem based on both weak forms relative to the equilibrium and thermal equations. In the case of an updated
Lagrangian formulation, the high non-linearity and the
large plastic deformation can distort the element of the
mesh. To avoid this numerical problem and modulate the
fracture propagation, a new numerical methodology based
on different tools (DIAMESH2D: 2D triangular and quadrangular mesher, error estimates, transfer fields, automatic
sequence load or re-meshing) has been developed in laboratory Lasmis and in collaboration with laboratory Roberval of university of technology of Compiegne [3,4].
Numerical Simulation of Metal Forming Process

The numerical simulations of metal forming processes
by using the finite element package developed in our laboratory are presented in this paragraph.
Thero-Visco-Elasto-Plastic Behavior Model. A
thermo-elato-viscoplastic behavior model is used for the
simulation of forging operation imposed different multiphysic coupling (temperature, plastic strain, and plastic
strain rate). This advanced constitutive equations proposed
a non linear isotropic and kinematic hardenings strongly
coupled with ductile isotropic damage. The coupling between the ductile damage and the elasto-visco-plastic
374
Figure 1. Metal forming process optimization system.
Optimization Problems
Variables. There are so many factors associated with
the metal forming process. In this paper, we deal with the
example of an aluminum forged part which is obtained by
two different operations (platting and forging).
The platting operation (Figure 2) is realized with a mechanical press, and the upper tool is translated with a con-
09.08.2010 14:25:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
stant velocity Vtool=50 mm/s. The forging operation (Figure 3) is realized with a hammer, two blows are needed to
completely deform the part. The kinematic energy imposed to the upper tool is the same for blows 1 and 2,
which is equal to 30KJ. We defined that the initial dimension of the cylinder billet Rinitial and Hinitial and the final
height of the billet after platting process Hfinal are the variables to be optimized which are shown in Figure 2 and the
final shape of the part after forging operation is shown in
Figure 3.
where
is the Cauchy stress matrix,
and plastic) strain rate,

elements,
is the (elastic
Nbele is the total number of the
Vi is the volume of element i, VT is the total
volume, i is the equivalent plastic strain computed at the

p
unique Gauss point of the element i,

equivalent plastic strain and
p
avg
is
the average
Fmax is the maximum force
value during the platting operation.

Optimization Constraints. Several constraints should
be considered, including damage, wrinkle and achieving
the right configuration at the end. And it can be summarized as the following functions (4-6):
S .T . D(i) Dmax

(i ) = arccos( ni ni +1 ) min
S=
(b) H=90mm
(5)
Nbele _ contour
gap(i) S
i =1
(a) H=Hinitial=110mm
(4)
max
(6)
In Eq. (4), D (i ) is the damage value of the element i inside the machining part of the piece which is shown in
Figure 4 and the maximum value of the damage Dmax is set
to 0.1. If the damage value outside this part is larger than
Dmax, we also think that the forged part is available for the
following operations.
(c) H=Hfinal=70mm
Figure 2. Platting operation.
(a)Initial shape (b) Shape after one blow (c) Shape after two blows
Figure 3. Forging operation.
Optimization Objective Functions. Forging energy is

strongly related to the over heating. From an economic
point of view, it is important to minimize forging energy
[7]. Another criterion that should be taken into account
during the optimization is the metallurgic quality of forged
parts. Its related directly to the uniformity of distribution
of plastic deformation [8].
In our work, the objective functions are defined as the
minimization of forging energy, improving metallurgic
quality of forged parts and reducing the maximum forging
force during the operations. It can be summarized as the
following functions (1)-(3):
t1
I
Fobj
= min(
t2
( : 1.dV )dt1 + ( : 2 .dV )dt2 )
0 V platting
Nbele
(1)
0 V forging
Nb
Vi p
V
p
p
with avg
i avg
= i i p (2)
i =1 VT
i =1 VT
II
Fobj
= min
III
Fobj
= min Fmax
ele
(3)
Figure 4. Constraint of damage condition.
In Eq. (5), is the angle value of the nearby two contour elements as shown in Figure 5 and the minimum
value of the angle min is set to 3 . If (i ) is larger
than min , we can get the conclusion that there is no wrinkle in the forged part.
In Eq. (6), S is the total value of the gap distance between the contour element nodes of the achieved part and
the required part and the maximum value of the total distance Smax is set to 6mm. This value is to verify whether
the part fills well or not in the tools. As shown in Figure 6,
in order to make the value more precise, we make a box at
the end of the flash part, because when calculating the gap,
this part is useless to our results, so we just accumulate the
gap value outside this box.
375
09.08.2010 14:25:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
Applications
Figure 5. Constraint of wrinkle condition.
To illustrate the methodology described above, an initial

billet dimension optimization system based on response
surface method is proposed. In our application, it is assumed that the starting shape is cylinder, and we set the
value of variable Hinitial are 110, 115, 121, 128 and 135mm.
The volume of the initial billet (Vinitial) is fixed which is
equal to 552640 mm3, so Rinitial can be calculated. Another
variable Hfinal are defined as 70, 75, 80 and 85 mm. There
are 20 simulations have been down and the Simulation
parameters are as follows: material: 2017A, forging temperature: 360 C.
After finishing all the simulations, we can get the interesting values that we need, including the objective functions results and the constraints results. Tables 1, 2 and 3
show the three objective functions results.
Table 1 Simulation results of
I
Fobj
Figure 6. Constraint of filling condition.
75
80
85
110
1,584E+07
1,602E+07
1,869E+07
1,917E+07
115
1,985E+07
1,578E+07
1,441E+07
2,162E+07
121
1,485E+07
1,664E+07
1,655E+07
1,454E+07
128
1,539E+07
1,509E+07
2,212E+07
1,430E+07
135
1,902E+07
1,416E+07
1,649E+07
1,563E+07
II
Table 2 Simulation results of Fobj .

II
Fobj
70
75
80
85
110
4,338E-01
4,707E-01
4,758E-01
4,499E-01
115
4,239E-01
4,357E-01
4,422E-01
4,391E-01
121
4,205E-01
4,314E-01
4,394E-01
4,463E-01
128
4,149E-01
4,255E-01
4,291E-01
4,401E-01
135
4,132E-01
4,355E-01
4,342E-01
4,387E-01
Table 3 Simulation results of
Optimization System Model

There are several steps for this metal forming optimization system, including input part, output part and the simulation running part. First, a set of design points is selected
on the DOE method. The predictive capabilities of response surface approximations are strongly dependent on
the distribution of design points in the design space.
Therefore, rather than just choosing designs at random, it
is important to apply some sound strategy for selecting a
good set of points at which to carry out experiments. Then,
the response surface model can be constructed based on
the results of the simulation. By using the response surface
model, the advanced optimization algorithms are performed and the optimum for variables is found.
376
(Mille Joules).
70
Response Surface Method

A simulation of the forging process requires a large
amount of calculation. In this situation, a meta-model
based on the responses surfaces can be built with few
simulation processes. A meta-model can be defined as a
collection of statistical and mathematical techniques useful
for developing, improving, and optimizing processes [9].
So to rapidly get the optimum design values, an appropriate optimizer algorithm is used and all evaluations on the
objective and constraint functions are evaluated with a
specific meta-model.
I
Fobj
III
Fobj
III
Fobj
(Newton).
70
75
80
85
110
9,639E+05
9,180E+05
8,782E+05
8,378E+05
115
9,396E+05
8,987E+05
8,621E+05
8,266E+05
121
9,121E+05
8,802E+05
8,467E+05
8,154E+05
128
8,890E+05
8,550E+05
8,281E+05
8,013E+05
135
8,609E+05
8,249E+05
8,074E+05
7,850E+05
Based on all these results, the surface response models

are generated which are shown in Figures 7, 8 and 9. For
each figure, the left 3D picture is the response surface
model. It represents the relationship between the two variables and the objective functions values. We get it by using classical two degree polynomial model which is easy
09.08.2010 14:25:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
to implement in solving our problem. The right one shows
the contours plots of the variables values and the objective
function results.
For a point on the response surface showing on these

figures, when Hinitial is equal to 122.5mm and Hfinal is equal
I
to 77.5mm, the objective function value Fobj is equal to

II
III
1.6519E7MJ, Fobj is equal to 4.3553E-1 and Fobj is equal

to 8.5722E5N.
Conclusions
Figure 7. Response surface representing the relationships between the objective function
I
Fobj
and the variables.
II
Fobj
and the variables.
The advanced simulation technique is applied to a twooperation metal forming processes. The optimization module uses response surface method to search the optimal
parameters by changing the variables within the specified
limits. And in the future, it is desired:
1. It is better to incorporate more global optimization
algorithms with the surface repose method. Because
the response surface approach is a method of the metamodel, it does not have the function of improving the
response surface. It will be better that meta-modelling
combined to an evolutionary strategy, or to a genetic
algorithm, as in the hybrid approach.
2. In the modern industry simulation, getting the proper
results isnt the unique goal for our design. Another
important criterion is shorting the time of the simulation. Parallel calculation can be used in our forging optimization system. We can set several parallel workflows to run the calculation in order to generate the results of sampling data in the meantime.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by the Mechanical System and
Concurrent Engineering Laboratory of University of Technology of Troyes, conseil rgional de Champagne Ardenne,
FRANCE and CSC, CHINA, which are gratefully acknowledged.
References
III
Fobj
and the variables.
Figure 7 shows that the distribution of the forging enI
ergy is nonlinear. The objective function Fobj reaches the

maximum value when Hfinal is equal to 85 mm. So during
the forging process, the larger of the value of Hfinal, the
more energy is needed. From Figure 8 it can be learned
that
II
Fobj
is more influenced by the value of Hfinal and
decreasing Hfinal leads to increase the deformation uniformity. When the value of Hfinal is small, the equivalent plastic
strain propagates uniformly in all part which may benefit
the forging part. But for a large value of Hfinal, the equivalent plastic strain locates in the middle of the billet which
is the typical phenomenon of forging core. Seen form
Figure 9, we can find that the surface generated is almost a
plane. So it can conclude that the objective function
[1] Y.T. Im: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 89-90(1999), 17.

[2] S. Kobayashi, S.-I. Oh, T. Altan: Metal Forming and the Finite Elements Methods, Oxford University Press, New York, 1981, 16.
[3] C. Labergere, A. Rassineux, K. Saanouni: ESAFORM (2008), 23-25.
[4] C. Labergere, P. Lestriez, K. Saanouni: Key Engineering Materials,
Vol 424(2010), 265-272.
[5] K. Saanouni, J-.L. Chaboche: Computational Damage Mechanics
Application to Metal Forming, Vol 3(2003).
[6] P. Lestriez, K. Saanouni, J.F. Mariage, A. Cherouat: International
Journal of Damage Mechanics, 13-1(2004), 59-80.
[7] D. Vieilledent: Ph.D. Thesis, Ecole Nationale Suprieure Des Mines
De Paris, France, 1999.
[8] M.Poursina, J.Parvizian, C.A.C. Antonio: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 174(2006), 325-333.
[9] Y.-C. Tang, X.-H. Zhou, J. Chen: Finite Elements in Analysis and
Design, 44(2008), 462-471.
III
Fobj
is linear and when increasing the value of Hinitial or Hfinal, it

will decrease linearly.
377
09.08.2010 14:25:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
VR System for Aiding Preform Design of Hot Forgings Using Haptic Device
Takahiro Ohashi1), Yusuke Tsurumi1), Yasushi Murata1), Heihachi Ueki2), Soju Matsumoto2), Kenji Iwata2)
1)
School of Science and Engineering, Kokushikan University, Tokyo / Japan, tohashi@kokushikan.ac.jp;

Japan
2)
3D Incorporated, Yokohama /
Locating an unstable preform on a die involves all sorts of unexpectedly uneven filling in the flash gutter and might result in under filling of
the die cavity in some cases. In this paper, the authors employ a virtual reality (VR) system to simulate locating a preform on a die cavity
using real-time collision detection and force feedback applied to a haptic device to evaluate the shape of a preform with respect to its postural stability and its ability to be located in a full position on a die. The user measures the position and tilt of preforms to locate them, using
a digital camera and 3D accelerometer attached to the preforms in advance. He then employs a real-time collision detection system to
simulate locating a newly designed preform using simulator data as mentioned above. The system outputs the position and tilt of the preform into log files. This information can then be used in forming a simulation. Thus, a preform designer can try out a candidate design with
this system before making actual dies to learn of any problems experienced by operators in properly locating the preform. He can then
improve its shape or design or change the process plan to avoid these problems. In addition, the detected force of collision in the simulation can be fed back to a haptic device, allowing the designer to examine his design intuitively.
Keywords: Forging, Preform design, Die design, Process planning, Virtual reality (VR), Haptic device, Real-time collision detection
Introduction
It is well known empirically that having a preform of
stable shape on a die in hot forging helps complete the
filling of the die cavity in metal flow. An unstable preform
involves all sorts of unexpectedly uneven filling in the
flash gutter and might result in under filling of the die
cavity in some cases (See Figure 1). In such cases, we
must consider the additional volume of the preform and
the increase in material yield loss. Traditionally, it has
been difficult to identify such postural instability of a
preform on a die before trial production.
Good
preform
shape
Die
Full position
Full filling
Difficult
preform shape
for locating
Die
Mismatched position
Uneven filling
Figure 1. Postural stability and locating facility of preform on die.
In this paper, the authors employ a virtual reality (VR)

system to simulate locating a preform on a die cavity using
real-time collision detection and force feedback applied to
a haptic device to evaluate the shape of the preform with
respect to its postural stability and its ability to be located
in a full position on a die.
In the manufacturing industry, real-time collision detection systems have mainly been employed for evaluating
assembly workability. They are intended to test the assembly process [1] during the planning stage and identify any
problems there. The test involves not only a behavior
analysis of the workers but also the intuitive trial-and-error
of a planner using the VR system with haptic devices. The
use of such VR simulators has been limited to particular
advanced industries such as aerospace or the atomic industry. However, it is now being extended to general-product
industries such as the automobile industry. Efforts using
this new technology in metal forming are being under378
taken by researchers and engineers. For example, engineers in automobile industries use it for planning of production line and layout of instruments [2]. Toyota carries
out virtual assembly of dies [3]. A press machine company
performs virtual assembly/disassembly of large press machines [4].
In forging, computer-aided optimum preform design has
been one of most important goal for virtual manufacturing.
Most of R&Ds for VR systems in metal forming depends
on numerical simulation of forming process mainly [5-8].
Many researchers have considered optimization of preform for the sake of reducing forging load and material
yield loss [9,10]. In addition, control of texture of forgings
by optimum preform design is also studied successfully in
recent years [11,12]. More powerful such the numerical
analysis becomes, it is more problematic that actual situation does not meet the model of process-simulation ideally
because of setup error, machine difference and other uncertainty and fluctuation in actual manufacturing. The
authors think that a collision detection system could be
one of powerful tools to solve such the problems. It also
could be a useful training tool for forging operators [13].
VR System for Simulating Collisions while Locating
Preform on Die Cavity
System Configuration. Figure 2 depicts the configuration of the virtual reality system used to simulate locating
a preform on a forging die. The system is utilized as follows. First, a user designs a candidate process plan. He
then creates a 3D CAD model of a candidate die and preform in STL format. Next, he transfers this model into the
real-time collision detection software. Here, he chooses
one of two methods of examination. One method is to
manipulate the preform with the haptic device directly.
The user can operate the device interactively using the
sense of touch. He examines the point of the problem with
its shape by repeatedly altering it and inserting it into the
die cavity. We employed a Phantom Omni from SensAble
Technologies as the device. Table 1 presents the abstract
specifications of the Phantom Omni.
09.08.2010 14:25:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
The other examination method is to manipulate the preform depending on data compiled from a behaviour analysis. The user can measure the shift length from the full
position and tilt of a preform in actual operation and create
a database containing this information along with the operating conditions (i.e. the operator, handling-tool data, the
weight of the preform, transfer-machine data, pressmachine data, SPM, lubricant, and so on) before creating a
new design. Thereafter, the user can shift and alter the
newly designed preform over the die in the simulator
based on data for similar preforms and similar operating
conditions. He then attempts to insert it into the virtual
cavity in order to identify any problems with its ability to
be located. He can then modify the preform or the die
design based on the above result. Thus, a preform designer
can test his design using this system before making any
actual dies to identify its formal problems in locating. He
can then improve its shape design or change the process
plan to avoid the problems.
Data of shift length
from the full position
and attitude of actual
preforms
Preform & die design

with a CAD system
Candidate
die & preform data
in STL format
Report browser
User
sents the moving object, called the controlled object,

and Object B represents the fixed object, called the static
object in the figure. The system calculates the penetration
depth between every pair of objects (or polygons). The
system then moves the controlled object, or orders the
haptic device to move it, in a direction that will reduce the
penetration depth. The haptic device generates force in
proportion to the depth, creating a tactile sensation for the
user of the device.
Here, the system deals with penetration depth in two
ways. One uses the translational penetration depth vector
D, and the other uses the rotational penetration depth vector DR.
The former is a penetration vector generated/repelled by
translatory movement. It is compiled from a pair of contact points of the controlled and static object. The system
calculates these while considering the penetration in order
to keep track of the continuous penetration depth vector
during the movement (Figure 3(a)). This is called a dynamic penetration-depth calculation.
In contrast, the rotational penetration depth vector represents the axis of rotation DR/|DR| and the angle of rotation
|DR| at which the rotation will repel the controlled object
from the static object. The integration of these two motions is calculated by minimizing the potential energy
P(D,DR) formulated as follows;
1
1
2
2
(1)
P ( D, D ) = k D + k D
R
detection software
Control
Haptic device
Force feedback
where k [N/m] and kR [Nm] are constant (spring rates).
Log
Real-time collision
Repelling
Forging process
simulator
(in future)
Fig. 2. Virtual reality (VR) system to simulate locating preform on
die cavity.
Minimum penetration
depth vector without
regarding track of penetration (not used)
B
(Translational)
Dynamic penetration depth
vector D
(a) Penetration by translation
Table 1. Specifications of Phantom Omni (abstract) [14].

Nominal position resolution
0.055mm
Workspace
> 160w x 120h x 70d mm
Maximum Exertable Force
< 0.26N
Stiffness
X axis> 1.26N/mm; Y axis>

2.31N/mm; Z axis> 1.02N/mm
Force feedback
3 DOF (x,y,z)
Position sensing
6 DOF (x,y,z, pitch, roll, yaw)
Algorithm of Real-Time Collision Detection. 3D Incorporated has developed a real-time collision detection
system called Smart Collision. The authors modified the
system, creating a dedicated version to simulate locating
forgings that outputs position and tilt data for a preform
into log files. Details of the algorithm were reported in a
previous paper [15]. The authors will discuss it briefly as
follows. Figure 3 presents a schema of collision detection.
The system simulates the shape with a polygon model. A
polygon (triangle) soup or a closed polyhedron composed
of polygons is acceptable for the detection. Object A represteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
A
B
Repelling
Rotational
penetration
depth vector DR
(b) Penetration by rotation

Figure 3. Schema of collision detection; calculating penetration
depth in two ways and repelling to reduce penetration depth.
379
09.08.2010 14:25:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
Process no. 1
algorithm. The shape of the die is generally a concave

polyhedron and therefore the employed algorithm is more
suitable for the simulation of locating forgings than the
general voxel-model algorithm.
Examples of Simulation of Locating Preform
Process no. 2
Process no. 3
Process no.4
Process no.5
Figure 4. Example processes for system operation.
Features of Algorithm. One of the features of the above

algorithm is that it deals with the shape using a polygon
model. A huge, complexly shaped model tends to be dealt
with using the voxel-model algorithm. The algorithm
employed here can deal with huge models as well as that
one. In addition, it can detect collision, especially of a
concave polyhedron, more precisely than the voxel model
380
Examples of Operation. Figure 4 presents five processes as example operations to examine the simulation of
locating preforms. These processes are used for making
gear blanks of a symmetrical shape. All of them were
performed in an actual production setting. In our examination, a user locates a preform on a die 10 times for each
process, using a haptic device. Weight data for the preforms is entered into the system. We tried the operations
both with and without gravity. We compiled the positions
and Euler angles of tilt of a located preform from the log
file. We then calculated the shift length based on the full
position and using the angle with the z-axis as the value of
tilt.
Results and Discussion. Table 2 presents the simulation
results. The authors employed a statistical test with a 10%
significance level. In the table, a F-test and a T-test are
applied to compare the operations with and without gravity.
In the result, we did not observe a significant difference in
tilt. In contrast, preforms having a tall shape in Processes 2,
4 and 5 seem to suffer from this effect. In particular, the
results of the processes with deeper cavities in the die
were poor. Thus, gravity cannot be ignored in the simulation of locating preforms. At this point, the authors decided to perform a simulation with gravity as a test.
Table 3 presents the results of statistical tests along with
the results of the simulation of the five processes. We can
evaluate the processes in Tables 2 and 3 as follows.
(1) Process 3 presents more difficulties in setting the
preform than Process 1 (at 10% significance level).
(2) Process 4 presents more difficulties in setting the
preform than Process 2 (at 5% significance level).
(3) Process 5 makes it easier to set a preform than Processes 3 and 4 (at 5% significance level).
Thus, we can examine the difficulty of locating preforms
by using a VR system to simulate collisions, a haptic device, and statistical tests.
Table 2. Statistical tests along with results of simulation for example processes.
Process no.
1
2
3
4
5
GeometWithout
5.00
4.30
7.05
4.47
6.43
ric mean
gravity
of shift
With grav4.93
5.9
7.04
10.2
4.47
length
ity
from full
Two-sided
position / P(F<f)
0.746
0.568
0.803
0.935
0.959
mm
Two-sided
1.00
P(Tt)
0.931 0.0900
0.779
E-4 0.0880
GeometWithout
ric mean
gravity
4.64
3.89
7.51
5.40
5.18
of tilt
With grav5.15
4.50
5.99
6.78
4.76
from full
ity
position / Two-sided
degree
P(F<f)
0.55
0.596
0.246
0.632
0.286
Two-sided
P(Tt)
0.776
0.706
0.498
0.465
0.965
09.08.2010 14:25:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 3. Statistical tests along with results of simulation for example processes.
Process No.
2
3
4
5
1 Two-sided
P(F<f)
0.738
0.290
0.000690
0.829
Two-sided
P(Tt)
0.449
0.0575
0.220
0.252
2 Two-sided
P(F<f)
0.577
0.00169
0.577
Two-sided
P(Tt)
0.219
0.000101
0.219
3 Two-sided
P(F<f)
5.64E-05
0.202
Two-sided
P(Tt)
0.461
0.0221
4 Two-sided
P(F<f)
0.000371
Two-sided
P(Tt)
0.000101
gutter and might result in underfilling of the die cavity in

some cases. A process designer can test his design with
this system before making actual dies by using the virtual
location of a preform and statistical tests.
Digital camera
Preform
Accelerometer
Marker for evaluating

shift from full position of
a preform
Model die
Figure 5. Behavior analysis using model die.
Behavior Analysis of Forging Operator
Conclusions
The authors suggest utilizing a virtual-reality system
with collision detection for evaluating forging process
design. An unstable preform being located on a die involves all sorts of unexpectedly uneven filling in the flash
D
h
Figure 6. Example perform and die for behavior analysis.

8
Group V1
Group V2
Virtual locating
Actual locating
(D,h)
45
40
Group A3
Group A1
Height h / mm
Geometric mean of shift-length

from full-position Es / mm
Methodology of Behaviour Analysis. The authors performed a behavior analysis of a forging operator using a
model die and a model preform in order to verify the simulation of locating preforms and to collect actual data. Figure 5 depicts the configuration of the behavior analysis for
locating a preform on a model die. The marker seen in the
figure is attached to the preform. To begin, the authors
located a preform exactly into its full position. They then
calibrated the accelerometer and took a picture for reference. Next, we removed the preform from the die and had
a test operator locate it with tongs. Finally, the authors
took another picture to compare the location of the target
mark with the first picture. The tilt of the preform is
computed from the direction of gravitational acceleration
as measured by the accelerometer.
Figure 6 depicts an example process for verifying virtual locating by the data from real operations. The authors
prepare model preforms by upsetting clay billets having 38
mm in diameter and 78 mm in height with various reduction ratios.
Results and Discussion. In this case, we did not observe
a significant difference by statistical tests in tilt. Therefore,
the authors discuss shift error here. Figure 7 shows geometric mean of shift length from full position. There is no
significant difference in statistical tests amongst members
of a group in the figure. P (Tt) between Groups V1 and
V2 is 0.0631 and that between Groups A1 and A2 is
1.20x10-6. There seems to be a border between better and
worse preform design around 53mm in D at 10% significance level in the virtual operation and 5% significance
level in the real operation. Result of this operator was
always better than the simulation in the whole of test. In
addition, real operation seems to accept narrower clearance between the preform and die cavity. The authors
think that the former should be the operators own tendency, but the latter could be caused by not only operators
ability but delay of collision check and force calculation.
60
55
Group A2
35
50
52
54
56
Maximum diamater D / mm
Figure 7. Maximum diameter and height of perform and geometric
mean of shift length from full position in virtual and actual locating
tests; A user locates each preform on the die 10 times.
References
[1] T. Yoshikawa, K. Yoshimoto: Trans. Virtual Realit. Soc. Jpn. 4-1
(1999), 313-319.
[2] S. Miura, Y. Tanigawa, S. Miyashita: Katagijutsu (J. Die Mold Technol.), 22-8 (2007), 64-65.
[3] Y. Kawada, Y. Hanaki, K. Okiishi: Katagijutsu (J. Die Mold
Technol.), 20-15 (2005), 2-3.
[4] R. Mitsui: Komatsu Tech. Rep., 47-2 (2002), 10-15.
[5] T.S. Mujber, T. Szecsi, M.S.J. Hashimi: J. Mater. Proc. Technol.,
155-156 (2004), 1834-1838.
[6] R. Kopp, O. Hofmann, T. Kuhlen, V. Honnet, G. Knepee, C. Plociennik: Steel Res. Int., 74-11/12 (2003), 756-761.
[7] K. Mori: Kikainokenkyu (Sci. Machine), 53-6(2001), 627-631.
[8] E. Nakamachi: Soseitokakou (J. Jpn. Scoc. Technol. Plast.), 40460(1999), 403-404.
[9] C.C. Cheng, A.N. Bramley: Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng., Part C, 214
(2000), 127-136.
[10] G. Zhao, E. Wright, R.V. Grandhi: Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng., 40-7
(1997), 1213-1230.
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[12] J. Kusiak: J. Mater. Proc. Technol., 57-1/2 (1996), 79-84.
[13] J.V. Owen: Manf.Eng., 119-4 (1997), 84-90.
[14] Phantom Omini Users Guide, (2004), SensAble Technologies.
[15] H. Ueki, K. Okawa: Image Lab, 17-2 (2006), 51-56.
381
09.08.2010 14:25:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Investigation of Effects of Thermomechanical Processing Parameters on Restoration

Behavior in X210Cr12 Steel
Mohammad Kazem Kouroshfar1), Daavood Mirahmadi Khaki2)
1)
Department of Metallurgical and Material Engineering, Tehran University, Tehran / Iran, bbmohammad@yahoo.com,
Materials Science and Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran / Iran
2)
Department of
The occurrence of restoration processes, in particular recovery and recrystallization, does significantly affect the hot working behavior of
metals and alloys. Principally, these processes reduce the stored energy of deformation in the microstructure thereby permitting further straining. In addition, the dynamic recrystallization phenomena improve the hot ductility behavior of the steel under deformation. This is done by
isolating the cracks due to high angle grain boundary migration. On the other hand, the static recrystallization which may occur during interpass time, leads to higher grain boundary area by grain refining. The latter stimulates grain boundary sliding in subsequent deformation
thereby reducing the hot ductility. In the present work, the occurrence of restoration processes in X210Cr12 tool steel is studied using hot
compression tests. The results indicate that the deformation temperature and applied strain rate affect extensively the steel flow stress and
microstructure.
Keywords: Restoration processes, Hot ductility, X210Cr12 tool steel
Introduction
Principally, hot deformation processes are performed in

a wide range of temperatures. In fact, heavy deformation
is primary employed to omit as-cast structure at high temperature. It is also used to attain and to engineer desired
microstructures in steels. However, the occurrence of the
mechanisms by which the ductility drops during hot deformation remains as a drawback in this approach.
The mechanisms of ductility drop can be affected by
many parameters through which the width and depth of
ductility trough are affected [1].
Restoration processes are one of these effective parameters that can effectively alter the hot ductility. At temperature well below the solidus temperature, the ductility depends on the combination of fracture and restoration healing mechanisms. Steel which readily recovers dynamically
tends to experience an increase in ductility because recovery relaxes the triple point stress caused by the grain
boundary sliding. It is noteworthy that in these alloys the
ductility usually decreases with an increase in temperature
in the range of 0.4-0.6Tm due to severe grain boundary
sliding. However ductility increases with temperature in
this temperature range as dynamic recrystallization (DRX)
begins to predominate as the healing mechanisms. It is
reported that, when the mechanism of dynamic recrystallization is strain induced grain boundaries migration
(SIGBM), DRX isolates cracks from grain boundaries by
migration so that crack growth is impeded and blunted.
The cracks eventually grow as they capture migrating
grain boundaries while linking up when more nucleate and
grow to cause failure. Influence of restoration processes
on hot ductility is not completely known yet [1,2].
Considering the above mentioned facts, in this research
the occurrence of restoration processes in X210Cr12 steel
was studied together with their relevant mechanisms. To
do so, the effect of time, temperature and strain rate on
these processes were systematically investigated.
Using a hot compression test, occurrence of restoration

processes of the X210Cr12 steel with chemical composition shown in Table 1 was studied.
382
Table 1. Chemical composition of experimental steel (wt %).

C
Si
Mn
Cr
Cu
Al
2.2
0.29
0.44
11
0.008
0.018
0.108
0.007
The cylindrical samples with a height to width ratio of

1.5 were prepared from the as-radial forged materials. The
prepared samples were deformed according to Figure 1.
Temperature
1200C,10min
1050C
10min
=0.3,0.03&0.003Sec1
1000C
950C
900C
Water
Water
Water
Time
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of thermo mechanical schedule.
For detailed study of the microstructural changes during

the deformation process, interrupted tests were performed
during a deformation cycle as shown by arrows in Figure
2. To reveal microstructural constituents, Villela and Nital
2% reagents were employed. Eventually, the values for
activation energy and stress exponent for this steel were
calculated.
09.08.2010 14:25:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
TrueStress
II
It can be seen that the peak stress exists in all true

stress-true strain curves. The existence of the peak stress
can be related to dynamic recrystallization in the compression test. The obtained microstructure after quenching in
area (III) at 900 and 1050 C with the strain rate of 0.3 sec1
III
Water
Water
primary austenite grain boundaries
TrueStrain
Figure 2. Area (I): before starting test, Area (II): before maximum
stress, Area (III): at end of test.
Results
The true stress-true strain curves obtained from the hot
compression tests at different strain rates and temperatures
250
=0.3Sec1
True Stress (MPa)
200
150
=0.03Sec1
100
=0.003Sec1
T=900C
50
0
0.0
0.1
0.2
200
0.3
0.4
True Strain
0.6
0.7
=0.3Sec1
160
True Stress (MPa)
0.5
120
=0.03Sec1
80
=0.003Sec1
0.1
0.2
150
0.3
0.4
True Strain
True Stress (MPa)
0.5
0.6
0.7
=0.3Sec1
120
=0.03Sec1
90
=0.003Sec1
60
T=1000C
30
0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
True Strain
120
True Stress (MPa)
0.5
0.6
0.7
=0.3Sec1
100
=0.03Sec1
80
60
=0.003Sec1
40
T=1050C
20
0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
True Strain
0.5
0.6
0.7
Figure 3. True stress-true strain curves obtained at difference

strain rates and temperatures.
Figure 4. Microstructures obtained at (a) 900 C and (b) 1050 C

-1
at same strain rate (0.3 sec ).
The following observation can be highlighted in the

micrographs shown in Figure 4.
1. The primary austenite grains are fully pancaked and the
equiaxed structure, which is a common microstructure
after recrystalization, can not be seen.
2. In the structure of deformed steel at 900 C high angle
boundaries are created parallel to the primary austenite
grain boundaries bridging primary austenite grains.
However at 1050 C, equiaxed sub boundaries with thin
boundaries are fomed inside the pancaked austenite
grains.
3. The primary austenite grain boundaries are
approximately fully decorated by the chromium carbides.
Discussion
0
0.0
20 m
It should be mentioned that in the other investigated

strain rates similar microstructural changes were observed.
T=950C
40
20 m
Figure 5 shows the microstrutures obtained at 900 and

1050 C with 0.3 sec-1 strain rate in areas I and II. It is
evident that the microstructures in area I mainly compose
of equiaxed grains with larger carbide particles at the grain
boundaries and smaller one in grain interiors.
At 900 C numerous twins form inside primary austenite
grains in area II where the deformation proceed. However,
at 1050 C these features are not observed and subgrains
with this boundaries are created instead. By continuing the
deformation and passing the peak of stress (area III shown
in Figure 4), it can be seen that at 900 C, the primary
austenite grains are fully pancaked and also the twins are
formed in the primary austenite grains. At 1050 C
however the primary austenite grains are fully pancaked,
but in this situation instead of twins, the thin grain
boundaries are fully continued in the primary austenite
grains and have formed new grain structures.
At 1050 C, a larger fraction of carbide particles are also
dissolved. Therefore, the amount of dissolved carbon in
the austenite matrix increases. This will cause an increase
in diffusion of iron, and consequently the recovery rate
increases [1]. Therefore, the formation of the subgrains
and their growth can be related to the high recovery rate at
1050 C.
383
09.08.2010 14:25:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
900C, Area I
-3
1050C, Area I
-2.5
-2
log
-1.5
-1
40 m
40 m
900C, Area II
=0.005MPa1
n(slop)=constant=6.4
-0.5
1050C, Area II
0
0.2
thin
twins
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
logsinh (0.005p)
Figure 6. Diagrams of log(sinh(p)) vs. log () at equal to 0.005

-1
MPa .
20 m
Figure 5. Obtained microstructures after quenching from different

areas at 900 and 1050 C.
It should be noted that there is no evidence for the

migration of high-angle grain boundaries in all of the
observed microstructures. Therefore, in comparison to the
observation made in references [1,3,4] it can be said:
1.Because of the presence of carbides particles on primary
austenite grains, the possibility for the recrystallization
of structure with SIGBM mechanism is slim.
2.Because of the existence of twins in the microstructures
obtained at 900 C, the mechanism of dynamic softening
that occurs at this temperature is the formation and
expansion of twins.
3.Because of an increase in recovery rate at 1050 C,
subgrains form and grow very rapidly, therefore the new
grains with high angle grain boundaries are formed
inside the primary austenite grains. Regarding these facts,
the mechanisms of DRX is rotation and subgrain
coalescence at 1050 C.
microstructural observations show that with raising the
temperature from 900 to 1050 C the mechanism of DRX
changes gradually from formation and expansion of twins
to rotation and subgrain coalescence.
Constitutive Equations
The influence of temperature and strain rate on peak
stress was analyzed by the following equation which
originally developed for creep experiments but have found
applicability in the hot working at high strain rates [5-7].
A(sinh(p))n = exp(Q H.W./ RT)=Z
(1)
where A, and are constant, Z is the Zener- Holman
parameter and n is the stress exponent. QH.W. is the
activation energy related to hot working and R is the
universal gas constant.
When log is plotted according to the log(sinh(p))
and if is considered as 0.005 MPa-1, the temperature
lines for this alloy are parallel as shown in Figure 6.
384
The slope of obtained lines, n, is equal to 6.4. When

log(sinh(0.005p)) was plotted versus 1000/T for different
strain rates (see Figure 7 ), the hot working activation
energy, QH.W., could be calculated with the obtained slope.
Then, the activation energy is determined to be of the
order of 310 kJ/mol for this steel.
-0.6
logsinh (0.005p)
20 m
=0.005MPa1
n(slop)=constant=2.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.9
0.95
1.05
1000/T
1.1
1.15
Figure 7. Diagram of logsinh(0.005p)) vs. 1000/T.
Conclusions
The occurrence of restoration processes was
investigated using hot compression tests in a cold work
X210Cr12 tool steel. From the microstructure
observations, the obtained results are analyzed and the
amounts of QH.W. and n were calculated. The following
results can be obtained:
1. In all investigated senarios, a peak stress is observed in
true stress-true strain curves.
2. The mechanism responsible for of DRX at 900 C is the
formation and expansion of twins in the microstructure
of examined steel.
3. By increasing the deformation temperature, the
softening mechanisms were gradually substituted by
subgrain rotation and coalescence. The latter
mechanism is dominated at 1050 C.
4. The values for the stress exponent, n, was calculated to
be 6.4.
5. Regarding the calculated stress exponent, the activation
energy, QH.W., was equal to 310 kJ/mol.
09.08.2010 14:25:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
References
[1] C.A.C Imbert, H.J. McQueen: Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly, 40-2
(2001), 235-244.
[2] B. Mintz, S. Yue, J.J. Jonas: International Material Reviews, 36-5
(1991), 187-217.
[3] X. Wang, E. Bruger, G. Gottstein: Scripta Meterialia, 46 (2002), 875880.
[4] X. Wang, E. Bruger, G. Gottstein: Scripta Meterialia, 38-12 (1998),
1843-1849.
[5] C.A.C. Imbert, H.J. McQueen: Materials Science and Engineering A,
313 (2001), 88-103.
[6] N.D. Ryan, H.J. McQueen: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 21 (1999), 177-179.
[7] E. Evangelista, N.D. Ryan, H. J. McQueen: Materials Science and
Technology, 5-2 (1987), 50-58.
385
09.08.2010 14:25:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Optimization of Tie-Bar End Forming Process

K Zhu Chun-dong, Cheng Meng-biao
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan / China, zcdzcd6252@sina.com
The tie-bar end is one of important parts in the motor steering system. It is conventionally processed by open-drop forging and machining,
the flash in the open-drop forging is large and the material utilization is low (the weight of cutting stock is 5.5 kg). Furthermore, the machine
work is inefficient and it breaks the metal fibrous tissue which decreases the working life of the product. In this paper, the forming process of
the tie-bar end is optimized by means of multi-way die forging and finite element analysis. The results show that the slight flash can be
produced and the holes can be formed primarily in the multi-way forging process, the optimization weight of cutting stock is 3.5 kg, saves
material by 36.4%.
Keywords: Tie-bar end, Multi-way die forging, Finite element method
Introduction
The tie-bar end (seen in Figure 1) is one important part
of the motor steering system, which is located on the base
of steering trapezium and linked with steering arm. [1].
Tie-bar end (seen in Figure 1(a)) is constituted by hollow
cylinder head 1, central part 2 with groove and pole-like
hollow tail 3, which are simply called head, central part
and tail, respectively as follows. Its top surface is a plane,
and the bottom surface is constituted by hole and groove
with different depth. Tie-bar end can be formed by
precision plastic forming process, as precision casting and
liquid forging. [2]. But the product with better strength and
working life is difficult to be obtained by casting and
liquid forging, while the product with homogenizing
internal fibrous tissue, can be obtained by forging, thus the
forging method is usually adopted to manufacture tie-bar
end. The tie-bar end is processed by open die forging and
machining, the product is shown in Figure 1. The weight
of blank is 5.5 kg. In the forging process, large flash can
be produced, and the hole and groove are difficult to be
formed. In the machining process, the material waste is
about 2.5 kg, the material utilization is low. Furthermore,
the machining process will break the metal fibrous tissue,
thus the strength and working life of the product cannot be
satisfied.
Compared with common forging, the multi-way die

forging can process the product with more complicated
shape, the forming precise is high and the flash is less [3].
So, this paper adopts the multi-way die forging method to
form the tie-bar end, the weight of the blank is 3.5 kg. The
flash is less, the material utilization is high, the forming
quality is good, and the production cost is low. So, this
method is feasible in technology and economy.
Process Design
As the flash in the forming process of tie-bar end by
open die forging (seen in Figure 1(b)) is large, so, the
close die forging is adopted in this paper. However, the
common close die forging cannot fill the hollow tail fully,
thus the multi-way die forging is adopted at last.
The head of the forging is a hollow cylinder, so the
round bar cannot be directly used. To ensure the blank
precision and improve the material utilization, the forging
section diagram is shown in Figure 2. The head and tail of
the blank are formed by extrusion, the blank are shown in
Figure 3 according to the shape characteristic of the
product. There is large arc transition between the head and
central part, central part and tail in the blank, so the metal
can flow smoothly. The size and quality between the blank
and product are similar, so the eccentric head and plane
surface are designed to avoid the folding in the filling
process. The side hole in the tail is formed by backward
extrusion, the flowing direction of the metal is opposite to
the punch moving direction, so the length of the tail of the
blank is smaller than product. The blank can be easily
obtained by roll forging process with round bar.
(a) Schema of the tie-bar end
(b) Product of tie-bar end

Figure 1. Tie-bar end, 1: hollow cylinder head, 2: central part with
groove and 3: pole-like hollow tail.
386
Figure 2. Section of forging
09.08.2010 14:25:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 3. Blank, 1: head part, 2: central part, 3: tail part.
As shown in Figure 4, put the blank into the cavity of

the bottom die, then close the top die and the bottom die,
punch 1 begins to move (seen in Figure 4(a)). Because
punch 2 holds pressure, the metal flows to the tail hardly,
thus the head and central part can be filled preferentially
(seen in Figure 4(b)). When punch 1 stops the stroke,
punch 2 begins to move. Because the head and central part
has been filled basically, punch 1 holds pressure, so the
metal flows toward the head difficultly, the groove in the
tail is filled by the extrusion of punch 2 (seen in Figure
4(c)). When punch 2 stops the stroke, punch 1 and punch 2
exit, open top die and bottom die, then the final forging is
obtained.
in the upper surface, so the contour is formed generally.

During the later extrusion of punch 1 (seen in Figure 5(b)),
the 160th step in the deformation, the metal has filled the
bottom die entirely, so the metal can not flow down and
the cavity of the head part of the top die is filled. Because
the punch 2 holds pressure, the metal flows to the end of
the tail difficultly under the friction of the cavity, the
central part is formed generally. When punch 1 stopped
(seen in Figure 5(c)), the 190th step in the deformation,
the head part and central part have been filled basically in
accordance with the process design. When punch 1
stopped, punch 2 begins to move. During the early
extrusion of punch 2 (seen in Figure 5(d)), the 250th step
in the deformation, because punch 1 holds pressure, the
head part and central part have been filled basically, the
metal can not flows to the head part, thus the groove of the
tail part begins to be filled. During the later extrusion of
punch 2 (seen in Figure 5(e)), the 422nd step of the
deformation, the tail part is filled basically. When punch 2
stopped (seen in Figure 5(f)), as figure 5f shown, the 427th
step of the deformation, the cavity of the dies is filled fully
in accordance with the process design.
(a) 117th step
(a) Beginning of die forging
(b) 160th step
(b) Punch 1 stopped
(c) 190th step
(d) 250th step
(c) Punch 2 stopped

Figure 4. Schema of multi-way die forging, 1: punch 1, 2: top die,
3: blank, 4:punch 2, 5:bottom die.
Numerical Simulation of Multi-Way Die Forging

The Finite Element Model. During the multi-way die
forging, blank can produce large deformation, so the
deformation process of the blank is analyzed by the
thermal-mechanical coupling rigid-viscoplastic finite
element method to reveal the metal flow rule and the
distributions of physical quantities. [4-6]. In the modeling
process, the four node tetrahedral element is adopted, and
the mesh refinement technique is applied in the large
deformation area. The material is 45 steel, the simulation
temperature is 1000 C, and the shear friction coefficient is
0.3. The stroke of punch 1 is 47.5 mm, the stroke of punch
2 is 61.5 mm.
Simulation Results and Discussion. As Figure 5
shows: the inverted extrusion is the main process during
the metal deformation by multi-way die forging, while the
side and direct extrusion are the assistant processes.
During the early extrusion of punch 1 (seen in Figure 5(a)),
the 117th step in the deformation, the head part of the
blank begins to contact with the bottom die, the groove is
formed in the lower surface, the center circular is formed
(e) 422nd step

(f) 427th step
Figure 5. Flow rule of metal.
The stress distribution during the blank deformation is

shown in Figure 6. When punch 1 stopped, the effective
stress distribution is shown in Figure 6(a). Punch 2 holds
pressure, the metal flows to the end of the tail part
difficultly due to the friction between the blank and the
cavity, so small deformation and the least stress occur at
the tail part. The maximum stress occurs in the contact
region between the blank and the upper surface of punch 1,
because this area has accepted the maximum extrusion.
The stress distribution of the blank is trapezoidal, the
stress value firstly descend then ascend from the head to
the tail. Large metal flow occurs in the head and central
part, partly metal flow occurs in the transition part of
central and tail part, and no flow occurs in the tail.
When punch 2 stopped, the effective stress distribution
is shown in Figure 6(b). The minimum stress occurs in the
head part, the metal in the head part nearly dose not flow
during the extrusion of punch 2. The maximum stress
occurs in the contact region between the blank and the
punch 2, because the deformation of this area is the largest.
387
09.08.2010 14:25:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
During the forming process of the tail part, the metal of
head and central part partly flows, so the stress distribution
is inhomogeneous.
(a) Effective stress cloud chart when punch 1 stopped
(b) Effective stress cloud chart when punch 2 stopped

Figure 6. Stress field distribution of the blank.
Figure 7 shows the time-load curves of punch 1 and

punch 2 during the deformation. The loads of punch 1 and
punch 2 firstly increase slowly, then increase rapidly, this
is because the contact area between the blank and punch
expands gradually. The maximum load of punch 1 is 382
kN, the maximum load of punch 2 is 433 kN, the clamp
force is 1720 kN.
Experiment of Multi-Way Die Forging

In order to verify the rationality of the process design,
the experiment of multi-way die forging process was
carried out.
The experiment die (seen in Figure 8(a)) was installed
on the 2000 kN hydraulic press machine, the experiment
material is lead, and the blank was formed by the pouring
method. Put the blank into the cavity while the experiment
begins, and assembly the die, fix punch 2. Then adjust the
position of the die to make sure the center of the hydraulic
pressure aimed at the center of punch 1 and put pressure to
punch 1. The stroke of punch 1 is 47.5 mm and the stroke
of each working step of hydraulic machine pressed is 4~5
mm. When punch 1 stopped, fix punch 1 in due to prevent
the deformation of the head and central part when punch 2
starts the extrusion. Reverse the die, then remove the
fixing device, make sure the center of the hydraulic
pressure aimed at the center of punch 2 and put pressure to
punch 2. The stroke of punch 2 is 61.5 mm and make sure
the hydraulic machine pressed 4~5 mm downward each
time, until the total stroke is completed. Remove the die
when punch 2 stopped, then examine the experiment.
(a) Process of experiment
(b) Result of experiment

Figure 8. Experiment
(a) Load of punch 1
Figure 8(b) shows the final sample, the sample is filled

completely and precisely. During the experiment, the
maximum load of punch 1 is 420 kN, the maximum load
of punch 2 is 500 kN. The load in experiment is close to
that in simulation, which verifies the accuracy of the
simulation.
Conclusions
(b) Load of punch 2

Figure 7. Time-load curve.
388
1. The multi-way die forging method is adopted to process

the tie-bar end. Compared with the common die forging,
this method can save 36.4% material, about 2kg, the
material utilization is obviously improves, and the final
forging has no flash.
2. By comparing the experiment result with the simulation
result, the credibility of the numerical simulation is
verified and the possibility of multi-way die forging
method is proved.
09.08.2010 14:25:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
References
[1] J.R Chen: Construction of automobile part II, 2005, China Machine
Press, Beijing.
[2] J.C Xia: Precision forming of typical parts, 2008, China Machine
Press, Beijing.
[3] J.C Xia: Mold design of forging, 2007, Beijing Electronics Industry
Press, Beijing.
[4] L Deng, J.C Xia, X.Y Wang: China Machine engineering, 4 (2009),
869-872.
[5] S.I. Oh, W.T. Wu, K. Arimoto: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 111 (2001), 2-9.
[6] G Liu, L.B Zhang, X.L Hu: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 150 (2004), 56-61.
389
09.08.2010 14:25:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
Curved Profile Extrusion Process for Al6XXX Automotive Suspension Arm

Byung-Min Kim1), Seon-Bong Lee2), Sang-Kon Lee3)
1)
School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea; 2) Faculty of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering,
Keimyung University, Daegu / Korea; 3) PNU-IFAM JRC, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea, o3man@pusan.ac.kr
The curved profile extrusion process is a manufacturing method for producing curved profiles without additional process such as press
bending or stretch bending. In this study, an automotive aluminium suspension arm was developed through the hollow curved profile extrusion process. The guiding tool movement condition was determined based on the curvature prediction model for producing an automotive
suspension arm that has the required radius. In addition, the porthole extrusion process was analyzed by using FE analysis to predict the
extrusion load and the welding pressures on the welding planes in the material. The bending process was analyzed to determine the moving conditions of the guiding tool. Finally, the hollow curved profile extrusion experiment was carried out to verify the effectiveness of the
proposed curved profile extrusion process condition, and to produce the aluminium suspension arm. It was found that the hollow curved
profile extrusion process is a very effective method for producing curved profiles.
Keywords: Curved profile extrusion, Aluminium suspension arm, Curvature prediction model, Guiding tool movement condition, Porthole
extrusion, FE analysis
Introduction
Recently, extruded aluminium hollow profiles are
widely used for automotive parts for higher stiffness and
lightweight [1-3]. Several automotive parts require curved
profiles, mainly due to their design arises from consideration of constrains on the shape [4]. Under conventional
process, an additional process such as press bending,
stretch bending or other various post processes, is needed
to produce curved hollow profiles after linear extrusion [58]. However, the additional post process increases production cost and decreases productivity. Moreover, in some
cases, it is not easy to meet the requirements for precision
and cost-effective production, due to cross-sectional deformation, irregular decrease of the profile wall thickness,
springback following bending, and a complexity of the
process design. These problems can be generally solved by
using bending process at high temperature. The curved
profile extrusion process is a manufacturing method that
can overcome the above problems [9-13]. In this process,
the bending process is simultaneously performed with the
extrusion process. Therefore, the extruded hollow profile
is bent with high temperature. The advantage of the extrusion and bending process can be combined in a single
process. The curved extrusion profiles are generated by
variations in the velocity of the material flow at the die
exit that are created by the movement of guiding tool. The
radius of the curved profile is determined by the position
of the guiding tool.
In this present study, a curved automotive aluminium(Al6XXX) suspension arm was developed by using the
hollow curved profile extrusion process. Firstly, the guiding tool movement condition was determined for producing the curved suspension arm by using a curvature prediction model. And then the porthole extrusion process and
bending process for the suspension arm were analyzed by
FE analysis. The extrusion load, welding pressure of the
material, the effectiveness of the curvature prediction
model were verified through the FE analysis. Finally, a
curved profile extrusion process experiment was per-
390
formed to verify the effectiveness of the process condition

for producing the aluminium suspension arm.
Hollow Curved Profile Extrusion Process and Prediction
Model of Curvature
Hollow Curved Profile Extrusion Process. The hollow
curved profile extrusion process consists of a linear extrusion process and a bending process. Figure 1 shows the
equipment and the principle of the hollow curved profile
extrusion process applied in this study. In this process, the
extruded profile is curved in accordance with the movement of the guiding tool. The extruded profile that passes
the grip tool reaches the guiding rolls that can be moved
along the guiding tool moving axis in a direction that is
perpendicular to that along which the profile is extruded
form the die.
Porthole die
Grip tool
io n
trus
Ex
Extruded profile
Guiding roll
Guiding tool axis
nd
Be
ing
Guiding tool
Figure 1. Equipment of hollow curved profile extrusion process.
Prediction Model of Curvature. The curvature of the

extruded profile depends on the movement of the guiding
tool and the gaps between the extruded profile and the
bending tools (grip tool and guiding roll). The extruded
profile stays straight between the exit of the extrusion die
and the grip tool. Subsequently, a curvature is formed by
the movement of the guiding tool as shown in Figure 2.
The curvature radius (R) is determined by the moving
distance (U) of the guiding tool from the extrusion axis,
the distance () between the grip tool and the guiding roll,
the gap (l1) between the extruded profile and the guiding
09.08.2010 14:26:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
a +U
[a + f (U,l2)] + (U l1 l2)
(a), R =
(b)
2U
2(U l1 l2)
(1)
145.0
Extruded
profile
Bending
a=310mm
l1=4.0mm
U
Linear extrusion
Grip tool
Grip tool
Extrusion die
Figure 2. Relationship between curvature and guiding tool movement.
Curvature radius (R, mm)
The a, l1, and l2 values of the applied equipment for producing the suspension arm in this study are 310 mm, 4 mm,
and 3 mm, respectively. In Eq. (1-a), the function f(U,l2)
was determined through FE analysis and experiment. FE
analysis was carried out by varying the moving distance
(U) of the guiding tool and the gap, l2, with the constant, l1
= 4 mm. Figure 3 shows the result of FE analysis. Based
on the result of FE analysis, the function f(U,l2) was defined by using U and l2. As shown in Figure 4 the predicted radius coincides with the experimental radius for
the applied curved profile extrusion equipment in this
study.
16000
l2
l2
l2
l2
12000
8000
= 6 mm
= 4 mm
= 2 mm
= 0 mm
l2
l1=4mm
4000
0
Figure 3. Variation of curvature according to U and l2 with constant

l1=4 mm.
Curvature radius (R, mm)
7000
6000
Prediction model
5000
Experiment
(l1= 4mm, l2= 3mm)
Section 3
Container
Ram
Billet
Porthole
Welding
chamber
Figure 6. FE model for porthole extrusion process.
Table 1. Conditions for FE analysis of porthole extrusion.
Conditions
Value
Size of initial material(mm)
279.4 h700.0
Temp. of initial material(oC)
500.0
Temp. of tools(oC)
465.0
Ram speed(mm/s)
1.0
Friction factor(m)
0.6
Extrusion ratio
48.5
1500 Upsetting Dividing Welding
2000
Forming
1000
500
3000
20
40
60
Stroke (mm)
80
100
Figure 7. Ram stroke - extrusion load curve.
1000
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Guide tool moving distance (U, mm)
70
Figure 4. Comparison of predicted radius and the experimented

radius.
FE Analysis of Porthole Extrusion

The shape and the dimension of the aluminium curved
suspension arm are shown in Figure 5. The cross section
165
Section 2
2000
20
30
40
50
60
Guide tool moving distance (U, mm)
256.0
FE analysis of porthole extrusion was performed to investigate the extrusion load and the welding pressure of
material on the welding planes. The initial FE analysis
model is shown in Figure 6. The flow stress curve of the
initial material (Al6XXX) for various temperature (300,
400 and 550 oC) and strain rate (0.01, 0.1, 0.5 and 3.0 s-1)
was obtained by the compression test. The conditions of
the FE analysis are summarized in Table 1.
FE analysis
4000
Secti
on
15.25
R712
Figure 5. Cross section and shape of suspension arm.
Guiding roll
l2=3.0mm
145.0
R16.0
Guiding tool
Guide axis
Guiding
roll
73.0
71.0
Extrusion load (ton)
R=
of the suspension arm is hollow and the suspension arm

has a curved central section with the radius of 712.0 mm.
71.0
roll, and the gap (l2) between the extruded profile and the
grip tool. The curvature (R) is calculated by Eq. (1-a). If
the l1 and l2 are zero, Eq. (1-a) can be written by Eq. (1-b).
The extrusion load and deformed shape of material with

respect to the stage of deformation and the ram stroke is
shown in Figure 7. The initial material is compressed in
the container, and then divided into four strands during the
dividing stage. The divided materials are welded under
high pressure and high temperature in the welding chamber. Finally, the required hollow profile emerges from the
die exit in the forming stage. The maximum load of about
1,800 ton occurs in the final forming stage. In the welding
391
09.08.2010 14:26:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
chamber, there are six welding planes. Figure 8 shows the
location of the welding planes in the suspension arm. The
welding pressures are very important in these planes because the welding strength of the final extruded profile
depends on the welding pressure. The distribution of welding pressures on the welding planes is shown in Figure 9.
The welding pressure is between 100.0-207.0 MPa. Considering the average flow stress of the material of 40.0
MPa, the welding pressure is about 2.0-4.1 times the average flow stress. In the previous study, this welding pressure is enough to guarantee the welding strength of the
divided materials on the welding planes [14].
Figure 10. Movement of guiding tool for suspension arm.

71.0 25.0
Guiding tool axis
125.0
Figure 8. Welding planes in suspension arm.
15.25
29.43
R712
187.4
Grip tool
238.0
310.0
B=113
E=153
F=167
G=180
H=183
I = 202
Guiding roll
m
(b) Plane : ,
Suspension arm
0m
(a) Plane : ,
D=140
31
C=127
E
: 4 xtru
8. sio
5
mm n ve
/s loc
i
ty
Figure 11. Central angle of section 2.
VG
Figure 12. FE analysis for predicting central angle.
(d) Plane :
(c) Plane :
Figure 9. Welding pressure on the welding planes (MPa).
Movement of Guiding Tool for Suspension Arm

The trajectory of the guiding tool is described in Figure
10. In order to produce the suspension arm, the guiding
tool has to move 1 2 1. In this study, the applied
curved profile extrusion equipment has the constant =
310.0 mm as shown in Figure 10. Therefore, in order to
form the section 2 with the curvature radius of 712.0 mm,
the required U of guiding tool has to be 71.0 mm based on
Eq. (1). In this case, the possible minimum central angle is
29.43o (see Figure 11). However, this angle is larger than
the required central angle of 15.25o as shown in Figure 11.
Therefore, the section 2 has to be bent during the movement of the guiding tool.
In this study, FE analysis was carried out to form the
section 2 of the suspension arm. The U and the moving
velocity (VG) of the guiding tool were determined from the
result of the FE analysis.
The intersection angle between the section 1 and the
section 3 is 165o as shown in Figure 5. Firstly, the U is
determined when the intersection angle is 165o through the
FE analysis as shown in Figure 12.
392
Figure 13. Moving distance of guiding tool.
The result of the FE analysis is shown in Figure 13.

When the U is 73.0 mm, the intersection angle is 165o.
Therefore the required U is 73.0 mm.
And then FE analysis for various VG (30.0, 60.0 and
100.0 mm/s) was performed to determine the required VG.
Figure 14 shows the result of the FE analysis. When the
moving velocity (VG) is 30.0 mm/s, the formed curvature
radius is 712.0 mm. Therefore, the VG was set with 30.0
mm/s.
When the moving distance (U) is 73.0 mm and the moving velocity (VG) is 30.0 mm/s, the dimensional error and
the shape of the cross section are shown in Figure 15. The
maximum dimensional error is about 1.03 mm on the inner
09.08.2010 14:26:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
flange of the suspension arm. The dimensional error is
within the dimensional tolerance of the suspension arm.
Figure 14. Bent shape according to various VG.
Figure 15. Dimensional error of suspension arm.
Experiment of Curved Profile Extrusion

In order to verify the conditions of the hollow curved
profile extrusion process for producing the suspension arm,
an experiment was carried out. Figure 16 shows the
equipment of hollow curved profile extrusion experiment.
Conclusions
For producing curved hollow profiles, the hollow curved
profile extrusion process is a very useful method compared with any conventional cold bending process that
follows a linear extrusion process. In this study, the process conditions of the curved profile extrusion process were
established for producing the curved aluminium suspension arm, and the following results were obtained.
1. The curvature radius depends on the moving distance of
the guiding tool from the extrusion axis, the distance between the grip tool and the guiding tool, and the gaps
between the profile and the guiding roll and between
profile and the grip tool. In this study, a curvature prediction model was proposed for the curved profile extrusion process based on these factors.
2. FE analysis of the porthole extrusion process for producing the suspension arm was carried out. The maximum extrusion load was about 18 MN from the result.
The welding pressure of material on the welding planes
was about 2.0-4.1 times the average flow stress.
3. The moving conditions of the guiding tool were established by using the prediction mode of the curvature radius and the FE analysis.
4. Finally, the experiment of the hollow curved profile
extrusion process was performed. The maximum dimensional error between the produced suspension arm and
the profile checker is about 1.2 mm, and this value was
within the allowable tolerance.
Acknowledgement
Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government
(NRF-2006-K20601000004-09E0100-00410),
and NCRC Program of MOST and KOSEP (No. R152006-022-03003-0).
References
Figure 16. Equipment of the curved profile extrusion experiment.

Profile checker
n1
Se ctio
Section 2
Section 3
Figure 17. Produced aluminium suspension arm.
The produced suspension arm and the profile checker

are shown in Figure 17. The dimensional errors between
the suspension arm and the profile checker are 0.2-0.6 mm,
1.1-1.2 mm, and 0.6-0.8 mm at the section 1, 2 and 3,
respectively. This result is good agreement with that of the
FE analysis. And also the dimensional errors of the produced suspension arm are within the dimensional tolerance
(2.0 mm).
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37-49.
[2] E. Cerett, C. Contri, D. Giardin: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 177 (2006), 672-675.
[3] Y. Choi, H.T. Yeo, J.H. Park, J.H. Oh, S.W. Park: Journal of Materials
[4] F. Vollertsen, A. Sprenger, J. Kraus: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 87 (1999), 1-27.
[5] A.H. Clausen, O.S. Hopperstad, M. Langseth: Journal of Materials
[6] J.E. Miller, S. Kyriakides, A.H. Bastard: International Journal of
Mechanical Sciences, 43 (2001), 1283-1317.
[7] A.H. Clausen, O.S. Hopperstad, M. Langseth: International Journal of
[8] F. Paulsen, T. Welo: Journal Materials Processing Technology, 128
(2002), 48-66.
[9] K.B. Mller: Light Metal Age, 61 (2003), 8-12.
[10] K.B. Mller: International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, 46 (2006), 1238-1242.
[11] M. Kleiner, A. Klaus: Production Engineering, 11 (2004), 93-96.
[12] M. Kleiner, A. Klaus: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
177 (2006), 2-7.
[13] M. Kleiner, A.E. Tekkaya, D. Becker, D. Pietzka, M. Schikorra:
Production Engineering Research and Development, 3 (2009), 63-68.
[14] H.H. Jo, S.K. Lee, C.S. Jung, B.M. Kim: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 173 (2006), 223-231.
393
09.08.2010 14:26:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
Forming Load Characteristics in Combined Extrusion Process

Beong Bok Hwang1), Jeong Hoon Noh1), Ho Yong Lee2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, Incheon / Korea;

Seoul / Korea, hoyong@dgu.edu
2)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dongguk University,
This paper is concerned with the analysis of the forming load characteristics of a forward-backward extrusion process using commercially
available thick walled pipes as an initial billet. Combined extrusion processes generally have advantages of forming in terms of minimum
deformation power since the material is pressed through two or more orifices simultaneously. The combined tube forming process was
analyzed by using a commercially available finite element code, which is programmed in rigid plasticity theory with selected model material
as AISI 1015 steel. The punch geometry has been selected on the basis of ICFG recommendations. Several parameters related to tool and
workpiece were employed in the analysis and they are punch nose radius, backward tube thickness, punch face angle, and frictional conditions at the tool/workpiece interface, respectively. The main purpose of this investigation is to reveal the relationships between process
parameters and force requirements in combined extrusion process. The possible extrusion processes to form a forward-backward tube
parts in different process sequence were also simulated to investigate the forming load characteristics for different sequential operations.
Keywords: Combined extrusion, AISI 1015 steel, Punch face angle, Punch nose radius, Sequential operation, Thick walled pipes
Introduction
The basic processes involved in cold extrusion are
classified depending on their forming direction as forward,
backward and lateral extrusion [1]. In combined
simultaneous extrusion processes, a billet extruded
simultaneously in the forward, backward and radial
directions through plural orifices in the tool assembly.
Processes like backward combined with forward extrusion
[2], radial forward extrusion [3], and radial backward
extrusion [4] are typical extrusion of these processes.
In a combined forward/backward extrusion process, material flows into the die cavity in backward and forward
directions by means of axial movement of punch. In this
process, there are variety of extrusion ratios and lengths in
forward and backward directions, and simultaneous completion of material flow in the two directions is almost
impossible. Generally, one of the extruded parts reaches its
pre-determined length earlier and is stopped by the die
with mechanical type of stopper.
In the present study, the influence of tool geometry such
as backward tube thickness, die corner radius, and punch
face angle has been investigated on the characteristics of
force requirements in the forward extrusion combined with
backward extrusion process. The initial billet employed in
simulation is a thick-walled pipe of which outer diameter
is 32.0 mm. The specimen height is selected as 30.0 mm.
Different frictional conditions were also employed as a
process parameter to investigate the effect of the friction
factor on the characteristics of force requirements.
Analysis by FEM has gained wide application, in many
cases, in the area of metal forming process since the
method had been justified by its solution reliability and
computational efficiency. A commercially available FEM
code Deform-2DTM [5] has been used for simulation,
which is programmed in a theory of rigid plasticity. Due to
the nature of symmetry, half of the specimen was
represented to construct a 2-D model. A total of 2000
quadrilateral elements were employed to model the
specimen. The punch and die were modeled as a rigid body.
The die velocity was kept constant at 1 mm/sec. The
394
punch movement ended when the punch stroke reaches 25

mm.
* Punch geometries
Ds
h(land) = 0.3DP to DP
C
L
R1(punch nose radius) =
0.05DP to 0.07DP
b
b(relief angle) = 4to 5
2a(face angle) = 160 to 180
stem
Df(punch face) =
h
2a
DP-(2R1+(0.2DP to 0.3DP))
nose
Ds = DP-(0.1 to 0.2)
R1
face
* Process parameters
Df
D0 : Initial billet diameter
D0
DP : Punch diameter
D
W2
P
Di : Mandrel diameter
DF : Forward diameter
hs : Punch stroke
H : Initial billet height
lB
R1 : Punch nose radius
H hs
R2 : Die corner radius
lF
R3 : Die corner radius
R2
lB : Backward tube length
R3
lF : Forward tube length
2a : Punch face angle
Di
W1
: Die angle
D
F
W1 : Forward tube thickness
W2 : Backward tube thickness
Figure 1. Tool and workpiece geometries.
Simulations and Discussion

Process Parameters. The material selected in the present study for the simulation of combined extrusion process is AISI 1015 steel. The phosphate-soap was assumed
as a lubricant between workpiece and tool, of which friction factor, m, is found as values between 0.1 and 0.2 in a
reference [6]. The flow stress is influenced significantly by
the amount of strain-rate in hot forging, but in cold forming the flow stress depends mainly on the strain itself [5,7].
Therefore, the flow stress of selected material can be expressed in the form of power law by [7]
794 . 3
0.11
MPa
(1)
09.08.2010 14:26:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
CL
R1=0.74
CL
Unit : MPa
W2=4.4
R1=1.74
CL
R1=2.74
W2=4.4
R1=1.74
Unit : MPa
W2=3.8
R1=1.83
W2=3.3
R1=2.905
Figure 2. Deformation patterns and contact pressure distributions for various punch nose radii (top) and backward tube thicknesses (bottom) with friction factors of 0.1 (left) and 0.2 (right), respectively.
Deformation Patterns and Contact Pressure. Figure 2

shows the deformation patterns and contact pressure distributions for various punch nose radii (top) and backward
tube thicknesses (bottom) with friction factors of 0.1 (left)
and 0.2 (right), respectively. The simulation has been performed for three different punch nose radii (R1) with
backward tube thickness (W2) of 4.4 mm and for three
different backward tube thicknesses (W2) with three different punch nose radii (R1) such as R1 = 1.74, 1.83 and
2.905 mm. It is generally seen in the figure that the can
height extruded in backward direction increases as both
friction factor and punch corner radius increases. This
trend is intensified with decreasing backward tube thickness. It is also noted in the figure that the maximum pressure exerted on the tool increases with increasing friction
factors and is mostly below 4,000MPa, which is the pressure recommended by experts for safe tooling [8]. The
maximum pressures appear both near punch face and die
exit in forward direction. It can be generally said that the
maximum pressure is not influenced very much by punch
nose radius and backward tube thickness.
1400
Forming load [kN]
Tool geometry employed in simulation is shown in Figure 1. The initial and final tool positions in the forward/backward can extrusion process in combined operation are also described in the figure together with tool
geometries and process parameters, and they are summarized in Table 1. It should be noted in the table that three
different punch nose radii (R1) have been applied in the
simulations for each case of backward tube thickness (W2).
The applied punch nose radii are 0.905, 1.905 and 2.905
mm for the backward tube thickness of 3.3 mm, 0.83, 1.83,
2.83 mm for tube thickness of 3.8 mm, and 0.74, 1.74,
2.74 mm for tube thickness of 4.4 mm, respectively. The
punch geometry has been selected by following the recommendation of ICFG (International Cold Forging Group)
for successful operation [8].
23.2 mm, 24.4 mm, 25.4 mm

15.2 mm
Forward diameter (DF)
22.6 mm
Initial billet height (H)
30 mm
Die angle ()
17
Punch stroke (hs)
25 mm
Forward tube thickness (W1)
3.7 mm
Backward tube thickness (W2)
3.3 mm, 3.8 mm, 4.4 mm
Punch face angle (2a)

Friction factor (m)
Die corner radius (R2,R3)
160, 180
0.1, 0.2
1 mm, 2 mm
800
600
W2 = 4.4
R1=0.74
R1=1.74
R1=2.74
400
0
32 mm
Mandrel diameter (Di)
1000
1400
Forming load [kN]
Punch diameter (DP)
1200
200
Table 1. Tool and process parameters.

Parameters
Values
Initial billet diameter (D0)
Friction factor (m) = 0.1

Die corner radius (R2,R3) = 1 mm
Punch face angle (2a) = 180
W2 = 3.8 W2 = 3.3
R1=0.84 R1=0.945
R1=1.83 R1=1.905
R1=2.83 R1=2.905

Die corner radius (R2,R3) = 1 mm
1200
1000
W2=4.4
W2=3.8
W2=3.3
800
600
4.4
3.8
3.3
400
200
0
0
10
15
20
25
Punch Stroke [mm]
Figure 3. Load-stroke relationships for various punch nose radii
(top) and backward tube thicknesses (bottom).
395
09.08.2010 14:26:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
1000
400
R2=1, R3=1
R2=1, R3=2
R2=2, R3=1
200

Backward tube thickness(W2) = 4.4 mm
Forming load [kN]
1000
800
600
2a=160, R1=0.74
2a=160, R1=1.74
2a=160, R1=2.74
2a=180, R1=0.74
2a=180, R1=1.74
2a=180, R1=2.74
400
200
0
0
10
15
20
25
Punch Stroke [mm]
Figure 4. Load-stroke relationships for various die corner radii
(top) and punch face angles (bottom).
Effects of Process Parameters on Extrusion Forces.

The load-stroke relationships for various punch nose radii
(top) and backward tube thicknesses with constant friction
factor, m = 0.1, and punch nose radius (bottom) are shown
in Figure 3. It is seen in the figure that the punch nose
radius seems not a significant process parameter influencing on the forming load in combined extrusion process.
However, the forming loads increase much more as the
backward tube thickness decreases.
Figure 4 shows the load-stroke relationships for various
die corner radii (top) and punch face angles (bottom) for
constant friction factor, m = 0.1, respectively. It is easily
noted in the figure that die corner radius as well as the
punch face angle is not an important process parameter
influencing on the force requirement in the combined
forward/backward extrusion processes.
Figure 5 shows the load-stroke relationships for different frictional conditions, backward tube thicknesses, and
die corner radii. It is generally revealed that the forming
load increases as the friction factor increases. The figure
also reveals that the backward tube thickness and friction
factor are the major process parameters influencing on the
force requirement in combined forward/backward tube
extrusion process.
Forming load [kN]
m=0.2
R2=1, R3=1
R2=1, R3=2
R2=2, R3=1
900
1400
17.9
18.5
17.0
18.2
1200
24.7
23.8
29.4
27.5
1000
14.7
17.6
800
35.5
31.3
W2=4.4, m=0.1, R1=1.74

W2=4.4, m=0.2, R1=1.74
W2=3.8, m=0.1, R1=1.83
W2=3.8, m=0.2, R1=1.83
W2=3.3, m=0.1, R1=1.905
W2=3.3, m=0.2, R1=1.905
600
400
200
0
0
10
15
20
25
Punch Stroke [mm]
Figure 5. Influence of friction factors on the force requirements.
m=0.2
m=0.1
2a = 160
2a = 180
R1 = 0.74, 0.83, 0.905
800
1100
m=0.1
R2=1, R3=1
R2=1, R3=2
R2=2, R3=1
700
1200
Forming load [kN]
600
396
1100
m=0.2
1000
m=0.1
900
800
R1 = 1.74, 1.83, 1.905
700
1200
1100
Forming load [kN]
Forming load [kN]
800
1200
Forming load [kN]

Backward tube thickness(W2) = 4.4 mm
1000
m=0.2
1000
m=0.1
900
800
R1 = 2.74, 2.83, 2.905
700
23.2
24.4
25.4
Punch diameter [mm]
Figure 6. Relationships between maximum farce requirements
and punch diameters for various process parameters.
The maximum forming loads for various process parameters are shown in Figure 6. It is easily seen that the
maximum forming load increases almost linearly as the
punch diameter increases or the backward tube thickness
decreases. The figure also tells that the maximum forming
load increases as the friction factor increases. This trend is
intensified with increasing punch diameters.
Alternative Process Sequences. The product of forward
and backward tube shape could be extruded simultaneously in combined process as well as in sequential operations by combining separate processes. Figure 7 shows
five possible processes to manufacture the tube products
with the same initial billet.
The predicted results of the forming load requirements
are shown in Figure 8 in terms of load-stroke relationships
and pressure distributions exerted on the tool for all possible processes to produce a forward and backward tube
shape. It is easily seen in the figure that the maximum
force requirements in sequential operations, i.e. processes
of curves B, C and D, are about 30% greater than that in
the combined process, i.e. curve G. Statistics in Table 2
tells that the combined operation has all the advantages of
forming energy, forming load, and maximum pressure.
Table 2. Statistics for each possible process.
Forming
Maximum
Maximum
Possible
Energy
Force
Pressure
processes
(kJ)
(kN)
(MPa)
Process I (A+C)
14.317
959.7
3680
Process II (A+D)
14.562
956.9
3900
Process III (B+E)
18.019
938.7
5780
Process IV (B+F)
18.132
938.7
5600
Process V (G)
13.915
776.3
3230
09.08.2010 14:27:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
CL
CL
CL
Process I
Process III
Backward
Forward
Backward
Process V
Forward
Combined
Process II
Process IV
Backward
Forward
Figure 7. Possible processes for forward and backward tube extrusion.

1300
Material : AISI 1050

Friction factor (m) : 0.1
Punch speed : 1.0 mm/sec
Punch diameter (DP) : 23.2 mm
Punch nose radius (R1) : 2.74 mm
Punch face angle (2a) : 180
Initial billet height (H) : 30 mm
1200
1100
1000
Initial billet diameter (D0) : 32 mm

Die corner radius (R2/R3) : 1 mm
Backward tube thickness (W2) : 4.4 mm
Die angle () : 17
-C- : Backward
-D- : Forward
-B- : Forward
900
Forming load [kN]
Process I : A + C
Process II : A + D
Process III : B + E
Process IV : B + F
Process V : G
800
-A- : Backward
700
-G- : Combined
600
-F- : Forward
500
-E- : Backward
400
300
3680
200
1230
100
-A-
0
0
1720 1620 3650
3900
3510
2800
3460
1090
1940
1980
1370
-B-
-C-
2810
5780
3240
1280
3230
4870
2850
1810
1700 3270
1060
2000
3610
5600 3650
-D-
-E-
-F-
-G-
10
15
20
25
Punch stroke [mm]
Figure 8. Comparison of forming loads and pressure distributions among possible processes.
Conclusions
Acknowledgment
Thick-walled pipes have been employed to investigate

the influence of tool and process parameters on the forming load in the combined backward and forward tube extrusion processes. It could be concluded from this study
that the backward tube thickness and friction factor are the
major process parameters influencing on the force
requirement in combined forward/backward tube extrusion
process. It was also found that the punch nose radius and
punch face angle is not an important process parameter
influencing on the force requirement in the combined
forward/backward tube extrusion process. The maximum
force requirement, forming energy, and the maximum
pressure exerted on the tool were predicted much smaller
from the simulations in the combine process than in the
sequential operations by combining separate processes.
This paper was published with support of INHA University Research Grant.
References
[1] B.D. Ko, DJ. Kim, S.H. Lee, B.B. Hwang: Journal of Materials
[2] H.Y. Cho, G.S. Min, C.Y. Jo, M.H. Kim: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 135 (2003), 375-381.
[3] Y.S. Lee, S.K. Hwang, Y.S. Chang, B.B. Hwang: Journal of Materials
[4] H.J. Choi, J.H. Choi, B.B. Hwang: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 113 (2001), 141-147.
[5] SFTC: DEFORM-2D Ver.8.0 User Manual, Scientific Forming Technologies Corporation Inc, (2004).
[6] J.A. Schey: Metal Deformation processes Friction and Lubrication,
Marcel Dekker, (1970).
[7] Air Force Material Laboratory: Forming Equipment, Materials and
practices, Metal and Ceramics Information Center (1973), 164.
[8] International Cold Forging Group: General recommendations for
design, manufacture and operational aspects of cold extrusion tools
for steel components, ICFG Doc. No. 6/82, Portcullis Press (1983).
397
09.08.2010 14:27:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Material Flow Characteristics of Combined Tube Extrusion Process

Vishara Ruchiranga Jayasekara, Jeong Hoon Noh, Beong Bok Hwang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, Incheon / Korea, vishara@hotmail.com
A combined forward and backward tube extrusion process has been analyzed by the rigid-plastic FE method. Precise control of material
flow is difficult in combined extrusion since it has multiple outlet orifices, at least more than two. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of geometrical parameters of tool and workpiece on the material flow into each outlet orifice. Major process parameters
employed in analysis include tube thicknesses in backward extrusion directions, semi die angle, die corner radii, and frictional conditions at
the tool/workpiece interfaces. The analysis in this paper concentrated on the evaluation of process parameters for deformation patterns of
tube forming, load characteristics, extruded length, volume in each direction of orifice, and pressure exerted on the tool. AISI 1010 was
selected as the model material in analysis. Hollow tubes are selected as initial billets and the punch geometries follow the recommendation
of ICFG. The results of this study could be adopted in designing tool geometry, while the precise control of dimensional accuracy is not so
easy in combined operation.
Keywords: Combined extrusion, Multiple outlet orifices, Semi die angle, Die corner radius, Tube thickness
Introduction
The geometrical accuracy, shape uniformity of the cold
forged parts and especially their stability during the production process, depend not only the tooling but also on
the whole metal-forming system. To control such system,
it is not only enough to identify the influential parameters
but also essential to know their individual and interrelated
impacts. Influential parameters [1] are categorized into
four major groups such as the selection of input material,
tools, the machine and the forming process sequence.
When material is pressed through two or more orifices
simultaneously, the deformation is self regulating and will
provide the minimum deformation power, leading to lower
loads on tools. Die failures normally occurring in a sequential operation have been eliminated by using a single
combined process [2]. A combined extrusion process offers potentiality of producing variety of complex and precise components and it expands the scope and versatility
of the cold forging process. A wide range of engineering
components are being manufactured these days by various
types of combined extrusion processes [3].
Simultaneous completion of the material flow in the two
directions is almost impossible because of the cavity of
extrusion ratios and lengths in forward and backward
directions in the combined process. In this sense, control
of the material flow is extremely important for reducing
the extrusion pressure at the final stage of the forward/backward extrusion process in order to take advantage of the combined processes [4]. In general, the cavity
for a smaller extrusion ratio is filled first, and then the
forming pressure increases sharply because the simultaneous extrusion becomes a single extrusion process [5].
Analysis by FEM has gained wide application, in many
cases, in the area of metal forming process since the method had been justified by its solution reliability and computational efficiency. In the present study, the influence of
tool geometry such as backward tube thickness, die corner
radius, and semi die angle has been investigated on the
characteristics of the material flow into each orifice in
term of extruded length and volume ratios in the forward
extrusion combined with backward extrusion. Different
398
frictional conditions were also selected as a process parameter to investigate the effect of the friction factor on
the characteristics of the material flow. Pressure exerted on
the interface is also investigated for various process parameters. A commercially available FEM code Deform2DTM [6] has been used for simulation, which is programmed in theory of rigid plasticity. Due to the nature of
symmetry, half of the specimen was represented to construct a 2-D model. A total of 2000 quadrilateral elements
were employed to model the specimen. The punch and die
were modeled as rigid bodies. The die velocity was kept
constant at 1 mm/sec. The punch movement ended when
the punch stroke reached 25 mm. In finite element modeling, relatively high mesh densities were applied to deDs
CL
b
stem
R1
2a
nose
Df face
DP
h(land) = 0.3DP to DP
R1(punch nose radius) =
0.05DP to 0.07DP
b(relief angle) = 4to 5
2a(face angle) = 160 to 180
Df(punch face) =
DP-(2R1+(0.2DP to 0.3DP))
Ds = DP-(0.1 to 0.2)
DP = Punch diameter
D0 = Initial billet diameter

DP = Punch diameter
Di = Mandrel diameter
DF = Forward diameter
hs = Punch stroke
H = Initial billet height
R1 = Punch nose radius
hs
R2 = Die corner radius H
R1
R3 = Die corner radius
lB = Backward tube length
lF = Forward tube length
2a = Punch face angle
= Die angle
W1 = Forward tube thickness
W2 = Backward tube thickness
D0
DP
C
L
W2
lB
R2
R3
Di
lF
W1
DF
Figure 1. Tool geometries
09.08.2010 14:27:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
CL
Table 1. Tool and process parameters.

32 mm
Initial billet diameter D0
A
lB
VB
VF
lF
Initial billet height H
30 mm
Mandrel diameter Di
15.2 mm
Forward diameter DF
22.6 mm
Semi die angle
10, 17, 22, 30, 45
Punch stroke hs
25 mm
Forward tube thickness W1
3.7 mm
Backward tube thickness W2
A: Beginning of the backward extrusion

B : Beginning of the forward extrusion
3.3 mm, 3.8 mm, 4.4 mm
Punch diameter DP
Figure 2. Definitions of extruded lengths and volumes.
scribe the tool shape more exactly and to escape from

sensitivity of the simulation results to mesh size.
23.2 mm, 24.4 mm, 25.4 mm
Punch nose radius R1
0.74 mm
Punch face angle 2a
160
Die corner radius R2,R3
1.0 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.5 mm
Friction factor m
0.1, 0.15, 0.2
Analysis of Forward/Backward Combined Extrusion

Tool geometry employed in the simulation is shown in
Figure 1 and process parameters are summarized in Table
1. The extruded volume ratio (VB/VF) and extruded length
ratio (lB/lF) have been defined to describe the material flow
characteristics in both directions as shown in Figure 2.
The volume ratio is defined as the ratio of material backwardly extruded to that extruded forwardly and the extruded length ratio as the ratio of can height in backward
direction to that in forward direction.
Deformation Patterns and Contact Pressure. Figure 3
shows the deformation patterns and contact pressures
exerted at interfaces for various backward tube thicknesses
Geometrical Parameters and Process Conditions. The

material selected in the present study for the simulation of
combined extrusion process is AISI 1010 steel. The phosphate-soap was assumed as a lubricant between workpiece
and tool, of which friction factor, m, is found as values
between 0.1 and 0.2 in reference [7]. The flow stress of
selected material can be expressed in the form of power
law by [8],
= 715. 67
0.22
MPa
(1)
Unit : MPa, mm
1450
3290
1480
1340
1440
2820
4910
1450
1490
1850
1460
4890
3510
1360
19.76
25.31
26.42
1400
3070
4520
4390
1260 1400
863 880
871
1440
2850
R2,R3=2.5mm
1030
1500
1880
5480
5080
1310 1670
1420
1300
19.44
19.93
19.13
26.28
26.93
19.18
850
1020
1430
1850
1440
2820
19.34
1020
28.43
19.76
R2,R3=1.5mm
25.31
17.95
31.98
1020
1480
1440
2820
1480 1340
=45
18.71
4960
4920
1440 1610
3290
1340
1020
1450
3290
1020
884
1390
2400
25.33
1020
1450
4920
4960
1440 1610
4960
4920
1440 1610
1020
26.37
19.13
R2,R3=1mm
1440
1600
2860
19.64
1910
1610
W2=4.4mm
1130
25.30
1230
3710
4700
1500 1900
=22
19.13
19.46
1160
26.28
1380
1060
1720
2610
1020
19.12
1320
925
W2=3.8mm
26.57
959
10.84
=10
5030
4770
1440 1730
3460
26.28
1810
2460
32.48
1800 1680
28.12
1790
2020
1550
19.76
30.32
9.34
39.60
1770
3710
2100
3150 1730
25.31
14.42
W2=3.3mm
Figure 3. Deformation patterns and pressure distributions for various backward tube thickness (top), semi die angle (middle), die corner
radii (bottom) with friction factors of 0.1 (left) and 0.2 (right).
399
09.08.2010 14:27:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
2.0
W2 = 3.3 mm
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
1.5
affected by the semi die angle. The maximum pressure

exerted on the tool appears near the tip of punch face. It is
also predicted that the maximum pressure increases as the
backward tube thickness increases and the trend amplifies
with increasing friction factor.
m = 0.1
m = 0.2
=
45
1.0
0.5
=
10
0.0
3.5
Extruded volume ratio (VB/VF)
W2 = 4.4 mm
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
3.0
2.5
W2 = 3.3 mm
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
m = 0.1
m = 0.2
=
45
=
10
0.0
0
10
15
20
25
Stroke [mm]
Figure 4. Relationships between extruded volume (top), length
ratio (bottom), and punch strokes for various process parameters.
(top), semi die angles (middle), and die corner radii (bottom) with friction factors of 0.1 (left) and 0.2 (right), respectively. It is generally seen in the figure that the flow
resistance in backward direction increases with decreasing
friction factor and this leads to form shorter tube lengths in
backward direction for smaller friction factor. This trend is
intensified with decreasing backward tube thickness. It is
also noted in the figure that die corner radii are not an
influential process parameter affecting the material flow
into each orifice in combined tube extrusion process.
However, it seems that the material flow is significantly
Extruded length ratio (lB/lF)
2.5
2.0
1.5
= 10
= 22
= 45
2.5
2.0
1.5
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
R2,R3 = 1.5 mm
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
= 10
= 22
= 45
0.5
0.0
3.3
3.8
4.4
Backward tube thickness (W2) [mm]
ratio (bottom), and backward tube thickness for various semi die
angles and die corner radii for m=0.1.
1.5
1.0
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
R2,R3 = 1.5 mm
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
W2 = 3.3 mm
W2 = 3.8 mm
W2 = 4.4 mm
0.0
3.5
1.0
400
2.0
0.5
0.5
3.0
Effect of Backward Tube Thickness. The effect of the

backward tube thickness on the extruded length (top)
and volume ratio (bottom) at the final stage of the process, i.e. at the stroke of 25 mm, is shown in Figure 5. It
is easily revealed in the figure that the length and volume ratios keep increasing almost linearly with increasing backward tube thickness and this trend is intensified
with increasing semi die angle. It is also seen that the
ratios increase as the die corner radius decreases and the
tendency is amplified with increasing semi die angle.
2.5
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
R2,R3 = 1.5 mm
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
1.0
0.0
3.5
Extruded Volume and Length Ratios. The relationship

between extruded volume (top), length ratios (bottom),
and punch strokes is shown in Figure 4, respectively. It is
known from the figure that the extruded length ratio increases as the punch stroke increases at the early stages of
extrusion, i.e. transient state, and keeps more or less constant at steady state throughout the process for larger semi
die angle. However, the trend is totally opposite and the
material does not flow almost at all into backward direction for smaller semi die angle. The same tendency has
also been predicted for the extruded length ratios. The
ratios increase with decreasing friction factor and the trend
intensified with increasing semi die angles. It is also seen
in the figure that the ratios increase as the backward tube
thickness increases and this tendency is also amplified
with increasing semi die angles. It is revealed again that
the die corner radius is not an influential process parameter in terms of controlling divided material flow.
W2 = 4.4 mm
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
2.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
R2,R3 = 1.5 mm
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
W2 = 3.3 mm
W2 = 3.8 mm
W2 = 4.4 mm
1.0
0.5
0.0
10
22
45
Semi die angle () []
ratio (bottom), and semi die angle for various backward tube
thicknesses and die corner radii for m=0.1.
09.08.2010 14:27:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
2.5
= 10
= 22
= 45
2.0
W2 = 3.3 mm
W2 = 3.8 mm
W2 = 4.4 mm
2.0
1.5
1.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
= 10
W2 = 3.3 mm
W2 = 4.4 mm
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
= 45
W2 = 3.3 mm
W2 = 4.4 mm
0.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
= 10
W2 = 3.3 mm
W2 = 4.4 mm
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
= 45
W2 = 3.3 mm
W2 = 4.4 mm
1.5
1.5
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.15
Friction factor (m)
Effect of Semi Die Angle. In Figure 6, the results of extensive analysis are shown in terms of the effect of semi
die angle on the extruded length (top) and volume ratio
(bottom), respectively. It is easily seen in the figure that
the ratios increase as the semi die angle increases and the
trend is intensified for greater semi die angle. The smaller
die corner radius leads to larger ratios and this tendency is
intensified with increasing backward tube thickness. It can
be said that the semi die angle is more influential parameter affecting the material flow divided into each orifice.
Effect of Die Corner Radii. It is seen again apparently
in Figure 7 that the effect of die corner radius on the volume (top) and extruded length ratio (bottom) are negligible. However, it is also revealed more apparently that the
semi die angle is the most influential one among the process parameters affecting the material flow into each orifice.
It should be noted in the figure that the material flow into
each orifice changes more sensitively for variation of die
corner radius as both semi die angle and backward tube
thickness increase.
Effect of Frictional Conditions. The effect of frictional
conditions at the tool/workpiece interface on the volume
(top) and extruded length ratio (bottom) is shown in Figure 8. It is again easily seen in the figure that the frictional
condition at the tool/workpiece interface is not an influential process parameter as the die corner radius in Figure 7,
in terms of material flow ratios into each orifice. However,
it is revealed in the figure that the other process parameters such as the die corner radius, etc. become more influential one for material flow ratios at mild frictional conditions.
0.1
0.2

ratio (bottom), and die corner radius for various backward tube
thicknesses and semi die angle for m=0.1.
R2,R3 = 2.5 mm
= 45
W2 = 3.3 mm
W2 = 4.4 mm
0.5
0.5
0.0
3.5
R2,R3 = 1.0 mm
= 10
W2 = 3.3 mm
W2 = 4.4 mm
1.0
1.0
2.5
0.15
Friction factor (m)
0.2

ratio (bottom), and friction factor for various die corner radii, backward tube thickness and semi die angle, respectively.
Conclusions
A rigid-plastic FE method has been employed to investigate the combined forward/backward tube extrusion processes. It can be concluded from the simulation results that
the material flow ratio for each orifice increases as the
backward tube thickness and semi die angle increases. The
effect of die corner radius and frictional condition at the
tool/workpiece interface on the divided material flow into
each orifice seems negligible. The maximum forming load
increases as the backward tube thickness, semi die angle
and friction factor increase.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by INHA University Research
Grant.
References
[1] K. Kuzman: Proc. 6th ICTP, Nuremberg, (1999), 805.
[2] J.A. Paul, R. Shivpuri, T. Altan: ERC/NSM Report, No. B8928
(1989), 11.
[3] H. H. Lin, K. Kawakami, H. Kudo: CIRP Annals, 37 (1988), 231.
[4] H. H. Lin, H. Kudo: Proc. of the 4th ICTP, Beijing, China, (1993),
1239.
[5] K. Osakada, X. Wang, S. Hanami: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 71 (1997), 105.
[6] SFTC: DEFORM-2D Ver. 8.0 User Manual, Scientific Forming
Technologies Corporation Inc.
[7] J.A. Schey: Metal Deformation Processes Friction and Lubrication,
Marcel Dekker, New York, (1970).
[8] Air Force Material Laboratory: Forming equipment, Materials and
Practices, Metal and Ceramics Information Center, (1973), 164.
401
09.08.2010 14:27:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Combined Physical and Numerical Simulation of Bimetallic Tube Extrusion

Mario Epler1), Wojciech Misiolek2)
1)
Carpenter Technology Corporation, Reading / USA; 2)Institute for Metal Forming, Lehigh University, Bethlehem / USA wzm2@lehigh.edu
Physical and Finite Element Modeling (FEM) approaches were used to understand and simulate the geometrical and microstructural development during the co-extrusion of stainless steel/plain carbon steel tubing. The FEM results were used to understand the bulk flow of the
materials and the effect of billet geometry on final layer thickness distribution as well as to provide state variable results used in the physical
modeling. Novel billet design using a shortened core was proposed in an effort to better control material flow during the co-extrusion of
stainless steel/plain carbon steel tubes. In order to minimize the amount of material that is extruded out of geometrical tolerance as a
result of non-concurrent material flow, the core length in the initial billet was shortened. Extrusion was simulated using DEFORM 2D finite
element modeling software and compared to actual extrusion experiments performed on the industrial press. FEM and industrial scale
extrusion results are presented and compared for two different extrusion ratios. There is a strong agreement between the FEM and actual
results when investigating the core material distribution throughout the extrudate. It is shown that by reducing the core length in the initial
billet approximately 10% - 20%, concurrent material flow is promoted during the early stage of extrusion and the amount of out of tolerance
material is minimized. Physical modeling performed via isothermal compression tests was used to understand the development of the
thermo-mechanically affected zone (TMAZ) in the final product. Due to diffusion of elements at the interface of the two materials, a unique
layered microstructure develops, which was further characterized using electron microprobe analysis (EPMA). The approach presented
here is sufficient to characterize the deformation behavior and microstructural development of different bi-material systems.
Keywords: Co-extrusion, bi-metal extrusion, bi-material extrusion, FEM, thermo-mechanically affected zone (TMAZ)
Introduction
Co-extrusion of shapes and tubes is a manufacturing
technique where the initial extrusion billet is composed of
multiple materials that are concurrently extruded into a
bonded product. This type of bonding differs from the
diffusion bond because pressure and metal flow are used
in addition to chemical transport at the interface to join the
materials. Two different alloys of the same material system
or drastically different materials that are difficult to join
may be used to form a final, sound, composite product.
The most common metals welded by the co-extrusion
process include low-carbon and stainless steel, aluminum,
aluminum alloys, copper, and copper alloys. Additional
applicable materials include nickel, zirconium, titanium,
tantalum, niobium, and their alloys [1].
Extruding bi-materials presents problems that are not
encountered when extruding a single material. The continuity of the bond is an important consideration for both
strength and physical properties (corrosion resistance,
thermal conductivity, etc.). Development of transformation
products between the two layers is an important factor to
be considered. Figure 1 outlines the stages of microstructural bond development in solid state welding, focusing on
the thermomechanically affected zone.
A model system used in this study included 304 stainless
steel and 1020 plain carbon steel co-extrusion and to successfully model the process on a lab scale. The weld interface and thermal mechanically affected zone (TMAZ)
between the materials is of the most importance because it
is the most likely region for failure to occur and will exhibit the most complex microstructure. An understanding
of the development of the interfaces between materials
systems is critical for meeting production needs; however,
even for simple systems that form solid solution alloys
there is a lack of knowledge of the interface reactions [1].
Chemistry of the two steels is shown in Table 1.
402
Table 1. Chemistry in Weight Percent of the Steels (Fe Balance).

1020
304
0.19
0.02
Cr
18.27
Mn
Ni
0.71
1.13
9.32
0.050
0.025
Si
0.41
Bonding between austenitic stainless steels and plain

carbon steels has been extensively investigated for applications produced using fusion welding [2-4]. It is expected
that carbon will diffusion from the 1020 steel into the
stainless steel, and Cr, Mn, and Ni will diffuse from the
304 into the 1020 steel.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 1. Schematic representation of development phases during

solid state welding as result of co-extrusion; (a) initial surfaces, (b)
primary bonding, (c) bond-surface extension and (d) elimination of
original surface.
Testing was performed on different billet geometries

where the core length was varied between 80-100% of the
full billet length (Figure 2). Table 2 lists the geometry of
the initial billet. Two extrusion ratios were explored 3.3
and 10.6.
Table 2. Extrudate Sample Information.
304 - Core Thickness
1020 - Sleeve Thickness
11.4 mm
38.1 mm
09.08.2010 14:27:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figures 3 and 4 outline results of predicted and measured core thicknesses in the 3.3 extrusion ratio, full length
core and 10.6 extrusion ratio, 80% core. Agreement between the model and the actual is good, and was consistent
for all cases trials[5].
Core Thickness (mm)
Results
chromium carbide precipitation on the grain boundaries in

the vicinity of the bond and austenite and annealing twins
in the bulk of the material (Figure 5). Both extrusion ratio
conditions resulted in a qualitatively similar structure,
regardless of core thickness. Microstructural analysis was
also performed on Gleeble simulated extrusion samples.
Figure 6 shows the interface structure for the simulated
extrusion conditions of the sample shown in Figure 5.
Because the simulated extrudate experienced much higher
cooling rate in the Gleeble than the actual, it was reheated
and allowed to cool at a similar rate as the actual extrudate.
The interface microstructure was similar to the actual
extrduate, with a decarburized zone in the carbon steel and
grain boundary carbide precipitation in the stainless steel
as well as a similar transformation product at the interface.
Avg. Core Thickness (mm)
The extrusion experiment was modeled using DEFORM-2D FEM software and core/sleeve thickness
distribution was measured as well as maximum effective
strain and strain rate at the material interface. These process parameters were used to physically simulate the extrusion process with a Gleeble Hydrawedge system. Samples
of the two materials were machined into cylinders 6 mm
thick and 10 mm in diameter. The materials were butted
together at a force of 445 N, held at the preheat temperature for the extrusion ratio conditions for the corresponding time, and were deformed at the corresponding extrusion temperature using a Gleeble Hydrawedge system. The
samples were allowed to air cool to room temperature
while still in the grips. Additionally, the low extrusion
ratio simulation sample was placed back into a box furnace at 1100 C and allowed to furnace cool to 200 C and
then air cooled to room temperature.
R=
= 10.6
10.6
R
80% Core
Core
80%
Actual
Ac tual
FEM
FEM
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Distance from Front of Extrudate (mm)
Distance from front of Extrudate (mm)

Figure 4. Comparison of modelled and experimental core thickness for R=10.6, 80% length core experiment.
Shortened
Core
Length
Sleeve
Thickness
Core
Thickness
Figure 2. Billet Geometry Definitions.

Avg.
Core Thickness (mm)
Avera ge Core Thic kness (mm )
12
RR
= 3.3
= 3.3
100%
Core
100%
Core
Actual
Actual
FEM
FEM
10
8
6
Figure 5. Interface between 1020 steel (left) and 304 stainless

steel (right) after 2 hours at 1100C and co-extruded followed by
air cool to room temperature. Extrusion ratio = 3.3, effective strain
and strain rate calculated using DEFORM as and 1.2 and 2.1 s-1
respectively.
4
2
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
40 0
Dista nce fr om Front of Ex truda te (m m)
Di stance from front of Extrudate (mm)

Figure 3. Comparison of modelled and experimental core thickness for R=3.3, 100% length core experiment.
Metallographic examination of the extrudate cross section in the bond region revealed banded perlite in the bulk
of the plain carbon steel (also present in the unextruded
material) and a decarburized layer with large ferrite grains
adjacent to the bond. The stainless steel exhibits profuse
Figure 7 shows elemental maps of the interface region

for the actual/simulated extrudates performed using wavelength dispersive spectroscopy (WDS). For the actual
extrudate, two C-rich layers can be observed near the
bond: one layer that is located in the stainless steel that is
also rich in Cr and one layer that is C and Fe. In the simulated extrudate the Cr rich carbide layer does not appear as
distinct carbides but rather a thin band.
403
09.08.2010 14:27:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 6. Light optical micrograph of the interface between 1020

steel (left) and 304 stainless steel (right).
SEM
SS
Ni
Fe
PC
Cr
SEM
SS
Fe
Ni
PC
Cr
Figure 7. Qualitative elemental maps of the interface of actual

(top) and simulated (bottom) R=3.3 samples.
Discussion
When the core thickness data from the actual extrudates
is compared to the FEM results the agreement is good.
Samples extruded using the lower extrusion ratio show the
same general core thickness distribution as the simulations,
but it is shifted back slightly in the extrudate.
The FEM simulations show that a billet with a core
length 80% (out of the conditions simulated) of the overall
length produces the optimal extrusion results. For both the
low and high extrusion ratios this proves to be true in the
actual extrusion experiments as well. Although low extrusion ratios promote concurrent flow of material [6], an
extrusion ratio of 3.3 appears to be high enough to benefit
from a billet with a recessed core. This is illustrated in
Figure 8. When the core is the full length of the billet the
core extrudes at a thickness equal to or greater than its
initial value. This is caused by a radial flow of the sleeve
404
material into the core forced by the full extrusion ratio

imposed by the die. This radial flow causes the core material to be upset outward towards the die orifice, even
though the initial core thickness may be much less than the
die orifice. At lower extrusion ratios (larger die orifice),
this phenomenon can be exaggerated more. Figure 8 illustrate the core ballooning. When the core is recessed to a
value 80% of the initial billet length, the sleeve upsets to
fill the gap left by the missing core material and extrudes
ahead of the core material, causing scrap material. By
reducing the core by only 10%, concurrent flow of both
materials is promoted in both the low and high extrusion
ratio scenarios. A reduction of 20% results in better or
comparable material flow (depending on the extrusion
ratio) and a savings in material in the initial billet that
would become scrap [7].
R=10.6
R=10.6
R=10.6
90%
80%
Full
Figure 8. Axi-symmetric 2D FEM results showing early stage
development of co-extrusion.
Qualitatively, the simulated bond microstructure is the

same as the microstructure of the extruded material. Both
exhibit a decarburized region of plain carbon steel in the
vicinity of the bond, as well as a ferrite/pearlite structure
in the bulk of the material. In the extruded samples, the
pearlite is banded as a result of the processing history,
while the pearlite is in the form of discrete islands in the
simulated extrusion sample. At the new interface between
the two materials, the simulated and the actual extrudates
show a layer of cementite. In the simulated sample, this
layer is thicker which is explained by the much slower
cooling rate from the deformation temperature (approximately four times longer). The effect of the longer cooling
time is also reflected in the larger size of the austenite
grains of the stainless steel adjacent to the bond in the
simulated extrusion. Cr rich carbide precipitation on the
austenite grain boundaries as well as interiors in the near
the interface is common to both samples. In addition to the
difference in the cooling of the two samples from deformation temperature, there is a difference in the strain distribution. Effective strain and strain rate values were taken
from the FEM simulations and used as deformation parameters for the physical (Gleeble) simulations. Due to the
use of the effective values, as well as the cylindrical
specimen geometry, the physical simulation samples undergo a relatively homogeneous strain path at the interface.
Radial flow occurs in the upsetting with uniform strain in
both the x and y-axis.
09.08.2010 14:27:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Summary of the microstructural development is shown
in Figure 9. At the preheat temperature, the microstructure
of both the plain carbon and stainless steel is austenite. Cr,
Ni, and Mn begins to diffuse from the 304 stainless steel
into the plain carbon steel, while C and Fe begin to diffuse
into the stainless steel. This creates a decarburized region
in the plain carbon steel adjacent to the interface, while a
region enriched in Cr, Ni, and Mn begins to form in the
plain carbon steel adjacent to the interface. As the material
is cooled below the A3 temperature, the austenite in the
plain carbon steel begins to transform to ferrite, and begins
to eject C into the surrounding austenite. Directly adjacent
to the bond in the plain carbon steel, a band of austenite is
stabilized for longer times to lower temperatures due to the
increase in Ni via diffusion from the stainless steel. This
layer becomes enriched in C and eventually transforms
into pearlite at low cooling rates or martensite at high
cooling rates. As the temperature reaches the solvus temperature for the Cr rich carbides (temperature dependant
on C content as well as the type of Cr carbide), the carbides begin to precipitate in the stainless steel. Near the
interface, where there is a higher amount of carbon, the
precipitates form on both the grain boundary and the grain
interiors, farther away from the interface the carbides only
form on the austenite grain boundaries. Slow cool to room
temperature allows for ample time to exceed the critical
cooling rate forming a decarburized region in the plain
carbon stainless steel and a thin layer of carbon rich,
chromium containing carbides (M7C3) nearest the interface
as well as additional chromium carbide precipitation
(M23C6) on austenite grain boundaries in the stainless steel.
These layers were extensively characterized by others in
similar material and processing situations [8-11].
Conclusions
1. Accurate simulation of bond microstructural development can be performed via a combination of FEM modeling and physical modeling to determine the state variables (temperature, strain, strain rate) and to apply them
into physical modeling experiments
2. Predicted core thickness distribution from FEM analysis
closely matches results from industrial scale extrusion
experiments which validates the FEM prediction.
3. FEM can be used to determine material layer thickness
in co-extruded products as a function of billet design
4. Reducing the length of the core material 10% or more
promotes concurrent material flow during extrusion resulting in higher yield.
Diffusion Layer
102
304
t = 0, T = 25 C,
=0
t = 2hr, T = 1100 C,
=0
A+F+P
A A A
t = 2hr, T = 1100 C,
= 1.2
AA
++
FF
+
P
A+MxCy
t > 2hr, T < A3,

= 1.2
F
+F
P
A+MxCy
t >> 2hr, T =
25 C, = 1.2
Figure 9. Schematic representation of microstructural and TMZ

development during co-extruion of model system. A - Austenite, FFerrite, P-Pearlite, MxCy - carbide
References
[1] Coextrusion welding, ASM International, ASM Handbook Vol. 6:
Welding, Brazing, and Soldering, (1993), 311
[2] S. Kou: Welding Metallurgy, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., (2003)
[3] C. Kusko, J. DuPont, A. Marder: Proc. Materials Solutions Conference 1999 on Joining of Advanced and Specialty Materials, USA, 1-4
(1999), 125-131
[4] G. Kohn, A. Stern: International Trends in Welding Science and
Technology; Gatlinburg, Tennessee, 1-5 (1992), 335-338
[5] M. Epler, W. Misiolek: Materials Science and Engineering A, 429
(2006) 43-49
[6] M. Apperley, C. Sorrell, A. Crosky: Journal of Material Processing.
Technology, 102 (2000), 193
[7] P. Kazanowski, M. Epler, W. Misiolek: Materials Science and Engineering A, 369 (2004), 170-180
[8] I. Gutierrez, J. Urcola, J. Bilbao, L Villar: Journal of Materials Science and Technology, 7-8 (1991), 761-769
[9] X. Gomez, J. Echeberria, Journal of Materials Science and Technology, 16-2 (2000), 187-193
[10] X. Gomez, J. Echeberria: Journal of Materials Science and Engineering A, 348-1-2 (2003) 180-191
[11] B. Lopez, X. Gomez, J. Echeberria: Key Engineering Materials, 127
Part 1 & 2 (1997), 695-702
405
09.08.2010 14:27:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Ultrasonic Vibration on Metal Compression and Extrusion

Takeshi Yoneyama1), Masaya Takahashi2)
1)
School of Mechanical Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa / Japan, yoneyama@t.kanazawa-u.ac.jp;

Industries, Co. Ltd., Nagoya / Japan
2)
Sumitomo Light Metal
The effect of ultrasonic vibration on extrusion has been investigated in the actual experiment. At first, the effect was confirmed in the
compression. Ultrasonic vibration has been applied on the aluminum circular disk during the compression process at room temperature.
The load and pressure increase according to the displacement without ultrasonic vibration. When the ultrasonic vibration is applied on the
compression tool, the load reduces immediately to about 50%, and it returns to the same load without ultrasonic vibration when the
vibration is removed. From this fact, the mechanism of the reduction of the load by ultrasonic vibration has been investigated. Next,
utrasonic vibration has been applied on the die in the backward extrusion of pure aluminum at room temperature. The extrusion load
reduced 40% compared with that without vibration. In the backward extrusion, the die is vibrated directly by the ultrasonic horn and the
material under the die is compressed with vibration flowing to the die exit. On the other hand, when the ultrasonic vibration is applied on the
stem in the forward extrusion, the effect was not so prominent as the case of backward extrusion.
Keywords: Ultrasonic vibration, Extrusion, Compression, Experiment, Working load
Introduction
Ultrasonic
vibration
horn
Aluminum
circular
cylinder 8
Compression
Figure 1. Compression equipment using ultrasonic vibration.
120
Metal Compression
406
Without vibration
100
Stress/MPa
Ultrasonic vibration was applied to the upper punch in

the metal compression. The equipment is shown in Figure
1. Ultrasonic vibrator was equipped below the upper flame
of the hydrostatic oil servo press having 300 kN
compression performance. The top of the vibration horn
has a shape of corn with flat bottom to get the maximum
amplitude of the 20 kHz vibration at the bottom surface.
The bottom surface is used as the upper punch. Vibration
amplitude is changed according to the supplied power. The
maximum vibration amplitude was 20 m at the maximum
power. A load cell equipped between the upper flame and
the ultrasonic vibration unit detected compression load.
A circular cylinder of 99.5% pure aluminum was used as
a specimen. The specimen was machined from the cast rod.
Average of the grain diameter was about 100 m. The
diameter and the height of the specimen were 8 and 12
mm, respectively.
The result of the compression stress and strain is shown
in Figure 2. The specimen was compressed at room
temperature with the compression speed 10 mm/s. The
ultrasonic vibration drastically reduces the stress. The
reduction of the stress increases as the vibration amplitude
increases. The stress with the vibration amplitude 20 m is
about half of that without vibration.
12
Ultrasonic vibration is often applied on the metal forming process such as bending, drawing and bonding to reduce the working load [1-3]. It is also known that load is
reduced by ultrasonic vibration in the metal compression
test [4]. There is a simulation report that extrusion load is
reduced by the ultrasonic vibration applied on the die [5].
But there is no experimental evidence on the effect of
ultrasonic vibration on the extrusion. The purpose of this
study is to elucidate the effect of ultrasonic vibration on
the extrusion by the actual experiment. At first the effect in
the metal compression is confirmed. Next the effect on the
extrusion has been investigated.
Vibration amplitude 11m
80
60
40
20
0
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
Strain
0.2
0.25
Figure 2. Change of stress-strain curve by ultrasonic vibration.
In order to examine whether the reduction of the stress

remains after the remove of the vibration or not, ultrasonic
vibration was applied and removed during the
compression. The result is shown in Figure 3. When the
vibration is applied, the stress is suddenly reduced to the
same value that is obtained with the vibration from the
first. When the vibration is removed, the stress returns
again to the value without vibration. Therefore the effect
of the stress reduction is only emerged during the vibration.
The stress of the specimen is not reduced after the
vibration.
09.08.2010 14:27:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Backward Extrusion
120
Vibration
is applied
100
Stress/MPa
Without vibration
Vibration
is removed
80
60
40
20
Ultrasonic vibration was applied on the die in the

backward extrusion equipment as shown in Figure 5. A
billet of 99.5% pure aluminum with 8mm in diameter and
1 2mm in height is compressed in the container at room
temperature and extruded through the die exit. The billet
was machined from the cast ingot. Average grain size was
about 100 m. Ultrasonic vibration horn with center hole
is directly pressed on the die with 20 kHz vibration. The
diameter of the die exit is 4mm, which means the
extrusion ratio is 4.
0
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
Strain
0.2
Extrusion load
0.25
Figure 3. Reduction of stress by ultrasonic vibration and return

by remove of vibration.
Elastic deformation Plastic deformation by unit

by unit ultrasonic ultrasonic displacement
displacement
Load-displacement
curve without
ultrasonic vibration
pplied load
y ultrasonic
splacement
Container
Elastic displacement
Plastic displacement
Unit ultrasonic displacement
Figure4. Estimation of mechanism on effect of ultrasonic vibration.
Billet
Figure 5. Backward extrusion equipment.
Details of the tool dimensions are shown in Figure 6. In

order to conduct the ultrasonic vibration effectively from
the horn to the billet material through the die, the thickness
of the die was machined 1mm. Maximum amplitude of the
ultrasonic vibration is given at the boundary surface
between the die and the billet. As the tube part of the horn
is inserted into the container, the outside diameter of the
horn must be less than the inside diameter of the container.
And the diameter of the hole in the horn must be larger
than the die exit diameter. In order to maintain the strength
of the horn, the length of the straight part of the tube was
limited 6mm in this experiment. Therefore the extrusion
stroke is limited less than 6mm in this experiment.
4.3
6
Return per unit

ultrasonic displacement
Ultrasonic
vibration horn
7.8
0.03
8 -- 0.06
Load-displacement
curve with ultrasonic
vibration
=Detected load by load
cell equipped above the
ultrasonic vibration unit
Die
Mechanism of the effect of the ultrasonic vibration is

estimated as shown in Figure 4. It is considered that the
load cell does not detect the actual load at the instance
when the ultrasonic horn extends to the specimen during
the vibration, because the vibrator is supported at the no
displacement point and the vibration displacement is not
conducted to the load cell detection block. As the load is
detected by the strain of the load cellblock, no extra
displacement by the vibration emerges on the load
cellblock. Therefore it is estimated that the actual
compression stress applied to the specimen is always the
same, even when the ultrasonic vibration is applied. The
part of the stress applied by the ultrasonic displacement is
removed from the load, which should be detected by the
load cell without the ultrasonic vibration. When one cycle
of the ultrasonic displacement is applied at the punch with
some compression speed, some part of the ultrasonic
displacement is given as an elastic displacement and other
part is given as a plastic deformation displacement of the
specimen.
Ultrasonic
vibration horn
4
8 +- 00.03
Die
Container
Figure 6. Details of tool dimensions.
Extrusion equipment in the hydrostatic oil servo press is

shown in Figure 7. A load cell was equipped between the
ultrasonic vibration unit and the upper flame. In the
experiment, after the billet is inserted in the container, die
plate is set on the billet and the ultrasonic horn is pressed
407
09.08.2010 14:27:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
on the die with vibration. Amplitude of the vibration was
15 m. Polymer lubricant was painted on the billet surface
before inserting to the container.
flows not only from die exit but also from the outside
clearance between the die and the container surface in the
case of extrusion with vibration.
Load cell
Upper rod
Ultrasonic vibration unit
(a) Extruded billet without ultrasonic vibration

Horn
Container holder
Lower rod
(b) Horn and container set
Hydraulic Servo press
(a) Extrusion equipment

Figure 7. Backward extrusion equipment.
The extrusion load-stroke curve is shown in Figure 8.

The first stage until about stroke 0.6 mm is a compression
process of the billet in the container. The billet is
compressed between the die plate and the bottom block of
the container set. This process is similar with the
compression test described in the upper section.
Compression load reduced with the vibration as same as
the load in the compression test. Then the deformed side
surface of the billet contacts with the inside wall surface of
the container. After filling the material in the container
cavity, the material is extruded from the die exit. In the
case of no vibration, extrusion load increases with the
stroke. Extrusion stroke was limited in the range so that
the extrusion load does not exceed over than 20 kN to
protect the horn tube from the buckling. By the ultrasonic
vibration, extrusion load decreases remarkably to about
half of the load without the vibration. The extrusion load
keeps constant or slightly decreases along the stroke in the
range of 3 mm. During the extrusion with the ultrasonic
vibration, little bit white smoke emerged around the
outside periphery of the die.
Extrusion load/kN
Compression process
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Extrusion process
Without ultrasonic
vibration
With ultrasonic vibration
0.5
1.5
2
Stroke/mm
2.5
Figure 8. Load-stroke curve in backward extrusion.
The billets taken out from the container after the

extrusion are shown in Figure 9. In the case of extrusion
without vibration, material is only extruded from the
circular exit of the die. On the other hand, the material
408
(b) Extruded billet with ultrasonic vibration

Figure 9. Billets after backward extrusion.
Microstructures of the material under the area of die are

compared in Figure 10. It looks that the dead zone corner
is formed under the die surface and the material flows
along the dead zone boundary in the case of extrusion
without vibration. On the other hand, owing to that
material flow occurs also to the outside of the die, the dead
zone is small and the material under the die flows directly
to the die exit in the case of extrusion with vibration.
(a) Microstructure without vibration (b) Microstructure with ultrasonic vibration
Figure 10. Microstructures of extruded billets.
Forward Extrusion
Forward extrusion equipment is shown in Figure 11.
Ultrasonic vibration bar is pressed directly on the billet in
the container. The bottom part of the bar has a precise
diameter as the inside diameter of the container with the
same clearance in the die used in the backward extrusion.
The maximum amplitude of the vibration about 15 m
occurs at the bottom of the bar. The billet is extruded from
the die exit at the bottom of the container. Diameter of the
die exit is 4mm.
The billet size is 8 mm in diameter and 12 mm in the
length the same as that in the backward extrusion. The
material is 99.5% pure aluminum that was machined from
the cast ingot. Polymer lubricant was also painted on the
billet surface before inserting to the container.
Vibration was applied after the contact of the bar with
the billet because the vibrating bar often caused vibrating
slip contact with the inside surface of the container when
the bar was inserted into the container before the contact
with the billet.
09.08.2010 14:27:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Extrusion load
Ultrasonic
vibration horn
Container
8
Die
Billet
Figure 11. Forward extrusion equipment.
The extrusion load-stroke curve is shown in Figure 12.

The first stage of the compression process in the container
is the same as that in the backward extrusion. The
compression load decreases with the ultrasonic vibration.
In the extrusion process, the reduction of the load by
ultrasonic vibration is little compared with that in the
backward extrusion. Compared with the result of the
backward extrusion, the load without the vibration is the
same at the same stroke. Because the lubricant is painted
on the billet surface, whether the compression is applied
from the stem or from the die does not make difference in
the case of no vibration. But the effect of the load
reduction is very different whether the vibration is applied
on the die or stem.
Compression process
25
Without ultrasonic
vibration
20
Extrusion load/kN
Extrusion process
Vibration
is added
15
With ultrasonic vibration

10
5
0
0
3
4
Stroke/mm
Figure 12. Load-stroke curve in forward extrusion.
There appears no difference between the billet after the

extrusion with vibration and that without vibration.
From the microstructures of the billet after the extrusion
experiment, deformation of the grains and metal flow
looks similar between the billets with and without
vibration.
Discussion
From the result of the backward extrusion and forward
extrusion, it is revealed that the reduction of the extrusion
load is prominent in case the vibration is directly applied
on the die surface.
As the friction between the billet side surface and the
inside surface of the container is very low by the lubricant,
there is no difference between the forward extrusion and
the backward extrusion in case of no vibration.
The effect of the vibration during the compression

process in the container is also the same in the both
extrusions.
In the extrusion process, if the ultrasonic vibration is
applied on the die surface, only the material under the die
takes the displacement of the die and the plastic
deformation occurs just under the die area to flow to both
die exit and outside clearance. It is like a compression of
the material between the die and the billet under the
deformation zone as the load reduction in the compression
test. On the other hand, if the ultrasonic vibration is
applied on the tail of the billet by the stem in the forward
extrusion, there is no free space near the stem but the
small clearance between the stem and the container. The
whole billet between the tail to the die surface takes the
ultrasonic displacement of the stem. The vibration
amplitude at the contacting surface on the die may be
small because the position is far from the maximum
amplitude point at the stem surface. On the contrary, the
maximum vibration amplitude is kept at the die surface in
the case of backward extrusion even the billet length
reduces during the extrusion.
Conclusions
Ultrasonic vibration was applied on the compression
process and extrusion process. Following results have
been obtained.
1. Compression load decreases drastically in the
compression of the circular disk of pure aluminum at
room temperature with the ultrasonic vibration of
20kHz.
2. The mechanism of the load reduction by ultrasonic
vibration is estimated by the additional ultrasonic
displacement on the compression punch.
3. Extrusion load decreases remarkably if the ultrasonic
vibration is applied on the die in the backward extrusion.
The vibration may be effectively applied on the material
under the die to flow into the die exit.
4. The reduction of the load in the forward extrusion was
not prominent when the ultrasonic vibration was applied
on the tail of the billet.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Takesho Co. Ltd. and Amada
Foundation for Metal Work Technology for their
assistance through the experiments.
References
[1] J. Tsujino, T. Ueoka, K. Takiguchi, H. Sato, K. Takahashi: Japanese
Journal of Applied Physics, 32-5B (1993), 2247-2451.
[2] M. Murakawa, M. Jin: Journal of Material Processing Technology,
113 (2001), 81-86.
[3] J. Tsujino, T. Ueoka, K. Hasegawa, Y. Fujita, T.S hiraki, T. Okada, T.
Tamura: Ultrasonics, 34 (1996), 177-185.
[4] O. Izumi, K. Oyama, Y. Suzuki: Journal of the Japan Society for
Technology of Plasticity, 7-61 (1966), 59-64.
[5] S.A.A.A. Mousavi, H. Feizi, R. Madoliat: Journal of Material
Processing Technology, 187-188(2007), 657-661.
409
09.08.2010 14:27:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of Slide Motion on Dimensional Accuracy in Cold Backward Extrusion by

Using Servo Press
Takahiro Ishiguro, Masayuki Yoshimura, Yoshinori Yoshida, Nobuki Yukawa, Takashi Ishikawa
Department of Material Science of Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya/ Japan, ishiguro@emerald.numse.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Columnar specimens are deformed by using a backward extrusion process under difference conditions of press slide motion. The influences of stroke speed and slide oscillation on dimensional accuracy are investigated. In this study, a servo press is used for a deformation
process because the slide motion is controlled freely compared with conventional crank presses. It is possible that the punch stroke is static
at the bottom dead point and the direction of crank rotation is reversed during intermediate deformation. Outer diameter of the deformed
workpiece is measured by a micrometer, and the FE analysis of the backward extrusion process is carried out under the same conditions to
consider temperature distribution. The difference between the measured shapes of the workpiece and design value and standard deviation
of outer diameter are evaluated for dimensional accuracy. In the result, a high-speed stroke condition without the multi-strike process is the
best for minimum error because heat contraction balances elastic deformation. Additionally, the three-strikes backward extrusion process
decreases standard deviation of outer diameter because heat distribution is spread.
Keywords: Dimensional accuracy, Backward extrusion process, Cold forging process, Servo press, Finite element analysis
Introduction
Cold forging processes are used to produce small products like automobile parts. This process has several advantages: good yield ratio, high production speed and good
dimensional accuracy compared with hot and warm forging processes. However, the dimensional accuracy of cold
forging process is generally less than that of machining
process. The dimensional error is caused by misalignment
of upper and lower dies, elastic deformation of die and
workpiece, stiffness of press and heat contraction etc. [1-5].
Therefore ironing or machining process is necessary to
correct the shape of product. But increasing of the number
of process or disposing of materials lead to the increase of
production cost. Thus cold forging process with high accuracy (without correction process) is necessary by optimization of process condition of forging. There are many researches about high accuracy of cold forging process [6-8].
However, these proposed processes need complex die and
process. Therefore, in this study, slide motion is focused to
improve the dimensional accuracy of cold forging process.
The punch stroke of conventional crank presses is not
flexible. Thus a servo press is used in this study. Its slide
motion is controlled freely. It is possible that punch stroke
is static at bottom dead point and the direction of crank
rotation is reversed during mid-deformation [9]. Furthermore, slide oscillation is set up during one stroke. In this
study, the influence of some conditions of slide motion on
dimensional accuracy is investigated experimentally. Additionally, deformation analysis of forging process is carried out to investigate distribution of heat in metal forming
process by using Finite Element Method (FEM).
Table 1. Chemical composition of material S10C (Japan-IndustrialStandard-compliant).
Figure 1. Initial and after deformation shape of workpiece.
Experimental Equipment. Servo press H1F80 (KOMATSU, Japan) was used and the specifications are following, maximum load capacity is 800 kN, stroke of slide
is 130 mm, maximum stroke speed is 75 spm and rated
capacity of servo motor is15 kW. Figure 2 shows the press
appearance and die set. The shape of die used in this study
is shown Figure 3. Material of the die is SKH51 (tool
steel) and punch material is cemented carbide (G5).
Experiment of Cold Backward Extrusion Process

Test Specimens. The columnar specimen of S10C (carbon steel: Japan Industrial Standard) was used as a workpiece. The chemical composition of material is shown in
Table 1. The initial and after deformation shape of workpiece are shown in Figure 1.
410
Figure 2. Press appearance and die set.
09.08.2010 14:27:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
(1)
D = Dout Din
1 n
2
S = (Dout Dave )
n i=1
(2)
where Dout, Din and Dave are the outer diameter of the
specimen, the inner diameter of the die and average of the
outer diameter of the specimen, respectively. Decreasing
of D means the shape of specimen being close to designed value. Parameter S means standard deviation and
decreasing this value means that shape of workpiece is
straight.
Figure 3. Shape of die used in backward extrusion process.
Experimental Conditions. The conditions of slide motion are shown in Figure 4. Experiment was carried out
under 2 conditions of stroke speeds of 7.5 and 40 spm.
Specimens were treated phosphate coating as a lubricant.
The shapes of specimens were measured at room temperature after cooling.
Deformation Analysis of Cold Backward Extrusion

Process
Analysis Condition. Deformation analysis of backward
extrusion process was carried out to investigate the influence of slide motion on dimensional accuracy theoretically.
Backward extrusion process is divided into following 5
stages, deformation, unloading, punch removing, ejection
and cooling as shown in Figure 5. The outer diameter of
specimen after each stage was obtained from simulation
result. DEFORM-2D was used as a FE code. Slide motion
and the shapes of specimen or die are same conditions as
experiment as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 3. Deformation of backward extrusion process is treated as a twodimensional axisymmetric problem. Boundary condition is
excerpted from past reference [10] and material properties
are excerpted from DEFORM-2D database. Analysis condition is shown in Table 2, material properties of workpiece and die are shown in Figure 6 and mesh model of
die and workpiece are shown in Figure 7.
Figure 5. Schema of backward extrusion process.

Table 2. Analysis condition.
Figure 4. Condition of slide motion in experiment.
Evaluation Method. Outer diameter of specimen was

measured by using micrometer each 3.0 mm from bottom
to top. Two parameters which is defined by Eqs. (1) and
(2) were used to evaluate the accuracy of specimen shape.
411
09.08.2010 14:27:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 6. Material properties of workpiece S10C and die SKH51.
forming process is higher than any other condition when

workpiece is ejected, because contact time of workpiece to
die is the shortest. The outer profile is expanded because
of elastic recovery from restriction of die inside. That
amount of recovery is balanced with heat contraction. As a
result, outer diameter is close to inner diameter of die in
40 spm-normal condition. However, in the condition of 7.5
spm there are few differences of dimensional accuracy. In
these conditions, contact time is longer than 40spm. As a
result heat in forming process was cooled down, there is
not enough heat to cover expansion of outer profile by
heat contraction.
Figure 9 shows standard deviation S under the some
condition. S value of 7.5 spm condition is lower compared
with 40 spm. In other words, the shape of workpiece, which is deformed under the same 7.5 spm condition, is
straight compared with 40 spm averagely. In 7.5 spm condition, heat in metal forming process is distributed uniformly. Especially, it is estimated that heat distribution in
outer wall of workpiece is uniform.
Figure 7. Mesh model of workpiece and die.

Experimental Result. Figure 8 shows experimental
result about profile line of outer diameter. In Figure 8,
approximation of D to zero means that it is close to designed value. In the condition of 40 spm, there are differences of dimensional accuracy among slide motions.
Figure 9. Standard deviation of outer diameter in each condition.
(a) 40 spm
(b) 7.5 spm

Figure 8. Variation of outer diameter in the case of 40 and 7.5 spm.
The condition of 40spm-normal is the most accurate

process in this study about D. In this condition, heat in
412
Analysis result is compared with experimental one to

consider these results minutely. Experimental result and
analysis result on each process stage (in Figure 5) are
shown in Figure 10 about 40 spm-normal condition. In
analysis result, the change of outer shape is expressed in
each process stage. Firstly, workpiece has maximum diameter at after deformation (in Figure 5, 1). Secondly,
outer shape shrinks because of unloading (in Figure 5, 2).
Thirdly, outer shape shrinks again because the restraint of
inner side of workpiece is disappeared by punch removing
(in Figure 5, 3). Fourthly, outer shape is expanded because
outer profile is released from restraint of die (in Figure 5,
4). Lastly, outer shape of workpiece is shrunk once again
because of heat contraction (in Figure 5, 5). Final shape of
workpiece in analysis result agrees with experimental
result qualitatively. In the analysis model of workpiece,
the size of mesh around outer wall is 0.2-0.3mm. Therefore, there is quantitative difference between analysis and
experimental result about 30 m. In other words, though
the size of element is this value, proper analysis can be
carried out qualitatively with an uncertainty of 10%. In
Figure 9, S-value of 3Strike-1-40 spm condition declined
by 62% comparing with condition of KBP-40spm. This
result is considered by using FE analysis result. Figure 11
shows the outer shape of workpiece at after ejection and
09.08.2010 14:27:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
cooling in the case of 3Strike-1 and KBP (40 spm). The
outer shape tucks inward because of punch land as the
measurement point goes to top of workpiece. There are
few differences of outer profile in each case after ejection.
However, the outer shape after cooling is straight in the
case of 3Strike-1. Figure 12 shows heat distribution after
ejection in each case. In the case of 3Strike-1, high temperature is distributed at outer wall, especially around the
height of 5-20mm from the bottom of the cup. As a result,
shrink shape at upper section is corrected to straight shape
by heat contraction. On the other hand, low temperature is
distributed homogeneously in the case of KBP condition.
Therefore, shrunk outer profile cant be corrected to
straight.
Figure 12. Distribution of temperature after ejection in case of KBP

and 3Strike-1 (40 spm).
Conclusions
Figure 10. Changing of outer profile of workpiece at each process

stage in case of normal-40spm.
Cold backward extrusion process was operated by using

servo press with changing slide motion. The influence of
slide motion on dimensional accuracy of forged workpiece
was investigated. Furthermore, FE analysis was carried out
to consider history of dimensional change and temperature
distribution. Then following result was obtained.
1. The value of outer diameter is close to designed value
in the case of 40spm normal motion because elastic recovery at ejection balanced heat contraction.
2. Standard deviation is minor value in the case of 7.5
spm condition than 40 spm. This means that outer
shape of workpiece is straight.
3. Final shape of workpiece depends on temperature distribution after ejection and the amount of heat contraction.
References
Figure 11. Changing of outer profile of workpiece after ejection

and after cooling in case of KBP and 3Strike-1.
[1] K. Kondo: Journal of Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 38438 (1997), 605-610.
[2] M. Matsubara: Journal of the Japan Society of Precision Engineering,
44-520 (1978), 434-441.
[3] B. Y. Jun, S. M. Kang, M. C. Lee, R. H. Park and M. S. Joun: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 189-1-3 (2007), 459-465.
[4] Y. Lee, J. Lee, T. Ishikawa: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 130-131 (2002), 532-539.
[5] T. Kawabe, T.Kato, A. Matsuda, M. Ichikawa, K. Nakanishi: Journal
of Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 33-380 (1992), 10571062.
[6] D.K. Min, M.E. Kim: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
138-20 (2003), 339-342.
[7] J.C. Choi, Y. Choi: International Journal of Machine Tools and
Manufacture, 39-10 (1999), 1575-1588.
[8] K. Osakada, X. Wang and S. Hanami: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 71-1 (1997), 105-112.
[9] T. Ishikawa: Journal of Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity,
49-565 (2008), 114-117.
[10] T. Ishikawa, N. Yukawa, Y. Yoshida, H. Kim, Y. Tozawa: CIRP
Annals (2000), 169-172.
413
09.08.2010 14:27:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Forming of Stepped Shaft by Sheet Extrusion

Kenji Hirota1), Kumiko Maeda2), Akira Shirai2)
1)
Department of Materials Science, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu / Japan, hirota@post.matsc.kyutech.ac.jp;

Materials Science (Graduate School of Engineering), Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu / Japan
2)
Department of
It is possible to make a small shaft on a sheet metal by extruding the sheet in the thickness direction. This paper describes forming of a
stepped shaft by this method. A pure aluminum sheet of 2 mm in thickness was used for experiments. The effect of two-stages forming was
studied; the bottom part of the stepped shaft having 1mm in diameter and 2mm in height was formed, the punch was exchanged to a
smaller diameter one and the top part was formed. The influence of the punch diameter on the forming height was investigated and there
was the optimum punch diameter for the 2nd stage to maximize the forming height of the top part. The existence of the optimum punch
diameter was explained by the dimensional changes of the specimen during the 2nd stage. Measurements of force-stroke diagrams
showed that a higher punch force was required when using a lager diameter punch and that the punch force in the 2nd stage required to
form the highest top part was less than that required to form the bottom part in the 1st stage. It was concluded that the proposed method for
making a stepped shaft was advantageous in both forming force and forming height if an appropriate punch diameter was selected in the
2nd stage.
Keywords: Sheet metal, Extrusion, Stepped shaft, Shaft components, Micro forming, Formability
Introduction
There are increasing demands for miniaturizing the devices such as sensors or actuators to save the space and
weight and it is also true for the components mounted in
them. Shaft parts are generally produced by multi-stage
forging, in which a billet is transferred from a stage to
stage by means of a gripper. However, when scaling down
this process, billets or semi-finished parts tend to stick to
transferring grippers due to small weight, which makes
correct positioning difficult [1]. Although special grippers
or forming machines have been developed, putting them
into actual production result in a cost increase.
In order to overcome this problem, an alternative
method had been proposed; a small shaft is extruded on a
sheet metal in the first stage, formed into a desired shape
in the following stages and separated in the last stage. In
this method, handling of the shafts or semi-finished parts
is easy even in a small size since parts are connected with
the sheet throughout the stages. Progressive forming like
sheet metal forming such as blanking and bending will be
possible in actual production and no special machines are
required. In addition, sheet skeletons which are usually
discarded after blanking will be available as a raw material
since only a small forming area is sufficient for this
method, which contributes to natural resources saving.
A previous study had demonstrated that a small shaft of
1mm in diameter and about 4 mm in height was successfully formed on a 2mm thick pure aluminum sheet by this
method and the relationship between forming conditions
and shaft height was clarified [2]. The specific features of
sheet extrusion were also reported [2,3]. In conventional
forward extrusion process, a billet is enclosed in a container and the whole cross section is pushed by the piston
from the opposite side of a die hole. Accordingly, almost
all the volume pushed by the piston is extruded through
the die hole. Contrarily in sheet extrusion, a part of the
volume pushed by the punch flowed into the sheet specimen and more volume into the specimen resulted in a
shorter shaft, which was mainly affected by the constrain-
414
ing condition and the diameter of the specimen at the same

extrusion ratio. Regarding size dependency of this method,
geometrically similar shafts were obtained in varying shaft
diameters from 0.5 to 1.5mm, whereas a higher force was
required to form a smaller shaft [4].
Based on the above results, forming a stepped shaft by
sheet extrusion was studied in this research. Most of
stepped shafts are manufactured from a billet material and
hence producing smaller ones by this method encounters
the same problem with respect to positioning as
aforementioned. The proposed method is useful for such
small dimensions and a stepped shaft of 1mm in the
bottom diameter was successfully formed on the sheet. It
was effective in both the formability and forming force to
change the punch diameter after forming the bottom part
of the stepped shaft. The optimum punch diameter in the
second stage to form a higher stepped shaft with a lower
force was quantified.
The material tested is a pure aluminum sheet in as-rolled
condition. The mechanical properties are listed in Table 1.
Circular specimens of 10mm in diameter were prepared by
blanking. Figure 1 outlines the experimental setup. The
top and the side surfaces of the specimen were constrained
by a blank holder and a guide ring, respectively. Dimensions of the stepped shaft were given to the die hole, in
which the top part diameter was varied.
The forming process consists of two stages. In the 1st
stage, the bottom part of the stepped shaft was formed by
using a 2mm diameter punch (Figure 1(a)). Subsequently,
the punch was exchanged and forming of the top part was
continued until the punch stroke reached 1.5 mm (Figure
Table 1. Mechanical properties of pure aluminum sheet tested.
Material
Thickness
A1050-h24(JIS)
2 mm
Tensile strength
122 MPa
Total elongation
7%
09.08.2010 14:27:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
D
Dp1
Dp2
Guide
ring
Punch
Blank holder
Guide ring
h1
Blank holder
h'
Punch
Figure 4. A higher top part was obtained when using the

die having a smaller d2 since the material flowed into the
narrower space. The top part height h2 took a peak at
DP2=1.5 mm independent of d2. The variation of h2 cannot
be explained only by the volume displaced by the punch
and probably has a close relation with the material flow
into the specimen during the 2nd stage.
The dimensional changes of the specimen are also
(a) 1st stage

(b) 2nd stage
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of experimental setup and forming conditions.
Height of bottom part /mm
Measurements
Ideal value
4
3
h1=2mm
2
1
1.4
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Punch stroke /mm
1.2
Figure 2. Change of forming height with punch stroke in 1st

stage.
0.1
0.08
1.2
1
0.06
0.8
0.04
0.6
0.4
0.02
0.2
0
0
1
1.25 1.5 1.75
2
Punch diameter(2nd stage) D p 2/mm
(a) d2=0.75 mm
1.6
0.1
1.4
0.08
1.2
1
0.06
0.8
0.04
0.6
0.4
0.02
0.2
0
: Height of top part h2

: Demensional change of thickness t
: Demensional change of diameter D
: Dimensional changes produced in the 1st sgage
1.6
Height of top part h 2/mm
Forming Height of Stepped Shaft. In order to decide

the timing of exchanging the punch, relationship between
the punch stroke and the forming height of the bottom part
in the 1st stage was investigated. The result is shown in
Figure 2, where plots indicate the measurements and the
solid line indicates the ideal values under the assumption
that all the material pushed by the punch is used to form
the shaft. There was a difference between measurements
and ideal values, which is due to the material flow inside
the specimen and it is quantified later. Figure 2 gives the
punch stroke to complete the 1st stage as 1mm. The punch
is exchanged at the stroke, followed by the 2nd stage.
Figure 3 shows the appearance of the stepped shaft
formed by the proposed method. No fracturing was observed on the shaft surface. It is seen that the height of the
top part differs depending on the punch diameter applied
in the 2nd stage DP2 as well as the top part diameter d2.
The relationship between the punch diameter DP2 and
the forming height of the top part h2 is summarized in
(c) d2=0.75 mm
Dp2=2 mm
(e) d2=0.5 mm
(f) d2=0.5 mm
(d) d2=0.5 mm
Dp2=1.5 mm
Dp2=2 mm
Dp2=1 mm
Figure 3. Close up of stepped shaft obtained in experiment.
Height of top part h 2/mm
(b) d2=0.75 mm
Dp2=1.5 mm
1mm
1(a)). In the 2nd stage, punch diameter DP2 was varied

between 1 and 2 mm as listed in Figure 1. Graphite in
tallow was used as a lubricant. Forming was carried out
using a 20 kN screw driven type testing machine at a constant cross head speed. After forming, the height of the top
part and dimensional changes of the specimen were measured.
(a) d2=0.75 mm
Dp2=1 mm
Dimensional changes t,D/mm
t=2mm, D=10mm, Dp1=2mm, d1=1mm, h1=2mm, h'=1.5mm

Dp2=1,1.25,1.5,1.75,2mm, d2=0.75,0.5mm
Dimensional changes t,D/mm
d2
d1
1mm
Die
h2
Die
1
1.25 1.5 1.75
2
(b) d2=0.5 mm
Figure 4. Change of top-part height of stepped shaft and dimensional changes of specimen depending on punch diameter in 2nd
stage.
415
09.08.2010 14:27:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
Material Movement in 2nd Stage. Figure 5 illustrates

the comparison of the cross sections of specimen before
and after the 2nd stage, where VP, VS, VD, Vt and Vt* indicate the volumes obtained by rotating the cross sections
around the central axis. The material indicated as hatched
region is displaced by the punch and moves to the graypainted regions in the 2nd stage. The variation of each
volume against DP2 calculated from the dimensional
changes of the specimen is summarized in Figure 6. SimiVt*
Vt
VD
VP
: Profile before 2nd stage

: Profile after 2nd stage
VS
Volumetric change / mm3
Vs
Vs
Vs+Vt
Vs+Vt
Vs+Vt+Vt*
Vs+Vt+Vt*
Vs+Vt+Vt*+VD
Vs+Vt+Vt*+VD
VP
VP
1.25
1.5
1.75
(a) d2=0.75 mm
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Vs
Vs
Vs+Vt
Vs+Vt
Vs+Vt+Vt*
Vs+Vt+Vt*
Vs+Vt+Vt*+VD
Vs+Vt+Vt*+VD
VP
VP
1.25
1.5
1.75
2
(b) d2=0.5 mm
Figure 6. Relationship between punch diameter and volumetric
changes during 2nd stage.
416
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Vt (d2=0.75mm)
Vt(d2=0.75mm)
Vt (d2=0.5mm)
Vt(d2=0.5mm)
VP
VP
Figure 5. Definition of volumetric changes in specimen caused in

2nd stage.
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
lar results were obtained independent of the top part diameter d2 although slight differences were observed. The
curve of VS+Vt+Vt*+VD almost coincided with that of VP
and most of the material pushed by the punch was considered to move somewhere to the gray-painted regions in
Figure 5. Furthermore, the volumes of Vt* and VD were
rather small, which means that most of the volume displaced by the punch VP was used to form the top part (VS)
and to increase the thickness of specimen (Vt). Therefore,
the forming height of the top part was mainly affected by
the volumetric change in a thickness direction Vt. Figure 7
shows the comparison of curves between VP and Vt. It is
obvious that the difference between VP and Vt, which is
almost equal to VS, is maximized at DP2=1.5 mm. It is
explained by the variation of Vt, in other words, the increase in Vt becomes larger than that in VP when the punch
diameter DP2 exceeds 1.5 mm.
shown in Figure 4, in which the dotted line in the bar indicates the dimensional changes produced in the 1st stage.
Thickness change increased with increasing the punch
diameter DP2 in the 2nd stage. Considering that dimensional changes of the specimen are caused by the elastic
deformation of tools, lifting up of the blank holder is likely
to occur compared with expansion of the guide ring when
increasing DP2. In order to study the dependency of the
punch diameter on the forming height more in detail, the
material movement during the 2nd stage was analyzed in
the following section.
1.25
1.5
1.75
Figure 7. Change of volume pushed by punch VP and that produced in a thickness direction of specimen Vt depending on punch
diameter in 2nd stage.
Punch Force Stroke Diagrams. Figure 8 shows the

punch force-stroke diagrams. The stroke at which the force
drops to zero means the start of the 2nd stage. Little difference was observed in the curves for the 1st stage because
of the same forming conditions. Meanwhile, the curves for
the 2nd stage made a significant difference and a larger
punch diameter resulted in a higher punch force.
In order to elucidate the influence of the punch diameter
on the punch force in the 2nd stage, average punch forces
in the 2nd stage were calculated and plotted against the
punch diameter as shown in Figure 9. The ratio of the
punch diameter DP2 to the bottom part diameter d1 has a
major influence on the forming force since there was little
difference in the force by the top part diameter d2. The
average punch force shows a similar tendency as the
volumetric change in a thickness direction Vt in Figure 7.
To be more precise, both increase rapidly as the punch
diameter comes to 2 mm. Although such a tendency has
not been demonstrated numerically yet, a good correlation
of both variations is explained as follows; a higher punch
force will cause a larger elastic deformation of the tool in
contact with the specimen. In this experiment, elastic deformation was likely to occur in a thickness direction as
shown in Figure 4. Therefore, it is conceivable that volumetric changes in a thickness direction according to the
magnitude of the punch force were caused.
Going back to Figure 8, it is noted that the punch force
at the condition of DP2=1.5 mm that the highest top part
09.08.2010 14:27:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
was formed in the 2nd stage was less than that required for
the 1st stage and this is the greatest benefit of two-stage
sheet extrusion in forming a stepped shaft.
3
DP2=2mm
Punch forde / kN
2.5
2
Conclusions
1.5
DP2=1.75mm
DP2=1.5mm
DP2=1.25mm
0.5
DP2=1mm
0
0
0.5
1
Stroke /mm
(a) d2=0.75 mm
3
2.5
Punch forde / kN
1.5
DP2=2mm
2
1.5
DP2=1.75mm
DP2=1.5mm
DP2=1.25mm
0.5
DP2=1mm
0
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
Stroke /mm
(b) d2=0.5 mm
Figure 8. Punch force-stroke curves for different punch diameters in 2nd stage.
References
2.5
Average punch force /kN
(2nd stage)
In order to produce stepped shafts, a new method of extruding the sheet metal in the thickness direction was proposed. Experiments were carried out using a pure aluminum sheet of 2mm in thickness and stepped shafts having
the bottom part of 1mm in diameter and 2mm in height
and the top part of 0.5or 0.75 mm in diameter were formed.
The effect of the punch diameter in the 2nd stage on the
forming behaviour was investigated and the following
1. Stepped shafts having the top part of 0.4-1.3 mm in
height were successfully formed on the sheet metal.
2. Forming height of the top part increased with decreasing the diameter of the top part under the same forming
condition.
3. There existed the optimum punch diameter for the 2nd
stage to maximize the forming height of the top part,
which was explained by the dimensional change of
specimen in the thickness direction and the average
punch force.
4. The punch force to form the highest top part was less
than that in the 1st stage and the proposed method was
found to be effective in both forming height and forming force.
d2=0.75mm
d2=0.5mm
2
1.5
1
0.5
[1] M. Geiger, M. Kleiner, R. Eckstein, N. Ti-esler, U. Engel: CIRP

Annals, 50-2 (2001), 445-462.
[2] Z.H. Chen, C.Y. Tang, L.C. Chan, T.C. Lee: Journal of Materials
[3] K. Hirota: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 191 (2007),
283-287.
[4] K. Hirota: Journal of Steal Research International, Special Edition,
79-1 (2008), 108-112.
0
1
1.25
1.5
1.75
2
Figure 9. Relationship between punch diameter and average
punch force in 2nd stage.
417
09.08.2010 14:27:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Use of Taguchi Method to Study Deformation Mechanisms during Indirect Extrusion of

Seamless Tube
Dyi-Cheng Chen, Ming-Wei Guo, Chih-Hsuan Jao, Ci-Syong You
Department of Industrial Education and Technology, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua 500 / Taiwan, dcchen@
cc.ncue.edu.tw
The quality and mechanical properties of indirect-extruded products relate directly to the sectional profile of the die and the processing
conditions. Finite element simulations reveal the plastic deformation behavior of aluminum alloy (A6061) during its indirect extrusion
through a three-hole die. These simulations assume that the die, mandrel, and container are rigid bodies, and ignore the temperature
change that occurs during the extrusion process. The present numerical analysis investigates the effective stain, effective stress, mold or
die load, and the curvature of the product at the exit under various extrusion conditions. This study systematically examines the factors
influencing the sectional shape of the die, including the eccentricity ratio of three-hole displacement, the ram velocity, and the billet temperature. The simulations in this study focus on the effects of the curvature in the extrusion process. We used the Taguchi method to determine the optimal design parameters. Results show that the highest contribution percentage is the eccentricity ratio of the die, at 79.23%,
while the factor with the lowest contribution percentage is the sectional shape of die, at 2.3%. Our simulation results provide a useful insight
into the optimal processing conditions of the three-hole indirect extrusion of seamless aluminum alloy tubes.
Keywords: Three-hole indirect extrusion, Taguchi method, Curvature
Introduction
The design and production of a mold and die are the
most important and exacting aspects of the entire extrusion
process. Ulysse and Johnson [1] conducted plane-strain
upper-bound analyses to evaluate the effect of the process
variables in the eccentric single-hole extrusion and unsymmetrical multi-hole extrusion processes, respectively.
Ulysse [2,3] combined finite-element analyses with a
mathematical programming technique to optimize the
design of a two-hole extrusion die and to generate an optimal die flow corrector for flat-faced aluminum extrusion
dies. Lee et al. [4] presented 3D FEM simulations of the
porthole die extrusion process used to fabricate the condenser tubes in automobile cooling systems. Peng and
Sheppard [5] used three-dimensional FEM to model the
influence of the pocket on material flow in multi-hole
extrusion. Elisabetta et al. [6] conducted 3D FEM simulations to optimize the geometry of porthole-dies for the
extrusion of aluminum components. The current author [7]
employed rigid-plastic finite element DEFORMTM 3D
software to investigate the plastic deformation behavior of
Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy during indirect extrusion through
a single-hole die in the seamless tube fabrication process.
This study uses finite element software to simulate the
plastic deformation behavior of workpieces during the
three-hole indirect extrusion of seamless aluminum alloy
tubes. This study also uses the Taguchi method to determine design parameters. The results support our design
process of an indirect extrusion mold and die to achieve a
perfect design using the finite element method.
Taguchi Method
The Taguchi method, a well-known robust-design technique, provides a comprehensive understanding of the
individual and combined effects of various design parameters based on a minimum number of experimental trials.
Its aim is to establish parameter settings that achieve a
418
robust product that is unaffected by unavoidable variations

in external noise. William & Creveling [8] and Belavendram [9] adopted the S/N ratio to describe the LB characteristics of the current three-hole indirect extrusion process
of seamless aluminum alloy tubes as follows:
1 n
S / N = 10 log yi2
n
i =1
(1)
where n is the number of simulation repetitions under the

same design parameters, yi indicates the measured results,
and i indicates the number of design parameters in the
Taguchi Orthogonal Array (OA).
Simulation Results and Analysis
This study adopts the following assumptions: (1) the
mold, die, mandrel, and container are all rigid bodies; (2)
the aluminum alloy (A6061) billet is a rigid-plastic material; (3) the friction factors between the extrusion billet
and the mold, die, mandrel, and container remain constant;
and (4) the extrusion process occurs under isothermal
conditions. Since researchers typically use the coulomb
friction equation for cold working and the shear friction
equation for hot working, this study uses the shear friction
equation for finite element analysis.
Figure 1 presents the finite element model of three-hole
extrusion mold and die. Figure 2 presents mesh models of
the aluminum alloy billet and die before, during, and after
the indirect extrusion process. These simulations assume
that the aluminum alloy billet remains firmly attached to
the periphery of the mandrel as the die descends, resulting
in an indirect extrusion of the billet. The shear friction
factor is m=0.2.
09.08.2010 14:27:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Factor Selection
Figure 1. Finite element model of three-hole extrusion process.
Figure 3 illustrates the sectional forms of the three dies

used in these simulations. The three dies have different
combinations of semi-round, double 45o, and single 45o
angles. Figure 4 shows the geometric profile of the threehole die, illustrating the characterization of the mold and
die configuration: the inner radius (Dm) and wall thickness
(t) of the extruded tube and the eccentricity ratio of the die,
b
i.e. e =
.
a+b
The Taguchi experimental trials in this study adopted

locally-designed optimal processing of the three-hole
indirect extrusion of seamless aluminum alloy tubes. Table
1 specifies the four design factors, each with three levels,
for the indirect extrusion processes. Therefore, we arranged the experimental trials in an L9(34) orthogonal
array matrix. The three-hole indirect extrusion process
(Table 1) adopted the following design factors: factor A,
sectional shape of the die; factor B, eccentricity ratio of
the die; factor C, ram velocity; and factor D, billet temperature.
Container
Mandrel
Central Line
Figure 4. Geometric configuration of three-hole extrusion die.
(a) Before indirect extrusion
(b) During indirect extrusion
(c) After indirect extrusion

Figure 2. Finite element models of aluminum alloy billet before,
during and after extrusion.
Analysis of Means
Table 2 presents the effective strain, effective stress, die
load, and aluminum alloy curvature during indirect extrusion using nine different mold and die designs in the first
simulation. Table 3 shows the measurements of the same
characteristics in the second simulation.
Table 4 shows multi-quality characteristics: the effective strain weight is 15%; the effective stress weight is
15%; the mold and die load weight is 15%; and the curvature of the billet is 55%. All the factors supported the
rationale of lower is better (LB).
Table 5 presents the S/N responses for indirect extrusion of seamless tubes; Table 6 presents the corresponding
factor response data, which Figure 5 plots in graphical
form. Following the principles of the Taguchi method, we
assumed that a higher S/N ratio indicates higher product
quality. Therefore, Figure 5 shows the following optimal
parameter settings for the indirect extrusion of seamless
tubes: A2, sectional forms of a single 45o angle; B3, 0.65
eccentricity ratio of the die; C3, ram velocity of 0.5
mm/sec; and D3, billet temperature of 482 oC.
Analysis of Variance
(a)
(b)
Sectional forms of semi-round
Sectional forms of double 45o angle
(c) Sectional forms of single 45o angle

Figure 3. Sectional forms of three dies used in present simulations.
Table 7 presents the variance of indirect extrusions of

seamless tubes. We analyzed the results of the experimental trials using the ANOVA statistical analysis method. The
factor with the highest contribution percentage is the eccentricity ratio of the die, at 79.23%, while the factor with
the lowest contribution percentage is the sectional shape of
die, at 2.3%. Figure 6 depicts a curvature distribution in
indirectly extruded products using a perfect design
(A2B3C3D3). These results indicate the ideal specifications of the new designs mold and die, with an effective
strain of 3.53, effective stress of 25 MPa, mold and die
419
09.08.2010 14:27:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
load of 2505160 N, and 0.000602 mm-1curvature of the
extruded billet.
Conclusions
This study utilizes finite element software to simulate
the plastic deformation behavior of aluminum alloy
(A6061) during the three-hole indirect extrusion of seamless aluminum alloy tubes. Results show that (1) the optimal parameter settings for the indirect extrusion of seamless tubes: A2, sectional forms of a single 45o angle; B3,
0.65 eccentricity ratio of the die; C3, ram velocity of 0.5

mm/sec; and D3, billet temperature of 482 oC; (2) the
highest contribution percentage is the eccentricity ratio of
the die, at 79.23%, while the factor with the lowest contribution percentage is the sectional shape of die, at 2.3%;
and (3) the new designs mold and die has an effective
strain of 3.53, effective stress of 25 MPa, mold and die
load of 2505160 N, and 0.000602 mm-1curvature of the
extruded billet.
Table 1. Design parameters and levels for indirect extrusion of seamless tube.
Factors
Description
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Sectional shape
Sectional forms of single 45o

angle
Sectional forms of double

45o angle
Sectional forms of semiround
Eccentricity ratio of the die
0.35
0.5
0.65
Velocity of ram
0.1 mm/sec
0.3 mm/sec
0.5 mm/sec
Temperature of billet
260
371
482
Table 2. Effective strain, effective stress, die load and curvature in aluminum alloy during indirect extrusion using nine different die designs
at first simulation.
Effective
Experiment
Effective
Mold/die load
A
B
C
D
stress
= 1/ (mm1)
Number (1)
strain
(N)
(MPa)
1
1
1
1
1
4.47
78
7510144
0.003099
2
1
2
2
2
5.10
40
4031434
0.002578
3
1
3
3
3
4.17
25
2521823
0.001378
4
2
1
2
3
5.70
25
2464871
0.003927
5
2
2
3
1
3.88
78
7452295
0.000543
6
2
3
1
2
4.89
40
3824543
0.000096
7
3
1
3
2
9.43
40
3950636
0.002507
8
3
2
1
3
3.11
25
2403578
0.001607
9
3
3
2
1
3.24
78
7575249
0.000708
Table 3. Effective strain, effective stress, die load and curvature in aluminum alloy during indirect extrusion using nine different die designs
at second simulation.
Experiment
Number (2)
Effective
strain
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
2
3
1
3
1
2
1
2
3
3
1
2
2
3
1
4.47
5.10
4.17
5.70
3.88
4.89
9.43
3.31
3.24
Effective
stress
(MPa)
78
40
25
25
78
40
40
25
78
Mold/die load
(N)
= 1/ (mm1)
7885651
3839461
2521823
2567574
7452295
3824543
3950636
2403578
7575249
0.002984
0.001480
0.000938
0.004677
0.000216
0.000437
0.002720
0.001871
0.001307
Table 4. Illustration of multi-quality characteristics.

Criteria Description
Effective strain
Effective stress
Mold/die load
Curvature
420
Worst
10
80
8000000
0.005
Best Value
3
20
2000000
0
QC
S
S
S
S
Rel wt
15
15
15
55
09.08.2010 14:27:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 5. S/N ratio for indirect extrusion of seamless tube.
A
Exp. 1
Exp. 1
Mean
S/N ratio
34.48
34.81
34.645
30.792
57.06
69.62
63.34
35.905
79.78
84.62
82.2
38.286
48.6
40.09
44.345
32.816
64.01
67.6
65.805
36.355
87.83
81.58
84.705
38.54
48.76
46.42
47.59
33.542
79.82
76.49
78.155
37.853
63.25
56.67
59.96
35.517
62.305
35.512
Total mean
Table 6. Factor response table for indirect extrusion of seamless
tube.
S/N ratio (db)
Control
factor
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Effects
38
37
36
35
34
33
32
31
34.994
35.904
35.637
0.91
32.383
36.704
37.448
5.065
35.728
34.746
36.061
1.315
34.221
35.996
36.318
2.097
Sectional
shape
Eccentricity
ratio of the die
Velocity of
ram
Temperature
of billet
A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B3 C1 C2 C3 D1 D2 D3
Figure 5. S/N response graph of the indirect extrusion of seamless

tube.
Table 7. Variance of indirect extrusion of seamless tube.
Factor
Sum of
S qrs.
DOF
Variance
Percent
1.311
0.655
2.3%
44.869
22.434
79.23%
2.804
1.402
4.95%
7.647
3.823
13.50%
Total
56.633
Figure 6. Curvature distribution in indirect extruded products using

the perfect design (A2B3C3D3).
References
[1] P. Ulysse, R.E. Johnson: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
73 (1998), 213-225.
[2] P. Ulysse: International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture,
39 (1999), 1047-1064.
[3] P. Ulysse: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 44 (2002),
319-341.
[4] J.M. Lee, B.M. Kim, C.G. Kang: Materials and Design, 26 (2005),
327-336.
[5] Z. Peng, T. Sheppard: Materials Science and Engineering A, 407
(2005), 89-97.
[6] C. Elisabetta, M. Luca, G. Claudio: AIP Conf. Proc. -Materials Processing and Design: Modeling, Simulation and Applications, 908
(2007), 419-424.
[7] D.C. Chen, J.Y. Chen, K.C. Wun: The 8th Asia Pacific Conference on
Materials Processing, Guilin-Guangzhou, China, 2008, 951-957.
[8] W.Y. William, C.M. Creveling: Engineering methods for robust
product design, Addison-Wesley, Boston (1998).
[9] N. Belavendram: Quality by design, Prentice-Hall, New York (1995).
421
09.08.2010 14:27:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Modelling and Simulation of Dynamic Microstructure Evolution of Aluminium Alloys

during Hot Forming Processes
Farhad Parvizian, Tobias Kayser, Bob Svendsen
Institute of Mechanics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, TU Dortmund, Dortmund / Germany, farhad.parvizian@tu-dortmund.de
The purpose of this work is to model the dynamic microstructure evolution of aluminium alloys during hot metal forming processes such as
extrusion. To this end, a phenomenological model based on the physical assumption that evolution of microstructure properties saturates
after reaching the steady-state forming conditions is formulated. This model in combination with a thermo-elastic visco-plastic material
model is implemented in the Finite Element software Abaqus. Simulation results for the microstructural development during extrusion as a
function of process conditions demonstrate the sensitivity of microstructure development to these conditions. Comparison of the simulation
results for the microstructure evolution with corresponding experimental results shows good qualitative agreement.
Keywords: Microstructure, Extrusion, Simulation, Aluminium alloys, FEM
Introduction
Prediction of material behaviour of metals during and
after hot metal working processes requires the knowledge
about microstructure parameters. The measurable microstructure parameters such as grain size, dislocation density
and grain misorientation represent the state of the material
behaviour in micro scale. Energy of plastic deformation is
mostly given out in form of heat energy and a small part of
it is stored in the material by increasing the density of
dislocations and consequently grain boundaries. Evolution
of microstructure properties during hot deformation of
aluminium alloys generally occurs in two phases: dynamic
evolution during the forming process and static evolution
during cooling and annealing process after the deformation.
Grain growth occurs by migration of grain boundaries in
order to minimize the stored energy of boundaries. During
this process the total length of boundary size decreases and
the average grain size decreases [1]. Physically based
approaches for modelling of static microstructure evolution are commonly based on minimization of the stored
energy of plastic deformation by increasing the size of the
grains. In work of Chen [2] phase field modelling is used
to model the grain growth process. Vante et al. [3] have
presented a physical model based on particle stimulated
nucleation, nucleation from cube bands and nucleation
from grain boundary regions to predict the recrystallized
grain sizes and textures of a hot deformed aluminium alloy.
In the current work aluminium alloy 6060 is considered
for experiment and simulation. In aluminium alloy 6060
due to low hot worked dislocation densities no dynamic
recrystallization occurs during the extrusion process [4]
and the increasing energy of plastic deformation causes the
refinement of grains during the forming process. The
models based on grain growth are not able to predict this
grain refinement. Sellars and Zhu [5] have presented a
physically based model which relates the microstructure
evolution during the hot deformation to the state variables
such as temperature and plastic deformation.
The model presented in the current work is based on the
saturation of microstructure parameters after reaching
steady-state forming condition. Microstructure parameters
are modelled as internal state variables depending on rate
of plastic deformation and temperature (indirectly). In the
422
following sections this model and its application for simulation of microstructure development during extrusion
process are presented.
Material Model
From a phenomenological viewpoint, the behavior of
polycrystalline aluminum alloys during technological
processes like extrusion is fundamentally thermoelastic
and viscoplastic in nature. For simplicity, we begin by
assuming that the material behavior is isotropic. More
generally, the distribution of grain orientation, grain size,
and grain shape, will result in anisotropic behavior. For the
time being, we assume that the high homologous temperatures involved result in a reduction of the strength of anisotropy due to these factors. In this case, the stress state in
the material can be modeled via the thermoelastic Hooke
form
(1)
for the Kirchhoff stress in terms of the elastic left logarithmic stretch
. Here, represents the elastic bulk
modulus,
the elastic shear moduli,
the thermal expansion, and the heat capacity, all at the reference temperature . In addition, is the absolute temperature.
Further,
is the deviatoric part of
. Neglecting any deformation-dependent damage and
assuming inelastically incompressible von Mises flow, the
evolution of
is given by the (objective) associated
flow rule
(2)
in terms of the inelastic right Cauchy-Green deformation
and accumulated equivalent inelastic deformation .
Here,
is the von Mises effective
stress measure determined by the Kirchhoff stress. In the
current thermodynamic approach, this determines the
evolution of
via the Zener-Hollomon form
09.08.2010 14:27:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
(3)
[5]
in
terms
of the Zener-Hollomon parameter

. The evolution of
drives in turn
that of the (non-dimensional) dislocation density
(4)
via the experimentally-established Voce form
(5)
where
represents the saturation value of the dislocation density . In this case, varies between 0 and 1 at a
rate determined by
. Likewise, the development of
the (non-dimensional) grain size
(6)
is given by the experimentally-established [5] Holt relation
,
(7)
where
is the saturation value. On this basis, decreases from its initial value
to 1 at a rate determined by
.
Parameter values used for Al 6060 in the current work
are
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
and
. In
addition, for the temperature equation, we require the
value of the coefficient of thermal conductivity
for the Fourier model, as well as that
of the heat capacity. In addition, the
rate of heating is given by
(8)
in terms of the continuum rate of deformation via the
Taylor-Quinney approximation and Taylor-Quinney coefficient . In the current work,
is assumed. It has
been shown in [6] that is in fact not a constant but rather depends on strain and strain-rate to varying degrees.
In the following, this coefficient will be treated as constant
as there is no experimental data relevant to the determination of for the materials of interest here.
Experimental and Simulation Results
The above model is now applied to the numerical simulation of the thermomechanically-coupled extrusion process of aluminum alloy 6060. This model is implemented as
user material subroutines (UMAT) in the commercial FE
software ABAQUS. Temperature has a significant influence on microstructure evolution. During extrusion process heat can be generated by plastic deformation and frictional interactions or transferred inside the material and
between material block and containers walls. All of these

thermomechanical interactions are considered in the simulation. For simulation of friction, an isotropic Coulomb
Orowan [7] friction model is used. The classical Coulomb
friction model assumes that no relative motion between
the contact surfaces occurs if the frictional stress is less
than the critical stress which is related to the normal
pressure. In some hot metal forming processes such as
extrusion, the material sticks to the container walls and
classical Coulomb model overestimates the frictional
stresses. To model this frictional condition, the friction
stress is limited to the maximum shear stress
which
material can undergo before sliding. The heat generated by
friction is divided equally to the interacted surfaces. Element type CAX4TR which is a quadrilateral axysymmetric
element with temperature as one degree of freedom is
applied in a coupled temperature-displacement simulation.
Due to the axysymmetric geometry, the process is partly
modeled. All of the forming tools are modeled as deformable bodies with elastic behavior and meshed with quadrilateral elements. The geometry and configuration for simulation of the extrusion process are from experiment in [8]
and presented in Figure 1. The ram with = 0.3 mm/s
forces the material to pass through the die. Temperature of
the material is 400 C and of the container and the die is
300 C and the ratio R/r is equal to 5.
= 0.3 mm/s
Figure 1. FE-model configuration and -discretization of structure

for simulation of extrusion process.
By applying electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)

measurement, the evolution of grain size in the centreline
of the partly extruded block of [8] is obtained.
In the partly extruded billet shown in Figure 2, three
different zones of microstructural development are evident.
In the Dead Material Zone (DMZ), which forms a cone at
the front of the billet, friction between the billet, container
and die results in little or no deformation and microstructural development. Indeed, as shown by the EBSD micrograph at point DMZ1 in Figure 2, the microstructure in the
DMZ remains almost unchanged in its original state. In the
neighbouring Shear Intensive Zone (SIZ), however, the
material undergoes significant and predominantly shear
deformation. As a result, the evolution of the microstructure in this region is quite complex. This is true both for
texture development during extrusion and for static recrystallization during cooling. As shown by EBSD micrographs from points C1, C3, and C6, material in this region
is mainly stretched in the direction of extrusion and individual grains elongate into a banded texture.
423
09.08.2010 14:27:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
than other areas. Finer grains have higher density of dislocation and stored energy. These grains have a higher
chance of static recrystallization and grain growth during
annealing process. The coarse grain structure on the outer
surface of the experimental results of Figure 2 proves this
fact.
Figure 2. Grain area analysis by help of electron backscatter

diffraction (EBSD) measurements along the centreline of partly
extruded aluminium block.
Beside the graphical representation of the microstructure,

the EBSD method also allows a statistical evaluation regarding microstructural quantities such as grain size. Figure 3 shows the development of the number of grains
separated by high-angle boundaries as well as that of their
mean and median grain area and indicates the decrease of
mean grain area during the deformation process.
Figure 4. Experimental and simulation results for evolution of grain

size during extrusion of aluminium alloy 6060.
The evolution of grain size in main forming zone (MFZ),

DMZ and die exit area is given in Figure 5.
Figure 3. Mean and median grain area and number of grains at

measurement points shown in Figure 2.
The stagnation and slight increase at point C5 does not

fit into this general behaviour. This could be related to the
location of C5 at 3.5 mm outside the centre line resulting
from specimen preparation. The median grain area in Figure 3 is more robust and confirms the general trend of
decreasing grain area (grain size). The decreasing grain
size corresponds to the increase in the number of grains
along the centreline.
In Figure 4 the experimental and simulation results for
evolution of grain size during extrusion are shown. Comparing the simulation results of Figure 4 with the EBSD
micrographs of Figure 3 shows that the model presented in
previous section predicts the different zones of microstructure accurately. As it is shown in the simulation results of
Figure 4 the grain size decreases in direction of extrusion.
The grain size in DMZ is close to the initial grain size.
At the surface of the extruded profile where material
undergoes high plastic deformation, the grains are finer
424
Figure 5. Evolution of non-dimensional grain size in main forming

zone (MDZ), dead material zone (DMZ) and die exit area during
extrusion process.
The non-dimensional grain size in Figure 5 is obtained

by averaging the simulation results in each area. Here the
time is the physical time of forming process. As it can be
seen, the evolution of grain size in DMZ is slower compared to the C1 and the C4 in where the grain size
achieves its saturated value in a short time. At beginning
of extrusion process, the grains in point C4 undergoes less
deformation and develop slower that point C1. These results are in good agreement with the experimental results
of Figure 3 for different zones of the material block.
Summery and Conclusions
09.08.2010 14:27:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
This work presents a physically based model for microstructure evolution of aluminium alloys in combination
with a thermoelastic visco-plastic material model for simulation of material behaviour during hot metal forming
processes such as extrusion. The simulation results are in
good qualitative agreement with experimental results obtained by EBSD micrographs of a partly extruded aluminium block. By controlling static microstructure evolution,
more accurate experimental results for dynamic evolution
will be presented in the upcoming work.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to appreciate the financial support of Transregional Collaborative Research Center
Process-integrated manufacturing of functionally graded
structures on the basis of thermo-mechanically coupled
phenomena" (TRR30) funded by the German Research
Foundation (DFG).
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
R.D. Doherty, D.A. Hughes, F.J. Humphreys, J.J. Jonas, D.J.

Jensen, M.E. Kassner, W.E. King, T.R. McNelley, H.J. McQueen,
A.D. Rollett: Materials Science and Engineering A, 238-2 (1997),
219-274.
L.Q. Chen: Annual Review of Materials Research, 32, (2002),
113-140.
H.E. Vante, T. Furu, R. rsund, E. Nes: Acta Metallurgica, 44,
(1996), 4463-4473.
H.J. McQueen, E. Evangelista, J. Bowles, G. Crawford: Metal
science, 18-8, (1984), 395402.
C.M. Sellars, Q. Zhu: Materials Science and Engineering A, 280-1
(2000), 1-7.
P. Rosakis, A. J. Rosakis, G. Ravichandran, J. Hodowany: Journal
of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 48-3 (2000), 581-607.
P. Wriggers: Computational contact mechanics, second edition,
(2006).
M. Schikorra, L. Donati, L. Tomesani, E. Tekkaya: Journal of
Mechanical Science and Technology, 21 (2007), 1445-1451.
425
09.08.2010 14:27:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Prediction of Substructure Influencing Static Recrystalisation Using FEM

Analysis
Isaac Flitta1), Terry Sheppard2)
1)
Unitec Te Whare Wananga o Wairaka, Mount Albert, Private Bag, 92025, Auckland / New Zealand, iflitta@unitec.ac.nz;
University, DEC, UK
2)
Bournemouth
Static recrystallisation has a significant influence on many of the properties of the extrudate, and since the final microstructure controls the
properties of extrudate, it is essential to predict these variations occurring during the processing of the material. This paper outlines the
method used to predict such as properties using a physical model based on dislocation density. FEM analysis is used to predict the development of the structure during the extrusion process. The evolution of the substructure influencing static recrystalisation is studied. The
metallurgical behaviour of axi-symmetric extrusion and that of shape extrusion are compared and results are presented.
Keywords: Solution soak, FEA, Aluminium alloys, AA2024
Introduction
Aluminium and its alloys have acceptable plastic deformation characteristics for any of the conventional metallurgical processes, such as rolling and extrusion. A range
of commercial Al-Cu-Mg alloys (the 2XXX designation)
was developed to replace 'Dural' and AA2024 and AA2014
are now the most widely used alloys of this system. In this
communication we shall take as our example the alloy
2024. The response of 2024 to artificial aging is accelerated by strain hardening of the heat-treated material and is
available in a number of naturally and artificially aged
tempers that reflect several degrees of strain hardening.
The composition of AA2024 is shown below in Table 1.
Table 1. Typical composition of AA2024.
Alloy
Cu
Si
Mn
Mg
Fe
2024
4.5
0.6
1.5
0.2
In order to achieve the optimum mechanical properties

in AA2024, it is usually necessary to solution heat treat
and age the wrought product. In this alloy, the desired
structure after solution soaking is usually one exhibiting as
little recrystallisation as possible, but in some applications
a structure with as small a grain size as possible is preferred. The changes to the grain structure of directly extruded material after a solution soak are shown in Figure 1.
Billets extruded at a temperature less than 350 oC assumed
a completely recrystallisation structure after the solution
soak whilst the higher temperature extrudates appear to
have retained much of the original grain structure, with
perhaps, just a slight modification to the subgrain substructure. Figure 1 also illustrates the mode of recrystallisation in the extrudates; the elongated nature of the recrystallisation grains in the extrusion direction is clearly due to
the pinning of the boundaries by second phase particles
(Figure 1(a) and (b). Figure 1(c) indicates the absence of
recrystallisation in the higher temperature extrudates.
These specimens were extracted from extruded rod; similar micrographs were obtained from extruded shapes1.
Although these structures may vary with alloy composition they indicate the complex problem to be analysed by
FEM. These structures are of great importance because of
426
the subsequent effect on properties. Thus during the extrusion and soak cycle of AA2024 the stored deformation
energy within the extrudate ensures that some static recrystallisation usually occurs after the extrusion and soaking process and can extend to 100 percent of the material
in some cases.
The structure of the extrudate is dependent on the total
thermo-mechanical cycle but the most important consideration in terms of properties is the subgrain size and orientation which very much determines the metal response
to the solution and ageing sequence. The reader should
recall that the subgrain size is related to the processing
parameters and has been established for AA 2024 by
Sheppard and Subramaynian [1] to be:
-1 = 0.082 lnZ- 1.89 for direct extrusion. In this form is
the subgrain diameter and Z is the temperature compensated strain rate given by;
H
Z = exp
GT
(1)
where is the mean equivalent strain rate and in practical

terms is governed by the extrusion ram speed whilst is
the activation energy for the material and is a function of
alloy content, dispersoid and precipitate distribution etc. G
is the universal gas constant and T is the temperature of
the billet at the relevant location. Thus once the homogenisation and preheat sequence have been completed structure control is largely dependent upon the extrusion conditions. There is a variation of structure longitudinally in the
extrude which could and should be eliminated by the control of press speed during the cycle. The importance of
automation and computer control of presses becomes evident with the ideal combination being indirect extrusion
with full automation of preheating and press facilities. The
objective being the attainment of optimum, homogeneous
and reproducible properties in each extrusion.
The T6 temper is the most commonly used heat treatment for 2XXX alloys and has therefore been investigated
for direct and indirect extrusion [2]. The extrusions were
subjected to a 60 minute soak at 500C, quenched and
subsequently aged at 160C for 18 hours. The tensile
properties for these billets subjected to homogenisation
and a one step preheat are shown in Figure 2 for direct
09.08.2010 14:27:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
extrusion. It is clear that there is a discontinuity in the
proof stress and ultimate stress values which is not the
result of any gradual variation of extrusion temperature.
The high strength or low Z regions correspond to the
partial or un-recrystallisation substructures shown in the
previous section whilst the low strength levels are associated with completely recrystallisation structures. The problem then is to ascertain whether the increase in strength is
due solely to substructural strengthening or is a result of
the preferential precipitation occurring at subgrain
boundaries. Recent work [4] has shown that for AA2024
alloy both high and low temperature extrudates exhibiting
retained substructures and fully recrystallisation structures
respectively have identical ageing characteristics indicating that although preferential precipitation does occur it
has little effect on the attainment of peak strength. This is
perhaps to be expected since the evidence indicates that
the amount of heterogeneous precipitation at subgrain
boundaries and dislocations is not as great as the precipitation within subgrains. Hence we would expect the strength
to vary with lnZ and this indeed can be detected in Figure
2 although there are insufficient data points to suggest
empirical relationships. At higher values of Z the strength
increases presumably due to finer grain sizes but never
achieves the levels possible when processing using low Z
conditions. It is interesting to note that there are differences in the variation of properties between direct and
indirect extrusions: the indirect extrusions showing less
variation in properties. This can be directly attributed to
the more homogeneous nature of the structure produced
when proceeding by the indirect route. Thus we may conclude that as far as tensile properties are concerned there is
some advantage in processing at as low a Z as possible
consistent with the attainment of a satisfactory surface.
Figure 1. Microstructure of extrudate at 200 m magnification after
solution soaking at 500 C followed by water quenching, a) extruded at 350 C, 0.5 h soak, longitudinal; b) extrudedate 350 C,
0.5 h soak, transverse ; c) extruded at 450 C, 0.5 h soak, longitudinal.
In this paper we attempt to demonstrate that FEM coupled with a physical model can predict the structural features discussed. These are the formation of the grain size,
the volume fraction recrystallisation and the subgrain size
and misorientation.
Figure 2. Variation of properties with temperature compensated

strain-rate Z.
427
09.08.2010 14:27:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
The FEM programs, FORGE2 and FORGE3 were used
in the present study. The hyperbolic sine function was
programmed into the FEM to describe the material behaviour. The constitutive equation can be written as shown in
Eq. (1),
1 /n
2 /n
1 Z
Z
Ln + + 1
A
A
(2)
where is the mean equivalent or flow stress, , A and n

are constants and the alloy AA2024, H =148880 KJ/mol,
= 0.016m2/MN, n=4.27 and lnA=19. 6
The flow stress could also be written in the physical

nomenclature used above. However the data required for
the form preferred by the authors has been obtained experimentally and has been proven to operate within the
FEM framework. The simulation exercises in this work are
summarised in Table 2.
Extrusion
mode
Direct- 2D
Direct -3D
Direct -3D
Billet
Temp
o
K
683
623
723
Table 2. Simulation Runs

Die
Ram
Friction coeff.
fillet
speed
Billet/Cont.
radius
mm/s
0.5
3.0
0.85
0.5
3.0
0.8
0.5
3.0
0.9

Figure 3 shows that the predicted subgrain size increases as the temperature varies across the transverse
direction of the extrudate. At the periphery of the extrudate,
the predicted subgrain size is 2.52 m which is essentially
the same as the experimental result (2.45 m). These
values are the same as those observed previously [5,6].
Figure 4 indicates that the recrystallisation grain size
shows a sharp decrease at the surface of the extrudate. The
predicted value is 0.455 mm, which is again within the
boundaries of the experimental results.
Figure 4. Subgrain size development approaching die area.
The predicted result for the volume fraction recrystallised (Xv) shows a slightly rising value along the extrudate
surface, as can been seen from Figure 5. This phenomenon is simply a result of the extrudate temperature rising
as extrusion proceeds which has been observed in both
practical and in much previous work. The procedure to
deal with the grain boundary migration term has been dealt
with as further discussed below. It should be noted that the
experimental measurement, which is 27.37%, is an average value around the periphery of the extrudate at a distance of one-third from commencement of extrusion. It is
difficult to compare the variation of the predicted Xv with
the averaged experimental measurement but the point
shown in the Figure 5 at y230 mm would be in the steady
state region as defined by Subramanyan [5]. It will be
observed that any point in this figure after 100 mm of the
extrudate would yield a satisfactory correlation. Since the
variation of Xv during the extrusion is small, the value
selected at the point can be regarded as the mean value
along the extrudate. From the comparisons and analyses
above, the conclusion can be drawn that the simulations
using FEM are effective in predicting the metallurgical
kinetics of aluminium extrusion processes at least in the
two-dimensional case.
Figure 3. Subgrain size and temperature in transverse direction.
428
09.08.2010 14:27:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 5. Predicted Xv in longitudinal direction of extrudate surface and selected point for experimental comparison.
For the shaped section, estimation of the depth of the recrystallisation layer was more difficult than in rod experiments, since the layer was no longer uniform. With FEM
simulation, the distribution of the volume fraction recrystallisation factors can be predicted and extracted more
easily. It has been found that both in previous experiments
and FEM simulations the recrystallisation layer was
thicker for more complex sections owing to larger temperature rises. As can be seen in Figure 6, (The dimension
of the section is shown in Figure 7), at the positions where
the deformation is more complex, that is, where the strain
and the temperature are higher, the volume fraction recrystallisation is also higher. Significantly there are large differences in the values of Xv and Drex for the differing
extrusion temperatures which will lead to important differences in the critical properties as discussed above.
We must also consider the effect of the soak temperature
since it has long been recognised within the extrusion
industry that this factor significantly affects the volume
fraction recrystallised and the recrystallised grain size
(Drex) as well as the textural features of the product. When
Tsoak is equal to Tdef then the function must be numerically
equal to 1 which would be the case if we considered thefuntion Tsoak/Tdef. Therefore we have increased the t50
term by the multiplicand (Tsoak/Tdef)-7.5 to yield practical results which agree with the observations covering a
wide range of extrusion conditions.
Conclusion
Figure 6. Cross-section of extrudate one-third from beginning

showing positional values of %Xv and Drex (mm).
The FEM proved to be capable of predicting the major

features of the microstructure of aluminium extrudates
both in the T6 temper and after a solution soak. However it
must be recognise that further work is required in this area
whilst also observing that physical modelling contains a
quantity of almost fitting constants in its present form.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledged the microscopic

experimental work performed by Dr. Subramanyan, Dr.
Vierod and Dr. Patterson.
References
[1] T. Sheppard, J. Subramanyan: Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. on Aluminium
alloys, Beijing, (1990), 325.
[2] T. Sheppard: Mater. Sci. Technology, 9 (1993), 430440.
[3] I. Flitta, T. Sheppard, Z. Peng: Materials Science and Technology,
23, (2007), 111.
[4] J. Subramanyan: PhD thesis, Imperial College, London, UK, (1989).
[5] S.J. Patterson: Ph.D thesis University of London (Imperial College)
(1981).
Figure 7. Geometry of T0Section.
429
09.08.2010 14:27:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental and Numerical Parameter Studies on Plane-Strain Backward Extrusion

Marita Karimi, Faramarz Fereshteh-Saniee, Naeemeh Fakhar
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan / Iran, ffsaniee@basu.ac.ir
The present paper is concerned with the experimental and numerical studies on the effects of some process variables on the forming load
and product uniformity in the plane-strain backward extrusion operation. At first, several extrusion experiments were conducted with linear
dies, various extrusion ratios and bar sizes. Then the finite-element simulations of these tests were performed. After attaining good correlations between the numerical and experimental results, further numerical analyses were carried out in order to investigate the influences of
other types of die shapes, namely the exponential and the second-order polynomial profiles. It was found that the later profile, compared
with the linear and exponential profiles, involved the minimum load and energy requirements and higher uniformity for the product. After
observing the distributions of the effective strain in the product and deformation zone, it was found that these benefits were achieved because the second-order polynomial profile induced smaller redundant work and strain in the process.
Keywords: Backward extrusion process, Die profile, Plane-strain extrusion, Extrusion ratio, Billet length
Introduction
Backward extrusion process is a type of bulk metal
forming operation. In this process the die is forced toward
a stationary billet, which is located in a container. Since
there is no relative motion between the billet and container,
bakward extrusion needs less forming load and energy,
compared with the forward extrusion process under the
same process condition. However, various die profiles can
be employed for performing this operation.
It was claimed [1] that the geometry of the plastic deformation zone had important role in uniformity or nonuniformity of the product. The contact area and distribution of stress, strain and strain rate all depend on the die
geometry. Hence, the profile of extrusion die could have a
main role on the uniformity of the product.
It was shown that the strain rate was certainly influenced
by the die geometry [1]. Wifi et al. [2] employed incremental slab method in order to optimize the die geometry
for minimum extrusion force requirements. This technique
was also used by other investigators to design the extrusion dies with optimum curvature [3-5]. Several investigators [6,7] combined the slab method and upper-bound
technique for specifying the desired extrusion die shapes.
Conical, elliptical, hyperbolic and cosine die profiles were
also studied by Huang et al [8] employing upper-bound
method. They investigated the effects of die shape on the
flow pattern and required extrusion load. Other researches
[9,10] have also been conducted regarding the influences
of extrusion ratio, friction and the length of the die land on
the necessary force in axisymmetric forward extrusion.
In this paper, the effects of die shape on the required
load and the product uniformity in plane-strain backward
extrusion are explained. For experimental part of research
work, extrusion tests with tapered dies were carried out for
various extrusion ratios and bar lengths under dry
conditions. At the next stage of the present investigation,
the finite element simulations of the process were carried
out under the same conditions as those in extrusion
experiments. An excellent agreement was found between
the numerical and experimental results. For this reason,
more FE simulations were performed with other types of
die profiles. The numerical findings showed that among
various die geometries examined in this research work, the
430
exponential and the second-order polynomial profiles

required the maximum and minimum forming force and
energy, respectively. By observing the distribution of the
effective strain for various die geometries but for the same
process conditions, it was also found that the maximum
and minimum effective-strain gradients belonged to the
exponential and the second-order profiles.
The main objective of this research work has been
studying the influence of die profile on the required
maximum force for plane-strain backward extrusion. With
this regard, at first, several die sets with different extrusion
ratios and linear profiles were designed and manufactured.
In order to take the advantages of physical simulation
techniques [11], lead was used as the model material for
doing the extrusion tests. Preliminary tests, including the
ring and cylindrical compression tests, were carried out for
determination of the friction factor and the stress-strain
curve of the material. The backward extrusion experiments
were also conducted under dry conditions, with three
different extrusion ratios and two bar lengths. Lead is quite
sensitive to the strain rate at room temperature. For this
reason, the ram speed was calculated such that a constant
average strain rate of 0.025 sec-1 was kept in all the
preliminary and extrusion tests.
Experimental Equipments. All the tests were conducted on a computer-controlled 600 kN hydraulic press.
In order to employ the advantages of the physical simulation technique [11] lead was used as the model material in
all of the experiments. Thereby, it was possible to use
cheaper material, namely St37 steel, for manufacturing
different die sets.
Preliminary Tests. These tests included the compression and ring tests. In order to obtain the stress-strain
curve of the material, the compression test was incrementally performed, with a sample having a nominal diameter
of 20 mm and a height of 30 mm. For this test, the initial
ram velocity was calculated to be 0.73 mm/sec. The room
temperature was also about 22 oC. Figure 1 shows that,
because of interfacial friction, the specimen was barrelled
09.08.2010 14:27:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
significantly. For this reason, it was necessary to apply
bulge correction factors to the calculated axial stresses
[12]. The stress-strain curve of the material together with
the relevant Hollomons equation is illustrated in Figure 2.
The ring tests were conducted in order to find the shear
friction factors for two different frictional conditions. The
first one was dry condition, which was maintained between the billet and the main die surfaces. The second ring
test was carried out with a Vaseline-based mixture as lubricant. This lubricant was applied to the front and back
parallel surfaces of the billet to provide nearly zero friction
condition at these surfaces, which were in contact with the
container and the cover plate (Figure 3), the latter not
shown in the figure. This was necessary to create a planestrain condition for the main extrusion tests. The ring tests
showed shear friction factors of 1 and 0.1 for the dry condition and the above-mentioned lubricant, respectively.
These tests were conducted at room temperature with an
initial ram velocity of 0.23 mm/sec.
Stress (MPa)
Figure 1. Specimens for compression test before derormation

(left) and after deformation (right).
tests. It is clear from this figure that the greater the extrusion ratio, the larger is the required forming load. Each
curve is monotonically increasing until the die is filled
with the material. Since the die length was kept constant,
the lower extrusion ratio resulted in a higher volume for
die filling. For this reason, the occurrence of the steady
extrusion load is postponed for lower extrusion ratios.
Both sets of billet represented similar effects for the extrusion ratio.
Die
Container
Billet
Figure 3. Layout of die set for backward plane strain extrusion

process.
Figure 4. Extrusion dies with linear profiles and extrusion ratios of

2, 2.5 and 3 (from left).
LA3
Load (KN)
LA2.5
LA2
Strain
Figure 2. Stress-strain curve obtained from compression test.
Displacement (mm)
(a) specimen A
LB3
Load (KN)
Extrusion Tests. All the extrusion tests were conducted

using the die set schematically shown in Figure 3. The die
set included different linear dies, the container and the
cover plate which is not shown in the figure. Various dies
with linear (L) profiles were employed in order to create
three different extrusion ratios, namely 2, 2.5 and 3. The
ram speeds for these extrusion ratios were calculated to be
0.68, 0.48 and 0.38 mm/sec, respectively. These velocities
provided an average strain rate of 0.025 sec-1, the same as
the value in the preliminary tests. Billets with two different
lengths, namely 40 mm (A) and 50 mm (B), were also
used in the experiments. The nominal width and thickness
of all the billets were 40 mm and 20 mm, respectively. All
the extrusion tests were conducted under the same frictional conditions, i.e. dry condition at the specimen-die
interface and lubricated condition at the front and back
surfaces of the billet. After locating the billet and the die in
the container, the cover plate was attached to the container
using several screws. Then the test was performed by
pushing the die downwards. Figure 4 shows the dies with
linear profiles and different extrusion ratios employed in
the extrusion experiments.
Figure 5 illustrates the effects of the extrusion ratio on
the load-displacement curves obtained from the extrusion
LB2.5
LB2
Displacement (mm)
(b) specimen B
Figure 5. Experimental load-displacement curves for linear die

profiles and three different extrusion ratios.
The influence of the billet length is shown in Figure 6.

These tests were mainly conducted to show that, despite
the forward extrusion, there is no relative displacement
between the billet and the container in the backward extrusion. Therefore, the bar length should not ideally affect the
load-displacement curve of the process. This point can
clearly be seen in Figure 6 for various extrusion ratios.
This also implies that the extrusion tests are reasonably
repeatable.
431
09.08.2010 14:27:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Numerical Simulations of Process
Effects of Die Profile. After obtaining good agreement

between the numerical and experimental results, more FE
simulations were conducted for various die profiles. This
was performed for all the extrusion ratios under consideration. Figure 8 shows the second-order polynomial, the
linear and the exponential profiles designed for the extrusion ratio of 2. For all these profiles the die length was
kept constant, namely 25 mm.
LA2.5 (Experiment)
Load (KN)
Nowadays, with extensive progresses in hardware and

software, numerical simulations have extensively been
used for studying the metal forming operations. In the
present research work, the finite-element simulations of
the plane-strain extrusion tests were conducted in Deform
2D software. Moreover, to investigate the effects of die
profile on the process variables, numerical modelling of
the process was carried out for extrusion dies with exponential (E) and polynomial (P) profiles. Therefore, the
numerical investigation was carried out for 18 different
plane-strain extrusion processes involving three extrusion
ratios, three die profiles and two billet lengths.
between the experimental and FE findings is encouraging

and acceptable.
LB2
Load (KN)
LA2
LA2.5 (Simulation)
Displacement (mm)
(a) Billet A and re=2.5
Load (KN)
LA2.5
Load (KN)
Displacement (mm)
(a) re=2
LB2.5
LB3 (Simulation)
LB3 (Experiment)
Displacement (mm)
(b) Billet B and re=3
Displacement (mm)
(b) re=2.5
Figure 7. Comparisons between numerical and experimental loaddisplacement curves for two typical tests.
LA3
LB3
Displacement (mm)
(c) re=3
Figure 6. Experimental load-displacement curves for linear die

profiles, various extrusion ratios and different billet lengths.
Validation of Numerical Modelling. All the extrusion

tests explained in the previous section were numerically
modelled. The stress-strain curve and the shear friction
factor introduced into the software were the same as those
obtained from the compression and the ring tests, respectively. Figure 7 shows two typical comparisons between
the experimental and numerical load-displacement curves
for different extrusion ratios and billet lengths. Table 1
also illustrates the experimental and numerical minimum
load requirements for beginning the product formation for
various extrusion operations under investigation. It is
obvious from Figure 7 and Table 1 that the correlation
432
Test
code
LA2
LA2.5
LA3
LB2
LB2.5
LB3
Experimental load
(kN)
67.31
72.53
91.15
67.98
72.26
89.21
Finite-Element load
(kN)
58.43
72.12
84.44
58.43
72.12
84.44
Error
(%)
13.2
0.6
7.4
14.0
0.2
5.3
Second order
Length of Die
Load (KN)
Table 1. Comparison between experimental and numerical loads

for onset of product formation using dies with linear profiles.
Linear
Exponential
Profile
Figure 8. Different die profiles employed in FE simulations for

extrusion ratio of 2.
It is worthy to mention that one of main advantages of

Deform 2D software is the capability of doing remeshing
operation. Each billet was modelled using 1000 equilateral
elements, each having an aspect ratio of one. However,
because of severe deformation of the elements and signifi-
09.08.2010 14:27:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
cant fluctuations in the numerical load-displacement curve,
the deformed FE model was remeshed, at least, after each
5mm displacement of the die. Figure 9 illustrates typically
the extruded FE model with the exponential die profile
before and after remeshing operation. It is clear that how
the sharp angles and high aspect ratios of the elements are
removed by remeshing operation.
the relevant linear die, whereas the second-order profile

requires lower force and energy. The latter profile is capable of producing bars with more uniformity in the material
properties, compared with the exponential and linear die
shapes. This is mainly due to less redundant work and
strain involved in a backward plane-strain extrusion process, when the second-order polynomial die profile is employed.
Load (KN)
EA2
LA2
PA2
Figure 9. Deformed FE model before remeshing (left) and after

remeshing process (right).
The effects of the extrusion ratio on the required load

are shown in Figure 10. Based on this figure, numerical
simulations showed that for a lower extrusion ratio the
final forming load was lower and occurred at a greater ram
displacement.
A=0.00
B=0.50
C=1.00
D=1.50
Load (KN)
EB3
B
C
A=0.00
B=0.49
C=0.99
D=1.49
EB2.5
EB2
Figure 10. Typical effect of extrusion ratio on load and energy

requirements obtained from FE simulations.
In Figure 11, one can observe the influence of the die

shape on the load-displacement curve. It is clear from this
figure that the second-order polynomial profile provided
the minimum load and energy requirements for the process,
compared with the other profiles. This could mainly be
due to lower induced redundant strain in the material during the extrusion process.
Figure 12 illustrates that, in comparison with the exponential and linear die profiles, the least effective strain
gradient in the produced bar and the deformation zone was
created by the second-order polynomial profile. This situation implies that, compared with the former profiles, one
can produce a bar with higher uniformity in material properties and lower extrusion load and energy utilization
using the latter profile.
Conclusions
The extrusion ratio and the die shape are two important
parameters affecting both the load requirement and the
uniformity of the product in a backward extrusion process.
For a specified extrusion ratio and die length, the exponential profile needs greater load and energy compared with
C
B
A=0.00
B=0.61
C=1.22
D=1.83
B
D
Displacement (mm)
Displacement (mm)
Figure 11. Typical influence of die profile on load and energy

requirements obtained from FE simulations.
C
B
C
B
Figure 12. Die shape affects distribution of effective strain in the

product and plastic deformation zone. Linear, second-order
polynomial and exponential profiles are shown, from left.
References
[1] S.K. Lee, D.C. Ko, B.M. Kim: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 40 (2000), 1457-1478.
[2] A.S. Wifi, M.N. Shatla, A. Abdel-Hamid: Journal of Materials
[3] M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, M. Saboori, S.J. Hosseinipour: Journal of
[4] M. Noorani-Azad, M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, S.J. Hosseinipour, A. Gorji:
[5] M. Saboori, M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, M. Noorani-Azad, A. Gorji:
[6] C.T. Kwan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 122 (2002),
213-219.
[7] M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, M. Saboori, M. Noorani-Azad, S.J.
Hosseinipour: Materials and Design, 28 (2006), 18121818.
[8] G.M. Huang, J.P. Wang, H.D. Lee, C.S. Chang: Journal of Materials
[9] P. Tiernan, M.T. Hillery, B. Draganescu, M. Gheorghe: Journal of
[10] M. Schikorra, L. Donati, L. Tomesani, M. Kleiner: Journal of
[11] F. Fereshteh-Saniee, P. Varshovi-Jaghargh: Steel Research
International, 79 (2008), 427-434
[12] F. Fereshteh-Saniee, F. Fatehi-Sichani: Journal of Materials
433
09.08.2010 14:27:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
Application of Powder Pad and Die Design with Ribbon-Shaped Chamber for Direct
Extrusion of Multi-cell Tube Using Porthole die
Jung Min Lee1), Jung Hwan Lee1), Dae Cheol Ko2), Dong Hwan Kim3), Byung Min Kim4)
1)
Industrial Technology Support Division, KIMS, Changwon / Korea, monkey1976@kims.re.kr; 2) ILIC, Pusan National University, Busan /
Korea; 3) Department of Mechanical Engineering, International University of Korea, Jinju / Korea; 4) Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Pusan National University, Busan / Korea
This paper describes the applications of ab Al powder pad and extrusion die design with a ribbon-shaped chamber to develop a direct
extrusion process of a multi-cell tube with 0.45 mm in thickness using a porthole die. In this study, the Al powder pad was used to reduce
an initial forming pressure during extrusion. The ribbon-shaped chamber was also designed to induce a material welding from the middle of
mandrel to the ends in order and to restrain an excessive material flow at the ends of mandrel. To determine the proper thickness of the Al
powder pad, extrusion tests for the different thicknesses of the powder pad were performed. Also, the material flow of the ribbon-shaped
chamber was estimated by FE simulation. Finally, the extrusion experiment of the multi-cell tube was conducted to confirm the efficiency of
the powder pad and the ribbon-shaped chamber.
Keywords: Multi-cell tube, Porthole die, Powder pad, Extrusion
Introduction
The recent trend of the multi-cell tubes (Al or Cu alloy)
for heat exchanger focuses on the lightweight and high
strength structures. Their structures are therefore becoming thinner and more complicated and multi-cellized [1-7].
In the direct extrusion of the multi-cell tube using a porthole die, the typical failures are fractures and deflections
of the mandrel teeths ends which form the tube cells as
shown in Figure 1. The material flow in the circle-shaped
chambers bottom of a conventional porthole die is shown
in Figure 2 [1]. The material welding is the first to occur
at the ends of mandrel teeth. At this point, material is intensively flowed into the ends of mandrel and then very
high forming pressure builds up at their ends [1]. This
material flow is the main cause of mandrels fracture.
Therefore, to ensure the mandrel strength in terms of die
design, it is important for the material welding to occur
from the middle of mandrel to the ends in order.
Material
flow
Formation of high
deformation energy
Mandrel
Dead metal zone
pressure can be also one way to prevent the mandrel fracture in the direct extrusion. To extrude the multi-cell tube
in this study, we introduced two methods: one is the die
design with the ribbon-shaped chamber to control the
material welding and another is the powder pad to reduce
the initial forming pressure, which is attached in front of a
bulk billet in extrusion. To determine the appropriate
thickness of the powder pad, extrusion tests for the various
thicknesses of the pad were performed. Also, the material
flow of the ribbon-shaped die was verified by FE simulation. Finally, the extrusion test of the multi-cell tube was
conducted to confirm the validity of two methods.
Determination of Powder Pad Thickness
The powder used in this study is Al 99.9% with a particle diameter of 150-200m ranges. Cylindrical-shaped
pads for an extrusion test were produced by cold compaction, which was carried out using a compressive mould
with a 70 mm diameter and 200 ton press, and pressed to a
theoretical density of 70%. The powder pads were produced to 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 mm thick to investigate the
effect of pads thickness on extrusion pressure (Figure 3).
Diameter : 70mm
Die bearing
Mandrel deflection and/or fracture

10mm 20mm 30mm
Figure 1. Schematic of general defect in multi-cell tube extrusion.
Mandrel
Welding plane
Table 1. Conditions of extrusion tests for determining optimal

thickness of powder pad.
Material
flow
Restrictions of material flow
Welding of material
Formation of high forming

pressure by excessive
material flow
Figure 2. Material flow in conventional porthole die with circleshaped chamber [1].
The typical direct extrusion has the highest forming load

at initial ram stroke [3]. Thus, to reduce the initial forming
434
(b) Compacted powder pads
Figure 3. Al powder (Al 99.9%) and compacted powder pads.
Increase of punch strokes

Material
(a) Aluminum powder
40mm 50mm
Extrusion capacity
400 ton
Exit speed
10 m/min
Initial Temperature of tools
400-450 C
Initial Temperature of billet
450 C
Billet size
70 200 mm
The initial billets used for the tests were Al 1100 and the
compacted powder pads were attached in front of the bilsteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:27:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
722
629
588
550
599
615
Thickness of powder pad
500
450
Billet length : 200 mm

0
10
20
30
40
50
Thickness of powder pad (mm)
Figure 4. Maximum extrusion pressures for various thicknesses of

powder pad (length of initial billet: 200 mm).
16.0
The dimensions and geometries of the supporting tools,

porthole die and the ribbon-shaped chamber for extrusion
are presented in Figure 7. The extrusion die was designed
with the two-tube extrusion type to decrease the total extrusion ratio. Also, the bottom of the welding chamber in
the porthole die (Figure 7(c)) was constructed with the
ribbon shape to restrain the excessive material flow at both
ends of the mandrel teeth and to make the material welding process happen from their middle.
Unit : mm
40
16.0
35.0
27.0
8.0
40
Thickness of powder pad
700
692
660
624
625
605
580
560
0
10
20
30
40
50
Thickness of pawder pad (mm)
Figure 5. Maximum extrusion pressures for various thicknesses of

powder pad (total length of the billet with powder pad: 200 mm).
20
Insertion of porthole die
(a) Weld Plate
(b) Backer
Diameter of Porthole
40
55
23
19
52
15
4
R4
46
Porthole
12
20
Upper die
20
Welding chamber
15
19
34
16
66
66.5
13
66.5
Shape of Tube and Extrusion Die. Figure 6 shows the

sectional shape and dimensions of the multi-cell tube with
4 serrated holes which are to increase the area of heat
260
FE Simulation of Multi-Cell Tube Extrusion
260
250
6
R2
Figure 4 shows the maximum extrusion pressures for

the various thicknesses of powder pads. In this test, the
length of the initial billet was fixed to 200.0 mm and the
thickness of powder pads changed from 10 mm to 50 mm.
The extrusion pressure of the billets with the powder pads
decreased from 5% to 10% compared with billets without
a powder pad. The tests found that the powder pad of 10
mm thick has the lowest extrusion pressure. This is because the friction between the container and the billet
increases with an increase in the length of the billet. Figure 5 shows the maximum extrusion pressures for the
billets with a total length of 200 mm, including the thickness of the powder pad. The results were very similar to
the previous tests. Especially, the powder pad over 50 mm
thick did not give a decrease in extrusion pressure. Hot
powder extrusion can sometimes cause higher extrusion
pressure due to the friction between powder particles and
their oxidations than bulk materials. To prevent these risks,
the final thickness of the power pad in this study was
therefore determined to 10 mm.
46
57
621
600
32 25
620
645
70
Total billet length : 200 mm
640
25 20 15 10
Extrusion pressure (MPa)
P 0.38 X 4 = 1.52
0.22
R1
00
720
t : 0.45
R2
3
Extrusion pressure (MPa)
685
600
680
Unit : mm
Figure 6. Dimensions and cross-sectional shape of multi-cell tube.
650
400
R 0.1.5
P 22.5 X 8 = 180
P 0.38 X 6 = 2.28
750
700
transfer. The height of the tube is 3.1 mm, the thickness is

0.45 mm, the cross-sectional area is 22.24 mm2, and the
reduction rate is over 99.9%.
3.1
lets. The billets were extruded to 4 mm diameter rod at a

temperature of 450 C using the horizontal extruder. The
general conditions of extrusion are shown in Table 1. The
extrusion pressure was measured using a pressure transducer with a built-in strain gauge, which was attached at
the ram of the extruder and recorded the variations of oil
pressure (Y-axis) as a function of ram strokes (X-axis).
Maximum pressures were calculated using these data.
Lower die
Bottom of welding
chamber : ribbon shape
(c) Porthole die
Figure 7. Dimensions and geometries of supporting tool and

porthole die for multi-cell tube extrusion.
Conditions of FE Simulation. Al 1100 (Bulk material

without the powder pad) and hot tool steel (AISI-H 13)
were chosen as materials for the tube and the extrusion die
used in the simulation. Hot behaviors of Al 1100 at different strain rates and temperatures were obtained from an
existing reference [8]. The initial temperatures of the die
and billet were set to 480 and 500 C, respectively. The
interface heat transfer coefficient and the friction factor
(m) between the tools and the billet were also assumed to
be 0.6 and 10, respectively. These are used in common
non-lubricant aluminum extrusion processes [1,9,10].
435
09.08.2010 14:27:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
The FE simulation of the hot extrusion process was carried out in the 3D non-steady state until material started
passing through the die bearing. A quarter of the die was
simulated, taking into account the asymmetrical structure.
The tools were defined as a thermo-rigid, and the billet a
thermo-plasticity. The initial mesh system of the billet and
tools for extrusion simulation is presented in Figure 8.
The total number of elements of the initial billet and tools
were 226205 and 150191, respectively. To enhance the
efficiency of simulation, several windows of higher element densities were applied, especially around the die
orifice. The minimum size of an element was 0.2 mm. The
general conditions of the FE simulation are shown in Table 2. The FE simulation was performed using DEFORM
3D [11].
Die
(Porthole Die
Holder, Backer)
Billet
middle of mandrel to its both ends in order. In general, the

welding strength of the extruded tube greatly depends on
the amount of material flow and the forming pressing. This
ribbon-shaped chamber can therefore prevent the excessive material flow in both ends of mandrel, while this may
reduce the welding strength of the tube.
FE simulation in this study was only used to verify the
material flow of the ribbon-shaped die and the billet used
is a bulk material. Therefore, the simulated result could
not be directly compared with an experimental one. However, each material flow in the chamber are estimated to be
much alike due to the same extrusion die.
Punch
Dividing stage
Multi cell tube
Welding stage
Forming stage
Container
Figure 8. Initial mesh system of the billet and extrusion die for FE
simulation.
Table 2. Conditions of FE simulation for multi-cell tube extrusion.
Material of billet
Al 1100
Material of tool
AISI H13
Initial temperature of tools
500 C
Initial temperature of billet
480 C
Extrusion velocity at die exit
70 m/min
Reduction area (exit)
99.9%
Room temperature
20 C
Friction factor (m) between the die and billet
0.6
Interface heat transfer coefficient
10
Dimension of billet
154.2 80 mm
Extrusion load (ton)
Forming stage
Welding stage
Upsetting stage
Dividing stage
Punch stroke (mm)

Figure 9. Load-stroke curve and pattern of material flow with
variations of punch strokes.
Weld plane
Results of FE Simulation
The extrusion load-stroke curve and the forming process
of the billet with variations of punch strokes are presented
in Figure 9. The upward tendency of the load curve highly
depended on the die geometry. In the figure, section A is
the upsetting stage, in which the extrusion load slowly
rises as the billet fills the gaps between the container and
billet. Section B and C are the dividing stage where the
billet is divided into two at the bridge and is filled into the
portholes. In these sections, the extrusion load maintains a
steady state without rising until the divided billet reaches
the bottom of the chamber. Section D is the welding stage
in which the split billet welds together in the mandrel after
the billet is completely filled in the welding chamber and
porthole. Finally, in section E (the forming stage), the
welded billet comes out of the die bearing to form the final
shape after passing the mandrel [1,12].
The material flow in the chamber during the welding
and forming processes are illustrated in Figure 10. As
predicted above, the material welding appeared from the
436
Stroke : 10.12mm
Stroke : 10.54mm
Stroke : 11.03mm
(a) Welding of material within mandrel

Mandrel
Die
bearing
Stroke : 10.12mm
Welding plane
Stroke : 10.54mm
Stroke :
11.03mm
(b) Material flow in mandrel
Figure 10. Welding and forming process of material in mandrel

and welding plane.
Extrusion Experiment and Results

The extruder used in the experiment was a maximum
capacity of 1,250 tons and the size of the billet with powder pad was 154.2 530 mm. Figure 11 shows the billet
and the porthole die used in the tests which has the uniform die bearing. The temperature of the billet and the die
during the extrusion were maintained at 500 and 480 C,
09.08.2010 14:27:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
respectively. The extrusion velocity at the die exit was set
up for the condition of the preceding FE simulation, 70
m/min. In extrusion
Mandrel
Die bearing
Powder pad
(10mm)
Welding chamber
(a) Billet with powder pad
(b) Porthole die
Figure 11. Billet and porthole die for multi-cell tube extrusion.
The multi-cell tube was successfully carried out without

the fracture of mandrel. Figure 12 shows the front part of
the extruded tube at initial ram strokes and the surface of
the tube after the steady state. The front part of tube was
considerably bent due to differences of locational density
and porosity that occurred in the interior of the powder pad
during compaction. However, the surface of the extruded
tube after the steady state showed good results.
(a) Front of extruded tube
(b) Surface of tube after steady state
Figure 12. Extruded multi-cell tube.
Figure 13 shows the microstructure and sectional shape

of the extruded tube. Welding lines with a thickness of 1-2
m were observed at both ends of the extruded tube. These
lines are caused by a comparatively low welding pressure
of material in both ends of mandrel as mentioned in the
results of FE simulation. Material welding in tube extrusion is generally a solid-state welding by interatomic attractive force between two surfaces. Most of these regions
have a higher yielding strength than that of original material [13]. In general, the presence of a welding line in extruded products is an extrusion defect. For the tube extruded in this study, welding lines were not obviously
observed in appearance but their presences in the section
mean that the risk of tubes rupture at the welding line
increases when applying refrigerant of high pressure in
industrial application.
2.0 um
Welding line
1.0 um
Welding line
Figure 13. Welding line and microstructure in section of extruded

multi-cell tube.
To remove these welding lines, it is necessary to

slightly increase the amount of the material flow in the
ends of mandrel through adjusting the dimensions of the
welding chamber. Consequently, the application of powder
pad and the ribbon-shaped die should be performed together to obtain the good performance of the tube extru-
sion without failures. In addition, the welding line in central walls which form the cells of the tube was not observed.
However, the powder pad can actually lead to the contaminations or the strength reduction of the extruded tube's
welding seams in the industrial practice. Moreover, it has
the welding problem of billet to billet in the continuous
extrusion. Therefore, its application is still limited in terms
of both quality and quantity of the extruded part. To ensure
the validity of the powder pad in the industrial practice,
the experimental verification of the extruded tube is
needed, including the internal pressure test for estimating
the seam strength, tensile test and SEM observation. This
problem will be in a subsequent report.
Conclusions
This paper is designed to apply the Al powder pad and
the ribbon-shaped chamber for a direct extrusion process
of a multi-cell tube. To confirm the validity of these methods, the rod extrusion test for the various thicknesses of
the Al pad and FE simulation were performed. The results
are as follows:
1. The use of powder pads reduces the extrusion pressure
at initial ram stroke and the maximum extrusion pressure during extrusion decreases from 5% to 10% compared with billets without a powder pad.
2. The extrusion pressures of billet with powder pads
trends to slightly increase with an increase in thickness
of pads. Also, the powder pad over 50 mm thick lead to
a higher extrusion pressure than that of bulk material.
3. The ribbon-shaped chamber gives the restrain of the
excessive material flow in both ends of mandrel, while
this can induce the welding problem of the tubes seam.
To ensure the welding quality of the extruded tube, it is
necessary to determine the proper dimension of the ribbon-shaped chamber for the assurance of mandrel
strength and the good welding strength of the tube.
References
[1] J.M. Lee, B.M. Kim, C.G. Kang: Material & Design, 26 (2005), 327336.
[2] X. Wu, G. Zhao, Y. Luan, X. Ma: Material Science & Engineering A,
435-436 (2006), 266-274.
[3] L. Kurt, S. Helmut: Extrusion, American Society for Metals, (1976).
[4] F. Kojima, S. Takenouchi, H. Kobayashi: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 42-488 (2001), 2-6.
[5] S. Murakami, M. Isogai, T. Inagaki, N, Takatsuji, M. Tokizawa, K.
Murotani: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity,
38-36 (1997), 517-521.
[6] T. Murakami, J. Xie, H. Takahashi: Journal of the Japan Society for
[7] Y.T. Kim, K. Ikeda, T. Murakami: Journal of Japan Institute of Light
Metals, 49 (1999), 296-301.
[8] Y.V.R.K. Prasad, S. Sasidhara: Hot Working Guide, ASM international, (1997).
[9] J.M. Lee, B.M. Kim, Y.D. Jeong, H. Jo, H.H. Jo: Journal of Korean
Society for precision Engineers, 20-5 (2003), 66-72.
[10] H.H. Jo, J.M. Lee, B.M. Kim: International Journal of Korean
Society for precision Engineers, 4-3 (2003), 36-41.
[11] DEFORM 3DTM, SFTC, 1995.
[12] G. Liu, J. Zhou, J. Duszczyk: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 200 (2008), 185-198.
[13] A. Oosterkamp, L.D. Oosterkamp, A. Nordeide: Supplement to the
welding journal, (2004), 225-231.
437
09.08.2010 14:27:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of Plastic Deformation on Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Annealed ZL102 Alloy
Jianmin Yu1), Zhimin Zhang1), Lihui Lang2), Baohong Zhang1)
1)
North University of China, School of Material Science and Engineering, 030051Taiyuan / China, minyu889@163.com;
sity, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, 100191Beijing / China
2)
Beihang Univer-
Extrusion of the annealed ZL102 alloy has been performed at five extrusion ratios of 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 in the temperature range from
300 C to 460 C. Microstructures and mechanical properties of ZL102 alloy after homogenization have been investigated through SEM and
OM microscopic, and the metallographic and fracture surface structure have been observed. The experimental results show that precipitated phase tends to be more homogeneous with the increase of the extrusion temperature at a certain extrusion ratio. In general, the
tensile strength of the alloys increases gradually, but the elongation of the alloys decreases gradually. At 380C, the eutectic silicon phase
presents lamellar morphology with uniform distribution, which makes the curve singularity. Furthermore, with the temperature increasing
further, the microstructure of the eutectic silicon is refined gradually. At a certain extrusion temperature, with the increase of extrusion ratio,
the grain is refined gradually, and the microstructure of the eutectic silicon grows up gradually with uniform distribution, causing the increase of elongation and decrease of tensile strength of the alloy. The impact toughness shows an upward trend after declining firstly in the
overall downward trend. When the extrusion ratio is 15, the impact toughness of the alloys reaches its maximum value1.7Jcm-2. Tensile
fracture surface of samples has characteristics of the cleavage plane and dimples, therefore the fracture belongs to the mixture fracture of
toughness and brittleness.
Keywords: Plastic deformation, ZL102 alloy, Extrusion ratios, Mechanical properties, Microstructure
Introduction
As a sort of the most important structural material, AlSi
cast alloys have been widely used in automobile, aviation
and aerospace industry because of its low bulk density,
high strength, excellent castability and processability [1,2].
However, the current comprehensive properties of common Al-Si as-cast alloy still cannot meet the requirements
of industrial production; therefore many researches on ascast Al-Si alloy from different aspects are being conducted
in order to improve its comprehensive properties. Mechanical properties of Al-Si cast alloys depend not only on
chemical composition[3] but, more importantly, on microstructure features like morphologies of -Al dendrite,
eutectic Si particles and other intermetallics that present in
the microstructure. The microstructure of ZL102 cast alloy
is a eutectic mixture composed of coarse needle-like silicon and Al-based solid solution. Such alloys have poor
mechanical properties, and are unsuitable for heat treatment strengthening. It is generally acknowledged that
grain refinement, modification and heat treatment are the
three major processes to improve the microstructure and
properties of Al-Si casting alloys [4-7]. The effort to improve the properties of the -Al phase in Al-Si alloy, to a
great extent, focused on refine of the grain of -Al phase.
But the mechanical properties of Al-Si alloy depend
largely on the morphology and distribution of eutectic
silicon in the microstructure. The eutectic silicon phase in
the Al-Si alloys precipitates with coarse needle or lath-like
morphology, which dissevers the matrix and leads to the
decrease of mechanical properties of Al-Si alloys, especially for its ductility [8]. The effective way to improve the
mechanical properties of Al-Si alloys is to change the
morphology of silicon phase, so as to weaken the morphologys impact on the matrix. However, the improvement of mechanical properties is limited through modification and heat treatment [9]. The materials made by severe
plastic deformation usually have ultra-fine grained micro438
structure, which has excellent mechanical properties [10].

Researches have shown that deformation can significantly
reduce the as-cast defects, change the morphology of -Al,
and make the silicon particles distribute along the streamline. In a result, the elongation of the alloy increased from
2.7% (as-cast) to 16.9% (deformed) [11]. One of the most
effective methods for the severe plastic deformation is
equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). Garca-Infanta
and Swam-inathan researched the influence of the initial Si
concentration in supersaturated solid solution on the microstructure refinement and hardening during ambient
temperature by equal-channel angular pressing of a hypoeutectic Al7%Si alloy, showing that the finest grain size
and highest hardness are associated with the greatest initial
supersaturation of Si [12]. But this technology still exist
many problems for industrial application such as mould
design, selection for deformation parameters, the effective
ways of different materials processing etc. Compared with
ECAP, high ratio extrusion process is more practical. Researchers have also changed the morphology of eutectic Si
by deformation and improve the mechanical properties of
alloys [8], but any further study of extrusion deformation
for Al-Si alloys has not been made. This paper intends to
investigate the influence of different extrusion ratio and
temperature on the mechanical properties of the ZL102
alloy and the microstructure morphology of silicon particles in order to further improve the comprehensive properties of ZL102 cast alloys. In this research, annealing before deformed has been employed to improve the formability.
Experimental material is a ZL102 alloy ingot (12.5%Si,
0.26%Fe, 0.05%Mg, 0.01%Cu, 0.02%Mn,0.01%Zn and Al
balance, in mass fraction).There exist a large number of
(Al) + Si eutectics in as-cast ZL102 alloy, and the eutectic
silicon phase has a coarse acicular shape or lamellar misteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:27:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
160
155
150
145
140
135
ER15
ER30
ER45
ER60
ER75
130
125
120
280 300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440 460 480
Extrusion Temperature/
Figure 2. Impact of plastic deformation on tensile strength at

different conditions.
75
24
134.4
15.6
120
22
El ongat i on /
Table 1. Parameters of extrusion die.

Extrusion
15
30
45
60
Ratio
D
67.4
89.4
106.4
121.4
d
17.4
16.4
15.9
15.7
120
120
120
120
165
Tensile Strength/MPa
crostructure with spot segregation [8]. As-cast ZL102 alloy

bars were firstly treated by annealing at 495 C for 8h, and
then were machined to the cylinders with the diameter of
67mm, 89mm, 106mm, 121mm, 134mm and the length of
55mm respectively. After annealing treatment, the structure of the eutectic has been changed: intragranular segregation has been effectively eliminated, the eutectic silicon
phase has been aggregated and spheroidized, and the
formability of alloy has been greatly improved. Figure 1
shows the microstructure of the ZL102 alloy after being
annealed.
20
18
16
14
ER15
ER30
ER45
ER60
ER75
12
280 300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440 460 480
Ex t r us i on Temper at ur e/
Figure 3. Impact of plastic deformation on elongation at different

conditions.
420
Figure 1. Microstructure of annealed ZL102 aluminium alloy.
Extrusion experiments were performed on the 6300 kN

hydraulic press at different experimental conditions: extrusion temperatures were 300, 340, 380, 420 and 460 C, and
extrusion ratios were 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 respectively.
Extrusion velocity was 13mm/s-1. Table 1 illustrates the
mould parameters include the inner diameter D, the cone
angle , and calibrating straight diameter d. Tensile tests
were performed in accordance with GB6397-86 standards
on WDW-E100D electronic universal testing machine with
a speed of 10 mm/min. According to the standard of
GB/T229-2007, the impact tests were carried out by type
JB30A impact testing machine. Sharply U-notched specimens have been adopted. Impact test temperature was
205 C. Microstructure observation was to be performed
on digital metallographic microscope ZEISS. Flannelette
polishing was adopted to polish the alloy with Al2O3 as
polishing agent, and then was put into 0.5 wt% HF solution for 49~50s. The tensile fracture morphology and
cracking mode of the specimen after elongation and impact tests was depicted on scanning electron microscope S530 through secondary electron image.
Mechanical Properties. Figures 2, 3 and 4 show the
influence of extrusion temperatures and extrusion ratios on
the mechanical properties of annealed ZL102 alloy.
Toughness/J cm -2
1.6
1.2
0.8
0.4
0.0
15
30
45
60
75
Extrusion Ratio/
Figure 4. Toughness value in different extrusion ratios.
When the extrusion temperature is constant, the strength

(Figure 2) will gradually decrease and the elongation (Figure 3) will gradually increase with the extrusion ratio increasing. Figure 2 shows that, at a certain extrusion ratio,
tensile strength increase with temperature increasing (except for decreases at 380 C). When the extrusion ratio is
15, the tensile strength reaches its peak value (164 MPa) at
460 C; when the extrusion ratio is 75, the tensile strength
reaches its minimum, i.e. 125 MPa at 380 C. It can be
concluded that in Figure 3, at a certain extrusion ratio, the
elongation demonstrate M-like curves when the extrusion
temperature increases: the elongation will increase while
the temperature increases from 300 to 340 C and will
decrease while the temperature increases from 340 C to
380C; But elongation will increase as the temperature
further increases and will reach its second peak at 420 C,
and the elongation will decrease while the temperature
increase from 420 to 460 C and will reach its second
lowest value at 460 C. When extrusion ratio is 75 and
temperature is 420 C, the elongation reach the maximum
value, 25%.While the elongation reach the minimum value
(14%) when extrusion ratio is 15 and temperature is 460
C. By comparing the data, we can indicate that, under the
experimental conditions, the optimum temperature for
439
09.08.2010 14:27:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
deformation is 420 C, the extrusion ratio for acquiring
optimum strength is 15, and the extrusion ratio for acquiring optimum elongation is 75. Figure 4 illustrates the effect of different extrusion ratios on the impact toughness
of the ZL102 alloy at the temperature of 420 C. It show
that the impact toughness of annealed ZL102 alloy decreases firstly and then increases as the extrusion ratio
increases at 420 C. When the extrusion ratio is 15, the
alloy impact toughness reaches its maximum value, k=1.7
Jcm-2, and will reach its minimum value, k=1.2 Jcm-2
when the extrusion ratio increases to 60. Although the
alloys toughness will increase a little (1.4 Jcm-2) as the
extrusion ratio increases to 75, the toughness has decreased by 21% compared with that when the extrusion
ratio is 15. It thus claimed that the optimum impact toughness of the annealed ZL102 alloy can be obtained when
the extrusion ratio is 15 under the experimental conditions.
Microstructure. Figure 5 shows the microstructure of
annealed ZL102 under different extrusion ratios at 420 C.
When the extrusion ratio is 15, lamellar eutectic silicon
phase disperses in the matrix (Figure 5(a)). When the extrusion ratio is 30, the second phase increases significantly
(Figure 5(b)). As the extrusion ratio continually increases,
the silicon particles gradually change from granular to
plate-like, strip and block pattern, though a large number
of uniform dispersive distribution silicon particles gradually reduced(Figure 5(c), (d) and (e)). Coarse silicon phase
dissever the matrix severely, resulting in the decrease of
alloys strength. Silicon particles in the alloy are brittle
second phase and not easy to deform, and plastic deformation occurs mainly in the Al matrix. Since -Al grains after
deformation are flattened, the grain surface area increase
and show streamlined distribution. The separation of silicon particles from -Al cross-section forms micro holes,
which expand constantly and change to interconnect.
Since the arrangement orientation of the holes is the
same as the flow lines direction of silicon particles, obvious banded structure can be observed in the microstructure.
Because the extrusion direction parallels to the direction of
flow lines, the dimples formed by the separation of the
silicon particles from -Al, which are not easy to connect
with each other, and the alloy stretches along the flow
lines, with a result of a better formability [11].
Generally, work-hardening and dynamic recovery processes occur during the deformation of metallic materials
under high temperature, and the two processes are alternate [13]. In plastic deformation, dislocation multiplication
and annihilation are related to recovery. When deformation
degree is not great, the dislocation density is small and the
internal energy accumulated in metal is also small. During
this period, the dislocation annihilation rate is less than the
multiplication rate, and the recovery effect is not obvious.
As the deformation increases, the dislocation density continues to increase and the internal stored energy continues
to increase too. When the deformation reaches a certain
440
(a) E R15 (b) ER30 (c) ER 45 (d) ER60 (e) ER75

Figure 5. Microstructure of annealed ZL102 alloy at different
compression ratios at 420C.
degree, dislocation cross-slip and climb will occur, the

dislocations of proliferation will combine gradually and
polygonization, and alloys dynamic recovery capabilities
will continue to increase [14]. Therefore as the extrusion
ratio continues to increase, the strength of annealed ZL102
alloy continuously decline and the ductility continuously
rise. In addition, when the extrusion ratio is higher, the
greater deformation degree will produce significant ther-
09.08.2010 14:27:59 Uhr
Metal Forming
mal effect, which causes the temperature of extrusion
billet to rise and thus increasing the formability of alloys.
(a) Macro-fracture
(b) =45,T=420C
Figure 6. Macro and micro-fracture photograph of annealed ZL102
aluminium alloy after extrusion.
Fracture Scanning. Figure 6 shows the macro and micro-fracture photographs of tensile specimen of the annealed ZL102 alloy after extrusion. From the macromorphology of tensile specimen, the fracture is dark gray
without metallic lustre, and no granular morphology can
be observed. The fracture edge has a larger shear lips, and
the fracture plane is at an angle of approximately 45 with
the tensile axis, and the fracture is sharp wedge-shaped
with obvious necking phenomenon (Figure 6(a)). Tensile
fractures have deep and uniform dimple with obvious tear
edges and it belong to ductile fracture. Micro-fracture
scanning shows that there are a large number of small
dimples consisting of cleavage plane and cup-cone shaped
(Figure 6(b)) that means the fracture belongs to transgranular dimpled rupture. The cracking mainly occurs
between the primary silicon and matrix interfaces, originating mainly from brittle fracture of the primary silicon
particles, and partly from the junction between silicon
phase and the matrix interface. The fracture has the characteristics of the cleavage plane and dimples, indicating
that the fracture is a mixture fracture of toughness and
brittleness [15].
Conclusions
The mechanical properties of Al-Si alloy depend largely
on the morphology and distribution of eutectic silicon in
the microstructure. One of the most effective ways to improve the properties of Al-Si alloys is to change the shape
of silicon phase and decrease its weakening effect on the
matrix by plastic deformation. The influence of different
extrusion ratios and temperatures on the mechanical properties and the microstructure morphology of silicon particles in the ZL102 alloy were studied, and the following
1. Under experiment conditions, optimal temperature for
deformation is 420 C, The optimal extrusion ratio for
improving the strength and impact toughness of the annealed ZL102 alloy is 15, and the optimal extrusion ra-
tio for improving the ductility of the annealed ZL102

alloy is 75.
2. With continual increasing of the extrusion ratio, the
number of silicon particles gradually reduces and the
silicon particles gradually changed from granular to
flake, strip and block structure, causing the tensile
strength decreases gradually.
3. Dislocation cross-slip and climb are likely to occur
during thermal deformation, the proliferation dislocations will combine gradually and polygonization, and
alloys dynamic recovery capabilities constantly increase, which make the strength of alloy decrease continuously and the ductility increase continuously. When
the temperature is constant, as the deformation degree
increases, the alloy stored more deformation energy,
which greatly increases the formability of the alloy. In
addition, great deformation degree produces thermal effects significantly, causing the alloys formability increases.
4. According to macro-fractographic appearance and microscopic scanning, annealed ZL102 alloy after extrusion belongs to mixed fracture of toughness and brittleness because the characteristic of the cleavage plane
and dimples, and the fracture plane and tensile axis
formed an angle of approximately 45 .
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China under grant No.50735005 and Youth
Foundation of Shanxi Province No.2008021030.
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09.08.2010 14:28:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Multiple Plastic Deformation on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of

7A04 Ultra-High Strength Aluminum Alloy
Ya Cui1), Zhimin Zhang1), Baohong Zhang2), Jianmin Yu1), Qiang Wang2)
1)
College of Materials Science and Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051 / China, cui7911nuc@yahoo.com.cn; 2) Engineering Research Centre of Magnesium-base Material Processing Technology, Ministry of Education / China.
Influence of multiple plastic deformation on microstructure and mechanical properties of 7A04 ultra-high strength aluminium alloy by isothermal compression experiments in different deformed passes by a 6300KN extrusion press was examined. Experiment results show that
elongation reaches its maximal value 9.25% after the first deformation. It is obvious that fibrous tissues appeared along the metal flow
direction in the deformed 7A04 ultra-high aluminium alloy, with heterogeneous distribution of precipitated (MgZn2) phase in the matrix,
which results in lower strength (Rm=335 MPa, Re=212.5 MPa). As the time of deformation increases, precipitated phases grow gradually
and the plasticity of alloys decreases dramatically, which reaches its minimal value 5.17% after the fourth deformation. With (MgZn2)
phase disperses gradually, the strength of the alloy increases gradually, and reaches its maximal value 386.7 MPa after the fourth deformations. It is proved that 7A04 high-strength aluminium alloy has better synthetic mechanical properties after two or three times of deformation.
Keywords: Multiple plastic deformations, Ultra-high strength aluminium alloy, Mechanical properties, Microstructure
Introduction
The Al-Zn-Mg-Cu series alloys are one of the most important structural materials because of its high strength-toweight-ratio, attractive specific stiffness, durability, low
cost, and pretty formability. It is applied broadly in aviation, aerospace, civilian industry and other fields and holds
an important place in aviation industry as one of the major
structural materials [1-3]. Especially, the aviation industry
puts forward higher requirements for 7xxx series alloy in
strength, toughness and stress corrosion cracking (SCC)
resistance. The tensile strength of conventional high
strength aluminum alloy is lower than 650 MPa, and while
the strength increases, elongation decreases dramatically;
the lower fracture toughness seriously restricts the application of ultra-high strength aluminum alloy. Recent years
have seen more and more progresses in the research of the
alloy, including newly designed alloy composition, optimization of existing heat treatment process parameters,
new heat treatment process, and relative mechanism. Researches in these fields have attracted the interests of many
researchers in 7xxx series alloys [4-6].
The Al-Zn-Mg-Cu series ultra-high strength aluminum
alloy has been developed by increasing the contents of Zn
and Cu and reducing that of Fe and Si. In order to adjust
the ratio of Cu/Mg, enhance the ageing strengthening,
toughness and fatigue life, restrain recrystallization, and
improve the quenching susceptibility and SCC resistance
of the alloy, researchers replaced Cr and Mn with Sc and
Zr, and adjusted the grain boundary precipitation by T77
ageing process in the hope of improving the SCC resistance and exfoliation corrosion resistance [7]. When the
material composition is certain, the process determines the
microstructure and the property of the alloy. Broadly
speaking, in the series of 7xxx alloy, the shape and characteristics of matrix precipitated phase (MPT), grain boundary precipitated (GBP) and intergranular precipitation-free
zones (PFZ) determine the property of alloys [8, 9].
It is important that control the shape and distribution of
the second phase. Studies show that the strength of alloys
442
mainly depends on MPT and continuous network distributed GBP decrease the properties of alloys [10]. Song
found that when precipitated phase is of phase and welldistributed, it is beneficial to hinder dislocation movement
in the process of deformation, resulting in high toughness
and SCC resistance properties [11]. Through choosing
optimal heat treatment process parameters, it combines the
three properties well in order to make the alloy have the
best comprehensive property. Many researches have been
done through heat treatment in order to control different
distribution of precipitates.
Common heat treatment process for 7xxx alloy includes
homogenization, solution treatment and ageing treatment.
Solution treatment and ageing treatment have great effects
on strength, toughness and SCC resistance [12]. Typical
aging process includes peak aging (T6), two-stages aging,
retrogression and re-aging. In the research of long-time
aging of 7475 alloys, Yan [13] found two age-hardening
peaks, namely Double Peak aging process. Double Peak
aging makes up the defects that peak aging (T6) has weak
SCC resistance and two-stages aging brings about the
decreasing of strength, plasticity and toughness in different degree, which makes the alloys have high-strength,
high-toughness and high-SCR properties and its parameters are easily controlled. Chen, Song, etc. verified that
two-peaks aging process has universality in 7xxx series
alloys [14].
The results of the study of Peng and Ning for the influence of cold deformation degree after aging on the reaging microstructure and properties of 7A04 alloys show
that thermomechanical treatment is an effective way to
improve both the plasticity and strength of alloys simultaneously [15]. In the development of high strength aluminium alloy, strength, toughness and corrosion resistance
usually cannot be taken into account at the same time. To
form fine-grain strengthening is an effective way to increase strength greatly without any loss of the ductility and
toughness of the metallic material. When the size of the
crystalline grain is small enough, the strengthening effect
caused by grain refining will exceed the effect of process
09.08.2010 14:28:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experiment Results and Analysis
400
380
360
Strength (MPa)
strengthening and precipitation strengthening [16]. There

have been several researches showing that severe plastic
deformation (SPD) is an effective method for grain refinement in numerous aluminum alloys at low-to-high
temperatures [17,18]. In order to obtain ultrafine-grained
structure in bulky materials, SPD processes, such as equalchannel angular pressing (ECAP), multidirectional forging
(MDF) are normally used [19]. Here, taking 7A04 ultrastrength aluminum alloy as the research object; the objectives of the present research are to analyze the effect of
several passes deformations on the mechanical properties
and microstructure.
Table 1. Chemical compositions of 7A04 aluminium alloy (%).

Cu
Mn
Cr
Fe
Si
Oth-
Al
ers
5.97
2.08
1.68
0.29
0.15
300
280
260
0.39
0.12
0.005
Bal
Yield strength
Tensile strength
240
200
Deformation passes
Figure 1. Influence of deformation passes on strength and elongation.
Elongation %
8
6
4
2
0
Deformation passes
Figure 2. Influence of deformation passes on elongation.

18
2
Impact toughness (J/cm )
The material used in the experiment is the extruded rods

of 7A04 ultra-high strength aluminium alloy; its chemical
composition is shown as Table 1. The total deformation
degree is 70%. The size of bar stock is 100mm60mm and
the size after compression is 180mm18mm. There are 5
groups for compression deformation. The first group experienced one time deformation and the second group two
times deformation (the decrement is the same); similarly,
the fifth group undergoes five times of deformation. Every
group has 4 samples (the reason is to avoid invalid data,
one more test sample is prepared in every group and the
results will be selected among three of them). Different
passes deformation samples will be numbered, then the
data for the experiment can be obtained by averaging values. The heating temperature is 400. For the sake of the
homogeneity of the heating, the samples and the templates
should be heated by hot-air circulating furnace for 30
minutes before compression. Experiments were performed
on the 6300KN hydraulic press. In the process of compression experiment, the top and bottom templates use
insulation board to ensure all the samples have the same
deformation temperature, and room temperature exchange
is ignored. Tensile samples are processed according to
GB/T2975 standard strictly and tensile experiment is made
on the ZDM-30 universal material machine according to
GB/T228-2002 standard. Impact samples are processed
according to GB/T229-1994 and impact experiment is
carried on the XJJ-50 impulsion machine and impact
speed is 3.8 m/s. Metallographocal observation is taken by
the ZEISS digital metalloscope. Polish is AL203 and flannel will be used. Etchant is Keller (0.5mlHF+1.5mlHCl
+2.5mlHN03+100mlH2O).
Mg
320
220
Experiment
Zn
340
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Deformation passes
Figure 3. Influence of deformation passes on impact toughness.
Mechanical Properties. Figures 1 and 2 show the mechanical property curves of after different times of deformation. It is obvious that, after the first deformation, the
tensile strength is 335 MPa, yield strength is 212.5 and
elongation reaches its maximal value 9.25%; with the
increasing of the deformation passes, tensile strength and
yield strength generally tend to increase. After the fourth
deformation, the value reached the highest, tensile strength
and yield strength is 386.7 and 310 MPa respectively but
the plasticity is the lowest, 5.71%. After the fifth deformation, tensile strength and yield strength reduce to 364 and
275 MPa respectively, and the plasticity increased to
443
09.08.2010 14:28:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
7.75%. The graph indicates that with the increasing of
deformation, the difference value between tensile strength
and yield strength is diminishing gradually from the first
deformation of 122.5 MPa to the third deformation of
65MPa, then the value increases with the deformation,
reaching 90 MPa at the fifth deformation. It is obvious
that 70% deforming amount with one time forming can
acquire better mechanical properties, and the difference
value between tensile strength and yield strength reaches
the highest, namely 122.5 MPa with the widest forming
scope, maximum elongation 9.25% and the lowest yield
strength 212.5 MPa, which is more suitable for plastic
processing. But at the third and the fourth deformation, the
difference value between tensile strength and yield
strength are minimum with the narrowest forming scope
and the lower elongation, which is not suitable for plastic
processing.
Figure 3 shows that with the increasing of the deformation, the value of the impact toughness of the alloys is
firstly decreasing and then increasing. After one time compression, the value of impact toughness is the highest
17.87 J/cm2 and then decreases with the deformation pass
increases; it is minimum at the third deformation pass,
namely 9.29 J/cm2. With the deformation pass increases,
impact toughness increase gradually and reaches 13.48
J/cm2 at the fifth deformation.
Microstructure. Figure 4 is microstructure graph of the
alloy after serveral times of deformation. In the experiment, Zn/Mg=2.87>2.2, so the phase transition in the
precipita-tion process of the alloy is (supersaturated
solid solution)-GPregion-(MgZn2)-(MgZn2)[6]. The
mechanical property of the alloy is mainly determined by
MPT. Figure 4 shows that there are obvious elongated
fibrous tissues distributed along the metal flow direction.
After the first deformation, grey (MgZn2) precipitated

phases are not uniform, about 12-35 m (Figure 4(a)). It is
not well-distributed along the flow direction. With the
deformation pass increases, precipitated phase becomes
very tiny (Figure 4(b), (c)). After the fourth deformation,
the size of precipitation strengthening phase is about 4 m
and its number is increasing continuously, and at the same
time, it is more and more disperse (Figure 4(d)). We can
know from precipitation strength theory that the more
second-phase particles, the greater the resistance suffered
by dislocation in the process of movement. As a result, the
strength increases. It is manifested as the strength increases gradually with the deformation pass increasing.
After the fifth deformation, the size of the crystalline
grains enlarges obviously (Figure 4(e)), which makes the
strength decreases. Furthermore, inside the crystalline
grain there are phase particles of Mn and Cr which form
MnAl6, (CrFe) Al7, (CrMn) Al12 and A13Zr etc. [8]. Dispersive distribution of these phases in the alloys avoids the
dislocation and the migration of grain boundary, which
increase the recrystallization temperature, and prevents the
nucleation and growing of recrystallization effectly, and
makes the strength increase correspondingly. There is
substructure in grains and in the process of deformation
dynamic recovery occurs and grains enlarge obviously, as
the strength decreases after the fifth deformation. Because
coarse precipitates distribute in the grains boundary, and
during the fourth deformation, with the deformation pass
increases, it is more and more dispersible along the grains
boundary as a result of decreasing the strength of the
grains boundary and expanding the tendency of the cracks
along the grains boundary. Compared with transgranular
expansion, the resistance suffered by cracks in the process
of expansion along the grains boundary and the energy
needed in the expansion process are less, so the energy
(a) First deformation
(c) Third deformation
(b) Second deformation
d) Fourth deformation
(e) Fifth deformation.
Figure 4. Microstructure structure after different times of deformation.
444
09.08.2010 14:28:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
absorbed by the materials in the process of cracking is
little. As the deforming pass increases, the plasticity and
impact toughness decrease. It is shown from the metallographic microstructure that in the process of deforming,
many pitchy and black brittle phases are produced and
with the deformation increases, these phases enlarge
gradually which is the immediate cause of decreasing
plasticity and impact toughness.
After deforming, there are numerous dislocation cells in
tissues and they are in the state of GP region. In the following process of heat deformation, precipitated phases
basically dissolve in the matrix; solute is redistributed
together with dislocation movement and dislocation cell
structures during the interactions. After the fifth deformation, elongation of the alloys can be improved greatly. The
reason is the reciprocity between dislocation rearrangement and solute redistribution, and dislocation has the
capability of removement owing to the interaction between
GP region and dislocation.
Conclusions
1. Under the present experiment conditions, after the first
deformation, the yield strength of 7A04 alloy is minimum 212.5MPa, and the difference between tensile
strength and yield strength is maximum 122.5 MPa,
therefore deformation range is the widest, which are
more suits for plastic forming. After the fourth deformation, the difference between tensile strength and
yield strength is minimum 65 MPa, with the narrowest
deformation range, which is not suit for plastic forming.
2. After the second or third deformation, better comprehensive mechanical properties can be obtained.
3. As the deformation times increase, the grain size of
matrix precipitated phase (MgZn2) decreases after the
fourth deformation and the amount increase gradually.
The grain becomes dispersible and well-distributed.
4. In the process of deforming, many pitchy and black

brittle phases are produced. With the increase of deformation, these phases enlarge gradually, which decreases the plasticity and impact toughness.
Acknowledgements
This paper was supported by National Natural Foundation of China (No.50735005, No.50605059), Natural
Foundation of Shanxi Province (No.2009011028-1) and
Study Abroad Foundation of Shanxi Province(No.
2008066).
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[1] W.S. Miller, L. Zhuang: Materials Science and Engineering A, 280
(2000), 37-49.
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A, 280 (2000), 102-107.
[3] James T. Staley et al.: Advance Materials & Processes, 10 (1991),
17-20.
[4] J. Wloka et al.: Corros Sci, 49-3 (2007), 1437-1440.
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[6] X. Chen, R. Song, J. Li: Material Review, 23-2 (2009), 67-70.
[7] K.H. Chen, L.P. Huang. Trans: Nonferrous Met. Soc. China, 13-3
(2003), 484-486.
[8] R.G. Song: Material Review, 14 (2000), 20-21.
[9] Q. Zhang, J. Cui: Material Review, 16-1 (2002), 61-63.
[10] D. Yan: Materials Science and Technology, 1-1 (1993), 40-42.
[11] Song R. G, et al.: Acta Mater, 52-16 (2004), 4727.
[12] X. Chen, R. Song, J. Li: Material Review, 23-2 (2009), 67-70.
[13] D. Yan: Material Engineering, 2 (1991), 15-17.
[14] X. Chen, R. Song: Hot Working Technology, 38-2 (2009), 93-97.
[15] B. Peng, A. Ning: Hot Working Technology, 35-18 (2006), 30-32.
[16] K. Higashi: Material Japan, 36-12 (1997), 1131-1135.
[17] I. Mazurina, T. Sakai, H. Miura, O. Sitdikov, R. Kaibyshev: Materials Science and Engineering A, 486 (2008), 662-671.
[18] O. Sitdikov, T. Sakai, E. Avtokratova: Acta Materialia, 56 (2008),
821-834.
[19] S. Ringeval, D. Piot, C. Desrayaud, J.H. Driver: Acta Materialia, 54
(2006), 3095-3105.
445
09.08.2010 14:28:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
3-D FEM Simulation of Aluminum Extrusion

Ping-Hsun Tsai1), Wan-Chi Chang1), Guogi Li2), Jaebong Yang2), Jin Yong Oh2), Michael Foster2), Wei-Tsu Wu2)
1)
Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC), 1001 Kaonan Hwy, Kaohsiung / Taiwan, MID@mail.mirdc.org.tw;
Forming Tech. Corp., 2545 Farmers Dr, Columbus, OH 43235 / USA
2)
Scientific
An Al 6061 precision small rail is used as the research target for both FE Analysis and experiment. The compression tests are done to
obtain the material database and apply to FEM. Three formulations, including Transient updated Lagrangian (UL) formulation, Steady state
Eulerian (SS) approach, and ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) approach, are applied with the material database to study analytical
results of extrusion processes, and are compared with the actual experiment which is done through 350 US Ton direct extrusion press. The
parameters such as extrusion load, temperature, ram speed, strain stress, etc are compared. The results of simulations show that the
predicted load correlates well with the loads obtained from the extrusion experiments. This good correlation between simulated and experimental loads shows the importance of using accurate material database like the flow stress input data. The advantages of FEM technique
in accurately predicting extrusion loads and deformed extrudate have been demonstrated and validated by an industrial extrusion example.
We could also think about the future effort, like more validations, user friendliness, computational efficiency, and coupling of micro-structure
and thermal-mechanical models.
Keywords: Al 6061 precision small rail, Extrusion, Compression test, FEM, Updated Lagrangian formulation, Eulerian approach, Arbitrary
Lagrangian Eulerian approach
Introduction
FEM (finite element method) is widely used for various
industrial cases, including forging, rolling, casting, extrusion, etc to predict if the designs are appropriate [1,2].
Nevertheless, extrusions which have great extrusion ratio
(the area reduction ratio from billet to extrudate), complex
shapes (i.e. shapes with a lot of fins, extreme contrast of
thickness) and sharp corners pose tough challenges for
FEM.
Typically, three formulations are used to extrusion simulations: (1) Transient updated Lagrangian (UL) formulation, where the mesh is attached to the deforming billet,
can produce some results that are difficult or impossible to
obtain from other methods with long runtimes. (2) Steady
state Eulerian (SS) approach, in which the mesh is fixed, is
fast with no transient information, and the thermalmechanical stationarity may not be well established in
reality. (3) ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) approach,
which falls somewhere between the other two methods. It
is efficient for this class of problems [3-4], since the frequent remeshing inevitable in UL can be eliminated, and
some of the shortcomings of SS can also be circumvented
since the procedure is incremental in nature.
In this study, Al 6061 precision small rail is used as the
research target for both FE Analysis and experiment. The
compression tests are done to obtain the material database
and apply to FEM. The formulations above are applied
with the material database to study analytical results of
extrusion processes, and are compared with the actual
experiment which is done through 350 US Ton direct extrusion press. The parameters such as extrusion load, temperature, etc are compared. The results of simulations
show that the advantages of FEM technique in accurately
predicting extrusion loads and deformed extrudate have
been demonstrated and validated by an industrial extrusion
example. We could also think about the future effort, like
more validations, user friendliness, computational effi-
446
ciency, and coupling of micro-structure and thermalmechanical models.

Actual Extrusion Experiment Al 6061 Precision
Small Rail Direct Extrusion Test
Experimental Conditions. To make sure the 3-D FE
simulation is reliable, getting a result to compare with
from actual extrusion experiment is necessary. The
Scheme of direct extrusion and shape of small rail are
shown in Figure 1 respectively. A 350-ton direct extrusion
press is used, which is shown in Figure 2.
(a) Scheme of direct extrusion

(b) Small rail
Figure 1. Scheme of direct extrusion and Shape of small rail.
Figure 2. 350-ton direct extrusion press.
Table 1 shows the experimental conditions. Three initial

billet lengths are used here. The target we expect to get is
the extrusion load of different billet length. The die holder
with built-in electric heating coil heats the experimental
die; the container is also designed with built-in electric
09.08.2010 14:28:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. Extrusion experimental conditions.

Material
Al 6061
Billet size
Diameter: 63.5mm
Length:
1. Billet A: 100 mm
2. Billet B: 160 mm
3. Billet C: 200 mm
Temperatures
Billet: 460C
Dies: 430~440C
Dummy block: 460C
Container: 400C
Ram speed
33.3 mm/sec
Section area
Weight per meter
528mm2
1.42kg
Figures 3 and 4 are photos of the extrudate taken in the

experiment. The slightly burgeoning shape is seen at the
front end, and the welding lines are clear in all different
experiments. Figure 5 shows surfaces of extrudate. Figure
5(a) shows that if we change the extrusion speed suddenly
during extrusion, the waved surface defect will happen,
thats why we emphasize to keep the speed fixed or
changed as stable as possible. Figures 5(b) shows the surface is quite uniform when it reached steady state.
(a)Top view
(b) Front View
Figure 3. Front end of extrusion (200 mm billet).
sufficient, longer billets are strongly suggested to apply

because of mass product. It depends on the users requirements and the limitations they face.
(a)speed changes suddenly

(b)steady state extrusion
Figure 5. Surfaces of extrusion.
Load (SI tons)/ Preesure (kg/cm2)
heating coil, which can help the billet remain necessary

extruding temperature. An electric furnace is used to preheated Billets and dummy block. When all the temperatures are ready, the hydraulic system transfers energy to
the ram to force the dummy block to push the billet. The
billet bears high forming pressure, starts to deform and
flow into the die chamber. When the chamber is full of
deformed material, the extrusion pressure increases and
forces the material to form the shape of small rail, which is
determined by the die, and flow out of the die outlet.
400
350
350
299
300
250
217
175
200
150
205
127
Load (SI tons)

Pressure (kg/cm2)
100
50
0
100
160
200
Billet Length (mm)
Figure 6. Load and pressure of experiments.
Compression Test Establish the Flow Stress

Compression Test Conditions. A Gleeble-3500 thermal-mechanical simulator is used to get accurate flow
stress curves for Al 6061. Testing conditions are shown in
Table 2. The strain rate is from 0.1 to 50, and the temperature is from 400 to 560 C in order to cover all the possible
strain rate and temperature for Al 6061 extrusion in actual
industrial cases. The flow stress curves obtained from the
tests are functions of temperature, strain and strain rate,
and are imported into DEFORM-3D for use in the simulations. Figure 7 shows the dimensions of workpiece and
one of the test results.
Table 2. Gleeble testing conditions.
Temperature(C )
Al 6061
400
480
560
0.1
A
B
C
Strain
5
D
E
F
rate
50
G
H
I
(a) Top view

(b) Front view
Figure 4. Front end of extrusion (160 mm billet).
Figure 6 shows the results of experiments. The maximum load is 220 SI tons for the 100 mm billet (max. extrusion pressure is 127 kg/cm2), and is 299 SI tons for 160
mm billet (max. extrusion pressure is 175 kg/cm2). When
we use 200 mm billet, the max load is 350 SI tons (max.
extrusion pressure is 205 kg/cm2). Obviously, the billet
length directly affects the load because of the friction with
the container wall. In real industrial cases, shorter billets is
widely used if the load is severe or the quality is difficult
to control. If the quality is proved and the press capacity is
Figure 7. Workpiece dimensions and flow stress stress of Al 6061.
447
09.08.2010 14:28:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
DEFORM-3D Simulation and Comparison between
FEM & Experiment
DEFORM-3D Simulation. DEFORM-3D, widely used
in various forming researches, is used to simulate the precision small rail extrusion to get the load prediction. Three
kinds of simulation formulations mentioned above are
used in this research and the results are compared with the
actual experiments.
In the simulations, all settings except billet length are
the same as those in Table 1. When setting up the simulation, the flow stresses are first input from an existing material library. The friction factor at the interface between the
billet and container is set to 1, while 0.4 is used on the die
surface and bearing channel. The extrudate distortion is
also calculated.
Billet length is chosen to be 160 mm only. Without mesh
deformation and re-meshing, SS approach is applied to get
the extrusion results in a short time. The SS simulation is
run until the deformation reaches a steady state solution.
At that time, nodal velocities, temperatures and elemental
strains of the billet are obtained.
To view all the deformation history (Figures 8 and 9),
including the front end shape and the trend of load changing, UL formulation is used. At the start of the process, the
billet is compressed in the container and the five legs were
extruded. The outer legs are longer than the inner leg at
this point. These five legs then enter the welding chamber
where the four outer flows converge. During this process,
the flow of these outer legs is impeded and the inner leg is
allowed to freely extrude. For this reason, the central leg
ends up longer than the outer four. The press load increases substantially as the welding chamber filled, and
the extrudate begin to form. The internal ribs are the final
feature of the cross-section to form as the extrudate come
out of the die.
Figure 9. Stages of the UL simulation: (a) initial billet, (b) extrusion

of legs, (c) material in welding chamber and (d) final extrudate
formation.
In an updated Lagrangian extrusion simulation, the

workpiece mesh deforms and extrudes through the dies.
Due to the extensive deformation at the die corners,
remeshing of the workpiece is a common occurrence. Selfcontact of the merging flows in the welding chamber also
contributes to remeshing. When the four outer flows essentially merge in the welding chamber, the selfcontacting surfaces between the flows are manually removed to speed up the simulation (Figure 10).
Figure 10. Manually removed of elf-contacting weld seams.
Considering both time issue and some deformation history, ALE is also applied. ALE simulation is run with the
same mesh system as SS is. Figure 11 shows the temperature prediction of inner plane of the extrudate of ALE, and
Figure 12 shows that of surface of the extrudate of ALE.
Of course, varying element sizes are used in different
regions no matter which method is use, as shown in Figure 13. In this way, the deformation details are captured
more accurately and the computation resources are utilized
more effectively.
Figure 8. Temperature prediction in UL.
Figure 11. Temperature prediction in ALE (Inner).
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09.08.2010 14:28:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
1
350
299
260
0.95
270
255
250
0.9
0.90
200
0.87
0.85
0.85
150
100
0.8
SS
Figure 12. Temperature prediction in ALE (Surface).
Precision (%)
Load (SI tons)
300
ALE
UL
Actual
experimrnt
Figure 15. Comparison of three DEFORM formulations.
Conclusions
Figure13. Example of varying element sizes of FE model.
Figure 14 shows that the three simulation approaches

show good agreement with one another with regard to
steady state load prediction. The load is about 260 SI tons
for SS extrusion, about 255 SI tons for ALE extrusion, and
is about 270 SI tons for UL extrusion. As shown in Figure
14, we could understand that UL is the method which can
gather all the deform history. Compared with the actual
load of 160 mm billet extrusion, the load predicted accuracies are about 87%, 85% and 90% for SS, ALE and UL
extrusion respectively, as shown in Figure 15. This good
correlation between simulated and experimental loads
shows the importance of using accurate flow stress input
data.
The following results are obtained:

1. With lots of improvements, the load prediction is reliable for extrusion cases.
2. The shape prediction of UL simulation is also in good
agreement.
3. The accurate the material database we have, the accurate the simulation results we get.
4. The next stage for CAE software to upgrade will be (1)
time saving and (2) user friendly.
In this study, SS simulation takes less than two hours,
ALE takes ten hours and UL takes 126 hours. But the
actual extrusion try out usually takes less than the time UL
needs, which shows how to achieve time saving is really
important in the next stage. Besides, the function of automerge for UL formulation will be an important task in the
future, and more case studies for validations is also important. These point out that we still have lots more to strive
for.
References
[1] M. Ales, S. Boris: Computer & Structure, 68 (1998), 283-293.
[2] H.H. Jo, C.S. Jeong, S.K. Lee, B.M. Kim: J. Material Processing
Technology, 139 (2003), 428-433.
[3] F. Belytschko, W.K. Liu, B. Moran: Wiley, (2000), 600.
[4] G. Li, W. Wu, P. Chigurupati, J. Fluhrer, S. Andreoli: Latest Advances
in Extrusion Technology and Simulation in Europe, Bologna, Italy.
(2007).
Figure 14. Comparison of three DEFORM formulations.
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09.08.2010 14:28:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
Surface Stress Profiles and Forming Limit in Radial Extrusion

Jeong-Hoon Noh, Beong Bok Hwang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, Incheon / Korea, jhnoh@inha.ac.kr
The stress profiles and forming limit at the die/workpiece are analyzed by the rigid-plastic finite element method. The surface flow patterns
at the contact boundary in the radial extrusion process are investigated in terms of surface expansion, pressure distributions exerted on the
die surface, relative sliding velocity between die and workpiece, and sliding distance along the die surface, which are useful information for
evaluating the tribological conditions at the die/workpiece interface. The forming limit of a flange in radial extrusion is also analyzed in terms
of axial and circumferential strain, and surface stress profiles such as surface expansion. Deformation pattern in flange forming is also
investigated and categorized as sticking and separating which is closely related to surface cracks of flange as one of ductile fracture. The
analysis has been performed with variations of gap heights and die corner radii. The forming limit diagrams, which are the main result of
this study, were obtained based on the surface expansion at the tip of flange. The simulation results were also compared to those of experiments. AA 3105 aluminum alloy is used as a model material for simulations.
Keywords: Radial extrusion, Stress profiles, Surface expansion, Forming limit
Introduction
Radial extrusion is a forming process in which one or
two opposed punches move axially causing radial flow
into die cavity or into an annular space. Component featuring a central hub with complex flange geometry, such as
tube fittings or differential gears, are typical parts that can
be produced advantageously by radial extrusion without
the need of secondary machining operations [1]. Many
process designers have studied the radial extrusion processes by extensive experimental work or finite element
simulations. Extensive experimental work performed by
Andersen [2] led to the operational limits and revealed the
existence of four different modes of deformation in the
radial extrusion of tubes. Schtzle [3] in his experimental
work determined operational limits for AISI 1006 steel in
radial extrusion of cylindrical solid billet with double
action tooling. Gouveia [4] anticipated ductile fracture on
workpiece surface in radial extrusion processes by FE
analysis and compared to the experimental results. From
the previous works [5-7], the principal design factors of
radial extrusion process were found such as gap height, die
corner radius, shape of perform, friction etc. These design
factors have great effects on the material flow and product
quality in terms of surface cracks of flange.
Generally, systematic classification of the cracks or defects, which occurs in various cold forgings, is as follows;
a) formed cracking which occurs according to the degree
of end constraint of specimen or is caused by the depression of material; b) ductile fractures caused by stress-state
and deformation history, and c) dimensional error caused
by shape of a mold and lubrication condition [8]. In the
forming process of flange, most defects mainly come out
to be ductile fracture, which propagate from the flange
edge to the shank when the tangential (hoop) stress becomes too large for the workpiece material [9]. Such defects of flange can affect the designed die shape, process
condition and even product reliability.
In the present study, the radial extrusion process has
been numerically analyzed and compared to the experimental results in order to see the effects of process parameters such as die corner radius, gap height, and friction
450
factor on the forming limit of flange. Surface stress profiles were also predicted along the workpiece surface to
investigate the relationships between forming limit and
surface load of workpiece, especially those between surface expansion and the formation of surface crack at
flange tip and to explain the surface deformation patterns
in detail in terms of surface expansion, pressure distribution along the tool/workpiece interface, relative sliding
velocity between tool and workpiece, and sliding distance
of workpiece on the tool surface. The main objective of
this study is to explain the forming limit of flange in radial
extrusion in terms of different surface loads of workpiece
such as ratio of axial to circumferential strain and surface
expansion. A commercially available FEM tool, i.e. Deform2-DTM [10], has been used for numerical analysis,
which is programmed in rigid plasticity theory [11].
Analysis of Radial Extrusion
Geometrical Parameters in Analysis. The initial billet
and final product including die geometry are shown in
Figure 1. The figure shows the principle of process, geometrical parameters used in this work, and material points
adapted to measure surface load characteristics on workpiece and tool surfaces. For the numerical analysis in this
study, a common aluminum alloy, AA 3105, was selected
and the flow stress of the model material at room temperature is found in the reference [12], which was authors
early experimental work. Friction factor at the
tool/workpiece interface in experiments was found as 0.1
using a mixture of common grease and MoS2 [13]. The
major process parameters are identified as gap height(s),
relative stroke (hst/D0; D0: initial billet diameter), and the
die corner radius(r), respectively. The figure also depicts
the material points on the surface of die and workpiece
employed for horizontal coordinate as an abscissa in the
figures to describe the relationships of surface stresses
such as surface expansion (SE=A/A0; A: current surface
area, A0: initial surface area), contact pressure(P), sliding
velocity (SV), and sliding distances (SD), respectively.
09.08.2010 14:28:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
D0
and dies were modelled as a rigid body. The die velocity

was kept constant at 1.0 mm/sec., and the friction factor
employed in analysis was 0.1 throughout the analysis. The
upsetting process ended when the reduction in height
reaches at 50%.
CL
hst
1
2
3
4
5
7 8
9 1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1
Figure 1. Schematic configuration of workpiece and die geometries.
To investigate the effect of gap height (s) and die corner

radius (r) on the material flow and surface stress, FE
analyses were performed for different values of gap height
(s) and die corner radius selected within operational limits.
The other process parameters such as punch stroke (hst),
initial billet diameter (D0), billet height (H), and friction
factor maintain constant throughout simulations. Constant
relative deformation means that the volume of material
extruded into the flange is constant. The specific values of
process parameters are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Summary of process parameters used in analysis.
Initial billet diameter (D0)
16 mm
Initial billet height (H)
40 mm
Relative deformation (hst/D0)
1.25
Friction factor (m)
0.1
Gap height (s)
2, 4, 6, 8 mm
Die corner radius (r)
1, 3, 5 mm
Experiments[12]. Compression test was carried out to

obtain the flow stress-strain relationship, that is to determine strength coefficient and work-hardening exponent by
power law [14] at room temperature and expressed as
equation (1). In order to measure the friction factor at the
interface, ring compression test was conducted to find the
friction factor m as 0.1.
= 280 . 3 0.17
MPa
(1)
A single-action hydraulic press of 50 tonf frame capacity was used for the experiments of the radial extrusion
process in this study with the ram speed of 1mm/sec.
FE Analysis. In the radial extrusion process similar to
upsetting process, the diameter of the billet at the bottom
section increases as the process goes on. Simulations of
radial extrusion process were carried out by a commercially available FE code programmed in rigid-plasticity.
Simulations have been conducted with a solid cylindrical
billet of 40.0 mm in height and 16.0 mm in diameter until
the relative stroke (hst/D0) reaches 1.25. Due to the nature
of symmetry, one half of the specimen was represented to
construct a 2-D model. A total of 3,000 quadrilateral elements were employed to model the specimen. The punch
Deformation Patterns. Comparison of sectional view

between simulations and experiments are shown in Figure
2 for different die corner radii and gap heights. The figure
reveals similarity between them in terms of global deformation pattern. In the top figure, the bottom section of the
material keeps in contact to the flat die regardless of the
die corner radius for the constant gap height of 6.0 mm
both in experiment and in simulation. However, in the
bottom figure, different gap heights have been adopted in
simulations with the same die corner radius of 5.0 mm. It
is seen in the figure that the workpiece near the flat die
flows away from the die surface in case of 4.0 mm in gap
height, while it sticks to the flat die surface with the gap
height of 6.0 mm. This is because of difference in flow
resistance between upper and lower flange surface for
different die corner radius. As the gap height increases, the
material on the top surface of flange flows smoothly and
thus the workpiece material tends to flow away from the
surface near the exit of die corner. It is also revealed in the
figure that barrelling occurs on the lateral surface of flange
in sticking condition.
(a) r = 1 mm
(b) r = 3 mm
(c) s = 4 mm
(d) s = 6 mm
Figure 2. Comparison of deformation patterns between simulation

and experiment for different die corner radii with s=6.0 mm (top)
and for different gap height with r=5.0 mm (bottom), respectively.
Figure 3 shows the effects of process parameters employed in experiments on the deformation patterns in terms
of sticking, separating, and cracking. As can be seen easily
in the figure, the global deformation pattern is categorized
into three cases such as sticking, separating, and cracking,
respectively, according to different process parameters, i.e.
die corner radius and gap height. It can be said from the
figure that the sticking state maintains at the beginning of
the process regardless of the process parameters selected
and then the workpiece material separates from the lower
flat die as the punch stroke increases. As the punch stroke
increases further, the cracking occurs at the flange tip. This
tendency is amplified as the gap height decreases as well
as the die corner radius decreases. However, it can be seen
easily in the figure that the gap height is the more influencing parameter than the die corner radius.
451
09.08.2010 14:28:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
150
s = 2, r = 1
(separating, cracking)
s = 2, r = 3
s = 2, r = 5
s = 4, r = 1
s = 4, r = 3 (separating)
s = 6, r = 1 (sticking)
Surface Stresses. It is well recognized that different

process parameters lead to different surface load conditions such as surface area changes, contact pressure, sliding speed between tool and workpiece, and sliding distance of the workpiece on the die surface. These surface
stresses have been predicted in the radial extrusion process
both on the bottom and lateral surfaces of workpiece in
terms of surface expansion and on the lateral surface of
workpiece in terms of normalized contact pressure (P/Y)
between die and workpiece, normalized relative sliding
velocity (SV/VDIE; VDIE: die velocity) between die and
workpiece, and normalized sliding distance (SD/hst) of the
workpiece along the die surface, respectively. These values
constitute surface load or stress profiles which describe the
severity of surface deformation or load acting on the tool
surface.
Predictions have been made at 50% reduction in height,
i.e. at relative stroke of 1.25, in Figure 4 in terms of relationships both between surface expansion and the distance
from the center in original billet on the bottom surface
(top) and surface expansion and the distance from the top
in original billet on the lateral surface (bottom), respectively. It is seen in the figure that the surface expansion on
the bottom surface increases as the distance from the center in original billet decreases and this tendency is amplified with decreasing both the gap height and die corner
radius. It is also revealed in the figure that the gap height
is the most influencing process parameter affecting on the
surface expansion both on the bottom and lateral surfaces
in the billet. The experimental results [12] were placed on
the curves in the figure in terms of deformation mode such
as separating, cracking, and sticking, respectively. The
surface expansion near flange tip on the lateral surface
increases as the gap height decreases and this is intensified
with decreasing die corner radius. It is seen in the figure
that the gap height of 2.0 mm lead to distinctive surface
expansion distributions among the cases analyzed such
that the surface expansion is very high near the flange tip.
In this case, cracking occurred at the flange tip, in which
the flange tip flows separate from the surface of flat die. It
is easily known in the bottom figure that cracking at the
flange tip was expected when the maximum value of surface expansion on the lateral surface exceeds 1.5 under the
process conditions employed in this study.
452
90
60
m = 0.1
relative stroke (hst/D0) = 1.25
30
0
3.5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Distanace from center in original billet [mm]
s = 2, r = 1 (separating, cracking)
3.0
2.5
Surface expansion (SE)
Figure 3. Sticking, separating, and cracking for various gap

heights and die corner radii [12].
Surface expansino (SE)
120
2.0
m = 0.1
hst/D0 = 1.25
cracking
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
5
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Distance from top in original billet [mm]
Figure 4. Surface expansions for various gap heights and die
corner radii on bottom (top) and lateral surface of workpiece
(bottom), respectively.
Figure 5 shows the normalized contact pressure (top),

normalized relative sliding velocity (middle), and normalized sliding distance (bottom) distributions on the lateral
die surfaces at 50% reduction in height, respectively. Sliding velocity together with contact pressure at the contact
boundary is considered as one of important parameters for
evaluation of hydrodynamic lubrication. Predictions of
sliding distance of the material on the die surface together
with contact pressure are essential to the assessment of the
wear behavior of tools. It is revealed in the figure that the
contact pressure increases as the gap height decreases and
this tendency is intensified with decreasing die corner
radius. It is also seen in the figure that the trend of sliding
velocity distribution is the same as those of contact pressure. However, the sliding distance decreases as both the
gap height and die corner radius decreases. It can be also
said that lubrication must be more carefully prepared for
smaller gap heights and more severe tool wear is also
expected for greater gap heights.
09.08.2010 14:28:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Normalized sliding distance (SD/hst) Normalized sliding velocity (SV/VDIE) Normalized contact pressure (P/Y)
30
s = 2, r = 1
25
The experimental results [12] are summarized in Table 2

in terms of flange diameter when the cracking occurs. It
can be said in the table that larger flange diameter can be
formed as the die corner radius increases for the same gap
height. From this experimental result, the forming limit in
terms of flange diameter is found approximately as 2.5do.
s = 8, r = 1
s = 2, r = 5
20
s = 8, r = 5
15
10
m = 0.1
hst/D0 = 1.25
0
2.5
Table 2. Flange diameters at cracking.

Parameters
s (mm)
s = 2, r = 1
s = 2, r = 5
1.5
s = 8, r = 1
s = 8, r = 5
s = 8, r = 1
s = 8, r = 5
m = 0.1
hst/D0 = 1.25
0
10
15
20
Folded-out lateral surface distance

from the billet top [mm]
25
Figure 5. Normalized contact pressure (top), sliding velocity

(middle), and sliding distance (bottom) distributions for various gap
heights and die corner radii on lateral die surface, respectively.
Forming Limits of Flange. Figure 6 shows the surface

strain evolution predicted from FE analysis at the flange
tip where the surface cracking occurred in experiments
[12]. Simulations and experiments were conducted with
the gap height of 2.0 mm for different die corner radii. It is
seen in the figure that the ratio of axial to circumferential
strain tends to keep constant for each die corner radius
employed and the circumferential strain increases as the
die corner radius increases at the critical point of fracture
for the same gap height. However, this ratio decreases as
the die corner radius increases. The dotted line in the figure shows a constant slope and denotes the critical point
where cracking occurs. This line was obtained from experiments and defined as a forming limit of flange in the
present study.
1.2
Circumferential strain ()
Forming limit line
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
s = 2, r = 1
s = 2, r = 3
s = 2, r = 5
0.2
0.0
-0.8 -0.7 -0.6 -0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1

Axial strain (z)
0.0
Figure 6. Evolutions of surface strains at flange tip where cracking

occurs for s=2.0 mm.
40.1
41.6
42.7
Conclusions
m = 0.1
hst/D0 = 1.25
0
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
[Experiment]
Flange Diameters (mm)
0.5
r (mm)
The forming limit in radial extrusion process has been

analyzed by simulations in term of surface stress profiles
and compared to those from experimental results. It is
revealed that the radial extrusion process constitutes three
stages such as sticking, separating, and cracking. It can be
generally said that cracking tends to occur as the gap
height and die corner radius decreases. Cracking does not
occur when the deformation mode is sticking. The expected forming limit line mainly depends on the circumferential strain near the flange tip. The forming limit in
terms of flange diameter is about 2.5 do. Cracking was
also expected when the maximum value of surface expansion on the lateral surface reaches 1.5 under the conditions
employed in this study.
Acknowledgment
This paper was published with supported of INHA University Research Grant.
References
[1] M. Arentoft, S. B. Petersen, J. M. C. Rodrigues, P. A. F. Martins, R.
Balendra, T. Wanheim: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
52 (1995), 460-471.
[2] B. Andersen , C.B. Andersen: M.Sc. Thesis, Institute of Manufacturing Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, (1991).
[3] W. Schtzle: Technical report, Institute for Metal forming, University
of Stuttgart, 93 (1987).
[4] B.P. Gouveia, J.M.C. Rodrigues, P. A. F. Martins: Journal of Materials
[5] B.D. Ko, S.H. Lee, D.J. Kim, B.B. Hwang: Journal of Materials
[6] Y.S. Lee, S.K. Hwang, Y. S. Chang, B. B. Hwang: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 113 (2001), 136-140.
[7] H.J. Choi, J.H. Choi, B.B. Hwang: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 113 (2001), 141-147.
[8] T. Okamoto, T. Fukuda, H. Hagita: The Sumitomo Search, 9, (1973),
216-226.
[9] J.A. Paul, R. Shivpuri, T. Altan: ERC/NSM Report, No. B8928 (1989),
11.
[10] SFTC: Deform-2DTM Ver. 8.0 User Manuals, Scientific Forming
Technologies Corporations Inc., (2004).
[11] C. H. Lee, S. Kobayashi, New Transaction ASME Series B, 95
(1973), 865-873.
[12] B.D. Ko, H.J. Choi, J.Y. Lim, B.B. Hwnag: Transactions of Materials Processing, 12-3 (2003), 228-235
[13] B.D. Ko: Ph. D. Thesis, Inha University of Korea, (2003).
[14] Air Force Material Laboratory: Forming equipment, Materials and
Practices, Metal and Ceramics Information Center, (1973), 164.
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09.08.2010 14:28:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
Models for Determination of Interface Strength and Quality of Aluminum-Magnesium

Compounds
Kai Kittner, Carolin Binotsch, Birgit Awiszus
Department Virtual Production Engineering, Institute of Machine Tools and Production Processes, Chemnitz University of Technology,
Reichenhainer Str. 70, D-09126 Chemnitz, Germany, kai.kittner@mb.tu-chemnitz.de
A hydrostatic co-extrusion process and the manufactured compounds are investigated. The compounds are made of aluminum and magnesium, alloyed (AlMgSi1/AZ31) and unalloyed (Al/Mg). Of special interest are the quality of the generated compounds and the strength of
the compound or interface, respectively. It was already reported about the first process optimizations, the interface strength and the FEAmodels for the compound behavior during (experimental) loading tests. This paper deals with the results of further investigations about the
compound quality and the possibilities to describe the quality based on the stresses during the process. A better quality is achieved by
adaptations of the die geometry. The influence of the die on the yield stress of the materials will be explained in detail. The awareness of
the parameters results in a combined model to describe the quality and the strength of the compound.
Keywords: Extrusion process, Interface, Interface quality, Aluminum, Magnesium, Interface strength, Bond strength, Co-extrusion, Compounds, FEM
Introduction
Reducing the weight by substitution of conventional materials such as steel is one main target of technical improvements, especially in the automotive sector. In this
field exists a high potential for compound and composite
materials which allow using the best properties of the
combined materials. The application of light-weight materials, such as aluminum and magnesium, is of increasing
importance. However, a widespread application demands a
better understanding of these materials and their behavior.
This concerns production processes of semi-finished products as well as the products themselves.
Therefore the SFB-Project 692, also called HALSHigh-Strength- Aluminum based- Lightweight materials
for Security components, was initiated in 2006 at the
Chemnitz University of Technology.
In one subproject compounds made of aluminum and
magnesium are investigated. These compounds are manufactured in a hydrostatic co-extrusion process. Previous
works analyzed the compounds regarding the interface
quality [1,3,4] and the interface strength [2]. This paper
shows the further important results of the subproject.
The following Figure 1 shows the procedure principle

of hydrostatic extrusion process
.
Figure 1. Procedure principle of hydrostatic extrusion process.
Process and Compound Analysis

In the first step, it is assessed that the compound shows a
high density of imperfections/ cracks in the interface. For
further forming processes and for the applications in final
components in the automotive, aircraft or railroad sector it
is not allowed to have cracks. These are structural weaknesses and induce ruptures of a part.
Therefore it is necessary to continuously improve the
quality of the compound. For that reason it is essential to
know process values such as stresses, temperatures, strains
and velocities. If the process values are known, it is possible to change the most influential parameters to improve
the compound quality. For the optimization it is indispensable to use the FEA. Therewith arrays of stress and strain
are determinable, which are not measurable during the
process.
454
Figure 2. Imperfections in the interface/ cracks.
For fast testing of the compound quality considering the

high number of strands and the approximately length of
the compounds of 3500 mm a dye penetrant test was used.
Test specimens were extracted from several points of the
strand and were analyzed. In areas with cracks the red test
color escapes from the gaps and colored the white contrast
layer (see Figure 2). Figure 3 shows a schematic picture
of the strand with the dye penetrant test specimens. It
reveals that more than half of the interface section has
cracks.
09.08.2010 14:28:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 3. Bad compound quality, results of dye penetrant test.
In the first step a FEA-model was generated and calibrated in FEA-system simufact.formingGP 9.0, formerly
known as MSC.Superform. The parameters exit speed,
equivalent of plastic strain, the force displacement curve
and the geometry of the strand especially the start of
strand with ahead streaming magnesium were calibrated in
the simulation. The parameters for calibration were the
friction, heat exchange coefficients and material description yield stress. Until now, based on security and technical aspects, it was not possible to measure the temperature during the process. Thus, cooperation between the
analyzing departments and the Extrusion Research and
Development Center in Berlin was initiated additionally,
which works on co-extrusion of magnesium and aluminum
too [5]. There are the possibilities to get much more process values. The results of pressings experiments by Extrusion Research and Development Center were used to verify the temperature field in the processes and also regard
to the temperature the yield stress model-parameters. For
these called parameters the results between the experiments and the FEA-analysis are similar and so a calibrated
state for the extrusion process simulation was reached.
The main results, process force and process temperature,
for a simulation of an extrusion process (start temperature
300 C) with AlMgSi1 and AZ31 are presented in the
following pictures, Figures 4 and 5.
Figure 5. Temperature field in forming zone of process, left hand

side: at the beginning, right hand side: at the end.
The final forming work during the process is composed

of ideal forming work, friction work and shear work. High
gradients of shear work between the materials result in
high contact shear stresses. The yield stress and the geometry of the die influence the shear work. At first, the
yield stress effects the gradients of shear stress between
the materials. At second, the geometry has an impact too.
By changing the die angle the gradient of shear stresses is
reduced and so the shear stresses in the interface are decreasing. Regarding the realization of influencing parameters the geometry of the die was improved. In detail the die
angle was reduced down to 35 and the die radius was
enlarged up to 15 mm. With reference to figure 3 the advance of quality is noticeable in Figure 6.
Figure 6. Improved compound quality, results of dye penetrant test.
In Figures 7 and 8, the contact shear stress and the geometry of the former die are opposed to the new die (materials: AlMgSi1/AZ31, Hensel-Spittel formulation). It can
be seen that the contact shear stress in the improved, new
die is significantly reduced compared to the former die.
Figure 4. Force displacement and temperature curves.
With the calibrated state it was possible to investigate

the process in detail.
The essential fact of analysis is that high shear stresses
occur between the aluminum and the magnesium. This is
due to the different flow behaviors of the materials. If we
take a look at the yield stress models the yield stresses for
same parameters like plastic strain, plastic strain rate and
temperature are different. Therefore different flow behavior follows different yield stresses.
Figure 7. Contact shear stress and geometry of former die.
For a better understanding the fact was analyzed furthermore in detail. For the real flow behavior a yield stress
model according to Hensel and Spittel is used. Thus the
yield stress depends on the plastic strain, plastic strain rate
and the temperature. The parameters for this model based
on yield data from literature and were fitted by the department of materials engineering.
455
09.08.2010 14:28:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
cable compound is higher. For the former die, this fact is
exemplary comprehensible in Figure 11.
Figure 8. Contact shear stress and geometry of improved die.
During the process, the materials pass trough different

arrays of temperature. The plastic strain and the strain rate
are changing permanently, too. So in different points the
yield stress is different inside of one material. But there
are two materials. This makes it difficult to separate the
several influences. Therefore a rigid plastic yield stress
model was used to describe the flow behavior.
Figure 9. Distribution of equivalent of stress (inhomogeneous) in

the die area during the process, yield stress array depends on
strain, strain rate and temperature (Hensel- Spittel-flow criterion).
Figure 10. Distribution of equivalent of stress (homogeneous) in

the die area during the process, yield stress is constant for different strains, strain rates and temperatures (rigid plastic).
Thus it is possible to determine and separate the important influencing parameters. Therefore the effects are far
clear. And thus the results are transferable to the processes
with the real flow behaviour of the materials.
Three kinds of rigid plastic compound combinations
are investigated. At first a combination of 50/120 N/mm
(50 N/mm for the outer material) is exemplary for the real
combination of Al99.5 and AZ31, at second 120/120
N/mm for the real combination AlMgSi1 and AZ31 and at
last 200/120 N/mm for AlMg4.5/AZ31. As already said,
the investigations do not reflect the real values, but they
show the ratios regarding the yield stress and the die geometry.
The different material combinations are analyzed. It
became evident that the ratio of materials has a strong
effect on the contact shear stress especially in the exit area
of the strand. For the combination 50/120 the contact shear
stress was lower than for the other combinations. The
argumentation is that for softer outer material the contact
shear stress is smaller and therewith the chance of impec-
456
Figure 11. Shear stress for three rigid plastic material combinations in the exit area of the strand (former die).
This considerations cause the new die geometry. Based on

the improved die an optimized die is designed.
In the next step the influence of the geometry is examined.
For a better understanding the contact shear stress is visualized in place of the shear stress. Figure 12 clearly shows
the reduction of contact shear stress for the decreasing of
the die angle. The displacement of the maximum value is
due to the displacement of the exit area in the dies based
on the geometrical changes. For the same die geometry the
maximum values are in the same position (see Figure 11).
Figure 12. Contact shear stress for one rigid plastic material
combination in the exit area of strand (all dies).
Figure 13. Contact shear stress and geometry of the optimized die.
Figure 13 shows the contact shear stress for the optimized die design during the simulation with the materials
AlMgSi1/AZ31 (yield stress formulation according to
Hensel-Spittel).
Further investigations deal with analysis of the ratios of
diameters of the different materials and the gradient of
velocity between the compound partners. As noticeable in
Figure 14 the geometry has an impact on the velocity
gradients during the process. And it is not only the effect
09.08.2010 14:28:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
of the materials and the die angles; it is an effect of the
radius of the die, too.
Figure 14. Exit speed of strand/ velocity of the different die designs.
However, this knowledge must result in a criterion to

predict the quality of the compounds. It is comprehensible
which compounds show a good quality, a middle quality
and a bad quality. Based on elementary methods and the
explained knowledge a criterion is developed which respects the influence of different yield stresses, die geometries, geometries of the two compound partners and the
gradients of velocity. For these parameters a value is computed. It is possible to assign the quality of compound to
these values. So we have a limit which reveals if the coextrusion process works (This means it has an impeccable
quality) or if the process does not work, Figure 15.
DProcess = Dstress ( material / die geometry ) Dgeometry of

(Example:
billet
Dvelocity
Figure 16. Computed interface strength depending bond strength

model according to Vaidyanath for AlMgSi1/AZ31 compound.[1]
The final step of the investigations of the compounds is

a model which describes the diffusion between the materials. This model should not determine the phases in chemical structure, it should only describe the thickness of the
diffusion zone during the process based on the parameters
time, temperature and contact normal stress.
The three mentioned models, quality model, interface
strength model and diffusion model, are an allencompassing description of the co-extrusion process
regarding the quality and the strength (see Figure 17).
These models are implemented partially in the FEA by
user-subroutines.
DProcess 1 The process is acceptable, good quality.

DProcess > 5 The compound shows cracks, bad quality.)
Today the developing of the quality criterion is not finished yet. The final aim is to find a limit based on a value
in percent.
Figure 17. Structure to evaluate the co-extrusion process.
With a successful implementation of these models it will

be possible to estimate the quality of the compound and
the compound strength based on the parameters of coextrusion process. Experimental loading test will be reduced down to a minimum, if they are necessary at all.
And further forming processes, like die forging, can use
these results to evaluate manufacturing methods.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgment
Figure 15. Process range for the former die.
The advantage of the criterion is that it is transferable to

other solid compound extrusion processes with copper/copper or copper/aluminum and so on. It is independent of the concrete material; it does depend on the flow
stress. But it does not consider the principal possibility of
bonding between the materials. Therefore it is necessary to
use knowledge about diffusion in solid materials.
The method to use bond strength models to compute the
interface strength during the process is already described
in [1]. The visualization of computed interface strength
can be seen in Figure 16.
The authors acknowledge the German Research Foundation (DFG) for supporting this work carried out within the
framework of project SFB 692.
References
[1] K. Kittner, B. Awiszus: Key Engineering Materials, 424 (2010), 129135.
[2] T. Lehmann, M. Stockmann, J. Naumann: FME-Transaction. 37-1
(2009), 1-8.
[3] K. Kittner, B. Awiszus, T. Lehmann, M. Stockmann, J. Naumann:
Materialwissenschaft und Werkstofftechnik (Materials Science and
Engineering Technology), 40-7 (2009), 532-540.
[4] B. Awiszus, K. Kittner: Proc. 9th International Conference on Technology of Plasticity, Gyeongju, (2008), 258-259.
[5] J. Muehlhause, S. Gall, S. Mueller: Key Engineering Materials, 424
(2010), 113-119.
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Metal Forming
Evaluation of Fracture Surface Features in Support of Extrusion Tools Design Optimization

Pawel Kazanowski
Advanced Engineering, Kaiser Aluminum, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, pawel.kazanowski@kaiseral.com
The analysis of failures of extrusion dies is a very important aspect of extrusion die manufacturing. Establishing the cause of failures provides information for improvements in design, material selection, operating procedures, and the use of components. Understanding how to
interpret observed surface features of fatigue fractures provides a basis for meaningful results. In this paper the emphasis is placed on the
macroscopic fracture surface appearance associated with known loading conditions. The fracture face analysis can provide a range of
information about possible tool fracture causes. The type and direction of the forces acting on a die during the extrusion process as well as
their magnitude and fluctuations can be determined through the fracture face analysis. The study deals with real failure, in which the scope
of the failure analysis was limited by factors such as the time that could be devoted to the problem, the expense of the testing desired and
particularly incomplete information about the failure situation. Despite these limitations very valuable information was gathered and findings
were implemented into proper design and use of extrusion die.
Keywords: Aluminum extrusion, Die failure, Fractography, Damage analysis, Hot work tool steel
Introduction
A large proportion of the failures in metallic materials is
due to the fact that the basic principles for their application
have been ignored. Failure analysis is a process that is
performed in order to determine the causes or factors that
have led to an undesired loss of functionality. The contribution of the failure analysis results to the advancement of
the scientific foundation of extrusion tools design optimization is still quite limited [1-4].
The analysis of failures of metallic components is an extremely important aspect of engineering. Establishing the
causes of failures provides information for improvements
in design, operating procedures, and the use of components. The objectives of a failure analysis can vary however in many cases the investigation is often performed to
prevent a recurrence of the failure [5-7].
Valuable information has long been known to exist in
the fracture surfaces of metals, and through the years various approaches have been implemented to obtain and
interpret this information [8]. The objective of the failure
analysis process described in this report is to determine
type and origin of fracture observed on tools broken during the hot aluminum extrusion process.
Visual Examination and Fractography [3]
Fractography is the term coined by Zapffe in 1944 following his discovery of a means for overcoming the difficulty of bringing the lens of microscope sufficiently near
the uneven surface of a fracture to disclose its details
within individual grains [8]. The purpose of fractography
is to analyze the fracture features and to attempt to relate
the topography of the fracture surface to the causes and /
or basic mechanism of fracture.
Broken hot aluminum extrusion dies come in all shapes
and sizes, and they are used in many different environments, which complicate interpretation of failures. An
extrusion die that was used and then stored in a moist or
high temperature environment with heavy corrosion deposits can sometimes be more challenging to evaluate than
458
one that was used and stored in a dry environment. Yet,

some fracture surface contaminations give helpful clues
about how the crack started and grew and how long it took
to grow. The specialist in extrusion die fracture analysis
can often see things that are not obvious to someone who
has not studied fractography.
Not much published work is available in the area of the
hot aluminum extrusion die failure analysis where fracture
face is methodically described. Jung et al. [1] documented
the various types of the extrusion tooling failures occurring at different stages of the hot aluminum extrusion
process with special focus on heat treatment related failures; however no detailed fracture face analysis is included. Analysis of many fractured dies presented by Arif
et al. [2] leads to some very exciting conclusions, such as
fatigue fracture being the principal failure mode for solid
dies, wear and deflection being almost equally responsible
for hollow die failures, and all the three major failure
modes contributing almost evenly to breakdowns of semihollow dies. Again, Arifs analysis does not include any
reference to the fracture face evaluation.
Fortunately, the features of the broken parts provide
clues as to what types of stresses were really present. It is
not always possible to know for sure exactly what types of
stress were present, but even in these cases, it is often
possible to know what stresses did not cause a particular
crack to happen. In summary, visual examination and
fractography give the specialist the tools to determine
whether or not the die design appears to be basically sound.
Other features can give an idea about whether a manufacturing problem has created a brittle material where a ductile material would have been expected. Brittle materials
tend to be much less forgiving of usual operating conditions than ductile ones. Still other features can shed light
on whether an excessively sharp fillet at a section change
is creating higher stresses than necessary.
Fractured Extrusion Die Evaluation
Hot Aluminum Extrusion Die. General view of the hot
aluminum extrusion hollow die and support tooling is
09.08.2010 14:28:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
presented in Figure 1. The hollow die consists of a die
mandrel and die cap encapsulated by a die ring and is
supported by the bolster. During extrusion metal flows
through the hollow die ports, welds in the welding chamber, and exits simultaneously through the die opening and
around the mandrel forming a hollow shape.
on the crack growth velocity, cycle duration time,

loading magnitude, etc. Although not always visible
to the naked eye the beach marks indicate fatigue
fracture.
The shear lip develops as the last feature observed on
the fracture face and is a result of the change in the
state of stress from one of tri-axial tension to one of
plane stress.
Figure 1. Hot aluminum extrusion hollow die and support tooling

assembly.
Several fractured dies of the same size and design were

analyzed. All dies submitted for evaluation exhibited very
similar fractures of the tongue supporting the hollow die
mandrel. In Figure 2, the section through the hollow die
cap is presented clearly indicating the crack propagation
area. In the same figure investigated fracture face on the
fractured tongue is also indicated.
Figure 3. Fracture face details (beach marks and shear lip) observed on support tongue separated from hollow die cap.
Fracture face presented in Figure 4 shows all attributes of brittle fracture faces. This face is characterized by very little plastic deformation and by radial
ridges that emanate from the crack origin area at the
right edge of the fracture surface. The ridges, also
called river marks, run parallel to the direction of the
crack propagation, and a ridge is produced when two
cracks that are not coplanar become connected by a
tearing of the intermediate material.
Figure 2. Analyzed fracture face position within hollow die cap.
Fracture Face Details. Regardless of how and why a

fracture occurs, the end result is a creation of a new surface and, in extreme cases at least two physical pieces
from what was once a single solid. Fractures demand the
existence of a crack or flaw somewhere within the solid,
and stresses which induce the crack to propagate.
Some of the fracture face details shown in Figure 3 are
very characteristic and unique:
Beach marks (also known as oyster-shell marks, tide
marks, ripple marks, stop marks, arrest marks, or
clamshell marks) almost always surround the origin
area and are formed at an early stage of fracture during the cyclical loading of the part. With every loading cycle the crack propagates, exposing more freshly created fracture surfaces. Exposed surfaces oxidize,
and characteristic marks are created. The difference
in appearance is caused by such factors as variation
Figure 4. Fracture face details (river marks) observed on support

tongue separated from hollow die cap.
459
09.08.2010 14:28:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 5. Probable position and direction of applied force leading

to the tongue fracture.
Based on the results of the fracture face evaluation one

can conclude that the fracture originated at the top of the
tongue and propagated almost parallel to the extrusion
direction. The fracture could be a result of force applied to
the top of the tongue as pictured in Figure 5. Observed
fracture face also exhibits many characteristics of the
brittle fracture face.
Macroscopic Aspects of Brittle Fracture Face. In general, a brittle fracture can be distinguished by the following factors:
Little or no visible plastic deformation precedes the
fracture.
The fracture surface is generally flat and perpendicular to the loading direction, and to the component
surface.
The fracture may appear granular or crystalline and is
often highly light reflective. Facets may also be observed, particularly in coarse-grain steels.
Characteristic markings on the fracture surface frequently, but not always point back to the location
from which the fracture originated.
In general, it is a characteristic of very hard, strong,
notch sensitive metals to be brittle, although research work
attempts to raise useful strength of these metals without
the danger of a brittle fracture. Steels used for extrusion
dies differ from most other steels in several aspects. First,
they are used to extrude other products with aluminum.
Second, dies are generally used at higher hardness than
most other steel products. These high hardness requirements are needed to resist anticipated service stresses and
to provide wear resistance. However, the steels must also
be tough enough to accommodate service stresses and
strains without cracking.
Very seldom are macroscopically observed fractures entirely brittle or ductile. In most cases a mixed mode (ductile and brittle) is present.
Heat treatment
Manufacturing
Service conditions
Die design
Material and Heat Treatment. High speed tool steel

used for all evaluated die caps met required chemical
specifications of critical alloying elements and impurities.
Further metallographic analysis confirmed adequate steel
microcleanliness (severity levels of non metallic inclusion
content). Heat treatment charts were evaluated, and evidence of required two tempering cycles with cooling to
ambient temperature between temper cycles was found.
Hardened microstructure consisted essentially of tempered
martensite with some bainite. There was no evidence of
perlite, retained austenite, decarburization, carburization
or excessive intergranular precipitation. In summary, no
irregularity was found in the material used, and heat treatment applied to the analyzed die caps.
Manufacturing. All of the evaluated die caps were
manufactured to the same revision level and were finished
using the same sequence of manufacturing steps. Available
manufacturing documentation shows no variation and final
inspection charts confirm adherence to the required revision level.
Service Conditions. All of the evaluated dies cracked
after several production runs including a complete cleaning cycle. The number of extruded billets before fracture
was different for all of the evaluated dies, however it never
reached 20 % of service life expected for similar dies.
Available support tools die rings and bolsters were
evaluated for flatness, signs of wear, cracking, etc. On
several bolsters evidence of quite heavy aluminum build
up was observed as presented in Figure 6. Conditions like
that could lead to high tensile stress fields at the exit side
of the hollow die cap. High tensile stress, in turn, could
concentrate at the tongue area and produce a fracture. The
fracture would begin at the exit side of the die cap, while
the fracture face evaluation clearly shows that the origin of
the fracture is positioned on the entrance side to the die
cap. Moreover, the shear lip that is formed as the last element of the fracture face is positioned at the exit side of
the die cap (see Figure 3 for details).
Potential Failure Cause Evaluation

Investigation of potential failure cause evaluation included detailed examination of available data in the following areas for potential inconsistencies:
Material
460
Figure 6. Aluminum buildup observed on the face supporting

hollow die assembly during extrusion.
09.08.2010 14:28:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
Die design. The crack origin on all evaluated die caps
was localized in the same area at the entrance side to the
die cap, suggesting some heavy force applied to the top
surface of the tongue as pictured in Figure 5. Detailed
analysis of the hollow die assembly (including hollow die
mandrel and hollow die cap) was conducted.
Analyzed die design has a very special arrangement of
the hollow die mandrels as presented in Figure 7. The gap
is present between one of the mandrels and the hollow die
cap. The gap should close during the hot aluminum extrusion process. The closing force should be high enough to
keep both parts in contact during extrusion and preventing
aluminum from entering the contact area. On the other
hand, the closing force should be light enough to prevent
the supporting tongue from cracking.
In this case the gap length was too small. The die was
designed assuming that the hollow die mandrel and hollow
die cap would deflect identically upon loading. In general
the hollow die mandrel deflected more than hollow die cap.
5. Remaining dies were quarantined while fractured hollow die caps were returned to the supplier for evaluation.
Die Design Remarks
The hollow die design process is quite rigorous. The die
designer should follow the set of rules established for most
types of hollow die designs. The following rules should be
added to the die designer tool box:
1. The way the hot aluminum extrusion tools are supported
is as important as the tool design. Improper support can
lead to premature tool failure and even the best tool design is not sufficient when abused.
2. It is very important to evaluate fractured part as a part of
assembly for possible interactions leading to premature
damage. In the described case analysis of fractured die
cap alone would lead to false results.
3. Hollow die mandrel and die cap deform differently
under the same loading conditions and this fact must be
reflected in the gap design between the top of the
tongue and the bottom of the mandrel. In most cases,
the mandrel will deflect much more than die cap.
Conclusions
Figure 7. Hollow die section.
Summary of Evaluation
The objective of failure analysis described in this report
was to determine type, origin and direction of fracture
observed on tools broken during the hot aluminum extrusion process. Fracture face analysis indicated that the facture originated at the top of the hollow die cap tongue. The
direction of the extrusion was found to be parallel to the
direction of extrusion.
Based on observed fracture face details one can propose
the following sequence of events leading to observed hollow die cap fracture:
1. Die manufactured and accepted for production based
on correct profile dimensions after the die trial on the
press.
2. Dies ordered and accepted for production without die
trials on the press.
3. Some cracking initiated and started to propagate in the
die cap tongue area (see several beach marks in Figure
3), fatigue phase of the fracture.
4. Several die caps fractured at the die cap tongue area
before reaching 20% of expected service life, brittle
phase of the fracture.
In this paper, the emphasis is placed on the macroscopic

fracture surface appearance associated with known loading
conditions. The fracture face can provide a range of information about the causes:
1. The type and direction of the forces acting on a die.
2. The magnitude and fluctuations of theses forces.
3. The general indication of the length of time from initiation to final fracture.
Most extrusion dies are subjected to some sort of bending or torsion loads in addition to any axial loads that they
have. For this reason, surface initiated cracks are more
common that internal cracks. And again this reminds us of
the importance of good machining practice. A smooth
surface will often go a long way toward preventing fatigue
cracks.
References
[1] I. Jung, V. Lubich, H.-J. Wieland; Proc. 6th International Tooling
Conference, Karlstad, (2002), 1343-1362.
[2] A.F.M. Arif, A.K. Sheikh, S.Z. Qamar; J. Materials Processing Technology, 134 (2003), 318-328.
[3] P. Kazanowski; Proc. 9th International Aluminum Extrusion Technology Seminar, Aluminum Association and Aluminum Extruders Council, Orlando, (2008).
[4] P. Kazanowski; Aluminium and its Alloys, 4 (2009), 71-73.
[5] C. Brooks, A. Choudhury: Metallurgical Failure Analysis, McGrawHill, (1993).
[6] D.J. Wulpi: Understanding How Components Fail, American Society
for Metals, Metals Park, (1985).
[7] ASM Handbook, Vol. 11, Failure Analysis and Prevention, 9th ed.,
American Society for Metals, Metals Park, (1996).
[8] ASM Handbook, Vol.12, Fractography, 9th ed., American Society for
Metals, Metals Park, (1992).
461
09.08.2010 14:28:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Ti Addition on Tensile Properties of C-Mn Steels Subjected to ECAE and Heat
Treatment
Akira Yanagida, Keisuke Ishikawa, Kensaku Okazaki, Akira Azushima
Graduate School of Engineering, Yokohama National University, 79-5, Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama/ Japan, yanagida@ynu.ac.jp
The SPD (severe plastic deformation) process is used to produce lightweight parts with high strength and for minimum environmental
impact. However, the work-hardening capabilities of metals heat-treated by the SPD are still inferior to those of metals with coarse grains.
With aim of improving the work-hardening capability of C-Mn steels, three different Ti-alloyed carbon steels are prepared to investigate the
effect of Ti addition on the tensile properties after the ECAE (equal channel angular extrusion) process and the subsequent heat treatment.
From the results of two-pass ECAE processed with route C and subsequent heat treatment at 600 C for 30 s to 300 s, it is confirmed that
the addition of Ti is effective for improving the strength and work-hardening capability.
Keywords: ECAE (Equal channel angular extrusion), Ti-alloyed steel, Tensile strength
Introduction
The SPD (severe plastic deformation) process is used to
produce lightweight parts with high strength and for minimum environmental impact. The high strength is obtained
by grain refinement, but the ductility of metals after SPD
becomes very low. To improve the ductility of metals
processed by SPD, they undergo subsequent annealing [1].
The authors [2,3] previously investigated into the effect of
the heat treatment at a temperature of 600 C after the
ECAE (equal channel angular extrusion) process for various low-carbon steels. From the results, it was found that
the tensile strength decreased and the total/uniform elongation increased with increasing heat treatment time in all
carbon steels. However, the work-hardening capabilities of
heat-treated SPD metals are still inferior to those of metals
with coarse grains. An effective method of improving the
work-hardening capability is to introduce effective obstacles preventing dislocation motion in the ultra fine grain
interior. Park et al. reported that the isothermal transformation due to the precipitation of vanadium during ECAE
and subsequent annealing was effective in improving the
thermal stability. The overall tensile properties of the steel
were improved by the uniform distribution of nano size
vanadium precipitates, which yielded an extensive interaction with lattice dislocations inside ultra fine ferrite grains
[4].
To improve the work-hardening capability of C-Mn
steels, three different Ti-alloyed carbon steels were prepared for investigating the effect of Ti addition on the
tensile properties after ECAE and heat treatment.
all materials are shown in Table 1, and the optical microstructures of the as-received specimens are shown in Figure 1. The initial microstructure of 0.1%Ti steel consists
of ferrite and pearlite, 0.2%Ti steel consists of ferrite and
carbide precipitates at the grain boundaries and 0.5%Ti
steel consists of acicular ferrite. The ferrite grain size is
relatively larger for the Ti-alloyed steel in Figure 1(a) and
(b); it is considered that the amount of TiC precipitates
during hot rolling and subsequent cooling is relatively low.
Thus, it is also assumed that the amounts of Ti in the solute are moderate for each Ti-alloyed steel.
Table 1. Chemical composition of material (mass%)
Material
Si
Mn
Ti
0.5%Ti
0.22
0.20
1.33
0.010
0.005
0.50
0.23%Ti
0.10
0.21
0.30
0.012
0.0007
0.23
0.10%Ti
0.16
0.21
0.41
0.009
0.0007
0.10
S15C
0.15
0.06
0.32
0.014
0.016
S25C
0.25
0.18
0.49
0.019
0.028
25m
(a) 0.1%Ti steel
25m
(b) 0.2%Ti steel
Materials. The experiments were carried out using
0.1%Ti, 0.2%Ti and 0.5%Ti steels. These steels were prepared as 30 kg ingots using a vacuum melting furnace.
Each ingot was homogenized at 1270 C for 1 h and hot
rolled to a plate of 12 mm thickness, 180 mm width and
about 200 mm length. Commercially available hot-rolled
bar of 0.15%C (S15C) and 0.25%C (S25C) steels were
also used for comparison. The hot-rolled specimens were
machined in the rolling direction to dimensions of 7 mm
square and 30 mm length. The chemical compositions of
462
25m
(c) 0.5%Ti steel

Figure 1. Optical micrographs of initial microstructure of Ti-alloyed
steels.
09.08.2010 14:28:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
ECAE Process and Heat Treatment. In the sequence
of side extrusion, the specimen was extruded by rotation it
180 at each pass, as shown in Figure 2. The sideextrusion process corresponds to route C. ECAE was carried out at a constant ram speed of 2 mm/min with a
polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) spray film as a lubricant.
In these experiments, a constant latent pressure of 150
MPa was applied to the specimens [5]. The die angle
was 90 and the outer was 0, because pressure was applied to the back of the specimen. For the present experiments the strain per pass was 1.15 [6].
crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min.

Mechanical Properties after ECAE Process. Figure 3
shows nominal stress-strain curves of the Ti-alloyed and
plain carbon steels before and after ECAE. The asreceived materials exhibit work hardening with considerable elongation, while the materials after ECAE do not
exhibit work hardening. The yielding stress increases with
increasing carbon contents under these experimental conditions. For the Ti-alloyed steels, the yielding stress increases with increasing carbon concentration and the total
elongation decreases with increasing carbon concentration.
It was found that the mechanical properties are more
strongly affected by the carbon concentration than by the
titanium concentration.
Constant speed
Work piece
Back pressure
1000
Route A Route BC Route C
Nominal stress /MPa
90
ND
TD
ED
120 s
200 s
600
400
ECAE
60 s
300 s
As received
Nominal stress /MPa
Nominal stress /MPa
800
1000
800
400
0.1
1000
20 s
30 s
60 s
600
As received
200 s
300 s
0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
Nominal strain
0.4
0
0.0
0.5
80 s
800 ECAE
200 s
300 s
600
As received
400
200
200
200
0.4
Mechanical properties after heat treatment. The

variation of the nominal stress-strain curves with the holding time for each Ti-alloyed steel is shown in Figure 4.
The yield stress decreases and elongation increases with
increasing holding time for the 0.1%Ti and 0.2%Ti steels.
On the other hand, the variation of yielding stress is small
and the work-hardening capacity is maintained for holding
times of up to 80 s for 0.5%Ti steel. For holding times of
200 s and above, a sharp upper yield point is exhibited for
0.5%Ti steel. The variation of the tensile properties with
the holding time in the heat treatment of the Ti-alloyed
steels is plotted in Figure 5. Although the yield and tensile
120 s
400
0.2
0.3
Nominal strain
Figure 3. Nominal stress-strain curves of Ti alloyed and plane

carbon steels after and before ECAE (Route C 2 passes).
Tensile Test. The mechanical properties were measured

by performing tensile tests. Tensile specimens with 4.5
mm in width, 5 mm in gage length and 1 mm in thickness
were electro discharge-machined parallel to the longitudinal axis of the side-extruded specimen. The tensile tests
were carried out at room temperature using a Shimadzu
autograph AG-50kNE testing machine with a constant
20 s
600
0
0.0
The test pieces were side-extruded by up to two passes

except for 0.15%C steel, which was side-extruded by up to
four passes. After ECAE, heat treatment was conducted
with the temperature increased at a rate of 10 C/s from
room temperature to 600 C using an infrared image furnace. The temperature was maintained 10 to 300 s, and
then the furnace was shut off and workpiece was allowed
to cool naturally inside the furnace.
ECAE
800
As received ECAEed
200
Figure 2. Schematic of repetitive ECAE process and presentation

of processing routes.
1000
0.1% Ti
0.2% Ti
0.5% Ti
S15C
S25C
180
Nominal stress /MPa
Spacer
0.1
0.2
0.3
Nominal strain
0.4
0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
Nominal strain
0.4
(a) 0.1%Ti steel

(b) 0.2%Ti steel
(c) 0.5%Ti steel
Figure 4. Nominal strain-stress curves of Ti-alloyed steels after heat treatment with various holding time at 600 C.
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09.08.2010 14:28:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
0.25
800
0.20
600
0.15
400
0.10
200
YS
TS
0.1% Ti
0.2% Ti
0.5% Ti
50
100
150 200 250

Holding time /s
300
Elu
0.05
Nominal stress /MPa
800
600
400
0
0.0
0.00
350
Comparison with plain carbon steels. The representative nominal stress-strain curves after the heat treatment of
0.1%Ti and 0.5%Ti steels under various conditions are
shown in Figures 6 and 7, respectively. For comparison,
the curves for 0.15%C and 0.25%C steels after heat treatment are also shown in Figures 6 and 7, respectively.
Work-hardening is observed in the Ti-alloyed steel, however the plane carbon steels do not exhibit work hardening. It is confirmed that the addition of Ti was effective for
improving the strength and work-hardening capability.
(a) 0.1%Ti steel
0.1% Ti S15C
ECAE
ECAE + Annealing
ECAE + Annealing
As received
200
Figure 5. Variation of tensile properties with annealing time in heat

treatment of Ti-alloyed steels.
25m
1000
0.1
0.4
1000
800
600
400
0.5% Ti S25C
ECAE
ECAE + Annealing
ECAE + Annealing
As received
200
0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
Nominal strain
0.4
Figure 7. Nominal stress-strain curves of 0.5%Ti steel and

0.25%C steel.
Microstructures. Figures 8 and 9 show optical microstructures in the side plane (The TD plane in Figure 1)
parallel to the extruded direction of the Ti alloyed steels
after ECAE and heat treatment, respectively. The shape of
25m
(b) 0.2%Ti steel

Figure 8. Optical micrographs of Ti-alloyed steels after ECAE.
25m
0.2
0.3
Nominal strain
Figure 6. Nominal stress-strain curves of 0.1%Ti steel and

0.15%C steel.
Nominal stress /MPa
1000
Uniform elongation , Elu
Nominal stress /MPa
stresses decrease with increasing holding time, the ratio of

yield stress to tensile stress becomes large with increasing
of holding time. The uniform elongation rapidly increases
up to a holding time of 80 s and then gradually increases
for 0.1%Ti and 0.2%Ti steels. This means that the moderate work hardening occurs in the heat-treated workpieces.
In contrast, 0.5%Ti steel maintains high tensile strength
under these annealing conditions.
25m
(c) 0.5%Ti steel
25m
25m
(a) 0.1%Ti steel

(b) 0.2%Ti steel
(c) 0.5%Ti steel
Figure 9. Optical micrographs of Ti-alloyed steels after two-pass ECAE following by annealing for 30 s at 600 C.
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09.08.2010 14:28:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
the grains is restored their initial shape after ECAE and
heat treatment, so for the original elements to be restored
at even pressing via route C [7]. As shown in Figure 8, it
was found that ECAE was conducted without the formation of cracks in the secondary phase or inclusions. No
definitive difference in the optical microstructure due to
annealing for 30 s at 600 C and can be observed in Figure
9. However, the degree of etching of the inner grains is
slightly reduced compared with that before annealing. It is
supposed that the evolution of the dislocation structure
occurs during annealing. For reference, TEM micrographs
of the side plane of 0.15%C steel after ECAE involving
one, two and four passes, after four-pass ECAE following
by heat treatment at 600 C (YS = 750 MPa) are shown in
Figure 10. Ultra fine grains and unrefined grains are observed after one-pass ECAE structure as shown in Figure
10(a). The fraction of refined grains increases with the
number of passes. Ultra fine grains with a major axis
length of 0.5 m and a minor axis length of 0.3 m are
formed by four-pass ECAE of as shown in Figure 10(c). A
mixture of static recovery, slightly larger grains and unrecovered grains is observed after heat treatment as shown in
Figure 10(d), in which average grain size remains less than
0.7 m. It is estimated that the grain size of Ti-alloyed
steel after ECAE and heat treatment is almost same level
of plain carbon steel, and to obtain ultra fine grains over
most of the workpiece, ECAE involving at least two
passes is required.
Discussion. To examine the effect of ECAE on the improvement of work hardening, the heat treatment at 600 C
200nm
200nm
(a)
(b)
200nm
with a holding time of 20 s are conducted for the as-rolled

Ti-alloyed steels. The stress strain curves were almost
the same as those before heat treatment. The ECAE process and the subsequent heat treatment are important factors
in improving the strength and ductility. Shin et al. [4]
reported that homogenously distributed nano size precipitates resulting from strain-induced precipitation and subsequent heat treatment enhance the strength and workhardening capability. Precipitation-strengthened hot-rolled
steel by nano size carbides has also been developed [8].
From these previous results it is considered that the improvement of work-hardening capability is due to the
presence of nano size TiC precipitates, which induced
severe plastic strain and subsequent heat treatment inside
ultra fine grains.
Conclusion
With the aim of improving the work-hardening capability of C-Mn steels, three different Ti-alloyed carbon steels
were prepared to investigate the effect of Ti addition on
the tensile properties after the ECAE process and heat
treatment. The following results were obtained.
1. The mechanical properties after ECAE were more
strongly affected by the carbon concentration than by
the titanium concentration.
2. The addition of titanium was effective for improving the
strength and work-hardening capability of steels after
ECAE and the subsequent heat treatment.
References
[1] A. Azushima, R. Kopp, A. Korhonen, D.Y. Yang, F. Micari, G.D.
Lahoti, P. Groche, J. Yanagimoto, N. Tsuji, A. Rosochowski, A. Yanagida: CIRP Annals, 57-2 (2008), 716-735.
[2] K. Aoki, Y. Kimura, Y. Asada, A. Azushima: Materials Science Forum,
426-432 (2003), 2765-2710.
[3] K. Aoki, A. Azushima: Materials Science Forum, 539-543(2007),
2884-2891.
[4] K.T. Park, S.Y. Han, D.H. Shin, Y. K. Lee, K. J. Lee and K.S Lee:
ISIJ International, 44 (2004), 1057-1062.
[5] A. Azushima, K. Aoki: Material Science and Engineering A, 337
(2002), 45-49.
[6] Y. Iwahashi, J. Wang, Z. Horita, M. Nemoto, T.G. Langdon: Scripta
Materialia 35 (1996), 143-146.
[7] M. Furukawa, Y. Iwahashi, Z. Horita, M. Nemoto, T.G. Langdon:
Material Science and Engineering A, 257 (1998), 328-332.
[8] Y. Funakawa, T. Shiozaki, K. Tomita, T.Yamamoto and E. Maeda,
ISIJ International 44 (2004), 1945-1951.
200nm
(c)
(d)
Figure 10. TEM micrographs of 0.15 %C steel after ECAE
involving (a) 1 pass, (b) 2 passes , (c) 4 passes and (d) four-pass
ECAE following by heat treatment at 600 C (YS = 750 MPa).
465
09.08.2010 14:28:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of ECAP Processing Parameters on Microstructure of TA15 Titanium Alloy

Yan Zhao, Hongzhen Guo, Yongqiang Zhang, Zekun Yao, Zhifeng Shi
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian / China, zhaoyan19831029@163.com
A study was conducted on the microstructure evolution of TA15 titanium alloy processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). The
overall objective of this study is to investigate the influence of ECAP processing parameters on microstructure of TA15 alloy. In conclusion,
we state that pass, route and temperature significantly affected the microstructural development of TA15. Higher strain level can promote
grain refinement, whereas, having grains refined at a certain level, additional increase of pass number cannot change the grain size and
aspect ratio generally. Route BC (rotating 90 in the same direction) was most effective for TA15 in grain refinement, yielding equiaxed
grains with the size of 1-3 m. The optimal parameters of route and pass number for TA15 were BC and 4. Equiaxed microstructure can be
obtained by ECAP below the - transformation temperature (T). As pressing temperature increased, the equiaxed grains became coarser
and the proportion of equiaxed phase decreased. The optimal pressing temperature for TA15 was 900 C. In addition, TEM micrographs
illustrate that a large number of tangled dislocations were produced by severe shear deformation. Some deformation twins were developed
by ECAP, which can lead to the continued plastic deformation through the restarting of many slip systems.
Keywords: ECAP, TA15 alloy, Microstructure, Pass, Route, Temperature, Twinning
Introduction
Recent investigations have shown that equal channel
angular pressing (ECAP) [1], as one of the most feasible
severe plastic deformation techniques to date, can form
ultra-fine grained structures and effectively improve properties and forming ability of metals and alloys through
grain refinement [2]. Compared with traditional processes,
ECAP has lots of advantages such as introducing exceptional high strain without changing the cross section of
workpiece.
Many processing parameters can affect the deformation
microstructures resulted from ECAP. They are the pass
number through the die, which corresponds to the total
accumulated strain applied to the material; the deformation
route, which involves rotating the billet between passes;
the pressing temperature and so on.
As a kind of near alloy of high aluminum equivalency,
TA15 (Ti-6Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V) titanium alloy has the merits
of alloy and + alloy, moderate room temperature and
high temperature strength, good thermal stability and perfect welding performance [3]. TA15 titanium alloy is
widely applied in large aircraft construction because it can
work for a fairly long time at the temperature of 500 C.
The majority of the previous reports on the microstructural evolution in ECAP were related to pure aluminum,
pure copper, pure titanium and aluminum alloys [4,6,7]. In
this work, the microstructure developed in TA15 titanium
alloy by ECAP was examined for the first time, and the
effects of the above processing parameters were studied,
which aims at providing process evidence for the fabrication of ultra-fine grained materials.
the as-delivered material which had experienced relief

annealing at 700 C for 1 h followed by air cooling.
Figure 1. Microstructure of as-delivered material.
Cylindrical samples of 16.8 mm in diameter and 35 mm

in height were prepared from the as-delivered bar for
ECAP processing by a YA32-315 four-column universal
hydraulic press. ECAP experiments were conducted in a
105 self-made die (Figure 2) with the channel diameter
in 16.8 mm, which was heated by medium frequency induction heater to reach and maintain the required temperature.
Experimental Materials and Procedures

A reforged bar of TA15 was used in the as-delivered
condition in this experiment. Its chemical composition (wt.
%) was Al 6.8, Mo 1.7, V 2.2, Zr 2.0, Fe 0.07, C 0.01, Si
0.04, O 0.13, N 0.001, H 0.002 and the balance Ti. The -
transformation temperature (T) was established to be
975 C by testing. Figure 1 shows the microstructure of
466
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of ECAP die.
In the experimental program, the cylindrical samples

were processed using ECAP route A (the billet was not
rotated between adjacent passes), Bc (the billet was rotated
90 around its axis in the same direction between adjacent
passes) and C (the billet was rotated 180 clockwise or
09.08.2010 14:28:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
counterclockwise around its axis between adjacent passes),
respectively. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 or more were selected as the
pressing pass numbers, and 900, 925 and 950C (in +
phase region) as the pressing temperatures. Then microstructure observation to ECAPed TA15 alloy was achieved
by optical metallurgical microscope (OM).
The samples quenched rapidly in water after extrusion
were used to carry out transmission electron microscope
(TEM) observation. For the TEM experiment, the samples
were thinned by chemical electrolyte and HITACHI H800
transmission electron microscope with the accelerating
voltage of 175 kV was taken as the experimental instrument.
As a result of increasing strain level, the microstructure of

the sample pressed after the fourth pass (Figure 4(b))
showed better refinement effect and homogeneity than that
after the second pass (Figure 4(a)).

Influence of ECAP Pass Number. According to Eq. (1)
raised by Iwahashi et al. [5], the total accumulated effective strain applied to ECAP sample is related to the internal angle of the die, the outer curvature angle of the
die and the pass number N. Seemingly, grain refinement
would be improved by the higher plastic strain level with
increasing pass number in a same die.
N =
N

[2 cot( + ) + csc( + )]
2
2
2 2
3
(1)
Figure 3. Optical micrographs of TA15 alloy processed by ECAP

for (a) 1 pass and (b) 2 passes using route A at 900 C.
Figure 3 shows the optical micrographs of TA15 alloy

processed by ECAP for 1 pass and 2 passes using route A
at 900 C. Equiaxed grains with the size of 6-10 m,
which were not well refined after 1 pass, were located in
matrix phase. Apparently, uniform equiaxed microstructure was produced and previous grains were refined to
the size of 3-5 m after the second passes.
The optical micrographs of samples pressed for 2, 4, 8
and 16 passes using route Bc are shown in Figure 4. Compared with the as-delivered condition shown in Figure 1,
grains were well refined and globularized obviously, and
quantities of equiaxed grains were produced after ECAP.

for (a) 2, (b) 4, (c) 8 and (d) 16 passes using route Bc at 900 C.
It can be seen that from Figure 4(c) and 4(d), however,

with the increasing pass number of ECAP, the grain refinement was not improved indefinitely but the grain size
reached the refinement limitation after a certain number of
passes. Such similar result has been obtained by Chang et
al. [4] in previous studies on 99.9% Al. Having grains
refined at a certain level, additional increase of pass
number cannot change the grain size and aspect ratio
generally. It was because that when the strain level reached
a certain extent, the dynamic balance between multiplication and annihilation of dislocations was achieved, and
meanwhile recovery played a more significant role with
the increasing internal energy.
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09.08.2010 14:28:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
In addition, recrystallization growth of microstructure
during ECAP at high temperature should be taken into
consideration. More pressing passes means longer total
time at high temperature, which will result in weakening
the refinement effectiveness. From Figure 4(d), grain
growth occurred partly after 16 ECAP passes.
Influence of ECAP Route. Various ECAP routes influence grain refinement by altering the shear plane and the
shear direction in workpiece. Different processing routes
in ECAP introduce different slip systems during the pressing so that they can lead to significant differences in the
microstructures produced by ECAP.
The shear deformation homogeneity of internal deformation cells of alloy cannot be achieved by pressing
through route A. The major difference between route Bc
and C is that the same shear plane is involved in each pass
in route C, while the shear deformation occurs on two
different shear planes in route Bc. So route Bc can gain
uniform shear deformation more easily than route A and C,
besides no aggravating distortion.
Consequently, the microstructure of the sample processed through route Bc (Figure 5(b)) was more homogenous, better refined and equiaxed than that processed
through route A (Figure 5(a)) and C (Figure 5(c)). Equiaxed grains with the size of 1-3 m and typical equiaxed
microstructure with the equiaxed percentage composition of about 85% were produced by ECAP using route Bc.
Whats more, it was found that the influence of pass
number comprehensively depended on the selected route.
Combining optimized microstructure and advanced processing efficiency, the optimal parameters of ECAP route
and pass number for TA15 alloy were BC and 4.

for 4 passes at 900 C using route (a) A, (b) Bc and (c) C.
Iwahashi et al. [6] processed pure aluminum with routes

A, Bc and C using a die with = 90. They summarized
the effectiveness in grain refinement as route Bc > C > A.
On the other hand, Gholinia et al. [7] had different conclusions in a study of aluminum alloys processed with all four
ECAP routes (including route BA) using = 120. They
concluded that route A was the most effective in refining
grains and generating high angle boundaries, while route C
was the least effective. The reason for the different conclusions on the influence of ECAP route seems to be not
quite clear at the present time.
Figure 5 shows the optical micrographs of TA15 alloy
processed by ECAP for 4 passes at 900 C using route A,
Bc and C. The microstructures developed by the 105 die
with route A, Bc and C were compared at an equal equivalent strain about 3.0 according to Equation 1.
468

using route C for 2 passes at (a) 900 C, (b) 925 C and (c) 950 C.
Influence of ECAP Temperature. Lower pressing temperature of ECAP means more difficulties in metal forming and even pronounced shear bands and shear fractures
are produced. Nonetheless, it should be emphasized that to
achieve better grain refinement, lower processing temperature is recommended. High temperature can promote dynamic recrystallization process which causes larger grain
sizes. In summary, under the premise of homogenous
09.08.2010 14:28:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
deformation, lowering pressing temperature can reduce the
influence of recovery and recrystallization growth on grain
refinement.
The optical micrographs of TA15 alloy processed using
route C for 2 passes at the temperature of 900, 925 and
950 C are shown in Figure 6. With increasing pressing
temperature, the equiaxed phase became smaller in number obviously as is shown in Figure 6 and the secondary
lamellar phase began to be separated out as is shown in
Figure 6(c). Grains had not been well refined because of
the possible recrystallization growth of grains since the
sample was processed at the higher temperature.
From Figure 6(a), overwhelming equiaxed grains (even
up to 90%) with the size of 1-5 m can be found distinctly.
Considering that materials with refined, equiaxed and
homogeneous microstructure have remarkable enhancement in strength, corrosion resistance, fatigue properties
and superplasticity, 900 C is taken as the optimal ECAP
temperature parameter for TA15 alloy.
sired shear stress of twinning deformation was lower than

the critical shear stress. As a result, slip deformation could
not be carried out easily but the deformation in grains
depended on twinning to a certain extent (Figure 7(b)).
Additionally, with the decrease in deformation temperature,
the possibility to carry out the twinning deformation was
greater. However, only twinning deformation was far from
enough for ECAP which is a kind of SPD with a great
amount of deformation. What we should pay attention is
that, although the direct contribution of the twinning was
very limited, many prior blocked slip systems were induced to restart to carry on the plastic deformation (Figure
7(c)). The possible reason was that, couple with the higher
deformation temperature, the twinning caused the orientation alteration of grains and then several slip systems were
turned to the profitable orientation.
Conclusions
1. In the ECAP pass, route and temperature significantly
affected the microstructural development of TA15 titanium alloy.
2. Higher strain level promoted grain refinement, however,
having grains refined at a certain level, additional increase of pass number cannot change the grain size and
aspect ratio generally.
3. Route BC was more effective than route A and C for
TA15 titanium alloy in grain refinement, yielding equiaxed grains with the size of 1-3 m and typical equiaxed microstructure with overwhelming equiaxed .
4. Combining optimized microstructure and advanced
processing efficiency, the optimal parameters of ECAP
route and pass number for TA15 alloy were BC and 4.
5. Equiaxed microstructure can be obtained by ECAP
below T. With increasing ECAP temperature, grains
became coarser and the proportion of equiaxed phase
decreased. The optimal pressing temperature for TA15
was 900 C.
6. A large number of tangled dislocations were produced
by severe shear deformation. Some deformation twins
developed by ECAP can induce many prior blocked slip
systems to carry on the plastic deformation.
References
Figure 7. TEM micrographs of samples in quenching condition

after ECAP.
TEM Observation. Figure 7 shows the TEM micrographs of samples in quenching condition after ECAP.
Because of no annealing softening, a large number of
tangled dislocations which were produced by severe shear
deformation can be seen clearly (Figure 7(a)).
Furthermore, -Ti was close-packed hexagonal structure
at the pressing temperatures below T, so the slip systems
of it were less than those of other structures and the de-
[1] R.Z. Valiev, T. G. Langdon: Progress in Materials Science, 51-7

(2006), 881-981.
[2] I.G. Beyerlein, L.S. Toth: Progress in Materials Science, 54-4 (2009),
427-510.
[3] C. Leyens, M. Peters: Titanium and Titanium Alloys, Wiley VCH,
(2003).
[4] J.Y. Chang, J.S. Yoon, G.H. Kim, Scripta Materialia, 45-3 (2001),
347-354.
[5] Y. Iwahashi, J. Wang, Z. Horita, M. Nemoto, T.G. Langdon: Scripta
Materialia, 35-2 (1996), 143146.
[6] Y. Iwahash, Z. Horita, M. Nemoto, T.G. Langdon, Acta Materialia,
46-9 (1998), 33173331.
[7] A. Gholinia, P.B. Prangnell, M.V. Markushev, Acta Materialia, 48-5
(2000), 1115-1130.
469
09.08.2010 14:28:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
Incremental Equal Channel Angular Pressing of Sheets

Andrzej Rosochowski1), Malgorzata Rosochowska2), Lech Olejnik3), Bert Verlinden4)
1)
Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow / UK, andrzej@strath.ac.uk; 2)
Advanced Forming Research Centre, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow / UK; 3) Department of Manufacturing Techniques, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland; 4) Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven / Belgium
Severe plastic deformation is one of the most promising methods of refining grain structure in metallic materials. However, practical applications of this technology are rare because of the lack of industrially acceptable continuous severe plastic deformation processes, especially
those suitable for plates and sheets. To address this problem a newly invented method of incremental equal channel angular pressing was
used to process 250190 aluminium alloy sheet strips. The paper describes the method, tool and press configuration, process parameters
and the results of experimental trials, which prove the feasibility of incremental equal channel angular pressing for processing sheets.
Keywords: Severe plastic deformation, Equal channel angular pressing, Ultrafine grained metals, Aluminium sheets
Introduction
There is increasing interest in metals with submicrometer grain sizes, so-called ultrafine grained metals,
because of a range of improved properties they exhibit.
These include, for example, higher strength, improved
ductility (for magnesium alloys), improved superplastic
properties, better biocompatibility or improved micromanufacturing capability [1,2].
However, ultrafine grained metals are not readily available. They can be produced by using a powder metallurgy
route or, directly from coarse grained metals, by so-called
severe plastic deformation [3,4]. The latter method seems
to be especially attractive because it uses techniques which
are related to standard metal forming processes and, therefore, should be suitable for mass production. Despite this,
most severe plastic deformation processes so far are laboratory-scale, experimental processes, which can produce
only small samples of ultrafine grained metals for metallurgical and mechanical tests.
about 6 lateral dimensions. It must not be too long to avoid

an excessive force caused by friction and the associated
tool design problems. The short length, together with end
effects, causes poor utilisation of the material, often not
exceeding 50% [6].
That is why continuous severe plastic deformation processes are being developed, which are capable of processing long billets, plates or sheets. Figure 2 shows three
examples of such processes: ECAP-Conform [7], accumulative roll bonding [8] and repetitive corrugation and
straightening [9].
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 2. Continuous severe plastic deformation processes:

ECAP-Conform (a), accumulative roll bonding (b), repetitive corrugation and straightening (c).
Figure 1. Schematic of equal channel angular pressing.
The most popular severe plastic deformation method is

equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) [5]. In this process,
a round or square billet is forced through a sharply bent
channel (Figure 1). Since the cross-section of the channel
does not change, plastic deformation occurs only at the
channel bend; the mode of deformation is close to simple
shear as illustrated in Figure 1 by a unit square changing
its shape into a parallelepiped. However, the length of the
leading channel limits the length of the billet processed to
470
ECAP-Conform, is a combination of two well known

processes of ECAP and Conform [10], in which the extrusion die has been replaced by an ECAP bent channel.
ECAP-Conform is one of many new SPD processes,
which rely on the friction force, which drags a billet into
the deformation zone. However, only a limited force can
be generated this way. This was the reason why the winding angle in ECAP-Conform had to be increased compared
to the original Conform process. This is also why the
channel angle in the deformation zone is usually larger
than 90, which reduces the effectiveness of the process.
Another limitation related to the friction-based feeding
system of ECAP-Conform is the reduced capability to feed
09.08.2010 14:28:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
thin and wide billets because only the sides of the billet
provide the effective dragging force (top side and the bottom side friction forces cancel each other unless they experience different friction conditions).
Accumulative roll bonding is the first severe plastic deformation process which deals with sheets while retaining
sheet thickness. In accumulative roll bonding, the sheet is
cut into two pieces, which are then cleaned (brushed),
stacked and warm rolled together to the initial thickness.
The final success of the process critically depends on the
quality of the bond created during rolling. This requires
increasing the rolling temperature which, however, cannot
be too high to avoid grain growth. The final sheet is a
sandwich of thin layers, with rolling texture, so it does not
represent fully homogeneous body.
Repetitive corrugation and straightening comprises
bending of a straight plate with rotating cogwheels and
then restoring the straight shape of the plate with smooth
rolls. The repetition of the process is required to obtain
large strain and desired structural changes. Despite this,
there is an issue of strain inhomogeneity and also efficiency, due to bending rather than shearing being the main
deformation mechanism.
To address some of the above problems, a new severe
plastic deformation process, called incremental ECAP (IECAP), was proposed [11,12]. I-ECAP is suitable for
processing bars, plates and sheets. Initially, it was tried for
bars [13] and plates [14]. The purpose of this paper is to
present the recent results obtained for sheets. The following chapters will describe the general principle of I-ECAP
and its laboratory implementation, which enabled processing of aluminium sheets.
deformation steps reduces or eliminates friction during

feeding; this enables processing very long/infinite billets.
Incremental ECAP of Sheets
Tooling. To realise the I-ECAP process on a standard,
vertical press, it is recommended that two billets in the
mirror configuration are processed simultaneously in order
to avoid a lateral force. Such configuration, for 1010
cross-section billets, has been successfully tried as illustrated in Figure 4 [13]; two billets were put together, incrementally fed through a vertical rectangular channel and
deformed by a reciprocating punch. The face of the punch
was shaped with a central spike to help direct billets into
the horizontal channel.
Reciprocating punch
Fixed die
Fixed die
Figure 4. Initial position of billets in double-billet I-ECAP.

Sheet
Feeder
Punch
Die
Principle of Incremental ECAP

The basic version of I-ECAP is shown in Figure 3 [11].
Dies A and B define the input channel while die A and
punch C, the output channel of the device. Punch C moves
in a reciprocating manner at an appropriate angle to the
billet. Feeding of the billet takes place during withdrawal
of the punch when there is no contact between billet and
punch. When the billet stops and becomes fixed in position, the punch approaches it and deforms plastically in a
Figure 3. Schematic of I-ECAP.
dashed zone. The mode of deformation is that of simple

shear and, provided the feeding stroke "a" is not excessive,
consecutive shear zones overlap resulting in uniform strain
distribution along the billet. Separation of the feeding and
Figure 5. Tool configuration used in I-ECAP of sheet metal strips.
When instead of bars, sheet metal strips with 250 mm

cross-section were to be processed, it was decided to separate them with an additional tool (Figure 5), to avoid using a blade-thin feeder. The proposed tool served three
functions. The bottom part of the tool (not shown in Figure
5) had a step on each side, which enabled feeding the
strips upwards and prevented their backward movement;
this justified calling it a feeder. It also played the role of a
movable die, which travelled together with the sheet material and, therefore, did not introduce friction. Finally, it
was guiding the punch by entering a gap in the punch.
Since the gap had a limited length (as the punch itself), the
feeder was divided into three segments, of which top two
were pushed out as soon as they appeared above the die.
Each face of the punch had a half-spike (too small to be
seen in Figure 5), to improve the material flow. The die
was divided into segments, which were kept together by
the dowel pins and bolts. Some of these segments were
taller to provide walls for the horizontal channel (to secure
plain strain condition) and guide the punch. All highly
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09.08.2010 14:28:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
stressed tools were made of high speed steel, hardened to
60 HRC.
To enable processing of less ductile materials, a die
heating system was incorporated. It consisted of a 1.5 kW
band heater mounted around the die, near its top, and two
aluminium heating blocks, each one equipped with a 0.25
kW heating cartridge, put on top of the die. The location
of heaters followed the idea of heating the tools near the
deformation zone rather than along the whole feeding
channel. Tool temperature was measured with a 0.5 mm
diameter thermocouple inserted in a hole near the deformation zone. A PID temperature control system was used.
The tools and the heating elements used are presented in
Figure 6.
Figure 7. Laboratory servo press adapted for I-ECAP.
Figure 6. Tools and heating elements for I-ECAP of sheets.
Press. I-ECAP of sheets was carried out on a laboratory

press equipped with a hydraulic servo actuator (Figure 7).
A sine wave signal was fed into the press control module
to cause a reciprocating movement of the punch. The feeding movement was provided by a screw jack placed under
the press table. The screw jack was driven manually by
turning a system of shafts connected by two gear boxes;
thus synchronisation of feeding with punch movement was
manual. The press was equipped with a strain gauge load
cell measuring punch force and an LVDT transducer to
monitor punch movement. Since this transducer was inside
the hydraulic actuator, far from the deformation zone, it
was not used to set the thickness of the processed strip.
Instead, another LVDT traducer was attached to the punch
holder, with its rod resting on the upper die surface.
Process. The material subjected to I-ECAP was an
AlMg alloy with some addition of Sc for better thermal
stability. It was produced and rolled to 3 mm thick sheet
by Aleris Aluminum Koblenz GmbH. This sheet was subsequently machined to reduce its thickness to 2 mm. The
remaining dimensions of the processed strips were 50190.
The strips were covered with a conversion coating of calcium aluminate and lubricated with molybdenum disulphide.
472
The die was preheated to 200 C; the punch was initially

resting on the die so it was also preheated (to the unknown
temperature). Two strips were inserted into a die and
heated by conduction. Finally, the reciprocating movement
of the punch was initiated, with the bottom position
slightly less than 2 mm above the die surface. Its amplitude was 1 mm and frequency 0.5 Hz. Such low frequency
was required to allow manual synchronisation of the feeding movement. For the same reason, the amplitude of 1
mm was much higher than the feeding increment of 0.2
mm. Due to low frequency and small feeding increment,
the whole process took about 30 min. During that time, the
die temperature was held constant at 2002 C. The process was stopped when the feeder reached the die surface.
After punch withdrawal, the feeder was used as an ejector, which allowed the strips to be removed manually.
After that, the strips were cleaned (traces of flash removed), straightened using three point bending and machined to fit the die again. Before each pass, the strip was
turned about its longitudinal axis by 180, which is known
as route C. This route is known to be less efficient in grain
refinement than route BC (rotation by 90) but enables
better utilisation of the material due to less pronounced
end effects. Nevertheless, since the whole procedure was
repeated six times, some material was lost, which resulted
in the reduction of the final length of strips to about 150
mm (Figure 8).
The structure of the material after six passes of I-ECAP
revealed fine grains, mixed with strings of larger grains,
with the average grain size of 1 micron (Figure 9).
09.08.2010 14:28:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
(b)
Figure 8. Aluminium alloy sheets subjected to I-ECAP: (a) as
processed after 1 pass; (b) polished with sand paper after 6
passes.
ND
of the sheet. It may result from an uneven gap between the

punch face and the die surface as well as different friction
conditions along the strip edges.
Regarding the tool design, the punch and the feeder
proved to work properly, while the die experienced problems. Its redesign will be considered to take into account
the fact that I-ECAP causes fatigue of die material. In this
series of experiments, five pairs of strips were subjected to
six passes, using about 1000 punch strokes in each pass.
This resulted in about 30,000 load cycles.
The load on the punch was 150 kN, which was about
50% more than in the case of I-ECAP of square bars of the
same cross-section area (1010=250), made of the same
material and processed at the same temperature. This
means that predicting the maximum force, by scaling it
according to the ratio of the cross-section areas, works
only for the same shape.
Despite certain problems, the process of I-ECAP is very
promising. It allows the feeding force to be greatly reduced (to about 10% of the forming force). This enables
long, possibly infinite bars, plates and sheets to be processed. The latter option would require a redesign of the
feeding system, but taking into account the small feeding
force (or no feeding force at all), it should not be too difficult. This would open up industrial applications and help
promote the use of ultrafine grained metals.
Acknowledgement
RD
Figure 9. Grain structure in the longitudinal cross section of IECAPed aluminium sheet revealed by EBSD (after 6 passes).
Discussion and Conclusions

For the first time, the new process of I-ECAP was successfully used for direct severe plastic deformation of
sheets, which resulted in substantial refining of the grain
structure of an AlMgSc alloy. However, the trials have
shown that there are still a few unresolved problems,
which require further work.
One of these problems is manual feeding of the material,
which has to be replaced with automated feeding, synchronised with the reciprocating movement of the punch.
This should allow higher punch frequency to be used
(within the limits of the hydraulic servo actuator) and
productivity increased.
Control over geometry of strips is a bit problematic. The
thickness of the strips depends on the bottom position of
punch, which in turn changes with load (due to press/tool
deflection) and tool/press temperature (due to thermal
expansion). This requires precise measurement and control
of the punch position by using a temperature resistant
displacement transducer and a control loop feeding displacement information to the hydraulic servo actuator.
The strips tend to be slightly bent like in rolling and,
therefore, require straightening. This should be avoidable
by better (FE informed) design of the tools. However,
there may also be another bending, this time in the plane
Financial support of the Belgian Federal Science Policy

Office, under contract P2/00/01 (ALECASPIF project), is
gratefully acknowledged.
References
[1] A. Rosochowski, L. Olejnik: Materials Technology, 24-3 (2009), 139142.
Lahoti, P. Groche, J. Yanagimoto, N. Tsuji, A. Rosochowski, A. Yanagida: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 57 (2008), 716735.
[3] Y.T. Zhu, T.G. Langdon: JOM, 56-10 (2004), 58-63.
[4] T.C. Lowe, R.Z. Valiev: JOM, 56-10 (2004), 64-68.
[5] V.M. Segal: Materials Science and Engineering A, 271 (1999), 322333.
[6] L. Olejnik, A. Rosochowski: Steel Research International, 79 Special
Edition (2008), 439-446.
[7] G.J. Raab, R.Z. Valiev, T.C. Lowe, Y.T. Zhu: Materials. Science and
Engineering A, 382 (2004), 30-34.
[8] Y. Saito, N. Tsuji, H. Utsunomiya, T. Sakai, R.G. Hong: Scripta
Materialia, 39 (1998), 1221-1227.
[9] J.Y. Huang, Y.T. Zhu, H. Jiang, T.C. Lowe: Acta Materialia, 49
(2001), 1497-1505.
[10] C. Etherington: Trans. ASME, Journal of Engineering for Industry,
96-3 (1974), 893-900.
[11] A. Rosochowski, L. Olejnik: Proc. 10th Int. Conference on Material
Forming, Esaform 2007, April 18-20, 2007, Zaragoza, Spain, American Institute of Physics, Proceedings 907 (2007), 653-658.
[12] A. Rosochowski, L. Olejnik: International Journal of Material
Forming, 1 Suppl 1 (2008), 483486.
[13] A. Rosochowski, L. Olejnik, M. Richert: Materials Science Forum,
584-586 (2008), 139144.
[14] L. Olejnik, A. Rosochowski, M. Richert: Materials Science Forum,
584-586 (2008), 108113.
473
09.08.2010 14:28:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
Aluminum Bronze BA1032 Deformed by ECAP

Zbigniew Gronostajski, Maciej Zwierzchowski, Marek Hawryluk, Tomasz Skubiszewski
Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Technical University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw / Poland, zbigniew.gronostajski@pwr.wroc.pl
This paper presents the results of research into forming aluminium bronze BA1032 by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). The specimens cut out from an ingot were starting material. The ECAP process was conducted at a temperature of 400 oC. Mathematical modelling
showed high strain non-uniformity in the cross section of the specimen after the first ECAP pass. This non-uniformity is eliminated in the
next passes, which was also confirmed by experiments. After two passes, the microstructure shows phase grains strongly elongated
towards the axis of the specimen, and refined eutectoid + 2. The next passes eliminate the elongation of phase grains which become
equiaxial and cause the refinement of eutectoid + 2. After the subsequent passes the latter becomes uniformly distributed in phase .
Keywords: Deformation, Superplastic, Aluminium Bronze, ECAP
Introduction
Superplasticity is a materials ability to undergo very
large (exceeding as much as 1000%) plastic deformation.
To increase formability attempts are made to produce
superplastic materials. In order for a material to pass to the
superplastic state, the following conditions must be satisfied:
fine equiaxial grains below 10 m in diameter,
a very low strain rate, i.e. 10-4/10-2 s-1,
deformation temperature higher than 0.5 of the

melting point.
According to the literature [1], the main mechanism resulting in material superplasticity is slip along grain
boundaries.
Recently research into nonmaterials has shown that they
offer new possibility in different technologies [2]. The
research conducted by Mayo [3] shows that the superplasticity of materials with a grain size of 0.5-10 m, deformed at low rates can be increased several times by
reducing the grain size to 70-500 nm. Moreover, superplastic properties of the material can then be achieved at a
lower temperature than that at which conventional superplasticity is obtained. Thanks to the advantages which
fine-grained materials offer, material superplasticity can be
much better exploited in plastic forming processes than so
far. In the light of recent research, material superplasticity
can be divided into high-temperature and low-temperature
superplasticity (the latter is associated with ultrafinegrained structures). Grain size, however, cannot be too
small since the material with such a nanocrystal structure
does not show any dislocation activity in its grains and
deforms permanently along grain boundaries [4-8].
A ultrafine-grained structure can be obtained through
severe plastic deformation (SPD). The most popular SPD
methods are [9-11]:
high-pressure torsion (HPT),
equal channel angular pressing (ECAP, Figure 1),
cyclic extrusion compression (CEC),
multiaxial forging (MF),
accumulative roll-bonding (ARB);
474
Figure 1. Idea of ECAP [9].
Aluminium bronze BA1032 has very good mechanical

properties at normal and elevated temperatures, and high
corrosion resistance. In the plastic forming of finished
products the problem with this bronze is its low formability. Preliminary studies made by the present authors
showed that there are conditions in which this material is
characterized by elevated formability, which significantly
depends on the deformation conditions and the grain size.
Moreover, the addition of iron to bronze BA1032 is highly
beneficial since this element inhibits grain growth [12].
The aim of this research was to determine the effect of
severe plastic strains on the microstructure of aluminium
bronze BA1032. The starting material had the form of
specimens cut out from an aluminium bronze BA1032 ingot cast in the Hutmen SA plant. The chemical composition of the bronze is shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Chemical composition of aluminium bronze 1032.
BA1032
Al [%]
Fe [%]
Mn [%]
Zn [%]
Pb [%]
Cu [%]
10,5
2,7
1,9
0,09
0,002
rest
Different methods of producing severe plastic deformation were considered and equal channel angular pressing
(ECAP) was chosen because the specimens obtained in
this way are relatively large and it is easy to carry out the
experiment and control the temperature. The analysis was
supported by finite element method. This method has
become more and more popular in CAD/CAM system in
metal forming processes [13,14].
09.08.2010 14:28:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
Methodology
first angular channel
Aluminium bronze BA1032 was pressed in a die with an

interchannel angle of =110 (see Figure 2). Each of the
two die channels had a 5x5 mm cross section. The punch
and the die were made of hot-work tool steel WCL.
second angular
channel
1.2-1.4
0.7-1
0.9-1.2
0 -0.25
2,1-2,6
0,7 -1,1
1,2 -1,6
Figure 2. Die used in ECAP.
Numerical Modelling of ECAP Process

Computer simulations were run to determine deformation non-uniformity in the cross section of the specimen. A
numerical thermomechanical plain-strain model was built
using the MSC (Marc Mentat 2009 software package).
Flow stress-strain curves of the aluminium bronze were
determined on the basis of torsion tests and entered in the
numerical form for different strain, strain rate and temperature values.
An automatic finite element mesh rearrangement during
computations was applied to the deformed samples. 400
elements of quad 4 were applied to discretization of each
samples. Simulations of ECAP by means of ridged tools
(punches and dies) were preformed. The SHEAR friction
model was applied. The following coefficients of thermomechanical model were applied: for aluminium bronze heat capacity = 0,92 kJ/(kgK), heat conductivity = 303,5
W/(mK); for tools - heat capacity = 0,46 kJ/(kgK) and heat
conductivity = 15 W/(mK). The velocity of the punch was
equaled 0,25 mm/s.
In order to simulate the real experiment, in which the
pressed specimen was taken out, turned 180 degrees and
put in again, another angular channel was added in the
numerical modelling and the specimen pressed through the
first angular channel was subsequently pressed through the
second channel (Figure 3).
The FEM modelling results show high strain nonuniformity in the cross section of the specimens, particularly after the first pressing. For example, the strain ranged
from 0.2 on the interface with the channel bottom surface
to as much as 1.2 on the interface with the channel top
surface. After the specimen passes through the second
angular channel, the strains become more uniform.
0.25-0.7
Figure 3. Total equivalent strain determined by FEM.
Microhardness Measurements
Examinations of the microhardness of the deformed materials show an increase in hardness along the whole
length of the pressed specimen relative to the starting
material (Figure 4). The ingots hardness was in the range
from 160 to 140 HV, whereas the hardness of the pressed
materials is more uniform and is about 200 HV. No significant changes in pressed specimen hardness between the
particular passes are observed. However, slight microhardness inhomogeneity appears in the cross section of the
specimen after the first pass. This is probably mainly due
to deformation non-uniformity (Figure 5).
250
200
Hardness [HV]
The dimensions of the test specimens were

4.90x4.90x18 mm. Since bronze BA1032 has very good
strength properties up to a temperature of approx. 300 C,
pressing was conducted at a temperature of 400 C. After
each passes the specimen was turned 180 and pressed
again. The specimens, the punch, and the die were lubricated with graphite grease.
150
Liniowy
(castddd)
cast specimen
Liniowy
(speciment
1xss)
specimen
after 1 pass
specimen
after 4 passes
Liniowy
(speciment
4xdd)
specimen
after 3 passes
Liniowy
(speciment
3x cc)
specimen
after 2 passes
Liniowy
(speciment
2xdd)
100
50
0
0
4
6
Length of sample [mm]
10
Figure 4. Hardness measurement results for pressed specimens.
Figure 5. Specimen hardness measurement results after first pass.
475
09.08.2010 14:28:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Tensile Test of Sample Deformed by ECAP Process
mens axis, where strain amounted to: approx. 0.67 after

the first pass, approx. 1.3 after the second pass, and 2.1
after the third pass (Figure 9).
Tensile test specimens with a length of 8 mm and a diameter of 3 mm (Figure 6) were made from the postECAP specimens. The axis of the specimen for tensile test
coincides with the axis of specimen for ECAP. Tensile
tests were carried out at a temperature of 20C and a constant strain rate of 0.025 s-1 in an Instron testing machine.
In all the deformed test pieces necking preceded failure,
which is indicative of good material plasticity (Figure 7).
The test results show that the specimens cut out from the
ingot cast have a lower flow stress and limit strain than
specimens after one and two passes, however, for specimen pressed four times suddenly the decrease in limit
strain was observed.
Up to a strain of 0.05 the stress strain curves of all
samples coincide it testifies that there is no hardening
process in the material during the pressing of aluminium
bronzes BA1032 through the angular channel at a temperature of 400 oC. It is very curios because according to
previous author research no recovery process in aluminium bronzes BA1032 starts below 450 oC. Therefore, this
ductility improvement can be explained only by changes
in microstructure in the ECAP process [12].
(a)
(b)
Figure 6. Tensile test pieces (a) before and (b) after tensile test.
1000
Stress [MPa]
800
600
400
cast speciment
speciment after 1 pass
speciment after 2 passes
speciment after 4 passes
200
0
0
0,1
0,2
Strain
0,3
0,4
0,5
Figure 7. Flow stress-strain curves of samples deformed by ECAP

process.
Structural Examinations of Specimens Deformed by

ECAP Process
Mathematical modelling showed high strain nonuniformity, particularly after the first pass. Therefore, a
structural examination was performed along the speci476
Figure 8. Microstructure of BA1032: (a) initial specimen from ingot,

(b) deformed at 400C in ECAP after 1 cycle, (c) 2 cycles, (d) 3
cycles and (e) 4 cycles.
09.08.2010 14:28:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Place where metallographic
photographs were taken
Figure 9. BA1032 specimen deformed by ECAP.
The microstructure of the ingot is shown in Figure 8(a).

Figure 8(b)-(e) shows the microstructure after the successive stages of pressing. After the first two passes, phase
(light) is strongly elongated towards the specimen axis
while eutectoid + 2 (dark segregations) is refined. In the
second pass, very large elongation of phase grains (their
length reaches 0.3-0.4 mm and thickness 10-30 m) is
obtained (Figure 8(b)). In the third pass, the texture from
the previous two cycles is eliminated. Equiaxial segregations of phase (light) surrounded by very fine segregations of eutectoid + 2 are visible in Figure 8(c). After
the four passes the structure consists of phase segregations and very fine eutectoid + 2 segregations much
smaller than 0.1 m. This small eutectoid and high amount
of stored energy, due to the large deformation, can be
responsible for decrease of the limit strain of aluminium
bronzes BA1032 after 4 passes, however the reliable explanation of this phenomenon requires more research by
electron microscope.
Conclusions
1. The tests indicate that aluminium bronzes BA1032 can
be formed by ECAP at a temperature of 400C. The deformation of bronze BA1032 at ambient temperature
poses some difficulties. Cracks then appear and make it
impossible to press the specimens through the angular
channel. The cracks appear on the top surface of the
specimens at the interface with the channel. As FEM
simulations show this is the place in which the largest
strains occur.
2. The results of the numerical simulation show high strain
non-uniformity after the first pass, which is quickly
eliminated in the second deformation cycle when the
specimen is rotated 180C.
3. An increasingly longer elongation of phase segregations towards the specimens axis and refinement of eutectoid + 2 were obtained in the case of aluminium
bronze BA1032, in the first two cycles of ECAP conducted at 400 C. In the next cycles an equiaxial microstructure with fine segregations of eutectoid + 2,
which in the subsequent cycles is distributed increasingly more uniformly in phase , was obtained.
4. When the initial microstructure is compared with that

after three and four passes, one can notice considerable
refinement of the eutectoid and a slight reduction in the
size of phase grains which have a favourable equiaxial shape.
5. The test results show that the specimens cut out from
ingot cast have a lower flow stress and limit strain than
specimens after one and two passes.
6. Microhardness tests showed an increase in hardness and
a slight inhomogeneity of microhardness in the cross
section of the specimen after the first pass of deformation. After a larger number of pasess, hardness in the
cross section and in the longitudinal section of the
specimen became uniform and amounts to about 200
HV.
7. The research shows that the structure can be changed
and the ductility can be improved of aluminium bronze
BA1032 deformed by ECAP. However, selection optimal deformation condition requires still more research.
Acknowledgments
This research was carried out as part of development
project R15 023 03 funded by the Ministry of Science and
Higher Education. Wrocaw Network and Supercomputer
Centre MARC and ProEngineer software licences were
used in the research.
References
[1] M. Grabski; Nadplastyczno strukturalna metali, Wyd. lsk Katowice, (1973), 268.
[2] M. Kopernik, A. Stanisawczyk: Archives of Civil and Mechanical
Engineering, 9-3 (2009), 77-96.
[3] M.J. Mayo: Nanostructured Materials, 9 -1 (1997), 717-726.
[4] K. Neishi, T. Uchida, A. Yamauchi, K. Nakamura, Z. Horita, T.G.
Langdon: Materials Science and Engineering, A307-1 (2001), 23-28.
[5] K.V. Ivanov, I.V. Ratochka, Yu.R. Kolobov: Nanostructured Materials,
12-5 (1999), 947-950.
[6] K. Neishi, Z. Horita, T.G. Langdon: Materials Science and Engineering, A352-1 (2003), 129135.
[7] S. Lee, A. Utsunomiya, H. Akamatsu, K. Neishi, M. Furukawa, Z.
Horita, T.G. Langdon: Acta Materialia, 50-3 (2002), 553564.
[8] R.Z. Valiev, D.A. Salimonenko, N.K. Tsenev, P.B. Berbon, T.G.
Langdon: Scripta Materialia, 37-12 (1997), 1945-1950
[9] L. Olejnik, A. Rosochowski: Biulletin of the Polish Academy of
Science, 53-4 (2005), 413-423
[10] K. Muszka, K. Doniec, J. Majta: Computer Methods in Materials
Science, 9-1 (2009), 85-91.
[11] W. Skrotzki, B. Kloden, A. Lankau, R. Chulist, V. Kopylov, H.-G.
Brokmeier: Archives of Metallurgy and Materials, 53-1 (2008), 29-32.
[12] Z. Gronostajski: Modele konstytutywne opisujce zachowanie si
wybranych stopw miedzi w zakresie duych odksztace
plastycznych, Prace Naukowe ITMiA PWr Nr 75, Seria Monografie,
nr 23, Wrocaw (2000).
[13] L. Rauch, L. Madej, S. Weglarczyk, M. Pietrzyk, R. Kuziak: Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 8-2 (2008), 157-166.
[14] D. Mazurkiewicz: Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 92 (2009), 75-91.
477
09.08.2010 14:28:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
New Severe Plastic Deformation Process to Produce Ultrafine Grained Materials

Mehmet Okan Grtan1), Enrico Bruder2), Peter Groche1), Clemens Mller2)
1)
Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines, Mechanical Engineering Department, Darmstadt University of Technology,
Darmstadt / Germany, goertan@ptu.tu-darmstadt.de; 2) Institute for Physical Metallurgy, Materials and Earth Sciences Department, Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt / Germany
A new severe plastic deformation process is developed to produce bulk ultrafine grained (UFG) materials by combining the conventional
equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) with the incremental bulk forming method rotary swaging. The developed tool system to severely
deform the material consists of two forming rotary swaging tools which contains four forming sections in a single forming pass. Round bars
made of copper (Cu 99.9) with a diameter of 20 mm are used in the first investigations. It was possible to reprocess the samples with the
developed process repeatedly. The developed process is capable of inducing a significant grain refinement through subgrain development.
The required press forces are under 10 kN which is considerably low compared to other SPD processes. Therefore, equal channel angular
swaging (ECAS) has promising features for a continuous severe plastic deformation method.
Keywords: Severe plastic deformation, Incremental forming, Rotary swaging, Ultrafine grained materials, Equal channel angular pressing
Introduction
Ultrafine grained (UFG) materials have promising mechanical properties such as combination of high strength
and high ductility [1], improved fatigue behavior [2] and
high dynamic strength [3]. There are several known severe
plastic deformation (SPD) processes which are capable of
producing UFG materials. Among others, equal channel
angular pressing (ECAP) is the most investigated SPD
process due to its scalability properties [1, 4].
During ECAP, a rod-shaped material is pressed through
a die which has two or more channels with same crosssection intersecting in a certain angle. Since the crosssection of the channels is the same, the processed rod has
theoretically the initial geometry after forming. After several passes through the same tool, ultrafine grains are
induced in the material. However, this process is mainly
limited to relatively short part lengths due to the high press
forces, which are caused by the high friction forces and the
induced high strain. There have been many attempts to
develop continuous SPD processes. Nevertheless, the
reported continuous methods are incapable of producing
cross-sections larger than a few mm2 [5, 6]. Therefore,
these processes are uneconomical and the industrial utilization is still limited to few applications. A new continuous process is required for the commercialization of SPD
processes [7].
Rotary swaging is an incremental forming method,
mostly used to process tubes, bars and wires. During the
swaging process, dies, which are arranged concentrically
around the workpiece, perform high frequency radial
movements with short strokes. Due to the oscillating
movement of the dies, the forming takes place in many
small processing steps, which enables high forming ratios
in a single forming step. Additionally, as the contact time
between dies and the workpiece is very short, the friction
is minimized during the forming process [8].
In the present study, an innovative SPD process is developed to produce bulk UFG materials by combining the
conventional ECAP process with the incremental forming
method of rotary swaging.
Equal Channel Angular Swaging (ECAS) Process for
Continuous Production of UFG Materials
478
ECAS bases upon the combination of the conventional

ECAP and the infeed rotary swaging. The schematic representation of the process is shown in Figure 1. The tool
contours are building an eccentric channel, which consist
of five different sections with a constant diameter. The
channels intersect at an obtuse angle and generate herewith four forming zones in one tool system. The material
undergoes 4-times a simple shear deformation while passing the channel. The deformation is locally confined as in
the conventional ECAP.
In conventional rotary swaging, a relative rotational
movement is defined between the workpiece and the tools
to prevent the formation of burr due to the missing support
between the tools. However, a relative rotational movement is inapplicable in the case of a non-circular workpiece. During ECAS, the main deformation occurs in one
direction, namely in shear direction. To prevent the formation of flash, two working tools are used during the new
process. The missing support is located where the least
contact normal forces are occurring. Herewith, the risk of
burr generation is reduced. The developed tool concept is
shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Schematic representation of ECAS process.
Experimental Process. Different variations of the

ECAP process with many forming sections in one tool
system have been introduced in former studies [9,10].
However, a severe plastic deformation process with many
forming sections, where the shear strain is induced with
the oscillation movement of a tool system, has not been
investigated yet.
09.08.2010 14:28:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Force Requirement. The forces in axial as well as in
radial direction are measured during the ECAS process.
For the measurements, the geometry of the samples is
fitted to the channel geometry by plunge swaging. Afterwards, the copper bar is pushed with a constant speed of 3
mm/s through the oscillating tools while applying a constant counter force of 5 kN on the samples end. The measured forces acting on the Tool A in radial direction and
acting on the feed equipment in axial direction are shown
in Figure 4.
Figure 2. Schematic representation of ECAS tool system.
The tool system shown in Figure 2 is used for the first

studies. The channel angle is 150 in all shear zones. The
forming tools are located opposite to each other so they
build a hollow channel which corresponds to the geometry
of the workpiece. The tools are oscillating with a frequency of 30 Hz and with an amplitude of 0.7 mm. The
round bar made of copper is pushed through the oscillating
dies with an axial feed of 3 mm/s. The high frequency
swaging causes a reduction in the thickness of the sample.
Because of the deviation in the geometry, the reprocessing
of these samples in further steps is impossible. However,
an application of a counter force during the process prevents the reduction in the thickness. The results are shown
in Figure 3.
Figure 3. End geometry of deformed samples (a) without and (b)

with counter pressure.
Figure 4. Measured radial- and axial forces.
The measured radial forces start with values below 300

kN. However, an increase in the maximum values up to
400 kN is observed. The reason lies on the one hand in the
strain hardening and on the other hand in the slight increase in the thickness of the sample.
The measured axial forces correspond to the press forces
by conventional ECAP. Despite the high total plastic strain
induced during forming, it is obvious that the axial forces
are quite low compared to the conventional SPD processes.
The friction forces represent the main part of the force
requirement in conventional ECAP [11]. However, since
the contact times between the workpiece and the tools are
very short, the friction is reduced by ECAS. Another aspect for the low axial forces can be explained by interpreting the applied force directions and concluding strain
directions. As demonstrated in Figure 5, by conventional
ECAP, the induced shear strain arises from the press forces
directed nearly in the opposite direction of the strain. In
contrast to conventional ECAP, the required press forces
are divided into two components, namely axial forces and
radial forces. The primary function of the axial forces is to
feed the sample into the process. The induced shear strain
occurs because of the radial motion of the oscillating tools
which is directed nearly in the shear direction. It is obvious that, the shear forming causes also a force component
in the axial direction. However, the axial force component
is partly compensated within the forming dies.
479
09.08.2010 14:28:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 5. Schematic representation of press forces and sheer

strain direction by (a) conventional ECAP and (b) ECAS.
Strain Distribution. In order to investigate the strain

distribution during ECAS copper samples are divided in
the middle section in longitudinal direction and marked
with a rectangular grid. Two marked samples are glued so
they build a whole round bar. Afterwards, this sample is
deformed. The distorted grid shows that the bar underwent
shear deformation (see Figure 6.a). In order to simplify
the illustration, only the half of the workpiece is shown.
Despite the small corner radius, the channel corners are
fully filled except the lower-right one in the figure. The
strain distribution appears to be nearly constant. There is a
small deviation in the geometry in the lower section
caused by the not fully filled corner.
For further investigations, finite element analysis has

been deployed. The FE model of the process is generated
with the software package MARC/MENTAT 2007. The
tools are modelled as undeformable rigid bodies and the
oscillation movement as well as the feed movement are
defined with the MOTION subroutine. The mechanical
behaviour of the round-bar material, Cu 99.9%, has been
described with Swifts isotropic strain hardening law up to
a strain of 0.5:
= K ( 0 + )n for ( 0.5)
= 356.8 MPa for ( > 0.5)
where
(1)
(2)
is the flow stress, K is the strength coefficient
(371.22 MPa),
is the offset strain (0.0179),
is the
strain and n is the strain hardening exponent (0.06). The

numerical results obtained from FEA agree well with the
experiments. The small deviation in the strain distribution
in the lower section of the workpiece is also visible in the
FEA results. This deviation is caused by the unfilled channel corner, which is also observed in the experiments.
Microstructural and Mechanical Properties. The microstructure of the copper samples was analyzed in the
transverse and longitudinal sections using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD). In addition to the grain size,
the proportion of high angle grain boundaries (HAGB) is
an essential aspect of the evaluation. The grain refinement
during SPD process is based on the formation of subgrainstructures, which are initially separated by small-angle
grain boundaries (SAGB) with a tilting smaller than <15 .
With further plastic deformation, the tilting in crystallographic axes of neighboring subgrains increases. As a
result, new subgrains with HAGB occur.
Figure 7 shows the EBSD measurements of the asreceived copper and after 28 passes of deformation with a
feedrate of 3 mm/s. After 28 passes, the original grain
structure is no longer recognizable due to the strong segmentation. Although there are bigger, mostly by SAGB
subdivided grains located next to small, globular grains,
the dimensions of these grains are definitely smaller than
those of the as-received material.
There is a decrease observed in the average grain size of
the severely deformed material (6.8 m) in comparison to
the as-received material (16.3 m). However, the HAGB
amount of 35% is less than that of the as-received material
(50%). Nevertheless, despite the decrease in the HAGB
amount, there is significant increase in the HAGB density
of the severely deformed copper (6.1 105 m-1) in comparison to the as-received material (3.1 105 m-1).
In the investigations, an UFG microstructure with predominantly HAGBs could not be met. However, the obtained grain patterns are typical precursors to the UFG
microstructures which are obtained by the SPD processes.
Figure 6. Shear deformation patterns obtained from (a) experiment and (b) (c) FE calculation.
480
09.08.2010 14:28:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
Figure 7. EBSD measurements of (a) as-received copper and (b)

severely plastically deformed copper.
Investigations of the mechanical properties of severely

plastically deformed samples by rotary swaging show an
increased strength in comparison to the as-received material. Figure 8 demonstrates tensile test results of asreceived, normalized and severely plastically deformed
materials. An average increase of 10 % is observed after
six forming passes in the ultimate tensile strength in comparison to as-received material. Further processing does
not have any influence on the mechanical properties. The
deformation behavior of the various states of deformed
samples is similar to the typical stress-strain curves of
UFG materials.
Ultrafine grained materials have outstanding advantages

such as combination of high strength and ductility, improved fatigue behaviour and improved dynamic strength.
However, the industrial utilisation of such materials is still
limited to few applications where the cost of the materials
is subordinate. The reason lies mainly on the absence of a
continuous and thus economical severe plastic deformation method for the production of bulk UFG materials.
A new severe plastic deformation method has been developed to produce bulk UFG materials by combining the
conventional ECAP and the incremental forming method
rotary swaging. The following results are obtained by the
first investigations with copper:
1. The friction is reduced during the process due to the
short contact times between the workpiece and the tools.
2. Despite the high total plastic strain induced during
forming, the axial forces, which correspond to the press
forces of conventional ECAP, are quite low compared to
the conventional SPD processes.
3. It is possible to reprocess the samples repeatedly with
ECAS.
4. The developed process is capable of inducing a significant grain refinement through subgrain development.
However, an UFG microstructure with predominantly
HAGBs could not be met in the first investigations.
5. The developed process has a high potential for the continuous production of bulk UFG materials due to the
small axial forces.
In order to obtain an UFG microstructure, the channel
angle will be decreased in the future studies.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the DFG for supporting the project
Production of UFG materials by rotary swaging.
References
[1] R.Z. Valiev, I.V. Alexandrov, Y.T. Zhu, T.C. Lowe: Journal of Materials Research, 17-1 (2002), 5-8.
[2] H.W. Hppel, M. Kautz, C. Xu, M. Murashkin, T.G. Langdon, R.Z.
Valiev, H. Mughrabi: International Journal of Fatigue, 28 (2006),
1001-1010.
[3] Y.T. Zhu, T.C. Lowe, T.G. Langdon: Scripta Materialia, 51 (2004),
825-830.
[4] R.Z. Valiev, Y.E. Estrin, Z. Horita, T.G. Langdon, M.J. Zehetbauer,
Y.T. Zhu: Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, 58-4
(2000), 33-39.
[5] Y. Saito, H. Utsunomiya, H. Suzuki, T. Sakai: Scripta Materialia, 42
(2000), 1139-1144..
[6] G.J. Raab, R.Z. Valiev, T.C. Lowe, Y.T. Zhu: Materials Science&Engineering A 382 (2004), 30-34.
Lahoti, P. Groche, J. Yanagimoto, N. Tsuji, A. Rosochowski, A. Yanagida: CIRP Annals Vol. 57 Issue 2 (2008), 716-738.
[8] F. Mller: Verfahrensgrundlagen des Rundknetens. Dissertation.
Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines, Darmstadt University of Technology (in German).
[9] K. Nakashima, Z. Horita, M. Nemoto, T.G. Langdon: Materials
Science & Engineering A281 (2000), 82-87.
[10] A. Rosochowski, L. Olejnik: Journal of Materials Processing Technology 125-126 (2002), 309-316.
[11] L. Zuyan, W. Zhongjin: Journal of Materials Processing Technology
94 (1999), 193-196.
Figure 8. Tensile test results of copper from investigated states.
481
09.08.2010 14:28:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Pass Route and Pass Number of Equal-Channel Angular Extrusion on Structure and Strength of Lotus-Type Porous Copper
Shinsuke Suzuki1),2), Juan Lobos Martin1,3), Hiroshi Utsunomiya4), Hideo Nakajima1)
1)
The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, Osaka / Japan; 2) Present. Waseda Institute for Advanced Study,
Waseda University, Tokyo / Japan, suzuki-s@aoni.waseda.jp; 3) Present: Departmento de Fisica de la Materia Condensada, Facultad de
Ciencias, University of Valladolid, Valladolid / Spain; 4) Division of Materials and Manufacturing Science, Graduate School of Engineering,
Osaka University, Osaka / Japan
Lotus-type porous copper with long cylindrical pores aligned in one direction was processed by the Equal-Channel Angular Extrusion
(ECAE) with a die with a channel angle of 150. The effects of the pass route and the pass number on the compressive yield strength and
the Vickers hardness were investigated. Three kinds of pass routes were adopted; route A (no rotational change of sample rod between
passes), route BC (axial rotation of 90 of the sample rod between passes), and route C (axial rotation of 180 of the sample rod between
passes). Although the porosity slightly decreased after every pass, the porous structure remained after the process. The Vickers hardness
and the compressive yield strength of lotus copper increased with an increase in the pass number till 4 passes. The maximum specific yield
strength was the same level as that of non-porous copper processed by the ECAE by accumulation of strain. The specific yield strength
decreased due to the Bauschinger effect via route C on the 5th pass. The cracking occurred in the sample rod via route A and BC on the 5th
pass. Inhomogeneous hardness distribution was found in lotus copper processed by the ECAE. The Vickers hardness in the outer region
was higher than that in the central region.
Keywords: Lotus-type porous copper, Equal-channel angular extrusion, Yield strength, Vickers hardness, Work hardening
Introduction
Recently, porous metals are expected to be used as various structural and functional materials, since they exhibit
various characteristics such as an inherent low density and
large surface area, which differ from non-porous metals.
Therefore, porous metals are actively investigated to be
used in many fields, such as light-weight materials, catalyst carriers, vibration damping materials, impact energy
absorption materials, etc. [1].
Among various kinds of porous metals, metallic foams
with a porosity higher than 90% are applied to soundabsorbing materials and crash boxes for automobiles due
to its sound absorbing and impact shock absorbing properties, respectively. Sintered porous metals with a low porosity fabricated through powder metallurgy are used as filter
materials due to the permeability of fluid.
On the other hand, lotus-type porous metals (lotus metals) [2] and Gasar metals [3] with long cylindrical gas
pores aligned in one direction with a medium porosity,
exhibit superior mechanical properties to isotropic porous
metals. Since stress concentration does not take place in
the parallel direction to the pore growth direction, the
specific strength does not change in this direction even
when the porosity increases [4]. Therefore, lotus metals
are expected to be applied in various fields from lightweight structural materials to functional materials.
Lotus metals are usually used as cast materials. In order
to improve the mechanical strength severe plastic deformation is necessary. However, the pores in lotus metals
could be collapsed by plastic deformation such as rolling.
In order to solve this problem the present authors clarified
that the Equal-Channel Angular Extrusion (ECAE) [5,6] is
effective to strengthen lotus metals, maintaining the porous structure [7]. In the ECAE process, a sample rod is
extruded through a die with two crossing channels of equal
diameter. This process introduces shear strain to the sam-
482
ple rod at the corner of the channel and can increase the
strain by repeating extrusion. Copper was selected as a
sample material, because the fabrication method of lotus
copper was already established [8] and copper has an excellent ductility for plastic deformation. As a result, we
found that the ECAE is an effective method to increase the
hardness of the metallic part of the lotus copper by work
hardening, maintaining the porous structure [7].
However, the details of the effects of the processing parameters on the mechanical properties were not investigated. In the present work, the effect of the pass route and
pass number of the ECAE on the structure and strength of
lotus copper was investigated in order to understand the
cause of improvement in the strength.
Experimental
Lotus copper slabs were fabricated by continuous casting technique [8]. Electrolytic cathode copper (99.99% Cu,
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd.) was melted by radiofrequency induction heating in a graphite crucible in a
mixture gas of hydrogen (0.5 MPa) and argon (0.2 MPa).
The transfer velocity of continuous casting was 20
mm/min.
The fabricated lotus copper slab was cut into cylinders
(8mm in diameter and 45 mm in length) with a sparkerosion wire-cutting machine (Model AQ325L-LN1W,
Sodick Co.) so that the pores were oriented parallel to the
axis. The porosity was 46.30.4%, which was calculated
by its measured weight and volume. The pore diameter
was 388131m, which was measured with a digital microscope (KEYENCE VHX-200) and an image analyser
(Mitani Co., Win ROOF).
The cylindrical sample was inserted into a sheath of 8
mm in inner diameter, 10.8 mm in outer diameter and 50
mm in total length, which was made of pure non-porous
copper in order to prevent cracking in the sample rod dur-
09.08.2010 14:28:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
ing the ECAE process.
For comparison, a non-porous copper slab was fabricated by continuous casting method at a transfer velocity
of 20 mm/min in an argon atmosphere (0.1 MPa). The
non-porous copper slab was cut into cylinders of 8 mm in
diameter and 45 mm in length.
Figure 1 shows a schematic drawing of the ECAE-die
with a channel angle of 150. The sample rods were extruded through the ECAE-die at a speed of 5 mm/min for
up to 5 passes. The sample rods were lubricated with lanoline.

Figure 2 shows the cross-sections of the as-cast lotus
copper and the lotus copper after the 3rd pass via each
route perpendicular to the extrusion direction.
Inner
corner
Outer
corner
Inner
corner
Outer
corner
Figure 2. Cross-sections of as-cast lotus copper and lotus copper
after 3rd pass via each route perpendicular to extrusion direction.
Figure 1. Schematic drawing of ECAE process and pass routes

used in this study.
After the 2nd pass, three kinds of pass routes [9] were
adopted, depending upon different axial rotation between
passes as shown in Figure 1. In route A, the sample rod
was not rotated, keeping the same orientation as the previous pass. In route BC, the sample rod was rotated by 90
axially from the previous pass. In route C, the sample rod
was rotated by 180 axially from the previous pass. The
porosity and the mechanical properties of the lotus and the
non-porous copper were measured after each pass.
The Vickers hardness was measured on the metallic
parts by a hardness tester (AKASHI MVK-III). The testing
force was 0.5~1 N and the testing time was 20s. 10 points
on the same cross-section were tested.
The compression tests were carried out based on the JIS
H7902 [10] using a universal testing machine (INSTRON
5582) at a crosshead speed of 0.15 mm/min. The compression direction was parallel to the extrusion direction, hence
parallel to the pore growth direction. The nominal compressive stress was calculated by dividing the compressive
force by the initial cross sectional area including pores.
The compressive yield strength was defined as the proof
stress 0.2% at the plastic strain of 0.2 % in this study. The
specific compressive yield strength *0.2% was obtained by
dividing the yield strength 0.2% by the density. Compression tests were performed three times for each processing
condition.
The cross-section of the lotus copper rod processed via

route A showed compressive deformation in the upper side
of the photograph. This was the part which faced the inner
corner of the channel (Figure 1) during the 3rd pass and
deformed not only by shearing but also due to compression in the radial direction. On the other hand, the crosssection of the lotus copper rods processed via route BC and
C did not show significant change of the pore morphology.
Since the same part of the lotus copper rod faced the inner corner of the channel for every pass via route A, compressive deformation was accumulated locally. On the
other hand, since the part of the lotus copper rod facing the
inner corner of the channel changed for every pass via
route BC and C, the compressive deformation in the radial
direction via route BC and C was smaller than that via
route A.
The area faced the inner corner of the lotus copper had
cracks on the 5th pass via route A and BC. The strain was
accumulated in the area facing the inner corner, because
the area faced the inner corner via route A and the adjoining areas faced the inner corner via route BC for every pass.
On the other hand, the lotus copper was processed via
route C without cracking even on the 5th pass. Since the
area facing the inner corner changed alternatively for
every pass via route C, the strain was not accumulated
locally.
Figure 3 shows the compressive stress-strain curve after
each pass via route C. The compressive stress of the lotus
copper increased with each pass. The increase in the compressive yield strength may be attributed to both the densification of the lotus copper and the work hardening of the
metallic matrix [7].
Figure 4 shows the relation between the porosity and
the compressive yield strength of the non-porous and the
lotus copper after each pass of the ECAE via route C. The
pass numbers are shown in the brackets. Although the
porosity of the lotus copper decreased with an increase in
483
09.08.2010 14:28:37 Uhr
the pass number, the porosity remained higher than 30 %

even after the 5th pass.
Compressive stress / MPa
400
300
4 Pass
2 Pass
200
1 Pass
100
As-cast
35
30
25
20
15
Lotus (route A)
Lotus (route BC)
Lotus (route C)
Non-porous (route C)
10
5
0
Pass number of ECAE

0
10
20
30
Strain (%)
40
50
Figure 3. Compressive stressstrain curve of the lotus copper

processed on each pass via route C.
Non-porous
copper
Compressive yield strength, 0.2% /MPa
Specific compressive yield strength

-3
3
-1
*0.2% / 10 MPa m kg
Metal Forming
Lotus
copper
350
Route C
300
(3)
(5)
250
(4)
200
(1)
150
(5)
100
50 (0 pass)
0
20
(3)
(2)
(1)
(0 pass)
40
60
Porosity (%)
80
100
Figure 4. Relation between porosity and compressive yield

strength of lotus and non-porous copper processed via route C on
each pass number (shown in brackets).
The data plotted at the strain of 0 % were the results of

the non-porous copper on each pass. The lines were drawn
by connecting the data of the non-porous copper to the
point of the compressive yield strength of 0 MPa at the
porosity of 100 %.
Since the plot of the as-cast lotus copper was on the line,
which shows the constant specific yield strength, the
strength of the metallic part of the as-cast lotus copper was
the same as that of the non-porous copper. This result
agreed well with the previous study on the mechanical
properties of lotus copper loaded parallel to the pore
growth direction [11]. However, there were differences in
the specific compressive yield strength between the nonporous and the lotus copper, both of which were processed
by the ECAE.
Figure 5 shows the specific compressive yield strength
of the non-porous copper and the lotus copper against the
pass number.
484
Figure 5. Specific compressive yield strength of nonporous copper

(route C) and lotus copper processed by ECAE via route A, BC and
C.
The specific compressive yield strength of the lotus copper after the 1st and the 2nd passes of the ECAE was
lower than that of the non-porous copper. Although only
shearing deformation took place during the ECAE of the
non-porous copper, buckling of metallic part, which reduces the shearing deformation, occurred during the
ECAE of the lotus copper. Therefore, the equivalent plastic strain in the lotus copper after the 1st and the 2nd
passes was lower than that of non-porous copper.
Then the specific yield strength of the lotus copper became similar to that of the non-porous copper after the 3rd
pass and showed the maximum value after the 4th pass.
The plastic strain was accumulated and work hardening
took place on every pass via route C.
Although the specific compressive strength of the lotus
copper processed via route A and BC was slightly smaller
than that of via route C, the tendency was similar among
these three routes until the 4th pass.
There were no data of the 5th pass via route A and BC
because of the cracking of the sample rod. The specific
yield strength decreased after the 5th pass via route C. In
order to discuss the decrease in the yield strength after the
5th pass, the distribution of hardness in the lotus copper
processed by the ECAE after the 5th pass was measured.
Figure 6(a) shows the change of the Vickers hardness of
the non-porous and the lotus copper as a function of the
pass number via route C. The standard deviations of the
Vickers hardness of the non-porous copper were small as
shown with the error bars on the whole of the crosssection in the perpendicular direction to the extrusion
direction. However, the lotus copper had an inhomogeneous hardness distribution on the cross-section.
The cross-section was divided into the areas of near the
central part (Z) and the outer circumference. Furthermore,
the outer circumference was divided into 4 areas (1-4) as
shown in Figure 6(b). The areas 1 and 3 faced the inner
corner of the channel on the passes of odd numbers and
even numbers, respectively.
09.08.2010 14:28:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
Vickers hardness, HV
(a)
120
110
100
90
:Non-porous
:Lotus (Area 1)
:Lotus (Area 2)
:Lotus (Area 3)
:Lotus (Area 4)
:Lotus (Area Z)
80
70
60
(b)
Inner
corner
(2nd and
4th
passes)
2
3
4
Pass number of ECAE
4
3
Z
2
Inner corner
(1st, 3rd
and 5th
passes)
Figure 6. (a) Vickers hardness of nonporous and lotus copper

processed by ECAE via route C against pass number. (b) Measured areas on cross - section of lotus copper processed via route
C in perpendicular direction of extrusion direction. Area 1: facing
inner corner at 1st, 3rd and 5th passes. Area 3: facing inner corner
at 2nd and 4th passes. Areas 2 and 4: facing side of channel. Area
Z: near central part.
The outer circumference had a higher hardness than the

central part. This indicated that the more strain was introduced in the outer region than the central part.
While the area facing the inner corner had the highest
value among the areas of the outer circumference, the area
facing the outer corner (Figure 1) had the lowest value.
The side areas 2 and 4 had the intermediate values between the inner and the outer corners.
Since the same area faced the inner corner and the outer
corner alternately for every pass via route C, the hardness
increased with oscillation. This effect may be attributed to
the Bauschinger effect due to the alternate change of compressive and tensile stress in the same area due to the
change of the sample direction for every pass. The decrease in the specific yield strength after the 5th pass (Figures 4 and 5) can be explained by the Bauschinger effect.
The hardness increased not locally but in whole of the
outer circumference via route C. This effect is considered
to cause the higher compressive yield strength of the lotus
copper processed via route C than that via route A and BC
(Figure 5). Furthermore, this effect allowed more pass
number via route C without cracking of the sample rod
than that via route A and BC.
Lotus-type porous copper with long cylindrical pores

aligned in one direction was processed by the EqualChannel Angular Extrusion (ECAE) with a die with a
channel angle of 150. The effects of the pass route and the
pass number on its compressive yield strength and the
Vickers hardness were investigated and the following
results were obtained.
Although the porosity slightly decreased after every pass,
the porous structure with porosity higher than 30% remained in the process. The Vickers hardness and the compressive yield strength of lotus copper increased with an
increase in pass number till 4 passes. By work hardening
due to accumulation of strain, the maximum specific yield
strength became the same level as that of non-porous copper processed by the ECAE. The specific yield strength
decreased due to the Bauschinger effect via route C on the
5th pass. Cracking in the sample rod occurred via route A
and BC on the 5th pass. The area facing the inner corner
had higher Vickers hardness than the other parts due to the
compression in the radial direction, which caused inhomogeneous hardness distribution in lotus copper processed by
the ECAE.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by Global COE Program (Project: Center of Excellence for Advanced Structural and
Functional Materials Design) from the MEXT, Japan and
by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation
(AECI). The authors would like to thank Mr. J. Miyamoto
(technical manager of Osaka University) for the technical
support.
References
[1] J. Banhart: Progress in Materials Science, 46 (2001), 559-632.
[2] H. Nakajima: Progress in Materials Science, 52 (2007), 1091-1173.
[3] V. Shapovalov: Proc.MRS Symposium 521 (1998), 281-290.
[4] S.K. Hyun, K. Murakami, H. Nakajima: Materials Science and Engineering A, 299 (2001), 241-248.
[5] V.M. Segal, V.I. Rezinikov, A.E. Drobyshevkiy, V.I. Kopylov: Russian Metallurgy, 1 (1981), 99-105.
[6] R.Z. Valiev, T.G. Langdon: Progress in Materials Science, 51 (2006),
881-981.
[7] S. Suzuki, H. Utsunomiya, H. Nakajima: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 490 (2008), 465-470.
[8] J.S. Park, S.K. Hyun, S. Suzuki, H. Nakajima: Acta Materialia, 55
(2007), 5646-5654.
[10] Japanese Industrial Standards Committee: JIS H 7902 Method for
compressive test of porous metals, Japanese Standards Association,
Tokyo (2008)
[11] S.K. Hyun, H. Nakajima: Materials Science and Engineering A, 349
(2003) 258-264.
485
09.08.2010 14:28:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Alternate Drawing of Aluminum Wires for Wiring Harness

Kazunari Yoshida, Shunichi Kikuchi
Department of Precision Engineering, Tokai University, Kitakaname 1117 Hiratsuka, Kanagawa / Japan, yoshida@keyaki.cc.u-tokai.co.jp
Recently in automobile industry, the material change of wiring harness from copper to aluminum, the specific gravity of aluminum is 1/3 of
that of copper, has been under consideration to reduce weight and to improve fuel efficiency. High ductility is required for the wiring harness
to make it possible to arrange equipment efficiently in the limited space, because automobile interior space is expanding while the
automobile body is downsizing year by year. In this study, a new drawing method alternate drawing, alternately the direction of drawing in
each process, was proposed to get aluminum wires with high ductility for wiring harness, and usability was examined experimentally and by
FEM analysis. It is found from the FEM analysis that the alternate drawing reduces the additional shear strain on wire surface by nearly 20%
and produces wires with larger extensibility compared to the one processed by conventional drawing. In addition, it was clarified that
alternate drawing is useful for the drawing of aluminum wire for wiring harness.
Keywords: Automotive lightening, Environment, Aluminum, Wiring harness, Alternate drawing
In the automobile industry, the use of aluminum for the

wiring harness instead of the conventionally used copper
has recently been discussed with the aim of reducing the
weight of cars and improving fuel efficiency because the
specific gravity of aluminum is approximately one-third
that of copper [1]. The material used for the wiring harness
is required to have the following mechanical properties:
high strength, high toughness and good fatigue
characteristics. The wiring harness must have sufficiently
high ductility to be efficiently and easily mounted in the
limited space of cars and be able to endure repeated
bending and torsion while the car is in use [2].
We focus on aluminum wires as a material for the wiring
harness, and verify that high-ductility wires can be
obtained by the new method of alternate drawing. In
alternate drawing, the drawing direction is changed for
each pass, by which the additional shear strain applied to
the wire material can be suppressed. Alternate drawing can
yield more ductile wires than those drawn by conventional
methods.
In this study, we carried out drawing experiments on
aluminum wires using diamond and cemented tungsten
carbide (WC) dies, and compared the obtained wires in
terms of drawability and surface properties. Moreover, we
verified the effectiveness of alternate drawing by both
experiments and simulations by the finite element method
(FEM).
Material and Experimental Method
Annealed purity 99.7% aluminum wires with diameters
of 1.2 mm and 10mm were used in experiments (see Table
1). The mother wires were drawn with a reduction per pass
(R/P) of approximately 18 to 20% (see Figure 1). The die
half-angle was 6o for both diamond and WC dies. The
drawing speed was 500 mm/min, and a petroleum-based
hydrocarbon lubricant was used. The effects of the
diamond and WC dies on drawability were evaluated on
the basis of drawing stress and the surface properties of the
drawn wires. The effectiveness of alternate drawing, in
which the drawing direction is reversed for each pass, was
486
verified by evaluating the mechanical properties, hardness

distribution, and equivalent strain of the drawn wires
obtained by FEM analysis. Figure 2 shows hardening
diagram of annealed aluminum wire for FEM analysis.
Table 1. Mother wire for wiring harness.
Purity 99.7% aluminum
Material
1.2, 10
Diameter / mm
Annealing
temperature / K
Annealing
time / min
573
30
2
d
R / P = 1 1 100 %
d 0
2
d
d1 R
Rtt = 1 n 100 %
d 0
d0
Figure 1. Definitional identity of R/P and Rt.
100
True stress / MPa
Introduction
80
6
60
Die
40
Wire
20
0
10
15
True starin / %
20
25
Figure 2. Work hardening diagram of annealed aluminum wire for

FEM analysis.
Diamond and WC Dies

Drawing Stress. In general, diamond dies are used for
drawing aluminum and copper wires with a diameter of 1
mm or less. This is because diamond dies are
advantageous in terms of their lower die friction, higher
production efficiency, and higher dimensional accuracy
than WC dies [3]. However, the effects of these dies on
09.08.2010 14:28:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
80
60 Al
40
20
0
0
Al-Diamond die
Al-WC die
Cu-Diamond die
Cu-WC die
20
40
60
80
Total
Reduction
Total
reduction
Rt // %
%
99
Figure 3. Change in drawing stress using diamond and WC dies.
PZ
A1 Y
ln
A0
A1
2
3
1
(1)
(1)
The drawing stress for a copper wire was also measured

by the same procedure as a reference. Here, the mother
wire of 1.2mm was used for experiment.
The results are shown in Figure 3. The drawing stress
for the diamond die was approximately 20% lower than
that for the WC die. This tendency was observed in both
aluminum and copper wires. The average friction
coefficient was calculated using Siebels equation [4]
(Eq. (1)) for the aluminum wires drawn with a total
reduction of Rt=94%; was 0.03 for the diamond die and
0.10 for the WC die.
Here, is the die half-angle [rad], PZ is the drawing
force [N], A0 and A1 are the cross-sectional areas of the
wire before and after drawing [mm2], respectively, and Y is
the average deformation resistance [N/mm2].
Die pressure Q/Y
Estimation of Die Pressure by FEM Analysis. The die

pressure is an important parameter that significantly
affects the damage and wear of dies and determines their
lifetime [5].
The values of die pressure during drawing using the
diamond and WC dies were calculated by FEM analysis.
In the analysis, the values of calculated using Eq. (1)
were used as the friction coefficient, and the other
conditions were set as R/P=20% and =6o.
2.5
Entry
L
6
Exit
2.0
l
D.D
1.5
WC Die
1.0
Entry
0.5
0.0
Diamond
0.2
R/P = 20%
R/P
= 6 Exit
0.4
0.6
0.8
Die contact ratio l/L
1.0
Figure 4. Comparison of die pressure during drawing between

diamond and WC dies by FEM.
Surface Properties of Drawn Wire. As described in the

previous sections, the drawing stress, friction coefficient,
and die pressure markedly differ between the wires drawn
using the diamond and WC dies. To clarify the effects of
these differences on the surface properties of the drawn
wires, the surface properties were compared using the
arithmetic mean roughness Ra measured by 3 dimension
image measuring instrument. The results are shown in
Figure 5. The arithmetic roughness was lower for the
diamond die than for the WC die. The diamond die is more
effective for drawing aluminum wires than the WC die in
terms of the surface properties.
From above-mentioned Figures, the wire drawn using
the WC die has a greater friction coefficient, higher die
pressure, and more degraded surface properties than the
wire drawn using the diamond die. Therefore, the diamond
die is more effective for drawing aluminum wires than the
WC die in terms of the drawing stress, friction coefficient,
die pressure, and surface properties.
20m
Mother
wire
Rt=18%
Rt=56%
Rt=83%
Rt=94%
WC die
200
180
160
140
120
Cu
100
The results are shown in Figure 4. Here, the values of

die pressure calculated by FEM analysis were given as
dimensionless values by dividing them by Y.
The die pressure was lower for the diamond die than for
the WC die. For both dies, the die pressure is high at the
entry and exit of the dies. This is because at the entry and
exit of the die, the force applied by the die not only
deforms the wire but also changes the direction in which
the material flows [6].
Moreover, the difference in the die pressure for dies
made of different materials is more significant at the entry
and exit of the dies. As above, it is speculated that the
damage and wear caused by the WC die occur in the early
stage of drawing because the die pressure of the WC die is
higher than that of the diamond die.
Ra=0.106m Ra=0.475m Ra=0.336m Ra=0.246m Ra=0.211m
Diamond die
Drawing stress / MPa
drawability have not yet been clarified. We compared the

drawing stress of the wires obtained using the diamond
and WC dies.
Ra=0.106m Ra=0.183m Ra=0.156m Ra=0.142m Ra=0.134m
Figure 5. Comparison of wire surface between WC and Diamond

dies.
Effects of Change of Drawing Direction in Each Pass of

Alternate Drawing on Drawn Wires
We propose alternate drawing, in which the drawing
direction is reversed for each pass, as a new drawing
method to form high-ductility aluminum wires to be used
for a wiring harness.
We clarify the effectiveness of alternate drawing by both
experiments and FEM analysis. The ductility of drawn
wires was evaluated by tensile tests using wires drawn
with Rt=99.8%. Figures 6 and 7 show the results of tensile
487
09.08.2010 14:28:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
Single drawing
(Rt=94%)
(Rt=99.8%)
Alternate drawing
(R(Rt=94%)
t=99.8%)
0.026
0.022
0.01
Metal Structure of Drawn Wire
0.02
0.03
Nominal strain
0.04
0.05
Figure 6. Comparison of stress-strain curve in wires obtained by

single drawing and alternate drawing.
(b)
(a)
Dimple
Shear lip
50m
(a) Single drawing Sd=0.64

A2
Sd = A
1
50m
(b) Alternate drawing Sd=0.80
Sd : Area ratio of dimple

A1 : Entire area of fracture cross section [mm2]
A2 : Area of dimple [mm2]
Figure 7. Comparison of ductile fracture between single drawing

and alternate drawing.
The tensile strength and breaking strain of the wire

obtained by alternate drawing are approximately 15 MPa
lower and 20% higher than those of the wire obtained by
conventional unidirectional drawing, respectively.
This result reveals that the ductility of the wire formed
by alternate drawing is higher than that of the wire formed
by single drawing. Dimples and shear lips [7,8] were
observed on the fracture cross section of both wires (see
Figure 7). However, there is a difference in the region of
dimples and shear lips between both wires. The dimple
area ratio of the wire formed by alternate drawing was
approximately 20% larger than that of the wire formed by
single drawing.
Vickers hardness / HV
75
Surface
Center
Surface
60
Mother wire
Rt=38%
Rt=78%
Rt=92%
300m
300m
300m
300m
300m
300m
300m
Figure 9. Changes in metal structure of mother wire and drawn

wires.
70
65
The metal structure of drawn wires was observed under

an optical microscope. Figures 9 and 10 show the
observation on metal structures of the wires formed by
single drawing and alternate drawing.
The metal structure of wires is extended in the drawing
direction by drawing, and finally fibrous structure [9]
appears. As shown in Figure 9, fibrous structure of both
wires becomes observable with an increase of total
sectional reduction ratio Rt. However, there is a big
difference in the process of fibrous structure emergence
between single drawing and alternate drawing. The
amount of fibrous structure of the wire formed by alternate
drawing is smaller than that of the wire formed by single
drawing. Crystal grains of 30-50m in diameter are always
found in the wires formed by alternate drawing. Similar
observation can be seen in Figure 10(b).
The fibrous structure of the wire formed by alternate
drawing with the condition of Rt=99.8% was not like that
of the wire formed by single drawing. Figure 11 shows the
observation on the plane direction of the wire shown in
Figure 10. Those were measured by XRD (X-Ray
Diffraction spectroscopy).
The fibrous structure of both wires was arranged mainly
in (111) plane [10]. However, it was revealed that the
fibrous structure of the drawn wire formed by alternate
drawing was also arranged strongly in (100) plane.
These results presumably indicate that the drawn wire
obtained by alternate drawing have high ductility owing to
its crystals being arranged in (111) and (100) planes.
single
220
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Figure 8 shows the Vickers hardness of the surface

layers for the wire obtained by alternate drawing is slightly
less than that for the wire obtained by unidirectional
drawing.
This may be because the development of additional
shear strain on the wire surface is suppressed during
alternate drawing, decreasing the Vickers hardness.
alternate
Nominal stress / MPa
tests and the ductile fracture, respectively, for the wires

obtained by conventional drawing with a single direction
(unidirectional drawing) and alternate drawing. Here, the
mother wire of 10mm was used for experiment. Here, the
diamond die was used for drawing.
Single drawing
(a)
(b)
Alternate drawing
55
50
-250-200-150-100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250
Distance of measurement from center / m
Figure 8. Vickers hardness distributions in wires obtained by single

drawing and alternate drawing.(Rt=99.8%)
488
100m
(a) Single drawing
100m
(b) Alternate drawing
Figure 10. Metal structure of drawn wire for Rt = 99.8%.
09.08.2010 14:28:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Single drawing
Alternate drawing
XRD intensity
(111)
(100)
(311)
(222)
(220)
15
20
25
30
35
2 / deg
40
45
Figure 11. Miller index of drawn wire for Rt=99.8%
Distribution of Equivalent Strain of Drawn Wires

Calculated by FEM Analysis
Single drawing
Alternate drawing
Single drawing
Alternate drawing
5Pass
2Pass
We compared the equivalent strain and residual stress

which were calculated by FEM analysis to clarify the
effects of these methods, or single drawing and alternate
drawing, on drawn wires. Figure 12 shows the change in
the shape of elements in FEM and the distribution of
equivalent strain. In the FEM analysis, R/P was 20% and
die half angle was 6.
As shown in Figure 12, the elements subjected to single
drawing are elongated along the drawing direction,
whereas the elements subjected to alternate drawing show
no marked change in their shape.
0.55
0.45
0.4
CL
0.37
D.D
0.45
0.4
0.36
CL
0.35
D.D
1.6
1.0
0.8
D.D
1.3
0.9
0.8
CL
0.75
D.D
Figure 12. Change in shape of elements and distribution of

equivalent strain after 2 and 5 passes by FEM. (R/P=20%,=6)
As for the distribution of equivalent strain, there is a

difference particularly at the surface layer of the wires; the
equivalent strain of the surface layer of the drawn wire
Conclusions
The drawing of aluminum wires used for a wiring
harness using diamond and WC dies and operational
drawing conditions was carried out, and the drawability
and surface properties of the drawn wires were examined.
The effectiveness of the alternate drawing for yielding
highly ductile aluminum wires by both experiments and
FEM analysis was also discussed. The following results
were obtained.
1. The drawing stress of the wires for the diamond die was
approximately 15-20% smaller than that for the WC die,
and the wire drawn with the diamond die exhibited high
drawability and good surface properties.
2. The tensile strength and breaking strain of the wire
obtained by alternate drawing were approximately
15MPa lower and 20% higher than those of the wire
obtained by single drawing.
3. The additional shear strain on the surface layer of the
wire generated by the alternate drawing was
approximately 20% lower than that by the single
drawing. In addition, alternate drawing makes it
possible to suppress the work-hardening of wires.
4. The alternate drawing is effective in manufacturing
aluminum wires used for wiring harnesses, which must
be highly ductile.
References
1.1
CL
obtained by alternate drawing is about 20% smaller than

that of the drawn wire obtained by single drawing.
Here, we confirm the numerical values of equivalent
strain. The values of equivalent strain at the surface layer
after alternate drawing were approximately 20% smaller
than those after single drawing.
From these results, it reveals that the strain generated on
a wire during each pass of drawing is cancelled by
reversing the drawing direction of the subsequent pass,
thus suppressing the work hardening of the wire. This can
explain why the drawn wire obtained by alternate drawing
has slightly lower strength and higher ductility in the
tensile test described in the previous section.
As described above, we verified that alternate drawing is
an effective method for drawing of aluminum wires used
for wiring harness which requires high ductile.
[1] C.A. Keyser: Basic Engineering Metallurgy, 20-6 (1959), 303-304.

[2] O. Furukawa: Book to understand all of automobile -Teaching of
professional-, (2000), 9-12.
[3] K. Yoshida: Current state of diamond die for drawing, NEW
DIAMOND, 13 (1997), 10-13.
[4] A.Pomp, E.Siebel, E.Houdremont : Uber kraft-und arbeitsbedarf beim
kaltziehen von drahten, Stahl u. Eisen, 49 (1950), 561-567.
[5] M. Murakawa, K. Nakamura, I. Aoki, K, Yoshida: Basic of plastic
forming, (1988), 66-67.
[6] R. Hill: The mathematical theory of Plasticity, Oxford at the
Clarendon press, (1950), 173-175.
[7] S.T. Rolfe, J.M. Brorsom: ASTM STP, 42-5 (1969), 466.
[8] W.A. Backofen: Deformation Processing, Wesley publishing company
(1972), 265-267.
[9] N. Inakazu, Y. Satou: Drawing - from fundamentals to up-to-date
techiques, Corona Publishing, (1990), 18-21.
[10] N. Brown: Trans. Metall. Soc. AIME, 221 (1965), 236.
489
09.08.2010 14:28:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Strain Path on Mechanical Properties of Wire Drawing Products

Micha Wielgus1), Janusz Majta1), Janusz Luksza1), Pawe Pako2)
1)
Faculty of Metals Engineering and Industrial Computer Science, AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakw / Poland, majta@metal.agh.edu.pl; 2) Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakw / Poland.
The main assumptions and processing details of the new wire drawing method (AAD angular accumulative drawing) are presented. Special
emphases are given on the inhomogeneity of the deformation and resulted mechanical properties. There are many potential advantages
that can be obtained from this new drawing process. The basic idea of the AAD process is deforming metals to much higher plastic strains,
compared to the conventional wire drawing, and by introducing high grain refinement, achieving much higher tensile strength and ductility what can be especially beneficial for alloys that are not characterized by complex compositions. In order to carry out the study of the AAD
process, a special die design was made such that an ordinary drawing bench could be used. Additionally, a study using computer simulation of the strain and the stress distributions that exist in the drawn wire has been carried out. Presented results show that it is possible to
produce wires with higher values of accumulated deformation energy with a lower area reduction. Applying the annealing process, both
high strength and increased ductility were achieved in the drawn wires. Also, it is shown that the effect of strain path in the AAD process
could be effectively controlled using computer simulation.
Keywords: Wire drawing, Mechanical properties, Computer modeling, Angular accumulative drawing, Deformation inhomogeneity
Introduction
Cold drawn low carbon steel wires are very popular
constructional products with a wide field of applications.
Recently, multi-pass cold rolling or drawing up to large
strains leads to ultrafine-grained materials with high
strength that could be very attractive from the economical
point of view [1-5]. The angular accumulative drawing
(AAD) process is a new method to produce wires with
high plastic strain inhomogeneity, what in consequence
leads to increased deformation energy accumulated in the
drawn product. This multi-pass drawing is a forming process with the aim of obtaining a high plastic strain accumulation as an effect of various sources of deformation. Such
a history of deformation evolves high mechanical inhomogeneity [2,6,7]. After drawing and annealing (at 500
o
C) mechanical properties measurements and microstructure analysis on the cross sections of the wires were performed to obtain the differences existing with respect to
the conventional wire drawing process. It was observed
that applied in this process strain path directly affects the
microstructure changes in the final product.
Table 1. Wire diameters and strains applied in drawing processes.

Diameter,
Area
Equivalent
Total
mm
reducplastic
strain
tion, %
strain
D0
6,5
1st pass
6,0
15
0,16
0,45
5,6
13
0,14
5,2
14
0,15
2nd pass
4,9
11
0,12
0,38
4,6
12
0,13
4,3
13
0,13
Calibration
4,0
13
0,14
0,14
Total
62
0,97
0,97
(a)
(b)
The material used in this study was low carbon steel
(0.06C/0.37Mn/0.01Si/0.14Cu/0.07Cr/0.06Ni) supplied as
wire rod with homogenous, equiaxed ferrite microstructure.
The 6.5 mm diameter wire rods were drawn to wires of 4.0
mm diameter by applying total strains of 0.45 and 0.38 in
first and second pass respectively and 0.14 in calibration
pass (Table 1). Drawing was carried out at slow speed
(0.05 m/s) to eliminate the effect of the heat generated by
working. In order to carry out the study of the AAD process, a special die design was made such that an ordinary
drawing bench could be used (Figure 1). The reduction of
area, the strain induced in the outer part of the wires, due
to bending/unbending processes and the desired shear
deformation were the main sources of strain accumulation
in the final product of the AAD process. As a result the
490
Figure 1. Scheme of angular accumulative drawing (AAD). The

real die (a) and schematic representation of the AAD die assembly (b).
cross-sectional distribution of the strain was very inhomogeneous. Different plastic strain inhomogeneity were obtained as a result of three different combinations of the die
positioning, i.e. linear, alternate, and stepped (Figure 2).
The wires were drawn in two passes through the set of arc
drawing dies using three different processing routes:
Route I. The drawing die positioning was linear; the
wire orientation was kept the same from one pass to the
next (Figure 2(a)).
09.08.2010 14:28:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
(b)
(c)

Modeling. Calculations were carried out with
MSC.Marc solver. At present, simulation was divided into
two subsequent stages: introduction of the material into
the system of the tools and the exact drawing process. The
former stage was modeled with QUAD4 elements as axisymmetric, while the latter with HEX8 hexahedral elements. The rheological model was implemented as a standard model for the solver. Combined isotropic-kinematic
hardening rule was assumed. Figure 4 shows an example of computer simulation of the AAD process. It can be
seen that the equivalent strain is localized on the one side
of the wire cross section and in most of the section has
average value between 0.6 and 0.85 - homogeneous plastic
strain for this pass reduction was only 0.45 (see Table 1).
Figure 2. Drawing dies positioning in angular accumulative drawing: alternate, Route II (a), stepped, Route III (b).
Route II. The drawing die positioning was alternate; the

wire was rotated by 180o about its axis after first pass
(Figure 2b).
Route III. The drawing die positioning was stepped; the
wire was rotated by 180o about its axis after first pass
(Figure 2c).
After second pass, the wires were calibrated to the final
diameter of 4.0 mm. The cold drawn wires were annealed
for 1200s at two different temperatures: 500 oC and 800 oC,
and then were subjected to microstructure analysis and
mechanical testing. The annealing process at 500 oC was
applied to accelerate the rearrangement of dislocation
structures. This temperature is lower than the recrystallization temperature of investigated steel. The tensile tests
were conducted on three specimens for each condition.
The mechanical properties of the drawn wires were also
characterized using Vickers indentation. The microstructure of the material was investigated before deformation
(Figure 3) and in the final products. The microstructure
before drawing process was regular, grains were equiaxed
with small differences in size. The changes in the microstructure were observed using both optical microscopy and
scanning electron microscope (EBSD analysis).
Figure 3. Microstructures of the as received material: longitudinal

(a), transverse (b), and longitudinal along radius of the wire (c).
Figure 4. Computer simulation of the total von Mises equivalent

plastic strain accumulated after 1st pass. Route II.
Microstructures. Optical microscopy (on both longitudinal and cross sections) and EBSD analysis (on longitudinal sections) reveal differences in the microstructure
obtained after three processing routes. The dependence of
grain shape and size with the processing route and annealing temperature is clearly seen in Figures 5 and 6. The
lamellar boundary structures elongated to drawing direction were observed in all cases. However, the spacing of
Figure 5. Longitudinal microstructures of drawn wires, near surface. Route II (a), Route III (b). Annealing at 500 oC.
491
09.08.2010 14:28:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 6. Longitudinal microstructures in centre of drawn wires.

Route I (a), (d); Route II (b), (e); Route III (c), (f). Annealing
temperature: 500 oC (a),( b), (c); 800 oC (d),( e),( f).
the lamellar varied from 25m in the centre of wire to 10

m near the surface.
Kikuchi patterns were used to determine subgrain misorientations in the wires annealed at 500 oC. Figure 7 summarizes the histograms of grain boundaries distribution in
the specimens, at the centre and near the surface of the
wires. It can be noticed, that in all deformation routes, the
volume fraction of low angle boundaries is higher in the
centre than near the surface. Presented in this work AAD
process is characterized by high deformation inhomogeneity, which enables to concentrate the effective strain
in
(a)
(b)
the outer layers of drawn wires due to bending/unbending

processes and the desired shear deformation. Cells, cell
blocks, and microbands were formed within the grains and
a subgrain structure of Low Angle Grain Boundaries
(LAGBs), with misorientation angle < 15o were created.
As a result of applied annealing process at 500 oC, some of
the LAGBs developed to High Angle Grain Boundaries
(HAGBs). Subsequently, the microstructure transforms
into a banded structure with an increasing aspect ratio due
to the preferential flow direction of the material (Figure
6(a), (b), (c). This affects the final mechanical properties
adequately to the applied strain path in particular routes of
AAD process. The influence of the strain path on the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties is also
observed in specimens after annealing in the austenite
region i.e. at 800 oC (Figure 6(d), (e), (f).
Figure 8 presents the true stress-strain curves for the
processed wires annealed at different temperatures. It is
clearly shown that the uniform elongation for the stepped
die positioning is higher than the alternate and linear,
while the ultimate strength is approximately identical for
the three routes of drawing. In the case of Route I slightincrease in tensile strength with a typical decrease in ductility is observed. There are significant differences in ductility between samples obtained from three different processing routes. The uniform elongation and elongation at fracture were clearly higher for wires processed according to
Route II and Route III (Figure 9). Due to the formation of
refined microstructure in the outer layers the wires show
very attractive combination of mechanical properties.
There is a possibility to determine the point where necking
begins, providing that a true stress-true strain curve
is
(a)
(c)
(d)
(b)
(e)
(f)
Figure 7. Distributions of grain boundaries measured near surface

(a, c, e) and in the centre (b, d, f) of the drawn wire sections in the
longitudinal direction. Route I (a), (b); Route II (c), (d); Route III
(e), (f).
492
Figure 8. Flow curves of drawn wires, using different dies positioning and annealed wires. Annealing temperature: 500 oC (a), 800
o
C (b).
09.08.2010 14:28:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
(b)
To summarize, it was observed that the AAD process has

a strong effect on the mechanical properties, which is
represented first of all by increased ductility in the drawn
wires. However, it has to be stated that several processing
and materials issues still should be considered and analyzed. For example the effects of:
- lubrication condition which significantly affects the texture of drawn wires,
- geometry parameters of the dies,
- parameters of the die assembly and amount of reduction,
- mechanical properties of the workpiece,
- annealing parameters.
Also, in addition to the chemical composition, the grain
size and the crystal orientation are possible sources of
different microstructure development and mechanical
behavior.
Conclusions
(c)
1. Angular accumulative drawing results in a significant

increase of inhomogeneity of the total effective strain.
2. Applying nonlinear dies positioning greatly affects the
microstructure development in the surface layers of the
drawn wires.
3. Computer simulation shows that the effect of strain
path change on mechanical inhomogeneity can be adequately reflected and can be used as an effective tool
in the design process of AAD.
4. There are significant differences in ductility between
samples obtained from three different processing
routes. The uniform elongation and elongation at fracture were clearly higher for wires processed using
AAD.
Acknowledgements
Figure 9. Determination of the uniform elongation in specimens

after drawing and annealing at 500 oC. Route II (a); Rote III (b);
Route I (c).
obtained directly from a tensile test [8]. The point of necking corresponds to the point of tensile instability. The
plastic deformation begins in a tensile test when the stress
in the sample reaches the critical value. The plastic strain
causes local reduction of a cross sectional area, thus the
deformation of the material will be continued when stress
increases. Uniform plastic deformation occurs as long as
the true stress is below the value of work hardening rate
( d / d < ). When the two quantities are equal, the
uniform deformation stops and necking begins. This method is known as Considre criterion (necking criterion) [9,
10, 11]. It is clearly shown in Figure 9 that high deformation inhomogeneity and resulted microstructure development in specimens drawn in Route II and Route III cause
significant increase in ductility. The uniform elongation
significantly increased and reached a value 0.111 after
annealing in case of alternate, and 0.119 in case of stepped
dies positioning.
The authors are grateful to the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education for the financial support (grant
no. N N508 3982 37).
References
[1] V.M. Segal: Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 197 (1995), 157.
[2] J. Len, C.J. Luis: Materials Science Forum, 526 (2006), 19-24.
[3] U. Chakkingal, A.B. Suriadi, P.F. Thomson: Scripta Materialia, 39-6
(1998), 677-684.
[4] X. Huang, N. Kamikawa, N. Hansen: J. Mater. Sci., 43 (2008), 73977402.
[5] D. Jia, K.T. Ramesh, E. Ma: Acta Materialia, 51 (2003), 3495-3441.
[6] J. Majta, J. Luksza: Archives of Metallurgy, 37 (1992), 187-200.
[7] L. Sadok, J. Luksza, J. Majta: J. Mater. Proc. Technol., 44 (1994),
129-141.
[8] J. Majta, K. Doniec, K. Muszka: Mater. Sci. Forum, 638-642 (2010),
1977-1982.
[9] G.E. Dieter: Mechanical Metallurgy, McGraw-Hill, Boston, MA,
(1986).
[10] A. Considre: Mmoire sur lemploi du fer et de lacier dans les
constructions. Paris, (1886).
[11] Z.S. Basinski, M.S. Szczerba, J.D. Embury: Philos. Mag. A, 76, 4
(1997), 743-749.
493
09.08.2010 14:28:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Theoretical Analysis of High Dimensional Accuracy in Cold Wire Drawing

Sonomi Shirasaki1), Motoo Asakawa2), Ryosuke Komami1), Yuichi Tanaka1)
1)
Major in Applied Mechanics, Graduate School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo / Japan, talisman@asagi.waseda.jp; 2) Department of Applied Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo / Japan
Two-dimensional FEM analysis was carried out to investigate the effects of drawing conditions on the drawn diameter in cold wire drawing.
The mechanism of diameter variation was elucidated to involve elastic deformation of the die, undershoot, diameter thickening during drawing and unloading springback. The undershoot was caused by the separation of the bar from the die at the beginning of the bearing zone
during drawing, and it was the main reason for the variation in the drawn diameter. It was experimentally confirmed by measuring the bar
diameter near the boundary between the approach and bearing zones. It was found from results of FEM analysis that the undershoot was
generated by plastic deformation at the surface of the bar. This phenomenon is thought to be a result of two factors: the tensile residual
stress in the axial direction at the surface of the bar near the boundary between the approach and bearing zones, and the drawing stress of
the drawn bar. As a result, the axial stress at the surface exceeds the yield stress, and plastic deformation was generated. Thus, a low
approach semi-angle in the second die is effective to reduce the residual stress and the diameter variation was reduced.
Keywords: Diameter of drawn bar, Cold drawing
Introduction
Recently, precision-forged products used in automobiles
and office equipments are required to have a high dimensional accuracy. The target dimensional tolerance is within
the range of 0% to +0.17% of the drawn diameter. However, in the conventional processes, the drawn diameter
becomes thicker or thinner than the die diameter. Occasionally, the diameter exceeds the bounds of permissibility.
In addition, the diameter variation is caused by changes in
the drawing conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the factors that cause diameter variation.
Lueg investigated the effect of the reduction and approach semi-angle on drawn diameter by the deformation
of a die [1,2]. Tanaka attempted to control the drawn
diameter by controlling the back-tension [3]. However,
thus far there have not been any systematic studies to
clarify the mechanisum of diameter variarion of drawn
bars.
Previously, the effect of back-tension, reduction and mechanical properties of the material on the drawn diameter
of a bar was experimentally investigated [4]. In this study,
the effect of cold drawing conditions on the drawn diameter of a bar was theoretically investigated with FEM analysis. First, the mechanism of the diameter variation was
clarified. Second, the main factors affecting the diameter
variation were specified. Finally, the stress and strain state
of the deformation zone during drawing was investigated.
Then, based on these results, a method to reduce dimensional errors and increase productivity was proposed.
Analysis Model and Experimental Method
The MSC Marc FEM simulation software was used in
this study, and a two-dimensional axisymmetric model
was employed in this drawing simulation. The standard
analytical conditions were employed, as shown in Figure
1, Tables 1 and 2. The die case and chip were assumed to
be elastic bodies, and the bar was assumed an elastoplastic
body. The die diameter D was 12 mm, the bearing length L
was 6 mm, and boundary R between the approach zone
and the bearing zone was 6 mm. The coulomb friction
494
coefficient was 0.05. Boundary R was subdivided to prevent the bar from passing through the die. Carbon steel
(0.2%) was used as the cold-drawn material.
*Closeup of boundary R
Drawing direction
Case
Chip
Bar
Approach
zone
Bearing zone
Boundary R
Axis of symmetry
Figure 1. Two-dimensional axisymmetric model employed in simulations.
Table 1. Material properties underb standard drawing conditions.
n
E
F
kN/mm2
N/mm2
Case
210
0.3
----------Chip
640
0.21
----------Bar**
193
0.3
1100
0.15
**True stress-true strain curve is approximated as F n
Table 2. Analytical standard conditions.
Die diameter D mm
12
7
Approach semi-angle degree
Bearing length L mm
6
Boundary R mm
6
Reduction in area Red %
10
0.05
Figure 2 shows the experimental method. All drawing

tests were carried out with a universal tester at a drawing
velocity of 80 mm/min.
09.08.2010 14:28:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Result and Discussion
Die
Effect of Mechanical Properties on Drawn Diameter.

The mechanical properties of drawn bars in final drawings
are altered by changing the amount of carbon, total
reduction in area. Therefore, we focused on the effect of
mechanical properties on the diameter of drawn steel
materials. Table 3 shows the mechanical properties of the
materials.
Materials
0.2% offset yield
stress0.2 MPa
Ultimate tensile
stress B MPa
Figure 2. Experimental drawing test by universal tester.
Figure 3 shows comparison between experiment and

FEM result in case of varying the reduction and the backtension.
The diameter thickening ratio is defined as follows.
dD
100
[%]
d
(1)
0.20
0.10
FEM
Experiment
0.090
-0.10
20
10
Reduction Red /%
30
0.10
0.00
-0.20
-0.30
= 0.250
FEM
-0.10
445
520
578
590
512
576
778
807
AISI 1048
0.20
AISI 1035
0.15
AISI 1020
0.10
0.05
AISI 1010
0.00
0
10
15
20
Reduction Re / %
25
30
Figure 4. Relationship between reduction and diameter thickening

ratio in each material obtained from experimen.
0.065
0.00
AISI 1048
0.25
-0.05
= 0.140
Diameter thickening ratio
Diameter thickening ratio
where d is the drawn diameter. When is positive, the

drawn diameter is thicker than the die diameter, when is
negative, the drawn diameter is thinner than the die diameter.
The diameter thickening ratio variation range was
0.025% when the reduction was varied and was 0.11%
when the back-tension was varied between experiment and
FEM result. Therefore, this FEM model to be effective to
investigate the mechanism of variation in the diameter
because both results showed a peak in the case of varying
reduction, and both results indicated that the diameter
thickening ratio decreased when the back-tension increased.
Table 3. Mechanical properties.

AISI 1010 AISI 1020 AISI 1035
Figure 4 shows the relationship between reduction and

diameter thickening ratio in each material with experimental result. Regardless of the amount of carbon, the diameter thickening ratio showed a peak value when the reduction in area in the ranged from 5% to 10%. As the reduction in area, Re was increased above 10%, the diameter
thickening ratio increased. However, at low reduction,
the diameter thickening ratio greatly increased. Moreover, as the amount of carbon was increased, the thickening ratio, also increased.
Diameter thickening ratio %
Drawing direction
Universal tester
Experiment
50
100
150
200
Effective back-tension stress eb /N/mm2
Mechanism of Diameter Variation. Figure 5 shows the

die and bar shapes during drawing. The gray line shows
the initial die shape. The die was deformed by the die
pressure applied at the beginning of the bearing zone, as
shown by the black line. This was an elastic deformation
of die 1 from a to b. The bar as shown by dotted line
began to separate from the die. This phenomenon is called
undershoot: 2 from b to c [5]. When the bar deformed
further, it again came in contract with the die and generated elastic recovery3 from c to d. Finally, the bar generated elastic recovery after the drawing stress was removed,
and the final resulting diameter was determined to be4
from d to e. In summary, the final diameter was determined to result from as the elastic deformation of the die,
the undershoot, the diameter thickening during drawing
and springback during unloading.
Figure 3. Comparison between experiment and FEM results.
495
09.08.2010 14:28:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
ing tests were carried out with AISI 1010 material, reduction in area Red = 10% and approach semi-angle a = 13
degrees. These drawing conditions easily generated the
undershoot, especially in tandem pass drawing. Drawing
was stopped halfway, and then, the bar was drawn out
backwards and the bar diameter near boundary R was
measured. Figure 7 shows the measurement results of the
bar diameter. The bar is shown without touching the bearing zone. Thus, undershoot was confirmed by the experimental method.
Drawing direction
Die shape before drawing
b
Die shape during drawing
0.10
Die
0.00
Bar shape
e
d
Bar
c
Bearing end
Bearing area
-0.10
0
5
10
Distance from boundary R l /mm
15
1 : Elastic deformation of die

2 : Undershoot
3 : Diameter thickening during
4 : Unloading spring-back
Figure 5. Die and bar shapes before and during drawing obtained
from FEM.
Diameter thickening ratio / %
Main Reason for Variation in Diameter. Representative results are shown in Figure 6. The total diameter
thickening ratio showed a peak in the case of varying
reduction. When the back tension increased, the total diameter thickening ratio increased. Undershoot 2 showed a
peak in the case of varying the reduction. When the back
tension and approach semi-angle increased, the undershoot
greatly increased. Other factors (elastic deformation of die
, diameter thickening during drawing and unloading
springback ) were constant in each case. This implies
that the undershoot was the main reason for variation in
the drawn diameter.
12.100
Diameter of bar d / mm
Diameter thickening ratio / %
0.20
12.080
Die
12.060
12.040
12.020
12.000
40m
11.980
5m
11.960
11.940
110
Generating Mechanism of Undershoot. Figure 8

shows the equivalent stress distribution during drawing.
The observed area was near boundary R. Tensile stress
was generated at the surface of the bar in the axial direction, z and compressive stress was generated in the
circumferential direction, and in the radial direction, r.
As a result, high equivalent stress was observed at the
surface of the bar and hydrostatic pressure state was observed at the center. Plastic deformation was not generated
in the center of the bar.
Observed area
Die
400 N/mm2
500 N/mm2
0.10
0.00
-0.10
Bar
-0.20
300 N/mm2
0
20
Reduction Re / %
40 0
100
200
Back-tensioneb / N/mm2
Figure 6. Effect of nine factors on and t obtanined

from FEM.
Measurement of Undershoot. The undershoot was confirmed by the experimental method. The bar diameter near
boundary R was experimentally measured using a laser
micrometer with a repeat accuracy of 0.15 m. The draw-
496
130
Figure 7. Measurement result of undershoot obtained from experiment.
Elastic deformation of die

Undershoot
Diameter thickening during drawing
Unloading spring back
Total diameter thickening ratio t
0.20
115
120
125
Displacement X /mm
z
960
896
-236
r
-22
-16
-268
300 N/mm2 400 N/mm2
426
449
-219
eq
852
790
398
Drawing direction
500 N/mm2
600 N/mm2
I
II
III
200 N/mm2
r
200 N/mm22
600 N/mm2
300 N/mm
400 N/mm2 500 N/mm2
2
600 N/mm
z
400 N/mm2
500 N/mm2
700 N/mm2
Figure 8. Equivalent stress distribution during drawing.
Then, we focused on the equivalent plastic strain rate

distribution at the bearing zone as shown Figure 9, which
compares a standard model and a generated large undershoot ( = 9 deg.). The black and gray areas indicate the
09.08.2010 14:28:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
generated the plastic deformation. Under all conditions,
the plastic deformation zone at the surface of the bar extended in the drawing direction from the beginning of the
bearing zone. Thus, the main reason that affected the undershoot was considered to be the generated plastic deformation at the surface. When a larger undershoot was
generated, the plastic deformation zone was larger than in
the standard model.
Undershoot
Surface
Bar
Center
= 9 deg.
Method of Reducing the Diameter Variation

Undershoot was the main factor affecting diameter
variation. Therefore, reducing undershoot would lead to
reducing the diameter variation. Undershoot was generated
by the plastic deformation of the surface of the bar. The
equivalent stress at the surface increased and as a result,
the plastic strain at the surface increased.
Therefore, we investigated why the equivalent stress at
the surface of the bar in the drawing direction increased.
We focused on the stress near boundary R in the axial
direction during drawing, as shown in Figure 10. This
phenomenon is thought to be a result of two factors: the
tensile residual stress generated at the surface of the bar
near boundary R, and the drawing stress uniformly
generated by the drawn bar [6]. As a result, the axial stress
at the surface exceeds the yield stress. The cause for the
large tensile stress generated at the surface rather than at
the center was primarily the residual stress. Therefore, the
undershoot was a plastic deformation at the surface of the
bar beyond boundary R. Applying a low approach semiangle to reduce the resieual stress was an effective method
to reduce the diameter variation.
Center
Drawing stress
r
Surface
Figure 9. Plastic deformation zone (equivalent plastic strain rate

distribution at the bearing zone).
Residual stress
r
Surface
Center
Drawing direction
Larger undershoot
Standard model
Bar
Drawing direction
Plastic deformation
Die
Die
Stress at bearing zone

Figure 10. Axial stress at bearing zone.
Conclusions
The conventional drawing process produces dimensional errors in the drawn bars, which might cause defects
in products. Therefore, FEM analysis was used to investigate the effects of cold drawing conditions on the drawn
diameters of bars.
1. The final resulting diameter of the drawn bar was determined by the elastic deformation of the die, the
undershoot, the diameter thickening during drawing and
the unloading springback.
2. The main factor that affected the drawn diameter was
the undershoot, and this was confirmed by the experimental method.
3. The undershoot was generated by large plastic deformation of the surface of the bar at the beginning of the
bearing zone.
References
[1] Leug: Sahl u. Eisen, (1941), 1169-1172.
[2] Leug: Sahl u. Eisen, (1960), 343-350.
[3] F. Sekine, N. Enomoto: Proc. 5th ICTP, (1996), 595-598.
[4] H. Kubota, Y. Tanaka and M. Asakawa : Proc. 57th Japanese Joint
Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, (2006), 267-268.
[5] M. Akiyama: Ironmaking and Steelmaking, 34- 4 (2007), 360-368.
[6] P. Renz, W. Steuff, R. Kopp: Wire Journal International, (1996), 64.
497
09.08.2010 14:28:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Prediction Model of Axial Residual Stress in Multi-Pass High Carbon Steel Wire
Drawing
Dae Woon Kim1), Sang Kon Lee2), Byung Min Kim3), , Jin Young Jung4), Deok Young Ban4)
1)
Graduate School of precision manufacturing systems division, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea; 2) PNU-IFAM JRC, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea; 3) School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea, bmkim@pusan.ac.kr; 4)
Technical Development Center Technology Research Center, Kiswire, LTD., Pohang / Korea
Multi-pass drawn high carbon steel wires obtained by the multi-pass wire drawing process are widely used for a variety of products. In the
drawing process, the wires are introduced a great amount of plastic deformation that is heterogeneous through the cross-section, and
surface temperature is rapidly increasing by friction much more then the temperature at inner wires. Those generate, on unloading, axial
tensile residual stresses at surface of multi-pass drawn steel wires. The tensile residual stresses generated on surface are one of the problems. Because the residual stresses deteriorate the mechanical strength and failure properties, prediction of residual stresses is important
to avoid unexpected fracture. Therefore, in this study, the influence of the material property, the process variables (semi-die angle, bearing
length, reduction ratio) and high surface temperature on the axial residual stress was investigated through elasto-plastic FE analysis.
Based on the result of FE analysis, a prediction model which can predict the total axial residual stress on the surface of multi-pass drawn
wire was established. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed prediction model was verified through the multi-pass drawing experiment.
After the drawing experiment, the axial residual stress was evaluated by using X-ray diffraction.
Keywords: High carbon steel wire, Multi-pass wire drawing, Axial residual stress, Surface temperature, X-ray diffraction
Introduction
The high carbon steel wire is generally produced by
multi-pass wire drawing. When the wire passes through
die, the most of plastic deformation is induced on surface
so that the deformation occur heterogeneously through the
cross section of wire. It brings about tensile residual stress
on the surface [1].
The residual stresses on the surface can be separated
three components such as axial, hoop and radial. The axial
and hoop residual stress become tensile stresses. Particularly, it is found that axial tensile residual stress is the
largest stress on wire. In case of the residual stress, it leads
to mechanical properties deterioration. Those could be the
reason of degrading the quality of multi-pass drawn wire
[2,3].
Therefore, it is so important to minimize the axial tensile
residual stress. Prior to reduce it, the quantitative prediction of generated axial residual stress after wire drawing
should be investigated. So far, a variety of researches have
been investigated about axial residual stress in wire. However, there have been many researches about influences of
each variable like reduction of cross section, semi die
angle, bearing length and bearing shape on residual stress
for single pass drawn wire. Whereas, it has seldom been
investigated researches about the evaluation and prediction
of the residual stress on multi-pass drawn wire with combination of various process variables and the influence of
surface temperature [4-8].
Hence, in this study, the axial surface residual stress of
high carbon steel multi-pass drawn wires were assessed
with process variable combinations and surface temperature through elasto-plastic FE analysis. At first, to evaluate
the effect of heterogeneous deformation with process variable combinations, the FE analysis of multi-pass wire
drawing with isothermal condition were conducted considering deformation hysteresis at each pass. With these
results, the residual stresses were measured to develop a
498
prediction model about deformation. Next, for estimating

the effects of surface temperature, the FE analysis was
performed with non-isothermal conditions. Surface temperature and residual stress were measured at the same
point to verify a relationship between those things so that
another prediction model about surface temperature. And
the prediction model for evaluating the total axial residual
stress considering deformation and surface temperature
were proposed. To demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed prediction models, X-ray diffraction (XRD) was
used to measure the axial residual stress on multi-pass
drawn wire.
Prediction of Residual Stresses by Deformation
Conditions of Multi-Pass Wire Drawing for FE
Analysis. To define the relationship between the process
variable combinations and surface residual stress on multipass wire drawing, the elasto-plastic FE analysis, DEFORM-2D, with isothermal conditions were conducted
considering deformation hysteresis at each pass. Applied
material was AISI 1082 multi pass drawn wire. To acquire
accurate its flow stress curve in the large deformation,
multi-pass drawn wires were used as tensile test specimen.
After then, the flow stress curve with large deformation
was obtained. Based on the each result of tests, Bridgeman
correction factor (B) was modified to present the flow
stress curve in the large deformation as following equation
[9]:
= B = B K ( ) n
B = 0.83 0.186 log (0.15 1.0)
B = 0.11 2 0.21 + 0.93 ( >1.0)
(1)
where B is the Bridgeman correction factor, is the effective strain, K is the stiffness coefficient and n is the strainhardening exponent. Reduction ratio, semi die angle and
09.08.2010 14:28:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
bearing length were chosen as process variables. The process variables are given in Table 1. The variables range and
wire drawing conditions were established from industrial
wire drawing process.
650
Table 1. Process variables for multi-pass wire drawing.

Wire material
AISI1082
Initial Diameter(mm)
5.5
Final Diameter(mm)
2.45
Total passes
Total reduction(%)
80.15
Semi-die angle ()
4.5, 5.5, 6.5
0.06 (constant)
460
Residual Stress (Mpa)
1500
4.5o, 0.3D
1000
5.5 , 0.3D
6.5o, 0.3D
500
0.6
0.8
1.0
Effective Strain
1.2
1.4
= 0.6 (9.07 + 0.16)
(2)
Figure 2 shows that the comparison between the residual stress by the FE analysis and the prediction model in
the condition of 5.5o, semi-die angle and 0.45D, bearing
length. The errors between both stresses are within 2.5%
so the prediction model can be used to estimate the residual stress of the multi-pass drawn wire by the deformation.
Pass number
AISI 1082
Tip material
Initial Dia.
5.5 mm
Case material
AISI-D2
Final Dia.
4.90 mm
Initial Temp.
Friction ()
0.06
Atmosphere Temp.
30 oC
30 oC
Reduction ratio
20.63 %
Drawing speed
Bearing length
0.45D
Semi-die angle
WC
1,885 mm/s
5.5o
Table 3. Thermal properties of materials of wire and die.
Prediction Model of Residual Stress. From the result

in accordance to process variables, an axial residual stress
prediction model expressed by effective strain ( ), semi
die angle ( ), relative bearing length (b=l/D) and flow
stress curve was proposed:
(1.02 1.99 b + 1.66b 2 ) B K ( ) n
Wire material
1.6
As shown in Figure 1, it is found that the residual stress

gradually rise with increasing effective strain because of
the increase in non-uniformity of deformation between
center and surface. In addition, the flow stress curve and
the residual stress have similar shape and tendency. And
the residual stresses are a certain percentage of flow stress.
AR ) def
Generation of Temperature in Wire. The friction heat

on the wire surface affects the surface residual stress. In
order to evaluate the effect of friction heat on the residual
stress, FE analysis was carried out. The process variables
given in Table 2 are used to analyze wire drawing
processes. Heat capacity and thermal conductivity of die
set and wire are given in Tabel 3.
Figure 1. Flow stress curve and surface residual stress according

to the process variables for AISI 1082.
Table 2. Process variable for non-isothermal FE analysis.
Modified flow stress, B
0.4
400
Residual Stress Generated by Friction Heat
Evaluation of Residual Stress by FE Analysis. Figure

1 shows the flow stress and the surface residual stresses in
accordance with semi die angle and bearing length for
each pass along the effective strain.
0.2
450
Figure 2. Comparison of residual stress between FE analysis and

prediction model(=5.5o, l=0.45D).
(D=Entrance diameter of each pass)
Drawing speed(m/min)
0.0
500
300
Friction coefficient()
2000
FE analyis
Prediction model
550
350
0.3D, 0.45D, 0.6D
Bearing length (l)
600
Thermal conductivity
Heat capacity
Tip
48.0 N/sec/oC
59.0 N/sec/oC
4.0 N/mm2/oC
15.0 N/mm2/oC
Case
70.0 N/sec/oC
3.7 N/mm2/oC
Wire
As a result of the analysis, the generated heat according

to deformation and friction increased wire temperature.
Especially, the friction heat led to a sharp temperature
rising on the sureface [10]. Figure 3 shows the
temperature distribution at a wire. Therefore, the reasons
brought about temperature gradient through cross-section.
As shown in Figure 4, when the wire emerges from the
die, the temperature in the center of wire gradually increases from about 94.7 to 126.0 oC. Whereas, on the surface of wire, the temperature rapidly decreases from about
300.0 to 126.0 oC because very thin surface layer is only
heated by the friction.
To verify the result of FE analysis, wire drawing experiment was carried out. And the wire temperature was
measured. Table 4 shows the comparison of the wire temperature between FE analysis and experiment measured on
the surface of 100 mm from the die exit. Although the
difference of temperature is about 5 oC, two temperatures
are similar. So the analysis can be used to predicting
effects of surface temperature on the axial surface residual
stress.
499
09.08.2010 14:28:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
a
b
200
a : 23.1 C
b : 73.0 oC
c : 120.0 oC
d : 213.0 oC
e : 300.0 o C (Max. Temp.)
wire
250
Table 4. Comparison of temperature between FE analysis and

experiment(measured location : 100 mm from the exit of die).
die
B
Temperature
150
100
0.0
0.5
Center : A
1.0
Location of measurement
Surface : B
Figure 3. Temperature distribution at cross section for maximum

temperature after the drawing.
Temperature (oC)
300
Temperature at surface
250
Temperature at center
200
150
40
60
80
100 120 140 160 180 200 220
Distance from entrance of die (mm)
Figure 4. Temperature at surface and center along distance.
As shown in Figure 5, the residual stress of the nonisothermal condition is higher than that of the nonisothermal condition, because of the residual stress caused
by the rapid temperature drop on the wire surface. In the
non-isothermal condition, when the temperature becomes
uniform, the residual stress also shows constant value.
300
300
250
250
200
200
150
150
100
270
650
Residual stress with thermal

240
Residual stress with isothermal
Surface temperature
210
600
550
500
450
180
400
150
350
300
0
120
30
60
90
120
150
180
The thermal stress occurred on the wire surface. When

the surface temperature rapidly decreases, very thin surface layer is shrunk so that the higher surface temperature
causes tensile residual stress on the wire surface [11].
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
100
50
0
As the maximum surface temperature was higher, the

tensile residual stress also increased. Based on the results,
the residual stress by changing surface temperatures is
related on thermal stress. So, it could be calculated by the
follow equation:
( AR )temp =
E T
3 (1 )
(3)
where is the thermal expansion coefficient, T is the

temperature difference between the maximum surface
temperature and the uniform temperature.
Therefore, because the factors such as deformation and
surface temperature are independently affected on the
axial residual stress, prediction model for the total axial
residual stresses can be defined as the combination of Eqs.
(2) and (3):
210
Distance from exit of die (mm)

Figure 5. variation of axial surface residual stress in accordance
with surface temperature(FE analysis).
500
Surface temperature
Center temperature
Surface residual stress -FEA
Surface residual stress-Prediction
Drawing velocity (mm/s)

Figure 6. Relationship between wire surface temperature and
residual stress.
300
700
Temperature (oC)
750
127.1 C
350
0
500
20
132.0 C
350
50
100
50
Drawing experiment
Prediction of Residual Stress by Surface Temperature. For assessing the residual stress according to wire
surface temperature, FE analysis was carried out with the
various drawing velocities (885, 2885 mm/s) to obtain
different surface temperatures.
The different drawing velocity caused varied surface
temperatures as shown in Figure 6. In all cases, the uniform wire temperatures are almost the same value when
the wire reaches uniform temperature. Despite different
surface temperature, all uniform temperature keeps similar
value because the contact time between die and wire and
the amount of heat diffused into the wire change with
various drawing velocities.
o
Temperature ( C)
Effect of Surface Temperature on Residual Stress. To

prove the relationship between the surface temperature and
the surface residual stress, previous FE analysis considered non-isothermal and isothermal conditions were used.
The drawn wire was cooled sufficiently in order to verify
the effect of surface temperature on residual stress.
FE analysis
Temperature (oC)
300
AR ) total
= {0.6 (9.07 + 0.16) (1.02 1.99 b +

1.66b 2 ) B K ( ) n } +
E T
3 (1 )
(4)
Evaluation of Surface Residual Stress Using X-ray

Diffraction
09.08.2010 14:28:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
In this study, the axial surface residual stresses on
drawn wire were measured by XRD in order to verify the
effectiveness of the prediction model for the residual stress.
The microstructure of high carbon steel wire is a pearlite structure composed of ferrite and cementite. Especially,
even a few amount of cementite exist, it significantly influence on mechanical properties. However, as cementite
lamellar disperse diffracted X-ray, obvious peak was not
appeared so that cementite residual stress can not be measured by XRD [12]. Therefore, cementite residual stress,
2000 MPa, measured using neutron diffraction measurement was applied [13]. Therefore, the residual stress of the
residual stress of pearlite was calculated by following
prediction model [12]:
ij = (1 f ) ij + f ij
(5)
where ij and ij are the residual stress of ferrite and

cementite, f is the fraction of cementite in pearlite steel.
The fraction of AISI 1082 is 0.119 by lever rule from Fe-C
phase diagram.
Two kind of multi-pass wire drawing were conducted to
demonstrate the residual stresses by the deformation and
the temperature. First case is that wire was drawn by draw
bench with drawing velocity of 0.5 m/s to avoid surface
temperature rising. The other is the experiments carried
out by using an industrial multi-pass (8 passes) wire drawing machine (final drawing velocity: 460 m/min).
Figure 7 shows the results of the prediction model, ferrite residual stresses by XRD and pearlite residual stresses
calculated with equation (5). That indicates good agreement between the prediction model and the measured
value for isothermal condition while the prediction for
non-isothermal condition was higher than the experiments.
However, it is found that additional tension and bending
on drum in the industial wire drawing process could
reduce the tensile residual stress [6,14]. Therefore, the
prediction model is reasonable to estimate the residual
stress.
Residual stress(MPa)
1200
1000
800
600
Prediction with non-isothermal

Prediction with isothermal
Ferrite with isothermal
Pearlite with isothermal
Ferrite with non-isothermal
Pearlite with non-isothermal
400
200
0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
Effective strain
1.2
1.4
1.6
Figure 7. Comparison of axial residual stress between prediction

model and drawing experiment.
Conclusions
drawn wire was proposed, and obtained the following

results:
1. The proportions between the residual stress and the flow
stress were nearly fixed a constant value in conformity
with process parameters. With this result, a prediction
model for evaluating the axial residual stress was proposed using effective strain, semi die angle, bearing
length and material property.
2. The rapid change in temperature on the wire surface
during drawing process caused the increase in the tensile residual stress on the wire surface. Considering not
only the deformation but also the temperature change,
the axial tensile residual stress prediction model was
proposed.
3. Residual stresses were measured by XRD on multi-pass
drawn wires produced by draw bench and industrial
drawing machine. The results indicated good agreement
between the prediction model and the measured value
for isothermal condition. However, the predicted value
for non-isothermal condition was higher than that of the
experiments. The reason is why the additional tension
and the bending which reduce the axial tensile residual
stress are added in the multi-pass drawn wire during the
industrial drawing process.
Acknowledgement

Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government(NRF-2006-K20601000004-09E0100-00410), and
NCRC Program of MOST and KOSEP(No. R15-2006022-03003-0) and KISWIRE.
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[13] K. Van Acker, J. Root, P. Van Houtte, E. Aernoudt: Acta Meterialia,
44-10 (1996), 4039-4049.
[14] B. Goes, J. Gil-Sevillano, U. DHaene: International Journal of
In this study, based on the FE analysis, the prediction

model of the axial surface residual stress considering deformation and surface temperature on high carbon steel
501
09.08.2010 14:28:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effective Heating Conditions for High Speed Dieless Tube Drawing Process
Tsuyoshi Furushima, Yuta Noda, Ken-ichi Manabe
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo / Japan, furushima-tsuyoshi@tmu.ac.jp
Dieless drawing is a flexible metal drawing technique without any conventional dies and mandrels. In this study, the effective heating conditions for high speed dieless drawing process of metal tubes are discussed experimentally. Dieless drawing experiments are conducted
under effective drawing speed path control to restrain the instable deformation at an early drawing stage for SUS304 stainless steel with
outer diameter of 1.5mm and thickness of 0.3mm. The effect of basic feeding speed on drawing deformation behaviour is investigated. The
results indicate that the drawing limit decreases with increasing drawing speed. In addition, the effect of the local heating zone length on
deformation behaviour is investigated under various feeding speed conditions. As a result, it is concluded that the dieless drawing limit can
be enhanced by increasing the heating zone length. Consequently, it is important to increase the heating zone length for enhancing the
dieless drawing limit in high speed drawing range.
Keywords: Dieless drawing, High speed, heating condition, strain rate, local heating zone length
Introduction
A dieless drawing by the use of local heating and cooling devices of metal wires, bars and tubes is a flexible
metal drawing technique without any conventional dies
and tools instead of conventional die drawing. This technique can achieve a great reduction of materials in a single
pass by the local heating compared with conventional die
drawing. The dieless drawing has the advantages of a
non-contact, flexible metal forming process without the
use of conventional dies. The dieless drawing has remarkable advantages over the conventional die drawing technique not only improving the drawability, but also eliminating the use of expensive dies and lubricants.
The idea of dieless drawing technique was introduced by
Weiss et al. [1]. They applied the dieless drawing to steels
and Ti alloy rods, and achieved a reduction in area of 50%.
In addition, for some metal materials, the dieless drawing
has been applied by some researches [2-5]. In recent year,
the authors have applied the dieless drawing to superplastic metal tubes for the fabrication of microtubes [6,7].
From these previous reports, the dieless drawing technique
has wide applications. However, the dieless drawing has
some problems for practical application. It is difficult to
realize the dieless drawing process with high drawing
speed, because the local heating cannot be achieved at
high drawing speed range.
In general, the undesirable deformation which leads to
fracture occurs at early drawing stage when the local heating condition cannot be realized. In contrast, it was reported that the local heating is not necessarily required by
using effective drawing speed path control at early drawing stage to prevent the instable deformation in dieless
drawing process [8]. However, the effects of heating condition and drawing speed on deformation behavior have
not been discussed yet under effective drawing speed path
control condition at early drawing stage.
In this study, the effects of drawing speed and heating
conditions on deformation and heat transfer behavior were
investigated experimentally under the effective drawing
speed path control conditions at early drawing stage. The
deformation behavior such as deformation profile and
limiting reduction in area, particularly, at high speed draw502
ing range was clarified under the effective drawing speed

path control condition at early drawing stage. Then, the
effect of heating conditions on deformation behavior was
investigated to find the effective heating conditions to
enhance the limiting reduction in area for high speed dieless drawing process.
Dieless Drawing Process with Effective Drawing Speed
Path Control
Principle of Dieless Drawing Process. Dieless drawing
is a unique deformation process without the need for conventional dies as shown in Figure 1. The heating and
cooling devices are fixed and the metal tube moves from
left to right through the heating zone. Concurrently, the
tube is subjected to tension by the difference in speed
between pulling V1 and feeding V2. The flow stress of
materials is reduced significantly and the ductility is enhanced considerably at elevated temperature. The local
temperature increase causes a local plastic deformation.
The necking occurs at local heated part and diffuses out
with moving heating and cooling devices, achieving a
large reduction in area in a single pass drawing. The relationship between the reduction in area r and the speed
ratio V2/V1 is follows [3].
r = 1 (V 2 / V1 )
Heating coil
A1
(1)
Cooling coil
A2
V1
V2
tube
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of dieless tube drawing process.
09.08.2010 14:28:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
Drawing speed
Conventional path
V1
B
a
Control path
V2 A
Time
Figure 2. Schematic illustration of effective drawing speed path
control at early drawing stage in dieless drawing process.
The materials used in the experiments were SUS304
stainless steel tubes of 1.5 mm outer diameter and 0.3mm
thickness.
Figure 3 show the schematic illustration and photograph
of the experimental setup. Two tables with chucks for
gripping tube can be moved independently at V1 and V2 by
controlling two servomotors of 750 W power. A high frequency induction heating device with a maximum power
of 2kW and a frequency of 2.2 MHz was used. The heating
coil was fixed. Three types of heating coils with different
heating length Lhb = 3, 20 and 40 mm as shown in Table 1
were used to investigate the effect of the temperature distribution on the deformation behavior of tube and its drawing limit. The stainless steel tubes were heated using the
heating coil, which provides a temperature of 950 oC. In
this experiment, the cooling device is not used. The dieless
drawing experiments were carried out at feeding speed V2
of 0.5, 1, 5 and 10 mm/s and reduction in area r of 0 to
60%. Here, the limiting reduction in area rmax is defined as
the reduction in area r at which the tube fracture occurs,
which specifies the forming limit obtained from the experiments.
High frequency induction heating apparatus

2kW 2.2MHz
Servomotor
Lhb
20
40
Drawing direction
1000
V2 =0.1mm/s
900
V1 =V2 r =0%
800
1 turn coil
V2 =10mm/s
700
Lhb =3mm
600
500
400
V2 =0.5mm/s
300
V2 =5mm/s
200
-40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Distance from center of maximum temperature /mm
Figure 4. Effect of feeding speed V2 on temperature distribution
under condition of 1 turn coil (Lhb=3 mm) in dieless drawing process.
Drawing direction
0.8
r =37.5%
0.75
V2 =5mm/s
0.7
V2 =10mm/s
0.65
0.6
0.55
V2
0.4
Figure 3. Schematic illustration and photograph of dieless drawing

apparatus.
Lhb
Effect of Feeding Speed on Deformation Behavior.

Figure 4 shows the effect of feeding speed V2 on temperature distribution in dieless drawing process. The heated
zone extends to the drawing direction with increasing
feeding speed V2. Figure 5 shows the effect of feeding
speed V2 on deformation profile in dieless drawing. The
length of deformation zone extends with increasing feeding speed V2. Thus, the length of deformation zone is related with temperature distribution in dieless drawing
process. Figure 6 shows the effect of feeding speed on
limiting reduction in area rmax under condition of effective
drawing speed path control. rmax decreases with increasing
feeding speed V2.
0.45
Photograph of apparatus
8 turns
Heating coil
Tubes
3 turns
Lhb
Length of
L [mm]
heating coil hb
V2 =0.1mm/s
0.5
V1
1 turn
Type of
heating coil
Outer radius /mm
Ballscrew
Table 1. Type of heating coils used in the experiments.
Temperature /o C
Effective Drawing Speed Path Control [8]. The nonsteady state deformation at the early drawing stages causes
undesirable deformation and fracture [9]. To restrain the
undesirable deformation at the non-steady state, the pulling speed V1 was gradually increased from initial pulling
speed, similarly to the feeding speed V2 to the target pulling speed V1. Figure 2 shows an example of the drawing
speed path controls used in the experiments.
1 turn coil
V2 =0.5mm/s
Lhb =3mm
0
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
X coordinate /mm
Figure 5. Effect of feeding speed V2 on deformation profile under
condition of 1 turn coil (Lhb=3 mm) in dieless drawing.
503
09.08.2010 14:28:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Thus, the difference in flow stress between heated and
cooled areas becomes small with increasing drawing speed.
Therefore, it can be considered that rmax decreases with
increasing strain rate due to increasing feeding speed V2.
1 turn coil
50
Lhb =3mm
45
40
35
30
0.01
0.1
Feeding speed V2
10
100
/mms-1
Figure 6. Effect of feeding speed V2 on limiting reduction in area

rmax under condition of 1 turn coil (Lhb=3 mm) in dieless drawing.
The reason why rmax decreases with increasing feeding

speed is due to increasing strain rate during dieless drawing. In general, the forming limit in dieless drawing process is governed by the difference in the flow stress between the heated and cooled areas on the basis of fundamental equilibrium equation [10]. The relationship between the theoretical limiting reduction in area rmax, and
the flow stresses at heated and cooled parts h and c,
respectively, can be expressed as
rmax = 1 h c .
(2)
Effect of Heating Condition on Deformation Behavior. Figure 7 shows the effect of length of heating coil Lhb
on temperature distribution at feeding speed V2=0.5 mm/s.
It is confirmed that heated zone extends to drawing direction as Lhb increases. Figure 8 shows the effect of Lhb on
the deformation profile at feeding speed V2=0.5 mm/s. The
length of deformation zone extends with the increase of
Lhb. Figure 9 shows the relationship between limiting
reduction in area rmax and length of heating coil. The limiting reduction in area rmax is enhanced with increasing Lhb
under condition of feeding speed V2=0.5 mm. Additionally,
it is found that rmax can be enhanced in case of feeding
speed V2=10 mm at high speed drawing range. Therefore,
extending Lhb by design is the effective method to enhance
the drawing limit for high speed dieless drawing under
condition of effective drawing speed path control.
Drawing direction
1000
8 turn coil
900
Temperature /o C
Limitng reduction in area rmax /%
55
800
V1 =V2 =0.5mm/s
r =0%
3 turn coil
Lhb =40mm
700
600
Lhb =20mm
500
1 turn coil
400
nh
h = K h
mh
(3)
where h is the equivalent flow stress, Kh is the strength

coefficient, is the equivalent strain, nh is the strain hardening exponent is the equivalent strain rate, and mh is
the strain rate sensitivity index at heated part. The flow
stress at heated area increases with increasing strain rate
from Eq. (3). In contrast, the flow stress at cooled area
does not change with increasing strain rate because of no
strain rate sensitivity at room temperature. That is to say,
it means that m value in Eq. (3) is zero at room temperature so that Eq. (3) can be rearranged by
c = K c n .
(4)
where c is the equivalent flow stress, Kc is the strength

coefficient, is the equivalent strain and nc is the strain
hardening exponent at the cooled part. From Eqs. (3) and
(4), Eq. (2) can be change following equation.
K h nh mh
= 1 A mh
K c nc
K n
A= h n
(5)
K c
From Eq. (5), the limiting reduction in area increase with

decreasing strain rate due to decreasing drawing speed.
rmax = 1
504
300
Lhb =3mm
200
-50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50

Distance from center of maximum temperatuer /mm
Figure 7. Effect of length of heating coil Lhb on temperature distribution under condition of feeding speed V2=0.5 mm/s.
Drawing direction
0.8
8 turn coil
0.75
Outer radius /mm
Flow stress of the material at elevated temperature can be

expressed as following equation by considering strain rate
sensitivity and strain hardening sensitivity.
0.7
Lhb =40mm
0.65
0.6
0.55
0.5
0.45
1 turn coil
3 turn coil
Lhb =3mm
Lhb =20mm
V2 =0.5mm/s r =37.5%
0.4
0
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
X coordinate /mm
Figure 8. Effect of length of heating coil Lhb on deformation profile
under condition of feeding speed V2=0.5 mm/s.
The reason why rmax can be enhanced by extending the

heating zone length, is due to decreasing the strain rate at
deformed area during dieless drawing process. As described above, it is known that the strain rate affects
strongly rmax as shown in Eqs. (3) and (4). From these
09.08.2010 14:28:59 Uhr
Metal Forming
Limitng reduction in area rl /%
equations, decreasing the strain rate at deformed area in

dieless drawing is required to enhance the rmax. When the
heating zone length is extended, the length of deformed
area in dieless drawing is also extended as shown in Figure 8. Thus, deformation time can be long under the same
reduction in area due to extending deformed area as shown
in Figure. 10. This means that the strain rate of deformed
area at heated area decreases in dieless drawing. In this
way, the strain rate can decrease by extending the heating
zone length. As a result, the flow stress can be reduced at
heated area and the difference in flow stress between
heated area and cooled area. Consequently, it is considered that the limiting reduction in area can be enhanced by
extending heating zone length. In previous studies, a local
heating generally has been one of the important process
requirements in dieless drawing process. However, it is
found that the local heating is not necessarily required by
using effective drawing speed path control at early drawing stage to prevent the undesirable deformation in dieless
drawing process. It is found that extending the heating
zone length under effective drawing speed path control at
early drawing stage is effective heating condition to enhance the drawing limit for high speed dieless drawing
process.
55
1 turn coil
50
Lhb =3mm
45
V2 =0.5mm/s
V2 =10mm/s
40
3 turn coil
35
Lhb =20mm
30
8 turn coil
Lhb =40mm
10
20
30
40
50
Length of heating coil Lhb /mm
Figure 9. Relationship between length of heating Lhb coil and
limiting reduction in area rl.
Conclusions
The effects of the drawing speed and heating conditions
on deformation and heat transfer behavior were investigated experimentally under the effective drawing speed
path control condition at early drawing stage. The following results were obtained:
1. The limiting reduction in area decreases with increasing
feeding speed V2 due to increasing strain rate at deformed area.
2. The extending the heating zone length under effective
drawing speed path control at early drawing stage is effective heating condition to enhance the drawing limit
for high speed dieless drawing process. .
The dieless drawing has had some problems for practical
application. It was difficult to realize the high speed dieless drawing process because the local heating cannot be
achieved at high speed drawing range. However, it can be
believed that the current issues described above can be
improved by the summary obtained from this study which
is to extending heating zone length by design.
References
[1] V. Weiss, R.A. Kot, Wire Journal, 9 (1969), 182-189.
[2] M. Alexander, T.W. Turner: Proc. Int. M.T.D.R. Conference, 15
(1974), 525-537.
[3] H. Sekiguchi, K. Kobatake, K. Osakada: Proc. Int. M.T.D.R.
Conference, 15 (1974), 539-544.
[4] R. Carolan, P. Tiernan, P. Commerford: Materials Science Forum,
447-448 (2004), 513-520
[5] K. Eynatten, J. N. Reissner: Proc. 34th Int. MATADOR Conference,
34 (2004), 187-192
[6] T. Furushima, K. Manabe: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 187-188 (2007), 236-240
[7] T. Furushima, K. Manabe: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 191 (2007), 59-63
[8] T. Furushima, K. Manabe: Journal of Solid Mechanics and Materials
Engineering, 3-2 (2009), 236-246.
[9] T. Furushima, K. Manabe: Materials Transactions, 50-1 (2009), 161166.
[10] M. Murahashi: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of
Plasticity, 31-355 (1990), 978-983. (in Japanease).
Strain rate : low
V2
Deformation area
V1
(a) Long heating zone length

Strain rate : high
V2
V1
(b) Short heating zone length

Figure 10. Schematic illustration of effect of heating zone length
on strain rate and deformed area under same reduction in area.
505
09.08.2010 14:29:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
Drawing Process with Ultrasonic Activation of Sectional Drawing Die Perpendicularly

to Axis of Wire Subject to Deformation
Janusz uksza, Katarzyna Szajding, Maciej Rumiski
AGH University of Science and Technology, al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Cracow / Poland, luksza@metal.agh.edu.pl
Ultrasonic vibrations applied during the drawing process cause considerable reduction of forces compared to conventional drawing. Phenomena occurring when employing ultrasonic vibrations in the meta forming processes of metals, including extrusion, rolling, drawing and
press forming, have been the subject of many interesting scientific researches for many years. The ultrasonic vibrations have some advantages in the drawing process. This process has the following properties: allows to reduce drawing force, improves final product surface,
narrows dimensional tolerances, and reduces wear of drawing tools. The study contains brief literature description explaining the impact
and advisability of using ultrasonic vibrations in wire drawing process and description of scientific research . The paper presents various
drawing process schemes involving the use of longitudinal vibrations of monolithic drawing die and radial vibrations of sectional drawing die,
which are simultaneously combined in the drawing process. Specially designed, unique test stand for carrying out wire drawing process
with a sectional drawing die which is divide by axis surface is used for the experiment. Sectional die is made from alloy steel. Powerful
piezoelectric generator (2 kW) and magnetostrictive generator are used for generating oscillations. Vibration frequency is 20 kHz. Wire with
diameter 3 mm is made of aluminium. The drawing process involving ultrasonic activation of sectional drawing die perpendicularly to the
axis of wire subject to deformation extorts active radial distortions ensuring significant increase in formability of material being drawn. Conventional drawing process is replaced with drawing supported by ultrasonic radial forging of material in sectional drawing die cone. Decrease of drawing force depending on drawing rate, spragging force and wires temperature are measured during the test. Mechanical
properties of product are investigated too. All measurements are compared to conventional drawing. The study discusses test results obtained for all employed drawing schemes for wire made of aluminium, in annealed condition, carried out using different types of ultrasonic
vibrations.
Keywords: Wire drawing, Ultrasounds, Section die, Drawing force reduction
List of basic notations:

- drawing load,
F
Favg - average drawing load,
- standard deviation of drawing load,
- elongation factor,
- drawing speed.
V
Introduction
Utilisation of ultrasounds for deformation of metals was
reported by many scientists: F.K. Garski, V.I Efomorov [1],
F.Blaha, B.Langanecker [2], W.P. Siewierdenko, W.W
Kubowicz, and A.W Stiepanienko [3]. The issue of ultrasonic vibrations influence on friction was, among others,
addressed by E.Lehfeld [4], A.Pasierb [5], K.Siegert,
A.Mock, J.Ulmer [6-8] and also V.C.Kumar,
I.M.Hutchings [9]. First examination of drawing process
with application of ultrasounds to sectional drawing die is
described at article [10]. Performed studies have proved
significant advantage of drawing process using ultrasonic
vibrations, over conventional drawing. The review of
literature [1-10] confirms beneficial effect of vibrations on
the process parameters. All studies reported in the literature are proving, that main aim of ultrasonic vibrations
utilisation is reduction of drawing load. The vibrations
putting the drawing die in motion can be of longitudinal,
torsional, radial and transverse nature. Longitudinal vibrations are generally used for the pipes and wires drawing
processes. It is possible to generate standing wave in wire
in the system of three drawing dies. The possibility also
exists to place vibrating drawing die in the node or antinode of standing wave.
506
The mechanics of phenomena, accompanying drawing

process with superimposed ultrasonic vibrations is very
complex and complicated issue both from the point of
view of mechanical working process itself, and the nature
of physical phenomena, which ultrasounds are. Influence
of ultrasonic vibrations on drawing load as well as on
other process parameters depends on several factors, such
as: frequency, amplitude, direction of vibrations, conditions of deformation, position of ultrasounds transmitting
element within vibrating system, type and output of vibration generating and converting system, as well as on type
and features of material being deformated.
Purposefully designed drawing die, divided with a plane
passing through the drawing die axis was used in the experiment. Ultrasonic excitation of sectional drawing die
half in planned proprietary research is aimed at forcing of
stress and strain scheme change.
Drawing Schemes Employed
Four drawing schemes (I, II, III and IV) shown in Figure 1 were employed in proprietary studies. The aim of the
test in case of scheme I is to examine influences of perpendicular ultrasonic vibrations on material formability
during the drawing process with application of ultrasounds.
It can be assumed, that change of traditional drawing process on ultrasonic material forging in sectional drawing
die cone will enable deformation without fracturing risk
even in case of brittle and hardly deformable materials.
Drawing according to scheme II was planned as comparative examination against scheme I. The aim of scheme III
drawing is simultaneous association of perpendicular vibrations of sectional drawing die and longitudinal vibra-
09.08.2010 14:29:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
tions of monolithic drawing die in tandem arrangement of
the drawing dies. Longitudinally vibrating monolithic
drawing die is to serve mainly for liquidation of flash
formed after passing the wire through sectional drawing
die. The aim of drawing according to scheme IV is attempt
to associate ultrasonic stresses of back tension with simultaneous ultrasonic vibration of sectional drawing die half.
Monolithic drawing die vibrating longitudinally shall
mainly serve axial introducing of wire to sectional drawing die, vibrating perpendicularly to the wire axis. This is
the test planned for comparison of load drop against the
drawing process according to scheme III.
screwed to the steel rails. Such design enabled variable

regulation of the converter and wave-guide height, together with permanently mounted upper half of sectional
drawing die vibrating perpendicularly to the wire axis, as
well as height and axial alignment of drawing die lower
half , which was fixed immovable in steel clamp bolted to
the steel plate. The structure fixing the converter and sectional drawing die is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Drawing schemes with utilisation of transverse (perpendicular) and longitudinal ultrasonic vibrations. D sectional drawdirections of drawing dies
ing die, M monolithic drawing die,
vibrations.
Vibration Generation Equipment

Two system types serving generation of ultrasonic vibrations were used in proprietary studies. Longitudinal vibrations were used in drawing schemes II, III and IV. Magnetostriction generator with 2,5 kW output was used as converter supply. Ferrite magnetostriction converter of approximate 45 50% efficiency was used in this system.
Magnetostriction converter was connected to a steel, conical vibrations concentrator having 36 HRC hardness. Amplitude of vibrations amounted to 20 micrometers, and
frequency approx. 20 kHz.
Perpendicular vibrations should be understood as vibrations transverse to the axis of the wire being drawn. Such
type of ultrasonic vibrations were used in drawing
schemes I, III and IV. Piezoelectric generator, BRANSON
make and 2 kW output was used for converter supply.
High efficiency, approximating to 90%, piezoelectric ultrasonic converter was used with piezoelectric generator.
Conical concentrator of vibrations was mounted to the
converter. Amplitude of vibrations amounted to 40 micrometers, and frequency 20 kHz.
Description of Drawing Test Stand with Utilisation of Ultrasonic Vibrations
Steel guides were attached to the drum type wire drawing machine table in order to locate drawing dies and converters on the same axis. The guides have been equipped
with openings enabling distance adjustment between individual drawing dies and the drum. A structure attaching
the converters was screwed to the steel rails, according to
schemes I-IV.
Piezoelectric converter, intended for generation of perpendicular vibrations, was mounted together with two
halves of sectional drawing die in the special stand,
Figure 2. Structure fixing converter for generation of perpendicular

vibrations and wave-guide with sectional drawing die.
Figure 3 presents structure of intentionally designed

drawing die, used in the experiment. The drawing die was
made of NC10 steel, featuring 62 HRC hardness.
Figure 3. Design of the drawing die used for testing. (a) front
view, (b) section.
The monolithic drawing die was mounted in concentrator of vibrations by means of screw joint. The monolithic
drawing die was produced of sintered carbide. Coaxial
opening in the magnetostriction converter and in the concentrator provided passing the wire through the drawing
die. Frequency and amplitude of longitudinal and perpendicular vibrations during all drawing schemes did not
change.
Parameters of Drawing Process
The following process conditions were selected for
drawing tests performed with use of ultrasonic vibrations:
Vibration frequency 20 kHz,
Vibration amplitude 40 micrometers for perpendicular vibrations, and 20 m for longitudinal vibrations,
507
09.08.2010 14:29:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
600
The drawing load curves during ultrasonic drawing of

wire according to scheme I and a speed of 1 m/s for three
different elongation factors are shown in Figures 4, 5 and
6. Figure 7 presents the drawing load curve for scheme II
and a speed of 1 m/s for comparison.
400
SCHEME I
V =1m/s, =1,3
400
(a)
300
200
100
0
2
Figure 6. Drawing load curve vs. time in process of ultrasonic wire

drawing through sectional drawing die, vibrating perpendicularly to
the wire axis. = 2,25, V = 1 m/s, without lubrication. Curve (a)
drawing with ultrasounds, Favg = 258,86 N; = 14,55 N, (b) drawing without ultrasounds Favg = 497,53 N; = 17,45 N.
300
(a)
250
SCHEME II
V =1m/s, =1,3
(b)
200
(b)
F [N]
350
300
250
F [N]
(b)
Time [s]
Results of Tests
150
100
200
150
50
(a)
100
50
Time [s]
0
0
Time [s]

the wire axis. = 1.3, V = 1 m/s, without lubrication. Curve (a)
drawing with ultrasounds, Favg = 93.87 N; = 21.81N, (b) drawing
without ultrasounds Favg = 305.01 N; = 57.58 N.
350
(b)
SCHEME I
V =1m/s, =1,85
300
Figure 7. Drawing load curve vs. time in process of longitudinal

ultrasonic vibrations wire drawing through monometallic die. =
1,3, V = 1 m/s, without lubrication. Curve (a) drawing with ultrasounds, Favg = 219,71 N; = 9,25 N, (b) drawing without ultrasounds Favg = 256,17 N; = 6,41 N.
The drawing load curves according to schemes III and

IV, in which both types of ultrasonic vibrations were used
simultaneously, are shown in Figures 8 and 9.
400
250
(a)
200
300
250
150
100
(c)
SCHEME IV
V =0,3m/s, =1,85
350
F [N]
F [N]
SCHEME I
V =1 m/s, =2,25
500
F [N]
Variable strain =1.3; =1.85; =2.25,

Drawing speed: V=0.06 m/s; V=0.3 m/s; V=1 m/s;
V=1.5 m/s,
Material for testing: 3mm diameter technical aluminium 1050 grade, according to PN-EN 573-3 standard, in annealed state,
A half of sectional drawing die vibrated perpendicularly to wire axis,
Essential part of testing without utilisation of grease.
Drum-type wire drawing machine was equipped with
extensometer sensor for static drawing load measurement.
(b)
(a)
200
150
50
100
0
0
Time [s]

the wire axis. = 1.85, V = 1 m/s, without lubrication. Curve (a)
drawing with ultrasounds, Favg = 157,27N; = 4,59N, (b) drawing
without ultrasounds Favg = 290,27 N; = 15,58 N.
508
50
0
0
10
12
14
Time [s]
Figure 8. Drawing load curve during drawing process with utilisation of longitudinal and perpendicular ultrasonic vibrations. = 1.85,
V=0,3 m/s. Curve (a) drawing with longitudinal and perpendicular
ultrasonic vibrations, Favg = 198,12 N; = 7,83 N, (b) drawing with
perpendicular ultrasounds, Favg = 226,68 N; = 4,91 N, (c) drawing without ultrasounds Favg = 352,90 N; = 7,97 N.
09.08.2010 14:29:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
300
(c)
SCHEME III
V =0,06m/s, =1,3
250
F [N]
200
(b)
150
(a)
100
50
0
0
10
Time [s]
Figure 9. Drawing load curve during drawing process with utilisation of perpendicular and longitudinal ultrasonic vibrations. = 1.3.
Curve (a) drawing with perpendicular and longitudinal ultrasonic
vibrations, Favg = 82.53 N; = 6.58 N, (b) drawing with perpendicular ultrasounds, Favg = 115.01 N; = 12.09 N, (c) drawing without
ultrasounds Favg = 254.81 N; =11.04 N.
Figure 10 presents differences in drawing load reduction percentages in drawing schemes I, II and IV in relation to drawing speed.
Reduction of drawing load [%]
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
approx. 20 kHz corresponds to several to several dozen of

drawing die pulsations during passing of point laying on
the wire surface moving through strain gap. The magnitude of material deformation in the strain gap, as well as
drawing speed influences number of these pulsations. The
higher the , the higher is number of pulsations. The drawing process according to scheme I at = 2.25 turned out to
be impossible to perform after stopping of ultrasonic vibrations. The wire was each time broken immediately
following stopping of vibrations perpendicular to the wire
axis.
Deterioration of surface quality takes place in drawing
with use of perpendicular vibrations through sectional
drawing die. A flash appears, which volume depends on
drawing speed. The lower the process speed, the higher the
flash. Figure 10 shows clear advantage of drawing processes through sectional drawing die as compared to process consisting in combining simultaneously of two vibrating systems, as well as to process using longitudinal vibrations alone. It comes from Figure 8 and 9, that stopping of
longitudinal vibrations does not significantly influence
drawing load change. Stopping of ultrasounds on sectional
drawing die increases drawing load by approx. 30%. Longitudinal vibrations help in reduction of drawing load by
perpendicular vibrations only to small degree. The beneficial feature of using schemes III is liquidation of flash,
while scheme IV axial introduction of wire into sectional
drawing die.
Acknowledgements
10
0
0
0,2
0,4
0,6
0,8
1,2
1,4
1,6
V [m/s]
SCHEMAT I, =1,85
SCHEMAT II, =1,85
SCHEMAT I, =1,3
SCHEMAT IV, =1,85

SCHEMAT IV, =1,69
SCHEMAT II, =1,3

SCHEMAT I, =2,25
Figure 10. Percentage reduction of drawing load with drawing

speed for various drawing schemes.
Summary
Ultrasonic excitation of the sectional drawing die forces
stress and strain scheme changes at negative spherical
stress tensor (forcing of active radial strains and reduction
of tensile stress in drawn wire). Such method of plastic
working results in significant reduction of drawing load,
thus providing considerable formability increase of the
material being drawn. In case of perpendicular vibrations
use, maximum reduction of drawing load, of the 80%
order, takes place at speed 0.06 m/s and = 1.3. It is
higher than in case of longitudinal vibrations use. Drawing
speed has significant influence in drawing process with
use of ultrasonic vibrations. The higher is the speed, the
lower is the share of vibration influence and consequently
the lower is reduction of drawing load. Frequency of
The investigations discussed in this paper were financed

from grant no. NN 507 458434 and 4131/B/T02/2009/37.
References
[1] F.K. Garskii, V.I. Efromov: Izv. Akad. Nauk Beloroussk SSR, 3
(1953).
[2] F. Blaha, B. Langanecker: Naturwissenschaften, 42-556 (1955).
[3] W.P. Siewierdenko, W.W. Kubowicz, A.W. Stiepanienko: Wyd.
Nauka i Technika, Misk, (1976).
[4] E. Lehfeldt: Diss. RWTH Aachen, (1968).
[5] A. Pasierb: Instytut Przerbki Plastycznej i Metaloznawstwa,
Akademia Grniczo- Hutnicza w Krakowie, (1979).
[6] K. Siegert, A. Mock: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 60
(1996), 657-660.
[7] K. Siegert, J. Ulmer: Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology, 123 (2001), 517-523.
[8] K. Siegert, J. Ulmer: Annals of the CIRP, 50-1 (2001), 195-200.
[9] V.C. Kumar, I.M. Hutchings: Tribology International, 37 (2004), 83840.
[10] K. Szajding, J. uksza: Hutnik Wiadomoci Hutnicze, 1 (2009),
108-110.
509
09.08.2010 14:29:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Finite Element Simulation and Optimization of the Hydroforming Process

Jean-Loup Chenot1), Elisabeth Massoni1), Patrice Lasne2)
1)
Mines ParisTech, BP 207 06 904 Sophia Antipolis Cedex / France, jean-loup.chenot@mines-paristech.fr;

Maurice Donat, 06255 Mougins Cedex / France.
2)
Transvalor, 694, av. du Dr.
The mechanical formulation for large plastic deformation of metals is recalled in view of tubes or sheet hydroforming simulation. The main
features of the general purpose metal forming code FORGE3 are briefly summarized. Industrial tubes for hydroforming are generally thick
enough so that a solid approach must be preferred to a thin shell analysis. The three-dimensional discretization into P1+-P1 tetrahedral
elements with a mixed integral formulation allows us to model accurately the deformation of tubes in the thickness and is convenient for
remeshing and adaptive remeshing. More recent developments that can be used for treating specific hydroforming problems are presented:
computation of global fluid flow in function of the an imposed pressure, optimization of the process and damage analysis for predicting
possible rupture of the work-piece. Several examples of three-dimensional computations are presented to show the versatility of simulation
code.
Keywords: Plasticity, Finite Element Simulation, Hydroforming, Optimization.
Introduction
Mechanical formulation
Hydroforming of tubes (or sheet) is not recent, but the

possibility to generate and control very high fluid pressure
was the origin of a renewed interest for this promising
manufacturing process. The hydroforming technology for
tubes and sheets is described in [1]. However this process
is still difficult to manage as the pressure and ram displacement curves must be determined with enough accuracy to avoid the main modes of failure: plastic instability,
i. e. wrinkling and buckling or lack of ductility which
results in bursting. Moreover the preform must be designed and manufactured. At the end the engineer needs to
know the thickness distribution and the possible damage
due to forming in order to be able to evaluate the in service work-piece mechanical behavior by structural computation.
Consequently numerical simulation should be viewed as
a fast and economical way to design the hydroforming
sequence for any new production, as it is already currently
utilized for other processes, such as forging. This is the
reason why many papers are devoted to Finite Element
modeling of the process, most of them with an axisymetric
geometry. This is the case for our first contributions to F. E.
modeling of tube hydroforming see for example [2].
More complex three-dimensional work-pieces are
treated, among which we can quote:
the T shape case [3,4], or Y shape [5], or X
shape [6], or T and X shapes [7],
parts with rectangular [8] or trapezoidal sections [9],
forming with special materials e. g. [10],
optimization of the process using a genetic algorithm [11],
computations on quasi industrial parts obtained
from tubes [12,13],
and some examples of sheet hydroforming:
[12-17].
The purpose of the present paper is to review briefly the
ability of FORGE3, a simulation code for predicting general three-dimensional large plastic deformation to model
the different sequences of hydroforming.
For a more complete description of the scientific approach of FE simulation of metal forming process, the
reader may refer to [18].
510
Material Behavior. Hydroforming is a cold forming

process for which the temperature effect can be neglected
for a first approximation. We use an elastic plastic law
with an additive decomposition of the strain rate tensor
into an elastic part
and a plastic one :

p
= e + p
(1)
Material rotations being relatively small, the hypo elastic

law can be written:
d
= e trace( e )I + 2 e e
dt
(2)
where e and e are the Lam coefficients.

The plastic component of the strain rate tensor obeys the
plastic flow rule:
2
p
' = 0 ( )
(3)
3
where is the deviatoric stress tensor, 0 is the yield
stress, is the equivalent strain rate and is the equivalent strain.
Different laws can be used to describe work hardening.
In order to represent accurately our materials, for example
the following forms:
0 ( ) = 00 (1 + a n ) or 00 ( + 0 )n
(4)
where material parameters are determined experimentally
according to a fitting technique.
At the interface between part and tool the friction shear
stress can be modelled by a Coulomb law:
09.08.2010 14:29:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
= f | n |
v
with | | 0
| v |
3
(5)
where f is the friction coefficient, n is the normal stress

and v is the tangential velocity.
Integral Formulation. For an incompressible or quasi
incompressible flow, it is desirable to utilize a mixed formulation. In the domain of the part, this formulation
can be written: for any virtual velocity and pressure fields
v*, p * we have:
': *dV- pdiv(v*)dV- P
fluid
vn * dS- v*dS = 0 (6)
int
where Pfluid is the pressure exerted by the fluid during the

simulation on int the internal surface of the tube, c is
the boundary of the part in contact with the die. Then the
mass conservation equation becomes:
( div(v ) + p )p*dV = 0
(11)
Using isoparametric elements the mapping between the

physical space with coordinates x and the reference space,
with coordinate is:
x = X n N n ( )
(12)
The strain increment tensor can be computed with

the help of the conventional B discretized linear operator:
= Un Bn
(13)
Finally the discretized mixed integral formulation for the

mechanical problem is:
R nU = ( + ) : n dV (p + p) trace(Bn ) dV
where is the compressibility coefficient of the material.

The total time is decomposed into small increments t
and the displacement field is proportional to the velocity
field at the beginning of the increment:
( ' + '): *dV- (p + p)div(v*)dV
int
(Pfluid vn *)dS-
v*dS = 0
(9)
div(u ) + p ) p * dV = 0
(10)
Finite element approximation

Many different finite element formulations were proposed, and developed at the laboratory level, but it is now
realized that the discretization scheme must be compatible
with other numerical and computational constraints,
among which we can quote:
Remeshing and adaptive remeshing ;
Unilateral contact analysis,
Iterative solving of non linear and linear systems;
Domain decomposition and parallel computing;
Easy transfer of physical internal parameters,
when multi physic coupling must be taken into
account.
To-day a satisfactory compromise is based on the
mixed displacement and pressure formulation, Eqs. (9) and
(10). The pressure field is discretized using tetrahedral
elements, and a bubble function is added for the velocity
Pfluid N n dS +
With the stress increments Eqs. (6) and (7) become:
R mP = (
(8)
u = t v
u = Un Nn ( )
(7)
or the displacement field, in order to stabilize the solution

for incompressible or quasi incompressible materials. The
displacement field is discretized with shape functions Nn,
in term of nodal displacement vectors Un:
f n
v
N n dS = 0
v
div(u ) + p) M m dV = 0
(14)
(15)
Numerical issues. The non-linear equations resulting

from the mechanical behavior are linearized with the help
of the Newton-Raphson method. The resulting linear systems are often solved now with iterative methods, which
appear faster and require much less CPU memory than the
direct ones.
Prediction of possible formation of folding defects during forging is based on the analysis of the contact of the
part with itself, so providing a problem similar to the coupling with tools.
Automatic dynamic remeshing during the simulation of
the whole forming process is almost always necessary, as
elements undergo very high strain which could produce
degeneracy. Before this catastrophic event, decrease of
element quality must be evaluated and a remeshing module must be launched periodically to recover a satisfactory
element quality. The global mesh can be completely regenerated, using a Delaunay or any front tracing method,
but the method of iterative improvement of the mesh, with
a possible local change of element structure and connectivity, seems to be much more effective.
For industrial complicated applications, with short time,
the computing time can be decreased dramatically using
several or several tens of processors. This requires to use
an iterative solver and to define a partition of the domain,
each sub domain being associated with a processor. But
the parallelization is made more complex due to remeshing and the remeshing process itself must be parallelized.
511
09.08.2010 14:29:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
In order to avoid the necessity for the user to perform

several computations, with different meshes to check the
accuracy, error estimation can be developed using for
example the generalization of the method proposed by
Zienckiewicz and Zhu [10]. Then, if the rate of convergence of the approximation is known, the local mesh refinement necessary to achieve a prescribed tolerance can
be computed, and the meshing modules are improved to be
able to respect the refinement when generating the new
mesh.
Numerical Control of Fluid Flow. In actual hydroforming processes, instead of the fluid pressure the regulation may control the fluid flow fluid . At any time the fluid
flow increment can be computed by:
fluid =
int
un dS
(16)
Therefore, by appending this equation to Eqs. (14) and

(15) and considering Pfluid as an additional unknown, it is
theoretically possible to solve the problem. However this
method may reveal ineffective as it would couple the unknown Pfluid to a very large number of nodal unknowns, i.
e. those on the internal surface of the tube. This situation is
not convenient for parallel computing.
Another approach consists in using a secant method, at
each time increment, for determining iteratively the fluid
pressure which will induce the increment of fluid flow of
eEq. (16). This method imposes to solve several times the
system (14) and (15).
Optimization. In the past, optimization of forming
processes has been achieved mostly by trial and error,
firstly from experiments on actual equipments and materials and more and more utilizing a simulation code. But it
was realized that these optimizations can also performed
by coupling an optimization module with a F. E. computer
code.
To-day the necessity to treat a wide variety of problems,
and the availability of relatively cheap parallel computers,
allow us to utilize evolutionary algorithms which need
only the computation of the cost function. In addition, in
order to reduce the number of evaluations of the cost function, it can be combined with metamodelling with a Meshless Finite Difference Method. This method was developed
by Fourment et al. [19], fully coupled with the Forge3
computer code and it is shown on several industrial examples that less than one hundred simulations are necessary
to reach a satisfactory optimum.
For the hydroforming process the optimization facility is
especially important as it can be used to produce a workpiece with a more constant thickness, avoid some defects
and ultimately will allow the user to increase the mechanical behavior of the part when associated with structural
computation. The parameters of optimization are not only
those which govern the fluid pressure evolution as a function of the piston displacement, but also the shape of the
preform or the die shape when possible.
512
Treatment of Plastic Instability. Numerical simulation

sheet hydroforming, has also been performed with
FORGE3. In order to avoid the instability occurring at the
maximum of pressure, the most often used method is the
arclength continuation methods [20]. A single displacement component selected as a controlling parameter can
be prescribed and the corresponding load level is taken as
an additional unknown. This procedure is called displacement control method and was first introduced by Batoz et
al. [21]. This method was adapted for FORGE3 in terms of
velocities rather than displacement [22-24] and is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows that with the displacement
control method we can go through the maximum of pressure for an hemispherical bulging simulation (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Stability of pressure curve using an arc length method.
Damage Modeling. A limiting key issue in the design of

industrial metal forming processes, and especially in hydroforming where the fluid pressure gives rise to negative
stress triaxiality, is the occurrence of rupture due to damage. An isotropic damage approach was developed in [25
and implemented in the Forge3 code. The isotropic damage parameter D allows us to define the effective stress
tensor as:
= /(1 D)
(17)
where is a material parameter. Now the yield criterion

is expressed in term of the effective stress and the evolution of the damage is described by the following equations:
D =
D =
Ys
(1 D)
(1 D)
D = 0
with = 1, if T > 0
1
with = h , if T 0
3
if T <
(18)
1
3
where , , s are material parameters, T is the triaxiality

and Y is defined in term of the elastic strain e and the
elastic tensor by the following expression:
1
Y = e : :e
2
(19)
09.08.2010 14:29:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Examples of three-dimensional hydroforming simulations

Example 1: Square Shape. The first example is the
expansion of a circular tube into a square cavity with two
different sections. The deformed mesh is represented in Figure 2
and the localisation of deformation at the corner is visible in the
Figure 3.
Figure 4: Numerical prediction of final cross shape.
Table 1. Comparison between experimental and numerical value

for a cross shape hydroforming
Thickness values
Useful height
pole thickness
branch thickness
wrinkle thickness
Measured
110 mm
1.65 mm
1.6 mm
1.8 mm
Simulated
107.88
1.66 mm
1.66 mm
1.87 mm
Figure 2. Mesh deformation.
The numerical results are in very good agreement with

the experimental records. In Figure 5, the iso-values of
thickness t are mapped, it is important to notice the different zones of thinning and wrinkling on the tube which are
in good agreement with the experimental observations.
Figure 3. Map of iso strain on deformed shape.
Example 2: Hydroforming of Cross Shape. In the following 3D simulation, the initial tube is hydroformed into
a cross shape. Lateral tools displacements are left free,
their role is just to guide the lateral movement of the tube.
The Coulomb friction is equal to 0.05. Figure 4 represents
the part at the end of the hydroforming process.
The main values are the height of the branch and useful
thickness, and their time evolution. Table 1 represents this
useful height and the thickness in 3 important regions of
the lateral cross branch: pole part in contact with the lateral tool, branch thickness and wrinkle thickness, at the
origin of the branch where local compression and therefore wrinkles are experimentally visible.
Figure 5. Thickness distribution in the T shape tube.
Example 3: hydroforming of a T shape

The initial diameter of the tube is 35 mm and its thickness
is 2 mm. It is inflated and pressed by a piston in a Tshaped die. A third tool controls material flow at the top of
the open branch in an attempt to prevent crack initiation:
the configuration and the meshes are given in Figure 6.
513
09.08.2010 14:29:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 6. T shape hydroforming mesh.
In reference [17], optimization of the complex load path

was attempted, involving separate control of the displacements of the three tools and of the fluid pressure in the
tube. The final thickness distribution is pictured in Figure
7.
Figure 8. Iso strain distribution in Y shape (left: outer surface,

right: inner surface).
Figure 9. Maximum damage in Y shape part (left outer surface,

right inner surface).
Conclusions
Figure 7. Thickness distribution in T shape workpiece.
Example 4: hydroforming of a Y shape. On this now

classical test for numerical simulation, a damage analysis
was carried out in [17] to predict the areas where defects
are more likely to appear. The results in term of cumulated plastic equivalent strain are given in Figure 8.
The complete computation allows us to predict a maximum damage on the areas where the bifurcation of the Y
tube occurs on the outer surface, and at the vicinity of the
3rd tool on the inner surface, as is pictured in Figure 9. It
is worthy to note that it is necessary to perform a true treedimensional simulation to predict the areas of maximum
damage, which appear clearly at different locations on the
outer and inner surfaces. Depending on the material ductility, a defect may appear in these zones.
514
We have presented a brief review of the main possibilities of our general purpose computer code for simulating
large deformation processes. Several three-dimensional
cases were introduced to show that the FORGE3 code is
able to treat realistic hydroforming industrial cases.
In the future several developments will be carried out in
the laboratory to decrease computer time in order to facilitate a more complete automatic process optimization, and
to predict not only the damage but the distribution of mechanical properties in the final work-piece.
References
[1] C. Hartl: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 167-2-3 (2005),
383-392
[2] E. Massoni, C. Aliaga: Simulation of Materials Processing: Theory,
Methods and Applications, Proc. NUMIFORM98, 6th Int. Conf. on
Numerical Methods in Industrial Forming Processes, Enschede, J.
Hutink, F.P.T. Baaijens (eds.), Balkema, (1998), 893-898.
[3] A. Aydemir, J.H.P. de Vree, W.A.M. Brekelmans, M.G.D. Geers,
W.H. Sillekens, R.J. Werkhoven: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 159-3 (2005), 303-310.
09.08.2010 14:29:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
[4] S.-I. Oh, B.-H. Jeon, H.-Y. Kim, J.-B. Yang: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, 174-1-3 (2006), 42-55.
[5] H.K. Zadeh, M.M. Mashhadi: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 177-1-3 (2006), 684-687.
[6] J.-L. Chenot, E. Massoni: International Journal of Machine Tools and
Manufacture, 46-11 (2006), 1194-1200.
[7] P. Ray, B.J. Mac Donald: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 47-10 (2005), Pages 1498-1518.
[8] S.J. Yuan, C. Han, X.S. Wang: International Journal of Machine
Tools and Manufacture, 46-11 (2006), 1201-1206.
[9] X. Xu, W. Zhang, S. Li, Z. Lin: Thin-Walled Structures, 47-11
(2009), 1397-1403.
[10] C. Nikhare, M. Weiss, P.D. Hodgson: Computational Materials
Science, 47-1 (2009), 146-152.
[11] N. Abedrabbo, M. Worswick, R. Mayer, I. van Riemsdijk: Journal
of Materials Processing Technology, 209-1 (2009), 110-123.
[12] R.D. Lorenzo, G. Ingarao, F. Chinesta: Advances in Engineering
Software, 41-2 (2010), 336-348.
[13] M.H. Parsa, P. Darbandi: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 198-1-3 (2008), 381-390.
[14] E. Massoni: Proc. 5th International Conference and Workshop on
Numerical Simulation of 3D sheet forming Processes, NUMISHEET
Jeju Island, 1 (2002) , 249.
[15] M. Ben Tahar, E. Massoni, Proceedings of the 8th International
Conference on Numerical Methods in Industrial Forming Processes, 13-
17 Juin 2004, Columbus, Ohio, USA, Edited by S. Ghosh, J.C. Castro

and J.K. Lee, pp1160-1165.
[16] Soo-Ik Oh, Byung-Hee Jeon, Hyun-Yong Kim, Jae-Bong Yang,
Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 174, 1-3 (2006), 42-55.
[17] L. Lang, G. Gu, T. Li, X. Zhou: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 201-1-3 (2008), 97-100.
[18] R.H. Wagoner, J.-L. Chenot: Metal forming analysis, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, (2001).
[19] L. Fourment, R. Ducloux, S. Marie, M. Ejday, D. Monnereau, T.
Mass, P. Montmitonnet: Proc. 10th Int. Conf. on Numerical Methods in Industrial Forming Processes, Numiform 2010, Pohang,
(2010), accepted.
[20] E. Ramm: Effect Strategies for tracing the nonlinear response near
limit points W. Wunderlich et al. nonlinear finite element analysis
in structural mechanics , Springer, Berlin (1981).
[21] J.L. Batoz, G. Dhatt: Int. J. Num. Meth. Eng., 14 (1979), 1262-1267.
[22] M. Ben Tahar, E. Massoni: Proc. 10th International Conference
Metal Forming, Cracovie, (2004), 229-234.
[23] M. Ben Tahar, E. Massoni: Steel Grips, 2 (2004), 229-234
[24] M. Ben Tahar: PhD thesis, Cemef, Mines ParisTech, Sophia Antipolis (2003), (in French).
[25] D. Sornin, S. Fayolle, P.-O. Bouchard, E. Massoni: International
Journal of Material Forming, 2 (2009), 131-144.
515
09.08.2010 14:29:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
A New Hydroforming Die Design for Improvement of Die Corner Filling of Conical
Stepped Tubes
Majid Elyasi, Pouya Zoghipour, Mohammad Bakhshi-Jooybari, Abdolhamid Gorji, Seyed Jamal Hosseinipour, Salman Nourouzi
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, P. O. Box 484, Babol, Mazandaran / Iran, elyasima
@yahoo.com
A new die for improving the die corner filling in the hydroforming of conical stepped stainless steel tubes is proposed. The die set contains
one additional bush, compared with the common tube hydroforming dies. The forming steps of the tube in the new die set are such that
initially the tube is placed in the die, filled with liquid, and sealed with punches. Then, by increasing the internal pressure, the tube is bulged
and contacts the die walls that are fixed. By maintaining the internal pressure, the feeding punch and bush move until the die cavity is filled
completely. The proposed die was simulated and the filling of die cavity was investigated. In this simulation, the finite element software,
ABAQUS 6.8, has been used for simulation. In order to verify the simulation results, the new die was manufactured and some experiments
have been performed. The results obtained from the experiments verified the simulation results. The obtained results illustrated that the
new hydroforming die improves the die corner filling of conical stepped tubes compared with the previous research works. The noncomplexity of the die and low internal pressure are another advantages of this die.
Keywords: Tube hydroforming, Conical tube, Hydroforming die design
In the tube hydroforming process, the tube is deformed

within a die cavity by an internal pressure and axial feeding. By using a pressurizing fluid media, the straining of
the tube wall is evenly distributed and the formability of
the material is effectively utilized. Tubular components,
such as conical stepped tubes, are mainly produced in tube
hydroforming process. In forming the components in this
process, obtaining a sharp corner is very difficult or even
impossible. In forming these parts with this process,
achieving fully filling of die cavities and sharp corners
needs pressure increase which, in turn, causes locally
thinning and bursting at the corners of tubes. Therefore,
the corners of the products are thinner compared to the
other regions [1-6].
Johnson et al. [1] investigated the effect of pressure path
(internal pressure versus punch stroke) on filling of die
cavity in tube hydroforming process of conical stepped
tubes through experimental and finite element analysis.
They investigated the effect of various pressure paths and
concluded that the corners of the die could not be filled
completely. In order to increase the die filling ratio they
increased internal pressure level, but bursting occurred in
the tube.
Janson et al. [2,3] investigated the die cavity filling in
tube hydroforming process of conical stepped tubes. They
concluded that the die cavity could be filled completely if
the sharp corner of die at the expanded zone has been
removed. In addition, if the excessive feeding exerted to
increase the die cavity filling, then wrinkling occurred at
the corner of workpiece in the expanded zone.
The authors [7-9] presented a new hydroforming die for
improvement of the corner filling of cylindrical stepped
tubes. In this paper, a new hydroforming die is proposed
for improving the die corner filling of conical stepped
tubes.
The dimensions of the initial tube and the deformed part

are illustrated in Figure 1. The original tube thickness is
0.5 mm and the expansion ratio of the new die is ((4026)/26) 100=53.84%. The tube material is SS316L.
The forming steps of the tube in the new die set is such
that initially the tube is placed in the die, filled with liquid,
and sealed with the punches. Then, by increasing the internal pressure, the tube is bulged and contacts the die
walls that are fixed. By maintaining the internal pressure,
the feeding punch and bush move until the die cavity is
filled completely.
516
25
60
Tube
Bush
Fixed
punch
25
26
Feeding
punch
40
Geometrical Specification and Material Properties
Fluid inlet
Introduction
Die
Figure 1. Dimensions and details of die and final part (unit: mm).
Finite Element Simulation

In order to simulate the process, the finite element software, Abaqus/Explicit 6.8, was used. Due to the geometrical symmetry, only one half of tube and die set were
molded. The die, the punches and the bush were molded to
be as rigid in the simulations and only the surfaces of the
die and bush which had contact with tube were modeled.
The tube was modeled as 3D model with S4R shell element containing four nodes and reduced numerical integration and with revolving method along symmetrical axis.
09.08.2010 14:29:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
The final mesh for tube has 70 elements along axial direction and 29 elements along circumferential direction of the
tube. The applied material model has elasticplastic behaviour with isotropic and kinematic hardening which
does not take the Bauschinger effect into consideration
and obeys Hollomon's rule. Also, the effect of anisotropy
was neglected during simulations. According to Coulomb
friction law, the friction coefficient between tools and
blank was considered 0.05 [10].
The parameters used in the simulation are listed in Table
1. Figure 2 shows the typical pressure path used in simulations and experiments. As can be seen in the figure, the
vertical path belongs to bulging step. At this step, the internal pressure is increased to a certain level while the
punches are fixed. The horizontal path relates to calibration step. In this step, while the pressure remains constant,
the axial feed is exerted and the tube is formed to the final
shape. In order to analyse the bulging in final forming
steps, the two steps were defined in the software.
In order to measure the thickness of the deformed parts

an ultrasonic thickness measuring instrument was used
with 0.001mm accuracy.
Regulator valve
Feeding punch
Bush
Die
Fixed punch
Figure 3. Die set mounted on test machine.
Final step
Pmax A
Bulging step
Pressure
10
15
Punch stroke (mm)

Figure 2. Typical pressure path used.
Table 1. Conditions used in finite element simulation.
Young's
modulus
(GPa)
210
Flow stress
Poisson's
Density
(MPa)
ratio
(kg/m3)
0.3
8000
= 1650 0.58
Yield
stress
(MPa)
268
Experimental Procdure
The equipments utilized in the experiments are illustrated in Figure 3. The die is mounted on a DMG (Denison Mayes Group) universal testing machine with a capacity of 600kN. The speed of the machine was adjusted at
20mm/min during the experiments.
A hydraulic unit was used to produce internal pressure
and the maximum internal pressure could be set to maximum of 35MPa. Hydraulic oil was used as forming media
and also as the lubricant in the experiments. The working
pressure was regulated by a pressure relief valve.
Based on Figure 2, different pressure paths with maximum pressures of 18, 19, 20, 21MPa were examined at the
punch stroke of 15mm in simulations and experiments.
The obtained results from simulation and experiment are
shown in Figures 4 to 7. At pressure path with the maximum of 22MPa, the most thickness reduction and, thus,
bursting occurred in the tube in the stage of bulging. This
is shown in Figure 8. In the final step, the experiment was
not performed at 22MPa pressure path due to the bursting
occurred in the step of bulging.
When the internal pressure was set at 18MPa, as it is
shown in Figure 4(a), at the stroke of 15mm the tube wrinkled. This is because the axial feeding was not
proportional to 18MPa pressure and the material was
accumulated in axial direction. Figure 4(b) shows the
deformed tube obtained from experiment which confirms
the simulation result.
The internal pressure was then increased to 19MPa. Figure 5(a) shows the deformed tube obtained form
simulation under this state. As can be seen from this figure,
by increasing the internal pressure the number of wrinkles
was reduced but not eliminated completely. Figure 5(b)
also confirms the results of simulations.
As it is shown in Figure 6, by increasing the internal
pressure to 20MPa, the part was produced without any
wrinkle and the axial direction was proportional and the
sound part was obtained but the corner of the part was not
filled completely and the part has round corner in this state.
Following the increase of internal pressure to 21MPa,
the sound part was formed with sharp corner and the die
cavity was filled completely, according to Figure 7.
The thickness distribution of the workpiece in the new
hydroforming die obtained from simulation and experiment at the internal pressure of 21MPa and punch stroke
of 15mm is shown in Figure 9. As it is shown in this figure, there is a good correlation between the simulation and
experimental results. The maximum thickness reduction
517
09.08.2010 14:29:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
for the formed part is approximately 0.11mm at the maximum expanded zone of the part.
(a)
(a)
(b)
Figure 6. Deformed tubes with round corner obtained from: (a)
simulation and (b) experiment, maximum pressure=20MPa, punch
stroke=15mm.
(b)
Figure 4. Deformed tubes obtained from (a) simulation and (b)
experiment, maximum pressure=18MPa, punch stroke=15mm.
(a)
(a)
(b)
Figure 7. Deformed tubes with sharp corner obtained from (a)
simulation and (b) experiment, Maximum pressure=21MPa, punch
stroke=15mm.
(b)
Figure 5. Deformed tubes obtained from (a) simulation (b) experiment, maximum pressure=19MPa, punch stroke=15mm.
Figure 8. Deformed tube obtained from experiment in bulging

step, bulge pressure=22 MPa.
518
09.08.2010 14:29:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Thickness (mm)
0.51
0.49
0.47
0.45
0.43
Simulation
0.41
Experiment
0.39
0.37
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Distance from tube end (mm)
Distance from tube center (mm)
Figure 9. Thickness distributions of deformed tube in final step at

pressures of 21MP and 15mm stroke.
60
Forming force (kN)
The profile of the tube obtained from simulation and experiment at the internal pressure of 21MPa and punch
stroke of 15mm is shown in Figure 10. As it is seen from
the figure, at the internal pressure of 21MPa the tube surface has reached the die wall completely. Also, it can be
seen both from the simulation and experimental results
that, the sound part was obtained with sharp corners in this
case.
The forming force obtained from simulation and experiment at the internal pressure of 21MPa and at the
punch stroke of 15mm, is shown in Figure 11. It can be
seen that by increasing the stroke at a constant pressure the
forming force increases. This is because by increasing the
stroke, the contact surface of the tube with the die wall,
and consequently, the friction force increases. Finally,
when the surface of the tube is in complete contact with
the die wall, the forming force reaches to its maximum
amount.
50
Experiment
40
Simulation
30
20
10
0
0
6
8
10
Punch stroke (mm)
12
14
16
Figure 11. Forming force of workpiece in final step at pressure of

21MPa.
Conclusions
A new die set is presented to improve the die corner filling in the conical stepped tube hydroforming. The results
obtained indicated that the new die improves the die corner filling. The non-complexity of the die and low internal
pressure are another advantages of this die. In addition, it
is shown that wrinkles appear by using different internal
pressures. Also, at different internal pressures in the preforming step, different shapes of wrinkle wave can be
obtained in final step. By comparing the deformed tube in
final step at pressures of 18, 19, 20 and 21MPa obtained
from simulation it is concluded that there is a safe zone
between pressures of 20 and 21MPa for forming the sound
workpiece.
By applying a proper pressure path and axial feeding in
the new die, a sound part with sharp corners can be obtained. In this case, the die cavity filling is filled completely.
References
25
20
15
10
Experiment
Simulation
0
0
20
40
60
80
Distance from tube end (mm)
100
120
Figure 10. Profiles of workpiece in final step at stroke of 15mm

and pressure of 21MPa obtained from simulation and experiment.
[1] K.I. Johnson, B.N. Nguyen, R.W. Davies, G.J. Grant, M.A. Khaleel:
International Journal of Plasticity, 20 (2004), 1111-1137.
[2] M. Jansson, L. Nilsson, K. Simonsson: Journal of materials processing technology, 198 (2008), 14-21.
[3] M. Jansson, L. Nilsson, K. Simonsson: Journal of Materials Processing technology, 195 (2008), 3-14.
[4] G.T. Kridli, L. Bao, P.K. Mallick, Y. Tian: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 133 (2003), 287-296.
[5] Y.-M. Hwang, W.-C. Chen: International Journal of Plasticity, 21
(2005), 1815-1833.
[6] M. Loh-Mousavi, K. Mori, K. Hayashi, M. Bakhshi-Jooybari: Key
Engineering Materials, 334 (2007), 461-467.
[7] M. Elyasi, M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, A. Gorji, S.J. Hosseinipour, S.
Nourouzi: Proc. IMechE, Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture, 223
(2009), 821-827.
[8] M. Elyasi, M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, A. Gorji: Materials and Design, 30
(2009), 3824-3830.
[9] M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, M. Elyasi, A. Gorji, G. Alinezhad, S.J.
Hosseinipour, S. Nourouzi: Key Engineering Materials, 410411(2009), 335-343.
[10] G. Ngaile, S. Jaeger, T. Altan: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 146 (2004), 108115.
519
09.08.2010 14:29:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Feeding Pressure on Hydroforming of Crank-Shaped Tubes with Ultra-Small

Bending Radius
Cong Han, Yongchao Xu, Shijian Yuan, Yong Wang, Shuai Yang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin / China, conghan@hit.edu.cn
A novel shear bending method of hydroforming is proposed to solve technical difficulties of the conventional bending methods on manufacturing crank-shaped tubes with ultra-small bending radius. The effect of the feeding pressure on the shear bending process was studied by
numerical simulation and experiment. It was found that the winkle and the crack occurred when the feeding pressure as 0.15s and 0.75s,
respectively. The ultra-small bending tube could be successfully manufactured when the feeding pressure ranging from 0.2s to 0.7s. The
maximum thinning increased with the increasing of the feeding pressure. It can be concluded that the shear bending of hydroforming of the
crank-shaped tubes with ultra-small bending radius is feasible. There is a feeding pressure interval in which the bending process can be
successfully carried out. The wrinkle is occurred when the feeding pressure is lower than the low critical value of the interval, whereas the
crack is occurred when the feeding pressure is higher than the high critical value of the interval.
Keywords: Ultra-small bending radius, Shear bending, Numerical simulation, Forming interval
Introduction
With the development of high reliability, high security
and light weight, the requirement for structure integrality,
structural style and occupied space are becoming more and
more strict. The crank-shaped tubes with ultra-small bending radius(r/D0.5) are often employed with the restriction
of the space. The materials of these tubes are usually aluminum alloys, titanium alloys and refractory alloys. At
present, the crank-shaped tubes with ultra-small bending
radius are usually manufactured by welding two punched
halves. Therefore, the reliability of structure is influenced
by the welding seams. Integral formation of the crankshaped tubes with ultra-small bending radius can not only
improve reliability, but also lighten weight and save space
[1,2].
The crank-shaped tube with ultra-small bending radius
can not be manufactured by conventional cold-bending
processes including roll bending, press bending and push
bending and hot-bending processes including induction
bending and laser bending [3,4]. The essential mechanism
of the bending methods mentioned above is tensile deformation in lateral wall and compressive deformation in
medial wall during bending. The relative bending radius
can not be designed small, otherwise the deformation is
too large to cause winkle and distortion [5-7].
M. Goodarzi studied the shear bending with mandrel for
Z-type tube [8]. But the quantity and shape is restricted by
this method.
In recent years, hydroforming is a new technique developed under the background of light weight. It has been
widely used in hollow components of aerospace and automotive [9-12]. In this paper, a shear bending with feeding
pressure method for manufacturing the crank-shaped tube
with ultra-small bending radius is proposed based on the
authors several-year study on hydroforming. The stress
state of tube is adjusted by pressure, axial displacement
and tangential displacement, by which the deformation is
controlled. The effect of the feeding pressure (the invariant
feeding pressure during the shear bending process) on the
shear bending process is investigated and the forming
520
interval is established by numerical simulation and experiments.

Principle of Shear Bending with Feeding Pressure
Shear bending with feeding pressure is a forming
method to realize material flowing and bending process by
shearing deformation. The liquid medium is employed to
support the tube. The axial displacement and the tangential
displacement are supplied by the feeding of the sealing
punches and the push of the movable die, respectively.
The deformation includes three periods: filling, shear
bending and calibration, as shown in Figure 1.
(1) Filling. The tube is put into the die cavity composed
of the fixed die and the movable die. Then the sealing
punches are fed to each tube end. Following, the liquid
medium is filled into the tube and the punches are pushed
forward to seal the tube end.
(2) Shear bending. The pressure of the liquid medium
is increased to p1. Then the movable die is moving along
the tangential direction of the tube, while the sealing
punches are feeding axially. The tube is beginning shear
deformation. The move of the movable die and the feeding
of the sealing punches are stopped until the tube axial
displacement is up to the designed value.
(3) Calibration. The pressure of the liquid medium is
increased to p2, and the shear-deformed tube is calibrated
in the die cavity which is composed of the fixed die and
the movable die.
09.08.2010 14:29:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Simulation
6
5
1
2
(a) Filling
Finite Element Model. The dynamic explicit finite element program LS-DYNA is used during the simulation.
The finite element model is composed of a fixed die, a
movable die, left punch, right punch and tube, as shown in
Figure 3. Rigid shell element is employed for the dies and
the punches and Belytschko-Tsay shell element is employed for the tube. The number of the elements is 23102
and all elements are quadrilateral elements. The material
model is Hills isotropic elastic-plastic model conformed
to Mises yield rule. Friction agrees with the Coulomb
equation.
r0
Aluminium alloy is used in the simulation and experiment and the hardening rule is = K n . K is 469 MPa
and n is 0.34 obtained by the electronic tension test. The
outer diameter of the straight tube is 30 mm and the thickness is 1.5 mm.
(b) Shear bending
(c) Calibration
p
p2
Figure 3. Finite element model.
p1
Programme of Simulation. The effect of the feeding

pressure on the bending process is studied by changing the
subject parameter and fixing other parameters. The speed
and the displacement of the punches are the same as those
of the movable die. The feeding pressure is designed as
0.15s, 0.2s, 0.3s, 0.4s, 0.5s, 0.6s, 0.7s and
0.75s. Loading paths (relationship of the feeding pressure and the axial displacement of the punches) are shown
in Figure 4.
Part and Its Dimensions

Figure 2 shows the dimensions of the designed part. The
part is designed as 30 mm in diameter and 1.5 mm in
thickness. The minimum radius is 1.5 mm of center line
and the relative bending radius is 0.05.
0.8
t2 t3
(d) Loading curve

Figure 1. Principle of shear bending with feeding pressure. 1-fixed
die 2-sealing punch 3-movable die 4-liquid medium 5-imput pipe 6tube 7-drive unit.
Feeding pressure,
0 t1
0.7
8
7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
2
1
0.1
0.0
Figure 2. Shape and dimensions of part to be formed during simulation and experiment.
10
20
30
40
Axial/tangetial displacement, mm
Figure 4. Loading paths (relationship between the feeding pressure and the axial displacement) used in simulation.
521
09.08.2010 14:29:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Results and Discussions. Table 1 shows the simulation
results of all loading paths. The wrinkle is occurred as the
loading path 1 is used and the corresponding feeding pressure is 0.15s. The crack is occurred as the loading path 8
is used and the corresponding feeding pressure is 0.75s.
The forming processes are performed successfully as the
loading paths 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are used, which feeding
pressure is ranging from 0.2s to 0.7s. The maximum
thinning of the formed part is becoming serious with the
increasing of the feeding pressure. It is increased from
6.8 % of 0.2 s to 19.8 % of 0.7 s and increased by
191 %.
Table 1. Simulation results using different loading paths.
Loading path
Quality
Max. thinning
9.7 %
11.6 %
14.8 %
17.6 %
19.8 %
Failure mode
Wrinkle
6.8 %
the inner area. The reason is that the feeding pressure is

too low to supply sufficient support. Therefore, the wrinkles are observed when the axial feeding is excessive. The
FLD of the loading path 8 is shown in Figure 5 (b). The
cracks are located at the interface of two lateral straight
sides. The feeding pressure is high and the axial feeding is
insufficient, which leads to the excessive circumferential
stress and then cracks. The FLD of the loading path 5 is
chosen to present the successful formation as shown in
Figure 5 (c).
Experimental
The experiments were performed on the 400MPa hydroforming machine designed and manufactured by Harbin
Institute of Technology, which was consisted of pressure
intensifier, press, three cylinders, servo control hydraulic
system and computer control system.
The experimental results of three feeding pressures are
shown in Figure 6. Figure 6 (a) shows the wrinkle obtained as the feeding pressure is lower than 0.15s. Figure
6 (b) is the crack as the feeding pressure is higher than
0.75s. Sound part is obtained when the feeding pressure
is 0.5s as shown in Figure 6 (c).
Crack
Note: S successfully formed, F failure
Figure 5 is the FLD (forming limit diagram) of three

different feeding pressures. Figure 5 (a) shows the FLD of
the loading path 1. The wrinkles appear in the outer and
inner area of the shear deformation zone, especially in
(a) Wrinkle
(b) Crack
(a) Wrinkle of loading path 1
(c) Sound part

Figure 6. Effect of feeding pressure on forming of crank-shaped
tubes with ultra-small bending radius obtained from experiments.
(b) Crack of loading path 8
(c) Sound part of loading path 5

Figure 5. Forming limit diagrams with different loading paths
calculated from finite element simulation.
522
It can be seen from the simulation and experimental results that there is an interval composed of the loading
curves I and II, as shown in Figure 7. The interval is
called the forming zone in which the sound part can be
successfully manufactured. The feeding pressure p1min of
the loading curve I is presented the low limit of the feeding pressure, below which the wrinkle appears for the
insufficient support and excessive feeding. Therefore, the
interval between x-axis and the loading curve I is called
the wrinkle zone. The feeding pressure p1max of the loading
curve II is presented the upper limit of the feeding pressure, above which the crack appears for the high pressure
09.08.2010 14:29:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
and insufficient feeding. The interval above curve I is
called the crack zone. The loading curves I and II are usually obtained from simulation and experiment.
According to the deformation characteristic, the crankshaped tube can be divided into five zones: the sealing
zone I, the corner zone II (near the tube end), the shearing
zone III, the corner zone IV (near the tube center) and the
holding zone V, as shown in Figure 8 (a). The thickness
distribution varies in the axial and circumferential direction. The outer side is different from the inner side in the
axial direction, especially in the corner zone. The formed
crank-shaped tube of loading path 5 was selected and its
axial thickness of the outer side was measured and shown
in Figure 8 (b).
Feeding pressure,
Crack
loading curve
p1max
Forming
p1min
loading curve
Wrinkle
Axial/tangetial distance, mm
Figure 7. Process window of tube shear bending obtained from
the experiments.
It can be seen from the figure that in the sealing zone the
thickness is thickened and the value is becoming smaller
and smaller with the increasing of the distance from the
tube end. The tendency of thickness variation of two corner zones is different. The thickness of corner zone II (near
the tube end) is thickened for the compressive stress state
while that of the corner zone IV (near the tube center) is
thinned for the tensile stress state. The thickness of the
shear zone is a transition of two corner zones. The thickness of the holding zone is approximate to the original
thickness of the tube.
Conclusions
The shear bending with feeding pressure to form the
crank-shaped tubes with ultra-small bending radius is
proposed. The effect of the feeding pressure on the shear
bending is investigated. Sound part of aluminium alloy is
successfully manufactured. From the above study the
following results are obtained:
1. Shear bending with feeding pressure is feasible to
manufacture the crank-shaped tubes with ultra-small
bending radius by controlling the pressure, the axial
displacement and the tangential displacement.
2. There is an interval that sound part can be successfully
manufactured which composed of two loading curves.
When the feeding pressure is lower than the low limit,
the wrinkle will appear. When the feeding pressure is
higher than the upper limit, the crack will appear.
3. The crank-shaped tube can be divided into the sealing
zone, two corner zones, the shearing zone and the holding zone. In outer side, it is thickened in the sealing
zone, the shear zone and the corner zone (near the tube
end) while thinned in the corner zone (near the tube
center). It is approximate to the original thickness in the
holding zone.
Inner side
outer side
References
(a) Divided zones along axis according to the deformation characteristic

20
simulation
experimental
10
Thinning (%)
-10
-20
-30
-40
10
12
14
16
18
20
Measured points
(b) Wall thickness distribution in outer side along axial direction

Figure 8. Outer side wall thickness distribution of formed tube with
loading path 5.
[1] H. Yang, M. Zhan, Y.L. Liu, F.J. Xian, Z.C. Sun, Y. Lin, X.G. Zhang:
Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 151-1-3 (2004), 63-69.
[2] M. Zhan, H. Yang, Zh. Q. Jian: Mechanical Science and Technology,
23-12 (2004), 1509-1514.
[3] H. Li, H. Yang, M. Zhan, R.J. Gu: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 177-1-3 (2006), 192-196.
[4] D.X.E.RX. Ning: Mechanical Engineer, 43-5 (2007), 219-222.
[5] M. Liewald, S. Wagner: State-of-the-art of hydroforming tubes and
sheets in Europe, Proceeding of Tubehydro2007, Harbin, China
(2007), 19-26.
[6] X.T. Xiao, Y.J. Liao, Y.S. Sun, Z.R. Zhang, Y.P. Kerdeyev, R.I. Neperish: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 187-188 (2007),
476-479.
[7] Y.S. Zeng, Z.Q. Li: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 1222-3 (2002), 237-240.
[8] M. Goodarzi, T. Kuboki, M. Murata: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 191-1-3 (2007), 136-140.
[9] F. Dohmann, Ch. Hartl: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
60-1-4 (1996), 669-676.
[10] M. Ko, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 1083 (2001), 384-393.
[11] K. Manabe, M. Suetake, H. Koyama, M. Yang: Hydroforming
process optimization of aluminum alloy tube using intelligent control
technique, Proceeding of 1st ICNFT, Harbin, Chin, (2004), 490-495.
[12] S.J. Yuan, C. Han, X.S. Wang: International Journal of Machine
Tools and Manufacture, 46-11 (2006), 1201-1206.
523
09.08.2010 14:29:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Loading Path Optimization of T-shape Tube Hydroforming Process

Mehran Kadkhodayan, Ahmad Erfani Moghadam, Mehdi Heidari
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad/ Iran, kadkhoda@um.ac.ir
This paper addresses modeling and optimization of loading path in T-shape hydroforming of tubes using analysis of variance technique and
Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm. A set of experimental data has been used to assess the influence of loading process parameters in
hydro-formed geometry. The process variables considered here include the yielding and expanding internal pressures and their required
times, the calibration pressure, the axial and counter punches movements. The process output characteristics include thickness and height
of protrusion. The Taguchi method and regression modeling are used in order to establish the relationships between the input and output
parameters. Thirty two different cases for different loading paths are designed. The Abaqus/Explicit is used to calculate the minimum thickness and maximum height of protrusion. The adequacy of the model is evaluated using analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique. The proposed model is embedded into a Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm to optimize the loading process parameters and to find the best input
variables. Computational results prove the effectiveness of the proposed model and optimization procedure.
Keywords: Hydroforming, T-shape, Loading path, Design of experiment, Taguchi, Regression, Optimization, Simulated annealing
Introduction
Analysis of T-Shape Hydroforming by Abaqus/Explicit
With the current drive for decreasing air pollution and

fuel consumption, the increasing demands on vehicle body
structures in safety, lightweight and cost efficiency call for
new manufacturing processes. Therefore hollow products
are increasingly employed for automobile parts and the
hydroforming of tubes is attractive in automobile industry
as a forming process of hollow products. The major advantages of tubular hydroforming include: weight reduction in
component, superior structural strength and stiffness,
fewer secondary operations, etc. However, tube hydrofroming is a complex process and products can be
affected by many factors including: loading conditions, die
geometry, lubrications conditions and etc. In hydroforming
process variation of internal pressure, axial material feed
and counter punch displacement versus time usually referred to as load-curves. Due to inappropriate selection of
loading paths, the various forming defects such as, wrinkling, thinning and bursting often occur. Considerable
researches have been conducted to investigate optimization of loading trajectories for different tubes hydroforming processes. Fan [1] optimized loading conditions for
tube hydrofroming by using conjugate gradient method
with finite element method. Subhash [2] used finite element simulation and optimization software to optimize the
loading paths for closed-die T-branch tube hydroforming.
In the current study, a new approach to optimize the loading parameters is presented. It would firstly attempt to
relate the loading parameters to process output characteristics, through developing empirical regression models.
Hence, thirty two different loading paths are designed by
DOE method. Output characteristics including minimum
thickness and maximum height of protrusion of formed
tube are calculated by finite element simulation for each
load paths. Abaqus/Explicit [3] is used to simulate the
process and to calculate the desired outputs. When the best
relation between the loading parameters and outputs are
found, the proposed model is implemented into a simulated annealing (SA) optimization procedure to identify
proper set of loading parameters.
The hydroforming process is simulated using the commercial finite element software, Abaqus/Explicit6.7. Before investigating different loading parameters, simulation
process must be verified with an available experiment
data. Hence, an experimental model that has been studied
by Hwang [4] is selected and simulated here. The tube has
a diameter, wall thickness and length of 72mm 298.5 and
2.8mm, respectively. Two axial punches and one counter
punch are used for this process. The material of tube is
Aluminum alloy 6063-T5. To consider the anisotropy of
the material, the Hills anisotropic plasticity model is assumed in the simulation. The shell element (S4R) is used
for the tube analysis and the die and punches are modeled
as being rigid entities. Loading curves used in simulation
are according to [4]. The model was analyzed with those
specifications and the obtained thickness distribution calculated from simulation model is compared with those
from Ref. [4]. It was found that there is a good agreement
between them.
524
Design of Experiment and Mathematical Modeling

Problem Statement. In tube hydroforming for T-branch
usually the intent is to produce the part with maximum
protrusion while minimize the tube wall thickness variation. Lin [5] used the finite element method in conjunction
with abductive network to predict an acceptable product
with a minimum wall thickness and the maximum protrusion height on the T-shape tube. Subhash [2] considered
both thickness deviation and branch height as the objective
function for optimized loading paths. In the current study
also the minimum thickness and maximum T-branch
height are selected as outputs functions. They are calculated by the FE simulation when different load paths are
applied. These two functions are named as the objective or
cost functions in the next parts.
09.08.2010 14:29:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Definition of Internal Pressure Path and Determination of Lower and Upper Bounds. The effect of internal
pressure has been studied by many researchers. They have
focused on choosing an appropriate pressure curve versus
time in tube hydroforming. Cherouat [6] investigated the
effect of three different load curves for pressure and reported a successful forming by using a multiple stages
pressure curve. Hwang [4] has also used a similar form of
pressure curve with 3 stages contain yield, expansion and
calibration phases. In the current study, the total time experiment is assumed to be fixed value and therefore five
variables are sufficient to design the internal pressure
curve. They are the yielding, expanding and calibration
pressures and their required times. These five variables are
shown as Figure 1. Based on some experimental data, the
minimum and maximum limitation values are selected for
each variable as shown in Table 1 in rows 1-4. By iinvestigating the results from some more simulations it can be
shown that the amount of yield pressure may be fixed at
2.5 MPa. Hence, in order to design the pressure curve four
variables should be found.
of counter punch. The minimum and maximum bounds for

the counter punch variables are shown in Table 1 (rows 711).
Figure 2. Axial punch feeding versus time and its design variables.
Figure 3. Counter punch path and its design variables.
Figure 1. Pressure curve versus time with considering design

variables.
Axial Punch Displacement Path. Axial punch displacement curve is very similar in many researches and
usually consists of two stages. In this study similar to what
assumed by Fan [1] and Altan [7], a two stages path is
used for axial punch. Because of the symmetry, the axial
punch path consists of two variables for displacement and
the time of first variable, Figure 2. They are as specified
in Table 1 (rows 5-7) with their minimum and maximum
bounds.
Counter Punch Displacement Path. The counter punch
is used to control the branch height and avoid over thinning at the branch in hydroforming process. It also controls the evolution of thickness at the top of protrusion.
Gelin [8] used this parameter for T-shape hydroforming
process. Teng [9] also investigated hydroforming of a 45
degree Y-shape tube and used the counter punch for preventing of excessive thinning. The counter punch displacement path is usually simple and the involved variables are the amount of displacement and the starting and
stopping times. Moreover, two variables are needed to
determine the amount of displacement which are the initial
and final places of counter punch, Figure 3. The difference between these two variables will show the movement
Design of Experiments. To develop the mathematical

model with the minimum number of trail experiment a test
design matrix is constructed. There are eleven loading
parameters and each of them has two levels as shown in
Table 1. Hence and according to Taguchi L32 design of
experiments matrix, thirty two combinations of the input
parameters have to be considered, Table 2. The last two
columns of this table show the calculated results from
finite element simulation. These data can be used to assess
the mathematical models.
Mathematical Modeling. Different regression functions
such as linear, stepwise and curvilinear can be fitted to the
above data and the coefficients values may be calculated
using regression analysis. In the current study, the regression analysis is achieved by linear and stepwise functions.
General form of linear regression is as follows;
n
Y = 0 + i X i ,
i = 1, 2 ,......, n
(1)
i =1
where Y is the output parameter such as thickness, X i are

input or loading parameter and i are coefficients which
have to be calculated by regression analysis. The stepwise
elimination process removes the insignificant terms to
adjust the fitted linear model. Using regression technique,
in Minitab Software, two types of mathematical functions
contain linear and stepwise have been fitted to the experimental data. The models representing the relationship
between loading parameters and outputs are calculated as
follows;
525
09.08.2010 14:29:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Thickness = 3.89 - 0.00341 Pexpan - 0.0244 Pfinal - 0.0219
Tyield - 0.00087 Texpan - 0.00544 Smiddle + 0.0122 Sfinal +
0.00019 Tmiddle + 0.00671 CPs - 0.0244 CPf + 0.00742 Tstart
+ 0.00213 Tstop
(2)
Height = - 15.5 + 0.387 Pexpan + 0.231 Pfinal - 0.329 Tyield 0.158 Texpan - 0.183 Smiddle + 0.513 Sfinal + 0.342 Tmiddle +
0.0636 CPs + 0.310 CPf - 0.190 Tstart - 0.131 Tstop
(3)
Stepwise linear regression model for thickness and height:
Thickness = 3.895 - 0.0244 Pfinal - 0.0219 Tyield - 0.0054
Smiddle + 0.0122 Sfinal + 0.0067 CPs 0.0244 CPf + 0.0074
Tstart
(4)
Height = -12.14 + 0.387 Pexpan + 0.231 Pfinal -0.33 Tyield 0.158 Texpan - 0.183 Smiddle + 0.513 Sfinal + 0.342 Tmiddle
+0.310 CPf - 0.190 Tstart - 0.131 Tstop
(5)
The adequacies of various functions have been evaluated using analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique. A
significant criterion for adequacy of model is correlation
factor (R2). This factor evaluates from 100% and if in a
regression analysis its amount approach 100%, that illustrates the better accuracy of the model. Correlation factors
for above regression models are tabulated in Table 6.
Based on ANOVA, the values R2 in linear model are over
85% for two outputs. This means that the model provide a
good representation of the actual process in terms of
Thickness and Height response.
For illustrative purpose, the distributions of real data
(simulation results) around regression lines for linear model are shown in Figure 4 for Thickness response. This
figure demonstrates a good conformability of the developed models with the real process.
employed it as a powerful optimization method in his

studies. This model of optimization is established based on
metallurgical annealing process. In order to use the SA
technique for estimation the values based on outputs a
suitable objective function should be defined. This function is in the form of error function and is defined as a
squared error function given below;
F=
(T
exp
Texp
(H
exp
H exp
=0
(6)
In this function, Texp and Hexp are calculated by relations

2 and 3, respectively, and T and H are desired values
which are selected by designer. A proposed algorithm code
of SA was written in MATLAB programming software. By
running the code of SA, the optimum set of input variables
in Table 3 is seek out based on the minimum error of the
outputs and the obtained results are shown in Table 4. By
comparison between the obtained results and the experimental data given by Hwang [4], it can be found out that
despite 15% reduction in final pressure, percentage of
thinning decreases from 15% to 9% while the height of
protrusion has no significant change. The convergence
curve for one of the calculation is shown in Figure 5. This
curve illustrates that the convergence of proposed SA
algorithm is satisfactory and the desire input are obtained
after about 300 iterations.
Figure 5. Convergence rates for SA algorithm.
The obtained formed tube by using the optimum loading

parameters confirms that the final shape of tube is almost
without any defects in its T-branch part, Figure 6.
Figure 4. Predicted values for thickness versus actual values.
Optimization
To determine proper values of loading parameters, a set
of equations must be solved simultaneously. Analytical
and numerical methods may be used to solve these kinds
of problems. For instance, evolutionary algorithms which
are powerful optimization techniques widely used for
solving combinational problems. One of these algorithms
called, simulated annealing (SA), is used in this study to
seek out the best amount of parameters. Kirkpatrick [10]
526
Figure 6. Tube formed by optimum loading paths.
09.08.2010 14:29:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
References
T-shape tube hydrofroming was studied and the optimization of loading parameters was investigated in detail
using a proposed approach. By using design of experiment
method thirty two loading paths upon Taguchi method
based on two levels experiment were designed. All cases
were simulated by using finite element method and the
desired outputs contain the minimum Thickness and maximum Height of protrusion were calculated. Mathematical
models for two objective functions are established by
using analysis of variance technique and regression. Simulated annealing (SA) algorithm was used to optimize objective functions versus desired loading parameters. The
comparison between the obtained results using the optimized loading paths and the experimental data showed
that, despite reduction of final required pressure, formability of the tube was improved.
[1] K.J. Fann, P.Y. Hsiao: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,

140-1-3 (2003), 520-524.
[2] M. Imaninejad, G. Subhash, A. Loukus: International Journal of
Machine Tools and Manufacture, 45-12-13 (2005), 1504-1514.
[3] Hibbitt, Karlsson, Sorensen, Inc. ABAQUS/Explicit users manual,
version. 6.7. Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 2008.
[4] Y.M. Hwang, T.C. Lin, W.C. Chang: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 192-193 (2007), 243-248.
[5] F. C. Lin, C. T. Kwan: Computers & Structures, 82-15-16 (2004),
1189-1200.
[6] A. Cherouat, K. Saanouni, Y. Hammi: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 44-12 (2002), 2427-2446.
[7] S. Jirathearanat, C. Hartl, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 146-1 (2004), 124-129.
[8] N. Boudeau, A. Lejeune, J.C. Gelin: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 125-126 (2002), 849-855.
[9] D.M. Cheng, B.G. Teng, B. Guo, S.J. Yuan: Materials Science and
Engineering, 499- 1-2 (2009), 36-39.
[10] S. Kirkpatrick, C. Gelatt, M. Vecchi: Science, 220 (1983), 671-680.
Table 1. Loading variables with upper and lower bound.

No
Factor
Unit
Notation
Minimum (-)
Maximum (+)
Expansion pressure
MPa
P expan
7.5
12.5
Final pressure
MPa
P final
12.5
17.5
Yielding time
T yield
Expansion time
T expan
20
27
Initial displacement of axial punch
mm
Smiddle
50
60
Final displacement of axial punch
mm
Sfinal
60
64
Time of initial displacement
Tmiddle
20
27
Initial place of counter punch
mm
CPs
50
56
Final place of counter punch
mm
CPf
75
81
10
Starting time of counter punch movement
Tstart
10
11
Stopping time counter punch movement
Tstop
20
30
Table 2. The matrix of DOE for loading parameters and the FE simulation results.
No
Pexpan
Pfinal
Tyield
Texpan
Smiddle
Sfinal
Tmiddle
CPs
CPf
Tstart
Tstop
T (mm)
H (mm)
2.51
38.23
2.47
36.36
31
2.41
42.15
32
2.35
42.34
Table 3. Optimum variables calculated by SA.

Pexpan
Pfinal
Tyield
Texpan
Smiddle
Sfinal
Tmiddle
CPs
CPf
Tstart
Tstop
9.5
12.5
24.5
50
63.5
25.5
56
75.5
9.5
30
Table 4. Comparison between the results of SA and Abaqus.

SA
T
(mm)
2.66
H
(mm)
39.91
Abaqus
T
(mm)
2.55
H
(mm)
40.8
527
09.08.2010 14:29:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
Hydraulic Bulge Forming of Small Diameter Tubes

Atsushi Shirayori, Michiharu Narazaki
1
Faculty of Engineering, Utsunomiya University, Tochigi / Japan, shira@cc.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp
There are some differences in deformation characteristics between small diameter tubes and large diameter ones. Experimental results by
use of small diameter tubing with 8 mm in outer diameter and 0.8 mm in thickness are mainly discussed in this paper. It may be a feature of
hydrofroming with small diameter tubing that the bulged tubing withstands great deformation without failure. In this study, protruded long
branches were formed in cross-shaped tube hydroforming under a constant fluid pressure (holding pressure) and axial feeding. It was also
revealed as a result of experiment that holding pressure can be lower than 50% of the bursting pressure in the forming of small diameter
tubes. According to the other study, it will be higher than approximately 70% in the forming of large diameter tubes to obtain sound bulged
shapes. On the other hand, buckling will be occurred under loading of insufficient low pressure along with some amount of axial feeding. In
the forming of small diameter copper tubing and aluminium alloy tubing, approximately 40% of the bursting pressure was the lower limit for
the forming. On the other hand, the extent of axial force must be taken into consideration from the point of view of axial feeding. It was
measured in this study. However, in the case of cross-shaped tube hydroforming, tube wall thickness mostly increases and it makes the
problem difficult. The axial force is divided into three components, i.e., frictional resistance force, deformation force, and counter force
against internal pressure. The wall thickening affects all the three components and increases the frictional resistance force and deformation
force. The magnitude of internal pressure has an influence on the tube wall thickening. The lower the internal pressure is, the easier the
tube wall become thick in proportion to axial feeding. As a result of the experiment, it is revealed that the counter force will be less than
about 25% of the measured axial forces. In addition, friction coefficient between tube and die highly affected the axial force. A MoS2 spray
and PTFE sheets are used as lubricants in the experiment so as to examine the effects of friction on the axial force and tube deformation.
Keywords: Tube, Hydraulic bulging, Hydroforming, Small diameter, Cross-shaped tube, Thickness, Low pressure, Axial force, Friction
Introduction
There is no technical point of view on tubular small
products in the current technology of hydroforming. There
must be some latent needs for new small products in
medical and plumbing businesses. Painless injection needles, tube fittings for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and fuel batteries may be hopeful examples. In the
past decade, hydroforming has been rapidly improved
under the strong demands in the automobile industry [1].
The main purpose of hydroforming has been weight reduction of cars. Relatively large size tubing with thin wall is
suitable for the car structural parts. For example, hydroforming has fulfilled severe specifications for light weight
chassis made of tubing. From that point of view, small
size tubes that will be used for flow paths are different
applications from the products that are supposed to have
high rigidity and strength. However, this technology has
some potential to be more expanded in small size tubular
applications.
Experimental results by use of small diameter tubes (8
mm in outer diameter and 0.8 mm in thickness) are discussed in this paper. There are some differences in deformation characteristics between large diameter tubes and
small diameter ones. Small diameter tubing tends to have
higher thickness / diameter ratios than large diameter one.
Figure 1. Cross sectional image of cross-shaped tube hydroforming.
Figure 1 shows the cross sectional image of cross-shaped
tube hydroforming. Figure 2 shows the experimental
apparatus for hydroforming of small diameter tubing.
Loading of internal fluid pressure and axial feeding is
required in cross-shaped tube hydroforming. The
maximum pressure that can be applied to tube specimens
528
Figure 2. Experimental apparatus for hydroforming of small diameter tubing.
09.08.2010 14:29:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
with this experimental apparatus is 180 MPa. As for the
maximum axial force, it is 60 kN. Figure 3 shows some
experimental results that were formed at the maximum
power of the experimental apparatus. A bright annealed
stainless steel JIS SUS304 tube with 6.35 mm in outer
diameter and 1.0 mm in thickness was too strong to do
experiments under various loading conditions. Hence, a
little larger diameter copper tubing and aluminium alloy
tubing were used in this study to clarify the deformation
characteristics of small diameter tubing.
Figure 3. Examples of cross-shaped and T-shaped tubes made of

JIS SUS304 stainless steel tubing (bright annealed, 6.35 mm O.D.,
1.0 mm thick).
Table 1 shows the sizes and mechanical properties of 8

mm outer diameter tubular specimens. These mechanical
properties were obtained by uniaxial tension test. The
aluminium alloy (JIS A6063) specimens were annealed
under 400 C and 2 hours. The copper (JIS C1220)
specimens have some initial small strain because they
were made by stretching of a coiled material.
Figure5 shows the examples of cross-shaped tubes
made of A6063 aluminium alloy tubing and C1220 copper
tubing. The holding pressure was set at 80% of the
bursting pressure. It was not difficult to form the branches
with every specimen. However, there is a difference
between the larger tube and the smaller ones. It was
impossible to form long branches in the case of 40 mm
O.D. tube [2]. Crack which was occurred at the centre of
the specimen prevented the tube from growing the
branches. The smaller tubes have longer branches without
any faults in appearance.
Figure 4 shows the loading path, which is relationship

between axial feeding and internal fluid pressure to the
specimens. At first, the tube ends are fed toward axial
centre of the specimen without loading fluid pressure so as
to prevent the fluid from leakage during the forming
(sealing feed). Then, the fluid pressure is increased. It is
necessary to know the bursting pressure because the
values of holding pressure are determined based on the
bursting pressure in this study. Forming feed is applied
under a constant holding pressure, which was set at from
30% to 80% of the bursting pressure.
(a) A6063, 40 mm O.D., 2 mm thick, pH=13.2 MPa(= 0.80 p*)

(b) A6063, 8 mm O.D., 0.8 mm thick, pH=24.8 MPa(= 0.80 p*)
(c) C1220, 8 mm O.D., 0.8 mm thick, pH=64 MPa (= 0.80 p*)
Figure 4. Loading path (values in the figure are in the case of 8
mm O.D. 0.8 mm thick copper tubing).
Table 1. Sizes and mechanical properties of 8 mm O.D. tube
specimens.
Initial thickness
0.8 mm
Initial length
64 mm
n-value
0.30 (Copper)
0.23 (Aluminium alloy)
K-value (=Kn)
490 N/mm2 (Copper)

169 N/mm2 (Aluminium alloy)
Figure 5. Examples of cross-shaped tubes made of JIS A6063

aluminium alloy tubing and JIS C1220 copper tubing (lubricant:
MoS2 spray).
It is necessary to take care of the amount of the sealing

feed. If it is excessive, tubular specimens will buckle and
the wrinkles will leave on the specimens. Figure 6 shows
examples of small diameter aluminium alloy tubing. The
amount of sealing feed from the each ends of the specimen
is set at 4 mm. The only difference in the experimental
conditions (a) and (b) is the type of the lubricant. When
PTFE sheet (0.03 mm thick) was used with MoS2 spray,
the wrinkle occurred during the sealing feed stage and the
final shape after forming feed stage became strange as
529
09.08.2010 14:29:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
shown in the figure (a). On the other hand, Figure 7 shows
examples of the small diameter copper tubing. The amount
of sealing is as same as the case of the aluminium alloy
tubing. However, any wrinkle did not obviously occur
during the sealing feed stage even when using PTFE sheet.
It was clarified that adequate amounts of the sealing feed
depended on the lubricants and materials of tubing. The
friction coefficient between the tubular specimen and the
die must be smaller when using PTFE sheet in comparison
with using MoS2 spray only. The tubular material will be
easily moved toward the centre of the specimen by the
feeding from the tube ends when the friction is small.
However, there is a difficult problem to know the difference in the friction coefficients between the cases of the
aluminium alloy tubing and the copper tubing. Then, the
cause of the wrinkling during the sealing feed stage is still
open to question because there are possibilities in both of
the friction and the material properties.
Figure 8 shows the copper tubes under various holding

pressure. 30% of the bursting pressure was not sufficient
as the holding pressure, because the outer surfaces of the
branches were not formed along the shape of die bore
surface. Figure 9 shows the peak-to-peak length of the
cross-shaped copper tubes. As shown in Figure7, the
length of branches became longer by use of PTFE sheet.
p*= 80 MPa, sealing feed 4mm(left) + 4mm(right),

forming feed 20mm(left) + 20mm(right)
Figure 8. Cross-shaped copper tubes under various holding pressure (C1220 copper tubing, 8 mm O.D., 0.8 mm thick) .
(a) MoS2 + PTFE sheet (0.03mm thick)

(b) MoS2 only
pH=18.6MPa (=0.6 p*), sealing feed 4mm(left) + 4mm(right),
Figure 6. Effect of lubricants on the branch shapes (A6063 aluminum alloy tubing, 8 mm O.D., 0.8 mm thick) .
Figure 9. Peak-to-peak length of cross-shaped C1220 copper
tubes (sealing feed 4 mm, forming feed 20 mm) .
(a) MoS2 + PTFE sheet (0.03mm thick)

(b) MoS2 only
pH=64MPa (=0.8p*), sealing feed 4mm(left) + 4mm(right),
Figure 7. Effect of lubricants on the branch heights (C1220 copper
tubing, 8 mm O.D., 0.8 mm thick) .
530
Figure 10. Lowest pressure for A6063 aluminum alloy tubing ( 8

mm O.D., 0.8 mm thick, sealing feed 4mm, forming feed 20 mm) .
09.08.2010 14:29:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 10 shows the cross-shaped aluminium alloy
tubes under low holding pressure. 30% of the bursting
pressure was also insufficient as the holding pressure. The
crack at the centre of the specimen might be a result of
lower ductility of the aluminium alloy than that of the
copper.
Figure 11 shows the maximum axial force for forming
feed. Effect of the friction between the tubular specimen
and die on the force must be relatively great. Here, the
axial force consists of three components, i.e., frictional
resistance force, deformation force, and counter force
against internal fluid pressure. It is difficult to know the
percentages of the frictional resistance force in the
measured axial force. The maximum counter force is the
only predictable one. It can be calculated by multiplying
the sizes of the cross sectional area of the original tubing
and internal pressure. According to the calculation, the
counter force will be less than about 25% of the measured
axial forces. It was clarified that the counter force is
smaller than the sum of the other two force components. It
leads to the tendency of the measured forces do not have
simple relationship to the holding pressure. If the counter
force dominated the measured forces, they would be in
proportion to the holding pressure. In any case, it is open
to question to estimate approximate values of the frictional
resistance force and the deformation force.
Figure 11. Maximum axial force for forming feed (8 mm O.D., 0.8
mm thick, forming feed 20 mm) .
Figure 12 shows examples of T-shaped tubes of

aluminium alloy tubing. As well as the cross-shaped tube
forming, it is not difficult to form long branches in Tshaped forming by use of small diameter tubing. However,
there are some differences. As shown in Figure 12 (a), the
tube wall was folded at the opposite side of the branch
when PTFE sheet was used with MoS2 spray. It is caused
by excessive material inflow at this point. The folding of
the tube material can be suppressed by the friction
between the tube and die. Higher friction will prevent the
material flow toward the centre of the specimen. In the
case of using MoS2 only, flawless forming shapes were
obtained as shown in Figure 12 (b). However, higher
friction also causes shorter branch. Then, it will be
important to choose adequate lubricants and/or surface
coating on the dies. Partial friction control by use of die
coating may be another option to obtain long branch
without any faults.
Figure 12. Examples of T-shaped tubes made of A6063 aluminium

alloy tubing (8 mm O.D., 0.8 mm thick, pH=24.8 MPa=0.8p*).
Conclusions
Experimental results by use of small diameter tubing (8
mm in outer diamter and 0.8 mm in thickness) were
discussed. Copper tubing and aluminium alloy tubing were
mainly formed into cross-shaped tubes by hydroforming in
this study. There were some differences in deformation
characteristics between large diameter tubing and small
diameter one. The results were summarized as below.
1. It was revealed that internal fluid pressure can be lower
than 50% of the bursting pressure in the cross-shaped
tube forming of small diameter tubing. In the case of a
large diameter tube, it would be higher than
approximately 70% of the bursting pressure to obtain
flawless bulged shapes. Forming possibility under low
pressure may be a feature of hydoforming by use of
small diameter tubing.
2. It may be also a feature of the forming with small
diameter tubing that the bulged shapes can be shapes
with long branches.
3. The counter force against internal fluid pressure will be
less than about 25% of the measured axial forces.
4. The T-shaped tube hydroforming is more difficult than
cross-shaped tube hydroforming because of tube wall
folding during forming feed.
Acknowledgement
Some of the experimental results were obtained in the
study supported by the project Research for Promoting
Technological Seeds (Japan Science and Technology
Agency). In addition, the experimental apparatus is a
grant-aided property by MEXT sponsored CITYAREA
R&D Program (MEXT: Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports and Technology, CITYAREA: Cooperation of Innovative Technology and Advanced Research in Evolutional Area).
References
[1] M. Ko: Hydroforming for Advanced Manufacturing, Woodhead
Publishing, Cambridge England, (2008).
[2] A. Shirayori, M. Narazaki: Proc. 4th International Conference on
Tube Hydroforming, (2009), 121-126.
531
09.08.2010 14:29:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of New Hydroforming Loading on Formability in Auto Parts Manufacturing

Shi-Hong Zhang, An-Ying Yuan, Yong Xu, Ming Cheng
Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang / China, shzhang@imr.ac.cn
A new hydroforming process was carried out under the background of applying in forming automobile parts, e.g. an engine cradle. In this
paper, investigation of the effect of pulsating loading on formability in engine cradle manufacturing was studied by means of finite element
simulations and experiment to discuss the relationship between loading paths and formability of tubes in hydroforming. A significant effect of
formability improvement by pulsating load was demonstrated by the simulation results which reveal that the reasons for more homogenous
deformation are that the contact friction force between the tube and die, namely flow resistance of metal, is reduced under the pulsating
load path condition. The main reason for friction force reduction under pulsating load path is that regular springback by pulsating internal
pressure causes the reduction of equivalent contact normal force. The results have practical significance in playing advantages of tube
hydroforming in manufacturing hollow components.
Keywords: Tube hydroforming, Pulsating loading, Engine cradle, Formability, FEM
Introduction
Tube hydroforming processes are used to form hollow
parts with different cross-sections by applying a high internal hydraulic pressure and additional axial feed at the
same time to force a tubular blank to conform to the shape
of a given die cavity. With the increasing requirements of
motor vehicles to reduce their weight to save energy,
lightweight construction of automobiles is now one of the
main fields of applications [1]. Tube hydroforming has
been one of the hot topics in plastic forming field now, due
to its non-replaceable advantages in making hollow variable cross-section tube components [2]. However, there
are still some defects such as wrinkling, buckling and
bursting during hydroforming process. The paths of internal pressure in the tube hydroforming are a key to preventing the occurrence of these defects [3]. The effects of
loading path on the formability of the materials were studied widely [4]. Recently, a pulsating hydroforming process
of tubes has been developed based on accurate computer
control and is known as one of the effective methods to
improve the formability [5].
Finite element method has been proved to be an effective method to determine the pressure paths [6]. Mori et al.
[7] have examined the mechanism to improve the formability by experiments and FEM of the axi-symmetric
hydroforming of tubes under monotonic increasing internal pressure and pulsating internal pressure. It was found
that the occurrences of bursting and buckling were prevented by the oscillation of pressure and the wall thickness
of the formed tube was also improved by the oscillation.
Mousavi et al. [8] have examined the effect of oscillation
of internal pressure on improving the formability and
shape accuracy of the products in the pulsating hydroforming process of T-shape parts by dynamic explicit FEM.
The deformation behaviour of the tube in the hydroforming is greatly influenced by the friction at the interface
between the tubes and dies [9]. Hama et al. [10] have
simulated a pulsating hydroforming process of an automotive part by FEM, and proved that the pulsating forming
has roughly the same effect as lowering the friction coefficient.
In the present work, experiments of tube pulsating hydroforming were carried out, aiming at the successful
532
forming of the miniature of a certain type of engine cradle.

The influences of the pulsating hydroforming on formability of tubes were studied through the comparison of the
experimental and simulation results under the condition of
monotonous increase loading and pulsating loading respectively. Furthermore, FEM was employed to study the
mechanism of formability improvement by pulsating hydroforming.
FE Modeling. A 3D FE model was defined to simulate
the tube hydroforming process using the MSC.Marc code.
Pure copper tubes with the outer diameter of 20 mm, the
wall thickness of 1 mm were used in the simulation. According to the symmetry of the part, 1/2 part of the component was used in the simulations. The dies and the
punches were defined as rigid body while the blank was
defined as a deformable body governed by the stress-strain
curves obtained from the tensile tests of pure copper tube.
The true stress-logarithmic plastic strain curve is approxin
mated by Hollomon equation =k . The specific parameters used in the simulations were listed in Table 1. All
the elements were defined as thin shell element. The initial
shape of the tube blank was depicted as preformed, as
shown in Figure 1. The elastic-plastic finite element
method was employed in the simulation. Friction conditions at the interface between the blank and the dies were
modeled by Coulomb Friction Law, the friction coefficients were adopted as 0.1 in the modeling to simulate the
experimental lubrication conditions. The temperature
condition in the simulations was set as room temperature.
The loading paths employed in simulation are shown in
Figure 2. The dashed line represents monotone increasing
loading path, which is the conventional loading path in
tube hydroforming; the solid line is the new pulsating
loading path with the wave crest of the pulse along the
previous monotonic increasing loading path. The pulsating
load path can be described by
(1)
P = p ( t ) + P s in ( 2 t )
where p(t) is the conventional loading path, p is the
amplitude of the cycle of the pressure, is the number of
the cycle of the pressure, t is the pulsating time. The speed
09.08.2010 14:29:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
of axial punches was a constant of 0.5 mm/s.
Table 1 Materials parameters used in the simulation.
Parameters
Value
117.2
Poissons Ratio
0.3
Yield strength (MPa)
63
0.48
K (MPa)
300
3
8.94
1.6
Formed under conventional load

Formed under pulsating load
1.4
Thickness (mm)
Density (g/cm )
is larger than that of the tube under pulsating loading. That

is to say, the thickness distribution of the tube formed
under the pulsating loading is more uniform, and the average thickness value in the whole deformation area of the
tube formed under the pulsating loading is larger than that
of the tube formed under monotone increasing loading.
This also means the extremely local thinning can be
avoided in evidence by the pulsating loading.
Force-transferring zone
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Deformation zone
1.2
(a)
150
300
450
600
750
Distance from pont a1 (mm)
(a) Outer parting line
Figure 1. Finite element model of tube blank.
1.2
1.0
80
0.8
0.6
60
0.4
40
20
0
Pressure P (MPa)
100
0.2
0.0
25
50
75 100
Time t (s)
125
150
Figure 2. Loading curves employed in experiment and simulation.
Results of FEM Simulation. Simulation results show

that the maximum and minimum of the thickness of the
tube formed under conventional loading path are 1.52 and
0.78 mm, respectively; while they are 1.36 and 0.90 mm
for the tube formed under pulsating loading path, that is to
say, the difference of the thickness is less. This indicates
that the thickness distribution of the tube formed under
pulsating loading path is more uniform.
In order to accurately reflect the difference of the thickness distribution of the tubes formed under the two loading
paths, the thickness variation along the inner and outer
parting lines from the simulation results is shown in Figure
3.According to the character of the shape and dimension
of the die cavity, the formed tube can be divided into two
parts (see Figure 3): force-transferring zone (FTZ) and
deformation zone (DZ). It can be seen that the tube is
thicker in FTZ and thinner in DZ compared to the tube
formed under the pulsating loading from Figure 3 (a) and
Figure 3 (b). The thickness difference between FTZ and
DZ of the tube formed under monotone increasing loading
Deformation zone
Conventional load
Pulsating load
Formed under conventional load

Formed under pulsating load
1.4
Thickness (mm)
120
1.6
(b)
150
300
450
600
750
Distance form point a (mm)
(b) Inner parting line

Figure 3. Thickness of tubes formed under two loading path variations along parting lines.
Comparison between Experiments and Simulation

Results
The designed shape of the tube after hydroforming, as
shown in Figure 4(a), is the miniature of a certain type of
engine cradle which is the typical hydroformed part. It was
used to simulate the forming laws of the actual one. The
size is one third of the actual dimension and 1/2 part of
component was formed according to the symmetry of the
part, and also for saving the experimental costs.
Pure copper tubes with the outer diameter of 20 mm, the
wall thickness of 1 mm were used in pulsating tube hydroforming experiments. All the parameters are the same as in
the simulation. Tube blanks were bent by numericalcontrolled tube bending machine, and then formed from
circular to elliptical section at local part with forming dies.
The bent and preformed tube is shown in Figure 4(b).
533
09.08.2010 14:29:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) Designed shape

(b) Tube after bent and preformed
Figure 4. Shape of formed tube.
The experiment was carried out using a hydraulic pump

with a capacity of 150 MPa. The loading paths employed
in experiment are the same as in simulation, as shown in
Figure 2. In comparison, the thickness distribution of the
tubes formed under the pulsating loading along the parting
lines was measured. The results showed that the thickness
of the tube formed with the new loading method is much
more uniform.
The experiment in incorporation with the FEM showed
that conventional monotonic increasing loading path
caused some defects, i.e. wrinkling and bursting. Figure 5
shows the wrinkling appears in simulations and experiments with the same process parameters with conventional
monotonic increasing loading path. Wrinkling was caused
by excessive axial feeding at the relative low internal
pressure. In addition, when the tubes were bulged to a
certainty degree, the friction between the tube and the die
will be larger and restrict flowing of the metal, wrinkling
will happen if axial feed is excessive.
(a) Simulation result
(b) Experiment result
Figure 6. Bursting appeared under conventional loading path.
Figure 7. Welded final part.
Mechanism Analysis for Formability Improvement

From Figure 3, we know that the average thickness
value in the whole deformation area of the tube formed
under the pulsating loading is larger than that of the tube
formed under monotone increasing loading. It is to say
that there is more metal flow into the deformation zone
under the pulsating loading path condition feeding for the
expansion, this leads to the increase of the average thickness of the deformation zone.
The reason for the easy flow of metal should be the reduction of the resistance. The friction between the tube
and the die is the main resistance to the metal flow. And
the friction is calculated by the following equation:
Ff = Fn
(2)
where Ff is friction force, is friction coefficient and Fn is
(a) Simulation result
(b) Experiment result
Figure 5. Wrinkling appeared under conventional loading path.
Figure 6 shows the bursting appears in simulations and

experiments with conventional monotonic increasing loading path. Fracture was caused by excessive thinning at
some local zones. If the co-action of pressure and axial
feed is inappropriate, the deformation at a local place is
larger but the feed is not enough because of the resistance
of metal flow caused by the friction between the tube and
the die, or deformation happens so quickly that axial feed
has no time to get along with it, bursting appears. However,
a free-defect part shown in Figure 7 can be obtained by
the pulsating loading path.
534
contact normal force.

From Eq. (2) we can see that the reduction of friction
may be caused by the reduction of friction coefficient [10],
it was however not analyzed why the friction coefficient
reduced in [10]; and it also might be caused by the reduction of the contact normal force. So it is necessary to present a further analysis.
In the pulsating tube hydroforming with axial feeding,
the axial punch moved at invariable speed, the change of
the axial force during the feeding process is shown in
Figure 8. In the conventional loading mode, the axial
force rose gradually with the plastic deformation of the
tube and the pressure would not change a lot when it
reached a certain value. However, in the pulsating loading
mode, when the axial force rises to the same value, it
would have a fluctuation with the continuing of the plastic
deformation, and the peak value is along the axial force
09.08.2010 14:29:54 Uhr
In the actual forming process, the axial force (Fa) is

given as the following equation,
Fa = Ff + Fs + Fd
(3)
where Ff is the friction force, Fs is the pressure acted on
the punch by the medium which is used to transfer pressure, Fd is the necessary force for a certain extent of plastic
deformation of the tube.
In the FE model built in this paper, the internal pressure
is applied to the element surface directly. The difference
from the actual forming process is that the sealing problem
needs not to be considered and there is not internal pressure acted on the axial punch which is described as rigid
surface, therefore, the Fs equals to 0 in Eq. (3). In addition,
the pressure Fd needed to induce plastic deformation is the
same in the two kinds of loading mode.
Thus, Fa = F f , the change of the axial force equals to
the change of the friction force. Consequently, it can be
considered that the fluctuation and the downtrend during
the time t3 of the axial force are brought by the corresponding variation of the friction force.
From Figure 9, it can be seen that the plastic strain rate
of node d also has a distribution of pulse shape within the
plastic deformation period under pulsating loading through
investigating the varied curves of the plastic and elastic
strain rates of node d during the forming process. Within
the plastic deformation period of t2 + t3, there is obvious
regular fluctuation in the elastic strain of node d under the
pulsating loading condition, while no such phenomenon is
found under the conventional loading condition. This can
be explained as follows: the plastic deformation occurs
mainly at BC segment of the loading curve (see Figure 2)
when pressure value is not very high; when pressure is at
the wave trough of the pulsating loading curve, certain
springback of the deformed tube will occur and this cyclical springback will cause a periodic reduction of the contact normal force (Fn) between the tube and the die and
therefore reduce the equivalent contact normal force,
which should be the direct reason of contact friction force
reduction according to Eq. (3).
t1
t2
25
t3
50
t4
s-1)
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
150
Axial force under Conventional load path

Axial force under Pulsating load path
Plastic strain rate of node d
-3
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0
Plastic strain rate (x10
-3
Plastic strain rate (x10 s
Axial force (x103 N)
-1
20
Axial force under conventional load path
20
Axial force under Pulsating load path
18
Plastic strain rate of node d
16 t1
15
14
12
10
10
t4
t3
t2
8
6
5
4
2
0
0
0
25
50
75 100 125 150
Time (s)
Figure 8. Curves of axial force vs. time when forming under two
kinds of loading paths.
-4
curve of the traditional mode, it even had a small downtrend during the forming time of t3. As the deformation
finished, the axial force in the two loading modes went to
the same value and trend.
Elastic strain (x10 )
Metal Forming
75 100 125
Time (s)
Figure 9. Curves of elastic strain of node d when forming under
two kinds of loading paths.
Thus it is believed in this paper that friction force reduction under pulsating loading path is caused by reduction of
the equivalent contact normal force by cyclical springback
rather than decreasing of the friction coefficient.
Conclusions
Pulsating loading path can achieve a more uniform deformation with more homogenous thickness distribution
beneficial for preventing excessive local thinning and
improving the formability of the engine cradle.
The simulation results reveal that the reasons for more
homogenous deformation is that the contact friction force
between tubes and die namely flow resistance of metal is
reduced under pulsating loading path condition. The main
reason for friction force reduction under pulsating loading
path is that regular springback by pulsating internal pressure causes the reduction of equivalent contact normal
force.
References
[1] F. Dohmann, C. Hartl: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
60-1 (1996), 669-676.
[2] M. Ahmetoglu, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
98-1 (2000), 25-33.
[3] M. Koc: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 133-3 (2003),
276-281.
[4] P. Ray, D.-B. Mac: Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, 41-2
(2004), 173-192.
[5] K. Mori, A.-U. Patwari, S. Maki: Proc. TUBEHYDRO 2003, (2003),
84-91.
[6] M. Imaninejad, G. Subhash, A. Loukus: International Journal of
Machine Tools and Manufacture, 45-12-13 (2005), 1504-1514.
[7] K. Mori, T. Maeno, S. Maki: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 47-6 (2007), 978-984.
[8] M. Mousavi, K. Mori, K. Hayashi, S. Maki, M. Bakhshi: Key Engineering Material, 340-341 (2007), 353-358.
[9] K. Manabe, M. Amino: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
123-2 (2002), 285291.
[10] T. Hama, M. Asakawa, H. Fukiharu, A. Makinouchi: Proc. TUBEHYDRO2003, (2003), 80-83.
535
09.08.2010 14:29:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
Deformation Patterns in Hydroforming of Thin-Walled Y-Shaped Tube

Gang Liu1), Junyang Peng1), Guannan Chu1), Shiqiang Zhu2), Haitao Xiao1) ,Shijian Yuan1)
1)
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin / China, gliu@hit.edu.cn;
chinery Company, Beijing / China
2)
Capital Aerospace Ma-
Hydroforming of a Y-shaped tube by using tube blanks with a ratio of diameter to thickness of 183 is presented. Through experiments,
typical defects including wrinkles in feeding zone, thinning and cracking at the protrusion top, were discovered. Because of the super thin
thickness of the tube blank and the asymmetrical shape of the Y-shaped tube, it is very difficult to avoid the defects by controlling the loading path of pressure and axial feeding. Under a reasonable process design, the Y-shaped tube is produced successfully. FEM simulations
were carried out for analyzing the deformation during hydroforming of the Y-shaped tube. Thinning ratio distribution, stress and strain states
from different loading paths were presented. Then the approach for improving process and product quality are proposed.
Keywords: Hydroforming, Y-shaped tube, Wrinkle, Thin-walled tube
Experimental Study
Geometric Parameters of Y-shaped Tube and Tube
blank. Figure 1 shows the geometric parameters of Thinwalled Y-shaped stainless steel tube. The protrusion is
536
Thin-walled Y-shaped stainless steel tubes were frequently used in pipe systems of aircrafts. To be as lightweight as possible, thickness of the tubes is always designed to the smallest values according to strength and
stiffness demands. Many Y-shaped tubes have the ratios of
diameter to thickness (d/t) higher than 60, which are produced through stamping-welding or butt-welding in conventional processes. However, deformation during welding and low reliability of the welded tubes cannot meet the
demands of the development of aircrafts.
Hydroforming is supposed to be an available process for
manufacturing integral Y-shaped tubes without weld seams
and with the advantage of high reliability. Moreover,
higher reliability supplies possibility of reducing thickness
further and is helpful to lightweight.
Vollertsen et al. presented the formulas of estimation
forming critical pressure of burst and wrinkle for T-shaped
tube hydroforming [1]. Altan et al. conducted simulation
and experiments into hydroforming T-shaped tube of low
carbon steel welded tube blanks [2]. It was concluded that
too high protrusion will cause over-thinning and rupture
on the top of the protrusion. Manabe et al. developed a
fuzzy control system to optimize the loading conditions
and did trial with aluminum alloy tube blanks [3].
Compared with T-shaped tubes, usually Y-shaped tubes
are more difficult to be formed. Altan made an investigation into hydroforming of Y-shaped tube with angle of 60
by using SUS304 stainless steel tube with d/t of 33.3 [4].
Yuan et al. investigated hydroforming of a Y-shaped tube
of stainless steel with d/t of 21 and presented the thickness
law of Y-shaped tube hydroforming [5].
With hydroforming, the bigger the ratio of diameter to
thickness, the more difficult it is to avoid defects including
wrinkles and crack. In the paper, hydroforming process of
a Y-shaped tube by using tube blanks with d/t of 183 is
presented and analyzed.
angled to the tube axis by 62, the diameter of the protrusion d=83t. A kind of stainless steel tube blank with thickness (t) and outer diameter D=183t is used to manufacture
the Y-shaped tube. The mechanical properties determined
by tensile test are s=234 MPa and =50%.
Figure 1. Geometric parameters of Y-shaped tube.
Loading Path. Figures 2 and 3 shows loading paths of

one-step forming process, which give the relations of the
three punches displacements and internal pressure. The
loading path 1 and 2 were designed for one-step hydroforming processes.
0.30
Internal pressure / Yield stress
Introduction
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
Left punch
Right punch
Counter punch
0.05
0.00
-15 -10 -5 0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Punch feed / Thickness

Figure 2. Loading path 1.
The loading path 3 was designed for a two-steps hydroforming process with an additional preform step, as shown
in Figure 4.
The preforming was carried out by using a counter
punch with an inclined frontier as shown in Figure 5.
Results of Experiments. Figure 6(a) shows the sample
formed by the loading path 1. There are wrinkles on the
main tube. It means that the pressure in path 1 is too low
to avoid the wrinkle defect.
09.08.2010 14:29:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 6(b) shows the experimental result formed by

loading path 2. With higher internal pressure than that
from loading path 1, cracking occurred at the protrusion
top, meanwhile, wrinkling also appeared at the bottom of
the main tube. It can be seen that it is not possible to avoid
wrinkling and cracking only by increasing internal pressure.
Figure 6(c) shows the experimental result from loading
path 3, a sound part was formed without any defects. It can
be seen that preforming is an effective approach to produce the super-thin Y-shaped tube.
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
Left punch
Right punch
Counter punch
0.05
0.00
(c) Preform
(d) Sound part
Figure 6. Experimental results of Y-shaped tube.
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

FEM Simulation
Finite Element Model. The pre/post software DYNAFORM was used to build model to do simulation. The
finite element solver is LS-DYNA. By using the advantages of symmetrical shape, only half of the objects were
modeled, as shown in Figure 7.
0.15
(b) Wrinkle and Crack
0.30
-15 -10 -5 0
0.10
0.05
Left punch
Right punch
Counter punch
0.00
-10
-5
10
15
20
25
30
(a) Preforming
0.15
(a) Wrinkle
0.10
0.05
Left punch
Right punch
Counter punch
0.00
-15 -10 -5
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
(b) Final forming

Figure 5. Punch for preforming.
The tooling surfaces are discretized with rigid quadrilateral shell elements. The tube is discretized with elasticplastic quadrilateral shell elements and is assumed as isotropic material model. The work hardening law of material
is =Kn. The strength coefficient value K=1405 MPa and
the work-hardening exponent n=0.5. For this study a coefficient of friction =0.03 is retained between the tube and
die surface corresponding to the lubricant and die surface
condition.
Thinning Ratio Distribution of Y-shape Tube. Thinning ratio is the ratio of thickness reduction amount to the
original thickness. Figure 8(a) shows the thinning ratio
distribution of Y-shaped tube formed under the loading
path 1 when the internal pressure reached 40 MPa. It can
be seen that the top of the protrusion has marked thinning.
And the largest thinning ratio is 35.9%. The feed areas of
the end tube and both sides of fillet transition regions
experience various degrees of thickening. The bottom of
the left side tube thickens most seriously with the minimum thinning ratio of -32.4%.
Figure 8(b) shows the thinning ratio distribution of Yshaped tube formed under loading path 2 when the internal
537
09.08.2010 14:29:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
pressure reached 50 MPa. The thinning ratio distribution is
similar to the loading path 1, and the thickening at the left
end of the tube is most seriously, and its minimum thinning ratio is -33.1%. The top of protrusion has the smallest
thickness with the largest thinning ratio of 42.4%.
Figure 8(c) shows the thinning ratio distribution of Yshaped tube formed under loading path 3. The simulation
results present a sound part with the maximum thinning
ratio of 35.8% and minimum thinning ratio of -33.5%.
A
A B
D
E
G
H
Thinning ratio / %
A= 35.9
B= 28.5
C= 20.9
D= 13.3
E = 5.6
F = -1.9
G= -9.5
H= -17.2
I = -24.8
J = -32.4
B C
G
Thinning ratio / %
A=42.4
B= 34.2
C= 25.8
D= 17.4
E= 8.9
F= 5.2
G= -7.8
H= -16.3
I = -24.7
J =-33.1
(b) Simulated under loading path 2
C
D
E
F
G
H
Figure 9. Typical points for analysis of stress and strain.
Analysis of Stress and Strain for Wrinkled Sample.

As shown in Figure 6(a), wrinkles appeared at point 1
because of insufficient internal pressure during hydroforming with the loading path 1. From simulation, stress
loci of point 1 and point 2 are shown in Figure 10. It can
be seen that at point 1, plastic deformation occurs under
the effect of axial and circumferential compressive stresses.
The value of circumferential strain is tiny so that excessive
material is accumulated around point 1 and then induces
wrinkles the axial compressive stress. However, at point 2,
plastic deformation occurs under the effect of axial and
circumferential tensile stresses so that the material suffers
tensile strain along the two directions.
d
0
d
z
0
d
t
0
Thinning ratio / %
A= 35.8
B= 28.1
C= 20.4
D= 12.7
E= 5.1
F= -2.6
G= -10.3
H= -18.0
I = -25.7
J = -33.5
(c) Simulated under loading path 3

Figure 8. Thinning ratio distributions of Y-shaped tube simulated
with various loading paths.
538
Position of Typical Points. For the super thin-walled

tube blank and asymmetric shape of Y-shaped tube, it is
very difficult to avoid the defects by controlling the loading path of pressure and axial feeding. The stress-strain
states of various points on the workpiece are different and
change during the forming process. Typical points were
selected in the regions where defects are prone to occur, as
shown in Figure 9. The stress trace changes of the typical
points are analyzed according to the simulated results.
Point 1 is at the bottom of the left part of the main tube,
corresponding the region where wrinkling occurs during
experiments. Point 2 is at the top of the protrusion, corresponding to the region where crack appears.
1
(a) Simulated under loading path 1
Deformation Patterns on Defects at Different Regions
d
t
0
d
z
0
d
Point 1
Point 2
Figure 10. Stress traces at typical points for sample with loading
path 1.
Analysis of Stress and Strain for Sample with Wrinkles and Crack. As shown in Figure 6(b), both wrinkles
and crack appeared on the same sample.
From simulation, stress loci of point 1 and point 2 are
shown in Figure 11. It can be seen that during hydroforming with loading path 2, the stress-strain states are similar
to those in loading path 1, but the value of axial and
09.08.2010 14:29:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
circumferential tensile stress at point 2 is much higher than
those from loading path 1. The higher tensile stresses
induce more severe tensile strains along axial and circumferential directions. Therefore, though the pressure is still
not high enough to avoid wrinkling at point 1, it is high
enough to induce cracking at point 2 on the protrusion. It
illustrates that it is impossible to form thin-walled Yshaped tube through one-step forming process.
0
d
z
0
d
t
0
0
d
z
0
d
t
0
d
t
0
d
z
0
d
Point 1
Point 2
(b) Final forming

Figure 12. Stress traces at typical points for sound part with loading path 3.
Conclusions
Point 1
Point 2
d
t
0
d
z
0
d
Figure 11. Stress traces at typical points for sample with loading
path 2.
Analysis of Stress and Strain for Sound Part. During

hydroforming with loading path 3, the stress-strain states
during preforming are similar to that in final forming stage.
Stress loci in Figure 12 shows that the absolute values of
the stresses along various directions are all smaller than
those in one-step forming processes with loading paths 1
and 2. Especially, the axial and circumferential tensile
stresses are decreased obviously when the protrusion contacts with the counter punch.
In two-step hydroforming with loading path 3, wrinkling
and cracking were avoided. The reason why the two-step
hydroforming is successful is that during performing the
protrusion top contacts with the counter punch earlier than
one-step forming and then lowering the tensile stresses at
point 2 and reducing the thinning ratio of the protrusion
top. On the other hand, with preforming, the axial feeding
in each step is reduced. The internal pressure becomes
higher than that in one step forming processes at same
axial feeding; therefore, wrinkling defects can be avoided
effectively.
Acknowledgment
The authors thank for financial support by Program for
New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-070237).
References
[1] F. Vollertsen, T. Prange, M. Sander: Proc. 6th ICTP, (1999), 11971210.
[2] M. Ahmetoglu, K. Sutter, X.J. Li, T. Altan: Journal of Materials
[3] K. Manabe, M. Suetake, H. Koyama, M. Yang: Proceedings of the
First ICNFT, ( 2004), 73-78.
[4] S. Jirathearanat, Ch. Hartl, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 146 (2004) 124-129.
[5] D.M. Cheng, B.G. Teng, B. Guo, S.J. Yuan: Materials Science &
Engineering A, 499 (2009), 36-39
0
d
z
0
d
t
0
d
t
0
d
z
0
d
1. Through experiments and simulation, it is concluded

that for a Y-shaped thin-walled tube with d/t of 183, it is
very difficult to avoid wrinkling and cracking at the
same time in one step hydroforming.
2. A process with performing is presented to lower the
absolute value of the stress acted in the tube blank. With
this kind of stress states, tensile strain at the protrusion
top is reduced to avoid cracking, at the same time, wrinkling in the main tube is avoided, too.
3. In preforming, the protrusion top contacts with the
counter punch earlier than that in one step hydroforming,
it makes it possible to increase internal pressure to a
high enough value for avoiding wrinkling at a certain
axial feeding.
4. A sound part with d/t of 183 was manufactured by using
of the process with preforming, verified the effectiveness of the designed loading path of two steps hydroforming.
Point 1
Point 2
(a) Preforming
539
09.08.2010 14:29:59 Uhr
Metal Forming
Hydro-Formability Investigation of Bellows with More Convolutions

Shen-Yung Lin1), Jhih-Cheng Shih2)
1)
Department of Mechanical and Computer-Aided Engineering, National Formosa University, Yunlin / Taiwan, sylin@nfu.edu.tw;
ment of Mechanical and Computer-Aided Engineering, National Formosa University, Yunlin / Taiwan, rjp325817@yahoo.com.tw
2)
Depart-
This study investigates the hydro-formability of a forming process of bellows with various numbers of convolution using a hydro-forming
technology that can successfully achieve lighter weight and higher strength, rather than utilizing the conventional method with the multi-step
technique through complicated procedures that leads to undesirable time-consuming and high cost. Cylindrical tubes are used as a billet
via the expansion of internal high pressure of liquid medium inside the tube and the compression movement of the punch at the ends of the
tube simultaneously, which forces the tube billet material deformation flowing into the die cavities and creates the convolution profiles. Finite
element method is applied to investigate the forming characteristics of bellows with various numbers of convolution by changing some
process parameters such as punch velocity, hydraulic pressure, dimensional ratio of the crest height to the outer radius, etc. and examine
how the bellows minimum tube wall-thickness and formability are influenced by these process parameters. It shows that both the number of
convolution and dimensional ratio have a significant effect on the hydro-formability of bellows. The difference of the tube thickness increases as the number of convolution increases. Those poor formability situations easily result in defect occurrence comparatively. In addition, fracture and fold defects are easily exhibited corresponding to larger and smaller dimensional ratios, respectively.
Keywords: Bellows, Hydroforming, Minimum wall-thickness, Formability
Introduction
Bellows with intrinsic and unique shape have characters
of absorbing shock and avoiding heat/cold deformation.
The bellows is widely applied in industry, e.g. the translation pipes, electrical power parts, and automobile parts.
The conventional manufacturing process of bellows is
very complicated and consumes a lot of time and cost. The
resulting price is inevitably high. Therefore, in the industry area, everyone continues investigating new forming
technology to approach the capabilities of fast forming and
low cost.
One can save considerable time and cost by use of the
hydroforming technology on manufacturing bellows.
However this technology is still under development in
recent years, and remains many problems to be solved and
optimized. It is expected that, by the above approaches,
the practical application can be realized in industry.
Ahmetoglu and Altan [1] reviewed the fundamentals of
tube hydroforming technology and discussed how various
parameters, such as tube material properties, pre-form
geometry, lubrication and process control affect product
design and quality. Lin and Kwan [2] combined the FEM
and neural network to predict an acceptable product of
which the minimum wall thickness and the protrusion
height fulfill the industrial demand on a T-shape tube hydroforming process. Jain et al. [3] established the merits of
applying external counter pressure in tube hydroforming.
It is observed that the counter pressure will provide back
support to the tube material. Excessive thinning and premature wrinkling could be prevented. Thus, larger tube
expansion could be achieved. Lee [4] applied FEM technique to deal the tube bulging and folding processes as
well as the springback stage. The explicit time integration
method was used for analyzing the tube-bulging and folding processes. Meanwhile, the implicit time integration
method was used for the springback stage. Combination of
these two different time integration methods was widely
accepted for simulating the forming and springback stages
consecutively. Wang et al. [5] developed a new forming
540
technology which used the superplastic forming method

(SPF) of applying gas pressure and compressive axial load
for a two-convolution bellows expansion joint of Ti-6Al4V. During the SPF process the tubular blank is restrained
in a multi-layer die block assembly which determines the
final shape of convolution. The forming load route is divided into three steps in order to obtain optimum thickness
distribution. The various prototype bellows were formed
using different hydroforming insert die shapes such as
rectangular, circular and triangular [6]. To characterize the
formed prototype bellows, crack susceptibility and
thickness profiles in the longitudinal direction were
evaluated. As a result, the role of lubrication is important
for achieving high product quality.
Problem Statement and Approach
The stainless steel SUS-304 straight tubular blank was
selected as a hydroforming billet material. During the
bellows hydroforming process, internal pressure and axial
feeding are simultaneously applied inside and on the end
surfaces of the tube, respectively, and at the meantime, the
deformed billet material continuously supplies into the die
cavities. Figure 1 shows the geometrical conditions and
configuration of the die and billet tube for bellows hydroforming in which the initial tube outer radius, R, is 25mm.
The initial length, 2l=70mm, is fixed. There are several
convolutions sculptured within the die and their crest
heights in the die cavity, h, have set as three levels of 6.25,
7.5 and 8.75mm. In accordance with this h variation and
three different numbers of convolution combinations, the
initially total tube length, L, has nine corresponding levels
of 95, 100, 105, 107.5, 115, 120, 122.5, 130 and 140mm
obtained by calculation in order to create the full rounding
geometrical cavities of crest. Here, the crest height is also
representing the radius of the rounding cavity. Besides, the
initial straight tube thickness, t, is 1.4mm, and all the fillet
radii appeared in the die cavity are 2 mm.
09.08.2010 14:30:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 1. Geometrical conditions and configuration of the die and

tube for bellows hydro-forming.
In order to estimate the bellows hydro-formability and

tube thickness influenced by the process parameter combinations, it divides four main process parameters (i.e., the
internal pressure p, the punch velocity v, the dimensional
ratio of the crest height to the outer radius, , and the number of convolution, n) to three levels, respectively. Here,
dimensional ratio, h/R, represents a ratio of crest height to
outer radius of bellows. Then, 81 sets are constituted totally of the proposed simulation. The bellows
hydroforming process parameter arrangement and setting
levels in this study are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Process parameter arrangement and setting levels for
bellows hydroforming.
Internal pressure p (MPa)
120, 130, 140
Punch velocity v (mm/s)
0.6, 0.8, 1.0
Dimensional ratio
0.25, 0.3, 0.35
Number of convolution n
2, 3, 4
In this study, the following parameter setups are chosen:

1) Stainless steel SUS-304 is selected as the forming billet
material and its flow stress is =13920.3792 MPa. 2) The
loading path is arranged for producing the internal pressure which increases linearly to the setup point of the
prescribed level within the early 10 seconds and then
keeps fixative to the end of forming. 3) The constant shear
frictional factor is assumed as 0.1 at all contact interfaces.
4) Material supply length (punch stroke) at each side is set
as 15mm accomplished by the punch. 5) The punch and
the billet materials are regarded as rigid and plastic bodies,
respectively.
The results of the 81 sets of simulations show that the
fracture defect was occurred around the middle area of the
bellows when the punch displacement nearby 10mm. The
fold defect was occurred around the ends of tube as the
punch displacement over 13mm, and at this stroke moment
the bellows die cavities are still not fully filled. While,
fully filled in die cavities of bellows without fracture and
fold was found at the punch displacement of 10 to 13mm
in this study. Because the deformed billet material
supplied from the tubular ends are always difficult flowing
into the middle die cavities area indeed during this
hydroforming process, the minimum wall-thickness, Tmin,
within the bellows is always found around that location.
Figure 2 shows that the minimum tube wall-thickness
is decreased by decreasing the punch velocity under each
fixed internal pressure condition. This is due to that lower
material feeding rate can not follow up the tube expansion
rate in time. As the punch velocity is increased, the faster

material feeding rate may have an opportunity to match up
the rate of hydro-expansion. The deformed tube material
may flow into the bellows die cavities adequately reaching
the middle area of the die cavities. So the thinning tendency for the minimum tube wall-thickness may be mitigated.
Figure 3 shows that the minimum tube wall-thickness is
decreased by increasing the internal pressure under each
fixed punch velocity condition. This is due to that the tube
expansion rate is larger than the material feeding rate. So
that, the deformed material has not sufficient time flows
inward reaching the middle region of the tube. Consequently, the tube thickness becomes thinner. Similarly, if
the material feeding rate may follow up the rate of tube
expansion properly, the thinning tendency for the minimum tube wall-thickness may be reduced as just mentioned above.
Figure 4 shows that the minimum wall-thickness is decreased by increasing the dimensional ratio obviously.
This is due to that the higher crest cavity height needs a
more material to fill up it if the tube outer radius is kept
constant. Therefore, the higher crest cavity usually causes
Tmin being thinner by use of the same amount of billet
material supply.
(a) p=120MPa
(b) p=130MPa
(c) p=140MPa
Figure 2. Relationship between bellows minimum wall-thickness
and punch velocity under various conditions of internal pressure,
dimensional ratio and number of convolution.
541
09.08.2010 14:30:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) v=0.6mm/s
(b) v=0.8mm/s
(c) v=1.0mm/s
and internal pressure under various conditions of punch velocity,
dimensional ratio and number of convolution.
Refer to the above results, it can take a common conclusion that the higher internal pressure causes a faster expansion rate, and then the tube thickness becomes thinner. For
common situation, the higher internal pressure is, the easier material expansion is. At this situation, the material has
not sufficient time flows inward reaching the middle region of the bellows when punch velocity is lower, and then
Tmin becomes thinner. Contrarily, if the punch velocity is
sufficiently high, the material may deform and supply
rapidly and has an opportunity to reach the middle region,
and then Tmin does not become thinner as just mentioned
above. Therefore, all process parameters and their interactions will influence the variation of the bellows thickness.
It can not use single parameter only to control or estimate
the tube wall-thickness distributions. Consequently, a
successful hydroforming always depends on the suitable
combinations of the process parameter arrangements.
In the proposed study, some defect occurrences in bellows hydroforming have been ever encountered during
forming process. The common defect of bellows hydroforming consists of two types: fold and fracture. The results introduce that the fold occurred easily when dimensional ratio is about 0.25 which provide a relatively
smaller die cavity filling space and will cause some difficulties of material inflow and then the materials are usually concentrated around the ends of tube. Consequently,
the fold will be induced if the material is supplied continuously by the punch. The results also illustrate that the
fracture occurred easily when dimensional ratio is about
0.35 which provide a relatively larger die cavity filling
space in contrast to the above situation and will increase
the mobility of materials flow. Based on the principle of
volume constancy, the fracture will be induced subsequently by a lack of material supply if the forming pressure keeps providing.
(a) p=120MPa
(a) v=0.6mm/s
(b) v=0.8mm/s
(b) p=130MPa
(c) p=140MPa
and dimensional ratio under various conditions of internal pressure,
punch velocity and number of convolution.
542
(c) v=1.0mm/s
Figure 5. Suitable range of process parameters for making fully
filled in die cavities of bellows for n=2.
09.08.2010 14:30:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) v=0.6 mm/s
(b) v=0.8 mm/s
full filling in bellows die cavities if the internal pressure

providing is adequate. While higher height in crest bellows
cavity needing a larger amount of billet materials inflow to
fill with the die cavities. Slow punch velocity always can
not compress the billet materials promptly to deform and
supply the bellows cavity filling, the chance for
hydrofoming a qualified bellows is largely reduced.
Under the same amount of material supply, the case with
smaller numbers of convolution has a more chance to get a
full filling of bellows die cavities. Hence it has a better
hydroformability. This is because of the distance between
tube end and middle area of bellows shorter than a case
with more convolutions in this study, the deformed material is relatively easier to reach the middle region instead
of concentrating around the tube ends.
Conclusions
(c) v=1.0 mm/s

(a) v=0.6 mm/s
(b) v=0.8 mm/s
(c) v=1.0 mm/s

The other factor that influences the hydro-formability

thoroughly is the bellows convolutions. Figures 5, 6 and 7
show the suitable range of process parameters for making
fully filled in die cavities of bellows from n=2 to n=4,
respectively. The number of full filling is reduced from 16
to 10 sets while the number of frcture is increased from 2
to 8 sets when bellows convolution number is increased
from 2 to 4. The more are the bellows convolutions, the
higher opportunity is the fracture defect occurrence. From
the results obtained, fold and fracture defects are found
distributing around the lower-left and upper-right areas of
the graph, respectively, which associates with the conditions of smaller internal pressure and dimensional ratio,
and of higher internal pressure and dimensional ratio,
respectively. The smaller dimensional ratio combined with
faster punch velocity case has many chances to hydroform
The proposed paper provides an approach to investigate

how the bellows minimum wall-thickness and hydroformability are influenced by the specific combinations of
hydro-forming process parameters. From the above
analysis, the following conclusions can thus be drawn:
1. The minimum wall-thickness of the bellows is decreased by increasing the dimensional ratio. It is due to
that the higher height in crest cavity needs a more material supply. Therefore, a higher crest case has a little opportunity to hydro-form a qualified bellows if the other
process parameter can not follow up exactly.
2. The dimensional ratio is sensitive to the failure of the
bellows hydro-forming process. The larger dimensional
ratio provides a relatively larger cavity filling space. At
this situation, if the deformed tube material can not sufficiently be supplied by the punch feeding and then the
fracture will occur. Contrarily, lower dimensional ratio
provides a relatively smaller cavity filling space which
will cause the billet material flow inward more difficultly and then impede the material flow into the concave regions. As a result, the material will concentrate
around the punch ends and the fold will thus occur.
3. The more are the bellows convolutions, the more difficult is the material flowing toward the middle area inside the bellows die cavities. Hence, the hydroformability is poor in this situation resulting in defect
occurrence easily.
References
[1] M. Ahmetoglu, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
98 (2000), 25-33.
[2] F. C. Lin, C. T. Kwan: Computers and Structures, 82 (2004), 1189
1200.
[3] N. Jain, J. Wang, R. Alexander: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 145 (2004), 5965.
[4] S.W. Lee: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 130131
(2002), 4753.
[5] G. Wang , K.F. Zhang, D.Z. Wu, J.Z. Wang, Y.D. Yu: Journal of
Materials Processing Technology, 178 (2006), 2428.
[6] B.H. Kang, M.Y. Lee, S.M. Shon, Y.H. Moon: Journal of Materials
543
09.08.2010 14:30:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analytical Investigation of Metal Bellows Forming Process

Ghader Faraji, Karen Abrinia
School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran / Iran, ghfaraji@ut.ac.ir
Metal bellows have wide applications in different industries. Previous works have focused on various aspects of bellows but there are a few
papers that have dealt with the forming process of the metal bellows. Design and production of the metal bellows require knowledge about
tube material behaviour during forming process and the control of the forming operation itself. These issues are studied analytically in the
present paper. Metal bellows forming process consists of bulging and folding of an initial tube. There are many process parameters such as
internal pressure, die stroke and material properties which affects the final bellows dimension and quality. The effects of these parameters
on the final bellows dimension and quality have been analytically investigated. The analytical models constructed in this paper are used to
show the limits during the forming process and how different material and process parameters such as die stroke and internal pressure
influence the result of the forming. In order to verify the results of the analytical investigation, experimental examinations were carried out.
Theoretical results from the present analysis were shown to be in good agreement with the experimental data. The proposed analytical
models can be used to determine the desired parameters to achieve an acceptable bellows. The results of the present work can be used by
process engineers to design an economized forming process.
Keywords: Metal bellows, Analysis, Experiment
Introduction
There are many applications for the metal bellows in
different industries. Numerous papers have dealt with
various aspects of bellows. Broman et al. have determined
dynamic characteristics of bellows by manipulating certain
parameters of the beam finite elements [1]. Jakubauskas
and Werner have considered the transverse vibrations of
fluid-filled double-bellows expansion joints [2]. Also some
investigations on the fatigue behavior of expansion joint
bellows have been carried out by Becht [3] and Zhu et al.
[4].
However, few papers have studied the manufacturing
process of the metal bellows. Lee has carried out parametric study on some of the forming process parameters of the
metal bellows by finite element method [5]. Faraji et al.
have investigated bellows forming process parameters
effect on final bellows dimensions and quality by finite
element analysis and experimental tests [6]. Asnafi and
Skogsgardh have introduced an analytical model for tube
hydroforming process and checked the model by experiment and finite element modeling [7,8]. Figure 1 shows
schematic illustration of bellows forming process. Metal
bellows is formed in two stages (tube bulging and folding)
from thin wall tube. In the tube-bulging process, the
equally spaced circular plate dies are set to surround the
wall of the tube and the internal oil pressure is increased
up to a proper value and no axial feeding is applied. In the
folding process, while the internal oil pressure is maintained to a constant value, the axial force is applied along
the longitudinal direction of the bulged tube in order to
complete the final shape of the metal bellows [6].
In this paper, an analytical model is introduced for bellows forming process analysis. From the results of this
work one can calculate the final bellows dimensions and
its thickness distribution. Experimental tests were carried
out to verify the model.
544
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of bellows forming process from

initial tube [5].
Theory
Deformation of initial tube in the bulging stage takes
place in elastic region with a small plastic deformation.
Whole of the deformation in the folding stage is plastic. As
mentioned above, metal bellows is manufactured in two
stages of bulging and folding from the initial tube. Internal
pressure is increased to upper value in bulging stage while
no axial feeding is applied. In the folding process, while
the internal pressure is maintained to an upper value (Pf),
the axial force is applied along the longitudinal direction
of the bulged tube [6]. One ring of the bellows is considered in the model because of symmetry (Figure 2). As
shown in figure 2 Consider a tube as a ring of the bellows
which is subjected to an internal pressure, P.
09.08.2010 14:30:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
(6)
z /
z /
(7)
The tangential and radial strains, and r , can be

determined as [7]:
ln
Figure 2. Forming stages of one ring of the bellows (a) bulging
(b) folding.
r ln
i
0
(8)
ti
t0
(9)
If it assumed that the tube is a thin wall pressure vessel

one can obtain:
(10)
1/ 2
At the interface between elastic and plastic deformation,

one can write:
(11)
i 0
(12)
P Py
(13)
ti t0
(14)
y
Substituting Eq. (4) into Eq. (1) yields
(1 2 )
P i
ti
(15)
Substituting Eqs. (10)-(14) into Eq. (15) yields

Figure 3. Loading diagram of internal pressure and axial feeding.
Yield Limit. Assume that the bellows forming tool and

initial tube before yielding has the shape shown in figure
2a. Yielding of tube occurs in the initial portion of tube
bulging stage. In other words, it occurs before the internal
pressure reaches its maximum value. In order to model this
condition, one can assume that the tube is a thin wall pressure vessel with an internal pressure P. As shown in Figures 2(a) and 3 in this stage the length of the tube (L0)
remains constant during yielding. From thin wall pressure
vessels theory one can write:
P i
Py
2 y t 0
(16)
3 0
All the parameters except Py are known. Internal pressure

in the yield limit can be obtained from Eq. (16).
Plastic Deformation (Folding Stage). It can be assumed that the tube expands in two fashions during forming process as shown in Figure 4(a) and (b).
(1)
ti
P i
(2)
2t i
r 0
(3)
where , z and r are circumferential, longitudinal and
radial stresses. The von Mises yield criterion (plane stress)
and the equivalent strain can be written as [7]:
(4)
(1 2 )1/ 2
and
1/ 2
(1 2 )
3
where
(5)
Figure 4. Two types of fashions during forming process.
In this paper it is assumed that figure 4a applies to the

problem. Experimental observations show that this assumption is very close to reality except in the little portion
of the end of the process. This claim is proved in Figure 5
in which the shape during experimental forming process
has been shown. The process parameters have been shown
in Figure 6 where L0, t0 and 0 are the initial value of tube
545
09.08.2010 14:30:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
length, thickness and radius. The footnote i in figure 6b
shows the instantaneous values.
Prediction of the final bellows radius and its minimum

thickness is a crucial manner in bellows forming process.
Considering Eqs. (21) and (22) shows that solving the
system of equations when internal pressure is as an input
data, one can calculate the equations and extract the final
bellows radius and its minimum thickness.
Table 1. Mechanical properties and dimension of initial tube.
Figure 5. Experimental result to show shape during forming process.
K(MPa)
0.23
635
0
6.75
t0
0.1
Mechanical properties
(Kg/
UTS(MPa)
E(Gpa)
m3)
386
92
0.34
8000
Dimension (mm)
td (Die ring thickness)
L0
0.5
10
Experiment
Figure 6. Initial tube dimension and instantaneous form of ring of

the bellows.
Plastic deformation occurred as a result of internal pressure. Plastic deformation consists of the last part of bulging and folding stages. In this step, Eqs. (1)-(10) are valid.
Substituting Eq. (10) in Eq. (15) yields
(17)
3
Assume that the tube material obeys the Ludwik
Hollomon hardening relationship:
K . n
(18)
Combining Eqs. (1), (5), (8), (17) and (18), one can write:
Pi
2 ti
. .K .( 4 / 3( 1 2 ) )n (ln i )n
0
3 i
(19)
The LevyMises flow rule yields:
(2 1) /(2 )
(20)
The analytical modelling results were verified using the

experimental result of authors previous work [6]. Tube
material was CuSn6. Mechanical properties and initial
tube dimensions are shown in Table 1. The die assembly,
manufactured bellows and thickness distribution for an
internal pressure of 4.5 MPa are shown in Figure 7.
As mentioned above using Eqs. (21) and (22) one can
easily obtain outer radius and minimum thickness of the
bellows by solving the system of equations. Substituting
experimental internal pressure value (4.5MPa) and initial
tube dimension and properties from table1 yields:
2 0.2331 t i
. .635.(ln i )0.233
4.5 MPa ( 3 )
6.75
i
(23)
t 0.1( 6.75 )
i
i
Solving this system of equations final outer radius and
minimum thickness of the bellows is obtained as follow:
i f 9.36 mm
t i t f 0.072 mm
Substituting = 1/2 from equation (10) in Eq. (20) leads

to = 0, then substituting value into Eq. (19) yields:
Pi (
2 n 1 t i
) . .K .(ln i )n
i
0
3
(21)
where i , ti and Pi are the instantaneous radius, thickness

and internal pressure, respectively. Combining Eqs. (7)-(9)
and volume constancy ( r + + z = 0) and substituting
= 0 yields:
ti t0 (
546
0
)
i
(22)
09.08.2010 14:30:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
References
[1] G.I. Broman, A.P. Jonsson, M.P. Hermann: International Journal of
Pressure Vessels Piping 77 -8 (2000), 445-453.
[2] V. Jakubauskas, D.S. Weaver: Journal of Fluids and Structures, 13-4
(1999), 461-479.
[3] C. Becht IV: International Journal of Pressure Vessels Piping, 77-13
(2000), 843850.
[4] Y.Z. Zhu, H.F. Wang, Z.F. Sang: International journal of fatigue, 28-1
(2006), 28-32.
[5] S.W. Lee: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 130131(2002), 47-53.
[6] Gh. Faraji, M. M. Mashhadi, V. Norouzifard: Journal of Materials
[7] N. Asnafi: Thin-Walled Structures, 34-4 (1999) 295330.
[8] N. Asnafi, A. Skogsgardh: Materials Science and Engineering A, 2791-2 (2000), 95110.
Figure 7. Manufactured bellows, die assembly and thickness

distribution of the bellows.
Table 2 shows a comparison between results obtained

from experimental test and analysis. It can be seen that
there is a very good agreement between the results. Therefore it could be said that the simple analytical model introduced in this work is an accurate and useful method for
process engineers and industry. Based on simplicity of the
analytical model, it can be used easily in manufacturing
process of thin wall and sensitive bellows. From Table 2
thickness of 0.072 mm that was predicted by the introduced analytical model have a real value of 0.073 mm in
experiment. Comparison between the minimum thicknesses obtained from the model and experiment shows
1.3% errors that is very small for engineering works. This
value in the final outer radius case is about 8.8%.
Table 2. Comparison between experimental and analytical results.
Analysis
Experiment [6]
Error (%)
Final minimum
thickness (tf)
0.072mm
0.073mm
1.3%
Final outer
radius (f)
9.36mm
10.27mm
8.8%
Conclusion
A simple analytical model is introduced to model the
thin wall metal bellows forming process. Final crucial
dimensions such as the final outer radius and minimum
thickness can be calculated easily before any experiment
and finite element modelling is done. Results of this work
could be used to reduce cost and time for the process design and manufacture of thin wall and sensitive bellows
and can be applied easily by process engineers to design
an economized process.
547
09.08.2010 14:30:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
Warm Hydroforming of Aluminum Alloy Part by Axially Different Heating Zones

Shijian Yuan, Baguo Cheng, Xin Liu, Yongchao Xu, Xiaosong Wang, Jun Qi, Xiaojun Sun
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Welding Production Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin / China, syuan@hit.edu.cn
An effective warm hydroforming process by axial different heating zones is proposed to increase tube expansion ratio through avoiding the
severe thickening at the ends of a tube. The effect of temperature difference along axial direction of tubular part was investigated by coupled thermo-mechanical FE simulation. One special tool consisting of two heating segments was manufactured for warm hydroforming
experiment. It is indicated by simulation and experiment that there is an optimal temperature difference between the forming zone and the
feeding zone for the certain shape and material of the part to be formed. If the temperature difference is larger, there is severe thinning in
the forming zone and the tube can not fully contact the die cavity surface; if the temperature difference is lower, the folding defect occurs in
the center of tube in calibration stage. For the aluminum alloy 5A02 tubular part formed in this study, the optimal temperature difference is
70C. A sound part with large expansion ratio up to 70% was successfully formed with relatively even thickness distribution.
Keywords: Hydroforming, Aluminum alloy, Warm forming, Tube
Introduction
Aluminum alloys sheet and tube have been widely applied as one of lightweight materials for automotives and
aircrafts to meet the demand of fuel saving [1]. Especially,
aluminum alloy tubes have gained more interest in manufacturing lightweight hollow structures with complicated
cross-sections by hydroforming process [2,3]. Due to the
poor formability of aluminum alloys at room temperature,
it is a better approach to manufacture aluminum alloy
components by hydroforming at an elevated temperature
or warm hydroforming [4].
In the past decade, many experimental and theoretical
works have been conducted on the fundamentals and processes of warm hydroforming, including formability and
FLD (Forming Limit Diagram) of various aluminum alloys at elevated temperatures [5-7], heat transfer behaveior, temperature field [8,9], effect of loading parameters on
thickness distribution and defects [10-14]. However, the
friction in feeding ends of an aluminum alloy tube at elevated temperatures is bigger than that at room temperatures [15]. The bigger friction would result in obvious
thickening at the ends of tube. Normally, the thickening
ratio is up to 30%. The other reason for severe thickening
is that the metal at the ends of tube can easily yield and
come into plastic deformation because all area of the tube
is at high temperature by the warm hydroforming with
isothermal heating. Therefore, it is difficult to form tubular
part with large expansion ratio and the thickness distribution is not even in the formed part.
To overcome this problem in traditional warm hydroforming with isothermal heating, an effective warm hydroforming is proposed by axially different heating zones in
this paper. The axially different heating zones means that
the temperature is non uniform along the tube axis and
there is a temperature difference between the tube ends
and its central zone. Effect of the temperature difference
was investigated on hydroforming process by coupled
thermo-mechanical FE simulation. One special heating
tool was designed and manufactured to implement warm
hydroforming experiment. Finally, an aluminum alloy
tubular part with expansion ratio 70% was obtained in
experiment.
548
Principle of Warm Tube Hydroforming by Axially

Different Heating Zones
The schematic illustration of warm hydroforming by
axially different heating zones is shown in Figure 1. The
temperatures in different zones of the die are controlled
independently. Normally, the temperature of in the feeding
zone (T1) is lower than that in the forming zone (T2).
Therefore, there is a temperature gradient along tube axial
direction. The advantages of this process are that the flow
stress of tube ends is high and friction coefficient is small
in the feeding zone due to lower temperature. Therefore,
thickening can be reduced in the feeding zone and the
better formability can be achieved in the forming zone due
to the bigger elongation in higher temperature.
Feeding Forming
zone
zone
Heat insulation
Feeding
zone
T1<T2
Upper die
Warm fluid
Tube
Punch
Lower die
Cooling water
Heater
Temperature sensor
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of warm hydroforming by axially

different heating zones.
The process is that a tube is put inside the cavity of the

low die and the upper die is closed, then the die is heated
to the preset temperature. After that, the tube is expanded
by the pressurized hot medium and axial feeding. The
temperature difference of the die is a dominant parameter
in this process, which is defined as: T = T2 T1 , where
T1 is the temperature in the feeding zone, T2 is the temperature in the forming zone.
09.08.2010 14:30:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
Geometry and Material of Tubular Part
The shape and dimensions of a tubular part to be formed
is shown in Figure 2. The diameter of the tube at two ends
is 65mm and the diameter in the forming zone is 110mm.
The expansion ratio of this part is 70%.
Temperature Thermal expansion Thermal conductivity
The material used in simulation and experiment is aluminum alloy 5A02. Its chemical compositions are given in
Table 1. The outside diameter and thickness of the original
tube blank are 65mm and 1.5mm, respectively. After extrusion, the tube was annealed at 415C for 2 hour and
then air-cooled.
Table 1. Chemical composition (Wt. %) of 5A02 aluminum alloy
tube.
Si
Fe
Cu
Mg
Al
0.16
0.0012
2.22
Balance
Uni-axial tensile tests were performed at 25, 100, 150,

220 and 260 C to obtain the stress-strain relationship of
the 5A02 aluminum alloy tube at elevated temperatures.
The tensile samples were cut along axial direction and
tested with strain rates of 0.1, 0.01 and 0.001 s-1 at every
temperature.
The Cowper-Symonds equation with thermal effect is
chosen as material mode in simulation. Its stress-strain
relationship is defined as
p
= 0 1 +
C
FE Model. Finite element analysis was carried out by

using LS-DYNA version 971 to investigate warm tube
hydroforming by differential heating zones. FE simulation
model is shown in Figure 3. Because of the symmetrical
shape, half model was chosen. The tube was meshed to
6500 four-node fully integrated shell elements. The die
and punches were created using rigid elements. Friction
coefficient the in forming zone is 0.12 and it is 0.05 in the
feeding zone because its temperature is lower than that in
the forming zone. The material model for tube is defined
as above with isotropic thermal material. Thermal properties defined in the simulation for the tube are showed in
Table 3.
Table 3. Thermal properties of 5A02 aluminum tube used in FE
simulation.
Figure 2. Geometry of variable diameter tube (unit: mm).
0.12
Optimization of Temperature Difference by Coupled

Thermo-Mechanical Simulation
(1)
where 0 is yielding stress, C and p are the strain rate

hardening parameters. The yielding stress at various temperatures is obtained from the uni-axial tensile tests, the
values of C and p are listed in Table 2.
Heat capacity
(C)
(10-5/C)
(W/m C)
(J/kg C)
25
155
903
100
2.42
159
963
200
2.49
163
1005
300
2.58
163
1047
The temperature (T1) in the feeding zone and the temperature (T2) the forming zone was assigned as listing in
Table 4. In this simulation, one way thermal contact was
selected, and the fraction of mechanical work converted
into heat was set to zero because of the quasi-static of
hydroforming. The inner surface heat transfer with environment was allowed, and the environment temperature
was set to fluid temperature. There is no heat transfer with
outer environment.
Table 4. Temperature differences used in FE simulation (C).
T1
T2
220
220
70
150
220
200
20
220
The loading path, i.e. the relationship of internal pressure and axial feeding, is as shown in Figure 4. The axial
feeding of punches reaches 40mm while the internal pressure is preserved in value of 4.8MPa. After that, internal
pressure is increased to 20MPa for calibration.
Table 2. Material mode parameters of 5A02 aluminum alloy tube.

Temperature (C)
C (s )
25
1549
1.266
100
1734
3.714
150
2768
4.006
220
5269
5.165
260
16680
12.887
-1
Punch
Tube
Forming zone
Feeding zone
Figure 3. FE simulation model.
549
09.08.2010 14:30:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Temperature Distribution and Profiles of Workpiece.
shows the temperature distribution and profile of
workpiece at various stages. For T=70 C, the temperature in forming zone is in the range of 210-220 C, the
temperature in feeding zone is in the range of 150-160 C,
the high temperature covers just in forming zone. For
T=200C, the temperature gradient of the workpiece in
axial direction is very large. The temperature in forming
zone varies from 150 to 210 C, the temperature in feeding
zone is lower than 50 C, and the high temperature is very
narrow.
Pressure (MPa)
Figure 5
21
20
19
18
17
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44
forming zone. After calibration, the conical part of the tube

can not contact the die cavity surface.
It is concluded by simulation results that no defects appear and the tube is formed very good with the temperature difference T=70 C.
Experiment on Warm Hydroforming by Axially Different Heating Zones
Experimental Procedure. The experiment was conducted using the warm hydroforming system developed by
Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). The special oil is
adopted in the system as heating medium with the highest
temperature up to 300 C and the maximum internal pressure of the system is 100 MPa. The tool used in experiment is shown in Figure 6. The die was divided in to two
segments to control the temperatures in the forming zone
and the feeding zone, independently. There is an insulation
layer to reduce heat transfer between these two zones. The
die temperature in the forming zone is elevated by the
heating rods embedded in the die and controlled by PID
device. The die temperature in the feeding zone is controlled by adjustment of cooling water volume.
Feeding (mm)
Insulation
Figure 4. Loading path.

N
(a)
T=70C
K L MO
(b)
T=200C
A C E IK
(c)
(d)
T=70C
T=200C
(C)
N
P
Q
R
G
M
Q
R
O
KI E C A
Feeding of 30mm
N
O
P
Q
R
G
K
O
R
AC E I M Q
A= 50
B= 60
C = 70
D= 80
E = 90
F =100
G=110
H =120
I =130
J =140
K =150
L =160
M =170
N =180
O=190
P =200
Q=210
R=220
OM LK
Q M I ECA
(C)
A= 50
B= 60
C = 70
D = 80
E = 90
F =100
G=110
H =120
I =130
J =140
K =150
L =160
M =170
N =180
O=190
P =200
Q=210
R=220
After calibration
Figure 5. Temperature distribution and profile of tubes obtained by
FE simulation.
For T=70 C and the feeding is 30 mm, two large wrinkles were formed in the forming zone of the workpiece
and there is one small wrinkle between the two wrinkles.
The diameter of the large wrinkles is 86.6 mm and the
diameter of small one is 79.5 mm. After calibration, the
tube is expanded to the die cavity surface completely. For
T=200 C, the conical part of the forming zone is difficult to be deformed because of the low temperature.
Therefore, the deformation is located in central area of the
550
Heater
Cooling water
Temperature sensor
Figure 6. Tool for warm hydroforming by differential heating zones.
According to the simulation results mentioned above,
T=70 C is optimal temperature difference so that this
temperature difference value was used in experiment. The

tube was put into die cavity and two ends were sealed after
the die was closed and the die was heated to required temperature. The temperature in the forming zone was kept as
a constant of 220 C and the temperature in the feeding
zone was 150 C. Then the tube was formed with the loading path as same as in FE simulation.
Experiment Results. Figure 7 shows the hydroformed
tube at different feeding values in experiment. It can be
seen from this figure that two wrinkles were formed with
the diameter 81.4 mm at feeding of 20 mm. As the feeding
is 30 mm, the diameter of these two wrinkles was increased to 87.3mm and a new small wrinkle was formed at
the tube center with the diameter 80.2 mm. The wrinkling
phenomena and the value of the wrinkles are similar to
that in simulation. After calibration with the internal pressure 20 MPa, a sound part with expansion ratio 70% was
successfully formed.
09.08.2010 14:30:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
There is an optimal temperature difference between the
forming zone and the feeding zone for certain shape and
material of the part to be formed. When the temperature
difference is higher, the deformation easily occurs in the
central area of the forming zone. After calibration, there is
severe thinning in the forming zone and the conical part of
the tube can not contact the die cavity surface. When the
temperature difference is lower, the folding defect occurs
in the center of tube during calibration stage.
For the aluminum alloy 5A02 tubular part formed in this
study, the optimization temperature difference is 70 C. A
sound part with large expansion ratio 70% was successfully formed with homogeneous thickness distribution.
The maximum thickening ratio in the feeding zone is only
2.6%, which is very less that in isothermal warm hydroforming by uniform temperature.
(a) Feeding of 20 mm
(b) Feeding of 30 mm
Acknowledgement
This paper was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (item number: 50525516,
50975061). The authors would like to take this opportunity
to express their sincere appreciation.
References
(c) Final formed tubular part
Figure 7. Hydroforming at different feeding stages.
Figure 8 is the thickness distribution of the final formed
part along axial direction. The maximum thinning ratio is
28.7% in the forming zone of the final formed part. However, the maximum thickening ratio in the feeding zone is
only 2.6%, which is very less that in isothermal warm
hydroforming by the uniform temperature. The thickness
is relatively homogeneous in the final formed part although the large expansion ratio is up to 70%.
45
T=70C
40
Thinning ratio (%)
35
Forming zone
Profile
30
Feeding
zone
25
Transition
zone
Transition
Feeding
zone
zone
20
15
10
5
0
-5
-100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40

Axial position (mm)
60
80 100
Figure 8. Thickness distribution along axial direction of final part.
[1] W. S. Miller, L. Zhuang, J. Bottema, A. J. Wittebrood, P. De Smet:

[2] S.J.Yuan, C.Han, X.S.Wang: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 46-11 (2006), 1201-1206.
[3] M. Geiger, M. Merklein, M. Celeghini, H.G. Haldenwanger, M. Prier:
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Hydroforming,
Fellbach, Germany (2003), 259-277.
[4] R. Neugebauer, T. Altan, M. Geiger, M. Kleine, A. Sterzing: CIRP
Annals Manufacturing Technology, 55-2 (2006), 793-816.
[5] F. Vollertsen: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on
Sheet Metal, Leuven, Belgium, (2001), 157-164.
[6] S.J. Yuan, J. Qi, Z.B. He: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
177 (2006), 680-683.
[7] C. Schuste: Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Hydroforming, Fellbach, Germany, (2005), 113-135.
[8] B.J. Kim, C.J. Van Tyne, M.Y. Lee, Y. H. Moon: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, 187-188 (2007): 296-299.
[9] H.K. Yi, E.J. Pavlina, C.J. Van Tyne and Y. H. Moon: Journal of
Materials Processing Technology, 203 (2008), 532536.
[10] Z.B. He, J. Qi, X.S. Wang, S.J. Yuan: Proceedings of TUBEHYDRO2007, Harbin, China, (2007), 129-134.
[11] N. Siva Prasad Varma, R. Narasimhan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 196 (2006), 174183.
[12] S. Novotny, M. Geiger: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
138 (2003), 594599.
[13] N. Abedrabbo, F. Pourboghrat, J. Carsley: Part 1 Material Characterization. International Journal of Plasticity, 22 (2006), 314341.
[14] E. Chu, Y. Xu: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 46
(2004), 263-283.
[15] S. Toros, F. Ozturk, I. Kacar: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 207 (2008), 1-12.
Conclusions
It is proved by simulation and experiment that warm hydroforming by axially different heating zones is an effective method to avoid excessive thickening in the feeding
zone. The main advantage of this process is the friction
coefficient is small in the feeding zone due to lower temperature and the large expansion can be achieved due to
bigger elongation of metal at higher temperature.
551
09.08.2010 14:30:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Gas Forming of Boron Steel Tubes at Low Pressure - Applasting

Vadillo Leire1), Prez Iaki1), Hori Izuru2), Zarazua Jose Ignacio1), Mangas ngela1), San Jos Juan1), Paar Uwe3)
1)
Metal Forming Department of Tecnalia Technological Corporation, Derio / Spain, lvadillo@labein.es; 2) R&D Group, Honda Engineering
Europe, Ltd., Swindon / United Kingdom; 3) Planning and Innovation Hot Stamping, Volkswagen AG, Kassel / Germany
Tecnalia has developed the Applasting process with the support of Honda, who has a deep knowledge in the technology (thanks to the
already industrialised serial production of aluminum subframes by hot tubes blowing) and Volkswagen. The main results of the study will be
explained in the paper. The 3D simulation in Ls-Dyna software has been validated. Prototype parts were manufactured by Applasting out of
a Usibor1500P boron steel tube of 63,5 mm diameter and 1,75 mm thickness provided by the company Arcelor-Mittal. The minimal radius
obtained in the part was 3,5 mm at only 2 MPa internal pressure. The quenching method for hardenable boron steel tubes will be discussed
in the paper. The Usibor1500P tubes after heating, Applasting and quenching process have a hardness that reaches 1530 MPa, therefore
its use for reducing part thickness and therefore automotive CO2 emissions make this technology be very promising.
Keywords: Tube, Boron, Forming, Steel, Quenching
Introduction
Nowadays there is a high demand of car weight reduction related to the need of CO2 emissions decrease. Many
automotive manufacturers are aimed at the use of new
steel brands which can compensate the lower sheet thickness with a high mechanical response. This is the case of
the hot stamped parts, already industrialized and with an
increasing number of OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and Tier1 suppliers aimed at the production of
UHSS (Ultra High Strength Steel) parts by using this
method.
This technology has been mainly aimed at producing
steel sheet parts in the body-in-white of the car, such as
Tunnels, B-Pillars, A-Pillars, etc. In this paper this solution
will be applied to tubular specimens. Tubular shapes have
additional advantages such as rigidity provided by the
closed section geometry. In the case of the A-Pillar, a tubular geometry makes it possible to have a part with smaller
cross section, which reduces the visibility field avoidance
provided by this structural part made of sheet.
Welding different sheet metal parts in order to obtain a
closed geometry leads to a high production cost that can
be decreased by using an initial tubular blank and thus
reducing the number of parts, the number of tools and the
logistic costs added to this.
The Applasting process consists of changing the shape
of a tubular specimen at high temperature by means of an
external effort. This external pressure provided by a press
or other mechanical or hydraulical installation is compensated by the inner gas pressure inserted in the tubular
specimen. The main technological advantage of the Applasting process is the possibility of obtaining small radius
in the final parts and therefore more complex geometries
by means of a very low forming pressure, well away from
the high pressure rates used in processes such as hydroforming or in other tube hot blowing projects [1,2].
determine which one the best pressure curve for obtaining

the final geometry with the minimum radius was. Also it
was taken into account that no tube thickness modification
is desired.
The tube material was boron steel Usibor1500P delivered by the company Arcelor-Mittal. It is a hardenable
steel with an Aluminum-Silicon coating used to avoid
oxidation during heating at high temperatures. The Usibor1500P is the most popular steel used for sheet hot
stamping technology.
A simple case that modifies an initial tubular circular
shape to a rectangular one was selected. The tube had
initially 1.75 mm thickness and an external diameter of
63.5 mm and it was modified to a rectangular shape of 30
mm x 70 mm in order to maintain the perimeter of the tube.
For making this modification an upper die moves at 30
mm/sec towards the lower die where the tube is placed.
As the electrovalve (for inserting the gas into the tube at
a specific pressure) available for the experiments operates
at 2,8 bar/sec the following pressure curve was proposed:
P = Po + 0.28 t
(1)
where t is the time and optimal Po (initial pressure value)

was determined by means of the simulation task.
A simple model of the process without thermal calculation, half a slice of the geometry due to the symmetry of
the process, was considered. This model is represented in
Figure 1.
2D Simulation Model
In order to get a better understanding of the tube deformation process, a simulation work was done with LSDyna software. The objective of the simulation was to
552
Figure 1. Tube 2D simulation model.
09.08.2010 14:30:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
The following conclusions were drawn from the simulation work:
under the restriction of the air supply valve, the initial

value of the pressure is more important than its increasing path during the process;
using maximum increasing speed of the pressure is a
good choice to get the minimum corner radius;
the pressure curve represented in Eq. (2) should be
used for obtaining optimal results (minimal final radius without tube wrinkling or breakage):
P = 6.3749 + 0.28t
4.
5.
6.
upper punch and lower die including the cooling

channels for quenching the tube material;
cooling system including pump;
control and monitoring equipment.
(2)
Figure 4. Applasting experimental unit.
Figure 2. Minimum radius for the selected curve.
As shown in Figure 2, for this pressure curve 1.87 mm

radius was obtained with a 1.658 mm minimum thickness.
The corresponding final tube heights and minimal radius
before wrinkles related to the internal pressure values were
also obtained by means of simulation and shown in the
following Figure 3.
H = Tube height for minimal
radius before wrinkles
Pressure
H (mm)
Radius (mm)
1 MPa
33.8
2.798
2 MPa
33.8
2.608
3 MPa
34.1
2.520
4 MPa
34.7
2.520
Figure 3. 2D Simulation results for height and final radius.
Experimental Tests
The simulation of the Applasting process was validated
by a set of experimental tests that reproduced the simulation paths followed.
The Applasting process includes several stages that are
summarized in the following lines:
1. Tube heating by conduction
2. Gas inner pressure in the tube
3. Forming process
4. Die cooling and therefore tube quenching
5. Tube extraction
In Figure 4, the Applasting experimental unit is shown
[3]. It consists of:
1. hydraulic production press Loire-Safe 800 Tn.
(3000 x 2000 mm table);
2. electrical clamps for the tube and transformer as
electrical furnace to heat the tube by conduction;
3. pressure plant: a gas tank with an electrovalve used
to control the tube inner gas pressure;
An essential part of the experimental unit is the tooling

cooling system. Thanks to the high expertise of Tecnalia in
the study of the hot stamping technology it was possible to
design an adequate cooling system for achieving the desired cooling rate of 27 K/sec which is necessary for obtaining a martensitic microstructure on the tube wall.
The cooling time is essential for reducing the cycle time
of the process and therefore several aspects have influence,
such as the following ones:
tool material: a high conductive tool material evacuates
the generated heat more easily than a lower conductive
one;
tool initial temperature: a lower initial tool temperature
implies less time to reach the desired final temperature of
the blank [4];
contact pressure between blank and tools: higher pressures lead to faster cooling of the blank. In the case of the
Applasting process, the target is to reach the final geometry with a very low inner pressure of the tube, therefore
this is a variable that cannot be optimized for it. The pressure of 2 MPa was chosen for the experimental tests.
Validation of the 2D Simulations
In order to validate the 2D simulation results some experimental tests were performed, producing by Applasting
several formed tubes at different final heights and inserting different pressure values as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Experimental tests performed.
The objective was to validate the corner radius obtained

by means of simulation for each of these cases.
553
09.08.2010 14:30:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
During the experimental tests it was observed that a difference between the upper and lower radius in the final
tube shape was obtained. This did not happen in the 2D
simulation cases that had been run, as shown in the next
Figure 5, where upper and lower radius in the tube were
equal during the whole forming process.
t=0s
t=0.233s
t=0.583s
t=0.934s
Figure 5. Section shape evolution of the tube: results of simulation

with 2D model.
Figure 8. Simulation results: final geometry and radius (test nr. 1).
The 2D model simulations could not be validated. It was

necessary to build a 3D model with fixed ends in the tube
in order to reproduce by means of simulation the results
regarding tube section shape evolution obtained in the
experimental Applasting tests.
3D Simulation Model
As the 2D model did not take into account the fact that
the end of the tubes were fixed, a new 3D model was built
in order to observe the effects of this condition.
The results of these 3D simulations matched the experimental ones as it is addressed in the following figures.
Height
Altura (mm)
Figure 6. Tube 3D simulation model.
Figure 9. Experimental tube produced by Applasting.
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-45
Perfil
Soldadura
Matriz
Lmites de esquinas
TOP
1
E1
E2
14
FPD
FPT
13
E4
12
11
10
E3
BOTTOM
-40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Distancia
Distance (mm)
t=0s
t=0.233s
t=0.583s
t=0.934s
Figure 7. Section shape evolution of the tube: results of simulation

with 3D model
554
Figure 10. Experimental results: final geometry of tube.
The results included in Table 2 show a very good agreement between the radius values obtained by simulation
and the measured ones, except for tests 4 and 6. Regarding
the tube thickness, in Table 3 it is shown that the simulation values are slightly higher than the measured ones.
09.08.2010 14:30:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 2. Radius comparison.
Table 3. Thickness comparison.
Conclusions
In this paper the fundamentals of the Applasting process
for producing hardened formed UHSS tubes were addressed. The 3D simulation with the software LS-Dyna
was validated by comparison of final radius and thicknesses with the tubes formed during the experimental
Applasting tests performed at Tecnalia facilities. For a
target rectangular geometry of 30mm x 70 mm it was
possible to obtain an external radius of 3.5 mm using an
internal tube pressure of only 2 MPa. The hardness obtained using cooling water channels in the die for quenching the boron alloyed steel tube reached the value of 1530
MPa.
The Applasting technology is a promising method for
producing body-in-white components, obtaining tubular
hardened parts that allow the desired thickness reduction
in order to decrease car weight. Further studies will be
devoted to produce an industrial part. Target parts for this
technology are, among others, A-Pillars, bumpers, rails
and rear axles.
Process Control
Acknowledments
The following parameters are controlled during the Applasting process:

tube temperature (by means of welded thermocouples to the tube);
tube inner pressure;
press vertical position;
die temperature.
The authors of the paper wish to thank Arcelor-Mittal

for the delivery of the Usibor1500P tubes that were used
for the experimental tests of this project.
During the tests the following conclusions were extracted:

it was possible to register a cooling rate of 23.7
C/sec;
the die temperature reached 120 C, which decreased
the cooling rate of the tube. This could be solved by a
constant die cooling.
References
[1] R. Neugebauer, et.al.: CHS2 Congress (2009), Lulea, Sweden.
[2] Patent JP 2003-154415, Aisin Takaoka (2003).
[3] J.I. Zarazua, L. Vadillo, M.A. Gutierrez, V. Uthaisangsuk: IFU Congress (2008), Stuttgart, Germany.
[4] I. Aranguren, M. Santos, S. Varela, B. Gonzlez, B. Fernndez: CHS2
Congress (2009), Lulea, Sweden.
Parts Final Characteristics

Different cooling systems were tested during the project,
obtaining a maximal hardness of 1530 MPa on the formed
tube.
Figure 11. Applasting die with cooling hoses connections.
555
09.08.2010 14:30:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Closed-Loop Control of Deformation Induced Martensite in Complex Tube Forming

Process for Optimized Fatigue Properties
Rainer Steinheimer1), Carsten Mller-Bollenhagen2), Xuelan Schrder1), Martina Zimmermann2), Bernd Engel1),
Hans-Jrgen Christ2)
1)
Institut fr Fertigungstechnik, Universitt Siegen, Siegen / Germany, steinheimer@fw.mb.uni-siegen.de;

Universitt Siegen, Siegen / Germany, carsten.mueller-bollenhagen@uni-siegen.de
2)
Institut fr Werkstofftechnik,
The qualities of products depend on properties of the semi finished goods used for their production. Therefore the production of the half
finished products is part of the process chain. In tube forming processes, the making of the tube is consequentially influencing the properties of the finished product. A two stage forming process consisting of a modified U-O forming of the tube and subsequent radial draw bending is used to optimize the fatigue properties of the resulting product e.g. a cross tube bar of a trailer coupling made of metastable austenitic
stainless steel. The fatigue properties are optimized by controlling the amount of deformation-induced martensite in the forming process.
Investigations were made using laboratory experiments as well as theoretical calculations in order to quantify the dependencies among
fatigue behaviour, strains and martensite formation based on the individual phases of the forming operations.
Keywords: Process chain analysis, Radial draw bending, Austenitic stainless steel, Deformation-induced martensite, Fatigue properties
Introduction
Mostly, products made using forming technologies are
produced in complex process chains. To predict the properties of these products, it is necessary to analyse the entire
process chain. The study presented deals with the discontinuous manufacture process of a tube by means of a
modified U-O method, as well as the rotational draw bending of the tube, Figure 1. This two step process is aimed at
the production of a cross tube of a trailer coupling as an
example of a cyclically loaded component. While forming
metastable austenitic stainless steels, a diffusionless phase
transformation from austenite to martensite induced
by plastic deformation can occur. Because of the strengthening effect of the martensite phase, this transformation
can be used to enhance the monotonic and cyclic strength
properties of a structural part while forming it. The susceptibility of the austenite phase to undergo a transformation
depends on the amount of plastic deformation, the strainrate and the temperature in the forming process as well as
on the chemical composition of the material. Therefore, in
this study a closed-loop control of the relevant process
variables is established to obtain accurate amounts of
martensite and hence to establish the requested mechanical
properties.
gated as well as the amount of martensite depending on

the forming parameters. The online control of the process
chain is based on process data derived from FEsimulations and plastomechanical calculations as well as
from practical experiments. The principal structure of the
investigations is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Forming operations.
Process Chain
The product is a tube bend made by a complex process
chain including the following production procedures:
U-forming (stretching) and cutting flanges
O-forming and welding
radial draw bending of the tube
The forming operations of the process chain are shown
schematically in Figure 1.
For a reliable prediction of the Very High Cycle Fatigue
(VHCF) behaviour, the relation between the number of
cycles to failure and the corresponding stress amplitude
related to the martensite percentage has to be investi556
Figure 2. Principal structure of investigations.
Analysis of the Process Chain

Radial Draw Bending Process. The last forming procedure is the tube bending. The knowledge of the strain
distribution and the amount of deformation-induced
martensite generated in the bending procedure is necessary
to control the strains in the first steps. The strain distributions in radial draw bending processes are mostly determined by geometry of the bow and the tube. However,
there is some influence by using a boosted pressure die or
by using different types of mandrels. The strains in the
region of the intrados is compressive, the extrados show
09.08.2010 14:30:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
tensile strains. The measured strain distributions are
shown in Figure 3.
(app. 35 %). The calculations where carried out with constant blank holder force of 480 kN resulting in an initial
contact normal pressure of 15 N/mm. Hence, a closedloop control with the blank holder force as actor and the
travel-in sensors signals as inputs allow to control the
strains as a function of the stroke of the punch.
Figure 3. Major and minor true strains at extrados and intrados.
Although the effective true strains are very similar, measurements of the martensite fraction gave a bigger martensite percentage in the area of the intrados. The smallest
amount was detected in the region of the neutral fibre. The
measuring points are shown in Figure 4, and the results
are given in Table 1.
Figure 4. Martensite measuring points.

Table 1. Fraction of martensite [vol-%].
The martensite percentage reaches a plateau in the

center of the bend (points 4, 5, 6) and is smaller towards
pressure die and clamping die areas.
O-Forming Process. The O-forming procedure is a
sheet bending process. Occurring strains are negligible.
This is due to the fact that the wall thickness (2 mm) is
much smaller than the tube diameter (48 mm).
U-Forming Process. The experimental setup for the Uforming process is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Experimental setup for U-forming.
The travel-in of the edge of the blank is measured with

length measuring sensors. This enables to control the
strains in the side walls of the blank by varying the blank
holder force and therewith the friction force of the flange,
too. Figure 6 shows the travel-in of the edges with different friction forces gathered from FE-simulations.
The difference between both curves is resulting in
straining of the side wall during the U-forming process
Figure 6. Travel in of one sheet edge with and without friction

force.
Process Chain Control. The process chain control program needs to be connected to two databases. One contains the relations between the martensite fractures and
strains depending on strain paths. The other one contains
the strains and strain paths in dependence of the bending
conditions.
Martensitic Transformation and Fatigue Behaviour
Modeling of Martensite Formation and Mechanical
Behavior in Austenitic Stainless Steel (AISI304). For a
closed-loop control of the martensite content it is indispensable to define a quantitative relationship between
process parameters (mainly strain and temperature) and
the martensite content. Many models are available in the
literature to describe the formation of martensite in forming processes, e.g. [1-5]. Most of these models are based
solely on empirical observations and few of them are
based on physical mechanisms. In the present study the
Tomita/Iwamoto model (TI model) [6] is used. It is based
on a microstructural mechanism and is therefore believed
to offer a broader validity than empirical models. It calculates the rate of martensite formation from the actual shear
band volume fraction. Here the expression shear bands
sums up microstructural defects such as stacking faults,
twin boundaries and martensite. Many TEM studies of
deformation-induced martensite showed that martensite
nucleates primarily at intersections of these shear bands
[7,8]. The TI model assumes that the number of new martensite embryos depends on the number of shear band intersections and the number of shear band intersection
again is calculated from the actual shear band volume.
Two material dependent quantities are needed for the
model: the rate of shear band formation SB and the probability p that a martensite embryo is formed at a shear
band intersection. Both quantities are assumed here to be a
function of the temperature. The probability p is assumed
to be also a function of the martensite content, based on
the idea that a shear band intersection can show less optimal crystallographic and chemical properties for a martensitic transformation with increasing martensite content.
After fitting the unknown constants in the model to experimental data from tensile tests with online martensite
and temperature measurements, the model allowed to
calculate the martensite contents at different strain rates
557
09.08.2010 14:30:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
-40C, 0.5%/s
experiment
calculated
0.8
0C, 0.5%/s
0.7
0.6
10C, 0.5%/s
0.5
0.4
23C, 0.05%/s
0.3
0.1
23C, 2%/s
10
20
30
40
50
plastic engineering strain
60
70
Figure 7. Experimental and calculated data of tensile tests at

different temperatures and strain rates (AISI304).
The stress-strain relation was calculated by a model

suggested by Perlade et al. [9] using the classical relationship between flow stress w and dislocation density .
w = w0 + Mb
(1)
where w0 is the friction stress in austenite, is a constant,
is the shear modulus, M is the Taylor factor and b is the
Burgers vector. The increase in dislocation density with
plastic deformation is calculated from the mean free dislocation path and the dislocation density. The mean free
dislocation path again is seen as a function of the grain
size, the martensite content and the dislocation density, for
more details see ref. [9]. Experimental data showed that
the influence of strain rate and temperature is not negligible and needs to be included in the calculation. Therefore,
contrary to the model by Perlade et al., is calculated as a
function of the strain rate and w0 as a function of strain
rate and temperature:

= 0
0
w0

= R p 0 , 2% (T )
0
(2)
(3)
Here m is the strain rate sensitivity coefficient, is the
strain rate and Rp0,2% is the 0.2% proof stress. Two constants had to be fitted to experimental data. All other constants are known from literature or known material properties. The calculated flow stress for the phase mixture
(+) in comparison to the experimental data for a tensile
test is shown in Figure 8. A good accordance between
calculated and experimental stress-strain curves like in
Figure 8 can be found for all tensile tests with specimen
temperatures between 0 and 75 C. At tensile tests
at -40C the model overestimates the flow stress, what
may be due to the formation of the softer martensite
phase. The model enables to quantify the strengthening
effect of the martensite phase as the difference between
the flow stress in a (hypothetical) purely austenitic phase
from the flow stress in the phase mixture + (see
Figure 8). According to the model used, the strengthening
effect of the martensite phase is small at low martensite
volume fractions.
558
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
0.5 %/s 0C
0,1
0,2
0,3
true plastic strain
10
0
0,4
Figure 8. Experimental and calculated stress-strain behaviour.
0
0
100
'+ (measured)
'+ (calculated)
(calculated)
martensite (measured)
23C, 0.5%/s
0.2
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
martensite [vol-%]
volume fraction of martensite
1
0.9
true stress [MPa]
and ambient temperatures in good agreement with the

experiments (see Figure 7).
Since the rotational draw bending process leads to a deformation perpendicular to the U-O forming, tensile tests
were carried out by deforming test specimens in two directions perpendicular to each other. They showed a considerable decrease in the rate of martensite formation after the
change of the direction of deformation. This behavior is
attributed to the fact, that regions with a high amount of
shear band intersections that were formed in one direction
might not be favorably oriented for a martensitic transformation under load in the perpendicular direction. It is
therefore reasonable to assume that only a portion of the
shear band volume that is formed in one direction is relevant for the martensite formation in the perpendicular
direction. Assuming different volume fractions of shear
band and martensite volume fractions showed that for a
volume fraction of 57% formed in the first deformation
step the aforementioned model results in a very good prediction of the experimental results for the martensite formation
Fatigue Behavior Depending on Martensite Content.
In order to determine the optimal martensite content concerning the High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) and the VHCF
properties fatigue tests were carried out with specimens of
different martensite contents and different subsequent
predeformation conditions. Specimens were fatigued either undeformed or monotonically predeformed in one or
two (perpendicular) directions. The one direction predeformed specimens were strained up to a true strain of 0.14
at two start temperatures resulting in two different martensite phase fractions (27 and 54 vol-%). The two step predeformed specimens were strained up to different strains,
resulting again in the same two different martensite fractions (again 27 and 54 vol-%). For the fatigue experiments
the following testing systems were used: a resonance pulsation system (Rumul Testronic) operating at ~90 Hz and
an ultrasonic test system (BOKU, Vienna) working at a
frequency of ~20 kHz. All fatigue experiments were executed fully reversed in load control with active cooling by
compressed air. Because of the transient material behaviour, the ultrasonic fatigued specimens were first cycled up
to cyclic saturation with the resonance pulsation system,
where a constant load amplitude can be guaranteed despite
of strong cyclic softening and hardening processes. All
fatigue specimens were electrochemically polished. More
experimental details can be found in [10].
In Figure 9, the results of the fatigue experiments in the
undeformed and one direction deformed condition are
shown. Resonance pulsating specimens (90 Hz) were
denoted as run-outs at 108 cycles and ultrasonic specimens
09.08.2010 14:30:12 Uhr
stress amplitude /2 [MPa]
(20 kHz) at 109 cycles. Comparing the three S-N curves in

the HCF regime (up to 2106 cycles) it can be seen that
strain hardening and martensite formation strongly increases the HCF fatigue limit from the undeformed to the
deformed (27 vol-% martensite) condition (250 MPa vs.
477 MPa). In the 54 vol-% martensite condition the HCF
fatigue limit increases to 535 MPa. Increasing martensite
contents therefore lead to enhanced HCF behaviour.
650
600
550
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
V ' = 54 vol-%
subsurface crack inititiation
V ' = 27 vol-%
V ' = 0, undeformed
empty symbols:
f ~ 90 Hz
crossed symbols:
f ~ 20kHz
HCF VHCF
= run out
10
10
10
cycles
10
10
Figure 9. S-N curves for one-step deformed specimens with different martensite contents.
Regarding the VHCF behavior (more than 2106 cycles),

a true fatigue limit that is similar to the HCF fatigue limit
can be observed in the undeformed and 27 vol-% martensite condition. However, in the case of the 54 vol-% martensite condition the VHCF fatigue limit decreases with
increasing number of cycles. This decrease is due to subsurface crack initiation at inclusions. The authors found an
increasing notch sensitivity with increasing martensite
content (see [11]). The notch sensitivity is assumed to
cause crack initiation at micronotches such as inclusions.
More details concerning possible damage mechanisms can
be found in [10].
Fatigue tests with specimens deformed in two directions
were done to evaluate if there is an influence of the deformation path on the fatigue properties, i.e. if the results in
Figure 9 are also valid for a two step forming process. Due
to a higher amount of prestraining without cooling compared to the specimens strained in one direction, the two
step deformed specimens exhibited a considerably higher
amount of strain hardening and therefore a higher flow
stress than the one-directional predeformed specimens. In
Figure 10 it can be seen that these specimens possess
almost the same HCF and VHCF behaviour as the specimens with the same amount of martensite in the onedirectional deformed condition. These results underline
that not the flow stress, the direction or amount of predeformation determine the HCF and VHCF behaviour, rather
the martensite content.
In summary, the cross tube of a trailer coupling should
contain a volume fraction of about 27 vol-% martensite to
obtain excellent HCF and VHCF properties accompanied
with an acceptable notch sensitivity, all of which are relevant properties considering the in service loading conditions of trailer couplings.
stress amplitude /2 [MPa]
Metal Forming
650
600
550
500
450
400
350
300
V' = 54 Vol-%
V' = 27 Vol-%
V' = 54 Vol-%, 2-step
V' = 27 Vol-%, 2-step
= run out
5
10
10
10
10
10
cycles
Figure 10. S-N curves for two-step deformed specimens with
different martensite contents.
Conclusions
1. Examination of the process chain showed, that the strain
distributions in the tube bending procedures are widely
determined by the geometry of the bow.
2. Hence, to control the process chain means to control the
properties of the tube to be bent.
3. The influence of the O-forming process is small and can
be neglected.
4. The U-forming process offers the possibility to control
the strain distribution with respect to the circumference
of the tube to be produced. Therefore, the draw in of the
blank is measured and the friction force under the blank
holder is used as actuator.
5. Microstructure-based approaches for modelling the martensite formation and mechanical properties in forming
processes were presented.
6. It was shown that cyclically loaded sheet metal structures made of metastable austenitic stainless steel
should not contain a martensite fraction above 27 vol-%
for optimal HCF and VHCF properties and an acceptable notch sensitivity.
7. Flow stress, the direction or the amount of predeformation are not determining the HCF and VHCF behaviour,
but the martensite content.
The authors wish to thank the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the funding of this project.
References
[1] G.B. Olson, M. Cohen: Metall. Trans A, 6A (1975), 791.
[2] T. Tsuta, J.A. Cortes: JSME International Journal, 36- 1 (1993) 63-72.
[3] A. Hnsel: doctorate thesis, ETH Zrich, Switzerland (1998).
[4] B. Springub, B.-A. Behrens, E. Doege: Steel Research Int., 75-5
(2004), 475-482.
[5] M. Onyuna, H. Oettel, U. Martin, A. Wei: Advanced Engineering
Materials, 6-7 (2004), 529-535.
[6] Y. Tomita, T. Iwamoto: International Journal of Mechanical Science
37-12 (1995), 1295-1305.
[7] K. Spencer, J.D. Embury, K.T. Conlon, M. Veron, Y. Brechet: Materials Science and Engineering A, 387-389 (2004), 873-881.
[8] A. Das, S. Sivaprasad, M. Ghosh, P.C. Chakraborti, S. Tarafder:
Materials Science and Engineering A, 486-1-2 (2008), 283-286.
[9] A. Perlade, O. Bouaziz, Q. Furnemont: Materials Science and Engineering A, 356-1-2 (2003), 145-152.
[10] C. Mller-Bollenhagen, M. Zimmermann, H.-J. Christ: Proc. 10th
International Fatigue Congress FATIGUE 2010, to be published in
Procedia Engineering, submitted.
[11] C. Mller-Bollenhagen, M. Zimmermann, H.-J. Christ: International
Journal of Fatigue, 32 (2010), 936-42.
559
09.08.2010 14:30:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
Investigation of Pressure Path Effect on Thickness Distribution of Product in Hydroforming Process of SS316L Seamless Tubes
Hasan Khanlari1), Majid Elyasi2), Mohammad Bakhshi-Jooybari2), Abdolhamid Gorji2), Behnam Davoodi1), Ghorban
2)
Mohammad Alinegad
1)
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Tabriz University, Tabriz / Iran; 2) Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of
Technology, P. O. Box 484, Babol, Mazandaran / Iran, elyasima@yahoo.com
Tube hydroforming has been widely used in industry to manufacture hollow components. Thickness uniformity is one of the key factors that
affect the performance of hydroformed parts. Pressure path is one of the effective parameters on thickness distribution in hydroforming
process. In this paper, the effect of pressure path on thickness distribution of product in tube hydroforming was studied by finite element
simulation and experiment. It is concluded that by increasing the pressure, the tube thinning increases in expansion area and the tube
thickening decreases in feeding area. In the wrinkled parts, thinning in wave crest of wrinkling is more than that of wave trough.
Keywords: Tube hydroforming, Pressure path, Finite element simulation
Fixed
punch
Feeding
punch
Die
560
Fluid inlet
R3
Tube
Figure 1. Bulge hydroforming process, dimensions in mm.
20
Pf
10
Pi
0
Lf
20
Li
10
Axial
feeding/mm
Axial
feeding
Hydroforming Process
Figure 2. Typical pressure path.
24
Pressure
/MPa
Pressure/MPa
Figure 1 shows the schematic of the bulge hydroforming process that was used in this paper. In this process, the
tube forms by internal fluid pressure and axial feeding.
Figure 2 shows the typical pressure path used in this research. As shown in the figure, the internal pressure increases to initial pressure (Pi), before the movement of the
feeding punch. Then, while the feeding punch moves up to
initial feeding (Li), the internal pressure increases to final
pressure (Pf). Finally, by remaining the internal pressure,
the feeding punch moves until the end of process and final
feeding (Lf). Therefore, the mentioned pressure path has
four parameters. These parameters consist of initial pressure (Pi), final pressure (Pf), initial feeding (Li) and final
feeding (Lf). From the preliminary investigations, it was
revealed that the effect of final pressure on thickness dis-
100
26
Tube hydroforming has been widely used in automotive

industry to manufacture hollow components [1]. The
thickness distribution is one of the key factors that affect
the performance of hydroformed parts [2].
Yuan et al. [1,3] expressed that useful wrinkling in tube
hydroforming makes thickness distribution of product
more uniform. Xu et al. [2] concluded that uniformity of
tube thickness increases with increasing of workhardening exponent and anisotropy coefficient, and decreasing of friction coefficient. Kridli et al. [4] stated that
in hydroforming of square-sectional tubes, the thickness
distribution of product is more uniform with increasing of
corner radius of die. Kang et al. [5] investigated the effect
of diameter of initial tube in hydroforming of an industrial
part. They concluded that thinning of product thickness
decreases with increasing of the diameter of initial tube.
Loh-Mousavi et al. [6] expressed that thickness distribution of product is more uniform by pulsing pressure in
tube hydroforming.
In this research, the effect of pressure path on thickness
distribution of product in bulge hydroforming process of
SS316L seamless tubes was studied by finite element
simulation and experiment.
tribution of the product is more than that of the other parameters of the illustrated pressure path. Therefore, in this
paper, only the results of the effect of final pressure on
thickness distribution of product are presented.
Figure 3 shows the pressure paths that were used for investigation of the effect of final pressure (Pf) on the thickness distribution of product. The considered final pressures consist 18.5, 19, 19.5, 20 and 20.5 MPa. In all these
cases, Pi, Li and Lf were considered to be 14 MPa, 9 mm
and 20 mm, respectively.
Pressure
/MPa
Pressure
Introduction
20
16
.Pf. 20.5MPa
.Pf. 20MPa
.Pf.19.5MPa
.Pf. 19MPa
.Pf.18.5MPa
12
8
4
0
0
12
16
20
Axial feeding /mm

Figure 3. Pressure paths used for investigation of Pf.
09.08.2010 14:30:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 4. FE model of die and tube.
The die was mounted on a universal testing machine with
a capacity of 600kN. A hydraulic unit was used to produce
internal pressure and the maximum internal pressure could
be set to 35MPa. Hydraulic oil was used as forming media.
The working pressure was regulated by a pressure regulator valve. An optical profile projector and an ultrasonic
thickness meter were used for measuring of the profile and
the thickness distribution of the parts, respectively. Tube
tension tests were performed for determination of mechanical properties of the tube. The mechanical properties
and dimensions of the initial tubes are given in Table 1.
Table 1. Material properties of tube.
Density, Kg/m3
8000
Young's modulus, E(GPa)
192
Poisson's ratio, v
0.3
Yield stress, y(MPa)
260
Flow stress, MPa
= 1650 0.58
Initial length, (mm)

Initial outer diameter,
(mm)
250
Initial wall thickness, (mm)
0.5
26

Figure 5 shows the deformed parts and their crosssectional profiles obtained from simulation. For Pf =18.5
MPa, three wrinkles appeared on the tube. Between these
wrinkles, some small wrinkles appeared too.
A wrinkle can be described by using wave crest and
wave trough, as shown in Figure 5(a). Also, the wrinkling
value can be defined quantitatively by the difference of
bulge radius of the part at the wave crest and bulge radius
of the part at the wave trough. In this definition, the biggest wrinkle is considered. Also, bulge radius of the part,
R, is
Distance from tube center /mm
Tube
Distance from tube center / mm
Die
Distance from tube center / mm
The finite element software, ABAQUS/EXPLICIT 6.7,

was used for simulation. Figure 4 shows the FE model of
die and tube. For simplicity, only the contact surfaces
between tools and tube were modeled. The tube was modeled as 3D model with S4R 4-node shell elements. The
final mesh shown in Figure 4 has 3192 elements. The die
was modeled by 3D analytical rigid element, and because
of the type of the element, the die was not meshed and
analyzed. A penalty-based contact treatment was prescribed between the die and tube. The coulomb friction
coefficient between the workpiece and the die surfaces
was considered to be 0.06 [7].
Distance from tube center /mm Distance from tube center /mm
Small wrinkle
20
Wave trough
15
Wave crest
10
50
75
100
125
150
175
200
Distance from fixed end of tube /mm

(a)
20
15
10
50
75
100
125
150
175
200

(b)
20
15
10
50
75
100
125
150
175
200

(c)
Small wrinkle
20
15
10
50
75
100
125
150
175
200
Distance from fixed end of tube / mm

(d)
20
15
10
50
75
100
125
150
175
200
Distance from fixed end of tube / mm
(e) profiles for Pf = (a) 18.5, (b) 19,

Figure 5. Deformed parts and their
(c) 19.5, (d) 20 and (e) 20.5 MPa obtained from simulation.
defined by distance of the part wall and the part center, as

shown in Figure 5(a).
561
09.08.2010 14:30:14 Uhr
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 6. Deformed parts obtained from experiment for Pf = (a)
18.5, (b) 20 and (c) 20.5 MPa.
562
Simulation
Expriment
20
15
10
50
75
100
125
150
175
200

Figure 7. Profile of parts for Pf =20 MPa.
Bulge radiues /mm
For Pf =19 and 19.5MPa, two wrinkles appeared. The

wrinkling value for Pf =19 MPa is more than that for Pf
=19.5 MPa. At Pf =20 MPa, a small wrinkle appeared at
the left side of expansion zone. For Pf =20.5 MPa, no wrinkle appeared. Therefore, the number of wrinkles and the
wrinkling value decrease with increasing of pressure.
Figure 6 shows the deformed parts obtained from experiment. As shown in Figure 6(a), for Pf =18.5 MPa the
part was highly wrinkled similar to that of the simulation,
but with increasing of pressure to 20 MPa, the wrinkling
of the part almost eliminates (Figure 6(b)). In addition, for
Pf =20.5 MPa, the part was burst at the axial feeding of 17
mm (Figure 6(c)).
Figure 7 shows the profile of parts obtained from simulation and experiment for Pi =14 MPa and Pf =20 MPa.
Figure 8 shows the bulge radius of the part at the center
of expansion area obtained from simulation. In this figure
and the later figures, due to bursting of the part for Pf
=20.5 MPa, the results obtained from simulation were not
presented. As shown in Figure 8, the bulge radius increases with increasing of pressure. From Pf =18.5 to 19
MPa, increasing of the bulge radius with respect to pressure is almost linear, but the bulge radius for Pf =20 MPa
increases sharply.
Figure 9 shows the thickness distribution of the parts.
The thickness distribution of the part can be divided into
feeding area and expansion area, as shown in Figure 9(a).
Also, the expansion area can be divided into right half and
left half. For Pf =18.5, 19 and 19.5 MPa, due to wrinkling,
wave crest and wave trough are observed in the thickness
distribution, as shown in Figure 9(a), (b) and (c). Although
for Pf =20 MPa, due to negligibility of wrinkling (Figure
5(d)), no wave crest and wave trough are observed, but
this negligible wrinkling causes non-uniformity in the
right side of the curve.
Distance from tube center /mm
Metal Forming
19
18
17
16
15
18.5
19
19.5
20
Pressure /MPa
Figure 8. Bulge radius of part at center of expansion area obtained
from simulation.
Comparison between the thickness distribution curve

and the profile of the part (Figures 5 and 9) indicates that
wave trough and wave crest in the thickness distribution
curve is corresponding with wave crest and wave trough of
wrinkling, respectively. In other words, thinning at the
wave crest of wrinkling is more than thinning at the trough
of wrinkling. These results agree with that reported in Ref.
[8].
The wave trough value (Tt) and wave crest value (Tc) of
the thickness distribution of the part was defined in Figure
9(b). Non-uniformity of the thickness distribution is defined as the difference between the wave trough value and
the wave crest value. In this definition, the biggest of the
wave crest and the wave trough is considered.
Figure 10 shows the non-uniformity of the thickness
distribution in the expansion area obtained from simulation. As mentioned previously, the reason of the nonuniformity in the thickness distribution curve is wrinkling.
On the other hand, the wrinkling value decreases with
increasing pressure (Figure 5). Therefore, as shown in
Figure 10, the non-uniformity of the thickness distribution
decreases with increasing of pressure. In other words, the
thickness distribution of the part will be more uniform.
Figure 11 shows the average thickness of the deformed
parts in the expansion area obtained from simulation. As
shown, the average thickness in the expansion area decreases with increasing of pressure.
Figure 12 shows the thickness distribution of the parts
for Pf =20MPa. As shown, there is a good agreement between the results.
09.08.2010 14:30:15 Uhr
Expansion area
Right half
Left half
0.55
Feeding area
0.45
0.35
50
75
100
125
150
175
200
225
250
Part thickness
thickness /mm
/mm
Part
Partthickness
thickness /mm
/mm
Part
Partthickness
thickness /mm
/mm
Part
(a)
0.55
0.45
50
75
100
125
150
175
200
225
250
225
250
(b)
0.55
0.45
0.35
75
100
125
150
175
200

(c)
0.55
0.45
non-uniformity
0.35
50
75
100
125
150
175
200
225
250
Non-uniformity of thickness
distribution /mm

(d)
Figure 9. Thickness distribution of the parts for Pf = (a) 18.5, (b) 19,
(c) 19.5 and (d) 20 MPa obtained from simulation.
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
18.5
0.45
0.35
50
75
100
125
150
175
200
225
250
Conclusions
50
0.55
Figure 12. Thickness distribution of the deformed parts obtained

from simulation and experiment for Pf =20 MPa.
Tt
Tc
0.35
Simulation
Experiment
Wave trough
Wave crest
Part thickness
thickness/mm
/mm
Part
Part thickness
thickness /mm
Metal Forming
19
Pressure /MPa
19.5
The following results were obtained in this study:

1. By increasing the pressure, the value of the tube bulging
increases and the wrinkling value decreases. In addition,
if the pressure is highly increased, then bursting may
occur.
2. By increasing the final pressure, the tube thinning increases in expansion area and the tube thickening decreases in feeding area.
3. In thickness distribution of the tubes which were wrinkled, wave crest and wave trough were observed. With
increasing the final pressure, both the values decrease.
4. The thinning of the tube in wave crest of wrinkling is
more than that of wave trough.
References
[1] S.J. Yuan, C. Han, X.S. Wang: International Journal of Machine Tools
& Manufacture, 46 (2006), 1201-1206.
[2] X. Xu, S. Li, W. Zhang, Z. Lin: Journal of materials processing
technology, 209 (2009), 158-164.
[3] L. Lang, S. Yuan, X. Wang, Z.R. Wang, Z. Fub, J. Danckert, K.B.
Nielsen: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 146 (2004),
377-388.
[4] G. T. Kridli, L. Bao, P. K. Mallick, Y. Tian: Journal of Materials
[5] S. j. Kang, H. K. Kim, B. S. Kang: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 160 (2005), 24-33.
[6] M. Loh-Mousavi, K. Mori, K. Hayashi, M. Bakhshi-Jooybari: Key
[7] M. Elyasi, M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, A. Gorji: Materials and Design, 30
(2009), 3824-3830.
[8] S. Yuan, X. Wang, G. Liu, Z.R. Wang: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 182 (2007), 6-11.
Average thickness of part /mm
Figure 10. Non-uniformity of the thickness distribution of the part

in the expansion area, obtained from simulation.
0.46
0.45
0.44
0.43
0.42
18.5
19
19.5
20
Pressure /MPa
Figure 11. Average thickness of part in expansion area obtained
from simulation.
563
09.08.2010 14:30:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
Simulation-Based Process Development of Tube Press Forming for Coupled Torsion

Beam Axle of Rear Suspension Assembly
Se-Ho Kim1), Kee-Poong Kim2)
1)
School of Automotive, Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Daegu University, Gyeongbuk / Korea, mvksh@daegu.ac.kr;
Components Service Center, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Gwangju / Korea
2)
Automotive
Process design is carried out for a press forming of a coupled torsion beam axle in the rear suspension assembly based on the result of the
finite element analysis. The analysis simulates the two-stages stamping process with the initial design and it fully reveals the unfavourable
mechanism which develops inferiorities during forming. In this paper, a new design guideline is proposed to modify the process and tool
shapes for a single-stage forming process. With the improved tool design, prototypes are fabricated after several try-out processes. Results
of the durability tests show that the design requirement of the part is satisfied and the effective weight reduction is achieved.
Keywords: Tool design, Coupled torsion beam axle, Tube press forming, Finite element analysis, Durability
Introduction
Today's automobile technologies focus on development
of stronger lightweight materials such as high-strength
steel, structural foam, aluminum and magnesium alloys as
well as the development of the forming process of members using new techniques such as hydroforming, hot press
forming, the tailor-welded blank, etc.
This paper deals with stamping process design of the
coupled torsion beam axle (CTBA), which plays the role
of a rear cross member in small sized sedans and is a part
of the vehicle's rear suspension assembly. Instead of press
forming with a 5 to 6 mm single thick plate into a V-beam
shape to be used in small sedans, a new method is currently developing to manufacture the axle as an all-in-one
part by deforming the cross section from a hollow tube
through tube press forming, as shown in Figure 1. This
method reduces the weight of the axle by 10-20% compared to products made of the single thick plate. Tubular
products are currently manufactured by a two-stage press
forming process[1,2] or by a hydroforming process[3,4].
Kim[5] tried to develop the tube forming process for coupled torsion beam axle with the finite element analysis, but
the shape defect was not successfully eliminated.
This paper uses a finite element analysis to develop a die
design for tubular coupled torsion beam axle products. The
problems of the initial design are identified through the
analysis and a guideline for the modified design is then
suggested. This paper proposes a die design in which products can be made through a single-stage forming process
in order to reduce the number of processes and costs compared to the conventional method. A prototype is fabricated based on the modification guidelines for the die
design and durability performances of the prototype are
Figure 1. Tubular coupled torsion beam axle.
564
Figure 2. Shape and dimensions of a coupled torsion beam axle

with initial design.
confirmed through several kinds of durability tests. This

work develops successfully an all-in-one tubular type
coupled torsion beam axle with the press die that are
lighter in weight.
Analysis of the Initial Die Design
This section examines the initial design for the tube
press forming process with a finite element forming analysis and the reason for unfavourable deformation is revealed. Then, the modification guideline of the tools and
process parameters is proposed according to the finite
element analysis result, which allows the elimination of
the shape defect during forming and an improvement in
the product quality.
Initial Die Design. The forming process for the initial
die design is a two-stage process: the product is semiformed in the first forming stage (OP10) and the forming
is finalized in the second forming stage (OP20). The
analysis ignores the post-processes such as trimming and
joining with other members. Figure 2 shows the final
product shape, which is fixed after undergoing slight
changes during the try-out stage and durability tests.
Analysis Conditions. A tube made of DP60 steel is used
in the tube press forming process outlined in this paper in
order to simultaneously achieve light-weight and fatigue
performances along with excellent formability. The outer
diameter of the tube is 90 mm and the thickness is 2.5 mm.
The tool for the tube press forming process is comprised
of an upper die (punch), a lower die (die) and a plug. The
forming takes place as the punch moves down-
09.08.2010 14:30:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) OP10 stage
(b) OP20 stage

Figure 3. Finite element model of tube and tools.
(a) Front view
(b) Shape of cross sections

Figure 4. Schematic shape of the coupled torsion beam axle[1].
(a) First punch forming process
ate region, respectively. The torsion region is the middle

part of the tube, which has the same cross section and the
twisting load is mainly applied from the rear suspension
and the auto-body; the end region plays the role of connecting the coupled torsion beam axle with the trailing
arm; and the intermediate region lies between the torsion
region and the end region and has variable cross sections.
A forming analysis is performed for each forming stage
based on these conditions and problems that arise during
the forming are identified and reflected in the design
modifications.
Analysis Results. The relative movements of the punch
and plug during the first stage of the forming process are
imposed as follows: first, the punch is moved in the downward direction to settle the tube on the bottom of the lower
die and the plug is inserted into the tube in the longitudinal
direction simultaneously. Figure 5 shows the subsequent
deforming shape of the tool and the tube being deformed.
The intermediate region floats due to an excessive clearance between the punch and the plug, as illustrated in
Figure 6. The deformed shapes at the cross sections of the
tube designated in Figure 5 are examined as shown in
Figure 7 in order to identify the cause of this defect. The
cross section A-A' is in the torsion region, the cross sections B-B' and C-C' are in the intermediate region and the
cross section D-D' is in the end region. The plug does not
effectively prevent the collapse of the tube and leads to
severe distortion at the intermediate region.
Figure 8 shows the subsequent deformed shapes of the
cross section C-C' at the intermediate region with the contact condition between the tube and the tools according to
the punch stroke. The outermost surface of the tube is
expanded out of the lower die and it contacts with the
punch before the final stroke of the punch. Consequently,
the tube is unfavourably collapsed inward by reverse
bending and the cross section of the tube is not formed
(b) Punch forming and plug inserting process

Figure 5. Relative movement of tools and tube with initial design
during OP10 process.
ward and the plug is simultaneously inserted into the tube

to prevent the cross section of the tube from collapsing.
The analysis is performed using a commercial finite element program LS-DYNA3D [6]. Figure 3 illustrates finite
element models of the tube and the tools at each forming
stage. The analysis considers only a quarter of the tube and
the tools due to the symmetry of the model. The material
properties obtained from the tensile test are as follows:
Young's modulus of 210 GPa; Poisson's ratio of 0.3; the
initial yield stress of 352 MPa; the Lankford value of 1.2;
and the stress-strain relation after yielding of
= 1023.7( p + 0.00126) 0.16 MPa. The Coulomb friction
coefficient is set at 0.15 assuming that no lubrication is
applied. For the convenience of the analysis, the longitudinal, latitudinal and altitudinal directions of the tube are
set as x-axis, y-axis and z-axis, respectively. As is illustrated in Figure 4, the tube is divided into three regions in
the longitudinal direction for convenience. Each region is
named as a torsion region, an end region and an intermedi-
Figure 6. Deformed shape of tube with initial design after OP10

stage.
(a) A-A'
(b) B-B'
(c) C-C'
(d) D-D'
Figure 7. Shape of cross sections of tools and tube with initial
design after OP10 stage.
(a) Stroke =
(b) Stroke =
(c) Stroke =
(d) Final stroke
77.1mm
89.8mm
100 mm
Figure 8. Subsequent deformed shape of cross sections C-C'
according to punch stroke with initial design during OP10 stage.
565
09.08.2010 14:30:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) A-A'
(b) B-B'
(c) C-C'
(d) D-D'
Figure 9. Shape of cross sections of tools and tube with initial

design after OP20 stage.
(a) Movement of punch
(b) Movement of punch and pad

Figure 10. Schematic plan of tool movement with modified design.
Figure 12. Finite element model of tube and tools with modified
design.
(a) Initial position
(b) Punch stroke= 32.6 mm
(c) Punch stroke = 67.5 mm (d) Punch stroke = 100.2 mm

Figure 13. Subsequent deformed shapes of tools and tube with
modified design.
(a) Upper die

(b) Lower die
Figure 11. Schematic shape of tools for coupled torsion beam axle.
(a) Stroke =
(b) Stroke =
(c) Stroke =
(d) Final stroke
32.6mm
67.5mm
100.2 mm
Figure 14. Subsequent deformed shapes of tube according to
punch stroke with modified design.
into the desired shape. Figure 9 illustrates the final deformed shapes of the cross sections after the second forming stage. It is confirmed from the figures that the shape
defect that appears in the first stage remains within the
torsion region and the intermediate region.
The design issues found in the initial design can be categorized as follows:
(1) The tube is not fixed when it is fed to the lower die
at the early stages of forming and it deforms simultaneously as it moves down together with the movement of the
punch, which makes stable forming difficult.
(2) When deformation of the tube proceeds as the punch
comes in contact with the tube, the plug is not sufficiently
inserted into the tube and causes a shape defect such as the
floating phenomena at the intermediate region.
(3) The width of the punch and the die is smaller than
the maximum width of the outermost region of the tube,
which is expanded due to deformation and leads to early
contact and unfavourable reverse bending during forming.
This causes shape defects such as buckling and collapse of
the tube at the torsion region and the lower part of the
intermediate region.
(1) The side part of the lower die is open in the latitudinal direction before the forming process and moves
inside to serve as a pad simultaneously as the punch
moves down. Figure 10 illustrates the relative motions of
the die and the tube in the modified design. Cam mechanisms are adopted to synchronize the motions of the die
components in order to effectively control the movement
of the punch and the relative motions with other die components. The tube settles on the bottom of the lower die
before forming because the pad on the side part of the
lower die is wide open in the latitudinal direction. The pad
moves toward the inside along the latitudinal direction
during forming and ensures that the width of the final
product is formed to satisfy the specified dimension.
(2) The motion of the plug is also synchronized with the
punch and thus the plug starts to be inserted into the tube
before the punch contacts with the tube, thereby avoiding
any shape defect.
(3) By increasing the width of the punch and the pad, the
modified design avoids early contact and unfavourable
reverse bending as well as the existence of excess metal
due to a lack of forming space.
Simulation-Based Tool Modification
Analysis Results. The tool is redesigned to satisfy the

above mentioned design guidelines. Figure 11 shows the
die shape obtained from the modified design. The die
consists of an upper die (punch), a lower die (die), a pad
and a plug. Finite element analysis then is carried out with
the modified tool shape and the process parameters to
investigate the effect of the design change. A finite element model is constructed as shown in Figure 12 for
simulation.
Figure 13 illustrates the shapes of the tools and the tube
Design Guideline. Previous section explains the reasons

for unfavourable deformation mechanisms in the finite
element analysis result of the initial design. This result
also allows the process to be reduced to a single forming
operation. In order to prevent failure during the forming
process and to reduce the number of the forming stages,
the following essential points should be considered for a
new design of the tools and the process:
566
09.08.2010 14:30:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) Formed product

(a) E-E'
(b) F-F'
(c) G-G'
(b) H-H'
Figure 15. Shape of cross sections of tools and tube with modified
design.
(b) Assembled rear suspension unit

Figure 17. Prototype of the rear suspension assembly.
(a) Stroke =
(b) Stroke =
(c) Stroke = (d) Final stroke
32.6mm
67.5mm
100.2 mm
Figure 16. Subsequent deformed shape of cross section E-E
according to punch stroke with modified design.
according to the punch stroke and Figure 14 shows the

subsequent deformed shapes of the tube. The figures indicate that the modified design prevents shape defects that
occurred in the initial design and that the sound products
can be made. Figure 15 demonstrates the contact and
forming conditions of the tube and the tools at the cross
sections designated in Figure 13 and it is expected that
improved results are obtained with the modified design
guidelines compared to the initial design. Figure 16 shows
changes in the contact and deformation conditions according to the punch stroke at the torsion region. The figure
indicates that a cross section is produced without any
shape defect by the proper coupled motion of the punch,
the pad and the plug. The results obtained from the finite
element analysis show that the modified design is more
effective than the initial design from the viewpoint of
reducing the number of the forming operations and there
being a lower possibility of a shape defect.
Production of Tool and the Prototype
Based on the analysis results with the modified design,
all components of the tools are manufactured based on the
modified design guideline. A prototype of a tubular coupled torsion beam axle is fabricated with a trial forming
process and durability tests are conducted in order to confirm that the product satisfies the durability performance.
Prototype Fabrication and Durability Test. A prototype of the tubular coupled torsion beam axle is fabricated
using the tools and the process conditions shown in Figure
17, which is then assembled into a rear suspension. The
tubular prototype produced in this paper is 21% lighter
than the thick plate type coupled torsion beam axle. Three
kinds of durability tests are performed on the prototype to
identify problems caused by the design in order to evaluate
the durability performance of the rear suspension assembly
with the developed tubular coupled torsion beam axle.
Roll durability tests are performed by applying cyclic
displacement of 4o with a frequency of 2 Hz at both rear

wheels. The minimum requirement for the test is 200,000
cycles. Uni-axial durability tests are performed to confirm
that the fabricated prototype satisfies the durability specification. A cyclic load of 4.5 kN with a 10 Hz frequency
is applied to the wheel carrier in the uni-axial durability
test on the x-axis and a cyclic load of 2 kN with 5 Hz
frequency is applied to the contact point of the tire in the
uni-axial durability test on the y-axis. The specifications of
the uni-axial durability tests are 350,000 cycles in the xaxis and 100,000 cycles in the y-axis. It is confirmed that
the fabricated prototype satisfies the durability specifications from the results of the three kinds of durability tests.
Conclusions
This paper proposes process parameters and tool shapes
to develop a tube press forming process for an all-in-one
tubular coupled torsion beam axle. Finite element forming
analysis are carried out and it shows that major problems
include irregular contact between the punch and the tube at
the early forming stage, insufficient insertion of the plug
and excess metal generation due to an insufficient deforming space in the tube. Guidelines for the modified design
are suggested based on the problems revealed in the analysis and then it is confirmed with the simulation that the
new design addresses the aforementioned problems to a
considerable degree.
The tools and a prototype are manufactured based on the
proposed design procedure and then subjected to durability
tests to determine whether the product can be equipped on
an actual vehicle. These tests confirm that the prototype
based on the modified design satisfies the durability specifications with weight reduction.
References
[1] R. Hansen, G. Wecker: US Patent 6119501 (2000)
[2] H. Kossmeier, M. Kothenburger, W. Christo-phliemke: US Patent
6145271 (2000)
[3] K.T. Lee, H.J. Back, H.T. Lim, S.I. Oh, H.Y. Kim: International
Journal of Modern Physics B, 22 (2008), 6199-6206.
[4] Porche Engineering Services Inc.: ULSAB-AVC-PES Engineering
Report (2001)
[5] S.H. Kim: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 192-193
(2007), 181-187.
[6] LSTC: LS-DYNA Keyword Users Manual, Version 970 (2003)
[7] S.H. Kim, K.P. Kim, C.I. Park: Transactions of Materials Processing,
17-4 (2008), 263-271, in Korean.
567
09.08.2010 14:30:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
Determination of Circumferential Mechanical Properties of TRIP Steel Tube by Ring

Tensile Test
Zicheng Zhang1), 2), Ken-ichi Manabe2), Fuxian Zhu1), Mingya Zhang1)
1)
State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, 3-11 Wenhua Road, Shenyang / China, zhangzicheng9068
@yahoo.com.cn; 2) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo / Japan
The TRIP steel tube is a new kind of high-strength steel tube expected to be used in the hydroforming process. It has a good combination
of strength and elongation in the axial direction. In order to study the hydroformability of the TRIP steel tube, firstly, its circumferential mechanical properties should be made clear. The ring tensile test is an effective method for obtaining the true stress vs. true strain curve and
the anisotropy coefficient value (r-value) of tube in the circumferential direction. In this study, a new kind of ring tensile test equipment was
developed to investigate the circumferential mechanical properties of the TRIP steel tube. According to the geometrical and mechanical
relationships, the instantaneous load along the circumferential direction can be obtained. The instantaneous vertical distance of the gauge
section bob point is measured by an optical camera. The instantaneous gauge section length can be calculated by the instantaneous vertical distance according to the geometrical relationships. To confirm the reliability of this method, the simulation of the ring tensile test was
carried out. By analyzing the true stress vs. true strain curve used in the simulation process and the one obtained by calculation using this
method with simulation results, it was found that they agree to each other very well. It means that this method is reliable. As a result, the
true stress vs. true strain curve of the TRIP steel tube in the circumferential direction was obtained. By the strain grids, the r-value was also
obtained.
Keywords: Circumferential mechanical properties, TRIP steel tube, Ring tensile test, Anisotropy coefficient value, Seamless tube
Introduction
Recently, in order to meet the weight and safety requirements in automotive industry, the steels with higher
strength and better formability were receiving an increasing attention. The transformation induced plasticity (TRIP)
steel is one of the appropriate steels to meet these goals for
its good combination of high strength and toughness [1-4].
On the other hand, using the hollow structures made from
the tubes with special forming process, such as hydroforming process, replacing the solid or welding ones is one
effective way to reduce the vehicle weight. Considering
these two factors, Zhu et al. [5] developed the seamless
TRIP steel tube. This TRIP steel tube is expected to be
used in the hydroforming process, which exhibits a high
strength and total elongation in the axial direction. In order
to investigate the hydroformability of the TRIP steel tube,
its mechanical properties in the circumferential direction
should be firstly made clear.
A ring tensile test is one of the tests to obtain the hoop
tensile properties of tube-shaped structures with a ring
specimen [6]. To reduce the bending moment, Arsene and
Bai [7] proposed a central piece-inserted ring tensile specimen. Referring to Arsenes ring specimen [8], Bae et al.
[9] suggested the load-displacement conversion relationship of ring specimen (LCRR) to easily conduct a ring
tensile test. Bong-Kook Bae et al. [6] investigated the
effects of the clearance, notch and size of a ring specimen
on the LCRR by finite element analysis. However, until
now, there are rare researchers focusing on directly acquiring the true stress vs. true strain curve and the anisotropy
coefficient value (r-value) of the tube in the circumferential direction by ring tensile test. In the present study, a
new kind of ring tensile test equipment was successfully
developed to obtain the true stress vs. true strain curve and
r-value of the tube in the circumferential direction. A new
set of devices similar to the one developed by Arsen et al.
568
[8] and new designed specimen were successfully fabricated. According to the geometrical and mechanical relationships, the strain and stress in the circumferential direction were calculated. To confirm the reliability of this
method, the simulation of the ring tensile test was also
carried out. As a result, the true stress vs. true strain curve
of the TRIP steel tube in the circumferential direction was
obtained. By the strain grids, r-value was also obtained.
Experiment
Experimental Equipment and Material. The schematic of the equipment and specimen is shown in Figure 1
and the specification of them was listed in Table 1. The
chemical composition and mechanical properties in the
axial direction such as ultimate tensile strength (UTS),
yield strength (YS) and total elongation (EL) of the TRIP
steel tube are given in Table 2. The ring tensile test was
carried out with a constant velocity of 2.5mm/min at room
temperature using a conventional tensile testing machine
equipped with the ring tensile test devices, as Figure 2
shows. A spray-type lubricant composed of PTFE and
organic molybdenum was used. The ring tensile test devices and the specimen were assumed as a symmetry along
X and Y axis and a mirror symmetry through the plane
perpendicular to Y axis and centered on X axis. Figure 3
shows the half geometrical model of ring tensile test. The
instantaneous load along the circumferential direction was
obtained according to the geometrical and mechanical
relationships. The instantaneous vertical distance of the
gauge section bob point was measured by an optical camera. The instantaneous gauge section length was obtained
by calculation with the instantaneous vertical distance
according to the geometrical relationships. The anisotropy
coefficient (r-value) was calculated by the strain grids
preinscribed on the outside surface of the specimen.
09.08.2010 14:30:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
dp
Camera
Central bracing
dc
L
Ring
specimen
Pin
(b)
(a)
Figure 2. Tensile test machine equipped with ring tensile test devices.
Figure 1. (a) Schematic diagram of the ring tensile test

devices and (b) side view of the ring specimen.
Table 1. Specification parameters of specimen and devices.

Parameter
Values / mm
Outside radius of tube R0
21.5
Initial wall thickness of tube t0
1.5
Radius of the notch R
10
Gauge section length l0
33
Width of the gauge section length part w
6.25
Width of the specimen W
10
Clearance between ring and central bracing dc
0.15
Clearance between ring and pin dp
0.2
T1
T2
Figure 3. Upper half geometrical model of ring tensile test.

C
Si
0.15
1.34
Table 2. Chemical composition and mechanical properties in axial direction of TRIP steel tube.
Mn
P
S
Al
Nb
Ti
UTS
YS
EL
1.44
0.009
0.004
0.04
0.029
Determination of Stress and Strain

Determination of Stress. The load along the circumferential direction is assumed as acting on the circle with the
radius of (R0 - t/2) through the centre of the ring specimen
in the thickness direction. Considering the friction between
the central bracing and specimen, according to the mechanical relationships, the following equation can be obtained.
T1 = T2 + f ,
(1)
where f is the friction force between the central bracing

and specimen. The stress 1 and 2 are corresponding to
the load force T1 and T2. The average stress of the gauge
section along the circumferential direction, ave, was introduced to reduce the influence of the friction. It was defined as follows.
ave = ( 1 + 2 ) / 2 .
(2)
Therefore, for the purpose of determination of ave, the

values of T1 and T2 should be confirmed firstly. According
0.024
650 MPa
300 MPa
34.4%
0.23
0.74
to the belt equation, it can be determined by equation (3).
(3)
T1 / T2 = e ,
where is the friction coefficient between ring specimen

and central bracing as well as pins. According to the geometrical relationships showed in Figure 3, can be confirmed as follow
= 90 / 2 ,
(4)
where can be calculated with the following equation.
- RA R 2 A2 - ( A2 + B 2 ) ( R 2 - B 2 )
0
0
0
0
0
0
, (5)
= arccos
2
2
A0 + B0
where A0 = R + D sin(90 / 2) ,
B0 = D cos(90 / 2) .
In the equations above, D is the displacement of the pin

which was recorded by a computer during the test. is the
central angle of the pin and R equals to (R0 - t/2), which is
the radius of the central circular of specimen in the thickness direction. Since these three parameters are known
569
09.08.2010 14:30:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
variable numbers, therefore, the average stress in the
gauge section can be obtained.
Determination of Strain. As is well known, in a conventional tensile test the gauge section of the specimen is
straight; the gauge section instantaneous length can be
measured directly by an extensometer during the test.
However, in the ring tensile test the gauge section is
crooked, so it is difficult being measured by an extensometer directly. In this study, the instantaneous vertical distance (L) of the gauge section end pints was measured by
an optical extensometer with a camera during the tensile
test, as Figure 2 shows. According to the geometrical relationships shown in Figure 3, the gauge section length was
calculated with the vertical distance of the gauge section
end pints.
According to the geometrical relationship shown in Figure 3, the following equation can be obtained.
l = 2 ( BN + BP),
(6)
where l is the instantaneous gauge section length during

the test. The instantaneous vertical distance of the gauge
section end pints (L) was recorded by a computer during
the tensile testing. With the geometrical relationships the
Determination of Anisotropy Coefficient in Circumferential Direction

Y
(b)
(a)
1mm
1mm
1mm
Ring
specimen
X
X
Z
Y
instantaneous length of the straight line BN and arc BP
FE Simulation Model. The simulation was carried out

with the code of ANSYS 10.0 / LS-DYNA using a 4 nodes
shell 163 full model. The FE simulation model is shown in
Figure 4. The central bracing and pins were assumed as
rigid bodies. The specimen was assumed as isotropic
elasto-plastic body. The static and dynamic friction
coefficients were assumed as 0.05 and 0.03, respectively
[10].
can be obtained.
(7)
BP = R / 180 ,
BP
BN =
) (
L / 2 2Rsin ( ) 2 cos ( + ) 2 Rsin
sin ( ) 2
sin 180( + ) 2 , (8)
where equals to 45 which is the substitute of FOP in

Figure 3.
The strain was given by the following expression:
(9)
= (l l0 ) / l0 ,
where l0 is the initial length of the gauge section. It can be
calculated by Eq. (7) since the initial gauge section is an
arc.
Accuracy Verification of Method
In order to verify the accuracy of the method for

determining stress and strain mentioned above, the
simulation of the ring tensile test was carried out. The true
stress vs. true strain curve obtained with this method
according to the simulation result was compared to the
original one been input in the simulation of the material to
confirm the accuracy of this method.
Central bracing
Pin
Specimen
Figure 4. FE simulation model of ring tensile test.
570
Figure 5. Schematic of meshed ring test specimen (a) before

tensile test (b) after tensile test.
Figure 5 shows the schematic of a part of the meshed

specimen before and after tensile test. From the schematic
of the specimen before tensile test, as Figure 5(a) shows,
the initial length of the grid along the circumferential direction can be defined as follow equations.
According to the geometrical relationship, the following equations can be obtained.
1 = arcsin( 1 R ) , 2 = arcsin( 2 R ) arcsin( 1 R ) ,
3 = arcsin( 3 R ) arcsin( 2 R ) , ,
n = arcsin( n R ) arcsin( n 1 R ) .
(10)
According to the calculation formula for arc length, the

initial grid length ( Larc ) along the circumferential direction can be determined.
L1 = 1 R , L2 = 2 R , L1 = 3 R , ,
(11)
Ln = n R = (arcsin( n R ) arcsin( n 1 R )) R .
Then the initial length of the grid length before the

tensile test can be confirmed. The initial width (b0) of the
)
grid is 1mm. After the tensile test, the grid length ( Larc
and width (b) were measured by the microscope. For this
microscope, the vertical distance of the endpoints of the
grid in X-axial and Y-axial direction can be measured
directly. According to the Pythagorean Theorem, the linear
distance AB of the grid endpoint can be calculated, as
Figure 5(b) shows. Since the length of the grid is quite
small, the straight-line distance of the grid endpoint can be
regarded as the same as the grid length after the test. So,
the anisotropy coefficient (r-value) can be calculated by
Eq. (12).
b / Larcb0 )
r = ln(b0 / b) ln( Larc
(12)
09.08.2010 14:30:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Results
Table 3. Mechanical properties

circumferential direction.
The comparison result of the calculated curve with the

method developed in this study and original curve been
input to the simulation was shown in Figure 6. Since the
friction was considered in the calculation process, the
calculated values were a bit smaller than the original ones.
However, the calculated curve has the same tendency as
the original curve. This demonstrated that this method is
reliable. The true stress vs. true strain curve of the TRIP
steel tube in the circumferential direction obtained by this
method is shown in Figure 7. The main parameters of the
circumferential mechanical properties are summarized in
Table 3. Compared to the mechanical properties in the
axial direction, the TRIP steel tube shows higher YS, nvalue and r-value with rather lower UTS and EL in the
True stress /MPa
Original curve
Calculated curve
of
TRIP
steel
Parameter
Values
Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) b
638 MPa
Yield stress (YS) 0.2
325 MPa
Total elongation (EL)
30%
Strain hardening coefficient K
1315
Strain hardening exponent n
0.34
Anisotropy exponent r
0.79
tube
in
Conclusions
For the purpose of investigating the circumferential mechanical properties of the TRIP steel tube, a set of new
devices for ring tensile test was successfully fabricated. In
order to reduce the influence of friction on the final result,
one method for calculating the stress and strain was developed and its accuracy was also verified by FE simulation.
The main conclusions of this study were summarized as
follows.
1. The true stress vs. true strain curve and r-value of the
TRIP steel tube in the circumferential direction were
successfully obtained.
2. The devices for ring tensile test and the calculation
method of stress and strain developed in this study can
be used to investigate the circumferential properties of
the tube.
Acknowledgements
True strain
Figure 6. Comparison of calculated true stress vs. true strain
curve and original one.
This work was supported by a research grant from The

Action Program 2008 for Tokyos Big Change ~The 10Year Plan~ of Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The
authors also would like to express thanks to Jiangyin Jieda
Shaped Tube Co., Ltd of China for the support of manufacturing the tubes used in this study.
True stress /MPa
References
True strain
Figure 7. True stress vs. true strain curve of TRIP steel tube in
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[2] B.C. De Cooman: Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials
Science, 8-3-4 (2004), 285-303
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Materialia, 54 (2006), 471-476.
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Materials Processing Technology, 177-1-3 (2006), 390-395.
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Conf. on Tube hydroforming (2009), 62-66.
[6] B.K. Bae, S.K. Cho, C.S. Seok: Materials Science and Engineering A,
483-484 (2008), 248-250
[7] S. Arsene, J. Bai: Journal of Testing and Evaluation, 26-1 (1998), 2630.
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Mechanical Engineers, 29-7 (2005), 555-562.
[9] C.S. Seok, B.K. Bae, J.M. Koo, J.S. Park, Y. Huh: Key Engineering
Materials, 297-300 (2005), 440-445.
[10] Z.C. Zhang, K. Manabe, F.X. Zhu, M. A. Mirzai, T.H. Li: Proc. Int.
Conf. on Tube hydroforming, (2009), 95-100.
571
09.08.2010 14:30:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of 4-way Pipe Stress Reduction Machine for Improved Submerged Arc
Welding Pipe Dimensional Accuracy and Reduced Residual Stress
Dong-Hak Kim1), Man-Bin Moon1), Hyo-Sub Kim1), Dong-Choon Hur2), Jea-WooYang2)
1)
HYUNDAI HYSCO Technical Center, 265, Yeompo-dong, Buk-gu, Ulsan / Korea, dhkim@hysco.com;
Onsan-eup, Ulju-kun, Ulsan / Korea
2)
HYUNDAI RB, 916-2, Wonsan-ri,
This paper deals with development of a 4-way press stress reduction machine to improve dimension accuracy of submerged arc welding
pipes. FEA simulation was used to verify therotetical machine capacity because pushing distance and pressing force are main factors
deciding machine capacity. The 4-way pipe stress reduction machine has four tools surrounding the pipe and pressed against the pipe by a
hydraulic press. Pushing results in improved pipe roundness and less residual stress can be achieved because of the Bauschinger effect. If
the pipe has less residual stress, cut sections rarely suffer distortion and high dimensional accuracy can be obtained without any pipe loss.
In addition to dimensional accuracy, this machine does not require any washing equipment such that both installation space and cost can
be reduced. Dimensional accuracy and residual stress were evaluated by FEA simulation and these results were compared to prototyping
parts.
Keywords: 4-way pipe stress reduction machine, Submerged arc welding pipe, FEA simulation
Introduction
Submerged arc welding pipes have been widely used in
oil & gas carriers, maritime structures, architectural industries and plumbing throughout the world. However, this
type of pipe has shortcomings associated with dimensional
accuracy and residual stress because of plastic deformation
and the effects of welding heat. Therefore, pipe makers
have used sizing process after bending and welding
processes. However, the conventional sizing process is
limited in terms of dimensional accuracy and removal of
residual stress requires a huge installation cost and causes
environmental problems. Accordingly, this paper deals
with an economically efficient sizing process which can
further reduce residual stress and obtain higher dimensional accuracy. A manufacturing process for Submerged
Arc Welding pipe is shown in Figure 1. Normally, blank
length is about 6 meter at mass production and width depends on target pipe size. Both blank edges are cut using
edge milling process to fit the target pipe diameter and to
provide a better surface for welding. After edge milling,
the blank is bent into a round pipe during a bending process. There are generally two methods to bend pipe: roll
bending and press bending. In the paper, only press bending is considered because pre-sizing processes are concerned as references to simulate the resultant stress and
roundness of sizing. Post bending helps that the blank
improves roundness of both edges to achieve superior
weld quality because press bending is limited to bending
of blank edges. During these bending processes, stress is
applied to the blank due to work hardening and plastic
deformation. The bent blank, after press bending and post
bending process, is tightened to remove the gap between
both blank edges during Submerged Arc Welding. It is
tack welding process. Normally, this process gives high
temperature to melt pipe and welding wire it remains residual stress and distortion for bent blank. Such as, residual stress and deformation should be removed to obtain
dimensional accuracy and maintain roundness after cutting.
After sizing, pipe should be evaluated though ultrasonic
and radiation test methods.
572
(a) Edge Milling
(b) Press Bending
(c) Post Bending
(d) Tack Welding
(e) Sizing
(f) UT, RT Test
Figure 1. Manufacturing process of Submerged Arc Welding pipe.
Sizing Process. In the Submerged Arc Welding pipe

market, there are two kinds of conventional sizing machine to remove residual stress, increase roundness and
improve dimensional accuracy. One of such conventional
sizing machine is a full body cold expanding machine"
which was developed to remove residual stress of the
U.O.E press line pipe and which expands a pipe from the
inside to the outside by about 0.3-1.5% based on diameter
with mechanical equipment shown in Figure 2(a). Scales
on the inner surface of the pipe have to be removed before
expansion in order to decrease scratches and defects.
Therefore, this method requires a large installation space
for pre and post processes to clean the pipe and remove
remaining surface emulsion. The contaminated emulsion
may require a separate treatment facility as well. Accordingly, the installation costs are relatively high.
The other sizing machine is an O-ing sizing machine
which has two pressing tools as shown in Figure 2(b).
This machine was developed to remove the residual stress
for J.C.O press line pipe having a high wall thickness. Two
tools press the outside of the pipe and an open gap is resteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:30:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
quired to adjust the press location according to material
properties and roundness. Adjustment of the press location
must be performed by an operator because pipe deformation is occasionally changed by material properties and
roundness. Accordingly, high productivity and roundness
accuracy cannot be obtained. Furthermore, irregular residual stress distribution occurs in connection with contact
position of the tools. However, the O-ing sizing machine
dose not require and cleaning process because scales do
not remain scratches and defects on the pipe surface. Accordingly, installation cost is relatively lower than with a
full body cold expansion machine.
(a) Full body cold

expanding machine.
Table 1. FEA simulation pipe material properties and size.
Material
Properties
Pipe Size
Yield stress
Tensile stress
Diameter
Thickness
542.9 MPa
621.0 MPa
762mm
11.1t
FEA simulation was conducted using an LS_Dyna 971

solver and Hills 1948 yield function.
Press Bending Process Modeling and Simulation.
The edge milling process was not taken into consideration
because blank size and condition were assumed to be ideal.
The press bending model consists of two lower roll and
one press punch as shown in Figure 3. Blank length is 2M
and a symmetric model used in order to reduce computational complexity. A press punch forces the blank between
two lower rolls and bends the blank into a U shape from
edge to center as shown in Figure 4. Pipe diameter is
decided by pitch, depth of the press punch and distance of
the lower rolls. While the press punch pushes the blank,
the blank is deformed and stress is imparted thereto.
(b) O-ing sizing machine

(hydro pipe calibration press).
i
w Gw
s y
XXUX
Yt
z Gt
XX^_U`G
dGO O ZWY\U[PTXXUXPVY
(a) Consists of FEA simulation model.

X\W
(c) 4-way pipe stress reduction machine.
w GZW
_W
Figure 2. Comparison of pipe sizing machine.
To obtain the advantage of both the full body cold expansion machine and O-ing sizing machine, we introduce
a 4-way pipe stress reduction machine shown in Figure
2(C). This machine has four tools outside of the pipe that
simultaneously apply equal pressing force to the pipe,
reducing residual stress as well as pipe diameter. This
machine doesnt need any pipe cleaning equipment and
can easily be automated so that installation costs are considerably lower than with the full body cold expansion
machine and productivity is much higher than with the Oing sizing machine. After sizing, a pipe roundness about
0.45-1.2% is obtained.
X[
Y[W
XW\
(b) Before first bending. (c) After first bending.

Figure 3. FEA simulation model for press bending process.
zG
|TzG
vGi
iGGGG
GGG
GG
FEA Simulation for Press Bending and Sizing Process

Blank and target pipe selection. To conduct FEA simulation, general pipe from a production line was selected as
shown in Table 1.
Figure 4. Roll flower for blank at press bending process.
Post Bending Process Modeling and Simulation. After

the press bending process, the edge of the blank remains
flat because of the distance between the press punch and
the lower rolls as shown in Figure 4. This provides a poor
surface for welding. So it should be removed through
additional bending, and a post bending process is inevitable. Figure 5 shows the oval-shaped upper roll and lower
573
09.08.2010 14:30:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
roll compress the edge of the blank which is deformed
again to improve welding condition.
iGGwGi
mGaXtV
| y
(a) Top view
(b) Section A-A
nGy
s Gy
Figure 5. FEA simulation model or post bending process.
Tack Welding Process Modeling and Simulation. A

bent blank having a round cross-section is subject to a tack
welding process shown in Figure 6. This process consists
of two stages. First, four side rolls push the blank to be
rounded and then welding units join both edges together.
However, in the FEA simulation, welding itself is not
considered in order to simplify the FEA model. Instead of
welding, a reform process is added as shown in Figure 7.
After this process, FEA elements of the blank edge are
manually joined.
(c) Section B-B
(d) Section C-C
(e) Section D-D
Figure 8. Resultant shape and roundness of reform process.
i G GwGi
Figure 9. Residual stress of reform process (Middle of pipe shown

as 350-470 MPa).
m GaXt VG
z GyGX\WG
z yGYWW
nGy
Figure 6. FEA simulation model for tack welding process.
The results of the reform process are shown in Figures 8

and 9. Roundness evaluated by rate of vertical and horizontal length is shown as 1.1-2.6%. This level of roundness does not satisfy API quality requirement (1%) and as
such roundness should be adjusted through a sizing process. Residual stress is also about 350-470 MPa at the middle of the pipe, which is unacceptable because residual
stress worsens roundness after cutting.
Sizing Process Modeling and Simulation Using 4Way Pipe Stress Reduction Machine. A sizing process is
necessary to improve the roundness and to remove the
residual stress, as shown in Figure 10. This process has
four tools positioned around the pipe which press the outer
surface of the pipe with proper force. This force is also
calculated by LS_Dyna 971 as well as sizing depth. Tools
are placed around the pipe and push to 1 or 2 mm above
the target diameter. While the tools push the pipe, roundness of the pipe is adjusted and residual stress is changed
as shown in Figures 11 and 12. According to pushing
depth, roundness accuracy and residual stress, after pushing force is released, are slightly different even though
final residual stresses of both conditions are same as 100
MPa shown in Figure 12 and Table 2. Accordingly, pushing depth should be adjusted to achieve higher roundness
accuracy and diameter. Furthermore, diameter of the pipe,
before sizing, should be adjusted related to shrink size.
| wGwOmP
z wGw
z wGw
s wGwOmP
Figure 7. FEA simulation model for reform process to simplify

welding process.
574
Figure 10. FEA simulation model for sizing with 4-way pipe stress
reduction machine with sizing depth 2 mm (Tools push 22 mm).
09.08.2010 14:30:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 2. FEA simulation result of sizing process (Press force of
1000 ton).
Resultant stress (Mpa)
Sizing
Depth
(a) Top view
(b) Section A-A
Before
Sizing
1mm
350 ~ 470
2mm
Roundness
(%)
After
sizing
100
0.0 ~ 1.4
100
0.1 ~ 1.0
Roundness before Sizing is about 1.1 ~ 2.6%
(c) Section B-B
(d) section C-C
(e) Section D-D
Figure 11. Resultant shape and roundness of sizing process with

sizing depth of 2 mm (Tools push 22 mm).
Table 3. Prototyping results with 4-way pipe stress reduction

machine with diameter of 30-inch, wall thickness of 9.5t.
Pipe Location (Based on 6M)
Process Roundness
1M
2M
3M
4M
5M
Before
sizing
(After
tack
welding)
Post
sizing
Diameter
(Max,mm)
Diameter
(min,mm)
Deviation
(M-m)
Rate(%)
Diameter
(Max,mm)
Diameter
(min,mm)
Deviation
(M-m)
Rate(%)
(a) 1mm sizing
Post
cutting
Diameter
(Max,mm)
Diameter
(min,mm)
Deviation
(M-m)
Rate(%)
765.5
765.5
768.5
768.5
767.0
759.5
758.0
756.0
755.0
755.5
6.0
7.5
12.5
13.5
11.5
0.8
1.0
1.7
1.8
1.5
761.0
761.0
761.5
761.5
761.5
759.0
758.0
757.0
756.0
757.0
2.0
3.0
4.5
5.5
4.5
0.3
0.4
0.6
0.7
0.6
763.0
762.0
761.0
762.5
762.5
758.0
759.0
759.5
758.0
758.0
5.0
3.0
1.5
4.5
4.5
0.7
0.4
0.2
0.6
0.6
Conclusions
(b) 2mm sizing

Figure 12. Residual stress during pipe sizing (upper area is close
to welding zone, lower area is opposite welding zone).
Prototyping and Roundness Check. A prototyping machine was produced and roundness was evaluated by
HYUNDAI RB. The pipe used for evaluation had a diameter of 30 inches, wall thickness of 9.5t and a length of 6M.
The pipe was cut into 1 meter sections. Pipe roundness is
shown in Table 3. After the pipe is cut, roundness accuracy is similar to post sizing roundness accuracy. some
cutting zones have better roundness accuracy than post
sizing pipe. This means that residual stress does not influence pipe roundness and residual stress normally acts
inside of the pipe so that roundness is slightly improved.
FEA simulation is used as an efficient tool for verification of a 4-way pipe stress reduction method and supplies
fundamental data. This machine achieved 3-fold increase
in press bent pipe roundness accuracy. Residual stress after
sizing has more influence upon pipe distortion so that the
pipe maintains its roundness accuracy after cutting. This is
a very important factor to decrease production costs for
suppliers and the pipe loss for customer.
References
[1] J.S. Park, D.W. Kim, Y.W. Chang: KSTP (2005), 336-339.
[2] D.C. Hur, J.W. Yang: Development of 4-way Pipe Stress Reduction
machine (2009).
[3] J.W. Yang, J.T. Lee: Residual stress evaluation for dimensional accuracy after pipe cutting (2009).
[4] API 5L: Specification for line pipe (2004), 68.
575
09.08.2010 14:30:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
Feasibility of Sinking with Rotary Swaging for High Pressure Gas Cylinders
Heng-Sheng Lin1), Chia-Jung Lin2), Yuan-Chuan Hsu1), Jiing-Herng Lee3), Bean-Yin Lee1), Yu-Chiang Chen4)
1)
Department of Mechanical and Computer-Aided Engineering, National Formosa University, Hu-Wei / Taiwan, hslin@nfu.edu.tw; 2) Mosa
Industrial Corporation, Hu-Wei / Taiwan; 3) Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Formosa University, Hu-Wei / Taiwan,
hslin@nfu.edu.tw; 4) Graduate Institute of Mechanical & Electro-Mechanical Engineering, National Formosa University, Hu-Wei / Taiwan
The conventional forming process applies transfer dies in sinking the open end of high pressure gas cylinders. The amount of sinking deformation is divided to several forming stages to avoid fracturing on the open end and buckling on the cylinder body. Therefore, the adjustment of the transfer dies becomes complex, die parts are increased and die cost becomes expensive. Moreover, process annealing is
required to relieve the workpiece of excessive strain hardening from the preceding deep drawing process. Rotary swaging is a type of
incremental deformation. Strain hardening is minimal and its die setup is simple. In this work, tool trials and finite element simulation were
conducted to investigate the tube-end thickness, hardness distribution and effective strain of three forming sequences to evaluate the
feasibility of sinking cylinders with rotary swaging. It shows that thickness is similar from the transfer dies and rotary swaging. Hardness
tests indicate hardness level of rotary swaging is less than that of transfer dies. Sinking of rotary swaging with un-annealed preforms is
feasible and has better hardness distribution on the workpiece.
Keywords: Sinking, Rotary swaging, Transfer dies, High pressure gas cylinders
Introduction
The application of high pressure gas cylinders has become broad in the daily life. For example, cream whippers,
soda siphons and various utilities need high pressure gas
cylinders as their gas chargers to provide the needed
source of high pressure. For the sake of portability, the
volume of these gas cylinders has to be minimal and onepiece deformation process is required in order to obtain
better strength and cost economy.
The conventional forming process [1] applies transfer
dies in producing the gas cylinders as shown in Figure 1.
A circular blank is first deep-drawn with several stages to
a cylinder of large length-to-diameter ratio. The open end
of the drawn cylinder is trimmed and annealed and subsequently sunk with transfer dies. The annealing is to relieve
the workpiece of excessive strain hardening from the foregoing deep drawing process. The amount of sinking has to
be divided to several stages to avoid fracturing on the open
end and buckling on the cylinder body. Therefore, the
adjustment of transfer dies becomes complex, die parts are
increased and die cost becomes expensive.
Figure 1. Schematic of high pressure gas cylinder.
pared with bulk forming processes. Reduction of area as

high as 70% can be achieved with rotary swaging [2,3]. As
compared with forming of multiple stages, the die design
is much simpler when single-stage rotary swaging can be
achieved. Moreover, Jang and Lious report [4] shows that
tubular workpiece exhibits residual compressive stress on
its outer surface after radial forging. This is a favoring
factor in applying rotary swaging in sinking the gas cylinders to improve products fatigue strength.
On account of the advantage of rotary swaging, this
work attempts to sink the open end of deep-drawn cylinders with one-stage rotary swaging, instead of forming
with transfer dies, to form high pressure gas cylinders. The
goals are to skip over the costly annealing operations and
simplify the labor-taking adjustment of transfer dies. Tool
trials and finite element simulation were conducted to
investigate the tube-end thickness, hardness distribution
and effective strain of three forming sequences to evaluate
the feasibility of sinking high pressure gas cylinders with
the rotary swaging process.
Methods
The sheet metal used to form the gas cylinders was
SPCE of 0.8 mm thick. It was blanked, deep-drawn and
followed with one stage of sinking and trimmed at its open
end in transfer dies under a stamping speed of 300 mm/s.
The make is designated as the sink-preform. The thickness at the open end was about 1.18 mm, as shown in
Figure 2. Three sinking sequences were tested as follows.
Sequence A: sink-preform annealing sinking
with transfer dies
Sequence B: sink-preform annealing sinking
with rotary swaging
Sequence C: sink-preform sinking with rotary
swaging
Rotary swaging is a type of incremental forming process.

Its workpiece experiences less strain hardening as com-
576
09.08.2010 14:30:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 2. Cross-section of sink-preform at open end.
The annealing was conducted at the open end of the

sink-preform in a continuous induction heating furnace at
750 C for 10 seconds. For Sequence A, the sinking with
transfer dies was conducted at Mosa Corp. and is the main
process in mass-producing the commercial high pressure
gas cylinders. For Sequences B and C, a 4-piece die was
used in the feed-in type rotary swager, as shown in Figure
3. The cam stroke was 0.7 mm and the turning speed of
spindle was 360 RPM. The feeding speed was controlled
by a hydraulic cylinder. No mandrel was used in this setup.
Figure 3. Die set of rotary swaging.
A Vickers micro hardness tester was used to measure

workpiece hardness after the sinking process. The measurement was conducted along the inner and outer crosssection of the cylinder on the sizing and forming zones,
respectively, as shown in Figure 4. The spacing was 0.5
mm.
Sizing zone
CL
Forming zone
Thickness. The maximum thickness in the sizing zone

and the corresponding reduction of area are shown in Table 1. The reduction of area is around 30% which is well
below the forming limit of rotary swaging. Because no
mandrel was used, both the thickness increases and the
length of the formed tube end decreases slightly as the
feeding speed decreases. Higher feeding speeds were not
tested because slight barreling might occur on the cylinder
body. Note that adequate thickness ensures sufficient material for the subsequent milling and riveting operations at
the tube end. However, a better control on the outlet thickness can be achieved by installing a mandrel during the
rotary swaging process.
Table 1. Maximum thickness and reduction in sizing zone.
Process
Sinking with transfer dies
Sinking with RS at 3.2 mm/s
Thickness
(mm)
1.6
1.58
1.6
1.6
1.68
Reduction
of Area (%)
32%
33%
32%
32%
29%
Hardness. A typical hardness distribution of the sinkpreform is shown in Figure 5. The average Vickers hardness numbers, before the annealing, on the inner and outer
cylinder surface are 18013 and 17812 Hv, respectively.
While those after the annealing are 11412 and 1105 Hv,
respectively. The effective annealing zone reaches to 12
mm from the tube end.
Figures 6 and 7 show a typical hardness distribution of
sinking of transfer dies (Sequences A) and rotary swaging
(Sequences B) with annealed preforms, respectively. Hardness distribution of the annealed sink-preform on the outer
cylinder surface is also included as the baseline. Both
processes show workpiece hardness increases after sinking
and the one with rotary swaging is smaller than that with
transfer dies. This indicates the incremental forming
exhibits less strain hardening on workpiece. However, the
influence of feeding rate on hardness was insignificant.
Figure 8 shows a typical hardness distribution for sinking with an un-annealed preform (Sequence C). There is
no significant difference between the un-annealed preform
and the swaged workpiece, which indicates the feasibility
of sinking with un-annealed preform. Moreover, the subsequent cleaning can be omitted. The distribution also
shows that the variation of hardness number is less on the
outer surface than that of inner surface. This is because the
outer surface of workpiece contacts with the swaging dies,
whereas the inner surface is free of contacts. Another advantage of sinking of rotary swaging with un-annealed
preforms is that a more even hardness distribution can be
achieved. The drop in hardness near the transition between
the forming zone and cylinder body, occurred in Sequences A and B, can be avoided.
Figure 4. Locations of hardness measurement.
577
09.08.2010 14:30:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 5. Hardness distribution of sink-preform.
increased due to multiple forming stages was not considered.

Figures 9 and 10 show the distributions of effective
strain for sinking with transfer dies of six stages and for
sinking with rotary swaging. The tracing points P1, P2 and
P3 are located at the tube end, middle of the sizing zone
and the forming zone, respectively. Both figures show that
the inner surface has higher effective strain than that of
outer surface. Highest effective strain occurs at P2 in the
point tracking diagrams because the increase in thickness
at this location is more significant as compared to the free
end at P1. The maximum effective strain of sinking with
rotary swaging is 1.37, and 1.72 with transfer dies. This
observation also explains why the incremental forming
process causes less strain and the workpiece experiences
less strain hardening. Though the two dimensional simulation can not reflect the real deformation in rotary swaging,
it tends to overestimate the effective strain. This is why the
hardness of sinking of rotary swaging with un-annealed
preform does not increase significantly as shown in Figure
8.
Figure 6. Hardness distribution of sinking of transfer dies with

annealed preform.
Figure 9. Distribution of effective strain with transfer dies.

Figure 7. Hardness distribution of sinking of rotary swaging with
annealed preform.
Figure 8. Hardness distribution of sinking of rotary swaging with

un-annealed preform.
Finite Element Simulation. DEFORM-2D was used to

obtain the information of effective strain. The axissymmetric deformation was assumed and the flow stress
578
Figure 10. Distribution of effective strain with rotary swaging.
09.08.2010 14:30:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
From the measurements of outlet thickness and hardness
distribution as well as DEFORM-2D simulation of the
effective strain, the following conclusions can be drawn.
1. The outlet thickness is similar in sinking with transfer
dies or rotary swaging. The thickness increases slightly
as the feeding speed decreases in rotary swaging.
2. The simulation shows that the inner surface had higher
effective strain than that of outer surface. Vickers hardness tests also indicate the hardness is greater on the inner cylinder than that of outer cylinder in sinking. Because the outer surface contacts with the swaging dies
and the inner surface is free of contacts, the variation of
hardness is less on the outer surface than that of inner
surface.
3. Hardness of rotary swaging (Sequence B) is less than
that of transfer dies (Sequence A) in sinking annealed
preform. The hardness of sinking with un-annealed preform (Sequence C) shows no significant difference between the un-annealed preform and the swaged workpiece. The results indicate the feasibility of sinking with
un-annealed preform.
4. Another advantage of sinking of rotary swaging with
un-annealed preforms is that a more even hardness
distribution can be achieved. The drop in hardness near
the transition between the forming zone and cylinder
body, occurred in Sequences A and B, can be avoided.
5. Rotary swaging provides an alternative method in sinking high pressure gas cylinders. With its advantages of
simple die design and saving the lead for annealing, the
method is an optimum process for products of high variety and low volume.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the financial support of
the National Science Council of the R.O.C. under the NFU
Contract 96AD14 and Mosa Industrial Corporation in
providing the samples.
References
[1] Metals Handbook, American Society for Metals, Vol. 4, 8th Edition,
(1969), 189.
[2] S.-J. Lim, H.-J. Choi, C.-H. Lee: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 209 (2009), 283-288.
[3] D. Gilroy, Tube Pipe J., 9-3 (998), 40-46.
[4] D.Y. Jang, J.H. Liou: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 74
(1998), 74-82.
579
09.08.2010 14:30:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of Initial Thickness of Circular Tube in Rotary-Draw Bending Adding Axial

Pushing Force for Suppression of Flatness
Kazuhito Takahashi1), Takashi Kuboki1), Makoto Murata1), Kouzo Yano2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Intelligence Systems, University of Electro-Communications / Japan,

Takahasi@mce.uec.ac.jp; 2) Komatsu, Ltd., / Japan
The tube bending process adding the axial pushing force has been suggested by researchers and engineers for suppression of flatness
that is the defective phenomenon of bent tubes. The authors have been considering in previous research works the mechanism of the
suppression of flatness and confirm that the flatness was successfully suppressed by the axial pushing force with sufficient pressure die
force by using steel tube. When the bending radius R0 is larger than 2.5 times of diameter d0, the flatness can be suppressed under 3.0%.
However, the effect that the difference of the initial thickness of tube in this process method is not clarified. Therefore, in the present research, FEM and experiments were conducted by changing the initial thickness of the STK590 (JIS) tube from 2.0 to 3.2 mm for a diameter
of 27.2 mm. As a result, when the axial pushing force is over 215 MPa while the initial thickness is between 2.3 and 3.2 mm, buckling occurs. When the axial pushing force is over 143 MPa while the initial thickness is 2.0 mm, wrinkle occurs and it is the limit of processing.
However, when the initial thickness of circular tube is between 2.3 and 3.2 mm while the axial force is 143 MPa, the flatness could be suppressed within 4.0% for any thickness.
Keywords: Bending, Tube bending, Draw-bending, Rotary-draw-bending, Flatness, Suppression of flatness, STK590 tube, Axial pushing
force, booster die, booster
Introduction
When a circular tube is bent under moment without constraints from tools, extrados and intrados of the bent tube
are dented in cross section while the portion vertical to the
line connecting the extrados and the intrados moves outward, and the tube is flattened. The flattening phenomena
occur because a tube is deformed so as to minimize the
necessary energy for bending. When the bent tubes are
used for the pressure piping, the flattening would lead to
degradation of fracture toughness or shortage of life time.
The cross section of the flattened tube is repeatedly deformed to a circular shape by inner pressure. The tube wall
will be subjected to repetitive tensile and compressive
stress. When tubes are used as pressure tube to transport
pressured liquid in construction machines, circularity is an
important quality to be achieved. Some bending methods
have been adopted for the suppression of flattening as
follows. (1) External force or pressure is applied on the
inner surface of the tube using oil, low-melting-point
metal and mandrel. (2) External force or pressure is applied on the outer surface of the tube using tools which
includes wiper die. (3) Axial force is applied on the tube
end by booster die [1,2]. Especially, a bending method
using a mandrel is the most effective for suppression of
flattening. However, the use of the mandrel needs knowhow on the conditions such as the special mandrel shape
and its insert position. More than anything, using the mandrel causes the increase of the cost for equipment.
In order to suppress the flattening suppression without
mandrel, the authors have been trying the mandrel-less
method that adds the axial compressive force in the axis
direction of tube during bending a tube [3-5]. The results
clarified by the previous research were mainly as follows.
I) An addition of the axial force of 30% of the tensile
strength of the tube could suppress the flatness down to
1.3% of tube diameter under the condition that thickness
ratio to diameter t0 / d0 is 8.4% and the bending radius is 3
580
times of diameter. II) As a result of examination of the

bending mechanism, it was suggested that the axial compressive force increases the perimeter of cross-section of
bent tube at the bending position so as to move the tube
wall outward to the pressure die and reduce the flatness.
Although this processing method is applicable when the
initial thickness is comparatively thick to the diameter of
tube, the applicability to the thin wall tube is unknown.
Then, from a point of view of the economic efficiency by
saving weight of bent tube, the effect of initial thickness of
the tube on cross-sectional deformation, which includes
flatness and thinning on the extrados was researched and
examined by FEM and experiments.
Experiment of Draw-Bending with Axial Pushing Force
Experimental Condition. Figure 1 shows the drawbending machine with axial pushing force. The circular
tube #1 is fixed by clump die #2. The guide #6 holds circular tube, while tube is pressed by the pressure die #4
into rotary die with side-force Fs. Axial pushing force Fa is
applied on the end of tube in the axial direction by the
pushing-rod #7. The auxiliary die #9 clamps the bent tube
near the bend angle 50-degree to prevent the buckling in
the case of excessive axial pushing force. Axial pushing
force Fa is measured by load cell #8. The rotary die is
rotated by servomotor with reduction gears. The tube is
bent between rotary die and pressure die, while optional
#3
#2
#1
#6
#7
#8
Fa
Fs
#9
Fs
#4
#5
#1:Tube, #2:Clamp, #3:Rotary die,

#4:Presser die, #5:Oil cylinder,
#6:Guide, #7:Pushing rod,
#8: Load cell, #9: Auxiliary die
Figure 1. Apparatus for draw bending with axial pushing force.
09.08.2010 14:30:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
axial direction force Fa is applied on tube end. Axial direction force Fa and side force Fs and Fs are controlled by oil
release valve in oil cylinder.
Table 1 shows the dimension and mechanical properties
of the tube. Ordinary medium carbon steel pipe, STK590
(JIS), is selected as tube material. The tube is an electric
resistance welded (ERW) pipe. Parameters for experimental bending are shown in Table 2. Axial pushing force Pa
was determined based on the tensile strength B
(=717MPa). Accordingly, axial pushing ratio (a/B) was
from 10% (71.7/717) to 30% (215/717). A teflon-sheet
with 0.5mm thickness is inserted between the tube-outside
surface and the pressure die, for the suppression of friction
and scratch on the surface.
FEM Analysis on Draw-Bending with Axial Pushing

Force
A series of analysis was conducted. The analysis for
suppression of flatness is conducted by FEM followed by
experimental validity check. The effect of axial pushing
force is examined changing the bending radius from 1.5d0
to 3.0d0 and the initial tube thickness from 2.0 to 3.2 mm.
3-D implicit method analysis was conducted using a commercial finite element code ELFEN, which was developed
by Rockfield Software Limited, Swansea. Figure 3 shows
the draw-bending model.
Axial stress / MPa
+ : Tensile stress
- : Compressive stress
Fa
Table 1. Dimension and mechanical properties of tube.
-100MPa
-400MPa
716.75
0.61
2241
3.2
27.2
350
Tensile strength B / MPa

n value
F value
Thickness t0 / mm
Outer diameter d0 / mm
Tube length L0 / mm
-1200MPa
+700MPa
+500MPa
+300MPa
+ 100MPa
Tube precision was evaluated by measuring dimensions

in the cross section. Figure 2 shows the cross section of
tube before and after bending. Diameter d0, initial thickness t0, ellipsoidal minor axis dmin, ellipsoidal major axis
dmax, wall thickness in the outside of the bend tout, wall
thickness in the inside of the bend tin are defined. The ratio
of flatness Df, the ratio of the ellipsoidal minor axis Dmin,
the ratio of the ellipsoidal major axis Dmax, the initial
thickness distribution Td, the ratio of decreased thickness
Tmin, and the ratio of increased thickness Tmax are estimated using the following equations:
tin
tout
t
t 0=2.9mm
y /mm
0
x /mm
0
x /mm
0
x /mm
Df =
dmax dmin
(1)
d0
Dmin =
d0 dmin
(2)
d0
Dmax =
dmax d0
(3)
d0
Td =
tout tin
t0
Tmin =
t0 tin (5)
t0
Tmax =
tout t0 (6)
t0
(4)
-5
0
x /mm
0
5
x /mm
a/B=20%
-5
0
5
x /mm
a/B=20%
0
x /mm
0
x /mm
0
x /mm
a/B=20%
5 -5
5
y /mm
t 0=3.2mm
Figure 2. Cross section of tube.
y /mm
d0
Initial tube
5 -5
a/B=0%
dmin
Bent tube
a/B=0%
-5
a/B=0%
-5
dmax
a/B=20%
5 -5
a/B=0%
-5
t 0=2.6mm
0
x /mm
y /mm
t 0=2.3mm
-5
y /mm
a/B=0%
y /mm
Outside
y /mm
Inside
Figure 4. Bent tube.
y /mm
t 0=2.0mm
y /mm
Evaluation Item for Bent Tube
Figure 3. Bending model.
y /mm
3.0
90
30.6
0, 72, 143, 215,
0, 10, 20, 30
2.0, 2.3, 2.6, 2.9, 3.2
45.9
50
0.0148
Teflon sheet
+900MPa
-800MPa
Table 2. Conditions for simulation.

Bending die rudius R0/d0
Bending angle / deg.
Force of pressure die Fs / kN
Axial pushing force Fa / kN
Axial pushing ratio a/B / %
Thickness t0 / mm
Force of auxiliary die Fa / kN
Working angle of auxiliary die / deg
Rotation speed V / rad s-1
Lubrication condition
+150MPa
a/B=20%
5 -5
Figure 5. Cross-section of bent tube obtained by simulation.
581
09.08.2010 14:30:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
0.10
Axial pushing ratio
Flatness D f
0.08
a/B=0%
0.06
Axial pushing ratio
0.04
a/B=20%
Thickness
ratio H0
0.15
0.17
0.19
0.21
0.24
0.02
0.00
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
Normalized bending radius R n
Figure 6. Effect of pushing force on flatness ratio Df during changing thickness ratio obtained by simulation.
Flatness D min, D max
0.10
Dmin,
0.08
Axial pushing ratio
a/B=0%
0.06
0.04
Dmin,
a/B=20%
0.02
Thickness
ratio H0
0.15
0.17
0.19
0.21
0.24
Dmax, a/B=0%,20%
0.00
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
Figure 7. Effect of pushing force on flatness ratio Dmin and Dmax

during changing thickness ratio obtained by simulation.
Thickness distribution T d
0.30
Axial pushing ratio

a/B=20%
0.25
a/B=0%,
0.20
Thickness
ratio H0
0.15
0.17
0.19
0.21
0.24
0.15
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
Ration of thickness change

T min, T max
Figure 8. Effect of pushing force on the initial thickness distribution

Td during changing thickness ratio obtained by simulation.
0.20
Tmax, Axial pushing ratio

a/B=20%
0.15
Tmax, a/B=0%
Tmin, a/B=0%
0.10
Thickness
ratio H0
0.15
0.17
0.19
0.21
0.24
Tmin, a/B=20%
0.05
0.00
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
Figure 4 shows the distribution of axial stress in the

bent tube and Figure 5 shows the cross section of bent
tube at axial measurement position of 45 degrees obtained
by simulation. These simulation results show the effect of
axial pushing force on cross-sectional deformation for a
variety of tube thickness when the bending radius is R0=
2.0d0 and the axial pushing ratio (a/B) is 0% and 20%.
The thinner the thickness, the larger the deformation is.
Cross-sectional deformation of inside and outside is
asymmetry under any bending condition. Addition of axial
pushing force realizes high circularity.
Figures 6-9 show the effect of axial pushing force on
the precision for various bending radii. The thickness ratio
H0 is defined as 2t0/d0 here. In addition, the normalized
bending radius Rn is defined as d0/2/R0.
Figure 6 shows simulation results on the effect of axial
pushing force on flatness in the middle of bent part. While
the pushing force Pa is fixed at 20%, the thickness ratio is
changed. In each bending radius, the flatness becomes
small with the increase of axial pushing force. For any
normalized bending radius, the flatness becomes larger
when the thickness ratio is smaller.
Figure 7 shows the effect of axial pushing force on flatness ratio Dmin and Dmax in the middle of bent part. The
Dmin efficiently decreases with increase of the axial pushing force. Dmax is almost constant regardless of the axial
pushing force. Dmin tends to be larger, when the thickness
ratio is smaller. On the other hand, the ellipsoidal minor
axis of bent tube increases by adding the axial pushing
force to tube for any bending radius.
As the thickness is an important specification as well as
flatness, the influence of axial pushing force on thickness
was investigated by simulation. Figure 8 shows the effect
of pushing force on the thickness distribution Td for various thickness ratio. When the normalized bending radius
increases, the thickness distribution Td increased. However,
there is almost no effect of the thickness ratio and the axial
pushing force on thickness. Figure 9 shows Effect of pushing force on the ratio of decreased thickness Tmin and the
ratio of increased thickness Tmax. Tmin and Tmax increase
when the normalized bending radius Rn is larger. When
axial pushing force is applied on the end of tube, the thicknesses increase at both of intrados and extrados of bending.
The effect of the initial thickness is small.
Forming Limit by Axial Pushing Force and Initial
Thickness
Although the axial pushing force has the suppression effect on flattening, it also has the side effect of buckling
which decides the forming limit. As the forming limit is
difficult to predict by numerical method, experiment was
carried out to examine the forming limit at R0 = 3.0d0. The
forming limit is determined by axial pushing force and
initial thickness in experiment as shown in Figure 10. The
marks () represent successful bent tube. The marks (X)
represent wrinkle. The marks () represent buckling.
Figure 9. Effect of pushing force on the ratio of decreased thickness Tmin and the ratio of increased thickness Tmax during changing
thickness ratio obtained by simulation.
582
09.08.2010 14:30:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Inside
50
() Buckling
() Success
30
20
10
0
0.12
0.17
0.27
Figure 13. Cross-section of bent tube obtained by experiment.
Flatness D f
Flatness D f
60
120
-20
Thickness
ratio H0
/deg.
Mesuremen
t
Position
0.15
0.17
0.19
0.21
0.24
0
20 40 60 80 100 120
Axial mesurement position ' /
Figure 12. Effect of thickness ratio on the flatness as a function of

axial pushing ratio a/B=30% by experiment.
The buckling occurs due when axial pushing ratio a/B

is larger than 30% for any initial thickness between 2.3mm
and 3.2mm. On the other hand, wrinkle occurs when the
initial thickness is 2.0mm. The influence of axial pushing
ratio 30% on both flatness and thickness were investigated
experimentally and numerically. Figure 11 shows the
effect of thickness ratio on the flatness as a function of
axial pushing ratio a/B=20%. Figure 12 shows the effect
of thickness ratio on the flatness as a function of axial
Pushing force a/B=30%. The flatness ratio with 20%
axial pushing force is the largest when the bending angle
is between 40 and 80 degrees at any thickness ratio. The
axial pushing ratio a/B of 30% has a large suppression
effect of flatness. However, when the bending angle is
between 10 and 40 degrees, buckling occurs, and the flatness ratio is locally. Figure 13 shows the cross sections of
bent tubes with 0 and 20% axial pushing ratios obtained
by the experiment, and the tendency nearly corresponds to
analytical result in Figure 5.
Pa= 20 %
t0=3.2mm
0.22
30
Pa= 20 %
Pa = 0 %
Thickness ratio H 0
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
Pa= 20 %
t0=2.6mm
Figure 10. Forming limit with axial compressive ratio and initial
thickness.
0.18
Thickness
30 0
0.16
60
ratio H0
0.14
/deg.
0.15
120
0.12
0.17
Mesuremen
0.19
0.1
t
0.21
Position
0.08
0.24
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
-20
0
20
40
60
80 100 120
Axial mesurement position ' /
Figure 11. Effect of thickness ratio on the flatness as a function of
axial pushing ratio a/B=20% by experiment.
Pa= 0 %
: Success : Buckling X : Wrinkle
40
Outside
R
t0=2.0mm
0.10
D f
Axial pushing ratio (a/B) / %
(X)Wrinkle
Pa = 0 %
Exp. a/B=0%
0.08
0.06
Exp. a/B=20%
0.04
FEM a/B=0%
FEM a/B=20%
0.02
0.00
0.12
0.17
0.22
0.27
H 0
Figure 14. Effect of thickness ratio on flatness Df as a function of
axial pushing force by experiment and FEM.
Figure 14 shows the influence of the thickness ratio on

suppression effect of flatness by adding the axial pushing
force in experiment and FEM. The flatness ratio becomes
smaller when the thickness ratio becomes larger. In addition, the flatness becomes smaller when the appropriate
axial pushing force is added at any thickness. The tendency between the experimental and the FEM value correspond qualitatively. When the thickness ratio is small,
wrinkle occurs by the experiment, and the forming becomes unstable.
Conclusions
1. When the 30% axial pushing ratio is added to the circular tube, when the initial thickness is between 2.3 and
3.2 mm, buckling occurs, and when the axial pushing
ratio is 20% for the initial thickness of 2.0 mm, wrinkle
occurs and it is the limit of processing.
2. When the initial thickness of circular tube is between
2.3 and 3.2 mm, when the 20% axial force ratio is added
to the circular tube, the axial pushing ratio of 20% can
suppress flatness within 4% for any initial thickness.
References
[1] J. Endo, T. Murota: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of
Plasticity, 27-300 (1986), 201-207.
[2] S. Aizu: Technology of Press, 4-8 (1966), 75-80.
[3] K. Takahashi, T. Kuboki, M. Murata, K. Yano: Journal of the JapanaSociety for Technology of Plasticity, 49-572 (2008-9), 896-900.
[4] K. Takahashi, T. Kuboki, M. Murata, K. Yano: Steel Research International, 79 (2008), 241-248.
[5] T. Kuboki, K. Takahashi: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology
of Plasticity, 49-572 (2008-9), 872-877.
583
09.08.2010 14:30:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
FEM Analysis of Tube Straightener Adopting Implicit Scheme

Takashi Kuboki1), He Huang1), Makoto Murata1), Yohei Yamaguchi2), Kouichi Kuroda3)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering & Intelligent Systems, University of Electro-Communications / Chofu, Japan, kuboki@mce.uec.ac.jp; 2) Amada Co., Ltd., Isehara / Japan; 3) Corporate R & D Laboratories, Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., Amagasaki /
Japan
Straightening is an important process, which is positioned at the very end of production lines in industry. Straightening determines the final
shape in longitudinal direction and cross section as well as the distribution of residual stress. In particular, rotary straightener is an effective
method with high productivity for long products of bar rods and tubes. The working conditions for the rotary straightener are usually determined based on the interpretation of technicians in practical production lines. In the present research, a complete FEM model, named "Trial
3", was built up adopting the implicit scheme for the purpose of precise estimation of tube straightening in three-stand straightener. Four
types of modeling were tried overall and comparison was made. While Trial 1, 2 and 3 adopted the implicit scheme, Trial 4 adopted the
explicit scheme. In Trial 3 of complete model, all the rolls are reproduced and no prescribed displacements are assigned just as actual
straightening. Trial 4 of explicit scheme has the same setting to Trial 3. Trial 4 of explicit scheme showed poor results and stress and strain
histories are quite different from those in the other models. Trial 1, 2 and 3 have shown similar results except a phenomenon whereby only
Trial 3 shows axial shrinkage and radial expansion.
Keywords: Straightening, Three-stand straightener, Crash, Offset, Ovality, FEM, Implicit scheme, Explicit scheme
Introduction
Tubes are widely used because of its efficiency in reducing weight with keeping high bending stiffness and torsional stiffness. Due to increasing demand for high functionality of the tube-device performance, high dimensional accuracy are required for tube material. However,
even if tubes seem straight at first glance after forming
processes of long tubes, such as tube drawing and roll
forming, warp occurs inevitably. Therefore, with the aim
of improvement of the accuracy, straightening process is
put at the final stage of the process lines [1].
The working conditions for the rotary straightener are
usually determined based on the interpretation of technicians in practical production line. As both elastic and plastic deformations coexist in tubes during straightening and
the phenomena are complicated, it is hopeful that some
theoretical approaches are applied for the clarification of
the straightening mechanism. Many research works have
been tried for this objective. Asakawa [2] and Mutrux [3]
tried to apply FEA to solid-bar straightening with deciding
the deformed shape in advance, the precision of which is
not guaranteed. Although it would be practical and precise
to some extent for solid bars, it may not be true to tubes, as
the tube would be crashed in cross section and the crashed
shape will not be determined in advance. Furugen composed a basic analysis for tube straightening considering
axial deformation at first, followed by the consideration of
cross-sectional deformation [4].
In the present research, complete FEM models have
been built up adopting the implicit scheme for the purpose
of precise estimation of tube straightening in three-stand
straightener. A model using explicit scheme has been also
composed for comparison. FEM simulations show some
complex stress distribution, which has not been observed
in basic analysis in literature. As a result of comparison
between the FEM models, the application guidelines of
each model are shown depending on the precision required
for the analysis.
584
1st stand
2nd stand
Crash C
3rd stand
Forming direction
Offset 0
Concave roll
Upper roll
Dmax
l
Lower roll
Crash c = Dmax -H
Crash c=0
c/2
Crash c > 0
c/2
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of three-stand rotary straightener.
Composition of Straightener
The present research focused upon three-stand rotary
straightener as it is a basic and essential composition of
tube straightener, which is shown in Figure 1. The three
stands are positioned with distance S. Each stand includes
a pair of concave rolls. Upper and lower rolls are skewed
at roll angle u and d of around 30 degrees. The pair of
rolls at the 2nd stand is displaced in vertical direction from
the straight path line connecting 1st and 3rd rolls. This
vertical displacement of the 2nd rolls is called offset o.
The gap H between the two rolls at the 2nd stand is set to
be less than tube initial diameter D0 by crash c. The rotating rollers give both transverse and rotary displacement to
the tubes. In the straightening process, the tube is bent
corresponding to the amount of offset o and crashed by c
09.08.2010 14:30:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
at the 2nd stand. As a result of these motions, the tube will
be subjected to repetitive deformation of bending and
unbending, and crash.
Models for FEA
As a tool for evaluation of characteristics and stressstrain behaviors in rotary straightening, a couple of FEM
models have been constructed. Elastic-plastic analysis was
carried out using the commercial code ELFEN, which was
developed by Rockfield Software Limited, Swansea. Tube
was treated as elasto-plastic material, while rolls were
assumed to be rigid surfaces. A von Mises' yield criterion
was adopted, and the normality principle was applied to
the flow rule. Constraints were dealt with by the penalty
function method. The F-bar method was applied to the
hexahedra element for overcoming volumetric locking
with simple brick-type elements [5]. The Coulomb friction
rule was assumed and the coefficient of friction was
chosen as 0.1.
Figure 2 shows the constructed 4 FEM models. "Trial
3", was built up as a complete model adopting the implicit
scheme for the purpose of precise estimation of tube
straightening in three-stand straightener. Compared to
Trial 3, other models were constructed as concise models
to shorten calculation time.
Trial 1
Reaction generated
by displacement
2nd rolls
X
Tube
Z
1st rolls
Y
2nd rolls
3rd rolls
Table 1. Features of models.
Trial Scheme Expression of Constraints

1st & 3rd rolls at tube ends
1
Implicit
Cylinders
Displacement
2
Implicit
Rolls
Displacement
3
Implicit
Rolls
Free
The most precise
4
Explicit
Rolls
Free
Conditions for Analysis

Analyses were carried out to demonstrate the deformation, stress-strain history and the difference between models. The straightening conditions are shown in Table 2.
Stress-strain relationship obtained from tension test was
used as mechanical properties of the tube.
Cross-sectional deformation during deformation was
evaluated by ovality f, which is defined from maximum
diameter Dmax and minimum diameter Dmin as follows:
Cylinders
Trial 2
In Trial 1, 1st and 3rd rolls are expressed by cylinders,

and traverse and rotary prescribed displacements are assigned to the both ends of the tube for stabilizing the
analysis. Therefore, reactions appear at the both ends. In
Trial 2, though all the rolls are reproduced in the model,
prescribed displacements are still assigned to the both ends
of the tube. The displacements are calculated assuming
tube will move without slip corresponding to the motion of
the roll surface at the minimum roll diameter.
In Trial 3 of complete model, all the rolls are reproduced and no prescribed displacements are assigned on
tubes just as actual straightening except at the beginning of
the analysis. At the beginning of analysis, offset o and
crash c are set to be zero, and transverse and rotational
prescribed displacements are assigned to the both ends of
the tube. After offset o is gradually ramped up, crash c is
also gradually increased. After o and c become the prescribed value, the displacements are released, resulting in
no reaction on the tube as shown in Figure 2. Trial 4
adopts explicit scheme, setting the other conditions identical to those in Trial 3. The features of models are summarized in Table 1.
f =
Dmax D min
D0
(1)
Z
Trial 3, 4
Table 2. Analysis condition for tube.
1st rolls
Material
AISI1045, Yield stress=407MPa

Young's modulus=217GPa
True stress -plastic stress p diagram
407 when p 0.008
=
0.15
when p > 0.008
972( p 0.0049 )
Thickness t/mm
Length L/mm
Initial diameter D0/mm
Mesh division, Axial
Thickness
Hoop
1.6
930
34.0
43
(Min. length = 9mm/div.)
2
43
2nd rolls
3rd rolls
X
Z
Figure 2. Constructed FEM models for rotary straightener.
585
09.08.2010 14:30:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Comparison between Models
Analytical results were compared between the four
models in order to clarify the application guidelines depending on the precision required, supposing Trial 4 as the
most precise model.
Trajectory of One Point on Surface. Figure 3 shows a
trajectory of one point on tube outer surface with lower
roll. Here, only the results for Trial 1 and Trial 3 are
shown, as the results of Trials 2 and 4 are almost the same
as that of Trial 1. The trajectory draws spiral line. The
point rotates only 2.5 times in the diagonal roll length of
200 mm. As the difference between four models is small,
either model would be applicable for the calculation of the
trajectory.
150
0
-50
Trial 1
Lower roll
-100
-150
-200
Trial 2
Trial 4
Trajectory over tube

Trajectory under tube
-150
-100
-50
zZ/ mm
/ mm
50
100
150
Figure 3. Trajectory of a point on tube outer surface.

0.1
Ovalty f
0.08
0.06
c=1.2mm
o=0.87mm
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Trial 4
f0=0
0.04
-150
-100
-50
50
100
150
Axial position Z /mm
Ovality during straightening. Figure 4 shows ovality

change during straightening for initial f0=0. In the most
precise model, Trial 3, the ovality f increases around crash
area of Z=0 mm, and finally decreases less than 0.005. It is
noteworthy that ovality becomes maximum at Z>0 after
the crash point Z=0 mm, that is the phenomenon which is
not observed in basic analysis [4].
There is a difference between implicit models (Trails 1 3) and explicit model (Trial 4). The maximum ovality for
implicit model is larger than that for explicit model. The
axial position ZA for the maximum ovality is positive for
implicit models, while ZA is almost zero for explicit model.
Trial 1 - 3 would be applicable for the calculation of ovality.
Outer diameter
34.02
Trial 3
34
Trial 2
33.98
33.96
33.94
33.92
c=1.2mm
o=0.87mm Trial 1
f0=0
Trial 4
33.9
1.603
Thickness
Trial 4
Trial 3
1.602
1.601
Trial 1
Trial 2
1.6
1.599
-200
-150
-100
-50
50
100
150
Figure 5. Diameter and thickness change during straightening.
Figure 4. Ovality during straightening.
586
34.04
Axial position Z /mm
0.02
0
-200
Average thickness t ave/mm
Trial 3
50
X -x/ mm
/ mm
Average diameter D ave /mm
100
Diameter and Thickness during Straightening. Figure 5 shows change of average diameter and average
thickness during straightening. In the most precise model,
Trial 3, diameter slightly increases after straightening. This
is the phenomenon. The average thickness increases after
straightening. The increase of diameter and thickness
means the shrinkage of tube length. These phenomena are
not observed in basic analysis, though they are known to
occur in actual process line. However, this amount of
differences is not practically important in terms of product
specification.
There is a difference between models. The increase of
average diameter and average thickness is only observed
by Trial 3. The diameter and thickness is quite unstable in
explicit model, Trial 4. Therefore, Trial 3 should be used
for the precise evaluation of change in diameter, thickness
and length.
Stress and Strain History during Straightening. Figure 6 shows hoop stress change during straightening on
the outer surface of the tube. This is the result analyzed by
the most precise model, Trial 3. The graph is hoop stress at
point A which contacts with upper roll at the crash area of
Z=0. As the tube is crashed at by rolls, stress peak appears
twice in the one revolution, as is predicted by basic analysis [4]. As the cross section becomes oval at the crash area,
hoop stresses at point A and C contacting rolls are tensile,
those at B and D are compressive. Hoop stress on inner
surface has opposite distribution.
Figure 7 shows axial stress change. It is noteworthy that
axial stress also has two peaks in the one revolution, which
is not observed in basic analysis calculating axial stress
without considering hoop stress [4]. The two peak of axial
stress may be caused by hoop stress and crash behavior.
Figure 8 shows axial stress-strain history of point C in
Figures 6 and 7, defining is angular position in cross
section. When Z is 0, becomes -90 degrees. The explicit
model, Trial 4, shows quite different result, compared to
implicit model Trials 3.
09.08.2010 14:30:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
120MPa
Hoop stress
=360MPa
Experimental and analytical results were compared on

the larger ovality fa defined as follows:
-120MPa A
B
fa =
Hoop stress / MPa
Point A
200
0
-200
1 revolution
-400
-600
-200
-150
-100
-50
50
100
Computation time. Each model required computation

time as follows. Trial 3, is very time-consuming.
150
Using PC specs: Intel Core2DuoE8300 2.8GHz 2GB RAM
Axial
position
z / mm
Axial
positionZ/mm
Trial 1: 120 - 192 hours (5 - 8 days)

Trial 2: 168 - 240 hours (7 - 10 days)
Trial 3: 480 - 600 hours (20 - 25 days)
Trial 4: 46 hours (2 days)
Figure 6. Hoop stress history in Trial 3.

A
Axial stress
z =120MPa
360MPa
-120MPa
Conclusions
Axial stress z / MPa
600
400
Point A
200
0
-200
1 revolution
-400
-600
-200
-150
-100
-50
50
100
150
Axial
position
z / mm
Axial
positionZ/mm
Figure 7. Axial stress history in Trial 3.
400
600
= -180
Trial 3
200
0
600
400
Trial 4
= -180
200
0
Upper roll
-200
-200
-400
= -90,
-600
-0.004
(2)
Figure 9 shows the maximum value of fa along tube

while it is crashed under the rolls. Trials 1-3 show a good
agreement with experiment. As ovality is an important
specification, Trials 1-3 would be sufficient model practically though there were slight differences in terms of tube
diameter, thickness and length as observed in Figure 5.
600
400
Dmax D 0
D0
Z=0mm
-0.002
From
front
-400
Lower roll
=-90,
-600 Z=0mm
-0.004 -0.002
0.002
0.002
Axial strain z
Axial strain z
Figure 8. Stress-strain history of point C during straightening.
Four types of FEM models were built up for the purpose

of estimation of three stand tube straightening. Trial 3 is a
complete model which reproduces all rolls without no
constraints, adopting implicit scheme. Trial 4 adopts explicit scheme, setting the other conditions identical to
those in Trial 3. Trials 1 and 2 give transversal and rotary
displacement at the ends of tube for stable calculation. The
following results and application guidelines were obtained:
1. The implicit models, Trials 1-3, showed phenomena
which had not been observed by basic analysis. The
phenomena include two peak of axial stress in one
revolution.
2. Trajectory of one point could be evaluated by all models.
The explicit model, Trial 4, would be applicable only
for this point, and unstable in diameter, thickness,
stress and strain behavior.
3. Ovality change during straightening could be assessed
by Trials 1-3. Hence, Trials 1-3 would be sufficient
models practically.
4. For the precise evaluation of change in diameter, thickness and length, Trial 3 should be used.
5. The most precise model, Trial 3, was very much timeconsuming.
Maximum Ovality f a_max
References
0.04
Trials 1-3
0.03
Trial 4
0.02
Experiment
0.01
o=0.87mm, f0=0
0
0
0.5
1.5
Crash c /mm
[1] Japan society for technology of plasticity: Straightening of Metal

Products, - Technology to Straighten Sheet, Tube and Others -, (1992),
130-155, in Japanese.
[2] T. Yanagihashi, T. Hama, Y. Onoda, M. Asakawa: J. Jpn. Soc. Technol.
Plast., 46-537 (2005), 972-976, in Japanese.
[3] A. Mutrux, B. Berisha, M. Weber, P. Hora: COMPLAS X, (2009),
Barcelona, 23 in Index.
[4] M. Furugen, C. Hayashi: Proc. 3rd. Int. Conf. Steel Rolling, (1985),
Tokyo, 497.
[5] E.A. de Souza Neto, D. Peric, M. Dutko, D.R.J. Owen: Int. J. Solids
Struct., 33-(20-22) (1996), 3277-3296.
Figure 9. Maximum ovality while being crashed between two rolls.
587
09.08.2010 14:30:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Multi-Stage Deep Drawing Process for Rectangular Cup with Extreme Aspect Ratio
using 3003-H16 Aluminum Alloy
Beom-Soo Kang, Seong-Chan Heo, Ja-Kyung Ku, Jung-Won Park, Tae-Wan Ku
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / S. Korea, longtw@pusan.ac.kr
Main goal of this study is to develop the techniques of process design and manufacturing for a rectangular deep-drawn cup with narrow
width and extreme aspect ratio. A multi-stage deep drawing process, which requires many intermediate operations such as blanking, deep
drawing, ironing and trimming, is employed to obtain the rectangular deep-drawn cup with length of 33.70 mm, height of 48.30 mm, and
width of 3.46 mm. To achieve this rectangular cup, the process design is performed by considering shape characteristics such as the aspect and drawing ratios, and then the contact sequence between the intermediate blank and the lower die is suggested as the simultaneous
contact condition. Using the result of the process design, 3-dimensional finite element analysis is carried out for each deep drawing process
from stage 1 to stage 5, respectively. Furthermore, a series of experimental investigations are also performed to verify the analyzed results,
and each deformed intermediate blank is compared with the results of the analysis and the experiments. Resultantly, it is confirmed that the
rectangular cup with the width of 3.46 mm can be successfully obtained by using the multi-stage deep drawing process.
Keywords: Multi-stage deep drawing process, Rectangular cup, Process design, Finite element analysis, Deep drawing and ironing tools
Introduction
Recently, rectangular deep-drawn cups with extreme aspect ratios have been widely used for multipurpose devices such as mobile phones and notebook computers, and
so on [1-3]. However, due to the unpredictable explosion
phenomena of battery packs in the mobile device usage, it
is necessary to develop a more precise and safer battery
pack, and associated rectangular cup. A multi-stage deep
drawing process for shaping a flat sheet into the required
cup configuration is suitable for manufacturing the rectangular cup without failures such as tearing, wrinkling and
earing [4]. The design of the process and the initial blank
is very important for prototyping the cup, tool design and
tooling also have to be performed accurately [5,6]. The
multi-stage deep drawing process consists of several sheet
metal forming processes such as blanking, deep drawing,
ironing, sizing and trimming. Therefore, the number of the
stages in the overall process often exceeds 10 [7-9].
Main goal in this study was to develop the rectangular
cup with final specifications such as length of 33.70mm,
height of 48.30mm, and width of 3.46mm, and then the
aspect ratio as defined by L/W (length/width) was 9.73
and the drawing ratio as defined by H/W (height/width)
was 13.95. To achieve this goal, the process design was
carried out, and then 3-dimensional FE analysis using LSDYNA 3D was also performed. Furthermore, based on the
results of the process design and finite element analysis,
tools such as the deep drawing punch and the lower die
from the stage 1 to the stage 5 were developed and applied
to the experimental approach for prototyping the rectangular cup. The deformed configuration in each forming operation from the stage 1 to the stage 5 was well matched
by comparison with the results of the analysis and the
experiments.
Process Design for Multi-Stage Deep Drawing
Multi-stage deep drawing is a sheet metal forming process in which the process requires several deep drawing
operations. For the successful realization of the multi-
588
stage deep drawing, the process design is an indispensable

requirement. In addition, it may include details such as the
specifications and dimensions of the forming punch, the
lower die, and other auxiliary devices. Before the forming
and the deep drawing are designed, the consideration and
decision regarding the contact sequence between the intermediate blank and the lower die within each operation
are essential as shown in Figure 1, because it could be
affected with the interruption between the punch and the
intermediate blank by progressing the multi-stage deep
drawing process, the excessive thickness change of the
deformed intermediate blank. Table 1 shows a summary of
the contact conditions from prior research [5-9].
In the decision regarding the contact sequence of the intermediate blank with reference to the forming surface of
the lower die, the key aspect is the drawing depth in relation to the drawing ratio as defined by the final height and
width of the rectangular cup, rather than the aspect ratio.
This means that as the drawing depth progressively increases, the recommended contact sequence is the simultaneous contact condition. This can be ensured from Table
1, and the applied contact sequence was that of the simultaneous contact with the high drawing ratio about 10. On
the other hand, the sequential contact condition was employed in case that the drawing ratio was 2.64. In this
study, from these considerations, the contact condition was
determined as being that of the simultaneous contact.
Furthermore, in case that the aspect ratio exceeded 2, the
intake angle between 5 and 25, which is generally applied to the major and the minor axes with different values
of M and m as shown in Figure 2, was determined according to the final shape and the degree of the ironing
thickness of the intermediate blank in each deep drawing
stage, and adopted to each forming axis for deriving the
uniform deformation. By considering the intake angle, the
intermediate blank could be uniformly deformed by reducing the forming pressure on the contact surface between
the intermediate blank and the lower die during the process operation, and by decreasing the forming load. As for
the results, Table 2 shows the main procedure and the
intake angles from stage 1 to stage 5 in this study. The
09.08.2010 14:31:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
selected values of the intake angle on the major axis were
8 for the stage 2 and the stage 3, and 10 for the stage 4
and the stage 5, and the values on the minor axis were
15.2 for the stage 2, 16 for the stage 3 and the stage 4,
and 18 for the stage 5, respectively.
rectangular cup occurred in the stage 1 to the stage 5,

although this multi-stage deep drawing process consisted
of over 16 forming operations, the process was designed
(a) Simultaneous contact

(b) Sequential contact
Figure 1. Schematics of contact condition between intermediate
blank and lower die.
Figure 3. Final dimension of rectangular cup.
Figure 2. Deep drawing and ironing process with intake angle.

Table 1. Summary of contact conditions between intermediate
blank and lower die according to aspect ratio and drawing ratio.
Specification (LHW)
AR(L/W) DR(H/W) Contact condition
29.55mm63.40mm 5.95mm
4.97
10.66
Simultaneous
36.50mm48.45mm 4.95mm
6.79
9.79
Simultaneous
89.50mm39.30mm14.90mm
5.77
2.64
Sequential
33.70mm48.30mm 3.46mm
9.73
13.95
Simultaneous
Table 2. Summary of deep drawing procedure with drawing and

ironing, intake angle along major axis and minor axis.
Stage
No.
1
Main process
Major axis
Minor axis
Blanking+Drawing Blankking+Drawing
Intake angle(degree)
Major axis Minor axis
-
15.2
Drawing+Ironing
Drawing+Ironing
8.0
Drawing
Drawing+Ironing
8.0
16.0
Drawing
Drawing+Ironing
10.0
16.0
Drawing+Ironing
Drawing+Ironing
10.0
18.0
Figure 3 shows the final specifications of the rectangular cup with the length of 33.70 mm, the height of 48.30
mm and the width of 3.46 mm, and the aspect ratio of
about 9.73. The process sequence of the conventional deep
drawing for the circular and the square cup has been designed by using the drawing reduction rate. But, the use of
this drawing reduction rate is often improper and limited
to the non-axisymmetric rectangular cups. To overcome
this limit, the equivalent blank diameter and its area by
considering the areas of the punch and intermediate blank
at each operation were adopted in this study. Furthermore,
because the main deformation behavior for shaping the
Figure 4. Process design result for rectangular cup from stage 1 to

stage 5.

Finite Element Model. In this study, finite element
simulations from the stage 1 to the stage 5 were performed
using the explicit finite element code, LS-DYNA 3D. The
analytic scheme adopted Belytschko-Tsay brick elements
with reduced integration so that the rectangular deepdrawn cup with the extreme aspect ratio could be produced
with reasonable deformation conditions such as bending
and twisting in a reasonable computational time even
though the degree of element warpage was severe [9]. The
variational formulation for the principle of virtual work
could be written as follows;
= x i x i dV + ij i, jdV f i x i dV t i x i dS
V
St
(1)
where xi is the current coordinate system, ij is the Cauchy
stress, is the current density, fi is the body force and the
comma denoting covariant differentiation. Also, St is the
traction boundary where the traction vector xi is specified.
The initial blank was designed as shown in Figure 5. It was
modeled by the elliptic blank profiles of three circular arcs
with each direction of the major axis (RM), the minor axis
(Rm) and an additional arc (Rblank). The thickness of the initial
blank was 0.6mm, and it was discretized by two layers of
eight-node brick elements along the thickness direction to
take into account the plastic deformation and ironing effects.
And then the finite element mesh for the initial blank was
constructed with 13,863 nodes and 9,000 elements. In addi589
09.08.2010 14:31:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
tion, the initial blank material was 3003-H16 aluminum alloy,
for which the flow stress was expressed as = 358 0.21 MPa,
and the material properties were summarized in Table 3. And,
Figure 6 show the FE models for these numerical simulations
of multi-stage deep drawing process from the stage 1 to the
stage 5. The FE model consisted of the deep drawing punch,
the lower die, the blank-holder for the stage 1, the knock-out
device as well as the intermediate blank.
Table 3. Mechanical properties of 3003-H16 aluminum alloy.
Sheet material
AA3003-H16
Initial thickness (mm)
0.6
70
Yield strength (MPa)
170
Poisons Ratio
0.33
Density (Kg/mm3)
2.7910-6
Figure 5. Initial blank configuration and its mesh system.
Analysis Results. Finite element models for the tool, the

punch, the lower die and other auxiliary devices were
assumed perfectly rigid in each operation. Also, the coefficients of Coulomb friction at the interfaces between the
blank, the punch and the lower die were assumed as 0.1. A
blank-holding force of 500 N was applied in the stage 1
and removed thereafter. Instead of the blank holder, a
knock-out device was utilized in order to pull out the intermediate blank from the lower die cavity and prevent
change in the blank thickness at the bottom of the deformed blank in each operation. Figure 7 indicates the
analyzed results for each stage, when the blank is fully
drawn from the stage 1 to the stage 5, respectively. In the
stage 1, the maximum effective strain was 0.64 at the upper corner on the major axis. In the case of the stage 2 as
shown in Figure 7(b), the ironing and deep drawing processes were achieved under the side wall ironing on the
major and the minor axes, and then the maximum effective
strain was observed to be 0.58 at the upper region of the
intermediate blank on the major axis, where the die and
the punch were gradually changed by the near rectangular
shape. Figure 7(c) and (d) show the deformed shapes in
the stages 3 and 4. The side wall ironings on the minor
axis were carried out through the ironing-drawing process,
where the uniform thickness of that blank was preserved.
And then the maximum effective strains were noted to be
0.42 and 0.58 in the punch corner regions, respectively. In
the stage 5, it was completed through the ironing-drawing
process, and the excessive deformation at the flange region
on the major axis was happened because the side wall
ironing was applied on the side wall of the minor axis,
then the maximum effective strain was 0.85 around the
punch corner as shown in Figure 7(e).
Experiments
Figure 6. FE model for multi-stage deep drawing process.
(a) Stage 1
590
Tool and Punch. Using the results of the process design

and the finite element analysis for the rectangular cup of
the multi-stage deep drawing process in this study, the
tools such as the forming and drawing punch, the lower
die for each stage were fabricated as shown in Figure 8,
respectively. As can be seen in Figure 8, it could be found
that the cross-sectional shapes of the tools from the stage 2
to the stage 5 were gradually changed the elliptic configu-
(b) Stage 2
(c) Stage 3
(d) Stage 4
(e) Stage 5
Figure 7. Effective strain distributions of fully-drawn intermediate blank from stage 1 to stage 5.
09.08.2010 14:31:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
ration to the rectangular one. These forming and deep
drawing tools were applied to the experiments.
the side wall ironing and the drawing along the direction
of the minor axis. For the stage 5, this process was mainly
performed by the ironing process. Figure 9 shows the
overall deformed shapes from by FE simulation and the
experimental approach from the stage 1 to the stage 5, and
illustrates the experimental results. Furthermore, Figure
10 depicts the final product by using the tool sets developed in this study.
Conclusions
(a) Stage 2
(b) Stage 3
(c) Stage 4
(d) Stage 5
Figure 8. Development of each forming punch and lower die.
In this study, to obtain the sound prototype of the rectangular cup with the width of 3.46 mm and the aspect
ratio of 9.73, a systematic approach including the process
design, the rigid-plastic finite element analysis, and the
experiments for the multi-stage deep drawing process was
adopted. For the contact sequence of the intermediate
blank with reference to the forming surface of the lower
die, the simultaneous contact condition was suggested and
applied to obtain the sound deformation of the intermediate blank and the final prototype. Based on the results of
the process design, finite element analysis was carried out,
and validated the results of the process design. Furthermore, based on the process design and the numerical investigation, the tools such as the punch and the lower die
were developed and applied to the experimental approach
for prototyping the rectangular cup. Finally, it was ensured
that the deformed configurations in each deep drawing
operation from the stage 1 to the stage 5 were well
matched through comparison with the analytic and the
experimental results.
Acknowledgements
Figure 9. Analytic and experimental deformed configurations of

rectangular deep drawing from stage 1 to stage 5.
This work was supported by Basic Science Research

Program through the National Research Foundation of
Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (KRF-2008-313-D00052). And the
first author would like to acknowledge the partial support
by the NRL Program (No. R0A-2008-000-20017-0), and
the NCRC Program (No. R15-2006-022-02002-0).
References
Figure 10. Final product by multi-stage deep drawing process.
Experiments of Multi-Stage Deep Drawing. To prototype the rectangular cup, the experiment was carried out
using a progressive press. In the experiments, the stage 1
with the blanking and deep drawing was achieved through
the sinking process. The stage 2 was performed in the
drawing with the side wall ironing of the major axis and
the minor axis. And the stages 3 and 4 were needed to
achieve uniform thickness of the intermediate blank under
[1] S.K. Esche, M.A. Ahmetoglu, G.L. Kinzel, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 98 (2000), 17-24.
[2] F.K. Chen, S.Y. Lim: International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 34 (2007), 878-888.
[3] C.H. Toh, S. Kobayashi: International Journal of Machine Tool
Design and Research, 25 (1985), 15-32.
[4] N. Kishor, D.R. Kumar: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
130-131 (2002), 20-30.
[5] T.W. Ku, B.K. Ha, W.J. Song, B.S. Kang, S.M. Hwang: Journal of
Materials Processing Technology, 130-131 (2002), 128-134.
[6] C.S. Park, T.W. Ku, B.S. Kang, S.M. Hwang: Journal of Materials
[7] T.W. Ku, Y. Kim, B.S. Kang: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 187-188 (2007), 197-201.
[8] B.S. Kang, W.J. Song, T.W. Ku: International Journal of Advanced
Manufacturing Technology, doi:10.1007/s00170-009-2498-5.
[9] D.P. Flanagan, T. Belytschko: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 17 (1981), 679-706.
591
09.08.2010 14:31:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
Reduction of Wrinkling and Crack of Sheet Forming Based on Least Square Support
Vector Regression and Cross Validation Sampling Approach
Hu Wang, Guangyao Li
The State Key Laboratory of Advanced technology for vehicle design and manufacture, College of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering,
Hunan University, Changsha, 410082 China, wanghuenying@hotmail.com
A metamodel assist optimization method by integration of least square support vector regression and cross validationbased sampling
strategy is introduced to reduce wrinkling and crack of sheet forming. Compared with other metamodeling techniques, the least square
support vector regression is based on principle of structural risk minimization as opposed to the principle of empirical risk minimization in
conventional regression techniques. Therefore, the accuracy and robust metamodel can be achieved. The cross validationbased sampling
method is a new developed online design of experiment. The characteristic of this strategy is to generate new samples automatically according to responses of evaluations. The advantage of the proposed method is that number of samples and design space can be well
controlled. To minimize both of wrinkling, crack and thickness deformation efficiently, the proposed method is employed as a fast analysis
tool to surrogate the time-consuming finite-element procedure in the iterations of optimization algorithm. An example is studied to illustrate
the application of the approach proposed, and it is concluded that the proposed method is potential for sheet forming optimization problems. .
Keywords: Least square support vector regression, Cross validation, Metamodel, Sheet forming, Optimization
Introduction
Recent years, finite element analysis and optimization
techniques are extensively applied in sheet metal forming
process to improve design quality and shorten design cycle.
However, most practical engineering problems in this filed
involve combination of material or geometrical nonlinearities, complex geometries, and mixed boundary conditions.
Therefore, the computation burden is often caused by
expensive analysis processes to reach a comparable level
of accuracy as physical testing data. To overcome such a
challenge, metamodeling technique is often used. The
metamodeling technique has been elevated from various
engineering disciplines. They are then found to be a valuable tool to support a wide scope of activities in modern
engineering design, especially in design optimization.
Metamodeling technique evolves from classical design of
experiment theory, in which polynomial functions are used
as response surfaces, or metamodels. Other types of models include Kriging, radial basis functions, multivariate
adaptive regression splines, moving least square [1], There
is no conclusion about which model is definitely superior
to others. Recently, a new modeling algorithm called support vector regression was used and tested [2-3]. Recent
surveys showed that the support vector regression can
achieve more accurate and robust performance than most
of popular metamodeling techniques over a large number
of test problems. Compared with other metamodeling
techniques, the support vector regression is based on principle of structural risk minimization as opposed to the
principle of the empirical risk minimization in conventional regression techniques. Least square support vector
regression involves equality instead of inequality constraints and works with a least squares cost function [4].
This reformulation greatly simplifies the problem in such a
way that the solution is characterized by a linear system.
In this study, the least square support vector regression
is used to establish the metamodel. Furthermore, in order
to improve the efficiency of construction of the least
592
square support vector regression-based metamodel, an

intelligent sampling method based on cross-validation
strategy is integrated with the least square support vector
regression and used to control the number of samples and
reduce the intervals of design space. Finally, the platform
of the least square support vector regression metamodeling
technique is established and successfully applied for sheet
forming optimization applications.
Least Square Support Vector Regression
Consider a problem of approximating a set of N sam-
{xl , yl }lN=1
ples
with
(1)
with input data
xl and output data
yl and corresponding response as presented in Eq.
D = {( x1 , y1 ), (x2 , y2 ) (xl , yl ) ( xN , y N )},
(1)
xl R n , yl R
The optimization problem in primal weight space can be

expressed as
Min J ( w, ) =
w ,
subjected to
1 T
1 N
w w + l2
2
2 l =1
(2)
y l = wT ( xl ) + b + l , l = 1,2, N
(3)
with () = R R a kernel that maps the input space

into a so-called higher dimensional (possibly infinite
n
nh
dimensional) feature space. Weight vector w R h in

primal space, error variable l R and bias term is b. The
cost function J consists of a sum square errors fitting error
and regulation term. The relative importance of the structural risk minimization and empirical risk minimization
terms is determined by the positive constant .
The model of primal space can be presented as follows
y ( x) = wT ( x) + b
(4)
09.08.2010 14:31:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
The weight vector w can be of infinite dimension, which
makes a calculation of w from Eq. (2) impossible in
general. Therefore, one computes the model in the dual
space instead of the primal space. The Lagrangian multiplier expression applied for Eqs. (4) and (5) is obtained as
( w, b, , a ) = J ( w, ) al wT ( xl ) + b + l yl (5)
l =1
with the Lagrangian multipliers al, the criteria satisfied by

the optimal solution can be written as
N
(( w, b, , a ) )
= 0 w = a l ( xl )
w
l =1
N
(( w, b, , a) )
= 0 al = 0
(6)
b
l =1
(( w, b, , a ) ) = 0 a =
l
l
(( w, b, , a ) ) = 0 wT ( x ) + b + y = 0
l
l
l
a
These conditions are similar to standard support vector

regression optimality conditions, except for the condition
al=l.
After elimination of w and , the solution is obtained as
0
I T b 0
(7)
1
=
I + I a y
where
y = [ y1 , y 2 , y N ]
(8.1)
I = [1,1, 1]
a = [a1 , a 2 , a N ]
(8.2)
i , j = ( xi ) ( x j ) for i, j = 1,2, N
(8.4)
(8.3)
There exists a mapping () and an expression can be

written as
(9)
K ( x, y ) = i ( x ) T i ( y ) ,
If and only if, for any g(x) such that g ( x ) dx is finite,

one has
K ( x, y) g ( x) g ( y)dxdy > 0
(10)
As a result, the kernel K(,) such that
K ( xi , x j ) = ( xi ) T ( x j ), for i, j = 1,2, N
(11)
The final LS-SVR model for function estimation is obtained as

N
y ( x ) = a l K ( x, x l ) + b
(12)
l =1
where al and b are the solutions of Eq. (7). In this study,

we focus on the choice of radial basis functions kernel K ( xi , x j ) = exp( xi x j
) for the sequel.

2
Integration of Intelligent Design of Experiment Scheme
computational consumption of the forward simulation.

Hence, an efficient intelligent boundary, better-sample-set
and cross-validation searching scheme is proposed to
generate samples.
Boundary, Better-Sample-Set and Cross Validation
Sampling Scheme. The detials of boundary, bettersample-set and cross-valditon sampling scheme are
presented as follows.
1. The Latin hypercube sampling is implemented to generate the sparsely distributed initial samples in the
given design space;
2. The preliminary design simulations are performed with
the initial samples;
3. Find the maximum root of mean square error by
=Max{ root of mean square error } sample according
to the K-fold cross-validation
4. Find the best sampleXBestj according to response values
of objective functions;
5. Generate the new sample according to Eqs.(13-14) and
the better-sample-set and cross-validation searching
scheme is presented in Figure. 1.
X jN k = X Best
+ X Best
X kBoundary
j
j
X jN m = X Cj + X Cj X mBest
) ( R()X ( )
RX
+R X
Best
j
Boundary
k
Boundary
k
) ( R)(X ( ) )
R X +R X
C
j
Best
k
Best
m
(13)
(14)
where R() denotes response values obtained from

evaluations, XNkj, denotes the location of the new sample
generated by the kth boundary sample with the best sample
at the jth iteration; XNmj, denotes the location of the new
sample derived from the mth maximum root of mean
square value sample with the best sample at the jth
iteration; XCj, is the the maximum root of mean square
error sample at the jth iteration; XBoundaryk, is the kth
boundary sample.
The definitions-of superscripts are described as:
Nearest
the nearest sample from the current sample
Boundary
boundary of design space
the sample which has the best response
Best
value of objective function
Compared with other popular sampling approaches, the
main characteristic of the better-sample-set and crossvalidation searching scheme is to generate samples by
consideration of boundary samples and validation criterions.
6. If the location of the new sample has been generated or
is outside of the given intervals, the best sample should
be substituted by the current sample, and the procedure
goes back to step 3;
7. Construct the metamodel based on updated samples;
8. If
) (
R (X )
R X Best
R X Best
j
j 1
Best
j
, (0,1)
(15)
then procedure ends, else the procedure goes to step 2.
The training sample set for the least square support vector regression is commonly generated by the neural net. If
such method is used to generate samples, the training
procedure might be difficult to convergence, especially for
large scale nonlinear problems due to the long
593
09.08.2010 14:31:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
hi hi
n
k
(16)
f h = f hi with f hi = e i 0
i =1
h0
where h0i , hei are the initial and final thicknesses of the ith
element, n denotes the number of elements, the coefficient

k=2, 4, 6 . . . is introduced to emphasize the extremes of
the objective function. The minimization of the objective
function Eq. (16) and to attenuate the thickness variations.
Therefore, it allows improving of the work piece
feasibility; because a crack is always preceded by a high
thinning and wrinkling is always preceded by a high
thickening in practice.
1
Major strain
w ( 2 )
Crack
s ( 2 )
w ( 2 )
1e
Wrinkling
s ( 2 )
S2
2e
Minor strain
Figure 1. Illustration of forming limit curve.
In order to evaluate possibility of wrinkling, cracking

etc. strains in the formed component are analyzed and
compared against forming limit curve (see Figure 1) as the
second objective function. This curve is extracted from
biaxial strain tests, for example via the Erichsen test. The
test specimen of the material has been drawn until crack or
diffuse necking. We define two forming limit curves in the
principal plan of logarithmic strains proposed by Hillman
and Kubli [6].
(17)
1 = s ( 2 ), 1 = w ( 2 )
where s is to use control the crack phenomenon, w is

used to control the wrinkling. Both of them depend on the
material; they are generally given as knots data in tables.
Then, they are defined as safety domain presented in Figure 1 by Eq. (18)
s ( 2 ) = s ( 2 ) s1
(18)
w ( 2 ) = w ( 2 ) + s 2
where s is called the safety tolerance, take from the true
forming limit curve, s(2) and w(2) are the bounds of
safety domain. This tolerance is constant during the
optimization process and defined by engineers. Therefore,
the second objective function f is defined for each element
(1,2) by the tolerance between the actual strain 1
594
obtained by computation and the safety forming limit

curve for a given strain 2.
1
n
k
f = f i with
e =1
i
f = e ( e ) k for e > ( e )
1
s
2
1
s
2

k
i
e
e
e
e
f
(
)
for
(
=
<

1
w
2
1
w
2)
f i =0
otherwise

(
(
) [
) [
(19)
]
]
where the coefficient k=2, 4, 6 . . . is introduced here to

emphasize the extremes of the objective function.
The multi-objective function given in Eq.(20) is used in
this work.
(20)
f = w1 f h + w2 f
in which,w1 and w2 are weighting factors and w1+w2=1, fh
and f are the square mean values in each design variables
condition. In this work, w1 and w2are set to 0.5, k is set to 4.
Numerical Example
Finite Element Model. The finite element model composed of 4583 shell elements is simulated by LSDYNA
(see Figure 2). The blank measures 1640mm1330mm,
the thickness t0=0.8mm. The material used to produce this
part is a high carbon stainless steel, modeled by an isotropic hardening of KrupkowskySwift =K(+0)n,
strength coefficient K=687.1MPa, strain hardening exponent n=0.255, and 0 denote effective plastic strain and
offset yield strain respectively, Youngs modulus
E=2.06GPa, Poisson ratio v=0.3, yield stress s=137MPa,
friction coefficient =0.125. During the simulation process,
the tools are treated as rigid objects without any elastic
deformation. The upper die moved from up to the lower
binder at 2m/s, then the die and binder began moving
down at 5m/s until the die and punch are totally closed.
Blank
1640mm
133
0m
m
Objective Functions for Reduction of Wrinkling and

Crack
In order to predict value of wrinkling and crack, the
objective functions based on thickness and forming limit
diagram are calculated by the numerical simulation results.
The first objective function of sheet forming problem is
based on thickness variation between the initial and final
state [5].
Die
Blank holder
Punch
Figure 2. Finite element model of the decklid exterior panel

drawing.
Design Variables. The drawbead is one of important parameters to control the material. Very strong restraining
forces preventing sheet from drawing-in and may cause
necking, but insufficient forces may lead to wrinkling. The
drawbead geometry modeling will lead to a large number
of elements on the small radii of drawbeads, in addition,
positions and shapes of drawbeads require several modifications during forming tool design, so that drawbeads are
often replaced by equivalent restraining forces in the sheet
metal forming simulation. To avoid wrinkling, usually a
09.08.2010 14:31:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
predefined blank holder force is applied to the flange areas
of parts. When selected properly, the blank holder force
could eliminate wrinkles and delay crack in the drawn part.
Thus, the drawbeads and the blank holder force should be
the design parameters in this study.
Finally, the equivalent restraining forces and blank
holder forces are as design variables in this study and the
corresponding constraints of them are presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Design variables and constraints, initial values (ERF:
equivalent restraining forces, unit (N/m), BHF: blank holder force
unit (KN), DV: Design variables; UB, Upper bound; LB, Lower
bound, IV, initial value).
DV
UB
LB
IV
ERF1
150
50
100
ERF2
150
50
100
ERF3
150
50
100
ERF4
150
50
100
BHF
150
280
215
Optimization Results. The Latin hypercube sampling is

used to generate the initial samples. The boundary, bettersample-set and cross-validation searching scheme is
applied to generate updated samples and is used to
establish the metamodel by the least square support vector
regression. Finally, the established metamodel is
optimized by particle swarm optimization. To validate the
optimized results, the optimized design variables are
calculated by the finite element method. The final
optimum design variables by the Hyperstudy and the
proposed approach are listed in Table 2.
the efficiency and accuracy of optimization for highly

nonlinear problems, several benchmark tests are
approximated by the proposed approach.
Based on above improvements, the structure of the least
square support vector regression metamodeling technique
as described in section 2. Finally, the proposed
metamodeling technique is applied to design the drawbead
and geometric of metal forming system. The validation of
the finial results show that the least square support vector
regression metamodel optimization is well suited for metal
forming design. These new methods need to be further
tested on larger examples with more design variables and
to extend other nonlinear problems fields.
(a) Forming limit diagram with initial variables
Table 2. Optimum design variables((ERF: equivalent restraining

forces, unit (N/m),BHF: blank holder force unit (KN)).
Optimization methods
Hyperstudy
BBCS-based LS-SVR
ERF1
89.2
94.2
ERF2
100.8
98.2
ERF3
110.5
100.7
ERF4
98.8
95.1
BHF
232.8
246.2
The forming limit diagram obtained at the end of the

optimization process with initial values is shown in Figure
3(a). It is found that there is a large amount of points
above the safety forming limit curve. It means that a
crack should occur. The optimum forming limit diagram
obtained by the proposed approached is presented in
Figure 3(b). There is no crack risk point. Although there
are still several wrinkle points out of safety forming limit
curve, all these points are out of product segment and
wont influence on the quality of the product. Additionally,
the maximum obtained thickness variations are +54.13%
and -37.36% before optimization. The maximum obtained
thickness variations by the proposed approach are
+18.26% and -12.96%.
Conclusions
The main characterstics of the proposed techniques are

summarized as follows:The intelligent better-sample-set
and cross-validation searching scheme sampling scheme is
employed to generate samples at the stage of design of
experiment as described in section 3. In order to validate
(b) Optimum result obtained by proposed approach

Figure 3. Forming limit diagram comparison.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science

Foundation of China (NSFC) under grant number
10902037.
References
[1] G.G. Wang, S. Shang: Journal of mechanical design, 129-4 (2007),
370-380.
[2] S.M. Clarke, J.H. Griebsch, T.W. Simpson: Transactions of ASME,
Journal of Mechanical Design, 127-6 (2005), 1077-1087.
[3] H. Wang, E. Li and G.Y. Li: Materials and Design, 30-5 (2009),
1468-1479.
[4] J.A.K. Suykens, T.V. Gestel, J.D. Brabanter, B.D. Moor, J. Vandewalle: Least Squares Support Vector Machines, World Scientific,
Singapore, (2002).
[5] Y.Q. Guo, J.L. Batoz, H. Naceur, S. Bouabdallah, F. Mercier, O.
Barlet: Comput Struct 2000; 78(13),13348.
[6] M. Hillman, W. Kubli: Numisheet 99, Besanc France, 1 (1999),
287292.
595
09.08.2010 14:31:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Prediction of Forming Limits Considering Temperature and Strain Rate Effects for
Magnesium Alloy Sheet Based on Local and Diffuse Plastic Instability Conditions
Woo-Jin Song1), Seong-Chan Heo2), Young-Seop Byun2), Tae-Wan Ku2), Beom-Soo Kang2), Jeong Kim2)
1)
Industrial Liaison Innovation Center, Pusan national University, Busan / Korea, woodysong@pusan.ac.kr;
Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea
2)
Department of Aerospace
The reasonable formability evaluation can be defined whether or not there is fracture or necking initiation in the final forming product. Since
tearing is a consequence of necking, which is a condition of local instability under excessive tensile stresses, it is an important issue to
predict the necking initiation before designing the details of forming processes. Especially, the magnesium alloy sheets have been restricted
in terms of the forming capability at room temperature due to the inherent limited slip planes. However, the magnesium alloy sheet materials have good ductility and drawability at the elevated temperature environment from 150 C to 300 C. Therefore, the forming limit should
be evaluated prior to the practical application of these materials in sheet metal forming processes. The formability in sheet metal forming
processes can be described by limit strains and stresses based on analytical approach or a series of the corresponding experiments. Analytical forming limits for the magnesium alloy in sheet metal forming, which can reflect temperature, strain and strain rate effect, are discussed in this paper. Experimental data of stress-strain relationship and flow stress model of the magnesium alloy sheet proposed by Takuda et al. (Journal of Materials Processing Technology, Vol.164-165, 2005, pp.1258-1262) are used. To predict the initiation of necking
phenomenon, Swifts criterion for diffuse plastic instability and Hills criterion for local plastic instability are adopted based on Hills general
theory for the uniqueness to the boundary value problem. Forming limits are predicted in four kinds of temperature levels (150, 200, 250
and 300 C) at each pre-assigned strain rate level (0.2, 2 and 20 mm/s). It is concluded that these forming limits can play a feasible role to
design the sheet metal processes in the sheet metal forming industry.
Keywords: Magnesium alloy sheet, Plastic instability, Forming limit diagram, Temperature-compensated strain rate, Flow stress
Introduction
The reasonable formability evaluation can be defined
whether or not there is fracture or necking initiation in the
final forming product. Since tearing is a consequence of
necking, which is a condition of local instability under
excessive tensile stresses, it is an important issue to predict
the necking initiation before designing the details of forming processes. Especially, the magnesium alloy sheets have
been restricted in terms of the forming capability at room
temperature due to the inherent limited slip planes [1].
However, the magnesium alloy sheet materials have good
ductility and drawability at the elevated temperature environment from 150 to 300 C [1]. Therefore, the forming
limit should be evaluated prior to the practical application
of these materials in sheet metal forming processes.
The formability in sheet metal forming processes can be
described by limit strains and stresses based on analytical
approach or a series of the corresponding experiments.
The forming limit diagram (FLD), which concept was
initially suggested by Gensamer and matured by Keeler
and Backhofen [2] and Goodwin [3], provides useful empirical information of forming severity in the absence of a
neck or any kinds of defects [4]. The FLD models include
the diffuse instability criterion described by Swift [5] that
appears to qualitatively define the characteristic shape of
the strain-based FLC for positive minor strains. In addition,
Hill [6] explains the relationship between the r value of
the material and the angle between the through-thickness
neck direction and the uniaxial tension axis. Then, Stoughton [7, 8] discovered the effect of strain path and proposed
that it is necessary to use the forming limit stress diagram
(FLSD) in all forming operations, including the first draw
die, in order to get a robust measure of forming severity.
596
However, the research on the forming limits for the magnesium alloy sheets has been fewer reported until now.
In this paper, analytical forming limits for the magnesium alloy in sheet metal forming, which can reflect temperature, strain and strain rate effect, are discussed. Experimental data of stress-strain relationship and flow stress
model of the magnesium alloy sheet proposed by Takuda
et al. [1] are used. To predict the initiation of necking
phenomenon, Swifts criterion for diffuse plastic instability and Hills criterion for local plastic instability are
adopted based on Hills general theory for the uniqueness
to the boundary value problem. Forming limits are predicted in four kinds of temperature levels (150, 200, 250
and 300 C) at each pre-assigned strain rate level (0.2, 2
and 20 mm/s). It is concluded that these forming limits can
play a feasible role to design the sheet metal processes in
the sheet metal forming industry.
Stress-Strain Relationship of Magnesium Alloy Sheet
Flow Stress Modelling. Commercial magnesium-based
alloy AZ31 (Mg-3% Al-1% Zn) sheet are selected in this
paper. To obtain the stress-strain relationship, the uniaxial
tensile tests were carried out in four kinds of temperature
levels (150, 200, 250 and 300 C) at each pre-assigned
strain rate level (0.2, 2 and 20mm/s) [1]. A flow stress
model of this magnesium alloy sheet proposed by Takuda
et al. [1] was given by
= K n ( / 0 )
K=
(1)
3.24e05
406
t
n = 0.016log( / 0 ) +C ,
C=
62.0
+ 0.053
t
09.08.2010 14:31:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. Effective strains at fracture in various temperatures and
cross head speeds [1].
Q
Z = exp
RT
where R is the universal gas constant (8.31 J mol-1K-1), T

is the absolute temperature, and Q is the activation energy
for the deformation (135 kJ mol-1) [10]. The relationship
between the effective fracture strain and Z in ln-ln scale is
described in Figure 2. These experimental data except two
measured points have nearly linear relationship in natural
logarithm domain. The curve-fitted linear function in natural logarithm domain of the effective fracture strain and Z
can be also shown in Figure 2.
Cross head speed [mm/s]
Temperature [C]
2.0
20.0
150
0.62350
0.61058
0.51992
200
0.85372
0.56611
0.60482
250
0.98561
0.86899
0.96017
300
0.98681
0.97466
0.86478
Effective Strain at Fracture

(ln scale)
0.2
1.000
Analytical Evaluation of Forming Limits

From the constitutive equation the ratios of the plastic
strain increment are defined by
dij =
f = 3.57598263 [ Z
-0.05014
Z [Temperature-Compensated Strain Rate] (ln scale)

Figure 2. Relationship between temperature-compensated strain
rate and effective strain at fracture in tensile test.
(1)
where 1 and 2 are the in-plane principal stresses.

The plastic strain increments are given by considering
the normality condition, incompressibility condition and
the equivalent work definition, and thus expressed as follows:
4 2
d1 + d22 + d1d2
3
d 1
d1 = 1 2
2
d =
Fracture Strain Modelling. Effective strains at fracture

in uniaxial tensile tests are shown in Table 1. To determine
the relationship among the effective fracture strain, temperature and strain rate, the temperature-compensated
strain rate, which has the combined effect of temperature
and deformation speed, are introduced in this paper. The
temperature-compensated strain rate term, Z, can be defined as follow [9]:
Effective Stress
250
2008C
200
2508C
150
100
3008C
50
0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Effective Strain
d2 =
0.8
1.0
d
1

2 2 1
where d1 , d2 and d3 are plastic strain incremental components along each principal directions.
Local Necking Criterion for Sheet. Hills local necking
1508C
250
300
2008C
200
2508C
150
100
3008C
50
0
0.0
0.2
(5)
d3 =[ d1 + d2 ]
300
1508C
(4)
= 12 +22
1 2
where t is the dimensionless temperature, t =T [ K] /1.0[ K] , and

-1
0 is defined by 1.0 s . The relationships between true
stress and strain values in various temperatures and cross
head speeds are illustrated in Figure 1. In this figure, the
experimental results are expressed by circle line and solid
line describes the calculated values from Eq. (1). As
shown in this figure, this material has better ductility in
high temperature and forming speed region than relatively
low temperature and forming speed.
300
(3)
where is the effective stress, is the plastic multiplier,

and f is the plastic potential identified as the scalar function that defines the elastic limit surface. From the Von
Mises yield criterion for anisotropic materials and under
plane stress condition ( 3 0 ), the effective stress for the
isotropic materials can be written as follows:
2.14644E14
105
m = + 0.303
t
f (,Y)
d
ij
Effective Stress
0.368
Effective Stress
(2)
0.4
0.6
Effective Strain
0.8
1.0
2008C
1508C
250
2508C
200
150
3008C
100
50
0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Effective Strain
0.8
1.0
(a) Cross head speed 0. 2mm/s

(b) Cross head speed 2.0 mm/s
(c) Cross head speed 20.0 mm/s
Figure 1. Flow stress curves of magnesium alloy sheet at various temperatures and strain rates [1].
597
09.08.2010 14:31:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
criterion is introduced as the plastic instability condition
and then, onset of plastic instability is assumed to occur
when the following constraint is satisfied: d1 =1(d1 + d2) .
Assuming that the stress ratio remains fixed the deformation of the neck, d2 =2(d1 + d2) is also satisfied [11]. From
Eqs. (3) and (4) and the instability constraints mentioned
previously, the variation of the effective stress deduced as
(1+)
d =d
2 1/ 2
2(1 + )
cases, it is necessary to introduce the critical strains 1c , 2c

along the in-plane principal directions, respectively. With
the given flow stress model of the magnesium alloy sheet,
m
= K n ( / 0 ) , at the pre-assigned T , level, Eqs. (7) and
(9) can be written as
1 1 d n i
=
= =
(i = L, D)
Zi d i
(6)
where n is function of T , . Assuming the proportional

loading, thus the equivalent strain can be described as
where is the stress ratio, 2 1 . Thus, the following instability criterion in terms of sub-tangent Z for isotropic
materials is obtained
1 1 d
(1+)
=
= L
ZL d 2(1 +2)1/ 2 L
= {12 +22 +12} =1

3
(7)
(2 1)2 + (2 )2
d =d
2 3/ 2
4(1 + )
ments, d2 d1 . According to Eqs. (10) and (11), the limit

strains based on the plastic instability yield as
1c =
Forming Limit Curves & Surfaces. Figures 3 and 4

show the forming limit curves based on the limit strains
and stresses using the flow stress model and the measured
0.8
0.8
0.8
Major Strain
1.0
Major Strain
Major Strain
1.0
0.4
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.6
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.0
-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
0.0
-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2
300
300
100
200
300
400
Minor Stress
(a) Cross head speed 0.2 mm/s
598
Major Stress
300
Major Stress
400
100
0.2
0.4
0.6
200 C
o
300 C
0.8

Figure 3. Forming limit curves based on limit strains.
400
200
0.0
200 C
o
300 C
Minor Strain
Minor Strain
400
0
-100
FLC at necking
o
150 C
o
250 C
FLC at fracture
o
150 C
o
250 C
0.2
Minor Strain
(13)
( )
1.0
0.2
Major Stress
( )
c n / m
1 (
0 ) c 1 c
c 4
2 = K
2 + 1
2
(9)
0.6
(12)
c n m
4 1 ( / 0 ) c 1 c
= K
1 + 2
2
c
1
Limit Strains and Limit Stresses for FLD. To obtain

forming limit curves in terms of strains for the above two
0.4
(i = L, D)
From Eq. (5), the in-plane principal stresses 1c and 2c

when the necking occurs, can be obtained as
(8)
1 1 d (2 1)2 + (2 )2 D
=
=
D
ZD d
4(1 +2)3/ 2
0.2
in
2c = 1c
Thus the plastic instability criterion based on the diffuse

necking criterion for sheet is obtained as
0.0
(11)
where is 4{1+ + 2} , and is the ratio of strain incre3
Diffuse Necking Criterion for Sheet. Swifts diffuse

necking criterion has the assumption that the condition for
plastic instability is satisfied when the load reaches a
maximum value along both principal directions: dF1 = 0 and
dF2 = 0 . This condition leads to the following simultaneous
constraints: d1 =1d1 and d2 =2d2 [5]. From Eqs. (3) and
(4) and the plastic instability constraints, the variation of
the effective stress can be written as
0.0
-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2
(10)
200
100
0
-100
100
200
Minor Stress
300
400
FLSC at necking
o
150 C
o
250
C
200
FLSC at fracture
o
150 C
100
o
250 C
300
200
100
0
-100
100
200
300
200 C
o
300 C
o
200 C
o
300 C
400
Minor Stress

Figure 4. Forming limit curves based on limit stresses.
09.08.2010 14:31:27 Uhr
1.0
0.8
0.8
0.3
in
0.6
150
0.0 0.2
0.4
r Stra
in
0.6
150
Mino
200
r Stra 0.0
in
0.2 0.4
0.6
150
[ oC]
ure
250
-0.8-0.6
-0.4 -0.2

Figure 5. Forming limit surfaces based on limit strains.
400
0.2
erat
ure
[ oC]
Mino
200
350
300
0.4
Tem
p
0.0
r Stra
-0.8-0.6
-0.4 -0.2
erat
-0.3
Mino
250
0.2
0.6
Tem
p
200
Te m
-0.6
pera
250
0.2
300
0.4
ture
300
0.4
[ oC]
0.6
0.6
Major Strain
1.0
0.8
Major Strain
1.0
Major Strai
Metal Forming
400
r Stre
300
ss
400
150
-100
Mino
200
100
200
r Stre
400
150
Due to the inherent limited slip planes of the magnesium

alloy sheets, the formability has been restricted at room
temperature. However, the magnesium alloy sheets have
good ductility and drawability at the elevated temperature
environment. In this paper, in order to predict the initiation
of necking phenomenon, Swifts criterion for diffuse plastic instability and Hills criterion for local plastic instability are adopted based on Hills general theory for the
uniqueness to the boundary value problem. Forming limits
are predicted in four kinds of temperature levels (150, 200,
250 and 300 C) at each pre-assigned strain rate level (0.2,
2 and 20mm/s). Through these analytical approaches with
the experimental results, it is noted that the forming safearea can be dominantly dependent on not necking initiation value but fracture value with respect to temperature
and forming speed from the forming limit curves based on
limits strains, and that the temperature-induced enhancedformability can not be described properly by the forming
limit curves based on limits stresses. It is concluded that
250
-100
Mino
200
100
r Stre
200
ss
300
400
150
[ oC]
300
100
u re
[ oC]

Figure 6. Forming limit surfaces based on limit stresses.
Conclusions
ss
300
200
erat
250
fracture strains. These diagrams contain not only the forming limits for necking but also those for fracture. It is
noted in Figure 3 that the forming safe-area can be dominantly dependent on not necking initiation value but fracture value with respect to temperature and forming speed
in this material, since the limit strains are almost same in
all temperature and forming speed conditions. Meanwhile,
Figure 4 shows that the forming safe-area, which is affected with increasing temperature at each forming speed
level, can not be described properly by the limit stresses.
Forming limit surfaces based on the limit strains and
stresses with temperatures using the flow stress and fracture strain can be expressed in Figures 5 and 6.
Major Stres
ture
300
100
Tem
p
200
200
e ra t
u re
200
100
p era
Mino
Te m
-100
250
300
100
300
300
Tem
p
200
[ C]
300
Major Stres
s
Major Stres
400
these forming limits can play a feasible role to design the

sheet metal processes in the sheet metal forming industry.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) NRL Program grant
funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No.R0A-2008000-10204-0). Also the fifth author would like to thank the
partial support by the Korea governments (MEST / KOTEF) through the Human Resource Training Project for
Regional Innovation
References
[1] H. Takuda, T. Morishita, T. Kinoshita, N. Shirakawa: Journal of
Materials Processing Technology, 164-165 (2005), 1258-1262.
[2] S.P. Keeler, W.A. Backhofen: Transactions of American Society for
Metals, 56 (1964), 25-48.
[3] G.M. Goodwin: SAE paper680093, (1968).
[4] M.J. Painter, R. Pearce: Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 7
(1974), 992-1002.
[5] H.W. Swift: Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 1 (1952), 118.
[6] R. Hill: Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 1 (1952), 1930.
[7] T.B. Stoughton: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 42
(2000), 1-42.
[8] T.B. Stoughton, X. Zhu: International Journal of Plasticity, 20 (2004)
1463-1486.
[9] C. Zener, H. Hollomon: Journal of Applied Physics, 15 (1944), 22-32.
[10] Z.Q. Sheng, R. Shivpuri: Materials Science and Engineering A, 419
(2006) 202-208.
[11] R. Hill: The mathematical theory of plasticity, Oxford University
Press, (1983), 323-325.
599
09.08.2010 14:31:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Investigation into Formability of Tailor Welded Blank Consisted of IF steel Sheets with
Different Thicknesses- Experiment and Simulation
Mahmoud Abbasi1), Mostafa Ketabchi1), Hamid Reza Shakeri1), Mohammad Hossein Hasannia2)
1)
Department of Mining and Metallurgy, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran / Iran, m.abbasi@aut.ac.ir; 2) Materials Research Center,
SAPCO, Tehran / Iran
Tailor welded blanks (TWBs) offer several notable benefits including decreased part weight, reduced manufacturing costs, increased environmental friendliness and improved dimensional consistency. Low formability and weld line movement during forming operation are main
limitations of these blanks. In this research, effects of forming parameters including thickness ratio (TR= thickness ratio of the thick sheet
with respect to the thin sheet), rolling direction with respect to the weld line and direction of major stress with respect to the weld line, on
formability and weld line movement of TWBs made of Interstitial Free (IF) galvanized steel were investigated. Based on the results,
formability maximized when the major stress and rolling direction were along the weld line. Simulation results verified experimental results.
Using simulation, the effect of one-piece and two-pieces blankholders on formability of TWB was studied. Results showed applying different
blankholder forces by application of the latter blankholder is an effective method for decreasing weld line movement and increasing
formability of TWBs with TR>1. It was also concluded that geometric discontinuities in the tailor welded blanks had the most important role
in decreasing formability and not the existence of weld region.
Keywords: Tailor welded blank, Formability, Weld line movement, Simulation, Forming parameters
Introduction
A Tailor-Welded Blank (TWB) consists of sheets of different thicknesses, grades, coatings and strength types
welded together to produce a single blank prior to the
forming process. TWBs offer the auto industry an excellent opportunity to reduce cost, decrease vehicle weight
and improve the quality of sheet metal stamping processes
[1]. Weld line movement and reduced formability are the
main limitation of forming these blanks. So, studying the
effect of forming parameters on formability and stressstrain distribution is important in order to maximize the
former and evenly distribute the latter as well as to
decrease weld line movement. Improving the formability
of TWBs and tools used to form those as well as simulating the forming process of TWBs, have been the ponit of
focus of many researches [2-4]. In this research, in
addition to experimental investigation of the effects of
forming parameters on formability, effect of the
blankholder force on formability (dome height, strain
distribution and weld line movement) was studied using
FEM. Also contribution of two parameters i.e., geometric
discontinuities and existence of the weld region, on reduction of formability of the studied TWBs with respect to the
monolithic sheet was determined.
Experimental Methods
The tailor welded blank material used in this study was
CO2 laser welded IF-galvanized steel alloy. Optimum
welding parameters was determined using Taguchi method
that is explained in details elsewhere [5]. Table 1 shows
the chemical composition of the steel used in this study.
All steel sheets with differetnt thicknesses (0.7, 1.2 and 1.5
mm) were collected from the same lot. To obtain true
stress-true strain data, tensile tests conducted using subsized tensile test specimens based on ASTM-E8 and special miniature tensile specimens [6], for monolithic sheets
and the weld region of the TWBs with TR=1.71, respec-
600
tively. The miniature specimen (see Figure 1) used in this

study, only included the weld and the HAZ in the gage
area. The hardness profile across the weldment, HAZs and
the thinner/thicker parent metals were established using
Vickers microhardness.
Table 1. Chemical composition of studied steel.
Element
Wt%
Ti
0.046
C
0.002
Cu
0.017
Si
0.004
P
0.015
Mn
0.149
S
0.007
All dimensions in mm
V
0.002
Ni
0.015
Cr
0.022
Al
0.033
Fe
99.682
R20
1.5
30
120
Figure 1. Specially designed tensile specimen used in this study
for obtaining mechanical properties of the weld.
Formability was assessed using the limiting dome height

(LDH) test [7]. The geometry of the specimens (125200
mm) provided a plane strain or near plane strain state
depending on the weld orientation. Schematic of the samples used in experiments is shown in Figure 2. Different
angles between weld line and rolling direction as well as
major stress direction and weld line were considered.
Clamping force on different segments of TWB was
applied using bolts and adjusted by control of the torque
on each individual bolt. Simulation of the experimental
forming process was done using a 3D-explicit dynamic FE
solver that is commonly used for solving dynamic, nonlinear large scale deformation events and processes.
Average element size of 4 mm in the base zones and 1 mm
in the weld zone with one layer of through thickness
elements were used in the simulations. The forming tools
09.08.2010 14:31:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
consisting of punch, blankholder and die were modeled as
rigid bodies. The corresponding properties/thicknesses
were also assigned to the two halves of the blank and the
weld region.
Microhardness data indicated that the width of the weld

and HAZs together can be taken as about 1 mm.
280
Hardness (HV0.8)
125 mm
200 mm
a)
b)
Try 1
Try 2
Try 3
240
200
160
120
80
-800
c)
400
800
-400
0
Distance
from
weld
center
(m)
Figure 4. Hardness variation across weld region, HAZs and parent
sheets for three blanks with TR=1.71.
d)
Figure 2. Schematic representations of samples used in experiments (Solid arrays indicate the rolling direction).

Microstructure and Hardness. The microstructure of
the weld, HAZ and parent thin sheet is illustrated in
Figure 3.
50 m
Weld region
Heat affected zone
100 m
Parent metal
Figure 3. Microstructure of weld, HAZ and parent thin sheet.
The grain size of the weld material is significantly

smaller than that observed in the monolithic sheet. In
addition, in the center of the weld grains are equiaxed
while columnar grains are observable at the sides. HAZ
consisted of very large columnar grains. Very high cooling
rate in the weld region and steep temperature gradient in
HAZ are responsible for very fine grains of the weld and
columnar growth of HAZ grains, respectively. Figure 4
shows the hardness variation across the weld region, HAZ
and parent metals. Hardness values are lower than 280
HV0.8. As can be seen from Figure 4 the hardness of the
weld region is approximately three times the hardness of
parent metals and the hardness of HAZs varies in between
the hardness of the weld and the hardness of parent metals.
Very low values of carbon in composition as well as hardness values lower than 300 HV0.8 indicates the presence of
ferrite in microstructure at different regions [8].
Forming Parameters. Effect of different TRs

(0.7/0.7=1, 1.2/0.7=1.71, 1.5/0.7=2.14) on limiting dome
height is shown in Figure 5. Values for the monolithic
sheets (0.7 and 1.2 mm thick sheets) are also included in
this figure. For all TWB specimens, the rolling direction
and also the major stretching axis were perpendicular to
the weld. For monolithic sheets, the rolling direction was
parallel to the major stress direction. It can be seen in
Figure 5 that the dome heights of parent sheets are higher
than those of TWBs. As deformation in the monolithic
sheets is relatively uniform and they have similar
properties, their formability depends mainly on their
thickness. As the thickness of a sheet increases, its formability often increases [9]. The 1.2 mm thick sheet has the
highest dome height as shown in Figure 5. The decrease in
the dome heights of TWBs compared to the parent sheets
arises mainly from non-uniform deformation in the blank
due to the difference in thickness and also the presence of
the weld bead. Any increase in TR increases nonuniformity of deformation and as a result dome height
expected to decrease. For all considered TWBs, failure
was always on the thinner side. Figure 6 is a plot of the
dome height value against the angle of major stress with
respect to the weld line and also the angle between the
rolling direction and the weld line at a constant thickness
ratio of 1.71. In Figure 6, specimens in which the rolling
direction was parallel to the axis of the major stress show
higher dome height values than the others. It relates to
development of grains during rolling. As a result of rolling,
grains in the rolling direction become elongated and work
hardened and the correspondent anisotropy coefficient
increases. Increment of anisotropy coefficient along the
major stress expands the yield surface in the major stress
direction and contracts it in the normal direction [10].
Therefore when rolling direction is normal to major stress
as yielding occurs at a low punch force, plastic
deformation initiates at small displacement of punch and
necking occurs sooner. The lowest dome height obtained
in a sample while the major stress and rolling direction
were perpendicular to the weld line.
601
09.08.2010 14:31:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
mm and the latter had a value about 29.5 mm. Effect of the
presence of weld region and geometric discontinuity on
reducing the dome height value of tailor welded blank
(with TR=1.7) compared to dome height value of 1.2 mm
thick sheet is shown in Figure 8.
Dome height (mm)
50
40
30
20
10
0
Thin
TR3 Thick
TR1 TR2
=1 =1.71 =2.14
Figure 5. Dome height values of monolithic sheets and TWBs with

different TRs. The thicknesses of thin and thick monolithic sheets
were 0.7 and 1.2 mm, respectively.
42.3 mm
40
39.8 mm
(b)
36.1 mm
30
29.5 mm
Figure 7. Fractured samples, (a) blank containing thickness variation similar to TWB without having actual weld region produced
through machining process, (b) tailor welded blank.
20
10
0
90
0
Angle of major stress with

respect to the weld line
90
Angle between the

rolling direction
and the weld line
Figure 6. Dome height values relating to blanks (TR=1.71) with

different angles of the weld line direction respect to the major
stress and rolling directions.
Figure 6 shows longitudinally welded specimens have

higher dome height values and correspondingly formability with respect to transversely welded specimens and
fracture initiated in the weld/HAZ areas in the former in
return of thin sheet for the latter. When the angle between
the major stress and the weld line is 0, due to geometry of
specimen all three parts (parent 1, parent 2 and the weld)
experience nearly the same major strain [11]. This requires
the same stress and correspondingly more force on thicker
sheet. This leads to a nearly uniform strain distribution and
minimal movement of the weld line. But, when the angle
is 90, both thinner and thicker sides and weld undergo the
same level of applied force along the major loading direction [12]. Therefore stress on the thinner sheet will be
more than stress on the thicker sheet as well as the weld
due to mainly its lower thickness. This leads to initiation
of cracks from thin parent sheet.
In a different experiment, a sample with a geometry
resembling that of a TWB was made through machining.
This sample included geometric discontinuity, but not
actually weld region, i.e., a discontinuity line like the weld
line which was perpendicular to both major stress and
rolling directions. In Figure 7 sample containing only the
geometric discontinuity and the sample containing both
weld region and geometric discontinuity after being tested
are shown. The former had a dome height value about 32.5
602
It is observed that the effect of the presence of weld

region in reducing the formability due to its properties is
rather small compared to the effect of the presence of the
geometric discontinuity in a TWB. It can be concluded
that minimizing the geometric discontinuity is an effective
method in increasing formability of TWBs. Treatments
like machining on TWBs with TR more than 1, in order to
decrease the slope of thickness variation across geometric
discontinuity are recommended.
Reduction of dome height (mm)
Dome height (mm)
50
(a)
40
Effect of weld region

6.1%
30
20
10
0
Weld & Geometry
Geometry
Figure 8. Effect of different parameters on reducing dome height

value of TWB made of 1.2-0.7 mm sheets. Reduction in dome
height was determined compared to 1.2 mm thick sheet.
Simulation. During experimental investigation of

formability of TWBs, a one-piece blankholder was used.
In an attempt to control the weld line movement
effectively, application of a split blankholder was also
simulated. The blankholder was split into two halves to
apply different forces on the thin and the thick segments of
the TWB. In Figure 9, the displacements of the weld line
points along a direction normal to the weld line for two
simulation conditions as well as the experiment are compared. Despite good agreement between curves (a) and (c)
in Figure 9, results from the experiment (curve (c)) are
higher than those obtained in simulation (curve (a)). This
can be attributed mainly to opening of the tearing line
09.08.2010 14:31:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
during the experiment while in simulation, necking was
used as the failure criterion. It can also be seen in Figure 9
that by using a two-piece blankholder and applying different forces (a force of 55kN was applied on the thin sheet
side and a 35 kN force on the thick side) the weld line
movement (about 5.5 mm) is lower than the condition of
applying the same force (35 kN) on both halves of the
blankholder (about 10.1 mm).
Displacement (mm)
11
Conclusions
10
9
(a)
(b)
(c)
8
7
Monolith blankholder-Simulation
Split blankholder-Simulation
Monolith blankholder-Experiment
6
5
8
10
6
4
Point number
Figure 9. Movement of the weld line from middle of TWB with
TR=1.7; (a) simulation- monolith blankholder, (b) simulation- split
blankholder and applying different blankholder forces, (c) experiment.
0
In Figure 10, the plots of strain distribution corresponding to the conditions mentioned above are shown respectively. The strain values correspond to the points on a path
normal to the weld line at punch travel distance of 30 mm.
It can be observed in Figure 10 if applying the same force
on blankholder for the same punch displacement, maximum value of strain is higher and strain distribution is less
uniform with respect to using the two- pieces blankholder.
0.35
Strain
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
(a)
(b)
Monolith blankholder
Split blankholder
0.00
4
0
8
12
16
20
Figure 10. Strain distribution
path normal to weld line at the
Pointonnumber
middle of TWB with TR=1.7; (a) using of one-piece blankholder
and (b) using of split blankholder.
Applying higher and lower blankholder forces on thin

and thick parent sheets of a TWB, respectively, results in
impediment of thin parent sheet deformation and easy
deformation of the latter. As a result different segments of
a TWB will nearly deform uniformly and higher
formability characteristic will be obtainable. Also weld
line movement will decrease [13]. The weld line
movement depends on distribution of strain. The more
uniform distribution of strain in the parent sheets and the
weld is, the less the movement of the weld line will be. An
important note in Figure 10 is strain distribution in the
The effect of forming properties on formability as well

as strain distribution and weld line movement of TWBs
was investigated. The TWB material used in this study
was CO2 laser welded IF-galvanized steel alloy. The effect
of using a two-pieces blankholder and applying different
blankholder force on formability of TWBs (TR>1) was
studied using simulation. It was concluded that:
1. The reducing effect of the weld region on formability of
a TWB is mainly due to the presence of a geometric
discontinuity rather than the weld itself. So reducing the
steep gradient of thickness change in TWBs with TR
greater than 1, as far as the part design permits, is highly
recommended.
2. Maximum formability of a TWB is obtained when the
weld line is positioned parallel to the major stress and
rolling direction of parent sheets.
3. Simulation results showed that applying different
blankholder forces on different segments of a TWB
consisting of monolithic sheets with different
thicknesses via using a split blankholder, decreases the
weld line movement and increases uniformity of strain
distribution and consequently improves formability.
References
0.30
0.05
weld. In Figure 10, points 10, 11 and 12 correspond to the

weld zone with point 11 is placed in the middle of weld
and points 10 and 12 are placed respectively close to the
thin and thick sheets. It can be seen in Figure 10, if using a
split blankholder, the weld shows a small amount of strain
(about 0.07). As the weld region has relatively high
strength and low ductility, less deformation in these
regions postpones fracture in the weld region or HAZ
which almost increases formability characteristic of TWBs.
[1] S. Gaied, J. M. Roelandt, F. Pinard, F. Schmit, M. Balabane: Journal

of Materials Processing Technology, 209 (2009), 383-395.
[2] S. K. Panda, D. R. Kumar: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 204 (2008), 70-79.
[3] W. Chen, G. S. Lin, S. J. Hu: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 207 (2008), 204-210.
[4] K. M. Zhao, B. K. Chun, J. K. Lee: Finite Elements in Analysis and
Design, 37 (2001), 117-130.
[5] M. Ketabchi, M. Abbasi, A. Shamili, M. A. Shafaat, M. H. Hasannia:
Proc. International congress on welding and joining (IIWC2009), Tehran, 1 (2009), 1-8.
[6] C.H. Cheng, M. Jie, L. C. Chan, C. L. Chow: International Journal of
[7] D. Banabic, H.J. Bunge, K. Phlandt, A.E. Tekkaya: Formability of
metallic materials, Springer Ltd, (2000).
[8] M. Naderi, M. Ketabchi, M. Abbasi, W. Bleck: Steel Research Int.,
81 (2010), 1-8.
[9] W.F. Hosford, R.M. Caddell: Metal Forming-Mechanics and Metallurgy, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, (1993).
[10] J.B. Kim, D.Y. Yang, J.W. Yoon, F. Barlat: International Journal of
Placticity, 16 (2000), 649-676.
[11] M.C. Stasik, R.H. Wagoner: The Minerals, Metals & Materials
Society, (1996), 69-83.
[12] Z. Marciniak, J. L. Duncan, S. J. Hu: Mechanics of sheet metal
forming, 2nd edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, (2002).
[13] A.A. Zadpoor, J. Sinke, R. Benedictus: Key Engineering Materials,
344 (2007), 373-382.
603
09.08.2010 14:31:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
Optimization of Double-Square-Slot Deep Drawing Process

Jui-Chang Lin1), Yu-Chun Chen 2) , Shih-Fong Chiou 3)
1)
Department of Mechanical Design Engineering, National Formosa University, Huwei / Taiwan, linrc@nfu.edu.tw; 2) Postgraduate,
Department of Mechanical Design Engineering, National Formosa University, Huwei / Taiwan; 3) Institute of Mechanical Engineering,
National Yunlin University of Science and Technology , Douliou / Taiwan, g9811802@yuntech.edu.tw
In a double-square-slot deep drawing process, the ear defect caused by the 3D radius anisotropy and friction among the blank, punch and
die usually resulted in a non-competitive part. In this paper, the FE and neural network methods are proposed to predict the optimal initial
blank shape and die parameters for the sheet metal forming process. The method takes the difference between the finial deformed shape
and the target contour shape into account. Combined effects of the process variables (blank shapes, blank material thickness, punch and
die clearance and punch/die radius) on the drawability and strain of double-square-slot were studied. The FE method is used to simulate
4
the deep drawing process of the double-square-slot made of a hot roll steel. Totally L9(3 ) sets of different tool geometries were used to
prepare the training data for the neural network model. Once the model for the deep drawing process is established to relate the tools
shape parameters to the drawing stress-strain. A Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm with a performance index is applied to find the optimal
blank shape for this complex deep drawing process.
Keywords: Deep drawing, FEM, Neural network method, Simulated annealing.
Introduction
Deep drawing is one of the most important processes
utilized for the shell forming. The factors that influence
the formability of 3D double-square-slot deep drawing
includes: (1) the orinital shell shape, (2) the thickness of
material, (3) the lubrication condition of workpiece, (4)
the radius of punch and die, (5) pressure of deep drawing.
These factors determine the result of the deep drawing
maximum punch load or stress-stain in drawing process.
Several numerical solutions for the deep drawing process
of non-circular components have been reported. Hasek and
Lange [1] gave an analytical solution to this problem using
the slip-line field-method with the assumption of planestrain flange deformation. Jong-Yop and Naksoo [2]
developed a roll-back method to predict the optimal initial
blank shape in the sheet metal forming process. The
method takes the different between the finial deformed
and the target contour shape into account. Yasuo [3] were
combined effects of process variable (blank shapes, tools
shape, blank material, and punch lubrication) on the
drawability of square cups. The combined effects of the
process variables were explained based on the force lines,
the types of fractured cups and the thickness strain
distribution. Lo and Lee [5] improved upon this potential
flow method by including the effect of friction and
material anisotropy. However, plastic-strain and material
hardening effects are ignored in this potential flow
approach.
Chung and Richmond [6] proposed a method of
designing blank shape using the ideal forming theory
which utilizes a deformation path corresponding to
minimum plastic work to produce the finial product. A
finite element code was developed to obtain the initial size
of the blank, the input being the finial shape of the product
and material properties. Barlat et al. [7] developed an
inverse approach coupled with mathematic programming
techniques for the optimum design of sheet forming parts.
Vijay et al. [8] proposed an effective algorithm based on
finite element simulation that is present for arriving at the
optimum blank shape for cup drawing. The methodology
604
is constructed to be as closed to realistic forming condition

as possible. Park et al. [9] proposed a method for
obtaining the optimum blank shape by combining the ideal
forming theory with a deformation path iteration method.
The deformation path method is based on the minimum
plastic.
This study simulates with different thickness of material,
the original radius and dies radius for a 3D double- squareslot process under friction into account. An abductive
network is used to model the 3D double-square-slot are
drawing process using FEM-simulation maximum stress
and maximum residual blank length under different
parameter. It has been shown that prediction accuracy in
abductive networks is much higher than that in a network
[10]. Abductive networks based on the abductive modeling
technique are able to represent complex and uncertain
relationships between input and output variables. Based on
the developed network, it shows that the maximum stress
of cup drawing can be predicted with reasonable accuracy.
The abductive network has constructed once the
relationships of bend variables are established for input
and output; an appropriate optimization algorithm with a
performance index is then carried out to search for the
optimal blank in the 3D deep drawing process. It provides
an experimental foundation on theory for the development
and application of the technologies.
Elasticity-Plasticity Model of Finite Element Method
Firstly, Arrieux [11] created the relationship between
LDR and the ultimate stress that is based the Prandle and
Reusss strain-stress theory to the isotropy material. The
simulation materials of this study are assumed to be (1)
homogenous, (2) isotropic, (3) the material observed the
Von-Mises Yield principal.
According to the theory, the equilibrium equations with
the appropriate boundary conditions can be converted to
derive the weak form of the differential equation.
Combining the symmetric characteristics *ij=*ji ,ij=ji,
ij=ji, the virtual work rate equation of updated
Lagrangian formulation (ULF).
09.08.2010 14:31:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
Slot Design of Optimum Blank Shape
Table 1. Design parameters.
The definition of the optimum blank is the minimization

of the difference between the outer contour of the
deformed blank and the target contour that indicate
residual flange of uniform size around the periphery of
product. The target contours from the outer of product and
determines an optimum blank shape using the results of
finite element simulation and Simulated Annealing (SA)
algorithm.
The main aim of this paper is to use 3D-CAD and 3DFEM to simulate and to find the optimum blank of square
cup deep drawing. The effective parameters of 3D doublesquare-slot deep drawing factors include punch/die
dimension, die/punch clearance, die/punch radius, blank
hold and material thickness. Fig.1 is an exploded view of a
typical on 3D double-square-slot FEM simulation deep
drawing die, it include punch, die blank holder, deep
drawing material and various important design parameters
(deep drawing clearance, material shape. . . etc.).
FEM Simulation
Finite element simulation was undertaken with various
material thickness and die radius for verification of the
effect of tool geometry. The tooling surface of die was
modeled using rigid-body model. And the deep drawing
material element set a 3D/Solid/8-nodes mesh. The tooling
surface was used to enforce the intermittent contact and
sliding boundary condition between the solid-material and
tooling surface. The forming material was cut blank shape
and to select the optimum blank avoid stress concentration.
Figure 1 showed as the FEM mesh of cut blank shape of
the 3D double-square-slot deep drawing material.
An orthogonal array of design parameters was selected
for the simulation (see Table1). The original radius of
die/punch were 5, 10 and 15 mm, thickness of material
were 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 mm, and the length c of BD were
50, 100 and 150mm square. And the deep drawing
parameters were shown in Table 2. The friction coefficient
was = 0.1. The material of sheet is cold-rolled steel. The
following are the material properties process variables.
The stress-stain curce is expressed by
= 575.85 X (0.00003 + ) 0.274
(1)
The Lankfork value is R = 1.69 , and the blank holding

force is 50000 N.
Punch
Holding
plane
Table 2. L9(34) experiment design parameters.
Deep Drawing Results. The Double-Square-Slot deep

drawing process was simulated by the commercial FEM
software ABAQUS. The deforming shape of the DoubleSquare-Slot from the finite element simulation is shown in
Figure 2.
Figure 2. Deep drawing process.
Abductive Network Synthesis and Evaluation

In an abductive network, a complex system can be
decomposed into smaller, simpler subsystems grouped into
several layers using polynomial function nodes. The
polynomial network proposed by Ivakhnenko [12] are a
group method of data handling (GMDH) techniques.
These nodes evaluate the limited number of inputs by a
polynomial function and generate an output to serve as an
input to subsequent nodes of the next layer. The general
polynomial function in a polynomial functional node can
be expressed as follows:
n
i =1
Material
Die
Figure 1. 3D double-square-slot assembly.
y 0 = B0 + Bi xi + Bij xi x j + Bijk xi x j x k +
where
i =1 j =1
i =1 j =1 k =1
(2)
xi , x j , xk are the inputs, y 0 is the output, and
B0 , Bi , Bij , Bijk are the coefficients of the polynomial

functional nodes.
In this paper, several specific types of polynomial
functional nodes are used in polynomial network to predict
the residual blank length in some different kind deep
605
09.08.2010 14:31:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
drawing parameters. These polynomial functional nodes
are named normalizer (N), unitizer (U), white (W), singles
(S), double (D) and triples (T) node.
To build a complete abductive network, the first
requirement is to train the database. The information given
by the input and output parameters must be sufficient. A
predicted square error (PSE) criterion is then used to
automatically determine an optimal structure [13]. The
principle of the PSE criterion is to select the least complex
yet still accurate network as possible. The PSE is
composed of two terms, that is:
PSE=FSE+KP
(3)
where FSE is the average square error of the network for

fitting the training data and KP is the complex penalty of
the network, shown as the following equation:
2
KP = CPM 2 p K
Table 3 is to compare the errors of the prediction between the deep drawing maximum equivalent stress by the
network model and FEM-simulation of the deep drawing
process. The major predicting parameters of the cut blank
length have three difference size R=12mm, 13.5mm and
14 mm, t=0.3mm,0.4mm,0.5mm. The three sets of FEMsimulated results are excluded from the 9 sets of FEMsimulation data for establishing the model. This set of
data is used to test the appropriateness of the model
established above. We can see from table 3 the maximum
error(network- predicting/network) is approximately 5.4%.
Table 3. Neural network prediction of maximum Equivalent stress
and FEM simulation compared errors (it is not included in any
original 9 sets data base)
(4)
where CPM is the complex penalty multiplier, K is a

coefficient of the network; N is the number of training data
2
to be used and P is a prior estimate of the model error

variance.
Relationship Between 3D Square Cup Deep Drawing
Parameters and Residual Blank Length
Prior to developing a residual blank model, generally a
database has to be trained, and good relationship must
exist between the parameters of the 3D square cup deep
drawing. The correct result and 3D square cup deep
drawing parameters are helpful for establishing a precise
model.
In order to establish the equation of the maximum
residual blank length the method utilizes different input
parameters (such as material-thickness(t), clearance(C),
Material corner radius (R) and die/punch radius(r)) and the
main output parameters and maximum deep drawing
equivalent stress()) for setting up of adductive network.
This paper was based on the development of the
database and the predicted of the accuracy of maximum
deep drawing equivalent stress(). A three-layer network is
synthesized automatically adductive network which is
comprised of design factors (input: various materialthickness (t), deep drawing die/punch radius(r) and corner
radius (R), die/punch clearance(C)) and output factors
(residual blank length and deep drawing maximum
equivalent stress ()). All polynomial equations used in
this network are listed in Figure 3. (maximum deep
drawing equivalent stress PSE=0.02).

The simulation is used to illustrate the process of
optimizing the geometric shape parameters. When the
weight function w=1 (the designed parameters C, R,r and t
is equal value and the weighted value =1). Fixed the
material thickness-t parameters used in the simulation
annealing algorithm are given as following: the initial
temperature Ts=100 C, the final temperature Te=0.0001,
the decaying ratio CT=0.98, the Boltzmann constant
ks=0.00667, and the upper bound of geometric shape
parameter is C= 1.5t, R=15 mm and t=0.5 mm, r=5 mm,
and the lower bound geometric shape parameter is C=1.3t,
R=11mm, t=0.3 mm, r=3 mm. Simulated annealing is
used for finding the optimal geometric shape parameter as
shown is Table 4. These assure the minimum, from the
simulated annealing equation, when the material thickness
is t=0.4 mm, finds C= 1.3t, r= 5 mm, R=15 mm, as
optimal geometric shape parameter, maximum deep
drawing equivalent stress is 167 MPa (minimum).
For the product obtained from designing to formation as
shown is table 4. It is using finite element method for 3D
square cup deep drawing analysis on approximate size,
and via the learning result of abductive network model.
Comparing with the cut blank length-C of the piece that is
physically produced from optimized geometric shape, the
error is within the range of 4.7 %.
Table 4. SA prediction of maximum residual blank length and FEM
simulation compared errors
Stress= 1.9979+ 0.0795238*node1+ 0.274719*node2

-0.28918*node4+0.745045*pow2(node1)+0.626088
*(node2)2+0.876523*(node4)2 - 0.601044*node1*node2 +
1.152*node1*node4 ;
Figure 3. Maximum equivalent stress network.
606
09.08.2010 14:31:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
References
This paper illustrates a neural network approach for

modeling and prediction of 3D square cup deep drawing
parameters.
1. Firstly, IGES files were transferred with a 3D-CAD
software which was an interface file in this paper. And
the other process software of the Partran software was
to link CAD-file and FEM software, and it was
combine die, punch, blank and deep drawing material in
an FEM file and a 3D double-square-slot deep drawing
process.
2. By comparing the value of error using the finite-element
method and abductive network prediction we choose
the 3D double-square slot deep drawing design model.
Based on the best modeling of abductive network, the
complicated relationships between the process
parameters and the minimum or maximum equivalent
stress performance can be obtained.
3. A comparison is made between the SA product and the
FEM simulation model of the 3D square cup deep
drawing process. It shows that the models fit the design
method, and the finite-element and abductive network
predictions. Therefore, the rapidity and efficiency to
determine deep drawing designing parameters for 3D
square cup deep drawing designed can successfully
improve the accuracy of the deep drawing process.
[1] V.V. Hasek, K.R. Lange: Proc. 7th NAMRC, Ann Arbor, (1979), 6571.
[2] J.-Y. Kim, N. Kim, M.S. Huh: Journal of Materials Process
Technology. 101 (2000), 31-43.
[3]Y. Marumo, H. Saiki: Journal of Materials Process Technology. 80
(1998), 427-432.
[4] F. Liu, R. Sowerby, Journal of Materials Shaping Technology, 9
(1991), 153-159.
[5] S.W. Lo, J.Y. Lee: Journal of Materials Science Engineer. 120 (1998),
302-15.
[6] K. Chung, O. Richmond, International Journal Mechanical Science,
34-7 (1992), 575-591.
[7]O. Barlat, J. L. Batoz, Y. Q. Guo, F. Mercier, H. Naceur, C. KnopfLenoier: Proc. 1996 Engineering System Design and Analysis
Conference, ASME, New York, 75 (1996), 227-234.
[8] V. Pegada, Y. Chun, S.S. Santhanam: Journal of Materials Process
Technology. 125-126 (2002), 743-750.
[9] H. Park. J.W. Yoon, D.Y. Yang, Y.H. Kim: International Journal
Mechanical Science, 41 (1999), 575-591.
[10] G.J. Montgomery, K.C. Drake: Abductive Reasoning Network,
Neuro-Computing, 2 (1991), 97-104.
[11] R. Arrieux, C. Bedrin, M. Boivin: Proc. 12th IDDRG Congress,
(1982), 24-28.
[12] A.G. Ivakhnenko, IEEE Transaction on Systems, 1-4 (1971), 364378.
[13] A.R.Barron, ed. by S.J.Farlow, Marcel-Dekker, New York, (1984).
607
09.08.2010 14:31:59 Uhr
Metal Forming
Surface Quality Improvement of Ironed Aluminum Cups by Using Surface-Modified Tools

Pongpan Kaewtatip1), Varunee Premanond1), Anak Khantachawana1), Nattapong Boonthongchan1), Ratchanee Hato1),
Nobuhiro Koga2)
1)
Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok / Thailand, pongpan.kae@kmutt.ac.th; 2) Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Nippon Institute of Technology, Saitama / Japan
The purpose of this research is to improve the quality of aluminum ironed cup surface in order to decrease the production time and the cost
of cup polishing. Adhesion between aluminum cup and die surface which causes galling is expected to be reduced by applying proper tool
surface coatings or treatments. Strip ironing and ball-on-disk tests are employed as physical simulation to select suitable types of surface
modification. Workpiece material is aluminum AQ1050 H14. The selected surface modification types were Nitriding, CrN-PVD, WC/C-PVD
and TiCN-CVD coatings. They were subsequently investigated by cup ironing process under industrial conditions. It is found that the die
coated with TiCN-CVD and WC/C-PVD layers provided satisfactory results. The adhesion problem can be decreased, whereas the galling
on the cups surface is reduced and the surface quality is superior to the cup obtained from the uncoated die.
Keywords: Cup ironing, Aluminum, Surface modified tool, Die coating, Adhesion
Introduction
Experimental Setup and Procedure
Cup ironing is the process used for the production of the

seamless-cylindrical containers such as soft drink cans or
cosmetic and perfume bottle caps. Those products have
very thin wall with precisely uniform thickness as well as
very smooth wall surface. In the real production of the
cosmetic bottle cap made of aluminum, it is found that
galling always presents at the surface of the part produced,
which caused by the adhesion of the aluminum on the
surface of the tool-steel die. It is generally known that
some materials such as aluminum and magnesium can
easily adhere or transfer to the mating surface [1,2]. In this
case, the manufacturers have to introduce the polishing
process in order to get rid of the scratches from the part
surfaces. This leads to the additional cost and lowers company competitiveness.
To increase the surface quality of the ironed parts, it is
known that controlling of the process parameter such as
ironing ratio is very important, as well as selecting proper
lubricant [1,3]. Some authors have reported the effectiveness of using dies coated with hard-thin films to prevent
galling in forming of aluminum sheet. Among those Diamond-liked-Carbon (DLC) film is found to be one of the
most effective measures even without using the lubricant
[4,5]. However those works have been done by the processes which induced low contact pressure compared to that
occurs in cup ironing. In the cup ironing operation, the cup
wall thickness is reduced when the cup is pushed through
the gap between the punch and the die that narrower than
its initial thickness. This leads to extremely high contact
pressure between the cup and the die which can easily
cause aluminum to adhere on the die surface and hence the
galling on the product surface.
Consequently, in this work, anti-galling property of various kinds of thin films and surface modifications on forming dies in cup ironing process are evaluated. Tribological
properties of those films are compared by ball-on-disk and
strip ironing tests. The appropriate films from those tests
are introduced to the die in the real production of aluminum cups, to ensure its performance.
Ball-on-Disk and Strip Ironing Tests. Workpiece material was aluminium sheet (JIS) AQ1050-H14 having thickness of 0.5 mm. The balls in ball-on-disk test and the dies
in strip ironing test were made of tool steel (JIS) SKD11
and hardened to 601 HRC. Types of coating films and
surface modifications are shown in Table 1 with their
coating or diffusing layer thickness and hardness. Ball-ondisk tests were performed using normal load of 1 N which
induced normal pressure of 445 MPa, almost the same
level as in ironing operation. The contact pressure occurring in ironing operation was obtained by FE analysis. The
tests were done using commercial tribometer of CSM
instruments. The diagram of strip ironing test is shown in
Figure 1. In order to measure the force required, the ironing equipment was mounted in the 250 kN universal testing machine.
608
Table 1. Types of coating films and surface modifications used in

ball-on-disk and strip ironing test.
Surface modification type
Film or diffusing layer

3)
Hardness4)
thickness (m)
(HV)
Non coated
720
Nitriding
150
1,100
Hard chome
28
1,000
VC-TD1)
3,070
TiCN-CVD
12
2,900
TiCN-PVD
3.8
2,400
TiN-PVD
3.3
3,000
CrN-PVD
2.9
1,750
WC/C2)-PVD
2.5
1,500
Note:
1) TD: Thermal Diffusion
2) WC/C: Tungsten doped DLC coating
3) The coating thicknesses were obtained from the observation of the
coating layer by SEM, while nitriding diffused layer was obtained from
the manufacturer.
4) Hardness of all surface modification types were obtained from the
manufacturers.
The die approach angle was 10o and the die bearing
length was 1.0 mm. The gap between back-up plate and
09.08.2010 14:32:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
dies was determined so as to reduce the sheet thickness at
the reduction ratio of 20%. The workpiece of the strip
ironing test was 15 mm width and 50 mm length (excluding the gripping length). The ironed strip surface roughness will be measured at the distance of 5, 25 and 45 mm
from the beginning. The sliding velocity of the ball against
the disk was 100 mm/min which is the same as the ironing
velocity in strip ironing experiment. Commercial lubricant
Castrol ILOFORM PN232 was used in all experiments
presented here, similar to the real production. The results
of ball-on-disk and strip ironing tests were analyzed and
discussed to select the surface modification types that have
high potential to be used in the real cup ironing operation.
Grip
Back-up
plate
Guide bearing
tion check. The average polishing time per cup will then
be compared to verify the effectiveness of die surface
modifications.
Circular blank
1st Step: Deep drawing
Deep-drawn cup
2nd Step: Redrawing + Ironing
Ironing direction
Final product
tf
Figure 2. Forming step of cups
Die
to: initial thickness

tf: final thickness
: approach angle
Workpiece
to
Figure 1. Diagram of strip ironing.
Cup Ironing Experiment. Cup ironing tests were performed by using the mechanical press machine for real
production of the cosmetic bottle cap. The forming operations were divided into two steps, i.e., 1) deep drawing and
2) the combined processes of redrawing and ironing as
shown in Figure 2. First, the blank was prepared to have
diameter of 57 mm. Then it was deep drawn by the punch
having diameter of 30.7 mm (drawing ratio = 1.8). The
clearance between punch and die was determined to be
0.55 mm (1.1to). Finally, the deep-drawn cup was ironed
and redrawn simultaneously to have the final inside diameter of 27.0 mm, the height of about 30.0 mm and the
wall thickness of tf = 0.35 mm (ironing ratio 35%).
Punches and dies used in both steps were made of coldwork tool steel (JIS) SKD11 and hardened to 601 HRC.
The approach angle and bearing length of ironing die were
determined to be the same as those of the die used in strip
ironing tests. The surface roughness of the final cup obtained was measured at the position shown in Figure 3.
The wall surface of the deformed cup can be divided into 3
different zones. From the figure, Zone A (0-5 mm from the
bottom) corresponds to the radius at the bottom of the
deep-drawn cup. Zone B (5-20 mm) seems like the orange
peel which corresponds to the free surface deformation
during the cup being deep drawn. Zone C (20-30 mm) is
luster because metal-to-metal contact between the workpiece and the die during ironing operation. The surface
roughness of the cups will be measured and analyzed for
each zone.
Each die was used to produce 100 cups. The cups were
then be polished by two skilled workers (50 cups each)
until their surface quality become acceptable by visualiza-
(a) Deep-drawn cup

(b) Ironed cup (final product)
Figure 3. Measuring positions of cup surface roughness.

Friction Coefficient from Ball-on-Disk Test. The result of friction coefficient between aluminium disks
against balls modified by various types of coating and
diffusing is shown in Figure 4. There are three types of
coating films, i.e., TiCN-CVD, TiCN-PVD and WC/CPVD, provides relatively low coefficient of friction, in
which WC/C shows extremely low value as about = 0.05.
Since WC/C is one type of DLC coating, the result obtained agrees well with the previous works [4,5]. Moreover, TiCN films both coated by CVD and PVD techniques give superior results than the other coatings. On the
other hand, the remaining surface modifications do not
show any advantage on the friction coefficient compare to
non coated ball. Especially, TiN-PVD gives the highest
value of , and even higher than non coated ball as also
reported in some works [6].
Strip Ironing Test. The force required for strip ironing
by using various surface-modification types of dies is
shown in Figure 5. The force required in the case of using
WC/C coated die is obviously lower than those of the
other cases. Compare to non coated die, WC/C required
less than 50% of ironing force. This result agrees well with
the result of the coefficient of friction mentioned above.
Moreover, by visualized observing the dies after the tests,
there is no adhesion found on the surface of the WC/C
coated die, while the adhesion of aluminum could be observed in the cases of the other dies.
609
09.08.2010 14:32:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
610
WC/C
VC-TD
TiCN-PVD
TiN-PVD
CrN-PVD
Nitriding
TiCN-CVD
5 mm
25 mm
45 mm
Initial sheet roughness

value
4
3
2
WC/C
VC-TD
TiCN-PVD
TiCN-CVD
TiN-PVD
CrN-PVD
(b) Maximum surface roughness (Rt)

Figure 6. Surface roughness of strip ironed parts.
50
25 mm
45 mm
40
30
20
WC/C
VC-TD
TiCN-PVD
TiCN-CVD
TiN-PVD
10
CrN-PVD
The average and maximum surface roughness values (Ra

and Rt) of the ironed strips obtained from various types of
dies are shown in Figure 6 (a) and (b), respectively. The
results, except for the WC/C coated die shows that the
roughness value increases with the ironing distance. Since
in this experiment, the strips are drawn upward (as shown
in Figure 1), where the lubricant easily leaks out from the
deformation area. This causes the lubrication condition
between the die and the workpiece to become almost dry
condition. The adhesion on the die surface and consequently the scratches on the specimens can be evidently
observed. Only WC/C coated die that has no adhesion
found on the die surface as mentioned previously. From
the same figure, it is also found that most of coated dies
provide the workpiece having worst surface quality than
non-coated one. The other criterion that can be used to
evaluate anti-galling performance is a number of the
scratches [7]. From the surface roughness profile of the
deformed workpiece obtained from each die, the number
of the scratches deeper than 0.5 m are detected and plotted against the types of surface modification as shown in
Figure 7. The results obtained agree well with the results
of surface roughness. There is no scratch found at ironing
distance of 5 mm for all dies used. Number of the
scratches increases with the ironing distance. WC/C coated
die provides the parts with minimum number of scratches,
while hardchrome, TiN-PVD, TiCN-PVD and VC-TD
provides the parts with a large number of scratches on the
surfaces.
Since the surface quality of the part produced is influenced by various factors including the roughness of the
dies used, the initial roughness of the dies are measured
and shown in Figure 8. All dies used in the experiments
are prepared under the same conditions, their roughness
values are also controlled in the same range before under-
(a) Average surface roughness (Ra)

6
Nitriding
Figure 5. Force required for strip ironing by using various surfacemodification types of dies.
Hardchrome
WC/C
VC-TD
TiCN-PVD
TiCN-CVD
TiN-PVD
CrN-PVD
Nitriding
Hardchrome
Non coat
200
Initial sheet roughness

value
Nitriding
400
Hardchrome
600
Non coat
800
5 mm
25 mm
45 mm
Hardchrome
1000
0.35
0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0
Non coat
Strip Ironing force (N)
1200
Non coat
Figure 4. Friction coefficient between aluminium disks against

various types of balls.
Average surface roughness: Ra (m)
WC/C
VC-TD
TiCN-PVD
TiCN-CVD
TiN-PVD
CrN-PVD
Nitridng
Hard chrome
0.04
Maximum surface roughness: Rt (m)
0.08
going the surface modification. However, surface modifications of the dies are completed under industrial conditions; their surfaces are not undergone any special treatment to control the surface roughness afterward. It is
found that the roughness values of the coated dies, except
for WC/C, increased after coating or diffusing. The roughness values of the non-coated and WC/C coated die are
obviously smaller than the others. These factors also influence the surface quality of the deformed parts, especially
in the nearly dry condition.
Number of scratches
deeper than 0.5 m
0.12
Non coat
Friction coefficient ()
0.16
Figure 7. Number of scratches deeper than 0.5m.
From the results obtained from ball-on-disk and strip

ironing tests, some surface modifications are selected to be
further examined by cup ironing operation. Since, hardchrome, TiN-PVD, TiCN-PVD and VC-TD do not show
the potential to be used for anti-galling purpose, they are
omitted to be used in cup ironing. Therefore, 5 cup-ironing
dies are prepared for Nitriding, CrN-PVD, TiCN-CVD and
WC/C coating and used in the experiments by using the
same press machine as in the real production of cosmetic
bottle caps.
09.08.2010 14:32:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
0.08
0.06
WC/C
VC-TD
TiCN-PVD
TiCN-CVD
TiN-PVD
CrN-PVD
Nitriding
Hardchrome
Non coat
0.04
0.02
Figure 8. Roughness values of dies after surface modification.
1.0
Non-coat
Nitriding
CrNTiCN-CVD
WC/C-
Deep drawn cup
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
Zone
Zone
Zone
Measuring position
Figure 9. Surface roughness of ironed cups.
0.8
0.6
0.4
WC/C
TiCN-CVD
CrN-PVD
Nitriding
Non coat
0.2
0
Table 2. Images of the surfaces of ironed cups.

Surface
modofiZone A
Zone B
Zone C
Category
cattions
Non coat
Nitriding
CrNPVD
TiCNCVD
WC/CPVD
Table 3. Average polishing time per cup by skilled workers.

Surface
Polishing time per cup (s)
modifications
Worker I
Worker II
Average
Non coat
14.7
13.6
14.2
Nitriding
15.5
14.6
15.1
CrN-PVD
13.8
13.3
13.6
TiCN-CVD
11.8
11.0
11.4
WC/C
12.2
12.8
12.5
Conclusions
Deep drawn
cup
Surface roughness at
Zone A (m)
Average surface roughness: Ra

(m)
Cup Ironing Test. The result of the surface roughness

of the ironed cups by using various types of surface
modified dies is shown in Figure 9. Zone A, B and C
corresponded to the measuring position as described in
Figure 3. The roughness value of the parts improved
obviously after ironing operation. There is not much
difference between the parts obtained from various dies.
However, the parts obtained from TiCN-CVD and WC/C
coated dies tends to have lower roughness values than
those of the others. All cups produced will be polished to
improve the surface quality before undergoing anodizing
process, the scratches have to be removed in order that
they will not cause surface defects. The rougher is the
surface quality leads to the longer of the polishing time
required. The surface around Zone A will control the
polishing time.
and WC/C. Thus, the reduction of polishing time of those

cups can be expected.
The results of average polishing time of the cup surface
are shown in Table 3. It is found that the polishing time
required for the cups produced by WC/C and TiCN-CVD
coated dies is less than that of the other dies used. This
result ensures the effectiveness of those two coatings in
the production of high-precision aluminum cups.
Visible scratches found
0.12
0.10
No scratch found
in ironing direction
Average surface roughness:

Ra (m)
0.14
The results of ball-on-disk and strip ironing tests can be

used to predetermine the optimum surface modification
types that can be effectively applied in the real
manufacturing situation. From those tests, WC/C film
show the best results while three other types of surface
modifications i.e., Nitriding, CrN-PVD and TiCN-CVD
also show the potential to be used in the cup ironing
operation. Those are further examined in the real
production of cosmetic bottle caps. As a result, TiCNCVD and WC/C reveal their effectiveness on preventing
galling and hence the production time reduction.
Figure 10. Average roughness value at Zone A of ironed parts.
References
To further analyze the influences of surface modifications, the surface roughness of the parts at Zone A is depicted in Figure 10. It is found that the parts produced by
WC/C and TiCN-CVD coated dies have noticeably low
roughness values, while those obtained by CrN-PVD,
Nitriding and non-coated dies are almost at the same level.
Moreover, by visual observation of the cup surfaces, they
can be divided into two groups, i.e., parts with and without
visual scratches found as shown in Table 2. There is no
scratch found for the parts produced by using TiCN-CVD
[1] N. Kawai, K. Dohda, M. Saito: Journal of Engineering for Industry,

114 (1992), 175-180.
[2] M. David Hanna: Wear 367 (2009), 1046-1050.
[3] T. Sato, T. Besshib: Journal of Material Processing, 83 (1998), 185191.
[4] M. Murakawa, N. Koga, T. Kumagai: Journal of Surface Coating
Technology, 76/77 (1995) 553-558.
[5] T. Sato, T. Besshib, I. Tsutsuia, T. Morimoto: Journal of Material
Processing, 104 (2000), 21-24.
[6] P. Pesch: Journal of Surface and Coatings Technology, 163-164
(2003), 739-746.
[7] J.L. Andreasen, N. Bay, M. Andersen, E. Christensen, N. Bjerrum:
Wear 207 (1997), 1-5.
611
09.08.2010 14:32:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of Blank Holder with Hydro-Elastic Segments for Deep Drawing

Claus-Peter Eckold1), Bernd-Arno Behrens1), Sven Hbner1), Fabian Lange1), Peter Groche2), Metin Ertugrul2)
1)
Institute of Metal Forming and Metal Forming Machines (IFUM), Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Garbsen / Germany, eckold@ifum.unihannover.de; 2) Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines (PtU), Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, Darmstadt / Germany
Deep drawing is broadly implemented in sheet metal processing industry as one of the most important methods of forming. A promising way
to extend the maximum drawing ratio seems to be flexible blank holder systems. This paper presents the FE-based design of a blank
holder with hydro-elastic segments for a rectangular deep drawing part and the influence to the characteristical failure modes of deep drawing processes. In addition, first validation by experimental tests with standard drawing grade steel sheet metal is included.
Keywords: Deep drawing, Elastic blank holder, Maximum drawing ratio
Introduction
Nowadays, traditionally used rigid tools have gained a
high development status. Cost-intensive multistage forming processes result from the ongoing demand for deep
drawing parts of rising complexity made of high strength
materials [1]. For further process optimization, new tooling systems have to be developed.
In corner areas material flow causes tangential compressive stresses resulting in increasing local sheet thicknesses
[1]. Rigid tools induce higher surface pressure hindering
locally the material flow from the remaining flange. Control of blank holder force has been recognized as a highly
effective technique for improving formability in various
research activities [2-5]. Further investigations showed
that elastic blank holders in general [6,7] and those consisting of a metallic diaphragm under (controlled) oilpressure in particular [8] extend the process boundaries, e.
g. raise the maximum drawing ratio. Besides the enlargement of the process window this elastic blank holder concept exhibits some properties which can be enhanced, like
one global pressure and the applicability to complex part
geometries.
In the course of a currently executed project the Institute
of Metal Forming and Metal-Forming Machines (IFUM)
of the Leibniz Universitaet Hannover and the Institute for
Production Engineering and Forming Machines (PtU) of
the Technische Universitaet Darmstadt are developing an
improved blank holder system with hydro-elastic segments
for deep drawing processes. This system attempts to overcome the disadvantages of the single diaphragm blank
holder at lower costs by having hydro-elastic segments in
the areas of the highest raise in local sheet thickness.
Deep Drawing with Rigid Blank Holder
The sheet thickness in the flange area increases during
the deep drawing process. In the case of non-rotationally
symmetric geometries the distribution of sheet thickness is
highly inhomogeneous. Corner areas show higher thicknesses in contrast to straight edges. Lower sheet thicknesses effect lower contact forces, which often lead to
wrinkling. Increased blank holder forces can avoid wrinkling but at the same time lead to reduced material flow
and therewith to intensified thinning in critical corner
612
areas. Hence, there is a conflict between the avoidance of

wrinkling and the appearance of cracking.
The segmented hydro-elastic blank holder tends to increase the contact normal stress in areas with lower sheet
thickness. The main idea of a segmented hydro-elastic
blank holder is to integrate specifically designed areas in
the blank holder in order to compensate the increasing
sheet thicknesses. The contour of the blank holder adapts
to the surface of the part flange.
The parameters effecting the design of the elastic areas
are the distribution of the sheet thickness and the real
contact area in the part flange. The design parameters of
the segmented hydro-elastic blank holder can be achieved
through a three-dimensional forming simulation of the
deep drawing process using a rigid blank holder.
FEA Model. The three-dimensional forming simulation
indicates characteristical areas with sheet thickness increase and thus identifies the required elastic areas. Furthermore, it allows the comparison of rigid tools and segmented hydro-elastic blank holder, concerning the evolution of the contact areas and the distribution of the sheet
thickness as well as the formation of wrinkling and cracks.
The analyzed part geometry is a rectangular cup with a
flat bottom. The width is W = 150 mm and the length L = 2
x W = 300 mm. The FEA simulation is implemented in
ABAQUS-Explicit. The model is composed of a drawing
die, a punch, a blank holder and the blank sheet (see Figure 1).
Punch
Initial blank
Die
Blank holder
Segmented hydro-elastic
blank holder
Rigid blank holder
Figure 1. FEA model with rigid and exemplified segmented hydroelastic blank holder.
09.08.2010 14:32:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Parameter-Value
Blank holder type
Rigid / segmented
Blank holder force
400 kN
Material
DC06
Initial sheet thickness
1 mm
Drawing ratio
1.63
Drawing depth
60 mm
0.07
Punch radius
13.5 mm
Drawing plate radius
13.5 mm
Sheet blank length
455 mm
Sheet blank width
314 mm
The blank is meshed with hexahedron solid elements

with an edge length of 2 mm and with three elements in
the thickness direction. Other parameters are shown above
(see Table 1).
Selected Results of FEA Simulation. The distribution
of the sheet thickness in the flange area as well as the
thinning in critical corner areas indicate the influence of
the process forces on the forming process as well as on the
part properties. The characteristical deviations of the sheet
thickness distribution particularly for non-symmetric part
geometries generate an inhomogeneous distribution of the
contact pressure in the flange area. However, a homogeneous distributed contact pressure is eminent in order to
avoid wrinkling.
1,14
1.14
Path 1
1,12
1.12
Sheet thickness s [mm]
1,10
1.10
Validation. Experimental values for developing of the

sheet thickness in the corners of the pressing for deep
drawing with rigid blank holder have been compared with
the results of the FEA in order to validate the FEA model.
The actual sheet thicknesses in the corners of three pressings drawn under the same conditions have been measured
with a CMM Leitz PMM 864 (Figure 3).
Measurement of 3 pressings,
material: DC 06, s0 = 1.0 mm,
rolling direction: across, lubrication on die
side: Raziol CLF180, blank holder:
quasi-rigid, force: FBH = 400 kN,
drawing depth: h = 60 mm
drawing ratio = 1.63
Developing of sheet thickness [mm]

1,3
1.3
Sheet thickness [mm]
Table 1. FEA model parameters.

Parameter
below this in a range of sEdge,Min = 1.04 mm and sEdge,Max =

1.10 mm.
The area of the sheet blank with a sheet thickness lower
than sCorner,Max = 1.12 mm is not supported by the blank
holder. The sheet blank has no contact to the drawing die
or to the blank holder. The thickness distribution perpendicular to the projection path 1 denotes additional areas in
the flange without contact between the sheet blank and the
blank holder (not displayed here). The increase of the
sheet thickness at the projection path 3 i.e. is comparatively high as well (see Figure 3). The difference of the
initial sheet thickness is at about 0.1 mm in the flange and
has to be compensated by the local elasticity of the segmented hydro-elastic blank holder, too.
1,2
1.2
1,1
1.1
Blechdicke [mm]
The dashed line displays the position of the blank holder.

Due to the symmetric shape of the part, the forming simulation runs on a quarter model.
1
1.0
0,9
0.9
FEA with = 0.07
1,08
1.08
0,8
0.8
1,06
1.06
Path 2
1.04
1,04
1.02
1,02
Drawing
die
radius
Flange
0,7
0.7
Legend
Side wall
Experimental
values
Result FEA
1.00
1,00
0,6
0.6
0.98
0,98
Long
edge
0.96
0,96
0.94
0,94
0
20
Short
edge
Corner
40
60
80
Unwinded length according to projection path 1, 2 [%]
Projection path 1
Corner
100
Flange
area
Projection path 2
Figure 2. Sheet thickness along drawing die radius and the flange
at blank holder force of FBH = 400 kN.
The sheet thickness distribution at projection path 1 (at

the drawing die radius) in Figure 2 shows the highest
value at the corner region at about sCorner,Max = 1.12 mm.
The thickness distribution at the long straight edges runs
10
10
20
20
30
30
Projection Abwicklung
path 3 [mm]
Pfad 1 [mm]
40
40
50
50
60
60
Figure 3. Comparison of FEA and experimental values for developing of sheet thickness in corner with rigid blank holder.
Drawing die radius

Edge
00
In the flange area the results of the FEA differ only 6 %

or less from the experimental values. The highest difference between experimental values and FEA results of
about 12 % in the area of the drawing die radius appears at
the transition to the side wall. The local sheet thickness in
the flange is crucial for the dimensioning of the segmented
hydro-elastic blank holder. The results of the FEA in that
area are matching sufficiently to validate the simulation.
Deep Drawing with Segmented Hydro-Elastic Blank
Holder
Design of Pressure Pockets. The contact area for a rigid
blank holder is restricted to a minor area. Contact pressure
exists particularly at the corner and slightly at the straight
613
09.08.2010 14:32:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
edges. This can be recognized in the distribution of the
contact area displayed for the flange at 30 and 60 mm
drawing depth (see Figure 4). An optimal design of the
segmented hydro-elastic blank holder should lead to a
support of the sheet throughout the whole forming process and the whole flange surface.
Quarter model at a
drawing depth of 60 mm
Viewing direction
Flange
Corner
Drawing
die radius
Edge
Contact area at a drawing

depth of 60 mm (100 %)
without blank holder contact

(dark)
with blank holder contact
(white highlighted)
Figure 4. Design of segmented hydro-elastic blank holder.
Selected Simulation Results for Segmented HydroElastic Blank Holder. One characteristic failure mode of
the deep drawing process is wrinkling in the flange area.
The contour of the sheet blank in the flange area will be
considered for the evaluation of wrinkling. To simplify
matters, the contour (see Figure 6) is displayed only at
projection path 1 (see Figure 2). In Figure 6 shows a comparison between the contour of the sheet metal formed
with a rigid and with a segmented hydro-elastic blank
holder. The wrinkling shown for rigid dies is completely
suppressed with the segmented blank holder. The curve
shows a homogenous increase of the contour according to
the increase of the sheet thickness. Only the area of the
corner pocket shows a higher increase. The display of the
contact area (see Figure 6) shows an explicit increase of
the contact surface compared to the picture from the rigid
blank holder (see Figure 4). The amount of the contact
surface increases from 23.6 % for rigid blank holder to
46.3 % for the segmented hydro-elastic blank holder at the
end of the deep drawing process.
The pressure pockets are designed according to the contact area in the flanges as well as the local distribution of
the sheet thickness in the flange area. Through this, the
pressure pockets of the segmented hydro-elastic blank
holder are positioned in the corner area and in the straight
edges. The final design parameter of the pressure pockets
(see Figure 5) are optimized through a parameter variation.
a3
Corner pocket
a1 = 8 mm
b1 = 40 mm
t1 = 4 mm
Long edge pocket

a2 = 40 mm
b2 = 30 mm
l2 = 70 mm
t2 = 5 mm
Short edge pocket

a3 = 40 mm
b3 = 30 mm
l3 = 30 mm
t3 = 5 mm
Figure 5. Design of segmented hydro-elastic blank holder.
The thickness of the pressure pockets underlies additional requirements concerning fatigue strength. Therefore,
the dimensions in sheet plane get optimized according to
the wrinkling in the flange as well as the stress values in
the blank holder. After several optimization loops with
different pressure loads (pressure applied to the pressure
pockets) the design shown in Figure 5 gives the best re-
614
Drawing depth
0.14
0,14
Rigid BH
Displacement of the sheet

Surface z [mm]
b3
46.3 %
0.12
0,12
CAD Model
l3
65.9 %
30 mm
60 mm
l2
a2
29.6 %
30 mm
60 mm
Segmented hydroelastic blank holder
b1
23.6 %
Drawing depth
Rigid blank holder
b2
a1
Area with blank holder contact

in [%] (white highlighted)
Contact area at a drawing depth

of 60 mm (100 %)
0,1
0.10
0,08
0.08
Seg.hyd.-el. BH
Contact area at a drawing

depth of 30 mm (50 %)
sults in terms of the wrinkling in the flange as well as the

stress values in the blank holder.
0,06
0.06
0,04
0.04
0,02
0.02
Long edge
0.000
0
25
50
75
Corner
Short edge
100 125 150 175 200 225 250 275
Unwinded length according to projection path 2 [mm]
Figure 6. Contour of flange alongside edge at a blank holder force

of FBH = 40MPa, pPP =20 MPa (segmented hydro-elastic blank
holder).
According to this, the segmented hydro-elastic blank

holder enables an essential improvement of the wrinkling
behavior for deep drawing processes.
Design of Blank Holder with Hydro-Elastic Segments.
On the basis of the obtained findings combined with results acquired in earlier investigations [8,9] a blank holder
09.08.2010 14:32:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
with hydro-elastic segments has been designed for the
existing deep drawing tool (Figure 7). Particularly, the
following general requirements have been taken into consideration during construction and design:
1. Especially in case of defect, the pressure pockets should
be exchangeable individually.
2. In the mounted blank holder, venting of the pressure
pockets should be possible easily.
3. The segmentation of the blank holder inserts should be
optimized in order to receive leak-proof interstices
within the segmented hydro-elastic blank holder.
Blank holder
inserts
Blank holder
intermediate plate
Blank holder
mounting plate
of the inserts to the intermediate blank holder plate (see

Figure 9). Each pressure pocket can be vented in the
mounted blank holder individually.
Vent pipe
Diaphragm
Gasket
Inlet pipe
Pressure pocket
Figure 9. Design of pressure pocket, detail.
Conclusions and Prospects

The concept of a blank holder with hydro-elastic segments shows high potential to extend process limitations
for deep drawing proved by FE-analysis. The previous
optimization strategy for the design of the pressure pockets ignores the thinning in the critical regions of the
formed part. But the use of segmented hydro-elastic blank
holder offers the possibility to reduce the blank holder
force and therewith to reduce the thinning in critical corner
regions. Construction and design of a blank holder system
with hydro-elastic segments has been completed and the
validation of its potential will be done as soon as the
manufacturing of the prototype blank holder has been
finished.
Acknowledgements
Drawing
die
Segmented
hydro-elastic
blank holder
Punch
Center
sleeves
Figure 7. Design of segmented hydro-elastic blank holder in deep

drawing tool.
As visible in Figure 7 the blank holder with hydroelastic segments consists of three layers:
1. Blank holder mounting plate.
2. Blank holder intermediate plate with inlet pipes.
3. Eight blank holder inserts with vent pipes.
Vent pipe
Pressure pockets
Inlet pipe
Screw
Aligning pin
Gasket
We would like to thank the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF) for funding this research
project EFB/AiF 15540 N1 Development of a segmented
hydro-elastic blank holder for deep drawing processes.
References
[1] E. Doege, B.-A. Behrens: Handbuch Umformtechnik Grundlagen,
Technologien, Maschinen, ISBN-10 3-540-23441-1 Springer-Verlag,
Berlin, Heidelberg, (2007).
[2] Z. Wei, Z.L. Zhang, X.H. Dong: International Journal of Advanced
Manufacturing Technology, 29 (2006), 885-889.
[3] Q. Chang, Y. Peng, D. Li, X. Zeng: Material Science Forum, 546-549
(2007), 285-288.
[4] W. Zhang, R. Shivpuri: Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, 130 (2008), 041001-1-041001-8.
[5] K. Manabe, H. Koyama: International Journal of Materials and
Product Technology, 32-4 (2008), 476-490.
[6] S. Rittmeier: Systemuntersttzte Umformung, ISBN 978-3-86727419-7 CUVILLIER VERLAG, Gttingen, (2007).
[7] K. Roll, J. Hoffmann: Eine Mglichkeit zur Bercksichtigung der
elastischen Werkzeugeigenschaften bei der Blechumformsimulation,
4. LS-DYNA Anwenderforum, Bamberg, (2005).
[8] B.-A. Behrens, K. Hajduk: Entwicklung eines hydroelastischen
Niederhalters fr den Praxiseinsatz, Abschlussbericht EFB/AiF
13052, Hannover, (2004).
[9] P. Groche, C. Metz, M. Erturul: Steel Research International, 76-12
(2005), 883-889.
Figure 8. Design of the hydro-elastic blank holder inserts, back

view.
Screws and aligning pins interconnect the three layers.

Each of the eight blank holder inserts incorporates one
pressure pocket with its flexible metallic diaphragm (see
Figure 8). Around each pressure pocket an elastomeric
gasket is placed in order to have a leak-proof connection
615
09.08.2010 14:32:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Neuro-Fuzzy Control of Blank Holder Force to Improve Formability in Deep Drawing

Process
Sinan Serdar Ozkan
Department of Technical Programmes, Sakarya MYO, Sakarya University, Sakarya / Turkey, sozkan@sakarya.edu.tr
This study aims to develop the numerical simulation model of the deep drawing process and to design the control system for blank holder
force. The blank holder forces and the components with different qualifications for different parameters have been obtained by using the
numerical simulation model. In this research, the die set for the deep drawing of an aluminium blank has been designed and its numerical
simulations have been realized under varying blank holder force and punch speed by using the ABAQUS/Explitic finite element code. Then,
an Adaptive Neuro - Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) model of the process has been prepared under MATLAB/Neuro-Fuzzy Toolbox and
the model has been trained using FEM simulation data. The different softwares to select the optimum process parameters have been developed and it has been integrated with ANFIS model. Finally, it has been firmed that the developed system can control the performance of
deep drawing process according to optimal parameters.
Keywords: Deep drawing, Optimum blank holder force, Formability, Intelligent control
Introduction
Deep drawing is among the oldest and most widely
used metal forming processes. This production method is
one of the most important technologies to produce compact and lightweight components from thin blank materials
particularly. But, some manufacturing defects that affect
the quality of the formed part arise. The principal defects
are wrinkling and tearing. In many cases, these defects can
be eliminated by adjusting the process parameters and
depend on material and process conditions. To control
these parameters are difficult by using conventional methods because they are related to the expertise of the workers
of the production plant. So, intelligent technologies have
received much attention in a wide range of metal-forming
applications in order to make a forming system with a
large flexibility without the need of skilful experts to
achieve higher product accuracy and product quality [1].
Nowadays, many researchers have focused their studies
on intelligent control of forming process. The research
work of Zhao et al. provides a theoretical and experimental basis for developing the study on the intelligent control
of the forming process for a large complicated shell part.
They have developed an intellectualized control system for
the deep drawing processing of an axi-symmetric shell
part [2]. Hsu et al. have developed a process control technique in sheet metal forming to improve part quality and
consistency. Their technique based on optimal punch force
trajectory. This control approach is applied to U-channel
forming [3]. Manabe et al. aim to develop a new adaptive
blank holder force control system for the circular cup
deep drawing process in other to improve the product
accuracy and the forming speed. For this propose, they
propose a new control algorithm including the artificial
intelligence (AI) identification of process parameters combined the elementary plasticity analysis model [4]. Garcia
has designed an integrated automatic control system in
order to avoid production breakdowns and to improve the
reliability of the stamping process and has tested it. His
system includes sensors, artificial vision and neural networks for the diagnosis and the prediction of the process
results [5]. Yagami et al. have proposed the algorithm for
616
controlling blank holder motion for improving the deep

drawability of thin blanks. They carried out experimental
deep drawing tests to evaluate the effect of motion control
on wrinkle behaviour [6]. Ding at al. present two substepping schemes modified Euler and Runge-Kutta- Dormand-Prince schemes with local error control, enhanced
by the stress correction procedure, for analyzing the elastic
plastic problems using both von Mises yield criteria and
Hills anisotropic yield criteria [7]. Hu et al. have developed a hybrid fuzzy regression - based metamodeling
technique for optimization of sheet metal forming problems. The distinctive character of the proposed approach is
to consider uncertainties and certainties in one metamodel.
They have integrated the metamodeling technique and
sampling schemes and have applied to optimize sheet
forming design [8].
Propose of this paper is to develop the numerical simulation model of the deep drawing process and to design the
control system for blank holder force. First, the die set has
been designed for deep drawing of an aluminium rectangular cup and its numerical simulation has been prepared
by mean of ABAQUS/EXPLITIC finite element code. The
formability cases according to blank holder force and
punch velocity values have been determined. After, the
Adaptive Neuro - Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) model
of the process has been developed under MATLAB and
has been trained with the results of finite element simulations. Also, the optimization software which can run together the ANFIS model has been developed and has been
used to determine the optimum process parameters.
Blank Holder Force and Formability
The formability is affected from the parameters of the
forming operation directly. The two major modes of defect
of sheet metal part in deep drawing processes are wrinkling and tearing. If the blank holder force is properly
adjusted, it is possible to expand the working window
between the wrinkling and tearing boundaries. Known as,
application of an extremely low blank holder force for a
deep drawing process correspond to wrinkling defect
while a high blank holder force means tearing defect.
09.08.2010 14:32:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
Therefore blank holder force is one of the most important
parameter for the process control. Also, the punch speed
can be considered to be more important than the other
process parameter. Blank holder force has much particle
area of usage to control in the deep drawing process. So,
different blank holder forces are necessary for every different case if we demand good quality products. This study
aims to use the variable blank holder force and speed for
controlling deep drawing process. Hence, FEM and ANFIS models are used together to determine suitable blank
holder force and punch speed.
Finite Element Simulation of Deep Drawing Process
The die set has been designed and has been modelled
and a number of finite element simulations have been
performed with various blank holder forces and punch
velocities. The commercial finite element code, ABAQUS/
Explitic, has been used to carry out the simulation. The
model geometry is symmetric in nature so only one
quarter model of the part has been simulated. Symmetry
boundary conditions are applied at the quarter edge of
blank. The punch and blank holder can move in the vertical direction while they are constrained in the horizontal
plane. The model, which consists of a rigid die, a rigid
blank holder, a rigid punch and a deformable blank, is
shown in Figure 1.
coulomb. This law of friction is valid as no lubrication. In

many metal forming processes there are high pressures
and specific lubricants are used. In this study, friction
coefficients have been taken from the literature which uses
the same material properties and lubrications conditions
[9]. In the study, to use only one the value of friction coefficient is seen sufficient because individual study on the
effects of the friction in deep drawing is planed in the
future. The friction coefficient between the blank and the
punch is 0.25 (none lubricated) and it is 0.05 (lubricated)
between the blank and the die. It is assumed that there isnt
friction between the blank and the blank holder. The blank
is held between the blank holder and die surface by applying different loads. The loading set arranged by interpolation has been used for the simulation. The set consist of
twenty load values between maximum (8 MPa) and minimum (0.15 MPa) correspond to tearing and wrinkling
respectively. The simulation has been regenerated for each
loading value changing the other parameters and different
results for the product quality have been obtained.
In the first step of the solution, the blank holder has been
moved to a position where contact is established with the
blank. In the second step, the load is applied to the blank
holder to be continuous contact. In the following steps, the
forming is started by pressing the punch against the blank.
In the Final step, the punch and blank holder are moved to
backwards so that the contact pairs can leave from each
other. The process is carried out at room temperature.
Sixty analyses have been realized by using different values of the parameters which consist of blank holder force
and punch velocity and a lot of results have been obtained.
The deformed configuration, the contours of plastic strain
and the Misses stress are principals of them. Figure 2
shows contour plots of plastic strain and the Misses stress
for one of the simulation results. The ANFIS model has
been developed by using the results of the numerical
analysis.
Figure 1. Symmetric model geometry of deep drawing process.
The blank is initially square, 200 mm by 200 mm, and is

1 mm thick. Dimension of the die (matrix) is 102.5 mm by
102.5 mm. The edges are rounded with a radius of 10 mm.
The punch is 100 mm by 100 mm and it is also rounded at
the edges with 10 mm radius. The blank holder is taken as
a flat plate, because the edges of blank holder are never
next to the blank. The blank is made of aluminium alloy
AlMn0.5Mg0.5 and Youngs modulus is 63 GPa; the Poissons ratio is 0.33.
The process starts when the punch and the blank holder
are moved in the vertical direction. The vertical motion of
the blank holder accommodates changes in the blank
thickness during forming. Friction is one of the important
parameters which affect the material flow and the required
load in sheet forming process. The friction conditions in
the contact area of tool and sheet in metal forming are
usually described by the friction coefficient according to
Figure 2. Deformation of blank after deep drawing.
Neuro-Fuzzy Modeling and Control System of Deep

Drawing Process
Neuro-Fuzzy Model. Neuro-fuzzy systems combine the
positive attributes of neural networks and fuzzy systems.
ANFIS is used to the modelling of the deep drawing process. There are two input parameters as blank holder force
and punch speed. The output parameter is part quality. The
architecture of the ANFIS used in the proposed Neurofuzzy approach is shown in Figure 3. The ANFIS Model
Structure is used for the part quality. The ANFIS editor used
617
09.08.2010 14:32:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 6. Control system of deep drawing process.
Figure 3. Architecture of the ANFIS used in proposed approach.
Figure 4. Training performance for part quality.
The ANFIS Editor enables loading data, generating FIS

(Fuzzy Inference System), training FIS and testing FIS.
Fifty-two data obtained from the result of the numerical
simulation of deep drawing process are utilized to train the
ANFIS model and eight of them are utilized to test the
model. The training and testing performance of the model
are shown in Figures 4 and 5, respectively.
As can be seen from Figure 6, the base element of the

control system is Neuro-Fuzzy Based Controller. NeuroFuzzy model was explained at the previous part. This
model has been integrated with the control system as it is.
Neuro-Fuzzy model has been used to determine the part
quality according to the process parameters. However, the
process parameters corresponding to the desired part quality have been determined in this part of the study. Thus,
the sheet metal can be formed according to these parameters and the part quality considered before operation can
be obtained as a precious value. For this reason, the controller has been used as a parameter estimator. The control
system continues to iterate until the process parameters
according to the desired part quality are determined.
Therefore, the software has been individually developed
for the controller. The values of the initial process parameters have been sent to Neuro-Fuzzy Based Controller and
so, the first part quality class has been predicted. This
initial part quality class has been compared with the reference class of part quality in the comparison unit and error
has been sent to the controller as input. The Controller has
decreased any parameter value as one step in second iteration stage and the part quality has been estimated again. In
the same way, iteration has been continued and has been
finished when the error (defect) reduced to an acceptable
value. Then the parameters used for the last iteration have
been sent to the press. After, these parameters have been
used to numerical FEM simulation again and it is observed
that the part is good quality. So, Neuro-Fuzzy model has
been tested.
Figure 7. Results obtained from the solutions of ANFIS.

Figure 5. Checking performance for part quality.
Control system of deep drawing process. The data obtained from the numerical simulation solution of the deep
drawing process have been transmitted to the model of the
Neuro-Fuzzy system. The results of the ANFIS have been
utilized to design the control system. On of the principal
aims of the study is the optimum selection of process conditions. It is desirable that the sheet metal product is to be
both unwrinkled and without tears. This case requires that
the control algorithm can select values of the blank holder
force and punch speed corresponding to the good quality
part. The control scheme of the surface roughness has been
618
General results obtained from the solutions of the ANFIS are shown in Figure 7, where the values in the vertical
axis means high wrinkling and tearing risks to be close to
+1 and -1, respectively, and zero corresponds to good
quality parts. Also, the rules obtained from ANFIS are
presented more detailed in Figure 8.
09.08.2010 14:32:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 8. Rules and results of ANFIS.
finite element simulation spends much more time for

one deep drawing solution.
3. The results obtained from the finite element simulation
were almost the same with those obtained from the actual deep drawing process
4. To determine the optimum process parameters is possible by using the control system developed in the study.
5. This paper can be accepted as an initial study on the
intelligent control of the deep drawing process. Future
work will focus on to extent this study by using more
process parameters and the model presented in this paper will be verified by comparing the numerical results
with experimental measurements obtained under
equivalent deep drawing process conditions
It is expected that the use of artificial intelligence technologies will be open up new avenues for the control of
the sheet metal forming process.
Conclusions
References
The die set for the deep drawing of an aluminium blank

has been designed, and its numerical simulations have
been realized under varying blank holder force and punch
speeds by using ABAQUS/Explitic finite element code.
After, ANFIS model of the process has been prepared
under MATLAB/Neuro-Fuzzy Toolbox and the model has
been trained using simulation data. The different software
to select the optimum process parameters has been developed and it has been integrated with ANFIS model. The
following conclusions can be drawn.
1. The formability was improved by controlling the blank
holder force and punch speed.
2. A quicker and a simple solution method to obtain optimum process parameters were developed, whereas the
[1] K. Manabe, H. Koyama, S. Yoshihara, T. Yagami: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 125-126 (2002), 440-445.
[2] J. Zhao, H.Q. Cao, L.X. Ma, F.Q. Wang, S.B. Li: Journal of Materials
[3] C.-W. Hsu, A.G. Ulusoy, M.Y. Demeri: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 127 (2002), 361-268.
[4] K. Manabe, M. Yang, S. Yoshihara: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 80-81 (1998), 421-426.
[5] C. Garcia: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 164-165
(2005), 1351-1357.
[6] T. Yagami, K. Manabe, Y. Yamauchi: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 187-188 (2007), 187-191.
[7] K.Z. Ding, Q.-H. Qin, M. Cardew-Hall: International Journal of
[8] H. Wang, E. Li, G.Y. Li: Materials & Design, 30 (2009), 2854-2866.
[9] J.G. Hu, J.J. Jonas, T. Ishikawai: Materials Science & Engineering A,
256 (1998), 51-59.
619
09.08.2010 14:32:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
Stretch-Draw Forming of Cylindrical Cups for Improvement of Shape Accuracy

Takayuki Muranaka, Masato Okada, Kazuhiko Tanaka
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fukui National College of Technology, Sabae / Japan, muranaka@fukui-nct.ac.jp
In order to improve the shape accuracy for a cylindrical cup, we propose a new stretch-draw forming process using pure aluminium (A1050)
and pure titanium (TP340C) sheets of 2 mm in thickness with two types of blank holders. The stretch-draw processes were carried out by
using two types of blank holders, which have a stepped hold face and the other sides having a partitioned hold face. The stepped and
partitioned blank holders produce a variation of strength of blank holding force on the surface of the blank. It was found that the roundness
of the cylindrical cup was improved by properly adjusting the depth of steps, the blank holding force and the ratio between principal holding
force and assisting force. It was concluded that the stretch-draw forming processes provided an effective method for improvement of shape
accuracy of cylindrical cups.
Keywords: Accuracy, Stretch-draw forming, Formability, Planar anisotropy, Roundness, Blank holder
Introduction
The need for high accuracy of the cylindrical cup for
automobile and electrical products tends to increase. In the
normal drawing process, there is earing occurring on the
edge of the cup, and undulating deformation on the side
wall of the cups which is developed by the planar anisotropy of the work material. The deep drawing characteristics are significantly influenced by the sheet material properties and by the working conditions, such as, clearance of
the punch and die, the geometrical shape of tools, lubrication, blank holding force and so on.
It is noticed that stretch-draw forming is effective to improve the height of drawing cups [1,2]. Muranaka and
Goto have determined that this method provided an effective method in order to improve the shape accuracy of
cylindrical cups [3,4]. However, the shape accuracy at the
cross section of cylindrical cups is not enough to apply it
to sealed containers and pressure bottles.
In the present study, two methods for stretch-draw forming which used unequal shapes of blank holder were developed to form the high accuracy. The stretch-draw forming processes were carried out using two types (type A and
B) of blank holders, which have a stepped hold face and
the other sides having a partitioned hold face. The wo
stretch-draw forming processes were carried out using two
kinds of materials with a different normal anisotropy. The
effects of mechanical properties, blank holding force and
the depth of steps of the blank holder on the shape and
deformation of cups are discussed. The effective forming
conditions for improvement of accuracy are proposed by
evaluating shape accuracy in terms of the roundness of
formed cups.
1. The stepped blank holder consists of four periodical

sections to compress the flange of the blank, and four
stepped sections which are incompressible area. The stepping depth (df) was changed from 3 to 12 mm for every 3
mm in milling. The blank holding force (FBH) which was
applied by four coil springs was changed from 0.45 kN to
15.0 kN. The maximum blank holding force (15.0 kN),
which was the limitation of equipment capacity, was denoted as the blank holding ratio (RBH) 100%.
Spherical
Holding
punch
force
Die
Stepped blank holder
(up side down image)
Blank
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of stretch-draw forming equipment (using a stepped blank holder (type A)).
The schematic illustration of stretch-draw forming process using a partitioned blank holder (type B) is shown in
Figure 2.
Sub holding
Main
force
holding force
Main holder
A hydraulic universal testing instrument having a capacity of 500 kN was used for the experiment. The punch
speed was kept constant at 50 mm/min for various drawing
conditions. A punch of 20 mm and a die of 25 mm in diameter were used.
Two Types (type A and B) of Blank Holders. The
schematic illustration of stretch-draw forming process
using the stepped blank holder (type A) is shown in Figure
620
Sub holding block

Figure 2. Schematic illustration of stretch-draw forming equipment
(using a partitioned blank holder (type B)).
The partitioned blank holder was separated in two sections which were the main holding area and sub holding
area. The main holder produced the principal holding force
for the blank by the four coil springs, and sub holding
blocks, which were inserted in the incompressible area of
09.08.2010 14:32:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
the stepped holder, produced the assisting force for holding by the distinct four coil springs.
The holding force ratio (RF), which is evaluated as
strength of holding force, is given by
RF =FM / FS
(1)
where FM is the main folding force and FS is the sub

folding force.
The main holding force (FM) was changed to 1.2, 1.8
and 2.4 kN. The experimental conditions are shown in
Table 1. The punch, die, and blank holder were lubricated
with mineral oil.
Examples of images showing the difference in earing of

formed cups made by a non-stepped blank holder (df =0
mm) are shown in Figure 3, where h is the height from the
bottom of the cup.
For TP340C which has a negative normal anisotropy
(r-value), the ears are formed in 45 degrees, while for
A1050 which has a positive normal anisotropy, the ears
are observed conversely in 0 degrees and 90 degrees to
the rolling direction.
90
45
Spherical punch diameter Dp =20mm
(a) A-1050
Material:SKH51
Die
90
(b) TP340C
Figure 3. Images of formed cups made by non-stepped blank

holder.
Die diameter Dd =25mm

Material:SKD51
Type A
=14
45
=13

Punch
h=15mm
Blank holding force /kN

FBH =0.45, 1.2, 1.5, 1.95, 2.55, 3.0, 5.88, 6.9
9.15, 11.4, 15.0
Blank holding ratio RBH /%
RBH =3, 8, 10, 13, 17, 20, 39, 46, 61, 76, 100
Examples of the overall surface shape of formed A1050

cups are shown in Figure 4. The surface shape was measured by a 3D shape measuring instrument (Rank Taylor
Hobson Talyrond 300).
Depth of steps df /mm

df =0, 3, 6, 9, 12
Type B
0.5mm
FM =1.2, 1.8, 2.4
0.5mm
Holding force ratio RF

RF =0, 0.25,0.5, 0.75, 1.0
Blank
Diameter Db =22mm, Thickness t0=2mm

Material:A1050, TP340C
Lubricant
Kyodo yushi Co. Ltd. Japan

Plastic working mineral oil: Clearroob CN-90N
Kinematic viscosity: 87mm2/s(40C)(A1050)
Plastic working mineral oil: Nonflick CF-230
Kinematic viscosity: 204mm2/s(40C)(TP340C)
Workpiece Materials. The blank sheet materials used

were pure aluminium (JIS A1050) and pure titanium (JIS
TP340C) with 2 mm thickness. Mechanical properties of
these sheet materials are shown in Table 2. The planer
anisotropy is recognized to the rolling direction.
Table 2. Mechanical properties of sheet materials.
Rolling
direction
(degree)
Tensile
strength
(Mpa)
n-value
r-value
JIS
70.51
0.295
0.760
A1050
45
79.35
0.266
0.308
90
75.23
0.220
1.073
Material
AVE
75.03
0.260
0.714
JIS
403.21
0.205
5.130
TP340C
45
382.02
0.211
4.088
90
414.97
0.239
1.540
AVE
400.06
0.218
3.586
r *
0.609
-0.753
r = { (r0 + r90 ) / 2 } r45
(a) outer surface

(b) inner surface
Figure 4. Examples of overall surface shape (A1050).
A convex shape in both outer and inner surface appears

in the direction of 0 degrees and 90 degrees, and a concave
shape appears in the direction of 45 degrees to the rolling
direction of the blank. It can be seen that undulating deformation on the surface of cup is observed. The convex
directions correspond with the earing directions shown in
Figure 3(a).
Effects of Stepped Blank Holder (Type A)
Distributions of Thickness Strain. The distributions of
thickness strain of A1050 obtained from the measurements
in the three directions of 0 degrees, 45 degrees and 90
degrees to the rolling direction of the blank are illustrated
in Figure 5. The thickness strain was measured by micrometer from the center point of the bottom of the cup to
the top of the side wall for every 1mm. For using a nonstepped holder (Figure 5(a)), the thickness strain of the
side wall in the direction of 45degrees is larger than the
others. As shown in figure 5(b), the large increase in the
wall thickness strain of 45 degrees is prevented by using
the stepped blank holder.
621
09.08.2010 14:32:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
This tendency is originated in the balance of shrink flange
deformation and stretch deformation caused by the steps in
the blank holder. If the stepping depth df is non-stepped or
small, the stretch deformation has an influence on the
roundness of the side wall. And if the stepping depth df is
an excessive case, a change of shape accuracy for roundness is caused by shrink flange deformation.
1.35
Rolling direction (degree)
0
45
90
1.05
0.90
240
Spherical region Side wall
0.75
0
210
10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Distance from center of cups x / mm
Roundness/m
180
(a) non-stepped blank holder (df = 0mm)
150
1.35
Rolling direction (degree)

0
45
90
120
1.05
60
0.0
0.90
Spherical region Side wall

0
10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Distance from center of cups x / mm
(b) stepped blank holder

Figure 5. Distributions of thickness strain against the rolling
direction.
Surface Roundness Results. The variation of surface

roundness with height of the formed cup is illustrated in
Figure 6. The surface roundness was measured by a noncontacting displacement sensor (Keyence LK-G30, Japan).
Roundness is defined as the deviation value for the perfect
circle. The surface roundness of A1050 in Figure 6, which
is caused by strong tension on the flange area in the direction of 45 degrees, is smaller than that caused by the tension in directions of 0 degrees and 90 degrees. This means
that the material flow in the directions of 45degrees is
restrained by the compressive area. For the formed
TP340C cup, the inclination of roundness is inversed to
that of A1050. This tendency corresponds to the location
of earing caused by the r -value of each material.
350
Roundness/m
Al Ti
250
compressive direction
45
0, 90
200
150
100
50
h=13
h=14
h=15
Height of formed cup h/mm
Figure 6. Variations of surface roundness with height of formed

cup.
0.6
0.9
1.2
Figure 8 shows examples of photographs showing the

halfway forming of cups. When the non-stepped blank
holder was used (Figure 8 (a), df=0 mm), the stretch
deformation occurred on the whole of the flange. Whereas
the depth of steps (df) in an excessive case, as shown in
Figure 8 (c), the stretch or shrink flange deformation
occurred on the flange at the compressible or
incompressible area for df=1.2 mm. Furthermore, it can be
seen that the shrink flange deformation caused in the
incompressible area by the flange material contacts the
bottom of the step in the case of df=0.6 mm (Figure 8 (b)).
(a) df =0 mm
(b) df =0.6 mm
(c) df =1.2 mm
Figure 8. Examples of halfway formed cups.
The variation of roundness with blank holding raito

(RBH) is illustrated in Figure 9 (a) and (b). It may be seen
that the optimum value of blank holding force exists for
decreasing the surface roundness at RBH=13% for
A1050,and at RBH=46% for TP340C.
150
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
220
200
180
160
140
120
100
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Blank holding ratio R BH/%
(a) A1050
The variations of roundness with the depth of steps in a

blank holder are illustrated in Figure 7. It can be seen that
the optimum value of stepping depth exists at df =0.6mm
for each material to get the minimum value of roundness.
622
0.3
Depth of steps d f /mm
Figure 7. Variations of surface roundness with depth of steps.
0.75
300
90
Roundness/m
Thickness strain
1.20
TP340C
A1050
Roundness/m
Thickness strain
1.20
10
20
30
40
50
60
Blank holding ratio RBH/%
70
(b)TP340C
Figure 9. Variations of roundness with blank holding ratio (RBH).
09.08.2010 14:32:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effects of a Partitioned Blank Holder (Type B)
urface Roundness Results. The variations of roundness
with the holding force ratio (RF) in A1050 are illustrated in
Figure 10. It can be seen that the optimum value of holding force ratio exists at RF =0.25 for A1050. If the main
holding force (FM) is changed, there is the same tendency.
And the optimum main holding force (FM=1.8 kN) give
the minimum value of surface roundness.
160
Variation of Surface Strain Distribution. The forming

limit diagrams of stretch-draw forming are illustrated in
Figure 13. In this figure, 1 means the meridian surface
strain, and 2 means the latitudinal surface strain of
formed cups. When a stepped blank holder is used, the
surface strain is bigger than a non-stepped holder. And the
biggest strain and smoothest direction are obtained by
using a partitioned blank holder.
120
100
0.3
80
FM=1.2kN
FM=1.8kN
FM=2.4kN
60
40
0.00
0.25
0.50
0.75
Folding force ratio RF
direction partitioned
45
090
stepped
non-step
0.2
0.1
1.00
0.0
0.0
-0.1
roundness / m
140
stepped holder for 58%. The height of the cup, which was
measured from the bottom of the cup to edge of earing, is
11% higher than normal drawing.
Figure 10. Variations of surface roundness with folding force ratio

(RF).
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
-0.2
Figure 11 shows the variation of the configurations of

the cross section which were made by stretch-draw forming with a non-stepped holder and by a partitioned holder.
RF=1.0 means that the cup was made by using the nonstepped holder. It can be seen that the configuration of
RF=0.25 was closer to a perfect circle than that formed by
the RF=1.0.
90
RF=0.25
RF=1.0
45
Rolling direction
0
-45
Figure 11. Examples of configurations of cross section (A1050).
Comparison of Stepped and Partitioned Blank

Holder. The variation of the roundness and the height of
cup in A1050 are illustrated in Figure 12. The roundness
of the cup formed by using the partitioned blank holder is
smaller than that made by normal drawing with a non20.8
149.0
Roundness /m
148.0
Roundness
Height of cup
147.0
146.0
145.0
64.0
63.0
62.0
61.0
60.0
20.4
20.0
19.6
19.2
Height of cup /mm
150.0
18.8
18.4
non-step
stepped
partitioned
Figure 12. Examples of configurations of cross section (A1050).
-0.3
Figure 13. Forming limit diagram of stretch-draw forming.
Conclusions
Since high accuracy of cylindrical cups is common in
sealed containers and pressure bottles, it is not easy to
produce a highly accurate cup without a high precision die.
And it is impossible to exceed the precision of a die. Furthermore, a high cost is necessary to employ the high precision die. Therefore, it is desirable to develop new processes of high accuracy cups. The stretch-draw forming
process with a stepped and partitioned blank holder was
developed, and the following results were obtained:
1. To obtain a uniform thickness strain in the cross section
of formed cups, it was effective that a stepped blank
holder was applied in the stretch-draw forming.
2. Roundness with compressing the non-earing directions
was smaller than that in compressing the earing
direction.
3. The optimum value for the depth of steps existed for the
roundness of the side wall.
4. The optimum value for the folding force ratio, and main
blank holding force existed for the roundness of the side
wall.
5. The biggest surface strain of formed cup and smoothest
direction of strain were obtained by using the partitioned blank holder.
References
[1] M. Niimura, N. Yoshihara: Journal of Japan Society of Technology of
Plasticity, 40 (1999), 250-254.
[2] M.A. Hassan, R. Suenaga: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 159 (2005), 418-425.
[3] T. Muranaka, Y. Goto: Proc.8th ICTP (2005), 575-580.
[4] T. Muranaka, Y. Kinuya, N. Ito: Proc. 9th ICTP (2008), 986-991.
623
09.08.2010 14:32:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
Fast Flanging Defects Predict and Process Optimization in Sheet Metal Forming
Zhibing Zhang, Yuqi Liu, Ting Du
State Key Lab of Material Processing and Die & Mould Technology, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan / China,
alen@fastamp.com
In both process and die design of automotive structural parts, a flanging process should be considered sufficiently in deep drawing process
design, even though which is often after the deep drawing process in process schema. However, it is difficult to predict the formability at the
flanging region using the explicit finite element method without necessary process parameters at a early design stage. In the paper, the
formability and 3D trimming line shape are predicted using the inverse finite element method in a short time at the local flanging region to
assist the process design. In addition, the flanging process parameters and defects prediction criterion are discussed. Finally, the flanging
processes parameters of a practical case are optimized with the process design assist method. The accuracy of the prediction is verified by
comparing with the experimental result.
Keywords: Inverse approach, Trimming line prediction, Flanging analysis
Introduction
In the automotive structural parts, there are many flanging regions with complex 3D shapes. It is very difficult to
predict the formability and to calculate the trimming line
shape in the earlier die design stage. In the multi-stages
stamping die process, the flanging process is often the last
process, so the flanging region should be unfolded on the
addendum at the previous die face design stage, and the
flanging formability should be predicted to avoid design
defects. At present, an effective way is to use the finite
element method for sheet metal forming to assist the process design to avoid major design defects.
As known, the flanging analysis can be carried out after
completing the analysis of the processes before flanging
process using the incremental finite element method. And
the simulation time is relatively long with the incremental
method. So it is difficult to use this method in early design
stage with frequent process changes and short product
manufacturing cycle.
The inverse finite element method is especially suitable
for the questions of part design and process design at the
earlier design stage, such as blank design and trimming
line, and flanging analysis, for its short calculation time,
little prepared input data, and relatively high calculation
precision.
In this paper, a structural part with process design defects is analyzed using the inverse finite element method,
the process conditions are also be optimized based on
analysis result and experimental data.
(a) Model in X-Y view
(b) Model in X-Z view
Flanging Analysis and Process Optimization

The product numerical model of an automotive structural part in X-Y view in Figure 1(a) and X-Z view in
Figure 1(b) is presented. The local 3D flanging region
with larger curvature is indicated in Figure 1(c).
624
(c) Local flanging region

Figure 1. Part model and local flanging region.
The process model with addendum is presented in Figure 2. The whole processes are deep drawing, trimming
and flanging. In most cases, the fracture developed at the
flanging region as seen in Figure 3.
09.08.2010 14:32:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 4. Finite element model at flanging region.
Figure 2. Process model.
Figure 5. Thickness thinning distribution at fracture area.
Figure 3. Fracture at flanging region.
In the analysis model, 11995 quadrangular and triangular mixed elements and 12434 nodes are used in the simulation. Maximum thickness thinning is -40% at the same
place shown in Figure 5, and the excessive thickness
thinning is far exceeding the sheet metal thinning limit of
20%.
In order to analyze the causes of fracture using the inverse finite element method at the local flanging region,
and some process modifications are carried out to avoid
the fracture defect.
Simulation of Current Process. The inverse finite element analysis model is built at local flanging region (in
Figure 4). Only the sheet metal at local flanging region is
analyzed, and some adjacent surfaces on addendum are
prepared as reference face. The constraints are imposed at
the adjacent region between flanging region and its connections. The thickness of sheet metal, t is 1.5mm, the
material parameters are shown in Table 1.
E/G
Pa
207
0.28
Table 1. Material properties.

Lankford values R
stress-strain curve (/MPa)
R0
R45
R90
2.31
1.41
1.83
= 689.3(0.01 + )0.191
Figure 6. Equivalent stress distribution at fracture area.
625
09.08.2010 14:32:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
There are two main factors that lead to the flanging facture. For one thing, the flanging height is too big at the
current design process, for another thing, the V-shape at
the edge of the flanging region will lead to stress concentration easily with strength flanging deformation as show
in Figure 6. In the following steps, the simulation analysis
will aid the experimental design to optimize the process
design.
Optimization of Local Stress Concentration. As

shown in Figure 9, in order to overcome the stress concentration defect, a viable process is to design an arcshaped rising at the addendum (see Figure 10).
Optimization of Flanging Height. As shown in Figure

7(a), in current process, the flanging height h1 is
22.835mm, which exceeds the experimental flange height
20.0mm. As shown in Figure 7(b), in order to reduce the
flanging height, a deformed shape is obtained in the deep
drawing process with the height h0 = 10.0mm, then flanging process is performed with reduced flanging height h2 =
12.835mm.
punch
Figure 9. Local FEM mesh on reference surface.
h1
(a) Current process
(b) After deep drawing process
Figure 7. Flanging height at different process.
In the deep drawing process, the sheet metal will undergo bulking deformation at the raising region firstly.
Then in the flanging process, the sheet metal will unfold
on a relatively flat face, so the sheet metal at edge of the
flanging region will no longer have a large tensile deformation, and the fracture can be avoided.
Figure 10. Arc-shaped raising.
The shape design of the arc-shaped raising can be

guided with the following Eq. (1).
Suppose that the node 1 and node 2 are in the tensile direction, and the same material nodes are node 1' and node
2' at flanging deformation region. As shown in Figure 11,
the relationship of the length of the feature curves at the
two configurations, before and after flanging deformation,
can be expressed as,
Figure 8. Thickness thinning distribution at fracture area after
optimization with flanging height.
As shown in Figure 8, maximum thickness thinning is 21.9% at the fracture region that still exceeds the thickness
thinning limit of the sheet metal. The stress concentration
at the V-shape region still leads to fracture even with optimized flanging height.
626
l2 d12
=
l1 d1'2 '
(1)
where d12 and d1' 2 ' are the lengths of two nodes at the
two configurations, respectively.
09.08.2010 14:32:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
Figure 11. Feature curve of arc-shaped raising.
In the early stages of die design, the sheet metal flanging analysis method based on the inverse finite element
method can be a effective tool to aid the engineering for
design of parts and processes. The major design defects
which sometimes cannot be predicted with the experimental design can be avoided. In the flanging analysis method,
the formability of flanging deformation can be predicted,
and the trimming line can be calculated to aid trimming
die design. The addendum design parameters in the deep
drawing process before the flanging can also be analyzed
in the method.
Acknowledgements
This project is supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 50905067) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 20080440930).
References
Figure 12. Thickness thinning distribution at fracture area obtained

by optimization with local stress concentration.
After optimization with flanging height and local stress

concentration, the maximum thickness thinning is -17.3%
within the thickness thinning limits (see Figure 12). As
shown in Figure 13, 3D trimming line is calculated on the
addendum to aid the trimming die design.
In the practical stamping processes, the fracture defect
is avoided, and the formability of the cases meets the requirements.
[1] D. Shad: International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 2 (1994), 106-113.

[2] J.-L. Batoz, Y.-Q. Guo, F. Mercier: Engineering Computations, 15-7
(1998), 864~892.
[3] Y.-Q. Guo, J.-L. Batoz, H. Naceur, et al.: Computers and Structures,
78 (2000), 133-148.
[4] H. Naceur, A. Delameziere, J.-L. Batoz, et al.: Journal of Materials
[5] C.-H. Lee, H. Huh: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 82
(1998), 145-155.
[6] J. Lan, X.-H. Dong, Z.-G. Li: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 170-3 (2005), 624-631.
[7] Y.-D. Bao, H. Huh: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
187-188-12 (2007), 108-112.5
Figure 13. 3D trimming line.
627
09.08.2010 14:32:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of hydrodynamic Deep Drawing Assisted by Radial Pressure for ConicalCylindrical Parts
Abdolh-Hamid Gorji, Hassan Alavi-Hashemi, Mohamad Bakhshi-Jooybari, Ghorban Mohammad-Alinejad, Salman
Nourouzi
Department of of Mechanical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Mazandaran / Iran, hamidgorji@nit.ac.ir
Forming conical parts are one of the complex and difficult fields in sheet metal forming processes. Because of low contact area of the sheet
with a punch in the initial stages of forming, bursting occurs on the sheet. Moreover, since most of the sheet surface in the area between
the punch tip and blank holder is free, wrinkles appear on the wall of the drawn part. Thus, these parts are normally formed in industry by
spinning, explosive forming and multi-stage deep drawing processes. In this paper, forming of pure copper conicalcylindrical cups in the
hydrodynamic deep drawing process was studied using finite element simulation and experiment. Also, the effect of pressure path on the
occurrence of defects and thickness distribution of the sheet was examined. It was concluded that at low pressures, bursting occurs on the
contact area of sheet with punch tip. At higher pressures, the cup was formed, but the wall thickness distribution depends on the pressure
path. By applying the desired pressure path, a conical-cylindrical cup with high deep drawing ratio was achieved.
Keywords: Sheet hydroforming, Conical cup, Hydrodynamic deep drawing, Finite element method
Introduction
Drawing of conical parts is considerably more difficult
than the deep drawing of cylindrical cups. Due to small
contact area of the punch with the blank at initial stages in
conventional deep drawing, high stresses are applied to the
workpiece which may cause bursting of the sheet. In addition, in forming of the conical cups through conventional
deep drawing, wrinkling occurs on the sheet wall because
the blank is free between punch and die [1,2]. Thus, conical parts are normally formed by multi-stage deep drawing
[1], spinning [3] or explosive forming [4].
Because of the large tensile stresses, small drawing ratio
per draw must be used when making conical components
in multi stage deep drawing. Also, the ratio of the sheet
thickness to the initial blank diameter influences the limiting drawing ratio (LDR) to a greater extent in conical deep
drawing than when drawing cylindrical parts. The LDR, in
addition, depends on cone angle and the ratio of the largest
to the smallest cone diameter [1].
Thiruvarudchelvan and Tan [5] developed the conventional deep drawing process for drawing of conical cups
using an annular urethane pad. In this technique, the tip of
the punch dose not touch the sheet metal at any stage of
drawing. This prevents early bursting of the sheet. These
researchers formed a conical copper cup with a thickness
of 1 mm. But their method has same drawbacks; not only
the punch and die should be manufactured according to the
shape of the cup, but also some wrinkles appear on the cup
wall. No further work has been reported in forming conical
cups by this technique.
Hydroforming is a recently developed technology that
has gained an increasing interest in automotive, aerospace
and gas industries. This technology comprises several
advantages compared with conventional sheet metal forming processes [6-9].
In recent years, many innovative sheet hydroforming
methods have been proposed such as aquadraw, hydromechanical deep drawing, hydrodynamic deep drawing
(HDD), hydrodynamic deep drawing assisted by radial
pressure (HDDRP) and hydromechanical deep drawing
628
with uniform pressure on the blank [6-11]. Among the

sheet hydroforming processes, hydrodynamic deep drawing assisted by radial pressure (HDDRP) has been used to
form complex shapes and has a good drawing ratio [8,9].
Few researches have been done on conical cup hydroforming. Khandeparkar and Liewald [12] applied the hydromechanical deep drawing in forming metal cups with
complex stepped geometries. The contour which they
examined incorporated three regions of cylindricalconical-cylindrical sections. They found that transition
between the cylindrical and conical portions is the critical
zone. The most part of the component they examined contained cylindrical regions and the conical portion was not
very significant. In addition, the conical region of their
work had a semi-angle of 20. These researchers defined
the deep drawing ratio (0) as the ratio of initial sheet
blank diameter to the minimum diameter of conical potion.
They obtained a maximum deep drawing ratio, 0,max, of 3
for low carbon steel and of 2.85 for stainless steel 304.
Pressure path is the most important parameter in hydroforming which was examined by many researchers [10-12].
All the above research works concerning conical parts
either performed by FEM simulation or related to simple
conical parts. In this paper, the forming of pure copper
conical-cylindrical cups through HDDRP with high drawing ratio was studied using finite element (FE) simulation
and experiment. The effect of pressure path on thickness
distribution and the occurrence of defects were also examined and the determination of a desired pressure path was
studied too.
The geometry of the workpiece examined in this research and the schematic of the hydroforming die set are
shown in Figure 1. A Denison Mayes Group universal
testing machine with 600 kN capacity was used in the
experiments. Figure 2 shows the components of the die
and the assembled die set.
09.08.2010 14:32:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Pure copper with 2 mm thickness and 80 mm diameter
was used. The stress-strain curve of the material is shown
in Figure 4 that was obtained using the tension test. Oil
SAE10 was used as the forming liquid.
Figure 1. (a) Part geometry and (b) intermediate stage of the

hydrodynamic die set, dimensions in mm.
Figure 4. Stress-strain curve of pure copper.
Figure 2. (a) Components of die and (b) assembled die.
In the HDDRP, before the punch goes down, a small prebulging can be created on the sheet to improve the drawing
process [8]. A hydraulic unit was used to create the prebulging pressure. When the punch moves down, the blank
is forced into the die cavity filled with oil or other liquids.
A control valve was used for controlling the maximum
pressure. The liquid in the die cavity was pressurized so it
pushes the blank tightly onto the punch surface. After
reaching a maximum pressure, the control valve was
opened and the pressure remained constant during the
forming process. The liquid in the die cavity flees out
dynamically from the gap between the blank and the die.
At the same time, because the gap is very small, the liquid
fleeing out from this gap creates a pressure around the
outside rim of the blank. Therefore, it is impossible to
create high pre-bulging pressure in this die set. In this
research, 2 MPa pre-bulging pressure was applied.
The pressure path used in this study was selected as the
easiest one available in industry. This path was created by
the downward movement of the punch into the die cavity.
Figure 3 shows the typical pressure path used in this study.
In this path, OA is the initial pre-bulging pressure (2 MPa)
applied before the punch moves down. BC is the constant
maximum pressure. The liquid outflows from control
valve by applying this pressure. Due to the strain-rate
sensitive behavior of the viscous medium, the punch velocity has significant effect on the internal pressure generation [13]. Thus, in the pressure path of Figure 3, AB is
the linear pressure path and its slope was controlled
through changing of punch velocity.
ABAQUS 6.7 was used for the FE simulation. The material behavior was assumed to be isotropic as the experimental results have verified this assumption. Figure 5
indicates the FE model of this die set. Due to axial symmetry, 2D models were used. The blank was modelled as a
2D deformable axisymmetric with CAX4R element. The
die was modeled by a 2D axisymmetric analytical rigid
element, and because of the type of element selected, was
not meshed.
Figure 5. Finite element model of die set.
Based on reference [10], the friction coefficient between

the blank and the punch surface was considered to be 0.14
and for other surfaces considered to be 0.05 in the simulations. Contact between blank and die surface was surface
to surface and the punch velocity was considered to be 200
mm/min in the simulation. Table 1 shows the properties of
pure copper which have been used.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of copper sheet.
Youngs modulus, E
117 GPa
Poissons ratio
0.32
Yield stress, s
123 MPa
Flow stress
= 530.98 0.44
Figure 3. Typical pressure path applied.
The typical pressure path in this paper was shown in

Figure 3 and was discussed in section 2. For each certain
maximum pressure, a pre-bulging pressure OA and a pressure path AB with different slopes were definable. The
slope of AB was changed with changing in punch velocity.
629
09.08.2010 14:32:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Therefore, for each maximum pressure, several simulations were conducted to obtain the desired pressure path.
Figure 6 shows the desired paths corresponding to maximum pressures 15 to 60 MPa.
Figure 10. Thickness distribution curve for Pmax 15 MPa.
Figure 6. Desired pressure paths correspond to different maximum pressures, Pmax, obtained from simulation.
To study the thickness distribution, the deformed cup

was divided into different regions as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7. Different regions on formed part.
Figure 8 indicates the formed conical cup corresponds

to maximum pressure of 10 MPa along with its simulation
results. As it is seen, bursting occurred in region B.
Figure 11 indicates the formed cup obtained from simulation and experiment corresponds to Pmax 30 MPa. Applying this maximum pressure at final stage causes complete
forming of the cup without necking defect and creates an
accurate geometry.
Figure 11. Deformed workpiece corresponds to Pmax 30 MPa, (a)

simulation and (b) experiment.
In Figure 12 the thickness distribution curves obtained

from simulation for different maximum pressures are displayed. As it can be found from this figure, the most thickness reduction is related to B and D regions, and the critical zone is region B, as it was indicated in the previous
results. It is obvious that the pressure increasing from 15
to 30 MPa has a great effect on thickness reduction at
different points of cup, especially in the critical region B,
while the pressure increasing from 30 MPa to upward has
little effect on the thickness changes.

experiment and (b) simulation.
The photograph of the cup formed with the pressure path

for maximum pressure 15 MP along with its simulation
results can be seen in Figure 9. At the end of the process
the conical cup was formed, but as it can be seen, necking
occurred in region B (the contact area of punch tip with
blank). Figure 10 shows the thickness distribution curve
of the simulated and experimental cup in A-E direction of
Figure 7. As it can be seen, there is a good correlation
between the two curves.

simulation and (b) experiment.
630
Figure 12. Thickness distribution curve for different maximum

pressures, obtained from simulation.
For obtaining the best forming pressure path to produce

a cup with better thickness distribution and quality, the
maximum thickness reduction curve in B and D regions
were compared for different pressures. Figure 13 shows
the thickness distribution curve in B region corresponding
to different maximum fluid pressures. As it can be found
in this figure, the greatest thickness reduction is related to
maximum pressure path 15 MPa. At this pressure, necking
defect was occurred in region B. It can be seen in the figure that by increasing the maximum pressure to 30 MPa,
the thickness reduction decreases with sharp slope. From
09.08.2010 14:32:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
the maximum pressure of 30 MPa and the more, the slope
will not change considerably. Thus, maximum pressure
more than 30 MPa does not have any positive effect on the
cup thickness in region B.
Figure 14. Thickness reduction curve versus Pmax for region D.
Figure 13. Thickness reduction curve versus Pmax for region B.
Figure 14 shows the thickness distribution curve in

region D corresponding to different fluid pressures. As it
can be found in the figure, the minimum thickness reduction is related to the pressure 15MPa. With increasing the
maximum pressure to 30 MPa, thickness reduction increases with sharply high slope. From maximum pressure
about 30 MPa and the more, this slope will be reduced
highly. Thus, increasing the maximum pressure to more
than 30 MPa does not have any positive effect on the cup
thickness in region D.
According to the above discussion, it is concluded that
for the mentioned cup and the existent conditions, maximum pressure path of 30 MPa is the best direction to get
good thickness distribution.
The experimental and simulation load-displacement
curves to get desirable cups are shown in Figure 15. As it
can be seen, there is a good conformity between the two
curves. The maximum force to form the conical cup is
about 100 kN which is not too high.
Conclusion
The forming of conical-cylindrical copper cups in hydrodynamic deep drawing assisted by radial pressure was
studied using finite element simulation and experiments. It
was concluded that for the pressure paths with the maximum pressures lower than 15 MPa the forming process are
similar to the conventional deep drawing and because of
high stresses applied on contact area of the sheet with
punch tip, local thinning or bursting occurs in this area. At
higher pressures, more than 15 MPa, the part was formed,
but the wall thickness distribution and the maximum thinning depends on the pressure path. By examining the
thickness distribution at different pressures it was found
that at pressure of 30 MPa the quality of part is very adequate. Increasing the pressure to more than this amount
does not have any effect on improvement of thickness
distribution. Also, applying a pre-bulging pressure of 2
MPa at the beginning of process has a positive effect on
forming the desired product. For both experimental and
FEM, it was demonstrated that applying the desired pressure path causes increasing the deep drawing ratio and
producing the desired part in one stage with suitable surface smoothness. A copper sheet with 2 mm thickness and
80 mm initial diameter was formed successfully to a conical-cylindrical cup in one stage with a high deep drawing
ratio, 0,max= 4.85.
Figure 15. Forcepunch stroke curve.
References
[1] K. Lange, (Ed.): Handbook of Metal Forming, (McGraw-Hill Book
Company, New York), 1985.
[2] M. Kawka, L. Olejnik, A. Rosochowski, H. Sunaga, A. Makinouchi:
[3] C.C. Wong, T.A. Dean, J. Lin: International Journal of Machine Tools
& Manufacture, 43 (2003), 1419-1435.
[4] G.H. Liaghat, A.Darvizeh, D. Javabvar, A. Abdollah: Amirkabir
Journal, 50 (2002), 250-264 (in Persian).
[5] S. Thiruvarudchelvan, M.J. Tan: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 147 (2004), 163-166.
[6] S. Thiruvarudchelvan, F.W. Travis: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 140 (2003), 70-75.
[7] S.H. Zhang, Z.R. Wang, Y. Xu, Z.T. Wang, L.X. Zhou: Journal of
[8] L. Lang, J. Danckert, K. B. Nielsen: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 148 (2004), 119-131.
[9] L.H. Lang, J. Danckert, K. Brian Nielsen: Proc. IMechE. Part B:
Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 218 (2004), 845-85.
[10] X. Liu, Y. Xu, S. Yuan: Journal of Material Science & Technology,
24 (2008), 395-399.
[11] L. Lang, J. Danckert, K. B. Nielsen: International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture, 44 (2004), 649-657.
[12] T. Khandeparkar, M. Liewald: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 202 (2008), 246-254.
[13] M. Ahmetoglu, Y. Hua, S. Kulukuru, T. Altan: Journal of Materials
processing Technology, 146 (2004), 97107.
[13] H. Alavi-Hashemi, A. Gorji, M. Bakhshi-Jooybari: Finet element
simulation and experimental study of sheet hydroforming of conical
parts, int Conf, AMPT2009
631
09.08.2010 14:32:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effects of Radial Pressure on 5A06 Aluminum Alloy Cup Hydroforming

Xu Yong-chao, Han Cong, Liu Xin, Yuan Shi-jian, Kang Da-chang
School of Materials Science & Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001 / China
A new process of hydroforming with controllable radial pressure was proposed to overcome difficulties for the forming of low plastic materials and large height-diameter ratio workpieces. Effects of radial pressure were theoretically analyzed on limiting drawing ratio and stress
boundary circle. A typical 5A06 aluminium alloy cup with a hemisphere was investigated numerically and experimentally. Effects of radial
pressure were analyzed and discussed on stress. With radial pressure increasing, the radial tensile stress decreases and tangential compressive stress increases essentially, it is helpful for the material to flow and deform, serious thinning and fracture is prevented, and furthermore higher forming limit was achieved. It is shown that a cup with drawing ratio of 2.8 was successfully formed by hydroforming with
controllable radial pressure. It proved that it is an effective method for the forming of low plastic materials and workpieces with large heightdiameter ratio.
Keywords: Hydroforming, Radial pressure, Aluminium alloy, stress, Thickness
Introduction
Due to the usage of liquid, sheet hydroforming or hydromechanical deep drawing, as a flexible forming, has
found a wide variety of applications in the field of automobile and aerospace [1-3]. Compared with conventional
sheet metal deep drawing, advantages of hydroforming
include improved forming limit, enhanced surface quality
and reduced tool cost [4,5]. Up to now, more than three
hundred types of workpieces have been manufactured with
hydroforming in Sweden, Japan and Germany et al.,
among that the materials mainly included low carbon steel
and stainless steel, and the thickness range of sheet metals
is from 0.2mm to 3.2mm [6-8].
With the increasing importance of fuel saving, aluminum alloy and magnesium alloy have been applied as
lightweight materials for automotives and aircrafts to
[9,10]. Some aluminum alloy is widely applied in the field
of aerospace. Unlike low carbon steel, it has a poor formability with small anisotropy parameter r and low hardening index n[11]. Its poor formability became a bottleneck
to the application. In order to improve forming limit, some
hydrodynamic deep drawings assisted by radial pressure
have been proposed [12-14]. However, because the radial
pressure depends on the fleeing liquid from the chamber or
the chamber pressure, the radial pressure is equal to or
smaller than chamber pressure, and larger radial pressure
cannot be loaded. For hard to form material, it is still difficult to form a cup with large height-diameter ratio in one
stroke.
In order to overcome the above problem, a new process
of hydroforming with controllable radial pressure was
proposed. The controllable radial pressure means that the
radial pressure can be beyond the chamber pressure and be
controlled indefendently. Higher forming limit may be
achieved.
Principle of Hydroforming with Controllable Radial
Pressure
The schematic illustration of hydroforming with controllable radial pressure is shown in Figure 1. Based on conventional hydroforming, a controllable radial pressure Pr is
632
imposed to the rim of flange besides the chamber pressure

Pc. Because sealing rings exist, the radial pressure Pr and
the chamber pressure Pc can be loaded and controlled
independently. The loaded radial pressure can be larger
than the chamber pressure. Thus, the chamber pressure Pc
increases the useful friction between the punch and the
blank, and the radial pressure Pr aids to push the flange to
flow into the chamber when the punch penetrates into the
chamber. At the same time, the dual fluid lubrication can
be generated and decrease the friction between the flange
and the blank holder, or between the flange and the die.
Fluid lubrication and radial pressure are helpful to reduce
radial tensile stress when deep drawing, therefore, serious
thinning can be eliminated and forming limit can be improved.
Seal
Blank holder
Punch
FD
FQ
Seal
Chamber
pr
pC
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of hydroforming with controllable
radial pressure.
Geometry and Material of Sheet Component

The workpiece is a cylindrical cup with hemi-sphere.
The diameter is 100mm, and the total height is about
130mm. The material used in the simulation and experiment is aluminium alloy 5A06. Its essential chemical compositions are given in Table 1.
Table 1. Chemical composition (Wt. %) of 5A06 aluminium alloy.
Si
Fe
Cu
Mg
Al
0.40
0.40
0.10
5.8~6.8
Balance
09.08.2010 14:32:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Material thickness is 1mm. Mechanical properties determined by tensile test are given in Table 2.
Table 2. Mechanical properties of 5A06 aluminium alloy sheet.
Yielding
Strength
Elonga-
Anisotropy
Harden-
stress/MPa
limit/MPa
tion /%
parameter
ing index
160
340
18
0.85
0.23
From the above parameters, it can be seen that the formability is poor. Usually, limiting drawing ratio is about 2.2
(height-diameter ratio 1.1) for 5A06 aluminium alloy with
conventional hydroforming.
Effects of Radial Pressure on Limiting Drawing Ratio
and Stress Boundary Circle
Stress diagram is shown in Figure 2 for the deformation
area. In Figure 2, rp is punch radius, and Rb is the initial
blank radius. For the infinitesimal element, the angle is ,
the radius is R, the width is dR, and the thickness is t. An
infinitesimal equation can be described as:
( r + d r )( R + dR) r R + 2 t dR t sin
=0
(1)
Due to the very small angle , sin can be assumed,

2
dR
d r = ( r + t )
R
r = s Ln
Rb
K) s
rp
(7)
Limiting drawing ratio (Rb/rp) can be calculated as:
Rb
= e1+ K
rp
(8)
For different K values, the radial pressure is 5, 10, 20, 30

and 40 MPa, respectively, and the limiting drawing ratio
can be obtained as shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Limiting drawing ratio (Rb/rp) for different K values.
0
0.031
0.062
0.125
0.187
0.25
2.72
2.8
2.893
3.08
3.28
3.49
K
R0/rp
R0 =
R'
(9)
Pr
e s
Stress boundary circle
(2)
Rb
Pr
R
s ( Ln
According to the yielding condition r + t = s , Eq. (2)

is integrated, and then the radial stress r can be calculated
as:
(3)
r = s LnR + C
The above theoretical analysis is the same to conventional deep drawing. Because the boundary condition
varies, the integral constant C is different. When R is equal
to R, and r is equal to pr. Equation (3) can be changed
into:
R'
(4)
r = s Ln Pr
R
Without considering the hardening, the radial stress r is
the largest at the beginning of deformation, namely at the
time of R ' = Rb , and the radial stress r can be described
as:
then equation (5) can be expressed as:

R
(6)
r = s ( Ln b K )
R
The relation between the radial pressure and limiting
drawing ratio can be calculated from Eq. (6), and it is
described as:
For K=0, Rb/rp is equal to 2.72, it is theoretically

limiting drawing ratio for conventional deep drawing in
fact. With the increasing of K value, limiting drawing ratio
is improved infinitelly in theory. In fact, limiting drawing
ratio is not infinite for hydroforming with radial pressure
because higher pressure can not be achieved easily and
seal problem is not easy to solve.
Due to the radial pressure, different from conventional
deep drawing, it exist a stress boundary circle. and the
radial stress r is compressive outside the circle and is
tensile inside the circle, as shown in Figure 3. On the
condition of the radial stress r=0, the radius of stress
boudary circle can be described as:
Figure 2. Stress diagram in deformation area for hydroforming

with controllable radial pressure.
and equation (1) can be described as:
The radial pressure Pr can be described as P = K s , and
Figure 3. Stress state diagram for hydroforming with controllable

radial pressure.
If the blank radius is 120 mm, for different radial pressure 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 MPa, the radius of stress boundary is 116, 112.5, 105, 99 and 93 mm respectively at the
beginning of deformation. With the radial pressure
increasing, the radius of boundary circle decreases and the
compressive stress zone is enlarged, and the tensile stress
zone is reduced. When the deep drawing proceeds, the
stress boundary circle will decrease towards the center.
(5)
633
09.08.2010 14:32:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
In simulation, hardening law of material was = K .

Strength coefficient value K = 549 MPa and work hardening exponent n = 0.23. The blank diameter is 240 mm. The
artificial speed of punch was 1000mm/s. The Coulomb
friction was assumed. The friction coefficient was assumed to be 0.05 due to the fluid lubrication between the
blank and the die, 0.12 between the blank and the punch,
and 0.05 between the blank and the blank holder.
Pressure loading of hydroforming with radial pressure is
dynamic. Because the chamber pressure and the radial
pressure could not be applied to the elements automatically through the pre-processor of the finite element software, the keyword LOAD_MASK was used to load the
chamber pressure which was supplied by LS-DYNA. A
lineal pressure distribution was assumed under the flange
of blank, as shown in Figure 4. For the radial pressure,
because shell elements were used, the radial pressure
could not be imposed to the rim of elements directly. So,
equivalent nodal forces were imposed to the nodes at the
rim of blank instead. As shown in Figure 4, the equivalent
node force Fn was divided into horizontal force component
Fnx and vertical force component Fny. The node force
component was different for different nodes. The node
force Fn can be calculated by Fn = D t Pr , where D is
N
blank diameter, t is blank thickness, and N is the number
of total nodes at the rim of blank. During the deforming,
the equivalent node force decreases gradually when the
diameter of flange decreases.
n
F nx
F nY
Fn
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0
30Mpa
20Mpa
10Mpa
5Mpa
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Stress Distribution in Flange. Figure 6 shows the

distribution of radial stress and tangential stress in the
flange under various radial pressures when the flange
starts to deform at the beginning. For pr=0, the radial stress
r is tensile completely and the tangential stress is compressive in the flange. For pr>0, the stress state is different
from one in conventional deep drawing, and the radial
compressive stress and tensile stress exits simultaneously.
At the same time, it exist a stress boundary circle in the
flange, in which radial pressure is zero, as shown in Figure
6(a), and the radius of boundary circle is 112, 107, 102 and
95 mm respectively when the radial stress is 10, 20, 30 and
40 MPa. It can be seen that simulation results agree well
with theoretical results, and theoretical analysis was correct. The radial stress is equal to zero at the boundary
circle, the radial stress is compressive outside the boundary circle, and the radial stress is tensile inside the boundary circle. With the radial pressure increasing, the radial
stress decreases. The radial compressive stress is equal to
radial pressure at the rim of flange.
0MPa
10MPa
20MPa
30MPa
40Mpa
200
150
100
50
0
-50
50
PC
-60
P
Figure 4. Schemetic
illustration of pressure loading.
-80
Tangential stress/Mpa
According to a few of simulations, an appropriate loading path of chamber pressure was determined by simulation. When the punch stroke is about 50 mm and the hemisphere is almost formed, the chamber pressure will keep a
constant 20 MPa. Effects of radial pressure on the forming
will be analyzed after the appropriate chamber pressure is
determined. The radial pressure aids to push the rim of
blank to flow into the chamber. Loading paths of radial
pressure were designed, as shown in Figure 5. The radial
pressure was 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 MPa, respectively.
40Mpa
Punch travel/mm
Figure 5. Loading paths of radial pressure.
Radial stress/MPa
FE Model. The pre/post software DYNAFORM was

used to establish model for hydroforming with radial pressure. Quarter of the blank and the tool components were
simulated. Belytschko-tsay shell elements were used for
the blank. The fixed gap between the blank holder and the
die was 1.2mm.
Radial pressure/Mpa
Effects of Radial Pressure on Stress
-100
-120
-140
60
70 80 90 100 110 120 130

Distance to the center/mm
(a) Radial stress
0MPa
10MPa
20Mpa
30Mpa
40Mpa
-160
-180
-200
-220
50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130
Distance to the center/mm

(b) Tangential stress
Figure 6. Stress distribution in the flange.
634
09.08.2010 14:32:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
The tangential stress is compressive completely in the
flange, as shown in Figure 6(b). With increasing of the
radial pressure, the absolute value of tangential compressive stress becomes larger. According to the above simulation results, it can be concluded that the decreased radial
stress and increased tangential compressive stress are
helpful for material deformation.
Experiment on Hydroforming with Different Radial
Pressures
Experimental Procedure. The experiment was performed with the hydroforming system developed by
Harbin Institute of Technology. The radial pressure is
controlled by a proportional valve, and the chamber pressure is controlled by a supercharger. It exist a seal between
the punch and the blank holder, which can aid to establish
the radial pressure. A seal is also installed on the upper
surface of the chamber, in order to control the chamber
pressure and the radial pressure independently.
In the theoretical results and simulation results mentioned above, from the view of stress, it can be concluded
that limiting drawing ratio can be enhanced, and thickness
can be uniform for the same blank under the radial pressure. The blank is put on the surface of the chamber and
the punch is penetrated into the blank holder after the
blank holder is closed. Then the blank is hydroformed
with the loading path as the same as one in the simulation.
4.0
Limiting drawing ratio
Experimental results
Theoretical results
3.0
2.5
5
10
15
20
25
30
Radial pressure/Mpa
35
40
45
Figure 7. Relation between limiting drawing ratio and radial pressure.
Experiment Results. Figure 7 shows the relation between limiting drawing ratio and radial pressure. It can be
seen that limiting drawing ratio 2.4 can be reached even
though the radial pressure is 5MPa, and limiting drawing
ratio 2.8 can be achieved when radial pressure is 40MPa.
The formed workpiece (drawing ratio 2.8) is showed in
Figure 7. However, non-hardening is assumed for the
deformation of flange, so experimental results are smaller
than theoretical results. The results show that the limiting
drawing ratio is improved because the state and magnitude
of stress is changed essentially by imposing the radial
pressure.
The advantage of hydroforming with controllable radial

pressure is that a larger radial pressure can be loaded and
controlled independently, beyond chamber pressure.
It is proved in theory that hydroforming with controllable radial pressure is an effective method to improve limiting drawing ratio. With the radial pressure increasing,
limiting drawing ratio is increased. Due to radial pressure,
radial tensile and compressive stress exists simultaneously.
Due to the radial pressure, the state and the magnitude of
stress are changed essentially, the decreased radial stress
and the increased tangential stress is helpful for the material in the flange to deform and flow into the chamber, and
a larger drawing ratio can be achieved.
For the aluminium alloy 5A06 cup with a hemisphere,
drawing ratio 2.8 can be achieved under radial pressure
40Mpa, significantly beyond drawing ratio 2.2 that can be
reached by conventional hydroforming.
Acknowledgement
This paper was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (item number: 50875062)
and by the Foundation of Key Laboratory for Advanced
Materials Processing Technology, Ministry of Education,
P.R. China (item number: 2008005). The authors would
like to take this opportunity to express their sincere appreciation.
References
3.5
Conclusions
[1] H. Amino, K. Makita, T. Maki: Proc. International Conference on

New developments in sheet forming Technology, Stuttgart-Germany
Fellbach, (2000), 39-66.
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[3] S.-I. Oh, B.-H. Jeon, H.-Y. Kim, J.-B. Yang: Journal of Materials
[4] K. Nakamura, T. Nakagawa, H. Amino: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 71 (1997), 160-167.
[5] L. Lang, Z. Wang: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 151
(2004), 165-177.
[6] Q. Wang: Forging & Stamping Technology, 6 (1994), 39-42, in
Chinese.
[7] S. Jager, K. Siegert: Proc. International Conference on New Developments in Sheet Metal Forming, Stuttgart-Germany Fellbach,
(2004), 399-414.
[8] A. Behrens, G. Kurz, S. Hubner: Proc. International Conference on
New Developments in sheet Metal Forming, Stuttgart-Germany Fellbach, (2004), 379-398.
[9] W.S. Miller, L. Zhuang, J. Bottema, A.J. Wittebrood, P.De Smet:
[10] M. Jain, J. Allin, M.J .Bull: Materials Science and Engineering A,
256 (1998), 60-82.
[11] Y. Zhang, Z. Zhongkui: Practical Light Metal, Beijing, Chemical
industry press, (2006), 64-65, in Chinese.
[12] K. Nakamura: Plasticity and Processing, 31-349(1990), 196-200.
[13] L. Lang, J. Danckert, K.B Nielsen: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 148 (2004), 119131.
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Technology, 166 (2005), 150-161.
635
09.08.2010 14:32:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Integrated Optimal Design Method for Drawing Limit of Stainless Steel in HydroMechanical Deep Drawing
Jang-Ping Wang1),2), Guo-Ming Huang1),2), Hsien-Der Lee1), Tsung-Han Wu1),2)
1)
Department of marine Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei-Ning Road,Keelung,Taiwan 20224, R.O.C.;
Centre of material Processing and Measurement, National Taiwan Ocean University, B0193@ntou.edu.tw
2)
Research
An integrated optimal design method for the maximum drawing length (drawing limit) of stainless steel in hydro-mechanical deep-drawing is
proposed. In this paper, three steps are adopted. The Finite Element Method based on the concept of the Taguchi technique is first used to
simulate the processes of deep drawing at the considerations of all the possible significant parameters to the drawing limit, and then the
parameters that have the convex curves on S/N diagram are chosen for optimal experimental designs according to the Taguchi
experimental Method. On the last step, the hybrid of the artificial neural network with the genetic algorithm is used to find the optimal value
from these parameters. With this solution, an experiment is fulfilled and compared. It is shown that the result obtained from the hybrid
method is good agreement with experiment.
Keywords: Taguchi technique, Taguchi-FE method, Hybrid of ANN with GA, Hydro-mechanical deep-drawing, Drawing limit, Stainless
steel
Introduction
The deep drawing of stainless steel is widely applied to
manufacture the parts of the automobile, aerospace and
electrical industries. Although the products of stainless
steel possess have good merits such as good surface finish,
high mechanical strength and rustproof property, the phenomena of easy fracture, earring and wrinkling [1] have
annoyed the industry of manufacturers for a long times. To
prevent wrinkling, the pressures were enforced on the
blank-holders [2] and improved by Yagami et al. [3] by
controlling blank-holder motions. It is also easily observed
that the increase of blank holder pressures will effectuate
the fracture coming early.
To increase the drawing length and minimize the thickness variation of the drawn cup, an experimental investigation of hydro-forming deep drawing was studied by Kandil
[4] and introduced by Thiruvarudchelvan and Travis [5] on
the consideration of pressures on the blank holders. It is
understandable that the costs of the experimental and empirical approaches by the try and error procedures are huge,
and they are also hardly to find the optimal solutions for
the die designs. To solve this problem, Taguchi technique
[6] is a powerful method used to find the optimal set of
experimental parameters. It gives significant reduction in
the total number of experiments or simulations [7,8].
Furthermore, a combination of finite element analysis (FE)
with Taguchi method called Taguchi-FE method was used
to simulate the forming of deep-drawing by Padmanabhan
et al. [9].
In the study of this paper, the Taguchi-FE method is
adopted to sift out the parameters that possess the convex
curves on S/N diagram. These parameters that have maximum values are further analyzed according to Taguchi
experimental method. In this stage, it is observed that three
parameters (punch velocity, thickness of blank and hydraulic pressure) with orthogonal array L9 (33 ) are selected for experiments. Finally, the results of experiments
are sent to the numerical system of hybrid of artificial
neural network (ANN) with genetic algorithm (GA) to find
the optimal solution. An experiment is fulfilled to compare
636
with the numerical optimal solution. The result will be

presented and discussed in this study.
Techniques and Features
As shown in Figure 1, the stainless steel cup with the

size ranges is used for demonstrating the proposed method.
H1 is the thickness of blank and H2 is the drawing length
of blank. R1 and R2 are the radiuses of punch and die. L1
and L2 are the diameters of punch and blank. It is noted
that H2 is the maximum of drawing length without fracture and indicated as the optimal objects value. To find
the optimal drawing length, three analyzed steps are used
and shown in Figure 2. The first step is the sifting of the
parameters that have maximum values by Taguchi-FE
method. In this step, the parameters that have convex
curves responded on S/N diagram are selected and analyzed by Taguchi experimental method. Finally, the results
of experiments are sent to the numerical system of hybrid
of ANN with GA to find the optimal solution.
Figure 1. Product of stainless steel cup.
09.08.2010 14:32:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
holders for the FE simulations are chosen above

10 kgf / cm 2 .
Table 1.
method.
Comparison of drawing limits of experiments with FE
Hydraulic
pressure
( kgf / cm 2 )
Experimental = 0.15 = 0.25 = 0.35 = 0.45

Drawing limits
DL
DL
DL
DL
(mm)
ER
ER
ER
ER
(mm
(mm
(mm
(mm
(%)
(%)
(%)
(%)
)
)
)
)
20
15
16 6.7 15.5 3.3 14.7 3.9 14.3
40
22
18.8 10.5 21.2 3.6 14.9 9.3 20.3
60
23.3
22.7 5.7 24 2.3 22.4 4.7 19.1
80
17.5
18.2 4.5 18.1 3.4 18.4 5.1 18.1
Note: DL,EL: the drawing length of FE simulation and experiment
DL-EL
ER =
100% ,Thickness=0.5mm
EL
4.6
7.7
12
5.3
Fillet radius of punch and die = 8 mm, BHF= 20 kgf / cm 2
Figure 2. Procedures and features.
Design of Significant Parameters
The consideration of the selection for the parameters

that influence the drawing thickness, length and strain are
depended on the literatures of researchers [4,7,8,10].There
are eight parameters needed to be investigated. In these
parameters, friction coefficient which is relied upon the
conditions of lubricant is hardly measured accurately.
Hence, the friction coefficient is needed to be discussed
first. In this work, the method called experimental approach is adopted to find the friction coefficient. Table 1 is
the drawing limits of experiments compared with the
drawing limits obtained by FE method. It is observed that
the friction coefficient = 0.25 is the most minimum
error for drawing limits at the hydraulic pressures as 20,
40, 60 and 80 kgf / cm2 , and therefore = 0.25 is assumed
as friction coefficient for the following FE simulations.
Figure 3 shows the experimental results for the
phenomenon of wrinkling at different pressures of blankholders, blank thicknesses and hydraulic pressures. It is
shown that the wrinkle will be eliminated if the pressures
on the blank-holders are higher than 10 kgf / cm 2 . In such
condition, the chosen ranges of the pressures of blank-
Figure 3. Experimental results of wrinkling at different pressures of

blank-holders, thicknesses of blank and hydraulic pressures.
Optimization Steps
Taguchi-FE Method. Taguchi-FE technique is a numerical simulation method that used the concept of Taguchi technique combined with FE simulation. On the
conditions of knowing friction coefficient, seven parameters such as fillet radius of punch and die, hydraulic pressure, blank holder force, drawing ratio, punch velocity and
thickness of blank are chosen and classified three different
levels. Table 2 is the list of selected parameters and their
levels. Eighteen simulations of FE need to carry out on the
orthogonal array L18 (37 ) that are designed with various
combinations of selected parameter levels for the above
seven parameters. FE simulations are carried out to predict
the drawing lengths of the blank sheets. Figure 4 shows
the schematic repesentation of the hydro-mechanical deep
drawing. The simulation conditions can be obtained from
experiments shown in Table 3. The variations of S/N ratio
with different levels obtained from the ANOVA of
selected parameters to the effectiveness of drawing lengths
are shown in Figure 5. In this figure, the r-axis represents
the values of S/N ratio and the angle of is divided seven
637
09.08.2010 14:32:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
regions that present the distributions of levels for each
selected parameters.
Figure 5. Graph of variations of S/N ratio.

Figure 4. Schematic representation of hydro-mechanical deepdrawing.
.
Table 2. Selected parameters and their levels for Taguchi-FE
method.
Selected parameter
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Fillet radius of punch (mm)
Fillet radius of die (mm)
Thickness of blank (mm)
0.5
1.5
Punch velocity (mm/s)
0.3
0.5
0.7
40
80
Hydraulic pressure( kgf / cm )
BHF ( kgf / cm )
10
20
30
Drawing ratios
2.18
2.01
1.84
Table 3. Simulation conditions of Taguchi-FE method.
Simulation model
Axisymmetric model: DEFORM -3D
Blank material
Youngs Modulus
SUS 304
2552.4 Mpa
0.25
Stress-strain equation
= 1395.275
0.394
Dd = 62.6 mm
Punch diameter ( D p )
Dp = 59.5 mm
Average normal
anisotropy, R
R=1.06231
Criteria for ductile

fracture
638
Table 4. Parameters and levels for Taguchi experimental

method.
Selected parameters
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Thickness of blank
A
0.5
1
1.5
(mm)
B Punch velocity (mm/s)
0.3
0.5
0.7
Hydraulic pressure
0
40
80
C
( kgf / cm 2 )
3 1
0
Taguchi Experimental Method. An experimental work

according to the Taguchi technique is built up for the numerical optimal search. In this approach, three parameters
(hydraulic pressure, punch velocity and thickness of blank)
have the shapes of convex curves (Figure 5) are picked out.
Taguchi orthogonal array L9 (33 ) with various combinations of levels is presented in Table 4. The variations of
S/N ratio with different levels obtained from the ANOVA
of selected parameters to the effectiveness of drawing
lengths are shown in Figure 6.
+ 343.67Mpa
Die diameter ( Dd )
It can be observed that level C, D and E have the shapes

of convex curves and indicated that there exist maximum
values in these curves.
d p = 0.464 [11]
h , : hydrostatic and equivalent

stress
Figure 6. Graph of variations of S/N ratio.
09.08.2010 14:32:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
Hybrid of ANN with Genetic Algorithm. Artificial
Neural Network (ANN) is used to establish the data base
between the input/output parameters. In this study, three
input parameters (hydraulic pressure, punch velocity and
thickness of blank) with one output (drawing length) are
used to train the system of data base. Once the convergence reaches a satisfactory minimum, the data base has
been built and can be used to find the maximum drawing
length. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is adopted to find the
optimal solution in the searching processes. The numerical
result is listed in Table 5.
3. It is demonstrated that that the hydraulic pressure can

improve the drawing length of stainless steel.
Accomplishments
The solutions for various optimizations are listed in Table 5 for the comparisons. In this table, it can be observed
that the hybrid method gave the best agreement solution
with the experimental result. It is worthy to note that the
result of Taguchi-FE method shows the greatest error of
solution compared with the experiment. The influence of
hydraulic pressure to drawing length is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7(a) shows the drawing length as 27.4 mm at the
conditions of optimal parameters and Figure 7(b) as 23.8
mm at the same conditions but hydraulic pressure is zero.
It is demonstrated that the hydraulic pressure can improve
the drawing length of stainless steel.
Table 5. Comparisons of various optimal solutions with
experiment.
Selected parameters
Taguchi-FE
Taguchi
Hybrid
Exp.
Fillet radius of punch
8
8
8
8
(mm)
Fillet radius of die
8
8
8
8
(mm)
Thickness of blank
1
1
0.7
0.7
(mm)
Punch velocity
0.5
0.5
0.1
0.1
(mm/s)
Hydraulic pressure
40
40
43
43
2
( kgf / cm )
BHF ( kgf
/ cm
10
10
10
10
Drawing ratios
friction
coefficients( )
2.18
2.18
2.18
2.18
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
drawing length (mm)
24.2
27.1
27.5
27.4
Conclusions
An integration of optimal design method for the predictions of the drawing limits in hydro-mechanical deep
drawing of stainless steel is proposed and studies in this
paper. It can be concluded as following:
1. The evaluation of friction coefficient used for FE simulations by the experimental approach shows good and
achievable effort.
2. In various optimal solutions, the Taguchi-FE method
presents the greatest error of solution compared with
the experiment. On the contrary, the hybrid method
according to the experimetal data base obtained from
the Taguchi experimental method prsents an excellent
approach.
(a) Hydraulic pressure 43 kgf
/ cm 2
(b) Without hydraulic pressure

Figure 7. Drawing length at different hydraulic pressures.
References
[1] W.F. Hosford, R.M. Caddell: Metal forming, Prentice-Hall internation, (1993).
[2] K. Yoshida, H. Hayash, I. Miyauch, Y. Yamamoto, M. Abe, R. Usuda,
R. Ishida, Y. Oike: Sci. Pap. Inst. Phys. Chem. Res. 68 (1974), 85-93.
[3] T. Yagami, K. Manabe, Y. Yamauchi: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 191 (2007), 187-191.
[4] A. Kandil: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 134 (2003),
70-80.
[5] S. Thiruvarudchelvan, F.W. Travis, Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 140 (2003), 70-75.
[6] G. Taguchi, S. Konishi: American Supplier Institute, (1987), 3538.
[7] S.W. Lee: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 130-131
(2002) 47-53.
[8] M. Colgan, J. Monaghan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 132 (2003), 35-41.
[9] R. Padmanabhan, M.C. Oliveira, J.L. Alves, L.F. Menezes: Finite
Elements in Analysis and Design, 43 (2007),1062-1067.
[10] A. Jaisingh, K. Narasimhan, P.P. Date, S.K. Maiti, U.P. Singh:
[11] P. Brozzo, B. DeLuca, R. Rendina: Proc. 7th Biennial Conference of
the International Deep Drawing Research Group, (1972)
639
09.08.2010 14:32:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
A Methodology to Determine Friction Coefficient in Fluidcell Forming Process

Hasan Ali Hatipolu, Naki Polat, Arif Kksal
Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), Fethiye Mah. Havacilik Bulvari No: 17 Kazan, Ankara /
Turkey, hahatipoglu@tai.com.tr
It is aimed to determine the friction coefficient between a die surface and blank in a flexforming (fluidcell forming) process in which a pressurized rubber diaphragm is used to form the sheet. An aluminum square pan is chosen for the workpiece and it is drawn at various pressures and friction conditions (with lubricant, without lubricant, etc.). Numerical models of the process are established with different friction
coefficients and results are then compared with the experiments in order to determine the corresponding coefficients of the friction conditions. The displacement of the flange edge is used for comparison.
Keywords: Flexforming, Fluidcell forming, Friction coefficient
Introduction
Flexforming is a type of a hydroforming process in
which the sheet metal is forced to take the shape of a rigid
die by the action of fluid pressure, which acts through a
rubber diaphragm (Figure 1). The advantages of the process are that there is only a single rigid die providing low
die costs, the easy modification of the dies after design
changes leading to fast tryouts, and finally high quality
parts with less damage of the sheet (less wrinkling and
tearing occurs in comparison to conventional stamping).
The disadvantages are that special presses are needed to
withstand high pressures (up to 80 MPa) in the pressure
chamber and that controlling the final geometry of the part
is more challenging than in conventional stamping.
same part are also done with different friction coefficients

and pressure values and then friction coefficients of the
friction conditions are determined by using the matched
results between the experimental and the numerical work.
Experimental Study
The part shape used in the experiments is a square pan
(blank edge length is 200 mm, Figure 2(a)). Forming type
of this part can be classified as deep drawing, where there
is a good amount of friction between the die and the sheet.
Experiments were conducted on a circular flexform press
(Figure 2(b)). The die is placed at the center of the circular tray without the need for fixing since high pressure and
friction prevents movement of the die during forming. The
sheet is placed onto the die with the help of tapes, which
provides initial fixing. The tray is then slid into the press
where the rubber diaphragm is situated. In the press, part
is formed with the hydraulic pressure through the diaphragm.
Figure 1. Schematic representation of flexforming process.
Flexform process is commonly used in the aircraft industry where many different parts have to be manufactured in small batches. The failure modes of the process
are wrinkling, tearing and springback. Semi-empirical
methods and previous experience are not sufficient to
predict these defects before forming [2,4]. Therefore,
some detailed numerical analysis is needed for the optimization of the process. Analysis of this process is done by
Hatipoglu et al. [1] in detail in which flange bending of
sheets are studied by doing some experimental and numerical work.
Friction between the sheet and die is one of the important factors affecting the quality of sheet metal forming so
that the clarification of the friction is essential. This study
aims to determine the friction coefficient between die and
sheet in flexforming process. Experimental work is done
by drawing a square pan at different friction conditions
and pressure values. Numerical forming analyses of the
640
(a)
(b)
Figure 2. (a) Formed sheet part and (b) flexform press used in
experiments.
The experiments were conducted at various friction conditions and pressure values. Table 1 lists those experiments. Friction condition "dry" means no lubricant is used
between the die and the sheet, whereas in the "oiled" condition a drawing oil is used. "Oiled+nylon" is the condition in which an oiled nylon is put between the die and the
sheet. All those conditions result in a different sheet geometry, which is characterized by flange edge profile. The
material used in the experiments is an aluminum alloy
2024-0 sheet with a thickness of 2 mm.
09.08.2010 14:32:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. List of experiments conducted with different parameters.
Experiment No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Pressure Value
[MPa]
10
40
80
10
40
80
10
40
80
Friction
Condition
dry
dry
dry
oiled
oiled
oiled
oiled + nylon
oiled + nylon
oiled + nylon
Material
Al 2024-0
Al 2024-0
Al 2024-0
Al 2024-0
Al 2024-0
Al 2024-0
Al 2024-0
Al 2024-0
Al 2024-0
where is the effective stress, is the effective strain,

K is the strength coefficient and n is the hardening exponent. Mooney-Rivlin Law is very common for modeling
rubber like materials and is used in this study. In MooneyRivlin representation, the strain energy density function is
given by:
W = W ( I 1 , I 2 , I 3 ) = A( I 1 3) + B( I 2 3) + W ( I 3 )
where
(2)
A and B are material parameters, W is a penalty

I1 , I 2 , I 3 are Right
function for incompressibility and

Cauchy-Green strain invariants.
Numerical Modeling
Numerical models of physical experiments are prepared
by using LS-Dyna which is a dynamic-explicit finite element software [5,6]. Figure 3 shows the three bodies in the
model: The die (rigid), the sheet (plastically deformable)
and the diaphragm (elastically deformable). The process is
quarterly modeled since the bodies have quarterly symmetrical geometries and materials are assumed to be isotropic. Only the diaphragm piece over the die is modeled.
This assumption is valid if enough distance is left from the
sheet edges to the boundaries of the diaphragm.
flange edge
sheet
diaphragm
die
The sheet is discretized with Belytschko-Tsay shell elements using 5 integration points through the thickness.
Constant stress solid elements are used for the mesh of the
diaphragm in which 8 elements are used through the
thickness. The boundary conditions are hinged peripheral
nodes of the diaphragm, the symmetry conditions at the
quarter planes and finally the pressure load on the diaphragm.
The materials in the process are Aluminum 2024 - 0 for
the sheet and rubber for the diaphragm. Uniaxial tensile
tests are conducted both for the aluminum (according to
ASTM E 8M) and the rubber (according to ASTM D 412).
The material properties obtained from test results are
summarized in Table 2. Power Law Plasticity model is
used for the aluminum which has elastoplastic behavior
with isotropic hardening and it is implemented by the
following equation [3]:
Material
Al 2024-0
Rubber
Yield
Strength
[MPa]
61
-
Elastic
Modulus
[MPa]
73100
6
Density
Poisson's
K
[tonnes/
n
A [MPa] B [MPa]
Ratio
[MPa]
mm3]
0.33
2.77E-09 347 0.246
0.499
1.00E-08
0.8
0.2
The challenging part in modeling this process is to define the contact parameters between two deformable and
one rigid body all being mutually in contact with each
other. The penalty method is used for the implementation
of the contact algorithm in which inner pairs of forces are
applied at those locations where penetrations are observed
at contacting bodies. Special scaling should be done for
the contact stiffness between the diaphragm and the die,
and also between the diaphragm and the sheet in order to
compensate the bulk modulus differences between these
materials. Coulomb friction model is used for contacting
parts. The friction coefficient between the die and the
sheet is changed by doing multiple runs ( =0.05 - 0.25).
Experimental and Numerical Results
Figure 3. Finite element model of experiments.
= K n
Table 2. Material properties of aluminum and rubber used in numerical analysis.
(1)
Flange edge geometry is a good criterion for the comparison between the experimental and the numerical results since it experiences considerable change during
forming process. Table 3 lists the experimental and numerical results considering the maximum displacement of
the flange edge. From the table, it is seen that as the pressure increases and the friction decreases, maximum flange
edge displacement increases.
Experimental and numerical results could be matched
together (with an average error of 0.3 mm) to specify the
friction coefficient values that should be used in the simulations for the different friction condition cases. After
matching, it is found that for dry condition 0.25, for oil
condition 0.125 and lastly for oil+nylon condition 0.05
should be used.
Figure 4 shows the matching results between the experimental and the numerical work schematically. Photos
are taken to show the final sheet geometry of the experiments. For the evaluation of the numerical results, the
flange edge line is extracted from the deformed finite
element mesh and is shown with black plot.
641
09.08.2010 14:32:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 3. Experimental and numerical results.
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
max. flange edge displacement [mm]
friction
at 10 MPa
at 40 MPa
at 80 MPa
condition
OIL+NYLON
5.4
11
11.8
OIL
4
7.6
7.8
DRY
2.4
3.5
3.5
NUMERICAL RESULTS
max. flange edge displacement [mm]
friction
at 10 MPa
at 40 MPa
at 80 MPa
coefficient
0.05
5.4
10.4
11.8
0.075
5.1
9.6
10.7
0.1
4.9
8.8
9.5
0.125
4.5
7.8
8.1
0.15
4.3
6.6
6.7
0.175
4.1
5.6
5.6
0.2
3.7
4.6
4.6
0.225
3.5
4.2
4.2
0.25
3.3
3.6
3.6
Conclusions
Finite element analysis has been used to simulate the
flexforming process and to predict the final shape of the
sheet beforehand. The accuracy of the analysis depends
on the accuracy of the friction value that is entered to the
program. For this reason, a methodology is developed to
determine the friction coefficient between the die and the
sheet for the flexform process. Experiments are conducted
by drawing an aluminum square pan at three different
friction conditions (dry, oiled, oiled with nylon) and at
three different pressure values (10, 40 and 80 MPa) for
each condition. Then, the friction coefficient used in the
simulation is adjusted until the calculated response (flange
edge geometry) matches the measured data within a specified tolerance. Matching results specify the corresponding
friction coefficients of the friction conditions that should
be used in future work.
Acknowledgements
Dry, 10MPa, =0.25
Dry, 40MPa, =0.25
Dry, 80MPa, =0.25
Oil, 10MPa, =0.125
Oil, 40MPa, =0.125
Oil, 80MPa, =0.125
This work is supported by Turkish Aerospace Industries

(TAI), Ankara,Turkey.
References
[1] H.A. Hatipolu, A. E. Tekkaya: Key Eng. Materials, 344 (2007), 469476.
[2] Marciniak, J.L. Duncan, S. J. Hu, Mechanics of Sheet Metal Forming,
Butterworth-Heinemann, London, (2002).
[3] K. Siegert and S. Wagner, TALAT Lecture 3701-Formability
Characteristics of Aluminium Sheet, Insitut fr Umformtechnik,
Universitt Stuttgart,1994
[4] H. Palaniswamy, G. Ngaile, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 146 (2004), 28-34.
[5] A.E. Tekkaya, Finite Element Analysis in Solid Mechanics, Lecture
Notes, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, (2002).
[6] A. Sthmeyer, LS-DYNA Introductory Class, CADFEM, 2006.
Oil + Nylon, 10MPa, =0.05
Oil + Nylon, 40MPa=0.05
Oil + Nylon, 80MPa, =0.05

Figure 4. Matching results between experiment (photos)
and simulation (plots).
642
09.08.2010 14:32:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Ageing Regulating Process For 2024 Aluminum Alloy Thin Workpiece Formed Using
Rubber Fluid Forming
Rong Min, Yongjun Wang, Ximing Gou, Junbiao Wang
Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Contemporary Design and Integrated Manufacturing Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical
University, Xi'an, Shaanxi / China, wyongjun@nwpu.edu.cn.
When thin-walled workpieces are formed using rubber fluid process, the workpieces usually have distortion due to the springback. A new
regulating method was proposed to eliminate this defect. The ageing regulating process was useful to reduce the springback of thin-walled
workpieces. In this work, the experimental devices were designed and manufactured. There were two kinds of aluminium alloy tested, W
state and O state (annealing state). The regulating coefficient had been inducted to reflect the effect of the regulating process. Though
measuring the radius of the regulated samples and the bended radius, the regulating coefficient of each sample were obtained. Finally, in
order to research the influence on the material mechanical property, the uniaxial tension test was performed to get the mechanical property change after the ageing regulating process. The relationship between the ageing regulating process parameters and the material
strength was investigated.
Keywords: Al-2024-O, Al-2024-W, Thin workpiece, Rubber fluid forming, Ageing regulating process, Regulating coefficient, Springback
Introduction
Mechanism of Ageing Regulating
With the development of the aircraft manufacturing

process, more and more thin-walled workpieces have been
used. The thin-walled panel of the workpieces plays an
important role in the honeycomb parts. The honeycomb
and thin-walled panel are connected by agglutinate, so the
accuracy of panel is very important to the strength and
dimension of honeycomb parts. However, when forming
the thin-walled workpieces using rubber fluid method, the
parts usually have distortion after forming. In order to
solve this problem, the ageing regulating process had been
adopted to eliminate this defect. Ageing regulating process
can release the residual stress of parts, so it is useful to
reduce the springback of thin-walled workpiece.
The ageing process had been proposed and studied for
many years, and mainly used in sheet forming. From
1980s, Boeing formed the saddle skin using ageing
method [1]. The wing skins of B-1B aircraft [2] and Airbus A380 [3] were also formed using ageing forming
process. In ageing forming research, Zhou et al [1,4]. had
described the development of the ageing stress relaxation
sizing aluminum process, sizing efficiency of current aluminum alloys, over-bending correction evaluating, tooling
concepts, and the sizing results of rolling formed panels of
vehicle CA-3. Other researches mainly focused on the
springback in ageing forming, such as Carden et al. [7]
who studied time-dependent springback of aluminium
alloy by conducting draw-bend tests. Chunet et al. [8]
studied the Bauschinger effect for sheet metal forming
process that subjected to cyclic loading conditions.
The ageing regulating process was employed to reduce
the springback of the Al-2024-W and Al-2024-O thinwalled workpieces in this work. Respectively, the optimized parameters of ageing regulating process for Al2024-W and Al-2024-O thin workpieces with different
relative bending radius were given by ageing regulating
experiments.
Unified Ageing-Creep Constitutive Equations. Uniaxial mechanism-based creep constitutive equations with
three state variables were established by Kowalewski [9]
in 1994.
= [ A / (1 2 ) n ]sin h[ B (1 H ) / (1 )]
(1)
H = (h / e ) (1 H / H * )
= ( K / 3)(1 ) 4
(2)
(3)
2 = D
where A , B , h , H * , K c and D are material constants and
n is given by.
n = [ B e (1 H ) / (1 )]cot h[ B e (1 H ) / (1 )] (4)
Springback of Thin-walled Workpiece after Ageing
Regulating Process. The age-hardening and creep deformation of ageing workpieces is evaluated using unified
creep-ageing constitutive equations. The springback can
be written as [5]:
springback (%) = 100(1
f
)
0
(5)
where 0 is the deflection at the centre of the plate, f is

the deflection of the plate after ageing. And they are expressed by the bending moments and dimension of plate.
The curvature of the plate after ageing regulating process is expressed as:
M 11
k f = k0
(6)
D1 (1 v 2 )
where M 11 denotes the bending moment per unit
length, D1 is the flexural rigidity of the plate given by
D1 = Eh3 / 12(1 v 2 ) , E is Youngs modulus, v is Poissons ratio and h is the thickness of the plate, k 0 is the
curvature of bending die.
The bending moments per unit length can be calculated
for each time increment by the integration along the thick-
643
09.08.2010 14:32:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
ness of the stress,

M 11 =
h/2
h/ 2
11 =
R = ( H 2 + 0.25 L2 ) / (2 H )
11 zdz
(7)
E
(11t 11c )[1, v, 0]
1 v2
(8)
Experiment of Ageing Regulating for Thin-walled

Workpieces
Experimental Devices. There are six radiuses of devices in the experiment, which were 10, 20, 30, 50, 75 and
100mm (see Figure 1). The devices were made of 45 steel.
Bolt
Bolt
Upper
Die
Down Die
Figure 1. Schematic of experimental device.
Ageing Regulating Experiments. The thickness of the

sample was 0.3 mm. Each sample was bended 120, the
width of the sample is 20 mm. The length of each sample
was determined by the dimension of devices. The relative
bending radius r / t of each device was shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Relative bending radius of each device
Bending Radius 10
20
30
50
75
(mm)
Relative Bending 33.33 66.7 100 166.67 250
Radius r / t
#2
18
0
24
Table 2. Ageing experiments

#3
#4
#5
#6
19
17
18
19
0
0
0
0
48
10
24
48
Bended Sample
R2
R1
R0
Down Die
Aged Sample
Figure 3. Schematic of bending radius.
Ageing Regulating Coefficient of Thin-walled Al-2024

Sample with Different Bending Radiuses
#7
17
0
10
#8
18
0
24
The regulating coefficient s was expressed:

R R2 R0
(10)
s = [ 1
]
R1 R0 R2
where R0 is the radius of bending die, R1 is the radius of the
sample after bending and R2 is the radius of the sample
after ageing regulation.
100
333.33
Two state samples (Al-2024-O and Al-2024-W) were

tested. The experimental parameters were shown in Table
2.
#1
17
0
10
where R is radius of samples, H is the chordal height of

sample and L was the chordal length of the sample.
Regulating Coefficient. In order to evaluate the effect

of the regulating, regulating coefficient s was introduced.
No.
Temp
(C)
Time
(Hour
)
(9)
#9
19
0
48
(a) 170 C
(c) 190 C
(b) 180 C
(d) 10 hours
Experimental Procedure. The experimental device and

experimental environment were shown in Figure 2.
(e) 24 hours
(f) 48 hours
Figure 4. Ageing regulating of Al-2024-O samples
a) Experimental devices
b) experimental environment
Figure.2. Experimental device and experimental environment.
There are two steps in the experiment, bending in the

1st step and the ageing in the 2nd step. The bending radius
R1 after the springback was calculated through the chordal
height H and chordal length L of the samples. The chordal height and chordal length were measured by calipers
(see Figure 3). The following formula is shown.
644
Regulating Coefficient of Al-2024-O (Annealing State)

Samples. In order to measuring the regulating coefficient
of Al-2024-O samples, Figure 4 shows the regulating
coefficient of Al-2024-O aged at temperatures. Figure 4(a)
reveals that, the regulating coefficient of the sample aged
in 24 hours at 170 C was the highest, then the regulating
coefficient of each relative bending radius raised with the
ageing time increased. At other two ageing temperature,
the Figure 4(b) and Figure 4(c) presented that the regulating coefficient was higher with the ageing time increasing
09.08.2010 14:32:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
when the sample was aged at 180 or 190 C. If the better
quality of the workpiece was required, the ageing time
should be longer. As shown in Figure 4(d) to Figure 4(e),
the sample aged in 10 hours, the regulating coefficient of sample aged at 180 C was the highest. When aged for 24
hours, when the bending radius was shorter than 50 mm,
the regulating coefficient of 180 C stage samples was the
highest. The regulating coefficient of other samples became higher with the temperature increasing. Aged for 48
hours, when the bending radius of sample was shorter
than 20 mm (including 20 mm), the regulating coefficient
aged at 180 C was the highest, the regulating coefficient
of other samples was higher with temperature increasing.
(a) 170 C
Uniaxial Tensile Experiments

Uniaxial Tensile Results of Al-2024-O Sample Aged
At Different Temperature. From Figure 6, it was shown
that Al-2024-O samples which were aged at 170 C, the
tensile strength of 48 hours-sample was increased, and the
strength of the 10 and 24 hours samples was decreased.
The strength of 10-hours samples were the highest. Aged
at 180C, the mechanical property of the 24 hours sample
did not change. and the strength of 10 and 48 hours samples were decreased. The strength of 48 hours sample was
lowest. Aged at 190 C, the strength of the 24 hourssample was the highest, the strength of 10 and 48 hours
samples were lower than original material, and the
strength of the 10 hours sample was the lowest.
(b) 180 C
(a) at 170C
(c) 190 C
(b) at 180
(d) 10 hours
(c) at 190C
(d) 10 hours
(e) 24 hours
(f) 48 hours
Figure 5. Ageing regulating of Al-2024-W samples.
Regulating Coefficient of Al-2024-W samples. The

influences of ageing time and ageing temperature on the
regulating coefficient of different relative bending radius
were shown from Figure 5. Figure 5(b) revealed that when
aged at 180 C, the regulating coefficient of the samples
aged for 24 hours which bending radius were 30mm and
50mm were higher than the sample aged for 10 hours.
Figure 5(a) and Figure 5(c) show that 10mm, 20mm,
30mm and 50 mm (bending radius) samples which was
aged for 24 hours had better quality than which was aged
for 10 hours. Comparing the regulating coefficient in different ageing time, as shown from Figure 5(d) to Figure
5(e), when aged for 10 hours, the regulating coefficient
raised with the ageing temperature increasing. When aged
for 24 hours, except the specimens which bending radius
were 10mm and 20mm, the regulating coefficient of other
bending radius increased with the temperature increasing.
When aged for 48 hours. If the bending radius was small
than 50mm, the regulating coefficient of sample aged
at180 C was the highest.
(e) 24 hours
(f) 48 hours
Figure 6. Uniaxial tension curves of Al-2024-O samples.
Uniaxial Tensile Results of Al-2024-O Sample Aged

in Different Time. Figure 6(d) shows when aged for 10
hours, the strength of the three stage temperature samples
were weakened, its strength was decreased with temperature increasing. Then Figure 6(e) releases when aged for
24 hours, the strength of sample raised with temperature
increasing. And the strength of 180 C-samples were similar to that of original material. In Figure 6(f), when the
sample was aged for 48 hours, the strength of 170 C sample was the highest. The strength of the specimens aged at
190 and 180 C were lower than that of original material.
The strength of the specimens aged at 180 C was lowest.
645
09.08.2010 14:32:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) 170C
(b) at 180C
the yield stress and strength of samples s aged at 170 C

were the highest, and the yield stress of samples aged at
180C was higher than that of original material, but its
strength was lower than that of original material. When
aged for 48 hours, the yield stress and strength of samples
aged at 190 C were the lowest, and the yield stress of
samples aged at 180 C was higher than that of original
material, and the strength of samples aged at 170 C was
lower than that of original material. The yield stress and
strength of sample s aged at 180 C were the highest.
Conclusions
(c) 190C
(d) 10 hours
(e) 24 hours
(f) 48 hours
Figure 7. Uniaxial tension curve of Al-2024-W samples.
Uniaxial Tensile Results of Al-2024-W Sample Aged

at different temperature. Form Figure 7 (a), when aged
at 170 C, the yield stress and strength of 24 hours sample
was the highest, and the yield stress of 48 hours sample
was higher than that of original material, but the strength
was lower than that of original material. The yield stress
and strength of 10-hours samples were the lowest. In Figure 7(b), when aged at 180 C, the yield stress and strength
of 48-hours sample were highest, the yield stress of 24
hourssample was higher than that of original material,
but the strength of 24 hours sample was lower than that of
original material, and the yield stress and strength of 10hours sample were the lowest. In Figure 7(c), when aged
at 190 C, the yield stress and strength of the sample were
lower with the aging time increasing, and the yield stress
and strength of all three samples were lower than original
material.
Uniaxial Tensile Results of Al-2024-W Sample Aged
in different time. From Figure 7(d) to Figure 7(f), when
aged for 10 hours, the yield stress and strength of three
kinds of samples were lower than that of the original material, and the yield stress of 190 C sample was higher than
that of the other two samples, but the strength of 190 C
was lower than that of sample aged 170 C. The yield
stress and strength of samples aged at 180 C were the
lowest. When aged for 24 hours, the yield stress and
strength of samples aged at 190 C were the lowest, and
646
The ageing behaviour of regulating 2024 aluminium alloy thin workpieces was investigated. The following conclusions were reached as followings:
1. It was found that the regulating coefficient was influenced significantly by the relative bending radius of the
sample. When the relative bending radius increased, the
regulating coefficient decreased. The optimal ageing
regulating parameters for different relative bending radius were obtained by experiments.
2. It was also found that when Al-2024-O aluminium
specimens were aged at 180 C and the ageing time less
than 24 hours, the regulating coefficient increase unobvious. When Al-2024-O aluminium specimens were
aged for 48 hours and the ageing time was longer than
24 hours, the regulating coefficient also changed a little.
For Al-2024-W aluminium specimens, when aged at
190C and the ageing time was longer than 24 hours,
the increase of regulating coefficient was not obvious.
3. The mechanical property of Al-2024-O aluminium
specimens and Al-2024-W aluminium specimens were
investigated by uniaxial tensile tests. the experiment
show, for Al-2024-O aluminium specimens, when aged
at 170 and 190 C or for 24 and 48 hours, the yield
stress and tensile strength was increased. For Al-2024W aluminium specimens, when aged at 170 C and
180C or aged for 24 and 48 hours, the yield stress and
tensile strength was also increased. It was because the
microstructure of the material changed.
References
[1] X. Zhou, H. Chang, M. Dai: Journal of Beijing University of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2 (1992).
[2] Denise M. Hambrick, Inc.: 1.4 (1986), 649-664.
[3] Airbus A380 takes creep age-forming to new heights, Airbus Materials World, 2004,4.
[4] X. Zhou, H. Chang: Aeronautical Manufacturing Technology, 261-28
(1998), 19-23.
[5] Jeunechamps, K.C. Ho: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences,
48 (2006), 621-629.
[6] K.C. Ho, J. Lin, T.A. Dean: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 153-154 (2004), 122-127.
[7] W.D. Carden, M. Geng, D.K. Matlock: International Journal of
Mechanical Sciences, 44-1 (2002), 79-101.
[8] B.K. Chun, H.Y. Kim, J.K. Lee: International Journal of Plasticity,
18-5-6 (2002), 571-595.
[9] Z.L. Koealeski, J. Lin, D.R. Hayhurst: Investigation of a high accuracy uni-axial creep testpiece, (1995).
09.08.2010 14:32:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Application of Taguchi Method in Optimization of New Hydroforming Die Design

Morteza Hosseinzadeh1), Mohammad Bakhshi-Jooybari2), Mohsen Shakeri2), Hamid Mostajeran2), Hamid Gorji2)
1) Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Ayatollah Amoli Branch, Amol, Mazandaran / Iran, m_hosseinzadeh59@
yahoo.com; 2) Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Mazandaran / Iran
During the last few years, several sheet hydroforming processes have been introduced. Despite the advantages of these methods, they
have some limitations. Of the processes, the two main ones are the standard hydroforming and hydromechanical deep drawing. The authors already proposed a new sheet hydroforming method that has the advantages of both processes and eliminates their limitations. In this
method, a polyurethane plate was used as a part of the die-set to control the blank holder force. This paper outlines the Taguchi optimization methodology, which is applied to optimize the effective parameters in forming cylindrical cups by the new die set of sheet hydroforming
process. The process parameters evaluated in this research are polyurethane hardness, polyurethane thickness and forming pressure. The
design of experiments based upon L9 orthogonal arrays by Taguchi was used and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to analyze
the effect of these parameters on the thickness distribution of formed cups. The analysis of the results showed that the optimal combination
for low thickness distribution is softer polyurethane, high forming pressure and thinner polyurethane. Finally, the confirmation test was
derived based on the optimal combination of parameters and it was shown that the Taguchi method is suitable to examine the optimization
process.
Keywords: Sheet hydroforming, Polyurethane, Optimization, Taguchi method
Introduction
In recent years, several sheet hydroforming methods
have been introduced by researchers. Despite the advantages of these methods, they have some limitations. The
authors [1] already proposed a new die-set of sheet hydroforming method that is a combination of the standard and
hydromechanical [2,3] sheet hydroforming processes. The
proposed method has the advantages of both processes and
eliminates their limitations. In this method, a polyurethane
plate was used as a part of the die-set to control the blank
holder force. This paper outlines the Taguchi optimization
methodology, which is applied to optimize the effective
parameters in forming cylindrical cups by the new die set
of sheet hydroforming process. The objective for this investigation is minimization of the maximum thinning in
the critical zones of the formed cup.
Taguchis approach is totally based on statistical design
of experiments [4], and this can economically satisfy the
needs of problem solving and product/process design
optimization [5]. By applying this technique one can significantly reduce the time required for experimental investigation, as it is effective in investigating the effects of
multiple factors on performance as well as to study the
influence of individual factors to determine which factor
has more influence, which less [4, 5]. Taguchi creates a
standard orthogonal array to accommodate this requirement.
Experimental Procedure and Tooling
Sheet hydroforming process that is used in the current
paper is a combination of standard and hydromechanical
sheet hydroforming processes. The proposed technique has
the advantages of the two processes but eliminates their
defects.
Figure 1 provides a schematic illustration of the new
tool set-up; it consists of a punch, a blank holder, a die, a
pressure chamber, a polyurethane sheet, four screws, and
an O-ring, which seals the liquid in the pressure chamber.

As can be seen from the figure, the polyurethane diaphragm is used only on the region below the die and no
diaphragm is used in the blank deformation zone. In this
zone, the liquid is in direct contact with the blank. Thus,
the diaphragm is prevented from any deformation and
tearing, and lower pressure is required to form the workpiece.
Figure. 1 Schematic illustration of new tool set-up proposed by

the authors [1].
In contrast to conventional deep drawing, the sheet

metal is not in direct contact with the die in the proposed
method. Also, the blank-holding system in this method is a
soft-tool system. In addition, oil pressure is applied under
the polyurethane diaphragm.
Thus, the blank holder force is proportional to the oil
pressure. This creates a limit for the maximum forming
pressure. In this way, by increasing the oil pressure, the
blank holder force increases, so wrinkles can be controlled
to a great extent, in comparison with hydromechanical and
hydro-rim processes.
The experimental tests were done by a 600 kN DMG
(Denison-Mayes Group) universal testing machine. The
pressure was provided by a hydraulic unit. A control valve
regulated the liquid flow to maintain the required pressure.
Figure 2 is a photograph of the manufactured die-set
mounted on the test machine.
647
09.08.2010 14:32:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 2. Photograph of manufactured die set mounted on the test

machine.
The applied material is St14 steel sheet with 1mm thickness and its properties that were obtained by tensile test
are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Properties of the material.
Parameter
value
Young's modulus (GPa)
210
Yield stress (MPa)
201
Density (Kg/m3)
7800
Strain-hardening coefficient
0.27
In order to optimize the forming parameters, the thickness distribution of the formed cups was investigated. In
this respect, the cups were cut from one of their symmetry
plane and the thickness was measured through the plane
perpendicular to that plane. The divided area of the cut
section is presented in Figure 3.
Figure 4. Sample of thickness distribution of formed cups.
Design of Experiments
The present investigation uses Taguchi method, which is
a powerful design of experiments tool. This method provides a simple, efficient and systematic approach to determine optimal sheet hydroforming parameters. Conventional experimental design methods are too complex and
expensive. A large number of experiments have to be carried out to study the process. Taguchi method uses an
orthogonal array to study the entire process with only a
small number of experiments [6]. Moreover, traditional
experimentation involves one factor-at a time experiments,
wherein one variable is changed while the rest are held
constant.
It is also not possible to study all the factors involved in
the process and to determine their main effects (i.e., the
individual effects) in a single experiment.
The steps involved are [5]:
1. Identification of the response functions and the process parameters.
2. Determination of the number of levels for the process
parameters and possible interaction between them.
3. Selection of the appropriate orthogonal array.
4. Selection of the optimum level of process parameters
through ANOVA analysis.
5. Performing a confirmation experiment to verify the
optimal process parameters.
The input parameters chosen for the experiments are (a)
polyurethane hardness (shore A), (b) polyurethane thickness (mm), and (c) forming pressure (MPa). The range and
the number of levels of the design parameters are given in
Table 2.
Figure 3. Schematic of the cup divided into 5 zones.
A sample of thickness distribution curve of the cup is

illustrated in Figure 4. As it is seen, there are two critical
zones for each cup. The maximum thinning, thinmax, (the
difference between initial thickness and minimum thickness) before necking is 0.31. The maximum thinning may
occur in any of these two zones relating to the forming
pressure.
648
Table 2. Parameters and their levels.

Symbol
a
b
c
parameter
polyurethane thickness (mm)
level 1
level 2
level 3
15
20
25
polyurethane hardness (shore A) 65

forming pressure (MPa)
40
80
90
55
75
09.08.2010 14:32:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
Developing Design Matrix
In the present analysis, an L9 orthogonal array with
three columns and nine rows is used. This array can handle
three level process parameters. Therefore, only nine experiments are required to study the hydroforming process.
The experimental layout for the present work using the L9
orthogonal array is shown in Table 3. The coded value 1
represents the level 1, 2 represents the level 2, and 3 represents the level 3.
A statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) was formed
to identify the process parameters that are statistically
significant. Based on ANOVA the optimal combination of
the parameters is predicted.
Table 3. Experimental lay out using L9 array.
Experimental
number
Parameter level
Experimental
results for thinmax
a
1
b
1
c
1
0.17
0.19
0.25
0.16
0.26
0.23
0.26
0.20
0.24
performed by using either the standard deviation method

or by S/N ratio analysis.
In the present analysis, considering the constraint (cost
and time) mentioned above, Taguchi analysis is performed
based on average-of-results methodology.
As it is seen in Figure 1, in the new die set of sheet hydroforming, the oil pressure is applied under the polyurethane and it plays as a flexible blank holder. Thus, the oil
pressure, polyurethane thickness and polyurethane hardness play important roles in this process.
Decreasing of oil pressure leads to low blank holder
force and this causes wrinkling in the flange area. A high
oil pressure exerts too much blank holder force which
causes tearing in the formed cup.
At a constant oil pressure, by decreasing polyurethane
thickness and polyurethane hardness, the maximum thinning, thin max, decreases, but the wrinkling in the flange
area increases. To prevent the wrinkling, the fluid pressure
should be increased. Thus, an optimized condition of internal pressure, polyurethane thickness and polyurethane
hardness should be selected.
Figure 5 shows the linear graphs of the main effects of
parameters and their variation between levels of the parameters on the thinning of the formed cup. The relative
slope of the linear graphs indicates significance of the
parameters. Here, the slope of the graph showing the influence of oil pressure is more compared to other graphs.
The main effects and their difference associated with the
formed cup thinning are given in Table 4. Hence, from
Figure 5 and from Table 4, it can be concluded that the
forming pressure is the most significant parameter.
Analysis of Experimental Results

The objective of experiments is to optimize the sheet hydroforming parameters to get the best thickness distribution (i. e. the lowest maxim thinning); the smaller the
better characteristics are used. The experimental results are
analyzed, to see the main effects and the difference between the main effects of level 1 and level 2 and between
level 2 and level 3 of the variables on the thinning of cup
thickness attained by the experiments. In the present work,
only single run was performed for each of the nine experiments. As the main objective of the present research is
to minimize the cost and time of the hydroforming process, the above-mentioned approach has been adopted.
However, in situations where there is a feasibility to perform multiple runs for each of the experimental run provided by the design matrix, the Taguchi analysis can be
Figure 5. Graph showing the main effect of parameters.
649
09.08.2010 14:32:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
The results of ANOVA for the response function on

maximum thinning are given in Table 5. Comparison of
percentage contributions of the parameters indicates that
the forming pressure is the most significant parameter
influencing the thinning of formed cup followed by the
polyurethane hardness and the polyurethane thickness.
This agrees with the plot in Figure 5.
Confirmation Test
A confirmation experiment is needed to determine the
optimum conditions and to compare the results with the
expected conditions. Table 6 gives the optimum conditions for attaining minimum thickness thinning. It reveals
that for minimum thickness thinning, the polyurethane
thickness should be at level 1, the polyurethane hardness
should be at level 1 and the oil pressure should be at level
2. The model predicts an optimum value of 0.158 for
thickness thinning. Since the optimum combination is not
one of the experimental runs (according to Table 3) an
extra confirmation run is required.
Table 6. Optimum conditions for minimum thickness thininng.
Factors
level description
PU thickness (mm)
15
level contribution
1
-0.015
PU hardness (S.A)
65
-0.022
Oil pressure (MPa)
50
-0.022
650
Conclusions
The process parameters that affect the sheet hydroforming with the new die-set process have been studied using
Taguchi technique. The variables affecting the thickness
thinning according to their relative significance are the
forming pressure, the polyurethane hardness and the polyurethane thickness, respectively. The optimum forming
condition is said to be at forming pressure = 50 MPa, polyurethane hardness = 65 Shore A, and polyurethane thickness = 15 mm. It has been shown that, forming parameters
set at their optimum levels can ensure significant improvement in the response function.
References
[1] M. Hosseinzade, H. Mostajeran, M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, A. Gorji, S.
Nourouzi, S. J. Hosseinipour: Proc. IMechE Part B: J. Eng. Manufact. Uncorrected proove.
[2] S.H. Zhang, Z.R. Wang, Y. Xu, Z.T. Wang, L.X. Zhou: Journal of
[3] S. Thiruvarudchelvan, W. Lewis, Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 88 (1999), 51-56.
[2] M. Alauddin, M.A. El Baradie, M.S.J. Hashmi: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology. 71 (2003), 456-465.
[3] M. N. Dhavlikar, M. S. Kulkarni, V. Mariappan: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, 132 (2003) 90-104.
[4] A. Garcia-Diaz: Chapman & Hall, London, (1995).
[5] P. M. George, B. K. Raghunath, L. M. Manocha, A. M. Warrior:
Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 145 (2004), 6671.
[6] M.J. Davidson, K. Balasubramanian, G.R.N. Tagore, Journal of
Materials Processing Technology, 200 (2008), 283287
09.08.2010 14:32:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Theoretical and FEM Investigation of Superplastic Blow Forming in Conical Die

Asghar Shamsi-Sarband, Seyed Jamal Hosseinipour, Mohammad Bakhshi-Jooybari
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol / Iran, j.hosseini@nit.ac.ir
Deformation behavior of superplastic materials during blow forming into a conical closed die was studied by a theoretical method and finite
element simulation. The commercial software ABAQUS/Standard 6.8 was used as a computational tool. The blank was made up of a deformable part and the die was modeled rigid. In order to model the gas pressure, an extended load under the sheet was used. In the theoretical model, non-uniform thinning and contact condition including the sticking and sliding friction modes between the sheet and die were
considered. The optimum pressure path is determined and the effect of various parameters, such as the die angle and the friction coefficient on the optimized path pressure, the forming time and the thickness distribution were discussed. The results indicate good agreement
between the theoretical method and finite element analysis. The maximum pressure decreases with increasing die angle. The friction coefficient has no significant effect on the maximum pressure, whereas total forming time increases with increasing friction coefficient.
Keywords: Blow forming, gas pressure, Superplastic materials, Theoretical analysis, Finite element simulation
Introduction
Blow forming is a manufacturing process whereby the
gas pressure applied on a side of the sheet metal pushes it
into the opposite side and blow it into die so that the sheet
metal formed the die configuration. This process mostly is
used for superplastic materials forming to produce very
light and strong aerospace components. Superplastic materials are polycrystalline solids that exhibit the ability to
undergo large uniform strains at certain loading. The tensile ductility of superplastic metals typically ranges from
200 to 1000% elongation. Fine grain size of less than 10
micrometer, forming temperature greater than half the
absolute melting temperature of the material, and controlled optimum strain rate, opt , that the strain rate sensitivity exponent, m, attains a maximum value, are the principal requirements for superplasticity. The low flow stress
and high sensitivity of flow stress to strain rate are the
main features of the superplastic deformation. As high
elongations, complex parts can be formed in a single press
cycle and often multipart fabrications is decreased. But the
design of a superplastic forming process is more difficult
than conventional manufacturing operation. The important
factor is the prediction of the applied pressure path in
order to maintain the maximum strain rate near the optimum value throughout the whole forming process [1, 2].
In this paper, the optimum pressure path is determined in
superplastic blow forming process by finite-element modeling (FEM) and analytical methods, and the effect of die
angle and friction coefficient on the applied pressure is
studied.
Theoretical Model
The analytical approach is basically similar to Refs. [35] that developed for semi-conical die. The following
assumptions have been made during the theoretical modeling of the superplastic forming:
1. Elastic strain is neglected and strain hardening effects is
ignored
2. The plastic flow stress for the material is expressed as
= k m
where k is the strength coefficient of the sheet, is the

effective strain rate and m is the strain rate sensitivity.
3. The maximum strain rate occurs at the pole (dome) of
the free bulged region, therefore optimum condition for
superplastic deformation is p = max = opt
4. The geometry of the free bulged region is part of a
sphere at any instant of deformation.
Figure 1 shows the schematic diagram for deformation
in a conical die
Figure 1. Schematic diagram for superplastic forming in conical

die
The stress state at the pole (dome) is equal biaxial plane

stress. From the Levy-Mises flow rule and volume constancy, the following relations can be obtained
p = pr = p , ph = 0
p = ph = 2pr
(1)
where the subscripts r , and h represent the meridian,

circumferential and thickness directions, respectively.
From the force equilibrium at the pole, the forming pressure P can be obtained as
P=
2 pr h p
Ri
2 p h p
Ri
(2)
where R i is the radius of curvature and h p is the sheet

thickness at the pole. The stress state at the edge is ap-
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09.08.2010 14:32:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
proximately plane strain. From the Levy-Mises flow rule
and volume constancy, the effective stress e and the
effective strain rate e at the edge can be obtained respectively, as
3
er
2
e =
, = 2 = 2
e
er
eh
3
i is equal / 2 .Where is the die angle. Phase II
besides the contact of region II with the die entry, region

III is also in contact with the sidewall. In this phase the
conical part is formed (see Figure 2).
(3)
where the subscript e denotes the edge of the free bulged

region. From the force equilibrium at the edge, it can get
P=
(4)
2 er he 2 e he
=
Ri
3R i
Combining Eqs. (2) and (4) gets

hp
he
(5)
er
2 e
=
pr
3 p
The strain rate in the thickness direction at any point of

free bulged region can be obtained [3]
h =
h 1 h( i )
ln
=
t
t h( i 1)
where the subscript
combining Eqs. (1), (3), (5) and (6), the relation between
and h p ( i ) and he ( i ) at the instance of time t i can be expressed as [3]
h p (i )
he ( i )
2 ln ( he ( i ) he (i 1) )
=

3 ln ( h p ( i ) h p ( i 1) )
(7)
Because of p = optimum , the thickness at the pole at time
t i can be obtained as
h p (i )
h p (i 1)
=
exp(optimum .t )
(8)
The thickness distribution in the free bulged region can

be expressed approximately as
h ( ) = h p
2
(h h )
i 2 p e
(9)
where i is the contact angle of the free bulged region

with the die entry (see Figure 1).
According to the contact situations between the sheet
and die, the sheet is divided into three different regions:
the free bulged region, the die entry contact region and the
sidewall contact region, designated as regions I, II and III,
respectively, as shown in Figure 1. The forming operation
is considered to occur in two geometrical phases. Phase I
in which is the free bulged operation in region I and region
II is in contact with the die entry .The boundary between
regions I and II is contact angle i . Phase I finished when
652
Phase I. The following relations between radius of curvature, pole depth and contact angle can be obtained from
Figure 2:
(6)
i denotes the instance at time t i . By
Figure 2. Schematic diagram for deformation of sheet in different

phases.
Ri =
(D / 2) 2 re 2 + (H p re ) 2
R
r
+
2(
)
i
e
i = sin 1
2H p
(10)
The volumes of regions I and II (V I ,V II ) can be obtained from the geometric relationship as
h p (1 cos i )
V I = 2 R i 2 h p he
2
(2
sin
2)
cos
2)
i
i
i
i
i 2
i
D
j + j 1
V II = 2 h j .re ( j j 1 ) re sin
2
j =1
(11)
where h j and j are the thickness and contact angle of

element j in the die entry region. From volume constancy,
it is found that
V I +V II =V 0 = h0
D2
4
(12)
where h0 is the initial thickness of the sheet. In Eq. (12),
R i is the only unknown, can be calculated numerically.

Once R i is acquired, the other parameters such as i ,
H P and P can then be determined.
Phase II. In this phase, the radius of curvature and the

contact angle is expressed as
D
(13)
y .tan r
= / 2
R =
i
2sin i
where y i is total contact length with sidewall, and at any
instant it can be written as
09.08.2010 14:32:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
(14)
y i = y j = y i 1 + y i
j =1
where y j is the contact length of element j in the side-
where Pi , Pi +1 are the forming pressures needed at time

t i and t i +1 respectively.
wall of the die. The expressions for the volumes of regions

I and II are the same as those in the previous phase. The
volume of region III is
i
V III = 2 .y j R j .sin j .h j
(15)
j =1
From volume constancy, it is found that

V I +V II +V III =V 0 = h0
D2
4
(16)
In Eq. (18), y i can be calculated numerically. Once

y i is acquired, the other parameters such as y i , R i , H P
and P can be determined.

The full sliding mode ( = 0 ) based on the assumption
that the thickness distribution in the region II and III is
uniform in other words thickness of elements are equal to
thickness of the edge of the free bulged region (i.e. he ).
1
1
, n=
Kn
m
( optimum ) is proposed as
Pi
Youngs modulus, E
Strain rate sensitivity factor, m
100 MPa
0.4
591 MPa
75 GPa
0.6
In order to define the effect of friction between the sheet

and the die, two friction coefficients are considered: frictionless ( = 0 ) and rough ( = ).
In Figure 4, the finite element model is shown at the
end of forming process for a constant strain rate and = 0.
The total depth of forming is 70mm.
(17)
This constitutive equation has been implemented using

the isotropic creep material model within ABAQUS. Table
1 records the material properties of the Aluminum alloy
5083 [1]. In order to model the gas pressure, a uniform
pressure distribution was applied to the sheet. In this paper,
a pressure control algorithm for keeping the maximum
strain rate ( max ) to be equal to the optimum strain rate

Pi +1 = 1 ln max
optimum
Shear stress limit , lim

Strain hardening constant, K
A commercial finite element software ABAQUS is

applied to simulate the superplastic-forming in a conical
closed-die. Because the process was based on axisymmetric conditions, only the right half of the die and the sheet
were modeled. The die is modeled as rigid body and is
meshed with RAX2 (A 2-node linear axisymmetric rigid
link for use in axisymmetric planar geometries), while the
sheet was considered to be deformable body and is meshed
with CAX4R (A 4-node bilinear axisymmetric quadrilateral, reduced integration, hourglass control) [6]. The sheet
is fixed at the outside edge to avoid its slipping into the die
throughout the process. Figure 3 Shows the simulation
models of the die and the sheet associated with dimensions.
The material constitutive behavior of the sheet is very
crucial for an accurate prediction of the thickness distribution during a superplastic forming, SPF, process. In this
paper, the material flow behavior is described by the empirical equation
C =
Table 1. Mechanical properties of the Aluminum alloy 5083 [1].

Optimum strain rate,
0.0028 1/s
optimum
Poissons ratio ,
Finite Element Model
= C n
Figure 3. Axisymmetric model of conical-bulging process: Simulation model (Right), Dimensions of the die and sheet (Left).
(18)
Figure 4. Simulation result after superplastic blow forming in

conical die.
Figures 5 and 6 compare the obtained optimum pressure

path from the finite element analysis and the analytical
method at various die angles and friction conditions. There
is a good agreement between analytical and simulation
results. It is seen that the maximum required pressure to
keep the optimum strain rate constant does not change
653
09.08.2010 14:32:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
significantly by increasing the friction coefficient, due to
the conical shape of the die. However the friction coefficient affects the pressure profile and higher friction coefficient values lead to an increase in the time within which
the pressure applied. With increasing the die angle the
maximum pressure decreases. Simulation analysis predicates maximum pressure grater than analytical method.
Figure 7 shows the place of maximum strain rate at
various times that obtained from simulation analysis. It is
seen that until the time of 178 s the maximum strain rate
take placed at the edge of the sheet. In other word, at the
outset of the process unlike the theoretical assumption the
maximum strain rate dose not occur at the dome. This
leads to prediction a grater thickness at the dome in simulation analysis than theoretical method and increasing the
maximum pressure.
Conclusions
The deformation behavior of superplastic blow forming
of the Aluminum alloy 5083 into a conical closed die was
considered by theoretical model and finite element simulation. The commercial software ABAQUS/Standard 6.8
was used as computational tool. In order to model the gas
pressure, an extended load under the sheet was used. In the
theoretical model nonuniform thinning and contact condition including the sticking and sliding friction modes between the sheet and die are considered. The pressure profile indicates good agreement between the theoretical
model and simulation prediction. The total forming time
increases with increasing friction coefficient, whereas it
decreases with increasing die angle. Generally, the results
show that the finite element method is a reliable method
for simulating and optimizing the SPF, since it allows the
prediction of important parameters such as, stress, strain,
strain rate, thickness distribution and forming time.
Figure 5. Comparison of theory and simulation pressuretime

profile at different friction conditions for die angle 15o.
Figure 6. Comparison of theory and simulation pressuretime

profile at different friction conditions for the die angle 30o.
References
[1] M.H. Hojjati, M. Zoorabadi, S.J. Hosseinipour: Journal of Materials
[2] L. Carrino, G. Giulino, C. Palmieri: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 143-144 (2003), 373-377.
[3] Y.M. Hwang, J.S. Yang, T.R. Chen, J.C. Hung, W.U. Wu: International Journal of Mechanical Science, 40-9 (1998), 867-885.
[4] Y.M. Hwang, H.S. Lay: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
140 (2003), 426-431.
[5] Y.M. Hwang, H.S. Lay, J.C. Huang: International Journal of Machine
Tools & Manufacture, 42 (2002), 1363-1372.
[6] ABAQUS. Analysis User's Manual: Version 6.8.
Time=50 s
Time=100 s
Time=178 s
Time=255 s
Figure 7. Place of maximum strain rate at various times obtained

from simulation.
654
09.08.2010 14:32:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experiment Determination of Two Unified Fracture Criteria for Hot Sheet Hydroforming
Bao-sheng Liu1), Li-hui Lang1), Sergey Alexandrov2), Hu Zhang1), Elena Lyamina2)
1)
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, 100191, Beijing / China, liubaosheng@me.buaa.edu.cn;
tute for Problems in Mechanics of Russian Academy of Sciences, 101-1 Prospect Vernadskogo, 119526, Moscow / Russia
2)
Insti-
The fracture criterion proposed by Sergey and the fracture criterion based on the diagram of the equivalent stress and stress triaxiality
involve sheet and bulk forming in one diagram. In this paper, it is proved that the stress state of hot sheet hydroforming is a three dimensional stress state rather than a plane stress state, and two unified fracture criteria were determined by three typical tests of upsetting, wide
sheet bending and uniaxial tension at elevated temperatures.
Keywords: Unified fracture criterion, Sheet forming, Bulk forming, Hydroforming, Temperature, Experiment determination
Introduction
As an important measure for weight reduction, aluminium alloy is widely used in aviation and auto industries.
One concern is the exact prediction of fracture failure of
aluminium alloy, which often occurs before the necking
instability due to the low formability. The technology of
hot sheet hydroforming makes an effective way to meet
the demand of formability improvement or parts forming
with complicated shapes for light weight alloys. The
counter pressure coupled with the elevated temperature
brings out a great influence on the stress state in the process of hot sheet hydroforming, which shows the compound
features of both sheet forming and bulk forming.
Much experimental investigation has been done for
sheet and bulk forming. The most commonly used method
for sheet metal forming to predict failure is the forming
limit diagram (FLD) [1,2], the plot of which are the curves
with the comparison of the principal major strains vs.
minor strains in different strain state. The extension of
forming limit prediction for sheet forming is known as the
fracture forming limit diagram (FFLD) [3] and strain path
independent forming limit stress diagram (FLSD) [4], each
of which is also plotted with the fracture stains or stresses
measured. With respect to bulk forming, the axial compressible strain and circumferential tensile strain in the
upsetting test are the concerned parameters, which constitute the forming limit diagram used in bulk metal forming
[5]. The diagram based on the relation of hydrostatic stress
to equivalent strain is a general method for fracture prediction in the wide variety of forming operations such as
alligatoring in rolling, cracks in extrusion, tears in sheet
forming and so on [6,7]. Swifts diffuse instability [8] and
Hills localised instability [9] made the theoretical basis of
formability analysis. M-K model [10] described the
groove instability of the stretching region by assuming the
pre-existing inhomogeneity in the sheet. Ductile fracture
criteria [6,11,12] were proposed based on the concept of
the growth and coalescence of micro-cracks in plastic
materials, which were commonly investigated in bulk or
sheet forming. Damage models [13,14] predict failure
based on the assumption of void growth during plastic
deformation until the evolution of the micro-defects reaching a threshold valve.
However, those approaches are investigated in the field
of either sheet forming or bulk forming individually. If the
compound features of both forming strategies are considered in one criterion or diagram, those mentioned are not
exact to evaluate the formability in hot sheet hydroforming.
Sergeys fracture criterion [15] and the criterion with the
equivalent strain as a function of stress triaxiality ratio
[16,17] made quite a wide variety of forming processing to
exhibit the general features of fracture curves. In this paper,
the special feature of hot sheet hydroforming is analyzed,
and the diagrams of the two criteria are determined by
experiments at elevated temperature with single tension,
plain strain and cylinder upsetting.
Analysis of Stress State for Cylindrical Cup Wall in Hot
Sheet Hydroforming
In conventional cold and hot sheet forming processes
such and stamping, stretch forming, sheet bending and so
on, the stress at the thickness direction is at an infinitesimal quantity level compared with the in-plane principal
stresses. So the thickness stress is always neglected. The
theoretical analysis and FEM simulation are implemented
based on the assumption of plane stress condition. The
outer surface of cylindrical cup wall in the conventional
deep drawing is free surface. By contrast, the surface is
submerged in the hot oil and acted by the counter oil pressure in hot hydroforming. The thickness stress is significantly influenced by the pressure, which should be treated
as a significant factor. We can find the detailed analysis as
follows.
The cylinder wall near die corner in hot hydroforming
deep drawing is the transition zone from the region of
deformation to the region of load transfer. It is a representative zone to show the variation of thickness stress. In
Figure 1, the equilibrium equation in thickness direction is
given by
(1)
t R p (t + R ) t = 0
where t is the blank thickness, t is the principal stress in

thickness direction, is the principal stress in circumfer-
ential direction, R is the punch or cup radius and p is the

liquid pressure in die chamber. t is given from the fol-
lowing equation
t
(t + R )
(2)
p +
t =
R
R
Actually, at the condition of t << R , the thickness stress is
655
09.08.2010 14:32:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
simplified as t p . In the axial z-direction (Figure 1),
the equilibrium equation is given by,
d z t
(3)
+
=0
dz
t
The unit pulling stress z for forcing the material in flange
to flow into the die is proved as [18],
(4)
z = ( r max + m )e + w
where r max is the radial pulling stress of the flange at
the die corner, m is the pulling stress caused by the
blank holder force, w is the bend resistant stress as
flange flowing through die corner and is the wrap

angle at the die corner.
At the boundary condition of z = t + rd , Eq. (3) is solved
and the maximum unit pulling stress Zmax is presented as,
Zmax = (t + rd z ) t
t
a
2 Q
t
+ b b +
(1 + 1.6 ) + 2r + t b
m
dt
(5)
where rd is the die corner radius, is the friction coefficient, a and b are the material dependent constants, m is
the drawing coefficient, b is the ultimate strength of the
sheet and Q is the holder force.
i and are greatly influenced by t = p . When no

pressure is exerted on the cup, namely p = t = 0 , the wall
is in the plane stress condition. This is the basic assumption obeyed in a wide kind of analysis in conventional
sheet metal forming. As the pressure rises to a large quantity, the thickness stress is very large. When the thickness
stress reaches the same order of magnitude with the inplane stresses, the stress state of cup wall is three
dimensional. At this condition, the assumption of
deformation in plane stress state is not suitable. The deep
drawing under large counter pressure shows the features of
bulk forming. With the variation of pressure, the stress
state of cup wall in hot hydroforming deep drawing
changes from plane stress state to three-dimensional stress
state. The process involves the features of both sheet forming and bulk forming. Another important factor is temperature. In hot hydroforming, yield stress Y and ultimate
stress b of metal are much less than those at room tem-
perature. The three principal stresses t , z and (Figure 1) are in the same order of magnitude. So the thickness
stress is a significant factor in hot hydroforming. The hot
sheet hydroforming is in three-dimensional stress state.
The fracture prediction in the processing should not be
limited in models of either sheet forming or bulk forming
individually.
Figure 2. Relation of pressure with the three principal stresses.
Unified Fracture Criteria
Figure 1. Hot hydroforming deep drawing: a) infinitesimal unit in

cylinder wall; b) schematic diagram of hot deep drawing under
counter pressure and boundary condition of Eq. (3).
The cylinder wall is in a plane strain state: = 0 ,

z = t . For the algebraic value of stress, 1 = z > 0 ,
2 =
1 + 3 ,
3 < 0 . We can get the following expres-
sions.
If > t , then = z + p , i = 3 ( z p )
(6)
2
If < t , then = 2 p z , i = 3 ( z p )
(7)
2
where i is the Mises equivalent stress. The relationships
of i , z , with t can be described in Figure 2.
656
Sergeys fracture criterion [15] can be used to predict

fracture of a wide range of typical processing such as
tension, bulging, upsetting, extrusion, etc. It is a suitable
model used in hot sheet hydroforming with the feature of
both sheet and bulk forming considered. The other fracture
criterion based on the diagram of the equivalent stress and
stress triaxiality is a general approach that can involve
sheet and bulk forming in one diagram [16,17].
Fracture Criterion 1 [15]. Sergeys fracture criterion is
proposed as
3 t
+ = [ ( 1 ) + ( 1 + )] eq dt = 1 (8)
0
2
eq
where and are the material dependant constants, 1
is the first principal stress, is the hydrostatic stress and
= ( 1 + 2 + 3 ) / 3 , eq is the equivalent strain rate,
eq is equivalent stress and t is the time. At the assumption that the Levy-Mises constitutive equations and von
09.08.2010 14:32:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Mises yield criterion are satisfied and principal directions
of strain rates are fixed, can be presented as
t
3 t
3 t
= 1
eq dt = 1 eq dt = 1dt = 1 > 0 (9)
0
2 0 eq
2 0 eq
where 1 is the first component of the stress deviator
tensor and 1 > 0 for incompressible material. In Eq.
(8), is separated by different processing, for general
form, which is
3 t +
(10)
= 1
eq dt
2 0 eq
1) Free surface fracture
a) If 2 = 0 , = 3 1 + 2 3 ;
for the temperature range 20, 200 and 300 C by the

BCS50AR testing machine (Figure 3). It is used to determine fracture strains for plain strain state. Hot uniaxial
tension for sheet specimen was implemented by CSS88000 tension testing machine at 20, 200 and 300 C, and
hot upsetting for billet with 1.5 height-width ratio was
finished on MTS 880 testing machine at 20 and 200 C.
The fracture strains were obtained in the tension and bending test. The fracture in the compression test above 200 C
did not occur because of high workability (Figure 4). So
in the fracture diagrams of Figures 5 and 6, the experiment data of upsetting at 300 C was not investigated.
For standard bulging, 1 = 3 , namely,
= 5
(11)
For wide sheet bending, 1 = 3 , 2 = 0 , and 1 > 0 ,
2 = 1 / 2 , 3 = 0 . then
b)
(12)
= 3 1 + 2 3 = 3 1 2 3 = 1 =
For single tension, 2 = 3 = 1 / 2 and 1 > 0 ,
(13)
2 = 3 = 0 . Then = 2
If 1 = 0 , = 1 = , which is available in hollow

cylinder upsetting under pressure in a container.
For ideal upsetting under plat dies and no barrel,
1 = 2 = 3 / 2 and 1 = 2 = 0 , 3 < 0 . then
= 3
1
dt eq = 2 2
Y eq
(14)
2 Fracture at the axis of symmetry in plane strain and

axisymmetric processes ( 2 = 3 ), fracture on nonfree surface.
For plain strain process,
t
3
1
= 3
eq dt
eq ( 1 < 0 )
0
2
Y
For axisymmetric process,
= 3
1
eq dt eq
Y
(15)
(16)
(1 < 0 )
Fracture criterion 2 [16,17]. The stress triaxiality ratio

av can be used to describe the state of stress. The general
form is as follows, in which the equivalent stress as a
function of stress triaxiality. The function may not be
specified, the relation can be depicted in a plot.
(17)
eq = ( av )
where av = / eq
eq = 1
in
the
is
stress
uniaxial
triaxiality: av = 1 / 3 ,
tension,
av = 1 / 3
eq = 2 3 1 / 3 in the wide sheet bending and av = 1 / 3 ,

eq = 2 2 1 in the ideal upsetting with flat dies.
Experiments
The experiments were carried out based on the three

typical tests, hot upsetting, hot uniaxial tension and wide
sheet hot bending. The aviation aluminium alloy 5A06-O
was selected as the testing material. Hot bending was done
Figure 3. Hot bending test schematic of setup and moulds layout.
The three typical tests are fracture initiated at free surface. Both fracture criteria obey the assumption that the
wide sheet bending is considered as plane stress condition
in theoretical analysis, which is the special state as p=0 in
Figures 1 and 2. The significant characteristic of both
fracture diagrams (see Figures 5 and 6) is that workability
increased with elevated temperature.
Figure 5 shows a diagram plotted with as the function of . Each function makes one curve represent one
test. According to the special feature of each test, Sergey
[15] interpreted each typical process as an individual path
by curve. All the expressions of curves can be found in
criterion 1. Actually, the tests performed in this paper are
not enough to exhibit the whole diagram for criterion1.
The advantage of Figure 5 is to describe the characteristic
of fracture for sheet forming and bulk forming in one
diagram.
In Figure 2, we can find the following relation:
when > t , we have = z + p ;
av
3 ( z p)
p
.
or < t , then =
av
3 ( z p)
As p 0 ,
z + p
p
1 ,
av =
0;
av =
3 ( z p)
3 ( z p)
3
As p , av 1 ;
3
As p z , av .
657
09.08.2010 14:32:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
Figure 4. Fracture style of specimens for hot bending and upsetting.
Hot sheet hydroforming has distinct features from conventional sheet forming in a stress state because of counter
pressure. The two fracture criteria covering bulk forming
and sheet forming are verified through the three tests of
upsetting, wide sheet bending and uniaxial tension at elevated temperature.
1. Hot sheet hydroforming is not exact to be solved as the
plane stress condition. If the thickness stress caused by
the counter pressure is too large to be neglected, the deformation of sheet material is in three dimensional
stress state.
2. The two fracture criteria are unified ones covering bulking forming and sheet forming. The fracture diagrams at
elevated temperatures are successfully obtained, which
are suitable to predict fracture in hot sheet hydroforming.
Acknowledgment
The research described has been supported by grants

National Science Foundation of China (contract 50975014)
and RFBR-07-08-92113 (Russia).
References
Figure 5. Fracture diagram obained from experiment for criterion 1.
Figure 6. Fracture diagram obtained from experiment for criterion

2.
So the fracture occurring in the processing of hot sheet

hydroforming satisfies the domain 1 < av < , which
3
covers the tests from bulk forming (upsetting) to sheet
forming (bending) or the domain 1 < av < 1 . In other
3
3
word, the deformation mode changed with increased
counter pressure, and hydroforming is treated as plane
stress analysis only at the condition that pressure is neglected compared to in-plane stresses.
658
[1] S.-P. Keeler, W.-A. Backhofen: ASM Transactions Quarterly, 56

(1964), 25-48.
[2] G.-M. Goodwin: SAE paper, (1968), No. 680093.
[3] G.-H. LeRoy, J.-D. Embury, G. Edwards, M.-F. Ashby: Acta Metallurgica, 29 (1981), 1509-1522.
[4] L. Zhao, R. Sowerby, M.-P. Sklad: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 38 (1996), 1307-1317.
[5] H. Kudo, K. Aoi: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of
Plasticity, 8 (1967), 17-27.
[6] A.-G. Atkins: Metal Science Journal, 15 (1981), 8183.
[7] S.V.S.Narayana Murty, B. Nageswara Rao, B. -P. Kashyap: Journal of
Materials Processing Technology, 147 (2004), 94-101
[8] H.-W Swift: Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 1 (1952),
1-18.
[9] R. Hill: Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 1 (1952), 1930.
[10] Z. Marciniak, K. Kuczynski: International Journal of Mechanical
Sciences, 9 (1967), 609-620.
[11] F.-A. McClintock: Journal of Applied Mechanics, 35 (1968), 363371.
[12] M.-G. Cockcroft, D.-J. Latham: Journal Institute of Metals, 96
(1968), 33-39.
[13] J.-R. Rice, D.-M. Tracey: Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of
Solids, 17 (1969), 201-217.
[14] J. Lemaitre, J.-L. Chaboche: Cambridge University Press, (1990).
[15] S. Alexandrov, L.-H, Lang: ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, 132-2 (2010), in print.
[16] V. Vujovic, A.-H. Shabaik: Journal of Engineering Materials and
Technology, 108 (1986), 245-249.
[17] M. Bruenig, O. Chyra, D. Albrecht, L. Driemeier, M. Alves: International Journal of Plasticity, 24-10 (2008), 1731-1755.
[18] S.-C. Hu, H.-Z Chen: Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Press, (2004).
09.08.2010 14:32:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
Formability for Hot Stamping of Al-Alloy Panel Parts

Mohamed Mohamed, Alistair Foster, Liliang Wang, Jianguo Lin, Daniel Balint, Trevor Dean
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington, London / UK, Jianguo.lin@imperial.ac.uk.
A coupled thermo-mechanical viscoplastic-damage model for the aluminum alloy AA6082 is developed and determined from experimental
data for ranges of temperatures and strain rates. The unified viscoplastic damage constitutive equations are input into the commercial Finite
Element code Abaqus/Explicit via the user defined subroutine, VUMAT. An FE process simulation model and numerical procedures are
established for the modelling of hot stamping and cold die forming process for a spherical part with a central hole. Different failure modes
(failure takes place either near the central hole or in the mid span of the part) are obtained. To validate the simulation results, a test
programme is developed, a test rig has been designed and manufactured, and tests have been carried out for the material with different
forming rates. It has been found that a very close agreement is observed between the experimental and predicted results.
Keywords: Hot stamping, formability, Materials modelling, Process simulation, AA6082.
Introduction
To increase the formability of Al-alloys, hot stamping
processes are often used. In the process, an Al-alloy is
heated to or close to its solution heat treatment
temperature to enable the hardening precipitates to be
dissolved within the primary -Al matrix. The temperature
at which SHT is performed is an important parameter,
since it gives significant changes in the microstructure of
the alloy and could lead to an improved capacity to
tolerate extensive plastic deformation without cracking, i.e.
to an improved formability of the material [1].
A typical thermal history profile during hot stamping
process is shown in Figure 1. The aluminum alloy blank is
heated to its solution heat treatment temperature (e.g.
525 C for AA6082) and deformed with a cold die set. The
formed part is then held within cold dies for rapid cooling.
There are two reasons for the formed part being held in the
cold dies: one is the rapid quenching to avoid the
formation of coarse phase precipitates, particularly at
grain boundaries; and the second is to avoid thermal
distortion of the formed part during quenching [2].
SHT (525C)
Temperature (C)
Transfer to the press

Deformation
Hold within
cold dies
Time (sec)
Figure 1. Schematic diagram showing temperature history for hot
stamping process.
correctly predicted. The initiation of localized necking

during the deformation process is due to the process of
void nucleation and growth and in turn determines the
formability limit in sheet metal that precedes fracture [3].
It is well known that non-metallic inclusions and second
phase particles play a fundamental role in the ductile fracture of metal alloys. The most common modes of void
nucleation are the complete or partial interfacial decohesion of second phase inclusions. The main objective of this
paper is to develop and determine a set of viscoplastic
damage constitutive equations, which enables the prediction of the localized necking and failure features of an Alalloy under hot stamping processes.
Experimental Programme
An AA6082 is used through out the research. Firstly
tensile tests have been carried out at different temperatures
and strain rates using Gleeble (3800) Materials simulator.
The symbols in Figure 2 show the experimental stress and
strain data, which are used to determine constitutive equations. It has been noticed that at the same temperature
(Figure 2(a)), the ductility of the material is higher at high
strain rate.
Formability tests were carried out using a high speed
hydraulic press and a specific tool set with a hemispherical
punch, as shown in Figure 3, The tool set contains four
main parts; hemispherical punch, top and bottom blank
holders, and gas springs. The blank holders are designed
with drawing beads to prevent the material flowing into
the die. The clamping force of the material is provided by
the gas springs.
Square samples of AA6082 with dimensions of 170 x
170 x 2 mm were cut from the supplied sheets. A 16 mm
diameter hole was drilled in the centre of the sample. The
reason for drilling the hole is to give an opportunity for the
material to flow over the punch easily. In addition, the
evolution of the central hole diameter will be used for the
qualitative evaluation of plastic deformation and verification of the modelling results in succeeding work.
In order to find the ideal forming conditions for aluminum alloy sheets, the formability limit and the ductile
fracture initiation in sheet forming processes has to be
659
09.08.2010 14:32:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
= E(1 f d )( T P )
70
True stress (Mpa)
60
10 s-1
50
1 s-1
40
0.1 s-1
30
20
10
0
0 0.1
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1
True strain
(a) Deformed at 500 C and different strain rates
70
True stress (Mpa)
60
450 C
50
500 C
40
525 C
30
20
10
0
0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1

True strain
(b) Deformed at strain rate 1s-1 and different temperature
Figure 2. Comparison of computed (solid curves) and experimental (symbols) stressstrain relationships for AA 6082 alloy deformed at different strain rates and temperatures.
Unified Viscoplastic Damage Constitutive Equations

Viscoplastic constitutive equations have been developed
by many researchers for many engineering materials, and
have been used to model a wide range of time dependent
phenomena, such as strain rate effects, creep, recrystallisation, recovery, etc. In those equations, hardening of a material during viscoplastic deformation is modelled according to the accumulation of plastic strains only [2-4]. Recently dislocation-based hardening constitutive equations
have been developed by Lin et al. [5], where the recovery
of dislocations due to annealing and recrystallisation in hot
forming conditions is included. Based on the previous
work, a new set of unified viscoplastic damage constitutive equations is formed and given below:
P =
/( 1 f d ) R k n1
R =0.5B
1 / 2
= A(1 ) P C
d1
fd =D1 f d P
660
(1)
d2
(2)
n2
+ D2 P
d3
cosh(D3 P )
(3)
(4)
(5)
where P in Eq. (1) is the traditional power law viscoplastic flow formulation. The material hardening R in
Eq. (2) due to the plastic deformation is calculated according to the accumulation of dislocation density (Ref Eq.
(3)). In hot metal forming processes, at the late stage of
deformation, softening due to damage decreases the flow
stress, which can be modelled based on void nucleation
and growth mechanisms. The effective damage evolution
is defined in Eq. (4), where damage is 0 at the initial state
of the deformation. When the damage level reaches 0.7, it
is assumed that failure takes place for the material. The
constants k, B, C, E, D1 , D2 are temperature dependent
and A, d1,d2,d3, n1, n2 are material constants. E is the
Youngs modulus of the material. Eqs. (6)-(12) represent
the Arrhenius equation for temperature dependent parameters.
Q
K = K o exp R KT
g
Q
k = k o exp R kT
g
Q
B = B o exp R BT
g
Q
C = Co exp R CT
g
Q
E = E o exp R ET
g
Q
D1 = D1o exp R 1T
g
Q
D2 = D2o exp R 2T
g
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
where Rg is the universal gas constant and Q is the activation energy. The values of the constants in the equations
are determined from experimental data and are listed in
Table 2. Figure 2 shows the comparison of the experimental and predicted stress-strain relationships and fairly good
agreement has been achieved for all the temperatures and
strain rates investigated.
Process Simulation and Result Discussion
The determined unified viscoplastic damage constitutive
equations are input into the commercial FE code,
ABAQUS, via the user defined subroutine, VUMAT. An
axi-symmetric FE model, with dimensions, for the process
simulation is shown in Figure 4. This is a coupled thermomechanical FE process simulation and the physical and
thermal properties used for the FE analysis are given in [6].
The FE process modelling starts with applying the boundary and loading conditions on the model as shown in Figure 4. Once the punch moves toward the sheet, the first
09.08.2010 14:32:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
contact occurs between the sheet and blank holder. The
blank holder pressure of approximately 3 MPa is applied
to ensure that no blank material can be drawn in during the
deformation process. The stroke applied is 50 mm in 0.08
sec (0.64 0.01 m/s) for the fast forming rate and 50 mm
in 0.3 sec (0.166 0.01 m/s) for the slow forming rate.
Table 1. Material constants for viscoplastic-damage constitutive
equations for AA6082.
Bo (MPa)
ko (MPa)
Ko (MPa)
QE (J/mol)
4.91
0.89
0.219
19286.726
QC (J/mol)
QB (J/mol)
Qk (J/mol)
QK (J/mol)
3393.4
11625.8
6679
27687.07
n1
n2
d1
d2
1.8
1.2
1.0101
d3
D1o
D2o
D3
0.5
10.32
5.49E-19
26.8
Q1 (J/mol)
Q2 (J/mol)
Eo (MPa)
Co
6408.4
119804.59
322.8191
0.26
Rg (J/K/mol)
13
8.314
place, thus temperature is lower at the central hole area,

relative to the circumferential area which is warm and easy
to deform. In addition, the low punch speed leads to low
strain rate, which further decreases the strength of the
material at circumferential area, thus localized
deformation has a higher priority to take place around
circumference (mode 1).
On the other hand, at a fast forming rate, less heat
transfer at the workpiece/punch interface takes place,
because the duration of contact between the workpiece and
cold punch has been significantly decreased, and hence
temperature distribution in the workpiece is relatively
uniform. Moreover, the high forming rate results in a high
strain rate, which significantly enhances the material
strength at circumferential area. Therefore, a higher level
of tensile stress can be transferred from the circumferential
area to the vicinity of the central hole and hence localized
plastic deformation occurs at the central hole area (mode
2).
Die set top plate
Figures 5(a) and 6(a) show two failure modes obtained

from hot stamping processes for AA6082. The first mode
is a tear (rip) around circumference (mode 1) and the second mode is radial tears from centre (mode 2). At the fast
forming rate, the failure occurred as mode 2, radial tears
from centre and maximum thinning occurred at the top
region of the sheet around the central hole as shown in
Figure 5(a). On the other hand, at the slow forming rate,
the failure was mode 1, tear around circumference and
maximum necking occurred at the middle part of the
formed cup as shown in Figure 6(a).
These two different failure modes are mainly due to the
combined effects of radial variation in the temperature of
the workpiece and rate dependant flow stress of the workpiece material at elevated temperatures. During the
hemispherical punch tests, the material making good
contact with the cold punch, the central hole area, was
cooled rapidly by conduction with the punch; on the other
hand, the material with little or no contact with the cold
punch, the circumferential area, was cooled mainly by the
air and hence at a much lower rate. The radial temperature
variation of the workpiece is accentuated at a low forming
rate, which provides greater time for heat transfer to take
Die set blank

Punch
Stop ring
Die set base Plate
Gas spring
Punch support
Die set support
Rig base Platet
Figure 3. Formability test set-up and test rig design.
661
09.08.2010 14:32:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Top blank holder
R43
R8
R5
Blank
with localized necking and the location of the failure is

forming rate dependent. The developed viscoplastic damage equations and the FE process modelling method are
able to predict the failure modes of hot stamping process
accurately.
Bottom blank holder

Hemispherical
punch
(a)
R40
Experiment
Damage
Figure 4. FE formability model using hemispherical punch

(dimensions in mm).
0.7e-11
0.2
0.5
0.7
(b) Predication
(a) Experiment
0.7
Damage
0.5
Figure 6. Comparison of (a) experimental and (b) predicted failure

modes for the samples tested at a forming rate of 0.166 0.01 m/s
at the deformation temperature of 47510 C. The punch stroke is
32mm.
0.2
0.7e-11
Conclusions
A set of viscoplastic damage constitutive equations have
been developed and determined for AA6082. It is confirmed that the determined equations can be used to model
the viscoplastic flow behavior of AA6082 until failure.
The equations, coupled with the FE model, can be used to
predict the failure modes and necking locations of the
material at hot stamping conditions.
(b) Predication
Figure 5. Comparison of (a) experimental and (b) predicted failure
modes for the samples tested at a forming rate of 0.64 0.01 m/s
at the deformation temperature of 47510 C. The punch stroke is
32mm.
Figures 5(b) and 6(b) represent the predicted results of

the damage value for the fast and slow forming rates, respectively. According to the theory, as the damage reach
0.7, the failure takes place, which can be thought of as the
initiation of tearing. From Figures 5 and 6, it can be seen
that the tearing in the hot stamping process is initiated
662
References
[1] M. Mohamed, A. Foster, J. Lin: Steel Research International, 79 (11)
(2008), 160-167.
[2] R.P. Garrett, J. Lin, T.A. Dean: International Journal of Plasticity, 218 (2005), 1640-1657.
[3] J. Lin, Y. Liu and T.A. Dean: International Journal of Damage Mechanics. 14, (2005), 299-319.
[4] J. Lin, T.A. Dean: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 143144 (2003), 281-285.
[5] J. Lin, Y. Liu, D.C. J. Farrugia, M. Zhou: Philosophical Magazine A,
85- 18 (2005), 1967-1987.
[6] A.D. Foster, M.S Mohamed, J. Lin, T.A Dean: Steel Research International, 79-11 (2008), 113-119.
09.08.2010 14:33:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
Resistance Heating of Side Wall of Cup for Warm and Hot Spline Forming
Kanji Ueno1), Ken-ichiro Mori2), Seijiro Maki3), Naotaka Arisawa2)
1)
Production Division, Jatco Ltd, Fuji / Japan, kanji_ueno@jatco.co.jp; 2) Department of Production Systems Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi / Japan; 3) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mie University, Tsu / Japan
A resistance heating process of a side wall of drawn cups for warm and hot spline forming was developed to manufacture gear drums. The
side wall of the cup was heated electrically by resistance heating to decrease the forming load and to increase the formability. Since the
cross-sectional area of the side wall is constant in the electrification direction, the heating of the side wall becomes uniform. The inhomogeneous contact between the electrode and side wall was improved by inserting copper foils in the interface, and thus the temperature distribution in the hoop direction became uniform. The uniformity of the temperature in the axial direction was improved by reducing the total
area of contact between the electrode and side wall and by increasing the number of contacts. The side wall of the cup was successfully
shaped into a gear drum by warm and hot spline forming using the resistance heating method.
Keywords: Sheet metal forming, Warm and hot spline forming, Resistance heating, Gear drum, Side wall heating, Steel cup, Temperature
distribution
Introduction
The use of high strength steel sheets continues increase
due to the drive to reduce the weight of automobiles [1].
Although the high strength steel parts have superior mechanical properties, stamping operations in this material
become difficult due to the high strength. As the strength
of the sheets increases, the forming load increases, and
thus the springback becomes large, particularly for the
ultra high strength steel sheets [2]. In addition, the formability of the ultra high strength steel sheets is low [3], i.e.
the elongation is about 10%.
The hot stamping process of quenchable steel sheets is
effective in solving the problems encountered in the forming of high strength steel sheets [4,5]. By heating the
sheets, the forming load is consistently reduced, the
springback is prevented and the formability is greatly
improved. In addition, the stamped parts are hardened by
the quenching with dies, and thus the ultra high strength
steel parts have a tensile strength of approximately 1.5GPa
and are obtained under a low forming load. The authors
[6,7] have developed a hot stamping process using rapid
resistance heating to prevent the temperature drop and the
surface oxidation.
Gear drums used in automobile transmissions are generally made from sheets. The sheet is deeply drawn into a
cup, and then a gear drum is formed by splining the side
wall of the cup. Although the use of the high strength steel
sheets is desirable to reduce the weight of the transmissions, it is not easy to spline the high strength steel cups
due to severe deformation. Warm and hot spline forming is
attractive for high strength steel cups.
In the present study, a resistance heating process for the
side wall of cups for warm and hot spline forming has
been developed to manufacture gear drums.
Resistance Heating of Tube by Whole Contact
Resistance Heating of Side Wall of Cup. The side wall
of the cup is heated for the spline forming. When the cup
is heated by a furnace, the heating efficiency is low, the
surface oxidation is large, and the dimensional accuracy of
the formed products deteriorates. The heating method is a

key to the warm and hot spline forming.
Although a rectangular sheet is uniformly heated by the
Joule heat in the electrification as shown in Figure 1, the
distribution of temperature becomes non-uniform for a
non-rectangular sheet, because the generation of heat is
inversely proportional to the cross-sectional area as shown
in Figure 1(b). The constant cross-sectional area in the
electrification direction is required for the resistance heating. Since the heating region in the spline forming is limited to the side wall of the cup, the ironed side wall having
a uniform thickness is uniformly heated by sandwiching
the cup between the electrodes.
Electrode
Uniform
(a) Rectangle
Electrode
High
Low
(b) Trapezium
Electrode
Uniform
Electrode
(c) Side wall of cup
Figure 1. Temperature distributions in sheets and cup by resistance heating.
Procedure of Resistance Heating. The mild steel pipe

STKM11A was heated by resistance heating as an initial
examination of the heating behaviour in the side wall of
deeply drawn cups. The outer diameter, wall thickness and
height of the cut pipe are 38.1 mm, 1.1 mm and 40 mm,
respectively.
The resistance heating apparatus consisted of the steel
pipe sandwiched between the copper electrodes as shown
in Figure 2. The pipe was pressed by a servo press to
increase the real contact area between the pipe and electrode, and thus the generation of heat by the contact resistance at the interface was decreased. A DC power supply
with a capacitor was used for the resistance heating. The
input energy of the power supply was fixed at 35kJ, and the
current I and the contact pressure p were varied between 3
and 9 kA and between 20 and 24MPa, respectively. The
distribution of temperature in the heated pipe was measured by an infrared thermography.
663
09.08.2010 14:33:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
range for uniform distribution and no deformation is p =
22 MPa and I = 3-7 kA.
Copper electrode
Figure 2. Resistance heating apparatus of steel pipe sandwiched

between copper electrodes.
Distribution of Temperature. The distributions of temperature in the pipe by the resistance heating without and
with the copper foils for I = 5 kA and p = 22 MPa are
illustrated in Figure 3. When the edge of the pipe is in
direct contact with the electrode without foils, the distribution of temperature becomes non-uniform due to the inhomogeneous contact. The four copper foils were inserted
between the pipe and the electrode to ensure better compliance and contact, and thus the distribution of temperature in the hoop direction becomes more uniform. The
following experiments were performed for the insertion of
the copper foils.
4 copper
foils
The pipes after the resistance heating for different currents and contact pressures are shown in Figure 4. For I =
7 kA and p = 22 MPa, the distribution of temperature in
the hoop direction is uniform and the pipe is not deformed.
For the other conditions examined depending on the combination of current and pressure, the excessive current
melts the edges, the excessive pressure deforms the pipe,
and the distribution of temperature in the hoop direction
becomes non-uniform for the small pressure.
(b) I = 9 kA,
p = 22 MPa
20
4 5 6 7
Current I /kA
10
When both ends of the pipe are in inhomogeneous contact with the electrodes, the distribution of temperature in
the hoop direction is uniform, but the distribution in the
axial direction becomes non-uniform due to the radiation
of heat to the electrodes. The distribution of temperature in
the axial direction for p = 22 MPa is illustrated in Figure 6.
Although the difference of temperature decreases for the
increase in current, the difference is still large.
1000
Pipe
I = 7kA
800
5kA
600
3kA
400
200
Electrode
(a) No foil
(b) 4 copper foils
Figure 3. Distributions of temperature in pipe by resistance heating without and with copper foils for I = 5 kA and p = 22 MPa.
(a) I = 7 kA,
p = 22 MPa
Edge
Non-uniform heating melting
(c) I = 7 kA,
(d) I = 5 kA,
p = 24 MPa p = 20 MPa
Figure 4. Pipes after resistance heating for different currents and

contact pressures.
5
10
15
20
Distance from centre z /mm
Figure 6. Temperature distributions in axial direction for p = 22
MPa.
In both edges of the pipe with a chamfer as shown in

Figure 7, the generation of heat becomes large due to the
increase in electric current density, the radiation of heat to
the electrodes becomes small, and thus the distribution of
1000
1/1
800
1/2
600
Pipe
400
40
Electrode
22
Figure 5. Effects of contact pressure and current on heating behaviour of pipe.
Temperature /C
200C
400C
600C
800C
Uniform heating, no deformation
18
0
Electrode
Electrode
Uniform heating, deformation
24
40
Steel pipe
Contact pressure p /MPa
38.1
Temperature /C
40
Copper plate
Copper electrode
26
Insulator
Current
200
0
1/2
45
5
10
15
Distance from centre z /mm
20
Figure 7. Temperature distributions in axial direction with and

without cut edge of pipe for I = 7 kA and p = 22 MPa.
The effects of the contact pressure and current on the

heating behaviour of the pipe are given in Figure 5. The
664
09.08.2010 14:33:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
temperature approaches uniformity. It is found that the
decrease in contact area with the electrode is effective in
improving the uniformity of temperature.
Uniformity of Temperature by Decrease in Contact
Area
10
Finite Element Simulation of Distribution of Temperature. By decreasing the contact area between the cup
and electrode, the uniformity of temperature is improved,
but the chamfer on both edges of the pipe brings about an
additional process and the cutting is not easy. Therefore,
the surfaces of the electrodes are indented to decrease the
contact area.
The distribution of temperature in the pipe and electrode
during the resistance heating was simulated by the commercial finite element software ANSYS. The parts of the
pipe and electrode are divided into shell elements due to
symmetry of temperature as shown in Figure 8. The contact between the pipe and electrode is assumed to be complete. The contact area rate c and length l between the pipe
and electrode were varied.
200C
400C
600C
800C
Pipe
(a) l = 1.34 mm
(b) l = 0.335 mm
Figure 10. Distribution of temperature in pipe and electrode calculated from finite element simulation for c = 10%
Resistance Heating of Cup with Copper Wires. The

pipe was nosed into a cup with a bottom hole as shown in
Figure 11. The wall thickness in the cup was almost uniform.
Pipe
39
6.7
(b) 1/36 model (c) Element mesh
Figure 8. Finite element simulation of distribution of temperature in

pipe and electrode by resistance heating.

calculated from the finite element simulation for the contact length l = 0.335 mm is illustrated in Figure 9. The
distribution in 1/36 of the pipe and electrode is shown.
Although the temperature for the contact area rate c =
100% is largely distributed in the axial direction, the distribution becomes almost uniform for c = 8 and 10%.
400C
(a) Apparatus
25
Die
38.1
28.6
(b) Formed cup
Figure 11. Nosing of pipe into cup with bottom hole.
Since the temperature becomes more uniform with the

decreasing contact length as shown in Figure 10, the resistance heating apparatus of the cup using the electrode and
copper wires was used (see Figure 12). The diameter of
the copper wire is 0.9 mm and the number of wires is 50.
The wires are radially set on the surface of the electrode.
Since the complete contact was assumed in the finite element simulation, the nominal contact rate calculated from
the diameter of the wire was 38 % in the experiment.
200C
400C
600C
800C
100
0.9mm, 50
Copper copper wires
electrode
600C
800C
200C
400C
600C
800C
1.1
R5
Pipe
Electrode
38.1
22
20
Pipe
Electrode
200C
400C
600C
800C
1000C
800C
Punch
Copper electrode
(a) Heated pipe

calculated from the finite element simulation for c = 10%
is shown in Figure 10. The distribution in 1/18 of the pipe
and electrode is calculated. As the contact length decreases
and the number of contacts increases, the temperature
becomes more uniform.
Cup
Copper wires
Cup
100
Figure 12. Resistance heating apparatus of cup using electrodes
with copper wires.
(a) c = 100%
(b) c = 25%
(c) c = 10%
(d) c = 8%
Figure 9. Distribution of temperature in pipe and electrode calculated from finite element simulation for l = 0.335 mm.
The cups manufactured after the resistance heating with

different contact pressures for I = 7 kA are shown in Figure 13. Although the cup is deformed by excessive pres-
665
09.08.2010 14:33:25 Uhr
R1
33.0
35.4
28.5
R2
sure around the edge for p = 24 MPa, the cup is uniformly

heated for p = 20 MPa.
R1
Metal Forming
Upper
(b) p = 24 MPa
The effects of the contact pressure and the current on the

heating behaviour of the cup are given in Figure 14. When
the contact pressure is too large, both edges of the cup are
deformed, and both edges are melted for excessive current.
Contact pressure p /MPa
26
22
Uniform heating, no
deformation
20
4 5 6 7
Current I /kA
10
The distribution of temperature in the axial direction for

p = 20 MPa is illustrated in Figure 15. The uniformity of
temperature is improved by the copper wires. Temperature
distribution in the cup is useful, particularly with respect
to Figure 15 where temperature variation s about 200K.
1000
I = 7kA
800
Temperature /C
22
Conclusions
A resistance heating process for the side wall of cups for
warm and hot spline forming was developed to manufacture gear drums. The warm and hot spline forming is effective in manufacturing high strength steel gear drum, and
the rapid resistance heating is a key to the warm and hot
forming processes.
References
200
5
Figure 17. Gear drum manufactured by spline forming using

resistance heating.
This work was supported in part by the Die and Mold

Technology Promotion Foundation.
Cup
400
10
15
Distance from top z /mm
20
25
Figure 15. Distribution of temperature in axial direction for p = 20

MPa
Warm and Hot Spline Forming

The tools used for the experiment of warm and hot
spline forming are shown in Figure 16. The punch and die
are made of the too steel SKD62, and the number of teeth
is 4.
Figure 16. Tools used for experiment of warm and hot spline
forming.
Acknowledgement
5kA
600
666
(b) Die
Edge
melting
Figure 14. Effects of contact pressure and current on heating

behaviour of cup.
(a) Punch
Upper
Non-uniform heating
18
16
0
Lower
The gear drum manufactured by the spline forming using resistance heating is shown in Figure 17. The gear
drum was successfully formed from the cup using the
resistance heating method.
Uniform heating, deformation
24
100
Figure 13. Cups after resistance heating for different contact

pressures for I = 7 kA.
Lower
80
(a) p = 20 MPa
[1] M. Kleiner, M. Geiger, A. Klaus: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing

Technology, 52-2 (2003), 521-542.
[2] K. Mori, K. Akita, Y., Abe: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 47-2 (2007), 321325.
[3] K. Mori, Y. Abe, Y. Suzui: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 210-4 (2010), 653-659.
[5] K. Mori, D. Ito: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 58-1
(2009), 267-270.
[6] K. Mori, S. Maki, Y. Tanaka: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 54-1 (2005), 209212.
[7] K. Mori, S. Saito, S. Maki: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology,
57-1 (2008), 321-324.
09.08.2010 14:33:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
Numerical and Experimental Determination of Forming Limit Diagram for DIN 1623
St14 Steel
Farhad Haji Aboutalebi
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Khomeini Shahr Branch, Isfahan / Iran, hajiaboutalebi@iaukhsh.ac.ir
The prediction of forming limit diagram in industries is one of the most important challenges confronting engineers and researchers. One of
the most famous methods in determination of forming limit diagram is Erichsen's cupped test. In this paper, a fully coupled elastic-plasticdamage model based on plane stress elastoplasticity theory was developed and implemented into an explicit code. For evaluation of the
model, Erichsen's cupped test was numerically simulated to predict forming limit diagram of DIN 1623 St14 steel. Meanwhile, empirical
tests were carried out to determine the forming limit diagram of the material experimentally. Comparison of the numerical and experimental
results showed good agreement and adaptation. Hence, it is concluded that finite element method combined with continuum damage mechanics can be used as a reliable and rapid tool to predict the forming limit diagram of sheet metals and is able to reduce the number of
costly trials.
Keywords: Forming limit diagram, Erichsen's test, Finite element method, Continuum damage mechanics
Introduction
Sheet metal forming processes are among the oldest and
most widely used industrial manufacturing operations. By
these processes, thin-walled parts of complicated shapes
such as automotive panels, and various size structural parts
can be produced. St14 steel (DIN 1623) is commonly
applied in the sheet metal forming industries because of its
remarkable formability and also its low price. For such
parts the prediction of the forming limit diagram (FLD) is
an important challenge confronting the design engineers.
One of the most common methods for determining the
FLD is Erichsen's cupped test. In this test, a number of
patterned strips of sheet metal which are fully clamped by
a blank holder are drawn by a hemispherical punch until
fracture occurs. By measuring the major and minor strains
near the fractured zone and plotting the results, a FLD can
be generated. Experimental investigations have revealed
that localized necking of sheet metals can be well described by FLD [1].
The FLD, being plotted in the coordinates of in-plane
principal strains; marks limit strains at a point in a sheet
metal. It has two sides, the left hand side (LHS) covers
uniaxial to plane strain tension and the right hand side
(RHS) covers plane strain to equibiaxial tension. Recently,
finite element methods (FEM) in conjunction with continuum damage mechanics (CDM) have played a significant
role in numerically predicting the forming limit in sheet
metal forming [2-4].
In this paper, a fully coupled elastic-plastic-damage
model based on plane stress elastoplasticity is developed
and implemented into an explicit code. By using the plane
stress algorithm which is valid for thin sheet metals, the
model is able to quickly predict both deformation and
damage behaviour of the parts. For evaluation of the
model, Erichsen's cupped test has been numerically simulated to predict the FLD of DIN 1623 St14 steel and empirical tests are carried out to determine the FLD of the
material experimentally.
Continuum Damage Mechanics

Lemaitres Damage Model. According to Lemaitres
damage model and strain equivalence principle, the constitutive equation for a damaged material may be derived in
the same way as for a virgin material except that the usual
stress is replaced by the effective stress [5]. The effective
stress tensor can be represented as:
~ =
(1)
1 D
where is the stress tensor for the virgin material. The

damage variable, D lies between 0 and 1 for an undamaged and ruptured material, respectively. The evolution
law for the damage variable is given by:
D =
1 Y
1 D r
(2)
where , Y are the plastic consistency parameter which

obeys the Kuhn-Tucker loading/unloading conditions [6],
and the damage energy release rate of the material [5],
respectively.
0, 0, = 0
eq
=
( y 0 + R ( eqp ))
1 D
Y =
(3)
2
eq
(1 + ) + 3(1 2 )( H ) 2
eq
2 E (1 D ) 3
2
P
where , eq , H , eq
and R are the yield function, equiva-
lent stress, hydrostatic stress, equivalent plastic strain and

stress hardening, respectively. Meanwhile r, s are damage
parameters of the material.
According to the experimental results reported by Lemaitre, the parameter s is assumed to be 1 for ductile materials and r can be calculated from the following relation
[7]:
667
09.08.2010 14:33:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
r=
2
dD
2 E (1 D )
d p
(4)
mining the major and minor strains near the fractured zone
and plotting the results, FLD will be numerically predicted.
By the hypothesis of generalized normality, the plastic

strain components are obtained as:
p =
3 S
2 eq
(5)
where S is the reduced stress tensor. The above equations

can be explicitly discretized.
Figure 1. Numerical simulations of Erichsen's cupped test.
Material Properties
In this investigation, St14 steel (DIN 1623) was selected
because of its wide application in sheet metal forming
industries. Standard tensile and Vickers micro-hardness
tests, [8], were performed to respectively identify mechanical properties and damage parameters for the material. Each experiment was repeated three times and the
values were averaged to improve accuracy and reliability.
Table 1 indicates the identified mechanical and damage
properties of the material.
Experimental Tests
A standard Erichsen's cupped test machine with a hemispherical punch of 60mm diameter was used to determine
the FLD of the material experimentally. The rate of displacement was adjusted to 0.4mm/s. The patterned strips
of sheet metal which are fully clamped by blank holder are
drawn by punch until fracture occurs. The strip specimens
after deformation are shown in Figure 2.
Table 1. Identified material properties of St14 steel.

Youngs modulus, E (GPa )
180
Poissons ratio,
0.3
Initial yield stress, y 0 ( MPa )
159
Stress hardening, R (MPa )
630( eqP ) 0.36
Damage parameter, s
Damage parameter, r (MPa )
2.53
Critical damage magnitude, Dcr
0.434
Finite Element Simulations

The above mentioned fully coupled elastic-plasticdamage model has been implemented into an explicit
code. The model can predict damage initiation, propagation and ductile fracture. Due to using the plane stress
algorithm which is valid for thin sheet metals, the model
can quickly and accurately predict both deformation and
damage behaviour of the parts. The model was used to
predict FLD of material by simulating the Erichsen's
cupped test.
In this simulation, a number of strips of sheet metal
(12mm width, 0.8mm thickness, and 12-120mm lengths)
are fully clamped by a blank holder and drawn by a hemispherical punch. Due to symmetry, only one quarter of the
geometry is considered in the model. Simulations are continued until the magnitude of the damage parameter in the
elements reaches its critical damage magnitude, i.e. 0.434
and fracture occurs. By using the element deletion technique, cracks can be easily observed on the strips. The
numerical simulations are shown in Figure 1. By deter-
668
Figure 2. Strip specimens after deformation in Erichsen's cupped

test.
09.08.2010 14:33:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
FLD Results
Conclusions
By measuring and plotting the major strains vs. minor

strains near the fractured zones, the FLD will be numerically and experimentally determined. Figure 3 shows the
numerical and experimental results. According to the figure, the predicted results are in good agreement with the
empirical observations. The figure also indicates the regression curve used to define the FLD of the material.
Experimental investigations and reports have revealed

that localized necking of sheet metals can be well described by forming limit diagram (FLD). In this paper, a
fully coupled elastic-plastic-damage model based on plane
stress elastoplasticity theory was developed and implemented into an explicit code. The model is able to predict
damage initiation, propagation and ductile fracture. Due to
using the plane stress algorithm and plane stress elements
which are valid for thin sheet metals, the model can
quickly and accurately predict both deformation and damage behaviour of the parts. For evaluation of the model,
Erichsen's cupped test was numerically simulated and
experimentally carried out to determine the FLD of DIN
1623 St14 steel. Comparison of the numerical and experimental results showed that the predicted results are in
good agreement. Hence, it is concluded that finite element
method (FEM) in conjunction with continuum damage
mechanics (CDM) can be used as a reliable and rapid tool
to predict the FLD of sheet metals and is able to reduce the
number of costly trials.
References
Figure 3. Comparison of numerical and experimental results of

FLD for DIN 1623 St14 steel.
[1] M. Samuel: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 153-154

(2004), 424-431.
[2] J.G. Hu, T. Ishikawa, J.J. Jonas: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 103 (2000), 374-382.
[3] C.L. Chow, M. Jie: International Journal of Mechanical sciences, 46
(2004), 99-122.
[4] M. Khelifa, M. Oudjene: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
200 (2008), 71-76.
[5] J. Lemaitre: Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology, 107
(1985), 83-89.
[6] J.C. Simo: International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 22 (1986), 649-670.
[7] M. Mashayekhi, S. Ziaei-Rad: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 177 (2006), 291-295.
[8] A. Mkaddem, F. Gassara, R. Hambli: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 178 (2006), 111-118.
669
09.08.2010 14:33:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influences of Sheared Surface Properties and Induced Strain on Hole Expansion Limit
of Steel Sheet
Yoshinori Yoshida1), Takahiro Ishiguro2), Nobuki Yukawa2), Takashi Ishikawa2), Zhigang Wang1)
1)
Faculty of Mechanical and Systems Engineering, Gifu University, Gifu / Japan, yyoshida@gifu-u.ac.jp; 2) Department of Materials Science
and Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya / Japan
The influences of process conditions of axi-symmetric shearing (piercing) of a steel sheet on the hole expansion limit were investigated.
Piercing experiments were conducted for stainless steel (SUS301, JIS) and high carbon steel (S60C, JIS) sheets changing the shearing
clearance between the punch and die. The relationship between the clearance and sheared surface properties, i.e. fractured surface
roughness and burr formation, was researched and Vickers hardness distributions immediately beneath the surface were also evaluated. A
hole expansion test was performed on the sheared blanks, while closely observing the influence of any sheared surface properties and
strain induced by the piercing on the hole expansion limit. The sensitivity of burr formation and work-hardening from the sheared edge to
the equivalent strain at the crack initiation was measured by performing a tensile test using image analysis. As a result, it was found that
the induced strain on the sheared surface was the most effective factor in the hole expansion limit. The limit increased with the increase of
the average asperity angle on the fractured surface.
Keywords: Shearing process, Piercing, Hole expansion limit, Tensile test using image analysis, average asperity angle, Equivalent strain at
crack initiation
Shearing is one of the most popular processes used for

cutting. We strive to develop a determination method of
optimizing process conditions in the shearing of steel
materials. However, cracks sometimes initiate on the
sheared surface in the post-process, for example in hole
expanding or hole flanging. Until now, the influence of
sheared surface properties on hole expansion limits and
stretch flanging limits has been investigated. The influence
of pre-strain and the rolling direction of steel sheets on the
limit has also been researched [1]. Shirasawa et al. have
performed laser cutting and hole expanding tests and observed the advantages over shearing [2]. Recently, the
relationship between shearing conditions and hole expansion limits has been reported [3]. The stretching frangeability of the sheet metals are predicted in FEM and ductile fracture criterion [4, 5]. Mori et al. have researched the
influence of smoothing of sheared surface of ultra high
strength steel on hole expansion limits [6]. It is known that
the effects of strain hardening and burr formation at the
sheared edge on the expansion limit in the burring or
stretch flanging is not small because heavy strain is introduced in the sheared surface region. However, the influence of material property on the effect is not obvious.
In this study, the influence of work-hardening and
sheared surface properties on the hole expansion limit was
investigated. The axi-symmetric shearing (piercing) experiments of stainless steel and high carbon steel were
conducted. The influence of surface asperity on the fractured surface and burr formation on the hole expansion
limit was investigated. The work-hardening effect was
researched using strain annealing of the sheared materials.
The sensitivity of burr formation from the sheared edge to
the equivalent strain at the crack initiation was measured
by performing a tensile test using image analysis as a
material property relating formability. As a result, it was
found that the induced strain on the sheared surface was
the most effective factor for the hole expansion limit and
670
the limit increased with the increase of the average asperity angle on the fractured surface.
Experimental Method
Piercing Experiment. Austenitic stainless steel SUS301
(Fe-18Cr-8Ni stainless steel in JIS) and high carbon steel
S60C (Fe-0.6%C steel in JIS) sheets were used for experiments. The sheet thickness t was 1.2 mm. Piercing
conditions are shown in Figure 1. The Blank used for
piercing was a square with 80 mm length sides. The punch
diameter was 16 mm constant and the shearing clearance
was changed by changing the die hole diameter in the
ranges of C=5.0, 10, 15 and 20% of the initial blank thickness (%t). After piercing, a burr appeared on the die side
of the sheared edge of the blank. For the purpose of comparing the piercing method, wire-cut blanks were prepared
by using an NC wire cutter.
CL
Punch
Introduction
Blank holder
Specimen
16 c
t=1.2
Die
W=80
Figure 1. Piercing conditions of a steel plate (unit:mm).
Hole Expanding Test. Figure 2 shows the hole expanding test apparatus. A sheared blank is fixed with a blank
holder and die, the expansion of the hole edge is conducted by means of a conical mandrel until the first crack
appears at the holes edge. The angle of the conical mandrel is 60. The hole expansion limit is defined by the
following equation,
09.08.2010 14:33:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
=
Dh D0
100
D0
(1)
where D0 and Dh are the initial hole diameter and the diameter at the first crack initiation, respectively. This test is
conducted based on JFST1001 (The Japan Iron and Steel
Federation Standard) in which a burr should be on the
opposite side of the mandrel (upper side). However, on a
hole expansion in which a burr comes in contact with the
mandrel is also conducted (lower side). In addition, a test
in which deburring was done using emery paper was performed (with no burr) for investigation of burr formation
effects to the hole expansion limit.
also was used for a comparison experiment. When the

initial crack was discovered through visual observation,
the test was stopped. The equivalent strain at necking is
evaluated by the next equations.
w = ln
w
,
w0
eq =
2 2
w + t 2 + l 2
t = ln
t
,
t0
(2)
l = ( w + t )
(3)
where eq is the equivalent strain and w, t and l are the

width, thickness and longitudinal true strain at necking,
respectively.
(1) Load
Blank
holder
Blank
holder
All datas are measured

continuously.
Width side
CCD Camera
Blank
Die
(2)R (3) w
Mandrel
Vickers Hardness Evaluation. Induced strain immediately beneath the sheared surface affects the hole expansion limit. A sheared blank was cut and polished, then
Vickers hardness distribution was evaluated at 100 m
intervals along the direction of the radius (see Figure 3).
The evaluation was conducted along three lines; (1) the
line at 100 m distance from shear droop side surface
(shear droop side), (2) the line in the middle of thickness
(middle) and (3) the line at 100 m distance from the burr
tip (burr side).
Annealing was also conducted to remove workhardening. In this process, the temperature was initially
raised to 650 C and kept there for 30 minutes. After that,
furnace cooling was performed.
100m
600m
shear droop side

middle
burr side
100m
100m
PC & Data Aquisition Board
Figure 4. Plate tensile test using image analysis.

sheared edge
8.
70
Figure 5. Plate tensile specimen made by shearing.

Influence of Burr Formation and Burr Position. Figures 6 and 7 show the influence of burr formation on the
hole expansion limit in the case of SUS301 and S60C. The
expansion limit increases with the increase of the piercing
clearance. The limit value for blanks without burrs is
greater than that for blanks with burrs, and it is thought
that a burr defect is the starting point of a crack initiation.
In the case of SUS301, the hole expansion limit for
blanks without burrs increased about 26% in comparison
to conditions with burrs. The limit value for the lower side
progressed about 13% of that for the upper side condition.
Figure 3. Vickers hardness distribution evaluation method.
60
Hole expanding limit / %
Tensile Test Using Image Analysis. A tensile test using

image analysis was developed to evaluate the sensitivity of
burr formation and work-hardening to equivalent strain at
the crack initiation. A schematic diagram of the test is
shown in Figure 4. In this test, changes in specimen width
w, thickness t and tensile load were continuously captured
using two CCD cameras and a load cell by using an image
analysis system throughout the test from start to finish. In
addition, the crack initiation on the specimen edge can be
recognized by reviewing the pictures.
The tensile test specimens were made by shearing. Figure 5 shows the specimen geometry. The center notch
width w0 and curvature radius R is 5 and 8 mm, respectively. The notch edge is sheared by the piercing tool and a
burr develops at the edge. A Tensile test was conducted for
the test piece with/without a burr and a wire-cut specimen
(4) t
Figure 2. Hole expanding test apparatus.
21
Die
Thickness side
CCD Camera
with burr (upper side)

with burr (lower side)
without burr (upper side)
without burr (lower side)
50
40
30
20
10
10
15
20
25
Clearance / %t
Figure 6. Influence of burr formation and burr position on hole

expansion limit (stainless steel SUS301, as sheared).
In the case of S60C, the hole expansion limit increased

about 5 and 15% depending on burr formation and burr
position, respectively.
671
09.08.2010 14:33:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
In total, the hole expansion limit of S60C is better than
that of SUS301 in this experiment. The degree of dependence of burr formation of SUS301 is strong and the effect
of burr position is almost the same between them.
50
40
Influence of Work-Hardening. Figures 10 and 11

show the influence of work-hardening on the hole expansion limit in the case of SUS301 and S60C. The expansion
limit increases by annealing both of the materials. The
average increase of the limit was 116% and 48% in the
case of SUS301 and S60C, respectively.
30
100
with burr (upper side)
with burr (lower side)
without burr (upper side)
without burr (lower side)
10
10
15
20
as sheared
25
Clearance / %t
Figure 7. Influence of burr formation and burr position on hole

expansion limit (high carbon steel S60C, as sheared).
For both materials, the hole expansion limit increases

with the increase of the piercing clearance. Figure 8 illustrates the definition of the average asperity angle on the
fractured surface on the pierced edge. Here, Rz (RzJIS) is a
roughness based on the five highest peaks and lowest
valleys over the entire sampling length. Sm is the average
concave-to-convex distance. The average asperity angle
can be estimated using these two values. This parameter
can be understood as a stress concentration factor. When
this angle is small, the concave tip is relatively sharp and
the crack initiation occurs easily under the influence of
stress concentration at the concave tip.
Sm
Hole expansion limit / %
20
40
20
10
15
Clearance / %t
20
25
Figure 10. Influence of work-hardening on hole expansion limit

(Stainless steel SUS301, with burr).
100
as sheared
annealed
80
60
40
20
50
250
Vickers hardness/HV
300
40
30
20
SUS301 (without burr)
S60C (without burr)
10
20
Average asperity angle
30
/ deg.
10
15
Clearance / %t
20
25
200
150
100
burr side
middle
shear droop side
50
Figure 11. Influence of work-hardening on hole expansion limit

(high carbon steel S60C, with burr).
60
Figure 8. Definition of the average asperity angle on ractured

surface.
60
Rz
10
annealed
80
60
of the average asperity angle. A strong relation is shown

between the angle and the expansion limit, experimentally.
However the value of the increase is smaller than 10%.
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Distance from sheared surface/mm
Figure 9. Relationship between the average asperity angle on

fractured surface and hole expansion limit (without burr).
Figure 12. Distributions of Vickers hardness in an S60C blank

(C=10%t).
Figure 9 shows the relationship between the average asperity angle on a fractured surface and the hole expansion
limit. The hole expansion limit increases with the increase
Figure 12 shows Vickers hardness distribution in an

S60C blank after piercing. The hardness is the highest
immediately beneath the sheared surface regardless of the
672
09.08.2010 14:33:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
position. The difference of the hardness is about 100 HV
between the sheared surface and the inside of the material
for both materials. Induced strain was confirmed in an area
0.4 mm wide along the sheared edge.
Sensitivity of Burr Formation and Work-Hardening.
Figures 13 and 14 show tensile test results for SUS301
and S60C. The vertical axis shows the equivalent strain at
the first crack initiation. The crack initiation occurred at
the burr on the sheared edge for the test piece with a burr.
In the condition where a burr was absent, the crack initiated at the fractured surface. Diffusion and local necking
appeared in the middle of the tensile specimen and the
final fracture occurred under the large deformation in the
case of the wire cut specimen (Figure 15).
From the results, the burr formation didnt affect the
equivalent strain at the crack initiation very much. However, the strain in the case of the wire cut specimen is large
depending on the induced strain. Here, work-hardening
sensitivity S is defined by the next equation,
wire
shear
eq
eq
S=
100
(4)
wire
eq
Equivalent strain at crack initiation
wire
shear
and eq
are the equivalent strain at the crack
where eq
initiation in the case of a wire cut blank and without a burr
condition for C=10%t. This parameter indicates a degree
of formability decrease involving the work-hardening in
shearing.
0.8
with burr
without burr
wire cut
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0
10
15
20
25
Clearance / %t
Equivalent strain at crack initiation
Figure 13. Influence of burr formation and cutting method of tensile specimen on effective strain at crack initiation in tensile test
(SUS301).
0.8
with burr
without burr
wire cut
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
(a) with burr
(b) without burr
(c) wire cut
Figure 15. Crack initiation position in the tensile test (S60C).
Conclusions
We have seen the results of the influences of process
conditions of sheet metal piercing on the hole expansion
limit. Piercing experiments were conducted on steel
sheets, changing the shearing clearance between the punch
and die. The relationships between the clearance and
sheared surface properties, fractured surface roughness
and burr formations, were researched and Vickers hardness
distributions immediately beneath the surface were also
measured. Hole expansion tests for the sheared blanks
were performed and the influence of the sheared surface
properties and the strain induced through piercing on the
hole expansion limit was investigated. As a result, the
following information was obtained:
1. The hole expansion limit dramatically increased by
annealing the sheared blank for stainless SUS301 and
high carbon steel S60C. The induced strain on a sheared
surface was the most effective factor for the hole expansion limit.
2. The expansion limit increased with the increase of the
average asperity angle on a fractured surface. It is
thought that the stress concentration level at the tip of a
concave affects the crack initiation on a fractured surface.
3. From the results of the tensile test using image analysis,
the sensitivity of work-hardening from the sheared edge
to the crack initiation strain of SUS301 is larger than
that of S60C.
4. The difference in the hole expansion limit between
wire-cut blanks and as-sheared blanks was investigated.
The difference in the case of SUS301 is larger than that
of S60C and this tendency coincides with the results of
the tensile tests.
References
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0
10
15
Clearance / %t
20
25
Figure 14. Influence of burr formation and cutting method of

tensile specimen on effective strain at crack initiation in tensile test
(S60C).
The work-hardening sensitivities are 63.3 and 60.6% in

the case of SUS301 and S60C, respectively. The degree of
formability decrease of SUS301 is larger than that of S60C
and this tendency coincides with the results of the hole
expansion test with annealing.
[1] T. Nakagawa, M. Takita, K. Yoshida: J. Jpn. Soc. Technol. Plast., 11109 (1970), 142-151.
[2] H. Shirasawa, S. Hashimoto, K. Mimura, K. Korida: Tetsu-to-Hagane,
71-16 (1985), 1949-1955.
[3] E. Iizuka, T. Hira, A. Yoshitake: J. Jpn. Soc. Technol. Plast., 46-534
(2005), 625-629.
[4] H. Takuda, H. Mori, K. Fujimoto, H. Hatta: Comput. J. Mater. Proc.
Technol., 92-93 (1999), 433-438.
[5] H. Takuda, T. Hama, K. Nishida, T. Yoshida, J. Nitta: Comput. Meth.
Mater. Sci., 9-1 (2009), 137-142.
[6] K. Mori, Y. Abe, Y. Suzui: J. Mater. Proc. Technol., 210 (2010), 653659.
673
09.08.2010 14:33:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
In-Process Monitoring for Press Forming

Naoto Hagino1), Junichi Endou1), Shunji Katoh1), Seiji Okudera2), Masao Maruyama2), Makoto Kubota2), Chikara.
3)
Murata
1)
Department of Vehicle Systems Engineering, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Kanagawa / Japan, nao_hagino@goo.jp; 2)Miyoshi Industry Co., Ltd., Kanagawa / Japan; 3)Hoden Seimitsu Kako Kenkyusho Co., Ltd., Kanagawa / Japan
A method has been developed for using ultrasonic waves to measure the gap between a workpiece and the die during press forming
(stamping). Testing showed that when the stamping pressure is increased, the echo ratio of reflected waves decreases, that the echo ratio
depends on the area of the reflective surface, and that the change in the gap during press forming can be measured using ultrasonic waves.
This means that stamping quality can be improved by using the echo ratio of reflected waves to adjust the slide motion of the servo press to
compensate for the gap.
Keywords: Monitoring, Ultrasonic wave, Press forming, Stamping, Stainless steel sheet, Gap, Real-time measurement
Introduction
The increased mass production of the precise mechanical parts has led to the development of various methods for
the net shape forming. While a servo press can produce
high precision parts, there is still a small gap between the
workpiece and die during press forming (stamping). The
press operator will thus usually place a shim under the die
or adjust the bottom dead centre of the slide. If instead the
slide motion of the servo press could be adjusted to compensate for the gap, the net shape forming could be realized, enabling automated manufacturing of precision parts
using a servo press.
The ultrasonic wave method that is non-destructive technique can find the defect of the metal product. Masuko and
Ito [1] demonstrated that the interface pressure between
the tool and a workpiece could be measured using ultrasonic waves. Takeuchi et al. [2] described a method for
measuring the contact area between a mirror surface and
regular surface. Moreover, an ultrasonic technique has
been used to measure the contact condition between a
bearing and the bearing housing [3,4]. However, the use of
ultrasonic waves to measure the gap between a workpiece
and the die during press forming has never been studied.
We have developed a method for measuring the gap during
press forming.
(1)
where Z is the acoustic impedance and subscripts 1 and 2

correspond to materials 1 and 2; Z is defined by
Z=C
674
(2)
Ultrasonic
probe
Reflected
wave
Material1
Z1
Boundary
Material 2
Transmitted
wave
Z2
Figure 1. Propagation of ultrasonic waves at boundary between

different materials.
Table 1. Acoustic impedance and sound pressure reflectance.
Sound pressure reflectance
Acoustic imped(material 1 is steel) Rr
ance Z / Ns/m3
Steel
Air
The propagation of ultrasonic waves at the boundary between different materials is illustrated in Figure 1. The
ultrasonic waves are transmitted into material 1 from an
ultrasonic probe. In the surface of the boundary between
the two materials, the waves are either reflected or transmitted. The ratio of the waves reflected is called the
sound pressure reflectance, which is given by
Z1 Z2
Z1 + Z2
Incident
wave
Stainless steel
Measurement Principle
Rr =
where is the material density and C is the velocity of

sound in the material.
Table 1 shows the acoustic impendence and sound pressure reflectance for steel, stainless steel, and air with steel
as material 1. If Z2 is far smaller than Z1, Rr is approximately 1, which means that we should be able to measure
the change in the gap between a workpiece and the die by
using ultrasonic waves.
46.4 106
45.7 10
0.0004 106
0.0
0.008
1.0
Reflection Characteristics of Ultrasonic Waves at

Boundary between Workpiece and Die
Experimental Apparatus and Measurement Procedure. The experimental apparatus used to examine the
reflection characteristics of ultrasonic waves at the boundary between a workpiece and the die is shown in Figure 2
[5]. The die has an upper and a lower portion. The two
portions were loaded in the downward direction by a hydraulic cylinder. The die material was steel (S45C), the
upper die portion was 4040100 mm, and the lower portion was 22.240100 mm. To investigate the effect of the
gap between the workpiece and die, a groove was cut in
the bottom surface of the upper portion. An ultrasonic
probe that emitted ultrasonic waves of 5 MHz and had an
09.08.2010 14:33:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
oscillator of 10 mm in diameter was installed on top of the
upper die portion. The ultrasonic reflection echo during
loading was measured using an ultrasonic detector (Ryoden Shonan Electronics Inc., UI-25). The load was measured using a load cell installed on the upper plate. The
maximum pressure was 9 MPa. The pressure is given by.
P = F /A
(3)
Echo peak of reflected

waves er,max
where F is the die load and A is the contact area between

the workpiece and die.
and measured the height of the two peaks. As shown in

Figure 4, when the pressure was increased from 2 to 4
MPa, the peak at surface B decreased and that at surface C
increased. The peaks remained virtually constant when the
pressure was increased further. These results show that
there is a threshold at which the ultrasonic waves break
through and reach the lower surface. They also show that
the contact condition between the upper and lower die
portions is stable when the pressure is above this threshold,
which means that the upper portion remains firmly
attached to the lower portion. This firm attachment
reduces the reflection of ultrasonic waves at the boundary
between the upper and lower die portions, making it easier
for the waves to reach the bottom of the lower portion.
1.0
P robe
Surface B
0.8
Surface C
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
4
6
P ressure P / MP a
10
Figure 4. Echo peaks of reflected waves vs. pressure.
0.5
0.0
1.0
0.5
0.0
30
er, max
Echo height er
1.0
Boundary between
upper and lower die
(Surface B)
P robe
B
C
Lower die bottom

(Surface C)
70
Figure 3. Effect of pressure on echo peaks of ultrasonic waves

without workpiece mounted.
To investigate the effect of pressure on the echo peaks in

more detail, we increased the pressure from 0 to 9 MPa
0.5
0.0
1.0
0.5
0.0
Groove
Lower die
(a) Surface B*
(b) Surface B
0
1
2
3
Groove depth h g /mm
0 1 2 3
4 5
Groove width wg /mm
(b) Groove depth hg = 2.0mm
Figure 5. Effects of groove dimensions on echo peak height.
(b) P ressure
P = 9MP a
1.0
Surface B
Surface B
(a) Groove width wg = 2.0mm
(a) No load
40
50
60
Distance from boundary between
probe and upper die h /mm
wg
Upper die
hg
Experimental Results and Discussion. First, we

investigated the effect of pressure on the echo peaks of the
reflected waves using a model die without a groove in the
upper portion and without a workpiece mounted. As
shown in Figure 3 (a), when the pressure was zero, an
echo peak was seen only at the boundary between the
upper and lower die portions (contact surface B). This is
because the air on the contact surface reflected the
ultrasonic waves. As shown in Figure 3 (b), when the
pressure was 9 MPa, the height of the echo peak at surface
B decreased, and an echo peak appeared at the bottom of
the lower die portion (surface C). This is because the air
on contact surface B decreased under the loading, enabling
the ultrasonic waves to be transmitted further.
Next, we investigated the effects of the groove dimensions on the echo peaks. This groove was cut to imitate the
gap between the workpiece and die. As shown in Figure 5
(a), increasing the groove depth negligibly affected the
echo peaks at both surface B and surface B*. In contrast,
increasing the groove width reduced the echo peak at surface B and increased it at surface B* (Figure 5 (b)). That is,
the echo peak height changes with the groove width.
Echo peak of reflected waves er,max
Figure 2. Experimental apparatus used to investigate reflection

characteristics at boundary between workpiece and die.
To investigate the effect of a workpiece on the echo

peaks, we mounted a 0.3-mm thick stainless steel sheet on
the lower portion of the die. As shown in Figure 6 (a)
without groove, only one echo peak was seen between
surfaces B1 and B2. The measurement resolution depended
on the frequency and output wave pattern. Since the workpiece was thin, the waves reflected at surface B2 may have
interacted with the transmitted waves. We thus need to
investigate the effect of ultrasonic frequency and its wave
pattern on the echo ratio.
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09.08.2010 14:33:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
We also investigated the reflection characteristic of the
ultrasonic waves for a groove depth of 0.08 mm, which
was much less than the thickness of the workpiece (see
Figure 6 (b)). Apparently, the ultrasonic waves were reflected by the air in the groove. In conclusion, the gap
between the workpiece and die can be detected by the echo
height.
B1
1.0
B2
Lower die
Stainless steel sheet
0.5
(a) W ithout groove
Groove depth
0.5
0.0
35
(b) With groove

(h g=0.08mm)
36
Incident
wave
Upper die
B 1*
Groove
Stainless steel sheet
B2
B1
Lower die
37 38 39 40 41 42 43
Distance from boundary between
probe and upper die h /mm
44
45
Figure 6. Effect of pressure on echo peaks of ultrasonic waves

with workpiece mounted.
Measurement of Gap between Workpiece and Die

During Actual Press Forming
Experimental Apparatus and Procedure. We tested
our method during actual press forming using the servo
press shown in Figure 7 (a). It has a press capacity of
3000 kN and a double-slide mechanism (Figure 7 (b)).
The slides can be operated independently. Their motions
are controlled by servo-motors, enabling fine motion
control (accuracy of slide stroke is in micrometers).
(a) Photograph
(b) Double-slide mechanism
Figure 7. Servo press used for actual press forming.
Figure 8. Apparatus for measuring gaps between workpiece and

die during press forming [6].
676
lt
(a) Fuel cell separator
(b) Cross section of fuel cell separator
Figure 9. Metallic fuel cell separator.
Experimental Results and Discussion. We measured

the echo peak of the waves reflected at the boundary
between the workpiece and die during press forming. An
example trace of the echo ratio of the reflected waves, Er,
Er = er / er,0
(4)
where er is the echo peak height during press forming, and

er,0 is the echo peak height without loading. As shown in
Figure 10, the echo ratio dropped abruptly near t = 3.5 s, at
which point the workpiece was deformed by the outer
slide load. Subsequently, the echo peak height remained
almost constant until about 3.8 s (point a in Figure 10). At
that point, the outer slide reached bottom dead centre. The
inner slide slowed immediately before reaching bottom
dead centre, during which time the echo ratio decreased
slowly. The die load was increased by the downward
movement of the inner slide, and the workpiece was
slowly deformed. When the inner slide reached bottom
dead centre, the ultrasonic wave echoes were minimized
and became constant. As the inner slide subsequently rose,
the echo ratio increased because the workpiece became
separated from the upper die portion. These results show
that ultrasonic waves can be used to measure the change in
the gap between the workpiece and die in real time.
1.4
Outer slide
1.2
Echo ratio
1.0
70
43
68
42
0.8
Bottom dead center
of inner slide
0.6
0.4
44
Inner slide
4
Time t / s
41
6
40
66
64
62
60
Outer slide stroke S o /mm
B1*
Inner slide stroke S i /mm
0.0
1.0
Echo ratio of reflected waves E r
Echo height er
Upper die
The system for measuring the gap between the

workpiece and die is shown in Figure 8. An ultrasonic
probe was installed on the back of the lower die portion.
The data measured by the ultrasonic detector were input
into the computer through an A/D converter. The
measurement program was written in Visual Basic 2008.
The frequency of the ultrasonic waves was 10 MHz.
The workpiece after deformation was a metallic fuel cell
separator (Figure 9), 0.1 mm thick and made of stainless
steel (SUS304).
Figure 10. Example trace of echo ratio and slide stroke.
09.08.2010 14:33:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
0.2
(a) Np = 1
E r=0.8
Die surface
(b) N p = 4, A p = 0.1mm
0.0
6
Time t / s
-0.2
27
E r=0.8
10
(a) A p = 0.1mm
E r=0.8
E r=0.8
2
6
Time t / s
10
Workpiece
surface
b
28
x /mm
b
29
30
0.79
Amplitude
0.78
0.3mm
0.2mm
0.1mm
0.77
0.70
0.75
0.80
Figure 14. Relationship between filling factor and echo ratio.
Conclusion
We have developed a method using ultrasonic waves for
measuring the gap between a workpiece and the die during
press forming. Testing showed that when the stamping
pressure is increased, the echo ratio of reflected waves
decreases, that the echo ratio depends on the area of the
reflective surface, and that the change in the gap during
press forming can be measured using ultrasonic waves.
This means that stamping quality can be improved by
using the echo ratio of reflected waves to adjust the slide
motion of the servo press to compensate for the gap.
(b) A p = 0.3mm
lt
Figure 13. Shape of gap between workpiece and die.
12
Figure 12 shows the effect of the amplitude of the inner

slide motion on the echo ratio when the number of strokes
was 4. As the amplitude of the oscillating motion increased,
the echo ratio decreased. Apparently, the gap between the
workpiece and die was reduced by the hammering effect.
We think that the magnitude of the ultrasonic reflection
decreases with the size of the gap.
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
Lt
0.1
-0.1
Figure 11. Example trace data of echo ratio when inner slide had
oscillating motion.
y /mm
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
die groove top (see Figure 13). If Rt is 1, the die shape is

copied precisely.
Figure 14 shows the relationship between the filling
factor and the echo ratio after the fourth stroke with
oscillation of the inner slide. As the echo ratio increased,
the filling factor decreased. This means that the change in
the gap between the workpiece and die during press
forming can be detected using ultrasonic waves. Therefore,
if the slide motion of the servo press can be adjusted to
compensate for the gap by using the echo ratio of reflected
waves, the stamping quality can be improved.
Filling factor R t
To investigate the effect of the inner slide motion on the

echo ratio. Figure 11 shows an example trace of the echo
ratio. The Ap is the amplitude of the motion, and the Np is
the number of press strokes. After one stroke (a), all
experimental results showed the same wave pattern. After
four strokes (b), the ratio was stable from about 2 to about
8 s. Apparently, the multiple grooves with non-uniform
shape diffused reflection of the ultrasonic waves. Since
increasing the number of strokes improves the flatness of a
metallic separator [7], the flatness of the separators
grooves was improved by the oscillating motion, which
reduced the diffused reflection.
12
Figure 12. Effect of amplitude of inner slide motion on echo ratio.
Figure 13 shows the shape of the gap between the

workpiece and die. After deformation, we measured the
groove shape with a laser displacement sensor when the
amplitude of the oscillation was 0.1 mm. In region b, the
die shape was copied precisely while in region a, gaps
were left at the die corner. The ultrasonic waves were
reflected by air in these gaps. To quantify the gap, we defined filling factor Rt:
Rt = lt / Lt
(5)
where lt is the length of the flat portion of the workpiece at

the groove top and Lt is the length at the flat portion of the
References
[1] M. Masuko, Y. Ito: Transactions of JSME, 34-257 (1968) 191198.
[2] A. Takeuchi, M. Satoh, M. Onozawa, Y. Sugawara, H. Aoki: Transactions of JSME C, 65-640 (1999) 4767-4773.
[3] C. Inaba, H. Tomonaga, Y. Ito, Y. Saito: Transactions of JSME C, 66645 (2000) 1674-1680.
[4] A. Takeuchi, T. Kimura, T. Wakabayashi, H. Ishimaru, H. Mori:
Transactions of JSME C, 69-687 (2003) 3086-3091.
[5] N. Hagino, J. Endou, S. Katoh, S. Okudera, M. Maruyama, M. Kubota: Proc. 59th Japanese Joint Conference for the Technology of
Plasticity, (2008) 129-130.
[6] N. Hagino, J. Endou, S. Katoh, S. Okudera, M. Maruyama, M. Kubota, C. Murata: Proc. 60th Japanese Joint Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, (2009) 271-272.
[7] N. Hagino, J. Endou, S. Katoh, S. Okudera, M. Maruyama, M. Kubota: Proc. ICTP, (2008) 974-979.
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09.08.2010 14:33:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Die Surface Design CAD Software Oriented for Sheet Metal Stamping FEM
Wei Wang, Gang Zhao, Fazhong Shi
School of Mechanical Engineering & Automation, Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Beijing / China, jrrt@buaa.edu.cn
Key technologies aiming at rapidly and conveniently providing die surface models for FEM simulation were explored and implemented in a
self-developed die surface design CAD software. The main aspects of these technologies include: the CAD model pre-process; the models
boundary refining and the addendum generation. In the CAD model pre-process, the graph theory was adopted for automatically searching
out the holes and gaps on the original model thus the model is ready for further treatment. The boundary refining involves the generation of
a new boundary and the construction of complementary surface between this new boundary and the old one. With these two procedures as
prerequisites finished, the addendum faces can be generated, which are directly based upon mesh technology and capable of embracing
delicate shape features needed for die surface construction. These technologies together with other common CAD functions constituted the
backbone of our die surface design CAD software and a complete die surface model for FEM can be achieved by employing this software.
Keywords: Die surface design, CAD model pre-process, Models boundary refining, Addendum generation
Introduction
CAD Model Pre-Process
The practices of sheet metal stamping industry have

been closely combined with the utilization of FEM simulation software, which notably accelerates the die design
process and cut down the time and material cost compared
with traditional tool productions try-error iteration procedure. While the accuracy and efficiency of the calculator
validated in such software keep on being improved, more
and more functions that can simplify the generation of
calculation model have also been integrated [1,2]. Typically, the simulation work begins with the treatment of a
product model that is imported from universal CAD software. This model stems from the designers concept and
usually conforms to the final assembly status but without
calculating whether it is applicable for the real manufacturing process. Its obvious that directly using this model
in the simulation tends to result in inefficacy [3], since the
model shape does not coincide with the die shape. Therefore, as mentioned above, the current commercial sheet
metal stamping FEM software has been equipped with
certain CAD functions, whereby reasonable die surface
can be evolved from the product model as well as the
common principles observed by the process designers.
Generally speaking, the primary CAD functions needed
for FEM software can be summarized as:
1. CAD model pre-process;
2. Model boundary refining;
3. Addendum generation.
The solution of these listed three problems accounts for
a large part of die surface design scenario while there were
few papers specially dedicated to it. Shi et al. [4] and Hu
et al. [3] did research work on some respects of these
problems, and in the references of some commercial software, functions concerning solving these problems were
also revealed [5,6], but with no particular details alluding
to how to fully actualize such kind of feats. In this paper,
efforts are taken to explore the related technologies as
detailed as possible.
Necessities of CAD Model Pre-Process. The reason

why CAD model pre-process emerges as an important
problem in stamping FEM software can be attributed to
the fact that during the course of CAD data transaction
between different systems, errors often occur because of
the complexity of data or the limitations of translators [7],
which lead to the result that small surfaces might be lost
leaving gaps or holes showing up on the model. Therere
also some holes on the model designed for cooperation
with other parts or purely for the fulfillment of other process stage and should be produced after the stamping. These
gaps and holes are not beneficial to the calculation model
transition and not accord with the status of real die surface,
forwhy the CAD model pre-process becomes a basic step
before available simulation model is prepared.
Multiple Trimmed Surfaces Model and Graph Theory. The product model is usually built in universal CAD
software, then through IGES, STEP or other neutral file
formats transferred into stamping simulation software. The
IGES standard is supported by almost all of the mainstream commercial CAD software and many outdated
models kept for inspiring new design concepts are also
stored as IGES files, so in this paper the CAD model preprocess is discussed revolving IGES file format.
In sheet metal stamping FEM, generally only surface information of the CAD model is of concerns and IGES
mainly uses multiple trimmed surfaces model to convey
such information. Figure 1 denotes the formation of one
descriptive multiple trimmed surfaces model.
6
VI
5
V
4
3
III II IV
Figure 1. Formation of multiple trimmed surfaces model and
curves on it.
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09.08.2010 14:33:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
This model is composed of surfaces A and B. The Arabic and Roman numerals in this figure denote curves on
the model. Of these curves, curve 1 and I coincide with
each other in reality but here their distance is purposely
enlarged just for convenience of explanation, to which the
relationship of curve 3 and III is similar. Curve 2 and II
form the boundary of a hole (for simplicity and without
loss of generality, in the contents below, the holes and gaps
on multiple trimmed surfaces model, whether intentionally
designed by the product designer or originated from the
data losing during data transition, are uniformly called
holes). Other curves constitute the boundary of the whole
model. In this paper the curves like 1 and I, 3 and III are
classified as neighbouring curves, each pair of which seem
like one curve and they indeed play the same role in ideal
case. Its clear that if all the neighbouring curves are excluded from the aggregation of the models curves, only
curves that form the boundaries of either holes or the
whole model are left. Here we call these curves general
boundary curves. By checking the relative relationships of
all the models curves, the neighbouring curves can be
marked out thus the aggregation of general boundary
curves is obtained.
The general boundary curves by far distinguished are
just independent curves and their topological relations are
still unknown, which makes it difficult to help us judge
how many holes are on the model and where they dwell.
To solve this problem graph theory was introduced. Graph
theory reflects a kind of widespread none-linear relations
exists in real world and it has broad applications in solving
practical problems. The graph is composed of a finite
nonempty set V of objects called vertices (the singular
form is vertex) and a set E of 2-element subsets of V
called edges. So the formation of graph can be described
mathematically as follows [8]:
Graph=(V, E)
(1)
In our software, if one end point of some curve is shared
by two general boundary curves, it is mapped as a vertex
in graph while the curves sharing it are mapped as edges.
By applying such procedure to the general boundary curve
set, topological relations can be constructed among the
originally disordered curves, as shown in Figure 2.
which is of our most interests, are naturally obtained. In

our software, mesh technology was adopted to fill up the
small holes and if a hole is comparatively big, a new surface will be generated to fill it up. The filling up function
was realized by relatively routine technologies and the
details are not worth discussing here. The whole procedure,
from the searching of hole boundaries to the filling up of
holes, is automatically performed once the user launches it.
Models Boundary Refining
Task of Models Boundary Refining. If local concave
exists on a product models boundary and the die design
copies this feature accordingly, forming failure tends to
occur in vicinities of the concave in practical stamping
production, so complementary materials must be added to
such localities when design physical dies. In the die surface design CAD software, similar procedure is undertaken for an authentic simulation of what really happens in
workshop, which is the task of the models boundary refining well discuss here.
Identification of Local Concave. Deciding where the
local concave features dwell is the first step to reduce it. In
this paper and other popular die design software, rolling
cylinder method is an effective tool in solving this problem. Figure 3 shows the principle of rolling cylinder
method [5,6]. In our software, this algorithm was implemented on the basis of the discretization of the old boundary. By setting a reasonable value to the cylinders radii,
the local concave features can be identified out via judging
if the discretization points on certain localities of the old
boundary touch with the circumference of the cylinder
when it rolls.
Cylinder
New boundary
1
11
10
5
9
3
(a)
10
8
3
7
2
4
4
Figure 3. Principle of rolling cylinder method.

11
(b)
Figure 2. Topological relations of general boundary curves constructed by graph theory.
In the above figure a multiple trimmed surfaces model is

abstracted into an undirected graph composed of three
connected components. These three connected components
correspond with two hole boundaries and the whole
models boundary respectively. Utilizing the geometry
information related with these components, the boundary
of the model can be selected out, then the hole boundaries,
Generation of New Boundary. Once the concave features of the models old boundary are located, these parts
can be replaced by new curves that constitute the new
boundary. The circumference of the rolling cylinder was
used to facilitate generating these curves. Firstly assuming
the plane where the cylinders circumference exists in is ,
in our software the new boundary curves have the same
shape as the corresponding parts of this circumference
when projected into the plane . While in the direction
vertical to , the dispositions of the points on the new
boundary curves are decided by that of the old boundary
opposite to them. Thus the new boundary can be constructed, composed of new curves while the concave fea-
679
09.08.2010 14:33:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
tures still exist, which will be complemented by the procedure that follows.
Generation of Complementary Surface. In our software, the complementary surface between the old boundary and the new one is a NURBS surface and constructed
by lofting method. The section curves for the lofting are
created according to the geometric characteristics of the
two boundaries and the whole procedure is totally automatic. The basic thought and correlating geometric entities
used here can be shown in Figure 4, where S2 denotes the
complementary surface that is to be created and S1, the
original surface of the product model. Other denotations in
this figure have the meanings as follows:
1: old boundary
2: new boundary
3: section curve of S2
p0: point on 1
p1: point on 2
p 0 : first derivative vector at start point (p0) of 3
n: unit normal vector of S1 at point p0

n
p0
S1
1
p0
3
S2
p1
2
Figure 4. Generation of complementary surface.
Of all the geometric entities shown above, S1, 1, 2 are

already known, n can be calculated from the mathematical
expression of S1 and it defines the tangential plane of S1 at
point p0, which is assumed as plane here. The first derivative vector at start point of 3, or p 0 , is assumed in
plane , so when enough points on 1 are used to generate
the section curves and further using these curves to construct surface S2, S2 can be thought as G1 continuous to S1
approximately. This result is what the die designers want
because G1 continuous surface connection is a favourable
situation for the flow of metal material when actual stamping process happens. The section curves in our software
are Hermite curves for this type of curve is interpolated to
endpoints and first derivative vectors at endpoints, which
conditions are easy to be satisfied on our occasions. The
details of how to use these section curves to calculate the
control points and other necessities of surface S2 can be
found in reference [9].
Addendum Generation
Mesh Model of Die Surface. Usually the mesh models
of sheet metal and die surface are used by the FEM software to predict the sheets formability, but the initial
model of the die is developed from the product model and
is usually a geometric one. So in the die surface design
software oriented for FEM, the output file should better be
formatted as mesh also. In this section, technologies that
can directly generate the addendums mesh model will be
680
discussed. This addendum mesh together with the mesh

data obtained by converting other parts of the die geometry constitute a whole dies mesh model and can be exported into FEM simulation module to perform calculation.
Section Curve of Addendum. The function of the addendum in real stamping is to aid the flow of metal material and the shape of the addendums section curves contributes largely to how the material is guided and how it
flows. So the section curve can be comprehended as the
most important property of the addendum, and the design
of the addendum naturally focuses on the selection of
proper section curve type. This principle is followed in
most die surface design CAD software as in ours and once
the form of section curve is confirmed, the basic shape of
the addendum is also fixed, only leaving the work of constructing it in the software.
Generation of Addendums Faces. Based on what type
of section curve is selected by the user, generating a series
of such curves in 3D space is not difficult. A natural tendency is to construct geometry surfaces in virtue of these
curves. The lofting method can be adopted to construct
one surface interpolating through all these curves, and
generating surface patches bounded by every two such
section curves is also an option. But the continuity problem of the new constructed surfaces takes great efforts to
be solved and its not necessary since the addendums
faces will be converted into mesh at length. So in our
software, mesh elements are generated directly from the
addendum section curves to compose the addendums
faces.
Now in the virtual 3D space of the software, the addendum section curves are aligned near enough to form one
mesh element edge by points on two neighbouring curves,
thus the mesh elements can be generated by connecting
such points. Though its an easy task to discretize the
curve, according to what principle the points on
neighbouring curves should be treated as nodes of one
element edge is something needing state of the art. In our
software the concept of matching node pair was introduced. Figure 5 shows the definition of matching node
pair and how to determine one matching node pair among
discretization points of the addendums section curves.
1
I
II
1
2
III
3
4
IV
V
3
4
I
II
C3
C1
III
IV
V
Figure 5. Definition of matching node pair and principle of determining it.
The left half of Figure 5 explains what matching node

pair really means, as shown here, when mesh elements
generated, the points corresponding to the nodes of one
element edge, connected with dashed lines in this figure,
constitute a matching node pair. The principle of how to
decide whether two points can constitute a matching node
09.08.2010 14:33:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
pair is explained in the right half, in which circles are
made passing three points. Taking point 3 as example,
circles are generated through point 3 and its former point
on the same curve, i.e. point 2. Every point on the
neighbouring curve is used as the third point to generate
one circle, as point I help generate C1, and point III, C3.
Compare the radii of these circles, and the circle which has
the smallest radii, provides the point that belongs to the
same matching node pair as point 3 does. Here the radii of
C3 is less than that of C1, so point III is more likely to
constitute matching node pair with point 3. By this principle, the matching node pairs can be decided and then the
generation of mesh elements as well as the mesh model of
the addendum is not painstaking.
Other Auxiliary CAD Functions
To build a complete die surface model, some common
CAD functions are needed to consummate the applicability of the software, such as free surface modelling and
human-computer interface technologies. These are not the
main points of this paper so will not be discussed here, and
by resorting to the existing literal materials on universal
CAD algorithms, such functions can be perfectly implemented.
Applications
In this section several examples are demonstrated to
show the practical adaptability of the above technologies.
In each example shown in Figure 6, the left is the model
of original product and the right is that of the die surface.
These examples were all workshop level and the application results were fairly impressive.
Conclusions
The technologies presented in this paper have been
implemented in our self-developed die surface design
CAD software. This type of software is oriented for sheet
metal stamping FEM, in which the time cost is often taken
good care of, so the time saving and user convenience are
major concerns while whether high-quality geometry surfaces can be achieved is not a problem of top priority.
Taking these circumstances into consideration, some problem can be simplified, as the section of the addendum
generation shows. These technologies can be utilized to
lay foundation for the development of analogous software
and once combined with a powerful FEM calculator, their
potential to facilitate the die design work will be fully
exerted.
References
(a)
[1] H.Z. Dong, C.B. Teck, R.D. Jiang, Z.Q. Lin: Journal of Materials
[2] M. Tisza: Materials Science Forum, 434-474 (2005), 135-140.
[3] Z.G. Liu, P. Hu, W. Guo, Y.C. Hou: Journal of Plasticity Engineering,
14-6 (2007), 72-77.
[4] W. Wang, F.Z. Shi: China Mechanical Engineering, 19-14 (2008),
1751-1755.
[5] DYNAFORM 5.1 Training Manual, Engineering Technology Associates, Inc., (2005), 26.
[6] AutoForm-DieDesign 3.03 Manual, AutoForm Engineering GmbH,
(2001), 42.
[7] S.B. Brunnermeier, S.A. Martin: Interoperability cost analysis of the
U.S.
automotive
supply
chain,
http://www.rti.org/pubs
/US_Automotive.pdf, (1999), 47.
[8] G. Chartrand, P. Zhang: Introduction to Graph Theory, Posts & Telecom Press, (2006), 2.
[9] L. Piegl, W. Tiller: The NURBS Book, (1997), 457-471.
(b)
(c)
Figure 6. Examples of die surface design.
681
09.08.2010 14:33:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
Press Machine Trends and Servo Press Forming Examples

Takashi Nakano
Research and Development Division, Aida Engineering, Ltd. 2-10 Ohyama-cho, Sagamihara / Japan, e-mail: nakanot@aida.co.jp
Various types of presses have been developed to meet the functionality requirements of newly developed forming processes used to produce high-precision net shape components. Press functionality is being enhanced by incorporating additional high-accuracy and highrigidity designs and by adding intelligent functionality such as programmable slide motion and speed, pressure, and position control to
improve formability, and by also adding new servo technologies. Servo presses leverage compound forming, multi-action forming, and
graduated forming processes to make net shape components in streamlined processes that conserve resources and energy. Thus, in
recent years net shape forming has become an important topic as companies struggle to survive amidst fierce competition and seek to
implement environmentally friendly manufacturing in the 21st century.
Keywords: Net shape, Eco-production, Servo press, Servo die cushion, Intelligent functionality, Compound forming, Multi-action forming,
Graduated step forming, In-die heat forming
Introduction
Metal forming is an indispensable means of production
in the automotive and electrical appliance/electronic
equipment industries because it provides high productivity and stable quality. Metal forming is also attractive
from an environmental standpoint because it enables the
production of lighter products and saves resources and
energy.
There is a demand in the metalforming industry for the
net shape forming of high-precision and high value-added
shapes and thus there is also a demand for presses with
even higher functionality. Servo presses have come into
widespread usage in recent years, and they provide superior functionality through computerization. This document explains the compound forming, multi-action forming, and graduated forming trends in the metalforming
industry, and introduces the high-precision, high-rigidity
mechanical presses and the high-functionality servo
presses that enable these forming methods.
Press Machine Trends
Various types of presses have been developed to meet
the requirements of newly developed metalforming methods and enable the production of high-precision net shape
components. As shown in Figure 1, presses are being
enhanced not only by incorporating conventional highaccuracy, high-rigidity designs but also by utilizing new
servo technologies that provide intelligent functionality
that improves formability, such as programmable slide
motion, speed, pressure and position control, and recipe
data banks. The incorporation of such multi-action functionality is changing the concept from a press to a forming machine.
New forming technologies must achieve high-precision
forming, superior formability, and higher productivity,
and they must also be environmentally friendly, and the
forming machines must also provide improved functionality and conserve resources and energy. In the case of mechanical presses, new drive mechanisms have been developed to meet the high-precision, high-rigidity require-
682
ments, and new press types that utilize servo technologies

have also been developed.
Figure 1. Press machine trends.
Servo Press Features

There are two types of typical conventional presseshighly productive mechanical presses and more versatile
hydraulic presses--and there has been a demand in the
market for a press that combines the advantages of both of
these two press types. The application of servo technology
has not only led to the achievement of these requirements,
it has also resulted in improved press functionality and
accuracy.
Presses with servo-driven slides have four major features:
1. Freely programmable slide speed and motion settings
(Figure 2)
(1) Improved formability (deformability & transferability)
(2) Improved die life (slower forming speeds (reduced
vibration and noise), lower risk of seizing)
(3) Improved component precision (flatness, spring-back
(flow speed control), & edges)
(4) Enabling of compound forming (staking, tapping, indie heating)
(5) Improved productivity (pendulum motion, synchronized operations)
(6) Improved versatility (expanded array of possible
products)
2. Bottom dead center (BDC) position control during
forming
Improved product thickness precision
09.08.2010 14:33:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
3. Intelligence and IT functionality
(1) Optimized production (formability and productivity)
(2) Recipe data bank, networking, data analysis
4. Reduced environmental impact
(1) Net shape forming
(2) Reduced power requirements
mechanical drive of a UL press consists of a compact 1point suspension with a scotch yoke mechanism that requires no connecting rods. This serves to reduce slide
deformation, making UL presses suitable for concentrated
loads such as those found in forging and sheet forging [3,
4] applications. Merging the high-accuracy, high-rigidity
characteristics of the basic press design with the high
functionality of servo motor controls is expected to result
in a synergistic effect that will enable high-precision multi-stage forming.
Figure 2. Programmable slide motion examples.
Leveraging the above-mentioned features can lead to

improved versatility, productivity, formability, and component precision, and also longer die life. Customers are
also able to innovate to achieve specialized in-house
forming knowledge, thereby enabling them to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Servo Press Types
Servo presses are classified according to the drive
source, namely, AC servo motors, linear motors, and
hydraulic servo motors. In addition to press accuracy,
each servo press type has its own inherent characteristics
such as tonnage capacity, working energy, and slide bottom dead center repeatability. Higher tonnage servo
presses can be achieved by adding a mechanical power
booster such as a crank mechanism.
Figure 3 shows a single-crank Direct Servo Former (DSF) [1] where a servo motor is used in place of a conventional motor, flywheel, and clutch configuration. The
existing crank and slide of this general-purpose press can
be used as-is.
Figure 4. SMX-23000 4-point servo press (23,000 kN).
Off-center
Loading
Figure 5. Basic UL press design.
Servo Die Cushions
Figure 3. Direct servo former (DSF) single-crank servo press

mechanism.
Figure 4 shows a large 23000 kN servo press used to

form automotive body panels that is equipped with a 4point crankless mechanism driven by multiple synchronized servo motors.
The UL press [2] shown in Figure 5 was developed to
achieve high dynamic accuracy and rigidity. UL presses
are entirely different from conventional presses, and
achieve better parts quality as well as longer die life. The
In addition to the press itself, the development of a servo-driven die cushion also becomes necessary in order to
achieve high precision and high-value-added forming. A
servo die cushion changes the cushion from a passive,
low surge pressure device used for draw-forming applications to an active device suitable for multi-action forming
applications, thereby enabling the development of sheet
metal forming and forging methods as well as sophisticated data analysis. The primary characteristics are given
below:
1. As a die cushion, the pressure setting at any position is
freely programmable.
2. As an active operation source, the motion, timing,
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09.08.2010 14:33:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
speed, and pressure is freely programmable.
3. It has functionality that reduces the force of impact.
Figure 6 shows the basic layout of a large motorized
hydraulic servo die cushion that uses servo motors to
control the hydraulic pump and motor units. The two
cylinders operate in perfect synchronization even under
eccentric loading conditions.
In a forging press, a servo cushion also functions as a
closed forging actuator and as a knockout device, and is
also effective in enabling higher performance in multiaction forming applications.
Figure 8. S-deceleration and graduated forming slide motions.
Bending. Multi action forming is utilized to reduce the

number of operations and to improve precision. Figure 9
and Figure 10 show wing-channel shape parts formed
from 590 MPa HSS material using servo press motion
control in the chamfered bend and push-back shape [6].
Two separate bending and restrike die operations were
successfully combined into one die using a NS1-3000(D)
servo press equipped with a locking die cushion.
Push Back
Figure 6. Motorized hydraulic servo die cushion design.
Chamfer
Forming Examples
Forming examples that use programmable slide motion
and intelligent functionality are introduced below.
Draw Forming. Figure 7 shows an example of a rupture that occurs in an irregular-shaped part during the 2nd
draw in the first operation when formed using a crank or
hydraulic press, and an example of a successful draw in a
servo press, where the speed control and the graduated
forming motion shown in Figure 8 are used to achieve
less material thinning [5]. Productivity can also be improved by increasing the slide speed outside the forming
portion of the stroke. S-deceleration motion enables soft
contact between the die and the material, thereby enabling the forming operations to be reduced from 2 stages
to 1 stage, where the end is pre-formed and the square cup
draw forming is done at high speed, and the pre-formed
asymmetric shape is stretch draw-formed at low speed via
graduated step forming .
Crack
(a) Crank motion forming (b) Controlled motion forming.

Figure 7. Comparison of formability based on slide motion.
Material: SUS304, Thickness: 1 mm
684
Figure 9. Chamfered bend and push-back forming.

Mat.:HSS 590MPa class
1.0 mm
(a) Bending
(b) Restrike
Figure 10. Chamfered bend and push-back formed product.

example.
Figure 11 shows a multi-action die design. When bending (Fig. 11, left), the upper and lower cylinders are retracted and the upper punch is driven by a constantpressure cushion in the die and the blank holder is actuated by a die cushion in bed. At this time, the motion of
the die is similar to that of a conventional bending die. At
the time of the next restrike (Fig. 11, right), the cylinders
in the upper and lower dies are extended and anvil blocks
are inserted into the upper punch and under the blank
holder respectively. This enables the transmission of restrike loads to the upper and lower die sets via the anvil
blocks.
09.08.2010 14:33:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 12 shows the slide motion at this time. The slide
first downstrokes at maximum velocity (400mm/s), then
changes to the optimal forming velocity (40mm/s) at the
position where forming is initiated (58 mm above BDC)
and then completes the forming of the flange with its
chamfered bend. The die cushion is then locked at BDC
to hold the blank holder in that position to prevent the
part from being released from the die. The slide then stops
and dwells at 23 mm above BDC to finish the first operation. The cylinders in the upper and lower dies are actuated at this point to allow the anvil blocks to advance. The
slide then reverses direction to downstroke again. During
this second half of the die operation the BDC position is
higher than that of the preceding operation because the
anvil blocks have been inserted, but this is compensated
for by using pendulum motion to set the virtual BDC
position that is required. Restrike forming operations that
apply the Bauschinger effect increase forming precision.
This is achieved by repeating the pendulum motion twice
in order to dwell at virtual BDC for 0.2 seconds each time.
This chamfered bend and push-back forming cycle is
completed in seven (7) seconds.
Die anvil : Retreat
Die anvil : Advance
Figure 13. Laptop case formed from magnesium sheet metal.
Figure 14. In-die heat forming of magnesium.
This system can be effective when forming materials

with low formability characteristics such as titanium or
duralumin.
The freely programmable slide motion of a servo press
can also be utilized in various compound forming applications such as in-line tapping or the fusing of stamped parts.
Conclusion
(a) 1st process: bending
(b) 2nd process: restrike
Figure 11. Multi-action die design for chamfered bend push-back

applications.
Figure 12. Slide motion for a chamfered bend push-back application.
Forming with Heating. Figure 13 and Figure 14 show

the forming of a magnesium (Mg) PC case, where the
material is heated inside the closed upper and lower dies
while the slide is downstroking and then the optimal slide
motion is used to form the MD or PC case. This is an
example of compound forming that includes a material
heating process.
Net shape forming is achieved by means of integrated

technologies that build on elemental technologies such as
materials, dies, and press machines, etc. The usage of
servo presses and servo die cushions, etc., in compound
forming, multi-action forming, and graduated forming is
an effective way to achieve net shape components. Moreover, the usage of servo technology enables higher productivity and higher precision by leveraging the optimal
slide speed and motion and the intelligent functionality
that improves formability characteristics, and thus the
general concept of a press is evolving towards the concept of a forming machine.
Advanced forming technologies must also be environmentally friendly. Additionally, it is anticipated that such
these forming techniques can also be applied to micronlevel high-precision forming in new high-demand fields
such as in the medical equipment, robot, and micromachine industries.
References
[1] H. Oyamada, T. Suganuma: Journal of the JSTP, 45-526 (2004), 7-10.
[2] T. Nakano: Proc. 58th Japan Metal Stamping Association, (2005), 917.
[3] T. Nakano: Journal of the JSTP, 42-484 (2001), 22-26.
[4] T. Nakano: Journal of the JSTP, 47-551 (2006), 8-12.
[5] T. Suganuma: Die and Moulding Technology, 24-3(2009), 26-29.
[6] T. Suganuma: Die and Moulding Technology, 22-3(2007), 17-21.
685
09.08.2010 14:33:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
Improvement of Formability in Stamping of Steel Sheets by Motion Control of Servo Press

Yoshikiyo Tamai1), Yuji Yamasaki2), Akihide Yoshitake1), Takaaki Imura3)
1)
Steel Research Laboratory, JFE Steel Co., Chiba / Japan; y-tamai@jfe-steel.co.jp; 2) Steel Research Laboratory, JFE Steel Co., Fukuyama
/ Japan; 3) Research and Development Headquarters, AIDA ENGINEERING,LTD, Sagamihara / Japan
A new forming method has been developed to improve the formability in stamping of steel sheets. Detaching of die surfaces from a steel
blank during the forming process is a distinctive feature of the developed method, and such a motion is repeated several times until the end
of forming. Results of sliding tests clarified that just the detaching of die surfaces from a steel sheet blank during the sliding process could
improve the frictional conditions between steel sheet and die surface. As a result, the developed method could reduce the forming load and
improve the forming limit of steel sheets. Finally, it was shown that the developed method which is automated with servo press and die
cushion systems could effectively improve the deep drawability of 590 MPa level high strength steel sheets, even if the pressed panel was
a full-scale panel for auto parts.
Keywords: Sheet metal forming, Deep drawing, Multistage drawing, New forming process, Servo press, Lubrication, Press motion control,
Steel sheets.
Introduction
New Forming Technology
An application of high tensile strength steel sheets is effective in a development of a lightweight automobile.
Recently steel sheets of 440 MPa or more tensile strength
have been used for automotive frames. However, the application of high tensile strength steel sheets to deep drawing is more difficult than mild steel ones, due to degradation of mechanical properties such as total elongation and
r-value. The development of forming methods to draw
high tensile strength steel sheets has been desired to increase the application of high strength steel sheets.
The application of ultrasonic vibration to deep drawing
has been investigated to improve deep drawability of thin
sheets [1,2]. It is considered that effects of die vibration on
improving formability are caused by the reduction of average frictional resistance, oxidization of blanks and die
surfaces, and re-inflow of lubricants. However, it is difficult to apply ultrasonic vibration to large dies for automotive panels, and the application of ultrasonic vibration was
limited to the laboratory experiments. Therefore, the development of the stamping method other than ultrasonic
vibration for automotive mass production system has been
desired.
Features. We have considered that the main effect of die

vibration is re-inflow of lubricating oil into a gap between
sheets and die surfaces. It occurs at the moment of detaching dies from the sheet, and can reduce frictional resistance between the sheet and die surfaces. From the viewpoint of re-inflow of lubricants, the application of ultrasonic vibration is not indispensable and just detaching dies
from the sheet during the forming process can improve
formability. Based on this idea, we have proposed a new
forming technology with press motion control, JIMFormTM (JFE Intelligent Multistage Forming), and have
evaluated effects of the developed method on press formability[3,4]. In the case of conventional deep drawing, die
surfaces are generally in contact with a blank sheet continuously during the forming process. Detaching die surfaces from the sheet during the forming process is a distinctive feature of the developed method as shown in Figure 1. Forming and detaching dies from the sheet may be
repeated several times until the end of the forming process.
Press slide
Sheet
Die
Sliding Tests. Sliding tests were carried out to investigate a change of frictional resistance caused by detaching
sheets from a tool during sliding tests. The method for
evaluating frictional resistance is shown in Figure 2. A
sliding tool was held between tested sheets and the tool
was drawn. The tool slid the same area of sheets during a
sliding test. This experimental method is considered to be
Load
Punch
Die cushion
Developed Method
P
Drawing force
Sliding tool
Tested sheets
Detaching die cushion
Detaching punch
Figure 1. Forming process of developed method.
686
Figure 2. Diagram of sliding tests.
suitable for evaluating a fluctuation of frictional resistance

caused by lack of lubricants on sheet surfaces. Under a
holding load of 4kN, the drawing force was measured.
09.08.2010 14:33:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Frictional coefficients () were calculated by an equation
(1). Used materials were steel-a which were conventional
mild steel sheets shown in Table 1. Conventional rust
preventive oil with dynamic viscosity 10mm2/s were used
for lubricants in sliding tests. Experimental conditions are
shown in Table 2.
=F / 2 P
(1)
where F is the drawing force and P is the load.

Figure 3 shows experimental results. In the case of conventional method, the sliding tool was drawn continuously
250mm in sliding length. In the case of the developed
method, sliding tests were suspended after 125 mm sliding,
and the tested sheets were detached from the sliding tool
once. After that the sliding tool was held between tested
sheets again and the test resumed.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of used materials.
Steel TS -grade t/mm YS/MPa TS/MPa El /% r-value

a
270
0.7
161
309
48
2.0
b
270
0.7
146
289
52
2.5
Table 2. Experimental conditions of sliding tests.
Load (Surface pressure)

Sliding speed
Tool materials
Lubricant
4kN (20MPa)
20mm/sec
Alloy tool steels
Conventional rust preventive oil
(Dynamic viscosity: 10mm2/s)
Conventional
Developed
0.24
Increase of frictional coefficient
after the start of sliding test
0.20
Table 3. Experimental conditions of cup drawing tests.
Punch diameter
Punch shoulder radius
Die shoulder radius
Drawing ratio
Drawing speed
Lubricant
0.18
0.16
Improvement of
frictional coefficient
0.14
0.12
0
50
Developed method
Detaching sheets
from tool
100
150
Sliding length /mm
200
0.24
Conventional
0.22
(Same data as Fig.3)
Developed
0.20
0.18
0.16
Developed method
Detaching sheets
from tool 3 times
0.14
0.12
0
50
100
150
200
33.0
250
Sliding length /mm
33mm
5mm
3mm
2.1
1mm/sec
Same as sliding tests
Conventional
250
Figure 3. Change of frictional coefficients in sliding tests (1).
Frictional coefficient
Cup Drawing Tests. Cup drawing tests were carried out

to investigate effects of the developed method on deep
drawability. Used materials and lubricating oil were the
same as those of sliding tests. Experimental conditions are
shown in Table 3. In the case of developed method, the
cup drawing was suspended at the position 25mm before
press stroke end, and the cup was removed manually from
dies once. After that the cup was set on dies again and the
cup drawing resumed.
Figure 5 shows the relationship between a blank holding force and a maximum forming load in cup drawing
tests. As figure shows, maximum forming loads of the
developed method are lower than those of the conventional method. As a result, a critical blank holding force
for fracture of the developed method is higher than that of
conventional method. It is clarified that deep drawability is
improved as the result of reduction in the forming load.
Reduction in the forming load results from the improvement of frictional resistance between dies and the sheet
surface. These results show that the developed method is
also effective in deep drawability.
Maximum forming load /kN
Frictional coefficient
0.22
sheets from the tool during sliding tests can reduce frictional resistance between sheets and the tool.
In addition, as shown in Figure 4, detaching tested
sheets from the sliding tool several times in the sliding test
can keep the frictional coefficient close to the initial one.
Therefore, it is presumed that repeat of such a motion have
remarkable effects on improving frictional resistance between sheets and the tool.
Developed
Critical
load
32.5
32.0
31.5
31.0
Conventional
Developed
Open:Fracture
SolidSuccess
12
13
14
15
16
17
Figure 5. Effects of developed method on reduction in maximum
forming load.
Figure 4. Change of frictional coefficients in sliding tests (2).
After the start of the sliding test, the frictional coefficient

increases as sliding length increases, but just detaching
sheets from the tool can reduce the frictional coefficient
between sheets and the tool. In this test, the frictional
coefficient decreased by 0.02. It is clear that just detaching
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09.08.2010 14:33:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
32.5
=0.20
32.0
Experiments
FEM results
=0.22
Conventional
=0.21
Developed
=0.20
31.5
31.0
12
13
14
15
16
17

Figure 6. Comparison of maximum forming load between experimental results and calculated results.
300mm
Figure 7. Automotive model panel (front fender panel) used in trial
stamping.
Table 4. Results of forming allowance tests.
Forming
Method
Conventional
Developed
Steel
a
b
a
Blank holding force / kN

1200 1250 1300 1350 1400
Good NG
NG
Good Good Good NG
NG
Good Good Good Good NG
NG: Fracture
Press forming analysis with finite element methods was

carried out in order to convert effects of maximum load
reduction into the difference of frictional coefficients. Cup
drawing tests were simulated by the dynamic explicit
finite element program LS-DYNA with 4-nodes thin shell.
Used material model was elastic-plastic model with transverse anisotropy. Forming loads were calculated under the
condition of constant frictional coefficients during drawing process, as opposed to the actual drawing process with
press motion control.
Figure 6 shows calculated results. It is shown that effects of the developed method on load reduction are
equivalent to decrease of the frictional coefficient by 0.01.
It is a future task that a model of frictional coefficients
taking into account sliding length, velocity, and contact
pressure will be developed and applied to forming analysis.
Effects on Formability of Large-Sized Panels. A trial
stamping was carried out using a front fender panel shown
in Figure 7, in order to evaluate effects of the developed
method on formability in stamping large-sized panels such
as automotive parts. Used materials were two types of
mild steel sheets shown in Table1, steel-a and steel-b.
Stamped panels were removed once from dies at the position 30 mm before the press stroke end, and after that
panels were set again on dies and the stamping resumed.
688
Developed method
process
80
Restart
60
40
Press slide
Die cushion
20
0
0.5sec
Time /sec
Figure 8. Press slide and die cushion motion of the first step.
Table 4 shows experimental results of forming allowance tests. The developed method can improve the critical
blank holding force for fracture of general mild steel
sheets (steel-a), and these results are also the same as those
of cup drawing tests. The developed method made the
critical blank holding force for fracture of general mild
steel sheets extend more than that of the mild steel sheets
of deep drawing grade (steel-b). It is shown that the developed method is also effective in stamping of large-sized
panels.
Press Motion Control with Servo Press
Press Slide and Die Cushion Motions. Controlling
press slide motion and die cushion motion freely and
automatically during stamping are necessary to apply the
developed method to manufactured products. A motordrive servo press and a servo die cushion are suitable for
controlling the developed press motion and preventing
decrease of productivity [5]. The servo press and the servo
die cushion systems which can control the position of
press slide and die cushion were used for experiments.
Figure 8 shows the press slide and the die cushion motion of the first step of the press motion control. At first,
the press slide stopped moving and the die cushion kept
going down, and then the blank holder surface was detached from the sheet. Next, the press slide went up, and
as a result both the punch and the die were detached from
the sheet. The motion was repeated three times during the
forming process in the trial stamping.
Rear Side Sill

Punch shoulder : R20
Die shoulder : R8
R200
R40
R35
R35
200
=0.21
Drawing start
100
100
Maximum forming load /kN
FEM
=0.22
Position in forming direction /mm
120
33.0
R35
600
[mm]
Figure 9. Overview and outline dimensions of automotive model

parts used in servo press trial.
09.08.2010 14:33:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 5. Mechanical properties of used materials.
Steel TS -grade t/mm YS/MPa TS/MPa El /% r-value

440
1.2
328
468
38
1.0
c
d
590
1.2
412
659
30
1.0
Figure 12 shows effects of the developed method on improving the thickness reduction ratio at the punch shoulder
portion. The developed method could improve the thickness reduction of 590 MPa-grade high tensile strength
steel sheets. The thickness reduction of it decreased to the
level of 440 MPa-grade steel sheets. It is clarified that the
application of the developed method which is automated
using servo press and servo die cushion systems can also
reduce the forming load and improve the formability of
high tensile strength steel sheets.
Thickness reduction ratio / %
Trial Stamping of Auto Model Parts. The auto model

parts shown in Figure9 were stamped in servo press trial
stamping. The drawing depth of tested panels was 60mm.
Used materials were steel-c and steel-d shown in Table 5,
which were high tensile strength steels. Figure 10 shows
pictures of panels that were stamped using steel-d under
the blank holding force of 400kN. In the case of the panel
stamped with conventional forming method, the fracture
occurred at the punch shoulder portion in the panel. In the
case of the panel stamped with developed method, it was
shown that the fracture was prevented and press formability was improved.
30
(b) Developed method
Figure 10 . Overview of fracture portion of tested panels.
Table 6 shows experimental results of forming allowance tests. The developed method could improve the critical blank holding force for fracture. Figure 11 shows
thickness distribution in the wall of panels which were
stamped under the blank holding force of 350 kN. The
developed method could prevent strain localization in the
punch shoulder potion. It is due to the effect that the developed method improves frictional resistance between
dies and sheets and reduces tension at the wall of panels.
Table 6. Results of forming allowance tests.

300
350
400
450
500
Good Neck. NG
Good Good Good Neck. Neck.
Forming
Method
Conventional
Developed
Neck.: Necking, NG: Fracture
1.3
Punch shoulder area
Thickness /mm
1.2
Conventional
Developed
1.1
1.0
15
10
0.8
[mm]
Strain localization
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Position in forming direction /mm
Figure 11. Thickness distribution in the wall.
Conventional
forming
Developed
method
Conventional
forming
Figure 12. Effects of developed method on deep drawability in the

case of applying high tensile strength steel to actual automotive
parts.
Conclusions
A new press motion control method was developed in
order to improve formability in stamping of steel sheets.
Sliding tests, cup drawing tests and trial stamping of fullscale automobile panels were carried out, and the following results were obtained.
1. After the start of sliding tests, the frictional coefficient
increases as sliding length increases, but just detaching
of sheets from the tool during sliding can improve frictional resistance between the steel sheet and tool surface, and reduce the frictional coefficient. Repeat of
such a motion in sliding can keep the frictional coefficient close to the initial one.
2. A new forming method that used this phenomenon has
been developed. The application of the developed
method to deep drawing can reduce strain localization
in pressed panels and improve forming limits for fracture.
3. The developed method can improve deep drawability of
high tensile strength steel sheets, even if pressed panels
are full-scale automobile ones. It would be applied efficiently to mass production systems by means of using a
servo press and a servo die cushion system.
References
65
0.9
440MPa-steel(c)
20
Fracture
(a) Conventional forming
590MPa-steel(d)
25
[1] S. Kataoka, J. Kihara, T. Aizawa, T. Nakata, K. Kato: Journal of JSTP,

35-403 (1994), 977-982.
[2] T. Jimma, Y. Kasuga, N. Iwaki, O. Miyazawa, E. Mori, K. Ito, H.
Hatano: Journal of JSTP, 23-256 (1994), 458-464.
[3] Y. Tamai, Y. Yamasaki, A. Yoshitake, T. Imura: Proc. IDDRG, (2006)
403-408.
[4]Y. Tamai, Y. Yamasaki, A. Yoshitake, T. Imura: Proc. 2005 Japanese
Spring Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, (2005), 299-300.
[5] T. Suganuma: Press Working, 42-5 (2004), 29-33
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09.08.2010 14:33:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Parallel Control of Press with Eccentric Load

Kiyoshi Hasegawa1), Atsumori Inada1), Naoya Kawachi1), Jun-ichi Endou2)
1)
Houden Seimitsu Kakou Kenkyuusho Co. Ltd., Kanagawa, Japan, k_hasegawa@hsk.co.jp;

gawa, Japan
2)
Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Kana-
The servo press was developed more than a decade ago, and various metal-forming methods involving the use of the press have subsequently been developed. We have been carrying out research on the uses and modifications of the servo press for metal forming with high
accuracy. In the metal forming process, we have been focusing on the slide inclination caused by an eccentric load. The slide inclination
affects the accuracy of the parts and products. We first applied feedback control to a digital servo press comparatively tough against an
eccentric load rather than a conventional press. The inclination of the slide was decreased to just below 50 m/m. By using a feedforward
control system, the inclination was further improved to nearly 20 m/m. We discuss the feedforward control system and show how the
accuracy is improved. This method can be used for products required more high accuracy diffusers for air bags, sprockets for automotive
and wide thin plate with high accuracy, fuel cell metal separator, heat exchanger plate, solar panel, etc. The use of this method along with a
multi-axis digital servo press for metal forming is expected to facilitate high accuracy and decrease the process cost in the near future.
Keywords: Servo press, Digital servo press, Eccentric Load, Feedforward control System, Slide inclination.
Introduction
We have been developing a digital servo press with high
accuracy since 2002; we presented reports on the development at Metal Forming 2004 and 2008 [1,2]. While we
provided an outline of the digital servo press (ZENFormer) with the characteristics of high accuracy, parallel
control, and powerful stroke at Metal Forming 2004, we
presented a remote control monitoring system at Metal
Forming 2008. We have been continuing with our efforts
to further improve the digital servo press. In conventional
press forming, the application of an eccentric load results
in the inclination of the slide of the press and degrades the
accuracy of the products.
One of our most important objectives is to decrease the
influence of the eccentric load on metal forming. The
inclination of the slide of a conventional press due to an
eccentric load is nearly 0.3 mm/m and it prevents metal
forming with high accuracy. The process of metal forming
using a press almost always generates an eccentric load
and of course generates bad effects. There have been no
methods to avoid the effect of an eccentric load. Many
methods have been developed to reduce the effect of an
eccentric load and they have been successful to a certain
extent, but all of them have limitations. The inclination of
the slide has been an obstacle to metal forming with high
accuracy and also to preventing abrasions on and damage
to the punch and die. Therefore, it is necessary to develop
an effective technique, and we have been seeking to improve existing methods for eliminating the effects of the
eccentric load in the process of metal forming. In a previous study, we have shown that the inclination is decreased
to nearly 50 m/m.
In the present study, we present a method that decreases
the inclination further, to nearly 20 m/m. This decrease
facilitates metal forming with high accuracy, which was
thought to be impossible so far. We show how the effects
of an eccentric load can be suppressed and believe that the
proposed method will contribute to plastic forming with
high accuracy.
Effects of Eccentric Load on Metal Forming
690
Effects of Eccentric Load. Conventional press forming

almost always generates an eccentric load. The effects of
the eccentric load are as follows:
1) It results in the inclination of the slide.
2) In conventional press forming, the inclination is
nearly 0.3 mm/m, with a minimum value of 0.1
mm/m.
3) Progressive die forming always involves an eccentric
load and it induces the inclination of the slide since
there is a large difference in the loads between the
upper process and lower process. In the absence of
inclination, metal forming can be carried out without
any problems. However, when high accuracy is
needed, a conventional press cannot facilitate accurate metal forming in an area, thus affecting the accuracy of the product.
4) Cold forming like air bag diffuser (Figure 1), wide
and thin plate requires high accuracy such as fuel
cell separator (Figure 2), heat exchange plate, solar
panel, etc. and needs high slide parallelism and requires few m flatness.
5) The use of a large press or many conventional
presses or machine tools appears to facilitate high
accuracy and a high degree of slide parallelism.
However, it increases the number of processes and
cost.
Figure 1. Air bag diffuser for cars.
09.08.2010 14:33:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
parts is so small that they frequently come in contact and
wear out. This shortens their lifespan and sometimes leads
to severe damage. This means that high accuracy of a
progressive die cannot be obtained, especially in a lower
process under eccentric loads.
When parts with a high degree of flatness and a progressive process are used, a high degree of slide parallelism is
necessary for metal forming. The use of many presses is
one solution for satisfying this requirement, but this solution increases the cost. An example of such parts is shown
in Figure 3.
Figure 2. Large thin plate (fuel cell separator).
Conventional Methods to Deal with Eccentric Load

The high-power press minimizes the effects of an eccentric load, since the load becomes relatively small. However,
the use of a large press increases the cost. Further, the
effect of the eccentric load is not completely eliminated. In
addition, high positioning accuracy of the bottom dead
center cannot be achieved by using the conventional press.
An increase in the machine rigidity (slide, gib, etc.) reduces the inclination of the slide. However, calculation of
the inclination by assuming the presence of a slide and gib
for a perfectly rigid machine gives a value of over 0.1
mm/m with 100 kN m. This inclination significantly affects products and it is very difficult to limit the inclination to within 50 m/m.
Techniques such as the use of a hydro cushion for adjusting the eccentric load have been researched for a long
time. However, they are difficult to use during high-speed
production and do not overcome the problems resulting
from the eccentric load.
New Method for Controlling Eccentric load
We have been developing a method to overcome the
problems resulting from the application of an eccentric
load, that is, to diminish the effect of the eccentric load.
An outline of the digital servo press was presented in
Metal Forming 2004 [1] and detailed discussion is provided in this paper. This press uses four ball screws and
four AC servo motors, and the four corners of the slide are
connected to the AC servo motors and ball screws directly.
This press makes it possible to control each axis with
accuracy of the order of micrometers. Static accuracy is
within 1 m and less accuracy with dynamic movements.
Furthermore, eccentric loads are applied not only at the
right and left positions but also at the back and front positions, and more high accuracy has been required for press
at dynamic movements.
The conventional method used for operating a digital
servo press is the feedback control method in which feedback control systems are used for each axis. Moreover, the
high dynamic accuracy of the control in the presence of an
eccentric load can be within 50 m/m. This value is very
small compared to the conventional press, but it is still not
good enough for metal forming with high accuracy.
The conventional press cannot be operated without using the punch and die; the clearance between these two
Figure 3. Seal parts for cars with high degree of flatness.
Parallel Control
Feedforward Control. The control method used during
the operation of a digital servo press when there is an
eccentric load is mainly feedback control, as mentioned
before, but it improves the inclination of the slide only to
50 m/m. We have been developing the method to improve it so that high accuracy can be achieved when an
eccentric load is applied. We now present an improved
method. The difference between feedback control and
feedforward control is schematically shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Schematic illustration of parallel control.
Theoretically, the conventional feedback control leads

to a time delay and inclination of the slide results from the
application of an eccentric load. The inclination adversely
affects the products as well as the punch and die. Therefore, we introduced a feedforward control technique to
reduce the effect of the eccentric load at the impact point
691
09.08.2010 14:33:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
and during metal forming. Our target was to reduce the
inclination to below 20 m/m at the impact point.
1. Collection of various processing data.
We tested many types of operations: thinning/thickening
of a plate, bending, punching, trimming, etc. We also performed multiprocessing (2 or 3 full power steps during 1
stroke) by applying an eccentric load at various positions
with feedback control (block diagram is shown in Figure
5) and collected data during the multiprocessing.
is set to be constant. The parameters considered for preparing the chart are the punch velocity and the eccentric load
position from the center.
Figure 7. Chart used for setting control gain K1.
At first, we set the punch velocity and make a shot to

calculate the position of the eccentric load. We then set the
control gain using Figure 7 and start the production. We
automate these processes for the next step.
Figure 5. Block diagram.
2. Relation between eccentric load position and inclination.

We have tested for various positions of the eccentric
load and for various processing types by changing the
control gains K1 and K2. We have thereby obtained the
relation between the eccentric load position/load and the
inclination of the slide.
3. Estimation of eccentric load and its position.
Before processing, one shot is done and the eccentric
load and its position are determined. We can calculate the
eccentric load position and the load using the outputs of
the four AC servo motors. The two-dimensional model
used is shown in Figure 6. The eccentric load (P) and its
position (Le) are calculated using the outputs of AC servo
motors, Qa and Qb, as follows:
P=Qa +Qb
(1)
Le =L*(1/2Qb/ P)
(2)
Test Result
The new feedforward method was applied to the test set
shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8. Test die set.
Two cases of actual test results are shown in Figures

9(a), 9(b), 10(a) and 10(b).
Figure 9(a) shows the test result relating to the feedback
control system and conditions are as follows:
Load:
Position of eccentric load:
Diameter of punch:
Punch velocity:
Plate thickness:
Figure 6. Eccentric load and position (two-dimensional model).
4. Setting of control gain.

We prepare a chart for setting K1 (Figure 7) by using the
test results of No.2 and No.3 for each process such as
punching and trimming. K2 is effective in decreasing the
inclination after the application of the load. Therefore, K2
692
100 kN
376 mm from the center
20 mm
20 mm
3.2 mm
The diagonal lines in the graph are drawn by considering the measured values of the slide positions at the four
corners and two points of dot-dash line is control position
command. The inclination curve denotes the difference
between the maximum position and minimum position at
the four corners. In this case, the punch and work came in
contact at almost 0.63 s and the maximum inclination was
nearly 35 m immediately after contact.
Figure 9(b) shows the test result for the feedforward
control system, and the conditions are the same as Figure
9(b) and it shows inclination is within 20 m/m.
09.08.2010 14:33:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
Figure 9(a). Test result (1/2) for feedback control.
The use of the conventional press results in a problem

associated with the application of an eccentric load, that is,
the eccentric load leads to the inclination of the slide.
Various methods to decrease the inclination of the slide
have been presented, for example, increasing the rigidity
of the gib or positioning a hydro cushion, but they are not
suitable for metal forming with high accuracy. We have
been developing a digital servo press and have been improving it to decrease the inclination of the slide. We have
adopted a feedforward control system to decrease the
inclination and have successfully decreased it to nearly
half the value achieved using a feedback control system.
The proposed method enables metal forming with high
accuracy. We are continuing work on further improving
the feedforward control system and aim to achieve perfect
slide parallelism even when an eccentric load is applied.
References
Figure 9(b). Test result (2/2) for feedforward control.
Figure 10(a) shows the test result for the feedback control system. The plate thickness is 5.8 mm and punch velocity is 60 mm/s, and other conditions are the same as
those in Figure 9(a). The maximum inclination is nearly 45
m/m.
Figure 10(b) shows the test result for the feedforward
control system, and the conditions are the same as those in
Figure 10(a). It shows a lower inclination, less than 20
m/m.
[1] C. Murata, T. Machda, S. Futamura, J. Endou: Proc.11th Int. Conf.

Metal Forming, (2004).
[2] K. Hasegawa, A. Inada, N. Kawachi, J. Endou: Proc. Int. Conf. 13th
Metal Forming, (2008).
Figure 10(a). Test result (1/2) for feedback control.
Figure 10(b). Test result (2/2) for feedforward control.
693
09.08.2010 14:33:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
A Novel Mechanical Press of Stephenson Type

Wen-Hsiang Hsieh, Chia-Heng Tsai
Department of Automatic Engineering, National Formosa University, Yunlin / Taiwan (ROC), allen@nfu.edu.tw
The objective of this paper is to propose a novel mechanical press of Stephenson type, and verify its feasibility. First, the system is presented and its advantages are discussed. Then, the kinematic analysis of the system is obtained by examining the geometry of the design.
Finally, an illustrative example is given to verify the feasibility of the proposed design by conducting computer simulation. All the above
analysis and design are illustrated by using a Stephenson-I type mechanism. The results show that the developed system is feasible and
with high potential to be applied to a press for precision forming.
Keywords: Mechanical press, Stephenson mechanism, Precision forming, Novel press
Introduction
Presses are widely applied in industry for metal forming
and other tasks where a large force is required. A press can
be classified as mechanical and hydraulic presses, by the
power input. The former is the most widely used among
all types of presses because of its low price and low maintenance. It can be applied in forming such as shearing,
deep drawing, coining, bending, etc. Moreover, it is of
high speed and of energy efficiency, but lacks of flexibility.
In general, the rams motion of a mechanical press cannot be adjusted. However, in certain metal formings, e.g.,
deep drawing or precision cutting, the rams motion has to
be controlled to meet different motion requirements. Nowadays, more and more demands on the motion flexibility
of a press are increased. For instance, the stroke has to be
changed according to different thicknesses in sheet metal
forming, and the ram velocity has to be altered to meet
different stress-strain relationships in precision forming.
Yossifon and Shivpuri [1-4] proposed a double-knuckle
press driven by a servo motor. Hwang, et el. [5], performed the optimal dimensional synthesis of a mechanical
drag-link drive. Miyoshi [6] mentioned that Komatzu
Company developed a series of commercially available
servo presses. Yan and Chen [7-9] proposed the method of
variable input speed by controlling a servo motor for the
driving of a press which could perform with flexibility.
Hsieh [10-11] proposed a novel method for generating
variable input speed by using cam-controlled planetary
gear trains. Du [12] and Meng [13] presented the concept
of hybrid driven presses driven. Hsieh [14] invented a
novel press that employs a variable coupling to drive a
slider crank mechanism, and it leaded to the extended
applications to a novel mechanical press of Watt type [15],
and a quick return mechanism [16].
The purpose of the paper is to propose a novel press system of Stephenson type, so that it can generate complicated and flexible output motion that can meet different
motion requirements in precision forming.
generalized Oldham coupling with circular slots consists

of a frame (link 1), an input disk (link 2), a floating disk
(link 3), and an output disk (link 4), as shown in Figure 1.
The classical Oldham coupling will transmit uniform motion between the input and output shafts. However, the
generalized Oldham couplings will transmit non-uniform
motion and produce quick return motion.
1
r
r
3
1
Offset
Figure 1. Generalized Oldham coupling with circular slots.
Stephenson Chain
The modified Kutzbach-Grbler criteria [18] for the degrees of freedom of a planar mechanism can be expressed
as:
F = 3(N - 1) - 2J1 - J2
(1)
where F is the number of freedoms, N is the number of the

link, and Ji is the number of the joint with i (i=1-2) degree
of freedoms. Moreover, the number of the joints in the
mechanism is
J = J1 + J2
(2)
If a mechanism has one degree of freedom and six links,

substituting them into Eqs. (1) and (2), then J equals to
seven or eight. A (N, J) chain is used to denote a kinematic
chain with N links and J joints, therefore, (6, 7) and (6, 8)
chains can be obtained. In addition, based on the theory of
number synthesis, there are two (6, 7) chains, i.e., Watt
chain and Stephenson chain [19]. In addition, StephensonI, Stephenson-II, and Stephenson-III mechanisms can be
generated from the later, and their structural sketches are
shown in Figures 2.
Oldham Coupling
An Oldham coupling can be classified, by its shape of
slots or ribs, as classical Oldham coupling (straight slots),
generalized Oldham coupling with circular slots, and generalized Oldham coupling with curvilinear slots [17]. The
694
(a) Stephenson-I
(b) StephensonII
(c) Stephenson-III
Figure 2. Stephenson Mechanisms.
09.08.2010 14:33:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Gear
Reducer
Generalized
Oldham
Coupling
Stephenson
type
Mechanism
defined if c1, ac0a0, r1, r2, , , 1, a0b0, a0a, ab, b0b, , b0c,
e, and cd are specified.
Y
Figure 3. New press system.

ac
a bc
c3
ac
c2
Kinematic Analysis
Figure 5 shows the kinematic sketch of the proposed
Stephenson-I type press. Points ac0 and bc0 (or a0) denote
the axes of rotation of the input and output disks, respectively. Points ac and bc denote the arc centers of the slots
of the input and output disks, respectively. And Point o is
the point of intersection of the two arcs. Moreover, oac =
r1 and obc = r2 are the radii of the circular slots of input
disk and output disk, respectively. Also, e is the offset
between the center d of the slider and the centerline ac0bc0.
Furthermore, angle =ac0obc0 defines the intersection
angle between two circular arcs, and angle is b0b makes
with b0c. In addition, b0c and cd are the link lengths of the
crank and the connecting rod, respectively. It is noted that
angle represents the relative position of assembly between the coupling and the Stephenson mechanism, and
the output motion will vary with different . Finally, the
kinematic dimensions of the system can then be fully
1
1
New Press
Figure 3 shows the proposed new press system, it is
composed by a motor, a constant speed coupling, a gear
reducer, a variable speed coupling (generalized Oldham
coupling), and a Stephenson type mechanism. The motor
and the reducer are connected by the constant speed coupling, and then drive the Stephenson type mechanism
through the variable speed coupling. Since the variable
speed coupling can be easily replaced with various dimensions of the coupling, or changed with different assembly
configurations. The velocity and acceleration of the output
can be adjusted to meet different motion requirements.
Moreover, the stroke of the ram can be adjusted by altering
the link length of the crank and the offset of the ram,
hence the output motion of the proposed system can be
arbitrarily changed to meet different motion requirements
with proper design. Since no servo motor and differential
are required, and only a mechanism with one degree of
freedom is used, the structure of the proposed system is
simple and reliable, and the building cost is low. Moreover,
the coupling can act as a flywheel, hence it is not only
energy effective, but also can produce large impulsive
forces.
Figure 4 depicts the assembly of the proposed system. A
generalized Oldham coupling with circular slots is selected
as the variable coupling, and a Stephenson-I mechanism as
the rotation-linear mechanisms, respectively. Since the
analysis and design for the Stephenson mechanisms are
similar, only the Stephenson-I type mechanism will be
presented as an illustrative example in the following sections.
a , bc
0
c4
Figure 4. New press of Stephenson type.
Coupling
Figure 5. Kinematic sketch.

c3 r
c'
c
3
c3
r
c2
r
bc
c3
c4
c2
c c1
r
c
bc
c2
ac
c1
r'
2
r
c4
a
3
ac
1
0
c4
c c
cc
c1
1r
Motor
c
4
Figure 6. Equivalent mechanism.
Freudenstein [17] indicated that a generalized coupling

can be converted into a four-bar linkage which is kinematically identical. To perform kinematic analysis, the
proposed new press is transformed into its equivalent
linkage, as shown in Figure 6. In order not to lose of generality, the lines of fixed pivots ac0a0 and a0b0 are assumed
not to parallel with the direction of the rams motion.
Moreover, it can be found that the proposed mechanism is
a planar linkage with eight links and ten joints. Finally,
kinematic analysis is conducted with vector loop approach,
and each vector is labeled.
Position Analysis. Three vector loop equations can be
formulated as follows:

rc 2 + rc 3 rc 4 rc1 = 0

r2 + r3 r4 r1 = 0

r2 + r3 ' + r5 e S = 0
(3)
(4)
(5)
Eq. (3) can be resolved into its x and y components, respectively, as:
rc 2 cos c 2 + rc 3 cos c 3 rc 4 cos c 4 rc1 cos c1 = 0
rc 2 sin c 2 + rc 3 sin c 3 rc 4 sin c 4 rc1 sin c1 = 0
(6)
(7)
Rearranging Eqs. (6) and (7), we have

rc 3 cos c 3 = rc 4 cos c 4 rc 2 cos c 2 + rc1 cos c1
(8)
(9)
Squaring Eqs. (8) and (9) and then adding them, we have
rc 3 sin c 3 = rc 4 sin c 4 rc 2 sin c 2 + rc1 sin c1
A cos c 4 + B sin c 4 = C
(10)
695
09.08.2010 14:33:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
where
(11)
(12)
A = 2rc 4 ( rc1 cos c1 rc 2 cos c 2 )
B = 2rc 2 rc 4 sin c 2
2
C = (rc3 rc 4 rc1 rc 2 ) + 2rc1rc 2 cos c1 cos c 2
Dividing Eq. (10) by

obtain
cos c cos c 4 + sin c sin c 4 =
A2 + B 2
(13)
and simplifying it, we
C
A2 + B 2
(14)
Where
cos c =
(15)
A2 + B 2
And
sinc =
(16)
A2 + B 2
Applying the adding formula of trigonometric functions to

Eq. (14), then c4 can be solved by
2
2
A +B
c 4 = c + cos 1
r sin c 4 rc 2 sin c 2 + rc1 sin c1

= tan 1 c 4
rc1 cos c1 + rc 4 cos c 4 rc 2 cos c 2
Velocity Analysis. Velocity analysis can be work out by

differentiating the equations deduced in position analysis
with respect to time. Due to the limit of pages, the results
for velocity and acceleration analysis are presented directly without proofs. For velocity analysis, their deduced
equations are:
c 3 =
rc 2 sin( c 4 c 2 )
c2
rc 3 sin( c 3 c 4 )
(31)
c 4 =
rc 2 sin( c 3 c 2 )
c2
rc 4 sin( c 3 c 4 )
(32)
3 =
r2 sin( 4 2 )
2
r3 sin( 3 4 )
(33)
4 =
r2 sin(3 2 )
2
r4 sin(3 4 )
( r2 sin 2 )2 ( r3 'sin 3 ')3 '
(18)
r2 sin 2 + r3 sin 3 r4 sin 4 r1 sin 1 = 0
(20)
And 4 can be solved by
(35)
(36)
Acceleration Analysis. Acceleration analysis can be

performed by differentiating the equations derived in velocity analysis with respect to time. The derived equations
are:
IK HL
GK HJ
GL IJ
C 4 =
GK HJ
(37)
C 3 =
(21)
(38)
G = rc 3 sin c 3
(39)
H = rc 4 sin c 4
(40)
I = rc 2c 2 sin c 2 + rc 2 c 2 2 cos c 2 + rc 3c 32 cos c 3 rc 4c 4 2 cos c 4
(41)
J = rc3 cos c3
(42)
K = rc 4 cos c 4
(43)
L = rc 2c 2 cos c 2 + rc 2 c 2 2 sin c 2 + rc 3c 32 sin c 3 rc 4c 4 2 sin c 4
(44)
D
= cos 1
2
2
D +E
(22)
D = 2r4 (r1 cos1 r2 cos 2 )
(23)
E = 2r2 r4 sin 2
(24)
F = r32 r42 r12 r22 + 2r1 r2 cos1 cos 2
(25)
Moreover,
(26)
3 =
r4 sin 4 r2 sin 2 + r1 sin 1
r1 cos 1 + r4 cos 4 r2 cos 2
(34)
Where
Where
3 = tan 1
r5 sin 5
s = ( r2 cos 2 )2 ( r3 'cos 3 ' ) 3 ' ( r5 cos 5 ) 5
(19)
2
2
D +E
(30)
The velocity of the ram can be calculated by
r2 cos 2 + r3 cos 3 r4 cos 4 r1 cos 1 = 0
s = r2 sin 2 r3 'sin 3 ' r5 sin 5
(17)
Similarly, Let 1 = 0 and 2 = c4 -, then the x and y

components of Eq. (4) can be solved, respectively, by:
4 = + cos 1
(29)
Substituting Eq. (29) into Eq. (27), the displacement of the

ram is
5 =
Dividing Eq. (9) by Eq. (8), then we have

c3
r2 cos 2 r3 'cos 3 '+ e
r5
5 = cos 1
Furthermore, let 3=3+, e =0, and s = 270, and substituting into Eq. (5), its x and y components can be solved
by
OQ NR
MQ NP
MR OP
4 =
MQ NP
(45)
(46)
where
r2 cos 2 + r3 'cos 3 '+ r5 cos 5 e cos e s cos s = 0
(27)
K = rc 4 cos c 4
(47)
r2 sin 2 + r3 'sin 3 '+ r5 sin 5 e sin e s sin s = 0
(28)
M = r3 sin 3
(48)
N = r4 sin 4
(49)
O = r22 sin 2 + r2 2 2 cos 2 + r332 cos 3 r44 2 cos 4
(50)
Solving Eq. (28), it yields
696
09.08.2010 14:33:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
(51)
Q = r4 cos 4
R = r22 cos 2 + r2 2 2 sin 2 + r332 sin 3 r44 2 sin 4
(52)
Finally, the acceleration of the ram can be obtained by

s = r2 sin2(2)2 +r3 'sin3 '(3 ')2 ( r3 'cos3 ')3 '+r5 sin5(5)2-( r5 cos5)5
(53)
fore, the proposed design can alter the motion of its ram to
meet the demand of various forming, by employing different dimensions of the coupling, with cost and time efficiency.
Conclusions
A novel design for the press, the Stephenson type mechanisms driven by a generalized Oldham coupling, has
been proposed in this study. Kinematic analysis has been
studied from its geometry. Then, a design example has
been given for illustration. Finally, computer simulation
results indicated that the proposed novel press can produce
different and better output motion. Therefore, it has high
potential to be applied to a press that needs to occasionally
alter its output motion to meet different market demands.
In addition, it has the advantages of lower cost and energy
consumption, high productivity and reliability, compared
to a conventional mechanical press or a servo press.
Design Example
Table 1. Dimensions.
Acknowledgements
150.00
Acceleration (mm/s^2)
600.00
Velocity (mm/s)
Displacement (mm)
12000.00
900.00
90.00
60.00
300.00
0.00
30.00
60.00
120.00
180.00
Angle (deg)
240.00
300.00
360.00
0.00
-6000.00
-18000.00
-600.00
0.00
6000.00
-12000.00
-300.00
0.00
The supports of the National Science Council and the

Minister of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan), under
Grants NSC 95-2622-E-150-033-CC3 and 96E-43-122,
respectively, are gratefully acknowledged.
18000.00
1200.00
120.00
0.00
60.00
120.00
180.00
Angle (deg)
240.00
300.00
360.00
0.00
60.00
120.00
180.00
Angle (deg)
240.00
300.00
360.00
(a) Displacement
(b) Velocity
(c) Acceleration
Figure 7. Kinematic analysis (c= 60 rpm).
Figure 8. Kinematic comparison.
A new press with dimensions, shown in Table 1, is given here as an illustrative example. Its solid model is constructed by CAITA software, and then introduced into
ADAMS software for kinematic simulation. Figure 7
shows the displacement, velocity and acceleration of the
proposed press by simulation. Figure 8 shows the comparison between the ram displacement (in solid line) of the
proposed design and that (in dashed line) of a conventional
Stephenson-I mechanism with the same dimensions. It can
be found that the duration of working period has been
increased from AB to AB. Also, the ram speed during the
period is steadier than the conventional one. Both of them
are beneficial to metal forming. Moreover, the disks and
their slots of the coupling are of circular or arc shapes,
hence they can be made with low cost. In addition, the
coupling can be designed to be replaced with ease. There-
References
[1] S. Yossifon, D. Messerly, E. Kropp, R. Shivpuri, T. Altan: International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture, 31-3 (1991), 345359.
[2] S. Yossifon, R. Shivpuri: International Journal of Machine Tools &
Manufacture, 33-2 (1993), 175-192.
Manufacture, 33-2 (1993), 93-208.
Manufacture, 33-2 (1993), 209-222.
[5] W.M. Hwang, Y.C. Hwang, S.T. Chiou: International Journal of
Machine Tools & Manufacture, 35-10 (1995), 1425-1433.
[6] K. Miyoshi: Current Trends in Free Motion Presses, Proc. 3rd JSTP
International Seminar on Precision Forging, Nagoya, (2004), 69-74.
[7] H.S. Yan, W.R. Chen: Mechanism and Machine Theory, 35-4 (2000),
541-561.
[8] H.S. Yan, W.R. Chen: International Journal of Machine Tools &
Manufacture, 40-5 (2000), 675-690.
[9] H.S. Yan, W.R. Chen: Trans. of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical
Design, 124-3 (2002), 350-354.
[10] W.H. Hsieh: Mechanism and Machine Theory, 42-5 (2007), 513-525.
[11] W.H. Hsieh: Mechanism and Machine Theory, 44-5 (2009), 873-895.
[12] R. Du, W.Z. Guo: Trans. of ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design,
125-3 (2003), 582-592.
[13] C.F. Meng, C. Zhang, Y.H. Lu, Z.G. Shen: Mechanism and Machine
Theory, 39-8 (2004), 811-818.
[14] W.H. Hsieh: Chinese Invention Patent No. I308090.
[15] W.H. Hsieh, K.M. Shu: Steel Research International, Special Edition,
1 (2008), 731-739.
[16] W.H. Hsieh, C.H. Tsai: Trans. of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, 33-3 (2009), 139-152.
[17] F. Freudenstein, L.W. Tsai, E.R. Maki: Trans. of ASME, Transmissions and Automation in Design, 106-4 (1984), 475-481.
[18] M. Grbler, Verh. Ver. Bef. Gew: 64 (1885), 179-223.
[19] M. Mayourrian, F. Freudenstein: Trans. of ASME, Journal of mechanisms, Transmissions, and Automation in Design, 106 (1984),
458-461.
697
09.08.2010 14:33:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Dry Press Forming Using CVD Diamond Film Coated Tool Polished by Non Abrasive
Ultrasonic Vibration Polishing
Tsuyoshi Yokosawa1), Seiji Kataoka2), Takashi Sato3), Kenji Tamaoki1), Kengo Fujimaki1), Tadao Kato4)
1)
Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Technology Research Institute, Tokyo / Japan, yokosawa.tsuyoshi@iri-tokyo.jp; 2) Shonan Institute
of Technology, Fujisawa / Japan; 3) Nonk, Inc., Tokyo / Japan; 4) Nissin Precision Machines Co., Ltd., Tokyo / Japan
Several studied have proposed dry press forming using tools coated with chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond films. The dry press
forming is a forming method that does not involve the use of lubricants. CVD diamond films have excellent wear resistance and low friction.
However, the films have a coarse surface because of blocky crystals. Therefore, these films have to be polished to improve their surface
roughness before using them for coating press forming tools. The current polishing methods are not efficient. Therefore, aiming at the
practical use of DPF tools, a method and a machine for polishing CVD diamond films were developed. The polishing machine, the polishing
method and results of drawing of a 1-mm-thick stainless steel sheet by means of DPF tools are described.
Keywords: Chemical vapor deposition diamond film, Dry press forming, Tools, Drawing, Non-abrasive ultrasonic vibration polishing,
Stainless steel
698
Development of Polishing Machine for CVD Diamond

Film Coating on Tool with Curved Surface
Ultrasoni vibration
Debris
Mechanical
Press
Friction heat
Carbonization reaction
The dry press forming (DPF) method has been developed with the aim realizing of zero emission of lubricants
[1]. Press forming tools coated with diamond-like carbon
(DLC) films or ceramics are used as DPF tools [2]. However, DLC films or ceramics and forming methods are not
suitable. Therefore, DPF using press forming tools coated
with chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond films,
instead of DLC films or ceramics, was proposed [3,4],
because CVD films have excellent wear resistance and low
friction as compared to DLC films or ceramics. The friction coefficient of CVD diamond films is approximately
0.05 under dry conditions. Therefore, it acts as an excellent fluid lubricant.
The surface of CVD diamond films is rather coarse because of blocky crystals. Hence, these films cannot be
used as a coating material for DPF tools without polishing.
Mechanical polishing using diamond abrasive grains or
diamond wheels is the commonly used polishing method
for CVD diamond films. However, this method is time
consuming. To overcome this disadvantage, a method in
which diamond is polished by the heat chemical reaction
with ferrous materials at high temperatures in vacuum was
proposed [5,6]. High-speed slide polishing is another wellknown method used for polishing. In this method, diamond can be polished to a very high quality using simple
apparatus [7,8]. Although these methods can be used for
polishing diamond films efficiently, they cannot be used
for polishing diamond film coatings on press forming tools
with a complex 3-dimensional shape.
We developed non-abrasive ultrasonic vibration
polishing [9], which is based on the heat chemical reaction between the tool material and the diamond film and
the mechanical wear caused by ultrasonic vibration. We
also developed a polishing machine for this purpose.
Then, using the forming tools fabricated through this
process, we achieved dry press drawing of a 1-mm-thick
stainless steel sheet.
Diamond film
Introduction
Polishing tool
Figure 1. Principle of non-abrasive ultrasonic vibration polishing.
Polishing Principle. Figure 1 shows the principle of

non-abrasive ultrasonic vibration polishing. The polishing
tool is made of a metal that can easily react with carbon.
When vibrated in the transverse vibration mode, the tool is
pressed against the CVD diamond film, and friction heat is
generated. Consequently, the CVD diamond film gets
polished because of the synergistic effect of the heat
chemical reaction caused by the friction heat and the mechanical wear caused by ultrasonic vibration.
The polishing tool is coated with a CVD diamond film
on the point or on the line. The reasons for coating the tool
are follows: (1) prevention of unstable contact between the
polishing tool and the CVD diamond film, (2) concentration of ultrasonic vibration energy at the contact area of
the polishing tool and the CVD diamond film, and (3)
polishing the CVD diamond film on the forming tool with
a complex curved surface.
09.08.2010 14:33:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
wavelength of the propagating elastic wave. The tip of the
polishing tool is disc shaped so as to contact with CVD diamond film on the point or on the line. The diameter and thickness of the disc are 14 and 2 mm, respectively.
Polishing of CVD Diamond Film Coating on Drawing
Tool and DPF Using Drawing Tool
Vertical ultrasonic
vibration unit
Polishing tool
Rotating table
Figure 2. Polishing machine for CVD diamond film on forming

tools
.
Polishing Method. Figure 4 shows a diagram of the

DPF method used in this study. The dotted line shows the
area coated with the CVD diamond film. The CVD diamond film on the inside and shoulder of the tool is polished using the developed machine.
Ultrasonic vibration
62.3mm
Press
Polishing tool
Tilt changed at every rotation
2mm
12mm
Rotation at constant speed
14mm
Figure 3. Diagram of polishing tool.
Press forming tool
Figure 5. Method for polishing CVD diamond film on shoulder of

drawing tool.
21.5
Ultrasonic vibration
Shoulder
Press
Polishing tool
20
Inside
Tool feed
Press forming tool
Figure 6. Method for polishing CVD diamond film on inside of

drawing tool.
43
Figure 4. Diagram of DPF method used in this study.
Polishing Machine. Figure 2 shows a photograph of

the polishing machine. The vertical ultrasonic vibration
unit is fabricated on the main spindle of an NC milling
machine and a rotating table for fixing the dry forming
tool, with a 3-dimensional surface, to the milling machine
table. Pure tantalum was selected as the material for the polishing tool, because it easily reacts with carbon and the free energy of the formation of TaC is very low [10,11].
Figure 3 shows a diagram of the polishing tool. The tool
diameter is 12 mm. Its length is 62.3 mm, which is half the
Figure 5 shows the method for polishing the CVD diamond film on the shoulder of the tool. When the polishing
tool is vibrated, its shoulder gets pressed against the film
at a load of 70 N, and the press forming tool is rotated
through 360 at the rate of 0.1 rpm/s. Therefore, a ring
area of about 0.3~0.5 mm in width on the shoulder of the
tool is polished. Next, as illustrated in the figure, the press
forming tool is rotated again after tilting by an arbitrary
angle, so that the polished ring area overlaps the area to be
polished. This process is repeated until the complete required area is polished. In this study, the tilting angle is 2.
Figure 6 shows the method for polishing CVD diamond
film on the inside of the tool. Since the vibrating polishing
699
09.08.2010 14:33:59 Uhr
Metal Forming
tool gets pressed against the film on the inside of the tool
at the load of 70 N, the tool is shifted in the z-axis direction at the rate of 10 mm/min. As a result, a linear area of
width of about 1 mm on the inside gets polished. Then, the
forming tool is rotated by an arbitrary angle so that the
polished linear area overlaps the area to be polished. In
this study, the rotating angle is 2.
The polishing conditions are as follows: transverse vibration amplitude = 10 mp-p; resonance frequency of the
ultrasonic system = 26.5 kHz; and polishing load = 70 N.
Figure 7. Drawing tool polished using developed machine.
After polishing
1m
1m
Before polishing
50m
50m
Figure 8. Comparison of surface roughness of CVD diamond film

on inside of tool before and after polishing.
Before polishing
After polishing
1m
1m
200m
200m
Figure 9. Comparison of surface roughness of CVD diamond film

on shoulder of tool before and after polishing.
2
1.8
Surface roughness /mRz
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
51
1000
1500
2000
2 50 0
3000
3500
4 00 0
4500
5000
5500
6 00 0
6500
7000
7 50 0
8000
8500
9 00 0
9 00
1 0 500
00
0
Results of Polishing and Drawing. Figure 7 shows a

drawing tool polished using the developed machine. Figure 8 shows a comparison of surface roughness of the
CVD diamond film on the inside of the tool before and
after polishing. Figure 9 shows a comparison of surface
roughness of the CVD diamond film on the shoulder of the
tool before and after polishing.
The surface roughness of the CVD diamond film on the
inside of the tool in the axis direction and on the shoulder
of the tool in the circumferential direction before polishing
is 2.00 and 0.995 mRz, respectively, and after polishing
is 1.22 and 0.995 mRz, respectively. The surface roughness of the CVD diamond film does not change significantly after polishing, but the surface profile is smoother
than before. Moreover, the polished shoulder has a glossy
surface, as shown in Figure 7. Thus, a CVD diamond film
coating on a press forming tool with a complex 3dimensional shape could be polished.
A stainless steel sheet of thickness 1 mm was drawn using the DPF tool coated with a CVD diamond film in order
to investigate the practical application of the tool. The
results of the drawing of the sheet are as follows. Dry
drawing of the sheet using the DPF tool could be repeated
10,000 times. Figure 10 shows the change in the surface
roughness of cups drawn once to 10,000 times. The surface roughness was measured after every 500 times of
drawing in the circumferential direction at the center of the
cup. Figure 11 shows a part of drawn cups (a) drawn once,
(b) drawn 5,000 times, and (c) drawn 10,000 times.
The surface roughness of the cups changed from 1.4
mRz to 1.9 mRz, as show in Figure 10. The reason is as
follow. There were ultraminute chippings on the polished
CVD diamond film. The powder of stainless steel sheet
obtained by drawing accumulated in the chippings, and it
changes into adhesive. The adhesive is detached with
progress of drawing. That is to say, generation and detachment of adhesive are repeated on CVD diamond film.
However, the drawn cups did not show any visible
scratches (Figure 11). Moreover it was confirmed that the
surface finishing of a drawn cup to the 10,000th was at the
same level as a drawn cup to the first.
Polished surface of shoulder area
Times of drawing
Figure 10. Change in surface roughness of drawn cups.
700
09.08.2010 14:34:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
These results indicate that equipment for polishing CVD
diamond films without the formation of ultraminute chippings is required. The results also confirm the feasibility
of DPF using press forming tools coated with CVD diamond films.
(a) First drawn cup
Conclusions
A stainless steel sheet having 1 mm in thickness was
drawn using DPF tools coated with a CVD diamond film
that was polished using ultrasonic vibrations, instead of
abrasive grains. The results are as follows:
1. It was confirmed that CVD diamond film coatings on
press forming tools with a complex 3-dimensional shape
can be polished by the developed machine.
2. The surface roughness of the CVD diamond film on the
inside or shoulder of the drawing tool was 0.5 mRz after polishing.
3. Dry drawing of the 1-mm-thick stainless steel sheet
could be repeated 10,000 times. Tipping or adhesion
was not observed on surface of the drawing tool.
4. The feasibility of DPF using press forming tools coated
with CVD diamond films was confirmed.
References
(b) 5,000th drawn cup
[1] S. Kataoka: Press Process Technology, 42-12 (2004), 39-43, (in

Japanese).
[2] S. Kataoka, K. Morikawa, A. Mtoi, M. Murakawa, H. Noguchi: Proc.
3rd Japanese Joint Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, 295296, (in Japanese).
[3] S. Kataoka, K. Tamaoki, T. Kato, K. Kanda, S. Takano, T. Kuno: Proc.
59th Japanese Joint Conference for the Technology of Plasticity,
(2008), 99-200, (in Japanese).
[4] S. Kataoka, K. Tamaoki, T. Kato, K. Kanda, S. Takano, T. Kuno: Proc.
59th Japanese Joint Conference for the Technology of Plasticity,
(2008), 201-202, (in Japanese).
[5] C. Yang, M. Yoshikawa: Journal of the Japan Society for Precision
Engineering, 57-1(1991), 184-189, (in Japanese).
[6] C. Yang, M. Yoshikawa: Journal of the Japan Society for Precision
Engineering, 57-3 (1991), 504-509, (in Japanese).
[7] M. Iwai, K. Suzuki, T. Uematsu, N. Yasunaga, S. Miyake: Journal of
the Japan Society for Abrasive Technology, 46-2 (2002), 82-87, (in
Japanese).
[8] M. Iwai, K. Suzuki, T. Uematsu, N. Yasunaga: Journal of the Japan
Society for Abrasive Technology, 46-11 (2002), 579-584, (in Japanese).
[9] T. Yokosawa, J. Tkagi, S. Kataoka: Proc. of ASPE 2005 Annual
Meeting, (2005), 508-510.
[10] R. Hultgren, R.L. Orr, K.K. Kelly: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New
York, (1960).
[11] J.F. Elliot, M. Gleiser: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Massachusetts, (1960).
(c) 10,000th drawn cup

Figure 11. Part of drawn cups.
701
09.08.2010 14:34:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
Detection of Tribological Condition during Sheet Metal Forming Using Fractal Property
of Acoustic Emission
1)
2)
1)
1)
Kunio Hayakawa , Kazumi Saito , Tamotsu Nakamura , Shigekazu Tanaka

1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu / Japan tmkhaya@ipc.shizuoka.ac.jp;

Toyota / Japan
2)
Toyota Motor Corp.,
A new method for detecting galling during sheet metal forming processes using the fractal property of acoustic emission (AE) was examined. For the purpose, the AE measurement system was equipped with the tribo-simulator for measuring fractal property of AE. The fractal
dimension of AE amplitude was measured with friction coefficient and temperature rise for stainless steel sheets with and without lubricants.
Four kinds of mineral oil having various viscosities VG1000, VG100, VG22 and VG2 were employed as the lubricants to examine the effect
of viscosity on tribological conditions. No galling was observed when using VG1000 that has the largest viscosity in the present experiments. The fractal dimension was observed above 2.0. In two cases with VG100, though the friction coefficients were below 0.07 in both
cases, a sudden decrease of the fractal dimension into below 2.0 was observed in one case, in which the galling was observed after the
iteration of 8. No galling occurred in the other case, in which the fractal dimension was above 2.0 during the experiment. In case with VG22,
galling observed after the iteration of 5, and the fractal dimension was measured below 2.0 from the first although the increase of friction
coefficient was observed after the iteration of 30. In cases with VG2 and no lubricant, severe galling occurred from the early stage, and the
fractal dimensions were observed below 1.0 during the experiment. The galling was prone to occur when fractal dimensions become below
2.0, and that the change in fractal dimension responded more sensitively to the occurrence of galling than the friction and temperature.
Keywords: Acoustic emission, Tribo-simulator, Sheet forming, Friction, Temperature, Stainless steel, Galling.
Introduction
Tribological conditions during sheet metal forming
processes affect the forming limit as well as the forming
loads required. An inadequate lubrication condition will
accelerate galling on the die surface and hence cause a
baneful influence on the quality of final product as well as
the dies which surfaces must be refinished more frequently.
The use of simple testing method (tribo-simulator) that
simulates tribological characteristics during sheet metal
forming processes is very effective for the evaluation of
tribological state between tool and sheet metal as well as
the performance of lubricant and surface coating of tool.
The present authors have developed a tribo-simulator for
the detection of such tribological conditions of sheet metal
forming processes. Some experiments have been performed with the simulator to evaluate the friction coefficient and temperature during processes [1-3].
The galling on the surface of tool and sheet metal during
the processes can also be simulated with the simulator. The
onset of galling, however, can only be found by the observation of the surface of the sheet metal after the experiment, since the change in friction coefficient and temperature rise are moderate to the onset of galling. Therefore,
some equipment for the real-time monitoring devices for
the detection of the onset of galling during the simulation
will be very useful.
On the other hand, an acoustic emission (AE) technique
has been known as one of the most effective methods for a
non-destructive inspection of a progress of material damage and fracture. AE is a phenomenon caused by elastic
waves generated by onset of microscopic defects in material. A detection method of damage to and fracture of materials using a fractal property of AE and have applied to
the detection of the fracture of cold forging tools successfully by the present authors [4-7]. The method is expected
702
to be effective to the detection of onset of galling during

the experiment by the tribo-simulator.
In the present paper, a new detection method for detecting the onset of galling during sheet metal forming process
using the fractal property of AE is examined. For the purpose, the AE measurement system is equipped with the
above tribo-simulator. An AE sensor is attached on the
device measuring a friction coefficient and temperature.
From the simulation of stainless steel and tool steel with
some kinds of mineral oil having various viscosities, the
possibility of the real-time detection of onset of galling by
the fractal property of AE is examined.
Fractal Property of AE Amplitude on Material Deformation and Fracture
From many research studies, the AE amplitude distribution follows the fractal property; the frequency f ( A) of
AE amplitude A can be expressed as
f ( A) = cA m
(1)
where c is a constant and the exponent m denotes the fractal dimension.

Eq. (1) can be described as follows when common logarithm is taken.
log10 f ( A) = mlog10 A + log10 c
(2)
The fractal dimension m of deformation-induced AE is

larger than that of fracture-induced AE, as the small amplitude of AE events is dominant in the case of deformationinduced AE.
The value of m has been reported to be larger than 2.0
when AE is caused by material deformation and less than
2.0 when AE is caused by microfracture of the material.
09.08.2010 14:34:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
Tribo-Simulator, AE Detection System and Experimental Condition
Tribo-Simulator for Sheet Metal Forming. Figure 1
shows the principle of the tribo-simulator with AE detecting system developed by the authors. A sheet metal blank
wrapped around a mandrel with a rubber sheet is deformed
by a steel ball used as a tool to make spiral grooves on the
metal sheet, when the mandrel with the sheet metal is
chucked and rotated by a lathe. One rotation corresponds
to the process of forming and return of a punch in actual
process. Many spiral grooves formed in the tribo-simulator
can correspond to the actual iterative processes. The tribosimulator can realize total sliding length of 7.7 m and the
iterative forming process number N = 40.
The steel ball was fixed to a measuring device set up on
a tool post of the lathe. The radial force W and the circumferential force F are measured by the measuring device. It
has been confirmed by calibration tests that both of the
forces W and F can be measured accurately without any
interferences within the range of 1000N and 500N. Surface temperature was measured by a thermo-couple
imbedded in the ball at 0.5 mm beneath the surface as
shown in Figure 1.
The circumferential force F will consists of a forming
force component Fp and a frictional force component Ff,
and the radial force W will consists of an indenting force
component Wp and a frictional force component Wf as
shown in Figure 2.
The forming force Fp can be measured when the ball is
rotated freely without any friction force as shown in Figure 3. Therefore, the friction coefficient can be calculated approximately by the following equation;
The friction-free condition between the steel ball and the

support bearing interface can be realized when the
polytetra-fluoroethylene (PTFE) is used as the support
bearing as shown in Figure 3.
AE Detection System. An AE detecting system (MUSIC system, NF Corporation) was used for the acquisition
of AE signals. This system consists of an AE sensor, a preamplifier and a local processor containing the main amplifier. The resonance-type AE sensor (AE901U, NF Corporation) that has resonance frequency of 140 kHz were used.
The total gain by the pre- and main amplifiers was set to
60dB. The threshold level was set to 60 mV at the output
voltage of the main amplifier.
Amplitude of AE signals detected during a revolution
was processed by Microsoft Excel Macro function developed by the present author on time to obtain the fractal
dimension m according to Eqs. (1) and (2).
Experimental Condition. Table 1 shows the friction
test conditions. The sliding distance per one rotation was
around 193mm. The maximal rotation times of 40 in one
experiment was taken. The forming velocity was 400
mm/s. The balls used as tools were a high-speed tool steel
SKH51. The austenitic stainless steel sheets SUS304 of
0.8 mm in thickness are used as sheet metal. For the lubrication, kinds of mineral oil without additives VG2, VG22,
VG100 and VG1000, which has different viscosities, were
used. No lubricant condition was also examined. Kinematic viscosities of each lubricant are listed in Table 2.
The figures in the name such as 2, 22 and so on represent
the s at 40 C.
Case of VG1000. Figure 4(a) shows the change in the m,
and Tr during the simulation with VG1000. The m was
evaluated in every N = 4 in this case. The and Tr remain
Table 1. Conditions of tribo-simulator for sheet metal forming.
Revolution / rpm
83
Sliding velocity / mms-1
400
Total sliding distance / mm
7700
Material
SKH51
Diameter / mm
8.0
Tool ball
Feed distance / mmrev-1
7.0
Indenting depth / mm
1.0
Contact pressure / MPa
60
Rubber sheet
Thickness / mm
5.0
Material
SUS304
Sheet metal
Thickness / mm
0.8
Mineral oil: VG2, VG22, VG100 and VG1000
Lubricants
No lubricant
Number of times or rotation, ie. Forming Number N
40
Mandrel
Figure 1. Principle of tribo-simulator for sheet metal forming.
Table 2. Kinematic viscosity of mineral oil.

Mineral oil
Figure 2. Forces acting on

steel tool ball.
f
p
Ff
Wp
Figure 3. Friction-free conditions.
F Fp
W
(3)
VG2
VG22
VG100
VG1000
Kinematic viscosity / mm2s-1

40C
100C
1.76
1.88 (30C)
22.75
4.4
94.39
10.72
1007
52
stable, and the m is observed between 2.4 and 4.4; above

the value of 2.0 during the experiment. Therefore, no galling is expected in this case. From the grooves of the sheet
metal tested as shown in Figure 4(b), No galling was
observed in this case.
703
09.08.2010 14:34:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
Case of VG100. In the case of VG100, two different
results were obtained: no galling (VG100-1) and galling
(VG100-2) in same experimental conditions. Figure 5
shows the change in the m, and Tr in the case of VG1001. The m was obtained in every iteration in this case and
hereafter. The and Tr were observed stable. The ms were
above the value of 2.0. No galling mark was observed on
the surface of the sheet metal tested.
In the other case of VG100-2 as shown in Figure 6(a),
the decrease of m was observed at N = 7. The ms after N
=15 were observed below the value of 2.0, although the
and Tr were observed stable. From the observation of the
grooves of the sheet metal tested as shown in Figure 6(b),
the mark of galling was observed at N = 8, then the mark
became wider and increased in number as the N increased.
The reason that the two different cases occurred is that the
slight difference of the surface asperity of the sheet metals
used seems to be the most probable. These experiments
was the very critical of the onset of galling.
and Tr during the simulation with VG22. The and Tr
increases after N = 30, although the galling was observed
at N = 5 as shown in Figure 7(b). It was very difficult to
predict the onset of galling by the observation of and Tr
in this case. On the other hand, the m was below the value
of 2.0 from the first, and then decreased into below the
value of 1.0. From the observation of behavior of m, it can
be predicated that the galling occurred at very early stage
in this case.
and Tr during the simulation with VG2. The increase of
and Tr was observed from the early stage. The galling
was observed at N = 3 as shown in Figure 8(b). The onset
Case of No Lubricant. Figure 9 shows the change in

the m, and Tr during the simulation without lubricant.
The increase of and Tr was observed from the early
stage. The m also remained below the value of 1 from N =
1 as is the case of VG2. The severe galling was observed
Figure 5. Change in measurements and observation of surface of

grooves in case of VG100-1.
(b) Change in measurements with galling observed at N = 8.
N=1
N=8
N = 20
N = 30
(b) Grooves of sheet metal tested (with galling).
grooves in case of VG100-2.
(a) Changes in measurements.
N =20
N = 40
(b) Grooves of sheet metal tested.
grooves in case of VG1000.
N=1
of galling can be predicted easily from the behavior of

and Tr in this case. The evaluation of galling by the m,
however, is simpler: The m was below the value of 1.0
from the early stage, which indicates severe galling.
704
N=1
N=5
N=15
N = 30
(b) Grooves of sheet metal tested.
in the sheet metal tested. From these results, the behavior

of m can be more sensitive for the prediction of the onset
galling than the behavior of and Tr, especially for the
critical condition of the galling such as VG100 and VG22.
09.08.2010 14:34:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
N=1
N=3
N = 15
N = 30
(b) Observation of surface of grooves.
Prediction of Galling by Fractal Property of AE. Figure 10 shows the changes in the s and ms in all cases test.
The value of the above which galling occur can be estimated as = 0.07 in Figure 10(a). However, the onset of
galling is difficult to be detected. Moreover, the clear distinction of the galling under the critical lubrication condition such as VG100-2 is also difficult. On the other hand,
in Figure 10(b), the ms when no galling occurs in such
case as VG1000 and VG100-1 remained above the value
of 2.0. The ms in the critical case of galling such as
VG100-2 is observed to decrease from the value above 2.0
to that below the value of 2.0 during the experiment. The
ms in the galling cases VG22, VG2 and no lubricant were
below the value of 2.0 from the early stages of the experiments. Especially, the severe galling was expected when
the m is almost below the value of 1.0 in such case as VG2
and no lubricant.
From these aspects on the behavior of the ms in the present experiments, the onset of galling can be predicted
when the m have tendency of descending and becomes
above the value of 2.0.
Conclusions
Figure 9. Change in measurements in case of no lubricant.
(a) Change in friction coefficients.
A detection of the onset of galling during sheet metal

forming processes using the fractal property of AE was
examined by the tribo-simulator with an AE measurement
system. The following results were obtained:
1. In no galling state such as VG1000, the friction coefficient and temperature rise remain stable, and fractal dimension of AE is above the value of 2.0.
2. In severe galling states such as VG2 and no lubricant,
the friction coefficient and temperature rise become
high from the early stage of the experiments, and the
fractal dimension of AE remains below the value of 2.0
from the first.
3. In the critical galling states such as VG100 and VG22,
the changes in friction coefficient and temperature rise
are not sensitive to the onset of galling. However, the
fractal dimension of AE can detect the onset of galling.
4. It can be said that the onset of galling will occur when
the behavior of the fractal dimension of AE remains below 2.0, or the value descends to below 2.0.
References
(b) Change in fractal dimensions.

Figure 10. Change in friction coefficients and fractal dimensions
for each lubricant.
[1] T. Nakamura, K. Hayakawa, S. Tanaka, H. Imaizumi, J. Shibata, M.

Sugisawa: Journal of JSTP, 46-528 (2005), 71-76, (in Japanese).
[2] T. Nakamura, S. Tanaka, K. Hayakawa, M. Sugisawa, K. Aoyama, J.
Shibata: Proc. IMechE, Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture, 220,
(2006), 65-71.
[3] T. Nakamura, S. Tanaka, K. Hayakawa, T. Tsunekawa: Proc. 9th
International Conference on Technology of Plasticity, (2008), 20772082 (CD-ROM).
[4] K. Hayakawa, T. Nakamura, S. Tanaka, H. Yonezawa: Journal of
JSTP, 44-505 (2003), 72-76, (in Japanese).
[5] K. Hayakawa, T. Nakamura, H. Yonezawa, S. Tanaka: Materials
Transaction, 45-11 (2004), 3136-3141.
[6] K. Hayakawa, T. Nakamura: Journal of the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineers, 26-4 (2005), 623-628.
[7] K. Saito, K. Hayakawa, T. Nakamura, S. Tanaka, T. Nozue: Journal of
JSTP, 47-546 (2006), 606-610, (in Japanese).
705
09.08.2010 14:34:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of Electromagnetic Forming Apparatus and Experimental Application to

Sheet Metal Forming Processes
Hyun-Min Lee1), Young-Ho Seo1), Jae-Nam Kim1), Woo-Jin Song2), Tae-Wan Ku1), Beom-Soo Kang1), Jeong Kim1)
1)
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea, greatkj@pusan.ac.kr,

try Cooperation, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea
2)
Institute for Research & Indus-
The Electromagnetic forming (EMF) method is one of high-velocity forming processes, which use an electromagnetic repulsive force to
deform a workpiece. Advantages of this forming technique are summarized as improvement of formability, reduction in wrinkling occurrence,
non-contact forming and application to various forming process. In this study, the EMF apparatus is developed and applied to sheet metal
forming experiments. The EMF apparatus consists of capacitors, charging/discharging switch, charging circuit and forming coil. The current
obtained from the forming coil produces a transient magnetic field when the discharging switch is closed, and then the eddy current in the
opposite direction induced on the workpiece by Faradays Law. The electromagnetic repulsive force between the forming coil and the
workpiece is generated as a forming force. The free forming experiment with 1050 aluminum alloy is carried out using the EMF apparatus.
Keywords: Electromagnetic forming, High-velocity forming process, Induced current, Lorentz force
Introduction
In sheet metal forming, electromagnetic forming (EMF),
which applies magnetic energy to a workpiece, is a representative high-velocity forming process as explosive forming method. The EMF deforms a flat workpiece to a required shape using time varying electromagnetic field
created by solenoid coil [1-3]. Forming section of the
workpiece is restricted to a space affected by the magnetic
field, which is generated by the forming coil. Accordingly,
in order to obtain substantial forming force, high conductive driver is needed to form the workpiece with low conduction property. However, a magnetic pressure created by
the forming coil is applies to a forming material without
any contact. As some advantages of the EMF process,
defect, surface crack, lubrication and defacement are not
occurred on the surface of the workpiece because of noncontact characteristics, and an iterative forming is also
possible. The EMF process can maintain the mechanical
properties of the sheet material as a cold forming method,
and it can be applied to various forming process such as
contraction or expansion of pipes [4,5], plate forming [6]
and bonding process [7]. The EMF can be also applied to
various industrial fields because it could be used to deform
a sheet metal having complex shapes.
Until now, a study on the EMF has been only performed
for theoretical approach and basic experiment. Researches
with respect to a super-plastic forming process of 75%
strain rate, bonding process, contraction and expansion
process of pipe using the EMF apparatus have been conducted in OSU from 1990s [8-9]. Furthermore, development of the EMF apparatus combined with a micro forming of aircraft parts has been carried out in Boeing. An
interest with regard to the EMF is increased, and many
researchers mentioned that the continuous and innovative
study is needed to develop the advanced EMF technology
and its apparatus.
In this study, the EMF apparatus has been newly developed, and it was applied to the experiments to evaluate the
performance of the EMF apparatus. The EMF apparatus in
this study consisted of capacitors, charging/discharging
switch, charging circuit and forming coil. In order to ver-
706
ify the EMF apparatus, free forming experiments with

1050 aluminum alloy have been also carried out.
Principles of Electromagnetic Forming
Faradays Law and Lorentz Force. When a magnetic
flux is changed with time domain, the electromotive force,
which the magnitude is same with the time derivative of
the magnetic flux and direction is opposed to the magnetic
flux, is induced in a closed circuit. This is so-called as
Faradays law and expressed by;
(1)
= d / dt
As shown in Figure 1, when a time-varying current is

discharged to the forming coil connected with a capacitor
for a short time of hundreds of s, the electromotive force
is applied to the workpiece by a change of the magnetic
flux in the EMF process. Subsequently, the electromotive
force by the induced current is realized around the workpiece. Then the Lorentz force is applied to a conductor by
the magnetic field as follows;
(2)
F = Idl B
Figure 1. Primary current wave form.
09.08.2010 14:34:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
The Lorentz force (F) is defined by the electric current
(I) in the conductor, unit vector (dl) of the conductor, and a
magnetic flux density (B). It is generated in the perpendicular direction to plane defined by unit vector and the
magnetic flux density, as shown in Figure 2. Consequently,
this force is working as a forming force [1].
Figure 2. Lorentz force on currentcarrying wire in magnetic field.
Forming Principle. The EMF apparatus was composed

of the capacitor having high capacity, the forming solenoid
coil, the control circuit/power supply for capacitor charging, the charging/discharging switch and the forming die.
The circuit formation in this study was described in Figure 3. When the capacitor was charged up to an objective
energy for the sheet metal forming by the charging switch
connected with the power supply, the induced current is
flowed in the forming coil due to a transient electric discharge. The input current induced in the forming coil has
been dropped for hundreds of s. Accordingly, a strong
magnetic field is generated in surroundings of the forming
area. Dropping of the input current means an energy loss
caused by a series of resistances such as heat dissipation of
the workpiece, the forming coil, and the work applied to
the workpiece. The magnetic field formed in the surroundings of the forming coil generates the induced current in
the oppose direction by Faradays law, and the sheet metal
forming is conducted by Lorentz force. Therefore, the
force has to be many times over a yield stress of the sheet
material included substantial kinetic energy of the workpiece.
performance according to the energy storage capacity. An

internal inductance used in the EMF has to be low for
transferring the energy during the impulse as much as
possible. With the capacity of 50 F, the maximum operation voltage of 5kV, and the maximum current of 25 kA,
the manufactured capacitors were arranged in a line. Total
capacitance was same with the summation of the respective capacitances. Ten capacitors were connected using a
flat busbar having the high electrical conductivity, as
shown in Figure 4. Adjustment of total capacitance was
possible through mobile connection of the capacitors of
two or more. Therefore, the storage energy can be controlled with respect to the forming process. The energy
accumulated in the capacitors can be obtained from the
given equation. At here, the energy (E) is defined by the
capacitance of capacitor (C) and the operational voltage
(V). Table 1 presents the performance of total capacitor
system.
Figure 4. Parallel connection of capacitor.

Table 1. Specification of capacitor system.
Capacitance
500 F
Max. working voltage
5 kV
Peak current
250 kA
Max. stored energy
6.25 kJ
Forming Coil. In order to generate the high strength

magnetic field, the capacitor has to be discharged in a
short interval of 100-200 s. In this study, the EMF apparatus with a resonance frequency of 5 kHz was designed.
The inductance of the forming coil designed the resonance
frequency is calculated by following equation.
L =1/(2 f )2C
Figure 3. Schematic of electromagnetic forming circuit.
Design of EMF Apparatus

Capacitor. The capacitor as one of the energy storage
device accumulates the electrical charge in order to transmit momentary current to the forming coil. It is a crucial
part of the EMF apparatus for the determination of the
(3)
E = CV 2/ 2
(4)
At here, f denotes the resonance frequency and C defines

the capacitance of the capacitor.
Consequently, the inductance of the forming coil was
2H. The detailed design of the forming coil was performed using the inductance and Eqs. (5) and (6). Figure 5
represents the graphical explanations with respect to the
symbols of Eqs. (5) and (6).
L=
N 2 A 2
30A11Di
(5)
707
09.08.2010 14:34:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
A = [D i+ N (W + S)]/ 2
(6)
As shown in Figure 6, the forming coil of 2 H was developed using the parameters mentioned. A copper wire of
5mm10mm was used to manufacture the forming coil.
The diameter and a number of turn were 110mm and 6,
respectively. Also, the forming coil was insulated by using
epoxy as shown in Figure 7, and assembled by the screw
bolts.
stabilized charge of the capacitor. The energy control device, the charge/discharge device, and a potential transformer were also developed as shown in Figure 8. The
energy stored in the capacitor was adjustable through the
input voltage adjustment device.
EMF Apparatus. As shown in Figure 9, the EMF apparatus was developed through an integration of the obtained
components. Firstly, the input voltage is determined, and
then the capacitor is charged using the charging switch.
Once the volt-meter indicates the charge completion, the
EMF process is conducted by the repulsion force of the
electromagnetic field between the sheet material and the
forming coil according to the discharge.
Figure 5. Schematic of coil design and definition of parameters.
Figure 6. Forming coil.
Figure 8. Control system.
Figure 9. Electromagnetic forming apparatus.
EMF Experiments
Figure 7. Design for assembly of forming coil and die.
Control System. The system to control and charge/discharge the stored energy in the capacitor through the adjustment of the input voltage within the EMF apparatus is
needed. The control system was also constructed for the
708
The EMF experiments were carried out using Al 1050H14, which is the initial thickness of 0.5 mm, for the verification of the developed EMF apparatus. Figure 10 represents the forming die, which was manufactured for the free
forming test in this study. Table 2 describes the properties
of the test material. According to the input voltage of 2.5,
3 and 3.5 kV, the stored energy was present as the values
of 1.56, 2.25 and 3 kJ, respectively. The forming test result
and the formed depth with regard to the distance from a
09.08.2010 14:34:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 2. Material properties for Al 1050-H14.

Yield strength
103 MPa
Resistivity
2.90-cm
35
Depth of deformation (mm)
center were described in Figures 11 and 12. The maximum depth was investigated and measured in the center,
and the respective depths were recorded of 18, 22 and 28.5
mm, respectively.
3.5kV
3.0kV
2.5kV
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
10
20
30
40
50
Distance from the center (mm)
Figure 12. Comparison of depth of deformation.
Figure 10. Control system.
the developed EMF equipment. The results of this study

can be summarized as follows:
1. The EMF technology was guaranteed through the design and the manufacturing of all composition parts
such as the capacitor system, the control system, and the
forming coil.
2. The EMF apparatus could be applied to the contraction
and expansion of pipe, sheet metal forming, and bonding process by adopting proper design of the forming
coil.
3. The EMF experiment was carried out for verification of
the EMF apparatus. In the experiments on the free forming using the Al 1050-H14 with the thickness of 0.5mm,
the Lorentz force was generated as the stored energy of
1.56, 2.25 and 3 kJ, respectively.
4. The results and outcomes in this study could be served
many useful guidelines for continuous study on the
EMF as the basis technology.
Acknowledgements
(a) 2.5kV(1.56kJ)
(b) 3kV(2.25kJ)
(c) 3.5kV(3kJ)
Figure 11. Results of electromagnetic forming experiment
according to various forming energy.
Conclusions
The EMF apparatus was developed, and the free forming
test was also performed for the reliability verification of

Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea
government (MEST) (KRF-2008-331-D00034) and the
Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF)
NRL program grant funded by the Korea government
(MEST) (No. R0A-2008-000-20017-0). Also the last author would like to acknowledge the partial support by
grants-in-aid for the National Core Research Center program from MOST/KOSEF (No. R15-2006-022-02002-0).
References
[1] Y.H. Seo, S.C. Heo, T.W. Ku, W.J. Song, J. Kim, B.S. Kang: Steel
Research International, 79 (2008), 756-763.
[2] Y. Haiping, L. Chunfeng, Z. Zhiheng, L. Zhong: Journal of Materials
[3] M. Stiemer, J. Unger, B. Svendsen, H. Blum: Computation Methods
Apply Mechanical Engineering, 198 (2009), 1535-1547.
[4] S.H. Lee, D.N. Lee: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 57
(1996), 311-315.
[5] L. Zhong, L. Chun-feng, Y. Hai-ping, Z. Zhi-heng: Transactions of
Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 17 (2007), 705-710.
[6] D.A. Oliveira, M.J. Worswick, M. Finn, D. Newman: Journal of
[7] Y.B. Park, H.Y. Kim, S.I. Oh: Thin walled structures, 43 (2005), 826844.
[8] M. Seth, V.J. Vohnout, G.S. Daehn: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 168 (2005), 390-400.
[9] J. D. Thomas, M. Seth, G.S. Daehn, J. R. Bradley, N. Triantafyllidis:
Acta Materialia, 55 (2007), 2863-2873.
709
09.08.2010 14:34:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence Analysis of 3D Roughness Parameters on Physical and Technological Properties of Steel Sheets
Marek Burdek, Marcin Miczka
Instytut Metalurgii elaza (Institute for Ferrous Metallurgy), Gliwice / Poland, mburdek@imz.pl
The results of statistical analysis of 3D roughness parameters on physical and technological properties of steel sheets are presented. Each
of steel sheet grades was prepared with three different surface topographies achieved during skin-passing by means of a work roll set with
similar arithmetic mean surface roughness Sa parameter and different other roughness parameters. Then, the Erichsen test, the cupping
test by Swift, and the tensile test were carried out. To analyze strength and direction of an influence of 3D roughness parameters on ratios
(indicators) depicting sheets properties, the linear correlation coefficients between variables was calculated. It was found that an unambiguous correlation between chosen roughness parameters and steel sheets properties was not determined except for small number of
cases.
Keywords: 3D roughness parameters, Surface topography, Steel sheets, Deep drawing, Statistical analysis
Introduction
The chemical composition of steel as well as production
technology (hot rolling, annealing, cold rolling) are the
most important parameters determining physical and technological properties of steel sheets. Surface topography of
steel sheets which is formed during skin-pass rolling could
also influence some of steel sheets technological properties. For comprehensive evaluation of surface topography
3D measurements and analysis of surface topography are
applied. 3D surface topography analysis offers greater
possibilities than the conventional 2D roughness measurement owing to the possibility of evaluation of the surface texture, developed interfacial area ratio, arithmetic
mean summit curvature of the surface, etc [1-7].
The aim of present study was to analyze the influence of
chosen 3D roughness parameters on steel properties using
statistical method. To analyze strength and direction of an
influence of 3D roughness parameters on ratios (indicators) depicting sheets properties, the linear correlation
coefficients between variables was calculated. So, the
basic mathematical statistics theory was used during the
analyses [8,9].
As a result of the analysis of 3D roughness measurements it was found that steel sheets, which were prepared
to tests, had similar arithmetic mean surface roughness Sa
and other different roughness parameters (three different
topographies). The difference lay in the shape of summits
and the area peak count, which could bring about increase
of the developed interfacial area ratio, surface texture
aspect ratio, better fluid retention and finally they could
lead to increase or decrease of steel sheets drawability.
Finally, six different variants were obtained (3 topographies x 2 grades of steel). Details were presented in [10].
Based on results of drawability tests conducted by
Erichsen and Swift methods, one may initially state that
owing to proper surface topography, steel sheets could
achieve better drawability index (DC01 grade) or higher
limit drawing ratio K (DC03 grade).
Tests of mechanical properties of steel sheets have
shown that surface topography did not influence percentage elongation and R02/Rm ratio, and that it could only
710
influence normal anisotropy in DC03 steel sheets only

[10].
Experiments
Experimental investigations were made on two grades of
aluminum killed low alloyed steel sheets: grade DC01 and
DC03. Surface topography of steel sheets was formed
during skin-pass rolling according to the same parameters
which were used in the industrial process. A pair of work
rolls was prepared, divided into three segments of similar
arithmetic mean surface roughness Sa and of different
other roughness parameters. A Rank Taylor Hobson Form
Talysurf 50 was used to carry out measurements and TalyMap software for 3D analysis. Erichsen test, cupping
test by Swift and tensile test were carried out to analyze
the physical and technological properties.
Method of Statistical Calculations
To analyze strength and direction of an influence of 3D
roughness parameters on ratios (indicators) depicting
sheets properties, the linear correlation coefficients between variables was calculated [8,9].
The analysis of linear correlation was used to determine
the strength of linear relationship among examined variables. It makes an assumption in statistical analyses that if
correlation coefficient amounts to:
below 0.2 - linear correlation does not exist;
0.2-0.4 -linear correlation exists but it is weak;
0.4-0.7 - linear correlation exists but it is moderate;
0.7-0.9 - linear correlation exists and it is strong;
above 0.9 - there is a very strong linear correlation.
If correlation coefficient is negative it means that the increase of value of one variable corresponds to the decrease
of another variable. One should remember that the logical
interrelation must exist between examined variables. Statistical calculations were carried out for the following
data:
a) drawability by Erichsen test - 10 measurements for
every variant (totally 60 measurements);
b) deep drawability by Swift method - 9 measurements
09.08.2010 14:34:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
for every variant (totally 54 measurements);
c) mechanical properties - every 3 measurements in longitudinal and transverse direction and at angle of 45 degree to the rolling direction (totally 54 measurements);
d) surface topography - 15 measurements for every variant (totally 90 measurements).
Basic descriptive statistics were calculated on the basis
of the correlation coefficients set for every variant of sheet
grade and surface topography. The following sheet
properties were examined: drawability index by the
Erichsen test, the limit drawing ratio by the cupping test,
normal anisotropy and percentage elongation A80. Surface
topography were characterized by 20 changeable 3D
roughness parameters: Sp, Sv, St, Ssk, Sku, Sz, Sdc, Smmr,
Smvr, SPc, Sds, Str, Sdq, Ssc, Sdr, Sbi, Sci, Svi. The
description of 3D parameters is presented in Table 1 [1114].
Table 1. Selected 3D roughness parameters.
Sa
St
Sp
Sv
Ssk
Sku
Sz
SPc
Smmr
Smvr
Str
Ssc
Sdq
Sbi
Sci
Svi
Arithmetic mean deviation of the surface

Total height of the surface
Maximum height of summits
Maximum depth of valleys
Skewness of the height distribution
Kurtosis of the height distribution
Ten Point Height of the surface
Area peak count
Mean material volume ratio
Mean void volume ratio
Texture aspect ratio of the surface
Arithmetic mean summit curvature of the surface
Root-Mean-Square surface slope
Bearing index
Core fluid retention index
Valley fluid retention index
Discussion of Results
In the earlier work, it was found that, owing to proper
surface topography, steel sheets could achieve better
drawability index (DC01 grade) or higher limit drawing
ratio (DC03 grade) [10]. Examinations were carried out on
steel sheets which had similar arithmetic mean surface
roughness Sa and different other roughness parameters.
Therefore, Sa parameter was excluded from further analysis.
Results of correlation coefficient between roughness parameters and technological and mechanical properties,
which indicate occurring of linear relations are reported in
Tables 2-5.
As it can be seen from Tables 2-5, an unambiguous correlation between chosen roughness parameters and steel
sheets properties was not determined except for small
number of cases. One can say that interrelations are much
more sophisticated that it was assumed.
Influence of Surface Roughness on Drawability by
Erichsen and Swift. As it can be seen from Tables 2 and3
that only some roughness parameters show moderate and
strong linear correlations to drawability. They are: Sp, St,
Smvr, SPc, Sds, Str, Sdq, Ssc, Sbi, Sci, Svi. Among them
the parameters characterizing surface texture and shape of
summits (Str, Sdq i Ssc) are the most important. Additionally, it was found that surface topography almost does not
influence deep drawability in case of steel sheets with

greater drawability (DC03). This corresponds with results
obtained in [10].
Influence of Surface Roughness on Normal Anisotropy. Correlation coefficients between roughness parameters and average normal anisotropy are reported in Table
4. As it can be seen, these are the same parameters as in
case of drawability index by Erichsen. It is obvious, because steel sheets with good drawability are characterized
by big normal anisotropy. However, one should emphasize
that peak heights and fluid retention (Sp, St, Smvr) influence on normal anisotropy as well.
Influence of Surface Roughness on Mechanical Properties of Steel Sheets. As a result of the analysis of correlation coefficient between roughness parameters and percentage elongation (Table 5) it was found that only some
parameters correspond to moderate linear correlations in
percentage elongation.
Table 2. Correlation coefficients values for surface topography and
drawability index by Erichsen.
Steel
DC01 grade
DC03 grade
Surface topography
Surface topography
Parameter
Erichsen Index
Sp
Erichsen Index
0.66
Ssk
-0.50
Sku
0.64
Smvr
0.66
Sds
0.56
Str
0.61
Sdq
0.61
-0.64
0.55
Ssc
-0.91
Sdr
0.56
Sbi
-0.54
Sci
0.56
0.62
Svi
0.59

limit drawing ratio in cupping test by Swift.
DC01 grade
DC03 grade
Steel
Surface topography
Surface topography
Parameter
Limit drawing ratio K
Sp
-0.50
St
-0.59
Smvr
-0.50
SPc
0.74
Str
Ssc
Limit drawing ratio K
0.58
-0.83
711
09.08.2010 14:34:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
normal anisotropy.
DC01 grade
Steel
Surface topography
A
Parameter
DC03 grade
Normal anisotropy
Sp
0.54
Surface topography
A
0.68
Sv
B
-0.59
-0.52
St
0.58
0.64
Sku
0.76
Sz
0.83
Smmr
-0.52
Smvr
0.68
SPc
Sds
0.52
Str
0.72
Normal anisotropy
0.71
-0.55
-0.60
0.64
-0.55
-0.59
0.71
-0.64
-0.68
0.54
-0.54
Sdq
0.87
Ssc
-0.70
Sdr
-0.53
-0.60
0.55
-0.63
0.87
Sbi
-0.56
Sci
-0.55
-0.62
Svi
0.59

percentage elongation.
DC01 grade
DC03 grade
Steel
Surface topography
Surface topography
Parameter
Percentage elongation
Sp
-0.58
-0.52
SPc
-0.52
0.63
Ssc
-0.55
Sbi
Sci
712
-0.53
-0.76
Smvr
Sds
-0.52
St
Sdc
Percentage elongation
0.56
-0.58
-0.56
0.58
Conclusions
This paper presents the results of 3D roughness measurements on the surface of steel sheets with similar arithmetic mean surface roughness Sa and different topographies, which subsequently were subject to the Erichsen
test and cupping test by Swift. Mechanical properties were
also examined in the tensile test.
Based on results of drawability tests, one may initially
state that owing to proper surface topography, steel sheets
could achieve better drawability index (DC01 grade) or
higher limit drawing ratio K (DC03 grade) [10].
Tests of mechanical properties of steel sheets have
shown that surface topography did not influence percentage elongation and R02/Rm ratio, and that it could only
influence normal anisotropy in DC03 steel sheets only
[10].
It was found that an unambiguous correlation between
chosen roughness parameters and steel sheets properties
was not determined except for small number of cases. One
can say that interrelations are much more sophisticated
that it was assumed. As a result of the analysis it was also
found that such roughness parameters like Sp, St, Str, Ssc,
Sdq and Smvr, correspond to moderate and strong linear
correlations in technological (Erichsen Index) and mechanical (normal anisotropy) properties of steel sheets.
These examination results should be treated like a preliminary analysis because of small size - from statistical
point of view of data base.
References
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[2] T. Neudecker, U. Popp: UTF Science, III (2001), 34-38.
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(2008), 36-41.
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09.08.2010 14:34:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
Deformation and Frictional Heating in Relation to Wear in Sheet Metal Stamping

Michael P. Pereira1), Paul C. Okonkwo1), Wenyi Yan2), Bernard F. Rolfe3)
1)
Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation, Deakin University, Geelong / Australia, michael.pereira@deakin.edu.au; 2) Department of
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne / Australia; 3) School of Engineering, Deakin University, Geelong /
Australia
In the automotive industry, press production rates often need to be reduced in order to minimize tool wear issues and successfully stamp
advanced high strength steels. This indicates that heating affects may be important. This paper examines friction and deformational heating
at the die radius during sheet metal stamping, using finite element analysis. The results show that high temperatures, of up to 130C, can
occur at the die radius surface. Such behavior has not been previously reported in the literature, for what is expected to be cold sheet
metal stamping conditions. It will be shown that the temperature rise is due to the increased contact stresses and increased plastic work,
associated with stamping AHSS. Consequently, new insights into the local contact conditions in sheet metal stamping were obtained. The
outcomes of this work may impact the wear models and tests employed for future tool wear analyses in sheet metal stamping.
Keywords: Sheet metal stamping, Tool wear, Deformation heating, Frictional heating, Advanced high strength steel, Finite element analysis
Introduction
The increased use of advanced high strength steel
(AHSS) in the automotive industry has caused a significant rise in the number and severity of tool wear problems
on stamping dies. It is well-known that contact pressure,
sliding distance and temperature are of primary significance in many wear situations, as highlighted by the wellknown Lim and Ashby [1] wear mechanism maps. The
contact pressure and sliding distance experienced at the
die radius during typical sheet metal stamping processes
has been studied in detail [2,3]. However, the temperature
conditions experienced at the die radius during cold sheet
metal stamping processes have received little attention in
the literature.
The temperature rise experienced during a continuous
strip-drawing process of aluminum sheet was examined
recently by Groche et al. [4] using finite element analysis.
It was shown that peak temperatures occur near the beginning of the tooling radius, corresponding closely to the
location of peak contact pressures and the initiation of
adhesive wear. However, there are some significant differences between steady bending-under-tension-type operations and typical sheet metal stamping processes, which
have been shown to result in time-dependent contact and
deformation conditions [5]. Therefore, there is a need to
examine the die surface temperature response for a typical
sheet metal stamping process.
Recent studies have shown that the contact pressure at
the die radius, during sheet metal stamping, is strongly
affected by the tensile strength of the blank material [2,6].
Therefore, it is likely that an increase in tensile strength
will also result in an increase in temperature at the die
radius, which may be critical to the overall tool wear behavior. This effect has not been previously studied.
The Channel Forming Process
The sheet metal stamping process examined in this study
is the channel forming operation shown schematically in
Figure 1. This process is particularly relevant for tool
wear analyses, as the geometry and forming conditions are
representative of typical auto-body structural components,
such as rails, cross-members and pillars, which are often

found to be prone to wear and galling [7].
Figure 1. Schematic of the channel forming operation: (a) prior to,

and (b) at the end of the forming stroke.
The important parameters related to the channel forming

process are summarized in Table 1. The blank holder force,
specified per unit width of the blank, was chosen in order
to ensure that there was sufficient force to keep the blank
holder completely closed for all material grades simulated.
The tool speed was based on values for a similar process
presented in the literature [8].
Three different grades of sheet steel were examined, in
order to investigate the effect of using higher strength
material on the surface temperatures at the blank-die interface. The basic mechanical properties of the dual phase
(DP590 and DP780) and high strength low alloy
(HSLA300) steel sheet grades, as obtained from tensile
testing, are summarized in Table 2.
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09.08.2010 14:34:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
150 mm
2 mm
Die corner radius
5 mm
Die-to-punch clearance
2.3 mm
Draw depth (total punch travel)
40 mm
Punch corner radius
5 mm
Punch width
30 mm
Blank holder force
1.05 kN/mm
Tool speed
200 mm/s
Table 2. Mechanical properties of steel grades examined.

HSLA 300
DP590
DP780
Yield strength [MPa]
320
400
530
Tensile strength [MPa]
480
660
880
Strain hardening index [-]
0.2
0.15
0.14
Strength coefficient [MPa]
830
1010
1370
Numerical Setup
The channel forming process was analyzed using an implicit finite element code (Abaqus/Standard v6.9-1 [9]). A
non-linear, transient, fully coupled thermal-stress analysis
was conducted. The problem was simplified to a one-half
symmetric, two-dimensional, plane strain problem. The
finite element mesh and numerical parameters relating to
the non-linear stress solution was based on previous FE
models of the channel forming process, developed by the
authors [2,3,6], and therefore will not be repeated here.
However, the key additional parameters required to develop the coupled thermal-stress solution are summarized
in Table 3. These parameters where defined for each of the
tools (die, holder, punch) and blank, based on characteristics appropriate for steel. The inelastic heat fraction, I,
and friction energy heat dissipation fraction, F, relate to
the amount of work from plastic deformation and friction
that is converted into heat. Additionally, the friction heat
distribution factor, , of 0.5 indicates that the frictional
heat generated at the blank-tool interface, when there is
sliding contact, is distributed evenly into the two surfaces.
Due to the short time scale and relatively low temperatures
involved, the effects of convection and radiation were
assumed to be negligible, and were not modeled.
Table 3. Key parameters required for coupled thermal-stress
solution.
Ambient temperature
20 C
Density
7.9 x 10-6 kg.mm-3
Expansion coefficient
12 x 10-6 C-1
Friction energy heat dissipation fraction, F
Friction heat distribution factor,
0.5
Inelastic heat fraction, I
0.9
Specific heat capacity
4.9 x 102 J.kg-1.C-1
Thermal conductivity
52 mJ.s-1.mm-1.C-1
714
Contact Pressure Response. The contact pressure response over the die radius during a typical channel forming process has been shown to be complex and timedependent [2,3]. However, it has been shown that the entire contact pressure response could be illustrated in the
form of a single contour plot, as shown in Figure 2(a).
This graph was constructed by determining the contact
pressure over the die radius at every increment (approximately 350) during the simulation results history.
The contour plot shown in Figure 2(a) can be used to determine the contact pressure over the die radius at any
instant during the channel forming process, by following a
horizontal line on the graph across from any value of
punch travel. Then, by examining the regions where this
horizontal line intersects the shaded contour, the pressure
distribution on the radius can be determined for that particular value of punch travel. For example, Figure 2(b)
shows the contact pressure distribution over the die radius
obtained at three instances, corresponding to 10, 25 and 40
mm of punch travel.
(a)
40
Contact
pressure
[MPa]
90
35
1501
30
Punch travel [mm]
Blank length
Blank thickness
25
Angle on
die radius
[deg]
1201
901
20
601
15
301
10
5
0
-10 0
(b)
Contact pressure [MPa]
Table 1. Key parameters for channel forming process.
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Angle on die radius [deg]
1250
1000
Punch travel
750
10 mm
500
25 mm
250
40 mm
0
-10 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Figure 2. (a) Contour plot showing evolution of contact pressure
over the die radius throughout the duration of the forming process
for the DP780 material. (b) Contact pressure distribution over die
radius at three instances during the stamping process (when the
punch has travelled 10, 25 and 40 mm).
Temperature on Die Surface. The methodology used to

construct the contact pressure contour plot was applied to
construct Figure 3(a), for the die surface temperatures.
This figure shows the evolution of temperature at the die
09.08.2010 14:34:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) 40
Temperature
[C]
35
145
Punch travel [mm]
30
120
25
95
20
70
15
45
10
5
20
-10 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Temperature [C]
(b) 140
Punch travel
100
10 mm
25 mm
60
40 mm
20
-10 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Figure 3. (a) Contour plot showing the temperature over the die
radius throughout the duration of the forming process for the
DP780 material. (b) Temperature at the die radius surface at three
instances during the stamping process (when the punch has travelled 10, 25 and 40 mm).
The temperatures generated at the die radius surface are

complex and time-dependent; but it is evident that the
response shows some similarities to that of the contact
pressure. This result makes senses, considering that the
rise in surface temperature at the die radius is a consequence of the contact conditions experienced. In particular,
the amount of frictional heat generated is closely related to
the magnitude of the contact pressure. Furthermore, heat
generated by plastic deformation only occurs at the blank,
since the tools are assumed to be elastic. Therefore, this
deformational heat can only be transferred to the die surface when there is contact between the blank and die surfaces. For these reasons, comparison between Figures 2(a)
and 3(a) reveals similar trends in contact pressure and
temperature.
However, despite these similarities, there are also some
notable differences between the contact pressure and temperature behavior. This is because the temperature at the
end of the forming process, at any location on the die
radius surface, is dependent on the temperatures generated
at that point and the surrounding region throughout the
duration of the stamping process. Hence, large temperatures can effectively accumulate at regions that remain in
frictional contact with the blank surface for longer periods
of time. This is evidenced by the location near 5 on the
die radius surface (i.e. near the beginning of the radius)
that experiences approximately 130C at the end of the
process, as shown in Figure 3. The contact pressure contour in Figure 2 shows that this region experiences sliding
contact at pressures above 600 MPa for the majority of the
stamping process.
Figure 3 shows that the heat generated at the die surface
is rapidly conducted away into the bulk die material. For
example, the region at approximately 60 on the die radius
experiences a temperature rise (of approximately 50C)
when the punch has travelled 10 mm. This temperature
rise is due to severe and localized contact conditions that
occur near the beginning of the process. However, as
shown in Figure 2(a), this region does not contact the
blank for the remainder of the process i.e. there is zero
contact pressure at this point between approximately 11
and 40 mm of punch travel. Hence, with no further heat
input at the surface, the heat is quickly conducted away. At
only 0.02 seconds after the severe contact event, when the
punch is at 15 mm, the temperature at the location of 60
on the die radius is only 27 C (i.e. 7 C above ambient).
Peak Temperatures on Die Surface. From a wear perspective, the peak temperatures experienced at the die
surface may be primarily important to the overall wear
response. For example, an increase in the peak temperatures may cause a transition from one wear mechanism
with relatively low wear rates, to another regime controlled by different physical phenomena and resulting in
increased wear severity [1,10]. Additionally, for the case
of lubricated contacts, an increase in peak temperatures
may result in lubricant breakdown, thus changing the wear
mechanism and/or increasing the wear severity [11]. For
this reason, the peak temperatures experienced over the die
radius surface during the channel forming process are
graphed in Figure 4.
Maximum temperature [C]
radius surface throughout the channel forming process,

while Figure 3(b) shows the temperature experienced at
three specific instances. These are the temperatures predicted to occur, based on a 20 C ambient starting temperature and a single forming stroke at 200 mm/s.
140
Original DP780
case
120
100
Inelatic heat
fraction = 0
80
60
Friction energy
heat dissipation
fraction = 0
40
20
-10
10
30
50
70
90
Figure 4. Peak temperature distribution over die radius for DP780

material.
It is evident that the peak temperature at the die for the

DP780 material case, discussed previously, is approximately 130 C. This temperature is above the temperatures
reported for lubricant breakdown in several studies [11,
12]. Additionally, according to the Lim and Ashby [1]
wear mechanism and temperature maps for unlubricated
715
09.08.2010 14:34:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
steel-on-steel sliding contact, this predicted peak temperature is close to the temperatures at which the cold mechanical wear mechanisms are no longer dominant. For the
typical cold mechanical wear mechanisms, such as wave
removal, micro-cutting and ploughing, the wear rate (per
unit sliding distance) depends primarily on contact pressure. However, for the hot wear mechanisms, thermal
and chemical effects, including oxidation, are important
and the wear rate becomes dependent on contact pressure
and sliding velocity [10]. This speed/temperature effect is
anecdotally evident in the automotive sheet metal stamping industry, where it is generally thought that reducing
the press speed when stamping AHSS can result in reduced tool wear [7].
In order to determine the contribution of the deformation
and frictional heating to the maximum temperature at the
die radius, separate finite element models were run with
the inelastic heat fraction, I, and friction energy heat
dissipation fraction, F, set to zero. Figure 4 shows that the
frictional heating contributes mostly to the temperature
rise experienced at the die radius. However, it is clear that
the effect of heating caused by plastic deformation is still
significant; with the maximum temperature reduced by
approximately 11% when I is set to zero. Therefore, it can
be concluded that the deformational heating should be
considered in the analysis of surface temperature and wear.
Maximum temperature [C]
Effect of Sheet Material Strength. The predicted peak

temperature distribution over the die radius, when stamping different material grades is shown in Figure 5. It is
clear that the stronger AHSS material grades have a significant effect on the peak temperature at the die surface. It
can be concluded that the large temperature rise observed
is due to the increased contact stresses and increased plastic work associated with the stamping of AHSS material
grades. Therefore, it is probable that the trend towards
higher strength steels in the automotive industry may need
to be offset by a reduction in press speeds in order to reduce the likelihood of tool wear problems.
140
120
100
DP780
80
DP590
60
HSLA300
40
20
-10
10
30
50
70
Summary
This paper used finite element analysis to examine the
deformation and frictional heating experienced during a
typical sheet metal stamping process. It was found that
temperatures of up to 130 C occur at the die radius surface, when stamping AHSS (DP780) material. Such behavior has not been previously reported in the literature,
for what is expected to be cold sheet metal stamping
conditions.
The predicted peak temperatures are greater than the
temperatures expected to cause lubricant break down and
initiate galling during steel-on-steel sliding contact. Furthermore, the predicted peak temperatures are close to
those which may result in hot wear mechanisms, and
therefore cause increased wear rates.
It was concluded that the large temperature rises observed are due to the increased contact stresses and increased plastic work, caused by the higher tensile strengths
associated with AHSS material grades.
Further work is required to understand the importance of
the predicted temperature rise on the overall tool wear
behavior. Additionally, temperature rise that occurs at the
die surface after repeated stamping operations needs to be
investigated.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by an Australian Research
Council Linkage Project (LP0776913).
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
S.C. Lim, M.F. Ashby: Acta Metallurgica, 35 (1987), 1-24.

M.P. Pereira, W. Yan, B.F. Rolfe: Wear, 265 (2008), 1687-1699.
M.P. Pereira, W. Yan, B.F. Rolfe: Wear, 268 (2010), 1275-1284.
P. Groche, G. Nitzsche, A. Elsen: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing
Technology, 57 (2008), 295-298.
[5] M.P. Pereira, J.L. Duncan, W. Yan, B.F. Rolfe: Journal of Materials
[6] M. Weiss, M.P. Pereira, B.F. Rolfe, T.B. Hilditch: Proc. International
Deep Drawing Research Group IDDRG, Golden, (2009), 691-702.
[7] O. Sandberg, P.-. Bustad, B. Carlsson, M. Fllstrm, T. Johansson:
Proc. International Conference on Recent Advances in Manufacture
& Use of Tools & Dies and Stamping of Steel Sheets, Olofstrm,
(2004), 151-170.
[8] T. Skre, F. Krantz: Wear, 255 (2003), 1471-1479.
[9] Abaqus Inc.: Abaqus Version 6.9 Documentation, Dassault Systems,
Providence, RI 02909, USA, (2009).
[10] J.A. Williams: WWear, 225-229 (1999), 1-17.
[11] E. van der Heide, D.J. Schipper: Wear, 254 (2003), 1127-1133.
[12] E.R.M. Gelinck, E.v.d. Heide, M.B.d. Rooij, D.J. Schipper: Proc. 1st
International Conference Super-High Strength Steels, Rome, (2005),
1-9.
90
Figure 5. Peak temperature distribution over die radius for three

material grades.
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09.08.2010 14:34:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development on Dent Resistance Testing System for Auto-body Panel Parts

Dongsheng Li1), Liang Wang1), Hongyu Luo1), Yanwen Lin1), Lianfeng Chen2)
1)
2)
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing / China, luckwl@126.com;
Technology Research Center, Shougang Group, Ltd., Beijing / China
A test method of dent resistance for auto-body panel parts was introduced by referring to the test methods of panels. An automatic tester
system for panel parts dent resistance test was developed. The tester indenter can be adjustable with arbitrary posture in space by integrating "5-axes motion +1-axis loading", so the tester is able to load in the normal direction of test points on panel part. A control hardware
system with "PC + motion controller" structure was constructed based on PMAC, programmable multi-axis motion controller. The corresponding control software was developed. A 6-axes tester was controlled accurately. The normal vector of a test point on parts was obtained with one approximation method. The motion data of tester indenter adjustment from initial position to the normal direction of test
point was calculated. The loading axis was adjusted automatically in the normal direction of test points. Calibration and application indicated that the testing system worked stably and reliably.
Keywords: Test method, Auto-body panel parts, Automatic tester system, 6-axes, normal direction, Indenter adjustment
Introduction
In the automotive industry, the lighter-body and efficient
energy-saving becomes the mainstream of modern automobile, which leads thinner panels and great use of highstrength steel. These demands mean that dent resistance
(DR) of panel parts has become more focused, and the
need for accurate methods, both numerical and experimental to predict DR has been emphasized.
DR is the capabilities to retain the shape against sunken
deflection and local dent under the external force, including dent resistance stiffness, dent resistance stability and
local dent resistance [1-4]. DR is often referred to as static
or dynamic dent resistance. Static dent resistance is to
measure permanent deformation caused by static forces,
which often occurs during handling, in parking lots, by
hands and elbows or by luggage, etc. Dynamic dent resistance is associated with dynamic loads, such as stones or
hailstones. The factors that affect dynamic dent resistance
are more than that affect static dent resistance. This study
is limited to the static dent resistance only. Dynamic dent
resistance is not covered.
Numerical simulation with finite element methods has
been widely used to predict and evaluate DR of auto-body
parts recently. Prediction and evaluation can be obtained
directly with FEM. But the stamping process of panel
parts is complex. DR property of panel parts is associated
with panels delivery status, deformation of the stamping
process and working conditions of auto-body. Simulation
results of DR are not satisfactory sometimes, because
simulation is not able to consider entirely the real change
of plastic properties in stamping process. Numerical methods may be used as a reference tool for DR prediction and
evaluation of panel parts.
Experiment is one more credible method to predict and
evaluate DR compared with simulation method. There are
many test methods and corresponding equipments for
panels DR test. However, as most auto-body panel parts
are large size and complex shape, few equipments can test
the panel parts. The vast majority of current testers are
only for testing panels or simulated parts such as doublecurved panels. In addition, the specific test method of DR
for auto-body panel parts is not presented either, although

the test methods for panel are a lot.
In this investigation, a test method of DR for panel parts
is introduced by referring to the methods of panel. A highprecision automated tester for DR experiment of actual
auto-body panel parts is developed based on the present
test method. Tester can achieve DR test with loading in
normal direction of test points on parts automatically.
Dent Resistance Test Method of Panel Parts
Test Principle and Tool Parameter. Test principle is
shown in Figure 1. An auto-body panel part whose test
points are marked is clamped on the platform with platens.
The platens are fixed by bolts in T-shape slot. The hemispherical punch loads in normal direction of test point with
constant speed. When the load force or punch displacement reaches certain value, the punch is backward and
unloads thereafter. After loading-unloading process are
completed once or several times, and then test is finished.
The number of test points on part is often chosen 3-5,
the diameter of hemispherical punch is 25.4 mm, and the
torque fixed platen is generally 30Nm by torque wrench.
Loading direction
Punch
Platen
90
T-shape slot
Test point
Auto-body
panel part
Bolt
Platform
Figure 1. Principle of dent resistance test on panel part.
Test Method. According to the unloading criterion in

experiment, test is divided into force control and displacement control. The unloading criterion is loading force
in force control mode, when the load reaches the setting
value, then unloads. The punchs displacement is the
unloading criterion in displacement control mode, unloading happens when displacement reaches the setting value.
The loading way in each control mode is divided into a
717
09.08.2010 14:34:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
loading and successive loading. A loading refers to loading-unloading only once in whole test procedure, while
successive loading refers to loading-unloading several
times during test process.
Control mode and loading way should be determined
first before experiment, and then set different test parameters according to control mode and loading way. During a
loading process, the critical force Pcri in force control or
critical displacement fcri in displacement control should be
set. When successive loading, the initial load Pini, load
incremental step P and loading-unloading times m in
force control mode should be set; Initial displacement fini,
displacement incremental step f, loading-unloading times
m should be set while in displacement control.
A loading: Indenter comes into contact with the part and
loads first. When load reaches the pre-load (5 N), experiment begins and loads continuously. When the load
reaches the setting Pcri in force control or the indenter
displacement reaches the setting fcri in displacement control, indenter is backward and unloading begins. Test is
over until the load decreases to pre-load. During the experiment, loading-unloading speed is often set to 1-3
mm/min; load-displacement curve is real-time displayed;
load and displacement data are collected.
Successive loading: Indenter comes into contact with the
part and loads first, when load reaches the pre-load (5 N),
experiment begins and loads continuously. In force control,
when the load reaches the setting Pini, unloading begins
until the load decreases to pre-load; this loading-unloading
process is over, then indenter is onwards and loads again.
Next unloading criterion is the sum of Pini and incremental
step P. Analogously, the next next unloading criterion is
the sum of previous criterion and P, until setting load
times m is completed. Test process is similar in displacement control mode. During the test, loading-unloading
speed is set to 1-3 mm/min; load-displacement curve is
real-time displayed; load, displacement and residual dent
depth data are collected.
Evaluation Parameters of Experiment. In this investigation, the DR of parts is assessed with the followings
parameters by referring to the evaluation parameters of
panel test [4,5].
Evaluation parameters of stiffness: the sunken depth under 50N or 100N f50 or f100.
Evaluation parameters of dent resistance: when a loading, the dent depth under 100 or 300 N d100 or d300; when
successive loading, the load that generated the residual
dent 0.1or 0.5 mm, P0.1 or P0.5.
Automated Tester System
Principle of Tester System. The basic principle of
tester is shown in Figure 2. Tester consists of a large-scale
platform for placing and clamping parts, a gantry frame
which can move in X, Y, Z direction and an adjustment
mechanism which has two DOF (rotated around Z-axis
which was named A-axis and swing around X-axis which
was named B-axis). There is an independent loading axis
in the adjustment mechanism. Loading indenter is installed
on the loading axis. By fixing the adjustment mechanism
on gantry frame, the loading axis has five DOF in space.
718
Thereby, the loading axis can be adjusted with arbitrary

posture in space. Tester needs only once to adjust loading
in normal direction during the test process by adding the
loading axis. Loading-unloading is finished with loading
axis, which not only improves the test accuracy, but also
reduces the requirements for control system. The 5-axes
motion control system of tester is not necessary to meet
interpolation and synchronization requirements strictly as
other 5-axes CNC systems.
Figure 2. Principle of tester system.
The whole test process of tester is shown in Figure 3.

Tester resets automatically first, then finds test point in
manual control way and find 3 auxiliary points automatically, solves the normal vector of test point, adjusts indenter in place, then chooses test method and sets parameters, tests automatically last.
Indenter moves to
test point position
manually controlling
Indenter contacts 3
auxiliary points
automatically
Collect position data
of 3 auxiliary points
Test start
Tester reset
Solve the normal vector
of test point and adjust
indenter in place
Choose
control mode
Solve normal vector
Choose
loading way
Calculate motion
adjustment data
Set test
parametres
Adjust load direction

consistent with normal
direction and indenter
is contact with test
point automatically.
End
A loading test
Successive
loading test
Collect
test data
End test
Figure 3. Experiment process of tester system.

Control Hardware Architecture. According to the
principle of tester, control system needs to control 6 axes
motion accurately, and it must be able to real-time capture
and display the data of motion displacement and load in
whole test course. Based on the above requirements, con-
09.08.2010 14:34:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
IPC (Industrial Personal Computer)

PCI bus
PMAC-PCI(Programmale Multiple-Axis Controller) PCI1716
Computer
Interface board
Motor Enc
Motor
B- motion
Loading
indenter
Load senseor
X- motion
Liner raster
Motor Enc
Workbench
Servo Driver Servo Driver
Limit switch
Servo Driver
Amplifier
I/O panel
Control
Box
Figure 4. Architecture of tester control hardware system.
Control Software Structure. The "upper PC + motion

controller" dual CPU structure is constructed in control
hardware system. Thus, control software fully utilizes the
advantages of this structure, which is divided into upper
controller software and lower controller software. Upper
software and lower software are both modular design.
Upper controller software consists of following modules:
communication between IPC and PMAC, manual control,
solving the normal vector, calculating motion data of indenter position adjustment, as well as human-computer
interaction function such as parameters setting, data realtime displaying, processing and collecting in test. Lower
controller software mainly controls the controller, including initialization of PMAC, PLC monitor, interpreting the
upper instructions, servo control, etc. Software structure is
shown in Figure 5.
Double CPU communication module

Manual control module
Solve normal vector module
Control Software Structure
trol system is developed with "PC + motion controller"

hardware structure in accordance with the architecture of
typical open CNC system.
An industrial personal computer (IPC) as the upper
computer, the IPC is responsible for providing all the realtime instructions for processing and background operation.
Moreover, it orders the lower controller simultaneously to
cooperate the motion control with on-off control. PMACPCI from Delta-Tau Company is used as the lower controller; Panasonic all-digital A4 AC servo motors built-in
increment encoder and drivers are used as servo systems.
For the high-precision motion requirements of loading axis,
a liner raster is used as position feedback in loading axis to
construct an entire closed-loop servo system; 16-bit dataacquisition card PCI1716 from Advantech is used to capture load data quickly and accurately, IPC CPU is full used
to display and collect data. With load sensors, the highresolution capture card and raster, load and displacement
are controlled accurately in experiment. In addition, limit
switches in both directions of 6 motion axes are set up,
their signals are transmitted to I/O terminal board of
PMAC directly. The control system can stop motor with
the fastest response once any axis exceeds movement limit.
Control system hardware architecture is shown in Figure 4.
Movement information for

real-time display module
Set test parameters module
Data collection and processing
module
PMAC initialization module
PLC monitor module
Lower controller
software
Program interpreter module

Servo control module
Figure 5. Control software structure of tester.
Normal Vector Solving. It is difficult to solve the theoretic normal vector of points on part surface. Approximation method is used here. The surface can be treated as the
plane in a small domain, and the normal vector of any
point on a plane equals to its own. So the normal vector of
one small plane created by taking 3 auxiliary points near
test point can be used as the normal vector of test point
approximately. A specific method is as following:
In the tester coordinate system O0X0Y0Z0, point Pt is the
test point. Point P1 is the projection of Pt in O0X0Y0 plane.
Supposing point P1 is the center, a circle with radii r (usually taken 10 mm) is established in O0X0Y0. Take 3 points
A1, B1, C1 on the circle to establish a regular triangle
A1B1C1 (make B1C1 parallel to X0-axis). Triangle A1B1C1 as
the bottom, a regular tri-prism marked A1B1C1A2B2C2 is
established along the Z0-axis direction. Which must be
through the panel part, 3 intersection points between three
edges of tri-prism and panel part are marked A, B, C. The
normal vector of the small plane ABC is used as the normal vector of point Pt. The method is shown in Figure 6.
X0
n
Pt
A1
P1
B1
B2
C1
O0
Panel part
A2
C
C2
Z0
Y0
Figure 6. Principle of solving normal vector.
The normal vector n of plane ABC can be solved easily

by formula (1) as long as the points A, B and C coordinates are known in O0X0Y0Z0.
n = AB AC
(1)
The coordinates of the points Pt, A, B and C in O0X0Y0Z0

can be obtained directly by finding test point and 3 auxiliary points. If the Z-coordinates of the points A, B and C
are marked za, zb, zc, then the normal vector n is obtained
according to Eq. (1):
n=
Adjustment data calculate module
Upper controller
software
3r
2
( zb zc )i +
3r
2
(2za zb zc ) j +
3 3r
2
k,
(2)
719
09.08.2010 14:34:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
where r is the radius of the circumcircle created with the
points A, B and C, taken 10mm in preceding paragraph.
cos sin
sin cos
0
0
0
0
0 0 1
0 0 0
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 dx 1
0
0
1 0 dy 0 cos sin
0 1 dz 0 sin cos
0 0 1 0
0
0
0 x0 x1

0 y0 y1
=
0 z0 z1

1 1 1
One equation set is obtained based on upper equation.

x
0 cos y0 sin cos + z0 sin sin + dx cos dy sin = x1
(4)
x0 sin + y0 cos cos z0 cos sin + dx sin + dy = y1

z cos + dz = z
1
0
where x0, y0, z0, x1, y1, z1 are constants, and dx, dy, dz, ,
are unknown variables in Eq. (4). There are only 3 equations but 5 unknown variables, the equation set can not be
solved. But the normal vector n of point Pt in O0X0Y0Z0 has
been obtained in preceding paragraph. , represent the
angles between n and coordinate axis.
is the angle between normal vector n and Z-axis:
= arccos(
3r
2
2
2
3( zb zc ) + (2za zb zc ) + 9r
(5)
where is the angle between the projection of n in O0X0Y0

and X-axis:
= arcsin(
2 za zb zc
)
2
2
(2 za zb zc ) + 3( zb zc )
(6)
dx, dy, dz values can be calculated with , values. All

motion adjustment data of loading axis before experiment
have been gotten.
Application of Tester System
Accuracy Calibration of Tester. After tester system established, the professional staff calibrated the motion accuracy and load cell reading accuracy of tester system.
Calibration results are shown in Tables 1 and 2.
720
Measuring
distance
Maximum
positioning error
1000 mm
0.09 mm
900 mm
0.06 mm
200 mm
0.04 mm
ARotating
180
0.1
BSwinging
40
0.1
50 mm
0.005 mm
WLoading
Table 2. Load cell reading accuracy calibration.

Calibration
point N
Actual
meanN
Relative indication error%
Repeatable
indication error%
0.00
0.00
800
800
0.00
0.25
1600
1599
0.06
0.13
2400
2401
-0.04
0.00
3200
3198
0.06
0.06
4000
3994
0.15
0.05
Application of Tester. For a fender part of one car, its

DR performance is tested by the tester. As shown in Figure 7(a) shows the load-dent depth curve of one test point
on part after successive loading; Figure 7(b) shows the
tester is running in experiment process.
400
350
300
250
For c e( N)
Adjustment Data Calculating. It is necessary to adjust

the loading axis gesture in space automatically, and make
its loading direction be consistent with test point normal
direction after solving the normal vector of test point.
Based on the robot kinematics theory [6], a coordinate
system marked OX1Y1Z1 is fixed on the indenter position,
so the coordinate system transformation represents the
indenter position changes. OX1Y1Z1 coincides with
O0X0Y0Z0 in indenter initial position. The initial position
(x0, y0, z0) in O0X0Y0Z0 can be obtained directly, the indenter final position is at test point Pt after X, Y, Z translating, A rotating, B swinging. Point Pt coordinate marked (x1,
y1, z1) has been obtained too in O0X0Y0Z0. Set O0X0Y0Z0 as
the reference coordinate system. The displacement of
indenter adjustment in X, Y, Z are assumed dx, dy, dz, the
rotating angle in A and the swinging angel in B are assumed , . First translate the indenter and then rotate and
swing it in adjusting process. The following formula is
established:
Rot ( z, ) Trans(dx, dy, dz) Rot ( x, )P0 = Pt
(3)
Table 1. Motion accuracy calibration.

Axis
200
150
100
50
0
0. 0
0. 5
1. 0
1. 5
2. 0
2. 5
3. 0
Dent Dept h( mm)
(a) Load-dent depth curve

(b) Running tester
Figure 7. DR test of fender.
Conclusions
1. Dent resistance test method for auto-body panel parts
was presented. Including test principle, test process and
evaluation parameters.
2. The hardware and software of tester control system
were developed to improve reliability and stability of
experiment, and test can be achieved automatically.
3. Development of tester provided foundation for standardizing the dent resistance test of parts.
References
[1] N. Asnafi: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 49-1 (1995),
13-31.
[2] S. Holmberg, P. Thilderkvist: Materials and Design, 23-8 (2002),
681-691.
[3] G. Ekstrand, N. Asnafi: Materials and Design, 19-4 (1998), 145-156.
[4] L.Gunnarsson, E. Schedin: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 114-2 (2001), 168-173.
[5] D. Li, X. Zhou: Journal of Plasticity Engineering, 11-5 (2004), 13-16,
(in Chinese).
[6] N. Saeed: Introduction to Robotics Analysis, Systems, Applications,
1st, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., (2001).
09.08.2010 14:34:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
Solid-Shell Finite Element Method for Progressive Die Forming Simulation

Heng Jian Xu, Yu Qi Liu, Zhi Bing Zhang, Ting Du
State Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Die & Mould Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan / China,
xuhengjian1219@163.com
For progressive die forming, the traditional shell element cannot accurately simulate the extrusion deformation in the thickness direction in
the region of local bulge forming or pure bending with small radii. In this paper, a new solid-shell element model is proposed and successfully applied to simulation of progress die forming. The proposed element model has remarkable characteristics. Multiple-point integration
along thickness can more exactly describe a bending effect. An improved plane-stress constitutive model is employed to update the stress
field. In addition, the proposed element model can obtain both solid-like and shell-like behaviours to simulate large deformation. The comparison of numerical results and experiments data shows that the proposed solid-shell element model has high computational accuracy on
simulating local bulge cases in progressive die forming.
Keywords: Solid-shell element, Progress die forming simulation, Multiple-point integration along thickness, Improved plane-stress
constitutive model, Large deformation
Introduction
Compared with solid elements, shell elements are more
widely used in sheet metal forming simulation for its
higher computational efficiency and more sufficient description of the bending effect. However, shell elements
still have some deficiencies as follows: in the case of concerning about edge shape of a blank, such as the edge
shape characters of blank after bending or hole flanging in
progressive die forming, the analysis results from shell
element cannot provide relevant information; In addition,
shell elements cannot accurately simulate the thick plate
drawing or bending with small radii in progressive die
forming. In recent years, research on solid-shell element
has attracted extensive interests, some scholars have developed high precision and high efficient solid-shell elements by using multiple-point integration along thickness
and combining Enhanced Assumed Strain (EAS) and Assumed Natural Strain (ANS) [1-6]. Compared with degenerated shell elements, solid-shell elements have three remarkable characteristics as follows: firstly, it has only
translational degree of freedom (DOF) and the use of rotational DOF can be avoided, thus its geometric and kinematic description is simpler; secondly, solid-shell element
employs double sided contact judgment considering thickness variation, thus providing more precise contact
analysis results; thirdly, solid-shell elements describes the
edge deformation features of blank in the large deformation area more accurately. Therefore, solid-shell element is
more suitable for simulation of progressive die forming
process.
In this work, a new eight-node solid-shell element model is developed. An improved plane-stress constitutive
model is employed to update the stress field. Consequently,
it is necessary to construct a co-rotational coordinate system on the middle reference surface. By adopting the
above methods, the proposed solid-shell element model is
quite suitable for nonlinear large deformation analysis
such as large membrane deformation, shear deformation
and large rotation. Two examples are taken to verify the
effectiveness of the proposed element: the first example is
square-cup deep drawing analysis from NUMISHEET93
international benchmark; the second example is multiposition drawing analysis of air-conditioner wing, subsequently, the numerical results are compared with experiments data.
Solid-Shell Element Model
Geometric and Kinematic Description. The hexahedron solid-shell element model is shown in Figure 1. Each
element has eight nodes and each node has only translational DOF and no rotational DOF. ( , , ) is the natural
coordinate system, and axis represents the normal of
degenerated shell element.
Figure 1. Solid-shell element geometry and integration points.
The geometric and kinematic interpolations are as follows:

8
xi = N j ( , , )xij
(1)
j =1
8
ui = N j ( , , )uij
(2)
j =1
where xij , uij are the i th nodal coordinate and displacement of the j th node, i = 1, 2, 3 , j = 1, 2,...,8 , respectively
and the shape function of the j th node N j ( , , ) is
defined as:
1
N j ( , , ) = (1 + j )(1 + j )(1 + j )
8
(3)
In this equation, j , j , j denote the nature coordinates

of the j th node.
721
09.08.2010 14:34:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
And the strain-displacement matrix B 624 is defined as:

(4)
B624 = L63N324
where N324 is the shape function matrix and L63 denotes

the strain gradient operator defined as:
LT63
= 0
x
0
(5)
Integration Scheme. To describe the bending effect

more accurately, a selective reduced integration (SRI)
scheme with only one Gauss point in the plane and
multiple Gauss points in thickness direction(along axis)
is employed to solve the internal force. In this program,
five-point integration along thickness is adopted. The five
points are located as follows:
(0, 0, -0.90618), (0, 0, -0.53847), (0, 0, 0),
(0, 0, 0.53847), (0, 0, 0.90618).
There are several advantages for the adopted integration
scheme as follows:
(1) Compared with full integration( 2 2 2 ), the SRI
scheme has higher computational efficiency and reduces
computing storage demands significantly, on the other
hand, this scheme can effectively control the volumetric
and shear locking ;
(2) Compared with reduced integration( 111 ), the SRI
scheme describes the bending effect more accurately,
meanwhile, it is more effective to alleviate the effect of
zero energy modes;
The one-point integration in the plane will activate the zero energy modes. Here, the damping hourglass
control method proposed by D.P. Flanagan and T. Belytschko [7,8] is adopted to eliminate the spurious deformation modes and get excellent simulation results.
Updating of Strain and Stress in Co-Rotational Configuration
Construction of Co-Rotational Coordinate System.
The co-rotational coordinate system is located in the middle surface of solid-shell element as shown in Figure 2.
coordinate system. By adopting this method, spurious

strain is not produced in the case of pure rotation deformation, thus the proposed solid-shell element is quite suitable
for large elastic-plastic deformation analysis. e1 , e2 and
e3 constitute the base vectors of co-rotational coordinate
system, and they are calculated like:

s3 = rAC rBD
(6)
s3
s3
(7)
e3 =
(8)
s1 = rAB (rAB e3 )e3

e1 =
s1
s1
(9)
(10)
e2 = e3 e1
Updating of Strain and Stress. The constitutive relation in co-rotational configuration is as follows:
(11)
= D
where and denote stress vector and strain vector in

co-rotational coordinate system. To alleviate the effect of
thickness locking, an improved plane-stress constitutive
matrix D is employed to update the stress field. The matrix D is expressed as follows:
+ 2

0
D=
0
0
0
+ 2
0
0
0
0
0
E
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
(12)
In this equation, the shear modulus and the coefficient
are obtained from Young's Modulus E and Poisson's
Ratio , =
E ,
E .
=
1 2
2(1 + )
Numerical Examples
Square-Cup Deep Drawing. In this section, the
proposed solid-shell element model is successfully applied
in square-cup deep drawing analysis from NUMISHEET93 international benchmark. The numerical
results are compared with experiment data from related
literatures
to verify the performance of the proposed
element in large deformation analysis. Figure 3 shows the
geometry shap and dimensions of dies.
Figure 2. Construction of co-rotational coordinate system.
The strain and stress are both updated in co-rotational
722
09.08.2010 14:34:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
material draw-in along OA, OB, and OC computed by the

proposed solid-shell element is closer to experiment data.
Table 1. Comparison of draw-in between numerical results and
experiment data.
DX/DY(mm)
Figure 3. Geometry shape and dimensions of dies.
The blank is a 150 mm 150 mm 0.78mm square plate

and meshed with 50 50 1 elements. The material is mild
steel,
obeying
the
hardening
curve
0.259
MPa,
where
Young's
modulus
is
= 566(0.007 + )
E=206 GPa, Poisson's ratio is =0.3 and the yield stress is
y=167 MPa.
The finite element model is shown in Figure 4. Friction
coefficients among contact surfaces are all 0.1. The binder
force is 19.6 KN. Figure 5 shows the deformed shape of
the blank at punch stroke 40 mm (a quarter is taken).
DD(mm)
Experiment results
27.95
15.36
Solid-shell
27.17
14.79
MTLFRM(shell)
28.90
16.20
LS-DYNA3D(shell)
30.03
16.43
PAM-STAMP(shell)
28.43
15.46
Figure 7 gives the comparison of thickness strain distributions along OA and OB between numerical results and
experiment data from paper [10]. The comparison result
shows: the calculation results of the thickness strain distributions coincide well with the experimental results.
(a) Along OA line
Figure 4. Finite element model of square-cup deep drawing.
(b) Along OB line

Figure 7. Comparison of thickness strain distributions along OA
and OB line between numerical results and experiment data.
Figure 5. Deformed shape of the blank at punch stroke=40mm.
The draw-in along OA, OB and OC at a punch stroke of

40 mm calculated by MTLFRM, LS-DYNA3D, PAMSTAMP and experiment value are given in reference [9].
The definition of draw-in is shown in Figure 6.
Multi-Position Drawing of Air-Conditioner Wing.

The multi-position drawing dies of air-conditioner wing
are shown in Figure 8. For this kind of parts, it is easy to
produce defects such as rupture and wrinkling in the bulge
area. The numerical results of such parts from degenerated shell element probably produce great error. The reasons are as follows: (1) degenerated shell element cannot
provide double sided contact judgment considering thickness variation; (2) degenerated shell element cannot accurately simulate the extrusion deformation in thickness
direction in the local bulge forming area.
Figure 6. Definition of draw-in.
The comparison of draw-in between numerical results

and experiment data is given in Table 1. Compared with
the numerical results obtained from other software, the
Figure 8. Multi-position drawing dies of air-conditioner wing.
723
09.08.2010 14:34:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
In this work, the proposed solid-shell element is employed to simulate the multi-position drawing process. The
wing has 72 rows of bulges, and only 6 rows are taken to
reduce computational cost. In addition, the blank size is
enlarged to describe the effect of local bulge forming more
accurately. The blank thickness is 0.15mm and the material used is AA6016. The main material parameters are as
follows: the hardening curve = 412(0.001 + )0.17 MPa.
Young's modulus is 69 GPa, Poisson's ratio is 0.33 and the
yield stress is 125 MPa. Figure 9 shows the deformed
shape of the blank calculated from the proposed solid-shell
element model after each stage. Figure 10 gives the experiment results.
(a) 1st stage
(b) 2nd stage
(c) 3rd stage
(d) 4th stage
The distribution of maximum thinning region and the

maximum thinning rate coincide well with the experimental results. The maximum thinning rate of blank does not
exceed the maximum allowed thinning rate of Material
AA6016. The first row salient region produces wrinkling
due to less constraint. However, the first row will be cut
off, thus it does not affect the product quality. The forming
quality of the latter rows is better and achieves the process
requirements. The final experimental results fully demonstrate this point.
Conclusions
A new solid-shell element model is developed and successfully applied in square-cup deep drawing analysis
from NUMISHEET93 international benchmark and multiposition drawing analysis of air-conditioner wing. The
comparison of simulation results and experimental results
shows: the proposed solid-shell element model shows an
excellent performance in large deformation analysis and
will be widely applied in progressive die forming. The
new element model has the following remarkable characteristics:
1. Multiple-point integration along thickness describes the
bending effect more exactly and is more effective to alleviate the effect of zero energy modes, meanwhile, this
integration scheme has higher computational efficiency
and reduces computing storage demands significantly.
2. The improved plane-stress constitutive model alleviates
the effect of thickness locking effectively.
3. Due to the updating of strain and stress in co-rotational
configuration, spurious strain is not produced in the
case of pure rotation deformation, which makes the
proposed element model extremely suitable for large
deformation analysis.
Acknowledgment
The work described in this paper is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.
50905067) and (No. 50905066).
References
(e) 5th stage

(f) 6th stage
Figure 9. Deformed shape of blank calculated from proposed
solid-shell element model after each stage.
Figure 10. Experiment results.
724
[1] R.J. Alves de Sousa, R.P.R. Cardoso, R.A. Fontes Valente, J.W. Yoon,
J.J. Gracio, R.M. Natal Jorge: Int. J. Num. Meth Eng, 62 (2005), 952977.
[2] R.J. Alves de Sousa, R.P.R. Cardoso, R.A. Fontes Valente, J.W. Yoon,
J.J. Gracio, R.M. Natal Jorge: Int. J. Num. Meth Eng, 67 (2006), 160188.
[3] R.J. Alves de Sousa, J.W. Yoon, R.P.R. Cardoso: Int. J. Num. Meth
Eng, 23 (2007), 490-515.
[4] F. Abed-Meraim, A. Combescure: Computers and Structures, 80
(2002), 791-803.
[5] G.M. Kulikov, S.V. Plotnikova: Finite Elements in Analysis and
Design, 43 (2007) 425-443.
[6] K.Y. Sze, L.Q. Yao, T.H.H. Pian: Finite Elements in Analysis and
Design, 38 (2002) 353-374.
[7] D.P. Flanagan, T Belytschko: Int. J. Num. Meth Eng, 17 (1981), 679706.
[8] J.O. Hallquist: LS-DYNA THEORY MANUAL, (2006), 40-42.
[9] C.-H. Jin: Doctoral Dissertation, (2001), 92-94.
[10] J. Dankert: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 50 (1995),
375-384.
09.08.2010 14:34:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental and Numerical Study on Efficient Forming Operations of Sheet-MetalCompounds with Integrated Piezo-Modules
Reimund Neugebauer, Welf-Guntram Drossel, Lutz Lachmann, Sebastian Hensel, Matthias Nestler
Fraunhofer Institute Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU, Chemnitz / Germany, reimund.neugebauer@iwu.fraunhofer.de
For the manufacturing of piezo-metal-compounds, forming strategies are presented that allow an integration of piezo-module application in
the fabrication process. Specimens of sheet-metal-compounds with piezoceramic modules between double-layer-sheets were manufactured and investigated under different forming operations. Simultaneously a numerical study was performed to determine and predict the
locations of high load levels. The modules are embedded in a semi-cured adhesive to reduce tensile stresses in the brittle piezo components due to contact pressure and friction between blanks and module in the forming operation. The functionality of the specimens is characterised by the measurement of module capacitance during the forming process as well as actor and sensor tests after forming. The
methods provide cumulated values for the functionality. A prediction of the locations of module degradation and the leading influencing
parameters are to be achieved by numerical investigations. It is shown that the functionality of integrated modules is fully maintained for
bent specimen down to radii of 10 mm, for rectangular cups with a double curvature of 100 mm and 250 mm. Axisymmetric specimens with
a punch radius of 50 mm cause damage and lower radii of 25 mm cause significant damage until breakdown depending on the draw depth.
Keywords: piezoceramic fibre, macro fibre composite, MFC, adhesive bonded sheets, piezo-metal-compound, forming simulation, Representative Volume Element (RVE)
Introduction
Light-weight constructions with an integration of additional functions like the control of vibration behaviour,
health monitoring or integrated crash sensors require appropriate production technologies. The state-of-the-art
process chain for the production of piezo-metalcompounds consists of the production of structural parts
and the subsequent application of piezo-modules. Forming
of blanks is performed in a high productive way whereas
the application of laminar piezo-modules is normally performed in manual operations [1] and for this reason it is
time and cost-intensive. For a substitution of the subsequent application of piezo-modules an integration before
the forming operation can be executed. Therefore the inconsistency between the formability and the sensor and
actor functionality must be solved by means of the design
of the composite as well as by the use of an appropriate
production technology.
Approach of Temporary Soft Coupling
In order to develop a process chain which allows an integration of piezo-modules before forming, a deformable
piezo-metal compound has to be designed. The challenge
is to fit a brittle piezoceramic into a deformable blank in a
way that reduces the tensile stresses in the brittle piezofibres caused by the forming process. The chosen design
with a Macro-Fibre-Composite (MFC, manufacturer:
Smart Material) embedded in an adhesive between doublelayer-sheets (see Figure 1) allows a temporary soft coupling. During the forming operation the adhesive has a low
viscosity. This ensures a relative movement between the
MFC-module and the sheets during forming and hence a
reduction of tensile stresses in the brittle piezofibres due to
the contact pressure and friction between blanks and the
module. After forming the hardening of adhesive occurs
and allows a coupling with a high stiffness.
Figure 1. Forming of piezo-metal-compounds.
Experimental and Numerical Results

Characterisation of Materials. For the analysis of
formability of the compound the basic materials (the sheet
metal, the MFC and the adhesive) have to be investigated.
The stress-strain curves of the aluminium sheets were
obtained from a tensile test (DIN EN 10002 [2]). The
characterisation of MFC was performed with a tensile test
in three directions of loading because of the orthotropic
material behaviour. The elongation fields were detected
with an ESPI-system (electronic speckle interferometry).
Because of the non-uniform surface of MFC the investigated displacement fields contain errors and cannot be
used. Therefore the mechanical properties were identified
by numerical investigation. The results are presented in [3].
A very important part in material characterisation is the
study of the adhesive properties. To obtain the temporary
soft coupling an appropriate viscosity has to be used. The
investigation of storage and loss modulus as a function of
the temperature was performed by the Institute of Polymer
Technology LKT of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt
Erlangen-Nrnberg. Figure 2 shows the modulus of the
2K-adhesive for a temperature of 40 C. The higher the
temperature, the faster the hardening of the adhesive. This
fact can be used to reduce the time for gelation and hardening of the adhesive. The forming operation has to be
performed below the gel point, which is located in the
point of intersection of storage and stress modulus. Above
the gel point a macroscopic crosslinking prevents the glue
from flowing [4]. The use of temperatures of 40 C offers
the possibility to reduce the time for gelation, so forming
725
09.08.2010 14:34:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
can be performed after 35 to 40 min instead of 120 min at
room temperature. The aim of further research is a reduction of gelation time down to 2 min.
Storage (G') and loss (G'') modulus [Pa s]
1,00E+07
1,00E+06
1,00E+05
1,00E+04
1,00E+03
G'
1,00E+02
G"
1,00E+01
1,00E+00
1,00E-01
1,00E-02
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Time [min]
cells connected in parallel. If the piezomodule is not getting damaged during the forming operation, its capacitance
stays constant. A damage of MFC, e. g. cracks of ceramic
fibres or a damage of contacting, leads to a reduction of
the total capacitance. If the MFC completely loses its
functionality, for example because of a fracture of cords,
its capacitance tends to zero. Furthermore this method
allows an examination of critical draw depths, when the
capacitance is reduced at a specific stage of forming for
example. Figure 4 shows the loss of capacitance due to
the forming of an axisymmetric cup with a punch radius of
25 mm. With this punch a draw depth of only 18 mm leads
to a significant reduction of capacitance from 750 pF to
300 pF.
Figure 2. Storage and loss modulus of adhesive at 40 C.
800
Forming Operations. To analyse the correlation between the forming loads and the functionality of the piezometal compounds different geometries were investigated.
Based on positive results of bending experiments, additional geometries with 3D-deformations were analysed.
Through the use of an Erichsen testing-facility axisymmetric cups with different punch radii and a variation of sheet
metal thicknesses have been investigated. Deep drawing
and stretch forming operations are performed by controlling the downholder forces. The preset viscosity of adhesive allows a forming without a discharge of adhesive. A
punch radius of 50 mm causes a damage in the integrated
MFC. A smaller radius of about 25 mm causes a significant damage and in some cases, it causes a complete
breakdown to the MFC. In a next step application-oriented
geometries like a rectangular cup with punch radii of
100 mm or 250 mm in the two directions were manufactured on a servopress. The double curvature of the punch
does not cause any damage of the MFC, which is situated
on the cup bottom as shown in Figure 3.
Capacitance [pF]
700
600
500
R25
400
300
200
100
0
0
10
Draw depth [mm]
15
20
Figure 4. Capacitance over draw depth of axisymmetric specimen

with radius of 25 mm.
A later examination with X-ray (see Figure 5), performed at the Fraunhofer IKTS Dresden, illustrates the
cracks induced by the high forming loads for a small
punch radius. X-ray inspection offers the possibility to
detect and to localise defects of piezo modules.
Furthermore the sensor and actor functionalities of
manufactured specimens are tested to characterise their
performance.
Figure 5. X-ray analysis of axisymmetric specimen with a radius of

25 mm.
Figure 3. Rectangular cup with double curvature of 250 mm.
Test of Functionality. In addition to the forming experiments an examination of functionality of the integrated
elements has a high priority in the research. Therefore
different methods are used. The measurement of capacitance gives information on functionality during the forming operation. MFCs consist of a network of capacitance
726
Numerical Investigation. The modelling of the detailed

build-up of the MFC, e. g. piezo fibres, in the global forming simulation would lead to too large model sizes and
numbers of discretisation points. Therefore a homogenisation step, described in [5] and detailed in [6,7], for the
09.08.2010 14:34:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
MFC material was implemented into the forming simulation. With the homogenisation calculations it is also possible to transfer the local MFC loads of the global forming
simulation to the submodel of a representative volume
element (see Figure 6) used in the homogenisation step
[7,8].
Figure 6. Unit cell submodel.
Figure 7. Geometry of the model (1 = active MFC region, 2 = nonactive MFC region, 3 = lower blank, 4 = gap spacer).
Figure 8. Punch-force/punch-displacement-plots for stretch drawing.
With the homogenised orthotropic material the piezo

module was modelled with shell elements in the forming
geometry model. For the three forming technologies 3point-bending, stretch drawing and deep drawing tests
were modelled. Figure 7 shows the geometry of the model
for 3-point-bending and stretch drawing. The upper sheet
metal is not shown for clarity.
A validation of the three forming models was made by
comparison of experimentally and numerically determined
punch-force/punch-displacement curves. Examples of the
experimental and numerical punch force plots are given in
Figure 8 for stretch drawing. All of the three investigated
forming technologies show a very good agreement.
With the back-transfer the local loading of the MFC

components is computed in highly loaded MFC zones. As
the MFC dimension as well as the complexity of the homogenisation material model rises (e.g. additional load
cases to describe thickness properties and nonlinearities),
the computation times increase drastically. And a less
complex approach had to be applied. A critical piezo fibre
stress value can be evaluated with yield criteria based on
the assumption that the brittle fibres break for elastic deformation without any plastic strains. For the homogenised
orthotropic MFC material Hills yield criterion [9] could
be applied, but for the computation of an equivalent stress
the critical stress values for loading along material axes
are necessary. These values are sometimes hard to capture
due to problems in applying constant boundary conditions
in the experiment at the microscopic scale of the MFC
specimen [10]. Furthermore in Hills yield surface theorem the stress tensor is reduced by the hydrostatic stress
state, which can cause damage of the brittle piezo fibres,
in contrast to a ductile material which remains in the elastic state under hydrostatic pressure. Therefore an approach
based on the elastic work for the piezofibre was developed
and is described in [11] in detail. Because of the elastic
nature of the method a deviation between experiment and
simulation is considered. The bigger the loading of the
MFC, the bigger the total error for this approach. However,
the load distribution in the forming simulation is in very
good agreement with the development of fibre breakage
determined with x-rayed forming specimens (Figure 9 and
[11]). With the dotted lines in the picture of the x-rayed
specimen of Figure 9, the region of the numerically investigated MFC-zone is displayed (the geometry represents a
quarter of the whole specimen due to symmetry). To correct the total deviation, further investigation is planned
within the subproject B2 of the Transregional Collaborative Research PT-PIESA.
Figure 9. Elastic work distribution in Nmm (left) and x-rayed specimen with excessive fibre breakage development deep drawing
punch radius 25 mm.
By applying the homogenisation method to shell structures, the resulting bending stiffnesses are increased. The
homogenisation provides uniform in-plane stiffness values
over the shell thickness. Thus the outer low-stiffness zones
are overestimated and the global bending behaviour is too
stiff. A method was developed to correct this effect. The
basis for the approach is the Classical Laminate Theory
(CLT). With insertion of two extra layers a stiffness distribution for the total three layers (two outer regions plus one
middle layer) can be extracted with CLT by including the
error for bending stiffness. The result is a corrected effective 3-layer material model that behaves like the detailed
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09.08.2010 14:34:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
modelled unit cell under bending. The method is described
in [11] in detail.
Summary and Outlook
The presented process development allows an integration of the time and cost consuming MFC bonding step
direct in the production process of formed blank structures.
The proposed process chain leads to a time and cost reduction of production cycles in high efficiency production
branches, such as automobile production, railway-vehicle
manufacturing and consumer industries.
The challenge of creating a formable piezo-metalcompound with brittle piezofibres inside is solved by the
use of MFC modules which include thin fibres and the
method of temporary soft coupling. The forming below the
gel point of adhesive allows a relative movement between
the MFC and the blanks during forming, and leads to a
reduction of tensile stresses in the MFC due to friction.
Different forming operations have been performed to analyse the formability of the compounds. It is shown that
bending is possible down to radii of 10 mm. Using 3D
test-structures with small radii caused partial damage of
the fibres and the electrodes. In a next step the creation of
application-oriented structures was possible without damaging the MFC. In order to characterise the functionality
of specimens the capacitance has been measured during
the forming operation. In this process a reduction of capacitance indicates damage. Further research has been
performed with X-ray inspection. This method allows the
detection and localisation of damage.
In the numerical investigation a homogenisation method
is used to model the MFC structure behaviour in the global
forming simulation. A detailed model at the scale of the
MFC components is not used because of the large computation times. Instead an approach is developed based on
the equivalence of elastic work for detailed modelled MFC
RVE and an equivalent shell structure. With several mechanical load cases, e. g. tension along material axes and
shear, in load case simulations with unit cell the elastic
work is recorded. For the chosen material model, an equations system with the homogenized components of the
elastic stiffness matrix is solved and the elastic properties
are extracted. The retrieved engineering constants are in
very good agreement with values published in the literature.
The global forming loads can be transferred to the local
unit cell. Thus a refined evaluation of the loading of the
MFC-components, e. g. piezofibres or electrodes, is available. But the computation times dramatically rise as the
complexity of the material model increases. Therefore an
728
approach based on the elastic work of the piezo fibres is

developed to describe the fibre loading in the forming step.
Because of the elastic nature of the method, the accuracy
decreases with rising forming loads. Additional investigations are planned.
By applying the homogenisation method to shell structures, the bending stiffness of the homogenised shells is
increased as shown in detailed modelled unit cell under
bending. The outer regions with bending are overrepresented due to the use of uniform in-plane stiffnesses. By
subdividing the material in three layers and with the use of
the Classical Laminate Theory, the error in bending behaviour is reduced by 43 %. However, the error for the load
case of drilling increases by 9 %. An optimisation is
planned in further research.
Acknowledgement
This paper is part of the research Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 39 PT-PIESA High-Volume Production-Compatible Production Technologies for Lightmetal and Fiber Composite-Based Components with Integrated Piezo Sensors and Actuators which is funded by
the German Research Foundation DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the German Research Foundation DFG.
References
[1] P. Wierach, A. Schnecker: Proc. Adaptronic Congress, Gttingen,
(2005).
[2] DIN EN 10002-1, Metallische Werkstoffe Zugversuch Teil 1:
Prfverfahren bei Raumtemperatur, Ausgabe, (2001).
[3] R. Neugebauer, R. Kreiig, L. Lachmann, M. Nestler, S. Hensel, M.
Flssel: Proc. 8th International Conference Recent Advances in
Mechatronics 2008 - 2009, (2009), 257-262.
[4] T. Blumenstock: Analyse der Eigenspannungen whrend der
Aushrtung von Epoxidharzmassen, Doctoral Thesis, (2003).
[5] R. Schmidt: Berechnung elastischer Konstanten fr inhomogene
Bauteile mit periodischer Struktur, 19. CAD-FEM Users Meeting,
Potsdam, (2001).
[6] B. Kranz, W.-G. Drossel: Rechnerische Beanspruchungsermittlung
bei adaptiven Kompositen mit piezokeramischen Fasern, Darmstadt,
(2006), DVM-Bericht 901, 43-52.
[7] W.-G. Drossel, S. Hensel, B. Kranz, M. Nestler, A. Gschel: CIRP
Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 58 (2009), 279-282.
[8] R. Neugebauer, M. Nestler, S. Hensel, W.-G. Drossel, L. Lachmann:
Aktive Halbzeuge Blechverbunde mit Piezo-Kern, ZWF
Zeitschrift fr wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb, 105 1-2 (2010), 57-61.
[9] R. Hill: The mathematical theory of plasticity, Clarendon Press,
(1950).
[10] R. Neugebauer, R. Kreiig, L. Lachmann, T. Lieber, S. Meinel, R.
Mller: Tagungsband, 1. Wissenschaftliches Symposium des
SFB/Transregio 39, (2007).
[11] W.-G. Drossel, S. Hensel, B. Kranz: San Diego, 7644 (2010), in
press.
09.08.2010 14:34:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of High Density Electric Currents Pulses on Plastic Deformation

Zbigniew Zimniak
Forming Processes Engineering Department, Wrocaw University of Technology, Wrocaw / Poland, zbigniew.zimniak@pwr.wroc.pl
The effect of electric current pulses on the plastic deformation of materials is generally known as the electroplastic effect. The effect is
observed significant only when the metal is undergoing plastic deformation: the effect is negligible during elastic deformation and after
stress relaxation when straining was stopped. In the present study, the effect of current pulses on the plastic properties of materials in the
uni-axial mechanical loading has been investigated. Sheet metal specimen placed into servo-hydraulic machine with electrically insulated
grips. The material used in this experiment was austenitic stainless steel Cr18Ni9 and titanium ASTM B265. An electric pulse was generated in the specimen from an electric capacitor battery of 5 F/3kV capacity. The frequency of current pulses was changed in a range of 0
10 Hz. The higher the frequency of current impulses was, the more the strain in the examinated specimen decreased. Current pulses have
been also applied to the cold-drawing process and sheet-metal forming by the Erichsen cupping test. The experiments cold-drawing have
shown that the pull force decreases when electric current pulses are applied. A drawability test with electropulsation deformation showed
that there is a possibility to increase the drawability of sheet metal by using this method.
Keywords: Plastic deformation, Electroplastic effect, Uniaxial tensile test, Wire drawing, Erichsen cupping test, Austenitic stainless steel,
Titanium
Introduction
Over the years, for the large-scale engineering application numerous attempts have been made to search for new
techniques of metalworking. One of these new promising
methods is electropulsing. The applications of electropulsing are booming in the fields of materials science and
engineering. In the past 50 years, research has indicated
that an electric current can influence the behaviour of
materials. The so-called electroplastic effect (EPE) [1]
occurs in metals as they are subjected simultaneously to
plastic deformation and a pulsating flow of high-density
electric current. As a result, the deformed materials overall properties, particularly its flow stress, internal stresses,
defects and microstructure evolution, change.
The effect of a magnetic field on plastic deformation
was first investigated by Kravchenko in 1970 [2]. The
investigations showed that a strong magnetic field has an
effect on dislocation behaviour and results in the deterioration of material plastic properties. The change in the plastic properties of metals under the influence of a magnetic
field was called the magnetoplastic effect. The change in
the properties of materials under the influence of the pulsating flow of high-density electric current during plastic
deformation was discovered by Conrad [5] and called the
electroplastic effect. The latter can be exploited in forming
operations [6].
The electroplastic effect is also used to change the structural phases of a material in order to enhance its fatigue
resistance [7]. The lifetime of a part subjected to the pulsating flow of current substantially increases. The observed evolution of a microstructure may lead to the formation of nanostructures in conventional materials after
the application of even a single pulse [8].
The electropulsation deformation of metals is used,
among others, in the rolling process [9]. Magnesium alloy
AZ31 in the form of a 2 mm wide and 0.89 mm thick
specimen was used in the investigations. A reduction in the
specimen rolling force during electropulsation deformation
was observed. The crack resistance increased, which is
promising considering the practical applications of this

technology.
Also the exploitation of EPE in wire drawing processes,
aimed at reducing stresses and increasing the quality of
austenitic stainless steel products, was examined [10]. As a
result, the drawing stresses for this material were reduced
by 10%. Current pulse action also affects the microstructure, resulting in significant grain refinement [11].
The investigations described in this paper referred to the
process of uniaxial electropulsing sheets metal stretching.
The main goal of these investigations was to determine the
influence of EPE on behavior of plastic shaped metal
sheets. The process of metal forming in cold-drawing
process and sheet-metal forming by the Erichsen cupping
test was also applied.
Experimental
Uniaxial Tension. The uniaxial tensile test was carried
out to investigate the ability of using the electropulsation
deformation technique in deep drawing processes. The
metal sheets used in experiments were:
stainless steel 0H18N9 0.52 mm in thickness,
titanium ASTM B265 1.45 mm in thickness.
The main goal of these researches was to determine the
influence of EPE effect on plastic forming of the materials
such as metal sheets. There was a need to answer the question whether electropulsation process could be successfully used in drawing process in the future.
During the uniaxial tension test the highly dense electric
current pulsations flow through investigated specimen was
observed. The copper wires were used to conduct the current to electrical grips at each end of the specimens. The
metal specimens were placed into a stroke-controlled
servo-hydraulic machine with electrically insulated grips
The current pulses were successfully applied to the
specimen by discharging a condenser bank.
729
09.08.2010 14:34:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 3 shows the results of uniaxial tensile test for titanium ASTM B265. The results given for the titanium
ASTM B265, showed very similar tendency like in the
case of stainless steel 0H18N9.
Insulator
Capacitor bank
800
700
/MPa
600
Grip
500
Specimen
400
300
200
100
Copper wire
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
Figure 2. Results of uniaxial tensile test for stainless steel 0H18N9.
The stand included electropulsing generator, capacitor

bank and pulse trigger. An electropulsing generator could
discharge multiple pulses with various frequencies through
adjusting controlling parameters. The frequency of current
pulses was changed in a range of 0-10 Hz. One single
pulse lasted approximately 9 s, the voltage was in a range
of 2.5-3 kV and the value of condenser's capacitance was 5
F. The pulses had a current density about 2x103 A/mm2.
The power generated in the specimen was regulated by the
change of the number of pulses applied per unit time t.
The specimens used in test were: 10 mm in width and 60
mm in length of measure base. Tensile tests were carried
out at constant strain rate of 2x10-3 s-1. For temperature
readings the thermocouple was attached at the center of
the specimen length. The average temperature rise of the
sample was estimated 85.3 C for the stainless steel, and
102,6 C for titanium respectively. The force gauge used
in the testing machine was not able to measure the effect
of a single pulse that lasted one microsecond. To measure
such an observed effect the force gauge for the dynamics
tests should be applied. Figure 2 illustrates the results of
uniaxial tensile test for stainless steel 0H18N9. For all of
the tests the same voltage equal to 2.5 kV was used. Only
for the last specimen (frequency 3 Hz) the value of voltage
was increased to 3 kV. This increase resulted in a slight
decrease of total elongation of the specimen, whereas it is
not causing distinct decrease of stress level.
The conclusion is unequivocal. The higher the frequency
of current pulses is, the lower the stress and the tensile
force in the specimen is. On the other hand the higher the
frequency of the current pulses is, the lower elongation is
observed. Based on that it can be assumed that there is a
real possibility to control the mechanical properties of the
materials by changing number of current impulses.
730
/MPa
Figure 1. Uniaxial tension laboratory test.
The higher the frequency of current impulses is, the bigger decrease of the stress in the specimen is observed. In
this case this decrease is very fast. Whereas the higher the
frequency of current impulses is the smaller the elongation
of the specimen is.
Figure 3. Results of uniaxial tensile test for titanium ASTM B265.
However it is not as clearly seen as for the stainless steel.

The uniaxial test allowed to specify susceptibility of tested
materials to the impact of high energy impulses. The
uniaxial test allowed to specify susceptibility of tested
materials to the impact of high energy impulses.
However, electropulsation deformation technique, as
stated in another researches, can not be applied to some
other metals, i.e. aluminum. It is clear that actual values of
changes of mechanical properties are determined by the
density of applied electrical current. The described effect
increases with higher density. The current density can be
controlled by changing the frequency of electrical pulses.
09.08.2010 14:34:27 Uhr
Wire Drawing
The flow chart of the drawing process employing EPE is
shown in Figure 4. A fine copper (99.99%) wire with an
initial diameter of 1.85 mm was used in the experiments,
during which the input material was drawn through two
drawing dies respectively 1.68 mm and 1.50 mm in
diameter. They were Fortek/Fort Wayne dies with natural
diamond inserts. The wire drawing machine and the drawing dies were the same as the ones used in conventional
wire drawing. The stand included an electropulsing generator connected via electrodes to the drawn wire.
Figure 4. Diagram of experimental stand for investigation of wire

drawing process.
The drawing process was carried out in two modes:

1) conventional drawing,
2) drawing with the application of set electric current
pulses.
Electric pulses were introduced into the system via electric contacts spaced at every 100 mm. A dynamometer,
measuring the die force, was placed after the drawing die.
In present research drawing velocity was 0.7 m/s. The
drum-type wire drawing machine (single-stage) was electrically insulated from the supplied electric current pulses.
The pulses were generated by an electropulsing generator
with the following specifications: frequency range of 0-10
Hz and voltage regulated up to 3 kV. The generated pulses
had a current density of about 103 A/mm2 and a pulse
duration of about 8 s.
First the wire was drawn through the 1.68 mm diameter die. The experimental results are presented in Figure 5
which shows (superimposed on each other) force diagrams
from the two tests: 1) without pulses and 2) with electric
current. It follows from Figure 6 that the pull force determined in the test with current pulses is lower than the one
in the test without current pulses. The difference amounts
to 10 N.
At the next step the wire was drawn through the 1.50
mm diameter die. The die pull force is shown in Figure 6.
Time /s
Figure 5. Comparison of pull forces for 1.68 mm diameter die.
In this test, drawing initially was conducted without

electric current pulses and at about the 11th second of the
experiment current pulses were applied. As the diagram
shows, the pull force instantly decreased by about 15 N.
The experiments have shown that the application of electric current pulses results in a decrease in the pull force,
which is due to electroplasticity.
The properties of the drawn 1.68 mm and 1.50 mm
diameter copper wire were determined in a static tension
test. Two parameters: specimen tensile strength and strain
were compared. The specimens measurement part was 70
mm long. The rate of tension was 5x10-5 m/s.
Six series of specimens were tested. The specimens in
series 1-3 were taken from the wire drawn without electric
current pulses and the series 4-6 specimens were taken
from the wire drawn with the application of electric current pulses. Figure 7 shows tension diagrams for the particular series. The application of electric current pulses
results in a slight increase in the tensile strength and in a
significant increase in the elongation of the tested specimens.
Drawing force /N
Electropulsation effect can be only seen when the electric current is connected with the plastic deformations.
When the high energy impulses are applied to the specimen before the tension test there is no change in mechanical properties of tested specimen. The behavior of the
tested sample was almost the same like the one without the
current pulses.
Drawing force /N
Metal Forming
without current
with current
Time /s
Figure 6. Pull force for drawing with and without current pulses.
731
09.08.2010 14:34:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
/MPa
nation. Punch movement ended while the crack propagation through the entire thickness of the specimen was
occurred.
The average depth of the spherical cup drawed specimen,
which was the measure of this test, was:
9.8 mm for the specimen without the current impulses,
12.6 mm for the specimen with the current impulses.
The depth of the penetration is significantly higher for
the specimens with current impulses. There is a chance to
increase the drawability through the electropulsation deformation technique application (conduct the current in a
certain place of the specimen).
Conclusions
Figure 7. Stress-strain curves for 1.68 mm wire.
Sheet-Metal Forming
Until now there is no evidence of the application of EPE
phenomenon to the metal sheet drawing processes in the
literature. Electropulsation deformation technique was
used successfully in the processes of wires drawing [10]
and also in the rolling processes [9]. In the paper the new
method of drawing with electropulsation deformation
technique of sheet metals is presented.
As a test stand for the drawing process of sheet metal,
the modified machine for testing sheet drawability according to the Erichsen method (EN ISO 20482), was used.
Some parts of this device were insulated. The geometry of
the die also has been changed. The current impulses were
conducted by the copper bushing, which was pressed to
the sheet metal with spring during the drawing process.
The current flow was only in the lower part of the specimen where the deformations are very low. The modified
die and punch are shown on Figure 8.
1. Two different types of sheet metals (stainless steel and

titanium) were examined in order to check the ability of
electropulsation deformation technique application in
deep drawing processes. The uniaxial tension test was
performed. The effect of behavior of these two types of
sheets metal was alike. The higher the frequency of current impulses was, the more the strain in the examinated
specimen decreased, while the elongation of the specimens was lower without the current impulses. According to the results of electropulsation stretching of sheet
metal test it can be assumed that this method can be applied to deep drawing processes.
2. The cold-drawing experiments have shown that the pull
force decreases when electric current pulses are applied.
For the adopted drawing process specifications the pull
force was reduced by 15 N, i.e. by about 8 %.
3. Drawability test, according to Erichsen method, with
electropulsation deformation showed that there is a possibility to increase the drawability of sheet metal by using this method. To achieve this, the drawing process of
certain specimen needs to be known very well to determine in which area of the specimen conducts the current impulse. The difficulties of EPE method in drawing processes are: the necessity of insulating the parts
of the tools and take the safety reasons into consideration.
References
Die
Copper
bushing
Punch
Figure 8. Die and punch used in the drawing test.
The electrical parameters for the drawing process were

the same as in the uniaxial tension test and the frequency
was 8 Hz. The diameter of the punch was 20 mm. The
titanium sheet metal ASTM B265 was used in this exami-
732
[1] H. Conrad, A.-F. Sprecher: Dislocations in solids, Nabarro F.R.N.,

Elservier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, (1989), 499-505.
[2] V.-Y. Kravchenko: JETP Letters, 12, (1970), 381-385.
[3] H. Conrad, N. Karam, S. Mannan: Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia,
17-3, (1983), 411-419.
[4] Y. Di, H. Conrad: Acta Materials, 46, (1998), 1963-1970.
[5] C. Wei-di, A.F. Sprecher, H. Conrad: Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia, 23-1, (1989), 151-162.
[6] O.-A. Troitskii: Materials Science and Engineering, 75, (1985), 37-46.
[7] Y. Zhou, D. Qiao, G. He, J. Guo: Materials Letters, 57, (2003), 15661570.
[8] W. Zhang, M.-L. Sui, Y.-Z. Zhou, D.-X. Li: Micron, 34, (2003), 189198.
[9] Z. Xu, G. Tang, S. Tian, F. Ding, H. Tian: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 182, (2007), 128-133.
[10] G. Tang, J. Zhang, Y. Yan, H. Zhou, W. Feng: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, 137, (2003), 96-99.
[11] Z. Xu, G. Tang, S. Tian, J.U. He: Materials Science and Engineering,
A424, (2006), 300-306.
09.08.2010 14:34:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Galvannealing Temperatures on Frictional Characteristic of GA Coating in

Flat-Friction Test
Jung Min Lee1), Jung Hwan Lee1), Dong Hwan Kim2), Byung Min Kim3)
1)
Industrial Technology Support Division, KIMS, Changwon / Korea, monkey1976@kims.re.kr; 2) Department of Mechanical Engineering,
International University of Korea, Jinju / Korea; 3) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea
This paper is designed to investigate the effect of the galvannealing temperature on the frictional properties and Fe-Zn intermetallic phases
of the galvannealed (GA) coatings on steel sheets. Galvannealing treatments were conducted at 465, 505, 515 and 540 C for approximately 10 seconds in a supplementary heating furnace from an industrial continuous hot-dip galvanizing line. The mechanical and the
frictional properties of the coatings were estimated using nanoindentation and flat-friction tests, which were performed at contact pressures
of 4, 20 and 80MPa. Also, the relationship between the microstructures and the frictional properties of the GA coatings wsa investigated by
SEM observations of the GA coatings before and after flat-friction testing.
Keywords: Galvannealed coating, Nanoindentation, Flat-friction test
Introduction
Galvannealed coatings (GA coating) are Fe-Zn intermetallic compounds that are diffusion-alloyed by additional
heating (456 to 550 C) after galvanizing. Typical GA
coatings contain approximately 10% iron and 90% Zn [112]. They are generally characterized as having a higher
hardness than their ductile substrate and having a brittle
behavior with a low failure strain. The representative failures of GA coatings during sheet forming include powdering, flaking, galling and cracking. These defects easily
happen during low strain of the steel substrate, which
could deteriorate the frictional characteristic between the
tool and the coated sheet during forming operations [8-14].
Most studies on the frictional characteristic of GA coatings are related to their powdering, Fe-Zn intermetallic
phases, or plastic deformations of the steel substrate.
These studies are implemented by utilizing draw bead,
cup-drawing, and U-bending tests [9-16]. The frictional
coefficients obtained from these tests greatly depend on
the adhesion strength and the formation of powder for GA
coatings, the mechanical properties of the substrate, and
the testing methods [7-17].
This study was designed to investigate the effect of different annealing temperatures on Fe-Zn intermetallic phases and the frictional properties of the GA coating. Flatfriction tests were performed to obtain the pure frictional
properties of the coating without deformation of the substrate. Mechanical properties of the GA coating were investigated using nanoindentation. Finally, the relations
between the microstructures of the coating and the frictional properties were investigated using SEM observations of the GA coating before and after friction testing.
speed of approximately 80-100 m/min. After the galvannealing process, the total thickness of the GA sheets was
fixed to 0.7 mm using a skin passed rolling process. Figures 1 and 2 show the SEM images of four GA coatings
and their surface roughness (Ra: m) in the direction of
rolling.
phase
phase
o
(a) 465 C
phase
phase
(b) 505 oC
phase
phase
phase
(c) 515 oC
(b) 540 oC
Figure 1. SEM images of cross-sections of GA coatings with
different galvannealing temperatures.
Skin passed surface
C olumnar phase
phase
Granular phase
Ra : 0.814
(a) 465 oC
20
Ra : 0.792
(b) 505 oC
20
granular phase
Granular phase
C rack
Experiments
Preparation of GA Coatings. The GA coatings were
prepared from a commercial grade, continuous hot-dip
galvanizing line (POSCO). The material of substrate was
cold rolled IF steel (Ti+Nb added) with low carbon content (0.004). The GA coatings were produced at galvannealing temperatures of 465, 505, 515 and 540 C (referred to as the 465, 505, 515 and 540 coatings) with a line
phase
C rack
C olumnar phase
Ra : 0.757
20
Ra : 0.712
20
(d) 540 oC
(c) 515 oC
Figure 2. SEM images of surfaces of GA coatings with different
galvannealing temperatures.
Typical GA coating is composed of four Fe-Zn intermetallic phases, namely , 1, and , which are stacked on
the steel substrate in order [1]. Only phases were observed on the overall surface and cross section of the 465
733
09.08.2010 14:34:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Nanoindentation. Nanoindentation tests were carried

out using a commercial Nanoindenter XP System of MTS.
The appropriate indentation depth, known as common law,
is less than a tenth of the coating thickness without taking
into account the substrate [17,18]. The indentation depth
of the GA coating was therefore 400 nm which is about
6.7% of its thickness (6 m) at a target strain rate of approximately 0.05. The tip used in the tests was the Berkovich diamond indenter with the tip radius of about 50nm.
Analysis of the loading-unloading curve obtained from the
tests was carried out using the methods proposed by nanoindenter manual [17-19]. The typical GA coatings are
characterized by many voids, cracks, and non-uniform
surface morphologies. Because these coatings are also
composed of layered structures with different Fe-Zn intermetallic phases, it is physically impossible to polish the
surface of GA coatings for the tests. Therefore, ten samples were tested for each coating, and the results were
estimated as the mean values of each test.
Flat-Friction Tests. Figure 3 shows the schematic of
the flat-friction tester and the dimensions of the specimens.
The frictional tools were coated with CrN and polished to
a surface roughness of 0.6 m. The contact (normal) pressures in the friction test were 4 MPa for the low contactpressure region, while the high contact-pressure region
was 20 and 80 MPa. These contact-pressure regions were
achieved with two frictional tools (45 x 35 mm and 20 x
10 mm). The lubricants used in this test included the washing oil, having a low viscosity of 2.2 cst, and the rustprevention oil, having a high viscosity of 18.6 cst. The
drawing speeds were 10 mm/s for all the coatings and the
lubricants. Five or seven samples were tested for each
coating, and the frictional coefficients were reported as the
average values of each test. The general conditions of the
tests are listed in Table 1.
734
Load cell
for normal force
Load cell
for tangential force
Table
Motion
t=0.7mm
Sliding table
Hydraulic
cylinder
Galvannealed coated
Sheet steel
(40 X 250mm)
Tested surface
(600 X 45 or 20mm)
F
20mm
F
45mm
specimen
specimen
10mm
35mm
High contact pressures : 20 and 80MPa
Low contact pressures : 4MPa
Figure 3. Schematic drawing of flat-friction tester and dimensions

of tools and specimens.
Table 1. Conditions of flat-friction testing for four GA coatings.
Items
Value
Specimens
465, 505, 515, 540 coatings
Apparent contact pressures
4, 20, 80(MPa)
Washing oil (P-340N, 2.2cst, 40C)
Lubricants
Rust-prevention oil (BW90-EG,18.6cst, 40C)
Results
Results of Nanoindentation Tests. Figure 4 shows the
typical loading - unloading curves of each coating
obtained from nanoindentation tests. As listed in Table 2,
the elastic modulus and nano-hardenss of each coating
increased as the annealing temperature was raised, due to
the increase in and phases with high Fe content within
the coating.
465 coaitng
505 coaitng
515 coaitng
540 coaitng
20
Indentation load (mN)
coating, while some phases were present at the coatingsubstrate interface. The phases are an unalloyed zinc in
which Fe is solvated, therefore they rarely exist in a commercial GA coating [1]. For the 505 coating, the surface
was rich and the cross section was rich. The surface of
the typical GA coating is composed of phase , , , or a
combination of these phases. The layer of columnar
consists of small unordered crystals which demonstrate
porosity. The layer of granular is compact and contains
through-thickness cracks (Figure 1(b))
For the 515 coating, and phases were evenly distributed at the surface and phases with the thickness of
approximate 0.1 m were observed at the coating-substrate
interface. For the 540 coating, phases were dominant at
the surface and the cross section and phases with thickness of about 0.5 m were also at the coating-substrate
interface. Only the and phases have the ability to deform plastically. Therefore, the skin passed areas in the
surface of the GA coatings (Figure 2) are composed of all
and phases. These ductile phases play a role in retarding the propagation of through-thickness cracks to the top
surface in phases. The thickness of the GA coatings
ranged from 6 to 10 m approximately. Their surface
roughness (Ra: m) and the skin passed areas decreased
with an increase in the annealing temperature.
16
12
8
4
0
100
200
300
Indentation depth (nm)
400
Figure 4. Typical loading-unloading curves of each coating obtained with an indentation depth of 400nm.
Table 2. General conditions for nanoindentation four GA coatings.
Specimens
Elastic Modulus
Hardness
465
102.3GPa
2.168GPa
505
157.4GPa
3.287GPa
515
170.3GPa
3.455GPa
540
180.3GPa
5.269GPa
The effect of the substrate on the coatings can be

directly estimated as the existence, or non-existence, of the
inflection point in the given loading-unloading curves [17,
18]. In each of the coatings, the obvious inflection points
were not observed from the loading-unloading curves
(Figure 4). However, these curves do not actually
09.08.2010 14:34:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
represent the entire mechanical properties of the GA
coatings, because they are the layered structures of the
different phases. It is believed that the mechanical and the
morphological properties of the top surface, with only
and phases on the GA coatings, were reflected in the
results tested at an indentation depth of 400 nm. Though,
the elastic modulus of the 465 coating with rich phase
were nearly consistent with that of Zn (96-100 GPa).
Therefore, the results of the nanoindentation test itself are
judged to be comparatively reliable.
Results of Flat-Friction Tests. Figure 5 shows the
frictional coefficients of four coating for different apparent
contact pressures. The 465 coating, with rich phases that
were nearly unalloyed, showed no trends comparable to
the other GA coatings in the flat-friction test. This result is
inconsistent with typical GA coatings and, thus, was
excluded from the reported results.
The frictional coefficients showed a tendency to
decrease as a result of increasing the contact pressure.
However, the relatively reduced rates were noticeably
increasing when raising the annealing temperature,
especially in the washing oil. While the frictional
coefficient of the 540 coating was the highest for the low
contact pressure of 4 MPa, it was the lowest for the high
contact pressure of 80 MPa.
Washing oil
505 coating
515 coating
540 coating
Frictional coefficient,
0.17
0.16
0.15
0.14
0.13
0.12
Rust prevent oil

505 coating
515 coating
540 coating
0
20
40
60
80
Contact pressure (MPa)
Figure 5. Frictional coefficients of each coating with different

apparent contact pressures in flat-friction testing.
465
505
515
540
Detachment of and phase
Ra : 0.793
465
Ra : 0.415
Ra : 0.688
505
Ra : 0.671
(a) Apparent contact pressure of 4MPa
Ra : 0.372
515
Ra : 0.351
Ra : 0.641
540
(b) Apparent contact pressure of 80MPa
Ra : 0.325
Figure 6. SEM images of each coating with different galvannealing

temperatures after flat-friction testing with contact pressures of 4
and 80MPa in washing oil.
Figure 6 shows the surface roughness and SEM images

of each coating after flat-friction testing with contact
pressures of 4 and 80 MPa in the washing oil. The
observed results for the 465 coating after testing were
included. While the 465 coating was almost undamaged
under 4MPa, the 505 and 515 coatings showed obvious
detachment of some and phases. Moreover, the surface
of the 540 coating was flattened out after the test. On the
other hand, flattened surfaces were observed for all the
coatings under 80MPa The overall surface roughness after

testing decreased to approximately 0.06 m at 4 MPa and
0.04 m at 80MPa, respectively.
In general, the formation of powder and the hardness of
the GA coating increase due to the sharp rise of and
phases with high Fe content as the annealing temperatures
increase.[1, 6, 8-14] The increase in powder formation
also indicates that the coating is easily broken and worn
under a low frictional force or an interfacial shear stress.
This characteristic further increases the real contact area as
well as the interfacial shear stress between the coating and
the tool during the sheet forming operation. This can lead
to an increase in the frictional coefficient [3,4,7]. However,
a higher coating hardness can increase the resistance to
external load and, thus, reduce the interfacial shear stress
and frictional coefficients. Also, a higher contact pressure,
between the coating and the tool, gives a greater
cohesiveness between each powder within the GA coating
resulting in a higher hardness of the coating. This
phenomenon will be especially evident in a GA coating
with a rich phase that is brittle.
465
505
515
540
Figure 7. SEM images of each coating with different galvannealing

temperatures after flat friction testing with apparent contact pressures of 80MPa in rust-prevention oil condition.
Consequently, the frictional properties of the GA

coatings is believed to be more dependent on their
formation of powder (the real contact area) in the low
contact pressure condition of 4 MPa, while the frictional
properties are more dependent on coating hardness in the
high contact pressure condition of 80 MPa. In the case of a
low contact-pressure region, the 540 coating with high
powder formation and hardness exhibits the highest
frictional coefficient. This is a result of the increase in the
real contact area (frictional coefficient) caused by the
increasing powder formation which offsets the drop in the
shear stress (or frictional coefficient) prompted by the
increasing hardness. In the case of a high contact-pressure
region, the 540 coating has the lowest frictional coefficient.
Here, a decrease in the shear stress (or frictional
coefficient) is due to the hardness exceeding the increase
in real contact area (frictional coefficient) which is caused
by the increasing formation of powder. Thus, the frictional
properties of the GA coatings can be characterized by the
relations between the powder formation and the hardness,
or by the real contact area and the shear stress.
Figure 7 shows the surface roughness and SEM images
of each coating after the flat-friction test with a contact
pressure of 80MPa in the rust-prevention oil. Unlike the
washing oil, the surfaces of the 465, 505, 515 coatings
were not flattened out after the test. In case of the high
viscosity rust-prevention oil, the frictional properties of
the coatings were heavily dependent on the viscosity of the
lubricants as well as the given contact pressure due to the
lubricant pocket which existed between the coating and
the tool. This can be explained by the fact that the
735
09.08.2010 14:34:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
frictional coefficients of each coating are nearly constant
in 80MPa.
Discussions
Figure 8 shows the individual frictional coefficients for
both five or seven tests for each coating with an contact
pressure of 4 and 80MPa in the washing oil. The relative
errors of the frictional coefficients, depicted in the figure,
were calculated using the average value ( value in the
figure) for each test. The generally relative errors of each
coating steadily decreased when increasing the annealing
temperatures with a contact pressure of 4 MPa. On the
other hand, the contact pressure of 80 MPa provided a
relatively high reproducibility for each of the coatings,
regardless of the number of tests.
The lack of reproducibility for 4 MPa is believed to be
caused by various factors, including the surface roughness,
the dominant phase distributions of the coating, the surface
craters created by the annealing processes, the size of the
skin passed area, and the material and surface conditions
of the implemented tool. The typically commercial GA
coating also has various phase distributions and irregular
surface morphologies even in the same sheet coil [1].
However, in case of a high contact pressure of 80MPa,
all the morphological properties of the coatings are
removed, and only its mechanical properties based on the
dominant Fe-Zn intermetallic phases are reflected in their
frictional properties. Therefore, the high contact pressure
of 80MPa gives a high credibility and reproducibility
when observing the frictional coefficient of the coating.
0.180
+2%
-4%
0.175
0.174
0.170
-3%
0.170
+5%
+3%
0.165
-3%
0.163
0.160
0.161
0.155
0.150
465
465 Coating
505 Coating
515 Coating
540 Coating
-5%
-4%
505
515
Galvannealing temperature (oC)
540
(a) Apparent contact pressure of 4MPa

0.158
0.156
0.156
0.154
0.152
505 Coating
515 Coating
540 Coating
0.152
0.150
0.148
0.146
0.144
0.142
Not tested
0.143
465
505
515
Galvannealing temperature (oC)
540
(b) Apparent contact pressure of 80MPa

Figure 8. Frictional coefficients of each coating in washing oil
condition with five flat-friction tests per one coating.
736
Conclusions
This study was designed to investigate the effect of different annealing temperatures on Fe-Zn intermetallic
phases as well as the frictional properties of the GA coating. These effects were analyzed using nanoindentation
and flat-friction tests. The effects of the GA coating's FeZn intermetallic phases on their frictional properties were
investigated by SEM observations of the coatings before
and after testing. The results are as follows:
1. The elastic modulus and the hardness of the GA coating
increased due to the increase in the brittle and
phases with high Fe content within the coating upon
raising of the annealing temperature.
2. The frictional coefficients of the GA coating in the rustprevention oil were more dependent on lubricant viscosity rather than the Fe-Zn intermetallic phases of the
GA coating. The frictional coefficients were also found
to be nearly constant, regardless of the annealing temperatures.
3. The frictional coefficients of the GA coating in the flatfriction tests for the washing oil depended on the surface roughness (the phase distribution and the morphological properties), the hardness, the formation of powder, and the different contact pressures. In the low contact-pressure region, the frictional coefficients of the
coatings were mainly affected by their powder formation (or real contact area) and increased when raising
the annealing temperatures (or increasing the and
phases within the coating). On the other hand, in the
high contact-pressure region, the frictional coefficients
of the coatings were influenced by their hardness and
showed a decrease in magnitude when raising the annealing temperature. Also, the maximum relative error
for frictional coefficients obtained from the flat-friction
tests were +5/-4% in the low contact-pressure region,
while these errors nearly converged to 0% in the high
contact-pressure region. Consequently, the friction tests
in the high contact-pressure region gave a higher reproducibility for the frictional coefficient than that in the
low contact-pressure region.
References
[1] A.R. Marder: Progress in Material Science, 45 (2000), 197-271.
[2] M.H. Hong, ISIJ international, 45-6 (2005), 896-902.
[3] Y.S. Kim: J. of KSME A, 15-6 (1991), 1807-1818.
[4] Y.S. Kim: J. of KSME A, 14-6 (1990), 1474-1486.
[5] K.K. Lee: Surface and Coatings Technology, 201 (2007), 6261-6266.
[6] J.M. Lee: J. of KSPE, 23-4 (2006), 109-115.
[7] J. Scheers: 19th IDDRG Biennial Congress, (1996), 515-525.
[8] V. Rangarajan: Proc. SAE, (1996), 63-70.
[9] Y. Nunomura: ISIJ international, 43-3 (2003), 454-460.
[10] L. G. Garza: JMPT, 187-188 (2007), 164-168.
[11] T. HiRa: J. of JSTP, 34-393 (1993), 1141-1146.
[12] C. Cheng: GALVATECH 95 Proceedings, (1995), 723-731.
[13] A.T. Alpas: ISIJ international, 40-2 (2000), 172-181.
[14] N.D. Kunde: Proc. SAE, (1998), 1-6.
[15] M. Urai: Materials Technology for Automobiles, 47-2 (1997), 29-32.
[16] C.S. Lin: ISIJ international, 35-5 (1995), 503-511.
[17] M. Rieth, W. Schommer: Handbook of Theoretical and Computational Nanotechnology, 4 ASP, (2004).
[18] Nanoindenter XP system manual ver. 10, MTS.
[19] W. C. Oliver, G. M. Pharr: J. of Materials Research, 7-6 (1992),
1564-1583.
09.08.2010 14:34:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
Explosive Forming of Steel Cone Using ALE Method

Ali Alavi Nia, Reza Emami
1)
Mechanical Engineering Department, Bu- Ali Sina University, Hamedan / Iran, alavi1338@yahoo.com
A numerical solution has been developed to simulate the experimental tests carried out for explosive metal forming of a circular steel disc
into a cone. Because in such a simulation underwater detonation of an explosive charge is going to be simulated, this can results in high
distortion of some elements so the ALE method has been used for this simulation. The numerical results are in good agreement with those
obtained by experimental tests. The profile of metal during the forming process is a semi conical shape which gradually becomes a
complete cone. The final dimensions of the cone are the same as those found by experimental tests and, it is shown that ALE method is a
good procedure to simulate such a problem and predict the results.
Keywords: Explosive forming, Cone, Simulation, ALE
Introduction
Researches about rapid deformation of a thin film have
led to development of a set of forming processes named
high rate forming. If an explosive is used for energy
transfer, the process is called explosive forming. In recent
years the application of explosive metal forming has been
increasing rapidly. One of the areas for applying this
method is explosive metal forming of cones which can be
used for military purposes such as the missiles liners or
radars dishes [1]. In most of the metal forming processes
the metal is pushed against a relatively rigid die. In this
procedure after the explosive material is exploded, the
released energy of explosion is given to the ambient
media that here is water and results in increasing the
water pressure and drives the blank into the die [2].
Due to the complexity of explosive forming, there is no
accurate solution for these problems; therefore, numerical
methods are widely used.
Fengman et al. [3] investigated explosive forming of
thin-walled semi-spherical parts experimentally. Their
research showed that non-die explosive forming of these
parts has the advantage of high dimensional accuracy and
simplicity of the process. Yasar et al. [4] studied the
forming of aluminium cylindrical cups both
experimentally and numerically. Wijayathunga and Webb
[5] developed a finite element model to simulate the
impulsive deep drawing of a brass square cup. Javab Var
and Habib Pour [6] studied the under water explosive
forming of a cone. They calculated the amount of charge
required in a predetermined distance based on energy
method. In addition, they carried out some tests to
validate their theoretical method. Akbari Mousavi et al.
[7] have studied explosive free forming of circular blanks
numerically. Alavi Nia and Mohammadi Noori [8]
investigated the problem of explosive metal forming of a
hemispherical part and its optimization using Lagrangian
method.
In finite element computations, basically there are two
methods: Lagrangian and Eulerian methods. In
Lagrangian method the deformation of mesh follows the
deformation and translation of material while in the
Eulerian method there is no deformation for meshes.
Lagrangian approach is suitable for problems with limited
mesh deformation since large deformation of meshes can
result in inaccuracy of results, but in this method the

material translation and parts deformation can easily be
percepted. Eulerian approach is better for problems with
high mesh deformation but still has some problems since
the deformation of desired parts cannot be seen obviously.
Another method which has the advantages of both and
doesnt have the problems of either is called ALE. Here
the simulated mesh for the die and blank is Lagrangian
and water and explosive charge are modeled with ALE
formulation.
In this paper, the process of formation of a steel circular
plate into a cone is simulated using ALE method and the
results are compared with the experimental work reported
in [1].
Materials and Equipment
Blank. A 1.6mm thickness circular steel blank is set on
a steel die. The blank is a low carbon steel plate with 100
mm in diameter. The values of the density, Youngs
modulus of elasticity, the yield stress in tension and the
poisons ratio of the blank are 7800 kg/m3, 200 GPa, 250
MPa and 0.26, respectively.
Die. The die is made of steel with relatively higher
strength compared with the blank. A vacant cone is made
in die with 45 apex of which the diameter of the base
circle is 100 mm. There is a hole in the bottom of the die
which is connected to a vacuum pump.
Explosive. A spherical charge of C4 is used as the
energy supplier. C4 is a high explosive material and some
properties of it are listed in Table 1. The explosive
charge was used at 150 mm distance from the blank.
Table 1. Properties of C4 [9].
Mass density
Detonation velocity D
Chapman-Jouget pressure PCJ
1641 (kg/m 3 )
8190 (m/s)
28 (GPa)
Medium. Water is used as the energy transfer substance

which has a suitable ability for transferring the pressure
wave. The distance from the top of water to the charge
must be twice as much as the distance from the bottom of
the water to the explosive charge.
737
09.08.2010 14:34:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental Procedure [1]
The circular blank was placed on the die and both of
them have been emerged in water. The explosive charge
has been set above them with the center distance of 150
mm while the bottom of the die is connected to a vacuum
pump and the room inside the die has been evacuated.
After the detonation, the circular blank is formed into a
cone. At the initial moments of forming process a plastic
hinge was produced at the edge of the blank and moved
toward the center of the blank. The spherical explosive
charge has a mass of 19 g. The apparatus setup for this
forming is shown in Figure 1.
be analyzed which results in reduction of time and

hardware costs.
(a)
Figure 1. Apparatus setup for explosive metal forming [1].
Simulation Procedure
The simulation was done using LS_DYNA 971 which is
recognized software for dynamic analysis. The input model
was made in the software FEMB 28. Five parts were
modeled such as blank, die, explosive charge, vacuum and
water. Since the analysis of the vessel was not important for
us the impulsion of the vessel has been neglected. The
different parts were modeled as follows.
Modeling Different Parts. The blank was modeled
using four-node Lagrangian shell elements. The number of
elements defined for the blank was 300.
The die was modeled with 880 eight-nodes brick elements
using Lagrangian formulation. By applying boundary
conditions at the die nodes the position of the die was fixed.
Eight-nodes brick elements with one point ALE multi
material element formulation were used for the simulation
of vacant place, water and explosive charge parts. To
simulate the explosive, the water and the vacant place,
1584, 37416 and 6000 elements were used, respectively.
The charge was placed 150mm above the center of the
blank. In Figure 2, the finite element model of the problem
is shown. The model can be assumed to have double
symmetry and then only one fourth of the model needs to
738
(b)
Figure 2. (a) Finite element model for die and explosive charge
and (b) one forth model of all of the parts.
Material Modeling. The blank is considered as a linear

elastic, perfectly plastic material.
To define the material for water, the material model Mat
null has been used which is valuable for fluids. Gruneisen
equation of state was used to define the water behavior
which has the following formulation and the values of its
constants are listed in Table 2.

0c 2 1 + 1 0 2
(1)
2
2

+ ( 0 + ) E 0
P=
2
2
s3
1 ( s1 1) s 2
2
+1
( + 1)
where P, 0 , C , , a,
Ein and 0 are the pressure, the
density, the intercept of the shock velocity versus particles

velocity curve, the relative volume, the first order volume
correction, internal energy and the Gruneisen gamma,
respectively and S1 , S 2 and S 3 are the coefficients of the
slope of the shock velocity versus particles velocity curve
constants.
The material model of Mat_high explosive burn was
used for the explosive charge. JWL equation of state is
09.08.2010 14:34:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
used for detonation products which defines the pressure
as follows:
gradually moves toward the center of the blank as

experimental results showed (see Figure 3).
(2)
where V and E are the relative volume and the initial
internal energy, respectively, and A, B, R1 , R 2 and are
constants of explosive material. The equation constants
for C4 are shown in Table 3.
Table 2. Gruneisens equation constants for water [8].
Speed of sound C
Material constant S1
1488 (m/s)
1.979
0
0
0.11
a
Initial internal energy E0
3
0
Table 3. JWL constants for C4 [9].

A (Pa)
B (Pa)
R1
R2
E0
V0
6.098e+11 (Pa)
1.29e+10 (Pa)
4.5
1.4
0.25
9e+9
1
Figure 3. Deformed shape of plate at different stages of process.
Material model mat_vacuum was used to model the

vacancy inside the die.
Mat_rigid material model was used to model the die
because deformation of die is not important in this
research and it has relatively much less deformation
compared to the blank.
ALE Multi Material Group. Because more than one
part with one point ALE Multi Material elements is
present in this model, it is necessary to use ALE Multi
Material Groups command to reconstruct the interface of
the fluids. So ALE Multi Material Group formulation was
used for the explosive charge, water and the vacuum.
(a)
Fluid-Solid Interaction. To simulate the fluid-solid

interaction between the water and the blank and die, the
penalty-coupling method formulation has been used. Also
this option is defined between other Lagrangian parts and
ALE parts. The penalty-coupling formulation has the
most powerful capability to analyse the interaction
between Lagrangian parts and ALE parts.
Numerical Solution Results
The pressure wave is originated at the place of the
explosive and propagates like a sphere until it arrives in
the blank and then the pressure wave gives the plate an
initial speed while the wave is reflected backward. Then,
the pressure wave again comes toward the blank and
follows the blank into the die.
Deformation profile of the blank begins with a plastic
hinge which is created at the edge of the blank and
(b)
Figure 4. (a) Distribution of effective stress and (b) distribution of
effective strain.
During the process at first the area near the edge of the
plate goes through the plastic strain while the center area
of the plate is in elastic state. In Figure 4, the effective
stress and effective strain is shown at a moment in the
process which is similar to theoretical conclusions [1].
739
09.08.2010 14:34:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
The final radius of the base of the cone is 43.737mm
(see Figure 5) and the center of the blank moves about
50mm toward the bottom of the die which results in a
complete cone. These values for the experimental test are
44mm and 50mm, respectively. This means that the radius
of the cone obtained from simulation is about 6% less
than that of test and the vertical displacement of the
central node is the same as the test value. The vertical
displacement of the center of the plate is shown in Figure
6.
In order to investigate the effect of mesh size (elements

sizes) on results, the problem was simulated with smaller
elements and it was observed that the results did not
changed. Although, using smaller mesh increases the
computer time required for solution.
Conclusion
Explosive forming of a steel cone is simulated using the
ALE method. Comparison of the simulated results for the
general shape, the values of diameter and height of
resulting cone with the experimental data show good
accuracy of the procedure. The presented numerical
solution is easy to use and significantly less costly to
perform experimental investigation. Because this method
establishes reasonable parity between the experiment and
the numerical results, it can be possibly more economical
to do the simulation and then try experimens to ensure
correctness of results.
References
Figure 5. Final shape of cone.
Figure 6. Vertical displacement versus time for center of plate.
740
[1] D. Javab Var: Ph.D. thesis, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran,

(2002).
[2] D. Javab Var, G.H. Liaghat: Fundamentals of explosive forming,
Aerospace publications, Tehran, (2004).
[3] H. Fengman, T. Zheng, W. Ning, H. Zhiyong: J. Materials Letters,
45-2 (2000), 133-137.
[4] M. Yasar, H.I. Demirci., I. Kadi: J. Materials & Design, 27-5 (2006),
397-404.
[5] V.N. Wijayathunga, D.C. Webb: J. Materials Processing Technology, 172-1 (2006), 139-145.
[6] D. Javab Var, A. Habib Pour: J. Aerospace, 2 -1 (2006), 11-19.
[7] S.A.A. Akbari Mousavi, M. Riahi, A. Hagh Parast: J. Materials
[8] A. Alavi Nia, M. Mohammadi Noori: Steel research international, 1
(2008), 740-747.
[9] K. Mazaheri, B. Taheri: Journal of Faculty of Engineering, Tehran
University, 3 (2004), 389-401.
09.08.2010 14:34:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Torsional Characteristic and Manufacturing Process for Sleeve Spring of Torsional

Vibration Damper
Chul Kim1), Beom-Cheol Hwang1), Won-Byong Bae2)
1)
Research Institute of Mechanical Technology, Pusan National University, Puasn / Korea, chulki@pusan.ac.kr;
Engineering and RIMT, Pusan National University, Pusan / Korea
2)
School of Mechanical
In diesel engines, it is inevitable that the torsional vibration is produced by the fluctuation of engine torque. Therefore, it is necessary to
reduce the torsional vibration. A sleeve spring-type damper is commonly used to reduce torsional vibration. In this study, closed form equations to predict the spring constant of a sleeve spring and the torsional characteristics of a torsional vibration damper are proposed to calculate the stiffness of the damper. And two-roll bending process is selected to manufacture a sleeve-type spring for a torsional vibration
damper. Firstly, an FEA method used to analyze the elasto-plastic problem was verified through an analysis of 90 degrees bending process.
And the FEA method for two-roll bending is proposed. The main process parameters of two-roll bending are the material thickness, the
diameter of the bending roll, and the compressed amount of an urethane-covered roll. The material thickness is determined based on the
design value, and the diameter of the bending roll is determined by theoretical analysis. To determine the compressed deformation of the
urethane-covered roll, analyses according to the contact angle between the bending roll and sheet were performed. As a result, a new
process parameter, contact angle / (material thickness forming radius), of the two-roll bending process was proposed so that the curves
for the error ratio of analysis values to design values regarding the various material thicknesses could have similar patterns without regard
to material thickness and forming radius.
Keywords: Sleeve spring-type damper, Two-roll bending process, Elasto-plastic problem, Urethane-covered roll, Contact angle
Introduction
Torsional vibration of a crankshaft due to variation of
torque is inevitable in a diesel engine, which is a reciprocal engine with a crank mechanism. Such vibration can be
reduced through the installation of an appropriate damper
or by optimization of the combustion chamber stroke.
There are several types of torsional vibration dampers, and
they are selected depending on engine speed: a viscous
fluid type for low speed, a coil spring type for medium
speed, and a sleeve spring-type for high speed. The sleeve
spring-type torsional vibration damper and sleeve spring
pack are shown in Figure 1.
ucts with cylindrical tubular sections. Various studies for

three-roll bending [1-4] and four-roll bending [5-11] have
been performed, but studies for two-roll bending do not
appear to be available in the literature. Roll bending is a
complex process, and its forming mechanism is not yet
fully understood. Many factors can influence the process:
material properties, geometry and configuration of the
rolls, friction, temperature, etc.
In this study, a technique to manufacture a sleeve spring
was studied in order to develop a sleeve spring torsional
vibration damper. The two-roll bending process is proposed to manufacture the sleeve spring because the procedure of the two-roll bending process is simpler than that of
the three-roll and four-roll processes. The forming radius
of the sleeve spring considering the spring-back effect
[12,13] was calculated according to thickness and diameter of the sleeve spring, and the FEA method used to analyze the elasto-plastic problem was verified through an
analysis of the 90 bending process. Finally, a new process
parameter, contact angle / (material thickness x forming
radius), of two-roll bending process was proposed.
Figure 1. Torsional vibration damper and sleeve spring pack.
Techniques for the production of cylindrical tubular sections such as a sleeve spring include roll-bending, stampbending, stretch-bending, and press-braking. Roll-bending,
compared to the other processes, can reduce set up time,
reduce cost in tooling investment, minimize the length of
straight end-edges remaining in the finished product, and
achieve much better finished dimensional accuracy and
better circularity of cylindrical sections. Therefore the
technique of roll-bending is widely used in forming prod-
Figure 2. Design parameters of sleeve spring.
Theory
Spring Constant of Sleeve Spring. Design parameters
of the sleeve spring were determined as shown in Figure 2.
The spring constant of a sleeve spring is expressed as
follows:
741
09.08.2010 14:34:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
k=
E h t3
L
12 D sin 1 GAP
D
(1)
Torsional Characteristic of Torsional Vibration

Damper. The torsional characteristic of a torsional vibration damper can be defined as the torsional torque against
the torsional angle of the inner star. Figure 3 shows the
geometry of a sleeve spring whether the inner star rotates
or not when a sleeve spring pack is assembled into the
damper.
and die were assumed to be rigid bodies, and six layers of

elements were used in thickness direction.
Figure 4. Die modeling and the analysis procedures of 90 degree

bending process.
Figure 5 shows the analysis result of spring-back caused

by unloading in the case of 2.4mm thickness. The tensile
and compressive stresses are symmetric with respect to the
neutral face. The tensile stress is a little higher than the
compressive stress.
Figure 3. Geometry of sleeve spring whether the inner star rotates

or not.
The relation between torsional torque and the rotational

angle of the inner star of the torsional vibration damper is
expressed as follows [1]:
T = N SP k SP
(2 )RPitch
(2)
DA RPitch
Determination of the Forming Radius of Sleeve

Spring Considering Springback Effect. The bending
moment needed to produce the bend results in the stress in
the X-direction. Springback occurs upon removal of the
bending moment [13,14]. The subscript i represents the
values before springback and the subscript f represents
the values after springback. Then the relationship between
the radii of the sleeve spring before and after spring-back
is expressed as follows:
1
1
6
1
4
K
Ri R f
n + 2 tE ' 3
n/2
t

2 Ri
(3)
n/2
t

2 Ri
(4)

Validation of FEA Boundary Conditions. A finite element analysis of the 90 degree bending process using
DEFORM-2D Ver. 9.1 was performed to verify the validity of boundary conditions in the elasto-plastic problem.
Figure 4 shows the die modeling and the analysis procedures of the 90 degree bending process. The punch, holder
742
Table 1 shows the design values and the analysis results

according to the thicknesses. The results show the error
ratio of the analysis values to the design values is within 3
~ 6%.
Thickness
[mm]
1
1
+
=0
Ri R f
(b) Unloading
Figure 5. Analysis result in the case of 2.4mm thickness.
Table 1. Design values and analysis results according to thickness.
The forming radius, Ri, is calculated by solving Eq. (4),

which is converted from Eq. (3)
6
1
4
f (Ri ) =
K
n + 2 tE ' 3
(a) Loading
Forming
radius
Ri [mm]
Final radius, Rf [mm]

Design
Analysis Error* [%]
2.4
26.5
32.9
33.9
3.0
2.0
24.2
30.9
31.9
3.2
1.8
22.1
29.1
30.6
5.2
1.6
20.6
27.5
29.1
5.8
1.4
19.2
26.1
27.4
5.0
1.2
17.8
24.9
26.4
6.0
1.0
16.1
22.8
23.8
4.4
* Error = (Analysis - Design) / Design * 100%
09.08.2010 14:34:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Two-Roll Bending Process. Figure 6 shows the analysis model, which is based on a two-roll bending process
used in the actual field, and the contact angle between the
bending roll and material. In the actual process, the bending roll is fixed, and an urethane-covered roll moves vertically and rotates. However, in the analysis model, an urethane-covered roll, which is deformed as much as contact
angle between bending roll and material, moves vertically
to bend the material, and the bending roll rotates.
roll, the tensile and compressive stresses are symmetric

with respect to the neutral face. And the stresses caused by
bending are recovered immediately after the material
passes through the entrance.
Figure 8. Stress distributions in the case of 2.4mm thickness and

10 contact angle in the two-roll bending process.
Figure 6. The analysis model embodied from 2-roll bending process in actual field and the definition of the contact angle.
Figure 7 shows the analysis procedures of the two-roll

bending process. The main process parameters of two roll
bending are the material thickness, the diameter of the
bending roll, and the compressed amount of urethanecovered roll. The material thickness is determined based
on the design value, and the diameter of the bending roll is
determined by theoretical analysis. Therefore only the
compressed deformation of the urethane-covered roll
needs to be determined. To determine the compressed
deformation of the urethane-covered roll, analyses according to the contact angle between the bending roll and material were performed.
Figure 9 shows the radius values measured after springback according to the contact angles, and Table 2 shows
that radius including spring-back increases when contact
angle decreases. N addition, the curves for the error ratio
of analysis values to design values of the various material
thicknesses have different patterns as shown in Figure 10.
(a) Contact angle = 10

(a) Contact angle = 5
Figure 9. Radius values measured after springback according to
the contact angles.
Table 2. Analysis results according to contact angle and material
thickness in two-roll bending process.
Contact
Angle
Material thickness [mm]
[]
2.4
2.0
10
31.43
28.80
31.96
28.90
27.27
33.58
29.10
27.67
25.78
33.62
30.05
27.79
25.88
24.24
35.69
30.69
28.43
26.13
24.54
23.40
41.04
32.96
30.05
27.00
24.72
23.69
Figure 7. Analysis procedures of the two-roll bending process.
28.08
25.08
23.61
21.79
Figure 8 shows the result carried out in the case of 2.4

mm in thickness. At the entrance region where material
contacts with the urethane-covered roll and the bending
26.81
24.35
21.90
25.10
22.44
22.80
0.5
23.18
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
743
09.08.2010 14:34:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
Therefore a new process parameter composed of main
process parameters (contact angle, material thickness, and
forming radius) is needed to be defined so that the curves
for the error ratio of analysis values to design values regarding the various material thicknesses could have similar patterns without regard to the material thickness. So in
this study, the new process parameter, contact angle /
(material thickness forming radius), is defined. The
values of the new process parameter are shown in Table 3
and have similar patterns as shown in Figure 11.
Figure 10. Error ratios of analysis values to design values according to the contact angles.
Table 3. Values of new process parameter, / (t x Ri).
Contact
Angle
Material thickness [mm]
[]
2.4
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
10
0.155
0.205
0.140
0.184
0.218
0.124
0.164
0.194
0.235
0.109
0.143
0.170
0.205
0.253
0.093
0.123
0.146
0.176
0.217
0.273
0.078
0.102
0.123
0.147
0.180
0.227
0.117
0.144
0.182
0.247
0.108
0.136
0.185
0.091
0.123
0.062
0.5
0.031
Therefore in two-roll bending process, the contact angle

must be determined as the new process parameter has a
constant value without regard to the material thickness and
the forming radius. The value of the new process parameter can be selected in the range of 0.1 - 0.15, and the error
ratio is within -5% - 5% without regard to the material
thickness and the forming radius.
Conclusions
The two-roll bending process is selected to manufacture
a sleeve spring for the torsional vibration damper. And a
finite element analysis is performed to analyze the two-roll
bending process, and the key results obtained from this
study are summarized as follows:
1. Torsional characteristics of the torsional vibration
damper were understood from the spring constant calculated from the derived equation.
2. The theory to predict spring-back was applied to a
sleeve spring, and the validity of the FE boundary conditions in the elasto-plastic problem is verified by the
analyses for 90 bending process is performed.
3. The new process parameter, contact angle / (material
thickness x forming radius), was proposed so that the
curves for the error ratio of analysis values to design
values could have similar patterns without regard to material thickness and forming radius.
Acknowledgements
This study was financially supported by Pusan National
University in program. Post-Doc. 2010.
References
[1] M. Yang, S. Shima: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 3012 (1988), 877-886.
[2] G. Yang, K. Mori, K. Osakada: Journal of Material Processing
Technology, 45 (1994), 161-166.
[3] W. Hu, Z. R. Wang: International Journal of Machine Tools and
Manufacture, 41 (2001), 731-747.
[4] J. Zeng, Z. Liu, H. Champliaud: Journal of Material Processing
Technology, 198 (2008), 330-343.
[5] M. Hua, D. H. Sansome, K. P. Rao, K. Baines: Journal of Material
[6] M. Hua, K. Baines, I. M. Cole: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 48 (1995), 159-172.
[7] M. Hua, I. M. Cole , K. Baines, K. P. Rao: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 67 (1997), 189-194.
[8] M. Hua, Y. H. Lin: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 41
(1999), 1461-1483.
[9] M. Hua, Y. H. Lin: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 89-90
(1999), 12-18.
[10] Y. H. Lin, M. Hua: International Journal of Non-linear Mechanics,
35 (2000), 883-896.
[11] M. Hua, K. Baines, I.M. Cole: International Journal of Machine
Tools and Manufacture, 39 (1999), 905-935.
[12] K. Lange: Handbook of Metal Forming, McGraw-Hill, (1985).
[13] E. M. Mielnik: Metalworking Science Engineering, McGraw-Hill,
(1991).
Figure 11. Error ratios of analysis values to design values according to new process parameter.
744
09.08.2010 14:34:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
A Springback Compensation Method for Complex-Shaped Flange Components in

Fluid-Cell Forming Process
Weijun Yang, Dongsheng Li, Xiaoqiang Li, Dehua He
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing / China, littlestrong@me.buaa.edu.cn
The fluid-cell forming process (FFP), one of the main forming technologies in aeronautical manufactories, suffers seriously from the product
quality problem due to springback. A springback compensation method is proposed particularly for complex-shaped flange parts. This
method is derived from the classic Displacement Adjustment method, but differs in the way to predict the springback amount and calculate
the adjusting vectors. Based on discussion on the relationship between the springback angles and the geometrical parameters of flange
parts, a springback distribution function is proposed to predict springback angles of curved flanges. The springback angles are mapped to
nodal adjusting vectors of the die mesh and then the optimized die is obtained. The above procedures are applied to a fuselage flange part
and the result shows that this method is valid.
Keywords: Fluid-cell forming process, Flange components, Springback compensation, Springback distribution function
Introduction
The fluid-cell forming process, also called
Verson-Whellon process, is a kind of flexible sheet metal
forming technologies [1,2]. The low cost and satisfactory
product quality makes the process popular in the
aeronautical manufacturing industry of small quantities
and large varieties. In FFP, there are a large number of
products which can be sorted in flanges components. As
the deformation is close to pure bending in the flange parts,
the geometric errors due to springback seriously affect the
product quality. Therefore, springback compensationthe
most ideal approach to reduce springback errors for sheet
metal forming [3], is desirable in the tool design of FFP.
A lot of works has been done on springback
compensation with FEM in sheet metal forming processes.
Karafillis and Boyce proposed a method denoted as
Spring-forward which was capable for compensation of
3D geometries [4]. W. Gan and R.H. Wagoner developed
displacement adjustment (DA) method [3]. Compared
with "Spring-forward" method, DA method keeps several
advantages in convergence, correction and generality [3].
In fact, DA methods can not be directly applied to
complex-shaped parts. Because the compensation vectors
computed by FEM are defined on the nodes of the blank
mesh only, not those of the die mesh [5]. Then, several
improved algorithms were further developed to make the
DA method available for the arbitrary 3D components
[5-7]. Their work extends practical application of the
springback compensation technology.
However, for these compensation methods with FEM, it
takes a long time to analyse the forming and springback
procedures and perform the iterative optimization. For FFP,
it is limited to apply these methods to the practical
manufacture, because the large number of product
varieties leads to an unacceptable huge period for analysis
work. So if there is a new tool design method which
utilizes the compensation method without long time of
analysis work, it will be a great promotion for the product
quality and efficiency of FFP.
In this study, a compensation method is introduced,
which offers a quick and accurate solution of springback
compensation for complex-shaped flange parts in FFP.
Description of Complex-Shaped Flange Components

More than 90% of the parts formed with FFP in
aeronautic manufacture can be sorted in flanges
components. These parts are designed as the
sub-load-bearing structures and used for the connection
between outer shapes and inner fuselage components.
They are composed of a web plate, several flanges and
other features, i.e. holes, reinforcing posts. The two typical
parts are shown in Figure 1.
Web plate
Web plate
Hole
Straight flange
Curved flange
(a) Part 1
Figure 1.
Straight flange
Straight flange
Curved
flangeflange
Straight
(b) Part 2
Two typical flange parts.
The formability of a flange part is determined by the

flanges. The flanges can be categorized into two kinds:
straight flanges and curved flanges, as depicted in Figure
2. The curved flanges can be sorted as convex flange and
concave flange.
The main parameters of a curved flange are illustrated in
Figure 3. L0 is the length of the bending curve, and R is
the radius of curvature. h is the flange height. is the

flange angle. For a curved flange, R is variable at
different location of the bending curve.
Straight flange
Figure 2.
Convex flange
Concave flange
Curved flange
Flange shapes.
Some research has been done on defect criterion of

curved flanges. It is concluded that the curvature radius
and flange height have a great effect on fracture of
concave flanges and wrinkle of convex flanges [8].
However, on springback of curved flanges, the study is
very limited so far.
745
09.08.2010 14:34:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Web plate
L0
Bending curve
R
h
Curved flange
Figure 3.
Schematics of curved flange.
bending curves is discussed and concluded as empirical

functions.
To study the effect of the curvature, dies with a series of
different curvature were designed, as shown in Figure 5(a)
and Table 1. The fillet radius is 3mm. Three different
blanks were also considered to obtain the relationship
between the flange length and springback angles, as
shown in Figure 5(b) and Table 2. Aluminium alloy sheet
2B06-O, 1.5mm in thickness, was used in the flange tests.
h
Springback Compensation Method

Principle of Compensation Method. In the general
springback compensation procedure based on DA method,
FE analysis is first implemented to compute the
springback displacement, as shown in Figure 4(a). Then
the die mesh is adjusted according to the displacement in
the direction opposite to the springback error. The
principle of the compensation method can be expressed as
[6]:

C = R + a( S R)
(1)
where C is the compensated shape, R is the reference
shape, S is the shape after springback and a is the

ur
compensation coefficient. Here, use V to describe the
adjusting vectors.
ur
ur ur
V = a( S R)
(2)
R1
R2
R2
R1
(a) Die
(c) The assemble
(b) Blank
Figure 5.
Schematics of tool and blank.
Table 1.
Parameters of flange dies
Die ID
R1 /mm(concave flange)
100
150
150
200
150
250
200
250
R2 /mm (convex flange)

Table 2.
Parameters of blanks
Blank ID
/
90
60
30
15
15
15
/mm
Original die
Original die
Springback prediction Displacement

adjustment
Within the
Tolerance?
No
Optimized die
Adjustment
mapping
Optimized die
a The general precedure
Figure 4.
Springback
distribution calculation
b The precedure for flanges parts
Procedures of springback compensation.
The method proposed in this paper derives from DA

method, but chooses another way to calculate the
adjustment. As there are fixed forms in the structures of
flange parts, some objective rules can be obtained to help
predict the springback. Figure 4(b) gives the procedure of
this method. Firstly the distribution of springback angles is
determined according to the bending curves belonging to
the part. Then adjusting vectors are computed from the
springback angles and the die mesh after compensated are
obtained. So, this method consists of two main contents:
the prediction method of the springback angles and the
calculation algorithm from angles to adjusting vectors.
Springback Distribution Function. A quick and
accurate approach to predict springback is the key of this
compensation method. However, it is difficult to predict
the springback of a curved flange with an analytical
approach, unlike the straight flange. Here, experiments
and FE analysis are used to study relationship between the
geometric parameters of the bending curve and springback
angles. Distribution of springback angles along the
746
Figure 6.
Flange parts.
Die 1 and Die 2 with Blank 1 were adopted in the

experiment. Figure 6 presents a group of formed parts in
the test. The springback angles were measured and given
in Figure 7.
2.4
Forming analysis
Bending curve
Springback angle/
FE model
2.0
1.6
Die1 R1
Die1 R2
Die2 R1
Die2 R2
1.2
0.8
0
20
40
60
o
location/
80
100
Figure 7. Springback angles distribution along bending curves

with different curvatures in the experiment.
For concave flanges, i.e. located at the R1 of the die, the

springback angles are distinctly larger on the edge than
those in the middle of bending curve. As the curvature
radius increases, so do the springback angles. However,
for convex flanges, the rule is not obvious. It is because
the wrinkle defects influence the springback measurement,
particularly at the convex flange side of Die 1.
Detailed discussion was preformed through FE analysis.
The FE model of FFP was established in PAM-Stamp and
verified with the results of the real experiment in Figure 7.
09.08.2010 14:34:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Die 1, Die 3 and Die 4 with different blanks were adopted
in the simulation. Then the springback angles of the flange
were measured.
Springback angle/
2.2
2.0
1.8
Die1 Blank1 R1
Die1 Blank1 R2
Die3 Blank1 R1
Die3 Blank1 R2
Die4 Blank1 R1
Die4 Blank1 R2
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
-40
-20
0 o 20
location/
where o is the minimal springback angle, right in the

middle of the bending curve for single-curvature flanges.
o ( R, L0 ) =
40
Springback angle/
Springback angle/
Figure 8. Springback angle distribution of different dies with

Blank 1 from simulation.
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.6
20 40 o
Location/
-40 -20
20 40o
Location/
Die3 Blank1 R1
Die3 Blank1 R2
Die3 Blank2 R1
Die3 Blank2 R2
Die3 Blank3 R1
Die3 Blank3 R2
Figure 9. Springback angle distribution of Die 1 and Die 3 with

different blanks from simulation.
The same relationship of curvature radius and

springback is observed in Figure 8. The springback angles
of convex flanges is larger that those of the concave
flanges at the same radius of curvature. As the length of
the bending curve decreases, the springback angles
become larger, as shown in Figure 9.
It can be concluded that for curved flanges, the bigger
curvature of the bending curve, the larger the springback
angle; the shorter the length of the bending curve, the
larger the springback angle; the more close to the edge, the
larger the springback angle.
The distribution function of springback angle along the
bending curve is proposed here. N is the springback
angle of the node N, belonging to the bending curve. s is
the springback angle of the straight flange with fillet
radius and the same material. This value represents the
effect of material property and the fillet radius. A ratio
= N s is used here to define the relative value of
springback angles. can be expressed as:
e N
s e
(3)
where e is the springback angle at the edge of the flange,

which is the maximal along the bending curve.
= g ( R, L0 ) f (l , L0 , R)
(4)
where g ( R, L0 ) = e s indicates the relationship between
the maximal angle of curved flanges and one of the
straight flange with the same material and radii. The
expression is given as:
bL
a
g ( R, L0 ) = (1 )(1 0 )
(5)
R
R
(7)
cL0
(8)
R
According to the springback prediction data, the
parameters of the function are obtained, listed in Table 3.
1.2
-40 -20
o
e
o ( R, L0 ) = 1
Table 3.
1.4
Die1 Blank1 R1
Die1 Blank1 R2
Die1 Blank2 R1
Die1 Blank2 R2
Die1 Blank3 R1
Die1 Blank3 R2
f (l , L0 , R) = N e represents the distribution rule for

springback angles along the bending curve. A quadratic
function is chosen to describe the distribution state for the
flanges with a single curvature.
4
(6)
f (l , L0 , R) = (1 o )(l 0 ) 2 + o
2
e
e
L0
Parameter of the springback distribution function.

Parameter
Concave flange
16.4
0.13
0.65
Convex flange
11.4
0.152
0.43
The parameters of the springback distribution function

also can be obtained from the experimental data, which is
more reliable than the simulation results. Meanwhile, if
necessary, adjustment can be made on the form of the
functions depending on the experimental data. Then the
function can be used for all the complex-shaped flange
parts with the same fillet radius and material, covering the
thickness and the heat treatment.
Adjustment Mapping Algorithm. This algorithm is
developed to calculate the adjusting vectors of die nodes
from the springback angles predicted with the springback
distribution function.
r
For a single node P in the tool, p is the adjusting
vector.
r
r
p = g uni
(9)
where is the nondirectional adjustment amount,
r
uni is the unit adjusting vector and is calculated as
follow:
= lPR gtan pc
(10)
z
sin
pc = ag p
lPR =
p =
(11)
(12)
s
(13)
90
where lPR is the bending length, z is the height from the
node P to the web plate, pc is the compensation angle,
p is the springback angle and a is the compensation

coefficient. These paremeters are shown in Figure 10.
The bending curve is meshed and curve nodes are
obtained. The springback angle of each node can be
calculated according to the springback distribution
function. The die node P is projected as the node N on the
747
09.08.2010 14:34:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
curve between N1 and N2. Then the p can be calculated
from N 1 and N 2 with the interpolation method.
Section of
Flange parts
pc
Section of
flange parts
lPR
shape before springback, formed with the original die, is

regarded as the reference shape. It is found that there is
apparent reduction in geometric errors of the blank shape
after springback at Section 1. And the blank shape is very
close to the reference shape at Section 2. With the
compensation method, the part formed with the optimized
die can satisfy the accuracy requirement.
Compensated
Reference shape
holder
blank
uni
After springback
die
Section 1
Figure 10. Scections of flange.

r
p
r
e2
1 e1
r
The adjusting direction p is calculated according to
the elements containing the node P. Then the unit vector
r
uni can be obtained.
r
1 n r
p = n i ei
(14)
i =1
uni
i =1
p
= r
| p |
(15)
r
where ei is the uniform normal of the element that
contains the node P and i is the angle at the node P in
this element, as the weighting factor.
For the node P in the die mesh, the adjustment

be calculated. Then the new die mesh is obtained.
p can
Case Study
The method is applied to a fuselage part, presented in

Figure 1(b). The material is 2B06-O, 1.5 mm in thickness.
The die geometry is shown in Figure 12(a). The fillet
radius is 3 mm. Therefore, the distribution function
obtained in the last section can be used in the springback
prediction of this part. This part is composed of three
flanges. And the three bending curves are extracted and
exhibited in Figure 12(b). The die and bending curves are
meshed and used to reconstruct a new compensated die.
3
1
(a) Die
(b) Bending curves
Figure 12. Schematics of die and bending curves.
The original and the compensated dies are used in the

forming analysis and springback prediction to verify the
effect of the compensation method. The FE model is
established in Pam-Stamp, as shown in Figure 13(a).
Figure 14 presents the comparison of the blank shapes at
the two sections, specified in Figure 13(b). The blank
748
-30
Compensated die
After springback
Compensated die
Before springback
Original die
After springback
Original die
Before springback
-5
-35
Figure 11. Adjusting vector of node P.
(b) Sections
(a) FE model in Pam-Stamp
Figure 13. Schematics of FE model and sections.

Y/mm
Y/mm
r
e3
Section 2
r
e4
-10
-40
-15
-45
136
138
140
X/mm
(a)Section 1
54
56
58
X/mm
(b)Section 2
Figure 14. Comparison of blank shapes.
Conclusions
A springback compensation method is presented for

complex-shaped flange parts in FFP. Based on the
discussion of springback of flange parts, the springback
distribution function is proposed as the substitution of the
large analysis work for springback prediction. The
application to a fuselage part shows the validity of this
method. Further verification will be performed in practice.
Future work will also include the study of different
function forms in order to obtain more approximate
description of the springback distribution.
Acknowledges
The authors would like to thank the National Natural

Science Foundation of China (50905008), the National
High Technology Research and Development Program of
China (2007AA041905), and the China Postdoctoral
Science Foundation (20090450276) for their support.
References
[1] G. Sala: Materials & Design, 22-4 (2001), 289-299.
[2] H. Palaniswamy, G. Ngaile, T.Altan: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology. 146-1 (2004), 28-34.
[3] W. Gan, R.H.Wagoner: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences,
46-7 (2004), 1097-1113.
[4] A. P. Karafillis, M. C. Boyce: Internation Journal of Machine & tools
manufacture. 36-4 (1996), 503-522.
[5] J. Weiher, B. Rietman, K. Kose,: NUMIFORM 2004 Proceedings,
Columbus, (2004), 1011-1015.
[6] R. Lingbeek, J. Huetink, S. Ohnimus, M. Petzoldt, J. Weiher: Journal
of Materials Processing Technology. 169-1 (2005), 115-125.
[7] G.Z. Shen, P. Hu, X.K. Zhang, X.B. Chen, X.D. Li:
NUMISHEEET2005, 778-8 (2005), 334-339
[8] N.Asnafi: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 96-3 (1999),
198-214.
09.08.2010 14:34:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Springback Reduction of Blade Part Using Measuring Based Compensation Methodology

Juan Liao, Chi Zhou, Feng Ruan, Yin Zhu
Department of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou / China, xx-lan@163.com
Spingback is the main defect in sheet metal forming, which badly affects the shape of a part. In this paper, a method of springback compensation is presented. It first predicted the curvature of sheet after springback based on the mechanics of elastic recovery. Then, a trial stamping experiment was done. By measuring the geometric information of the trial part and comparing the curvatures with the predicted one, a
correction coefficient can be obtained. Then, this correction coefficient is used to calculate the compensated tool shape based on plasticity
bending theory. A blade sector had been chosen to validate this compensation methodology. The experiment showed that the springback
error of the stamped part can been greatly reduced only after one die revision.
Keywords: Springback compensation, Curvature, Non-contact 3D measuring technology, Blade
Introduction
Springback of sheet metal occurs in the unloading stage
of sheet metal forming processes and causes the shape
inaccuracy of final stamped parts. During the past decades,
many researches have been done to control the springback.
Finite element method has been widely recognized as a
powerful tool to predict press-forming defects. Various
FEM-based approaches have been developed to compensate the springback [1]. But the application of these approaches is restricted by the accuracy of FEM. At this time
the accuracy of FEM-based springback predicting is still
not satisfying. Furthermore, the inaccuracy of FEM in the
predicting stage builds up fast in the compensation stage.
Its reported that 20% inaccuracy of FEM analysis will
cause 44% error of the final compensation [2].
The development of non-contact 3D measuring technology provides another way for springback control. Due to
its capability of obtaining accurate geometric information
of the trial-stamped parts, it is widely used in the engineering fields to quantitatively identify the shape distortion in
the trial process and hence reduce the times of die revision
[3]. But there is no direct link between the measured displacements and the curvature recovery of springback. It is
still depended on engineers experience to compensate the
die surface on the reference of measured data. It is necessary to develop a better method which has a theoretical
foundation and can automatically compensate die surface
using the measured data in the trial stamping process.
In this paper, a compensation methodology based on the
mechanics of elastic recovery is presented and a blade part
is used as an example to illustrate this method.
The blade part is a sector of a helical blade of a concrete
mixer truck. A number of these preformed sectors are
welded sequentially into a large helical blade, as evident
from Figure 1 (a). Each blade sectors need to be fabricated within tight dimensional tolerances in order to be
welded together within the desired overall tolerance limits.
The problem is that each sector has a large springback (to
a tune of 20 mm) after stamping and which brings many
difficulties in welding. Since the shape of each blade sector (Figure 1 (b)) is irregular and the radii of curvature on
it vary along the bending line, it would be increasingly
difficult to design a right compensated tool shape. Norsteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
mally, engineers design the dies and punches based on

experimental trial and error methods. This requires extensive testing and repeatability of tests for slightly varied
configurations [4], which is time-consuming and expensive. This study is focused on developing a new compensation method and applying to this case with the aim of
reducing the times of the try-out procedure.
(a) Whole welded helical blade
(b) One typical blade sector
(c) Section curve along A-A

Figure 1. Whole helical blade and typical blade sector.
Basic Scheme of Method

Flowchart of Compensation Method. The major steps
of the proposed springback compensation method can be
summarized as follows:
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09.08.2010 14:34:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
1. Design the initial tool shape and have a trial stamping.
2. Measure the stamped part.
3. Divide the surfaces of desired part and stamped part into
several section curves.
4. Discretize the section curves and calculate the compensated section curves using the measured curvature data.
5. Relocate all the compensated section curves and construct the compensated tool surface.
6. Revise the die and have another trial stamping. If the
trial stamped part is not within the tolerance, go to step
2, otherwise it is done.
Further details and key issues in the 3rd, 4th and 5th
steps are discussed in the following sections.
Dividing Surface. For pure bending operation, it can be
assumed that the surface area will not change because the
material is incompressible. To construct the relationship of
the radius before and after springback, we use the parameteric surface based on this assumption. Each point on a
parametric surface can be described by a pair (u, v). Two
points with the same (u, v) value in the surfaces before and
after the springback are regarded as the same point.
If the parameter u is kept constant while v is varied, a
section curve can be formed on the surface [5]. Figure 2
shows the parametric surface of a blade sector and the
partitioned section curves using u series: 0, 0.1, 0.2,,1.
In this method, the surfaces of tool shape and measured
part are both partitioned using the same u series and two
section curves with the same u value are regarded as the
same curve before and after springback.
Figure 3. Illustration of springback compensation of Ideal case.
k1p
is the curvature after springback and k is the curva-
ture of tool. k1p is determined once k and the material

parameters of the sheet are given.
After the first trial stamping, the profile of stamped part
(curve c) can be obtained by measuring. Usually, there is
variance between the stamped part curvature k1m and the
predicted curvature k1p , here a correction coefficient
= k1m k1p
(2)
is defined to indicate the variance. The variance may be

caused by material parameters, process conditions, and
other factors.
Substituting k1p from Eq. (2) into the Eq. (1), it is obtained:
1 = k1m / k .
(3)
Let *j = j be the actual springback coefficient,

where the subscripts j represents the jth stamping. Let k2m
the curvature of the desired part (in this case k is the same
as k2m ), k * the curvature of the tool in the next stamping,
Figure 2. Sections of tool surface.
Sprinaback Compensation of Sections. An ideal case

of springback compensation is shown in Figure 3. Arc a is
one of the section curves of the initial tool surface. Firstly,
an analytical method is used to predict the springback
shape of it (arc b). According to the theory of plastic bending, the springback coefficient 1 (the subscript 1 represents the first stamping) is defined as follows [6]:
3Y (1 ) EP
k
1

1 =
Ekt
E
k
0
p
1
k ke
k < ke
(1)
where Y is the yield stress, E is Yongs modulus, E p is

the work-hardening modulus, v is the Poisson ratio, t is
the sheet thickness, ke is the maximum elastic curvature,
750
k2p the predicted curvature in the second stamping. It is

assumed that the is invariant in the next stamping if the
material parameters and the process conditions are unchanged, thus,
= k1m / k1p = k2m / k2p .
(4)
Then, the actual springback coefficient of the second

stamping can be represented as:
2* = 2 = k2m / k * .
(5)
The springback coefficient 2 can be obtained by Eqs

(1) together with Eqs (4), it is expressed as follows:
09.08.2010 14:34:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
2 =
( E EP ) tk2m
.
Etk2m + 3Y (1 v)
(6)
Therefore, k * is determined by Eqs. (5) and (6) after the

first stamping.
Since any section curve can be discretized into a set of
pair ( si , ki ), i=1, 2n as shown in Figure 3, ki* of each
point can be calculated by using the above formulation.
According to the calculated ki* , the compensated section
curves (curve e) of the tool for the next stamping could be
created by using a differential geometric method reported
in Ref. [7].
It is unacceptable for subsequently welding.

Then the surfaces of the desired part and the stamped
one were divided into eleven sections along the u direction,
as shown in Figure 2. Take the section curve with u=0.3 as
an example. Figure 7 shows the curvature difference between the desired part (dashed line) and the first trial part
(solid line), which indicates the curvature change after
springback.
Springback Compensation of Blade Part
The 9th blade sector (Figure 1 (b)) was chosen as an example to illustrate the proposed method. In this case, the
tool shape of the first stamping was the same as the desired part. Table 1 shows the geometric information of the
part and the sheet material parameters. Figure 4 shows the
experimental setup for the plate forming trials with the
part placed on the die after pressing.
Figure 5. Deviation distribution between first stamped part and

desired shape.
Table 1. Part and material parameters.

Part name
Blade sector
Major dimension
870440130
Sheet material
Qste420TM
Thickness
YYield strength (MPa)
520
EYongs modulus (GPa)
184
EpWork-hardening modulus MPa
707
Poissons ratio
0.3
Figure 6. Distribution of deviation after first stamping.
Punch
Stamped
part
Using the curvature data of sections of the desired part

and the stamped one, the correction coefficient was calculated and the compensated section curve was constructed,
Figure 8 shows the computational result of section curve
u=0.3, where curve 2 is the modified die shape in the second stamping.
Die
insert
Die
Figure 4. Tool set and stamped part in first stamping.
The trial part was scanned by an optical measuring instrument, and then was aligned with the desired CAD
model. The displacement deviations of measured surface
and CAD model are shown in Figure 5. The maximum
displacement deviation in the normal direction is about 20
mm (in the upper right corner and the lower left corner). A
more detailed distribution of deviation is shown in Figure
6. Because these blade parts need to be welded together to
form a helical blade, the maximum allowed deviation for
each blade part is 5 mm. Figure 6 shows that more than
77% region of this part have a deviation more than 5 mm.
Figure 7. Curvature distribution of section curve u=0.3.
751
09.08.2010 14:34:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 8. Compensation result of section curve u=0.3.
After all the compensated section curves were constructed, it is necessary to relocate them. In this example,
the planar region in the middle of the part is used as a
reference for relocating these curves. Specifically, the
tangent vector along the curve r (v=0.5) is used to match
these curves, as shown in Figure 9. Two points (i, 0.5) and
(i, 0.51) form a tangent vector eid in the desired surface,
the corresponding vector in the compensated section curve
is ei* , thus, ei* = eid is used to relocate the section curve
u =i .
After the relocating, a parametric surface can be finally
generated by fitting these section curves.
Figure 9. Compensated sections and desired surface.
Result and Discussion. After die revision, another

stamping experiment was operated. Figure 8 also shows
profiles of the section curve u=0.3 after springback obtained in the first stamping and the second stamping, we
can recognize that the latter one is closer to the desired one.
The deviation distribution of the trial stamped part and

the desired part is showed in Figure 10. At this time, the
deviation in 98% region of the two parts is within 5mm.
This accuracy is acceptable for most of the industrial applications.
This proposed method is also applicable for other cases,
especially for those mainly bended in one direction and
with complex section shapes. e.g. channel shaped parts
having regular or irregular transverse sections. However,
when it comes to the springback problem of multidirectional bending 3D cases, this method has the difficulty of solving the compatibility issue of the deformation
in different directions and the application will be limited.
Conclusions
A measuring based methodology was used to compensate the springback of complex bending parts and hence
reduce the geometric error of a blade part. The results of
the experiments reveal that a significant springback reduction is obtained after one die revision. The presented
methodology brings the following advantages:
1. Since any curve can be described as curvature change
along its length, this method is applicable to parts with
irregular-shaped sections;
2. Because this proposal is based on curvature, not the
displacement, the difficulty of aligning the measured
data and CAD model can be avoided. It provides a
seamless way of utilizing the measured data of the trail
part to improve the calculation accuracy [3].
However, there are also some limitations of this method.
Since all the section curves are compensated in one direction, this method can only be applied to the parts mainly
bended in one direction, not applicable to more complex
parts in multi-directional forming process.
In spite of the limitations, the proposed method is helpful in reducing the lengthy and costly die try-out procedures and improving the effectiveness of the die revision.
Acknowledgement
The research was financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50805050) and the special fund
for discipline and specialty construction in Guangdong
province.
References
[1] K. Ito, T. Kondou: Proc. NUMIFORM 07, (2007), 1477-1482.
[2] R. Lingbeek , J. Huetink , S. Ohnimus: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 169-1 (2005), 115-125.
[3] C. Zhou, J. Liao, Y. Zhu, Z. Chen: Proc. NUMIFORM2010, (2010).
[4] U. Borah, S. Venugopal, R. Nagarajan: International Journal of
[5] D.F. Rogers, An introduction to NURBS: with historical perspective.
An Imprint of Elsevier.
[6] T.X. Yu, W. Johnson: Int. J. Mech, Sci, 23 (1981), 583-594.
[7] J. Liao, C. Zhou, F. Ruan: Advanced Materials Research, 97-101
(2010), 130-134.
Figure 10. Distribution of deviation after second stamping.
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09.08.2010 14:34:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental Verification of Springback Simulation Using Local Interpolation for Tool

Surfaces
Takayuki Hama1), 2), Eiji Isogai3), Tohru Yoshida3), Hirohiko Takuda1)
1)
Department of Energy Science and Technology, Kyoto University, Kyoto / Japan, hama@energy.kyoto-u.ac.jp; 2) Volume-CAD System
Research Program, RIKEN, Wako / Japan; 3) Steel Research Laboratories, Nippon Steel Corporation, Futtsu / Japan
The validity of springback simulation using the simple local interpolation of surfaces for tool modelling was verified experimentally. Finite
element simulations of a draw-bending process using s high-strength steel sheet of 780 MPa grade were carried out for various blank
holding forces, and the simulation results were compared with experimental results in detail. When the conventional tool modelling that
uses a polyhedral approximation of the tool surfaces was used, the simulation results were not in agreement with the experimental results
in some cases. This discrepancy was owing to large geometrical errors on the tool surfaces. On the other hand, when the proposed technique was used, the simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental results regardless of the forming condition. This
agreement was owing to accurate geometries of the tool surfaces achieved by the interpolation to confirm the validity of the proposed
technique.
Keywords: Sheet-metal forming, Springback, Finite element method, Draw bending, Contact, Tool modelling, Quadratic-polynomial patch,
High-strength steel sheet
Introduction
Prediction accuracy for springback using finite element
method is still inadequate, and establishment of simulation
techniques for improving the simulation accuracy is an
urgent task. Aiming at dealing with this problem, many
studies have been carried out, including the development
of new finite elements [1], the improvement of constitutive
models [2], and the detailed analyses on prediction accuracy of stress fields [3,4].
The treatment of the contact between a sheet and tools is
one of the most important issues to achieve accurate simulations. Recently, Two of the authors have proposed a new
technique of sheet metal forming simulation [5] that uses a
simple interpolation of surfaces proposed by Nagata [6]
(the Nagata patch) for tool modelling. The proposed technique allows a more accurate description of the contact
between the sheet nodes and the smoothed tool surfaces
compared to the conventional approach that uses a polyhedral approximation of the tool surfaces. Our previous
studies showed that the reliability of springback simulation can be improved using the tool model represented by
the Nagata patch. However, because the simulation results
have not yet been compared with an experimental result,
the validity of the proposed technique needs more consideration.
In the present study, simulations of a draw-bending
process using high-strength steel of 780 MPa grade were
carried out and the validity of the proposed technique was
examined in terms of comparison with experimental results.
Static Elastoplastic Finite Element Method Code
STAMP3D
Mechanical Modelling. The static elastoplastic FEM
code STAMP3D [5] was used in this study. STAMP3D
utilizes the updated Lagrangian rate formulation to describe the finite deformation problem. Assuming that the
rate-form relation is preserved during a small time increment t, all rate quantities can simply be replaced by incremental quantities as
J J t , f f t , L Lt ,
(1)
where J is the Jaumann rate of the Kirchhoff stress tensor,

f is the surface traction vector prescribed on the boundary
of the domain and L is the velocity gradient tensor. The
generalized rmin-strategy is used to limit the size of the
increment to preserve the approximate linearity during the
increment. However, the nodal equilibrium between the
external and internal forces at the end of increment is not
guaranteed because of the tangent solution employed. To
overcome the difficulty, an explicit algorithm ALGONEQ
is employed in order to systematically cancel the residual
non-equilibrated nodal forces whenever their norm exceeds a prescribed admissible tolerance.
Contact Treatment. The master-slave algorithm is employed, in which sheet nodes and tool elements are considered to be slave nodes and master segments, respectively. A penalty method is used to satisfy the impenetrability condition.
Tools are considered rigid and their surfaces are discretized by a set of planar triangular patches. In this study,
two approaches are employed for tool modelling. In the
first approach, the polyhedral surfaces represented by the
set of planar triangular patches are directly used for the
surface description. This tool modelling is hereafter
termed as the polyhedral approach. The second approach
[5] is the proposed technique, which employs the Nagata
patch [6] for the planar triangular patches. The Nagata
patch is the quadratic parametric surface given by
x , C1 C 2 C 3 C 4 C5 2 C 6 2 ,
(2)
where and are the parameters defined on the surface

element region. The coefficient vectors Ci, i = 1,...,6, are
determined using the position and normal vectors at the
element nodes. The authors have proposed a new technique of contact analysis using the Nagata patch tool
model [5]. This new technique increases the accuracy of
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09.08.2010 14:34:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
the contact description between the sheet nodes and the

smoothed tool surfaces. Moreover, the positions of the
contact points can be analytically obtained, thus allowing a
robust and accurate contact analysis. This approach is
hereafter termed as the Nagata patch approach. For details
of this formulation, the reader is referred to reference [5].
Draw-Bending
Experimental Conditions. A draw-bending test was
carried out using a high-strength steel sheet of 780 MPa
grade. The mechanical properties of the sheet material are
shown in Table 1. The size of the sheet blank was 280 mm
long, 100 mm wide and 1.8 mm thick. The geometries of
tools employed are shown in Figure 1. A die shoulder
radius of 5 mm and blank holding forces (BHFs) of 29 kN,
78 kN, and 147 kN were used. A counter load of 19.6 kN
was used to fix the sheet during the forming. Mineral hydraulic oil was used for lubrication, whose friction coefficient was about 0.17.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of sheet material.
E GPa
210
y MPa F MPa
0.3
400
1270
n*
0.175
0*
0.0024
r
0.87
* True stress-true plastic strain curve approximated by Swift law

F 0
p n
2
Punch
R5
Pad
Blank holder
R5
Die
Figure 1. Geometry of tools for draw-bending in mm.
Simulation Conditions. Owing to the symmetry of the

deformation, only half part of the sheet was modelled. The
plane strain condition was assumed in the width direction,
thus the size of the blank was 140 mm long, 2 mm wide,
and 1.8 mm thick. Four-node degenerated shell elements
with assumed-strain integration were used. The numbers
of elements were 2 and 140 through the width and the
longitudinal directions, respectively. Fifteen Gauss integration points were introduced through the thickness direction. The elastoplastic material behavior was assumed to
be isotropic small-strain elasticity and orthotropic largedeformation plasticity. Hills quadratic yield function and
the associated flow rule with isotropic hardening were
used. Because the blank holding forces could not be imposed properly using the present shell element, the following approximation was used to take the blank holding
forces into account in the simulation: an initial gap between the die and the blank holder was fixed and stretching forces equivalent to the friction force induced by the
754
blank holding forces were given on the sheet edge prior to

the draw-bending process. The friction between the sheet
and the tools were not taken into consideration.
Calculation procedures adopted in the present drawbending simulation consisted of the following three steps.
i) Stretching forces are given on the sheet edge until the
tensile stress reaches a preset value.
ii) With keeping the initial stretching forces, the sheet is
drawn up to a punch stroke of 80 mm.
iii) Nodal forces opposite to the internal forces are applied until the latter are cancelled. (This process corresponds to springback calculation.)
The amount of springback was evaluated by sidewall
curvature. Because simple simulation conditions of friction and constitutive models were used in this study, a
qualitative tendency will be focused on in comparison of
the simulation results with the experimental results.
Tool Modelling Accuracy. Because the sheet slides continuously on the die shoulder during drawing, the modelling accuracy on the die shoulder would play an important
role in the simulation accuracy. Therefore two discretized
die models (Figure 2) having fine and rough meshes on
the die shoulder, respectively, are used to examine the
effect of tool modelling accuracy on the simulation result.
The polyhedral and Nagata patch approaches are employed for the two die models, thus we have four die models in this study. Figure 3 shows the shape error distribution on the die shoulder along the lines AB (Figure 2). The
sheet nodes slide on these lines. The shape error s at an
arbitrary point on the line AB is defined as
rd x o 100 [%],
s
(3)
rd
where x is the position vector of the point, rd = 5 mm is the
die shoulder radius and o is the position vector of the centre of the die shoulder radius. When the polyhedral approach is used, large negative errors arise periodically with
the tool mesh both in the rough and fine models. The errors in the rough model are much larger than those in the
A
Fine
A
Rough
Figure 2. Discretized die models.
09.08.2010 14:34:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
Fine- and rough- Nagata patch models
0
-1
Polyhedral
-2
Fine-polyhedral model
Rough-polyhedral model
-3
-4
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Dimensionless length
Experiment
0.8
Nagata patch
Reverse Bending on The Sidewall. Clearly, the difference in the amount of springback (Figures 4 and 5) may be
owing to the die model. In draw-bending, the so-called
reverse bending which sometimes arises on the sidewall
during drawing is known as a factor reducing the amount
of springabck [5,7]. Hence the deformation profile on the
sidewall obtained by the simulation is observed for
Sidewall curvature /mm-1
0.008
0.006
0.004
0.002
: Experiment
: Rough-polyhedral model
: Fine-polyhedral model
: Rough-Nagata patch model
: Fine-Nagata patch model
0
-0.002
-0.004
0
40
80
120
Figure 4. Variation of sidewall curvature with BHF.
160
Figure 5. Deformation profile after springback for BHF of 29 kN.

Simulation results are obtained using Rough die model.
0
-10
Polyhedral
-20
-30
Punch
-50
-40
-60
-70
-30
-50
-60
Nagata
patch
-20
Sheet
-40
(b)
Flange
-10
Nagata patch
Sidewall
(a)
0
z /mm
Variation of Sidewall Curvature. Figure 4 shows the

variation of sidewall curvature with BHF. When the fine
model is used, the simulation results obtained with the
Nagata patch and polyhedral approaches are in good
agreement with each other, and are qualitatively in agreement with the experimental results.
When the rough model is used, the results obtained with
the Nagata patch approach are almost identical to those
obtained with the fine model. On the other hand, only the
result obtained with the polyhedral approach for BHF of
29 kN is much smaller than the other simulation results as
well as the experimental result. Figure 5 shows the deformation profiles after springback obtained with the rough
model for BHF of 29 kN. The deformation profile obtained with the Nagata patch approach is in fairly good
agreement with the experimental results as also observed
in Figure 4, but that with the polyhedral approach is apparently different.
10
z /mm
fine models. When the Nagata patch approach is used, the

errors are much smaller than the polyhedral approach and
the errors in the rough model are in close agreement with
those in the fine model. Clearly, the Nagata patch approach yields a much more accurate tool shape than the
polyhedral approach both in the rough and fine models.
10
Figure 3. Shape error distributions along Line AB at die shoulder.
Polyhedral
-70
-80
-80
0
d /mm
0.5
d /mm
0.5
Punch bottom
Shape error /%
Figure 6. Deformation profile on Sidewall before springback

obtained by simulation for BHF of 29 kN. (a) Fine model and (b)
rough model.
BHF of 29 kN before springback (Figure 6). When the

rough-polyhedral model is used, the sheet tends to come in
contact with the punch after passing through the die shoulder and then tends to come in contact with the die in the
middle of the sidewall. This is a typical reverse bending.
On the other hand, such deformation does not arise in the
other results. These results indicate that the sidewall curvature obtained with the rough-polyhedral model is
smaller than the other results because of the occurrence of
the reverse bending before springback.
To see whether the reverse bending arises for BHF of 29
kN in the experiment, the deformation profile on the sidewall for BHF of 29 kN is directly observed before springback by taking a photograph, as shown in Figure 7. The
deformation profile obtained using a die with a shoulder
radius of 3 mm is also shown for reference because clear
reverse bending arises, as indicated by an arrow. Comparing the result for a shoulder radius of 5 mm with that for 3
mm, we can say that the reverse bending hardly arises in
the experiment with a shoulder radius of 5 mm for BHF of
29 kN. From the results of the sidewall curvature variation
and this experimental observation on reverse bending, we
can conclude that the simulation results in which reverse
bending does not arise are more appropriate. When the
polyhedral approach is used, only the result obtained with
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09.08.2010 14:34:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
flange
(a)
(b)
(a)
R3
R5
Nagata patch
1.5
Polyhedral
sidewall
Exact die profile
1.5
flange
(b)
Polyhedral
Nagata patch
the fine model is in good agreement with the results of

experiment. On the other hand, when the Nagata patch
approach is used, the results are independent of the tool
mesh and are in good agreement with the results of experiment.
Deformation Profile on Die Shoulder. The reverse
bending observed in the simulation result obtained with
the rough-polyhedral model for BHF of 29 kN may be
induced by the inaccuracy of the tool model. To examine
this, the deformation profile on the die shoulder for BHF
of 29 kN is observed before springback (Figure 8). An
exact die profile with a die shoulder radius of 5 mm is also
shown. When the fine model is used, the sheet fits to the
die shoulder well regardless of the tool modelling approach used. When the rough model is used, on the other
hand, the sheet fits to the die shoulder well as well as the
fine model when the Nagata patch approach is used, but
the sheet penetrates significantly near the flange side when
the polyhedral approach is used. Owing to this penetration,
the deformation profile near the sidewall side is also different from that obtained with the Nagata patch approach,
inducing the reverse bending on the sidewall.
This penetration arises because the shape errors on the
die shoulder near the flange side are large in the roughpolyhedral model (Figure 3). Such penetration does not
arise in the other results because the shape errors near the
flange side are small enough. The above results indicate
that the Nagata patch approach gives reasonably good
results regardless of the tool mesh, which confirms the
validity and reliability of the proposed technique.
Conclusions
A springback simulation of a draw-bending process was

carried out using high-strength steel of 780 MPa grade for
various blank holding forces, and the simulation results
were carefully compared with experimental results. When
756
sidewall
Exact die profile
1.5
Figure 7. Deformation profile on Sidewall before springback

observed in Experiment for die radii of (a) 3 mm and (b) 5 mm
with BHF of 29 kN.
1.5
Figure 8. Deformation profile on Die shoulder before springback

obtained by Simulation for BHF of 29 kN in mm. (a) Fine model
and (b) rough model.
a conventional tool modelling that directly uses polyhedral

surfaces was employed, the amount of springback obtained by the simulation was much smaller than the experimental result for a blank holding force of 29 kN. This
discrepancy was owing to large geometrical errors on the
tool surfaces. On the other hand, when the proposed tool
modelling was used, the simulation results were in good
agreement with the experimental results regardless of the
blank holding force. This agreement was due to the accurate geometries of the tool surfaces achieved by the interpolation, confirming the validity of the proposed technique.
References
[1] R.J. Alves de Sousa, J.W. Yoon, R.P.R. Cardoso, R.A. Valente, J.J.
Gracio: International Journal of Plasticity, 23 (2007), 490-515.
[2] M.C. Oliveira, J.L. Alves, B.M. Chaparro, L.F. Menezes: International Journal of Plasticity, 23 (2007), 516-543.
[3] T. Hama, K. Iguchi, H. Hishida, H. Takuda: Steel Research International, 79-2 (2008), 587-594.
[4] M. Banu, T. Hama, J.L. Alves, O. Naidim: Steel Research International, 79-1 (2008), 186-193.
[5] T. Hama, T. Nagata, C. Teodosiu, A. Makinouchi, H. Takuda: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 50 (2008), 175-192.
[6] T. Nagata: Computer Aided Geometric Design, 22 (2005), 327-347.
[7] T. Hama, Y. Kariyazaki, K. Ochi, H. Fujimoto, H. Takuda: Materials
Transactions, 51-4 (2010), 685-693.
09.08.2010 14:34:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
Computational Method of Springback in V-bending of Sheet Having Bausching Effect

Kazunari Imai1), Jin Yingjun1), Hiroki Tsuruta1), Junichi Koyama1), Takashi Kuboki2), Makoto Murata2)
1)
Amada Co., Ltd, Isehara / Japan, kazuimai@amada.co.jp; 2) The University of Electro-Communications, Chofu / Japan
The final bending angle by a press brake equals the sum of clamp and springback angles. Hence, the on-line measurement of the clamping
angle and prediction of springback are key technologies for the precision bending. Recently, a precise angle sensor for the measurement of
clamp angle has been developed, and implemented into bending machines for the on-line measurement. If the springback is known a priori,
the required clamp angle can be calculated and the clamping position can be decided using a feedback control system with the precise
angle sensor. As a result, a high-accuracy V-bend process becomes possible. In this research, a new computational method, based on
fundamental bending theory, is proposed for the prediction of springback. However, errors will arise if the material anisotropy or the
Bauschinger effect in springback are not accounted for. For the consideration of the Bauschinger effect, a new method is introduced in the
fundamental analysis. First, a series of tension tests are conducted for the investigation of the Bauschinger effect for various values of prestrain and different material types. Based on these results, a new empirical equation is proposed for the description of the Bauschinger
effect. The empirical equation is combined with the fundamental bending theory to improve the calculation accuracy of the springback,
followed by experimental verification. This method makes it possible to reduce the error margin of springback to less than 0.5 degree with a
computing time of about one second and can also be easily implemented on the filed.
Keywords: Springback, Bauschinger effect, V-bending, Fundamental bending theory, Sheet-metal
Introduction
Springback
Various V-bending systems have been proposed by

many researchers [1]. However, few solutions are applied
in actual industrial operations [2,3], because it is often
difficult to achieve the efficient tact time and allowable
precision at the same time. In V-bending, the final bending
angle is determined by the sum of two angles: a clamp
angle and springback angle. The first one is the angle of
the plate at the lowest position of the punch and the second
one is the angle of elastic recovery of the plate during the
releasing phase. The clamp angle would be determined
subtracting springback from product angle, if springback
is known. The lowest position of the punch is decided
from the clamp angle. Therefore, prediction of springback
is necessary for precision in V-bending. Nowadays, precise
angle sensor for the measurement of clamp angle has been
developed, and started to be implemented into bending
machines for the on-line measurement.
There are three groups of methods in order to evaluate
the springback. The first one is a method based on experiments. In this case, it needs large amount of experimental
data corresponding to tool parameters and material parameters. The second one is a measurement of springback
during the bend processing. Springback normally increase
depending on the clamp angle. The clamp angle of measurement point is not final clamp angle. Therefore, it is
necessary to extrapolate springback from the measured
values. The third one is analytical method. The typical
method is based on a finite element method (FEM). Its
accuracy is high, but the computation speed is too slow to
be used during operation. FEM cannot be installed in the
bending machine, because bend processing starts only
after FEM calculation predicts the springback. In a plant,
it is necessary to calculate springback with high accuracy,
and the computation time must be short enough for practical use.
The springback is defined as shown in Figure 1. The

springback is expressed by
= S C
(1)
C
St
St: Punch stroke
C: Clamp angle
S: Bending angle after spring-back
Figure 1. Relation between clamp angle C and bending angle

after springback S.
Fundamental Bending Theory

A bending shape is calculated by a method based on
fundamental bending theory [4]. This method is applicable
for various tool conditions, and the computation speed is
satisfactorily fast for real time use in actual machine. In
fundamental bending theory, it is assumed that neutral axis
is located at the centre of the thickness. Figure 2 shows
geometry of the centreline of the bent piece. The following
assumptions were introduced for the calculation:
1. The fundamental bending theory is assumed, where
stress and strain exist only in the longitudinal direction.
2. The stress-strain relation is expressed by Eq. (2). E is
Young's modulus, n is the work hardening exponent, F
is the work hardening coefficient.
E
n
F
(2a)
(2b)
where is the stress and is the strain. Eq. (2a) refers to
the punch unloading, and Eq. (2b) refers to the punch
loading.
3. The Coulomb friction rule is assumed.
757
09.08.2010 14:34:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
n+ 2
2bF t 1
M =

n + 2 2 ( )
M = P{x 2 x + ( y 2 y ) tan }
= 2
= tan
t
t
PR +
DR +
2 , =
2
1 =
2
L
L
2 (1 ) =
{sin ( ) + sin }
2 ( 2 ) =
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
1
n +1
{sin ( ) + sin }
1
n +1
cos d
(8)
cos d
(9)
1
1 1 sin 1 2 sin 2
{sin( ) + sin }n+1 (10)
( ) = L
2 ( 2 ) 2 (1 )
where is the coefficient of friction between the die and

the workpiece and t is the thickness of the workpiece.
The springback calculated by the fundamental bending theory is described as follows [4].
2
EI
=
I=
M ( ) d
(11)
1 3
bt
12
(12)
()
Before
bending
St
1
L
V/2
(x2 ,y2)
PR
(x,y)
2
DR
X
400
EXP.
New empirical equation
True stress / MPa
4. The plate and the die contact at a point to each other at

shoulders of die denoted as A in Figure 2.
The moment M and radius of curvature () are described as follows [4].
200
0
0.04
0.045
-200
-400
True strain
Figure 3. New empirical equation and result of experiment.
Method Considering Bauschinger Effect

Figure 3 shows stress strain diagram in elastic recovery.
The Bauschinger effect is well known phenomena, and it
influences springback causing some calculation error in Eq.
(11). Therefore, the consideration of the Bauschinger effect is necessary to calculate the springback more accurately. A series of tension tests was conducted for the investigation of the Bauschinger effect attendant upon prestrain and material type. Based on the experiments, a new
empirical equation is proposed for the description of the
Bauschinger effect as shown in Figure 3. New empirical
equation is expressed by Eq. (13). The curve of stress and
strain is calculated by the Eq. (13) which agrees with the
one of the experiments.
(13)
= f ( c , , E )
where c is the pre-strain in tension test.
Before springback
( )
After springback
and (PR+t/2) are the

same from 0 to 1.
0.05
s ( )
Elastic
recovery
Point contact
P:Punch load
Figure 4. Relation between springback and radius of curvature in

minute section.
Figure 4 shows minute section in the bending shape. s

shows radius of curvature after springback. The d is
springback in minute section and it is described as follows.
b
Figure 2. Geometry of centerline of bent workpiece.
( )
d
(14)
=1
d
s ( )
where s() is calculated from () so that the moment
may be 0 after springback. If the Bauschinger effect is

neglected, Eq. (11) is obtained.
The moment M is described as follows.
t
M = 2b 2 zdz
0
758
(15)
09.08.2010 14:34:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
where z is a length from neutral axis.
The relation between strain and radius of curvature
is described as follows.
t
=
2
(16)
Figure 5 shows flow chart of springback in minute section d. Springback is calculated by integrating d.
Thickness
t
0.78
190
0.23
584
1.19
190
0.23
511
1.56
210
0.20
567
Assumption of
Calculation of M from (15)
0.6
M=0
?
No
46
1.5
10
2.0
12
2.5
12
46
2.5
1.5
2.0
Yes
Decision of
Calculation of s() from (16)
Calculation of d from (14)
Figure 5. Flow chart of springback in minute section.

Experimentally, the springback of air bending was measured as follows. At first, punch stroke was adjusted so that
bending angle after springback might become the target
angle. Next, clamp angle was measured by angle sensor,
and after bend processing, bending angle after springback
was measured. Springback was calculated from these two
angles. Figure 6 shows angle sensor, tools and workpiece.
The test conditions are shown in Tables 1, 2 and 3.
Work-piece
Angle sensor
Figure 6. Angle senser in workpicec and tools.
/MPa
Table 3. Tool conditions for bend test 2.

Die width
Die angle
Die
Punch
V
shoulder
radius
/mm
radius
PR
/degree
DR
/mm
/mm
Calculation of from (13)
= F n
/GPa
0.6
Angle sensor Die
= F
/mm
Table 2. Tool conditions for bend test 1.

Die width
Die angle
Die
Punch
V
shoulder
radius
/mm
radius
PR
/degree
DR
/mm
/mm
Calculation of () from (10)
Punch
Table 1. Conditions for workpiece.

F
n
Youngs
in
in
modulus E
n
Validity of the new calculation method considering the

Bauschinger effect was checked for different values of
thickness t, die width V and punch radius PR with constant
values of die angle as shown in Tables 2 and 3. The
material of workpiece was cold-rolled carbon steel sheets,
which is widely used in the industry. Bending angle after
springback is 90.
Figure 7 shows calculation result of longitudinal stress
distribution in thickness direction from center to extrados
of bending under the punch (x=0mm) before and after
release. Thickness t = 1.56mm, punch radius PR = 0.6mm
and die width V=12mm are used in this calculation. At the
outside of the workpiece, the 0 s with the Bauschinger
effect is smaller than without the Bauschinger effect.
Stress of outside of workpiece with the Bauschinger effect
is smaller than without the Bauschinger effect. Because
the stress about outside of thickness becomes small, the
stress about inside of thickness should be small. At the
inside of workpiece, the 0 s with the Bauschinger effect should be large so that the stress of inside become
small. At this time, the 0-s with the Bauschinger effect is
larger than one without the Bauschinger effect. Therefore,
radius of curvature s with the Bauschinger effect is larger
than without the Bauschinger effect. To confirm universality, the new method was compared with experiments, test
conditions are shown in Tables 1, 2 and 3.
The effect of the die width on both analytical and experimental springback is shown in Figure 8. The springback increases with the increase of die width. The effect of
punch radius on springback as function of thickness is
shown in Figure 9. The springback increases with the
decrease in thickness.
759
09.08.2010 14:35:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
600
500
stress /MPa
400
Inside
300
Outside
0 s
0 s
200
100
0
-100
0.2
0.4
After springback
-200
0.6
0.8
with Bausching effect

without Bausching effect
Before springback
-300
-400
position of thickness direction /mm
Figure 7. Calculation result of stress (half of workpiece).
Springback /degree
2.5
t=1.56
2.0
1.5
1.0
EXP.
with Bauschinger effect
0.5
without Bauschinger effect

0.0
6
10
Die width V /mm
12
14
Figure 8. Springback in analysis and experiment with constant

values of thickness t=1.56 mm (bend test 1).
4.0
EXP.
Springback /degree
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
t=0.78
t=1.19
t=1.56
0.5
For all tested conditions, the springback obtained by the

new calculation method with the Bauschinger effect have
some improvements compared to without the Bauschinger
effect. Figure 10 shows the error margin of calculation
about springback. The error is defined as the difference
between the calculated and the experimental springbacks.
The error margin without accounting for the Bauschinger
effect is larger than 0.5, the error margin of new method
is smaller than 0.5. The computing time of new method
was about 1 second by personal computer (full model
including RAM is required, not only CPU frequency
1.2GHz). There is no problem for practical use at this
computing time. This calculation method is effective to
predict the springback.
Conclusions
A new empirical equation is proposed for the description
of the Bauschinger effect. It is implemented into the fundamental bending theory. Because the stress-strain curve
in elastic recovery was non-linear, stress was calculated by
integrating stress considering pre-strain in thickness direction. The new computational method that built in those
calculations was evaluated. This research shows that:
1. The error margin of springback can be reduced by considering the Bauschinger effect. The error margin of
new method is less than 0.5 .
2. The computing time of new method is about 1 second.
3. The proposed method is effective to predict the springback in V-bending.
4. The method has proven effective and practical for us in
the field.
References
[1] K.A. Stelson: Trans ASME, J. Eng. Ind., 108 (1986), 127-132.
[2] T. Oenoki, T. Otani, M. Takada: Japan Society for Technology of
Plasticity, 37-431 (1996), 1346-1351, (in Japanese).
[3] K. Imai, J. Koyama, Y. Yingjun: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 201/1-3 (2008), 193-197.
[4] M. Masda: Bend processing of a sheet metal, Seibundou, 1962, pp.
0.0
Figure 9. Springback in analysis and experiment with constant

values of die width V=12 mm (bend test 2).
The error margin of springback /degree
1.0
0.5
t=1.56
0.0
V8
t=0.78
t=1.19
V10 V12 PR0.6 1.5 2.0 PR0.6 1.5 2.0
t=1.56
PR0.6 1.5 2.0
Figure 10. Error margin of springback (bend tests 1 and 2).
760
09.08.2010 14:35:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
Springback Analysis of Stretch-Bending Forming of Complex Section Profile

Lei Liu1), Yongjun Wang1), Rui Liu1), Qizheng Kang2), Zhixue Qiu2)
1)
Key Laboratory of Contemporary Design and integrated Manufacturing Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian / China,
wyongjun@nwpu.edu.cn; 2) MINTH R&D--Technical Center I, Ningbo Economic and Technology Development Zone, Ningbo City / China
An analytical model of the stretch bending and a springback prediction model are developed on the base of a series of assumptions. First,
the complex cross-section is meshed using pixel points, and then the parameters of cross-section are calculated. This method can be used
in complex cross-section property analysis. Then, the stretch bending part is divided into several segments and the influences of profile
section, stretch bending process parameters, mould shape parameters and material property are taken into account during analytical model
development. Next, the analytical results are verified based on experimental results, then, the analytical model can be modified. Eventually,
the analytical springback is in good agreement with experimental results for a wide range of bending radii, stretching forces and material
properties. This paper can play an important role in part design, stretch bending mould design, mould modification and optimizing process
parameters.
Keywords: Springback, Stretch-Bending, Complex Section Profile
Introduction
In order to meet the requirements of function and structure, auto parts usually have complex cross-sections. Some
parts are formed to the desired curvature using bending
process. The most important challenge for auto parts bending is the strict accuracy of shape control. Furthermore,
high precision and efficiency are required in the industry.
Stretch bending is a well-suited process for plastic forming
of auto parts, as it is a precise method suitable for large
volume production [1]. It plays a more and more significant role in the automotive manufacturing.
For the complex cross-section profile, some forming
problems often occur during stretch bending, such as wrinkling, section distortion and springback. Springback is a
common phenomenon in metal plastic forming and is
caused by the elastic redistribution of the internal stresses
during unloading. It affects the forming quality of part.
The springback depends on the stretching force, the crosssection, the bending radius and the mechanical properties
of material. So springback prediction is complex. Prediction and control of springback become more and more
important for complex cross-section parts. It can reduce
mould modification time and costs. It also can guide process, part and mould designs.
The stretch bending process is critical in the industrial,
but the literature is limited, especially for the complex
cross-section part forming. Some research papers are concerned with stretch bending for sheet, simple T-formed
cross-section and rectangular sections parts. They are easy
to handle experimentally and create analytical models. The
cross-section is easy to model in a finite element method
(FEM) code, and the simple geometry makes analytical
response considerations possible. Even though some papers have studied complex cross-section, but also focused
mainly on the FEM simulations and experiments.
In this study, taking an auto part with complex crosssection profile for example, a stretch bending analytical
model of typical auto parts with complex cross-section
profile is developed. The influences of cross-section structure, size, stretch bending process parameters (such as
stretching force, loading condition and so on) are analyzed.
Then, in comparing with the actual experimental results,

the stretch bending analytical model is revised and the
springback prediction equation and laws is obtained for
this kinds of cross-section profile.
Profile Introduction
The cross-section of the two typical auto parts used in
this study is shown in Figure 1. The direction of the arrow
stands for the bending direction. The cross-section area is
12.28 mm2. The original section bar is formed by roll
forming in advance. The material is stainless steel 430, it
is hypothetic isotropic.
Figure 1. Part section.
Figure 2. Stretch bending process.
Theoretical Analysis
There are several types of loading conditions in stretch
bending:
(a) Stretching after pure bending (BS-process);
(b) Bending with simultaneous stretching (SB-process);
(c) SB-process followed by consecutive re-stretching
(SBS-process);
(d) SB-process followed by unloading and successive restretching (SBUS-process) [2].
In this study, SB-process is investigated experimentally
and theoretically. This stretch bending loading condition is
shown in Figure 2. In the stretch bending, the tensile force
P is applied to the part before bending and kept constant.
The following assumptions are considered in the present
study:
(i) Material is isotropic and uniform, without considering the influences of anisotropy.
(ii) The section shape does not change during stretchbending process.
(iii) Transverse planes remain plane during the bending
and unloading processes [2,3].
761
09.08.2010 14:35:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
(iv) The strain varies linearly across the section. The total strain at every fiber layer of part is the sum of the tensile and bending-strain components no matter the material
is in the elastic or plastic condition.
(v) The stress-strain relation for the material is:
=E for s0, =Kn for s0
where is the effective stress and is the effective strain.
The constants K and n are the strength coefficient and the
strain-hardening exponent, respectively. These material
constants can be obtained using a standard tension test.
In the stretch bending, it is assumed that stress state uniaxial, the radial stress across the section is neglected [4,5].
In theoretical analysis, the cross-section is meshed using
pixel points. The area, sectional moment of inertia, centroid and other sectional parameters can be calculated
using pixel points. The part is divided into several segments and the cross-section was layered along the radial
direction. This is shown in Figures 3 and 4.
Figure 5. Stress distribution across section.

section.
Figure 6. Mould
First, the initial tensile strain should be obtained to make

sure whether it reaches to yield state.
(I) First, initial tensile strain reaches at yield state, T
>s0.
(1) For rn<r<ro , the longitudinal stress is
= K ( T + )
(5)
(2) For re<r<rn , because of elastic unloading, thus

= T + E
(6)
(3) For r=re , yielding in compression occurs
The Bauschinger effect and the mixed-hardening model
are considered. Hence the mixed hardening yield stress for
r=re is given by
( )
s , M = s 0 + Md s
Figure 3. Parts division diagram.
Figure 4. Section diagram.
Initial Stretching Process. Let T be the stretching force

on the section, A be the area of the cross-section. Then the
longitudinal true stress T, the longitudinal true strain T
are given by
(1)
T = T / A
T s0
T / E
T =
1
( T / K ) n T > s 0
where s0 is the yield stress.
(2)
(7)
If M remains constant, then

p
p
s , M = s 0 + M s s 0
( )
( , M ) =
( )
s0
+ M [ T s 0 ]
(8)
(9)
If M=1, material is isotropic hardening; M=0, material is

kinematic hardening [6].
The longitudinal stress is given by
( ) 2 ( , M )
,r = s
e
(10)
Substituting Eq (9) into Eq (10), it follows that the longitudinal stress for r=re is
, re = T 2 s 0 + M ( T s 0 )
(11)
Stretch-Bending Process. In the analysis of stretchbending process, the total strain theory is applied. Let rn be
the radius of the neutral plane when the stretch-bending
process is completed. Then the longitudinal true strain
increment added to the element at the radial coordinate r is
approximated by the nominal strain as
= ( r rn ) / rn
(3)
The longitudinal true strain increment in stretch bending

process is
Then the longitudinal true strain is

= T +
(4)
where T is the longitudinal true strain after initial stretching process.
The longitudinal stress distribution across the section
plane of part when the stretch-bending process is completed is showed in Figure 5. Let ri be the radius of curvature of the convex inner surface of the part, ro be the radius
of curvature of the convex outer surface of the part.
Next, the longitudinal stress after the stretch-bending
process is calculated.
(4) For ri<r<re, yielding in compression occurs, the

mixed hardening yield stress is given by
p
p
s , M = s 0 + M s s 0
(14)
Material yields again because of reverse load. The

stress-strain curve coincides with the law of load change in
the opposite direction, as shown in Figure 5.
The strain increment after reverse yielding is . Its
strain increment related to the reverse yield point is
, re . The stress increment caused by this strain
762
)
= r (1 + ) , thus
, re = , re T / E = 2 s 0 + M ( T s 0 )
Because of re
, re
re = rn 1 2 s 0 + M ( T s 0 ) / E
(12)
(13)
( )
09.08.2010 14:35:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
increment equals to the stress caused by the strain increment , re in loading curve.
The stress increment which related to the strain incre-
ment , re is K s 0 + , re
So the longitudinal stress is
s0 .
= T 2 s 0 + M ( T s 0 ) K s 0 + , r
s0
(15)
(II) Second, initial tensile strain does not reach at yield
state, T s0 .
(1) For rn<r<ro, the longitudinal stress is
s0
E
= n
(16)
K
> s0

(2) For re<r<rn, because of elastic unloading, thus
(17)
= E + T
(3) For r=re, yielding in compression occurs, thus
, re = E , re + T = s 0
(18)
So
s 0 T
E
, re =
(19)
Substituting Eq. (3) into Eq. (19), it follows that

s0 + T
re = rn 1
(20)
(4) For ri<r<re, compressive plastic deformation occurs.

The strain increment which is related to the reverse yield
point is , re . The stress is
= K s 0 + , r
(21)
The stress of the every section layer is calculated and

integrated. The integral function of stress is
ro
ri
j t j dr
(22)
where tj is the width of layer.

In comparing the tension force with the integral value,
the radius of neutral layer, stress and strain distribution are
obtained.
For the assumed rn, the corresponding stress distribution
can be calculated according to the above analysis. Then rn
is determined that it satisfies the following equilibrium
condition
ro
ri
If
j t j dr = T
ro
ri
(23)
j t j dr T > 0 , then the radius of neutral layer rn
will become large and need to calculate again. Otherwise,

rn will become small and calculate again until it meets the
Eq. (23).
The moment related to the neutral layer on various
cross-sections, M, is given by
r
(24)
M = j t j ( r rn ) dr
o
ri
where is the angle between the start point and the calculating section, and is the angle between mould face and
the plane which is vertical with the bending direction, as
shown in Figure 6.
For the parts which has more than one contact surface
with mould, the cross section should be divided into several sections respective, so that each section only has one
contact surface.
The stretching force is given by
1 n
cos
0 < < i
Te
2 i =1
Ts =
(26)
n
i
n
n
cos
1
i =1
i
i < <
Te
2 i =1
i =1
where is the friction coefficient between part and mould.

Unloading Process and Springback Calculation.
Unloading means load a reverse moment to the part, this
moment is equivalent to the value of loading moment, M,
which is described in Eq. (24).
M
(27)
=
EI
where is the curvature variation, I is sectional moment
of inertia, M is the reverse moment, M = M .
1
1
raf rbf
(28)
where rbf and raf are the radius of curvature of neutral

plane of part before and after springback, rbf = re .
The magnitude of springback is defined as follows:
r rd rd
(29)
=
rd
rd
where rd is the radius of curvature of the mould, rd is the
radius of curvature of the mould after springback.
Because of rd = raf ( rbf rd ) , thus
r = rd rd = raf rbf
(30)
Substituting Eqs. (28) and (30) into Eq. (29), it follows

that
rbf rbf
r
(31)
=
rd 1 + rbf rd
Results
Theoretical Result. Based on analytical analysis, the
longitudinal stress distribution across the section when the
stretch-bending process is completed is showed in Figure
7. The stretching force along the circumference of part is
showed in Figure 8. The moment and the radius of neutral
layer rn in various cross-sections are showed in Figure 9.
Stretching Force in Cross-Section. For the convex curvature parts which has single contact surface with mould,
the stretching force of cross section is
Ts = Te
cos
(25)
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09.08.2010 14:35:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Theoretical springback and experimental springback in
different radius of mould and different stretching force is
shown in Figure 12. Comparing the theoretical data with
experimental data, it can be found that theoretical springback rules are approximately the same as the experimental
ones.
Figure 7. Stress distribution across section.
Figure 8. Stretching force along the circumference of part.

Figure 12. Springback value.
Conclusions
Figure 9. Moment and Neutral layer rn in various cross-sections.
Experimental Result. The stretch-bending experiment

is conducted on transfer arm stretch-bending machine. The
part is constituted with three different radius of arc mold.
The bending angle of the part during stretch-bending is
90. The part radius after springback was measured. The
obtained parts are shown in Figure 10. Figure 11 shows
the part in stretch bending.
Figure 10. Obtained parts.
Figure 11. Part in stretch bending.
The area of section is 12.28 mm2, and its moment of inertia is 651.25 mm4. The friction coefficient between part
and mould is 0.10. The length of part is 1 m. The radius of
arc mould rd is 160, 230 and 330 mm.
Material type
s /MPa
K /MPa
197
774.15
0.1967
/GPa
stainless steel 430
207
Test results showed that different batches of parts have

different springback because of roll forming.
764
An stretch-bending analytical model and springback

prediction model are developed. It can be applied on the
kinematic hardening material and isotropic hardening
material. Theoretical springback is close to the
experimental values. The theoretical analysis results and
the experimental results showed that:
a) Residual stress caused by roll forming has great influences on springback. b) Different types of cross-section
have different springback laws. The structure of crosssection has significant influence on the stress distribution
of cross-section in the bending stage, so it can result in
different springback value. In addition, mould surface,
mould surfaces location and angle can also cause different stress distribution in the bending stage. c) The influences of material property: material with small Youngs
modulus has large springback value; large K value will
cause large springback value; large n value will cause
small springback value; as the coefficient of friction is
increasing, the springback tend to increase simultaneously.
d) Except for material parameter, the stability of crosssection and stretch-bending process parameters are also
related with springback. Once cross-section changes, its
springback value will change. Increasing the stretching
force will reduce springback.
References
[1] A.H. Clausen, O.S. Hopperstad, M. Langseth: Journal of Materials
[2] T. Kuwabara, S. Takahashi, K. Akiyama, Y. Miyashita: SAE 950691
(1995) 1-10.
[3] Z.T. Zhang, S.J. Hu: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences,
40-6 (1998), 553-543.
[4] A.A. El-Domiaty, A.A. Elsharkawy: International Journal of Machine
Tools & Manufacture, 38-1-2 (1998), 75-95.
[5] A. El-Megharbel, A. EL-Domiaty, M. Shaker: Journal of Materials
[6] X. Wang, M. Shao: Tsinghua University Press, (1996), 499.
09.08.2010 14:35:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analysis of Longitudinal Cambering in V-bending of Sheet Metal

Yingjun Jin, Takahiro Shibata, Hitoshi Omata, Junichi Koyama
Research Laboratory, Amada Co., LTD., Isehara, Kanagawa / Japan, ying@amada.co.jp
In the air bending of sheet metal, the longitudinal camber appears along the ridge line direction. In theory only saddle camber is generated.
However, in experiment either saddle camber or bow camber is generated. Since the opposite direction of camber may be caused by the
blanking method used prior to bending, the type and magnitude of camber are investigated taking laser cutting, shear cutting and wire
cutting as the blanking method. Large amount of bow camber would be caused by residual stress generated by laser cutting. In order to
clarify the effect of residual stress on longitudinal camber, the heat affected zone that is generated by laser cutting is removed before bending. Effect of removal width on longitudinal camber was investigated. It is clarified that longitudinal camber in V-bending is easily affected by
residual stress caused by previous blanking methods, such as laser cutting. Finally, a new assumption of longitudinal camber considering
residual stress, which is occurred by the previous blanking in the V-bending of blank sheet metal, is proposed.
Keywords: V-bending, Blank sheet metal, Longitudinal camber, Laser cutting, Residual stress
Introduction
Sheet metal bending is one of the most widely-used
methods in sheet forming operations to produce frames,
channels, and other non-symmetrical sheet metal parts [1].
Although the process is simple, the bending operation
presents several technical problems in production. These
problems include the prediction of springback, control of
the process or press and accuracy of the component shape.
Camber has a significant effect on final product quality in
the V-bending of thin sheet metal. In the air bending of
sheet metal, the camber which appears along the ridge line
direction can be classified into edge camber and longitudinal camber according to the difference of generation cause.
The edge camber appears at the edge along the ridge line
direction of a bent sheet metal, because of extreme
changes in the stress state from plane strain to plane stress.
The longitudinal camber that is formed at the central part
of a long V-shaped bent sheet metal is caused by the difference of strain ratio in elastic and plastic deformation
during V-bending [2].
Up to now, there are experimental [3] and analytical reports [2] for the longitudinal camber. The longitudinal
camber has been analyzed theoretically for sheet metal
bending without any initial residual stress. The amount of
camber increases with the bend length of bending sheets,
the sheet thickness and under the bending condition where
springback becomes large. On the other hand, it decreases
proportionally to inertia moment of the bent sheet metal
after the springback is attained. However, there are few
reports of the camber generated by the residual stress generated in the previous blanking process.
The present study aims at building up an analytical
method to predict chamber behavior and to clarify the
camber occurrence characteristic qualitatively and quantitatively in this study. The longitudinal camber is defined as
saddle camber or bow camber corresponding to the direction of longitudinal camber. Series of experiments showed
contrary results to theoretical report [2] saying saddle
cambers should be generated in the V-bending of ideal
sheet metal. Actually, either saddle shape camber or the
bow shape camber appears after bending along the ridge
line, depending on the type of previous blanking method:
laser cutting, shear cutting or turret punch cutting. On the

other words, opposite shape camber occurs in the Vbending. Moreover, the amount of camber of sheet metal
that blanked by laser is significantly larger than that of
sheet metal blanked by other methods.
Laser cutting is one of the most useful and common applications of lasers in materials processing. It is used in
cutting a variety of materials such as metals, nonmetals
and organics. The high mode quality and small spot size of
the laser with optimized pulses facilitate cutting of intricate features in material. The laser cutting shows higher
values of residual stresses, due to the kinetics of cooling
and changes in microstructure of the material. The
temperature gradient generated in the cutting section
causes high residual stress levels. The compressive stress
and tensile stress exist in the cutting area of blank sheet [3].
It is considered that the large amount of camber would
be caused by residual stress generated by laser cutting. In
order to clarify the effect of residual stress on longitudinal
camber, first, the influence of previous cut methods on
longitudinal camber is investigated firstly. Secondly, occurring direction and amount of camber are discussed
based on the theoretical report. Then, the heat affected
zone by the laser cutting was removed before bending. The
effect of the heat affected zone on longitudinal camber, is
investigated by experiment. Finally, based on the experimental result, a new assumption of camber occurring in
the V-bending of blank sheet metal is proposed.
Experimental Set Up and Methods
Press-brake was used as a bending machine. The sizes of
the punch and die for press-brake are shown in Table 1.
Cold rolled steel SPCC sheet with thickness t of 1.2 mm
was bent. Sheet metal has the length l=400 mm parallel to
the ridge line and a breadth of 15 mm in the vertical direction. The bending shape is either V shape or U shape. Both
side flange length of V shape and U shape are controlled
from 7.5 to 20.0mm, and the bottom flange length is fixed
at fb=50mm in the U shape product. In order to eliminate
effect of the bending angle of products on the longitudinal
camber, the blank sheet metal is bent at 90 degrees. These
strips are extracted perpendicularly to the rolling direction
765
09.08.2010 14:35:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
of strip. The mechanical characteristic of strip can be
summarized as shown in Table 2.
Table 1. Dimension of punch and die.
Punch angle p
88
Punch radius
rp
0.6
Punch side length
lp
9.0
Punch
(A4-06)
Die v width wd
Die
(AT688)
And, because the moment of inertia of the U-shape bent

sheet metal is larger than that of the V-shape, the maximum longitudinal camber of the U-bending is smaller than
that of V-bending.
Die side radius rd
1.5
Die angle d
88
Table 2. Mechanical properties of material.
SPCC
Youngs modulus
Poissons ratio
Strength coefficient
MPa
525
Hardening exponent
MPa
0.237
Proof of strip e
MPa
166
MPa
Figure 2. Photograph of longitudinal cambers of bent sheet metal

cut by laser, shear and wire.
2.03e+5
0.283
Longitudinal Camber, w / mm
Material
1.2
SPCC, t=1.2mm, fb=50mm, fs=7.5mm,

Laser cut
U bending
Shear cut
0.9
Wire cut
0.6
Bow camber
0.3
0
Saddle camber
-0.3
0
100
200
300
400
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of longitudinal camber (Upper

side: V-bending, lower side: U-bending).

Bending Behavior Dependence on Previous Cutting
Methods. Either bow or saddle shape camber appears
along the ridge line direction, when the blank sheet metal
is bent by press brake. Schematic illustration of longitudinal camber on bent sheet metal is shown in Figure 1. The
longitudinal camber is defined as saddle camber or bow
camber corresponding to the direction of longitudinal
camber. Cold rolled steel SPCC sheet was cut by laser
cutting, shear cutting and wire cutting, and bent to V shape
and U shape by press brake. Figure 2 shows photograph
of longitudinal cambers of U bent sheet metal. The previous methods in the experiment includes laser cutting,
shearing cutting and wire cutting. Longitudinal cambers
were compared as shown in Figure 3. Bow cambers are
generated for both the sheet metals cut by laser and shear
cutting, in contrast to theory, which predict that saddle
camber will take place, instead [2].The amount of the
longitudinal camber after the laser cutting is about five
times large than that of the shear cutting. On the contrary,
saddle camber is generated when the sheet metal cut by
wire cutting. Opposite shape camber was observed depending on the previous cut methods. The maximum value
of the longitudinal camber is defined as the maximum
longitudinal camber. The influence of flange breadth on
maximum longitudinal because that the moment of inertia
of the bent of sheet metal increases with increase of flange.
766
Maximum longitudinal Camber,

mw / mm
Length of strip, l / mm
Figure 3 Influence of previous cutting method on longitudinal
cambers in bending.
1.6

Laser cutting
V Bending
U Bending
1.2
0.8
0.4
0
0
10
15
20
25
Flange length of bent sheet metal, hf /mm

Figure 4. Effect of flange length on maximum longitudinal camber
of laser-cut blank sheet metal.
Calculation of Longitudinal Camber. Figure 5 shows

the mechanism of camber occurrence in V-bending. When
the sheet is bent, the outside circumferential portion of
sheet will undergo tension and stretch to a greater length
in a-a direction, and longitudinal portion b-b becomes
shorten by compression. At the same time, the inside
circumferential portion experiences compression and
shortens in c-c direction, and longitudinal portion d-d
becomes longer. Therefore, the longitudinal camber is
generated by compression in outer longitudinal axis and
tension in inside longitudinal axis. While the sheet is
tightly constrained between die and punch, bending moment Mz is generated due to volumetric constancy in plastic deformation and elastic influence expressed by Poisson's ratio. After released from die, camber would occur so
09.08.2010 14:35:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
9. The bow camber reaches its maximum value of about 1
mm when the removal width is lc=0 mm.
0
mw / mm
that the moment may become zero. The bending moment

[2] that is generated in the longitudinal axis is found to be
-0.1
-0.2
Figure 5. Mechanism of camber occurrence in V-bending. Dash

line shows inside portion and line shows outside portion.
Mz =
(v p ve )
sin
Et 3
2
6(1 ve )
(1)
-0.3
300
(2)
A virtually ideal sheet without residual stress is bent for

verification of the above equation. Sheet metals, sectioned
out by shear cutting, was subjected to heat-treatment at
600 C for removal of residual stresses [5]. The saddle
camber occurs after bending. Figure 6 shows the comparison of the maximum longitudinal camber obtained by Eq.
(2) with that by the experiment. Calculated and experimental results are in good agreement.
Influence on Blank Sheet Metal by Laser Cutting.
The direction of camber of wire cut sheet is the same as
the analytical result. However, the bow camber occurred in
bending of sheet metal blanked by shearing cut and laser
cut, and, the amount of camber is larger specifically, while
the sheet metal is blanked by laser cutting.
Wire-cutting is commonly used when low residual
stresses are desired. Wire may leave residual stress on the
work piece that is significantly less than those in
machining. On the contrary, heat-affected zone is
produced during laser cutting, because the temperature
rises above the critical transformation point. In laser
cutting, this is localized near the cutting zone. The
temperature gradient generated in the cutting section
causes high residual stress levels [4]. Distribution of
residual stress of laser cutting blank sheet metal is shown
in Figure 7. The compressive stress and tensile stress
exists in the cutting area of blank sheet metal. The domain
of the tensile residual stress reaches up to about 2 mm
from the heat source and the maximum tensile stress is
about 180 MPa in the experiment. There is the compressive residual stress from 2 mm to 10 mm from the cut
surface and the maximum compressive stress is about 70
MPa. In order to clarify the effect of residual stress on
longitudinal camber, the heat affected zone was removed
before bending, as shown in Figure 8. The length of removed area lc ranges from 0 to 10 mm while the remainder
length w0 is constant at 61 mm. Relationship between
removal width and longitudinal camber is shown in Figure
Residual stress, /MPa
l2
l 2M z
=
8 z 8 EI z
10
15
20
Flange length of bent sheet metal, hf / mm
25
Figure 6. Comparison of camber between analytical and experimental results on heat-treated sheet metal.
where vp=0.5, ve is Poisson's ratio, E is Young's modules,
w =

Shear cutting, Annealing temperatureT=600C
-0.4
0
is the bending angle and is the springback angle.
Then, the camber is expressed as
Measured value
Calculated value
CO2 Laser, N2 Assistant gas, pgas =0.8MPa

P=2.7kW, v=80mm/s, f=0mm
SPCC, t=1.2mm
200
Insertion value
100
0
-100
Assumption: Residual stress =0MPa

on sheet metal before laser cutting
-200
0
10
12
Distance from cut surface in width directioin,y /mm
Figure 7. Distribution of residual stress in laser-cut blank sheet

metal.
Laser cutting surface
lc
lc
w0
Figure 8. Removal of heat-affected zone.
The amount of camber decreases with increase of the
removal width from laser cutting surface. When the removal width lc is larger than 1 mm, saddle camber appears
instead of bow camber. When removal width lc is 0.5 mm,
the camber decreases remarkably down to about 0.15 mm
because the high value of tensile residual stress area has
been removed. Most of the area with residual stress has
been removed when removal width is more than 1 mm.
Hence, the bow camber changes to saddle camber. More
than removal width is up to 10 mm, the most compressive
stress portion is cut and residual stress closes to zero.
Therefore, the amount of saddle camber becomes smaller
oppositely. It is clarified that longitudinal camber in V
bending is easily affected by residual stress caused in the
previous blanking, such as laser cutting.
New Hypothesis Analysis for Longitudinal Camber.
Longitudinal camber in V-bending is susceptible to residual stress caused by previous blanking method, such as
767
09.08.2010 14:35:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
Longitudinal Camber, w / mm
shear cutting and laser cutting. Figure 10 shows the new

assumption for mechanism of the longitudinal camber
1.6
SPCC, t=1.2mm,
1.4 fb=50mm, fs=7.5mm
1.2
1 bow camber
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
saddle camber
-0.2
0
100
200
lc =0mm
lc =0.1mm
lc =0.5mm
lc =1.0mm
lc =2.0mm
lc =5.0mm
lc =10mm
300
400
Length of strip, l / mm
Figure 9. Effect of removal width on longitudinal camber.

M
Mrs
Mrs
w =
Mrs
Mrs
(a) Plane strain plastic bending
(c) Longitudinal elastic bending

mw / mm
Figure 10. Analysis procedure for springback deformation of unit

length element in bent part.
SPCC, t=1.2mm, fb=50mm, Laser cutting

Exp. Cal.
1.5
V Bending
U Bending
0.5
5
10
15
20
25
Side flange length of bent sheet metal, fs /mm
Figure 11. Comparison of experimental longitudinal camber with

calculated longitudinal camber.
768
A longitudinal camber appears along the ridge line direction, while the sheet metal is bent. The longitudinal
camber has a significant effect on final product quality.
Therefore, it is desirable to clarify the mechanism of longitudinal camber, in order to adjust the camber. The characteristic of longitudinal camber deformation is investigated experiment and analysis. The conclusions can be
summarized as follows:
1. The saddle longitudinal camber is generated in the Vbending of sheet metal when initial residual stress does
not exist.
2. The direction and magnitude of longitudinal camber are
determined depending on the difference between bending moment and moment by residual stress.
References
0
0
(3)
Conclusions
(b) Plane strain elastic unbending
l 2 ( M rs M z )
8 EI z
When moment Mrs caused by the residual stress is larger

than bending moment (vp-ve)M caused, then bow camber is
generated. When Mrs is smaller than (vp-ve)M, the saddle
camber is generated. When Mrs equals to (vp-ve)M, ideal
bending can be attained as shown in Figure 1. Figure 11
shows the comparison of the longitudinal camber obtained
by the formula (3) with the longitudinal camber obtained
by the experiment. The calculated longitudinal camber
agrees rather well with the one of experiment. Therefore, it
is important to control residual stress of blank sheet metal,
in order to realize ideal bending.
vpM
2.5
generated by the residual stress. The new moment Mrs is

generated by the residual stress in the flange side of the
sheet metal. The vertical component of Mrs acts on the
ridge line direction as shown in Figure 10 a, so that the
sheet is kept straight along the punch ridge. At the same
time, bending moment vpM that corresponds to plastic
strain ratio acts on the ridge line direction, too. However,
direction of both moments is negative during bending.
When the punch is removed to release the sheet metal, a
virtual moment, which value has the same value as bending moment in longitudinal axis veM, acts on the ridge line
direction, according to assumption, which is the removal
of bending moment after bending is equivalent to elastic
response obtained by superposition of moment with equal
magnitude, in the opposite direction. Totally, bending
moment of M=Mrs-(vp-ve)M acts on the ridge line direction
with removing of bending moment after bending. Hence,
the expression of (2) can be changed as
[1] D. Lazim: Springback in draw-bending on aerospace alloys, M.S.

Thesis, McGill University, Canada (2003).
[2] K. Kazama, Y. Nagai, K. Yagyu: Journal of the JSTP, 45-519 (2004),
51-55.
[3] T. Nakagawa, K. Suzuki: Proc. 26th Japanese Joint Conference for
the Technology of Plasticity, (1970), 189-192.
[4] T. Ito, M. Murata, T. Kuboki. Y. Jin: International Conference on
Computational Plasticity X, International Conference on Computational Plasticity, Barcelona, Spain, (2009).
[5] G. Krauss: STEELS: Heat Treatment and Processing Principles, ASM
international, (1989), 205-262.
09.08.2010 14:35:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Ratio of Punch Height to Workpiece Length in Partial V-bending Process

Sutasn Thipprakmas
1
Department of Tool and Materials Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok / Thailand,
sutasn.thi@kmutt.ac.th
The accuracy of the bending angle in the process of sheet metal bending is very important in the high precision electrical and automobile
parts, especially V-bending in which a wide range of complex shapes and part sizes can be fabricated. In this study, FEM was used for
investigating the effect of the ratio of punch height to workpiece length (Ph/Wl ratio) on the bending angle and the results were validated by
laboratory experiments. The FEM simulation results indicated the effect of Ph/Wl ratio on the over bending and the reversed bending features affecting the quality of the desired bending angle. In addition, the results elucidated that the application of the same Ph/Wl ratio with
different punch heights and workpiece lengths caused different spring-back or spring-go features. These effects of Ph/Wl ratio could be
theoretically clarified based on the stress distribution analysis. Therefore, to achieve the required bending angle, the control of Ph/Wl ratio
corresponding to the workpiece length in which the over bending, reversed bending, and spring-back features were balanced, must be
strictly considered.
Keywords: Bending, Punch height, Reversed bending, Spring-back, Spring-go, Finite element method
Introduction
The application of the bending process to electrical and
automobile products tends to increase because of the fabrication of the complex curvature shape with the low production cost. The V-bending process is one of the most
widely applied sheet metal forming operations using the
Press Break machine to obtain the economical set-up time
and cover an enormous range of part sizes. The V-bending
process works on a simple principle of bending the workpiece between a V-shaped punch and a die. However, a
major problem in the bending process is the difficulty
faced in achieving the desired bend angle. Expertise and
skills are required for increasing productivity as well as
improving product quality. In mass production, achieving
the desired bend angle is very difficult owing to the occurrence of the spring-back or spring-go phenomena. These
phenomena are influenced by various bending process
parameters such as material property, bending angle, and
bending radius [1,2]. In earlier researches, the Finite Element Method (FEM) was used and experiments were conducted to investigate the spring-back and spring-go phenomena and to solve this issue faced in several industrial
settings [3-15]. To achieve this, the spring-back and
spring-go phenomena were theoretically understood and
the effects of process parameters were theoretically clarified.
The report also demonstrated the mechanism of the
punch height effects on the bend angle [15]. It was found
that the spring-go occurrence was a result of the variance
(too small or too large) in the punch heights. However, the
investigation did not cover the effects of punch height in
relation to the workpiece length. As shown in Figure 1,
during the bending phase, the punch height relating to the
workpiece length could prevent the over bending feature.
Therefore, the selection of a suitable ratio of punch height
to workpiece length (Ph/Wl) resulted in accurate and efficient bent parts. In the present study, the FEM was used
and experiments were performed to investigate the Ph/Wl
ratio in the partial V-bending process. The effects of Ph/Wl
ratio could be theoretically clarified based on stress distri-
bution. The results indicated that the Ph/Wl ratio directly

affected the over bending occurrence and the reverse bending feature. The results also importantly elucidated that the
spring-back and spring-go features were different at the
same Ph/Wl ratio of the several punch heights and workpiece lengths. Therefore, the suitable Ph/Wl ratio must be
strictly considered to achieve the high quality bent parts.
Ph1
Punch
Workpiece
Ph2
Ph3
Ph1
Wl /2
Die
Figure 1. Illustration of Ph/Wl ratio and over bending feature.
FEM Simulation and Experimental Procedures

FEM Simulation Procedure. The FEM simulation
model of the partial V-bending process with the die radius
of 6 mm, punch radius of 4 mm, and 60 bending angle is
shown in Figure 2. The Ph/Wl ratios of 0.08, 0.23, and
0.37 with several punch heights (Ph) in the range of 6-26
mm and workpiece lengths (Wl) of 70 and 200 mm were
investigated as shown in Table 1. In this study, the FEM
simulation model was a two-dimensional plane strain with
thickness of 3 mm, and half of it was used to reduce the
calculated time. A commercial analytical code for the twodimensional implicit quasi-static finite element method
(DEFORM-2D) including the automatic mesh generation
function was used as the FEM simulation tool. This automatic remeshing function was set every five steps to prevent a divergence calculation owing to excessive deformation. The workpiece material was set as a type of elasto769
09.08.2010 14:35:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
plastic with a rectangular element of approximately 3500
elements. The punch and die were set as rigid types as
shown in Table 1. The aluminum A1100-O (JIS) was used
as the workpiece material with properties including ultimate tensile strength (B) of 92.5 MPa and elongation ()
of 46%. The elasto-plastic power-exponent hardening
model was used and the constitutive equation, as shown in
Table 1, was determined from the stressstrain curve obtained by the tensile testing experiment, specifically the
strength coefficient and strain hardening exponent values
were 160.4 MPa and 0.22, respectively.
Figure 3. V-bending die set assembled on tensile testing machine
for experiments.
p Punch
60
Workpiece
Ph
Rp 4 mm
R 10 mm
Die
Rd 6 mm
600
Figure 2. Illustration of FEM simulation model.
Comparison of Over Bending Features. The over

bending feature, which depended on process parameters
such as bend radius and bending angle, generally occurred
during the bending phase and sometimes remained even
after bending was complete. This feature had a direct effect on the accuracy of the bent parts.
p
Die
Table 1. FEM simulation conditions.
Punch
Punch
Simulation model
Plane strain model
Object type
Workpiece : Elasto-plastic
Punch/Die : Rigid
Workpiece material
A1100-O (t= 3 mm)

(B=92.5MPa, =46%)
Flow curve equation
= 160 .4
Angular die radius (Rd)
6 mm
0.22
MPa
Die
(a-2) Ph/Wl 0.23

(a-1) Ph/Wl 0.08
(a) Bending stroke 31.0 mm
Angular punch radius (Rp) 4 mm

Bending angle ()
60
Punch height (Ph)
6, 16, 26 mm
Workpiece length (Wl)
70, 200 mm
0.1
Punch velocity (
p )
0.05 mm/sec
Experimental Procedure. The V-bending dies and the

50 kN universal tensile testing machine (Lloyd Instruments Ltd) used for the laboratory V-bending experiments
are shown in Figure 3. The experiments were carried out
with the same FEM simulation to validate the FEM simulation results. The bending force was recorded and compared with the bending force analyzed by FEM. An aluminum sheet (A1100-O) of 30 mm in width and 3 mm in
thickness was used as the workpiece material. The five
experiments were repeatedly performed on each process
condition and the bend angle was examined using the
profile projector.
Punch
Punch
Workpiece
Workpiece
(b-2) Ph/Wl 0.23

(b-1) Ph/Wl 0.08
(b) Bending stroke 32.0 mm
3 mm
(c-2) Ph/Wl 0.23
(c-1) Ph/Wl 0.08
(c) Bending stroke 32.5 mm
Figure 4. Comparison of over bending with respect to Ph/Wl ratio.
770
09.08.2010 14:35:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
The over bending features with respect to the Ph/Wl ratio
are shown in Figure 4. The FEM simulation results illustrated that the Ph/Wl ratio affected the over bending feature.
With the bending stroke of 31.0 mm as shown in Figure
4(a), it was found that the workpiece was over bent, and
therefore, the bending angle was smaller than the desired
bending angle. At this particular bending stroke it was
noted that the amount of over bending angle was approximately 59 in both cases of small and large Ph/Wl ratios.
As the punch proceeds further, therefore, the punch edge
was earlier contact the leg of workpiece in the case of the
large Ph/Wl ratio comparing with that in the case of the
small Ph/Wl ratio as shown in Figure 4(b). At the end of the
bending stroke of 32.5 mm, the leg of the workpiece was
pushed backwards to the die side in the case of the large
Ph/Wl ratio as shown in Figure 4(c-2). However, the over
bending feature still remained in the case of the small
Ph/Wl ratio as shown in Figure 4(c-1). In addition, with the
same Ph/Wl ratio of several punch heights and workpiece
lengths, the FEM simulation results showed that the over
bending feature generated in the case of large punch height
and workpiece length was smaller than that in the case of
small punch height and workpiece length as shown in
Figure 5.
The results demonstrated that the Ph/Wl ratio directly affected the over bending feature. This feature resulted in
the variations in the spring-back and/or spring-go generation.
(a) Ph 6 mm, Wl 70 mm
Punch
3 mm
Punch
Die
(a)
D B
A Reversed
C
bending
zone
Ph 6 mm, Wl 70 mm (Ph/Wl 0.08)
Punch
Die
Bending
C
allowance
zone
B
AAC
Comparison of Stress Distributions. With reference to

the research conducted earlier [11,15], it can be mentioned
that stress was generated on the bending allowance and the
reversed bending zones. The FEM simulation results of the
stress distribution analysis in the workpiece with respect to
the Ph/Wl ratio are shown in Figure 6. It can be seen that
there was good conformity between the FEM simulation
results and the earlier researches. The compressive stress
was specifically generated on the punch side of the bending allowance zone and on the die side of the reversed
bending zone. However, the tensile stress was generated
on the die side of bending allowance zone and on the
punch side of reversed bending zone. It can be seen in
Figure 6(a) that the leg of the workpiece was seldom
pushed backwards to the die side. This resulted in the
generation of the remaining over bending feature as well
as a small amount of reversed bending. In contrast, it can
be seen in Figure 6(b) that the leg of the workpiece was
mostly pushed
A Reversed
bending
zone
(b)
Ph 16 mm, Wl 70 mm (Ph/Wl 0.23)
Bending
allowance
zone
Punch
(b) Ph 16 mm, Wl 200 mm
Figure 5. Comparison of over bending at same Ph/Wl ratio

(bending stroke 32.5 mm).
Bending
allowance
zone
A
Die
Die
Punch
BC
C
Die
C B
A C
D
Reversed
bending
zone
3 mm
(c)
Ph 16 mm, Wl 200 mm (Ph/Wl 0.08)
Mean stress (MPa): A = -150, B = -75, C = 0, D = 75

Figure 6. Comparison of stress distribution (bending stroke 32.5
mm).
backwards to the die side when there was an increase in

the Ph/Wl ratio. This resulted in the decreasing of the over
bending feature, in addition to a large amount of reversed
bending was generated. The FEM simulation results of the
stress distribution analysis in the workpiece with respect to
applying the same Ph/Wl ratio to several punch heights and
workpiece lengths are shown in Figure 6(a) and (c). The
FEM simulation results indicated that the reversed bending
zone generated in the case of a large punch height and
workpiece length was larger in comparison to that generated with a small punch height and workpiece length.
After compensating these features, the spring-back or
spring-go feature was generated on the bent workpiece.
771
09.08.2010 14:35:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
The results elucidated that the required bending angle
could be achieved by controlling the Ph/Wl ratio that corresponded with the workpiece length in which the over
bending, reversed bending, and spring-back features were
balanced.
illustrated in Figure 9. It can be seen that the FEM simulation results showed a good agreement with the experimental results. The error in bending angle analyzed by FEM
was approximately 1% when compared to the experimental results.
Comparison of the FEM Simulation and Experimental Results. Laboratory experiments were performed to
validate the FEM simulation results. The comparison of
the FEM simulation and experimental results was shown
in Figure 7. The bending force was examined and compared with the bending force analyzed by FEM as shown
in Figure 8. The FEM simulation results showed good
agreement with the experimental results with an approximate error of 1%. Further, the results corresponded well
with the bending theory and the earlier research [15].
In addition to the bending force, the bending angle was
examined using the profile projector. A comparison of the
bending angle analyzed by FEM and experiments is
Conclusions
55.3
55
3 mm
3 mm
(a) FEM simulation result
(b) Experimental result
Figure 7. Comparison of FEM simulation and experimental results

(Ph 6 mm, Wl 70 mm).
12000
load (N)
10000
E XP .
6000
4000
2000
0
0
10
15
20
25
30
Bending stroke (mm)
35
40
Spring-go() / spring-back()
Figure 8. Comparison of bending forces between FEM simulation

and experimental results (Ph 6 mm, Wl 70 mm).
1
0
-1 0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
-2
-3
-4
-5
FEM
Exp
-6
Ratio of punch height to workpiece length (Ph/Wl )
Figure 9. Comparison of bending angle between FEM simulation

and experimental results (Wl 70 mm).
772
Acknowledgement
The author would like to express his gratitude to the
Center of Excellent in Sheet and Bulk Metal Forming
Technology (SBMFT). The author also thanks undergraduate student Miss. Wassana Thongthing for her help in
the FEM simulation.
References
FE M
8000
The ratio of punch height to workpiece length (Ph/Wl) in

the partial V-bending process was investigated using FEM
and the results were validated by experiments. The FEM
simulation results indicated that the effects of Ph/Wl ratio
could be theoretically clarified based on the stress distribution analysis. It was found that an increase in the Ph/Wl
ratio resulted in a decrease in the over bending feature and
an increase in the reversed bending zone. These features
resulted in spring-back and spring-go generation on bent
parts. Moreover, it was found that applying the same Ph/Wl
ratio to different punch heights and workpiece lengths
caused different spring-back and spring-go features.
Therefore, to achieve the desired bending angle, the application of a suitable Ph/Wl ratio corresponding with the
workpiece length should be strictly considered. This is
important to maintain the balance of compensating the
over bending, reversed bending, and spring-back features.
[1] Schuler. Metal Forming Handbook. New York: Springer-Verlag,

(1998), 366-373.
[2] K. Lange: Handbook of Metal Forming. New York: McGraw-Hill
(1985), 19.1-19.35.
[3] L. Papeleux, J.P. Ponthot: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 125-6 (2002), 785-791.
[4] Y.E. Ling, H.P. Lee, B.T. Cheok: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 168 (2005), 296-302.
[5] O. Tekaslan, U. Seker, A. Ozdemir: Materials & Design, 27 (2006),
251-258.
[6] S.K. Panthi, N. Ramakrishnan, K.K. Pathak, J.S. Chouhan: Journal of
[7] J. Wang, S. Verma, R. Alexander, J. Gauc: Journal of Manufacturing
Processes, 10 (2008), 21-27.
[8] O. Tekaslan, N. Gerger, U. Seker: Materials & Design, 29 (2008),
1043-1050.
[9] T. Meinders, I. A. Burchitz, M. H. A. Bonte, R. A. Lingbeek: International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacturing, 48 (2008),499514.
[10] H. S. Kim, M. Koc: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
204 (2008), 370-383.
[11] S. Thipprakmas, S. Rojananan: Materials & Design, 29 (2008),
1526-1532.
[12] M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, B. Rahmani, V. Daeezadeh, A. Gorji: Materials & Design, 30 (2009), 2410-2419.
[13] H.Y. Yu: Materials & Design, 30 (2009), 846-850.
[14] R. Kazan, M. Firat, A. E. Tiryaki: Materials & Design, 30 (2009),
418-423.
[15] S.Thipprakmas: Materials & Design, 31 (2010), 1593-1598.
09.08.2010 14:35:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Die Shoulder Radius on Material Surface Scratch in V-bending of Sheet

Atsushi Ogata, Yingjun Jin, Takahiro Shibata, Yasushi Yamaya, Junichi Koyama
Research Laboratory, Amada Co., LTD, Kanagawa / Japan, a.ogata@amada.co.jp
In the V-bending fabricationg, scratches caused by the contact of the die shoulder radius and the sheet metal are produced on the sheet
metal surface. The scratch shape can be qualitatively assessed from the results calculated by FEM. The size of the scratching is
determined by the V-bending condition and the sheet metal properties. It is caused by varying the motion of the material on the V-bending
and the contact area between the die and the sheet metal. The scratches need to be evaluated by the width, the height, and the depth, and
classified based on the different ways it is produced. Both the scratch height and depth can be evaluated from FEM results qualitatively.
The scratch width almost corresponded with the contact area between the die and the sheet metal. From these results, the scratch width
can be estimated from the calculated sheet metal motion on the V-bending. However, there are differences between the calculated and
FEM contacted distance. The theoretical analysis needs to induce the sheet metal properties in order to make progress in predicting
accuracy of the contact area.
Keywords: V-bending, Scratch height, Scratch depth, Scratch width, Sheet metal
Introduction
Sheet metal bending is one of the most widely-used
methods in sheet forming operations to produce frames,
channels, and other non-symmetrical sheet metal parts [1].
Although the dimension accuracy, angle, the existence of
scratch and camber, etc., play an important role in the
quality of the bending product, there are only a few works
addressing these issues [2-4]. In particular, the scratch is a
large concern for the sheet metal products. For example,
kitchen instruments and medical equipments require high
hygiene standards, and thus scratches cannot be tolerated.
Because scratches invariably occur in the sheet metal
forming such as V-bending and L-bending, new processing
methods and new types of tools have been proposed in
order to avoid scratches or reduce its size.
In L-bending, it was proposed that the punch always remains in contact with the same point of the sheet metal
during the bending process. The punch track is searched
from the track of sheet metal calculated by FEM. As a
result, scratch width could be reduced from 3 mm to 0.2
mm [5]. However, it is very difficult to search in the different condition such as material type and thickness.
In V-bending, existing processing method ignore the
mechanism of scratch instead of that, the urethane press
brake tooling and wing bend tooling have been used to
reduce scratches [6]. In the urethane press brake tooling,
because it covers the working area of the die, there is no
direct contact between the sheet metal and the tool. Because urethane tools its hardness is softer than materials of
sheet metal, it is very difficult to obtain accurate inner
bending radius. In the wing bend, it is a rotary die
composed of two half-cylinders in a very high-resistance
chrome steel. When the sheet material is processed, two
half-cylinders rotate in accordance with downward
pressure exerted by upper tool. The face in contact
between with tool and sheet metal is always large.
However this method has only effect on vinyl coated metal.
In the V-bending process, non-vinyl metal has become
widely necessary for sheet metal products.
There are few reports about the scratch mechanism in Vbending. Makinouchi [7] reports FEM calculation to elu-
cidate the mechanisms that produce scratch. However, the

calculation mesh was too coarse to allow an accurate modelling in the region of the scratch. And also the model did
not take friction into account. These effects cannot be
neglected for an accurate modelling of the mechanism of
the scratch generation. Since more powerful computers
have recently brought about progress of in the FEM calculation techniques, it is worth revisiting the mechanism that
generates scratches.
The scratch produced by V-bending is showed in Figure
1. Sheet metal always contacts with die shoulder radius
during bending process and a relative movement between
the two exists, because the straight motion of punch
pushes the sheet metal into the die. The contact area between the die and sheet metal changes during the bending
process. Scratch dimension changes depending on the die
shape, punch shape, and sheet metal.
Sheet Punch
Metal
Die
Bending
Scratch
Figure 1. Production area of scratch in V-bending.
This study reveals the effect of die shoulder radius on

material surface scratch because sheet metal continually
moves at die shoulder radius area. Scratch can be divided
into vertical direction and horizontal direction in sheet
metal. In this work, we focused on scratch width in the
horizontal direction. The theoretical analysis will be able
to predict the scratch width.
773
09.08.2010 14:35:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental Set-Up and Numerical Analysis Methods
Finite element analysis was carried out using the
commercial code ELFEN, developed by Rockfield
Software Limited. The implicit method was used in order
to obtain sufficient stability of the solution and accuracy.
The FEA model is simplified to a 2D plane strain situation,
because the width of sheet metal is much larger than the
thickness. Fine mesh of the model is required in the sheet
metal surface to obtain accurate scratch dimensions,
because of the small contact area between the die and
sheet metal. The other regions use the coarser mesh.
The set-up of the FEM model is shown in Figure 2.
Punch radius rp is 6 mm, punch angle p is 60 degrees, die
v width wd is 40mm, die angle d is 84 degree. Die
shoulder radius rd is varied from 1 to 8 mm. The punch
and die are defined as rigid materials, and the sheet metal
is defined as elastic-plastic. The material used in the
simulation is SS400 (JIS). These workpieces are sectioned
perpendicularly to the rolling direction of sheet metal, and
the thickness is fixed at t0=6 mm. The mechanical
properties of the sheet metal are summarized in Table 1.
The material SS400 obeys the von Mises yield criterion,
which can be approximated by Swifts expression = F
(+ 0 )n, the friction coefficient is equal to 0.25.
In order to predict the scratch width, the theoretical
analysis was developed on the basis of geometric
configuration of tool and sheet metal.Then, the calculated
results are compared with FEM results.
scratch width obtained by FEM almost agrees with experimental results. The result can consider that FEM accurately evaluated scratch width. Therefore, this work shows
that scratch width could be accurately predicted by FEM.
Value of Scratch Width Required from FEM Results
Figure 5 shows the FEM results of the effective plastic
strain distribution in the sheet metal with respect to the die
shoulder radius at just before unloading. The distribution
was observed for all die shoulder radius and it was always
Figure 2. V-bending model used in the simulation.

Table 1. Properties of sheet material used in simulation.
Material
Youngs modulus E MPa
Poissons ratio
Strength coefficient F MPa
Hardening exponent n MPa
Yiele stress s MPa
Comparison of Experimental Scratch Height, Depth,

and Width with FEM Results
Scratch shape, S /mm
rp=6mm,
Scratch
Width
0.01 d=84deg.,
wd=40mm,
FEM
-0.01
Experiment
Surface
Edge
4
6
8
Surface distance, d /mm
10
Figure 3. Scratch shape of FEM result and experimental result.
Scratch height, Sh / mm
0.03
SS400, t=6mm,
p=60deg., rp=6mm,
d=84deg., wd=40mm,
0.02
0.01
0
0
Scratch height
Scratch depth
0.03
0.02
0.01
Scratch height, Sd / mm
SS400, t=6mm,
p=60deg.,
Scratch
Depth
774
0.02
Scratch
Height
The scratch is produced along the die shoulder radius

location when the sheet metal is bent by press brake. Experimental scratch shape and corresponding FEM results,
for a die shoulder radius of 4 mm, are shown in Figure 3.
A surface profiler, which is SE-30C developed by Kosaka
Laboratory Ltd., was used to measure the surface profile.
Scratch height, depth and width were measured on the
basis of a criterion described as follows.
Scratch height, measured with respect to the undamaged
surface level, is 0.016 mm, while FEM predicts 0.0049
mm. The experimental scratch depth with respect to the
intact surface level is 0.010 mm while FEM predicts
0.0026 mm. The FEM results underestimate the experimental results by a factor of about three. Because sheet
metal used in experiment was as-forged surface, the asforged surface part came off during the bending process.
Moreover, FEM simulation needs to consider other factors,
such as friction and, in order to accurately evaluate scratch
height and depth. But the major peak at experimentally
found at the edge side also shows up in FEM. These results suggest that FEM can evaluate scratch shape qualitatively. Effect of die shoulder radius on scratch height is
shown in Figure 4. When the die shoulder radius is less
than 4 mm, both the scratch height and depth decrease as
die shoulder radius increases. When the die shoulder radius exceeds 5 mm, the both of variation are small.
Scratch width is defined as the distance between two
points peaks on the surface as shown in Figure 4. The
SS400
1.99e+5
0.227
637.3
0.177
299.4
0
10
Die shoulder radius,rd / mm

Figure 4. Effect of die shoulder radius on scratch width and
contact distance.
09.08.2010 14:35:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 5. Distribution of effective plastic strain.
Figure 8 illustrates the motion of the sheet metal during

bending process. A is a certain point on sheet metal surface and absolute value of a is more than the die v width.
B is the contact point on sheet metal between the die and
the sheet metal. P is the centre point of the punch tip.
Because the sheet metal keeps the length AP almost constant during the bending process, the point A moves towards edge direction of sheet metal and then towards
centre direction of sheet metal till die shoulder radius
equals 8 mm. The contact distance is defined as the contact between the die and sheet metal caused by two motions.
Figure 9 shows the moving distance towards the edge
direction and the moving distance towards the centre direction obtained by the FEM. The moving distance towards the edge direction decreases with the increase of die
shoulder radius. The moving distance towards the centre
direction increases with the increase of die shoulder radius.
Therefore, the contact distance reaches the lowest value,
Scratch width, w /mm
SS400, t=6mm,
p=60deg., rp=6mm,
4 d=84deg., wd=40mm,
Scratc width
Contact distance
0
0
2
4
6
8
Die shoulder radius, rd /mm
1
0
10
Figure 6. Effect of die shoulder radius on scratch width and

contact distance.
1400
Max stress, MAX /MPa
Calculation of the Scratch Width.
Contact distance, d /mm
produced at the contact point between the die and sheet

metal. Deformation in the vertical direction is almost same
until the die shoulder radius equals to 4 mm. However
deformation in longitudinal direction becomes shorter
when the die shoulder radius becomes larger. When the die
shoulder radius exceeds 4 mm, deformation in the vertical
direction becomes gradually smaller. The final contacting
position approaches the centre side of sheet metal when
the die shoulder radius becomes larger. These results indicate that the mechanism to produce scratch is affected by
die shoulder radius condition.
Figure 6 shows effect of die shoulder radius on scratch
width and contact distance. Contact distance is defined as
the length of sheet metal contacted with die during bending process. Scratch width is found to be minimum value
when the die shoulder radius equals 4 mm. Moreover, the
scratch width becomes almost the same as the contact
distance. Figure 7 shows relationship between maximum
contact pressure and clamping angle at the contact point.
Clamping angle is defined as sheet metals angle of 180
degrees or less before removing the punch and die. Because of the maximum stress is over the yield stress of
SS400, scratches are always produced during bending
process. The scratch width can be predicted based on
contacting distance.
SS400, t=6mm,
p=60deg., rp=6mm,
d=84deg., w d=40mm,
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
180
rd=1
rd=4
rd=8
160
140
120
100
Clamping angle, c / deg.
80
Figure 7. Relationship between MAX stress and clamping angle.
when the die shoulder radius equals to 3 mm.

In order to predict the scratch width, theoretical analysis
was made based on the contact distance. A certain point
A(x, y) on the sheet metal, which is shown in Figure 7,
acquired from the relationship of geometric deformation.
Moreover the contact point on the sheet metal is the point
at which the distance between die and sheet metal becomes zero. Using their relationship, after a contact point
(xc, yc) on the sheet metal during bending process and the
contact distance ac are acquired. These factors are given
by the following formula:
775
09.08.2010 14:35:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
where s is the stroke and is taken from stroke. It is assumed that the bend deduction equals to 0, and bend radius equals to punch radius.
The contact distance between die and the sheet metal
calculated from Eq. (5) is shown in Figure 10. The calculated contact distance is similar to that of FEM. However
there are differences between the calculated and FEM
contacted distance. It is because that the bend deduction
assumed as 0 included into the FEM calculated results. As
per this effect, the difference of the motion of sheet metal,
and the contact distance between the sheet metal and the
die shoulder radius also become different. From these
results, the theoretical analysis needs to induce the material property to improve the accuracy of determination the
contact area.
Some factors, such as thickness of sheet metal, die v
width, punch radius, and die angle have effective on
scratch. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify this factors
affects on scratch.
Conclusions
Scratches produced by V-bending caused by contact between die and sheet metal. The scratch was classified into
scratch height, depth, and width. They were evaluated by
experiment and FEM simulation. The conclusion can be
summarized as follow:
1. Scratch height and width can qualitatively be evaluated
and scratch width can accurately be predicted by FEM
simulation.
2. Scratch width almost agrees with the contact distance.
3. Scratch width can predict from the theoretical analysis.
However the theoretical analysis needs to induce the
material properties.
References
[1] D. Lazim: Springback in draw-bending on aerospace alloys, Master
Thesis, McGill University, Canada (2003)
[2] D.H. Kim, B.M. Kim, Y. Lee: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 139 (2003), 414-421.
[3] K. Kazama, Y. Nagai, K. Yagyu: Journal of the JSTP, 45-519 (2004),
51-55.
[4] K. Kazama, Y. Nagai: Journal of the JSTP, 45-516 (2004), 40-44.
[5] J. Koyama, Y. Jin, K. Imai, T. Kuboki, M. Murata: Journal of the
JSTP, 50-586 (2009), 1029-1033.
[6] The FABRICATOR, March (2009) 36-38.
776
[7] A. Makinouchi, T. Takizawa, N. Mori: Proc. 1990 Japanese Spring

Conference for the Technology of Plasticity 1 (1990), 1-4.
Figure 8. Sheet metal motion during bending process.
5
Contact distance, d/mm
(1)
SS400, t=6mm,
p=60deg., rp=6mm,
4 d=84deg., wd=40mm,
3
2
1
0
0
Direction of center
Direction of edge
Contact distance
2
4
6
8
Die shoulder radius, dr /mm
10
Figure 9. Moving distance towards the edge direction and towards

the centre direction.
6
Contact distance, d /mm
x a cos rp cos rp t sin

2
rp t
y x tan rp s
cos
rp t
w
rd
rp s
t rd tan d
cos
2
d
tan
4
xc
1 tan 2
Rp t
yc xc tan R p s
cos
y c rp s
rp t
t
ac
rp rp t tan
sin
2
sin cos
SS400, t=6mm,
5 p=60deg., rp=6mm,
d=84deg., wd=40mm,
4
3
2
1
0
0
Theoretical analysis
FEM
2
4
6
8
Die shoulder radius, rd /mm
10
Figure 10. Contact distance between die and sheet metal acquired the theoretical analysis and FEM.
09.08.2010 14:35:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Press-Braking Bending Process of Thick Plates

Jung-Won Park, Ji-Woo Park, Hak-Gon Noh, Beom-Soo Kang, Tae- Wan Ku
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / S. Korea, longtw@pusan.ac.kr
The roll bending process is widely used to manufacture pipes with thin and large size. However, to produce thick, large and long pipes used
for oil, gas and water pipelines, thick plate bending processes using press-braking bending apparatus are more suitable. In the pressbraking bending, main process parameters are able to be summarized as stroke of the press-braking knife, distance between two rollers,
and feeding length of the thick plate. In fact, various pipe diameters could be obtained by combinations of the mentioned parameters. In this
study, the press-braking bending is considered to simulate and verify the thick plate bending process for shaping the flat plate into the
required circular and tubular pipe. The repetitive numerical simulations by feeding the plate are performed by finite element analysis in case
of a knife stroke of 18mm, a turning roller distance of 250mm and a feeding length of 50mm. The simulated results are compared with those
of the experiment. As the results, the evaluation to verify the soundness for the obtained pipe is carried out, and the pipe diameters between the numerical and the experimental approaches are well matched.
Keywords: Press-braking bending process, Press-braking knife, Thick plate bending, Finite element analysis
Introduction
Thick, large and long pipes are widely used for various
purposes such as oil, gas and water pipeline including
ocean and industrial plants. The pipes are produced by
specified standards according to API specifications. As hot
issues on the mentioned pipe manufacturing, it could be
summarized to achieve easy forming, low cost, high
strength, and so on. At the same time, the pipe has to be
warranted durability and corrosion resistance. Based on a
sharp of demand on the pipe, the related manufacturers are
speeding up to develop the various pipes and the productive facilities. Roll bending process is used for producing
the pipe with thin and large size as shown in Figure 1 [14]. Its process is often controlled by three or four bending
rollers, and the pipes are produced between the rollers.
However, it is not suitable process for producing the thick,
large and long pipes. Press-braking bending process is one
of the pipe manufacturing methods for the thick, large and
long pipes [5]. Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of the
press-braking bending process. This forming system consists of press-braking knife, two turning rollers which
distance could be controlled, and lower mold. Various
thick, large and long pipes could be formed according to
controlling the distance between both turning rollers, the
press-braking knifes stroke and the feeding length of the
thick plate. On the other hand, the press bending process
for the thin plate/sheet material has been generally adopted
to achieve L-bending, V-bending and U-bending shapes
[6-8]. However, there are few systematic approaches for
the thick plate bending process by using the press-braking
bending apparatus.
To produce the thick, large and long pipe used for oil,
gas and water pipelines, many researcher and manufacturer considered that the thick plate bending process using
a press-braking bending apparatus is more suitable. From
the considerations, the press-braking bending apparatus in
this study was developed as shown in Figure 3. The pressbraking bending process was considered to simulate and
verify the thick plate bending for shaping the flat plate into
the required circular and tubular pipe. Using a concept for
the thick plate bending, finite element analysis was carried
out. The numerical analysis by feeding the thick plate were

repetitively achieved in case of the knife stroke of 18mm,
the turning roller distance of 250mm, and the feeding
length of 50mm. Moreover, a series of the experimental
investigation for this process was also performed. With
both numerical and experimental results, the comparative
evaluation was achieved to verify the soundness for the
obtained pipes. With the results between the finite element
analysis and the experiment, the obtained pipe diameters
were well matched with a slight difference.
Figure 1. Conventional roll bending process.
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of press-braking bending process.
Figure 3. Press-braking bending apparatus for producing thick,

large and long pipe.
777
09.08.2010 14:35:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Process Design for Press-Braking Bending
Figure 4 shows the 2-dimensional schematic view of the

thick plate bending process using the press-braking bending operation. This process is required the repetitive operations with a sequential forming flow. The main process
parameters are able to be summarized as the stroke of the
press-braking knife as a forming punch, the distance between both turning rollers, and the feeding length of the
thick plate used. Furthermore, the pipe diameter is tended
to depend upon the combination of these parameters. Especially, the stroke of the press-braking knife and the distance between the rollers play an important role in the
determination of the final dimension of the deformed pipe.
And the number of the forming operation is decided by the
feeding length per the operation of the thick plate. Thus,
the proper feeding length has to be considered, because it
can affect the final shape of the pipe.
Figure 5 shows the schematic view on the numerical
simulation for the press-braking bending process. In this
study, the thickness of the blank was 14 mm, and the
length of 12,000mm. As the process parameters in this
study, the distance between both turning rollers was 250
mm, the stroke of the press-braking knife was 18 mm, and
the feeding length per one operation was 50 mm, respectively. And then, the final diameter of the pipe could be
obtained by applying the mentioned parameters to the
press-braking bending process.
Finite Element Model. The finite element model for the

numerical analysis was shown in Figure 6. The model
consists of the press-braking knife, both turning rollers,
and the thick plate. The lower mold was not be considered
in the numerical analysis model, because the deformable
blank was not be contacted on the lower mold in the process. The initial blank was modelled as an isotropic and
elasto-plastic material. The used material for this pressbraking bending was an API X70 flat plate with the thickness of 14mm and the length of 12,000 mm. The material
properties of API X70 were given in Table 1. In the numerical analysis, the initial length of the blank was a half
length of the practical one, and the symmetric condition
was applied at the center of the blank. For the turning
roller, a half shape of a circle was made by finite element
analysis. The press-braking knife and two turning rollers
were modelled as rigid bodies. The friction coefficient
between the initial blank, the press-braking knife and the
turning rollers was assumed to be 0.12 as the coulomb one.
In fact, in the practical process, the press-braking knife
and both turning rollers were fixed, and the intermediate
blank has been moved along the horizontal direction as
long as the feeding length per each operation. However, to
easy the finite element analysis, the initial and the intermediate blanks were assumed to be not moved, and the
press-braking knife and the turning rollers were just
moved as shown in Figure 7. The repeated simulations by
feeding the thick plate were carried out using commercial
codes, ABAQUS, for the press-braking bending process.
In detail, the Dynamic/Explicit Mode of ABAQUS was
used to simulate the forming process, and the General/Static Mode of ABAQUS was used to analyze the
elastic recovery of the deformed blank. After every simulations of the mentioned forming process, the consideration for the elastic recovery of the deformed blank was
conducted. Except the first forming step, the analytic results within the intermediate blank of every operation were
used from the final conditions from the prior steps.
Figure 4. Thick pipe bending by press-braking bending process.
Figure 7. Sequence of finite element analysis.

Figure 5. Simulation condition of press-braking bending process.
Figure 6. 2-dimensional finite element model.
778
Analysis Results. Totally, the press-braking bending

process was performed with the 18 operations, and then
the additional numerical simulation to consider the elastic
recovery of the deformed blank was conducted. Figure 8
shows the distribution of the effective stress after the first
forming operation. The maximum effective stress was
appeared at the contacted region between the press-
09.08.2010 14:35:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. Material properties of API X70.
Youngs modulus (E)
205 GPa
Ultimate strength (u )
635 MPa
Yield strength (y )
485 MPa
Elongation (%)
35.67
Tensile strength (t )
570 MPa
(a) Whole section of first forming process [unit: MPa]
braking knife and the blank with the value under about
600 MPa. Furthermore, the deformation history of the
intermediate blanks by the press-braking bending process
was shown in Figure 9. The effective stress was also
measures as under 600 MPa in every forming operation. In
detail, the value of the effective stress was over than that
of the yield strength, and lower than that of the ultimate
strength. The distributions of the effective stress were
similar within each forming operation. Especially, the
spring-go effect as the result of the consideration for the
elastic recovery was investigated. It means that the deformed intermediate blank is tended to make a circular
configuration itself. Figure 10 shows the distribution of
the effective stress after the elastic recovery. The value of
the residual stress of the final deformed blank was under
270MPa, and the average residual stress was under
100MPa. The predicted pipe diameter of the final
deformed blank was estimated as about 525 mm with the
maximum difference of 4.55 mm and 1.73%.
Experiment
(b) Section A of first forming process [unit: MPa]
(c) Section B of first forming process [unit: MPa]

Figure 8. Distribution of effective stress after first forming process.
Experiment of Press-Braking Bending Process. To

obtain the pipe prototype with the thick, large and long
pipe, which was mentioned in the prior section, the
experimental investigation was carried out using the
developed press-braking bending apparatus as shown in
Figure 11. The used initial blank was same one of the
finite element analysis with the material properties and the
specifications. In the experiments, the repeated pressbraking bending operations of 36 times, because a half
model was considered in the numerical simulation as 18
times, were achieved to obtain the near circular crosssectioned configuration. As the experimental results, the
pipe diameter of the final deformed pipe had been
achieved as about 525 mm.
(a) Distribution of effective stress of deformed intermediate blanks
Figure 10. Predicted diameter and effective stress distribution

after considering elastic recovery [unit: mm, MPa].
(b) Sectional history of deformed intermediate blanks
Figure 9. History of deformed intermediate blanks by applying
press-braking bending process.
Results. As the results of the numerical approach, the

final shape of the deformed pipe could be obtained the
diameter of about 525 mm with the slight difference of
4.55 mm by applying the forming stroke of 18 mm. It
779
09.08.2010 14:35:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
means that the proper combination of the process
parameters such as the stroke of the press-braking bending
knife, the distance between both turning rollers, and the
feeding length could be realized the various diameters of
the desired pipe. Furthermore, the dimentional error in
terms of the pipe diameter was investigated as the value of
1.73%. Figure 12 shows the comparison of the final
shapes between the experiment and the analysis. With the
comparison result, the finite element analysis could be
used to predict of the final configuration of the thick pipe
bending by the press-braking bending process.
Figure 11. Press-braking bending experiment.
Conclusions
The press-braking bending process of thick plates was
suggested and studied. The finite element analysis and the
experimental approach of the press-braking bending process were conducted. The results of the numerical analysis
were compared with those of the experimental one and the
final dimension of the target shape. As the results obtained
from the numerical analysis and the experiment, the
evaluation to verify the soundness for the deformed pipe
was done, and the following results were obtained:
1. As the results from the numerical approach, the pipe
diameter can be predicted by applying the combination
of the process parameters such as the stroke, the distance between both turning roller, and the feeding
length of the material used.
2. To consider the elastic recovery, the elasto-plastic finite
element analysis was adopted, and then the spring-go
effect as one of the elastic recovery was investigated.
3. From the experiment of the press-braking bending process, the thick, large and long pipe, which was studied in
the numerical analysis, was obtained by the pressbraking bending apparatus.
4. Finally, it could be mentioned that the application with
the press-braking bending process and its apparatus can
be served with the advantages such as the high-quality
pipes, the variety of the obtainable and available pipe,
and the reduction of the production rate, and so forth.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Basic Science Research
third author would like to acknowledge the partial support
by the NRL Program (No.R0A-2008-000-20017-0), and
References
Figure 12. Comparison of final configurations between experimental and analytic investigations by press-braking bending process.
780
[1] G. Yang, K. Mori, K. Osakada: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 45 (1994), 161-166.
[2] M. Hua, D.H. Sansome, K.P. Rao, K. Baines: Journal of Material
[3] M. Hua, K. Baines, I.M. Cole: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 48 (1995), 159-172.
[4] M. Hua, K. Baines, I.M. Cole: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 39 (1999), 905-935.
[5] Z. Fu, J. Mo, W. Zhang: International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 45 (2009), 448-458.
[6] P.G. Coelho, L.O. Faria, J.B. Cardoso: International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, 35 (2005), 1451-1460.
[7] U.P. Singh, S.K. Maiti, P.P. Date, K. Narashimhan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 145 (2004), 269-275.
[8] K. Anokey-Siribor, U.P. Singh: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 99 (2000), 103-112.
09.08.2010 14:35:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
Prediction of Forming Limit Strains in Metal Sheets under Stretch-Bending Conditions

Domingo Morales, Carpforo Vallellano, Andrs J. Martnez-Donaire, Francisco J. Garca-Lomas
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Sevilla / Spain, dmpalma@us.es
Stress/strain gradients have a clearly beneficial effect on the initiation of necking and ductile fracture in metal sheets. Thus, the use of
classical failure criteria, assuming a uniform stress distribution across the thickness, is highly questionable for the study of sheet formability.
The present work analyses the strain/stress evolution in a sheet for a generic stretch-bending process. The capabilities of the Stress-Based
Concave- or Convex-Side Rules and Critical Distance concepts to predict the initiation of necking and ductile fracture are explored.
Keywords: Stretch-bending, Concave-Side Rule, Bending effect, Critical distance
Introduction
Bending has a clearly beneficial effect on the initiation
of necking and subsequent failure of a metal sheet in respect to a uniform strain state [1-3]. Recent studies have
pointed out that the evolution of stress/strain at each material layer across the sheet thickness is essential to account
for the gradient effect in formability [1-6]. In a previous
work [7], the authors successfully analysed the capability
of the Concave-Side Rule (CSR) or Convex-Side Rule
(CxSR), which were recently proposed, along with the
classical Critical-Distance Methods (strain-based) to describe the failure by necking or fracture under stretchbending conditions. However, a detailed analysis of the
strain evolution has shown that the material undergoes
locally non-proportional loading paths, even when the
global process is proportional. To minimise the loadingpath sensitivity shown by the strain descriptions, the present paper provides an extension of the previous formulation that is based on stresses.
Strain Gradient Assessment
In the absence of strain gradients (e.g., in-plane stretching), the sheet failure is essentially controlled by the onset
of necking. A strain gradient through the thickness of the
sheet has an important effect on its failure mechanism. For
instance, when the severity of the gradient is low (e.g., in
stretch-bending or stamping with tools of gentle radii), the
failure is governed by the initiation of necking. However,
as bending becomes more important (e.g., in air bending,
flanging or hemming processes) ductile fracture is the
dominant failure mechanism. Thus, two independent types
of failures are expected in a sheet, depending on the severity of the strain gradient: (1) a Necking-Controlled Failure
and (2) a Fracture-Controlled Failure.
Given that necking is a matter of plastic instability, it is
reasonable to assume that the local instability of the sheet
in its whole thickness arises when all material layers
become plastically instable. This occurs when the less
strained layers reach the plastic instability condition. In
this sense, the CSR for necking proposed by Stoughton [1]
states that necking occurs when the inner layer of the sheet
reaches a critical necking strain. The critical strain is estimated from the in-plane forming limit diagram (FLD) at
necking. This approach provides a simple engineering
method for evaluation of Necking-Controlled Failure.
Fracture-Controlled Failures are usually assumed to occur when cracks initiate at the sheet surface. Traditional
failure criteria consider that the sheet fractures when the
outer layer on the convex surface of the stretch-bent area
reaches a critical fracture strain. In practice, the critical
strain is estimated from the in-plane FLC at fracture. By
analogy, this approach is named the CxSR for fracture.
Stress-Based Forming Limits. As mentioned, the critical strain values used to evaluate the CSR and CxSR are
usually obtained from the in-plane FLD. Several authors
have pointed out that traditional strain-based FLDs exhibit
a strong dependence on the strain path [8,9]. Thus, it is
shown that non-proportional strain paths highly affect the
shape and position of the FLD in strain space.
As described in the following section, stretch-bending
processes induce a reversed straining at the inner layers.
The material of the concave side gets initially compressed,
due to bending, and then stretches up to failure (see Tharrett and Stoughton [1] and Uko et al. [10]). Thus, the material is subjected to a non-proportional strain path. The
smaller the punch radius, the higher the nonproportionality becomes.
To minimise the strain path dependence, failure predictions is formulated in stress space. The classical strainbased FLD is transformed into a Forming Limit Stress
Diagram (FLSD) to estimate the critical stresses for necking and fracture. Thus, the CSR and CxSR are redefined in
terms of stresses.
Damaged Material Volume. The main criticism of the
CSR and CxSR in their original form is that sheet failure is
focused on what occurs at single layers (i.e., inner or outer
surface, respectively). This assumption seems to be an
extreme simplification of the real process, and a more
realistic approach can be achieved by assuming that failure
is controlled by the development of damage in a certain
material volume. This damage volume is located at the
inner or outer side of the sheet, depending on the type of
failure considered.
The concept of a damaged material volume has been
widely used to account for the effect of stress/strain gradients. Among others, the so-called Critical Distance
Methods are widely used [11]. In a recent work, a combination of these methods along with the CSR and CxSR has
been explored to analyse the effect of the strain gradients
on sheet-metal failure [7]. Briefly, the failure is predicted
781
09.08.2010 14:35:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
when the value of an effective strain over a certain critical
distance of sheet thickness reaches the critical strain. The
effective strain and the critical distance depend on whether
the failure is controlled by necking or fracture.
The current paper presents an extension of the previous
work and redefines the criteria and parameters in terms of
stresses to avoid the strain path dependence. In an initial
approach, the necking effective stress is identified with the
average stress and the fracture effective stress is associated
with the current stress [7]. Thus, the failure by necking is
predicted when the average stress over a critical distance
neck from the inner side reaches a critical necking stress
[Figure 1(a)]. The fracture occurs when the current stress
at a critical distance fract from the outer side reaches a
critical fracture stress [Figure 1(b)]. The critical distances
are material constants highly dependent on the microstructure. The critical stresses are estimated from the FLSD.
Figure 1. Effective stress for necking and fracture.
Stretch-Bending Analysis
The analysis presented here assumes a biaxial stretchbending of a metal sheet using a generic double-curved
punch. The simplified assumptions are as follows:
1. Radius of curvature greater than four or five times the
thickness of the sheet, so that the transversal stress in
the thickness can be neglected.
2. The material is assumed to be nearly incompressible.
The elastic behaviour is neglected, and the plastic behaviour is given by Swifts law: eq = K (0+eq)n, where
eq and eq are the equivalent stress and strain, respectively. Reverse yielding is modelled using a pure kinematic hardening rule.
3. Both anisotropic quadratic and non-quadratic yield
criteria, as proposed by Hill and Hosford, are assumed.
Assuming a kinematic hardening law, both criteria can
be expressed as:
r ~ a + r ~ a + r r (~ ~2 ) a
~eq = 90 1 0 2 0 90 1
r90 (1 + r0 )
1/ a
(1)
where ~i = i i (i=1,2) are the principal stresses reduced to the current centre of the yield surface given by
the back stresses i, i are the principal stresses, 0 is
the yield strength, and r0 and r90 are the Lankford coefficients along the rolling (0) and the transversal (90) directions, respectively. The Hills quadratic yield surface
is obtained by setting a equal to 2 in Eq. (1). The Hosfords yield criterion is found by setting a equal to 6 for
BCC metals or 8 for FCC.
4. The real strain path is simplified by assuming a two-step
deformation process [Figure 2(a)]: (1) pure
782
bending until the inner side of the sheet reaches the

punch geometry, and (2) stretching until failure.
Figure 2. Schematic strain and stress paths in stretch-bending.
Figure 2(a) shows the evolution of the real and the assumed strain path for both concave (in: 0-1-2-3) and convex (out: 0-1-2-3) sides of the sheet. Note that the assumed process consists of two proportional processes,
bending (0-1 and 0-1) and stretching (2-3 and 2-3).
However, together they reproduce a special case of a bilinear non-proportional process, in which the principal
stress/strain directions do not change.
Let us assume a sheet element that is subjected to
stretch-bending and located at the dome of the punch. The
undeformed dimensions are l1, l2, and initial thickness t0.
The deformed configuration is shown in Figure 3, where t
is current thickness, i is the bent angle in principal directions (i=1,2), z is the position of a fibre measured from the
middle surface, and rm,i, ru,i, and Ri are the radii of curvature of the middle surface, of the unstretched surface and
of the punch, respectively. Thus, the current length of a
generic layer at a coordinate z in direction i is given by
li(z)=(rm,i+z)i, with its initial length l0(z)=(ru,i+z)i.
Figure 3. Variables in the stretch-bend analysis.
It is convenient to introduce some non-dimensional parameters, such as the relative position of a layer ( = z / t),
relative curvature of the middle surface (i = t / rm,i), thickness ratio ( = t / t0), and length ratio of the middle surface
(i = ru,i / rm,i). Thus, it can be readily shown that the material incompressibility is given by the relationship = 1 2,
and the principal true strain distribution in the sheet thickness can be expressed as:
i ( ) = ln(1 + i ) ln i
(2)
According to the assumed two-step process, a pure

bending process is considered first. The curvatures of the
sheet i are progressively increased until the concave side
(inner side) of the sheet reaches the punch curvatures iM =
09.08.2010 14:35:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
t0 / (Ri + t0/2). At the end of this step, the principal true
strain is given by:
iM ( ) = ln(1 + iM )
(3)
According to the assumption of mild curvatures, no

variation in thickness is considered during this step (i = 1).
The strain rate ratio M is assumed to remain constant in
thickness, having an approximate value given by the
punch radii and the sheet thickness:
M =
R + t /2
d 2M 2M
M = 1 0
M
R
d 1
1
2 + t0 / 2
(4)
As can be seen, M = 0 for a cylindrical punch (R2 = ),

and M = 1 for a hemispherical punch (R2 = R1).
During the stretching step, the curvature of each layer in
thickness changes. This is not true for the curvature of the
concave side, which remains fixed by the punch geometry.
The sheet thickness decreases progressively, increasing the
length of each fibre. As a consequence, the inner fibres,
previously shortened, experience a reversal straining. The
principal true strain during the stretching process can be
obtained via Eqs. (2) and (3):
iN ( ) = i ( ) iM ( )
(5)
The strain rate ratio N varies along the sheet thickness

due to the thickness reduction. In this work, the N value at
the middle surface is supposed to be constant during the
stretching step:
N =
2N (0) ln 2
=
1N (0) ln 1
r ~ a 1 r0 r90 (1 ~ ) a 1
= 0
r + r r (1 ~ ) a 1
(7)
0 90
where ~ = ~2 / ~1 is the reduced stress ratio. The stress
path i at each fibre in thickness can be estimated via the

flow rule, the yield criterion, and the hardening model:
1 = ~0 + 1
~
2 = ~ 0 + 2
(8)
where ~ = 0 / ~1 . The back stresses ( 1 and 2 ) are

obtained assuming that Zieglers hardening rule applies.
The evolution of the principal stresses at the concave (in)
and convex (out) sides of the sheet is shown in Figure 2(b).
The reversal yielding can be clearly appreciated at the
inner side. Note that the stress paths 1-2 and 1-2 correspond to neutral loadings.
in
eff
:=
1
neck + 1 / 2
neck
d
1
out
eff
:= 1 (
fract )
(9)
1 / 2
A Necking-Controlled Failure is predicted when effective stress reaches the critical necking stress, effin = 1,neck.
A Fracture-Controlled Failure is expected when the critical
fracture stress is attained, effout = 1,fract. The critical
stresses are estimated from the in-plain FLSD.
Experimental Application
The experimental results reported by Kitting et al. [4,12]

and Tharrett and Stoughton [1] are analysed. Kitting et al.
carried out angular stretch-bend tests of H340LAD steel
sheets. Tharrett and Stoughton performed a series of
stretch-bend tests in plane-strain of 1008 AK steel sheets.
Cylindrical punches of different radii were used in both
cases. The material properties are given in Table 1.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of H340LAD and 1008 AK steel
sheets.
(6)
According to the equations above, the strain path of each

fibre in thickness can be obtained for a given global strain
rate ratio = d2/d1 and punch geometry. Thus,
90
Failure Prediction. As mentioned earlier, the effective

stress to analyse a Necking-Controlled Failure is assumed
to be the average stress over a critical distance neck from
the inner side of the sheet (effin). Analogously, the effective stress for fracture is assumed to be the local stress at a
critical distance fract from the outer side of the sheet
(effout). The critical distances neck and fract are defined in
the undeformed configuration, and their corresponding
values in the deformed configuration, neck and fract, are
found by volume conservation. Thus, the effective stresses
can be expressed as:
H340LAD steel
1008 AK steel
t0 (mm)
1.50
0.92
604.6
552.0
0.167
0.230
r0
0.755
1.660
r90
0.763
2.120
FLD0
0.30
0.293
1,f (tension test)
0.67
Figure 4(a) shows the left-hand side of the conventional

FLD for the necking of H340LAD steel sheets and the
experimental necking strain at the outer side for different
punch radii. Figure 4(b) shows the FLSD corresponding
to the yield criteria of Hill and Hosford (a = 6), as well as
the predictions of major and minor stress for necking. As
pointed out in [7], a critical distance for necking of around
10 grain sizes was used (neck 50 m). The corresponding
strain predictions are also depicted in Figure 4(a), along
with the experimental results. As shown, the agreement
between the predictions and experiments is reasonably
good for punch radii ranging from 20 to 7 mm, especially
for Hosfords yield criterion. In the authors view, the difference found for the punch of 5 mm radius can be attributed to the effect of the transversal stress across the thickness, which was not considered here.
783
09.08.2010 14:35:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
The experimental results for 1008 AK steel sheets in

plane-strain are shown in Figure 5 [1]. The major strain at
the outer side of the sheet for different thickness-punch
radius ratios (t/R) is depicted. Solid circles denote that
visible necks were observed. Otherwise, an open circle is
used. As before, the critical distance for necking and fracture was set to 10 grain sizes, neck fract 200 m [7].
The critical stress in plane-strain for necking was estimated from the experimental FLD0 (Table 1) and for fracture was approximated from the uniaxial fracture strain 1,f
using the Cockroft and Latham criterion. As shown, reasonable predictions for necking were obtained using both
Hosford and Hill yield surface. However, fracture predictions showed a high dependence of the yield criterion. In
particular, fracture predictions using the Hill criterion
considerably underestimated the experimental data.
Conclusions
(b)
Figure 4. Punch curvature effect on necking strain of H340LAD
steel sheets (1.5 mm thickness).
The real stretch-bending process is simplified via a twostep bi-linear model, using a bending process followed by
a stretching process. Depending on the severity of the
strain gradient, two types of failures can be expected: (1) a
Necking-Controlled Failure, which takes place when all
layers in the sheet thickness become plastically instable;
and (2) a Fracture-Controlled Failure, which arises when
the outer layers of the sheet fracture. Both failure types
can successfully be predicted using a combination of the
CSR or CxSR and Critical Distance methodologies. To
minimise the strain path sensitivity, the formulation and
failure criteria are based on stresses. For the materials
analysed here, the critical distance for necking and fracture
is successfully correlated with 10 grain sizes.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Spain's

DGICyT for funding this research within the framework of
the projects DPI2006-06921 and DPI2009-13335.
References
Figure 5. Punch curvature effect on strain limits of 1008 AK steel

sheet (0.92 mm thickness) in plane-strain.
784
[1] M.R. Tharrett, T.B. Stoughton: SAE paper 2003-01-1157, (2003).

[2] T.B. Stoughton: Proc. Int. Conf. Numisheet, (2008), 241-246.
[3] M. Huang, L. Zhang, L. Yang: Proc. Numisheet (2008), 307-309.
[4] D. Kitting, M. Koplenig, A. Ofenheimer, H. Pauli, E.T. Till: Proc.
ESAFORM, (2009).
[5] C. Vallellano, D. Morales, F.J. Garca-Lomas: Proc. Numisheet,
(2008), 85-90.
[6] D. Morales, A. Martnez, C. Vallellano, F.J. Garca-Lomas: International Journal of Material Forming, 2-S1 (2009), 813-816.
[7] C. Vallellano, D. Morales, A. Martnez, F.J. Garca-Lomas: Proc.
ESAFORM, (2010).
[8] A.F. Graf, W.F. Hosford: Metall. Trans. A, 24 (1993), 24972501.
[9] T.B. Stoughton, X. Zhu: International Journal of Plasticity, 20 (2004),
1463-1486.
[10] D.K. Uko, R. Sowerby, J.L. Duncan: CIM Bulletin, (1977), 127-134.
[11] D. Taylor: The theory of critical distances: a new perspective in
fracture mechanics, Oxford, 2007.
[12] D. Kitting, A. Ofenheimer, H. Pauli, E.T. Till:, Proc. IDDRG, (2009),
425-435.
09.08.2010 14:35:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental Detection of Necking in Stretch-Bending Conditions: A Critical Review

and New Methodology
Andrs J. Martnez-Donaire, Carpforo Vallellano, Domingo Morales, Francisco J. Garca-Lomas
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Group of Manufacturing Processes, University of Sevilla / Spain, ajmd@us.es
The forming limit curve (FLC) at necking is one of the most widely used tools for assessing the formability of a metal sheet. Several methodologies have been proposed for predicting the onset of necking and estimating the forming limits. However, these criteria are mainly
focused on specific situations in which a uniform strain profile through the sheet thickness exists. More realistic situations, in which the
failure by necking is expected under non-uniform strain conditions across the thickness and along the sheet surface, have not been thoroughly investigated. Several existing approaches reported in the literature for obtaining limit strains are reviewed and discussed in the
present paper, along with an earlier, more general time-dependent methodology published by the authors. A critical comparison is presented and discussed in detail.
Keywords: Forming limit curve, Onset of necking, Bending effect, Strain gradient
Introduction
The forming limit curve (FLC) at necking has become a
very useful tool for evaluating the formability of metal
sheets. Apart from the traditional methodologies for estimating the forming limits, some recent studies have proposed new experimental approaches for detecting the onset
of necking, but only for cases where the strain gradient
through the sheet thickness can be neglected (e.g., Marciniak or Nakajima tests). A procedure known as a position-dependent method has been proposed in the ISO
12004-2:2008 [1] that is based on an analysis of the major
strain profile just before fracture occurrence. Among the
time-dependent methodologies, the Situ et al. criterion
[2,3] should be highlighted. Nevertheless, there is currently no universal criterion for estimating forming limits.
In actual practice, failure by necking from non-uniform
strain through the sheet thickness is the most common
occurrence because of the simultaneous actions of stretching and bending. The presence of a strain gradient strongly
affects the appearance of necking and so its detection
procedure. In general, the number of works devoted to
studying bending effects to detect the initiation of necking
is very small, but some advances in this area have been
made recently. In fact, an evaluation method for estimating
the forming limit strain in stretch-bending has been formulated by Kitting et al. [4]. In addition, the authors have
recently published a physically based time-dependent
method [5] for detecting both the onset of necking and the
necking strains for different severities of bending.
The aim of the present paper is to review and compare
the predictive capabilities of several methodologies published in the literature, along with the present authors
proposal for estimating forming limit strains in metal
sheets under stretching and stretch-bending conditions. For
this purpose, a series of stretching and stretch-bending
tests with different strain paths were performed.
Recent Methodologies for Necking Detection
In the last several years, a series of new experimental
approaches for assessing formability in sheet metal form-
ing have been formulated. Three based on the use of digital image correlation (DIC) techniques are analysed here.
Figure 1. Procedure of the ISO 12004-2:2008 methodology [1].
ISO 12004-2:2008 Methodology. This method is based

on an analysis of the major strain distribution 1, measured
along predefined cross sections perpendicular to the failure
zone, just before fracture occurrence (Figure 1). Briefly,
the procedure consists of the following steps:
1. Defining the crack position. A best-fit parabola is created using a predetermined range of major strain data in
the fracture zone. The maximum of this parabola defines the crack position.
2. Marking the necking region width or the inner limits of
the fit windows. To this end, an objective mathematical
criterion is used. The second spatial derivative of 1,
with and without filtering, is calculated separately for
both sides of the crack. The two highest local maxima,
one on each side, define the region where necking took
place.
3. Obtaining the outer limits of the fit windows. To reconstruct the strain distribution just before the onset of
necking accurately, an optimal width for the fit windows
has to be obtained. ISO 12004-2 proposes that the outer
limits be given by w = 10(1 + 2 / 1 ) , where 1 and 2
are the mean values of the major and minor strains at
the inner limits.
4. Determining the limit major strain 1,lim. Once the strain
points in the necked area have been removed, an inverse
785
09.08.2010 14:35:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
parabola is fitted over the two fit windows previously
defined. The strain value at the crack position is established as the limit major strain 1,lim.
5. Determining the limit thickness strain 3,lim and the limit
minor strain 2,lim. Analogously, by making use of the
same fit windows, 3,lim is obtained by repeating the fitting process explained in Step 4 but using the thickness
strain profile. Finally, the minor strain 2,lim is estimated
by applying volume conservation.
A detailed description of the experimental determination
of a FLC according to ISO 12004-2 can be found in [6].
punches. The onset of necking is characterised by the

concentration of the strain in a band (necking area),
whereas once necking begins, the deformation almost
ceases outside the necking area (stable area). Kitting et al.
assumed that the limit strain is represented by the maximum strain value reached in the stable area closest to the
necking area. The way in which the two representative
areas can be identified (necking and stable areas) is by
studying the major strain rates along a cross section perpendicular to the failure zone in the last forming stages, as
shown in Figure 3. The local increase in the major strain
rate distribution in the central zone reveals the area where
necking took place. The strain values close to zero indicate
the stable area of deformation. The points within the stable
area closest to the necking zone and the maximum strain
level reached at these points are determined. The mean
value of these maximum strains is defined as the forming
limit strain.
Figure 2. Method proposed by Situ et al. [2,3].
Situ et al. Method (2006) [2,3]. This method is based

on an analysis of the major strain evolution 1 and its time
derivatives at the point closest to the fracture zone. It has
been hypothesised that the occurrence of a maximum
major strain acceleration (second derivative of major
strain) represents the onset of localised necking (see
Figure 2). The strain acceleration reaches its maximum at
the beginning of plastic instability and is zero at fracture.
According to Situ et al., this evolution in the strain acceleration represents the process of strain localisation.
Because the thickness strain 3 seems more appropriate
for representing the necking process from a physical point
of view, an alternative method based on an analysis of the
3 evolution, instead of the 1 profile, has been proposed in
the present paper. Hereafter, this proposed method will be
referred to as the Situ et al. modified method.
Figure 3. Schematic of the Kitting et al. methodology [4].
Kitting et al. Approach (2009). Last year, a new

evaluation method falling within the group of timedependent methodologies was presented by Kitting et al.
[4]. It is used to determine the limit strains at necking in
stretch-bending situations over small-radii cylindrical
786
Figure 4. Scheme of the proposed time-dependent methodology.
New Time-Dependent Method for Necking Detection

Recently, a new physically based time-dependent
method for detecting the onset of necking and determining
the forming limits has been proposed [5]. This method is
based on a temporal analysis of the major strain distribution 1 and its first time derivative (strain rate) for a
series of points along a cross section perpendicular to the
fracture zone. This procedure can be briefly explained into
the following 5 steps:
1. Obtaining the necking zone width. The last points on
both sides of the crack that stop deforming and reach a
zero strain rate, just before the fracture occurrence, are
identified. The zone between those points clearly defines the area where necking took place.
2. Determining the onset of necking (tnecking). It has been
established that the necking process begins when the
strain rate at the boundary of the necking zone reaches a
maximum (evolution of 1A,max in Figure 4).
3. Identifying the fracture point. The point at which the
fracture occurs (point B in Figure 4) can be identified
by detecting the highest strain evolution curve during
the deformation process (evolution of 1B in Figure 4).
4. Determination of the limit major strain at necking 1,lim.
This is defined as the major strain level that exists at
09.08.2010 14:35:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
point B at the time tnecking in which necking begins (see
1,lim in Figure 4).
5. Determination of the limit minor strain at necking 2,lim,
which is defined as the minor strain value at point B at
the time given by tnecking.
As mentioned before, a variant of this method proposed,
but using the thickness strain 3, was also analysed.
Table 1. Nakajima tests in plane strain and pure tension states.
Plane strain condition Pure tension state
Methodology
ISO 12004-2
Proposed method based on 1
Kitting et al.
Situ et al.
Situ et al. modified
1lim
2 lim
1lim
2 lim
()
()
()
()
0.328
-0.107
0.254
-0.018
(0.019)
(0.006)
0.252
-0.020
(0.008)
(0.006)
0.252
-0.020
(0.008)
(0.006)
0.265
-0.017
(0.009)
(0.003)
0.313
-0.024
(0.010)
(0.006)
0.315
-0.024
(0.009)
(0.007)
draw bead system was used. The lubricant system was

Vaseline + PTFE (Teflon) + Vaseline and the punch velocity was set to 1 mm/s.
The tested specimens were continuously recorded up to
failure by means of CCD cameras. The strain history over
the outer surface was evaluated via the DIC technique
using ARAMIS [7]. To this end, a stochastic speckled
pattern (a white matte paint layer and a fine cloud of randomly distributed black paint) was applied by spraying
paint on the outer surface of the specimens. The two digital cameras continuously captured images during the deformation process at 10 frames per second.
Table 2. Cylindrical punch tests in plane strain state.
(0.017) (0.007)
0.312
-0.101
(0.010) (0.002)
0.316
-0.103
(0.009) (0.001)
0.328
-0.096
(0.012) (0.009)
0.454
-0.131
(0.052) (0.003)
0.454
Methodology
-0.127
(0.053) (0.008)
ISO 12004-2
Kitting et al.
Situ et al.
Situ et al. modified
Punch
Punch
20 mm
10 mm
1lim
2 lim
1lim
2 lim
()
()
()
()
0.302
0.177
0.260
0.111
(0.155)
(0.130)
(0.171)
(0.137)
0.328
-0.025
0.340
-0.020
(0.029)
(0.003)
(0.014)
(0.010)
0.330
-0.025
0.340
-0.020
(0.026)
(0.003)
(0.014)
(0.010)
0.331
-0.022
0.275
-0.019
(0.034)
(0.007)
(0.031)
(0.007)
0.405
-0.029
0.429
-0.025
(0.020)
(0.006)
(0.017)
(0.019)
0.394
-0.031
0.427
-0.025
(0.022)
(0.005)
(0.020)
(0.019)
Comparison of Methodologies
Figure 5. Cylindrical punches and stochastic speckled pattern in

stretch-bending.
Experimental Setup
To check the ability of the previously described methodologies to detect the onset of necking and to estimate the
limit strains upon necking, a series of tests were conducted.
A universal sheet metal testing machine, the Erichsen
142-20, was used to carry out the experiments with two
different setups:
1. A hemispherical punch of 100 mm (Nakajima test)
was used; an almost uniform strain distribution was expected through the sheet thickness because the bending
effect was negligible (stretching tests). In this setup, two
specimen geometries were considered to obtain various
strain paths, a plane strain state and a pure tension state.
2. Two cylindrical punches of 10 and 20 mm (Figure
5) were used; a through-thickness strain gradient was
induced in a reduced area of the specimen because the
influence of bending was relevant (stretch-bending
tests). These tests were carried out near plane strain
conditions.
The specimens were machined from a 7075-O aluminium alloy sheet with a thickness of 1.6 mm. The samples
were clamped with a blankholder force of 70 kN, and a
The predictions of the limit strains using the methodologies previously detailed are presented and discussed below
for both the stretching and stretch-bending tests.
Stretching Tests (Nakajima). The predicted forming
limits at the outer surface are shown in Table 1, both under plane strain conditions and in the near pure tension
state, for the methodologies analysed. Four different
specimens were tested under plane strain conditions and
three in the close to pure tension state. For each specimen,
the analysis was done over three different sections that
were perpendicular to the failure zone, in accordance with
the ISO 12004-2 procedure. For the sake of clarity, only
mean values and standard deviations are shown for each
methodology.
Because the ISO 12004-2:2008 approach is optimised
for almost in-plane deformation (Nakajima test), the results estimated with this method were considered reference
values for validating the other methods.
The two forms of the proposed method produced almost
identical results. Additionally, these predictions were in
very good agreement with the predictions of the ISO
12004-2 methodology for both strain paths. In fact, the
maximum deviation found between these methodologies
was about 5%. Similarly, the estimations of Kitting et al.
presented a maximum deviation with respect to the ISO
predictions of about 5%. However, the Situ et al. approach
and its modified version predicted limit strains substan787
09.08.2010 14:35:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
tially higher than did the ISO method and consequently
were not able to reproduce the limit strains correctly.
In summary, both the proposed methods and the Kitting
approach were able to reliably estimate the limit strains, at
least for cases where the strain gradient could be neglected.
The proposed methods, compared with the ISO proposal,
have the advantage that they are local methods and can be
applied directly to situations with a strain gradient along
the sheet surface and through the thickness. However, the
extension of the Kitting et al. approach to these more general situations will not yield consistent results.
Stretch-Bending Tests. The estimations of the major
and minor limit strains at the outer surface for the stretchbending tests are presented in Table 2, for both the cylindrical punch of 20 mm and of 10 mm. These experiments were conducted on three specimens with a strain
state close to plane strain conditions. As before, only the
mean values and the standard deviations are shown.
It can be seen that the ISO 12004-2 predictions exhibit a
large scatter in both cases. In fact, the scatter measured by
the standard deviation is of the same order as the mean
value. Nevertheless, the others methodologies provide a
scatter similar to that obtained in the stretching tests. In
addition, the ISO 12004-2 estimates positive minor strain
values. This fact is inconsistent with the experimental
evolution of the strains in the fracture zone during the test.
The process was developed close to plane strain conditions,
with a slightly negative local strain ratio ( = 2 / 1 ) .
Consequently, a negative minor strain value was expected
as the limit strain. The reason for this behaviour seems to
be related to the strain gradients along the sheet surface
and through the sheet thickness, which are relevant in
these cases because of the induced bending by the punch.
The main limitation is the way in which the width of the
fit windows is calculated. The expression proposed by the
ISO 12004-2 is only tailored for cases with negligible
strain gradients. When the size of the fit window determined by the ISO 12004-2 is extrapolated for small punch
sizes 20 and 10 mm, this width turns out to be very
large. The process zone in these tests is very small compared with the parameters used by the ISO 12004-2 for the
Nakajima or Marciniak tests.
On the other hand, it is well known from the literature
that stretch-bending limit strains increase with decreasing
punch radii or increasing strain gradients [8-10]. This
experimental trend was not reproduced either by the ISO
12004-2 method or by the Kitting et al. approach. It seems
that the Kitting et al. predictions got worse as the bending
severity increased. A possible explanation is that once the
necking and stable areas are identified, the limit strain is
calculated based on the maximum strain level reached at
the boundary between both zones, assuming that the strain
distribution is uniform in the necking area. This may be
true in cases in which bending effects are negligible, but it
might fail when the strain gradients are relevant (e.g.,
using small punch radii).
Table 2 also shows that predictions using the Situ et al.
method or its modified version again produced limit
788
strains higher than the proposed methods. As in previous

tests, these methodologies overestimated the forming
limits.
Finally, as in the previous stretching tests, both variations of the proposed methodology (1 or 3) yielded almost identical predictions. It should be noted that, according to the experimental observations, an increasing limit
strain is predicted as the punch radius decreases.
Conclusions
A number of recently developed approaches for predicting limit strains, including a new time-dependent method
proposed by the authors, have been reviewed to establish
their advantages and limitations. A comparison using a
series of stretching and stretch-bending tests near plane
strain and pure tension conditions were performed. The
main conclusions are as follows:
1. The proposed method from ISO 12004-2:2008 [1] was
in general unable to predict the necking limit strains under stretch-bending conditions because this method is
only optimised for metal sheets subjected to almost inplane deformation (Marciniak or Nakajima tests).
2. The Situ et al. criterion [2,3] and the modification introduced here consistently overestimated the limit strains
in both stretching and stretch-bending tests.
3. The method used by Kitting et al. [4], which focused
initially on stretch-bending tests, was inefficient for estimating the forming limits as the bending severity increased. The predicted trend in the forming limits as the
punch radius decreased did not agree with the experimental evidence.
4. The proposed local time-dependent method, in both of
its variations, was suitable for reliably detecting the onset of localised necking in both a uniform strain field
and under strain gradient conditions.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Spain's

DGICyT for funding this research within the framework of
the projects DPI2006-06921 and DPI2009-13335.
References
[1] ISO 12004-2:2008, Metallic Materials-Sheet and Strip-Determination
of Forming Limit Curves in Laboratory, (2008).
[2] Q. Situ, M. Jain, M. Bruhis: Materials Science Forum, 519-521
(2006), 111-116.
[3] Q. Situ, M. Jain, M. Bruhis: Proc. NUMIFORM, (2007), 907-912.
[4] D. Kitting, A. Ofenheimer, H. Pauli, E.T. Till: Proc. Int. Conf. IDDRG,
(2009), 425-435.
[5] A.J. Martinez, C. Vallellano, D. Morales, F.J. Garcia-Lomas: American Institute of Physics, 1181 (2009), 500-508.
[6] W. Hotz, J. Timm: Proc. NUMISHEET, (2008), 271-278.
[7] GOM, Optical Measuring Techniques, http://www.gom.com.
[8] M.R. Tharret, T.B Stoughton: Proc. Int. Conf. on Dislocations Plasticity & Metal Forming, (2003), 199-201.
[9] A.K. Ghosh, S.S Hecker: Metallurgical Transactions, 5 (1974), 21612164.
[10] P.L. Charpentier: Metallurgical Transactions, 6A (1975), 1665-1669.
09.08.2010 14:35:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Skin Passing on Bending and Tension: An Experimental Investigation

Matthias Weiss1), Chunhui Yang2), Bernard Rolfe2)
1)
Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (ITRI), Deakin University, Australia, mweiss@deakin.edu.au;
Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Deakin University, Australia
2) School of
Skin passing is a common processing step used to control yield phenomena and improve surface qualities in sheet metal. The process
leaves residual stresses within the sheet that may have a significant effect on material behaviour in forming processes where the major
deformation mode is that of bending combined with unloading and reverse bending. Previous studies have revealed that the effect of
residual stresses is not well indicated by the tensile test. This has prompted the development of a new bend test arrangement to obtain
bending and springback data in heavy gauge and high strength sheet. In this paper, an experimental study on the effect of skin passing on
the material behaviour of aluminium strip in pure bending and tension is presented. The aluminium strip was given a recrystallisation anneal
to eliminate all pre-existing deformation effects, and then skin passed to different final thicknesses. Subsequently the material behaviour of
the skin passed strip and the annealed starting material were determined by bending and tensile testing. The experimental results indicate
that skin passing has a softening effect on the material behaviour in bending in the early stages of elastic-plastic bending. In contrast to that,
the material properties derived from the tensile test indicated an increasing material strength with skin pass level.
Keywords: Roll forming, Bending, Residual stress, Sheet forming, Skin passing
Introduction
The final step in the production of cold rolled strip is
often skin-pass rolling to control yield point elongation, or
improve the surface of the strip [1,2]. The thickness
reduction of the strip on rolling is generally under 2% [2].
Skin pass rolling is generally performed under dry friction
conditions and with rough roll surfaces. This leads to high
friction between the material and the work rolls and severe
inhomogeneous deformation [2]. Skin pass rolling has
been reported to develop in-plane residual stress profiles
[3] that influence the initial yielding of the strip [4], and
can lead to the suppression of the upper yield point [5].
In roll forming where the overall strain level is low and
defects can develop at extremely low plastic strains [6],
changes in the elastic limit and the pre-and post yielding
behavior due to skin passing can have a significant effect
[4]. It is thought that the effects of skin passing such as
residual stresses in a thin surface layer may not be well
indicated by the tensile test. To determine if the bend test
is a more satisfactory method of gathering material
properties for materials used in roll forming, bend and
tensile tests were carried out on conventional and skin
passed strip.
The bend tests were performed in a new device that
produces nearly pure bending in the test-piece. The
equipment is used in a standard tensile testing machine
and a moment curvature characteristic can be calculated
from measurements of load and cross-head displacement.
Skin passing was done in a small laboratory rolling mill.
Skin Passing. Skin passing was done in a laboratory

mill having work rolls of 65 mm in diameter. This is a
hand operated mill so that it can be assumed to be a
quasi-static process.
Table 1. Skin pass conditions investigated in this study.
Condition
Thickness reduction
Final thickness
0 (%)
~2.91
0.5 (%)
~2.9
1.5 (%)
~2.87
All thickness reductions were performed in a single

un-lubricated operation; the two different skin pass
conditions investigated in this study are shown Table 1.
Since all strips showed a bulging of the edge after skin
passing the longitudinal edges were machined to give final
material strip widths between 23 and 23.5 mm.
Experimental Testing and Results
Tensile Tests. The tensile tests were performed in a 30
kN MTS as recommended in Australian standard AS
1391-1991 on specimens oriented along the extrusion
direction. A non-contact extensometer with a test range of
50 mm was used and the cross head speed was 2 mm/min.
A total of 4 tests were performed and the true stress,
strain curves for the annealed material are shown in
Figure 1.
Material
Annealing Conditions. The material tested was an
extruded aluminium strip, 25mm wide and 2.92mm in
thickness. The alloy designation is AA6063. To eliminate
any residual stresses the material was annealed in a muffle
furnace at 400 C for a period of 1 hour followed by
cooling on air.
789
09.08.2010 14:35:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 1. True stress strain curves determined in tensile test for

material after annealing.
As there was some variation in the tensile curves, the

results were averaged and a single curve presented. (This
averaging procedure was used throughout this work and
single curves are the result of two or more repeated tests.)
The averaged tensile true stress strain curves determined
for the initial and skin passed material are shown in
Figure 2.
Figure 3. Comparison of average experimental stress strain curve

and empirical fit for the annealed material.
Table 2. Material parameters determined from tensile tests of
annealed and skin-passed strip.
K
(MPa)
70000
160
0.000015
0.055
70000
196.5
0.000063
0.0725
70000
217
0.000049
0.072
E
(MPA) (MPa)
Condition
YP
86
98
106
The constants in the empirical stress strain curves fitted

to the tensile test data that was obtained for the annealed
as well as the two skin passed materials are given in Table
2. Notice that the yield strength increases with the
skin-pass reduction.
Bend Test. The bending test device is shown
schematically in Figure 4.
Figure 2. Averaged true stress strain curves determined in the

tensile test.
The material strength increases with skin pass level

(thickness reduction) and to obtain an empirical stress
strain relation, the elastic part of the curve was fitted by
the equation:
(1)
where the elastic constant taken from a handbook was
E=70,000 MPa. In the plastic region, a power law relation
was used:
(2)
The constants, K and n, were chosen using a trial and error
approach so that a good fit was obtained in the strain
region covered by the bending tests (0 0.01) as
shown in Figure 3.
790
Figure 4. Schematic of the bend test set up.
The pin at A is inserted into a load cell in a standard

tensile testing machine. During a test, the load, F, and the
displacement of point A are recorded and the moment and
curvature can be calculated [7]. The test-piece is not
subjected precisely to a pure moment as there is a small
axial force, F; the effect of this has been shown to be
extremely small in the range of experiments reported here
[7]. In these tests, a clip-on curvature gauge was used to
09.08.2010 14:35:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
obtain a more accurate measure of curvature in the
test-piece. This is illustrated in Figure 5 which is
self-explanatory and fully described in [7].
moment curvature characteristics of the initial and the skin

passed material were calculated using the tensile test data
and the usual equilibrium equations [8].
The calculation makes certain assumptions about the
state of isotropy, the strain path and yield criterion. In
Figure 7, the moment curve is calculated assuming (a)
plane strain bending and a von Mises yield condition and
(b) assuming a Tresca yield condition.
Figure 5. Schematic of the curvature gauge.
All bending tests were taken to the same final curvature

and the moment adjusted to a standardised value for a test
strip width of 20 mm using the relation,
(1)
where Mstan is the standardised moment, M the measured
moment and w is the strip width of the test piece.
The average moment curvature characteristics for the
annealed and the two skin-passed samples are shown in
Figure 6.
Figure 7. Average experimental moment curvature diagram for

the annealed strip together with curves calculated from the tensile
test assuming (a) plane strain bending and a von Mises condition
and (b) using a Tresca yield condition.
As in previous work [7], the latter assumptions fitted the

experimental results more closely and are employed here
in the discussion. It should be noted that the validity of the
assumptions are not proven and would depend on the
characteristics of the materials used and the dimensions of
the test-piece. For the purposes of this discussion, a
theoretical moment curve was calculated from the tensile
test data assuming a Tresca yield condition for the two
skin-passed samples. The comparison with the
experimental curves is shown in Figure 8 (a) and (b).
Figure 6. Averaged moment curvature diagrams determined in the
pure bend test.
It becomes clear that the skin passing process has a

significant effect on the bending response of the material,
both in the elastic-plastic region and at higher curvatures.
Discussion
The tensile tests indicate an overall increase in material
strength with skin pass level (Figure 2) reflecting material
hardening due to the plastic deformation of the strip during
thickness reduction. The bend test results show a similar
strengthening for higher curvatures (R 3/m), but a
reduction of the elastic-plastic transition point for the skin
passed material; there is an to earlier yielding of the skin
passed strip compared to the annealed material. To
illustrate the significance of the difference in material
properties predicted by the tensile and the bend test, the

0.5% skin-passed material and moment curvature diagrams
calculated from tensile data.
791
09.08.2010 14:35:35 Uhr
Metal Forming

1.5% skin-passed material and moment curvature diagrams
calculated from tensile data.
For both skin pass levels the elastic, plastic transition

occurs at a lower moment than that predicted from the
tensile data. For the lightly skin passed strip at higher
curvatures, a good fit between tensile and bend test data is
achieved. For the material given a 1.5% thickness
reduction the tensile data still overestimates the
experimental bending moment. It has been observed
elsewhere [9] that in reverse loading in torsion of a
pre-strained workpiece, the yield stress is greatly reduced
and yielding is followed by a very high level of strain
hardening. In skin passing, straining would occur along
some strain path that would be reversed on one side of
the neutral plane in bending, leading to a greatly reduced
elastic, plastic transition in bending. At higher strains, the
transient effects may be wiped out and the moment curve
would be predicted well from tensile data.
Conclusion
The results show, that in bending of aluminium strip that
had been subjected to a light thickness reduction in rolling
(to simulate skin passing), the moment curvature
characteristic was not well predicted using tensile data and
a simple bending analysis. For both thickness reductions
investigated in this study the elastic, plastic transition was
at a moment substantially lower than that predicted from
tensile data. At a greater curvature, the prediction was
better. The softening observed is similar to that seen in
other tests in forward and reverse bending [10] and in
reversed torsion as observed by Orowan in earlier work
792
that has recently been published [9].

In industrial roll forming, the material is frequently
skin-passed to improve the surface. The work here shows
that this could affect the elastic, plastic transition in
bending and this is thought to influence shape defects in
the product. This work is of a preliminary nature and
suggests that bending tests could be more useful than
tensile tests in determining if there is some change in the
properties of incoming material. The bending test
described here can be performed in a similar machine and
with equal ease as the tensile test. The results also show
that the effect of skin-passing on bending depends greatly
on the extent of deformation in skin-passing and therefore
further work is required to investigate the effect of
multiple skin-passes and the response of materials other
than aluminium.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Emeritus Prof.
J.L. Duncan for his assistance in writing this paper. The
authors further appreciate the financial support of the
Australian Research Council (ARC Linkage grant LP0883399), DataM Sheet Metal solutions, Australian
Roll Manufacturers, and Applied Research &
Development.
References
[1] H. Kijima, N. Bay: International Journal of Machine Tools and
Manufacture, 48 (2008), 1313-1317.
[2] O. Wiklund, F. Sandberg, J.G. Lenard: Metal Forming Science and
Practice, Elsevier Science Ltd: Oxford, (2002), 313-343.
[3] F. Kanzaki, N. Navata, H. Kitagawa: Journal of the Society of
Materials Science, 13 (1964), 978-983.
[4] R.I. Scott: PhD thesis, Deakin University: Geelong, (2003), 215
[5] E.J. Hoggan, et al.: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
125-126 (2002), 155-163.
[6] G.T. Halmos: Roll Forming Handbook, Taylor & Francis (CRC
Press), (2006).
[7] M. Weiss, et al.: Proc. 28th Deep Drawing Research Group Congress,
Golden, USA, (2009), 521-532 .
[8] Z. Marciniak, J.L. Duncan, S.J. Hu: Mechanics of Sheet Metal
Forming, 2 ed., Butterworth Heinemann: London (2002).
[9] R.A. Elliot, et al.: Mechanics of Materials, 36 (2004), 1143-1153.
[10]L. Geng, Y. Shen, R.H. Wagoner: International Journal of Plasticity,
18 (2002), 743-767.
09.08.2010 14:35:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
Bending of Bi-Metal Sheets in Plane Strain

Kuang-Jau Fann, Ming-Hsiung Chen, Yu-Sheng Tu
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung / Taiwan, kjfann@nchu.edu.tw
Over the past few decades, clad metal sheets have been broadly applied in industries because of their added values and excellent properties. One frequently used process in those applications is bending. To understand bending properties of clad metal sheets, an elasto-plastic
analysis model for pure bending a bi-metal sheet in plane strain has been created in this article. As a result of bending a bi-metal sheet
from copper C11000 and aluminum 1050 in diverse volume fractions, the configuration, which describes whether the harder metal is placed
on the tensile side or the compression side, does not influence the bending moments needed for the bending process. A stress discontinuity
can be observed on the clad layer and the neutral layer is always moving towards to the harder metal during bending. Once one base metal
plastically deforms completely, the neutral layer stays at the same position. After the springback, the neutral layer returns to its original
position. If it is across the clad interface during bending, the stress discontinuity on the clad layer gets larger after springback. Otherwise,
the stress discontinuity would be reduced after springback. Moreover, the further the clad interface locates from the neutral layer, the more
the discontinuity is reduced.
Keywords: Bending, Sheet metal, Bi-metal, Sprinback, Residual stress, Elasto-plastic deformation
Introduction
Because of their advanced functionalities and outstanding properties, clad metal sheets have been broadly
implemented to industrial applications such as electronics,
automobile, and aerospace. They possess every specific
property of their base sheet materials and are used to improve lightness, thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance,
strength, etc. of the parts [1]. The most common manufacturing process applied to clad metal sheets is bending,
which can be done in stamping presses, press brakes, or
bending rolls. Thus, it would be convenient if the information of how unique the bending of clad metal sheets is
compared to the bending of single metal sheets is available.
There have been few studies on the bending process of
clad metal sheets. Suzuki and Takano has presented an
analytical model, validated with experiments, calculating
bending of a double clad sheet metal [2] and of a single
clad sheet metal [3], respectively. However, they placed
the neutral layer in a fixed position during plastic bending
similar to elastic bending. Detailed information on the
results if the neutral layer is not fixed during bending is
still needed. Therefore, in this study, bending bi-metal
sheets with a movable neutral layer is investigated.
Analysis Models
Figure 1 shows a flat bi-metal sheet of uniform cross
section subjected to a moment per unit width M that makes
a pure bending, which means bending takes place along a
straight line. This bi-metal consists of two metal sheets
with different property and thickness. For convenience, in
this article, symbols with subscript 1 indicates the upper
metal sheet, whose free surface is subjected to tensile
stress during bending; and those with 2 are related to the
bottom metal sheet, whose free surface is under compressive stress. Each metal sheet has its Youngs modulus in
plane strain E1 or E2, its yield strength in plane strain Y1 or
Y2, and its thickness t1 or t2. Their ratios, a, b and c, are
respectively defined as
E1 = aE2
(1a)
Y1 = bY2
t1 = ct 2
(1b)
(1c)
E1
E2
E1
E2
t1
t2
-1
Figure 1. Bending of bi-metal sheet under moment M.
To simplify the problem and to make possible closeform solutions, further assumptions are taken in this study:
i. Both materials are idealized as elastic-perfectly plastic.
ii. Both materials are well bonded and are neither slipping nor separating from each other during bending.
iii. Plane sections remain plane during bending.
iv. Lines normal to the cross sections remain normal to
the cross sections during bending.
v. Both neutral layers of stress and strain are coincided.
vi. The neutral layer has a curvature or a curvature radius 1/ during bending.
vii. The circumferential strain are proportional to its distance to the neutral layer in the thickness direction.
viii. Width strain is ignored.
Figure 2 shows 9 categories of possible stress distribution in the circumferential direction across the thickness
of a bi-metal sheet during bending, where only tensile
stress appears on the outer layer of the upper sheet. The
possible stress distribution for the loading case of compressive stress appears on the outer layer of the upper
sheet, which is not discussed and therefore not shown in
this study, is just up side down as Figure 2. The stress
distribution in each category is derived as follows.
Category 1: Both Materials Deform Elastically. The
discontinuity of the circumferential stress occurs at the
interface of both base materials. If the interface lays yi
above the neutral layer, has its form in force equilibrium
793
09.08.2010 14:35:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
t1 + y i
-t 2 + yi
dy = 0
(2)
(1)
E1
t1
E2
t2
yi
(3)
(6)
-y 2
y2
(7)
y2
y1
(4)
-y 2
-y 2
(5)
-y 2
(2)
y1
y1
(8)
y2
The circumferential strain for the layer with a distance y

above the neutral layer can be obtained according to the
assumption vii as
= y
(3)
According to Hookes law, stress and strain have a

proportional relation:
= E
t1 + y i
E1ydy +
yi
-t 2 + yi
E 2ydy = 0
(5)
1 ac 2
t2
2(1 + ac )
(6)
which is independent of the bending curvature ; that

means the neutral layer does not move when both materials deform elastically during bending. The bending moment M can be determined from the equilibrium equation
M =
t1 + yi
-t 2 + y i
ydy
(7)
t1 + y i
yi
E1y 2 dy +
yi
-t 2 + y i
E 2y 2 dy
(8)
which can be simplified with the ratios after integrating as

M =
E 2 t 2
3
[3(1 + ac )y
2
i
Y2 dy = 0
(10)
(11)
and yi can be solved as
yi = act 2 y 2 +
(a 1)ac 2t 22 + 2(1 + ac )t 2 y 2
(12)
where y 2 = E 2Y2 . Thus the neutral layer is dependent of

the bending curvature and does not stay at the same position, once a base material starts to yield. The bending
moment M in (7) can be rewritten as
M =
t1 + yi
yi
M =
yi
E1y 2 dy + E 2y 2 dy
-y 2
-y 2
-t 2 + yi
Y2 ydy
(13)
) ]
3 1 ac 2 yi t 2 + 1 + ac 3 t 22
(9)
3
2
E 2 2 yi + 3(2act 2 + y 2 )yi
(14)
2
3 3
2
3
6 + 6 ac t 2 y 2 t 2 yi + 2ac t 2 + 3t 2 y 2 y 2
Category 3: Upper Material Deforms Elastically,

Both Sides of Bottom Material Deform ElastoPlastically. In this category, the interface side of the bottom material deforms elasto-plastically as well. The neutral layer position yi can similarly be determined from (2)
as
yi =
ac 2 t 22 2t 2 y 2
2(act 2 + 2 y 2 )
(15)
and the bending moment M from (7) as

M =
modified by combining it with (3) and (4)
M =
- y2
-t 2 + yi
or
The position of the neutral layer yi can be obtained after

integrating (5) with the ratios a and c defined in (1) as
yi =
- y2
It can be integrated as
(4)
Equation (2) can be rewritten as

yi
yi
E1ydy + E 2ydy
yi2 + 2(act 2 + y 2 ) yi + ac 2 t 22 2t 2 y 2 + y 22 = 0
Figure 2. Categories of circumferential stress distribution over

thickness of bi-metal sheet bent by moment M.
t1 + y i
yi
(9)
-y 2
-y 2
material deforms elasto-plastically, it must be the outer

free surface of the bottom material since the thickness of
this side, with a compressive stress imposed on it, must be
larger than the other side with a tensile stress imposed to
keep force equilibrium. The layer where the material starts
to yield has a distance y2 to the neutral layer. Thus the
force equilibrium (2) can be rewritten as
3
2
E 2 3 yi + 3(2act 2 3t 2 + y 2 ) yi
2
2
3
3
3
6 + 3 2ac + 3 t 2 yi + 2ac 3 t 2 3 y 2
(16)
Category 4: Upper Material Deforms ElastoPlastically Bottom Material Deforms Elastically. The
layer of the upper material starting to yield has a distance
y1 to the neutral layer, which equals to abE2Y2. This category is just reversed to category 2 and has similar yi and M
as shown in Eqs. (12) and (14).
Category 2: Upper Material Deforms Elastically,

Only One Side of Bottom Material Deforms ElastoPlastically. In this category, if only one side of the bottom
794
09.08.2010 14:35:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Category 5: Upper Material Deforms ElastoPlastically, Only One Side of Bottom Material Deforms
Elasto-Plastically. The ratio y1/y2 between the layers of
both materials when they starting to yield is b/a, so that
the neutral layer position yi can further be simplified as
yi =
1 (1 + b ) y 2
(17)
1 a + (a + b )2 a -1 y 22 + 2(1 a )(1 bc )t 2 y 2
Same for the bending moment M as

M =
2
i
6 + 3 bc 2 + 1 t 22 y 2 a 2 + b 3 a - 2 y 23
(18)
Category 6: Upper Material Deforms ElastoPlastically, Both Sides of Bottom Material Deform
Elasto-Plastically. The neutral layer position yi and the
moment M can be derived respectively from Eqs. (2) and
(7) as
yi =
1
(b + 2)y 2 + 4(1 + b )y 22 2(1 abc )at 2 y 2
a
(19)
and
M =
(20)
6 + 3 bc 2 + 1 t 22 y 2 b 3 + 2a 2 a - 2 y 23
Category 7: Upper Material Deforms Fully Plastically, Bottom Material Deforms Elastically. The position
of the neutral layer yi is then
yi =
2bcY2
1
t 2
2
E 2
(21)
1
(ct 2 + 2 yi )bct 2Y2 + E2 t 22 3t 2 yi + 3 yi2 t 2
2
6
yi = y 2 + 2(1 + bc )t 2 y 2
(23)
and the bending moment M is derived from Eq. (7) as
E 2
6
2 yi3 + 3 y 2 yi2 + 6(bc + 1)t 2 y 2 yi
+ bc 2 + 3 t 22 y 2 y 23
which is independent to the curvature and therefore not

moving anymore. The bending moment M is thus as
Y2
6 yi2 + 6(bc 1)t 2 yi + 3 bc 2 + 1 t 22 2 y 22
6
(26)
Springback. When the bending moment M is released,

due to force equilibrium, a virtual moment equal to M is
applied to the sheet and thus both base materials reversely
deform elastically to a neutral layer defined in Eq. (6). A
curvature difference due to springback can also be
determined from Eq. (9) as
3M
(27)
E 2 t 2 3(1 + ac ) yi2 3 1 ac 2 yi t 2 + 1 + ac 3 t 22
) ]
The residual stress on the bi-metal sheet can be obtained

by subtracting the stress imposed by M from the stress
before springback.
Bi-metal sheets made in different thickness ratios with

copper C11000 and aluminum 1050, whose yield stresses
and Youngs modului in plane strain are listed in Table 1,
are used in this study to demonstrate results of bending bimetal sheets. The sheets have a thickness of 1 mm with a
copper base sheet in thickness of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mm,
respectively. To ensure assumption vii, the sheets are bent
to a maximum curvature of 0.1 mm-1 so that the approximated strain will have an error less than 2.5% in this study.
Material
(22)
Category 8: Upper Material Deforms Fully Plastically, Only One Side of Bottom Material Deforms
Elasto-Plastically. The neutral layer yis position derived
from Eq. (2) is
M =
(25)
Table 1. Properties of base materials of bi-metal sheets.
and the bending moment M is

M =
1 bc
t2
2
Analysis Results
3
2
E 2 2ayi + 3(b + 2) y 2 yi + 6(bc 1)t 2 y 2 yi
yi =
M =
E 2 2(1 a ) y + 3(b + 1) y 2 y + 6(bc 1)t 2 y 2 yi

3
i
Category 9: Upper Material Deforms Fully Plastically, Both Sides of Bottom Material Deform ElastoPlastically. The position of the neutral layer yi is then as
(24)
Copper C11000
Aluminum 1050
Yield stress in plane strain
293 MPa
123 MPa
Youngs modulus in plane strain
139 GPa
78 GPa
Since the bending moments are identical for both configurations, that the copper base material is either on the
upper side or on the lower side, the change of the bending
moment over the curvature during bending and springback,
shown in Figure 3, can be applied to both situations. The
bending moments calculated for the sheets of single base
material are shown in Figure 3 as well. Because of the
uneven distribution of the bending moment levels, the
common rules of mixtures in composites may not be applied directly to bi-metal sheets under bending. However,
it still can be found that the thicker the copper base sheet,
the higher the bending moment, the stiffer the elastic bending and the more the springback would be.
795
09.08.2010 14:35:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Bending moment M /N-mm
80
obtained by bending a Cu 0.2 mm / Al 0.8 mm sheet. The

clad layer locates far away to the neutral layer, so that its
stress discontinuity can be reduced by springback. Because the reverse bending moment also offers a stress
discontinuity, the farther the interface to the neutral layer
locates, the more the reverse stress discontinuity appears
and therefore the less the stress discontinuity shows at the
clad interface after springback.
Cu 1 mm
0.8/0.2
60
0.6/0.4
40
0.4/0.6
0.2/0.8
Al 1 mm
20
Cu (mm) / Al (mm)
0
0.04
0.06
-1
0.08
Curvature /mm
Figure 3. Development of bending moment M during bending bimetal sheet over curvature .
Figure 4 shows how the layer of a Cu 0.4 mm / Al 0.6

mm sheet starting to yield and its development during
bending. At first, both base materials deform elastically,
described above as category 1. Then the outer surface of
bottom aluminium side starts to yield as category 2 or 4.
The neutral layer, which is shown in dash line, also starts
to move towards copper side. Thereafter the outer surface
of copper also begins to yield as category 5. Shortly after
all the aluminium deforms plastically as category 8, where
the curvature reaches 0.03 mm-1, the interface layer of
copper starts to yield as category 9. Then the neutral layer
stays at the same position until the maximum bending
curvature 0.1 mm-1 is reached. At that bending curvature
only 4.2% thickness still deforms elastically.
Layer position /mm
0.003
0.4
-400 -300 -200 -100
-1
curvature (mm )
0
100
200
300
400
Stress /MPa
Figure 5. Stress across thickness of bi-metal sheet during bending

expressed in curvatures and after springback.
1
Cu 0.2 mm / Al 0.8 mm
0.8
0.003
0.01
0.6
0.1
0.4
spring back
0.2
-400 -300 -200 -100
layer starts to yield
0.8
0.1
spring back
0.2
-1
curvature (mm )
0
0
100
200
300
400
Stress /MPa
Figure 6. Stress across thickness of bi-metal sheet during bending

expressed in curvatures and after springback.
0.6
0.4
neutral layer
0.2
Conclusions
Cu 0.4 mm / Al 0.6 mm
0
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
-1
Curvature /mm
0.1
Figure 4. Positions of yielding layers and movements of neutral

layer during bending expressed in bending curvature.
The stress in the bending circumferential direction in

some categories during bending this bi-metal sheet is
shown in Figure 5. While it is bent to curvature 0.003
mm-1, both materials deform elastically, so that the stress
curve is linear. It can be seen that the neutral layer locates
at the aluminum side and close to the clad interface. As the
curvature increases to 0.005 mm-1, the neutral layer moves
to the copper side and part of the aluminum already deforms plastically. The stress discontinuity at the clad interface is relatively small. It is hard to say that this discontinuity grows with the bending curvature since the neutral
layer may be across the interface layer. However, when the
curvature reaches 0.1 mm-1, the stress has a discontinuity
equal to the difference of the yield stresses of both base
materials, because both materials at the interface undergo
a plastic deformation. This stress discontinuity might
cause a failure to the clad layer due to shearing.
Because the neutral layer returns its original position after springback, the stress discontinuity spreads out. Normally, the neutral layer does not move across the interface
layer during bending, like shown in Figure 6 which is
0.005
0.6
796
1
Cu 0.4 mm / Al 0.6 mm
0.8
0.1
Layer position/mm
0.02
Layer position/mm
An analysis model for pure bending a bi-metal sheet in

plane strain, which is idealized as elastic-perfectly plastic,
has been created in this study. As a result, the configuration describing the base metal on the tensile side or on the
compression side does not influence the bending moments
needed for bending. During thebending, a stress discontinuity can be found on the clad layer. Once a base material
undergoes plastic deformation, the neutral layer is always
moving towards to the harder metal, until one base metal
plastically deforms completely. After the springback, the
neutral layer returns to its original position. If the neutral
layer is across the clad interface during bending, the stress
discontinuity on the clad layer gets larger after the springback. Otherwise, the stress discontinuity can be reduced,
and the further the clad interface locates from the neutral
layer, the more the discontinuity is reduced.
References
[1] H.-C. Tseng, C. Hung, C.-C. Huang: International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, (2009), doi: 10.1007/s00170-0092446-4.
[2] H. Suzuki, E. Takano: Journal of the Japan Society of Mechanical
Engineers, 28-193, (1962), 1139-1148.
[3] H. Suzuki, E. Takano: Journal of the Japan Society of Mechanical
Engineers, 27-184, (1961), 1931-1937.
09.08.2010 14:35:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Forming Analysis of L-Bending of Sandwich Sheet with Pyramid Core

Wanjin Chung1), Sungjin Lim1), Jongho Kim1), Daeyong Seong2), Dongyol Yang2)
1)
Department of Product Design and Manufacturing, Seoul National University of Technology, Seoul / Korea, wjchung@snut.ac.kr;
partment of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Technology, Daejeon / Korea
2)
De-
A sandwich sheet with a pyramid core is made of a steel sheet by slitting, expanding and crimping before it is bonded to outer face sheets
by brazing. Owing to the complex shape of the core, forming analysis with solid elements is not practical because it requires much
computation time and memory. In this study, the use of a condensed model using shell and beam elements is proposed for the simulation of
forming of a sandwich sheet with a pyramid core. The effectiveness and accuracy of this model are evaluated by comparison with the solid
model for a unit cell. Finite element analysis for L-bending with a condensed model was carried out and compared with experimental results.
The simulation results agreed well with the experimental results in terms of deformation shape and load-stroke behaviour. Failure modes in
the bending of a sandwich sheet with a pyramid core could be classified into face crack, face buckling, core crack and core buckling. The
occurrence of failure was investigated in terms of forming conditions such as die radius and the shape of the pyramid core. From numerical
simulations, we investigated the influences of the parameters and found a safe forming window without failures.
Keywords: Sandwich sheet with pyramid core, L-bending, Finite element analysis, Condensed model, Failure mode, Forming window
Introduction
In industrial applications, sandwich sheets made with
various types of structured cores have seen increasing use
because of their high strength-to-weight ratio. However,
the forming of sandwich sheets is very limited due to their
poor formability. Up to now, bending is the only successful forming process for sandwich sheets with a structured
core. Mohr [1] identified the failure modes occurring in
draw bending and suggested a design guide to prevent
failure modes. For formability design and performance
design of the sandwich plates, finite element analysis is
essential. For computational efficiency, Xue and
Hutchinson [2] suggested the homogenization approach to
simulate the elastic-plastic deformation behaviour of a
structured core.
Recently, an effective manufacturing method of a
sandwich sheet with a pyramid-type core was developed
[3]. Expanded metals in the form of elongated diamond
perforated sheets were made by slitting and expanding.
The expanded metals were then bent to make regular
pyramidal truss cores that were bonded with face sheets
using a copper-based brazing technique. D. Y. Seong et al.
[4] developed the idealized two-dimensional finite element
method using a homogenization approach to simulate the
bending process. In a previous study by the authors [5],
failure modes of a sandwich sheet with a pyramid core
were studied experimentally for L-bending. The results
showed that face buckling, core buckling and de-bonding
are the main failure modes. Safe forming regions for
sandwich plates in the form of a forming window were
also determined. However, this numerical method has
limited accuracy
because of its two-dimensional
idealization.
This study proposes a three-dimensional condensed
finite element model to simulate the forming of sandwich
sheets with a pyramid core. Finite element analysis for Lbending with a condensed model consisting of shell and
beam elements was carried out to prove the accuracy and
the effectiveness. Failure modes were also investigated
with respect to forming conditions such as die radius and

the geometric shape of the pyramid core.
Forming Analysis Using Three-dimensional Condensed
Development of Three-dimensional Condensed Finite Element Model. The forming analyses were
simulated by the commercial finite element code, LSDYNA3D. LS-DYNA3D is based on the dynamic explicit
method and has been used successfully to solve forming
problems with severe contact. A face sheet is assumed to
be an elasto-plastic material to follow Hills quadratic
yield criterion with normal anisotropy and the core
material is
assumed to be an isotropic elastic-plastic
material. The stress-strain relationship in Eq. (1) is used.
Material properties for the two materials are given in
Table 1. Tensile tests were performed according to the
ASTM E8 specification at a speed of 1mm/min .
= K ( 0 + p ) n
(1)
Table 1. Material properties of a sandwich sheet with a pyramid

core.
Thickness (mm)
Youngs Modulus (GPa)
Offset Strain, 0
Skin sheet
(SUS304)
0.3
206
0.0132
Core
(CSP1N)
0.4
206
0.0133
Strength Coefficient, K (MPa)

Work-hardening exponent, n
1493.83
0.468
610.52
0.306
Figure 1 shows the shape of a pyramid core and the

structure of a sandwich sheet. A numerical model of a
sandwich sheet can be made with the patterning of a unit
cell. Figure 2 shows solid modelling of a sandwich sheet
for a unit cell. Figure 3 shows a condensed model for a
unit cell consisting of shell and beam elements. Two face
sheets are modelled by shell elements and the core is
modelled by beam elements. In order to describe bending
behaviour with sufficient accuracy, 7 integration points
797
09.08.2010 14:35:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
through the thickness are used for the shell and beam elements.
Figure 1. Sandwich sheet with pyramid core.
Figure 2. Solid model for a unit cell.
Figure 3. Condensed model using shell and beam elements.
(a)
The number of shell and beam elements for a unit cell

should be enough to simulate buckling behaviour accurately. In this study, 8 shell elements between welding
points in the bending direction are used and 8 beam elements are used to model the shape of the core element.
The shape of the core element should be modelled carefully to capture the real shape properly.
Verification of Condensed Finite Element Model. The
accuracy of a condensed finite element model is verified
by comparing it with a solid finite element model. The
solid finite element model is generated from a solid model
in Figure 2. Five solid finite elements through the thickness are used to describe bending behaviour appropriately.
Figure 4 compares the load-displacement curve from the
compression simulation in the thickness direction and
tension in the face plane direction. Both comparisons
showed that the prediction by a condensed model is almost
equal to that of a solid model.
Finite Element Analysis of L-bending. A finite element analysis using a condensed model was carried out for
L-bending. Corresponding experiments had been already
performed in a previous study by the authors [5]. Figure 5
shows the experimental set-up for L-bending and the dimensions used. Figure 6 shows the mesh used for simulation. Tool mesh is modelled by the outer rigid surfaces of
tool. For core elements, a rectangular section of 0.4mm x
0.7mm obtained from the measurement is applied. By
considering the contact between tool mesh and sheet mesh,
a sandwich sheet is deformed during bending simulation.
The contact between the core element and the face sheet is
also considered to describe the post-buckling behaviour of
the core element. During the simulation, the maximum
speed of a tool is set to 1,000 mm/s to minimize the dynamic effects without mass scaling.
Figure 5. Experimental set-up for L-bending.
(b)
Figure 4. Comparison of load-displacement curves between solid
and condensed model: (a) compression in thickness direction and
(b) tension in face plane direction.
798
Figure 6. Mesh modelling for the L-bending process.
09.08.2010 14:35:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Safe Forming Window
(a)
Failure Modes. Failure modes in L-bending of a sandwich sheet with a pyramid core can be classified into four
types: face fracture, face buckling, core fracture and core
buckling as shown in Figure 9. In this study, de-bonding
between the skin sheet and the core is not considered. In
the following analysis, the occurrence of buckling is detected by observing a deformation shape and loaddisplacement curve behaviour and fracture can be found
by checking element strains.
(b)
Figure 9. Failure modes during the L-bending process.

(c)
Figure 7. Deformed shape in L-bending (clearance=3.3mm) at
strokes of (a) 0 mm, (b) 15 mm and (c) 30 mm.
Figure 10. Geometric parameters of a sandwich sheet.
Figure 8. Comparison of load-stroke curve in L-bending.
Coulombs friction coefficient of 0.15 was applied in

the simulation. Figure 7 compares the deformed shape
between experiment and simulation. At strokes of 15 mm
and 30 mm, the locations of surface buckling are very
close to each other for both the experiment and the
simulation. The overall deformed shapes after the onset of
buckling are very similar. Also, the occurrence of core
buckling was observed similarly. Figure 8 shows the loadstroke curve. The locations of peaks and valleys are similar.
The peak load of the simulation is slightly higher than that
of the experiment. This is thought to be because a
condensed model overconstrained the real deformation
behaviour. It should be noted that the number of load
peaks is equal to the number of face bucklings at strokes
of both 15 mm and 30 mm. That is because the occurrence
of buckling reduces the deformation energy.
Construction of Safe Forming Window. In the preliminary analyses, the influence of process parameters on
the forming limit was investigated by changing one parameter at a time in order to find the range of process
parameters suitable for the simulation. The process parameters considered are die radius Rd and the geometric
dimensions of a sandwich sheet shown in Figure 10,
where h is the height of core, d is the gap between welding
points in bending plane, w is the skin sheet thickness and t
is the thickness of the core element. The gap between
welding points in the orthogonal direction with respect to
bending is fixed the same as 4.4 mm in Figure 2.
Figure 11. Influence of face sheet thickness on face buckling

(Rd=10 mm, t=0.5 mm, d=3.0 mm).
799
09.08.2010 14:35:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 2. Process parameters considered to find a safe forming
window. (w=0.5 mm).
Process parameter
Parameter Value (mm)
Die Radius (Rd)
8, 10, 15, 20
Gap between welding points(d)
2.0,3.0,4.0,5.0,6.0,6.8
Thickness of Core Element (t x t)
0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7
Figure 11 shows skin sheet thickness plays an important role in the occurrence of face buckling. From the
preliminary analyses, it was found that even if we use the
best values for other parameters, enough thickness plays
an important role to prevent face buckling. Therefore, in
the following analyses, we used a skin sheet thickness of
0.5mm. Table 2 lists the range of parameters used to find a
safe forming window.
Figure 12 shows the failure map obtained by simulation.
Figure 12 shows that the larger gap d tends to cause face
and core buckling. Thus, the gap between welding points
in the bending plane should be small enough to prevent the
face and core buckling mode. Figure 12 also shows that
the degree of core buckling decreases as the die radius
increases. In addition, we found a larger thickness of the
core element reduces the possibility of core buckling.
Fracture of the face sheet and core element did not occur
since the thickness is large enough to prevent the fracture.
(a)
Conclusion
(b)
The use of a three-dimensional condensed finite element

model is proposed to simulate the forming of a sandwich
sheet with a pyramid core.
A condensed model using shell and beam elements was
modeled that incorporated the geometry of the sandwich
sheet with a pyramid core. It was also shown that the
accuracy of a condensed model is almost equal to that of a
solid model for a unit cell. From the finite element
analysis for L-bending, we showed that a condensed
model can predict the failure mode and load-stroke
behaviour with sufficient accuracy.
A failure map with respect to the geometric parameters
of a sandwich sheet and the die radius was generated from
the finite element simulation for L-bending process. We
showed the influence of the parameters and found the
existence and the region of a safe forming window.
Acknowledgments
(c)
This research was supported financially by the Ministry

of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and the Korea Industrial
Technology Foundation (KOTEF) through the Human
Resource Training Project for Strategic Technology.
References
[1] D. Mohr: International Journal of Solids and Structures, 42 (2005),
1491-1512.
[2] Z. Xue, J.W. Hutchinson : International Journal for Numerical Methods
in Engineering, 61 (2004), 2205-2238.
[3] C.G. Jung, D.Y.Seong, D.Y. Yang, S.J. Na, D.G. Ahn: Journal of
Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 45 (2009), 352-361.
[4] D.Y. Seong, C.G. Jung, D.Y. Yang: Proc. NUMIFORM 2007, (2007),
949-954.
[5] D.Y. Seong, C.G. Jung, D.S. Shim, D.Y. Yang, J.H. Kim, W.J. Chung:
Proc. ICTP 2008, (2008), 428-429.
(d)
Figure 12. Failure map for sandwich sheet with pyramid core :
(a) Rd = 8 mm, (b) Rd = 10 mm, (c) Rd = 15 mm, (d) Rd = 20 mm.
800
09.08.2010 14:35:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
Springback Prediction of DP600 Steels for Various Material Models

Mehmet Ali Guler1), Firat Ozer1), Mustafa Yenice2), Mesut Kaya2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara / Turkey, mguler@etu.edu.tr; 2) Coskunoz
Holding A.S., Bursa / Turkey
The springback phenomenon, which is an undesired elastic deformation, results in geometrical inaccuracies in the assembly line. Therefore,
it should be predicted accurately in order to avoid mismatches of the components in the assembly processes. For an accurate prediction
and die compensation, it should be known a priori, how the parameters such as temperature, blank holder force, blank thickness and friction affect springback behavior. In this paper, springback behavior of DP600 steel was examined. An analytical model based on Hills 48
yield criterion for anisotropic materials was used to validate a finite element model for prediction of springback after a stretch bending process. In the finite element analyses, two different yield criteria, which are Hill48 and Barlats three-parameter anisotropic plasticity model,
were used to predict the springback angle. Finally, the results obtained from the analytical model and finite element analyses, together with
the results of two commercial programs generally used in industry were compared.
Keywords: Springback, Anisotropy, DP600, Finite element analysis, Sheet metal forming
Introduction
Today, there is a tendency to use light weight but high
strength materials in automotive industry. Using high
strength steels to lighten the vehicle weight, leads to a
major problem which is known as springback and high
yield stress of these materials cause an increase in the
level of springback.
There are various factors in material forming affecting
the springback. Mechanical properties of the blank affect
the flow characteristics of the sheet material. For instance,
anisotropy of the high strength steels is generally the result
of hardening that occurs after pre processing operations
such as rolling which contributes to increased material
flow [1]. The springback occurring after the sheet metal
forming process can be reduced by controlling some process parameters, such as punch radius, tool clearance, blank
holder force, lubrication and so on [2]. For instance, the
springback increases with increasing punch corner radius
under a large value of the blank holder force (BHF) in U
drawn parts. On the contrary, although side wall curl is
fundamentally dependent on the value of the BHF, it decreases as the die radius increases. Furthermore, side wall
curl varies for different materials depending on their mechanical properties. It is observed that springback and side
wall curl for stainless steel are higher than those for mild
steel [3]. It has been known that the blank holder force
(BHF) variation in the U-bending process is an effective
way to reduce springback. The value of BHF should not be
too small that results in wrinkling and it should not exceed
a critical value that allows cracking [4]. During the die
design, the springback should be taken into account in
order to obtain target part shape. Accurate springback
prediction assists in design of an optimized die [5]. In
order to ascertain the springback level and determine how
the process parameters affect the springback, different
methods such as analytical approach, experimental studies,
and finite element simulations are used. In the literature,
springback results obtained by these methods have been
compared by using different material models [6-9]. Although, analytical approach is time and cost effective, it is
only applicable to the simple bending processes. On the
other hand, as the tool geometry gets complex, the finite

element model becomes a good fit for predicting the
springback.
Traditional analytical models derived for evaluation of
the springback are based on elastic deformation which
occurs due to the bending moment during unloading. Different from these traditional models, Yi et al. [10] derived
a model based on differential strains after relief from the
maximum bending stress for six different deformation
patterns.
In this paper, DP600 steel which is used in automobile
industry for producing wide range of parts was examined.
To determine the anisotropy effect of the material and
other process parameters on the springback, the U-bending
process of a DP600 sheet metal formed by a single action
press was studied. Anisotropic material model developed
by Dongjuan et al. [8] was reviewed and compared with
finite element analysis. DP600 can be considered as nearly
isotropic material since the experiments show that its
strain ratios along 0, 45 and 90 are 0.82, 0.90 and 1.06,
respectively [11]. However, anisotropic material models
give more accurate results than isotropic ones. Finite
element analyses were performed by using the material
models proposed by Hill and Barlat et al. Moreover, the
results obtained from two different commercial simulation
programs, namely LS-DYNA and AUTOFORM, were
compared in evaluation of the springback.
Analysis of U-Bending Process
During the U-bending operation, a flat blank is forced to
bend over the die and the punch corners and the blank
Figure. 1. Achematic view of tools and dimensions.
801
09.08.2010 14:36:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
holder applies a certain force to hold the blank in place
(see Figure 1).
A single action press was used in the experimental study.
In this type of press, die is movable and attached to the
upper shoe; punch is stationary and attached to the lower
shoe and blank holder gets its power from the pistons
located below the bed of the press [12]. Clearance between
the punch and the die should be greater than the thickness
of the sheet metal. The clearance is taken to be 1.9 mm for
0.8 mm blank thickness. Sheet metal is 350 mm in length
and 35 mm in width. The radii of the punch and the die
corners are 5 mm as shown in Figure 2. Total stroke is 60
mm and die moves 15 mm during the closing process.
Blank holder force linearly increases from 15 kN to 25 kN.
Figure. 2. Detailed view of tool and dimensions.
Analytical Method Proposed by Dongjuan et al. [8]

It is important to decide to use an appropriate mathematical model which is compatible with the material properties of the blank and the process type. Analytical method
discussed in this section is a review of the model proposed
by Dongjuan et al. [8]. Since DP600 steel has an anisotropic behavior, Hill48 yield criteria [13] would be a good
fit to determine the stress distribution over the formed
blank. Hills yield criteria may be written as:
2 f ( ij ) = F ( y z ) 2 + G ( z x ) 2 + F ( x y ) 2
2
2
2
+ 2 L yz
+ 2 M zx
+ 2 xy
=1
(1)
where F, G,, H, L, M, N are the characteristic parameters

defining the current state of anisotropy which can be defined by the strain ratios R0, R45 and R90. These strain ratios are called as Lankford coefficients and obtained by
tensile tests in 0, 45 and 90 directions relative to the
rolling direction of the sheet. The average of these strain
ratios is known as normal anisotropy and can be defined
as:
R=
R0 + 2 R45 + R90
4
(2)
The following assumptions are implemented in developing the analytical model:

1. Since the blank is wide enough with respect to its
thickness, the strain in width direction, z is neglected.
2. Blank has uniform thickness and width.
3. The stretching force is assumed to be uniform.
4. Planes normal to the blank surface remain planar during
the forming process.
5. Volume change is conserved during the process.
6. Transverse stress, r is neglected.
802
Schematic view of the stretch-bending for a representative region is given in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Schematic view of stretch-bending.
where Rm is the radius of blank middle surface, Rn is the

radius of neutral surface, Ri is the inner radius of the blank,
Ro is the outer radius of the blank, Fs is the stretching force,
M is the bending moment. One of the major problems of
the U-bending process is thinning. During the process,
pressure difference occurs between the concave and convex surfaces of the blank and due to this difference, neutral surface moves towards the inner surface. According to
the assumptions 1 and 5, blank thinning can be derived
easily,
R
(3)
t = n ti
Rm
where t and ti are the thickness of blank after U-bending
and initial thickness respectively. In plain strain conditions,
Hill48 yield criterion can be written in terms of the tangential stress and the normal anisotropy.
= / f
(4)
Here, f is the anisotropy coefficient and can be defined

in terms of the normal anisotropy, R as:
f =
1+ R
(5)
1 + 2R
According to the Swifts hardening rule and from equations 3, 4 and 5, tangential stress, can be written as:
= fK ( 0 + ) n
(6)
where 0 is the initial strain and is the effective plastic

strain. K and n are the hardening coefficient and the hardening exponent respectively. Tangential stress formulation
depends on the stress distribution along the blank thickness. Figure 4 shows the stress distribution of the stretchbending.
Figure 4. Stress distribution.
09.08.2010 14:36:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
The blank is in tension, above the neutral surface; it is in
compression, below the neutral surface. There is another
region where the elastic deformation occurs and the half
thickness of this elastic region can be found from:
te =
f ys Rn
(7)
E1
where, E1 is the modulus of elasticity in plain strain conditions and can be defined as E1=E/(1-2) and ys is the initial yield stress. Consequently, tangential stress distribution of each region can be formulated according equation 6.
r n
fK ( 0 + f ln )
Rn
r Rn
=
E1
Rn
r n
fK ( 0 f ln R )
n
(8)
Ri r Rn te
(9)
The total moment during the loading consists of elastic

and plastic moments;
M = Me + M p
(10)
r
E1 ln
Me =
m (r Rm )dr
Rn t e
Rn
Ro
( m )(r Rm )dr
Me =
Rn + t e
Rn t e
( m )(r Rm )dr
+
Ri
(11)
Rn + t e
where Me, Mp are the elastic bending moment and the

plastic bending moment respectively.
The stress state during unloading was described by using
the kinematic hardening model [14]. Kinematic hardening
model is compatible with the Bauschingers effect [15]
which should be taken into account in processes including
reverse loading such as in the U-bending process.
r
E1 ln
Rn te r Rn +te
Rn
=
n
fK + f ln r 2 + f R r R t or R +t r R
elim
ys
i
n e
n e
o
0
Rn

(12)
(13)
tangential stress after unloading and e lim is the elastic

limit strain. The moment which occurs during unloading
can be defined in terms of stretching stress in the middle
surface of the sheet.
M =
f e
fK + f ln r
0
Rn +te
R
E1
n
Ro
lim
f
e
n

f e lim
fK f ln r
+ f
0
e

Ri
Rn
E1

Rn +te
r Rn
+
m (r Rm )dr
E1
Rn te
Rn
lim
Rn te
lim
+ f ys m (r Rm )dr
f ys m (r Rm )dr
(14)
M ( )
Rn d
E1I
(15)
The angular change in side wall can be found as:
Rn + te Rm Ro
Rn Rm Ro + te
The angular change in regions of die and punch corners

can be calculated as:
The stress m, caused by stretching force in the region

analyzed, has no effect on the bending moment and it can
be defined as:
Rm n
fK ( 0 + f ln R )
n
m =
Rm
E1 ln
Rn
where m is the stress in blank middle surface, is the
Rn + te r Ro
Rn te r Rn + te
m = m fK 0 + f ln m 2 e lim f ys
Rn
sw =
MbL
E1I
(16)
where L is the length of the side wall and I is the moment

of inertia per unit width.
U-bending process was simulated by using two different

finite element codes, AUTOFORM and LS-DYNA respectively. Punch, die and blank holder were modeled as rigid
surfaces. Only half of the tool was taken into account
because of the symmetry. In the finite element model,
54960 nodes and 24500 deformable elements were used.
Number of integration points (NIP) through the thickness
of the blank was set as 7 according to study of Chen et al.
[16]. The optimal values of integration points are 7-9 when
the computing time and accuracy are taken into account.
Process conditions and material properties are listed below
in Tables 1 and 2.
Stroke
(mm)
60
ys(MPa)
440.73
Table 1. Process conditions.

BHF
Velocity
Friction
(kN)
(mm/s)
Coef.
15-25
1
0.12449
E (GPa)
K(MPa)
n
210
0.3
1124.44
0.2342
Mesh size
(mm)
0.5x0.5
o
0.0183
Results
Three different material models namely: 3-parameter

Barlat, Hill48 and isotropic were used in LS-DYNA in
803
09.08.2010 14:36:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
order to compare the springback prediction capability. In
AUTOFORM only Hill48 material model was used. Target
and final shape of the drawn part is shown in Figure 5.
Experiments were conducted at Coskunoz Holding A.S.
Figure 5. Final shape of part
In Figure 6 schematic illustration of the springback angles measurement is given. While computing the angles,
five specific points were chosen to obtain the desired lines
forming the springback angles, 1 and 2.
For the adaptive mesh refinement application, computed

springback angles 1 and 2 is given in Table 4.
Conclusions
The analytical model proposed by Dongjuan et al. [8]

takes into consideration of the material properties, planar
anisotropy but not the blank holder force and the coefficient of friction. Although the springback angle, 2 obtained by the analytical model is very close to the experimental result, this is not valid for 1. Comparison of simulation results shows that LS-DYNA gives slightly more
accurate results than AUTOFORM for the examined process. 0.5 mm element size and 7 NIP value are the best fit
for the prediction of the springback. Figure 9 shows the
springback angles obtained by LS-DYNA and AUTOFORM simulations, and experimental results.
Figure 8. Results of springback obtained from Ls-dyna, Autoform and

experiment.
Figure 6. Springback measurement.
Acknowledgements
Table 3 shows the springback angles obtained by using

different material models, obtained from analytical model
and experiment. For Barlat material model, hardening
exponent, m was chosen to be 6.
Hill48
1
2
102.2
82.9
Table 3. Springback angles.

IsoAnlytc.
Exp.
tropic
103.70
102.67
105.95 110.08
83.26
83.24
84.95
85.35
Barlat
Autoform
100.98
83.94
To observe the effect of element size on the simulation

results, adaptive mesh refinement was used. Initially the
element size was 3 mm and at the end of the forming process element size was reduced to 1 mm as shown in Figure
7.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the

Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey
(TUBITAK) under grant 109M078.
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
Figure 7. Element size after adaptive mesh refinement.

Table 4. Adaptive mesh results for Hill48 and Barlat.
Hill48
Barlat
1
99.64
99.92
2
78.66
79.04
804
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
S.W. Lee, Y.T. Kim: Journal of Material Processing Technology,

187188 (2007), 89-93.
R. Padmanabhan, A.J. Babtista, M.C. Olivera, L.F. Menezes: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 184 (2007), 288-293.
M. Samuel: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 105
(2000), 382-393.
G. Liu, Z. Lin, Y. Bao, J. Cao: Journal of Materials Engineering and
Performance, 11 (2002), 64-70.
W. Gan, R.H. Wagoner: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 46 (2004) 1097-1113.
S.K. Panthi, N. Ramakrishnan, M. Ahmed, S.S. Singh, M.D. Goel:
Journal of Materials and Design, 31 (2010), 657-662
A. Andersson: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 169-3
(2005), 352-356.
Z. Dongjuan, C. Zhenshan, R. Xueyu, L. Yuqiang: Computational
Materials Science, 38 (2007), 707715.
A. Behrouzi, B.M. Dariani, M. Shakeri: Journal of Engineering
Manufacture, DOI: 10.1243/09544054JEM1561.
H.K. Yi1, D.W. Kim, C.J. Van Tyne, Y.H. Moon: Journal of
Engineering Science, DOI: 10.1243/09544062JMES682.
Results obtained by Coskunoz Holding A.S. experiments.
V. Boljanovic: Sheet metal forming process and die design.
R. Hill: The mathematical theory of plasticity, ISBN 0 19 850367 9.
I. Ragai, D. Lazim, J. A. Nemes: Journal of Material Processing
Technology, 166 (2005) 116127.
B.Tang, X. Lu, Z. Wang, Z. Zhao: Materials and Design, 31 (2010),
2043-2050.
L. Chen, X. Qui, S. Li: Numisheet 2008.
09.08.2010 14:36:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of Microstructure on Springback of Cold-Rolled TRIP Steel

Sheet
Sung Il Kim1), Sang Heum Cho2), Youngseog Lee2)
1)
Sheet Products and Process Research Group, POSCO Tech. Res. Lab., Gwangyang/ Korea;
Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 156-756/ Korea, ysl@cau.ac.kr
2)
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
The springback of cold-rolled transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steel was examined through V-bending forming tests. Prior to the
testing, the steel specimens were subject to different austempering temperatures (300, 350, and 400 oC), so as to induce variations in the
microstructure. The microstructure at different points of interest was analyzed via EBSD and XRD. It was revealed that the amount of
springback decreased as the austempering temperature increased. The amount of springback in the TRIP steel was dependent on the
fraction of retained austenite; the springback decreased as the fraction of retained austenite increased. As the retained austenite volume
and area fraction was increased 2X or more, the amount of springback was reduced by 29.3% as the austempering temperature was raised
from 350 to 400 oC. The springback was, for the most part, not dependent on the specimen orientation about the rolling direction.
Keywords: Springback, TRIP steel, Retained austenite, Austempering, V-bending forming
Introduction
The automobile industry has made efforts to improve the
fuel efficiency of automobiles via employing Advanced
High-Strength Steel (AHSS) [1,2]. However, problems
related to weldability and workability have hindered the
use of AHSS. To overcome these issues, new technologies
that enhance the welding and cold forming process for
AHSS are being developed [3,4].
In this study, we focus on Transformation-Induced Plasticity (TRIP) steel, one type of AHSS, and a cold forming
process in which parts are produced through dies. In this
process, the elastic recovery of the parts after unloading,
known as springback or springforward, is as important as
the die itself, since some geometric changes in the parts
occur after forming. In this work, the term springback,
rather than springforward, is used for convenience.
The amount of springback in high-strength steel is influenced by such process parameters as the die shape and its
dimensional accuracy, the material/die contact conditions,
material anisotropy, material properties, and the thickness
of the material. In terms of springback and the plastic
deformation behavior, TRIP steel and conventional highstrength steel are quite different. This difference exists
because TRIP steel has a second phase that is quite complicated. Consequently, the plastic deformation behavior
of TRIP steel with a multi-phase composition is quite
different from that of conventional high-strength steel[5,6].
Many research groups [7-11] have investigated the springback of TRIP steel.
Fei and Hodgson [7] researched the effects of blank
thickness, die gap, and Youngs modulus on the springback
of cold-rolled TRIP steel sheets. Zhang and Lee [8] evaluated the influence of the blank holder force, elastic
modulus, strain hardening exponent, blank thickness, and
yield strength on the magnitude of springback in a part.
Asgari et al. [9] and Chen et al. [10] used a statistical approach to study the effects of the blank holder force, friction conditions, Youngs modulus, and material properties
on the springback of TRIP steel. Lee et al. [11] recently
studied the hardening law effect on the springback by
incorporating non-linear kinematic hardening and anisotropic yield functions.

In the aforementioned studies, the researchers did not
examine how variations in the microstructure of TRIP
steel influence the springback. It should be noted that
plastic deformation behavior and springback are greatly
dependent on microstructural variations, such as in the
volume fraction of retained austenite, bainite, and ferrite
phases. As such, a systematic study with a focus on the
effect of TRIP steel microstructure on springback is highly
desirable.
In this study, a cold-rolled TRIP steel sheet with a 1.0
mm in thickness was heat treated at different austempering
temperatures (300, 350 and 400 oC) so as to induce microstructural variations. A series of V-bend forming tests were
performed to examine the relationship between springback
and microstructure. The effects of both anisotropy in the
TRIP steel and the size of the punch radius in the V-bend
forming tests on the springback were also investigated.
Experimental
Material. In this study, the TRIP steel sheet with a
chemical composition of Fe with 0.2 wt% C, 2.0 wt% Mn,
1.0 wt% Si, and 1.0 wt% Al was used. The steel was prepared by a laboratory vacuum induction melting process.
An as-cast slab was fed into a pilot rolling mill after being
homogenized in a furnace at 1200oC. The slab was hot
rolled through nine passes so as to produce a 3.0 mm-thick
hot sheet. The hot rolled sheets were then cold rolled into
sheets of 1.0-mm thickness.
To induce variations in the microstructure of the coldrolled TRIP steel sheet, specimens were heat-treated at
temperatures of 300, 350 and 400 oC as shown in Figure 1.
Mechanical properties were evaluated by tensile tests with
a JIS-5 specimen (gauge length: 50 mm, gauge width: 25
mm). The yield strength was defined as the lower yield
point or, in the absence of a yield point, as the strength at a
0.2% offset strain. To characterize the microstructure of
the steel sheets, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron
back-scattered diffraction (EBSD, TSL Hikari) were used
805
09.08.2010 14:36:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
1200 oC
900 oC
830 oC
400,
600 oC
Figure 1. Schematic representation of thermal cycle for cold-rolled

TRIP steel sheet.
in conjunction with a JSM-6500F field emission scanning

electron microscope (FE-SEM). To examine the effect of
material anisotropy on the springback, specimens were
obliquely cut relative to rolling direction. The oblique
angles were 0, 45 and 90o. Specimens (length: 120 mm,
width: 30 mm and thickness: 1.0 mm) are cut out from the
steel sheet.
V-bend Forming Test. The V-bend forming test consists
of a 90 degree V-shape and a square-shaped relief region
at its centre. Punches with different tip radii (1, 2 and 3
mm) were used. To remove the effect of the die-contact
condition on the springback during bending and unbending, the specimen was allowed to move with free during
forming test. The downward speed of the punch was 10
mm/min, which is identical to the crosshead speed used in
the tensile tests. When the punch reached a maximum
compressive force (5 kN), it was moved backward.
Initial Microstructures and Mechanical Properties.
Figure 2 shows the initial microstructures of TRIP steel
(a)
(b)
(d)
Ferrite
R.Austenite
Bainite
Table 1. Volume and area fraction of retained austenite (%).

Result of XRD analysis Result of EBSD analysis
Specimen
(volume fraction)
(area fraction)
4-peak method#
S - 300
3.4
2.4
S - 350
6.0
3.0
S - 400
12.1
8.0
# B.D. Cullity, Elements of X-ray Diffraction 2nd Ed., AddisonWesley Publishing Co, Inc. (1978), 508.
The retained austenite volume and area fraction increased by 2X or more as the austempering temperature
was raised from 350 to 400 oC. Note the results of the
XRD analysis denote the volume fraction, while the results
of the EBSD analysis represent the area fraction. Hence,
the results attained from the XRD analysis are slightly
larger than those of the EBSD analysis. The mechanical
properties of TRIP steel specimens changed depending on
the fraction of retained austenite. The fraction of retained
austenite, which contributes to the ductility of the material,
increased as the austempering temperature was raised.
(c)
(e)
specimens. The labels S-300, S-350, and S-400 indicate austempering temperatures of 300, 350, and 400 oC,
respectively. In the image quality maps of Figure 2(a), (b),
and (c), white indicates ferrite, black denotes bainite, and
gray represents retained austenite. The fraction of bainite
and retained austenite phases was found to vary as the
austempering temperature was increased. This may be
attributed to the fact that the fraction of retained austenite
is dependent upon the austempering temperature.
The retained austenite volume and area fraction of the
TRIP steel specimens were measured via XRD and EBSD.
The results are shown in Figure 2(d), (e) and (f), and summarized in Table 1.
(f)
Ferrite
R.Austenite
Bainite
Ferrite
R.Austenite
Bainite
Figure 2. Image quality maps and phase analysis maps of TRIP steel specimens obtained from EBSD analysis before V-bending forming
test. (a) and (d) correspond to those of S-300, (b) and (e) those of S-350, (c) and (f) those of S-400.
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09.08.2010 14:36:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
Thus, it is expected that the workability of TRIP steel
during a V-bend forming test may be improved if the fraction of retained austenite is increased.
Figure 3 illustrates the stressstrain curves of TRIP
steel specimens heat-treated at three different austempering temperatures. The heat treatment temperature deviation (35050 oC) contributed to variations in the yield
strength, tensile strength, elongation, and n-value. Therefore, it can be deduced that variations in the retained austenite of TRIP steel may cause a deviation in the amount
of springback. A list of the mechanical properties of the
specimens, based on the tensile tests, is shown in Table 2.
The forming balance is a term introduced in this study
and is calculated by multiplying the tensile strength and
the total elongation. Hence, the forming balance can be
used to evaluate the energy per volume that is required to
transform a steel sheet into a part (component). The concept of forming balance is almost the same as the concept
of toughness if the work hardening of the steel sheet is
sufficiently small.
Figure 3. Stress-strain curves dependent on austempering temperature.
We did not measure the stress-strain curve reliant on the

specimen orientation when it is extracted from a TRIP
steel sheet was not examined. The specimen orientation
indicates the angle with respect to the rolling direction of
the TRIP steel sheet. The influence of specimen orientation was neglected because material anisotropy nearly
disappears when second phases of martensite, bainite, and
retained austenite are formed in the manufacturing process
of advanced high-strength steels. Such steels include DP
(dual phase) steel, CP (complex phase) steel, and TRIP
steel. Nasser et al. [5] and Curtze et al. [6] reported that
most of AHSS showed nearly a planar isotropy.
Springback. The effect of specimen orientation on the

springback angle with different punch radii is shown in
Figure 4. The effect of anisotropy is very weak for all
specimens. As the punch radius is reduced, the springback
becomes larger. Since a smaller tip radius leads to much
more plastic deformation in a very confined area, the elastic recovery of the specimens during (or after) unloading
becomes larger. The average springback value was -1.90
for S-400, -2.69 for S-350, and -1.83 for S-300. Specimen
S-350 exhibited the largest average springback value (2.69). This is contradictory to the fact that the amount of
springback generally decreases as the ductility of the material increases. Note that S-400 is much more ductile than
S-350. Thus, it is deduced that, in the case of TRIP steel,
the microstructure is more closely related to the amount of
springback than to mechanical properties, such as the
forming balance value and the surface microhardness (see
Table 2).
The optical microstructures of the specimens after the Vbend forming tests are shown in Figure 5; the punch radius was 2 mm, and the specimen orientation was 90o. The
optical microstructure was viewed at a region of the
specimens where the most severe bending occurred. The
letters C and T in Figure 5 represent regions subjected
to compressive stress and tensile stress. The letter M
indicates the middle area between the two regions. The
average surface hardness at point M after the V-bend forming test was 348.0, 325.4, and 294.2 for S-300, S-350, and
S-400, respectively. Note that the average surface hardness at point M before the V-bend forming test was 289,
261.8, and 225.0 for S-300, S-350, and S-400, respectively
(see Table 2). The relative average hardness values were
59.0 for S-300, 63.6 for S-350, and 69.2 for S-400. The
upward trend in the relative hardness is consistent with
that of the retained austenite volume fraction. This may be
attributed to a scenario in which all retained austenite
phases were transformed into martensite phases since
transform-induced plasticity prevailed in these regions
during the V-bend forming. As such, it can be deduced that
the amount of springback decreases as the retained austenite fraction increases.
If the microstructure of S-300 is closely examined, micro-cracks can be observed in the near-surface regions (C
and T), where compressive and tensile stresses are concentrated. This indicates that low ductility, induced by a reduction in the retained austenite fraction, may cause micro-cracking at the interface of the matrix and the bainite
(a) S-400
(b) S-350
(c) S-300
Figure 4. Effect of specimen orientations on springback angles with different punch radii.
807
09.08.2010 14:36:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Specimens
S - 300
S - 350
S - 400
Austempering
temperature(oC)
300
350
400
Table 2. Mechanical properties dependent on austempering temperature.

Yield stress
Tensile
Uniform
Total elongation
Forming
(MPa)
stress(MPa) elongation (%)
(%)
balance(J/m3)
431.2
1025.8
13.8
17.8
18,259
367.4
940.4
17.3
22.3
20,971
480.9
814.4
23.3
31.0
25,246
Deformed specimen S-300

400,
C
350
and
300
0
C
n - value
0.19
0.24
0.26
Micro-vickers
hardness
289.0
261.8
225.0
Micro-crack
Micro-crack
Figure 5. Optical microstructures of specimen at different points after V-bending forming test: punch radius=2mm and specimen orientation=90o. Letter C and T in Figure 6 represents region subjected to compressive stress and one tensile stress. Letter M indicates the
middle area beteen the regions.
phase. As a result, the springback measurements for S-300

with a punch radius of 1 and 2 mm do not represent the
pure elastic-plastic deformation of TRIP steel.
Conclusions
The effect of microstructural variations on springback
for a cold-rolled TRIP steel sheet after V-bend forming
tests was examined. Different austempering temperatures
(300, 350 and 400oC) were applied to the TRIP steel so as
to induce variations in the microstructures.
The amount of springback in the steel was dependent on
the retained austenite fraction; the springback decreased as
the retained austenite fraction increased. As the retained
austenite volume and area fraction increased 2X or more,
the amount of springback was reduced by 29.3%, as the
austempering temperature increased from 350 to 400 oC.
For the case in which the retained austenite fraction of the
steel was very small (less than 3% area fraction), microcracks were observed during V-bending forming. Fatigue
fracture may occur in the steel parts if they are produced
through a cold forming process. The springback of coldrolled TRIP steel sheets was not significantly influenced
by the specimen orientation about the rolling direction.
808
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by Chung-Ang University
Research Grants in 2010.
References
[1] The Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, High Strength Steel Handbook,
The Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, (2008), 11-28.
[2] J. Shaw, G. Coates: International Seminar of Great Designs in Steel
2008, (2008), www.autosteel.org/AM/.
[3] T.B. Hilditch, J.G. Speer, D.K. Matlock: Materials and Design, 28
(2007), 2566-2576.
[4] G. Ingarao, R. Di Lorenzo, F. Micari: Materials and Design, 30 (2009),
4421-4433.
[5] A. Nasser, A. Yadav, P. Pathak, T. Attan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 210 (2010), 429-436.
[6] S. Curtze, V.-T. Kuokkala, M. Hokka, P. Peura: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 507 (2009), 124-131.
[7] D. Fei, P. Hodgson: Nuclear Engineering and Design, 236 (2006),
1847-1851.
[8] Z.T. Zhang, D. Lee: Automotive Stamping Technology, SAE, (1995),
11-18.
[9] S.A. Asgari, M. Pereira, B.F. Rolfe, M. Dingle, P.D. Hodgson: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 203 (2008), 129-136.
[10] P. Chen, M. Koc: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 190
(2007), 189-198.
[11] K. Chung, M.G. Lee, D. Kim, C. Kim, M.L. Wenner, F. Barlat:
International Journal of Plasticity, 21 (2005), 861-882.
09.08.2010 14:36:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of Stress State on Mechanical Properties of Dual Phase Steel Sheets. Experimental and Finite Element Analysis Approach
Jrme Chottin1), Eric Hug1), Mohamed Rachik2)
1)
Laboratoire CRISMAT, Universit de Caen, 6 Bd Marchal Juin, 14050 Caen / France, eric.hug@ensicaen.fr ; 2) Laboratoire Roberval,
Universit de Technologie de Compigne, 60205 Compigne / France
The control of material strain before fracture is a key factor for product design. The use of dual phase steels is now gaining a wide interest
in terms of process as well as mechanical properties research. One approach for evaluating formability is to tensile testing samples with
notches. The main purpose of this article is to apply one methodology already proposed in literature on dual phase steels with modified
samples shapes. The samples have been designed for investigating the high values of stress triaxiality in sheet steels. The finite element
analysis has been necessary for all the five different specimens to quantify mechanical parameters such as stress triaxiality or Lode parameter. The results of physical tests are used for implementing the well-known Johnson-Cook fracture criterion available in many types of
software. An example of use is presented in an impact test of vertical falling weight.
Keywords: Fracture, Dual-Phase steels, Finite Element Analysis, Impact Test
Introduction
The need of low weight structures has driven a lot of developments for a few decades. At the very beginning of
researches on Dual Phase steels (DP) the influence of a lot
of properties has been investigated [1,2]. During these
studies, the relatively good formability of these materials
has been noticed. Indeed, for a particular value of ultimate
tensile stress, its strain at fracture remains high. The ductility was considered to be high thanks to the work-hardening
behaviour inherited from the microstructure [3]. In many
respects, DP steels can be described under certain limits as
composite materials.
In the meantime, theoretical works were devoted to the
influence of stress state on the material properties. Bridgman et al. [4] and Hancock and Mackenzie [5] have shown
the dependence of strain at fracture on stress state. The
stress triaxiality was introduced to describe the stress
state.
Different studies [6-8] aimed to investigate the influence
of on the mechanical properties of many materials. Their
approach was to design special specimens with simple
tension or compression tests to modify the local stress state.
Bao et al. [7] used different shapes of specimens to cover a
wide range of . The results revealed three domains corresponding to the different geometries. As plasticity postulates, the stress state can be written with both a hydrostatic
and a deviatoric component. The same consideration is
made on fracture. The Lode parameter integrates this
component. Depending of the shape of the specimens, the
values of can be around 1 for axisymmetric specimens or
around 0 for plane strain conditions. This parameter has
also an influence on strain at fracture. So, whether we can
keep one parameter quite constant whether we have to plot
the strain at fracture as a function of two parameters (, )
[6].
The aim of this article is to apply the Bao et al. [7]
methodology on specimens with close values of Lode
parameter. Tests are conducted on high strength sheet steel
for implementing a Johnson and Cook fracture criterion
available in many types of software. This criterion is thereafter applied to the numerical prediction of the fracture
during an impact test. The material, the experimental procedures and the finite elements models are first described.
Then, the results are analysed and finally discussed.
Material and Experimental Procedures
Metallurgical Properties. The DP steel used in this
study has a thickness of 1.6 mm. It is mainly alloyed with
Mn and Si. Presence of small amounts of P and S can also
be noted in Table 1.
Table 1. Main alloying elements (composition in wt.%) of studied
DP steels.
EleC
Mn
Si
P
S
ments
%
0.146
1.871
0.218
0.013
0.01
This steel is cold rolled from the intercritical temperature.

Image analysis carried out after electrolytic etching revealed the presence of 65% of martensite and 35% of ferrite. The microstructure is presented in Figure 1.
F
M
Figure 1. Microstructure of the DP steel. Observations performed

by S.E.M. after electrolytic etching. Ferrite in dark (F), martensite in
gray (M).
809
09.08.2010 14:36:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental Details
Tensile Test Properties. All the specimens have been
tensile tested in Instron 100 kN machine with laser gauge.
The interests of this technique are in the precision of deformation measurement and in the great flexibility for the
length of reference. Up to ten stripes can be used during
the same test. The strain can be measured between every
pairs of stripes. This gives plenty of information for the
comparison with the numerical model. The plasticity was
described from the experimental results and expressed
according to Hollomon law:
= K. n . m
(1)
where is the equivalent stress, is the equivalent strain,

is the strain rate, K is a material coefficient, n is the
hardening exponent and m is the strain rate exponent.
The strain rate coefficient m has been computed by the
ratio between the mechanical properties at different strain
rates (10-5 to 10-1 s-1) and the quasi-static state (10-6 s-1).
Experimental curves are presented in Figure 2.
localization tolerances. and were evaluated by finite

element modelling . The mean value of the stress triaxiality
av was computed by integration, along the strain route, of
the value at the middle of the samples:
av =
(2)
where is defined as:
(3)
represents the hydrostatic stress. The Lode parameter
is defined as:
27 J3
=
2 3
(4)
J3 is the third invariant of deviatoric tensor:

J3 = s1s2s3
(5)
s1, s2, s3 are the principal stresses of the deviatoric tensor.

Specimens are presented in Figure 3.
12.5
Figure 2. Influence of strain rate on experimental tensile curves of

DP steels.
The anisotropy of the mechanical properties due to the

rolling process is low. The discrepancies on the maximum
tensile stress and on yield stress between the different
orientations with rolling are under 20 MPa. The main mechanical characteristics of the steel are summarized in
Table 2.
Table 2. Main mechanical properties of the studied DP steel. *A50
is measured with an original gauge length of 50 mm.
parameters
designation
units
values
Yield stress
MPa
650
e
Conventional yield stress
MPa
820
e0.2
Maximum tensile stress
MPa
1040
max
Material coefficient
MPa
960
n
Hardening coefficient
0.053
m
Strain rate coefficient
0.0037
A50
Elongation at fracture*
%
8
Ag
Elongation at max force
%
4
Specimens Description. In this study five different

shapes are used. The shear specimen definition is coming
from literature [7]. For the other specimens, a common
shape is used and then, notches are achieved in the middle
of each. Thanks to electric discharge machining, very complex geometries can be performed with respect to small
810
av
av
R
0.1
0.4
0.5
0.7
1.0
0
0
0
0
0
5
0.5
0.5
Figure 3. Sample presentation. From left to right, increasing
values of av. R is the notch radius.
The sample with av=1 has been thinned down with a

curvature shape. Its thickness between the notches is 0.5
mm. For all the specimens with notches, the width between
notches was kept constant equal at 5 mm.
The strain at fracture is estimated using a methodology
proposed initially by Bridgman [4] for axisymmetric
specimens and applied to flat samples [9]. The value of
equivalent strain at fracture (f) is given by the ratio between initial section A0 and area after fracture Af written
as:
f = ln 0
A
f
(6)
Impact Test Description. The impact test is based on a

falling weight (11 kg) equipped with a punch (diameter of
13 mm). The mass is dropped at different heights in order
to modify the speed at impact. The speed is measured with
09.08.2010 14:36:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
a laser detector. The striker hits the sheet perpendicularly
to the surface while the sheet is clamped between two rings.
The energy of the impact can be completely or partially
absorbed by the deformation of the sheet.
Finite Element Analysis. Abaqus was used for the
various tests analysis. As some damage models are available only with Abaqus/Explicit, the calculations are mainly
performed with the later but cross checks with results from
Abaqus/Standard were also carried out. The implicit models were first used to compare the elastoplastic behaviour
with the experimental results. The Hollomon type law (Eq.
1) that is commonly used for extrapolation of the flow
stress curve was used with both an experimental part (up to
4%) and an extrapolated one. The strain rate dependence
was introduced to take into account the experimental strain
rate raise. The explicit model was used to integrate the
fracture criteria. The tensile tests were investigated using
the C3D8R element (solid brick element with reduced
integration) while the impact test was investigated using
the CAX4R element (four nodded axisymmetric solid
element with reduced integration. The predictions from the
Johnson-Cook fracture criterion are obtained using explicit
analysis only.
Results - Discussion
Mechanical Behaviour. The experimental results reveal
that the equivalent strain at fracture decreases with increasing as can be shown in Figure 4.
Unsafe
Safe
Figure 4. Dependence of the equivalent strain to fracture on the

stress triaxiality.
These results are consistent with theoretical assumptions.

There is no cusp at =1/3 [7]. As mentioned before, this
cusp was only due to the change of sample symmetry
(plane strain or axisymmetric) between shear and tensile
stress state.
Similar trend is reported in a DP1500 sheet steel for
ranging from 1/3 to 2/3 [8]. Yet, the lower ductility of
those steels must be highlighted. On DP, the big increase
on strength is mainly due to the modifications on martensite content. With the increase of martensite, the ductility
decreases [1]. The typical mechanisms of ductile fracture
are usually described by three main mechanisms: the initiation, the growth and finally the coalescence of voids in the
material. For high strength DP steels the presence of those
voids has been identified [9]. One of the reasons of the

lower ductility of DP with higher content of martensite can
come from the bigger number of initiation sites [1]. Other
explanations [10] based on a microstructure modelling
approach, focused on the strain distribution at the ferrite/martensite interface. As the mechanical behaviour of
each phase is different, there are some incompatibilities at
the interface. In that case, the modification of martensite
content is linked to the modification of its shape. The fracture is no more implied by the usual fracture mechanisms.
Rather the fracture occurred by void coalescence or not,
the macroscopic dependence on strain at fracture and stress
triaxiality can be used to describe the behaviour of the steel.
The simplest form of the Johnson-Cook criterion is written
as:
(7)
f = [ A1 + A2 exp( A3 )]
A1, A2 and A3 are material parameters identified by the fit
of experimental results presented in Figure 4.
Application to an Impact Test. The load pass during metal
forming process is complex. A general plasticity relationship (for
instance as presented by the way of Eq.1) coupled with a fracture
criterion must describe the behaviour of the sheet up to the limits.
Without fracture criteria, the strains could reach values that have
no physical meanings. To this end, a damage parameter D can be
introduced:
D=
(8)
where D is ranging from 0 (without strain) to 1 (when fracture

occurs).
Figure 5. shows the load-displacement curves obtained
for impact tests carried out for various impact speeds.
Three main experimental cases can be described:
- At a speed of 4.1 m/s, no fracture happens. The material is strained up to the limit. The load-displacement
curve plots a sudden drop. This is due to the stop of the
striker. All the potential energy brought by the weight is
dissipated during the deformation. The main part of the
energy is dissipated through plastic strain before the
maximum of the load. The other part is dissipated by
elastic deformation. This elastic part can be depicted by
the negative displacement at unload in Figure 5.
(a
(c
(b)
Figure 5. Experimental Load-displacement curves for various

impact speeds and corresponding fractographies.
811
09.08.2010 14:36:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
V= 4.1 m/s
Upper
ring
Lower
ring
V= 4.6 m/s
Sheet
- At 4.6 m/s, the fracture has occurred. A removed piece

is visible. As in the experiment, the fracture didnt happen
at the extreme part of the striker.
- At 5.7 m/s, the striker went through the sheet. The
material is also completely perforated.
In the present case, the limit at fracture coming from tensile tests on notched samples is coherent with experimental
facts. The model is able to properly predict the fracture.
The domain of for the impact test is around 0.6-0.7. In
this range the criterion has been computed with the smallest notches samples. It seems that the shapes of these samples are useful for fracture prediction.
In spite of the relative simplicity of the model and the
limitations on the procedure of parameter identifications
the results are well predicting the fracture.
Conclusions
V= 5.7 m/s
Broken
part
Striker
Figure 6. Numerical estimation of damage parameter in the sheet
thickness for impact tests carried out with various impact speeds.
- At a speed of 4.6 m/s, the energy brought by the

striker is too important for the material. At the maximum
of load, the fracture occurs. Because of the size of the
striker and even with oil, the fracture didnt occur at the
extreme point of the striker.
-At a speed of 5.7 m/s, the striker is not stopped anymore by the strain of the material. The sheet is completely
perforated.
As a result of the finite element modelling the damage
parameter is presented in Figure 6. This parameter is compared with experiments.
All the cases previously described have been computed.
For each result the striker is at its lower stage.
- At 4.1 m/s the damage parameter is at the limit of 1 on
part of the profile. It is not enough to propagate the break
through the sheet.
812
The main results obtained in this study are:

1. The strain at fracture of the DP steel depends on .
2. It is possible to reach higher values of with sheet
steels by tensile tests on notched specimens.
3. Even in its simplest expression the Johnson-Cook fracture criterion managed successfully to predict the behaviour of the DP steel under impact test.
4. The specimen shape with combined notches seems useful for investigating the higher values of .
References
[1] D. Steinbrunner, D. Matlock, G. Krauss: Metallurgical and Materials
Transactions A 19 (1988), 579-589.
[2] G. R. Speich: ASM Handbook 1 (2004), 697-700.
[3] R.G. Davies: Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A 9 (1978), 4152.
[4] P.W. Bridgman: Harvard University Press (1964).
[5] J.W. Hancock, A.C. Mackenzie: Journal of the Mechanics and Physics
of Solids 24 (1976), 147-160.
[6] T. Wierzbicki, Y. Bao, Y.-W. Lee, Y. Bai: International Journal of
Mechanical Sciences 47 (2005), 719-743.
[7] Y. Bao, T. Wierzbicki: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences
46 (2004), 81-98.
[8] D. Mohr, F. Ebnoether: International Journal of Solids and Structures
46 (2009), 3535-3547.
[9] G. Avramovic-Cingara, Y. Ososkov, M.K. Jain, D.S. Wilkinson: Materials Science and Engineering: A 516 (2009), 7-16.
[10] X. Sun, K.S. Choi, A. Soulami, W.N. Liu, M.A. Khaleel: Materials
Science and Engineering: A 526 (2009), 140-149.
09.08.2010 14:36:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of Mechanical Properties of AHSS on Springback in Sheet Forming

Ke Chen1), Jianping Lin1), Liying Wang2)
1)
College of Mechanical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai / China, chenkee@126.com;

Engineering, Shanghai General Motors Co. Ltd., Shanghai /China
2)
Department of Vehicle Manufacturing
The increasing use of advanced high strength steels (AHSS) in the automotive industry creates additional challenges for sheet metal forming
techniques. The mechanical properties vary dramatically among different steels, which significantly affect the springback characteristics of
parts that use AHSS. Knowledge of different mechanical properties and their influence on springback are required. The main goal of this
work is to investigate the influence of mechanical properties on springback. The studies are implemented by means of finite element method
based on a U-channel forming model. All the analyses are performed with the commercial FEA code ABAQUS. Constitutive models employ
of Hill48 anisotropic yield criterion and nonlinear isotropic/kinematic hardening rule are adopted to take the anisotropic yield behavior and
Bauschinger effect in account. Simulations of materials with different mechanical properties are carried out. The influence of yield strength,
strain hardening exponent, normal anisotropy ratio and Bauschinger effect coefficient on sidewall curl and angular change of U-channel are
investigated respectively.
Keywords: Sheet metal forming, Finite element method, Mechanical properties, Normal anisotropic, Bauschinger effect, Advanced high
strength steel, Springback
Introduction
With the increasing requirements on fuel economy and
vehicle safety, advanced high strength steel such as dual
phase (DP), Complex phase (CP) and transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) alloys has become more
wide-spread in modern cars during recent decades. Today
the major issue in sheet metal forming has shifted from
eliminate neck and rear to the accuracy and consistency of
product dimensions. Hence, the prediction and control of
springback has become the primary emphasis in the automotive application of AHSS.
Springback is one of the main sources of geometrical
and dimensional inaccuracy in sheet metal formed components. It occurs in all metal forming processes especially when bending is involved. It is caused by elastic
recovery and residual stress distribution resulted from inhomogeneous strain in the material. Related studies point
out that springback was to be very sensitive to many
physical parameters, such as sheet thickness, material
properties, forming processes, friction and tooling conditions and so on [1-3]. Although considerable progress has
been made in terms of understanding springback, there is
still a lack of technological knowledge to allow product
designers and tool and die makers to predict and control
springback effectively for different materials.
Many reports state that AHSS exhibits greater springback problems than conventional high strength steel [4,5].
By combining a number of different microstructures, a
wide range of mechanical properties are possible with
AHSS. The same minimum tensile strength can be found
with a variety of steel types having different yield
strengths. One example is TRIP 450/800, DP 500/800, and
CP 700/800 steels with the same tensile strength but with
different yield strengths. Because of the different mechanical behavior of these materials, the springback compensation procedures developed over years of trial and
error process are no longer effective, AHSS sheet forming
is heavily involves expensive and time consuming loops.
Finite element method is widely used to numerically
simulate sheet forming processes with considerable precisteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
sion. Advanced material models with consider of complex

material behaviors obtained by related researches have
great benefit to enhance the precision of finite element
simulations [6-8].
The aim of this paper is to investigate a possible relationship between the amount of springback and the mechanical properties of materials through the finite element
method. An anisotropic plasticity material model with
consideration of Bauschinger effect was adopted to improve the precision of simulations [9]. Hill48 anisotropic
yield criterion was adopted to describe the yield behavior
and Bauschinger effect was modeled with the employ of
nonlinear isotropic/kinematic hardening rule. The influence of various factors such as yield strength, work hardening exponent, normal anisotropy ratio and Bauschinger
effect parameters on sidewall curl and angular change of
U-channel are investigated.
Finite Element Modeling
U-Channel Forming and Springback Simulation.
Materials experience very complex deformation during
forming processes, as a result, unbalanced stress distribution over the thickness developed. The springback of sheet
parts is caused by the relief of these stresses after removal
of the forming tool. In the present work, a U-channel
forming and springback simulation was investigated. The
geometry and dimensions of the forming tool are presented in Figure 1, all dimensions are in millimeter (mm).
The initial dimension of the blank sheet is 300 mm in the
width direction, and the thickness of the sheet blank is 1
mm. The punch stroke is 70 mm.
The finite element simulation was performed using
ABAQUS software as a 2-dimentional problem and
Hill48 anisotropic yield criterion together with nonlinear
isotropic/kinematic hardening rule was employed in the
simulation.
The computational factors such as element type, mesh
size and integration scheme were chosen carefully to yield
the best results. Contact at the interfaces between the sheet
and the tool is modeled by adopting a rigid body hypothe813
09.08.2010 14:36:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
sis using contact surface laws defined by a Coulomb friction law with a friction coefficient value of 0.1.
The tools in this finite element simulation were modeled
as analytical rigid body, and the sheet blank model was
modeled as continuum element. The sheet blank includes
1800 quadrangular four-node plane-strain elements
(CPE4R) and the mesh consists of 6 elements through the
sheet thickness and 300 elements along the length of the
sheet blank. Dynamic-explicit and static-implicit schemes
were adopted for forming and springback stages respectively.
50
Punch
R=5
Holde
r
55
R=5
= 0 + Q (1 e b )
Punch stroke
die
70
d ij = c
Figure 1. Schematic description of tool for U-channel forming and

springback simulation.
Material Constitutive Description. Rolled sheets exhibit different mechanical characteristic in different direction. It was very soon evident that, because of the anisotropic yield behavior, yield models like Tresca model and
Mises model cant describe the material behavior accurately. More accurate anisotropic yield criteria are needed
to represent the anisotropic behavior.
Anisotropic yield criteria have been developed and
adopted by some commercial finite element programs to
simulate the anisotropic material behavior of rolling sheets
with improved accuracy of stress computation. The quadratic Hill48 model could represent the anisotropic material behavior of steel sheet reasonably [10]. With the advantage of its simple construction and the convenience of
material identification, Hill48 anisotropic yield model
was successfully applied over a long period and is still
widely used today.
Hill48 yield criterion was originally developed for describing three-dimensional anisotropic characteristic. It
can be reduced to the following equation in case of
two-dimensional condition:
(G + H ) x2 2 H x y + ( F + H ) y2 + 2 N xy2 = 1
(1)
where x, y and xy are the in-plane stress components,

while the material parameters F, G, H and N, which represent the state of anisotropy of the metal sheet, can be
(2)
where 0 is the initial yielding stress and Q and b are the

isotropic hardening parameters. The nonlinear kinematic
hardening component is expressed by the following formula:
R=5
52
814
obtained form uniaxial tensile tests at 0, 45 and 90 with

respect to the rolling direction.
In general sheet metal forming processes, bending and
unbending occur when the sheets flow through draw beads
and die radius. For these loading and continuous reverse
loading conditions, large numbers of researches [11-13]
show that Bauschinger effect has great influence on stress
calculation. Accurate modeling of the Bauschinger effect
is of vital importance for springback prediction [14].
In this paper, nonlinear isotropic/kinematic hardening
model was proposed to model the Bauschinger effect,
which firstly introduced by Armstrong and Frederick [15],
and subsequently modified by Chaboche [16]. This model
combined both isotropic hardening and nonlinear kinematic hardening, in which the isotropic hardening component defines the evolution of equivalent stress , the size
of yield surface, as a function of the equivalent plastic
strain p as the exponential Voces equation:
d p
( ij ij ) ij d p
(3)
where C, are kinematic hardening parameters and ij, ij

are flow stress and back stress, respectively. The hardening parameters Q, b, C, can be identified by means of
cyclic loading tests such as tension-compression test or
bending-unbending test.
Material Properties Studied
Basic Strength Properties. Basic strength properties
such as yield stress, tensile strength, strain hardening exponent are used to describe the fundamental mechanical
behavior of materials. In this study, all of these properties
are considered. The strain hardening behavior is described
by the conventional strain hardening rule, takes the power
law form expressed by:
= Y + K eq
(4)
where Y is yield stress, eq is equivalent plastic strain and

K and n are the hardening modulus and the strain hardening exponent, respectively. 0.2, defined as the suppositional stress level corresponding to the plastic strain value
of 0.2, was adopted to measure the tensile strength of different materials.
To measure the effect of these material property variables on springback, three groups of regularized materials
were studied. The first group of materials has the same
yield stress and different suppositional stress, the second
group has different yield stress but the same suppositional
stress and the third group with different yield stress and
different suppositional stress. N-values of these materials
09.08.2010 14:36:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
are calculated from the strain hardening equation. The
mechanical property parameters are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Material properties adopted in simulations to evaluate
influence on springback.
0.2 (MPa)
300
800
0.213
400
800
0.15
500
800
0.1
400
700
0.122
400
800
0.15
400
900
0.176
300
700
0.184
400
800
0.15
500
900
0.128
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3

Parametric studies were performed to investigate the effect of yield strength, strain-hardening exponent, normal
anisotropy ratio and Bauschinger effect parameters according to previous described factors and parameters.
Two typical springback modes, namely, angular change
and sidewall curl, were used to characterize the springback
of a U-channel part. The springback parameters studied
are shown in Figure 3. The springback angle indicates
angular change while curvature indicates sidewall curl.
Normal Anisotropy and Bauschinger Effect. Normal

anisotropy of sheet materials is described by the Lankford
parameter, which measures the difference of properties in
the thickness direction and in the plane of the sheet, defined as
r = w / t
(5)
(6)
B = ( f r ) / f
where f denotes the flow stress in forward straining and r

the re-yielding stress at the reverse loading condition as
shown in Figure 2.
Monotonic loading
r
Reverse loading curve
rotated by 180
Angular change
before springback
after springback
Figure 3. Springback angle and sidewall curl obtained from simulating results.
Effect of Basic Strength Properties. Yield stress, tensile strength and hardening exponent have significant effect on springback. Figure 4 shows the springback variations under different yield stress with the same suppositional stress (Group 1 listed in Table 1). It reveals that
both of the springback angle and sidewall curvature decrease as the yield stress increases.
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 300
1 400
2 500
3 4
yield
Yieldstrength(MPa)
stress (MPa)
3
2
1
0
0
300
1 400
2 500
3
4
yield
Yieldstrength(MPa)
stress (MPa)
Figure 4. Influence of yield stress on springback under same

suppositional stress.
Reverse loading
Figure 2. Illustration of Bauschinger effect.
springback angle
(degree)
where w and t are the strains in the width and thickness

directions of sheet metal, respectively.
A group of materials, which were supposed to have the
same yield stress, Y = 400 MPa, and the same strain hardening exponent, n = 0.15, are investigated to evaluate the
influence of normal anisotropy on springback and sidewall
curl. The r-value of these materials varies from 0.8 to 1.2
with the step of 0.1. Bauschinger effect was not concerned
in this study.
To evaluate the influence of Bauschinger effect on
springback, Bauschinger effect coefficient was defined
and adopted to measure the Bauschinger effect, which
defined as
Sidewall curl
curverture (1/m)
Y (MPa)
Three materials with different Bauschinger effect, B =

0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 respectively, are studied to evaluate its
influence on springback comparing with the material without Bauschinger effect. The yield stress of these materials
is 400 MPa and the n-value is 0.15. All of these materials
are supposed to be isotropic.
With the same yield stress, as shown in Figure 5, the

greater springback angle and sidewall curvature are observed when the tensile strength increased. As far as the
hardening exponent is concerned, as shown in Table 1,
n-value increases with the increasing suppositional tensile
strength under the same yield stress, and decreases with
the increasing yield stress under the same suppositional
tensile strength. It indicates that with the same yield stress
815
09.08.2010 14:36:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 700
1 800
2 900
3 4
stress
(MPa)(MPa)
Tensile
strength
springback angle
(degree)
curverture (1/m)
springback angle
(degree)
1
0
0
curverture (1/m)
springback angle
(degree)
0.5
0
0 300
1 400
2 500
3 4
yield
Yieldstrength(MPa)
stress (MPa)
700
1 800
2 900
3
4
strength
(MPa)
Tensile
strength
(MPa)
3
2
1
0
0
300
1 400
2 500
3
4
yield
strength(MPa)
Yield
stress (MPa)
Figure 6. Springback variations of materials with different yield

stress and tensile strength.
curverture (1/m)
springback angle
(degree)
Effect of Normal Anisotropy. Figure 7 shows the effect of r-value on springback and sidewall curl. It is observed that both of the springback angle and sidewall curvature are monotonously increasing with the r-value, but
not the minimum springback for isotropic materials and
increasing with normal anisotropy.
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2
r-value
3
2
1
0
0.8 0.9
1 1.1 1.2
r-value
Figure 7. Influence of normal anisotropic on springback angle and

sidewall curvature.
Effect of Bauschinger Effect. The influence of Bauschinger effect on springback and sidewall curl is shown in
Figure 8. As the B-value increased, the springback angle
has a slim increasing, while the sidewall curvature increasing distinctly with the increased B-value. It indicates
816
0.5
Figure 6 compares the springback behavior of materials

with different yield stress and different tensile strength
(listed in Table 1 as group 3), we can see that with the
increased yield stress and tensile strength, springback angle has slight variation while the sidewall curvature increased prominently. With regard to the hardening exponent, it exhibits contrary effects compared with the results
obtained from Figures 4 and 5. Together with all of these
materials studied, it indicates that whichever of the factors,
yield stress, tensile strength or hardening exponent, has
limitations to indicate the springback behavior of different
materials singly.
1.5
1.5
Figure 5. Influence of tensile strength on springback under same

yield stress.
that the Bauschinger effect plays a significant role on

sidewall curl.
curverture (1/m)
or tensile strength, springback increase as the n-value increased.
0
0
0.2 0.4
B-value
0.6
3
2
1
0
0
0.2
0.4
B-value
0.6
Figure 8. Influence of bauschinger effect on springback angle and

sidewall curvature
Conclusions
The influence of mechanical properties of AHSS on
springback in sheet forming was studied by means of finite element method. Hill48 anisotropic yield criterion
and nonlinear isotropic/kinematic hardening rule were
employed to obtain precise simulations results. The single-factor effects of the mechanical property variables
such as yield stress, tensile strength, strain hardening exponent, normal anisotropic ratio and Bauschinger effect
coefficient were investigated in this work. All of these
variables play an important role in springback and sidewall curl, and the sidewall curl appears to be more sensitive to the variables than angular change. The interaction
effects of these variables on spirngback and sidewall curl
should be studied further.
References
[1] W.D. Carden, L.M. Geng, D.K. Matlock, R.H. Wagoner: International Journal of Mechanical Science, 44-1 (2002), 79-101.
[2] C. Gomes, O. Onipede, M. Lovell: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 159-1 (2005), 9198.
[3] I. Ragai, D.Lazim, J.A.Nemes: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 166-1 (2005), 116-127.
[4] T. Meinders, I.A. Burchitz, M.H.A. Bonte, R.A. Lingbeek: International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, 48-5 (2008),
499-514.
[5] H. Ahn, D. Yoo, M.H. Seo, S.-H. Park, K. Chung: Metals and Materials International, 15-4 (2009), 637-647.
[6] F. Yoshida, T. Uemori: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences,
45 (2003), 1687-1702.
[7] F. Yoshida, T. Uemori: International Journal of Plasticity, 18 (2002),
661686.
[8] P.-A.Eggertsen, K.Mattiasson: International Journal of Mechanical
Sciences, 51-7 (2009), 547563.
[9] K. Chen, J.-P. Lin, M.-K Lv, L.-Y. Wang: Advanced Materials Research, 97-101 (2010), 200-203.
[10] R. Hill: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A193 (1948),
281-297.
[11] K.P. Li, W.P. Carden, R.H. Wagoner: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 44-1 (2002), 103-122.
[12] J.-T. Gau, L.K. Gray and L. Kinzel: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 43-8 (2001), 1813-1832.
[13] B.K. Chum, H.Y. Kim, J.K. Lee: International Journal of Plasticity,
18-5-6 (2002), 597-616.
[14] L.P. Moreira, G. Ferron: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 156 (2004), 1596-1603.
[15] C.O. Frederick, P.J. Armstrong: Materials at High Temperatures,
24-1 (2007), 1-26.
[16] J.L. Chaboche: International Journal of Plasticity, 2-2 (1986),
149-188.
09.08.2010 14:36:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Drawability of Advanced High Strength Steel and Creep-Resisting Nickel Superalloys

Monika Hyrcza-Michalska
Department of Materials Technology of the Silesian University of Technology, Katowice / Poland, monika.hyrcza-michalska@polsl.pl
Rapid increase of quality and strength requirements regarding the construction elements of vehicles and airplanes urged the need to develop more advanced methods of processing materials which feature hard formability, such as high resistant steel and creep resisting nickel
alloys. These materials are generally processed by applying methods of metal working and are used for making car body elements and
airplane elements as well as engine elements, exhaust systems and safety systems. Inconel alloys are used for the production of civil and
military aircraft engines because of their high strength properties at high temperatures. Cold working processing is not appropriate for these
two groups of materials. There are quite considerable difficulties since it is not possible to evaluate properly the technological plasti-city
drawability of these types of materials and there is also a spring-back effect in the process of forming or bending which needs to be considered. The examination results of evaluating drawability of high strength steel blanks and Inconel alloys conducted at the Department of
Materials Technology of the Silesian University of Technology have been presented in the paper. The possibilities of using numerical simulations for solving the problems of selecting or modifying the pressing technology and hydroforming of that type of materials as well as
forecasting the results of forming processes have been also presented. The evaluation of drawability of blanks and tubes made of DP 450
steel as well as Inconel 718 alloys in the process of hydroforming using basic and technological tests has also been discussed in the paper.
Keywords: Drawability, DP steel, Nickel superalloy, Inconel 718, Bulging test, Tube hydroforming, Numerical simulation
Introduction
Processing high strength steel and nickel alloys applying
mechanical working methods, used conventionally for
strips and blanks, urged the need to solve many problems
concerning high strength material forming which feature
limited plasticity. The production of pressed elements of
vehicle constructions and aircraft engine elements requires
the use of high quality drawpieces since these are essential
for safety and they are also the main structural components.
Conventional methods of mechanical working such as
pressing, can be used in mass production of the above
mentioned elements and their production can also be costeffective. Forming of high strength steel and nickel alloys
generates a lot of technological wastes resulting from
back-springing effects determining the most appropriate
pressure in the process of pressing, failure of holes in the
process of bulging as well as cracking of drawpieces in the
process of deep drawing. These problems are usually
solved by production engineers in the following way:
dividing the production of ready drawpieces into a bigger
number of simple blank profiling operations, shallow
pressing, using a rubber punch for pressing or hydroforming. Drawpieces of complex shape are quite often made of
several parts which are next welded. It is so in the case of
the presented tube of a tubular diffuser made of Inconel
718 alloy blank. However the process of forming high
strength materials such as DP steel requires the application
of bigger forming forces than in the same kind of processes of conventional formable steel. Tools get jammed
quite often in the process and high force presses of 10 MN
or more need to be used which is very expensive. Therefore research works on improving tailor welded blanks and
tubes processing have been carried out at the Department
of Materials Technology of the Silesian University of
Technology. The aspect of cold mechanical forming of the
discussed materials has been of a particular interest. The
examinations have been based on precise evaluation of
technological plasticity of the selected materials in basic
tests and technological tests as well as in FEM numerical

simulation (finite elements method).
Characteristics of Examined Materials
Dual-Phases High Strength Steels. DP450 steel represents the first group of high strength steel which has been
examined. The following types of advanced high strength
steel have been taken into account: ferritic-martensitic
steel (DP), TRIP, CP and martensitic (Mart) [1,2].
DP steel is a dual-phase steel obtained in the form of
blanks in cold rolling process. This type of steel is exposed
to special heat processing at a continuous annealing line
and as a result, there is a diphase structure where ferrite
content in one phase provides significant plastic formability whereas martensite contents in the second phase increases the strength of that type of steel. The growth of
strength is reached by the increase of the proportion of
phases in favour of the hard martensitic phase. Apart from
good plastic formability related to strength, DP steel features good weldability as well. DP steel can be welded
applying all conventional methods due to low contents of
alloy additions in its chemical constitution. The application of drawpieces made of DP steel in vehicle construction enables to:
- reduce the total weight of construction by decreasing
the number of component drawpieces and reinforcing
drawpieces and thus the production process is easier,
- increase safety requirements of the construction since
high strength materials have been used,
- increase load capacity of the construction which allows
a higher maximum load,
- protect the environment by prolonging service life of a
product,
- decrease the total mass production costs compared to
austenitic type of steel.
DP steel is used for the production of safety elements in
cars (door posts, reinforcement of bumpers and seat
817
09.08.2010 14:36:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
guides) and for products made of tubes (baby prams, push
chairs and bicycles).
Nickel Superalloys. Creep-resisting alloys based on
nickel are the next group of materials selected for the
examinations. They are called superalloys or nickel superalloys, they are commonly used in aircraft industry because of their properties and they are used for the production of the following elements: turbine body, combustion
chambers, blades, exhaust valves and the like. One of the
most frequently used kinds of creep-resistant nickel superalloys are Inconel type alloys. The most important features
of Inconel alloys are: high hardness, high strength at high
temperature, strengthening inclination and low heat conductivity. Surface quality of the elements made of Inconel
718 alloy is particularly essential because they are used in
aircraft engines and they carry high mechanical and heat
loads; that is why blanks made of that alloy have been
chosen for the examinations. The majority of alloys based
on nickel contain 10 to 20% of chromium, about 8% of
aluminium and titanium (together), 5 to 15% of cobalt,
small quantities of boron, zinc, magnesium, carbon, molybdenum, niobium and tungsten. Inconel 718 is one of the
dominating nickel superalloys used in cold mechanical
working processes (mainly bending processes) and in hot
mechanical processes (deep drawing). There are many
constraints in forming while Inconel 718 is processed:
spring-back effect, big forming forces and pressure forces,
jamming of the tools. However in hot forming processes
all possible negative changes of the alloy surfaces occur
and the strength properties of elements diminish.
no 2630-111 static extensometer with 50 mm measurement

base) selected according to the dimensions of the samples.
Figure 1. Universal equipment for testing drawability of blanks and

strips ERICHSEN Model 145-60.
Figure 2. Width of the samples in form of strips made of blank

used for determining forming limit diagram by Vermens method.
Figure 3. Photographs of set of samples after bulging by punch of

75 mm diameter.
Examination Methodology
Basic tests and technological tests for evaluating the
mechanical properties of blanks made of Inconel 718 have
been carried out. The results of a statistic bumping test,
cupping tests and bulging tests of blank strips of various
width using a round punch of 75 mm indiameter (punch
dome test - Vermens method of determining the forming
limit curves and diagram) have been presented in the paper.
Free hydroforming tests of laser welded tubes made of
DP450 blanks and tubes without any seam made of Inconel 718 have been performed at a test stand for tube
hydroforming. Detailed results have been presented in
paper [3].
Special equipment such as measuring instruments and a
die shearing device, equipment for mechanical processing
of the samples, a device for placing the nets or measurement markers as well as tensile testing machine equipped
with a set of measuring-registering device have been used
for determining the characteristics of blank properties in
tensile tests. Tensile tests have been carried out on TIRATEST 2300 testing machine or INSTRON testing machine model 4469 (integrated with a computer system
for registering the results) and on a tensile testing machine
fixed to Universal equipment for testing the drawability
of blanks and strips ERICHSEN Model 145-60. The
changes of tensile force values in the function of tension
distance have been registered during the tests, using 80
mm or 50 mm measurement base (measured by INSTRON
818
Figure 4. Method of measuring circular net and calculating local

strain components [4].
The examinations of blank properties in technological

simulation tests have been performed by ERICHSEN
Model 145-60 presented in Figure 1. This equipment
enables to carry out a number of tests evaluating the
drawability of blanks. In order to determine the drawability of the examined strips of blanks, some tests which
simulate bulging and drawing operations have been performed i.e. a cupping test and a bulging test using a round
punch. The cupping test was carried out in accordance
with PN-ISO 8490 standard: January 2000, and the depth
of (IE20) indentation of a steel punch of 20 mm diameter
with a ball-shaped ending has been determined. On the
basis of the required minimal value of depth of indentation
for a particular thickness of blanks, the approximate category of blank drawability has been determined in accordance with PN- 87/H-92143 and EN-10142 standards. The
forming limit diagram of the tested strips of blanks has
been determined by a method of bulging the strips or discs
which were cut and they were 66 mm to 160 mm wide
the dimensions have been given in Figure 2. A ready set of
samples after bulging by a punch of 75 mm diameter with
09.08.2010 14:36:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
a ball-shaped ending has been presented in Figure 3. The
list of measured values of the applied circular net has been
presented in Figure 4. Eqs. (1) and (2) have been used for
determining the local strain components basing on the
measurements of a circular net on the samples before and
after the process of forming.
d
1 = ln 0
l1
(1)
d0
l2
(2)
2 = ln
The method of bulging the discs of 160 mm in diameter

with cut-outs has been used for determining the boundary
curve of drawability for charges made of not easily deformed blanks. The cut-outs on the discs have been made
according to the diagram presented in Figure 5 and the
dimensions have been listed in Table 1. The samples with
cut-outs enabled to increase the area of pressing the flange
of a sample in the process of bulging as compared to the
samples in the form of strips.
scope. This was done only in particular cases when there

were problems with registering the image or it was essential for test requirements.
Examination Results
Blanks made of Inconel 718 alloy 0.9 mm thick and
blanks made of DP450 steel 1.6 mm thick have been examined in basic and technological tests of drawability
evaluation according to the methodology presented in
chapter 2. Forming limit curves have been determined
experimentally for two types of the examined materials
and they have been presented in the diagram (see Figure
6). The determined mechanical properties and the technological plasticity indices for the examined materials have
been presented in Table 2.
Table 2: Mechanical and technological properties of
materials.
r
R0,2
A80
Thickness Rm
[-]
[MPa] [MPa] [%]
[mm]
Inconel 718
0,9
896
494
26,7 0,93
DP450
1,6
508
368
29,6 0,98
selected
IE20
[mm]
10,8
11,8
Table 1. Dimensions of samples for determining boundary curve of

drawability.
Number of undercutting, i
1
2
3
4
5
6
Width, bi [mm]
70
80
90
100
120
160
Radius, R [mm]
50
45
40
35
25
0
Figure 6. Diagrams of forming limit curves of examined materials.
Figure 5. Dimensions of samples for determining boundary curve

of drawability in form of discs with cut-outs.
Local strain has been determined by measuring the

mashes of coordinating net put on a blank before the process of deforming. Circular nets with mashes of 5 mm in
diameter have been put on the surface of the examined
blanks using electrochemical method. Strain measurements have been done automatically by the technique of
registering the image of the net and its numerical processing [5], using (ASAME) local strain analyzer (The Automated Strain Analysis and Measurement Environment). It
consists of the following parts: a turn-table of 510 mm in
diameter, monochromatic CCD camera, sets of lens (16,
25 and 50 mm), position sensors (linear and angular),
high-class PC computer, frame grabber and ASAME software in 4.1 version. In rare cases the measurements have
been carried out manually with the use of a light micro-
Listings of the technological plasticity characteristics

presented in Table 2 have been used in numerical simulation of the process of free tube expanding (unbounded
hydrobulging). Expanding a tube (made of Inconel 718, 45
mm in diameter, 0.9 mm in wall thickness) without a weld
has been simulated. The same has been done for a tube
with a weld (laser welded tubular charge made of DP450
steel of 45 mm in diameter and 1.6 mm in thickness). The
obtained simulation results have been verified in practice
using laboratory stand for forming the tubes in the process
of hydroforming. Characteristics and further examination
possibilities of the test stand have been presented at the
Metal Forming Conference, 2009 [3]. Qualitative comparison of the results of free tube expanding has been
819
09.08.2010 14:36:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
(b)
Figure 7. Photographs of hydroformed tubes made of (a) Inconel

718 alloy and (b) DP450 steel.
(a)
(b)
of a single tube of a tubular diffuser. The dies for hydroforming technology (Figure 9(a)) have been designed.
The first result of a simulation of tubular diffuser hydroforming from a tube without weld are presented Figure
9(b). The given forming technology still needs to be modified regarding the shape of dies and producing a tubular
diffuser without the areas of low thickness.
The techniques of rapid prototyping by the method of 3D
printing (or the method of SLS sintering the layers of
powder by a laser beam in further applications) for copying the models of a tubular diffuser in the form of FEM
simulation results in order to check the correctness of the
copied product have been used as well. The first model
which was produced on the basis of simulation has been
Figure 8. Photograph of (a) half of tubular diffuser made of Inconel

718 alloy and (b) a single tube of a tubular diffuser.
The aim of the carried out examinations was to elaborate

the alternative technology of producing a tubular diffuser
made of Inconel 718 alloy. The tubes of a tubular diffuser
are made in simple mechanical working processes at present bending and shallow forming of two component
drawpieces. The two component parts of a single diffuser
tube produced in that way (see Figure 8(a)) have been
joined to make a complete part applying MIG welding
technique and the complete part has been presented in
Figure 8(b). A dozen or so or even sometimes as many as
twenty single tubes have been joined to make a system of
tubular diffuser applying MIG technique.
The initial stage of more complex examinations which
are aimed at establishing whether the primary charge for
the process of hydroforming of a drawpiece of tubular
diffuser can have a form of a laser welded tube (with a
seam) or a tube without a seam has been presented in the
paper. The next important stage of the research is to design
the technology of producing a tubular diffuser, protecting
at the same time high precision of copying its geometry in
the designed processes of hydroforming in order to make a
formed product of required wall thickness.
(a)
(b)
Figure 10. Model of tubular diffuser obtained in SLS technology.
Conclusions
The so far obtained research results reveal that there are
potential plasticity properties of Inconel 718 alloy which
make it possible to produce a drawpiece of a single tube of
a tubular diffuser in the process of forming (even hydroforming) where the primary material used for forming can
be a tube or a tubular laser welded charge. Taking into
account the acquired experience in the process of blanks
and laser welded tubes forming (where the blanks and
tubes were made of high strength steel such as the discussed DP450 steel) made it possible to use the process of
hydroforming simulation of a single tube of a tubular
diffuser made of tubular charge. Simulation tests are being
carried out at present in order to recommend a modified
technology for producing a tubular diffuser made of Inconel 718 alloy.
Acknowledgements
These research works were carried out within the
framework of Developmental Investigative Project number
N R15 0042 06 financially supported by The National
Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR).
References
Figure 9. FEM numerical simulations of tubular diffuser processing

using Dynaform 5.6 software: (a) designed top and bottom dies
with tube of Inconel 718 alloy between them, (b) results of tube
hydroforming.
At present the cycle of FEM numerical simulations using

Dynaform 5.6 software is carried out in order to solve the
presented problem of elaborating the forming technology
820
[1] F. Grosman: Nowoczesne stale na blachy toczne dla motoryzacji,

Obrbka Plastyczna Metali, 4, (2002), 5-15.
[2] ULSAB-AVC Consortium, Ultra Light Steel Auto Body Advanced
Vehicle Concepts, Technical Transfer Dispatch #6, ULSAB-AVC
Body Structure Materials, (2001), Appendix III Revd .
[3] M. Hyrcza-Michalska, F. Grosman: Steel Research International, 791, (2008), 780-787.
[4] Sanz G.: Graniczne krzywe tocznoci, Obrbka plastyczna, XIV, 1,
(1975), 35-54.
[5] wio S., Kocada A., Piela A.: Proc. 8th International Conference
on Metal Forming 2000, Krakw, (2000), 545-550.
09.08.2010 14:36:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Twisting in Curved Hat Channel Products Made of High Strength Steel Sheet
Masato Takamura1), Ayako Fukui2), Takayuki Hama3), Yuji Miyoshi1), Masashi Sakata2), Hideyuki Sunaga1), Akitake
Makinouchi1), Motoo Asakawa4)
1)
VCAD System Research Program, RIKEN, Wako / Japan, takamura@riken.jp; 2) Graduate School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo / Japan; 3) Dept. of Energy Science and Technology, Kyoto University, Kyoto / Japan; 4) Dept. of Applied
Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo / Japan
This study concerns twist phenomena occurring in curved hat channel products made of dual-phase high strength steel sheets with a tensile strength of 980 MPa and aims to clarify the causes of twist using physical quantities obtained by finite element analysis. Several drawing heights were examined. Isotropic hardening combined with kinematic hardening was taken into account in the numerical simulations.
The torque around the longitudinal axis regarded as the driving force of the twist was evaluated. In addition, transitions of the torque during
the process of tool removal were analyzed. After removing the die and blank holder, the twist torque in models with larger drawing heights
became negative, accounting for the positive twist, which occurs after punch and pad removal. On the other hand, the twist torque in models with smaller drawing heights remained positive, accounting for the negative twist. Such analyses of the transition of twist torque provide
useful information when considering measures for reducing twist.
Keywords: High strength steel, Curved hat channel, Kinematic hardening, Twist, Torque, FEM
Introduction
High strength steel sheets are increasingly applied in
automotive body parts as a means of reducing weight.
However, the twisting caused by the significant springback
typically observed in channel-shaped products made of
high strength steel sheets has become a serious issue.
Therefore, it is urgently required to establish a methodology to reduce the amount of twist by studying the mechanism by which it is generated. For this purpose, several
studies have been carried out in which it was attempted to
clarify the causes of twist through experiments [1] or by
evaluating twist torque at the bottom dead point through
numerical procedures [2,3]. This study concerns the twist
occurring in curved hat channel products, and a numerical
procedure to analyze the source of twist is proposed.
Physical quantities obtained by finite element method
(FEM) simulation throughout the process of releasing dies
after reaching the bottom dead point are used to analyze
the causes of twist. Simulations are carried out with and
without considering kinematic hardening (KH) to investigate the effect of different constitutive model. Formed
parts with several different drawing heights are subjected
to this numerical procedure.
where J and D are the Jaumann derivative of the

Cauchy stress and the strain rate tensor, respectively. To
prevent large nonequilibrated forces arising owing to the
explicit time integration, the r-min method proposed by
Yamada et al. [6] is employed to impose a limitation on
the size of the time step.
The geometry of the curved hat channel model employed in this study is schematically shown in Figure 1.
The model had a curved area and two straight areas adjoining both sides of the curved area. The curved area had
a radius of 400 mm with a central angle of 36 degrees, and
the straight area had a length of 150 mm. The sheet was
drawn at six different drawing heights ranging from 10
mm to 60 mm as shown in Figure 2. The punch and die
shoulder radii were 6 mm. The blank holding force was
1,200 kN. Dual-phase high strength steel sheets with a
tensile strength of 980 MPa and a thickness of 1.6 mm
were used.
36 deg.
Static-Explicit FEM Code STAMP3D

In the STAMP3D [4,5] code, the updated Lagrangian
rate formulation is employed to describe the finite deformation problem. Hills quadratic yield function and the
associated flow rule are used. In this code, a static-explicit
approach is applied. Assuming that the relations described
by rate-type equilibrium equations and constitutive equations are preserved from time t to t t , where t is a
small time increment, all rate quantities are simply replaced by the incremental quantities, and the co-rotational
stress increment J and the strain increment d can be
written as
J J t , d D t ,
(1)
R6
(60)
60
150
Figure 1. Geometry of curved hat channel model.
R400
Drawing height H:
10mm
20mm
30mm
40mm
50mm
60mm
Figure 2. Schematic view of formed panels with various drawing

heights.
821
09.08.2010 14:36:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analysis Procedure
FE Analysis Model. Eight-node brick elements with selective reduced integration were used for the sheet model.
The model had four elements in the thickness direction,
which was empirically sufficient for the prediction of
bending and springback [7]. Only half of the channel
shape was simulated owing to its symmetric geometry.
The blank holding force was kept constant throughout the
drawing process by applying an iterative procedure at each
time increment to adjust the position of the blank holder.
The constitutive model was described on the basis of
isotropic hardening (IH) given by the Swift law,
Y C 0
Table 1. Mechanical properties used in simulations.

Hardening Law
Sec 0
Sec 2
Sec 6
Sec 8
Sec 1
Sec 3
Reference
cross section
Sec 5
Twist angle
Sec 7
Figure 3. Definition of cross sections. Figure 4. Definition of twist.
(4)
where i is the index of the quadrilateral domain generated

by cutting the brick elements by the cross section, LC,i is
the stress component in the local coordinate system with L
and C denoting the longitudinal and circumferential directions, respectively, Li is the distance between the quadrilateral domain and the centroid, and Ai is the crosssectional area of the quadrilateral domain. In addition, the
distributions of torque at a quadrilateral domain over the
sheet width are also examined (Figure 6).
After the sheet was drawn, the die was first removed,
Measurement cross section
Sec 4
(3)
Evaluation of Twist Torque. We evaluated the twist

angles and twist torques of the models during the deformation by the following procedure. First, we defined nine
cross sections perpendicular to the longitudinal direction
(see Figure 3). The cross section on the plane of symmetry
was defined as the reference cross section, and the twist
angles of the punch bottom between the reference and
other cross sections were calculated (see Figure 4). The
stress distributions obtained from the numerical results
were used to calculate twist torques by the following procedure. First we defined a local coordinate system as
shown in Figure 5. In the local coordinate system, the
radial direction is defined to be that of the vector from the
centroid of the cross section to a point on the material, and
the circumferential direction is defined to be perpendicular
to both the longitudinal direction and the radial direction.
Then, for each cross section, the twist torque T is calculated as
822
C=1490.39 MPa, n=0.00231

0=0.00231
C=1337 Mpa, n=0.103
Cx=37, Xsat=44MPa
CH (IH +KH)
where Xsat characterizes the saturation value of the back

stress, and CX characterizes the rate at which saturation is
approached. The identified parameters of the sheet material are shown in Table 1.
T LC ,i Li Ai ,
Identified parametaer
IH
(2)
combined with kinematic hardening (CH: combined hardening), i.e., the evolution of back stress described by the
saturation law
X C X sat X X p , X 0 0 ,

followed by the punch, to clearly examine the transition of

twist torque. We focused our investigation on three stages
during the process of tool removal; at the bottom dead
point, after die removal, and after punch removal. We
assumed the right-hand screw direction with respect to the
longitudinal axis as the positive direction for both twist
and torque.
x yx zx
xy y zy
xz yz z
Centroid
L RL CL
LR R CR
LC RC C
C : Circumferential direction
R : Radial direction
L : Longitudinal direction
Figure 5. Definition of local coordinate system.
Li
Ai
Centroid
L RL CL
LR R CR
LC RC C
Figure 6. Physical quantities used in calculation of twist torque.
Results
Figure 7 shows the relationship between drawing height
and twist angle obtained by the simulation (IH and CH)
and experiment. The twist angle is negative at the drawing
heights of 10 and 20 mm, and increases with increasing
drawing height. The twist angle is negligible at a drawing
height of 30 mm, and is positive for drawing heights of 40
mm and above. This tendency can be observed in both the
experimental results and the results of simulations, either
with or without KH. The twist angle obtained by the simulation with IH is not in quantitative agreement with the
experiment, while those obtained with CH show good
quantitative agreement with the experimental results in
particular at a drawing height of 30 mm or greater.
09.08.2010 14:36:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
To examine the mechanism of this variation in twist angle with the drawing height, the transition of twist torque
at the three stages during the process of tool removal is
evaluated by simulation. In the following, the results at the
drawing heights of 20 mm and 60 mm, which give respectively negative and positive twist angles, are discussed.
Twist Angle deg.
12.0
8.0
4.0
0.0
-4.0
IH
-8.0
CH
-12.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Drawing height H /mm
Figure 7. Relation between drawing height and twist angle.
Figure 8 shows the twist torque distribution along the

longitudinal direction of the model at the drawing height
of 20 mm. The twist torque is positive at the bottom dead
point, decreases gradually as the die is removed, and eventually becomes negligible over the entire model. The twist
torque hardly changes with the removal of the punch. The
results suggest that the twist occurring during tool removal
is due to the monotonic decrease of the twist torque.
1500
Twist Torque T /Nm
1000
500
0
CH bottom dead point
CH die removal
CH punch removal
IH bottom dead point
IH die removal
IH punch removal
-500
-1000
-1500
0
50
100
150
200
250
Length along longitudinal direction

from symmetry plane to measuring section L /mm
300
Figure 8. Twist torque distribution (drawing height H=20 mm).

1500
Twist Torque T /Nm
1000
500
0
CH bottom dead point
CH die removal
CH punch removal
IH bottom dead point
IH die removal
IH punch removal
-500
-1000
-1500
0
50
100
150
200
250

300
Figure 9. Twist torque distribution (drawing height H=60 mm).
Figure 9 shows the twist torque distribution along the

longitudinal direction of the model at the drawing height
of 60 mm. The twist torque at the bottom dead point is
positive, similarly to the result for the drawing height of
20 mm. However, the twist torque decreases and becomes
negative after the die is removed. This trend is different
from that observed at the drawing height of 20 mm. Eventually the twist torque becomes negligible after the punch
is removed. The tendencies shown in the above results are
independent of the material model, but the magnitude is
different. These results indicate that, surprisingly, the twist
torque increases during punch removal. The mechanisms
underlying this difference observed in the transition of
twist torque during unloading are examined in the following section.
Discussion
Mechanism of Twist. From the above-mentioned results,
there are two main factors that are considered to cause the
twist. The first factor is the shear stresses that arise during
the drawing process. Since the flange regions of the
curved area undergo in-plane tensile and compressive
deformation during the drawing process, shear deformation may arise in the flange and sidewall regions. The twist
torque can be roughly explained by considering the inplane shear stress component LW , where W denotes the
width direction of the sheet along the deformed geometry.
Figure 10 shows the distribution of the shear stress component LW at the bottom dead point. Large shear stresses
are clearly observed at the drawing heights of both 20 and
60 mm, suggesting that the twist torque is positive owing
to the in-plane shear deformation, which is the source of
negative twist.
The second factor is the opening of the sidewall (and
curl) caused by springback. Because of the geometrically
necessary constraint imposed by the sidewall opening, the
flange region that undergoes shrinking deformation requires in-plane compression, whereas the flange region
that undergoes stretching deformation requires in-plane
tension, as schematically shown in Figure 11. These inplane deformations have the opposite effect to the first
factor and give rise to negative torque during the process
of sidewall opening due to die removal (see Figure 12).
Consequently, the positive twist caused by negative torque
can only be observed during the punch removal process
and after the generation of a large sidewall opening due to
the larger drawing height (e.g. 60 mm).
Summarizing the above discussion, the mechanism
causing the twist direction to be different for the drawing
heights of 20 and 60 mm is explained as follows: the shear
stresses arising during the drawing process have a greater
effect on the twist at the drawing height of 20 mm, which
gives a negative twist, and the opening of the sidewall due
to springback is predominant at the drawing height of 60
mm, which gives a positive twist.
Effect of Material Models. When the drawing height is
comparatively large (e.g. 60 mm), the twist torque at the
bottom dead point is smaller with CH than with IH, while
the twist torque after die removal is larger (its absolute
value is smaller) with CH than with IH (Figure 9). In addi823
09.08.2010 14:36:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
tion, the opening of the sidewall after die removal (a + b in
Figure 13) is approximately 0-2 mm smaller with CH than
with IH at all cross sections as shown in Figure 13. These
findings suggest that KH has the effect of making the
opening of the sidewall smaller, resulting in smaller twist.
Conclusions
The mechanism of twist occurring in curved hat channel
drawing was examined in detail by FEM simulation. The
results obtained in this study were as follows.
1. The mechanisms of twist occurring during the unloading process can be explained by the following two factors:
a) Positive torque induced by the in-plane tensile and
compressive deformation of the flange regions during
the drawing process, which is a source of negative
twist.
b) Negative torque generated by the sidewall opening
and curl during the die removal process, which is a
source of positive twist.
2. The resultant twist can be determined by the net effect
of the above two factors. The positive torque has a
greater effect on the behavior at the drawing height of
20 mm, resulting in negative twist, and the negative
torque has a greater effect on the behavior at the drawing height of 60 mm, resulting in positive twist.
3. The twist becomes smaller if KH is considered in the
simulation, particularly when the drawing height is large.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge UNIPRES Corporation for providing experimental tools and Professor Kuwabara and his co-workers at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology for providing the results of tensioncompression tests for 980 MPa dual-phase steel.
References
[1] T. Yamano, J. Iwaya: Proc. 56th Japanese joint Conference for the
Technology of Plasticity, (2005), 137-138, (in Japanese).
[2] K. Ito, T. Kondo, G. Uemura, N. Mori: Proc. International Conference: Numiform07 (2007), 1477-1482.
[3] T. Yoshida: Proc. 57th Japanese joint Conference for the Technology
of Plasticity, (2006), 163-164, (in Japanese).
[4] M. Banu, M. Takamura, T. Hama, O. Naidim, C. Teodosiu, A. Makinouchi: J. Material Process. Technol., 173-2 (2006), 178-184.
[5] M. Banu, T. Hama, J.L. Alves, O. Naidim: Steel Research International, 79 (2008), Special Edition, vol. 1, 186-193.
[6] Y. Yamada, N. Yoshimura, T. Sakurai: Int. J. Mech. Sci., 10 (1968),
343-354.
[7] M.C. Oliveira, J.L. Alves, B.M. Chaparro, L.F. Menezes: Int. J.
Plasticity, 23 (2007), 516-543.
Distribution of LW /MPa
100
-100
H= 20 mm
Distribution of LW /MPa
-100
100
100
-300
100
300
-300
-100
-100
H= 20 mm
-100
300
H= 60 mm
Figure 12. Distribution of shear stress after die removal.
a
a+b: Sidewall openning

100
H= 60 mm
-100
Figure 10. Distribution of shear stress at bottom dead point.
Stretching deformation
100
300
Sidewall openning (a+b) /mm
In plane tensile and compressive

deformation
16.0
IH
12.0
8.0
CH
4.0
0.0
0
Shrinking deformation
50
100
150
200
250
300

Figure 13. Sidewall opening after die removal.
Figure 11. In-plane deformation due to sidewall opening.
824
09.08.2010 14:36:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
Springback Simulation of High Strength Steel Sheets Calculated by Yoshida-Uemori

Model
Takeshi Uemori1), Satoshi Sumikawa2), Shohei Tamura2), Hiroyuki Akagi1), Tetsuo Naka3), Fusahito Yoshida2)
1)
School of Engineering, Kindai University, Higashi-Hiroshima / Japan, uemori@hiro.kindai.ac.jp; 2) Department of Mechanical Engineering
system, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima / Japan; 3) Yuge National College of Maritime Technology, Ehime / Japan
For the accurate simulation of springback on high strength steel sheets, the use of an appropriate material model is of vital importance. In
general, major aspects of material modelling are on the yield function and the hardening law. In the present work, using the framework of
Yoshida-Uemori model (F. Yoshida and T. Uemori, Int J Plasticity, 18, 2002, 661-686), which is an advanced kinematic hardening model
incorporating with a selected anisotropic yield function, FE simulations of springback in draw bending and S-rail forming (Numisheet96
model) of 590 and 980MPa levels high strength steel sheets were performed, and the results were compared with the corresponding experimental observations. From the results, it is concluded that the modelling of the Bauschinger effect, including the plastic-strain dependent Youngs modulus, is essential for accurate simulation of springback of high strength steel sheets, but the selection of an anisotropic
yield function would be of minor effect since most of HSSs have weak anisotropies.
Keywords: Springback analysis, High strength steel sheet, Yoshida-Uemori model, Anisotropic yield function, Kinematic hardening,
Bauschinger effect
Introduction
High strength steel sheets (hereafter, HSSs) are increasingly used in automotive industry for the purpose of
weight reduction of car bodies, as well as for the improvement of crashworthiness. One of the serious problems in press forming of HSSs is their extremely large
springback, therefore its accurate prediction by numerical
simulation is a key technology in press forming industries.
For the accurate simulation of springback on high
strength steel sheets (HSSs), the use of an appropriate
material model is of vital importance. In general, major
aspects of material modelling are on the yield function and
the hardening law. Two of the present authors (Yoshida
and Uemori [1,2]) proposed a kinematic hardening model
which can describe the Bauschinger effect and cyclic deformation characteristics of materials properly. A strong
point of this model (hereafter, Yoshida-Uemori model) is
that it provides a framework of using any types of anisotropic yield functions.
It is already well-known that the modeling of the
Bauschinger effect is essential for accurate springback
simulation (e.g., Yoshida-Uemori [2] and Chung et al. [3]),
especially for HSSs, however it is not so clear how HSSs
weak anisotropies affect the results of springback simulation. Therefore, in the present work, using the framework
of Yoshida-Uemori model incorporating with appropriate
anisotropic yield function, FE simulations of springback of
in draw bending and S-rail forming (Numisheet96 model)
of 590 and 980MPa TS levels HSSs were performed and
the results were compared with the corresponding experimental observations.
law of the yield surface, and furthermore, it can simulate

the stress-strain response of work hardening stagnation
which appears in most of materials in a large reverse deformation. The outline of this model is describes as follows.
Since the experimental stress-strain responses under reverse deformation show that the re-yielding starts at a very
early stage of stress reversal, we assume only the kinematic hardening for the yield surface, while for the bounding surface mixed isotropic-kinematic hardening. When
the yield function at the initial (non-deformed) state, f o ,
has a general form:
fo () Y 0 ,
where denotes a function of the Cauchy stress tensor ,

and Y is the initial yield strength, the subsequent yield
function f is given by the equation:
(2)
f ( ) Y 0
where denote the backstress. The associated flow rule
is written as
f
(3)
p
A
a

* Y
Yoshida-Uemori Model
This model has been constructed within the framework
of two-surfaces modelling, wherein the yield surface
moves kinematically within a bounding surface, as schematically illustrated in Figure 1. It describes the Bauschinger effect precisely by an original kinematic hardening
(1)
Bounding surface
Yield surface
B+R
Figure 1. Two-surfaces model.
825
09.08.2010 14:36:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
The bounding surface F is expressed by the equation:
F ( ) ( B R ) 0
(4)
where denotes the center of the bounding surface, and
B and R are its initial size and isotropic hardening (IH)
component. The relative kinematic motion of the yield
surface with respect to the bounding surface is expressed
by
(5)
* .
For the evolution of * , we assume
PP
5

Figure 2. Cruciform specimen for biaxial stretching test (in mm).
Material Parameter Identification. Yoshida-Uemori

kinematic hardening model includes seven material
parameters, which can be identified from stress-strain
curves of uniaxial tension and cyclic straining. In Figure 3,
as an example, stress-strain curves calculated by YoshidaUemori model, and also by several other classical models:
800
Experiment
IH model
LKH model
IH+NLKH model
Yoshida-Uemori model
600
True stress /MPa
Material Testing. Two types of dual-phase HSSs were

employed for experiments, one is a 1.4mm-thick sheet
with 590MPa tensile strength (TS) and the other is 1.0mmthick sheet with 980MPa-TS. For the material parameter
identification, uniaxial tension tests, step-up loadingunloading tests, cyclic straining test and biaxial stretching
experiments were performed on each sheet.
From uniaxial tension experiment, stress-strain curves
and the Lankford values (r-values) were obtained for
specimens cut from three directions (0o [rolling direction],
45o and 90o) of each sheet. For the identification of three
material parameters that determine the plastic-strain
dependent Youngs modulus, E0 and Ea and in Eq. (9),
step-up loading-unloading tests were performed.
From cyclic straining experiments, characteristic
behaviour of the Bauschinger effect and cyclic
workhardening was observed.
In order to discuss the anisotropic yield function, biaxial
stretching test was performed using a cruciform specimen,
as shown in Figure 2. The size of gage section in this

(8)

(7)
Material Testing and Parameter Identification

where E0 and Ea stand for Youngs modulus for virgin and

infinitely large pre-strained materials, respectively, and
is a material constant.
It should be noted that for the yield function , in this
model, we can select any of the existing anisotropic yield
functions, such as Hill48 [5], Hill90 [6], Gotoh [7] and
Barlat 2000 [8].
826

(9)
a B R Y ,
is the
where b, C and m are material constants and p
effective plastic strain rate. To describe the workhardening stagnation, a model of non-isotropic-hardening
(non-IH) surface, which controls the stagnation of IH of
the bounding surface at a certain range of reverse deformation, is introduced (for details of the modelling, refer to
Yoshida-Uemori [1, 2]).
Besides the kinematic hardening model, the following
model of platic-strain dependent Youngs modulus (Yoshida et al. [4]) was used in the calculation:
(10)
E E0 E0 Ea 1 exp p

2 3 p : p , * (* ) ,
(6)

a
a
* C ( ) * p ,
*
Y
m
p ,
B R
specimen is 50 mm x 50 mm, where the uniformity of

stress distribution was guaranteed by finite element calculation. The specimen has two slits in each arm, which is
designed to release the deformation constraint on the gage
section. The specimen was biaxially stretcheted by a
servo-controlled hydraulic testing machine. Tensile loads
were measured by load cells, and the biaxial strains were
measured with strain gauges bonded on the surfaces of the
cruciform specimen.
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
-800
-0.06
-0.04
-0.02
0.02
0.04
0.06
True strain
Figure 3. Cyclic stress-strain responses of 590 MPa-HSS calculated by four types of constitutive models.
(a) isotropic hardening (IH model); (b) linearly kinematic

hardening model (LK model); (c) model of isotropic
09.08.2010 14:36:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
130.0
f O A1 x4 A2 x3 y A3 x2 y2 A4 x y3 A5 y4
A6 x2 A7 x y A8 y2 xy2 A9 xy4 Y 4 0
(10)
where A1 ~ A9 are anisotropic parameters. Anisotropic

parameters of Hill48 yield function were identified by
using r0 , r45 and r90 , while Gotohs function material
parameters A1 ~ A9 were identified so that the calculated
yield locus is the best fit to the experimental result with
satisfying r0 , r45 and r90 .
Springback Simulations and Experiments
Draw Bending. The finite element simulation of hatshaped draw bending on the 590 MPa-HSS was conducted
by using four kinds of hardening models: (a) IH model; (b)
LK model; (c) IH+NLK model; and (d) Yoshida-Uemori
model, where, for anisotropy, Gotohs yield function was
incorporated with all these models. The plastic strain dependency of Youngs modulus was taken into account for
all the four models. These constitutive models were implemented into a FE code LS-DYNA using its user subroutine.
St r oke
80. 2
Die
130.0
Die
126.4
350.0
Figure 5. Experimental set-up of hat-shaped draw bending (in

mm).
Figure 5 shows the details of experimental set-up of

hat-shaped draw bending. For the friction, the Coulomb
law is employed, where the dynamic and static friction
coefficients are assumed as 0.10 and 0.12, respectively.
The present draw bending model is just the same as one
which two of the present authors (Yoshida-Uemori [2])
examine previously. However, in the previous work [2],
anisotropy of the sheet was not taken into account. One of
our interests in the present work is how such weak anisotropies of HSS influence the springback.
Final shapes of the sheet after springback calculated by
the above mentioned four types of constitutive models,
together with the corresponding experimental result, are
illustrated in Figure 6. From these results, it is found that
the calculated side wall curls and the bending angles
strongly depend on the constitutive models. The LK model
cannot capture the final shape at all. The IH and IH+NLK
models slightly underestimate springback. In contrast to
these, Yoshida-Uemori model calculates accurately the
springback. In comparison of these results with those
reported in the previous paper [2], where von Mises yield
criterion was used, they are almost the same. From this, it
is concluded that, as far as HSSs with weak anisotropies
Simulation
Sim ulation
500
Blan kh old er
1. 0
Pun ch
Blan kh old er
r0 0.86, r45 0.90 and r90 0.98 for 980 MPa-
HSS. Figure 4 shows the yield surface of 590MPa-HSS

(defined by 0.2% plastic-strain proof stress) obtained from
the biaxial stretching experiment. In this figure, yield loci
calculated by Hill48 quadratic function and Gotohs biquadratic function:
True stress in the transverse direction /MPa
50kN
124.0
R5
and
50kN
R5
hardening + nonlinearly kinematic hardening of

Armstrong-Frederick type (IH+NLK) [9], are shown,
together with the experimental results. It is seen from this
figure, Yoshida-Uemori model well captures the
deformation behaviour of the Bauschinger effect, and the
second best is IH+NLK model.
The two HSSs have rather weak anisotropies, i.e.,
r0 0.94, r45 0.91 and r90 0.98 for 590 MPa-HSS
Simulation
Sim ulation
Exp erim en t
Experiment
400
Exp erim en t
Experiment
300
Yosh id a-Uem ori m od el

(a) Yoshida-Uemori
model
200
Simulation
Sim ulation
Experiment p=0.002
100
100
Simulation
Sim ulation
Exp erim en t
Hill 1948
Gotoh
0
IH m od el
(b)
IH model
Exp erim en t
Experiment
200
300
400
Experiment
500
True stress in the longitudinal direction /MPa
IH-NLK m od el
(c) IH-NLK model
KH m od el
(d) KH model
Figure 4. Yield loci of 590 MPa-HSS calculated by Hill48 and

Gotohs criteria.
Figure 6. Final shapes of hat channels calculated by four types of
constitutive models.
827
09.08.2010 14:37:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
As shown in Figures 7, the results of the simulation by
Yoshida-Uemori model agree very well with the
experimental observations. Instead, when using IH model,
the calculated result is not so accurate. For example, the
torsional angle between two ends of the rail was measured
as 4o from the experiment, and the prediction by YoshidaUemori model was 3.6o, while 2.2 o by IH model.
Section A
Concluding Remarks
Section B
=0.0
=0.126
= -0.02
Experiment
Y-U model (FEM)
=0.087
= -0.153
=0.054
=0.254
=0.306
Section B
Y-U model
(FEM)
Si l ti
Experiment
= -0.104
= -0.25
Figure 7. Comparison of FE simulation (Yoshida-Uemori model)

with experiment for springback of S-rail, (= [Simulation] [Experiment] in mm).
are concerned, accurate modelling of the Bauschinger

effect is a key for precise springback simulation, but the
selection of an anisotropic yield function would be of
minor effect.
S-Rail Forming. The second example is the springback
in S-rail forming (Numisheet 96) on 980 MPa-HSS. For
the present simulation we employed FE simulation code of
PAM-STAMP 2G (ESI, Co. Ltd.) with Yoshida-Uemori
kinematic hardening model. For the comparison, FE
simulation by IH model was also conducted. For the
description of anisotropy of the sheet, both models
incorporate with Hill48 yield function. After S-rail
forming, 3D springback takes place, where warping of the
rail (torsional springback) is dominant.
828
From two examples of springback simulation of HSSs,

one is hat-shaped draw bending and the other is S-rail
forming, the roles of the kinematic hardening model and
the anisotropic yield function were investigated by comparing the calculated results with the corresponding experimental observations. The present findings are summarized as follows:
1. The accuracy of springback strongly depends on the
hardening law, especially the modelling of the Bauschinger effect, including the model of plastic-strain dependent Young's modulus, is of vital importance on
HSSs. The Yoshida-Uemori kinematic hardening model
has a high capability of describing large-strain cyclic
stress-strain responses.
2. In general, most of HSSs have weak anisotropies, so
that the selection of anisotropic yield function would be
of minor effect on the accuracy of springback simulation.
3. It should be noted that the above conclusion is restricted for HSSs, which have strong Bauschinger effect
and weak anisotropy, but not for other types of sheet
metals, such as mild steel and aluminium sheets.
Acknowledgement
The present authors sincerely thank Prof. R. Hino of Hiroshima University and Dr. S. Abe for their great helps
with the FE simulation and the experiments.
References
[1] F. Yoshida, T. Uemori: Int. J. Plasticity, 18 (2002), 661-686.
[2] F. Yoshida, T. Uemori, K. Fujiwara: Int. J. Plasticity, 18 (2002), 633660.
[3] K. Chung, M.-G. Lee, D. Kim, C. Kim, M.L. Wenner, F. Barlat: Int. J.
Plasticity, 22 (2005), 865-882.
[4] F. Yoshida, T. Uemori: Int. J. of Mechanical Sciences 45 (2003),
1687-1702.
[5] R. Hill, Proc. Royal Society of London, A193 (1948), 281-297.
[6] R. Hill, J. Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 38 (1990), 405-417.
[7] M. Gotoh, Int. J. Mechanical Sciences, 19 (1979), 505-12.
[8] F. Barlat, J. C. Brem, J. W. Yoon, K. Chung, R.E. Dick, D.J. Lege, F.
Rourboghrat, S.-H. Choi, E. Chu: Int. J. Plasticity, 19 (2003), 12971319.
[9] P.J. Armstrong, C.O. Frederick: GEGB report RD/B/N731, (1996),
Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories.
09.08.2010 14:37:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Evaluation of Ti-Based Ceramic Coated Tools to Reduce Adhesion in U-Channel

Forming Process of High Strength Steel
Bhadpiroon Sresomroeng1), Varunee Premanond1), Pongpan Kaewtatip1), Anak Khantachawana1), Nobuhiro Koga2)
1)
Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok / Thailand, s8510303@st.kmutt.ac.th;
Engineering, Nippon Institute of Technology, Saitama / Japan
2)
Faculty of
This study aims to evaluate the Ti-based ceramic coated tools for reducing adhesion, which is a primary cause of scratch or galling on a
high strength steel workpiece in a U-channel forming process. SEM, EDS and nano-indenter were used to evaluate structural and
mechanical properties. The U-bending die with non-coated tools was used to perform an automobile structural steel sheet SAPH 440 and a
high strength steel sheet SPFH 590. Also the effectiveness of the tool coated with various Ti-based ceramic was evaluated with SPFH 590
steel. As the results, the adhesion of the workpiece material on a non-coated tool surface was detected in a stamping process after 100
strokes for SAPH 440 sheet and 49 strokes for SPFH 590 sheet. Whereas no adhesion was found on the TiC (CVD), TiCN (CVD) and TiCN
(PVD) coated tools after 500 strokes. However TiAlN (PVD) film did not provide the satisfied results.
Keywords: Ti-based ceramic, Adhesion, U-channel forming, High strength steel
Introduction
The use of high strength steel (HSS) sheets in the
manufacture of auto-body parts has increased in the
automotive industry because of its high strength, and then
can reduce the car weight. However, since the strength and
hardness of the steel are relatively high, its formability is
very low and adhesion between tool and workpiece
material can be easily found when forming HSS. Several
works proposed to reduce springback of the HSS [1-5].
While, there is a few work approach to adhesion problem
in HSS stamping [6-8].
Nowadays, film coatings stand for an importance for
increasing the tool life and improve tribological performance between tool and workpiece. In our previous work
[6], the tribological behaviour of several thin film coatings
in sliding contact against HSS have been investigated
using ball-on-disc testing. They were found that the coated
balls exhibited a low friction coefficient and a low specific
wear rate in dry sliding contact with HSS. The effectiveness of film coating (TiCN-CVD) is also investigated by
performing U-bending experiment and the result showed
the coated tool can prevent adhesion. However, there are
many types of film coating for different applications and
the coating is an increasing cost then tool maker should be
considerate to choose the effective coated tool.
Titanium ceramic are characterized by their high
strength-to-weight ratio, high elastic modulus and low
coefficient of thermal expansion [9]. Films deposited on
various tools have been proved to be effective in many
applications including machining, molding and metal
forming [10-12]. Kim et al. [7] investigated galling in a
strip drawing test with galvanized advance high strength
steel grade DP980Gl. The TiCN-PVD coated tool showed
the excellent result in reducing galling in comparison with
other tool coatings. Teisuke and Tatsuo [13], showed that
TiC, TiN and CrN coated tool have better properties for
anti-galling than SKD11 tool. While TiAlN coating film
was used in dry metal forming. For machining, it is
including use for reducing tool wear in high temperature
works [14,15].
In the present work, the performances of commercial Tibased ceramic coatings are investigated in order to reduce
adhesion on the tool surface against HSS approaching to
industrial applications. Mechanical properties of each thin
film were evaluated by Nano-indenter. The thickness and
film structure were examined by Scanning Electron
Microscope (SEM) and using Energy Dispersive
Spectroscopy (EDS) mapping technique. The effectiveness
of Ti-based ceramic film to reduce adhesion in U-channel
forming HSS was investigated by experiment using the Ubending die.
Materials and Experimental Procedure
Workpiece Materials. The hot rolled HSS grade SPFH
590 (JIS) having 2 mm in thickness was used in this
investigation. The hot rolled automobile structural steel
grade SAPH 440 (JIS), with thickness of 2 mm also used
to compare the material transfer with those of using HSS.
The mechanical properties of workpiece materials which
were obtained from tensile test and hardness test are
shown in Table 1.
Tool Materials and Film Coatings. In the experiment, the
cold work tool steel grade SKD 11 (JIS) with hardness of
602 HRC was used as tool material. The arithmetical
mean roughness (Ra) of die measured by the 2D surface
roughness is 0.0557 m. The die was coated by several Tibased ceramic films in different processes including both
chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and physical vapour
deposition (PVD). The surface roughness of each coating
film is shown in Table 2. The tribological properties of
non-coated and coated tools are also shown in the table.
The friction coefficient between coating film and SPFH
590 steel was obtained from ball-on-disk test according to
ASTM G99-05 standard under dry sliding condition which
is similar condition as the U-channel forming test. The
critical load was obtained from scratch test using diamond
Rockwell stylus. The critical load 1 (Lc1) presents the load
where crack initiates on coating film and the critical load 2
(Lc2) is the load where completed failure of film occurs.
829
09.08.2010 14:37:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Coating Characterization. The thickness and chemical

composition of coating films were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive
spectroscopy (EDS) technique. Nano-indentation testing
was performed using pyramidal (Berkovish) indenter to
characterize the hardness and elastic modulus of coating
films. A linearly increased (0 N to 1000 N) normal load
with loading rate of 200 N/s were used.
U-Channel Forming Test. A U-bending die, as shown
schematically in Figure 1, was used to perform industrial
field test. The initial rectangular blanks of 176 mm in
length and 50 mm in width were bended into U-channel
hat shaped parts. The tests were carried out without lubricant by a 1500-kN hydraulic single stroke press machine.
Force and punch displacement were measured by load cell
and linear variable differential transformer (LVDT), respectively. The width of the punch was 46 mm with the
corner radius of 2 mm. Die radius was 5 mm. Punch and
die clearance was designed to be 95% of sheet thickness
[4]. Two sets of non-coated dies were prepared to form
SAPH 440 and SPFH 590 sheets. The performance for
reducing adhesion of coated dies (as in Table 2.) was
evaluated on SPFH 590 sheets. Scratches caused by galling of U-bending part were measured by 2D surface
roughness measurement.
5
2
4
6
3
Notes: 1 punch, 2 dies, 3 pressure pad, 4 work material,

5 die holder and 6 spacer
Table 2. Tribological and physical properties of coatings.

Surface
Roughness;
Friction
Critical Load* [N]
Treatment
Ra [m]
Coefficient*
Lc1
Lc2
Hardening
0.0557
0.67
TiC (CVD)
0.0923
0.41
45
83
TiCN (CVD)
0.0855
0.49
70
100**
TiCN (PVD)
0.0635
0.48
37
90
TiAlN (PVD)
0.1148
0.50
32
82
* Results from [6]
** Film does not fail at 100 N
Film layer
Pa1=13.557
2m
830
Substrate
Mag = 2.00 KX
EHT = 20.00 kV
Film layer
2m
TiC (CVD)
Pa1=3.479
2m
Mag = 2.00 KX
EHT = 20.00 kV
Mag = 2.00 KX
EHT = 20.00 kV
TiCN (CVD)
Film layer
Substrate
Pa1=3.792
Substrate
2m
TiCN (PVD)
Mag = 2.00 KX
EHT = 20.00 kV
TiAlN (PVD)
Figure 2. Cross-sectional SEM micrograph of various coating films.
multilayer TiCN (CVD); TiC/TiCN/TiN. While 2 types of

double layers PVD thin films, TiCN; TiN/TiCN and
TiAlN; TiN/TiAlN have the thickness about 3-4 m. In
this observation, it is seen that the TiCN (PVD) film
provided relatively smooth layer when comparing with the
other films. It is well agreed with the surface roughness
results in Table 2.
The results of hardness and elastic modulus
measurements are presented in Figure 3. The indentation
depth of the pyramidal indenter was 27 nm. Therefore, any
probable contribution from the substrate material to the
hardness and elastic modulus values can be neglected.
Deposition of the CVD and PVD films on substrate can
effectively increase the surface hardness to over 30.0 GPa,
while the surface roughness of substrate is only 7.0 GPa.
The largest values of hardness and elastic modulus of 39.2
GPa and 397.8 GPa were respectively observed in TiC
(CVD) film. On the other hand, TiCN (CVD) film
exhibited the minimum hardness of 27.2 GPa and TiAlN
(PVD) coating showed the minimum elastic modulus of
308.2 GPa.
50
50
Hardness (GPa)
Hardness (H) GPa
Coating Characterization. Some characteristic data of

the Ti-based ceramic coatings were revealed by SEM and
EDS techniques. The morphologies of Ti-based ceramic
coatings deposited on SKD 11 substrate were disclosed by
cross-sectional SEM micrograph in Figure 2. From the
figure, the single layer TiC (CVD) shows the formation of
an un-uniform film layer, with thickness of approximately
7 m. The highest thickness of 13 m was observed in the
Film layer
Substrate
Figure 1. Schematic figure of the U-bending die.
Pa1=6.818
Hardness
Elastic modulus
40
40
500
Elastic modulus (E) GPa
Table 1. Mechanical properties of workpiece materials.

Symbol
Tensile
Yield
Elongation
Hardness
[JIS]
Strength
Strength
[%]
[HV]
2
2
[N/mm ]
[N/mm ]
SAPH 440
460
339
34
SPFH 590
615
481
26
213.7
400
30
30
300
20
20
200
10
10
100
00
TiC-CVD
TiC
(CVD)
TiCN-CVD
TiCN
(CVD)
TiCN-PVD
TiAlN-PVD
TiCN
(PVD) TiAlN
(PVD)
Figure 3. Hardness and elastic modulus values of coating films.
09.08.2010 14:37:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 6. Comparison of surface roughness of U-bending dies

with various coating films.
Figure 4. Force and displacement diagram of U-channel forming.
U-Channel Forming. The relationship between bending

force and punch displacement in HSS forming is shown in
Figure 4. At initial, the bending load increases with increasing punch displacement and shows the maximum
value where bending over the punch radius must be completed. It is seen that the force also slightly increase in a
final stage. This can be caused by the ironing of wall
thickness after bending. However, it is clear that forces
required in coated tools are approximately 14% lower than
that in non-coated tool irrespective of film types. This
result may cause from a low friction coefficients showing
in Table 2.
The results of surface roughness of workpieces under
various number of stroke from U-channel forming experiment are shown in Figure 5. It can be clearly seen that the
surface roughness of SPFH 590 part produced by noncoated die rapidly increases with increasing the number of
stroke, especially after 49 strokes. Moreover, deep scratch
cause by adhesion or material transfer to die can be found
on the part surface. In case of SAPH 440 part produced by
non-coated die, the deep scratch is visible on the part surface after 100 strokes. Whereas the surface roughness of
the part produced by coated die remains almost constant
up to 500 strokes. This can be easily explained by the
metal to metal contact between tool steel and workpiece
which, one cause of adhesion can be avoided by using
Figure 7. Representative surface profiles of coated dies after 500

strokes.
Deep scratch
14
Surface roughness; Rz (m)
hard film coatings. However, in case of the SPFH 590 part

produced by TiAlN (PVD) coated die, a slightly increase
of surface roughness was seen with increasing the number
of stroke to over 450 strokes though the deep scratch cannot be confirmed.
After 500 strokes of U-channel forming, the adhesion of
SPFH 590 workpiece material on each coated dies was
examined by the 2D surface roughness measurement. The
mean roughness (Ra) of coated dies before (virgin die) and
SAPH 440; Non-coated die

SPFH 590; Non-coated die
SPFH 590; TiC (CVD) coated die
SPFH 590; TiCN (CVD) coated die
SPFH 590; TiCN (PVD) coated die
SPFH 590; TiAlN (PVD) coated die
Deep scratch
12
SPFH 590
10
SAPH 440
Initial workpiece roughness
6
4
2
0
01
100
200
300
400
500
Strokes
Figure 5. Variation of surface roughness of U-channel hat shape parts vs. number of strokes.
831
09.08.2010 14:37:19 Uhr
Forming direction
Metal Forming
0.5 mm
TiC (CVD)
0.5 mm
TiCN (CVD)
Adhesion
0.5 mm
TiCN (PVD)
0.5 mm
TiAlN (PVD)
Figure 8. Optical micrograph of the contact surface of coated dies.
after performing to 500 strokes were shown in Figure 6. It

is clearly seen that the surface roughness of TiAlN (PVD)
coated die after performed to 500 strokes remarkably
increases from that of initial die surface. This result shows
a good correlation to result from part surface roughness.
While a very small variation of surface roughness can be
confirmed in TiC (CVD), TiCN (CVD) and TiCN (PVD)
coated dies.
Figure 7 shows the variations of surface roughness profile of U-channel hat shaped part with different coated dies
after performing to 500 strokes. It is clearly seen from the
roughness profile that the adhesion can be found in a
TiAlN (PVD) coating film. After observe the contact surface of coating die by optical microscope, it is also able to
see the adhesion on TiAlN (PVD) surface since some
particles adhere on the surface. This is shown in Figure 8.
The result demonstrates that type of film coating has a
significant influence on the material transfer behaviour
during the HSS forming process.
Conclusions
Several Ti-based ceramic coating films were characterized by SEM, EDS and nano-indenter. Material transfer or
adhesion on forming die surface affect on workpiece material and tool surface coatings were investigated through
the U-channel forming test. The conclusions are made as
follows:
1. Adhesion on forming tools significantly depends on
workpiece and tool materials. Hardness and strength of
workpiece material seem to correlate to formation of
adhesion taken place on forming tools.
2. Ti-based ceramic coating films can effectively reduce
workpiece material transfer to the forming die when
compared with the non-coated die.
832
3. The TiAlN (PVD) film did not provide a satisfied result,

since the adhesion was found when the stroke number
reached to 500strokes.
References
[1] K. Mori, K., K. Akita, Y. Abe: Int. J. of Machine Tools & Manufacture, 47 (2007), 321-325.
[2] T. Yoshida, E. Isogai, K. Hashimoto, T. Katayama, Y. Kuriyama: J of
the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 46-534 (2005), 656660.
[3] J. Yanagimoto, K. Oyamada: Annals of the CIRP, 54-1 (2005), 213216.
[4] B. Sresomroeng, V. Premanond, P. Kaewtathip, A. Khantachawana:
Proc. 21st Conference of Mechanical Engineering Network of Thailand, (2007).
[5] P. Kaewtatip, N. Prasitkhetkhan, A. Khantachawana, V. Premanond,
R. Hato, B. Sresomreong, N. Koga: Proc. 9th International
Conference on Technology of Plasticity, (2008).
[6] B. Sresomroeng, K.Lawanwong, V.Premanond, R.Hato, P.Kaewtatip,
A.Khantachawana, N. Koga: Int. J. Abras. Technol., 2 (2009), 313.
[7] H. Kim, S. Han, Q. Yan, T. Altan: CIRP Annals - Manuf. Technol.,
57-1 (2008), 299.
[8] B. Sresomroeng, V. Premanond, P. Kaewtathip, A. Khantachawana,
N. Koga, S. Watanabe: Diam. Relat. Mater., (2010),
doi:10.1016/j.diamond.2010.02.008.
[9] B. Bhushan, B. K.Gupta: Handbook of Tribology, (1991), 4.38-4.40.
[10] P. C. Jindal, A. T. Santhanam, U. Schleinkofer, A. F. Shuster: International Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials, 17 (1999)
163-170.
[11] P. Pesch, S. Sattel, S. Woestmann, P. Masarczyk, K. Herden, T.
Stucky, A Martense, S. Ulriche, H. Hollecke: Surface and Coatings
Technology, 163-164 (2003), 739-746.
[12] D. Heim, F. Holler, C. Mitterer: Surface and Coatings Technology
116-119 (1999), 530-536.
[13] T. Sato and T. Besshi: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
83 (1998), 185-191
[14] K. Osakada, R. Matsumoto: Annals of the CIRP, 49-1 (2000), 161164.
[15] W. Grzesik, Z. Zalisz, S. Krol, P. Nieslony: Wear, 261 (2006), 11911200.
09.08.2010 14:37:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Forming of Tailor Blanks for Increase in Wall Thickness at Corner of Stamped High
Strength Steel Products
Chin Joo Tan1), Yohei Abe2), Ken-ichiro Mori2), Michiyuki Suzuki2)
1)
Research & Development Center, Topy Industries, Ltd., Toyohashi / Japan, c-tan@topy.co.jp;
neering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi / Japan
2)
Department of Production Systems Engi-
A tailor blank was employed for stamping of high strength steel products having large wall thickness at inner corner from thin sheets. To
form the tailor blank, a 2-stage local thickening process was developed for increasing the wall thickness of the blank at portion equivalent to
the inner corner. In the 1st stage of the local thickening process, a ring including the portion equivalent to the inner corner is drawn, and the
drawn ring is compressed with flat tools in the 2nd stage to attain a local increase in wall thickness. The 2-stage local thickening process
was designed from both finite element simulation and an experiment. A tailor blank having an increased wall thickness of 8.2% was formed,
and the wall thickness at the inner corner of a stamped wheel disk from the tailor blank was successfully increased by 9.6%. It was found
that the tailor blanks are attractive for controlling the distributions of the wall thickness of stamped products from thin high strength steel
sheets.
Keywords: High strength steel, Local thickening, Multi-stage stamping, Tailor blank, Wheel disk
Introduction
High strength steel sheets are attractive for improving
the fuel efficiency and crashworthiness of vehicles [1].
Due to the low formability, cracks and wrinkles tend to
occur in stamping of high strength steel sheets [2].
Although requisite strength is high around corners of rotating components such as steel wheels [3], wall thickness
at the inner corners tends to decrease in the forming process including deep drawing. Since the fatigue strength of
the wheels exponentially decreases with the decrease in
thickness, the wall thickness at the inner corner is crucial
to the reduction in weight [4]. The authors [5] have prevented the decrease in wall thickness at the inner corner by
optimizing drawing ratio and the punch corner in a twostage forming process of wheel disks. The authors [6] have
developed a combined forming process of deep drawing
and ironing for attaining optimum distributions of wall
thickness in the wheel disks. Yogo [3] has increased the
wall thickness at the inner corner of the disk by means of
flat bottom punches. The authors [7] have increased the
wall thickness at the inner corner of mild steel disks by
means of conical punches.
Although circular tailor welded blanks are available for
the control of wall thickness distributions of the disk [8], it
is not realistic to weld ring-shaped sheets having different
thicknesses for the desired distribution of wall thickness in
radial direction of the blank. Although control of rolling
gap is attractive for producing steel sheet having uneven
thickness, the distribution in wall thickness is limited to
one dimension [9], and it is not suitable for the increase in
wall thickness at the inner corner of the disk. The authors
[10] have developed a 2-stage forming process of tailor
blanks having local thickening for controlling the distribution of wall thickness of stamped parts.
In the present study, thin high strength steel sheets were
employed in the multi-stage stamping of the wheel disks
by means of the conical punches for the reduction in
weight. The effect of blank materials and blank thicknesses on the degree of increase in thickness at the inner
corner of the disk was studied. Since the degree of in-
crease in thickness became small, tailor blanks formed by

stamping was supplied to the multi-stage stamping process.
The effect of the punch stroke in the stamping process of
the tailor blank on the increase in thickness at the inner
corner of the disk was examined from both finite element
simulation and experiment
Method for Increase in Wall Thickness at Inner Corner
of Stamped Products
Forming Method. The compression of a conical bottom
cup for the increase in wall thickness at the inner corner is
shown in Figure 1. Since the amount of compression at
the inner corner is large, cup having large wall thickness at
inner corner is formed.
Outer
Outerpunch
punch
Outer
Outer
die
die
Compression
Drawn cup
Inner
Inner
punch
punch
Increase in wall thickness

Inner
corner
Inner die
die
Inner
Figure 1. Compression of conical bottom cup for increase in wall

thickness at inner corner.
Stamping Conditions for Mild Steel and High

Strength Steel Wheel Disks. The experimental tools for
the multi-stage stamping of a miniature steel wheel disk
(~1/3.5 of 14" disk) by means of the conical punches are
shown in Figure 2. The conical bottom of the cup is
formed with the conical punches in the 1st and 2nd stages,
where the same angle of 25 of the punches was set in the
1st and 2nd stages to avoid local thinning at the inner
corner in the 2nd stage. Since the wall thickness at the
inner corner hardly changes in the 4th and 5th stages, only
the first three-stage forming process is dealt with in the
present study. The mechanical properties of the high
strength steel and the mild steel are summarized in Table 1.
The initial blank thickness for high strength steel sheets
was t0 =1.4 mm, and those for the mild steel sheets were
t0=1.4 and 1.6 mm.
833
09.08.2010 14:37:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
5
t0
Change in wall thickness / %
Conical punch
58.6
R5
Blank
R1
Blankholder
25
R7
120
Die
64.6
(a) 1st stage
Conical punch
48.4
R5
R7
90.1
Blankholder
(e) 5th stage

(c) 3rd stage
Figure 2. Experimental tools for multi-stage stamping of miniature
steel wheel disk by means of conical punches.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of high strength steel and mild
steel.
Blank
Initial thickness t0 /mm
Initial diameter d0 /mm
Yield stress /MPa
Elongation /%
Flow stress /MPa
High strength steel

1.4
120
472
575
27.7
= 944 0.18
Mild steel
1.6, 1.4
286
384
40.6
= 6210.19
Stamping Results. The wall thickness distributions of

the stamped cups after the 2nd and the 3rd stages are
shown in Figure 3. The wall thickness at the portion
equivalent to the inner corner of the stamped mild steel
cup for t0=1.4 mm decreases more than other stamped
cups after the 2nd stage. The increase in wall thickness at
the portion equivalent to the inner corner of the stamped
mild steel cup after the 3rd stage for t0=1.6 mm is about 2
times higher than the one for t0=1.4 mm. Since the wall
thicknesses at the portion equivalent to the inner corner of
the mild steel and the high strength steel cups are the same
for t0=1.4 mm, the amount of increase in wall thickness at
inner corner is influenced by the change in initial blank
thickness, but not influenced by the change in material.
The influence of the initial blank thickness on the average increase in wall thickness at the inner corner after the
3rd stage is shown in Figure 4. The average increase in
wall thickness at the inner corner becomes large for the
increase in the initial blank thickness. The increase in wall
thickness at the inner corners is the same for mild steel and
the high strength steel having the same initial blank thickness.
834
Equivalent to inner corner

0
10
20
30
40
50
Distance from bottom center / mm
(a) 2nd stage
60
Mild steel t0=1.6mm

Mild steel t0=1.4mm
High strength steel t0=1.4mm
15
10
5
0
-5
-10

0
10
20
30
40
50
60

(b) 3rd stage
Figure 3. Wall thickness distributions of stamped cups after 2nd

and 3rd stages.
Change in average wall

thickness at inner corner / %
90.1
Punch
Die
R7
.0
.8
R3
.8
R4 Blankholder
Die
-20
20
R4
.8
93.7
Mild steel t0=1.6mm

Mild steel t0=1.4mm
High strength steel t0=1.4mm
-15
Blankholder
(d) 4th stage
R3
R2
62.5
-10
-25
Outer punch
Die
Outer punch
R3
.8
.8
R3
Die
(b) 2nd stage

Inner
punch
50.1
-5
R2
R1
25
55.4
R4
.8
Inner
punch
50.1
15
10
Mild steel
High strength steel
5
0
0.009
0.012
0.015
t0 / d0
Figure 4. Influence of initial blank thickness on average increase
in wall thickness at inner corner after 3rd stage.
The comparison between the cross-sections of the mild

steel and the high strength steel cups obtained from the
experiment after the 3rd stage is shown in Figure 5. The
wrinkle at the side wall of the high strength steel cup is
severer than of the mild steel one due to the decrease in
initial blank thickness.
Side wall
0.6
5
3rd stage
0.7
2
(a) Mild steel,

(b) High strength steel,
t 0 =1.6mm
t 0 =1.4mm
Figure 5. Comparison between cross-sections of mild steel and
high strength steel cups obtained from experiment after 3rd stage.
09.08.2010 14:37:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
2-Stage Stamping Process of Tailor Blank Having Local
Thickening
the rough die and blank holder to prevent the return of

material from the die cavity.
2-Stage Stamping Method. Since the amount of thickening at the inner corner of the high strength steel disk is
insufficient, a 2-stage stamping process of tailor blank
having large wall thickness at the portion equivalent to the
inner corner are shown in Figure 6 [10]. In the 1st stage,
the ring portion of the blank including the target for increase is drawn. In the 2nd stage, the flange portion of the
blank is fully constrained, and the ring portion is
compressed by a punch to attain a local increase in wall
thickness at the target portion.
Table 2. Experimental and simulation conditions for 2-stage

stamping of tailor blank.
Blank holder
Die
Equivalent to
inner corner
Compression
Die
Blank holder
Punch
Increase in thickness
(a) 1st stage
Tailor blank
(b) 2nd stage
Figure 6. 2-stage stamping process of tailor blank having large

wall thickness at portion equivalent to inner corner.
Stamping Conditions. The experimental tools for the 2stage stamping of the tailor blank are shown in Figure 7.
Since the target portion is located at the bottom of the
punch in the 1st stage, the decrease in wall thickness at the
portion is prevented in the drawing process. In the 2nd
stage, the target portion is compressed by the flat bottom
punch, and the increase in wall thickness at the target
portion results due to fully constraint of the flange portion
of the blank.
Coefficient of
friction in
calculation
R4
16
Blank holder
R4
8
68
Blank
R
Die
Equivalent to Punch
18
inner corner
(a) 1st stage
Die
R1
R1
Blank
holder
1
(b) 2nd stage
Figure 7. Experimental tools for 2-stage stamping of tailor blank.
The experimental and simulation conditions for the 2stage stamping of the tailor blank are shown in Table 2.
Since the punch stroke in the 1st stage, s1 influences the
angle of compression of the target portion in the 2nd stage,
s1 is set from 6.5mm to 9.5mm for the largest increase in
wall thickness at the target portion. The 2-stage stamping
process of tailor blank as shown in Figure 6 was simulated
by the commercial FEM software ABAQUS Ver. 6.5. In
the simulation, the process was assumed as axi-symmetry,
and thus the cross-section of the blank was divided into
solid quadrilateral elements. The punches and dies were
modeled to be rigid. The punch stroke in the 1st stage, s1
was changed for the increase in wall thickness at the portion equivalent to the inner corner after the 2nd stage. In
the 1st stage, a blank is drawn with a rough punch. In the
2nd stage, the flange portion of the blank is clamped with
1st stage s1
2nd stage
6.5 - 9.5
4.9 - 7.9
1st stage
1st stage
2nd stage
11
Punch and blank: 0.2
Die, blank holder and blank: 0.1
Punch and blank: 0.1
Die, blank holder and blank: 0.2
Stamping Results. The forming load obtained from the

experiment in the 2-stage stamping of a tailor blank for
s1=8.5mm is shown in Figure 8. The forming load required for bulging the ring in the 1st stage increases linearly with the punch stroke. In the 2nd stage, the target
portion is flattened under the compression by the punch
until it reaches the 1st peak. The forming load slightly
decreases when the equivalent portion is bent upward. The
forming load increases again when the equivalent portion
contacts the die. The forming load has the 2nd peak, when
the equivalent portion is completely flattened under the
compression by the punch.
200
Flattening under compression

2nd
150
Flattening under compression

Die
Blank holder
100
Punch
1st
Bend upward
50
R4
Punch
38
3
Blank holder
force /kN
Forming load / kN
Punch
Stroke /mm
4
6
Punch stroke / mm
10
Figure 8. Forming load obtained from experiment in 2-stage

stamping of tailor blank for s1=8.5 mm.
The distributions of wall thickness of the stamped blanks

after the 1st and the 2nd stages for s1=8.5 mm obtained
from the experiment are shown in Figure 9. Although the
wall thickness at the portion equivalent to the inner corner
slightly decreases after the 1st stage, a maximum increase
in wall thickness of 15% was obtained from both experiment and calculation after 2nd stage due to compression.
Thinning occurs around the center of the blank after the
1st and the 2nd stages. Since the central portion of the
blank is punched as a hub hole of the wheel, it is not a
defect.
The influence of the angle of ring portion in the 2nd
stage on the increase in wall thickness in portion equivalent to the inner corner for s1= 8.5 and 9.5 mm is shown in
Figure 10. Since the side wall for s1= 9.5 mm is compressed due to excessive ring angle, the increase in wall
thickness at the portion equivalent to the inner corner is
smaller than the one for s1= 8.5 mm.
835
09.08.2010 14:37:23 Uhr
20
2nd stage (Experimental)
10
2nd stage
(Calculated)
inner corner of the high strength steel wheel disk is 9.6%,

whereas that formed from the uniform thickness blank is
4.6%.
-20
94.1
(a) Tailor blank
-30
10
20
30
40
50
Figure 9. Distributions of wall thickness of stamped blanks after

1st and 2nd stages for s1=8.5 mm obtained from experiment.
55
Small compression
Large compression
(a) s=8.5mm
(b) s=9.5mm
Figure 10. Influence of angle of ring portion in 2nd stage on increase in wall thickness in portion equivalent to inner corner for
s1= 8.5 and 9.5 mm.
Change in averagewall
thickness in portion equivalent
to inner corner / %
The influence of the punch stroke in the 1st stage, s1 on

the average increase in wall thickness at the inner corner is
shown in Figure 11. As the punch stroke in the 1st stage
increases, the average increase in wall thickness at the
portion equivalent to the inner corner increases, and exhibits a peak for s1=8.5 mm for both calculation and experiment.
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Calculated
Experimental
6
10
Stroke in 1st stage s1/mm
Figure 11. Influence of punch stroke in 1st stage on average

increase in wall thickness at inner corner.
Multi-Stage Stamping of Tailor Blank into High

Strength Steel Wheel Disk
Stamping Results. The tailor blank for s1=8.5 mm was
stamped into a miniature wheel disk with the experimental
conditions as shown in Figure 2. The crosssections of the
high strength steel wheel disks for the tailor and the uniform thickness blanks obtained from the experiment are
shown in Figure 12. Since the diameter of tailor blank
decreases after the bulging process in the 1st stage, the
height of stamped cup for the tailor blank is 0.9 mm
shorter than the one for the uniform thickness blank.
The distributions of wall thickness of the high strength
steel wheel disks formed from the uniform and the tailor
blanks for s1=8.5 mm obtained from experiment are shown
in Figure 13. The average increase in wall thickness at the
836
20
60
49
94.1
(b) Uniform thickness blank
Figure 12. Crosssections of high strength steel wheel disks for

tailor and uniform thickness blanks obtained from experiment.
-40
0
21.9
21.0
1st stage
(Calculated)
1st stage
(Experimental)
-10
Metal Forming
Tailor blank
10
0
Uniform thickness blank
-10
Inner corner
-20
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Figure 13. Distributions of wall thickness of high strength wheel

disks for uniform and tailor blanks obtained from experiment.
Conclusions
The decrease in initial blank thickness leads to the insufficient increase in wall thickness at the inner corner of the
high strength steel wheel disk in the multi-stage stamping
operation using the conical punches. To improve the increase in wall thickness at the inner corner, a tailor blank
formed by stamping was employed in the multi-stage
stamping operation. A tailor blank having an average increase in wall thickness of 8.2% was formed, and the
blank was stamped into a miniature high strength steel
wheel disk having an average increase in wall thickness of
9.6% at the inner corner. The wheel disk having large
fatigue strength and lightweight was successfully formed
from a thin high strength steel sheet.
References
[1] Porsche Engineering Services Inc.: Ultra light steel auto body, Phase
1, B finding, final report, 8-16-95 (1995).
[2] S. Sato, K. Yamazaki, S. Ujihara: Transactions of the Iron and Steel
Institute of Japan, 21-11 (1981), 772-777.
[3] T. Yogo: Method for producing automobile wheel disk, Japan Patent
JP2004074248, 2004. (in Japanese).
[4] K. Tanaka, K. Ishihara, H. Komatsu: Sumitumo Metal, 39-4 (1987),
325-336. (in Japanese).
[5] Y. Abe, K. Mori, O. Ebihara: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 125-126 (2003), 792-797.
[6] K. Mori, O. Ebihara, K. Yoshii, Y. Abe: Intelligence in a Materials
World (ed. J. A. Meech et al.), (2003), 305-313.
[7] C.J. Tan, Y. Abe, K. Mori, O. Ebihara, T. Nonaka: Key Engineering
Materials, 340-341 (2007), 761-766.
[8] G. Marron, P. Verrier: Society of Automotive Engineers, Special
Publication SP-1439, (1999), 23-29.
[9] M. Urban, M. Krahn, G. Hirt, R. Kopp: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 177 (2007), 360-363.
[10] C.J. Tan, K. Mori, Y. Abe: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 202-1-3 (2008), 443-449.
09.08.2010 14:37:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analysis of Forming Limit Diagrams of DP600 Steel at Various Deformation Speeds

Emrah Uysal, Fahrettin Ozturk
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nigde University, Nigde / Turkey, fahrettin@nigde.edu.tr
The forming limit diagrams (FLDs) of DP600 steel at various deformation speeds are experimentally investigated. Results show that forming limit diagram of the material at various deformation speeds is not significantly different. The left side of the FLD is most rate insensitive
than the right side of the FLD. The outcome of the research is used for finite element software to evaluate simulation results correctly.
Keywords: Forming limit diagram, FLD, DP600, Out of plane test
Introduction
Experimental
In recent years, the use of advanced high strength steels

in automotive industry has been increased remarkably.
From advanced high strength steels (AHSS), dual-phase
(DP) steels have gained a great attention due to a combination of high strength and good formability for automotive
industry. Dual phase steels which are low carbon steels
with soft ferrite and hard martensite islands dispersed in
the ferrite matrix are in turn responsible for high strength.
For the successful application of these materials, the formability limitations of the materials must be determined.
Forming limit diagram (FLD) of a material are commonly
used to evaluate materials workability and diagnosing
production problems in the forming processes. Recently it
has become popular in finite element simulation software
to evaluate the simulation. The FLD concept was first
introduced by Keeler and Backofen [1]. Keeler and Backofen developed the right side of the FLD (i.e., positive
minor strain), and Goodwin [2] extended the forming limit
diagram including negative minor strain side.
In literature there are several investigations about determining of the FLD of AHSS. Kim et al. [3] investigated
static forming limit curves (FLCs) and high-speed FLCs of
dual phase DP590 advanced high strength steel with the
aid of punch-stretch tests with arc-shaped and squareshaped specimens. They obtained that the high-speed FLC
of DP590 decreased in relation to the static FLC throughout the entire region. Although the advanced high strength
steels are generally insensitive to the strain rate, the highspeed FLC of DP590 decreases considerably in the study.
In another study, Ozturk and Lee [4] investigated FLD
with numerical models and finite element methods. They
also investigated the effects of mesh size and lubrication
conditions on FLD on simulations. They observed that
minimum element size should be bigger than the sheet
thickness. They also found that lubrication between punch
and sheet reduces the frictional forces, improves strain
distribution, and delays localized thinning. Additional
studies about modeling of the forming limit diagram of the
materials were carried out by several researchers [5-7].
In this study, the effect of deformation speed on FLD
was investigated for DP600 steel sheet. Out of plane formability test was used in this research.
DP 600 advanced high strength steel sheets with a thickness of 1.3 mm were studied. Tensile and FLD specimens
were prepared by laser cutting process. The uniaxial tensile specimens prepared according to ASTM 8E standard
(Figure 1). Tensile tests were performed on a Shimadzu
Autograph 100 kN testing machine. Deformation was
measured by a video type extensometer. Tensile tests were
performed at different deformation speeds as 5, 25, 125,
and 500 mm/min.
Figure 1. Geometry of tensile test specimen.
The out-of-plane test was performed to determine forming limit diagram [4]. At this test method, the specimens
are stretched by clamping between circular die rings, over
a hemispherical punch as seen in Figure 2. This technique
requires the use of different sample geometries in order to
change deformation type on the material [8,9]. The sample
geometries of out-of-plane test are given in Figure 3.
Figure 2. Out of plane test setup [4].
837
09.08.2010 14:37:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
Before measuring the grids, the grid initial size was defined in the software.
MTS model 866.02S Sheet Metal Formability Testing
System was used to deform the test samples. The test setup
is given in Figure 4. The tests were performed at different
deformation speeds 25, 100, 250, 500, 750, and 1000
mm/min respectively in order to determine the strain rate
sensitivity of the materials during forming operations.
Each sample was deformed until the fracture occurs. Then
the sample was taken out of the machine and strain measurement was made. The strain measurements were taken
from the opposite side from the fracture area of the specimen. ASAME (Automated Strain Analysis and Measurement Environment) target model was used for measure the
deformations on the specimens [10]. A sample measurement methodology of ASAME Target model is shown in
Figure 5.
Figure 4: MTS Sheet metal formability system.
Figure 5. ASAME Target model and user interface
Figure 3. Out of plane test sample geometries [4].
The test samples were prepared in the required direction

in the length of 200 mm for each of the following test
widths: 25 mm, 50 mm, 75 mm, 100 mm, 125 mm, 150
mm, 175 mm, and 200 mm. The samples, which are 25, 50,
75 and 100 mm widths, have hourglass shapes and give
deformation modes at the left side of the FLD. Rectangular and square shapes samples represent deformation mode
from plane strain to biaxial stretching. Before the forming
operation, grids were applied on the specimens. Grids
were applied by a serigraphy method. Square grid shape
was chosen and grid size is 2.5 mm x 2.5 mm and grid line
thickness is 0.5 mm. The software takes the references
target cube and measure grid size on the formed specimens.
838
Tensile Tests at Various Deformation Speeds. The tensile load and extension data were converted to true stress
and true strain data for prescribed test conditions. The true
stress vs. true strain diagrams were plotted in Figure 6.
The summary of mechanical properties is given in Table 1.
09.08.2010 14:37:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
800
DP600
600
700
500
True stress (MPa)
True stress (MPa)
600
500
400
300
5 mm/min
25 mm/min
125 mm/min
500 mm/min
200
100
400
300
200
100
5 - 500 mmmin
0,00
0,00
0,05
0,10
0,15
0,20
0,25
True strain (mm/mm)
Table 1. Summary of mechanical properties

UTS
YS
n
K
(MPa) (MPa)
(%)
(MPa)
684.27
335.59
0.239
0.20
907.82
25
664.66
339.87
0.228
0.19
908.54
125
664.57
358.06
0.222
0.19
930.69
500
709.36
402.98
0.196
0.15
945.68
0.0082
Figure 6 indicates that the material shows very complex

behavior. At 5 mm/min, the material is higher ultimate
stress than 25 and 125 mm/min. Normally, the ultimate
strength should be increased with increasing deformation
speed. Although some minor increase was seen at 500
mm/min, the hardenability is not found to be significant.
The ultimate tensile strength of the material was increased
from 684.27 to 709.36 MPa from 5 to 500 mm/min deformation speed change. Any increase was not observed at 25
and 125 mm/min. This behavior clarifies that the DP600
advanced high strength steels are not considerably rate
sensitive. The maximum yield stress was determined at
500 mm/min as a 402.98 MPa and minimum yield stress
was found to be 335.59 MPa at 5 mm/min. The total elongation was decreased from 0.239 to 0.196 from 5 to 500
mm/min deformation speed change. Strain hardening coefficient is decreased from 0.20 to 0.15 with increasing deformation speed. In order to understand the effect of deformation speed, the strain rate jump test was also performed to find strain rate sensitivity value m. The jump
test was conducted between 5 and 500 mm/min (see Figure 7). The m value was calculated from the following
equation:
m = (log 2 log 1 ) /(log 2 log 1 )
0,10
0,15
0,20
0,25
0,30
True strain (mm/mm)
Figure 6. Stress vs. true strain at various deformation speeds.

Deformation
speed
(mm/mm)
0,05
-1
Figure 7. Strain rate jump test for DP600.
Forming Limit Diagram at Various Deformation

Speeds. The test samples in Figure 3 were deformed and
strains were measured as described previously. For each
deformation speed, a FLD diagram was constructed. The
hourglass shape samples define the left side of the diagram; the right side of the FLD is constructed by the rectangular shape samples. Different strain paths were produced with square samples using different lubricants. The
final FLDs are shown in Figure 8. Tremendous amount of
effort have been spent for data analysis. Each test was
repeated at least three times. It is observed that the FLDs
of the DP600 are not quite different at different deformation speeds. The left side of the FLDs in which the deformation of the material is in uniaxial to plane strain region,
do not show significant difference with increasing deformation speed. The range of difference in the left side of
FLD is 1.74 in minor strain and 1.02 in major strain. However the right side of the FLDs in which the deformation
of the material is in plane strain to biaxial region, are quite
different. The range in right side of FLD is 3.38 in minor
strain and 1.32 in major strain. The maximum difference
with respect to various speeds at plane stain condition is
about 3%. Obviously the difference is thought as inconsiderable. It is very difficult to determine the trend based on
curves. In the figure, the FLD at the right side at 750
mm/min is lower than the FLD at right side at 1000
mm/min. Similar observations were also seen at the left
side. Although some decreases were clearly seen at 750
and 1000 mm/min, the amount is little.
(1)
where m was calculated as 0.0082.
839
09.08.2010 14:37:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
DP600 FLD
36
32
Major Strain (%)
28
24
20
16
25 mm/min
100 mm/min
250 mm/min
500 mm/min
750 mm/min
1000 mm/min
12
8
4
-16
-12
-8
-4
12
16
Minor Strain (%)
Figure 8. FLDs at various deformation speeds for DP600.
Figure 9 is also zoomed in to see the effect of deformation speed accurately. At the left side, the shape of the
curves are consistent each other. However, at the right side
the trend for each curve is quite different. The trend for
750 and 1000 mm/min looks similar but it is different than
the normal expectation. In low carbon steels, the curve for
1000 mm/min should be lower than the curve for 750
mm/min.
37
DP600 FLD
Major Strain (%)
36
35
34
33
32
31
30
29
25 mm/min
100 mm/min
250 mm/min
500 mm/min
750 mm/min
1000 mm/min
28
27
26
Conclusion
The forming limit diagrams of DP600 steel at various
deformation speeds were investigated. The out of plane
test techniques were used. The following conclusions are
obtained.
1. Strain hardening coefficient of the material is decreased
with increasing deformation speed.
2. Strain rate sensitivity of the material is not very considerable. It is calculated as 0.0082.
3. Forming limit diagram of the materials at different
speeds is not significantly different.
4. The left side of the FLD is more rate insensitive than the
right side of the FLD.
Acknowledgement
This work is supported by The Scientific and
Technological Research Council of Turkey (TBTAK).
Project Number: 109M032. Project Title: Investigation of
Effect of Deformation Speed for Dual Phase Steel.
TBTAK support is profoundly acknowledged.
References
[1] S.P. Keeler, W.A. Backofen: Trans. ASM, 56 (1963), 25-48.
[2] G.M. Goodwin: Society of Automotive Engineers, (1968), Paper
680093.
[3] S.B. Kim, H. Huh, H.H. Bok, M.B. Moon: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, (2009), 793-816.
[4] F. Ozturk, D. Lee: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 170
(2005), 247-253.
[5] W. Bleck, Z. Deng, K. Papamantellos, C. O. Gusek: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 83 (1998), 223-230.
[6] D. Banabic, S. Comsa, P. Jurco, G. Cosovici, L. Paraianu, D. Julean:
Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 157-158 (2004), 23-27.
[7] T.B. Stoughton, X. Zhu: International Journal of Plasticity, 20 (2004),
1463-1486.
[8] D.J. Lewison, D. Lee: Proc. Numisheet99, Besancon, (1999).
[9] P.E. Smith, D. Lee: Proc. International Body Engineering Conference
(IBEC98), Detroit, (1998).
[10] CamSys, Inc., The Automated Strain Analysis and Measurement
Environment (ASAME), Troy, (2000).
25
24
-15
-10
-5
10
15
Minor Strain (%)
Figure 9. FLDs at various deformation speeds for DP600 (zoomed

in).
840
09.08.2010 14:37:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
Prediction of Fracture for High Strength Steel Sheets under Stretch Bending
Tetsuo Naka1), Takanori Kurose1), Takeshi Uemori2), Ryutaro Hino3), Fusahito Yoshida3)
1)
Department of Maritime Technology, Yuge National College of Maritime Technology, Ehime / Japan, naka@ship.yuge.ac.jp; 2) Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Kinki University, Higashi-Hiroshima / Japan; 3) Department of Mechanical System Engineering, Hiroshima
University, Higashi-Hiroshima / Japan
Since high strength steel sheets have low ductility, fracture sometimes occurs in their press forming, especially at a die corner under stretch
bending. In the present work, the fracture limits of high strength steel sheets under stretch bending were investigated by performing threepoints stretch bending experiments with various punch-radii on six types of high strength steel sheets (590-1180MPa). From the experiment,
it was found that stronger the sheet lower the fracture limit measured by limit wall stretch, Lmax/L0 (Lmax: limit wall length of a sheet, L0: initial
wall length). It comes from a fact that the workhardening exponent (n-value) decreases with increasing the strength of the sheet. To predict
the fracture limits, a fracture criterion proposed by Yoshida et al., in which limit wall stretch is explicitly given as a function of non
dimensional bending radius, t0/R (t0: sheet thickness, R: bending radius) and materials n-value, was employed. The predicted limit wall
stretch, as well as the limit forming height, was in good agreement with the corresponding experimental results.
Keywords: Sheet metal forming, Stretch bending, High strength steel sheet, Fracture limit, Limit forming height
Introduction
In recent years the improvement of fuel efficiency by
reducing automobile body weight and the improvement of
crashworthiness are strongly required in the automotive
industries. To satisfy these demands, high tensile strength
steel sheets (hereafter HSS) are increasingly being used for
automobile structure. However, press forming of the HSSs
is not an easy task because they sometimes fracture
because of their lower ductility. Therefore it is very
important to predict fracture limit of the HSS accurately
by numerical simulation. Especially, the prediction of
stretch bend fracture, which is typically observed around
die corner of small radius (see an example shown in
Figure 1) is very important.
For the prediction of forming limits, the use of FLC is
very popular, however, it should be noted that FLC
approach cannot work well for stretch bending mode
fracture. To evaluate stretch bending limits, several types
of experiments were performed in the past, such as the
three-point bending [1-5], L-type stretch bending [6-8] and
stretch-drawing over a die-corner [9]. Among these, the
three-point bending test is the most popular.
As for theoretical predictions of stretch bending limits,
Hino-Yoshida [7] presented an analytical model assuming
that the fracture occurs when the stretching load reaches
its maximum value. Later, based on the same maximum
load criterion, Yoshida et al. [5] derived an explicit
Stretch bending fracture
Figure 1. Fracture of sheet under stretch bending.
formula for limit wall stretch, Lmax/L0 (Lmax: limit wall

length of a sheet, L0: initial wall length), as a function of
non-dimensional bending radius, t0/R (t0: sheet thickness,
R: bending radius) and materials work-hardening
exponent (n-value). They showed that the predicted
fracture limits in stretch bending on aluminum alloy sheets
were in good agreement with the corresponding
experimental results. However, the validity of this model
on HSSs, whose mechanical properties are very different
from those of aluminum sheets, has never been examined.
The aim of the present research is to obtain experimental
data of stretch bending limits on several HSSs with a wide
range of strength (590-1180 MPa in tensile strength), and
to verify Yoshida et al.s model [5] of stretch bending
limits. In this work, three-point stretch bending
experiments with various punch-radii were performed on
six types of HSS sheets (590-1180 MPa). Examining the
experimental data, the effects of mechanical properties of
materials in terms of their strength and workhardening
exponent, as well as stretch-bending conditions such as a
punch-radius and lubrication, on the fracture limit are
discussed. The accuracy of the analytical model is
evaluated by comparing the experimentally obtained
fracture limits with the analytical predictions.
Materials and Experimental Procedures
Material. Six types of dual phase (DP) HSSs were used
for the experiments. Three of them were 1mm-thick HSSs
made by A company (hereafter type A HSSs) whose
strength levels were 590, 780 and 980 MPa. The rest three
of them were 1.4mm-thick HSSs made by B company
(hereafter type B HSSs) whose strength levels were 780,
980 and 1180 MPa.
Mechanical properties of these HSSs are listed in Table
1. The n-value is the work-hardening exponent and the rvalue is the normal anisotropy parameter, i.e. the Lankford
value. The specimens for the stretch-bending tests were in
rectangular shape with length of 230 or 190 mm in the
rolling direction (RD) and a width of 50 mm in the
transverse direction (TD) as shown in Figure 2.
841
09.08.2010 14:37:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. Mechanical properties of the HSSs.
Type-Strength
Sheet thickness[mm]
n value
r value
Youngs modulus[GPa]
A-590 MPa
1.0
0.177
0.730
206
A-780 MPa
1.0
0.173
0.732
206
Figure 2. Stretch bending test specimen (in mm).
A-980 MPa
1.0
0.126
0.817
206
B-780 MPa
1.4
0.167
0.732
206
B-980 MPa
1.4
0.155
0.817
206
B-1180 MPa
1.4
0.110
0.830
206
Figure 5 shows the relationship between the limit

bending angle and the tensile strength for type A HSSs,
where Rp = 2, 4 and 8 mm and Dd=100 mm. Solid marks
show the results under the low-friction condition while
open marks show those under the high-friction condition.
The limit bending angle increases with increasing
tensile strength and decreasing Rp. This fact indicates that
the stretch bend fracture is more likely to occur when the
stronger sheet is bent at the smaller radius. The influence
of the friction condition on the stretch bend limit becomes
remarkable when the radius Rp becomes large. When Rp is
8mm, the limit bending angle under the high-friction
condition is much smaller than that under the low-friction
condition.
Rp=2mm
Rp=4mm
Rp=8mm
590MPa
590MPa
Figure 3. Schematic of stretch bending test.
Rp=2mm
Experimental Procedures. The schematic illustration

of the stretch bending test is shown in Figure 3. The
experiment was carried out with a three-point bending
apparatus installed in the Amsler-type (hydraulicallydriven) universal testing machine (200 kN in capacity).
The specimen was clamped on the die, and the punch was
pushed down until the stretch bend fracture took place.
The specimen shape was monitored with a CCD camera
and recorded with a video system during the test. The limit
bending angle , as well as the limit forming height hmax
and the limit wall length Lmax at the fracture, was measured
from the recorded image.
The die span Dd was chosen as 100mm and 60mm, and
the punch corner radius Rp was chosen as 2, 4 and 8 mm.
The punch speed was about 5 mmmin-1. The experiments
were carried out under two types of friction conditions, i.e.
the low-friction condition and the high-friction condition.
Under the low-friction condition, two pieces of teflon
sheet and grease were used for lubrication, while no
lubricant was used in the high-friction condition. In total
there were twelve experimental conditions for each sheet.
Rp=4mm
Figure 4 shows type A HSS specimens after the stretch

bend fracture, where Dd=100 mm. Almost all the
specimens fractured in stretch bending at the punch corner.
However, for 590 and 780 MPa specimens under the highfriction condition, they fractured in the straight wall part,
not in the bent part at the punch corner, when the radius Rp
is 8mm (see arrows in the figure).
842
780MPa
Rp=2mm
Rp=4mm
Rp=8mm
980MPa
980MPa
(a) High-friction condition
(b) Low-friction condition
Figure 4. Specimens fractured in stretch bending tests under (a)

high-friction condition and (b) low-friction condition (Dp=100 mm, A
type). Arrows show the fracture point in the straight wall part.
80
Limit bending angle ()
Rp=8mm
780MPa
75
70
R8
R4
R2
R8
R4
R2
}
}
Low-friction
High-friction
65
60
55
50
500
600
700
800
900 1000 1100
Sheet strength (MPa)
1200
Figure 5. Relation between sheet strength and limit bending angle

(Dp=100 mm, A type).
09.08.2010 14:37:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
1.25
1.20
Limit wall stretch L
max
/L
590MPa (n=0.177)
780MPa (n=0.173)
980MPa (n=0.126)
590MPa (n=0.177)
780MPa (n=0.173)
980MPa (n=0.126)
1.15
} Low-friction
} High-friction
Prediction of Fracture Limits
1.10
1.05
1.00
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Bending ratio t /R
0.5
0.6
Figure 6. Relation between bending ratio t0/R, n value and limit

wall stretch Lmax/L0 (Dp=100 mm, A type).
50
Yoshida et al. [5] performed a numerical simulation of

plane-strain uniform stretch bending, and determined the
fracture limits based on the maximum load condition.
From the calculated results, they proposed an explicit form
of a stretch-bend fracture criterion to determine hmax and
Lmax/L0 as follows:
L
max
L0
40
Limit forming height h
30
R a
20
590MPa (n=0.177)
780MPa (n=0.173)
980MPa (n=0.126)
590MPa (n=0.177)
780MPa (n=0.173)
980MPa (n=0.126)
10
0
e n 1 e n 1 e 0.4
n t 0 R
(1)
This equation gives Lmax/L0 as an explicit function of the

non-dimensional bending curvature t0/R and the n-value of
the material. Then using the following geometrical relation,
max
(mm)
subjected to the severe stretch bending, i.e. the stretch

bending where t0/R is large.
The same tendency was observed in the experimental
results of type B HSSs, which are not shown in this paper
because of the limiting pages of the paper.
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Bending ratio t /R
} Low-friction
} High-friction
0.5
0.6
Figure 7. Relation between bending ratio t0/R, n value and limit

forming height hmax (Dp=100 mm, A type).
The relation between the limit wall stretch Lmax/L0 (Lmax:

limit wall length of sheet, L0: initial wall length) and the
bending ratio t0/R (t0: initial sheet thickness, R = Rp+t0/2),
i.e. the non-dimensional bending curvature, for type A
HSSs is summarized in Figure 6. Here Dd is 100 mm,
solid marks show the results under the low-friction
condition, and open marks show those under the highfriction condition.
It is found that Lmax/L0 decreases with increasing t0/R and
decreasing n-value. It should be noted that Lmax/L0
becomes relatively high when t0/R is small under the highfriction condition. This is because sheet fractures in the
straight wall part, but not in the bent part under almost
uniaxial tension condition as shown in Figure 4(a).
Figure 7 shows relation between the limit forming
height hmax and t0/R for type A HSSs, where Dd is 100mm.
Here solid marks show the results under the low-friction
condition, and open marks show those under the highfriction condition, respectively. The limit forming height
hmax decreases with increasing t0/R and decreasing n value,
that is similar tendency to Lmax/L0. Results shown in
Figures 6 and 7 indicate that the stretch bend fracture is
more likely to occur when the low-workhardening sheet is
L 0 2 R a sin
L
2 cos
2
(2)
the limit forming height hmax is given by the equation:

2
L
L
hmax Ra - cos Ra 0 Rasin
(3)
Here, Ra=Rp+Rd+t0.
This fracture criterion for stretch bending is very
convenient for real process design of sheet metal forming.
If this explicit form of the criterion is combined with FE
forming simulation, the die-corner fracture will be easily
predicted.
The relations between Lmax/L0 and t0/R for type A and
type B HSSs are summarized in Figures 8 and 9,
respectively. Figures 10 and 11 show the relations
between hmax and t0/R for type A and type B HSSs,
respectively. Here, Dd is chosen as 100 mm. Solid marks
show the experimental results under the low-friction
condition, open marks show those under the high-friction
condition, and lines indicate the analytical results by the
Eq. (1) for (Lmax/L0) or the Eq. (3) for (hmax).
According to the Eqs. (1) and (3), both Lmax/L0 and hmax
decreases with increasing t0/R and decreasing n-value.
This is the same tendency with the experimental results.
Analytical predictions show fairly good agreement with
the corresponding experimental data under the low-friction
condition. However, when t0/R is small under the highfriction condition, the prediction gives a conservative
prediction, compared to the experimental result. Therefore,
it should be noted that the friction effect at the punch
corner should be considered in the prediction of the
fracture limit for a case of large bending radius.
843
09.08.2010 14:37:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
1.15
n=0.177
n=0.173
1.10
n=0.126
1.05
max
}
}
/L
Limit wall stretch L
max
1.20
590MPa (n=0.177)
780MPa (n=0.173) Low-friction
980MPa (n=0.126)
590MPa (n=0.177)
780MPa (n=0.173) High-friction
980MPa (n=0.126)
(mm)
50
1.25
40
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Bending ratio t /R
0.5
0.6
n=0.167
n=0.155
30
20
10
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Bending ratio t /R
780MPa (n=0.167)
980MPa (n=0.155)
1180MPa (n=0.110)
780MPa (n=0.167)
980MPa (n=0.155)
1180MPa (n=0.110)
Limit wall stretch Lmax/L0
1.20
1.15
}Low-friction
}High-friction
n=0.167
n=0.155
1.10
n=0.110
1.05
1.00
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Bending ratio t0/R
0.5
0.6
Figure 9. Comparison of limit wall stretch Lmax/L0 between

experiment and analytical prediction (Dp=100 mm, B type).
40
max
(mm)
50
0.6
Figure 11. Comparison of limit forming height hmax between

experiment and analytical prediction (Dp=100mm, B type).
Concluding Remarks
1.25
n=0.177
n=0.173
n=0.126
30
590MPa (n=0.177)
780MPa (n=0.173)
980MPa (n=0.126)
590MPa (n=0.177)
780MPa (n=0.173)
980MPa (n=0.126)
} Low-friction
} High-friction
Fracture limits on several strength levels of HSSs under

stretch bending were examined. Furthermore, the criterion
for stretch bending limits was discussed. The present
findings are summarized as follows:
1. The limit bending angle increases with increasing
sheet strength and decreasing bending radius R. In
addition, both the limit wall stretch Lmax/L0 and the
limit forming height hmax decrease with decreasing
bending radius and decreasing materials workhardening exponent (n-value).
2. Fracture under stretch bending is more likely to occur
in a higher strength sheet, since for HSSs n-value
decreases as the tensile strength increases.
3. The analytical predictions of fracture limits (i.e. the
limit wall stretch or the limit forming height) by
Yoshida et al.s model show in good agreement with
most of the experimental results. Thus it is concluded
that the prediction of stretch bending limits of HSSs is
possible by using this model.
4. For a case of large bending radius, it should be noted
that the friction effect at the punch corner should be
considered in predicting the fracture limit, otherwise
the model would give a conservative prediction.
References
20
10
0
0.5
Figure 8. Comparison of limit wall stretch Lmax/L0 between

experiment and analytical prediction (Dp=100 mm, A type).
}Low-friction
}High-friction
n=0.110
1.00
0
780MPa (n=0.167)
980MPa (n=0.155)
1180MPa (n=0.110)
780MPa (n=0.167)
980MPa (n=0.155)
1180MPa (n=0.110)
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Bending ratio t /R
0.5
0.6
Figure 10. Comparison of limit forming height hmax between

experiment and analytical prediction (Dp=100 mm, A type).
844
[1] D.K. Uko, R. Sowerby, J.L. Duncan: Canadian Mining and

Metallurgical Bulletin, 70 (1977), 127-134.
[2] M.Y. Demeri: Journal of Applied Metalworking, 2 (1981), 3-10.
[3] J.M. Story, G.W.G.W. Jarvis, H.R. Zonker, S.J. Murtha: SAE
technical paper 930277 (1993)
[4] M.R. Tharrett, T.B. Stoughton: SAE technical paper 2003-01-1157
(2003)
[5] M. Yoshida, F. Yoshida, H. Konishi, K. Fukumoto: International
Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 47 (2005), 1885-1896.
[6] J.L. Duncan, J.E. Bird: Sheet Metal Industries, (1978), 1015-1025.
[7] R. Hino, F. Yoshida: Transactions of Japan Society of Mechanical
Engineers, 61 (1995), 2560-2565 (in Japanese).
[8] T. Naka, R. Hino, F. Yoshida: Key Engineering Materials, 233-236
(2003), 113-118.
[9] F. F. Danborg: Proc. the 19th Riso International Symposium on
Material Science, (1998), 235-240.
09.08.2010 14:37:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Reduction of Springback by Bottoming and Ironing on High Strength Steel Sheet

Takayuki Ogawa1), Atsushi Hirahara2), Fusahito Yoshida2)
1)
Industry Solution Department, ESI Japan, Ltd., Tokyo / Japan, Takayuki.Ogawa@esi-group.com;

Engineering, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima / Japan
2)
Department of Mechanical System
The roles of bottoming and ironing for reducing springback were investigated from the 3D sheet metal forming simulation and the corresponding experiment. In a V-air-bending experiment on a high strength steel sheet of TS590 MPa, it was found that the springback drastically decreases with increasing the bottoming force. The corresponding 3D FE simulation reveals that this is mainly due to the reduction of
bending moment by compressive load acting normally to the sheet. At an early stage of bottoming, the springback is also influenced by the
change of geometrical rigidity of the bent sheet due to the straightening of ridge line warp. Since bottoming is a process of reverse deformation of tension-compression, the Bauschinger effect of materials should be taken into account for its accurate numerical simulation. 3D FE
simulation using the Yoshida-Uemori kinematic hardening model predicts well the bottoming effect. Furthermore, from the FE simulation of
the draw bending and the subsequent ironing re-strike, it was found that ironing play an important role for reducing the springback.
Keywords: Springback, bottoming, ironing, FE simulation, Yoshida-Uemori kinematic hardening model
In press forming of high strength steel sheet, a serious

problem is poor dimensional quality of products due to
their large springback after stamping. One of effective
method to reduce springback is to apply compressive load
acting normally to the sheet. In the press shop, bottoming
and ironing are well-known techniques to reduce springback. However, the details of discussion focusing on the
reduction of springback by these processes are lacking.
In the present work, the roles of bottoming and ironing
for reducing springback were investigated based on the 3D
FE forming simulation. Specifically for bottoming, an
experiment of V-air-bending was also conducted. In the
discussion, a special emphasize is placed on the 3D deformation pattern during the bottoming and ironing, which
have never been examined before, although 2D FE simulation of bottoming on V-shaped die bending was previously
reported by Ogawa et al. [1] and Mori et al. [2]. In the
simulation two types of material models were employed,
i.e., one is a classical model of the isotropic hardening (IH
model) and the other is an advanced kinematic hardening
model proposed by Yoshida-Uemori (the Y-U model [3-5]).
Comparing the springback predictions by these two models, the influence of the Bauschinger effect on springback
behavior is discussed.
Experiment of V-Air Bending and Bottoming
Bottoming Effects. As an example, a V-air-bending experiment followed by bottoming was performed, as illustrated in Figure 1. A flat rectangular blank sheet was
formed into V shape by an upper punch, and afterwards a
bottoming punch load was applied. To examine the effect
of bottoming load on the reduction of springback, the bent
angles of the tested sheets after springback, for several
levels of punch loads, were measured. For the experiment,
TS590 MPa high strength steel sheet (590 HSS) of 1.2 mm
in thickness was employed. Figure 2 shows the experimental result of the V-bent angle of the sheet after springback as a function of applied bottoming loads. From this
figure, it is found that the V-bent angle becomes smaller as
the bottoming load increases. This is a typical phenomenon observed in V bending when a bottoming load is applied. It should be noted that the tensile stress component
in plane direction decreases when bottoming force is applied on the sheet normal direction [1,2]
20mm
45
20mm
[Size of Initial Blank sheet]
L200W20t1.2
R=2
40mm
Figure 1. V-air bending experiment set up.

94
V Angle (degree)
Introduction
93
92
91
90
89
0
4
6
Final Punch Load (KN)
10
Figure 2. Effect of bottoming on V-bent angle after springback.
3D FE Simulation
Material Models. It is well-known that the re-yielding
is likely to occur during springback, specifically in HSSs,
due to the Bauschinger effect. To describe the Bauschinger
effect, the Y-U model [3-5] was employed in 3D FE simulation, besides a classical IH model.
Y-U model is constructed in the framework of the twosurface modeling, where the yield surface moves within
the boundary surface. The subsequent yield function and
boundary surface are expressed by following equations.
(1)
f = ( ) Y = 0 ,
845
09.08.2010 14:37:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
(2)
F = ( ) (B + R ) = 0 ,
where is an anisotropic yield function, is backstress,
is the center of the bounding surface and B and R are
its initial size and isotropic hardening component.
The relative kinematic motion of the yield surface with
respect to the bounding surface and its evolution are:
(3)
* = ,
stress R and m controls the rate of isotropic hardening.

The kinematic hardening law of the bounding surface is:
(7)
' = m bsat D p ' ,
3
where ' and ' are the deviatoric component of and

its velocity. bsat is a material parameter.
The workhardening stagnation at a reverse deformation

is modeled by the pause of isotropic hardening of the
bounding surface (for the details, refer to [3,4]).
The stress-strain curve during unloading after plastic deformation is slightly curved due to early re-yielding and
Bauschinger effect. To describe this, a model of plasticstrain dependent Youngs modulus [5] is presented as
(8)
E = Eo ( Eo Ea ) [1 exp( p ) ] ,
where Eo and Ea stand for Youngs modulus at initial and

infinitely large pre-strain. is a material constant.
A set of material parameters for the HSS were identified using the material test results of uni-axial tension and
cyclic straining (see Table 1 and Figure 3). As shown in
Figure 3, Y-U model well captures deformation behaviors
of not only uni-axial tension but also cyclic stress-strain
responses characterized by the Bauschinger effect and
cyclic hardening, as well as the workhardening stagnation.
Table 1. Material parameters of Y-U model for TS980HSS.
(GPa)
Y
C1
C2
B
Rsat
bsat
0.33
220
180
0.53
0.15
0.16
m
E0
Ea
6.9
0.8
206
158
226
Implementation of Yoshida-Uemori Model into FE

Code. Y-U model was implemented into a 3D FE code
PAM-STAMP2G V2008 using its user subroutine. The
material subroutine is coupled with 8-nodes elastic-plastic
solid element under uniform (one) integration scheme with
hourglass control.
Figure 3. Stress-strain responses of uni-axial tension and cyclic

straining of 590HSS (experimental and simulation results).
When using the von Mises type yield function, Eq. (2)
yields
3
(9)
f = (S ) : (S ) Y 2 = 0 ,
2
Based on the radial return method, the plastic strain increment p is calculated by solving the following equations:
3 try ~
( S p ) : (try S~ p ) Y 2 = 0 ,
2
~
try ~
S = S + 2G , = 2Gnp + A ,
~
S = S ,
a 3 a * : S~ ~
b ~
S + m S ,
A = C
2
Y
Y 2 * Y
(10a)
(10b)
(10c)
(10d)
where S denotes stress deviator, G is the shear modulus

of elasticity and is the total strain increment which is
calculated in the main routine of PAM-STAMP2G by the
dynamic explicit scheme.
FE Simulation of Bottoming
FE Model. Considering a geometrical symmetry
condition, the 1/4 model was used for a blank sheet.
Springback was calculated by removing a punch and
making the blank sheet free from constraint. As shown in
Figure 4, when the sheet contacts the die, the punch load
starts to increase drastically. The effect of bottoming loads
on springback was examined by calculating cases at several bottoming loads, from 0.5 to 10.0 kN.
Final punch load (KN)
10.0
10.0
9.0
Punch
(KN)
Final
Punch Load
Load (KN)
a
a ,
(4)
* = C ( )
*
(5)
a = B + R Y = a0 + R ,
where is the effective plastic strain rate. Parameter C ,

which takes different value at initial and subsequent yielding, controls the rate of the kinematic hardening.
The evolution of the boundary surface is assumed as the
isotropic hardening, as
(6)
R = m(Rsat R ) ,
where Rsat is the saturated value of the isotropic hardening
4.0
~
~
~~
~~
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
1.0
0.0
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
Punch
Displacement
(mm)
Punch
Displacement (mm)
20.0
Figure 4. Punch load vs. displacement (FEM simulation).
846
09.08.2010 14:37:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
As an example of FE simulation, Figure 5 shows the
shapes of the bent sheets after springback at 0.5 KN and
10.0KN of final punch loads. From this, we can see that
bottoming operation reduces springback significantly.
Punch load = 10.0KN
Punch load = 0.5KN

Figure 5. Reduction of springback by bottoming (FE simulation by
Y-U model).
Discussion
Bauschinger Effect during Bottoming. The V-bent angles of the sheets after springback for several bottoming
loads, calculated by the Y-U model and IH model, are
shown in the Figure 6 together with the experimental
results. The reduction of springback by bottoming is
mainly due to the decrease of bending moment with
increasing sheet normal stress induced by a punch load.
the decrease of bending moment is a main feature of the

bottoming effect. In addition, especially at the early stage
of bottoming, springback is also influenced by the change
of geometrical rigidity of the bent sheet due to the
straightening of ridge line warp.
It should be noted that even at a small bottoming load
(e.g. 1.0 kN), the stress at the outer bent surface changes
from tension to compression, as shown in Figure 8. Hence
bottoming is a process of reverse deformation of tensioncompression, where the Bauschinger effect would appear.
Since the IH model can not take the Bauschinger effect
into account, the re-yielding in the springback process is
more unlikely to occur in IH simulation compared to the
experiment. Thus the bottoming effect predicted by the IH
model is weaker than the reality. In contrast, the Y-U
model, which takes Bauschinger effect and the plastic
strain dependency of Youngs modulus into account,
simulates the bottoming effect well, especially at a small
bottoming load.
Y-U model
xx
V-Bent Angle (degree)
94
V-Bent Angle
93
92
0.5KN
1.0KN
2.0KN
IH model
91
EXP
90
YU
IH
89
88
0
4
6
Final Punch Load (KN)
10
Figure 6. Decrease of V-bent angle due to bottoming effect.
Although both the models can reproduce bottoming

effect, the sensitivity of bottoming loads to the reduction
of springback is not the same. The experimental data
shows that the V-bent angle decreases drastically with
increasing bottoming load, especially when the punch load
is comparatively small. The Y-U model captures this
phenomenon well, but IH model underestimates the
bottoming effect there.
One of the characteristics of 3D deformation of the bent
sheet is ridge line warp. Figure 7 shows the deformations
of the sheet just under the punch for several levels of
punch loads. From this, it is seen that the warp is
straighten as increasing bottoming load. Before bottoming
(at 0.5 KN in this experiment), the sheet contacts the die
only partially at its both sides, and the clearance between
the punch and the die there is still larger than the thickness
of the sheet. At this stage, tensile stress appears at overall
outer surface of the bent sheet. During bottoming, first the
warped region of both sides of the sheet is deformed by
the punch under a comparatively small load, and then
whole bent line is being compressed between the punch
and the die as the load increases. As already mentioned,
0.5KN
1.0KN
2.0KN
Figure 7. Deformation of sheet by bottoming at several punch

loads.
[ Punch Load = 0.5KN]
-0.2~0.0GPa
[Punch Load = 1.0KN]

-0.2~0.0GPa
0.4~0.6GPa
0.6~0.8GPa 0.2~0.4GPa
0.6~0.8GPa

0.0~0.2GPa
-0.2~0.0GPa
-0.8~-0.6GPa
0.2~0.4GPa
-0.8~-0.6GPa
0.6~0.8GPa
0.2~0.4GPa
0.4~0.6GPa
Figure 8. Change of stress xx distribution due to bottoming.
847
09.08.2010 14:37:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
FE Simulation of Ironing
Bauschinger Effect during Ironing. In order to see the
Bauschinger effect during ironing, 3D FE simulation of
hat-shaped draw bending and the subsequent re-strike
including ironing was conducted. The model used for
simulation is illustrated in Figure 9. The dimensions of
upper tool used in re-strike are the same as the one in
forming, but clearance between upper and lower tool is
0.05mm smaller than the one in forming in order to perform ironing.
Forming
Re-Strike
After Re-strike
(Ironing)
Figure 11. Panel shapes after forming and after ironing re-strike
(both are shapes after springback).
0.6~GPa
70mm
70mm
R=10
R=10
After Forming
R=10
St=50mm
0.2~0.4GPa
0.0~0.2GPa
St=50mm
-0.2~0.0GPa
-0.2~0.0GPa
Blank Sheet
- Material parameter : Table 1
- L=95w=2t=1.2 (mm)
- Plane strain & Symmetry
Figure 9.
model.
-0.8~-0.6GPa
0.0~0.2GPa
R=10
Forming process and dimensions of draw bending
Figure 10 shows the comparison of the panel shape,

after springback, calculated by the Y-U model with one by
IH model. The result by the Y-U model shows much larger
springback than that predicted by IH model. In draw
bending, a sheet is subjected to stretch bending and unbending when it is drawn over a die corner, which is a
process of tension-compression reverse deformation where
the Bauschinger effect appears. As shown in Figure 3, the
Y-U model can describe the stress-strain responses of the
Bauschinger effect accurately, but IH model does not take
into account it. That is why the panel shapes after
springback calculated by these two models are so different.
Figure 11 shows the simulation results showing how
ironing re-strike reduces springback. Figure 12 shows the
history of stress xx in the panel, where it changes from
tension to compression during draw bending, and it once
again changes to tension during ironing re-strike. This fact
suggests that the Bauschinger effect should be taken into
account for numerical simulation when ironing is included
in stamping process.
-0.6~-0.4GPa
Form
Re-strike
(After Springback) (before Springback)
Figure 12. Change of stress
-0.2~0.0GPa
Re-strike
(After Springback)
xx distribution due to ironing.
Concluding Remarks
The effects of bottoming and ironing on the reduction of
springback were investigated based on the 3D FE
simulation. The present findings are summarized as
1. The bottoming effect is mainly caused by the reduction
follows:
of bending moment by compressive load acting
normally to the sheet. In the case of V bending, at early
stage of bottoming, springback is also influenced by the
change of geometrical rigidity of the bent sheet due to
the straightening of ridge line warp.
2. During bottoming a reverse deformation of tensioncompression is included. Ironing is also a process of
cyclic tension-compression deformation. Therefore, for
the accurate FE simulation of springback in these
forming processes, the Bauschinger effect should be
taken into account by using an advanced kinematic
hardening model such as Y-U model.
References
Y-U model
IH model
(a) Y-U vs. IH at Forming
[1] H. Ogawa, H. et al.: J. of JSTP, 39-445 (1998), 121-125, (in Japanese).

[2] K. Mori, K. Akita, Y. Abe: Int. J. Machine Tools & Manufacturing, 47
(2007), 321-325.
[3] F. Yoshida, T. Uemori: Int. J. of Mechanical Sciences, 45 (2003),
1687-1702.
[4] F. Yoshida,T. Uemori: Int. J. Plasticity, 18 (2002), 661-686.
[5] F. Yoshida, T. Uemori, K. Fujiwara: Int. J. Plasticity, 18 (2002), 633660.
Figure 10. Panel shapes after springback calculated by Y-U

model and IH model.
848
09.08.2010 14:37:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Coating Microstructure of Press-Working Dies on Sliding Damage

Kaoru Inoue1), Masahiro Suzuki1), Souichiro Nishino1), Kunio Ohya2), Yo Tomota1)
1)
Institute of Applied Beam Science, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ibaraki University, Ibaraki / Japan;
Heritage School, Tochogi / Japan
2)
Ohya Technology
An existing problem with the use of high-tensile-strength steel sheets in automobile bodies is that they cause sliding damage to a press
working die. The die is coated to solve this problem. In this study, a sliding test was conducted on a VC coating treated by a thermoreactive deposition and diffusion (TRD) process and a TiC coating treated by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process under conditions
of actual press working. The test revealed that sliding damage appeared not in the form of a fracture of the coating itself but in the form of
adhesion of zinc coatings on the surface of a processed material. The amount of zinc adhered to the TiC-CVD coating was greater than that
adhered to the VC-TRD coating. Coating damage on the surface of the die causes deformation of a formed part, a reduction in the thickness of the form and other defects. The microstructure of the VC coating exhibited fine granularity. On the other hand, the surface of the
TiC coating was smooth and did not have crystal grains. There was a clear difference between the microstructures of the two coatings.
Keywords: Press working, Die galling, Coating, Slide damage, TRD, CVD, X-ray Diffraction Technique, Plated sheet steel, Adhesion,
Cross-section observation
Introduction
The tensile strength of steel sheets used in automobile
bodies is being rapidly increased in order to simultaneously reduce the weight of the body and ensure crash
safety. Therefore, a large load is applied to a die during
press working, and this might damage the die. Defects
caused by sliding loads, such as burn-up and galling, are
generated in areas of the die where a high contact stress is
generated, such as areas of excessive thickness and areas
subjected to wiping. In order to eliminate these defects, the
die is subjected to various types of coating processing [16].
There are various types of die coatings whose composition, treatment temperature, and applications vary across
different manufacturers. A user-based criterion for the
selection of coatings is required; however, there are no
reports on uniform and systematic evaluation of coatings
because their durability varies with die shapes and processing conditions.
From this standpoint, classifying damage processes for
die coatings into those induced by high contact stress and
those induced by sliding loads, we fabricated test dies that
reproduce individual processes, and we evaluated various
coating types. We demonstrated that deposition methods
(CVD, TD, PVD, etc.) and coating strength characteristics
(plastic deformation) had a strong influence on damage
caused by contact stress. For this purpose, we designed a
test die that reproduced the sliding damage presented in
the previous report and installed the die in an actual press
machine for testing.
This report focuses on a VC coating treated by a thermoreactive deposition and diffusion (TRD) process (hereafter,
this coating is referred to as a VC-TRD coating) and a TiC
coating treated by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
process (hereafter, this coating is referred to as a TiC-CVD
coating). Using the test model developed in the previous
study, we developed a sliding test for press die coatings
and closely observed the progress of surface damage to the
die induced by sliding loads. Furthermore, the microstruc-
tures of sections of the coatings were observed to examine

the relation between these structures and sliding damage.
Test Specimen and Method
Test Die and Coating. Figure 1(a) shows a test die that
reproduces sliding damage; this die is installed in the die is
press machine. A coated test specimen is inserted in the die,
and thus, various coatings are subjected to a sliding test by
replacing the test piece. The specimen used for this test
has the same shape as the specimen used in the previous
study. After the piece is placed on the die, a steel sheet to
be processed is placed on the die to start press working, as
show in Figure 1(b). The test specimen inserted into the
die experiences a sliding load.
SKD11, which is widely utilized as a material for press
dies, was used as a base metal. The hardness of the base
metal in different coated materials was controlled by heat
treatment (conditioning treatment) so that the hardness of
their base metal becomes HFC = 58-62, in terms of Rockwell hardness. The materials that were buffed twice before
and after being coated were smooth. The mechanical properties of coatings that were subject to this sliding test are
listed in Table 1. Their thickness and elastic modulus are
the same as those of TiC-CVD, but their hardness is less
than that of TiC-CVD.
Punch
Coated specimen
Sheet setting
Die
(b) Placement of material

(a) Installation of
to be processed
coated test piece
Figure 1. Test die and coated test specimen.
849
09.08.2010 14:37:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
observed, and its roughness was measured. In addition,
elemental analysis of the test piece was carried out using a
micro X-ray fluorescence element analyzer. Through these
analyses, the sliding damage to the coatings was evaluated.
The cross-sections of the coatings were polished to a mirror-smooth state by using a focused ion beam (FIB) in
order to observe their microstructures in detail.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of coatings.

Base Metal
SKD11
CVD
TRD
Coating
TiC
VC
Thickness(m)
8.6
Method
7.8
Surface Roughness(Ra)
0.120
0.087
Elastic Modulus(GPa)
357
347
3071
2071
Coating Hardness(Hv)
Test Results and Discussions
Table 2. Types of materials to be processed and sliding frequency.

Blank sheet
Cycles of sliding
Thickness(mm) Galvanizing
1180MPa
10
1.6
590MPa
10
1.6
980MPa
65
1.2
980MPa
30
1.2
Total cycles of sliding
115
Press worked by TiC coated die
60 cycles : 67mm
80 cycles : 65mm
115 cycles : 62mm
Press worked by VC coated die
60 cycles : 67mm
80 cycles : 67mm
115 cycles : 67mm
Figure 2. Shape of molded form.
Sliding Experiment and Damage Evaluation Method.

The test die was installed in a 110-ton press machine to
conduct a sliding test. The dimensions of the material
samples to be processed were 100 mm 95 mm (length
width). Four types of high-tensile-strength steel sheets
(590 MPa-class, 980 MPa-class with galvanizing, 980
MPa-class without galvanizing, and 1180MP-class) were
used for the materials. All the sheets had a thickness of 1.2
mm. The frequencies of sliding in the different steel sheets
(number of press processing) are listed in Table 2. The
clearance between the punch and die (test piece) was set at
1.0 mm, while the wiping quantity of 0.2 mm was set in
accordance with the thickness of the materials (1.2 mm).
In a sliding test, as shown in Figure 1(b), the material to be
processed is placed on the die; then, it descends under the
die when the material is molded and reaches the center of
the bottom surface when it descends by the action of the
punch. Thus, high contact stress and a sliding load are
simultaneously exerted on the coating.
The shape and thickness of the molded form (material to
be processed) were determined after the sliding test. Next,
under a scanning electron microscope (SEM), the surface
of the test piece that was subjected to the sliding load was
850
Deformation of Molded form. Figure 2 shows an end

shape of the molded form. For both TiC-CVD and VCTRD coatings, the opening of the end of the molded form
that was subjected to press processing 60 times (the number of sliding loads) was 67 mm; on the other hand, for the
TiC-CVD coating, the opening of the end of the form
subjected to press processing 80 and 115 times was 62 and
65 mm, respectively. For the VC-TRD coating, the opening of the end of the form subjected to press processing 60,
80, and 115 times was 67 mm, and the end shape did not
vary.
Figure 3 shows a side view of the molded form that was
processed 115 times. An end of the molded form press
processed by using the TiC-CVD coating test piece was
extended by a sliding load. On the other hand, no extension of an end was observed in the case of the form processed by using the VC-TRD coating. The thickness of a
section of the central molded form was measured. Measurement points were fixed at intervals of 2.5 mm from the
top of the central form to measure the thickness of the
form.
Figure 4 shows the results of the measurement. The
thickness of the material sample to be processed was 1.2
mm; thus, it is concluded that the thickness of the entire
molded form was reduced for both the TiC-CVD and VCTRD coatings. In particular, the thickness of the end that
was directly subjected to a sliding load was significantly
reduced. The reduction for the VC-TRD coating was
smaller than that for the TiC-CVD coating. The above
result demonstrates that as a die coating for a sliding section, the VC-TRD coating could maintain a more stable
shape than the TiC-CVD coating, even if the frequency of
press processing was increased. Deformation of such a
molded form is considered to be caused by the coating
damage to the surface of the sliding test piece. Hence, the
levels of surface damage to the coatings were observed in
detail and are reported in the next section.
By TiC coated die
By VC coated die
Figure 3. Side view of molded form.
09.08.2010 14:37:37 Uhr
1.3
TRD 60cycles
1.2
TRD 80cycles
TRD 105cycles
1.1
TiC 60cycles
TiC 80cycles
1.0
TiC 105cycles
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
30
35
40
45
50
55
Distance from top point of formed specimen (mm)
Figure 4. Distribution of thicknesses of molded form and middle

section.
TiC
VC
before press working

(no damage)
1180MPa 10 cycles
590MPa 10 cycles
980MPa 35 cycles
980MPa
30 cycles
980MPa Zinc coat
30 cycles
Figure 5. Level of coating damage.
Upper
Middle
Lower
Upper
Middle
Lower
Ra(m
0.372
0.393
0.346
Ra(m
0.239
0.081
0.079
R(m
3.385
3.576
3.403
R(m
1.476
0.676
0.716
R(m
1.355
2.389
1.257
R(m
0.460
0.298
0.238
(a) TiC-CVD
(b) VC-TRD
Figure 6. Surface roughness of test piece.
50m
(a) TiC-CVD
50m
(b) VC-TRD
Figure 7. Adhesion on surface of test piece.
Observation of Damaged Coating Surfaces. The status

of the surfaces of the TiC-CVD and VC-TRD coatings
after sliding loads were applied was visually inspected.
The results are shown in Figure 5. The levels of damage
to both the TiC-CVD and VC-TRD coatings were not
observed when the number of sliding loads was 20. When
the number of sliding loads was 55, there was a difference
between the levels of damage to the two coatings. The
entire surface of the TiC-CVD coating was damaged but
that of the VC-TRD was locally damaged, namely, near its
center R point. When the number of sliding loads was 115,
the entire surface of the TiC-CVD coating was damaged.
For this number of sliding loads, the local damage to the
VC-TRD coating extended to the entire surface, but the
damage to the VC-TRD-coated surface was smaller than
that to the TiC-CVD. We obtained an interesting result: the
hardness of the TiC-CVD was higher than that of the VCTRD but the damage caused by sliding loads to the former
was greater than that to the latter.
In order to quantitatively evaluate the level of surface
damage to the coatings in a sliding test, their surface
roughness was measured. Figure 6 shows the results of
surface roughness measurements on the upper, middle, and
lower sections of the test specimen in areas of the TiCCVD and VC-TRD coatings under the influence of a sliding force. The surface roughness before the sliding test
was Ra = 0.08 - 0.1, indicating the roughness of all points
on both the coatings. The roughness of the TiC-CVD was
higher than that of the VC-TRD. The development of
surface damage in the case of the TiC-CVD was predicted.
For this purpose, the surface damage in the case of the
TiC-CVD and VC-TRD coatings was observed in detail by
SEM.
Figure 7(a) shows the surface and damaged area of the
TiC-CVD coating. Cracking and stripping of the coating
were not observed, but adhesives were observed on the
surface of the TiC-CVD. On the other hand, the surface of
the VC-TRD coating shown in Figure 7(b) had fewer
adhesives than that of the TiC-CVD.
Elementary Analysis of Adhesive. Elements of adhesives on the surfaces of die coatings that were subjected to
sliding loads were analyzed by using a micro X-ray fluorescence element analyzer. First, qualitative analysis of the
substances was carried out. The results indicated that the
elements were zinc. Since An alloying hot dip galvanized
980MPa-class high-tensile-strength steel sheet was used as
the material to be processed, it is concluded that zinc present on the surface of the sheet adhered to the coating on
the die surface because of sliding loads during processing.
Next, elementary analysis was carried out at three points:
the damaged area (section A), the boundary between the
damaged and undamaged areas (section B), and the undamaged area (C section) of individual test pieces. The
results are shown in Figure 8. Ti, Zn, and Fe were identified on the TiC-CVD coating, while V, Zn, and Fe were
identified on the VC-TRD coating. The values in the figure represent the mass concentration values for the case in
which 100% mass corresponds to the total mass of the
three elements, rather than absolute mass concentration
values. The mass concentration of titanium on section A of
the TiC-CVD coating was lower than that on section C. A
851
09.08.2010 14:37:39 Uhr
Thickness of formed specimen (mm)
Thickness of formed specimen (mm)
Metal Forming
Metal Forming
larger amount of zinc was not detected on section A, as
well as on section C. On the other hand, the mass concentration of vanadium on section A of the VC-TRD was
almost the same as that on section C; zinc was detected
only on section A. The TiC-CVD coating had a larger
amount of zinc than the VC-TRD coating. This demonstrates that zinc on the surface of the material to be processed adhered more easily to the TiC-CVD coating than to
the VC-TRD coating.
Observation of Coating Section. When observing
coating sections, it was difficult to generate a flaw or chip
on the coatings and develop microstructures by mechanical polishing. Therefore, mirror processing was carried out
using an FIB unit. Sections of test pieces were polished to
a mirror-smooth state and then observed by SEM. Figure
9 shows the results. The figure indicates the difference
between the microstructures of the coatings. The surface
of a section of the TiC-CVD coating was smooth and had
no crystal grains. Striped fine particles were observed
directly above the boundary surface. Elementary analysis
indicates that the particles were particles of an intermetallic compound of C-N-Fe. On the other hand, the surface of
the VC-TRD coating exhibited a fine granular structure
and had many black spots. The results of elementary
analysis of the black spots show that the black spots were
not voids but VC. If the granules are granules in the VCTRD coating, the coating may have a large deformation
capacity and great resistance to sliding loads.
Figure 10 shows the results of observation of coating
sections after sliding 115 times. The figure shows a photograph of the heavily damaged section; cracking or stripping of the coating was not observed. Adhesives were
found directly above the TiC-CVD coating and elementary
analysis indicates that they were zinc adhesives. To determine a relationship between the coating microstructures
and adhesives is a challenge for the future.
The above results indicate that damage to adherent and
hot CVD and TRD coatings caused by sliding loads appears in the form of adhesion of a zinc plating on the surface of the material to be processed, rather than in the
form of fracture of the coatings. A larger amount of zinc
adhered to the TiC-CVD coating than to the VC-TRD.
Damage (adhesion) to coatings on the surface of a die
causes deformation of a molded form, reduction in its
thickness, and other defects.
essed. A larger amount of zinc adhered to the TiC-CVD

coating than to the VC-TRD coating.
2. The shape of the molded form produced by the VCTRD coating die was stable. On the other hand, a deformation, reduction in thickness, and other defects
were observed in the shape of the molded form produced by the TiC-CVD coating die with severe adhesion. The damage to the die coating results in an unstable shape of the molded form.
3. The VC-TRD had a granular microstructure. On the
other hand, the surface of the TiC-CVD coating was
smooth and had no crystal grains. An intermetallic compound of C-N-Fe was distributed in a stripe-shaped region directly above the boundary surface.
References
[1] Y. Tanno, A. Azushima: Wear, 266 (2009), 1178-1184.
[2] H. Kim,S. Han, Q. Yan, T. Altan: CIRP Annals, 57 (2008), 299-304.
[3] F. Clarysse, W. Lauwerens, M. Vermeulen: Wear, 264 (2008), 400404.
[4] B. Podgomik, S. Hogmark, O. Sandberg: Wear, 261 (2006), 15-21.
[5] O. Guillon, X. Roizard, P. Belliard: Tribology International, 34
(2001), 757-766.
[6] T. Sato, T. Besshi, I. Tsutsumi, T. Morimoto, Journal of Materials,
C
A
Ti
38.7
51.8
58.4
57.8
65.7
65.8
Zn
23.7
0.8
Zn
8.0
0.03
Mass Concentration (%)
Mass Concentration (%)
(a) TiC-CVD
(b) VC-TRD
Figure 8. Results of elementary analysis of adhesives.
5m
5m
(a) TiC-CVD
(b) VC-TRD
Figure 9. Observation of coating section (before sliding test).
Conclusion
An experimental sliding test on TRD and CVD coatings
that are widely used as die coatings in press working was
carried out under actual press processing conditions. The
mechanism of coating damage caused by sliding loads was
elucidated to discuss the relation between the microstructures of the two coatings and the damage. The results obtained are presented below.
1. Fracture or stripping of the VC-TRD and TiC-CVD
coatings caused by sliding loads was not observed, but
adhesives were found on the surfaces of the coatings.
Elementary analysis indicates that the adhesives were
zinc platings on the surface of the material to be proc-
852
5m
5m
(a) TiC-CVD
(b) VC-TRD
Figure 10. Observation of coating section (after sliding test).
09.08.2010 14:37:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effects of Punch Shape and Clearance on Hole Expansion Ratio and Fatigue Properties in Punching of High Strength Steel Sheets
Takashi Matsuno1), Yukihisa Kuriyama1), Hiroya Murakami2), Shouta Yonezawa2), Hisanobu Kanamaru3)
1)
Steel Research Labs, Nippon Steel Corporation, Shintomi, Futtsu, Chiba / Japan, matsuno.takashi@nsc.co.jp; 2) Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo / Japan; 3) Aida Engineering Ltd., 2-10,
Ohyama-cho, Sagamihara / Japan
The hole expansion ratio and fatigue properties of punched high strength steel sheets by a PW (Press Working) punch were investigated in
a variety of clearances. The PW punch increased the hole expansion ratio in a minute clearance compared to using a conventional punch,
and in larger clearances, the PW punch decreased it. It is considered that the PW punch suppresses work hardening in the vicinity of the
punched surface in the minute clearance, and it induces work hardening at the inner part of the punched edge with enlargement of the
clearance. For the fatigue properties, the PW punch had a higher fatigue limit than that of the conventional type in large clearances. This is
because the PW punch reduced the roughness in the fracture zone. In the minute clearances, there was no difference between those by
the PW punch and the conventional type, which was the same as that of the reamer hole. In addition, fatigue strength in finite cycles in
minute clearances was higher than that of the reamer hole. This was due to the work hardening zone at the inner part of the punched edge.
Keywords: Punching, High strength steel sheet, Fatigue, Burring, Hole expansion
Introduction
The application of high strength steel sheets to automobile products is increasing. Although they contribute to the
weight reduction of automobiles, it has been reported that
high strength steel sheets have lower formability than that
of mild steel sheets, for example, increasing of spring back,
decreasing of stretch frangibility, and so forth [1].
Especially, it is pointed out that the hole expansion ratio
of the punched high strength steel sheets is lower than that
of mild steel sheets [1-4], and fatigue properties of the
punched specimen are not proportional to the tensile
strength of their plane types [5-8]. Therefore, improvement of the punching method is demanded for these properties.
The clearance between punch and die is reported to affect those properties. Mori concluded that the hardness and
macroscopic unevenness of the punched edge were the
main factors of the hole expansion ratio for ultra high
strength steel sheets, which changed with enlargement of
the clearance [3]. Concerning fatigue properties, Yoshitake
reported that the smaller clearance improved the fatigue
strength of punched high strength steel sheets because the
roughness in the fracture zone of the punched edge was
reduced [8]. These results suggest that smoothing of the
punched edge improves both the hole expansion ratio and
fatigue properties.
The PW (Press Working) punch was developed to suppress the seizing in a minute clearance. As additional
effects, the PW punch improves the smoothness of the
punched edge in a variety of clearances and it reduces the
fracture zone of the punched edge compared with conventional punches [9]. Therefore, the PW punch is expected to
enhance the hole expansion ratio and fatigue properties.
In this paper, we investigated the performance of punching by the PW punch for the improvement of hole expansion ratio and fatigue properties. Performance of the minute clearance for those properties was also investigated,
which was not fully clarified in previous studies. For concrete investigation, high strength steel sheets were
punched by the PW and a conventional punch in a variety

of clearances including the minute type, and these specimens were examined for their hole expansion ratio and
fatigue properties. And, the mechanism of those results
was discussed from the perspective of hardness, residual
stress, shape and roughness of the punched edge.
Experiment Method
Punching. 590 MPa level (precipitation hardened) hotrolled steel sheets were used, whose mechanical properties
are shown in Table 1.
The punching was conducted by the PW punch and a
conventional punch (hereafter RA punch). The shape of
the PW punch is shown in Figure 1 and its dimensions are
shown in Table 2. The shape was designed such that the
bevel angle of b suppresses chipping of the punch, and
the roundness of Rc and diameter reduction of e suppress
seizing by reducing the contact area with the material.
They were also designed to induce smooth metal flow
around the punch corner.
Both punches were made of JIS B 4053 V30 ultra-hard
coated by TiCN.
The holes were punched in the center of the specimen
for hole expansion and fatigue tests. The clearances were
0.6, 2, 5, 12 and 20 %t for hole expansion tests and 0.6 and
12 %t for fatigue tests, where "%t" means the ratio of
sheet thickness.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of the specimen.
Thickness
(mm)
Yield stress
(MPa)
Tensile stress
(MPa)
Total elongation
(%)
3.2
509
612
27
Hole Expansion Tests. The 5 punched holes on 100mm

square sheets in each clearance were expanded by a conical punch whose angle was 60deg. The hole expansion
ratio was estimated as,
d1 d 0
[%]
d0
(1)
853
09.08.2010 14:37:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
(b) Ege shape of PW punch

(a) Outline of PW punch
Figure 1. Shape of PW punch.
Table 2. Dimensions of the PW punch.
D (mm)
10.0
a (mm)
9.6
b (deg)
45
Rc (mm)
0.1
Rd (mm)
13
e (mm)
0.1
where d 0 is the initial diameter and d1 is the diameter

when one crack propagates through the thickness. The test
method was in accordance with the standards of the Japan
Iron and Steel Federation, JFS T 1001 1996.
The specimen with the reamer hole was also examined
for reference.
Fatigue Tests. Plane bending fatigue tests were conducted under the following conditions.
The specimens were punched rectangular sheets whose
width was 30mm and length was 90 mm. The stress ratio
was -1.0, and the frequency was 25 Hz. The fatigue limit
was defined as the fatigue strength at 10 7 cycles.
The specimens with punched hole in 0.6 and 12 %t
clearance were tested. And those with the reamer hole
were also tested for reference.
Measurements of Punched Edge Properties. The
hardness, residual stress, shape and roughness of the
punched and reamer edges were measured for analysis of
the punched edges.
The Vickers hardness was measured on the surface of
the shearing zone and the cross section of the punched
edges. We respectively call them "surface hardness" and
"inner hardness" in the following. The surface hardness
was measured at 1 line in the shearing zone with 0.2mm
pitch along the sheet thickness and the inner hardness was
measured at 3 lines with 0.2mm pitch along the sheet
thickness on the cross sections of the hole edge. The
measurement position is shown in Figure 2 with shape
properties of the punched edge. The surface hardness was
measured with 500 gf, and the inner hardness was measured with 12 5gf.
for this measurement were cut to those with semicircular

holes so that the X ray could be directed at the surface of
the hole edge. The specimens for the fatigue tests were
measured.
Concerning shapes, the ratio of the shearing zone to the
thickness was estimated as its properties in all clearances.
And roughness of the shearing zone in 0.6 %t clearance,
the fracture zone in 12.0 %t clearance, and the reamer
surface were measured as the maximum values of each
case considering that the punched edge in 0.6%t has no
fracture zone as mentioned in the following section. The
roughness was measured at 1 line whose length was
1.25mm in the hole circumferential direction in the middle
part of the shearing zone, fracture zone, or reamed surface
in the thickness direction. Those measured roughnesses
were estimated as Ry, which is the maximum roughness
standardized in JIS -'01.
Results
Hole Expansion Tests. Figure 3 shows the results of
the hole expansion tests. The hole expansion ratio by the
PW punch was higher than that by the RA punch in the 0.6
and 2 %t clearance, which were estimated by the average
values of 5 specimens. It is notable that the case of the PW
punch in 0.6 %t clearance is the best case in Figure 3 for
the hole expansion ratio. In contrast, it was lower than that
by the RA punch in the 20 %t clearance. In the other clearances, the difference by the punch shape was indistinct.
Concerning the clearances, the hole expansion ratio became the lowest in 5 or 10 %t clearances in both punches.
In the case of the RA punch, this tendency of clearances
was almost the same as that of other 590 MPa class high
strength steel sheets reported in [1,3].
The specimen with the reamer hole showed a hole expansion ratio larger than 140%, which is the upper limit in
this test.
Figure 3. Results of hole expansion tests.
Figure 2. Position of hardness measurement on punched edge.
Residual stress in the circumferential direction was

measured by the X-ray method at 5 points along the sheet
thickness on the surface of the hole edge. The specimens
854
Fatigue Tests. The S-N curves are shown in Figure 4

and fatigue limits in each case are shown in Table 3. The
effectiveness of the PW punch on the fatigue limit appeared in the 12 %t clearance. The fatigue limit by the PW
punch was higher than that of the RA punch by 30 MPa. In
contrast, the punch shape did not clearly affect the fatigue
strength in the 0.6 %t clearance. They were almost the
same as that of the reamer hole. In addition, fatigue
strength for finite life in 0. 6%t clearance was higher than
that of the reamer hole, although their fatigue limits were
almost the same. Concerning the clearances, the fatigue
09.08.2010 14:37:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
limit in the 0.6%t clearance was remarkably higher than
that in the 12 %t clearance.
Figure 4. S-N curves of punched and reamer hole.
sive than that of the RA punch hole in the fracture zone.

The residual stress became remarkably compressed in the
minute clearance of both punches. And the residual stress
of the reamer hole was close to those in the 0.6 %t clearance.
(a) PW punch in the 0.6%t
(a) RA punch in the 0.6%t
(c) PW punch in the 12%t
(d) RA punch in the 12%t
Table 3. Fatigue limit of punched and reamer hole [MPa].
0.6%t clearance
12%t clearance
PW
247
197
RA
242
164
Reamer
234
The fracture surfaces of the specimen are shown in Figure 5. In the case of the punched hole in 0.6%t clearance
and reamer hole, the cracks initiated at the hole edge near
the surfaces of both the punch and die sides in almost the
same cycles. These specimens were fractured by propagation and the combination of these cracks. The combination
sites of these cracks were observed as a clear difference in
level around the middle part of the sheet thickness in Figure 5(a), (c) and (e). However, the combination sites of
fatigue cracks were not observed as a clear difference in
level in the 12 %t clearance in Figure 5(b) and (d). Instead
of the difference in level, a boundary line of two cracks
existed on the punch side of the thickness. These observations indicate that the fatigue cracks initiated in the fracture zone and propagated to the upper part of the thickness
in the 12%t clearance. After that, these cracks were considered to combine with other cracks which initiated near
the surface of the punch side. The features of initiation and
propagation of fatigue cracks showed no difference between both punches.
Measurements of Punched Edge Properties. The surface hardness and inner hardness in the 0.6, 5.0 and 12 %t
clearances are respectively shown in Figures 6 and 7. The
PW punch suppresses work hardening of the punched
surface and induces inner hardening of the punched surface compared with the RA punch. And the work hardened
zone from the punched edge became larger with enlargement of the clearance. Furthermore, the surface hardness
increased with the depth of the shearing zone.
The edge of the reamer hole scarcely hardened, which
was omitted in the figures.
Next, the residual stress of the punched and reamed
edges in the circumferential direction is shown in Figure 8.
In the 0.6 %t clearance, the residual stress of the PW
punch hole was more compressive than that of the RA
punch hole in almost all parts of the punched edge. In the
12.0 %t clearance, the PW punch hole was more compressteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
(e) Reamer
Figure 5. Fracture surface of fatigue specimens.
(a) 0.6%t
(b) 5.0%t
(c) 12.0%t
Figure 6. Hardness on surface of shearing zone.
Figure 6. Hardness on surface of the shearing zone.
(a) 0.6%t
(b) 5.0%t
(c) 12.0%t
Figure 7. Hardness in punched edge.
For further analysis, the ratio of the shearing zone vs.

clearances is shown in Figure 9 and the roughness of the
shearing zone, fracture zone, and reamed surface is shown
in Figure 10. The following tendencies were revealed. The
shearing zone decreased with larger clearance. The shearing zone of the PW punch hole was larger than that of the
855
09.08.2010 14:37:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
RA punch hole in each clearance. The roughness of the
shearing zone, which denotes the roughness in the 0.6 %t
clearance, was the same as that of the reamer hole, and it is
remarkably lower than that of the fracture zone, which
denotes the maximum roughness in the 12 %t clearance.
And the roughness of the fracture zone by the PW punch
was lower than that of the RA punch.
Figure 8. Residual stress of hole edge in circumferential direction.
than that with the RA punch hole, though the PW punch

improved roughness in the fracture zone and compressed
residual stress. This was the same tendency as that in [3].
Fatigue Test. Roughness, hardness, and residual stress
are the factors of fatigue properties. It was reported that
roughness in the fracture zone especially deteriorates the
fatigue properties of the punched hole [8]. The behaviour
of the fatigue crack shown in Figure 5 also supports this
report. In this study, the PW punch improved roughness of
the fracture zone in the 12 %t clearance. It caused the
improvement of the fatigue limit in the 12 %t clearance.
Although the PW punch also improved the hardness and
residual stress that affect fatigue strength compared with
the RA punch, their effects were unclear. Fatigue strength
of the punched hole by both punches in the 0.6 %t clearance and that of the reamer hole were also the same,
though the hardness and residual stress were different.
The hardness was considered to affect the fatigue
strength for finite lives. The punched edges in the 0.6 %t
clearance were harder than those of the reamer hole because of work hardening. This fact suggests that propagation of the fatigue cracks was suppressed in the hardened
zone, and fatigue strength for the finite lives of punched
edges became higher than that of the reamer hole.
Conclusion
Figure 9. Ratio of shearing zone vs. clearance.
Figure 10. Roughness on hole edge.
Discussion
Hole Expansion Ratio. The surface hardness is considered to affect the hole expansion ratio in smaller clearances and the inner hardness affected it in larger clearances. In small clearance, the crack with hole expansion is
considered to localize near the surface of the punched edge.
And the surface hardness mainly affects the hole expansion ratio. That is why the PW punch, which can reduce
the surface hardness, increased the hole expansion ratio in
small clearances. In large clearances, it is considered that
the crack with hole expansion did not localize around the
surface. And the effect of inner hardness was considered to
increase more than that in small clearances. That is why
the PW punch, which induced the inner hardness, decreased the hole expansion ratio in large clearances.
Residual stress and roughness in the fracture zone did
not affect the hole expansion ratio. The hole expansion
ratio of the specimen with the PW punch hole was lower
856
The effects of the PW punch, which featured a different

shape from the conventional ones, and the clearance on the
hole expansion ratio and fatigue properties were investigated for high strength steel sheets. The results are summarized as follows.
1. The PW punch increases the hole expansion ratio in
small clearances, but decreases the ratio in large clearances, because the PW punch reduces the surface hardness and increases inner hardness.
2. The PW punch improves the fatigue limit in large clearances, because the PW punch reduces roughness in the
fracture zone.
3. Punching in minute clearance remarkably increases the
fatigue limit compared with that in large clearance. And
it also increases the fatigue strength in finite lives compared with punching in large clearance and reaming.
References
[1] S. Woestmann, T. Kohler, M. Schott: SAE Technical Paper, SAE2009-01-0802 (2009).
[2] R.J. Comstock, Jr., D.K. Scherrer, R.D. Adamczyk: Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, 682, Vol.15(6), 2006.
[3] K. Mori,Y. Abe, Y. Suzuki: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 210 (2010), 653-659.
[4] A. Konieczny, T. Henderson: SAE Special Publications, SP-2103
(2007), 41-50.
[5] J-O. Sperle, H. Trogen: Scandinavian Journal of Metallurgy, 18
(1989), 147-154.
[6] H. Shirasawa: ISIJ International, 34-3 (1994), 285-289.
[7] L. Sanchez, F. Gutierrez-Solana, D. Pesquera: Engineering Failure
Analysis, 11(2004), 751-764.
[8] A. Yoshitake, T. Shiozaki, M. Ohmura: Transactions of the Society of
Automotive Engineers of Japan, 33-4 (2002), 203-208, [in Japanese].
[9] H. Murakami, N. Kasahara, Y. Mochiduki, H. Kanamaru, T. Imura:
Journal of JSTP, 50-577 (2009), 119-123, [In Japanese].
09.08.2010 14:37:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Characterization of Mechanical Properties for Hot Press Forming

Donghoon Yoo1), Dongun Kim1), Kanghwan Ahn2), HongGee Kim2), Hyun-sung Son2), Gyo-Sung Kim2),
Kwansoo Chung1)
1)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Seoul National University, Seoul / Repubic
of Korea, kchung@snu.ac.kr; 2) POSCO Technical Research Laboratories, Gwangyang-si / Republic of Korea
As a way to improve safety and also to reduce the weight of automotive vehicles, advanced sheet materials such as advanced high
strength steel (AHSS) sheets as well as new forming technologies are in high demand in the automotive industry. However, the AHSS
sheets have inferior formability and large springback so that, in an effort to overcome such drawbacks, the hot press forming process is
being applied for forming of automotive sheet parts, especially for parts which require high strength for safety. In this work, a method to
characterize the mechanical properties at high temperatures for steel sheets in the hot press forming was developed, in which the effect of
non-uniform deformation on measured data was numerically compensated by iteratively performing finite element analysis of tensile test.
The resulting flow curves were successfully represented by modifying the Johnson-Cook type formulation for a uniform deformation region.
Keywords: Hot press forming, Tensile test, Flow curve, Temperature history, Strain rate
Introduction
As a way to meet the demand for light weight vehicles,
advanced high strength steels (AHSS) are being tried out
for automotive parts nowadays in the automobile industry.
However, the AHSS sheets have its own not-so-favorable
properties in formability and springback, associated with
its high strength. In order to overcome such drawbacks,
the hot press forming process has been being applied,
particularly for safety related parts. Under the high temperature condition, formability of the steel was drastically
enhanced with reduced mechanical strength, resulting in a
favorable forming condition. Furthermore, unlike usual
forming processes, final formed parts in the hot press
forming process may have high strength with proper (martensitic) microstructures for good crash performances with
minimum elastic recovery (springback) wherein rapid
cooling was accompanied during the holding stage after
forming.
In order to optimize the hot press forming process utilizing the numerical method, thermal and mechanical properties at various temperatures are essential. While the measurements of thermal properties such as specific heat, thermal conductivity and thermal expansion coefficient are
relatively straightforward, the measurements of mechanical properties (flow curves) require careful control of test
environment to keep a uniform temperature condition.
Many works have been conducted to measure the flow
curves of conventional steels [1-3] at high temperatures.
However, these works were mostly carried out under constant temperature conditions, without considering temperature history. Note that the flow curves of steels depend on
temperature history and, moreover, actual hot press forming processes are conducted under non-uniform temperature conditions. In the hot press forming process, steel
sheets are heated up above the (Eutectoid) transition temperature to make the austenite phase and then cooled down
rapidly to form the martensite phase. Accordingly, the
consideration of the temperature history is so important in
the measurement of the flow curve for the hot press forming steel.
Measurements of flow curves considering temperature
history are found in the works by Rao et al. [4] and Eriks-
son et al. [5], utilizing the Gleeble tester, which is widely

used for the measurement of thermo-mechanical properties.
While the Gleeble tester is efficient to control the temperature of a specimen, measured flow curves are often not so
accurate due to non-uniform temperature distribution within the test specimen as well as non-uniform deformation
involved in strain measurement based on the relative displacement between two grip holders.
In this work, a new simple tension machine to measure
the high temperature flow curves of the hot press forming
steel was developed and measurements were made under
various temperature histories and strain rate conditions. To
improve the accuracy of measured flow curves, data corrections for the measured data were carried out utilizing
the finite element method in a uniform deformation region.
A modified Johnson-Cook type equation was also successfully developed to represent and fit the temperature and
strain rate dependent flow curves of the hot press forming
steel.
Experimentation
Experimental Machine. The flow curves of the hot
press forming steel at high temperatures were measured
using the universal tensile test machine, Shimadzu AG100kNx, equipped with a high temperature furnace with
the range of 100 to 1200 C as shown in Figure 1(a). This
machine supports the 100kN load cell up to 700 C test
condition and the 20kN load cell up to 900 C test condition with the cross-head speed of 0.0005 1000 mm/min.
Also cooling pipes were installed near the load cell and
tensile rods for safety. Considering measurements under
high temperature conditions, test grips and the specimen
were newly designed as shown in Figure 1(b) modifying
the ASTM E 8M sub-size specimen. Dimensions of the
specimen are shown in Figure 2(a). The test specimen is
placed between upper and lower grip holders as shown in
Figures 1(b) and 2(b). The external extensometer to measure the relative displacement between these two grip holders is located outside of the furnace, connected to the grips
through connecting rods and wires as shown in Figure 3.
Both the grips and the specimen are heated up to the same
857
09.08.2010 14:37:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
temperature in the furnace so that there is no temperature
difference between the specimen and the grips.
M =
where
u1 u2
l0
(1)
u1 is the displacement of the upper grip holder and
u2 is the displacement of the lower grip holder as shown

in Figure 2(b). Note that Eq. (1) is valid if the specimen
deforms within the 10 mm gauge length while the rest of
the specimen is rigid. In real, deformation within the
gauge length was uniform but the rest was not rigid so that
the measured engineering strain based on Eq. (1) was not
accurate. In order to correct this result, the FEM analysis
was applied to iteratively achieve proper engineering
strain data from the measured engineering strain, M ; i.e.,
(a)
(b)
Figure 1. (a) Universal tensile test machine, Shimadzu AG100kNx, equipped with a high temperature furnace and (b) test
grips with a specimen.
(a)
(b)
Figure 2. (a) Dimension of the specimen (unit: mm) and (b) a
schematic view of the test specimen with the grip holder.
was assumed as a first trial value, which was then
iteratively corrected considering the slight deformation in

the outside of the gauge length based on FEM simulations.
Test Conditions. The test conditions of the high temperature tensile test were determined based on actual hot
press forming conditions so that tests were conducted
following thermal histories shown in Figure 4. The test
specimen was initially placed for 5 minutes in an external
heating furnace maintained at 900 C and then moved into
the furnace installed in the test machine. After spending
some time (approximately 20 seconds) to establish the
thermal equilibrium condition between the specimen and
the grips at test temperatures (780, 730, 680 and 630 C),
tensile tests were conducted. In order to obtain strain rate
dependent flow curves, tests were conducted with three
different tensile speeds of 15, 1.5 and 0.15 mm/s, which
correspond to 0.7, 0.07 and 0.007 /s, respectively, in average strain rates within the actual gauge length, 10 mm.
900 (5 min)
20s
780
730
680
Within
1 min
630
RT
Figure 4. Thermal histories of tensile test.
Results
Figure 3. External extensometer to measure relative displacement

between two grip holders using connecting rods and wires.
Strain Measurement. The strain of the specimen was

initially measured by the relative displacement between
upper and lower grip holders. The gauge length (lo) of 10
mm was assigned to the specimen and the measured strain
M was
858
Flow Curves of Hot Press Forming Steel. The flow

curves of the hot press forming steel with 2.0 mm in thickness were measured three times for each specific condition.
Among all measured data, results obtained only for 780 C
were shown here. The strain rate dependence of the flow
curve (based on Equation (1)) at 780 C before numerical
correction is shown in Figure 5. Since this data is a trial
assumed material property, correction was performed
based on finite element simulations utilizing the usersubroutine UMAT of the ABAQUS/Standard commercial
code [6]. The iterative data correction procedure is sche-
09.08.2010 14:37:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
matically illustrated in Figure 6, while the 3-D finite element model for the test specimen and the grips used for
correction are shown in Figure 7. Material input data
(therefore, the actual flow curves of the material) which
ultimately led to the same results in Equation (1) with
experimental ones were obtained within three iterative
simulations. The resulting flow curves after correction are
shown in Figure 8, compared to the first trial flow curves
for the 780 C condition. There is a significant difference
between these two set of curves. Note that correction for
Figure 8 was performed below the ultimate tensile strength
(UTS) point.
Figure 7. Finite element model used for simulation.
Figure 8. Flow curves of hot press forming steel before and after
data correction at 780 C.
Figure 5. Flow curves based on Eq. (1) at 780 C before numerical
correction.
Start
Modification of trial
flow curves
FEM simulation
using trial curves
Data Fitting Based on the Modified Johnson and

Cook Equation. The following modified Johnson and
Cook [7,8] type equation was successfully developed to
represent and fit the temperature and strain rate dependent
flow curves obtained after data correction:
T Tr T Tr
= 370(0.01+ )0.3 (1+ C( )ln )[1 sign
0
Tm Tr Tm Tr
C( ) = 0.0586 + 0.0115
m(ln ) = 0.8 + 0.0335ln( / 0 )
m(ln )
(2)
where 0 , Tm and Tr denote the reference strain rate, the

Comparison of simulated and
experimental Eq. (1)
No
Are two flow curves

similar enough?
Yes
End
melting temperature and the reference temperature, respectively, while C ( ) and m(ln ) denote material parameters as functions of the effective strain and the logarithmic
strain rate, respectively. The reference strain rate 0 was
chosen to be 0.7 /s and Tm and Tr are 1500 and 730 C,

respectively. The resulting true stress-true strain fitting
curves at 780 C are shown in Figure 9 along with the
corrected experimental data and simulation results using
above equation were compared with experiments having a
good correspondence within the uniform deformation
region as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 6. Illustration of data correction procedure.
859
09.08.2010 14:37:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Summary
In order to measure the flow curves of steel sheets in the

hot press forming at high temperatures, a test machine and
specimens were newly designed. The data correction procedure using the FEM model was conducted for the measured data to obtain proper material flow curves. A modified Johnson-Cook type equation was then successfully
developed to represent and fit the resulting temperature
and strain rate dependent flow curves of the hot press
forming steel. By introducing a correction factor to the
fitting equation, the material flow equation representing
the uniform deformation region was obtained.
Acknowledgements
Figure 9. Flow curves at 780 C fitted by Johnson and Cook
equation.
This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the Korea
government (MEST) (R11-2005-065) through the Intelligent Textile System Research Center (ITRC). The authors
also would like to thank POSCO for sponsoring this research.
References
Figure 10. Flow curves at 780 C of hot press forming steel for
experimental and simulation results
860
[1] C.A. Hernandez, S.F. Medina, J. Ruiz: Acta materialia, 44, 1 (1996),
155-163.
[2] M.D.L. Baragar: Journal of Mechical Working Technology, 14 (1987),
295-307.
[3] Y.C. Lin, M.S. Chen, J. Zhong: Computational Materials Science, 42
(2008),470.
[4] K.P. Rao, Y.K.D.V. Prasad, E.B. Hawbolt: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 56 (1996), 897-907.
[5] M. Eriksson, M. Oldenburg, M.C. Somani, L.P. Karjalainen: Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 10 (2002),
277-294.
[6] ABAQUS Users manual (version 6.7) (2007), Hibbit, Karlsson &
Sorensen Inc., USA.
[7] G.R. Johnson, W.H. Cook: Proc. the 7th International Symposium on
Ballistics, Am. Def. Prep. Org. (ADPA), Netherlands (1983).
[8] G.R. Johnson, J.M. Hoegfeldt, U.S. Lindholm, A. Nagy: Journal of
Engineering Materials and Technology, 105 (1983), 42-47.
09.08.2010 14:37:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of Hot Stamped Center Pillar by Optimization of Process Parameters

in Form Type of 4 Piece Die Sets
Hong-seok Choi1), Ki-ju Nam1), Dong-hui Lee2), Se-yoon Ha2), Chung-gil Kang3), Byung-min Kim3)
1)
Precision and Manufacturing Systems Division, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea; 2) Department of Stamping Tool Process Planning, Shin Young Co., Ltd., Yeongcheon / Korea; 3) School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea,
bmkim@pusan.ac.kr.
The hot stamping technology has been used in order to reduce the weight of the body-in-white and to increase safety of the passengers by
improved crashworthiness. In this research, a hot stamped center pillar has been developed using form a die composed of 4 piece die sets,
which can make it possible to prevent wrinkle and fracture. Flow curves of the 22MnB5 at elevated temperatures and contact heat transfer
coefficient are obtained to increase the accuracy of the analysis. Process parameters such as the gap between upper die and lower binder
to avoid the fracture and the position of an initial lower binder are optimized using thermo-mechanical analysis. As a result of the simulation,
contact gap and initial binder position for successful hot stamping are determined as 5mm and 35mm, respectively. Through the hot stamping experiment using form type die set under the optimized condition, a high strength center pillar without defects such as wrinkle and
fracture can be developed.
Keywords: Hot stamping, Center pillar, Form type die set, Contact gap, Initial position of binder
Introduction
In recent year, automotive industry has requested that
high strength components with lower weight in order to
reduce fuel consumption and to increase safety of the
passengers by improved crashworthiness. New materials
have been introduced in the steel sheet metal forming,
such as ultra advanced high strength steel, i.e. DP, CP,
TRIP steel sheets which have the tensile strength over 980
MPa, to produce high strength components. However,
these innovative materials have poor formability due to
their lower elongation. Thus, it is difficult to produce the
component which has complex geometric shape.
To overcome such disadvantage, hot stamping process
has been developed to increase formability by forming at
elevated temperature above 900 C using the boronmanganese alloy steel(22MnB5) as shown in Figure 1.
Hot stamping allows the manufacturing of the complex
body-in-white such as bumper, pillar and impact beam,
etc., without fracture due to high elongation over 50% of
the heated steel sheet during forming operation.
Hochholdinger et al. [2] developed the numerical model

based on the Zener-Hollomon parameter and a HockettSherby type formulation in order to provide the best fit of
the experiment. Mori et al. [3] investigated the effect of
heating temperature on the formability and springback.
Kim et al. [4] proposed thermal-mechanical coupled simulation skills to analyze hot stamping process and developed mini-bumper by using above method.
This research has been performed to propose the detailed process plan to form the automotive body panel
using hot stamping method. In general, drawing method
has been applied in conventional stamping process as
presented in Figure 2. Drawbead is mainly used to prevent
the wrinkle during stamping operation. However, fracture
occurs unavoidably at the blank during passing the drawbead due to the deterioration of the material flow property
caused by rapid heat transfer between drawbead and blank.
Therefore, new forming method is required to the hot
stamping in order to produce the high strength component
without defect.
[1st stage] Blank holding
Drawbead
[2nd stage] Drawing
Blank holder
Spring
Punch
Figure 2. Conventional stamping procedure by drawing method.
Figure 1. Schematic procedure of hot stamping process.
Since hot stamping process was introduced, many researches have been conducted. Merclein and Lechler [1]
investigated the themo-mechanical properties of the
22MnB5 by tensile test at elevated temperature.
In this study, hot stamped center pillar has been developed using form type of 4 piece die sets. For successful
center pillar, optimized blank shape by inverse analysis
and area compensation method is used [5]. Furthermore,
contact gap between tools as well as initial position of
lower binder in order to prevent the wrinkle and, at the
same time, to increase the material flow are optimized
using thermo-mechanical analysis. Finally, the validity of
this study is verified through the hot stamping experiment.
861
09.08.2010 14:37:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
4.0
Flow Stress. The dynamic explicit code LS-Dyna implemented to analyze the hot stamping simulation.
Thermo-mechanical analysis is performed where both
forming and heat transfer are simultaneously solved.
*MAT_106, which is an elastic-viscoplastic material with
thermal effects, is used as numerical model of the 22MnB5.
Tensile test at elevated temperature to be applied to the
numerical model is performed to obtain more accurate
material property as shown in Figure 3.
3.5
Engineering stress (MPa)
400
300
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
CHTC = -0.001p +0.115p+0.705
0.5
0
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Contact pressure, p (MPa)

Figure 5. CHTC between 22MnB5 and AISI H13 with respect to
contact pressure.
250
Optimization of Process Parameters for Hot Stamping

Using 4 Piece Die Sets
200
150
100
50
0
0.0
Blank : 22MnB5 (t=1.6mm)

Tools : AISI H13
3.0
0.0
900 oC
800 oC
700 oC
600 oC
350
CHTC (kW/m K)
Numerical Model of 22MnB5
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Engineering strain (mm/mm)
0.5
Process Parameters. As can be seen in Figure 6, it is

evident that the fracture occurs due to the significant difference of the temperature over 300C between the flange
and drawn wall during hot stamping by conventional
drawing as presented in Figure 2.
Figure 3. Flow stress curves at elevated temperature under strain

rate of 0.1/s.
Contact Heat Transfer Coefficient. Contact heat transfer coefficient(CTHC) between blank and tools during
forming is taken in account. In general, CHTC is dependant on the contact pressure. Figure 4 shows the experimental apparatus to obtain CHTC with respect to the contact pressure. It is explained that more detailed information
of the procedure for measuring CHTC in [6]. The test is
performed under the condition from 7 to 35 MPa considering actually operated pressure between blank and tools
during stamping. Experimental result is illustrated in Figure 5. In the meantime, the contact gap effect was used in
existing research [4].
Figure 4. Experimental apparatus for measuring CHTC.
862
Figure 6. Analysis result of hot stamping using conventional drawing method.
Therefore, the distance block in order to maintain gap

which decreases heat transfer during stamping operation
should be set between upper die and lower binder. Figure
7 presents the considered design parameters with schematic stamping process using form type die set. Effect of
the initial binder position (A) and contact gap (B) on
formability and wrinkle is evaluated. Hereby, the gap
maintained by spring during stamping is eliminated by
given compressed force at lower dead center, thus flange
region can be flattened smoothly.
Thermo-mechanical analysis with respect to the combination of each parameter is performed using optimal blank
shape. The upper pad force is fixed as a 15 ton. Heating
and transfer procedures are not taken into account, so that
initial blank temperature just before stamping is decided to
750 C considering the decrease of the temperature during
transfer. Analysis conditions and FE model are presented
in Table 1 and Figure 8, respectively.
09.08.2010 14:37:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
[2nd stage] Forming
(a) Initial binder position of 10mm.
[4th stage] Finish forming
(b) Initial binder position of 60mm.

Figure 9. Deformed shapes during hot stamping.
[1st stage] Blank holding

Upper die
Distance block
Spring
Upper pad
Lower binder
A
Lower punch
[3rd stage] Drawing

B
(Unit : mm)
Parameter
Value
10, 35, 60
2, 5, 8
Figure 7. Schematic hot stamping by form type of 4 piece die sets

and considered process parameters.
Table 1. Thermo-mechanical analysis conditions
Property
Value
Blank material
22MnB5
Die material
AISI H13
Blank temperature (C)
750
Die temperature (C)
20
0.4
Convection coefficient (kW/m2K)

Solver
On the other hand, folding is not occurred with initial

binder position of 35mm, which is similar to the position
of die face, because the flange is smoothed by the lower
binder during forming as can be seen Figure 10. Consequently, initial position of the binder is determined as
35mm.
0.16
LS-DYNA (Ver.
9.7.2)
Figure 10. Deformed shapes during hot stamping with initial binder
position of 10mm.
Figure 8. FE-modelling for hot stamping of center pillar.
Effect of Initial Binder Position(A). Figure 9(a) and

(b) show the deformed shapes by simulation under the
initial binder positions of 10 and 60 mm from lower dead
center, respectively. Folding of the blank at the center of
the flange occurs severely due to the wrinkle before completion of the forming in case of the initial binder position
of 10mm. It can be known that the position of the binder
should be increased to restrain the shrink flange caused by
material flow during forming. As the binder located at
60mm from lower dead center, folding is also generated at
the top of center pillar due to excessive material flow
caused by high forming depth.
Effect of Contact Gap (B). Figure 11 shows the distribution of thinning at the central region, where the fracture
occurs frequently due to its deeper forming depth, with
respect to the contact gap under an initial binder position
of 35mm. It is observed that the wall thickness decreases
by decreasing contact gap. Because small gap influences
on the material flow into the tools, thinning is relatively
increases. Furthermore, the flange is compressed up to
44% in case of the 8mm of contact gap. This is because
the wrinkle occurred such like wave during forming is
finally compressed by the tools.
Figure 11. Thinning distribution at center of center pillar with respect to contact gap.
863
09.08.2010 14:37:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
Experimental Set Up. Hot stamping with proposed

form type die set is performed in order to verify the validity of optimized process condition. Hydraulic press of
1,000 ton capacity to keep the tools on closed state for
quenching is used to the experiment. Figure 12 shows the
die set, which is composed of upper die, lower punch,
upper pad and lower binder. Blank is heated up to 900 C
into the furnace, and transferred to the press for about
10sec. Temperature of the blank at the moment to be
formed was measured approximately 740-770 C, similar
to the analysis condition. Forming time is totally taken
approximately 10 sec. Blank is rapidly cooled down as
soon as finished forming process for 20 sec. In the meantime, the experiment is only performed with respect to the
different contact gaps under the initial binder position of
35mm exhibited effective performance to control the wrinkle.
The purpose of this research is to develop the high

strength center pillar by hot stamping using 4 piece die
sets. On the basis of simulation results and experimental
results by means of the proposed hot stamping method, the
following conclusions can be drawn:
1. Conventional drawing method cannot be applied to the
hot stamping because fracture occurs unavoidably at the
blank during passing the drawbead due to the deterioration of the material flow property caused by rapid heat
transfer between drawbead and blank.
2. Contact gap between upper die and lower binder should
be given in order minimize temperature gradient, which
influences on formability, and optimal gap is determined as 5mm.
3. In order to prevent the folding at the flange, initial position of the binder is decided to 35mm, which is similar
to the position of die face.
4. As a result of hot stamping experiment under the optimal condition, hot stamped center pillar without wrinkle
and fracture can be developed using 4 piece form type
die sets with gap.
Acknowledgement
of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and Korea Industrial
Resource Training Project for Strategic Technology and
the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded
by the Korean Government (NRF-2009-K2060100000409E0100-00410).
Figure 12. Experimental apparatus composed of 4-piece die sets

for hot stamping of the center pillar.
The Experimental Result. Figure 13 shows the center

pillar formed by hot stamping using 4 piece die sets. Folding has not occurred at the flange except in the condition
of the contact gap of 8 mm under the initial binder position
of 35mm. It is observed that fracture tendency at the side
wall of center pillar increases with decreasing contact gap
due to restraint of material flow. On the other hand, folding at the flange occurs with increasing contact gap. Consequently, it is important to determine the contact gap and
initial binder position appropriately, and their values are
decided to 5 and 35 mm, respectively.
References
[1] M. Merklein, J. Lechler: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
177 (2006), 452-455.
[2] B. Hochholdinger, H. Grass, A. Lipp, P. Hora: Proc. IDDRG 2009
International Conference, (2009), 659-669.
[3] K. Mori, S. Maki, Y. Tanaka: CIRP Annals, 54-1 (2005), 209-212.
[4] H.G. Kim, H.S. Son, S.H. Park: Posco Technical Report, 10-1 (2006),
115-123.
[5] H.S. Choi, C.K. Kang, S.Y. Ha, D.H. Lee, B.M. Kim: Proc. KSAE
Annual Conference, (2009), 2439-2445.
[6] D. J. Jeong: Ph. D Thesis, Pusan National University (2001), 64-77.
Figure 13. Developed center pillar by hot stamping under optimal

condition and occurred defects according to contact gap.
864
09.08.2010 14:37:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
Micro-Structure Evolution in the Press Hardening Process with Respect to Tool and
Contact Thermal Properties
Mats Oldenburg, Gran Lindkvist
Department of Applied Physics and Mechanical Engineering, Lule University of Technology, Lule / Sweden, mats.oldenburg@ltu.se
With the press hardening technology, it is possible to produce automotive structural components with a tailor-made material property distribution. The properties can range from a soft ferrite dominated micro-structure to ultra-high strength martensitic structure. Tailor-made material property distribution is especially useful in components subjected to crash deformation. With this technique it is possible to account for
structural integrity and in the same time maximize the energy absorption in the structure. The present work is based on a complete thermomechanical material model for simulation of press hardening and similar processes. The model accounts for and predicts time dependent
and time-independent phase transformations, mechanical and thermal properties as well as transformation plasticity during the complete
cooling and deformation process from 900 C to room temperature. The model predicts the microstructure evolution during the complete
process and the final fractions of martensite, bainite, perlite and ferrite. The thermal properties in the contact between the blank and the
tools as well as the thermal properties in the tools are of significant importance during development of tooling and processes for tailor-made
material properties. Variations of these properties as well as data from previous studies of the contact heat transfer are used in a parameter
study to predict the tailor-made material properties due to the tool material and relevant process parameters.
Keywords: Press hardening, Thermal properties, Micro-structure evolution
Introduction
The industrial use of the press hardening technology is
currently increasing very fast. This is due to strong international driving forces such as the environment and passenger safety. With press hardened components getting
wider application in automotive vehicle structures, the
usage is currently increasing from about 8 % in the body
in white to up to 40 % in the coming generations of cars.
The use of high- and ultra high strength components meets
the demands from legislations on passive automotive
safety and the effort to reduce vehicle emissions. The
technology is also developing in several different aspects,
see e.g. [1]. New blank materials are developed, especially
surface coatings to prevent oxidation in the process as well
as corrosion during service. New component technologies
are developed, such as components with tailored material
properties [2]. With this technology components can be
produced that are strong and stiff enough in one part of the
component and in the same time can absorb energy during
deformation in other parts.
This technology is addressed in this work as a pre-study
of the influence on tool thermal properties on the distributed material properties in the produced component. In
this work a numerical model, developed during several
research projects, will be used to determine the microstructural content in the produced component resulting
from the process conditions.
The hot stamping process uses boron steel blanks which
are first austenitized at a temperature of approximately
900 C. The blank is then formed and quenched in cold
tools to obtain martensitic ultra high strength material. The
forming operation at elevated temperatures allows complex geometries to be obtained due to the high formability
of the hot material.
In this paper the model for the simulation of the press
hardening process is presented, including:
Development of a thermal shell element with quadratic
interpolation of the temperature in the thickness direcsteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
tion to enable prediction of the temperature distribution

in one and two sided contact situations.
Method development and determination of the flow
stress of the austenite phase as a function of strain,
strain rate and temperature.
Austenite decomposition modelling and simulation for
the actual steel grade.
Constitutive modelling of the mechanical response by
accounting for composite behaviour and transformation induced plasticity,
Modelling of Press Hardening
Compared to conventional cold forming there are numerous additional modelling and simulation aspects involved, see kerstrm [3].
The workpiece, initially heated to form austenite, is subsequently cooled by heat transfer to the tool parts and the
austenite decomposes into different daughter phases. Depending on the temperature history and mechanical deformation, different phases and phase mixtures evolves. During the solid-state phase transformations, heat is released
which influences the thermal field. Further, depending on
the mixture of microconstituents, both the mechanical and
thermal properties vary with temperature and deformation.
Consequently, a realistic model used for the simulation of
the simultaneous forming and cooling must consider interactions between the mechanical and temperature fields and
the microstructure. The different fields and the interaction
taken into account in the modelling are shown in Figure 1,
see Bergman [4]. Table 1 summarizes the different interactions with short descriptions.
865
09.08.2010 14:37:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 1. Interactions between mechanical field, thermal field and

microstucture evolution.
Traditionally, the material is characterized by isothermal

compression or tension tests at different temperatures. An
alternative approach is based on compression of cylindrical specimens at continuous cooling and different compression starting temperatures.
With the proposed method, the isothermal mechanical
response is established by means of inverse modelling, see
kerstrm et al. [6]. For the boron steel in the austenitic
state, a physically based hardening function proposed by
Nemat-Nasser [7] is found to describe the flow stress with
good accuracy. Figure 3 shows the evaluated isothermal
stress strain relation of the blank material in the austenite
state.
Table 1. Descriptions of interactions in Figure 1, taken into

account in the modelling, from [4].
No
1a
Interaction Description
Thermal boundary conditions are deformation
dependent
Heat generation due to plastic dissipation and
friction (not accounted for in this work)
Thermal expansion
Latent heat due to phase transformations
Thermal material properties depend on microstructure evolution
Microstructure evolution depends on the temperature
Mechanical properties depend on microstructure
evolution
Volume change due to phase transformations
Transformation plasticity
Memory of plastic strains during phase transformations
Phase transformations depend on stress and
strain
1b
2
3a
3b
4
5a
5b
5c
5d
6
In the simulation of press hardening, shell elements are

the natural choice when modelling the structural response
of the workpiece/blank (see Figure 2). To accurately capture the heat transfer in this type of application, a thermal
shell element with linear in-plane temperature approximation and quadratic in the thickness direction is used. The
theory for the linear-quadratic thermal shell element can
be found in Bergman and Oldenburg [5].
Figure 3. Evaluated isothermal stress strain relation from inverse

modelling of combined compression and cooling experiments,
from [6].
Modelling of Microstructural Evolution

The numerical simulations of the austenite decomposition into daughter phases and their compounds are based
on Kirkaldys rate equations [8]. The models can be used to
simulate the phase transformations without prior information from transformation diagrams. The diffusional transformations (austenite to ferrite, pearlite or bainite) are
predicted using these equations and the martensite evolution is modelled using the Koistinen and Marburger relation [9].
A special plane press hardening experiment was conducted in [10] to validate the modelling of the austenite
decomposition model. In Figure 4, the calculated and
experimentally evaluated ferrite phase content in different
positions in the plane hardened sheet is shown.
Ferrite
100
Figure 2. Principal configuration of thermal shell element.
Mechanical Material Modelling

The flow stress versus strain data for the austenite in the
temperature interval 400-930 C is especially important
for the prediction of the forming operation in high temperatures.
866
Ferrite (%)
80
60
Measured
Calculated
40
20
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
x-position (mm)
Figure 4. Predicted and experimentally determined ferrite content

in different positions in plane sheet, from [10].
09.08.2010 14:37:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
The steel grade used in this work is boron steel produced
by SSAB, with the trade name Boron 02. The specified
alloy content is presented in kerstrm and Oldenburg
[10].
The model proposed by Kirkaldy and Venugopalan in
[8] is used in a slightly modified form. The set of equations which model the austenite decomposition can all be
written in a general form as
dX i
(1)
= f (G ) f (C ) f (T ) f ( X i )
dt
where f indicates a general functional relation. In Eq. (1),
f(G) is the effect of the austenite grain size, f(C) the effect
of alloy composition, f(T) is a function of temperature and
f ( X i ) gives the effect of current fraction formed. Details
of the implementation can be found in [10]. The transformation from austenite to martensite is modelled using the
relation proposed by Koistinen and Marburger [9], which
is formulated as
X m = X (1 e ( M s T ) )
(2)
where X m is the volume fraction martensite, and X is the

volume fraction of austenite. The factor is equal to 0.011
for many steels and (Ms T) is the supercooling below the
martensite start temperature, Ms. As has been shown in
Somani et al. [11], straining the austenite at high temperatures will change the austenite decomposition kinetics so
that ferrite will form earlier in time. In the current model,
the ferrite reaction kinetics have been modified according
to Serajzadeh [12].
Figure 5. Compression force versus axial displacement at the

temperatures 500 and 700 C, from [14].
Simulation of a Modified Press Hardening Process

The present study is based on a press hardening experiment presented in [3] and [16]. In the present study, the
tool material properties is modified to include zone in the
middle of the tool that should provide conditions for a
different thermal history in the corresponding part of the
blank. The original experimental tool consists of two main
parts, an upper punch and a lower die shown in Figure 6.
The tools will produce a component with a hat section
with a height of 0.052 m (length 0.140 m), that after a
transition zone becomes flat, see [16]. The final length of
the component is 0.250 m.
Composite Behaviour and Transformation Plasticity

The present model, based on the model proposed by Leblond et al., see [13], and Leblond in [14], start from the
behaviour of each phase and works back to the macroscopic behaviour of the material. Two cases are accounted
for, in which the global equivalent stress is smaller or
greater than the global uniaxial yield stress. The yield
stress, t + t y , is represented by a linear mixture law as
t + t
y = t y + t + t X k t + t H k kp
k =1
(3)
where t + t y is a function of the volume fraction and the

effective plastic strains of the individual phases as well as
t + t
X k is the known volume
the temperature. In Eq. (3),
fraction of phase k, t y is the yield stress corresponding to
t p
the known effective plastic strains k and the current
t + t
t + t
H k is the current plastic modulus for
temperature T .
phase k. Multi piecewise linear representation of the true
stress versus effective plastic strain is used.
A commonly used model for transformation plasticity is
the model by Leblond and coworkers (see e.g. [13]). The
implementation of the model is described in detail in
kerstrm et al. [14].
Figure 5 shows measured and calculated responses
from iso-thermal compression during phase transformations.
Figure 6. Tools and the shape of the final component, from [16].
The 3D finite element mesh of the tool parts consists of

a total of 57399 eight node brick elements (see Figure 7),
where the zones with modified properties are shown. Due
to symmetry, only half of the tools are modelled. For a
more detailed description of the experimental setup and
FE-model (see [16]).
In the presented analysis the thermal conductivity in the
modified zone and the heat transfer coefficient between
the blank and the modified zone are decreased to 15 % of
the values in the original tool. The initial temperature in
the modified zone is increased by 550 C. The initial temperature is of the blank is increased by 100 C compared
to the original experiment.
867
09.08.2010 14:37:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
ponents with tailor made mechanical properties based on
coupled thermo-mechanical analysis of a modified press
hardening process. The study shows the possibility to
obtain a suitable thermal history by modifying the properties and process parameters of the tooling.
Figure 7. FE-model of tools and blank showing the modified zone

of the tool parts.
Results from Analysis

The calculated phase fraction after cooling to room temperature is shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Phase fractions in the modified material zone.
Phase
Austenite
Ferrite
Perlite
Bainite
Martensite
Fraction (%)
0
77
1
0
22
A plot of the ferrite fraction after 14 seconds of the

process is shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8. Distribution of calculated volume fractions of ferrite for a

press hardened component.
The mechanical properties of the material in the modified zone of the component are evaluated by an analysis of
a tensile test where the material of the specimen is subjected to the corresponding thermal history. The flow
stress curves corresponding to the material in the modified
zone as well as the fully hardened zone are shown in Figure 9.
Conclusions and Discussion
The study includes a brief presentation of a model for
the analysis of the complete press hardening process. The
presented model has been used in a pre-study to evaluate
the possibility to design a manufacturing process for com-
868
Figure 9. Calculated flow stress curves for modified and fully

hardened material.
This on-going study will use the present model with the
addition of a numerical model of the cooling and heating
system of the tools to determine a suitable process to obtain desired mechanical properties in selected parts of a
press hardened component.
References
[1] Hot sheet metal forming of high-performance steel, Proc. CHS2
2009, Oldenburg, M., Steinhoff, K., Prakash, B., (Eds.), Verlag Wissenschaftliche Scripten, Lule, (2009).
[2] D. Berglund: Proc. CHS2 2009, Verlag Wissenschaftliche Scripten,
June 15-17, Lule, (2009), 293-302.
[3] P. kerstrm: Modelling and simulation of hot stamping, PhD.
Thesis 2006:30, Lule university of technology (2006).
[4] G. Bergman: Modelling and simultaneous forming and quenching.
PhD. Thesis, Lule University of Technology (1999).
[5] G. Bergman, M. Oldenburg, Int. J. Numer. Meth. Eng., 59 (2004),
1167-1186.
[6] P. kerstrm, B.Wikman, M. Oldenburg: Modelling Simul. Mater.
Sci. Eng. 13 (2005), 1291-1308.
[7] S. Nemat-Nasser: Proc. IUTAM symposium on micro- and macro
structural aspects of thermo plasticity, O.T. Bruhns and E. Stein
(Eds.), Kluwer, (1999), 101-113.
[8] J.S. Kirkaldy, D. Venugopalan: Proc. International Conference on
Phase Transformations in Ferrous Alloys, A.R. Marder and J.I.
Goldstein (Eds.), Philadelphia, (1983), 125-148.
[9] D.P. Koistinen, R.E. Marburger: Acta Metall. 7 (1959), 5960.
[10] P. kerstrm, M. Oldenburg: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 174 (2006), 399-406.
[11] M.C. Somani, L.P. Karjalainen, M. Eriksson, M. Oldenburg: ISIJ
International, 41 (2001), 361367.
[12] S. Serajzadeh: Journal of Materials Science and Engineering, 146
(2004), 311317.
[13] J.B. Leblond, G. Mottet, J.C. Devaux: J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 34
(1986), 395-409.
[14] J.B. Leblond: International Journal of Plasticity, 5 (1989), 573591.
[15] P. kerstrm, G. Bergman, M. Oldenburg: Modelling Simul. Mater.
Sci. Eng., 15 (2007), 105119.
[16] P. kerstrm, M. Oldenburg: Proc. 7th International Conference
and Workshop on Numerical Simulation of 3D Sheet Metal Forming Processes (Numisheet 2008), Interlaken, (2008), 569-574.
09.08.2010 14:37:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Characterization of Die Quenching Process by Water-Cooled Dies and High-Precision

Compression Testing Machine
Katsuyoshi Ikeuchi1), Jun Yanagimoto2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo / Japan, ikekatsu@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp;
ence, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo / Japan
2)
Institute of Industrial Sci-
A die-quenching process is one of the hot forming processes for making sturdy automobile parts. The process has some problems; low
productivity, variation of temperature of dies and strength of materials, and all that. These problems are disordered for extending and upgrading the die-quenching process. The solution of this problem is figured out the characteristics of the die-quenching process. For the
experiments, water-cooling dies were made from stainless steel and an installed chamber of a high-precision compress testing machine. In
the experiment, temperature of dies and a workpiece was measured. Then, martensitic transformation time of the workpiece and maximum
temperature of the die were obtained from these data for evaluation of quenching. After the experiment, hardness and microstructure of
high-strength steel were obtained from an observation of the quenched workpiece. From these results, a new valuation method on the
effect of die-quenching parameters is proposed and relationship among forming time, cooling rate of workpiece and temperature of dies
was verified in this investigation.
Keywords: Die-quenching, Sheet forming, Hot forming, Water-cooling, High tensile steel sheet, Martensite
Introduction
Experimental Setup
Automobiles require lightweight construction to reduce

the amount of emission, the use of metallic materials with
a high strength per weight. The high-strength steel sheet
has been used for sturdy and lightening of automobile
body [1,2]. However, the high-strength steel sheet is poor
formability because of its high strength. For example,
springback is caused by elastic recovery and the forming
of demanded shape is difficult [3-6].
So the die-quenching process is the one of the solution
of formability [7-11]. A die-quenching system is consisted
of hot forming process and quenching process. An ordinary die-quenching process has three steps. The first is the
heating process, in which materials are heated in furnace
and carried to press machine. The second is the forming
and quenching process, in which material is formed by
dies and quenched between die and material. The third is
the scale reducing process which is created by the second
process. The hot forming brings easy forming and quenching brings strong components. So the process brings many
merits but have some problems.
The die-quenching process has many processes and
takes long time compared to cold forming, and temperature elevation of dies brings poor performance of quenching. So the productivity of die-quenching process is lower
than cold forming. Currently, the materials for diequenching and method of restraint scale have been developed [12]. But recently studies are related for formability
in hot forming [13-15]. For solving these problems, characteristics of die-quenching should be characterized by the
new testing method of die-quenching process: the variation of die and workpiece temperature and cooling rate.
In this study, characteristics of die-quenching process:
temperature of dies and workpiece were investigated precisely. After the process, hardness and microstructure of
workpiece were observed. The evaluation method of diequenching process was proposed by these results.
Apparatus. Dies for V-bending die quenching experiment were made from SUS304 stainless steel. They have
simple coolant bore for cooling dies, which is shown in
Figure 1. These dies measure 15 mm in depths. Coolant is
282 K water and supplied from chiller unit by 1.9x10-4
m3/s.
Figure 1. Water coolable dies for die-quenching.
V-bending tests were performed under the precise control of temperature in the plastically deforming zone using
the hot compression testing machine [16]. Dies were installed in the chamber of machine, which is shown in Figure 2, where the dash arrows are flows of coolant.
Upper Die
Induction heater
Workpiece
C
A B
Thermocouple
Lower Die
Figure 2. Setup of dies in chamber: Relationship of dies, workpiece and flow of water.
869
09.08.2010 14:37:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
The temperature of the workpiece is controlled to maintain the target temperature by induction heating. Using the
deviation in measured temperature from the target temperature as an input signal, the electric current of induction
heating is controlled by the PID feedback.
The geometries of dies and workpieces are shown in
right of Figure 2. The circled symbol A in Figure 2 is
bending position and controlled the temperature. Circled
symbols B and C in Figure 2 are measuring temperature
positions. Position B is the flange of the workpiece, and C
is the bending zone of upper die. The machine is able to
record three series of temperature.
Heating
[K]
1173
Holding
Forming
Quenching
Temperature
18
25.5
Time
[s]
Stroke
10.75
[mm]
Figure 3. Control patterns of temperature and stroke.
Temperature [K]
1200
A
B
C
C
A B
1000
800
600
400
200
0
20
40
60
Time[s]
80
100
120
Figure 4. Transient changes in temperature and stroke.
Next, the temperature history of position C is separated

to two sections. One is the slightly increasing section
which is same as heating and holding section. This effect
was caused by radiation from workpiece. The other is
drastically increasing section which is same as forming
section. This effect was caused by large contact area to hot
workpiece by forming. Specifically, drastically increase
concerns the maximum temperature of dies.
Temperature [K]
1400
A
B
C
1200
1000
Ms (790K)
800
Mf (690K)
600
400
TP
200
0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time[s]
tMs tMf
Figure 5. Definitions of tMs, tMf and TP.
10
Now, the two evaluation indexes of cooling capacity

were defined from these time evolution data in Figure 5.
One is the martensitic transformation time of the workpiece: tMs and tMf. They are the section of time from start
of quenching to start or finish of martensitic transformation.
The other is the maximum temperature of the upper die:
TP in the data. The effect of coolant and forming time were
evaluated by these indexes.
5
t Ms , t Mf [s]
Procedure. In the experiment, temperature and punch

stroke were controlled, which pattern is Figure 3. Heating
rate is 50 K/s (Heating section). The temperature of the
bending zone was controlled precisely, when the target
temperature was 1173 K in the experiment (Holding section). The temperature of position A was maintained close
to the target temperature while the workpiece was bent by
the dies (Forming section). After the forming, control of
temperature and stroke was stopped and workpiece was
quenched by dies (Cooling section). In this study, Water
cooling is called by the experiment which is supplied
coolant to dies and Not cooling is called by the experiment which isnt supplied coolant. For confirmation the
effect of forming time, this experiment was carried out 4
different forming times by changing punch speed: 1.1, 2.2,
5.4 and 10.8 s.
In this study, mild steel (SPCC) were tested for measuring temperature of workpiece and dies. And annealed
martensitic high-strength steel (HSS) were tested for observing microstructure and hardness. Hardness was evaluated by Vickers micro-hardness test. Microstructure was
observed by optical and scanning electron microscopy
(SEM).
1400
tMs
tMf
tMs
tMf
4
3
2
Water
cooling
Not
cooling
1
0

Measuring Temperature Experiment. Figure 4 is time
evolution data of temperature of positions A, B and C in
die-quenching process. The first, the temperature of position B is about 1130 K in the holding section, which phenomenon was caused by cooling dies. Furthermore, the
temperature was suddenly increasing in forming section by
additional heating for maintain temperature of position A
which is cooled by forming using cooling dies.
870
4
6
8
Forming Time[s]
10
12
Figure 6. Difference of tMs and tMf for varied cooling pattern and
forming time.
First, Figure 6 shows tMs and tMf by the difference of

process. tMs of not cooling process was decreased slowly
by shortening forming time, so it was longer than that of
water cooling process in short forming time. In addition,
tMf of water cooling process was shorter than that of not
cooling process. At the forming time 1.1 s, tMf of not cooling process is two times longer than these of water cooling
09.08.2010 14:38:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
process. So, the water cooling brought good effects of diequenching under the short forming time and low temperature.
400
W ater cooling
T P []
300
Not cooling
little difference from Figure 9 a). The phenomenon was

caused by decarburized layer or shortening of anneal.
In this experiment, the evaluation of quenching in diequenching process was verified by hardness test and microstructure. The ability of quenching in die-quenching
process is about 90% of water quenching.
200
50m
100
0
0
4
6
8
Forming Time[s]
10
12
Figure 7. Difference of TP for varied cooling and forming time.
Next, Figure 7 shows TP by the difference of process. TP

of water cooling process is lower than that of not cooling
process which shows the temperature of upper die related
the cooling rate. And short forming time brings low TP.
The result establishes the relationship between punch
temperature and cooling rate caused by forming time.
In this experiment, the relationship between forming
time, die cooling and efficiency of die-quenching was
verified in this investigation. The short forming time and
water cooling brought good die-quenching process.
Measuring Hardness and Microstructures. The effect
of quenching was evaluated by measuring hardness and
observing microstructures. An annealed HSS was used for
this experiment.
As recieved
Forming time
a) Before
annealing
b) Annealed
c) Die-quenched
Figure 9. Microstructure of material and workpiece.
Conclusions
The characterization of die-quenching process was investigated by measuring temperature and hardness and
observing microstructure. So temperature of dies and temperature, hardness and microstructure of workpieces are
observed in die-quenching process and variation was optimized. The following results were obtained:
1. A new valuation method on the effects of die-quenching
parameters is proposed.
2. Aiming at demonstrating the proposed method, results
of application of the proposed method for the evaluation of quenching, strength and microstructure is presented.
References
As annealed
(Before die-quenching)
Figure 8. Hardness of work piece. (1: hardness of bending zone

and 2: hardness of flange zone)
Figure 8 shows the difference of hardness for varied

forming time and measuring section. Hardness is measured at the same position of measuring temperature. Both
A and B, short forming time brought hard workpiece.
Otherwise, hardness of point A is higher than point B in
the same forming time. So the different martensitic time
brought the difference of hardness. However these values
dont reach the original hardness of HSS (about 450 HV).
And the hardness of workpiece which was quenched by
water was about 430HV. In this case, tMf was half of diequenching process.
Figure 9 shows the microstructure of workpiece, annealed HSS and original HSS. At Figure 9 a), martensite
can be clearly seen in the specimens. After annealed, ferrite (Black section in Figure 9 b) and perlite (White section in Figure 9 b) can be seen in the specimens. In Figure
9 c), martensite can be seen in the specimens but it looks a
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871
09.08.2010 14:38:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effects of Punch Shape on Hole-expansion Formability in Hot Stamping

Masahiro Nakata, Toshiya Suzuki, Kazuo Hikita, Kazuo Uematsu, Nobusato Kojima, Yozo Hirose
Corporate Research and Development Laboratories, Sumitomo Metal Industries, LTD., 1-8 Fuso-cho, Amagasaki, Hyogo 660-0891 / Japan,
nakata-ms2@sumitomometals.co.jp
Hot hole-expansion tests with a hemispherical punch and several cylindrical punches were carried out, and the result was compared with
cold stamping of TS 440 and 980MPa high strength steel sheets (HSS). Not only edge fracture but also wall fracture occurred depending
on punch shapes which is different from fracture at a hole edge in cold stamping of HSS. In the hot hole-expansion test with a hemispherical punch, the limit circumferential elongation was small of about 40 to 50 % with edge fracture. In the hot hole-expansion test with cylindrical punches, the limit circumferential elongation became slightly larger in a low level of 45 to 60 % with wall fracture as punch shoulder
radius increased when the original hole diameter was as small as 50 mm. On the other hand, the large limit circumferential elongation over
100 % led to edge fracture for small punch shoulder radius when the larger original hole diameter was used. As a result of the measurements of a panel surface temperature, it was made clear that the contact condition between the sheet and the punch strongly affected the
hole-expansion formability. The edge fracture always occurred for low temperature deformation with contact of material and hemispherical
punch. The small punch shoulder radius of cylindrical punch, which had small contact region with the sheet, decreased the deformation
resistance on the punch bottom region and improved the limit circumferential elongation by suppressing wall fracture.
Keywords: Hot stamping, High strength steel, Hole expansion test, Hemispherical punch, Cylindrical punch, Punch radius, Heat transfer,
Flow stress of super-cooled austenite state.
Introduction
The hot stamping process has been widely applied to the
production of automotive body parts because the press
panels with both high strength and good shape-accuracy
are easily obtained. And the application of this process
has been extended from reinforcement parts with simple
shape to more complicated structural body parts. As for
the formability of hot stamping, the results of stretch
formability with hemispherical punch were reported [1-5].
In addition, the forming limit curve (FLC) of stretch forming was measured by the Nakajima test [1,2]. And it was
reported that the thickness strain was localized in the
higher temperature region at the exit of a contact point
between punch and steel sheet. As for the deep-drawability,
it was reported that the formability in the square cup test
was improved when decreasing the forming start temperature [6]. On the other hand, it is known that the formability
in stretch-flanging, that is one of the forming modes of
complicated automotive parts, has been rarely reported,
although it is well known in cold stamping. In cold stamping, the stretch-flanging formability changes by the
circumferential stress gradient in radial direction from the
hole edge to the inner portion, and the effect of a geometrical punch shape on formability has been explained [7,8].
In this study, the hot hole-expansion test was carried out
and the result was compared with in cold stamping with
TS 440MPa and TS 980MPa high strength steel (HSS),
and the effect of punch shape (a hemispherical one and
cylindrical ones with various punch shoulder radius) on
the hole-expansion formability was investigated.
with hot stamping. Mechanical properties in cold and hot

conditions are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of test materials (average values
for 0, 45 and 90 rolling directions)
Material
Test
YS
TS
El** n
r
***
temp.
(MPa) (MPa) (%)
(%)
Boron-steel* 750 C
62
195
66.7
0.331
1.04
440MPa
351
491
31.7
0.164
0.92
74.7
RT
980MPa
RT
658
1001 17.2 0.116 0.93 34.8
* Mechanical properties of Boron-steel are measured for super-cooled
austenite state at 750 C.
** GL is 50 mm in cold property, and GL is 30 mm in hot property.
*** :Hole expansion ratio is measured according to JFST1001.
Test Apparatus and Punch Shape. The hole-expansion

tests were carried out with the test apparatus as shown in
Figure 1. This apparatus was set in the 7000 kN servohydraulic press machine. The thermal camera was set above the punch to measure the temperature distribution during a hole-expansion deformation, and the load cell was
set under the punch to measure a punch load. The hemispherical punch with the diameter of 200 mm and a top
radius of
Thermal
Camera
R20
205
Experimental Methods of Hole-expansion Test

Test Materials. Boron steel sheet for hot stamping use
(Boron-steel) of 1.4 mm thickness was used in the hot
hole-expansion test. And high strength steel sheets (HSS)
of TS 440 MPa and TS 980MPa of 1.4 mm in thickness
were used in the cold stamping test for the comparison
872
Lock
bead
Die holder
Die
Punch
Blank
Load
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of test apparatus.
100 mm, and cylindrical punches with the diameter of 200

09.08.2010 14:38:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
R100
Rp10,20,40
200
200
(a) Hemispherical punch
(b) Cylindrical punch
Figure 2. Punch geometry for hole-expansion tests.
Test Conditions and Evaluation. Test material was

heated in a gas furnace to perform hot stamping tests. The
material was heated 5 min at 1000 C, and the forming
was started at 750 C during cooling after the material was
taken out of the furnace as shown in Figure 3. Table 2
shows the forming conditions. It is known that friction
coefficients in hot stamping are larger than that in cold
stamping [9]. So molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) was used
as lubricant, and it was applied only to the cylindrical
punch surface of Rp = 40 mm in hot stamping. The conditions of an original hole diameter (D0) were 50, 70 and 90
mm, and holes were punched with a clearance of 10.7 %.
In this test, the limit fracture height (hf) was investigated
by several forming trials (two times and more around hf)
with various forming height changing by 2 mm pitch. The
fracture was classified into three modes as shown in Figure 4. fracture occurred at a inner portion apart from a
hole edge, fracture at a edge portion and W fracture at a
side wall. When the crack penetrated through the thickness,
it was defined as a beginning of fracture.
The limit circumferential elongation is given by:
f =(Lf L0 ) / L0 ,
(1)
Lf is the circumferential length without cracks when

any fracture occurs and L0 is the original circumferential
where
length for original hole diameter.

Forming start
temperature (750)
1000 C
Temp.
5min. in
furnace
RT
Time
Figure 3. Temperature history of a test material in hot stamping.
Table 2. Forming conditions
Forming speed
40 mm/Sec.
Lubricant
No lubricant, Mo2S
600kN
BHF
Cold stamping
Forming speed
40 mm/Sec.
Lubricant
Rust preventive oil
BHF
1500kN
Hot stamping
Figure 4. Schematic illustration of fracture modes in holeexpansion test.
Hole Expansion Test Results

Hemispherical punch. The limit circumferential elongation (f) in the hole-expansion test with a hemispherical
punch is shown in Figure 5. f became large as an original
hole diameter increased both in cold stamping and in hot
stamping. f in hot stamping, in spite of high elongation at
high temperature, reached 40 to 50%, which was half that
of 440MPa and 980MPa HSS. It is known that in the case
of cold forming, f becomes large as the original hole diameter increases because the circumferential stress
strongly increases in radial direction toward the hole edge
due to large tangent angle with large original hole diameter [8].. The fracture mode is shown in Table 3. For all
sheets and all original hole diameters, fracture occurred.
Fracture of Boron-steel occurred after clear necking without micro-cracks. On the contrary, the fracture in 440MPa
and 980MPa HSS occurred as the micro-cracks in the edge
penetrated in thickness direction as shown in Figure 5.
120
Limit circumferential elongation

f [%]
mm and the punch shoulder radius(Rp) of 10, 20 and 40

mm were used in this experiment as shown in Figure 2.
100
80
Spherical punch
Boron-steel
440MPa
980MPa
60
40
Necking
(a) Edge of Boron-steel

Micro cracks
20
0
50
70
90
Original hole diameter D0[mm]
(b) Edge of 440MPa
Figure 5. Effect of an original hole diameter on f in hole expansion test with hemispherical punch and photographs of hole edge
just before fracture.
Table 3. Fracture modes in hole-expansion test with hemispherical
punch.
Original hole diameter [mm]
Material
50
70
90
Boron
steel
440MPa
980MPa
Cylindrical Punch. The effect of punch shoulder radius

on f in hole-expansion test with cylindrical punches is
shown in Figure 6. The effect of punch shoulder radius on
f in cold stamping was small. On the other hand, the effect of punch shoulder radius on f in hot stamping depends strongly on an original punch diameter. When D0 =
50 mm, f became slight larger in a low level as the punch
shoulder radius increased. However f became considerably larger as the punch shoulder radius decreased when the
larger original hole diameter was used. f more than 100 %
was obtained in Rp = 10 mm. Moreover, f with a hemispherical punch in cold stamping was larger than the results with cylindrical punches, as the circumferential stress
gradient of hemispherical punch was larger than that of
cylindrical punch [8]. On the other hand, f with cylindrical punches in hot stamping was larger than that with a
hemispherical punch. The result of fracture mode in this
experiment is shown in Table 4. The change of f in hot
stamping was closely correlated to the fracture mode.
873
09.08.2010 14:38:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Cylindrical punch
140
D0
50mm
70mm
90mm
120
100
80
980MPa
60
40
20
Boron-steel
10
20
30
440MPa
40
10
20
30
40
10
20
30
40
Punch shoulder radius Rp [mm]

Figure 6. Effect of punch shoulder radius on f with cylindrical
punch with Boron-steel, 440 and 980MPa HSS.
Mat.
Table 4. Fracture modes in hole-expansion test

punches having various punch radius.
Rp [mm]
10
20
D0 [mm]
50
70
90
50
70
90
W
W
W
Boron-steel
440MPa
980MPa
, ,
, ,
50
W
40
70
W
90
W

f [%]
Cylindrical punch
D0
50mm
70mm
90mm
120
100
80
(a) No lubrication(D0 = 90 mm)
60
40
20
0
Boron-steel / Rp40
(b) Lubricated(D0 = 90 mm)

No
MoS2
lubrication
Figure 7. Effect of lubrication on f with the cylindrical punch of Rp
= 40 mm in hot stamping.
Mat.
Table 5. Fracture modes in lubricated hole-expansion test with

cylindrical punch of Rp = 40 mm.
Punch radius [mm]
40
Original hole diameter [mm]
50 70 90
No Lubrication
W
W
W
Boron-steel
Lubricated
W
The effect of punch shoulder radius on the limit fracture

height is shown in Figure 8. And hole-expansion panels of
Boron-steel and 440 MPa HSS deformed a little less than
for the limit fracture height are shown in Figure 9. The
limit fracture height in cold stamping increased as the
874
80
Cylindrical punch
D0
50mm
70mm
90mm
60
40
20
0
Boron-steel
10
20
30
Boron-steel
/ MoS2 440MPa
40
40
10
20
980MPa
30
40
10
20
30
40
Punch shoulder radius Rp [mm]

Figure 8. The effect of punch shoulder radius on the limit fracture
height with Boron-steel and 440 MPa HSS.
with cylindrical
The effect of lubrication on f with the cylindrical punch

of Rp = 40mm is shown in Figure 7. f became large as the
fracture mode changed from W fracture to fracture or
fracture as shown in Table 5. It is thought that lubrication
helped the outflow of the material from the punch bottom.
In particular, the improvement of f by lubrication was more significant as the original hole diameter was increased.
140
punch shoulder radius became large as it is well known. It

is considered that the section length from hole edge to die
shoulder becomes shorter as punch shoulder radius becomes larger. On the other hand, not only f but hf improved remarkably for D0 70 mm in hot stamping. In
hot stamping as well, the decrease of punch shoulder radius had the effect of improving the limit fracture height in
spite of large section length.
Limit forming height hf [mm]

f [%]
When Rp = 10 mm, where f significantly varied depending on the original hole diameter. The low f of about 40 %
in D0 = 50 mm was found with W fracture. However the
fracture mode changed to fracture as the original hole
diameter was increased, and the extremely high f of
120 % was obtained for D0 = 90 mm. This behaviour was
also confirmed in the condition of Rp = 20 mm, particularly in hot stamping.
Boron-steel/Rp10/h48
440MPa/Rp10/h28
Boron-steel/Rp40/h42
440MPa/Rp40/h36
Figure 9. Hole-expansion panels of D0 = 70 mm with just before

limit fracture height of Boron-steel and 440MPa HSS.
Discussion
Panel Surface Temperature while Hole-expansion
De-formation. It is well-known that the deformation
property of hot stamping is strongly affected by the heat
transfer from sheet material to punch while stretchforming [4]. The panel surface temperature during deformation was measured by thermal camera. The temperature
distributions in the radial direction of hot stamping with a
hemispherical punch and cylindrical punches of Rp = 10
mm and Rp = 40 mm are shown in Figure 10. The temperature in a hole edge region decreased to about 450 C
at punch stroke of 45 mm before fracture in the hemispherical punch test. It seems that fracture occurs because the material is deformed at a low temperature due to
contact cooling. On the other hand, the temperature at
inner areas apart from a hole edge decreases gradually in
the cylindrical punch test. And when the punch shoulder
radius was small, the temperature decrease of a hole edge
was little. Consequently, the high temperature at the hole
region in the case of Rp = 10 mm was maintained over 700
C until latter stage of hole-expansion deformation. Therefore very high f might be obtained with fracture. Moreover the temperature decreasing region corresponds to the
portion where the high-temperature material and the punch
are in contact. As the flow stress in super-cooled austenite
state of Boron-steel becomes large as the temperature is
09.08.2010 14:38:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
Wall
Surface temperature [ ]
800
Edge
700
Edge
600
500
Spherical punch/D070
Cylindrical punch(Rp40)/D070
20
40
60
x [mm]
700
Edge
Stroke
0mm
10mm
20mm
600
500
Stroke
30mm
40mm
45mm
400
300
0
Cylindrical punch(Rp10)/D070
20
40
60
Estimation line
x [mm]
Figure 10. Temperature distribution in radial direction with hemispherical punch and cylindrical punches of Rp = 10 mm and Rp =
40 mm in hot stamping.
Punch Load in Hole-expansion Test. The comparison

in the punch load of hot stamping with that of cold stamping with 440 MPa HSS is shown in Figure 11. The punch
load in hot stamping was smaller than in cold stamping,
and it seemed to be strongly increasing half way of the
forming. Furthermore the punch load in hot stamping for
the case of Rp = 10 mm was smaller than for Rp = 20 mm
and Rp = 40 mm, and a clear peak load is found although
the punch load in cold stamping became large when increasing the punch shoulder radius. These results correspond to the temperature distribution during holeexpansion deformation as shown in Figure 10.
400
Punch load [kN]
250
Boron-steel
D0 = 70 mm
300
Spherical
Cylindrical
Rp = 10 mm
Rp = 20 mm
Rp = 40 mm
440MPa
D0 =70 mm
200
100
0
20
40
60
20
40
60
80
Punch
strokeload
[mm]between hot stamping and
Figure 11. Comparison
in punch
cold stamping of 440MPa HSS.
The effect of lubrication on the punch load with various

original hole diameter conditions is shown in Figure 12.
When D0 = 50 mm, W fracture occurred in spite of lubrication, and the lubrication effect on the punch load was
small. It seems that it is because the influence of deformation resistance by contact cooling is too strong. On the
other hand, the punch load was obviously decreased and
the limit fracture height was increased by lubrication in
case of larger original hole diameters. It seems that it is
because the edge region of uni-axial deformation was
mainly deformed in comparison with the wall region of
Boron-steel
Boron-steel
200
Boron-steel
No lubrication
Lubricated
150
100
50
0
400
800
Surface temperature [ ]
Wall
plane-strain deformation due to the increase of the outflow

of material from the punch bottom region by lubrication.
Punch load [kN]
decreased [4,5], it is considered that the deformation resistance on the punch bottom region becomes relatively
smaller than the fracture strength at wall region in the
condition of small punch shoulder radius.
Rp40/D070
Rp40/D050
0
20
40
20
40
Punch stroke [mm]
Rp40/D090
20
40
60
Figure 12. Effect of lubrication on the punch load with various

original hole diameter condition in hot stamping.
Conclusions
It is important to understand the stretch-flange formability in hot stamping so that the hot stamping process is
applied for forming complicated automotive parts. However it has not been sufficiently reported. Therefore, the
hot hole-expansion test was carried out for Boron-steel
and compared to cold stamping for 440 and 980 MPa high
strength steel steels. The effect of punch shape (hemispherical and cylindrical with various punch shoulder
radius) on the stretch-flange formability was investigated,
and the following results were obtained:
1. The fracture mode of the hole expansion test changes
with the punch shape and the original hole diameter in
hot stamping.
2. A high limit circumferential elongation more than
100 % is obtained in edge fracture condition with the
cylindrical punch with small punch shoulder radius.
3. The small punch shoulder radius suppresses material
temperature decline on the punch bottom region and the
deformation resistance there is maintained small. Therefore high hole-expansion formability might be obtained
by suppressing wall fracture.
4. The lubricant on a cylindrical punch surface prevents
wall fracture and improves the limit circumferential
elongation and the limit fracture height.
References
[1] Y. Dahan, Y. Chastel, P. Duroux, J. Wilsius, P. Hein, E. Massoni: Proc.
IDDRG Conference, (2007), 125-132.
[2] J. Lechler, M. Merklein: Proc. 1st International Conference on Hot
Sheet Metal Forming of High-Performance Steel, (2008), 55-61
[3] K. Kusumi, S. Yamamoto: Proc. Japanese Joint Conference for Technology of Plasticity, (2007), 83-84
[4] M. Nakata, T. Suzuki, K. Hikita, K. Uematsu, Y. Hirose: Proc. Japanese Joint Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, (2008), 145146.
[5] A. Turetta, A. Ghiotti, S. Bruschi: Proc. IDDRG Conference, (2006),
99-104.
[6] T. Asai, J. Iwaya: Proc. IDDRG Conference, (2004), 344-354
[7] K. Yoshida: Research report of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research,
Japan, 34-2 (1958), 103.
[8] H. Jyufuku, N. Hiramatsu, Y. Higo: Nisshin Steel Technical Report,
59 (1994), 25.
[9] A. Yanagida, A. Azushima: Proc. IDDRG Conference, (2009), 683690.
875
09.08.2010 14:38:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
Stretch Formability of Steel Sheets in Hot Stamping Process

Kazuhisa Kusumi, Shuji Yamamoto
Yawata R&D Laboratory, Technical Development Bureau, Nippon Steel Corporation, Kitakyushu / Japan, kusumi.kazuhisa@nsc.co.jp
The application of hot stamped steel parts has increased for weight reduction of automobiles. In this study, we investigated the stretch
formability of steel sheets in a hot stamping process. Aluminized boron steel sheets were used for hot stamping materials. Cold rolled steel
sheets having tensile strengths of 270, 440 and 1470 MPa levels used for comparison materials for cold stamping. The stretch formability of
hot steel sheets was better than the cold stamped case of 1470 MPa level sheet, and equivalent as the cold stamped 270-440 MPa level
sheets in this experiment. The maximum thinning point was located in the non-contact area with the die. The temperature of this area was
higher than other area, because there was no heat transfer between the sheet and the die. Therefore it was thought that the strain concentration was occurred at this area for lower deformation resistance because of higher temperature. It was found that the formability was
affected by the deformation property of maximum thinning part, which was affected by the distribution of temperature. The distribution of
temperature and strain during forming was discussed with the result of simulation of hot stamping. It was conclude that the stretch formability strongly depended on the condition of contact between die and sheet.
Keywords: Boron steel, Hot stamping, Sheet metal forming, Stretch formability, Heat transfer, Temperature distribution
Introduction
In response to the growing concern about global warming and stricter regulations on crash safety, application of
high-strength steel sheets to automobile bodies is expanding over the last years to reduce body weight for better
fuel consumption and improve crash-worthiness at the
same time. In spite of the fact that the formability of steel
material generally becomes poor as its strength increases,
various kinds of high-strength and high-formability steel
sheet products have been developed by controlling microstructure [1]. However, general understanding is that,
when the material strength is as high as 1500 MPa or so,
forming into complicated shapes by stamping is difficult.
To overcome the difficulty, a forming method called hot
stamping has come to be commercially employed to
manufacture body parts having strength of about 1500
MPa [2,3]. By the method, steel sheets are heated to the
austenitic temperature (around 900 C), formed with tools
kept at room temperature, and then held and cooled under
pressure between the tools for quenching to increase the
strength.
While there have been plenty of knowledge and findings
regarding the formability of steel sheets by warm forming
using heated tools [4,5], little knowledge has been accumulated regarding the formability with hot stamping of hot
steel sheets using cold tools. It is recognized that understanding of basic formability of hot steel sheets forming is
important for improvement of component design which is
suitable for hot stamping process. In the present study, we
investigated the stretch formability of steel sheets in hot
stamping process, which is one of basic formability.
Specimens. Round blanks of aluminized boron steel
sheets [6], 1.4 mm in thickness and 177 mm in diameter,
were used as the specimens for this experiment. The following materials were used as the specimens for comparative test of cold stamping: cold-rolled sheets of 270- and
440-MPa level sheet and aluminized steel sheets for hot
876
stamping use of a 1470-MPa level sheet after quenching

by heating to 950 C and then cooling between cold flat
dies. Table 1 shows the tensile properties of the specimens
used in the expariment.
Table 1. Tensile properties of comparison specimens used in
expaeriment..
Steels
YP / MPa
TS / MPa
U-El(%)
270
158
300
27
T-El (%)
50
440
275
455
20
38
1470
1250
1540
Forming Tools. Figure 1 shows the cross sectional

shapes of the forming tools used for the experiment. The
punch had a hemispherical head 50 mm in radius, and the
die and the blank holder had holes 100 mm in diameter;
two different dies were used: one with a shoulder radius of
5 mm, and the other with that of 20 mm. The blank holder
had spring pins to lift the specimen blank to minimize its
cooling before forming.
Die
R5, 20
Pin
Blank holder
100
Blank
R5
0
Punch
BH
F
Figure 1. Cross section shape of tools
Evaluation of Limiting Dome Height. Specimen

blanks were heated to 1000 C, put on the blank holder,
formed into a dome shape using a hydraulic press, and
then limiting dome height was evaluated. To examine the
effects of the forming temperature on the limiting dome
09.08.2010 14:38:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
Result
Limiting Dome Height. Figure 2 shows the effects of
forming temperature on the limiting dome height. Whereas
there was no significant difference in the limiting dome
height at different forming temperatures when the die
shoulder radius was 5 mm, the limiting dome height increased as the forming temperature became higher when
the die shoulder radius was 20 mm. Figure 3 shows the
effects of punch sliding speed on the limiting dome height.
The limiting dome height increased as the punch sliding
speed increased. Figure 4 compares the limiting dome
height of the hot-stamping specimens with the same of the
comparison specimens formed by cold stamping; the values of the hot-stamping specimens are those obtained at a
forming temperature of 800 C and a punch sliding speed
of 8.1 mm/s. It is clear from the graph that the formability
of the hot-stamping specimens was close to that of the
cold-stamped comparative specimens of the 270- and 440MPa classes, and markedly superior to that of the comparison specimens of the 1470-MPa class, also formed by
cold stamping.
Limiting dome height / mm
Slide speed: 8.1 mm/s
36
Die R: 20mm
34
Open: necking
Solid: fracture
32
30
Die R: 5mm
28
600
650
700
750
800
850
Forming temperature /
Figure 2. Effects of forming temperature on limiting dome height.
40
Limiting dome height / mm
Numerical Simulation. A thermal-mechanical implicit

analysis for this stretch forming was conducted using a
commercial finite element code MSC MARC 2005 with an
axial symmetric 2-dimentional model. A flow stress which
was considered that temperature and strain rate was used.
This data was obtained by a cylindrical compression test
with various temperature and strain rate. The heat transfer
coefficient between sheet and tool was obtained by the
temperature measurement during the actual forming. In
this analysis, the effects of martensitic transformation,
exothermal reaction and dilatation, were considered. According to this analysis, the temperature and strain distribution were discussed.
38
Forming temperature 800C
38
36
34
Die R: 20mm
32
30
Open: necking
Solid: fracture
Die R: 5mm
28
26
24
2
6
8
10 12 14
speed / mm/s
16
Figure 3. Effects of punch sliding speed on limiting dome height.

Limiting forming height / mm
height, the temperature at the beginning of the forming

work was changed within a range from 650 to 800 C,
keeping the sliding speed of the punch constant at 8.1
mm/s. In addition, to examine the effects of the punch
sliding speed on the limiting dome height, the punch speed
was changed to 4.1, 8.1 and 13.5 mm/s, keeping forming
temperature constant at 700 C. The forming was done
without lubrication under a blank-holding force of 800 kN,
and the blank was held between the tools after forming for
1 s. The limiting dome height was determined by visually
checking the occurrence or otherwise of necking or fracture. Sheet thickness and sectional hardness after the forming work were measured under the condition of the limiting dome height; the sectional hardness was measured
using a Vickers harness tester.
The comparison specimens were formed by cold stamping at room temperature at the different punch sliding
speeds specified above. Here, for lubrication purposes,
rust-preventive oil was applied to the specimen sheets at
the area contacting the punch head.
50
die R: 5mm
die R: 20mm
40
30
20
10
0
270MPa
440MPa
1470MPa
Cold stamping
Hot
stamping
Figure 4. Comparison between limiting dome heights by hot and

cold stamping processes.
Distribution of Sheet Thickness and Sectional Hardness. Figure 5 shows a hot stamped specimen which the
fracture occurred circularly. This was the typical fracture
for hot stamping in this experiment.
Figure 6 shows the distribution of the thickness and that
of sectional hardness of the specimens to which necking
occurred during hot stamping under the condition of a
forming temperature of 800 C and a punch sliding speed
of 8.1 mm/s. The hardness of the flange and dome-top
portions was roughly HV 400 to 500, which indicates that
those portions had been quenched. In the portion in between, which was thought that the blank did not contact
with the tools, the hardness was lower. It has to be noted,
in this relation, that forming tools are normally designed
such that they contact the blank in all the forming surfaces
to avoid such a decrease in hardness. The thickness decreased with increasing distance from the blank center, or
877
09.08.2010 14:38:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
the dome top, and it was smallest near the portion where
the blank presumably did not contact the tool surfaces.
Figure 7 shows the thickness distribution of hot stamped and cold stamped specimen in the case the dome
height was 29.0 mm, die radius was 5 mm, the punch
sliding speed was 13.5 mm/s and the forming temperature
was 700 C for hot stamping. The smallest thickness position of cold stamped specimen was closer to the dome top
and the thickness of cold stamped specimen where the
punch contacted with the blank was thinner than those of
hot stamped specimen. This result indicates that the portion where the punch touched with the blank was more
deformable in the case of cold stamping than hot stamping.
According to this, it is thought that the strain concentration
was larger in the case of hot stamping than cold stamping.
Figures 8 and 9 show the influence of temperature and
die radius on the thickness distribution. As this result, the
effect of forming temperature on the thickness distribution
was small. However the effect of die radius was obvious
that the strain concentration was smaller in the case die
radius was larger.
Figures 10 and 11 show the influence of punch sliding
speed on the thickness and hardness distribution in the
case that necking occurred. The hardness where the thickness was smallest was higher when punch sliding speed
was lower. The hardness indicates the temperature during
forming. It was thought that the punch sliding speed was
lower; the temperature of sheet was getting lower.
Figure 7. Comparison of thickness distributions by hot and cold

stamping.
Figure 8. Thickness distributions of hot stamped blank for the die

radius of 5mm.
fracture
150 mm
Figure 5. Fracture in hot stamped specimen.
Figure 9. Thickness distributions of hot stamped blank for the die

radius of 20mm.
Discussion
Figure 6. Distribution of thickness and hardness of hot stamped

blank.
878
Based on the above test results, the authors examined

the deformation behaviour of the blanks during stretch
forming by hot stamping with a punch having a hemispherical head. The blanks were well hardened through
quenching in the dome top and flange portions where they
contacted the tool surfaces under pressure. These portions
are presumed to have cooled rapidly during forming owing
to heat transfer to the tools, and therefore, deformation
resistance increased significantly.
09.08.2010 14:38:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 10. Thickness and hardness distributions of hot stamped

blank for the punch sliding speed of 4.1 mm/s.
thinning occurred at the position shown in Figure 5, leading to fracture. Figure 12 shows the analysis result of the
temperature and the strain distribution. The results support
this consideration.
The limiting dome height tends to increase as the forming temperature and the punch sliding speed become
higher. This seems to indicate that limiting dome height
depends on the ductility of the blank portion where fracture is likely to occur, that is, the higher the temperature of
the portion and the higher its ductility, the higher the limiting dome height becomes. When the die shoulder radius
was 5 mm, however, forming temperature was found to
have little effects on limiting dome height. This is presumably because the contact between the blank and the
tools was different depending on the die shoulder radius,
and therefore, the distribution of temperature and that of
strain of the blank were also different. This indicates that
the stretch formability of steel sheets by hot stamping is
likely to change depending on the contact of the blank
with the tools.
Conclusion
Figure 11. Thickness and hardness distributions of hot stamped

blank for the punch sliding speed of 13.5 mm/s.
Figure 12. Simulated distributions of the temperature and the

strain for the die radius of 5 mm, forming temperature of 800 C
and the punch sliding speed of 3.5mm/s.
In the portions where the blanks did not contact the tools,
on the other hand, heat transfer took place presumably
through air cooling at the surfaces and proceeded in the
sheet plane direction, and as a result, the cooling during
forming was smaller than that of the portions contacting
the tools, and deformation resistance was smaller as well.
It is presumed from the above that, within the portion not
contacting the tools, deformation concentrated in the part
close to the dome top where the strain was higher, and thus,
The stretch formability of steel sheets by hot stamping

was studied and the following findings were obtained:
1. As far as the tools used for the test are concerned, the
limiting dome height of Aluminized boron steel sheets
by hot stamping with a punch having a hemispherical
head was significantly higher than that by cold stamping of the comparative specimens of the 1470-MPa
class, and roughly the same as that by cold stamping of
the comparative specimens of 270- and 440-MPa
classes.
2. The blank portion where fracture is likely to occur was
near the position where the blank was not contacting
the surfaces of the forming tools. This is presumably
because deformation concentrated in that position owing to the difference in deformation resistance due to
the difference in the contact condition of the blank and
tools.
3. The limiting dome height is considered to depend on the
ductility of the blank portion where fracture is likely to
occur.
4. The position and ductility of the portion where fracture
is likely to occur changes depending on the distribution
of temperature and that of strain of the blank, and as a
consequence, the stretch formability by hot stamping is
likely to change depending on the contact condition between the blank and forming tools.
References
[1] T. Senuma: ISIJ Int., 41 (2001), 41.
[2] D. Cornette, T. Hourman, O. Hudin, J.P. Laurent, A. Reynaert: Proc.
SAE 2001 (2001), 19.
[3] K. Nakajima: CAMP-ISIJ, 17 (2004), 980.
[4] T. Ohwue, H. Takechi, Y. Furuno: J. of JSTP, 28, (1987), 225.
[5] T. Ohwue, H. Takechi, Y. Furuno: J. of JSTP, 28, (1987), 706.
[6] M. Suehiro, J. Maki, K. Kusumi, M. Ohgami, T. Miyakoshi: Proc.
BEC 2003, (2003), 267.
879
09.08.2010 14:38:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
A New Method in Manufacturing Near-Surface Cooling Channels for Tempered Tools

Ralf Kolleck, Wolfgang Wei, Robert Vollmer
Institute Tools & Forming, Graz University of Technology, Graz / Austria, wolfgang.weiss@tugraz.at
Laser cladding is a new technology for manufacturing hot forming tools with near-surface cooling channels. In order to do so, cooling channels are milled into the active surface of the tool, covered with thin steel inlays and sealed with several welding layers by laser cladding.
The big advantage of the proposed method is the small and constant distance between the cooling channel and the active surface. This
lowers the overall thermal resistance between the tool and the part. Further benefits are the applicability of the technique on existing tools
and the possibility to combine a base material with dissimilar coating materials. The work at hands shows the basic research on the producibility of near-surface cooling channels by laser cladding. An existing deep drawing tool was chosen to be equipped with a cooling system for the use in hot forming processes. The thermal performance of the punch was simulated with a simplified approach and evaluated
during a real hot stamping process.
Keywords: Laser cladding, Tool cooling, Hot stamping, CFD
Introduction
The cooling performance of tools in the hot stamping
process is a crucial factor for producing high-quality hotstamping parts. First of all, the cooling rate must not fall
below a critical value of 27 K/s in order to generate the
desired martensitic microstructure of the material [1].
Secondly, in the serial process, the tool must not exceed a
temperature of 200C to achieve the high strength of the
part [2]. The cooling rate needs to be uniform over the
whole part during the cooling process and no hot spots
should emerge on the tools surface. This is to ensure homogeneous values for the materials strength of the part.
The cooling rate is influenced by both, the contact pressure and the temperature offset between the tool and the
blank. There has been some research on the influence of
the contact pressure [3-5], but little work has been done in
order to improve the thermal performance of tempered
tools [2].
Currently, cooling of tools is mainly performed by segmented tools with drilled cooling bores, or by tools with
milled cooling channels in a surface shell. Another alternative method is to cast-in cooling geometries [6].
The main disadvantage of cooling bores is that it is not
possible to fit the channel to the shape of the tool. The
approach with surface shells partly overcomes this handicap, but leads to a high milling and sealing effort. Cast-in
cooling channels need special know-how in casting technologies, which makes it difficult to adopt it to a conventional tool shop.
The paper at hand proposes a new method for manufacturing near-surface cooling channels in hot forming tools.
Through this, hot spots on the surface of a tool can be
eliminated effectively, even on existing series tools.
Near-Surface Cooling Channels
The distance between the cooling channel and the active
surface plays a major role in the overall heat performance
of a hot forming tool. This is expressed by the overall
thermal resistance Rt:
Rt Rt ,c
880
(1)
where Rt,c is the thermal contact resistance between the

tool and the blank, h is the convective heat transfer coefficient between the tool and the fluid in the cooling channel
and (/) is the total thermal conductive resistance
through the blank and the tool.
Considering a standard tool steel with a heat conductivity of T = 30 W/m/K, and a boron alloyed hot stamping
steel with B = 40 W/m/K, the reduction of the distance
between the cooling channel and the active surface from
T = 10mm to T = 5mm reduces the overall thermal resistance Rt by 24%1. This leads to the same effect as doubling
the thermal conductivity kT of the tools material. This
simple calculation ought to emphasize the influence of the
position of the cooling channels on the overall cooling
performance.
The manufacturing of near-surface cooling channels, as
proposed in this paper, combines a cutting and a laser
cladding process. The cooling channels are milled into the
active surface of a tool, covered by custom-fit inlays from
mild steel and coated with a laser cladding layer in order
to seal the inlay and to produce a leak-proof connection to
the material of the tool (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Production steps of near-surface cooling channels.
Laser cladding, is a technology that produces fully dense

metal coatings out of powdered metal. A focused laser
melts the substrate locally, while metal powder is sprayed
into the weld pool coaxially to the laser. The big advantage
of the technology is the possibility to combine a base material with dissimilar coating materials. In the case of a hot
forming tool, the base material might be mild steel combined with a layer of brittle, heat resisting hot working
steel. By this means, the material costs of a hot forming
tool can be reduced significantly.
1
h = 4.000 W/m/K; Rt,c = 25e-5 mK/W

09.08.2010 14:38:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
In addition, the proposed technology can be combined
with conventional cooling methods in order to achieve
optimized cooling performances. Since the cooling channels are milled into a finished surface, it is also possible to
adapt this technology to existing tools in order to eliminate
thermal problem areas (hot spots).
Producibility of Near-Surface Cooling Channels
The process steps for manufacturing cooling channels
with the presented technology are shown in Figure 2, and
are compared with the conventional technology of segmented tools with cooling bores. The proposed technology
claims one process step more. The advantage, however, is
that only one tool body has to be processed. With the other
technologies mentioned above, the tool bodies are split up
into several piece parts.
Figure 2. Process steps for manufacturing segmented tools with

cooling bores (left), compared with near-surface cooling channels
(right).
In order to verify the producibility of the proposed technology, flat specimens were manufactured with different
cooling channel geometries. The base material was 1.0570
(St 52-3), as metal powder Stellite21 alloy, a heat resistant CoCr alloy (see Table 1), was used. The thickness of
the inlays was I = 1 mm.
Table 1. Nominal Composition (mass%) of Stellite21 alloy.
Co
Base
Cr
2629
Mo
C
4,56,0 0,20,35
Ni
23
Others
Fe, Si,
Mn
The test part is shown in Figure 3. It was proven that

laser cladding can be performed on narrow as well as on
wide inlay geometries. The influence of the heat introduced by the laser, was identified as noncritical for the
stability of the inlays.
Figure 3. Flat specimen (90x95x20 mm) with near-surface cooling channels Stellite21 on 1.0570 (St 52-3).
In order to estimate the abrasive resistance of the coating, the hardness profile on the cross section of the coated
specimen was measured (Figure 4). The hardness of the
coating reaches 450 HV (~ 45 HRC). This value is comparable to many common hot working steel sorts. It was
estimated, that the coating is hard enough to meet the
demands on abrasive resistance of hot forming tools.
Figure 4. Hardness profile of Stellite21 on mild steel 1.0570.
In order to evaluate the behavior of the coating under

real thermal conditions, hot stamping tests with a flat tool,
containing near-surface cooling channels, were performed.
Therefore a series of blanks was heated to 900C in a
chamber furnace, transferred to the press and quenched
within the flat, cooled tools. The coating showed no visible surface failures like cracks or deformations. The thermal behavior was also suitable for a hot stamping process
since the tools temperature did not exceed the critical
level of 200 C [2].
Hot Stamping Tool with Near-Surface Cooling Channels
The conditions to which a hot stamping tool is subjected
in a real hot forming process are different than the conditions generated in the foregoing tests with the flat tool. To
prove the applicability, an existing cold forming tool was
equipped with near-surface cooling channels, in order to
be applied in a hot stamping process. The base material of
the selected tool was mild steel (1.0570), the coating material Stellite21. The shape of the tool was derived from a
fuel tank geometry, which was scaled down to smaller
881
09.08.2010 14:38:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
dimensions for demonstration purposes. The geometry of
the part is shown in Figure 5.
done assuming stationary conditions because the run-in

period of the tool is of no importance for the real process.
Convection and radiation to the surroundings were neglected.
An average flow velocity of v = 4 m/s was assumed, resulting in an average Reynolds number of Re = 50.000.
This led to the necessary consideration of the turbulence
module because this number indicates the turbulent flow
condition. The turbulence model used was a standard k-model with a standard wall function since this is an effective and stable model.
Figure 5. Scaled tank geometry (approx. 314x207x41 mm).
The tool set consists of three parts: punch, die and blank
holder. In this first approach, only the punch is equipped
with cooling channels. Figure 8 shows the setup of the
tool set and the location of the cooling channels.
Figure 6. Cross section through cooling channel of the realized

hot forming tool.
Figure 8. Tool set for demonstrating cooling effect of near-surface

cooling channels.
The dimensions of the cooling channels are shown in

Figure 6. The inlay is 1 mm, the laser cladding layer in
finished conditions 2 mm thick. Figure 7 shows a picture
of the rough machined tool. Obviously, only the area of
the cooling channels is machined, whereas the remaining
areas are left unchanged.
The tool set was installed in a 400 tons tryout press and
hot stamping tests with blanks of boron steels (22MnB5)
with AlSi coating were performed.
The boundary condition for the heat calculation was a

local, temperature-dependent heat flux q.
q '
dq(T )
tcycle
It is calculated by the cycle time tcycle, and the difference

of the stored energy in the blank during the hot forming
process dq(T) is given by
dq (T ) c p
Figure 7. Hot forming tool with rough milled laser cladding layer.
Simulation of the Tool

The expected cooling performance of the tool was simulated with the multiphysics software CFD-ACE+ from ESI.
There were three different modules coupled numerically:
flow, heat transfer and turbulence. The calculation was
882
(2)
V
(Tblank Ttool ) .
A
(3)
Thereby, Tblank is the constant initial temperature of the

blank and Ttool the temperature of the tool. The density
and the specific heat capacity cp were taken from the material of the blank as well as the volume V and the contact
area A. It is assumed, that the temperature of the blank
reaches the temperature of the tool within the cycle time.
This leads to an overestimated heat flux, when there are
high temperatures of the tool or short cycle times. Since
the optimal temperature of the tool is Ttool < 200 C, this
assumption is valid for a sufficiently cooled tool and cycle
times tcycle > 6 s, where the blank has enough time to cool
down in the tool.
The heat flux q from equation (2) may also be expressed with a heat flux coefficient hq.
q ' hq (Tblank Ttool )
(4)
09.08.2010 14:38:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Technically, this is equal to a convective boundary condition, which facilitates the modeling with the simulation
software. In areas with insufficient cooling, the tools
temperature will rise in order to fulfill the boundary condition given by equation (4). If the tool reaches the very
extreme temperature of the blank, no energy is withdrawn
from the blank.
Figure 9 shows the result of the stationary simulation of
the cooling performance of the punch with near-surface
cooling channels. The area with near-surface cooling channels shows sufficient cooling, with temperatures of the
tool not exceeding 100C. The area without cooling channels shows distinctive hot spots with temperatures up to
240 C.
Temperatures were measured with thermocouples type

N at two points, shown in Figure 10. The location of the
measurements is given in Figure 11. The position of the
measurement points was 2 mm under the active surface.
Although the curves did not reach a stationary level because of the mentioned limitations, the difference of the
temperature between the uncooled and the cooled area
rises. The temperature of the uncooled area reaches a maximum of Ttool = 180 C, whereas the temperature of the
cooled area reaches only Ttool = 90 C.
Figure 11. Thermographic image of punch after last press cycle

with local temperatures.
Figure 9. Simulated temperature distribution of punch - temperatures in C.
Hot Stamping Tests

Hot stamping tests have been performed with the introduced tool. The blanks were heated in a chamber furnace
up to Tblank = 900 C for five minutes. Then they were
transported to the tool manually. The punch speed during
the test was 150 mm/s. Due to the manual handling of the
blank, a cycle time of tcycle = 80 s was reached. The series
was limited to five blanks because of the capacity of the
furnace.
Conclusion
With these investigations, the feasibility of the new
manufacturing method of near-surface cooling channels
for tempered tools was proven. The comparison between
the simulation and the real process still shows deviations
in the estimated temperature. Nevertheless the qualitative
temperature distribution is predicted quite well.
Further investigations will be carried out to improve the
numerical simulation and to gather information about the
durability of the system under real series conditions.
References
[1] M. Merklein, J. Lechler, M. Geiger: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing
Technology, 55-1 (2006), 229-232.
[2] H. Hoffmann, H. So, H. Steinbeiss: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing
Technology, 56-1 (2007),269272.
[3] M. Rosochowska, K. Chodnikiewicz, R. Balendra: Journal of Materials Processing Technology 145 (2004), 207-214.
[4] M. Merklein, J. Lechler: SAE WORLD CONGRESS 2008, Detroit.
[5] C. Fieberg: Kontaktwrmebergang unter hohen Druck- und Temperaturrandbedingungen. Gtting: Sierke Verlag, (2008).
[6] R. Kolleck, S. Pfanner, E.P. Warnke: Key Engineering Materials 344
(2007), 225-232.
Figure 10. Temperature courses during the press cycles.
883
09.08.2010 14:38:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Temperature Distribution Design of Partial Die Quenching for Bump Part Fabrication
and Process Analysis
Sang-Hyun An1), Chung-Gil Kang2), Byung-Min Kim2)
1)
Precision Manufacturing System Division, Graduate School, Pusan National University, Busan / South Korea;
Engineering Pusan National University, Busan / South Korea, cgkang@pusan.ac.kr
2)
School of Mechanical
A new type of process of forming has been employed recently in order to meet the lightweight and high strength requirement in automobile
industry. Hot press forming is a process in which the forming and die quenching are preformed at the same time after the steel was completely austenite and simultaneously martensite transformation occurred. Hot press forming has advantages such as improving the formability and material properties, and minimizing springback of the formed material. In addition, finite element analysis is used to evaluate the
performance of car parts. Although the hot press forming has not been applied in cars that much, it is used for the protection of the car body
and safety of passengers. This paper desires to find an optimal process to produce bumper parts by using a hot press forming process. In
addition, the characterization of stressstrain curve and partial heating temperature distribution are used to compute simulation of partial
die quenching. Finally, the theoretical and experimental data have been proposed to application of hot press forming part, and the initial
designed temperature of blank sheet was analyzed to compare with the experimental result.
Keywords: Hot press forming, Bump part, Partial die quenching, Form type, Thinning
Introduction
Recently, due to the limitative fossil fuel and environmental problems caused by the use of it, technological
development has been required to comply with regulations
related to the exhaustive gas reinforced all over the world.
Moreover, demand for improved impact performance of
the automobile for passenger safety has increased and the
automobile makers are interested in the research on the
technologies that contribute to the improved fuel efficiency by reducing the weight of its parts and advanced
stability by enhancing the mechanical properties.
Applying the high strength steel plate to be formed by
the general press method at the car body can raise problems in formability of the press process and spring-back
due to the reduction of elongation in reverse proportion to
the strength. Hot Press Forming (HPF) which can not only
solve these problems but also can satisfy the requirements
of light-weight and high strength is the manufacturing
process to form the high strength part by quenching immediately after forming in the die with the steel heated
over the transformation temperature, Ac3 to which hardenability is reinforced by adding elements such as B, Mo
and Cr. Generally, the car body weight manufactured by
Hot Press Forming can have the one of 20% off, in the
case of its same body stiffness for the existing steel. It can
also have excellent properties in terms of the strength of
the car body and reliability by increasing the parts thickness by 30% to compensate the same stiffness in comparison with the existing ones.
Therefore, the researches related to the Hot Stamping
have been carried out, and Merklein et al. [1] investigated
the thermal-mechanical characteristics of the sample
formed by Hot Stamping process. Bariani et al. [2] tested
the limitation of hot forming in the deep drawing method
for the high strength steel (HSS). Xing et al. [3] verified
the spring-back which depends on blank-holder force,
clearance and die radius with the experimental technique
after the theoretical analysis was performed by the simulation through ABAQUS S/W. Kolleck et al. [4] reported the
884
properties of the product stamped in a heated state by

induction heating with the boron alloyed steel. Ryan et al.
[5] Studied on the hot forming die by which various mechanical properties can be partially obtained through the
control of the cooling rate in hot forming.
These results show the forming limitation of the hot
forming by the drawing process, and the characteristics
and the spring-back quantity at the hot stamping manufactures can be predicted. Studies on hot forming for the
material to be heated by high frequency induction heating
as well as by electric furnace are also carried out, and they
indicate that many automobile parts are strengthened by
the process. However, few studies of localized reinforcement to enhance only specific concentrated loading region
are reported.
An automobile parts mentioned in this study is the bumper which absorbs the shock in case of collision and most
of them are manufactured to the products of the all-in-one
type inserted with the car body. Therefore, it is required
for the automobile parts to have light-weight and high
strength, and for this research, after the process design for
hot press forming method can be optimized by CAE, these
simulated results were compared with the sample formed
by this process. To give the localized region of integrated
bumper the different strength, initial blank temperature
which is one of the partial die quenching was differently
set elementally, and thickness reduction was predicted
through CAE performed under this condition.
Hot Press Forming Simulation
Molding Process and Insurance of Blank Shape.
Draw-type and form-type forming process is the representative techniques to which can be applied to hot press
forming. The former has difficulties in controlling wrinkles or fractures of a blank in that the difference of properties due to a rapid drop in temperature following the blank
holding process. Therefore, as shown in Figure 1, simulation by the process of 3 piece form type in which the upper
die shapes blank was performed while dropping after the
09.08.2010 14:38:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
upper pad fixed blank following dropping in this research.
The first blank shape is rectangular, but its shape is
changed finally as shown in Figure 2. This change can not
only improve formability but also increase the using rate
of materials. Therefore, the insurance of the optimal blank
shape is prerequisite for insuring the formability. Furthermore, this insurance is very significant in that the costreduction is possible by minimizing the material cost when
products are manufactured.
Figure 1. The position of tool for hot press forming system.
Table 1. Parameters for optimal process under hot press forming

to produce the bump part and thinning results.
Die
Mesh
temperature
size
(C), Td
(mm), Sm
300
20
200
20
38
110
300
20
35.8
110
200
20
30.4
110
150
20
34.8
110
100
20
31.9
110
300
150
34.7
110
200
150
32.9
110
300
150
41.4
10
110
100
150
42.9
Cond-
Clearance
Pad load
itions
(%), ,
(kN), Pl,
100
100
Thinning
(%)
49.3
11
110
50
150
26
12
120
300
150
22.8
13
120
200
150
22.6
14
120
200
150
2.5
20.3
15
120
200
150
17.7
Figure 3 indicates the results of forming simulation:

clearance 100%, pad load 300kN, die temperature 20 C,
mesh size 4 mm. Generally, thinning over 20% at press
processing parts is regarded as fracture. Therefore, it is
concluded that thinning of 49.3 % at the s region in Figure
3 means that this condition is not a suitable process for the
manufacture of parts, and to design an optimal process by
changing other parameters is required [6,7].
50
35
Figure 2. Optimal blank shape by finite element analysis.
Research of Optimal Process from Finite Element

Analysis. In order to design an optimal process of the
development-target part bumper, a forming simulation was
carried out by using the sheet metal forming program
JSTAMP in this research. Boron bearing steel which has a
thickness of 1.6 mm (22MnB55) was adopted as a material
of blank. In the beginning of forming, the initial temperature is 800 C, and this temperature is constant under all
the conditions. Parameters such as the clearance between
upper die and under die, pad load, die temperature and
mesh size were controlled. Each condition and the result
of thinning to be simulated are shown in Table 1.
20
5
-10
Figure 3. Simulation results of thinning distribution for hot press

forming.(: 100, Pl : 300kN, Td: 20, Sm: 4).
As shown in Table 1, thinning is in reverse proportion to

clearance increases and pad load decreases. This results
show that thinning decreases greatly when forming simulation is performed under pad load of 50 kN. In addition,
influences by thinning are hardly found when the die temperature is 150 C. When the size of blank mesh is decreased to 1 mm, thinning increases slightly. Thinning can
be minimized if forming simulation is carried out under
the condition of over pad load of 50 kN. However, as
shown in Figure 5, the location of pad is investigated on
cross section in order to figure out the minimum pad load
which does not influence the shape of product as shown in
Figure 4. Further, to review the mesh size of blank to
show the shapes of product, the minimum roundness of
tools are measured as shown in Figure 4. As the result, it
can be inferred that formability can be brought about because it cannot pressurize blank fully under the condition
of the pad load of 200 kN, and that the mesh size of 3-mm
is insufficient to show the minimum roundness of products.
885
09.08.2010 14:38:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 4. Minimum radius of the die section in bump part.

Figure 7. Experimental results under the optimal simulated
condition.
Pl = 50kN
Pl = 200kN
Pl = 150kN
Pl = 300kN
Figure 5. Distance between pad and low-die under the various

pad-load.
As shown in Figure 6, no defect was found under the

condition of thinning of 17.7%, and this value is the optimal condition of the process.
Finite Element Analysis to Which Partial Die Quenching is Applied. In order to apply partially-different
strength to parts such as a car bumper and center-pillar,
parts have been developed by welding these parts formed
by part separately together. If strength or elongation is
applied partially-differently to those parts conducting
forming in the one process, time and expenses can be
reduced due to the shorten process. If the initial temperature of blank is applied partially-differently to those parts
from local heating of methods to which partial die quenching was applied, partially different strength and elongation
of one part in the one process can be obtained. So, in this
research, forming simulation from the initial temperature
of blank is conducted on the basis of the design of the
optimal process and estimated its formality. The strainstress diagram according to the change of the temperature
of boron steel adopted as input data of forming simulation,
as shown in Figure 8 [8].
50
35
20
5
-10
Figure 6. Simulation results of thinning distribution for hot press

forming.(: 120, Pl : 200kN, Td: 150, Sm: 2).
Manufacture of Bump Pats by Hot Press Forming. In

this research, the samples manufactured under the optimal
condition were compared with the result of simulation
under the same condition. The forming conditions of hot
press forming products are as follows. The blank was
heated for 5 minutes under the condition of temperature of
900C in electric furnace, pad load was 300 kN, and compression holding time was 15 seconds. As shown in Figure
7, the bumper is the product to be commercialized to
which hot press forming is applied on the basis of the
design of the optimal process. Its maximum thinning rate
is 9.4%, and this product can be actually applied to car
parts. There was a difference between the result of forming
simulation and the thinning of the formed part. It is expected that the standard of fracture of products can be
predicted considering the difference when manufacturing
other parts.
886
Figure 8. Strain-Stress diagram for various heating conditions of

boron steel.
Figure 9 shows that the temperature of the middle of

blank is 500 C and that the temperature of Xs duration (
466 - 744 mm) is 800 C. The change of temperature in
the transition region was calculated from the analysis in
the normal state. In addition, the simulations for temperature of the middle of blank applied differently (600 and
700 C) to those parts were carried out. As a result, Figure
9 indicates temperature gradient of the transition region
according to temperature change of the middle of blank.
09.08.2010 14:38:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
Figure 9. Temperature distribution of bump part from center.
Figure 10 shows the result of forming simulation at

500 C of temperature of the middle of blank. Also, the
result of thinning in the duration (280 - 400 mm) on the
coordinates of blank was compared with the result of
thinning of press processing products in the identical duration to the above, as shown in Figure 11. Thinning was
30.38% at 500 C of temperature of the middle of blank,
and formality was bad. On the contrary, thinning was respectively 21.6% and 18.35% at 600 and 700 C of temperature of the middle of blank, and formability was good.
It can be inferred from these results that products can be
produced without a problem of fracture if the middle of
blank is heated over 600 C by applying partial die
quenching.
50
35
20
5
-10
Figure 10. Simulation results at mid portion temperature of 500 C

of thinning distribution by partial die.
Hot press forming was applied to parts of the car bumper,

and optimal conditions of the process were deduced from
the control of parameters while conducting forming simulation. Press processing products were actually shaped on
the basis of this deduction. Further, the results of forming
simulation were compared with manufactured products,
and the possibility of manufacture of press processing
products was examined after forming simulation by applying differently the initial temperature of blank by part to
those parts. Therefore, the following conclusions were
drawn by deducing optimal conditions of the process from
finite element analysis and reviewing the possibility of
application to other parts and of the manufacture of press
processing products by partial die quenching.
1. Parameters of clearance among upper die and under die,
pad load, die temperature and mesh size were controlled
in the process of forming to which hot press forming is
applied from finite element analysis and conditions of
the optimal process were drawn. In addition, testing results of press processing products were compared with
analytical ones, and it was found that there is a difference of approximately 8% of thinning.
2. Forming simulation was performed by one method (i.e.
a partially different application of the initial temperature
of blank) of partial die quenching. As a result, it was
confirmed that there is a difference of formability according to the difference of temperature by part. This
results shows that strength and elongation in the specific
localized region at one-unit-typed part can be controlled.
The study for the establishment of temperature distribution which is applicable to products will be performed
in the future.
Acknowledgment
This work(research) is financially supported by the
Ministy of Knowledge Economy(MKE) and Korea Intitute
for Advancement in Technology (KIAT) through the
Workforce Development Program in Strategic Technology
and National Core Research Center(NCRC) of Pusan
National University
References
[1] M. Merklein, J. Lechler: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
177 (2006), 452-455
[2] P.F. Bariani, S. Bruschi, A. Ghiotti, A. Turetta: CIRP Annals, 57
(2008), 265-268
[3] Z.W. Xing, J. Bao, Y.Y. Yang: Materials Science and Engineering A,
499 (2009), 28-31
[4] R. Kolleck, R. Veit, M. Merklein, J. Lechler, M. Geiger: CIRP Annals,
58 (2009), 275-278
[5] G. Ryan, B. Alexander, W. Michael: HOT SHEET METAL FORMING OF HIGH-PRERFOMANCE STEEL, (2009), 189-198
[6] G.. Hussain, N. Hayat, L. Gao: International Journal of Machine Tools
Figure 11. Simulated and experimental results of thinning distribution for hot press forming.
& Manufacture, 48 (2008), 11701178

[7] G. Ingarao, R. Di Lorenzo, F. Micari: Materials and Design, 30 (2009),
4421-4433
[8] M. Eriksson, M. Oldenburg, M.C. Somani, L.P. Karjalainen: Modeling Simul. Mater. Sci. Eng., 10 (2002), 277-294
887
09.08.2010 14:38:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
Optimal Geometry of Sheet-Metal Specimen for Elastic-Bar-Type High Strain-Rate Tensile Testing
Satoshi Hirose1), Shunji Hiwatashi1), Akihiro Uenishi2), Hiroshi Yoshida3)
1)
Steel Research Laboratories, Nippon Steel Corporation, Futtsu / Japan, hirose.satoshi@nsc.co.jp;
Steel Corporation, Kimitsu / Japan; 3) Nagoya R&D Laboratory, Nippon Steel Corporation, Tokai / Japan
2)
Kimitsu R&D Laboratory, Nippon
In finite element analysis of high-speed forming for rate-sensitive materials, the accuracy significantly depends on tensile testing data at
high strain rates. Accurate measurement of the testing data is more difficult for the reason that stress wave propagation gives a specimen
various influences, e.g., early necking at a non-central part of specimen. In addition, the effects depend on the design of the specimen
geometry. In this study, the important parameters of the specimen geometry, i.e., parallel length, width of parallel part, and radius of transition zone were investigated by using dynamic explicit finite element analysis for three different sets of material parameters. The finite element analysis in the present study revealed the range of optimal specimen geometry. It was also found that materials with poor workhardenability have smaller tolerance of the geometry parameters. The above conclusion was experimentally validated by the one-bar
method for two specimen geometries. In a steel with higher work-hardenability, the stress-strain curves for these specimen shapes agreed
except for the very last part, whereas larger discrepancy is found in the data for less work-hardenable steel. Finally, it was shown that the
specimen with the optimal geometry could improve the accuracy of tensile testing data even for materials with poor work-hardenability such
as ultra-high-strength steels.
Keywords: High-strain-rate tensile testing, Specimen geometry
Introduction
In finite element analysis (FEA) of high-speed forming
for rate-sensitive materials the accuracy significantly depends on tensile testing data at high strain rates around
1,000 s-1 [1].
To measure accurately the force in tensile testing, the
propagation of the stress wave that causes the elasticplastic deformation of the specimen and the elastic deformation of the force measurement device must be taken
into account. The stress wave corresponding to elastic
deformation is known as an elastic wave, whereas that
corresponding to plastic deformation is known as a plastic
wave. The sensing block type [2] and elastic bar type [3-5]
high-strain-rate testing methods take the elastic wave into
consideration.
On the other hand, the accuracy of measured stress and
strain depends on specimen geometry [6]. For low strain
rates, Fukui et al. [7] and Yoshida et al. [8] proposed
specimen geometry to maintain uniaxial stress condition
under tensile testing. However, the influence of the stress
wave can be neglected for quasi-static testing. In high
strain rate testing, inadequate specimen geometry sometimes causes a concentration of deformation in an area
other than the center of the specimen. In such a situation
the uniaxial stress condition is not fulfilled [9]. Furthermore, the observed strain depends on the method of tensile
testing [10]. However, few comprehensive investigations
have been reported on the conditions required for specimen geometry [11,12].
In this study, the optimal parameters of the specimen
geometry of sheet metal, i.e., the width of parallel part W,
radius of transition zone R, total length Lt, and parallel
length Lp(=Lt-2R) in Figure 1, were investigated by using
dynamic explicit FEA simulating elastic bar type tensile
testing at 1,000 s-1. In addition, the influence of material
properties on optimal specimen geometry was investigated
888
for various sets of material parameters that affect the speed

of the stress wave.
Lt
Lp
W
Figure 1.Specimen geometry.
Four Conditions Required for Specimen

We propose four conditions required for the specimen
used in high-strain-rate tensile testing. Each of the four
conditions is explained below:
Condition 1: Uniaxial stress: As Fukui et al. [7] and Yoshida et al. [8] discussed for a quasi-static testing specimen, uniaxial stress is obviously required also for highstrain-rate tensile testing.
Condition 2: Quick achievement of force equilibrium:
the stress calculation from measured force assumes that
sectional force is homogeneously distributed in the axial
direction. However, the sectional force can be inhomogeneous at the beginning of high-strain-rate testing, because
the time required for stress wave propagation through the
length of the specimen is not always negligibly short [13].
Therefore, the force equilibrium should be archived with a
minimum delay.
Condition 3: The avoidance of early-stage necking at a
non-central part: Plastic wave is an important factor affecting the deformation localization, which may eventually
lead to necking and failure. Sakui et al. reported an extremely small uniform elongation due to the early necking
near one end of parallel zone Lp in high-strain-rate tensile
testing [9]. This should be avoided because the accuracy of
stress and strain measurements might be lost.
Condition 4: Adequate choice of reference gauge
length: This condition is specific to elastic-bar-type testing,
09.08.2010 14:38:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
By LS-DYNA, widely- used software of dynamic explicit FEA, the simulation of tensile testing at high strain
rates was performed. For the specimen, we assumed the
Swift type work-hardening law and Cowper-Symonds type
strain-rate
sensitivity
defined
as
= K ( 0 + P )n 1 + ( P X )1 Y , where p, p and are the
equivalent plastic strain, equivalent plastic strain rate, and

equivalent stress, respectively. The three sets of material
parameters shown in Table 1 were used to investigate the
influence of material properties. The variation of the
specimen geometry is shown in Table 2. About 0.2-mmsize selective-reduced-integration hexahedral elements
were used.
Mat.
Table 1. Material parameters investigated.
K [MPa]
1650
1050
900
0
0.0004
0.0020
0.0020
n
0.14
0.22
0.12
X [s-1 ]
3.40 10 11
5.00 10 6
6.00 10 7
Y
6.4
4.0
5.0
Table 2. Specimen geometries investigated.
thickness [mm]
1.4
Lt [mm]
10~90
W [mm]
3~12.5
R [mm]
0.5~25
Furthermore, taking the computational efficiency and

the stress wave propagation in the one-bar method into
account, we assumed the following conditions: The velocity V which satisfies V/Lt = 103 s-1 is given in Section A in
Figure 2; Section B is the border between the specimen
and elastic bar of which the mass density is increased, so
that the introduced acoustic impedance gap can simulate
the stress wave transmission and reflection; The nonreflecting boundary condition is given in Section C [14].
The elastic bar is expressed as a long plate of constant
thickness. A stress-strain curve is obtained from the force
transmitting through Section A and the relative displacement between the centers of Sections A and B. The obtained stress-strain curve agrees with the results of more
precise simulations for the one-bar and split Hopkinson
bar methods.
0.6
0.4
w/u
Analysis Model
in width direction w in central point D in Figure 2 of the

specimen when the strain of the specimen was 10%, (i.e.
w/u) as shown in Figure 3. Holding a uniaxial stress
condition in Point D is easier than that in others. Figure 3
shows that the smaller Lp/W is, the larger w is for Materials , and . Moreover, there could be a lower limit of
Lp/W to hold the uniaxial stress condition even for large
strain. The above limit is provided as Lp/W C1.
0.8
Material
Material
Material
0.2
0.0
-0.2
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
L p/W
8.0
10.0
Figure 3. Relation between w/u and Lp/W.
Condition 2: Quick Achievement of Force Equilibrium

The smaller Lt is in Figure 1, the shorter the time required for stress wave propagation through the length of
the specimen.
Inadequate Lt leads to force non-equilibrium due to superposition of the stress wave by reflections [15]. We
investigated the influence between the length of Lt and the
time to achieve force equilibrium by simulation. The force
equilibrium was evaluated by | FA-FB | /Fmax, where FA and
FB are sectional forces at Section A and Section B respectively, and Fmax is the largest-sectional force between Section A and Section B. It was confirmed that the shorter Lt
is, the earlier the force equilibrium is obtained for Materials , and as shown in Figure 4. There could be an
upper limit of Lt to achieve the force equilibrium quickly.
The above limit is provided as Lt C2. Furthermore, the
limit was the same in these materials. This may be the
reason that propagation rate of an elastic wave depends on
Youngs modulus and density [16].
0.15
|F
| FcA- FFb|B/ | F/ F
max
max
in which the displacement at the specimen-side bar end is

used as the data for strain calculation [3-5]. This displacement is affected not only by the parallel zone but also by
the transition zone where strain is not homogeneously
distributed. A solution for accurate strain measurement
could be found by searching adequate choices of reference
gauge length and specimen geometry.
Lt=30mm
0.10
Lt=20mm
Lt=10mm
0.05
0.00
0.00
Figure 2. Analysis modelbased on elastic bar type.
Condition 1: Uniaxial Stress Condition

To achieve uniaxial stress condition on a section perpendicular to the tensile direction in specimen, the specimen needs to have the larger ratio of width W to parallel
length Lp, (i.e. Lp/W) [7-8]. We investigated the relation
between Lp/W and the ratio of tensile strength u to stress
0.05
True strain
0.10
Figure 4. History of equilibrium for specimens of material .
Condition 3: Avoidance of Early-Stage Necking at NonCentral Part

To avoid early-stage necking at a non-central part [9],
specimen geometry should be designed based on consideration of plastic wave propagation. Inadequate specimen
geometry may cause trapping of plastic waves and failure
889
09.08.2010 14:38:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 5(a). Distribution of axial strain (Lp/W=3.4).
Figure 5(b). Distribution of axial strain (Lp/W=5.7).
As stated above, it was found that the above two types

could be differentiated by the ratio of width W to parallel
length Lp, (i.e. Lp/W). Furthermore, all specimens have the
transition ranges, which mean the boundary of the above
two types, in Figure 6. The specimens near this transition
range easily cause double necking [15,18]. These transition ranges depend on material properties. This can be due
to the plastic wave propagation. Assuming that stress is
evaluated as a function of only strain even for plastic deformation such as an elastic one, the rate of plastic wave
propagation is calculated based on an equation such as
cp=((d/d)/)0.5. The rate in Material is much smaller
than that in Materials and according to the above
equation. Therefore, it is more difficult for concentrated
deformation to be relaxed in Material . The difference of
the rate may be apparent in Figure 6. Moreover, Figure 6
shows that Lp/W has the upper limit respectively in investigated materials. The above limit is provided as Lp/W C3.
Therefore, the Lp/W of the specimen should be smaller to
avoid early necking at a non-central part satisfying the
uniaxial stress condition.
In addition, the lower the work-hardenability is, such as
ultra-high-strength steels, the greater the sensitivity to
specimen geometry can be.
10
W [mm]
8
at the center
Material
Material
4
2
Material
0
0
10
L p [mm]
away from the center
15
20
Figure 6. Influence of W and Lp for location of necking.
890
Condition 4: Adequate Choice of Reference Gauge Length

This condition is specific to the elastic-bar-type testing,
in which the displacement L at the specimen-side bar end
is used as the data for the strain calculation [3-5], because
the conventional extensometer cannot be used due to the
lack of response characteristics [19]. This displacement is
affected not only by the parallel zone but also by the transition zone where the strain is not homogeneously distributed. Therefore, a specimen with larger R overestimates
the strain in case the reference gauge length (GL) is parallel length Lp [10]. We confirmed that this problem could be
reduced by adequate choices of GL and the design of the
specimen.
There are the following two procedures for resolution or
alleviation of the above problem: One procedure uses a
special and expensive measuring device with a much
higher sampling rate than conventional extensometer [11],
and the other procedure devises the specimen geometry
and how to calculate the strain. High-strain-rate tensile
testing, which is basic material testing, should be widely
conducted. In fact, it is important to avoid use of special
and expensive devices. Therefore, we studied the later
procedure. Concretely, we investigated the effective gauge
length Le that could be satisfied so that the strain calculated by L/Le coincided with experimental data. Le was
calculated so that the square sum of the difference between
the evaluated true stress - true plastic strain curve by the
simulation of the tensile test and the input data was the
smallest. It was found that Le was not equal to Lp in the
range of R/Lt >0.17 and was equal to Lt in a range of R/Lt.
The range for Materials , and is provided as
C4a R/Lt C4b in Figure 7.
1.5
L e /L t
near an end of parallel zone Lp [9,15,17,18]. Firstly, we

investigated the history of strain distribution in the tensile
direction by simulation and observed the following process of deformation: All specimens have concentrated deformation the near ends of the parallel zone at the beginning of the tensile testing. Next, two types of deformation
behavior are observed. One is that the specimens, which
have smaller Lp than W, have the condition of homogeneous deformation by relaxation of concentrated deformation
to the central part of the specimen, and cause the necking
at the central part in Figure 5(a). Another is that the specimens, which have larger Lp than W, cause quick necking
near the end of the parallel zone without relaxation and
failure at the non-central part in Figure 5(b). These figures
show the strain distribution in the tensile direction.
Material
Material
Material
1.0
0.5
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
R /L t
Figure 7. Distribution of axial strain (Lp/W=5.7).
Optimal Specimen Geometry

The optimal specimen geometry condition by the 4 conditions for a strain rate around 103 s-1 is represented in
Figure 8. It is confirmed that there is a specimen geometry
that can satisfy all conditions even for low workhardenability such as ultra-high-strength steels. The assumed material parameters of Material are shown in
Table 3. (E.g. Figure 8 provides the tolerance of W and R
for a specimen with Lt=Lp+2R=10 mm, (i.e. C1, C2, C3, C4a
and C4b are 1.4, 10.0, 2.0, 0.07, 0.12, respectively). The
optimal specimen geometry is shown in the shaded range
in Figure 8 in case of the above parameters.)
Furthermore, we confirmed the validation of optimal
specimen geometry predicted in Figure 8 by the simulation
of the high-strain-rate tensile testing as shown in Figure 9.
09.08.2010 14:38:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
1600
Nominal stress [MPa]
Material is in Table 3. The tensile strength and uniform

elongation of the Material are about 1640 MPa and
about 0.05 respectively based on the input data. Specimen
geometry is (Lt (=Lp+2R), W, R)=(10, 4, 1.0). Figure 9
shows that the material properties of Material , which
were evaluated by FEA, coincided with the input data.
Low work-hardenable material
1400
Specimen I
Specimen II
1200
1000
High work-hardenable material
800
600
400
200
0
0
10
20
Nominal strain
30
Figure 10. Stress-strain curves.
Conclusions
Nominal stress [MPa]
Figure 8. Range of optimal specimen geometry.
2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
From input data

From analysis result
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
Nominal plastic strain
0.1
Figure 9. Stress-strain curves of low work-hardenable steel by

optimal specimen geometry.
Table 3. Material parameters of low work-hardenable steel.
Mat.
K [MPa]
2000
0
0.0001
n
0.05
X [s-1 ]
5.00 10 12
Y
4.0
Verification of Prediction by Experiment

As stated above, the lower the work-hardenability such
as ultra-high-strength steels is, the more sensitive the dependency on specimen geometry becomes. Therefore, we
tried to validate the above prediction by experiments.
Concretely, we conducted high-strain-rate tensile testing
based on one bar type in Figure 10 for two materials,
which are high work-hardenable steel and low workhardenable steel. Specimen geometry is two kinds, which
are (Lt, W, R)= (10, 4, 1.0) as Specimen I and (Lt, W,
R)=(10, 5, 1.5) as Specimen II. The difference of the
specimen geometries is extremely small but evaluated
stress strain curves differ largely according to the specimen geometry. The difference of measured elongations of
two different specimen geometries is small in the steel
with high work-hardenability but very large in the steel
with low work-hardenability. This can show that low
work-hardenable material depends on specimen geometry
more strongly than high work-hardenable material. This
experimental results could corroborate the numerical
analysis, which has been used to obtain optimal specimen
geometry conditions.
Numerical simulations and experiments of high-strainrate tensile testing of sheet metals have been conducted.
The results could be summarized as follows
1. The optimal specimen geometry depends on material
properties. In particular, the range can be sensitive to
work-hardenability for materials with the same elastic
modulus.
2. A systematic scheme for determining the optimal geometry was proposed. As an example, the range of the
optimal specimen geometry was demonstrated for
around103 s-1.
3. Experimental results agreed with the prediction on the
relationship between the material factors and the specimen geometry.
The proposed scheme could lead to optimal specimen
geometry not only for sheet steel but also for various other
materials.
References
[1] A. Uenishi, M. Suehiro, Y. Kuriyama, M. Usuda: Proc. IBEC, Detroit, 23 (1996), 89-97.
[2] S. Tanimura, A. Chiba, K Hokamoto: Impact Engineering and Application, Elsevier Science, (2001), 57-64.
[3] B. Hopkinson: Phil. Trans. A, 213 (1914), 437-452.
[4] H. Kolsky: Proc. Phys. Soc. B, 62 (1949), 676-700.
[5] K. Kawata, S. Hashimoto, K. Kurokawa, N. Kanayama: Proc. Inst.
of Phys. Conf., London, 47 (1979), 71-80.
[6] J. Rodriguez, C. Navarro, V. Sanchez-Galvez: J. De Physique IV, 48 (1994), C8-83 - C8-88.
[7] S. Fukui: Report of Riken, 41-1 (1965), 5-15.
[8] S. Yoshida, K. Yoshida, K. Uchida, K. Ozaki, K. Abe: Report of
Riken, 39-3 (1963), 137-150.
[9] S. Sakui, T. Mori: J. Japan Inst. of Metals, 28-9 (1964), 537-542.
[10] P. Verleysen, J. Degrieck: Int. J. Impact Engineering, 30-3 (2004),
239-253.
[11] P. Verleysen, J. Degrieck, J. Van Slycken, B. De Cooman, L. Samek:
Structures and Materials, 15-1 (2002), 497-505.
[12] P. Verleysen, B. Verthegghe, J. Degrieck, B.C. Cooman: Proc. Int.
Conf. on Impact Loading of Lightweight Structures, Brazil, 8-12
(2005), 549-562.
[13] H. Yoshida, A. Uenishi, K. Hashimoto, Y. Kuriyama: Proc. IBEC,
Detroit, (2000), SAE Technical Paper Series 2000-01-2725.
[14] JRI Solutions Ltd: LS-Dyna ver.971 Users Manual Volume I (2007)
[15] A. Rusinek, J.R. Klepaczko: J. Phys. IV France, 110(2003), 329-390.
[16] T. Hayashi, Y. Tanaka: Impact Engineering, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun,
(1988).
[17] W.W. Wood: Experimental Mechanics, 5 (1965), 361-371.
[18] S. Fukui: Reports of the Aeronautical Research Institute, Tokyo
University, 3-6 (1963), 361-380.
[19] http://www.worldautosteel.org/uploaded/DynTestingRecomPract.pdf
891
09.08.2010 14:38:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
Modelling of Materials Properties Used for Simulation of Hot Stamping

Zhanli Guo1), Gyeongpil Kang2), Nigel Saunders1)
1)
Sente Software Ltd., Surrey Technology Centre, Guildford / U.K. 2) Solution Lab, Seo-Gu, Daejeon / Korea
Reliable simulation of a hot stamping process requires accurate material data. This paper describes the development of computer models
that can provide many of the material data required, including TTT/CCT phase transformation diagrams, temperature dependent physical
and thermophysical properties, as well as temperature and strain rate dependent mechanical properties including high temperature strength
and flow stress curves. The calculated material data have been used to simulate the hot stamping production of a part made of steel
22MnB5. The simulation is carried out with coupled analysis of heat transfer, deformation mechanics and phase transformations. The simulated springback is in good agreement with the experimental observation.
Keywords: Hot stamping, Processing simulation, Material properties, TTT/CCT diagrams, High strength steels
Introduction
Modelling of Materials Properties Using JMatPro
Hot stamping is an advanced manufacturing process in

which a high strength part is produced by forging at high
temperatures, followed by rapid-cooling in the forging
dies [1,2]. Combining of forming and hardening in one
operation, results in extensive cost savings and good crash
performance. As the material has excellent formability at
high temperatures, complex shapes can be formed in a
single stroke. Also, because the part remains in the die
during the cooling stage, springback is minimized [2].
To achieve reliable CAE simulation of the hot stamping
process, or any thermo-mechanical processing in general,
high quality material data input is required. For example,
physical and mechanical properties as well phase transformation kinetics are needed for the simulation of a practical processing operation. The traditional way of obtaining material data is through experimentation, which is both
expensive and time-consuming. Lack of material data has
been a common problem in CAE simulation, even though
there are many software packages available. To overcome
this problem and provide reliable and cost effective data
for process simulation, computer-based models have been
developed so that such properties can be readily calculated
[3].
The paper consists of two parts. The first part gives a
brief description of the calculations that have been made to
obtain the requisite materials properties for hot stamping
processing. The second part features the simulation of a Vbending process itself. The simulation is carried out with
coupled analysis of heat transfer, deformation mechanics,
and phase transformations.
The hot stamping operation investigated in this work is a

V-bending process. The process consists of five steps:
heating in furnace, transportation to the press stage, hot
forming, quenching, and unloading. Figure 1 shows the
three main processing steps. Any simulation must be able
to deal with heat transfer, phase transformation and material deformation, in a coupled fashion.
Simulation of heat transfer requires knowledge of thermal conductivity and heat capacity. Simulation of deformation requires elastic modulus, Poissons ratio, thermal
expansion coefficient, strength and flow stress curves. All
of these properties are required as a function of temperature and/or strain rate. Phase transformation simulation
requires the knowledge of transformation kinetics, as well
as heat evolution and volume change during transformations.
The material of interest is a 22MnB5 alloy, with composition (wt.%): Fe-0.24C-0.17Cr-1.14Mn-0.27Si-0.036Ti0.003B-0.015P-0.001S. The materials properties required
for hot stamping simulation are calculated by the computer
software JMatPro [3-5]. The material models employed by
JMatPro are briefly introduced below, followed by examples of calculated properties for the 22MnB5 alloy.
Heating
Heating
TTT/CCT Diagrams. The material models employed in

JMatPro are able to calculate TTT/CCT diagrams for
steels over a wide composition range [4,5]. The composition of the austenite at the quenching temperature is always used in the calculation. The TTT curves of the
22MnB5 alloy are given in Figure 2, where the austenite
grain size is taken as 33 m.
Forming
Forming
Unloading
Unloading
Figure 1. V-Bending experiment at elevated temperature.
892
09.08.2010 14:38:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
comparison with bainite. However, this may not always be
the case, as is demonstrated by the hardness and phases
present in a 20MnCr5 as a function of cooling rate [7]. In
this case, there is only a small change in hardness when
bainite is being replaced by a mixture of ferrite +pearlite
as cooling rate decreases.
The calculation of flow stress curves in steels follows
similar procedures as previously described in Ref. [8] for
titanium alloys. CAE packages normally provide a range
of constitutive equations that describe stress as a function
of temperature, strain and strain rate. The user has to first
decide which equation to use, as the choice of equation
can affect the simulation significantly. He will then be
facing the task of assigning proper values to each of the
material constants in the constitutive equation. The present
approach models materials flow behaviour based on the
Ferrite (1%)
Pearlite (1%)
Bainite (1%)
Figure 2. TTT curves of 22MnB5 calculated by JMatPro.
7.4
7.3
Yield stress (MPa)
7.2
7.1
Austenite
Ferrite
Martensite
Bainite_Pearlite
7.0
6.9
200
400
600
800
Pearlite
300
800
600
Austenite
200
100
400
200
Ferrite
0
1000
1400
1000
400
1600
1200
Bainite
500
6.8
(b)
Martensite (right axis)
600
Molar volume (cm )
700
(a)
200
400
600
0
1000
800
Temperature (oC)
Temperature (oC)
Figure 3. Molar volume and proof stress of various phases during cooling at 10C/s.
Physical and Thermophysical Properties. JMatPro's

ability to calculate physical and thermophysical properties
has been well documented in previous work for various
metallic systems [3,4]. Such properties include, for example, density, molar volume, thermal expansion coefficient,
thermal conductivity, Youngs modulus, Poissons ratio
and specific heat. Such materials properties can be provided for each phase if required. Figure 3(a) uses molar
volume as an example to demonstrate this capability.
Mechanical Properties Strength and Flow Stress
Curve. The calculation of strength and hardness of an
alloy during cooling has been described previously in
Ref. [6]. JMatPro is capable of providing either the overall
strength/hardness or that for each phase. Figure 3(b) is the
calculated 0.2 proof stress for each phase during cooling at
10C/s. One usually expects the pearlite to be weaker in
fundamental deformation mechanisms in operation and is

predictive in nature. It automatically determines whether
deformation should be dominated either by dislocation
glide or by dislocation climb, depending on the temperature, strain and strain rate regime. The problems associated
with picking the right constitutive equation and assigning
suitable values to the parameters involved have therefore
been completely removed. The flow stress curves at a
fixed strain rate of 0.1 s-1 of the austenite phase at various
temperatures is shown in Figure 4 as examples. The material flow is dominated by dislocation glide at 600C and
300
250
Stress (MPa)
The formation of martensite and bainite is affected by

the prior formation of ferrite. The carbon rejected by the
formation of ferrite is incorporated into the remaining
austenite, which may significantly affect further transformations. For example, increased carbon in austenite reduces bainite start (Bs) and martensite start (Ms) temperatures, and increases the strength of the transformed phases.
The Ms temperature is about 370 and 390C for cooling at
10 and 50C/s, respectively. A cooling rate of 50C/s results in a complete transformation to martensite.
200
600C
700C
150
800C
900C
100
50
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Strain
Figure 4. Flow stress curves at various temperatures, strain rate

0.1 s-1.
893
09.08.2010 14:38:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
by dislocation climb at 900 C. The deflection in the flow
stress curves at 700 and 800 C results from the change in
mechanism.
CAE Simulation Coupled Heat Transfer, Deformation Mechanics and Phase Transformation
Depending on cooling rate and temperature variation,
different kinds of phases form and their volume fractions
vary at each point of the steel part. In the mean time, temperature variation and cooling rate are influenced by the
amount of heat generated according to the kind of phases
formed and its volume fraction during phase transformation. Thermal gradient and phase transformation also have
a significant effect on the dimensional change and stress
distribution. Therefore, coupling of heat transfer, deformation mechanics and phase transformation is essential in hot
forming simulation. The mathematical models for the
temperature field calculation and stress-strain computations are described below.
Temperature Field. The temperature field is governed
by the following equation [9]:
cT
T
(k ) ijijp LIJIJ Q
xi xi
(1)
where , c, k and LIJ are density, specific heat, thermal

conductivity and latent heat from phase I to phase J, produced by the progressive Jth constituent with volume
fraction IJ, respectively. Q is the heat generated by external heat sources. IJ is the time differentiation of IJ and is
termed the transformation rate. The 1st term on the right
hand side is from Fouriers law of heat conduction. The
2nd, 3rd, and 4th terms represent the heat due to plastic
deformation (i.e. heat generation by mechanical energy
dissipation), the heat absorbed or released during phase
transformation, and other heat sources such as eddy current during induction heating.
Deformation Mechanics. The (tensor of) total strain
generated during cooling can be decomposed into various
individual strain contributions as follows, given in the
form of strain rate for ready adaptation in CAE analysis
[10]:
e p tr tp
(2)
where e, p, , tr, and tp are the elastic, plastic, thermal,
phase transformation, and transformation plasticity strain
contributions, respectively. The calculation of tr and tp
deserves special attention and is described below.
Transformations from austenite to ferrite, pearlite, bainite and martensite give rise to additional strain. This additional strain is one of main factors causing local deformation of the steel part and is proportional to the relative
difference in the volume fraction of each phase transformed as follows:
ijtr IJIJij
(3)
ijtp 3KIJ (1IJ )IJ sij
(4)
where IJ is transformation expansion coefficient and it

assumes that all of the phase I transforms to phase J instantaneously, and ij represents the Kronecker delta.
Transformation plasticity is a deformation that appears
in a transforming material under an applied stress even for
the stresses lower than the yield stress of the phases [11].
It will be presented in the directions of the deviatoric
stress components. In this study, the transformation plasticity strain in rate term during transformation from phase
I to phase J is expressed as [10,11]:
where KIJ and sij represent the transformation plasticity
coefficient and the deviatoric stress, respectively.
-16 C/s
Initiation Point
385 C
-52.0 C/s
Ms = 395 C
Figure 5. Temperature field, cooling rate distribution and onset of martensite formation (about 1.6 seconds into quenching).
894
09.08.2010 14:38:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
TP considered
TP not considered
Figure 6. Effect of considering transformation plasticity on simulated residual stress: point tracking of minimum principal stress evolution
during quenching at position P1.
Summary
The CAE simulation package used in this study is DEFORMTM-HT and 2D simulation is performed here. The
model contains 552 elements. Yield follows von Mises
criterion and the material is assumed to harden isotropically. Elasto-plastic quadrilateral element is used to evaluate the stress level accurately and to see the effect of
springback after unloading.
The temperature field, cooling rate at each position and
volume fraction of martensite formed in the part are shown
in Figure 5, respectively. It corresponds to 1.6 seconds
into quenching, i.e. the onset of martensite formation.
Figure 6 demonstrates the importance of considering
transformation plasticity (TP) on simulation. Point tracking of the stress level at position 1 shows that the minimum principal stress after 60 seconds is -228 MPa and 1330 MPa, respectively, with or without TP being considered. If TP effect is not considered, the residual stress in
the part would be severely overestimated. The design
based on such simulations would be inaccurate.
Figure 7 compares the experimental springback effect
with simulation. The die angle is 60. In experiment, the
angle changed from 60 to 61.5 due to springback,
whereas that change is from 60 to 62 in simulation.
Therefore, the effect of springback is well predicted.
The development of the JMatPro software has largely

provided an answer to the problem of the lack of material
data for CAE simulation. It is now able to calculate many
physical and mechanical properties when the processing
details is known for a given alloy chemistry.
The reliability of CAE simulation also relies on a proper
description of all the physical phenomena involved in the
processing and a proper consideration of the interactions
among them. As demonstrated in this study, neglecting the
strain contribution due to transformation plasticity leads to
severely overestimated residual stress.
Figure 7. Comparison of
experimental and
simulated springback
effect.
References
[1] T. Altan: Stamping Journal, (2006), 40-41.
[2] T. Altan: Stamping Journal, (2007), 14-15.
[3] http://www.sentesoftware.co.uk/downloads/articles-and-papers.aspx:
A collection of JMatPro-related papers, Sente Software Ltd., (2009).
[4] Z. Guo, N. Saunders, A.P. Miodownik, J.P. Schill: International
Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties, 4 (2009) 187-195.
[5] N. Saunders, Z. Guo, X. Li, A.P. Miodownik, J.P. Schill: The calculation of TTT and CCT diagrams for general steels, Internal report,
Sente Software Ltd., (2004).
[6] Z. Guo, N. Saunders, A.P. Miodownik, J.P. Schill: Proc. 2nd International Conference on Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering in
Automotive Applications, Riva del Garda, (2005).
[7] Z. Guo, N. Saunders, J.P. Schill: Netsu Shori, Special Issue, 49-2
(2009), 753-756.
[8] Z. Guo, N. Saunders, J.P. Schill, A.P. Miodownik: Proc. MRS International Materials Research Conference, Chongqing, (2008).
[9] K. Arimoto, D. Lambert, G. Li, A. Arvind, W.T. Wu: SFTC Paper
#347, Scientific Forming Technologies Corporation.
[10] K. Arimoto, H. Kim, M. Narazaki, D. Lambert, W.T. Wu: SFTC
Paper #370, Scientific Forming Technologies Corporation.
[11] S. Denis, E. Gautier, A. Simon, G. Beck: Mater. Sci. Technol., 1
(1985), 805-814.
6062 from simulation

6061.5 from measurement
895
09.08.2010 14:38:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
CAE Approach to Hot Stamping Process

Ninshu Ma, Bonyoung Ghoo, Yuko Wanatabe and Yasuyoshi Umezu
Engineering Technology Division, JSOL Corporation, Osaka / Japan, ma.ninshu@jsol.co.jp
The application of ultra-high strength steel parts in automobile bodies is increasing in order to reduce the weight and to increase the impact
strength. A hot stamping process combines the shape forming process together with the strength hardening process. The strength of hot
stamped parts can reach about 1500MPa which cannot be produced by the other conventional sheet metal forming processes. In this paper,
the physical phenomena of hot stamping process and the technology issues of CAE are discussed. Then, a CAE system for the multi-stage
hot stamping process is developed in order to perform the simulation faster and more accurately. A center pillar formed by hot stamping is
taken as an example and a multi-stage simulation for formability evaluation and hardness prediction is performed using the developed CAE
system. The simulation results for temperature, thickness and hardness have a good agreement with experimental values.
Keywords: CAE, Hot stamping, Multi-stages, Formability evaluation, Hardness prediction
t
ten
La
ea
Material
DB
it r
nd
a te
Micro-structures
Deformation
ans
for
ma
tion
Plastic work
nd
str
ain
Temperature
Thermal
tur
Fluid cooling path

in tools
er a
mp
896
Fluid
Te
Hot Stamping Process. Generally in a production line,

a hot stamping part is made by multi-stages including
initial blank cutting, pre-forming, heating, shape forming,
quenching, cleaning and final trimming [1,2]. The heating process can be done by a furnace unit [1] or by other
more efficient heating methods [2] such as induction heating coil [4,5]. The heating temperature will be about 900950 oC. The hot stamping temperature needs to be controlled between about 500oC and 800oC. After shape form-
Coupled Physical Phenomena in Hot Stamping Process. The phenomena existing in a hot stamping part include not only the mechanical deformation (stress and
strain) but also the temperature (thermal conduction, convection and radiation) and phase transformation of material. In the general hot stamping process, the blank is
mainly cooled by the heat transfer through the contact
between blank and tools. Therefore, the temperature in
tools has to be controlled and the design of cooling paths
in tools becomes very important. The phenomena in the
tools include heat transfer, water flow in cooling paths and
elastic deformation. Figure 2 shows the multi physical
phenomena coupling each others in the hot stamping process. These coupling phenomena are strongly related to the
material properties (material DB).
e tr
Physical Phenomena of Hot-Stamping Process and

Technology Issues of CAE
Figure 1. Flow of hot stamping process.
Str
ess
a
The reduction of weight of automobile bodies is one of

key technologies to improve the automotive fuel consumption. One way for weight reduction is to select light weight
materials such as aluminum, magnesium, plastics, composites, etc. and another way is to use advanced ultra high
strength steels. However, if the light weight materials are
selected to substitute some parts of automobile bodies,
welding difficulties in assembly lines and electric corrosion between two different materials in long term use will
happen. It is not simple to solve these new technology
issues. Compared with the light weight materials, the application of the ultra high strength parts made by hot
stamping is paid much attention [1,2], because the hot
stamped parts can not only reduce the weight but also
improve the impact strength. Furthermore, hot-forming
parts have little springback in production [3].
The hot stamping part and its process are difficult to design compared with cold forming, because heating and
cooling processes for both blank and tools have to be considered. To avoid the design fails and to reduce the number
of trail out so that to shorten the design period and to save
the cost, application of CAE technology becomes more
important in the design phase.
In this paper, firstly, the physical phenomena and technology issues in hot stamping process are classified from
the view of CAE. Then, a CAE system is developed specially for the simulation of hot stamping process. Lastly,
simulation results are demonstrated compared with experimental results.
ing, the deformed part is cooled down very fast to induce

martensitic phase transformation. Lastly, the part is
cleaned and trimmed to a designed shape.
Figure 1 shows the multi-stages of hot stamping process from heating to quenching and the main technology
issues at each stage.
Ph
as
Introduction
Figure 2. Multi-physical phenomena in hot stamping process.
09.08.2010 14:38:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Physical Phenomena in Hot Stamping Part. If the
phenomena only existing in a stamping part are to be studied, the coupling of thermal field, mechanical deformation
field and microstructure field needs to be considered. Although the coupling phenomena in these three fields were
studied in steel heat-treatment process [6], more investigations are required because the thermal process during hot
stamping becomes more complicated and plastic deformation is very large.
When the hot blank is positioned to a press machine, the
shape forming process will finish within several seconds.
The phenomena during these several seconds will mainly
depend on the thermal field and mechanical deformation
field.
To make the tensile strength of a hot stamped part more
than 1400 MPa, the cooling rate must be fast enough to get
the martensite. To cool the hot stamped part by heat transfer based on contact between the part and tools, the tool
temperature must be low enough. Usually, many cooling
holes are made in the tools and water flows in the cooling
holes.
810oC
807oC
795oC
Tool
Mechanical thin Shell
Multi stages
Physical
phenomena
CAE
evaluation points
Design
issues
Heating
Heat transfer
Thermal expansion
Max. temperature
Heating methods
Transferring
Heat transfer
Dynamic deform
Temp. decrease
Transfer robot
Positioning
Heat transfer
Selfweight deform
Temp. decrease
Initial deflection
Position block
Forming
Heat transfer
Plastic deform
Temp. distribution
Crack, Wrinkle
Tool shape design

Forming condition
Quenching
Heat transfer
Phase transform
Residual stress
Cooling rate
Microstructure
Tool cooling
Material cooling
Development of CAE System for Modeling of MultiStages of Hot Stamping Process

Development of CAE System. To simulate a multistage of hot stamping process, a new modeling technology
[7] is applied to a traditional CAE system JSTAMP in
which LS-DYNA is used as a FEM solver. The management of multi stages and definition of simulation conditions of hot stamping process can be done in one table.
Some key modeling technologies are summarized in following sections.
Element Formulations. To describe the temperature
gradient through thickness direction in this CAE system,
the blank sheet is modeled by a thin mechanical shell for
deformation and a thick thermal shell for heat transfer [89] as shown in Figure 3.
Temperature
Thermal thick Shell
Figure 3. Shell element used in deformation and thermal analysis.
Modeling of Shape Forming Stage. A blank sheet is

formed to a designed shape by tools in this stage. The
deformation is quite large and is significantly affected by
temperature distribution in blank because the material
properties are dependent on temperature.
The temperature distribution is computed by thermal
FEM solver considering the heat transfer due to contact
between blank and tools. The equivalent heat transfer
coefficient h for both the thermal-mechanical contact and
the thermal contact is schematically shown by Figure 4.
Thermal
Mechanical
contact
CAE Issues of Hot Stamping Process. The increasing

application of hot stamping parts accelerates the needs of
the development of CAE technology. The physical phenomena, CAE evaluation points and design issues at each
stage of hot stamping process are described by Table 1.
Table 1. Physical phenomena, CAE evaluation points and design
issues at each stage of hot stamping process.
Air(20oC)
Top
Full
thermal
contact
Slave
Master
Semi
thermal
contact
Lmin
Non
thermal
contact
Lmax
Lgap
h[J/(m2sK)]
Contact pressure p
Lmin
Lmax
Lgap
Figure 4. Heat transfer coefficient between two contact surfaces.
The equivalent heat transfer coefficient h at the state of

mechanical contact is given by a load curve changing with
the contact pressure p as shown by black cycles at the left
side of Figure 4.
At the state of the non mechanical contact, the equivalent heat transfer coefficient h shown by the curve at the
right side of Figure 4, is modeled by Eq. (1) based on the
gap Lgap between master face and slave face [8-9].
h h0 ,
h o / L gap hr ,
h 0,
where
(0 L gap L min )
( Lmin L gap L max )
(1)
( L gap Lmax )
h0 , 0 , hr are the equivalent heat transfer coeffi-
cient, equivalent thermal conductivity, radiation heat transfer coefficient between thermal contact surfaces.
Lmin , Lmax are the critical gap size for full thermal contact and the critical gap size for non thermal contact, respectively. When the gap is less than Lmin , the contact
state is defined as a full thermal contact and the equivalent
heat transfer coefficient is a constant. When the gap is
larger than Lmax , the contact state is defined as non thermal contact and the equivalent heat transfer coefficient is
zero. When the gap is between Lmin and Lmax , the thermal
contact state is defined as a semi thermal contact and the
897
09.08.2010 14:38:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
equivalent heat transfer coefficient is changing with the
gap size Lgap .
- Die stroke time is 1.6sec.

- Quenching time is 20.0sec
In the practical simulation, to keep the continuity of

equivalent heat transfer coefficient at Lgap Lmin ,
0 h0 Lmin is
recommended by authors if
hr is as-
sumed to be zero [10].
Hardness and Strength Prediction. Hardness depends

on the ratio of martensite in microstructures after quenching. In this CAE system, hardness of the blank sheet is
predicted using CCT diagram (Continuous Cooling Temperature) indirectly and tensile strength is approximately
estimated by Eq. (2) based on the data base of ASTM
E140 (American Society for Testing and Materials).
(2)
TS a VHN b
where TS and VHN are the tensile strength and Vickers
hardness number, respectively. The parameters a and b are
3.13 and 21.2, respectively.
Special Advanced Features of CAE System. The developed CAE system for hot stamping process has following special advanced features.
1. Both shell element and solid element can be used for a
blank sheet and tools.
2. Element size and shape for a blank sheet at different
stages can be different. The physical variables such as
nodal coordinates, distributions of thickness, stress,
strain and temperature can be mapped from previous
simulation stage to current stage.
3. The tool deformation can be considered if thermal elastic material model is adapted to tools.
Simulation Examples Using Developed CAE System
Model Descriptions. This example is a centre pillar
which was a benchmark test model of NUMISHEET2008
[12]. Shell element is used for both blank and tools as
shown in Figure 5. The multi-stage process of heating,
transferring, positioning, shape forming and quenching
with following conditions is simulated.
- Heating of the blank to 940oC.
- The blank temperature is about 810oC after transportation blank from the oven into the tools for 6.5sec.
- Initial temperature of the tools is 75oC.
898
Figure 5. Simulation model of centre pillar.
Material Properties. The physical properties used in

the hot stamping simulation are shown in Table 2. The
stress strain relation at different temperatures is shown in
Figure 6.
Table 2. Material properties used for hot stamping simulation.
Density
[ton/mm3]
7.80E-09
Youngs modulus E [MPa]

Poissons ratio
Stress-strain-temperature relation
Thermal expansion (1 / K )
Thermal conductivity [mJ/(mmKs)]
Heat capacity c [mJ/(tonK)]
1.00E+05
0.30
Figure 6
1.30E-05
Heat transfer coef. with air hair [mJ/(mm2Ks]

Contact pressure p[MPa] - Heat transfer coef.
hcontact [mJ/(mm Ks)]

2
Thickness [mm]
Annotation: mJ=0.001J=Nmm
32.00
6.50E+08
0.160
(0.00, 1.3)
(20.0, 4.0)
(30.0, 4.5)
0.40
1.95
450.0
True Stress (MPa)
Modeling of Quenching Stage. The quenching process

takes less than 30 seconds in general. The cooling rate of
the blank sheet is the most important factor to get the ultra
high strength. Recently, some advanced material models
[11] considering transformation induced plasticity are
proposed. However, these material models have a problem
that a general experimental guide line is not confirmed yet.
Most of quenching simulation can be done with an acceptable accuracy without using these material models. In this
CAE system, conventional elastic-visco-plastic material
model for hot blank is used.
400.0
1073K
800
350.0
700
973K
300.0
650
250.0
923K
550
823K
200.0
773K
500
150.0
100.0
50.0
0.0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
True Strain
Figure 6. Stress-strain-temperature relations of 22MnB5 steel.
Simulation Results. Figure 7 shows the temperature

distributions of blank and tools when the shape forming
stage ended. The lowest temperature is about 500oC and
the maximum temperature decrease in blank is about
310oC. The temperature increase on the surface of tools is
about 60oC.
Figure 8 shows the thickness distribution along the section P1a predicted by the developed CAE system. The
average measured values [12] are also plotted by solid line
and the vertical lines in this figure show the range of
measured values. A good agreement between simulation
and experimental results can be observed.
09.08.2010 14:38:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
900
900
800
800
700
700
600
600
500
500
400
400
300
300
200
200
100
100
44
HV= 471
464 464
428 383 240 184 165 156 156
Figure 10. Predicted hardness on two points based on the CCT

diagram and cooling curve.
560
P2
540
JSTAMP
Experiment
520
Hardness (Hv)
Figure 9 shows the temperature distribution after 20sec

quenching. The maximum temperature and the minimum
temperature are 330 and 150 oC. The temperature at most
areas of blank is lower than 310 oC and only an area has a
temperature more than 310 oC. The maximum temperature
is about 100 oC lower than Ms 410 oC which is the starting
temperature for martensitic phase transformation.
Figure 10 shows the CCT diagram of 22MnB5 and experimental cooling curves for the prediction of hardness
[13]. The predicted hardness at the 2 typical points A and
B is about 428 and 464HV, respectively. The tensile
strength at points A and B predicted using Eq. (2) is about
1360 and 1472 MPa, respectively. To obtain the target
tensile strength over 1400 MPa, tool shape around point A
has to be changed to keep good contact with tools.
Figure 11 shows predicted hardness distribution along
section P2A by marks (JSTAMP). The average experimental results [13] are also plotted by cycles in this figure.
The vertical lines in this figure show the range of experimental values. The predicted hardness agrees very well
with experimental results. The simulation accuracy is
demonstrated.
500
480
460
440
420
400
Blank
750
700
650
600
550
500
135
125
115
105
95
85
75
Holder
Thickness(mm)
2.20
2.10
2.00
P1
1.90
1.80
JSTAMP
Experiment
1.50
1.40
0
50
100
Distance from P1 (mm)
150
200
Figure 8. Thickness distributions computed and measured along

section P1a.
330
300
200
150
Figure 9. Temperature distribution after 20 sec quenching.
80
100
Conclusions
Figure 7. Deformation and temperature distribution in blank and

tools at the time when shape forming stage ended.
1.60
40
60
Distance from the point P2 (mm)
Figure 11. Predicted hardness distribution along section P2A

based on CCT diagram and cooling curve.
Die
Punch
1.70
20
This paper discussed and classified the physical phenomena in the multi-stage hot stamping process, and a
CAE system for the multi stages of hot stamping process
is developed. The simulation results using this CAE system are summarized as follows,
1. Reasonable temperature distributions at the multi stages
are predicted.
2. Thickness distributions are predicted with a good accuracy compared with experimental results.
3. Hardness predicted by simulation agrees very well with
experimental values.
References
[1] T. Altan: Hot-stamping boron-alloyed steels for automotive parts,
Stamping Journal, (2006).
[2] T. Senuma, Y. Takemoto: Journal of JSTP, 5 (2010).
[3] K. Mori, S. Maki, Y. Tanaka: CIRP Annal, 54-1 (2005), 209-212.
[4] R. Kolleck: Proc. Proc. 1st Int. Conf. on Hot Sheet Metal Forming
of High-Performance Steel, Germany, (2008), 239-251
[5] Y. Umezu: Proc. 14th Seminar of Japan Association for Nonlinear
CAE, (2008).
[6] T. Inoue: Archive of Applied Mechanics, 50-5 (1981), 315-327.
[7] B. Ghoo, Y. Umezu, Y. Watanabe, N. Ma: Proc. 59th Japanese Joint
Conf. of Technology of Plasticity, (2008), 485-486.
[8] B. Sahpiro: Proc. 1st Int. Conf. on Hot Sheet Metal Forming of
High-Performance Steel, Germany, (2008), 89-96.
[9] LSTC: LS-DYNA Ver.971 User Manual, (2009).
[10] N. Ma: Thermal Structure Coupling Solution Seminar, JSOL (2009).
[11] H. Chansel, P. Hora, J. Reissner: NUMIFORM98, Balkema, (1998).
[12] P. Hora: Proc. NUMISHEET2008, Switzerland, (2008).
[13] M. Naderi et al.: Material Science and Engineering A, (2007).
899
09.08.2010 14:38:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Coupled Models of Hot Forming of Ultra Strength Steel Sheets

Ning Ma1), Ping Hu1), Wei Guo2), Guozhe Shen1), Liang Ying1), Rong Fan1)
1)
School of Automotive Engineering, Faculty of Vehicle Engineering and Mechanics, State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian / China, pinghu@dlut.edu.cn; 2) College of materials Science and Engineering, Jilin
University, Changchun / China
Thermal-mechanical-transformation coupled relations of boron steel are investigated in a hot forming (hot stamping) process by tensile
forming and quenching experiments at high temperatures. In the experimental process, the sheet specimen of boron steel is austenitized
for five minutes at 950 C, then tensile forming and quenching take place simultaneously. The force, displacement, expansion and temperature in the experimental process are recorded. Based on the analysis of the above physical quantities variation and the specimens microstructure, thermal-mechanical-transformation coupled relations of boron steel are researched and the thermal-mechanical-transformation
coupled constitutive models are developed. Then the hot forming process of a reinforced U-shaped part is simulated by introducing these
models into the independently developed CAE commercial software for sheet metal forming, named KMAS (King-Mesh Analysis System),
and the simulation results are compared with hot forming experimental testing data. The experimental results indicate the validity and efficiency of the present multi-field coupled constitutive models.
Keywords: Hot forming, Thermal-mechanical-transformation, Austenitized, Constitutive model
Introduction
Nowadays, the demand of coupling performances with
cost reduction, safety, respect of environment and energy
saving is stronger and stronger in the automotive industry.
With regards of these aspects, the introduction of high
strength steels (HSS) represents the best solution to increase the strength-to-mass ratio of sheet components.
Then HSS can meet the need of higher passive safety and
weight reduction. Cold stamping allows the production of
simple shapes with very high strength, up to 1200MPa,
such as side impact beams [1]. Ultrahigh-strength steels,
however, pose a major challenge in processing because of
their limited formability and pronounced springback at
room temperature. So, when part complexity increases,
such as with B-pillars , only lower-strength steel grades
can be used with cold stamping, and when steels strength
increases to 1500 MPa, the steel grades cannot be used
with cold stamping [2,3].
The possibility of performing stamping operations at
elevated temperatures represents a solution to these problems, allowing lower loads on tools and higher accuracy of
formed components. Then hot stamping with die quenching of boron steels appears and the process can overcome
the typical difficulties associated with cold stamping. For
example, hot forming of the quenchable boron-alloy steel
22MnB5 can produce complex, crash-resistant parts such
as bumpers, A, B and C pillars, roof reinforcements, side
reinforcements and front tunnels with ultra high strength,
minimum springback and reduced sheet thickness. The
tensile strength of boron steel is up to 1600 MPa which is
far more than the highest-strength of the conventional cold
stamping steels [2,3].
The traditional cold stamping technology has been effectively studied by domestic and foreign scholars [4,5]. It
is the same with the theory analysis, experimental study
and numerical simulation of the conventional quenching
treatment [6,7]. Hot forming is the advanced technology
that integrates traditional heat treatment and cold stamping.
The prospect of hot forming technology has attracted the
attention of researchers, which mainly focus on the high
900
temperature mechanical properties of materials, numerical

simulation and experiments. Bergman and Oldenburg
implemented numerical simulation of hot forming [8].
Eriksson and Oldenburg investigated the temperature and
strain rate dependence of hot forming material [9]. Naderi,
Bleck and Merklein researched the plastic flow criterion
and material parameters under high temperature [10,11].
The theoretical analysis, numerical simulation and experimental study of hot forming were presented by Ma and
Hu, who provided a new method for hot forming die design and technical process design [1].
The thermal-mechanical-transformation coupled relations of boron steel are studied and a basic experimental
method for hot forming technical process is provided in
this paper. The thermal-mechanical-transformation coupled constitutive models are developed. Then the hot
forming process of a reinforced U-shaped part is simulated
by introducing these models into the KMAS software, and
compared with its hot forming experimental testing data.
Experimental Study on Hot Forming
Experimental Method. The material of high strength
steel for hot forming in this paper is called 22MnB5,
which composition is shown as Table 1. The tensile test
specimen in this experiment is shown in Figure 1.
Table 1. Chemical compositions mass percentage of boron microalloy steel.
22MnB5
Mn
Cr
Si
Al
Min
0.220
1.200
0.110
0.200
0.002
0.020
Max
0.250
1.400
0.200
0.300
0.005
0.020
0.050
20R30
b0=10
L0=50
L=60
Figure 1. Shape and size of specimen (unit: mm).
The experiment was implemented in the multifunction
09.08.2010 14:38:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
thermal-mechanical simulator shown in Figure 2. In this
experiment, the specimen was heated up to 950 C with a
rate of 10 C/s, then heat preservation lasted for 5 minutes.
Following, the specimen was cooled to room temperature
with a rate of 50 C/s. Displacement load was applied
during the cooling process with the temperature range of
750-500 C. The load will be maintained until the specimen was cooled to the room temperature. The force, displacement, expansion along the width direction and curve
of temperature versus time were recorded. After experiments, linear cutting was carried out in the central area of
specimen with uniform temperature for metallographic
analysis to determine the adequacy of martensite transformation.
mechanical coupled factors th , and (depend on

whether tensile stress overweigh yield limit or not) in the
end of transformation. In this paper, the thermalmechanical-transformation coupled parameters and k [7]
are determined by the phase transformation process during
BC segment.
e
Results and Discussion. The metallurgical microstructure tests of the samples showed that the martensite transformation fraction is more than 95%. The relationship
between stress and martensite starting temperature of
phase transformation is shown in Figure 4. M s almost
remains unchanged (380 C) when stress is lower than

some level. When increases during some range, M s increases linearly with the raise of . M s tends to be some
constant value when is just above some level (565 C).

The start temperature of martensite phase transformation
M s increased by 180 C, which is very important for the
forming mechanism study, technical parameter setting and
numerical simulation of hot forming of boron microalloy
steel [12].
Figure 2. Experimental process by forming and quenching at

same time.
In this paper, the d T curve of the specimens width

expansion versus temperature during applying the displacement load was employed to explain the relationship
among the experimental physical quantities and the
method of determining marternsitic transformation starting
temperature M s .
Figure 4. Coupled relation between martensite start temperature
Ms and effective stress by experiment.
Figure 3. Transverse thermal shrinkage versus function of temperature.
The transverse shrinkage in the AB segment of Figure 3

is caused by the thermal-mechanical coupling effect of the
cool shrinkage strain
th during the cooling process, the

e and the plastic strain p (de-
tensile elastic strain

pends on whether tensile stress overweigh yield limit or
not). The transverse shrinkage of BC segment is due to the
thermal-mechanical-transformation coupled factors such
as the transformation volume strain
tr
, transformation
plasticity strain tp , th , and . The transverse

shrinkage of CD segment is caused by the thermale
Figure 5. Coupled relation between martensite transformation rate

parameter and effective stress by experiment.
Figures 5 and 6 respectively show the corresponding

relationship between the martensite transformation rate
parameter and stress , and the relationship between the
transformation plasticity coefficient k and stress .
and k arent almost unchanged when stress is lower
than some level. When increases during some range,
901
09.08.2010 14:38:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
and k increase linearly with the raise of . and k

tend to be some constant values when is just above
some level. All these change laws are similar with the
relationship between stress and martensite start temperature of phase transformation, just because the above influencing factors of the martensite nucleation affect on martensite growth and transformation quantity.
formation rate and stress, which are also related to the

material and the cooling method.
In Eq. (3), k0 is the initial martensite transformation
is the coupled coefficient between

the transformation plasticity coefficient and stress. a
and p denote the interval section stress points of the
plasticity coefficient.
coupled relation between the transformation plasticity

coefficient and stress, which are also related to the material and the cooling method.
The above material parameters are indicated as Table 2
and the thermal-mechanical-transformation coupled models for hot forming of microalloy steel can be expressed as
[13,14]
= 1 exp[ ( )( M s ( ) T )]
Figure 6. Coupled relation between transformation plasticity coefficient k and effective stress by experiment.
The relations between martensite start temperature of

phase transition M s , martensite transformation rate pa-
rameter , transformation plasticity coefficient k and

stress are established through fitting the experimental
results, which are shown in the Eqs. (1)-(3).
M s = M s0
a0
M s = M s 0 + ( a 0 ) a 0 < < p 0
M s = M s 0 + ( p 0 ) p 0
= 0
= 0 + ( a )
a < < p
= 0 + ( p a )
(1)
(2)
= k0
= k0 + ( a )
a < < p
= k0 + ( p a )
1
2
tp = k ( ) (1 )
(5)
tr =
(6)
where M s ( ) , ( ) ,
Thermal-mechanical-transformation Coupled Models
(4)
k ( ) are determined by Eqs. (1)-
(3).
Table 2. Thermal-mechanical-transformation coupled coefficients.
M s 0/ C
380
k0
0.6273 7.9902E-3 2.7508E-5 4.401E-4 1.5627E-6
a 0 / MPa a/ Mpa p 0 / Mpa p / MPa

141
262
475
412
Numerical Simulation and Experimental Testing of Hot

Forming
Based on the above multi-field models, the numerical
simulation model of hot forming are implemented into the
independently developed CAE commercial software for
sheet metal forming, named KMAS (King-Mesh Analysis
System) [5,15,16]. Then a reinforced U-shaped part is
simulated by KMAS.
(3)
In Eq. (1), M s 0 is the initial martensite start temperature.

is the coupled coefficient between the martensite start
temperature and stress. a 0 and
p 0 denote the interval
section stress points of the coupled relation between the

martensite start temperature and stress, which are also
related to the material and the cooling method.
In Eq. (2), 0 is the initial martensite transformation
is the coupled coefficient between the transformation rate and stress. a and p denote the interval secrate.
tion stress points of the coupled relation between the trans-
902
Figure 7. Temperature boundary during hot forming.
The initial thickness of the boron microalloy steel blank

is 1.6 mm. The initial heating temperature of sheet material is 950 C and the cooling rate is more than 50 C/s.
The forming and quenching time is 8 s. The temperature
09.08.2010 14:38:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
boundary condition by experiment is shown in Figure 7.
The BT shell element is employed. The distribution of the
blanks thickness simulated is shown in Figure 8(a).
At the same time, this experimental testing is implemented to evaluate the validity and efficiency of the multifield coupled model, and the numerical simulation software KMAS used in hot forming process. The U-shaped
part after hot forming is shown in Figure 8(b) and its
forming die is shown in Figure 9.
(a) Simulation
(b) Experiment
Figure 8. Reinforced U-shaped parts after hot forming with simulation and experiment methods.
The sample cut from the reinforced U-shaped part after

hot forming is used to do tensile experiment. The typical
tensile curve (see Figure 10) reveals that the yield stress
of the hot forming component is over 1000 MPa, and the
strength limitation is over 1500 MPa.
The measurement at 9 points shown in Figure 8(a) was
taken to compare the thickness distribution. Comparison
results are denoted in Figure 11. Good coherence is
clearly found, which also indicates that the validity and
efficiency of the constitutive model and the numerical
simulation software (KMAS) of hot forming.
Conclusions
1. Based on the experimental results, the thermalmechanical-transformation coupled relations were investigated and the coupled constitutive models were
developed.
2. The developed models were implemented into the independently developed CAE commercial software KMAS,
and then a reinforced U-shaped part was simulated.
3. The experimental results of the reinforced U-shaped
part by hot forming indicated the validity and efficiency
of the proposed multi-field coupled models and the numerical simulation software KMAS.
Acknowledgements
Figure 9. U-shaped die of hot forming.
This work was funded by the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.
10932003), 863 Project of China (No. 2009AA04Z101),
and 973National Basic Research Project of China (No.
2010CB832700).These supports are gratefully acknowledged. Many thanks are due to the referees for their valuable comments.
References
Figure 10. Engineering stress-strain curve.
Figure 11. Comparison of thickness at 9 points between numerical

and experimental results.
[1] N. Ma, P. Hu, K. K. Yang, et al: Proc. IDDRG2009 conference,

(2009), 835-843.
[2] N. Ma, P. Hu, W. Guo: Automobile & Parts, 45 (2009), 28-30.
[3] T. Altan: Stamping Journal, 12(2006), 40-41.
[4] A Makinouchi: Journal of Material Processing Technology, 60 (1996),
19-26.
[5] P. Hu: Int. J. Solids & Struct., 41 (2004), 1263-1284.
[6] M. Avrami: Journal of Chemical Physics, 7 (1937), 1103-1112.
[7] T. Y. Hsu, H. b. Chang: Acta Metallurgica, 32-3(1984), 343-348.
[8] G. Bergman, M. Oldenburg: International Journal for Numerical
Methods in Engineering, 59 (2004), 1167-1186.
[9] M. Eriksson, M. Oldenburg, M. C. Somani, et al: Modelling Simul.
Mater. Sci. Eng., 10 (2002), 277294.
[10] M. Naderi, A. Molinari, W. Bleck: Materials Science and Engineering A, 478 (2008), 130-139.
[11] M. Merklein, J. Lechler: SAE World Congress, (2008).
[12] T. Kakeshita, T. Fukuda, T. Saburi: Science and Technology of
Advanced Materials, 1-1 (2000), 63-72.
[13] D.P. Koistien, R. E. Marburgh: Acta Metallurgica, 7 (1959), 59-60.
[14] Y. Nagasaka, J.K. Brimacobe, M.B. Hernendez: Metallurgical
Transactions A, 24-4 (1993), 795-808.
[15] H.P. Liu, P. Hu, Z.C. Fu: Proc. NUMISHEET2005, Detroit, (2005).
[16] G.Z. Shen, P. Hu, X.K. Zhang, et al: Proc. NUMISHEET2005,
Detroit, (2005).
903
09.08.2010 14:38:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Improvement of Accuracy of Hot Stamping Simulation Based on Analysis of Heat

Transfer by Hot Drawing Tests
1)
2)
1)
Naruhiko Nomura , Kazuhisa Kusumi , Masayoshi Suehiro
1)
Steel Research Laboratories, Nippon Steel Corporation, Futtsu / Japan, nomura.naruhiko@nsc.co.jp;
Steel Corporation, Kitakyushu / Japan
2)
Yawata R&D Laboratory, Nippon
The use of parts with high strength by means of a hot stamping process has lately considerable attention. In order to obtain practical accuracy for basic design of hot stamped parts more easily and essentially, the authors investigated the parameters for the simulation of a forming process coupling with thermal analysis. However the calculation results of temperature change during hot stamping using the parameters determined from several experiments were not in good agreement with the experimental results. In order to improve the calculation
accuracy, heat transfer during calculation was investigated in detail and the simulation technique about the thermal boundary condition has
been developed. In this technique, emphasized thermal contact conditions were used in order to simulate actual states of heat transfer. The
simulation results of temperature change and temperature distribution during hot stamping using this newly developed technique agreed
well with the experimental results.
Keywords: Hot stamping, Simulation, Aluminum coated steel, Formability, Heat transfer
Introduction
To reduce fuel consumption and to keep passenger safety, the use of ultra high strength steel in automotive components is rapidly increasing. In general, an increase in the
strength of steel sheets would cause a decrease in the formability during cold stamping. High strength steels on the
order of 1500 MPa will be subjected to difficulty in producing complicated shapes by cold stamping method. In
hot stamping [1,2], parts with complicated shapes and
ultra high strength can be manufactured without any
spring back. This property might be the reason why the hot
stamping attracts great interests recently. Hot stamping
process, however, has difficulties due to the unbalance of
temperature distribution that occurs during contact process
between steel sheets and tools.
The research of simulation method for hot stamping has
been carried out by several researchers [3,4]. Simulation
of press forming coupled with thermal calculation should
be used in considering formability of steel sheets according to each situation. Some commercial FEM-codes can be
used for this type of calculation. However it is not easy to
confirm accuracy of simulation because measurements of
properties and formability at high temperature are quite
difficult yet.
In this study, some experiments of hot drawing were carried out. Based on the results, a simulation technique for
thermal boundary condition, especially about heat transfer
coefficient, was developed. The practical accuracy of
simulation using the developed technique was confirmed
by some parts.
Hot Drawing of Cylindrical Cup
Experimental Conditions. Aluminum coated steel
sheets for hot stamping having 1.2mm in thickness were
used in a hot drawing test. This experiment was carried out
by a crank press machine and drawing tools of cylindrical
cup shown in Figure 1.
904
600kN Crank Press

Press speed: 60s.p.m. (1cycle motion)
84
10(15)R
Die
Blank140
Distance Piece
10(15)R
80
Blank Holder
Punch
Laser
Displacement
Sensor
Data
I/F Unit
Strain
gauge
PC
Thermography
Figure 1. Experimental set-up for hot drawing of cylindrical cup.
Two kinds of tools having different shoulder radius,

10and 15 mm, were used. Forming stroke and force were
measured by laser displacement sensor and strain gauges
on a neck part of punch, respectively, in order to compare
them with simulation results. In addition, temperature
distribution and history were measured by means of thermography in order to analyze heat transfer, which was
main purpose of this experiment. Measurement of temperature during forming was impossible because a blank
was covered by tools. Therefore the temperature distribution and history were measured until just before forming
and from just after a motion of a press machine.
The diameter of blank was 140 mm. The blank was
heated at 950 C for 5 minutes, and then moved to a press
machine. Temperature of blank at the start of hot drawing
was approximately 850 C. The driving speed of a press
machine was 60s.p.m. In this speed, the velocity of die at
the start of forming was nearly 450mm/sec.
09.08.2010 14:38:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
80
60
10mmR
40
Before
900 Forming
10
15
20
Forming stroke / mm
700
25
Temperature Distribution. Figure 3 shows thermographs measured in a hot drawing test. Before the forming,
the blank temperature was almost uniform. After the forming, however, differences in the temperature depending on
sections of formed cup appeared clearly.
850C
745C
730C
After Forming
Heat Transfer Coefficient. From thermographs measured continuously, thermal data at characteristic five portions, punch bottom, punch shoulder, sidewall, die shoulder and flange, were extracted. The history of temperature
is illustrated in Figure 4. The measurement by means of
thermography has an invisible zone as shown in Figure 4.
The time of invisible zone is longer than actual forming
time. Therefore the temperatures at the start of actual
forming T1 and at the end of actual forming T2 were extrapolated based on thermal trends before and after invisible time zone. From the change of temperature from T1 to
T2 at each portion, the heat transfer coefficient hc was
calculated by using a fundamental equation of heat balance as
(1)
where is the density, c the specific heat, t the thickness of

blank and dt the actual forming time. Ttool indicates
temperature of tools. S shows the number of surfaces
2.5
Stroke End
Time / sec
3.0
3.5
Figure 5 shows heat transfer coefficients calculated at

five characteristic portions. They were very different from
each other. This shows that the heat transfer coefficient
strongly depends on both strength of contact and size of
gap between a blank and tools. In addition, heat transfer
coefficient at the portion of sidewall was negative value
because of heat generation by drawing.
10000
7500
5000
2500
0
-2500
Punch
Punch
Bottom Shoulder
Figure 3. Temperature distribution before and after hot drawing of

cylindrical cup.
ct T2 Ttool ,
hc =
ln
S dt T1 Ttoo l
T2
Figure 4. Measured temperature histories of five characteristic

portions and method of thermal data processing.
30
Heat Transfer Coefficient between Blank and Tool in

Hot Forming Process
770C
745C
880C
800C
880C
After
Forming
Actual forming
T1
2.0
Figure 2. Relationship between forming force and forming stroke

on the tool shoulder radius of 10 and 15 mm.
Before Forming
Invisible zone
600
Punch Shoulder
Die Shoulder
800
15mmR
20
Punch Bottom
Wall
Flange
1000
Heat transfer coefficient

h c / w/m 2 K
Forming force / kN
100
where heat transfer occurs. In this calculation, the heat

transfer on single surface (S=1) was applied to shoulder
radius and punch bottom. The heat transfer on double
surfaces (S=2) was applied to sidewall and flange.
Temperature / C
Stamping Results. Figure 2 shows the relationship

between forming force and stroke. The forming force
increased more rapidly in 10 mm of shoulder radius than
in 15 mm. In the case of 10 mm shoulder radius, a fracture
occured at the stroke around 22 mm. In the case of 15mm
radius, it was possible to form the blank sheet to the end of
stroke of around 28 mm without fracture. Analysis of heat
transfer was carried out by using the results on 15 mm of
shoulder radius.
Wall
Die
Shoulder
Flange
Figure 5. Heat transfer coefficients between surfaces of blank and

tool calculated from temperature histories of five portions.
Normally, heat transfer coefficients from 1,000 to 2,000

W/m2K are used for the design of hot stamping process.
However the actual heat transfer coefficients reached partially nearly 8,000 W/m2K during forming. This high value
of coefficient might be lowered by the latent heat generation of transformation or other thermal factors.
The variation of coefficients was relatively wide. This
shows that conditions and measurements of hot stamping
essentially include both mechanical and thermal errors.
However, in spite of large variation of heat transfer coefficient, the change of formability on hot drawing was
seemed to be small. It shows that the distinct pattern of
temperature distribution strongly influences the formability beyond other effects by mechanical and thermal errors.
Simulation Model
Simulation Model. A forming and thermal simulation of
hot drawing of cylindrical cup was carried out by FE-code
LS-Dyna (Ver.971). Figure 6 shows the simulation model.
Rigid body shell elements were used for tools, and elastic
plastic shell elements were used for a blank. The mesh size
of elements was approximately 2 mm. For considering
905
09.08.2010 14:38:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Blank Holder
Die
FEM code LS-Dyna /ver.971

Element TypeShell Element
Blank
Number of Elements1,800
Initial Temperature:
Tools 80C
Distant piece
Figure 6. Simulation model for hot drawing of cylindrical cup.
Parameters and Conditions for Simulation. Parameters and boundary conditions used in simulation were as
follows.
(1) Mechanical properties: Based on the strength test of
hot material, stress-strain curves depending on both temperature and strain rate were used. Master stress-strain
curve used for the simulation was typical mechanical
properties at high temperature as shown in Figure 7. In a
calculation, based on data of temperature and strain rate of
each element, the curve was modified by factors depending on temperature and strain rate.
(2,000 ; Test Result of Punch Bottom)

(1,000 ; Test Result of Wall )
Distance from Tool Surface / mm
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Dependence of Mesh Size on Calculation Results.

The first trial of simulation was carried out for a hot drawing test by 10 mm of shoulder radius in which fracture
occurred using the mesh size of 2mm normally used for
the simulation of cold stamping. Figure 10 shows the
result calculated by using above-mentioned boundary
conditions. Though the pattern of temperature distribution
was similar to the experimental result, the range of temperature was extremely narrower than the experimental
result. The forming force simulated was lower than the
experimental result and the fracture did not occur in the
simulation. This result shows that the heat transfer coefficient based on an experiment seemed not to be reflected to
thermal simulation correctly.
FEM Range 760886C 120
100
0.1
0.2
0.3
Strain / -
0.4
0.5
Test Range 500850C
Forming force / kN
Stress / MPa
(7,000 ; Test Result of Punch Shoulder)
Figure 9. Boundary condition for thermal contact defined directly

by experimental results.
Blank 850C
Punch
gap were defined by experimental results (Figure 5). In

addition, radiation from surfaces of blank was defined as a
function of temperature by another setting method.
Heat Transfer
Coefficient / W/m 2 K
heat balance between a blank and tools, heat capacity of

tools was defined by virtual large thickness and specific
heat. Initial temperature was 850 C for a blank and 80 C
for tools. The forming velocity was defined by a sine
curve identified from displacement measured.
Figure 7. Basic pattern of stress strain curve at high temperature

for hot stamping simulation.
(2) Coefficient of friction: Coefficient of friction was

decided based on a measurement by hot drawing friction
test as shown in Figure 8. (Recently, more detailed tests is
known and published in [5].)
Drawing
Clamp
Specimen
Measurement
(Load and Stroke)
Thermography
Pinch
Contact Tool
Drawing Direction
650 C
500 C
350 C
200 C
PC
Figure 8. Experimental set-up for hot drawing friction test.
FEM
Test
80
60
40
20
0
0
(a) Temperature distribution
10 15 20 25 30 35
Stroke / mm
(b) Relation between force and stroke
Figure 10. Comparison of results between hot drawing tests and

simulation by former model.
The reason why the simulation results did not agree

with the experiments might be that the contact states in
simulation model using finite elements was different from
actual contact states in the experiments especially at the
portion of shoulder. In order to confirm the effect of contact states on the simulation results, 3 cases of simulation
were carried out. Mesh sizes of 2, 1 and 0.5 mm were
applied to models. Figure 11 shows the results of them.
Improvement of results of temperature simulation by using
smaller mesh size was clearly shown in this figure. However increase of CPU time was inevitable by such subdivision of mesh. It seemed to be a big problem for larger
industrial parts.
(3) Heat transfer coefficient: Based on a setting method

of contact boundary condition in LS-Dyna, a thermal contact condition was defined as functions of distance from
tool's surface. As shown in Figure 9, the highest heat
transfer by mechanical contact and lower heat transfer by
906
09.08.2010 14:38:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Mesh size : 2mm
Mesh size : 1mm
838C
CPU time 7Hr
Mesh size : 0.5mm
792C
CPU time 2days
741C
CPU time 16days
Figure 11. Influence on accuracy of thermal calcuration with mesh

size of simulation model (Target temperature by test; 720 C).
Modification of Thermal Boundary Conditions. In

order to improve the accuracy without increase of CPU
time, a modified method for considering the thermal boundary conditions was developed. In this method, thermal
contact states which are judged from the distance between
blanks and tools are changed depending on positions.
Figure 12 shows the result of the simulation with this
modified thermal boundary condition. Though the mesh
size of 2mm was used, the result of temperature distribution and forming force was almost in good agreement with
experimental results. Also the fracture was predicted as
reduction of forming force at around 20mm of forming
stroke.
Test Range 650850C
120
Forming force / kN
FEM Range 650850C
Because of difficulty of measurement of temperature

distribution, only the history of forming force was compared. The simulation result was almost in good agreement with the result of tests as shown in Figure 13(a). It
shows that mechanical properties at high temperatures
were almost proper in this simulation. The result of comparison of thickness reduction of a section was also in
good agreement as shown in Figure 13(b). The practical
judgment of necking or fracture was seemed to be possible by thickness reduction.
Figure 14 shows the simulation result for another Bpillar full part by mechanical crank press machine. The
driving speed was 30 s.p.m. and forming velocity at the
start of forming was 300 mm/sec. The temperature distribution was almost agreeable from comparison with
thermograph as shown in Figure 14(a). In this case, also
portion of fracture was able to be estimated by thickness
reduction as shown in Figure 14(b).
FEM Result
FEM Result
Thickness
Reduction
>30%
Test Result
Test Result
FEM
Test
100
80
60
(a) Temperature distribution
40
(b) Fracture
Figure 14. Comparison between measured and simulated results

with model part of industrial B-pillar outer reinforce.
20
0
0
10 15 20 25 30 35
Stroke / mm
(a) Temperature distribution (b) Relation between force and stroke
Figure 12. Comparison of results between hot drawing tests and
simulation by improved model.
Verification of Accuracy by Industrial Parts

Stamping of Industrial Parts. This technique for deciding the thermal boundary condition was applied to
some simulations for industrial parts. The results were
compared with hot stamping tests. Figure 13 shows a
result of hot stamping of B pillar lower part by hydraulic
press machine. The tests were carried out in the framework
of collaboration with ArcelorMittal. In this case, the forming velocity was 40mm/sec, and forming stroke was 80mm.
Forming force / kN
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
FEM
Test
Thickness
reduction / %
-10
0
10
20
30
40
0.5
1
1.5
Time / sec
(a) Forming force
Measured
Section
FEM
Test
-200 -100 0 100 200

Coordinate
Coordinate // mm
mm
(b) Thickness reduction
Figure 13. Comparison of measured and simulated results with

model part of industrial B-pillar lower.
Conclusions
By the detailed analysis of heat transfer coefficient in
hot drawing of cylindrical cup, the technique for taking
thermal boundary conditions into consideration adequately
to improve the accuracy of practical hot stamping simulation was developed.
1. In actual forming, the distinct pattern of temperature
distribution appeared and the extremely high heat transfer coefficient was obtained at the portion of shoulder.
2. In order to improve the accuracy of simulation, the
treatment of states of contact was important in addition
with the accurate value of thermal parameters.
3. The technique for taking the thermal boundary condition
into account properly was developed and the simulation
result by using this condition was in a good agreement
with the experimental result.
References
[1] X. Bano, J. P. Laurent: Proc. of 39th Mechanical Working and steel
Processing Conf., Indianapolis, 35 (1998), 673.
[2] M. Suehiro, J. Maki, K. Kusumi, M. Ohgami, T. Miyakoshi: Nippon
Steel Technical Report, 88 (2003), 16.
[3] P. Hein, J. Wilsius: Steel Research International, 79-2 (2009), 85-91.
[4] M. Oldenburg, P. Akerstrom, G. Bergman, P. Salomonsson: Proc.
IDDRG, (2008), 463-474.
[5] A. Yanagida, A. Azushima: CIRP Annals, 58-1 (2009), 247-250.
907
09.08.2010 14:38:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
Flexible Forming of Sheets and Foils by Laser Forming

Masaaki Otsu
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto / Japan, otsu@msre.kumamoto-u.ac.jp
Laser forming is one of flexible and incremental methods to form sheets and foils. Comparing with other sheet metal forming, laser forming
is quite different in bending mechanism because the sheets are deformed plastically at elevated temperature by compressive thermal
stress. This characteristic enables forming of sheets and foils which are difficult or impossible to deform plastically at room temperature by
conventional press working. In this paper, the results of forming them are explained. As examples of them, magnesium alloy sheets, high
tensile strength steel sheets, tailor welded blanks, borosilicate glass foils, single crystalline silicon wafers and thin film metallic glasses were
formed. Formability of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets was less than that of pure titanium sheets but larger than that of AISI304 stainless
steel sheets. SPFC590 high tensile strength steel sheets was bent as well as the mild steel sheets. Difference among bending angles of
tailor welded blanks of SPFC980Y high tensile strength steel sheet and SPCC cold rolled steel sheet was controlled by changing working
condition at the welding line. Borosilicate glass foils and single crystalline silicon wafers were successfully bent by laser forming. Palladium
based thin film metallic glasses were kept amorphous after laser forming.
Keywords: Laser forming, Magnesium alloy sheets, High tensile strength steel sheets, Tailor welded blanks, Borosilicate glass foils, Single
crystalline silicon wafers, Palladium based thin film metallic glasses
Introduction
Laser forming is a tool and die free forming method using thermal stress induced by rapid heating due to laser
irradiation to sheets or foils. Three types of bending mechanisms, temperature gradient mechanism (TGM), buckling mechanism (BM) and upsetting mechanism (UM), are
proposed by Vollertsen [1]. In most cases, the bending
mechanism is distinguished into one of them, however, all
of them are affecting in the same time. Every bending
mechanism is common in the point that the sheets are
plastically bent at the laser irradiated part by thermal compressive stress due to constraint from the surrounding area
by rapid heating and volume expansion. Comparing with
other sheet metal forming, laser forming is greatly different in bending mechanism. In addition, since the temperature at the laser irradiated part is elevated in very short
time, plastic deformation undergoes at high temperature.
Therefore the materials that are hard to deform at room
temperature but become easy at elevated temperature can
be deformed plastically. Some brittle materials are possible to deform because the deformation proceeds under
compressive stress and at high temperature. Since sheets
are formed by no tools and dies, no external forces and no
shape restriction but internal stress induced by thermal
expansion, laser forming is suitable for forming high
strength materials and the effect of spring back is small.
Furthermore laser forming is good for microforming because of small spring back, no use of tools and dies, and
no contact method using laser beam.
As mentioned in the former paragraph, laser forming enables forming of materials which are hard to deform by
other sheet metal forming methods. The authors have
carried out forming of magnesium alloy sheets, high tensile strength steel sheets and tailor welded blanks which
have to be stamped at elevated temperature flexibly by
laser forming. In order to apply laser forming to fabrication of MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) devices, materials for MEMS such as borosilicate glass foils,
908
single crystalline silicon wafers and thin film metallic

glasses were also tried to bend. In the present paper, the
results of forming those materials by laser forming, the
authors have studied, were introduced.
Laser Forming of Sheet Metals
Magnesium alloy. Magnesium alloys are expected to
use for reduction of transportation products such as airplane, high speed train, automobile, bicycle and wheelchairs. Since magnesium alloys have poor formability at
room temperature, sheets are formed at more than 200 C
and bulk materials are deformed at more than 300 C.
Especially in forming of magnesium alloy sheets, some
devisal is necessary because temperature of sheet falls
down quickly after taking out from the furnace due to its
good thermal conductivity.
Examples of forming commercial AZ31-O sheets with a
thickness of 0.3 mm are shown in Figure 1. A 20 W Qswitched YVO4 laser was employed. The wave length of
the laser device was 1064 nm, the same length of YAG
laser. Figure 1(a) shows the result formed into tray shape.
The sheet was cut into expanded shape by laser and laser
forming was carried out along the bending lines. Figure
1(b) shows the formed propeller shape product. The sheet
was cut by laser and bent into curly shape by laser forming.
AISI304 stainless steel and pure titanium sheets are well
known for easy materials to bend by laser forming because
of their low thermal conductivity. Although magnesium
alloys have high thermal conductivity, AZ31 sheet could
be bent by laser forming as shown in Figure 1. Therefore
the bending angle of AZ31 sheet with a thickness of 0.3
mm was compared with those of AISI304 and pure titanium sheets in the same working conditions. Figure 2 [2]
shows the comparison of bending angles among AZ31,
AISI304 and pure titanium sheets. When laser scanning
number was 10, bending angle of AZ31 sheet was smaller
than that of AISI304 and pure titanium sheets. As laser
scanning number increased, although increasing rate of
09.08.2010 14:39:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
sheet thicknesses at the laser irradiated part, that is a characteristic of bending by temperature gradient mechanism,
became greater as laser scanning number and bending
angle increased.
40
35
30
Bending angle /
bending angle of pure titanium sheet did not changed, that

of AZ31 sheet increased and that of AISI304 sheet decreased. When laser scanning number was 30, bending
angles of pure titanium, AZ31 and AISI304 were greater in
this sequence. This reason is considerable that absorption
of laser beam of AZ31 is smaller than that of AISI304 and
pure titanium in the beginning stages of laser forming.
These results are discussed from the thermal expansion
coefficient and thermal conductivity of each material
shown in Table 1 [3]. Comparing between AZ31 and pure
titanium, AZ31 is easy to bend because of greater thermal
expansion coefficient and hard to bend due to larger thermal conductivity. It is considered that the effect of thermal
conductivity was stronger than that of thermal expansion
coefficient. In the same way, comparing between AZ31
and AISI304, AZ31 is easy to bend because of greater
thermal expansion coefficient and hard to bend due to
larger thermal conductivity. In this case, it is considered
that the effect of thermal expansion coefficient was
stronger than that of thermal conductivity.
Ti
AZ31
SUS304
25
20
15
10
5
0
10
15
20
25
30
Laser scanning number N

Figure 2. Comparison of bending angle by laser forming among
AZ31, AISI304 and pure titanium sheets.
Table 1. Thermal properties of AZ31, AISI304 and pure titanium [3].
Thermal expansion coefficient

/ 10-6C
Thermal conductivity / W(m K)-1
(a) Tray shape
AZ31
AISI304
Pure
titanium
26.0
17.2
8.6
96
16.2
16
(a) N=10
(b) N=20
(b) Propeller shape

Figure 1. Examples of forming AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets.
High Tensile Strength Steel. In stamping high tensile

strength steel sheets, great spring back is a serious issue.
Since laser forming does not affected by strength of
formed material and effect of spring back is small, laser
forming is suitable for forming high tensile strength steel
sheets.
SPFC590 high tensile strength steel sheet with a thickness of 1.2 mm was used for specimen. A 200 W pulsed
YAG laser was employed for forming. Laser power and
laser scanning velocity were kept to 200 W and 100
mm/min, respectively. Pulse frequency was fixed to 300
Hz. No shield gas was used. Photos of specimen with
increasing laser scanning number were shown in Figure 3
[4]. As laser scanning number increased, bending angle
also increased. Color changes near the laser irradiate areas
are similar between all specimen, however, increase of
(c) N=30
(d) N=40
Figure 3. Example of formed SPFC590 high tensile strength steel

sheets.
Tailor Welded Blanks. To reduce weight of automobile,

to improve safety in crash and to reduce manufacturing
cost, tailor welded blanks are used. Since the welded
sheets have different thicknesses, strengths and/or materials, formability of each part is different. As a result, they
have different spring back and formed sheet twists after
taking out from the dies in stamping. In laser forming, no
punches and dies are used and it is easy to change working
conditions to meet each material. In this section, low car-
909
09.08.2010 14:39:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
bon steel sheet and 980 MPa class high tensile strength
steel sheets were connected by TIG welding and this tailor
welded blanks were bent by laser forming.
Cold rolled low carbon steel sheet, SPCC, and 980 MPa
class high tensile strength steel sheet, SPFC980Y, were
used for specimen. The thicknesses of specimen were 1.0
mm and 1.2 mm, respectively. Two sheets having 40 mm
in width and 50 mm in length were welded. To avoid
changing absorption of laser energy at the welding position due to color change by welding, carbon paint was
sprayed on the specimen surface. Defocus length was set
to 25 mm not to melt or cut the specimen. Bending angle
was investigated by changing laser power. Since bending
angles of low carbon steel sheet and high tensile strength
steel sheet were different, laser powers for each material
were changed at the welding line to obtain same bending
angle in each material.
The distribution of hardness in the cross-section of
SPFC980Y-SPCC welded sheets was shown in Figure 4
[5]. Hardness was increased at welded area and that at heat
affected zone of only SPFC980Y was smaller than the
substrate one. Hardness distribution was continuously
changed from SPFC980Y part to SPCC part.
SPFC980Y
SPCC
Welding line
Laser scanning line
(a) Laser irradiated side
SPFC980Y
SPCC
Laser scanning line
800
700
Welding line
(b) Reverse side

Figure 5. Appearance of formed 1.2 mm thickness SPFC980Y 1.0 mm SPCC welded sheet (Laser power was 38 W, Laser scanning velocity was 2 mm/s and Scanning number was 200).
Welded position
600
SPFC980Y
(t=1.2mm)
200
SPCC
SPFC980Y
100
15
10
10
15
20
300
0
20
Location /mm
Figure 4. Hardness distribution of SPFC980Y-SPCC TIG welded

sheets.
Figure 5 [5] shows the appearance of formed tailor

welded blank. SPFC980Y sheet with a thickness of 1.2
mm and SPCC sheet with a thickness of 1.0 mm were
welded. Laser was scanned in the direction perpendicular
to the welding line. Laser power was 38 W, laser scanning
velocity was 2 mm/s and laser scanning number was 200.
Distribution of bending angle when laser scanning number
was 10 and laser power was changed at the welding line
was plotted in Figure 6 [5]. When laser power was constant at 38 W in both SPFC980Y and SPCC sheets, bending angle of SPFC980Y was 2.8 and that of SPCC was 5.
Bending angle changed dramatically at the welding line,
however, when laser powers were set to 44 W for
SPFC980Y and 32 W for SPCC, difference of bending
angles became almost zero. It was confirmed that distribution of bending angle of tailor welded blanks can be controlled by changing working conditions for each material
at the welding line.
0
20
910
SPCC
(t=1.0mm)
400
Bending angle /
Vickers hardness /Hv
6
500
SPFC980Y SPCC
(t=1.2mm) (t=1.0mm)
38W
38W
40W
36W
42W
34W
32W
44W
15
10
Welded position
10
15
20
Location /mm
Figure 6. Control of bending angle distribution of different material

(SPFC980Y-SPCC) and different thickness (1.2 mm and 1.0 mm
thickness) welded sheet.
Micro Laser Forming of MEMS Materials

Introduction to Microforming of MEMS Materials
by Laser Forming. Electric devices and semiconductor
devices having lighter weight and higher performance are
required for appliances, and automotive sensors and actuators. Most of them are fabricated on silicon or glass substrate by wafer processing such as lithography, LIGA and
so on. Using metallic materials are now discussed for next
generation MEMS. In addition, to avoid anisotropy of the
mechanical and physical properties of microdevice materials caused from crystallographic orientation and to enhance forming precision due to formability for flow into
09.08.2010 14:39:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
microcavity, using metallic glass are also discussed. Those
materials are, however, brittle and difficult to perform
plastic working at room temperature. Although it is necessary to elevate working temperature for forming them
plastically, heating is not preferable from the viewpoint of
protecting electric circuit or devices. Since the current
MEMS devices are fabricated by wafer processing, the
products have small aspect ratio and it is difficult to fabricate devices having large aspect ratio. Technology for
manufacturing devices with large aspect ratio and threedimensional structure is required for development of next
generation MEMS devices having higher performance,
multi-function, lighter weight and smaller volume.
The authors have been developing forming method for
manufacturing planar device fabricated by wafer processing into large aspect ratio and three-dimensional structure
by bending plastically like sheet metal forming. In microforming of thin films, since alignment and arrangement of
tools and dies, and shape precision are serious problems,
flexible forming methods without tools and dies are suitable. As written former paragraph, MEMS materials needs
to be deformed at elevated temperature, however, heating
is not good for circuits and devices. Laser forming is suitable for forming MEMS materials because of requiring
only small area to be heated. In the following sections,
results of forming borosilicate glass foils [6,7], single
crystalline silicon wafers [6,7] and thin film metallic
glasses [8] are shown.
Borosilicate Glass foils. A 20 W Q-switched YVO4 laser was used and borosilicate glass foils with a thickness
of 0.15 - 0.17 mm were formed. Since laser beam passes
through the borosilicate glass, carbon paint was sprayed on
the surface of the borosilicate glass foils to enhance absorption of laser energy. To avoid fracturing by heat shock,
the foils were pre-heated by a resistant heater.
Appearance of formed borosilicate glass foils are shown
in Figure 7 [6,7]. In Figure 7(a), laser power was 13 W,
laser scanning velocity was 25 mm/s and laser scanning
number was 300, and bending angle was 88.2. If it is
necessary to bend them into greater than 90, fixing method of foils should be improved because laser beam interferes with the part already bent in geometry when bending
angle becomes larger than 90.
Figure 8 [6,7] shows the cross section of formed borosilicate glass foil. Increase of foil thickness at the laser
irradiated area, this is a characteristic of formed part by
laser forming with temperature gradient mechanism, was
observed as well as bending metal sheet cases. This result
shows not only metal sheets but also borosilicate glass
foils were bent plastically by laser forming.
Figure 7(b) shows the appearance of formed borosilicate
glass foils with 10 laser scanning lines in a pitch of 0.5
mm. Laser power was 10 W, laser scanning velocity was
25 mm/s and laser scanning number per line was 10. The
foil was formed into cylindrical shell shape. From these
results, it is possible to control forming curvature of cylindrical shell shape by changing laser power, laser scanning
velocity, laser scanning number and laser scanning pitch.
(a) Single line scanning
(b) 10 lines scanning

Figure 7. Examples of forming borosilicate glass foils.
Laser irradiated part
Resin
Specimen
Resin
Figure 8. Cross-sectional SEM images of formed borosilicate

glass foils.
Single Crystalline Silicon Wafers. A 20 W Q-switched

YVO4 laser was used for bending single crystalline silicon
wafers with a thickness of 0.05 mm. Figure 9 [6,7] shows
the appearance of formed silicon wafers. Laser power was
12 W, laser scanning velocity was 15 mm/s and laser scanning number was 10, and bending angle was 72.3.
Figure 10 [6,7] shows the cross section of formed single
crystalline silicon wafers. Thickness at the laser irradiated
area increased as well as the borosilicate glass foils and
single crystalline silicon was also bent plastically by laser
forming.
Figure 11 [6,7] shows the effect of laser power on bending angle at scanning velocity of 10 mm/s, defocus length
of 5 mm and scanning number of 100. As laser power
increased, bending angle increased and at laser power of
11 W, bending angle increased dramatically. When laser
power was 13 W, the maximum bending angle was obtained.
911
09.08.2010 14:39:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
with a thickness of 0.028 mm when laser power was 3.0 W,
laser scanning velocity was 40 mm/s, Q-switch frequency
was 3.0 kHz and laser scanning number was 80, and bending angle was 89.0. Figure 13(b) is a result of bending
Pd40Ni40P20 with a thickness of 0.017 mm when laser power was 1.5 W, laser scanning velocity was 40 mm/s Qswitch frequency was 3.0 kHz and laser scanning number
was 80, and bending angle was 86.5. For both materials,
the thin films were bent with very small bending radius.
80
Figure 9. Example of forming single crystalline silicon wafer.
70
Resin
Bending angle /
Laser irradiated part
Specimen
Resin
60
50
40
30
20
10
Figure 10. Cross-sectional SEM images of formed single crystalline silicon wafer.
80
10
15
20
25
Scanning velocity V / mms
30
Figure 12. Relation between bending angle and laser scanning

velocity for single crystalline silicon wafers (laser power was 12 W,
defocus length was 5 mm, laser scanning number was 100).
70
Bending angle /
0
0
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Laser power P / W
Figure 11. Relation between bending angle and laser power for
single crystalline silicon wafers (laser scanning velocity was 10
mm/s, defocus length was 5 mm, laser scanning number was 100.
Figure 12 [6,7] illustrates relation between bending angle and scanning velocity at laser power of 12 W, defocus
length of 5 mm and scanning number of 100. Bending
angle became maximum at scanning velocity of 15 mm/s.
This is because when scanning velocity was slow, given
energy was too much and restriction at laser irradiated area
from surrounding area was smaller due to surface melting,
and when scanning velocity was fast, given energy was
smaller for occurring plastic deformation. This result expresses optimum scanning velocity exists.
Thin Film Metallic Glasses. A 50 W Q-switched YAG
laser was used for bending palladium based thin film metallic glasses. Figure 13 [8] shows the appearance of
formed two kinds of palladium based thin film metallic
glasses. Figure 13(a) is a result of bending Pd77Cu6Si17
912
(a) Pd77Cu6Si17
(b) Pd40Ni40P20
Figure 13. Examples of forming palladium based thin film metallic
glasses.
Figure 14 [8] shows XRD patterns of Pd77Cu6Si17 and

Pd40Ni40P20 specimens before and after laser forming.
Although crystallization may happen during forming, both
materials were amorphous after laser forming. It is expected that characteristics of metallic glass will be obtained after laser forming.
Relations between bending angle and scanning number
for Pd77Cu6Si17 and Pd40Ni40P20 specimens are illustrated
in Figure 15 [8]. In both cases, scanning velocity was 40
mm/s and Q-switch frequency was 3.0 kHz. As scanning
number increased, bending angle also increased but increasing rate decreased. The increasing rates of bending
angle were different when laser power was changed. In
other materials, the same phenomenon is also observed.
Although work hardening, thickening due to temperature
gradient mechanism, increase of bending stiffness, residual
stress caused from the previous laser irradiation, change of
microstructure and so on are suggested as a reason, how-
09.08.2010 14:39:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
ever, it has not resolved yet. It is considerable that since
the laser beam was irradiated perpendicular to the specimen, bending angle approached to 90 but it did not exceed the angle.
After laser irradiation
[4] M. Otsu, K. Ogata: Proc. 55th Japanese Joint Conference for Technology of Plasticity, (2004), 443-444, (in Japanese).
[5] M. Otsu, A. Ishii, K. Takashima: Journal of Solid Mechanics and
Materials Engineering, 3-12 (2009), 1312-1321.
[6] M. Otsu, H. Fukugawa, K. Takashima: Journal of Japan Society for
Technology of Plasticity, 49-570 (2008), 675-679. (in Japanese)
[7] M. Otsu, H. Fukugawa, K. Takashima: Proc. 9th International Conference on Technology of Plasticity, (2008), WA2-5, CD-ROM.
[8] M. Otsu, Y. Ide, J. Sakurai, S. Hata, K. Takashima: Journal of Solid
Mechanics and Materials Engineering, 3-2 (2009), 387-396.
Intensity /A. U.
90
Laser power, P
6W
5W
70
4W
3W
60
2W
1W
50
Before laser irradiation
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Bending angle, /
80
Diffraction angle 2 /
(a) Pd77Cu6Si17
40
30
20
10
0
0
After laser irradiation
Intensity /A. U.
90
10 20 30 40 50 60
Scanning number, N /Times
70
(a) Pd77Cu6Si17
Laser power, P
2.5W
2.0W
70
1.5W
1.0W
60
0.5W
50
Bending angle, /
80
Before laser irradiation
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Diffraction angle 2 /
(b) Pd40Ni40P20
Figure 14. XRD patterns of palladium based thin film metallic
glasses before and after laser forming.
Conclusions
Forming of sheets and foils, which are difficult or impossible to form by conventional press working, by laser
forming was introduced. Especially, micro-laser forming
of materials for MEMS devices is strongly expected to
realize practical use since it is considerable to be very
difficult to obtain the same results by other forming process. Development of next generation MEMS devices having three-dimensional structure with large aspect ratio and
new concept ones is strongly expected.
40
30
20
10
0
0
10 20 30 40 50 60
Scanning number, N /Times
70
(b) Pd40Ni40P20
Figure 15. Relation between bending angle and laser scanning
number (laser scanning velocity was 40 mm/s, Q-switch frequency
was 3.0 kHz).
References
[1] F. Vollertsen: Proc. Laser Assisted Net Shape Engineering, 94, (1994),
345-360.
[2] M. Otsu, H. Benoki, E. Taki: Proc. 55th Japanese Joint Conference
for Technology of Plasticity, (2004), 229-230, (in Japanese).
[3] W.D. Callister, Jr.: Materials Science and Engineering, An Introduction, Wiley, (2007), A17-A21.
913
09.08.2010 14:39:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Some Remarks on Formability and Microstructural Features of Incrementally Formed

Sheets as a Function of Geometrical Parameters
Paolo Bosetti, Stefania Bruschi
Department of Structural and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Trento / Italy, stefania.bruschi@ing.unitn.it
Several investigations have been carried out in recent years to study the fundamental aspects of incremental sheet forming operations, with
particular attention to determination of material formability and evaluation of the formed component geometry. Some of these investigations
based on both experimental and numerical studies tried to give a comprehensive explanation of deformation mechanisms that arise during
incremental sheet forming, and which possibly affect the material formability. However, none of the proposed theories are today fully accepted by the scientific community. The objective of the paper is to study the effect that geometrical parameters have on the component
formability and on its microstructural characteristics. Axi-symmetric parts characterized by a varying slope with depth and by different initial
slopes were incrementally formed until the first crack appeared. The formed components were measured with a coordinate measuring
machine and their geometry and thickness profiles evaluated. It is shown that the final thickness of the component is strongly dependent on
geometrical parameters: in particular, the presence of one or two minima in the thickness is outlined, as a consequence of the different
predominant deforming mechanisms that lead to sheet failure. In order to study the relevant deformation mechanisms, microstructural
characterization was conducted on the failure zone of the formed parts, by means of optical microscopy to evaluate the part microstructure
as compared to the non-deformed blank. The observed microstructural features were then compared to the equivalent ones of tensile sheet
specimens deformed until fracture, in order to evidence similarities and differences, and utilized to support or deny theories about incremental forming deformation mechanisms available in literature.
Keywords: Single-point incremental forming, Formability, Thickness profile, Microstructure
Introduction
The ever increasing demand in product customization
with cost reduction has led in recent years to the development of new categories of flexible manufacturing processes, which do not require specialized dies and are characterized by low lead times. Among them, in the last decade [1], the international scientific community has put
much attention and efforts in incremental sheet forming
processes, where a metal blank is incrementally formed by
a ball-shaped tool that moves along a predefined path
operated by a CNC, with or even without the aid of supporting dies. In the latter case, the technology, known as
single-point incremental forming, is truly dieless, and this
represents the real competitive advantage of the technology when compared to conventional sheet forming processes for mass production.
A literature survey about incremental sheet forming reveals that several studies have been carried out, dealing
with different aspects of this technology. The first studies
were mainly related to determination of material formability when subjected to incremental deformation in comparison with formability limits obtained with traditional tests
[2], and on geometrical accuracy of the formed parts when
compared to the imposed nominal geometry [3]. Then,
investigations [4] on the optimal choice of process parameters were carried out, with the aim of understanding
the effect of process parameters on formability, geometrical accuracy and surface quality of the formed components.
The feasibility of utilizing other machines than conventional CNC machine tools was also investigated, considering the possibility to use of parallel kinematics machine
[5] or robot arms to which the tool is fixed [6], in order to
increase and exploit even more the flexibility of the process.
914
Despite the numerous studies, the deformation mechanism at the basis of incremental forming is not fully understood yet. Several hypotheses can be found in literature
[7-8], which debate if either the deformation mechanism is
purely shear, or it is a combination of shear and stretching
in the plane perpendicular to the tool axis and mostly shear
in the parallel plane. The validation of the proposed theories was based on observation of the strain distribution
through the thickness during process successive laps or
comparison with material formability indices mainly related to tensile test data.
The objective of the paper is to show that the geometry
of the part to be formed influences material formability in terms of material capability to undergo incremental
deformations before fracture-, the part final thickness
profile and its microstructure, since it leads to different
failure mechanism. The study reported in the paper attempts to demonstrate that these influences can be ascribed to the different deformation mechanisms arising
during the process, which affect the material behavior
under deformation. Optical microscopy observations are
utilized to confirm that.
The first part of the paper is devoted to the description
of the sheet material characteristics, the apparatus and the
experimental plan utilized to carry out an experimental
campaign of single-point incremental forming (SPIF).
Details about the process parameters and reference part
geometries are given. Then, the approach in analyzing the
output of the tests is presented, providing results in terms
of material formability, thickness profile of the formed
parts, and microstructural features. The obtained results
are finally discussed and compared with the equivalent
ones of tensile sheet specimens deformed until fracture.
09.08.2010 14:39:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Material
The material object of the investigation is the lowcarbon steel AISI 1009 (FeE340 FIAT code), provided in
zinc-coated 1.5 mm thick sheets. Since this steel is characterized by higher yield strength and lower ductility compared to traditional deep drawing steels, the application of
single-point incremental forming operations is straightforward in order to guarantee the production of complex
products.
Uni-axial tensile tests were carried out on specimens
machined along the rolling, transverse and 45 to rolling
directions with the twofold objective of determining the
most important mechanical parameters and to analyse the
steel microstructure close to the failure zone. Tests were
repeated five times for each rolling direction. Table 1
reports the values of the constants of the Hollomons equation (referred to the rolling direction), and the anisotropy
coefficients. In the same table, the specimen thickness in
the failure section tf, measured by means of a micrometer,
is also reported: this value is the average of the measurements performed on the failure sections of 5 specimens
tested along the rolling direction.
Figure 1 on the left shows the steel microstructure in the
as-received condition: the grain size is quite homogeneous,
without evidencing significant directionality due to previous rolling. The same figure shows on the right the tensile
specimen microstructure close to the failure zone: again no
evident directionality can be appreciated.
Figure 1. AISI 1009 microstructure in as-received condition (left)

and close to the failure zone of tensile specimen (right).
Table 1. Hollomons material constants, thickness at failure, and
anisotropy coefficients for AISI 1009 sheets of 1.5 mm thickness.
K [MPa]
714
0.197
tf [mm]
0.22
r0
1.39
r45
1.03
r90
0.95
Experiments
Experimental Apparatus. The single-point incremental
forming experiments were carried out on a 5-axis DeckelMaho milling machine. The metal blank, 400 mm x 400
mm, is mechanically clamped around its contour in order
to prevent any movement during formation; a backing
plate is employed to support the blank and to prevent its
bending during the forming process.
A cylindrical steel tool with a hemispherical head was

utilized for all the experiments. Preliminary tests conducted using grease as lubricating mean showed a premature wear of the tool due to the debris of zinc coating removed from the blank surface and acting as abrasive.
Therefore, in order to keep the lubricant amount constant
and uniform during the test, the cutting fluid of the milling
machine was utilized.
Figure 2 shows the experimental set-up configuration
with the blank completely dipped into the lubricant.
Figure 2. Experimental set-up configuration.
Part Geometry. The part chosen as the case study is a

truncated cone with the wall angle varying with its depth
and having an arc of a circle as generator. This part was
first introduced in [9], in order to limit the number of tests
needed to determine material formability in SPIF: only
one experiment is indeed needed to find the maximum
draw angle, if it is assumed that the height at which the
blank failures is the one corresponding to the maximum
draw angle.
Three geometries were analyzed in this study (Figure 3),
which differ for the initial wall angle: geometry #1 has an
initial wall angle equal to 40, geometry #2 equal to 73,
and geometry #3 equal to 75, which is very close to the
maximum one. The generator radius is equal to 500 mm
for geometry #2 and geometry #3, while it was set equal to
300 mm for geometry #1, to account for the maximum
admissible height of the part obtainable with the available
fixture.
Experimental Plan. The following process parameters
were adopted for the experimental campaign:
- diameter of the tool head d equal to 10 mm;
- step down size z equal to 0.5 mm;
- feed rate f equal 1500 mm/min;
- spindle speed n equal to 0.
The strategy for the tool movement was the spiral one.
Each experiment was stopped when the first crack appeared in the blank.
All the experiments were repeated twice to assure repeatability of results.
915
09.08.2010 14:39:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 4. Thickness profile for geometry #1.
(a) Geometry #1
(b) Geometry #2
(c) Geometry #3
Figure 3. Sketch of the three geometries for the experimentation.
Parts Measurements. The geometry of the formed parts

was measured on a Coordinate Measuring Machine. Two
scans, one following the internal profile and the other the
external one of the part, were carried out on two perpendicular sections of the part. These measurements are utilized to evaluate the actual thickness profile of the part
along its radius. The part height at fracture is recorded by
CMM at the point of fracture location and the corresponding thickness is named the thickness at fracture tf.
Material formability is evaluated in terms of the maximum draw angle max, calculated in correspondence of the
part height at fracture, and in terms of the thinning ratio R,
which is the ratio between the thickness at failure and the
initial blank thickness (measured by means of a micrometer for each blank).
The same observation is then carried out for geometry

#2, but it is evidenced that the thickness profile is very
different (Figure 5). Two minima are in fact present in the
thickness profile: one corresponding to the blank fracture
and the other a few millimetres below the backing plate.
The value of the thickness at fracture is close to the one of
geometry #1, while the absolute minimum just below the
backing plate is lower and close to the thickness at fracture
of the tensile specimen (see Table 1). This behaviour can
be ascribed to the appearance of the so-called thinning
band [10] below the backing plate: due to the severe initial
wall angle, which is close to the maximum one, the material, during the first tool laps, is mainly stretched; if the
material can overcome this band without fracturing, then
the actual fracture occurs at a level of thickness similar to
those geometries where the thinning band does not occur.
Results
Formability Indices. Table 2 reports the maximum
draw angle relevant, the thickness at fracture tf, and the
thinning ratio R measured for the three investigated geometries. It is evident that the initial wall angle influences
both the maximum angle that can be reached during deformation and the thickness at fracture resulting in a different thickness ratio. Nevertheless, geometries #1 and #2
present very similar formability indices. On the other hand,
the material behaviour when deformed to geometry #3 is
surprisingly different, since the formability indices behave
oppositely: the maximum draw angle is lower, but also the
thickness at fracture and the corresponding thickness ratio
are lower.
Table 2. Formability indices for the three investigated
(average results of the experiment repetitions).
tf
Initial wall angle
max
40, geom.. #1
79.1
0.25
73, geom. #2
78.9
0.26
75, geom. #3
75.7
0.21
geometries
Rm
0.17
0.18
0.14
Thickness Profiles. The analysis of the part thickness

profile along its wall can provide an explanation to the
differences in material formability arising with the three
investigated geometries.
Figure 4 shows the part thickness profile as function of
the part radius for geometry #1: the thickness gradually
decreases with increasing wall angle, until the thickness at
fracture is reached.
916
Geometry #3 presents instead only one minimum in the

thickness profile just below the backing plate (Figure 6),
whose value is close to the thickness at fracture of the
tensile specimen: the initial wall angle is so severe that the
stretching under the backing plate rapidly leads to fracture.
Therefore, the maximum draw angle characteristic of this
geometry cannot be considered the index of formability
when the blank is subjected to SPIF, since the prevailing
deformation mechanism is the stretching below the backing plate.
09.08.2010 14:39:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Microstructural Features. Optical microscopy was
employed to carry out microstructural observations in
different locations of the formed parts. Figure 7 clarifies
the part zones where the microstructural analysis was
conducted: zone 1 is relevant to the thinning band, and
zone 2 to the part failure area. For geometry #3, zone 1
and zone 2 coincide. For each observation zone, both the
horizontal and the vertical sections were analyzed.
Figure 7. Part zones for microstructural analysis.
Microstructure in the vertical section in the fracture zone

is characterized by heavily elongated grains in the case of
geometries #1 and #2, while the grain elongation ratio in
geometry #3 is significantly lower (see Figure 8). When
the horizontal section of the fracture zone is analyzed
(Figure 9), differences between the three geometries are
not so evident. These results are consistent with experimental observations in [8], where it states that the most
significant deformation is reached in the plane parallel to
the tool direction, increasing on successive laps: geometry
# 3 fails indeed after very few tool laps.
Figure 8. Fracture zone in vertical section (geometry #1 left, geometry #2 middle and geometry #3 right).
Another consideration is related to the thinning zone in

geometry #3: in spite of the theory reported in [7], where it
is assumed that a localized necking, like that occurring in a
uni-axial tensile test, is responsible of the thinning band,
microstructure in the failure zone is significantly different
than the one of a tensile specimen in its failure zone (see
Figure 1 for comparison).
Figure 9. Fracture zone in horizontal section (left: geometry #1,

middle: geometry #2 and right: geometry #3).
Finally, microstructures in zones 1 and 2 of the same

part are analyzed. In the case of geometry #1 (Figure 10),
the material microstructure changes from little to heavily
deformed grains; on the other hand, in the case of geometry #2 (Figure 11), the grain deformation appears to be
very similar in the two analyzed zones.
Figure 10. Microstructures of geometries #1 (zone 1 left and zone

2 right).
Figure 11. Microstructures of geometries #2 (zone 1 left and zone

2 right).
Conclusions
The presented results show that:
1. Parts to evaluate the maximum draw angle in SPIF
operations must be designed with a geometry characterized by an initial wall angle not close to the maximum
one.
2. Thickness profiles of parts with a wall angle close to the
maximum one are characterized by a double minimum,
implying the occurrence of the thinning band below the
backing plate.
3. When the blank fails in the thinning band, its thickness
is close to the thickness at failure of a tensile specimen.
4. Analysis of grain deformation confirms the observations
in [8], but denies the occurrence of a necking region
like the one in a tensile specimen.
References
[1] J. Jeswiet, F. Micari, G. Hirt, A. Bramley, J. Duflou, J. Allwood: CIRP
Annals, 54-2 (2005), 88-114.
[2] F. Micari, L. Fratini, L. Filice: CIRP Annals, 51-1 (2002), 199-202.
[3] F. Micari, G. Ambrogio, L. Filice: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 191-1 (2007), 390-395.
[4] M. Ham, J. Jeswiet: CIRP Annals, 55-1 (2006), 241-244.
[5] H. Meyer, J. Bruninghaus, B. Buff, A. Hypki, A. Schyja, V. Smukala:
Key Engineering Materials, 410-411 (2009), 143-150.
[6] M. Rauch, J.-V. Hascoet, J.-C. Hamann, Y. Plenel: Computer-Aided
Design 41 (2009), 877-885.
[7] D. Young, J. Jeswiet: IMechE, 218 (2004), 1453-1459.
[8] J. Allwood, K. Jackson: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
209-3 (2009), 1158-1174.
[9] G. Hussain, L. Gao: International Journal of Machine Tools and
Manufacture, 48-10 (2008), 1170-1178.
Manufacture, 47 (2007), 419-435.
917
09.08.2010 14:39:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of Hybrid Incremental Sheet Forming Processes

Babak Taleb-Araghi1), Alexander Goettmann1), Markus Bambach1), Tim Biermann2), Gerhard Hirt1), Andreas
Weisheit2)
1)
Institute of Metal Forming, RWTH-Aachen University, Aachen / Germany, taleb@ibf.rwth-aachen.de; 2) Fraunhofer Institute for Laser
Technology, Aachen / Germany
Incremental Sheet Forming is a process for the flexible production of sheet metal parts. In incremental sheet forming, a part is obtained as
the sum of localised plastic deformations induced by a simple forming tool that moves under CNC control. Four main problems exist in
incremental sheet forming: (i) sheet thinning, (ii) the limited geometrical accuracy, (iii) the long process duration and (iv) the lack of fast
process models. These limits restrict the range of applications of incremental sheet forming and its industrial implementation. This paper
presents a short overview of the state of the art in incremental sheet forming and introduces two new hybrid processes: the combination of
stretch forming and incremental sheet forming and laser assisted incremental sheet forming. These two combinations allow for the
manufacture of sheet metal parts as individual parts or single components and small batches. First results are presented that demonstrate
the benefits of these two hybrid processes compared to pure incremental sheet forming with regard to the process limits and the forming of
high strength material.
Keywords: Incremental sheet forming, stretch forming, local laser heating, springback, formability
Introduction
Incremental Sheet Forming is an innovative process for
the production of sheet metal parts in small batches [1,2].
In incremental sheet forming, a blank is clamped in a
blank holder and gradually formed by a simple forming
tool that moves under CNC-control (see Figure 1). The
most common process variants are single-point
incremental forming and two-point incremental forming.
Two-point forming involves dies that support the sheet
metal during forming. In single-point, no support or only a
simple rig is used.
Figure 1. Process principles and variants.
Incremental sheet forming is a flexible forming process

that entails relatively low investments for the forming
machine and tooling. It is suitable for small and medium
size batches. Potential markets for incremental sheet
forming are e.g. the automotive sector (design studies,
replacement parts etc.), aeronautics, architecture, design
and medical applications (e.g. implants). A particular
advantage of incremental sheet forming is that the forming
forces do not increase with the size of the part, due to the
localised deformation. The viable part size is only limited
by the working volume of the forming machine. This
makes incremental sheet forming very interesting for large
parts, which cannot easily be manufactured using
918
conventional forming processes like stamping due to the

expensive machinery and tooling.
Hence, incremental sheet forming could close the
existing gap in forming processes for individualized as
well as large-sized components. However, as has been
described in detail in [3], it is mandatory for an industrial
application of incremental sheet forming to find solutions
to the existing process limits. These are:
Process time: It is an incremental process. Typically,
the process time amounts to several minutes or hours,
which restricts the use of incremental sheet forming to
small or medium batch sizes. (See [3] (p. 62ff) for
estimate of the process time as a function of part
geometry and step down.)
Sheet thinning: Due to the localized forming of the
process, there is no draw-in of flange material like in
deep drawing. The increase in surface during forming
leads to sheet thinning, which approximately scales
with the cosine of the wall angle (see Figure 1).
Limited geometrical accuracy: incremental sheet
forming is governed by a cyclic plastic deformation
involving bending and unbending. Thus the process
induces residual stresses, just as in other forming
processes such as deep drawing. In deep drawing,
Finite Element models can be used to optimize forming
tools. Various approaches to improve the geometrical
accuracy of incremental sheet forming are being
developed at present, but there is no general method to
compensate for springback for arbitrary parts.
Lack of fast and reliable process models: An overview
of process models for incremental sheet forming is
given in [2-4]. In particular, it is reported in [3] that
FE-modelling of a truncated cone (of 1m height and
1m top radius) takes almost 20 days on a single
processor machine using a dynamic explicit code. This
makes process planning by FEA inefficient for larger
parts.
Overcoming the process limits mentioned above has
been subject of intensive research for the last 15 years, and
a general solution is not yet at hand. Instead of making
09.08.2010 14:39:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
gradual improvements to incremental sheet forming, it
seems an interesting alternative to make up for the
disadvantages by combining it with other forming
processes. This approach is followed in the present paper.
Two process combinations, stretch-forming and
incremental sheet forming and laser assisted incremental
sheet forming are presented.
Stretch + Incremental Sheet Forming. The concept of
the hybrid process combination is shown in Figure 2.
Stretch forming is used to generate a pre-form which
roughly approximates the final shape of the part. Features
such as grooves, beads, or pockets, which cannot be
formed by stretch forming, are formed subsequently using
incremental sheet forming. As discussed in [5], the
following advantages of the process combination
compared to pure incremental forming are expected:
- Shortening of the process time due to the fact that
stretch forming is faster than incremental sheet
forming.
- Reduced sheet thinning through an improved
material flow.
- Increase in geometrical accuracy due to stretch
forming and superimposed tensile stresses.
In previous work detailed in [5], first results were
presented using the set-up shown in Figure 2. This set-up
only allows for vertical motions of the stretch forming
units. In the present paper, a new hybrid forming machine
for stretch + incremental sheet forming is presented with
first results that corroborate the hypotheses stated above.
forming operations like superplastic forming. In this paper,

first results for laser-assisted incremental sheet forming of
Ti and Mg alloys are presented.
Analysis of the Combination Stretch+Incremental
Sheet Forming
Machine Set-Up. A dedicated forming machine for the
combination was developed and set up at the Institute of
Metal Forming, (see Figure 3). The basic machine
consists of a commercially available portal milling
machine with a 5-axis CNC tower. Additionally, four
independently operating stretch forming modules are
integrated in the machine. Each stretch forming module
has two independent axes. Hence, the machine has 5 CNC
axes for incremental and 8 CNC axes for stretching
forming.
Figure 3. Hybrid forming machine.
Experimental Procedure and Forming Strategies. In

order to analyse the effect of the process combination on
process time, material flow and the geometrical accuracy,
the demonstrator part shown in Figure 4 was produced
once using the combined process and once using pure
incremental forming from a 1.0 mm steel (DC04) blank.
The process time in incremental sheet forming scales
with the surface area to be covered by the tool path. In
contrast, the forming time in stretch forming depends on
the forming depth to be realised. Hence, the process
combination seems particularly favourable for large
shallow parts. In any case, to minimize forming time, it is
necessary to maximize the surface area that is formed in
the stretch forming operation. In addition, it should be
avoided to form surface areas using incremental sheet
forming that were formed by stretch forming. Since the
geometry after stretch forming of complex parts is not
known a priori, it is necessary to use FE- simulations to
identify the part areas that need to be formed by
incremental forming.
Maximizing the surface area covered by stretch forming
involves optimizing the blank shape and the trajectories of
the stretch modules. For the benchmark part considered,
this was accomplished using LS-Dyna.
Figure 2. Principle of process combination [5].
Laser Assisted Incremental Sheet Forming. The

development of laser-assisted incremental sheet forming
aims at providing a cost-effective, flexible forming process
for sheet materials that are not or hardly cold-workable. Of
particular interest are titanium alloys that pose difficulties
for cold forming and are often processed using expensive
Figure 4. Manufactured demonstrator by process combination

(left) and by incremental sheet forming (right).
919
09.08.2010 14:39:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 5 shows a simulation result of the stretch
forming operation after optimization. For the geometry
studied here, the best solution found was to form a crossshaped blank in a tangential stretch forming operation, in
which the stretch modules move both in vertical and
horizontal direction. Using this strategy, about 52% of the
surface area of the final part is covered after stretch
forming. In the subsequent incremental forming operation,
only the upper pocket and the base of the part had to be
formed, which could not be formed using stretch-forming.
Results for Geometrical Accuracy. The impact of the

process combination on the geometrical accuracy was
studied by digitizing the parts produced by pure
incremental sheet forming and by stretch+ incremental
sheet forming after forming and after trimming. Figure 7
shows the geometrical deviations to the CAD-model for
both produced parts along a centred section through the
part (see Figure 6 on the left). The part produced by pure
incremental sheet forming shows maximum deviations of
approximately 5.76 mm at the base of the side wall of the
part. In contrast, the part produced using process
combination shows maximum deviations of about 4.55
mm. A reduction of 21% in maximum deviation has been
achieved using the combined process.
It is worth noting that the areas of the part that were
formed by stretch forming show a high geometrical
accuracy. For the combination stretch+ incremental sheet
forming, the maximum deviation occurs in the base of the
side wall, a region formed by incremental forming. This
shows that it is important for the geometrical accuracy to
maximize the area formed by stretch forming and to limit
the use of incremental forming to features such as pockets.
Figure 5. Part geometry after stretch forming.
Results for Forming Time. Using the process

combination, the forming time was reduced from 60 min
for pure incremental forming to 40 min for the process
combination in the first trials. It is worth mentioning that
the forming time could be reduced further by optimizing
the stretch forming process to cover a larger surface area
of the part. This will be subject of future work.
Result for Sheet Thinning. The sheet thinning of the
parts formed by process combination and incremental
sheet forming was evaluated using the measurement
system ARGUS from gom company. A section line was
generated that starts from the centre and follows the y-axis,
as shown in Figure 6 on the left. The diagram on the right
shows the thickness reduction along the section. In the
case of pure incremental sheet forming, it can be seen that
thinning increases with the wall inclination. In contrast,
with the process combination, the thickness profile
remains roughly homogenous. The absolute value of the
thickness reduction amounts to approximately 20 % for
the process combination, whereas thinning in incremental
sheet forming reaches almost 60%. In summary, the results
show that the sheet thinning was reduced considerably for
the demonstrator part using the process combination.
Figure 6. Thickness reduction.
920
Figure 7. Geometrical deviation to CAD-model.
Analysis and Results of the Laser Assisted Incremental

Sheet Forming
Duflou et al. [6] introduced a variant of laser-assisted
incremental forming in which the laser is applied on the
underside of the sheet metal, i.e. opposite to the side on
which the forming tool acts. In the present work, a
different set-up is used, in which the laser optic is mounted
on the forming tool holder to heat an area on the surface of
the sheet metal ahead of the forming tool (Figure 8). The
temperature in the focus of the laser spot is detected
continuously and controlled to ensure that a certain
forming temperature is attained. At present, the laser is
rigidly attached to the forming tool post. Hence, it is not
able to follow curved tool paths. A new laser optic is
presently being developed that allows for laser heating in
incremental sheet forming for arbitrary tool paths. With
the equipment available at present, only simple tests
involving linear tool movements can be performed.
Experimental Set-Up and Procedure. As part of the
development of laser-assisted incremental sheet forming,
preliminary tests were carried out on a conventional
incremental forming machine at institute of Metal Forming,
in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser
Technology. The experimental set-up is shown in Figure 8.
Figure 9 shows the tool path used for the experiments. At
the beginning of each experiment, the laser was switched
09.08.2010 14:39:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
off and the tool had no contact with the surface (position a
in Figure 9). After the laser and the NC-machine had been
started, the laser spot moved over the sheet metal surface
followed by the tool. The distance between the laser spot
and the tool was 20 mm during all experiments. To ensure
that forming takes place only in the heated areas of the
sheet metal, the tool was moved without contact for the
first 20 mm (b c).
Figure 10. Evaluation results of forming experiments.
Figure 8. Experimental set-up of preliminary tests.
To minimize the impact forces, the tool was moved with

an angle of 45 onto (c d, d`) and away from (e, e` f)
the sheet metal. The plastic deformation applied was
obtained as the sum of all single strokes of the tool with a
constant tool pitch of 0.35 mm. The experiments were
stopped immediately as soon as material failure occurred
(detected by visual control during forming).
First results were presented that show that stretch+

incremental sheet forming yields improvements in forming
time, sheet thinning and geometrical accuracy compared to
pure incremental sheet forming. Future work will focus on
optimizing the process combination to obtain larger
reductions in process time. This is directly related to
optimizing the stretch forming process, which is amenable
to numerical simulation. It follows from the evaluation of
geometrical accuracy that comparatively low deviations
are found in areas produced by stretch forming. However,
still rather large deviations are measured in regions formed
by incremental sheet forming. In addition, the forming
limits under the combined loading in stretch+incremental
forming should be addressed in the future.
In laser assisted incremental sheet forming, preliminary
investigations of forming of Ti and Mg alloys show that
the forming depth can be increased by laser heating
compared to cold forming. Currently, a new laser optic is
being developed that shall allow laser heating ahead of the
forming tool for more complex geometries. This will allow
for an investigation of more complex parts in the future.
Acknowledgements
Figure 9. Tool path sequence.
Experimental Results of Laser+Incremental Sheet

Forming. In the tests, the temperature was controlled by
adjusting the laser power. The forming depth of the
formed parts before rupture served as evaluation criteria
for formability. As shown in Figure 10, hot forming of
titanium grade 2 yields an increase in the forming depth of
about 10% compared to forming at room temperature. For
Ti6Al4V, increase in forming depth of approximately 19%
compared to cold forming was observed. In contrast, the
formability of the magnesium alloy AZ31 was
considerably increased: the forming depth at 250 C was
approximately 140% of the forming depth at room
temperature.
Conclusion
Two hybrid sheet metal forming processes are presented:
the combination of incremental sheet forming and stretch
forming and laser assisted incremental sheet forming.
The authors would like to thank the German Research

Foundation (DFG) for the support of the depicted research
within the Cluster of Excellence Integrative Production
Technology for High Wage Countries.
Parts of this research are funded by the German Federal
Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the
Framework Concept Research for Tomorrows
Production (funding number 02PU2104), managed by the
Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (PTKA).
References
[1] D. Leach, A. Green, A. Bramley: Proc. 9th International Conference
on Sheet Metal, Leuven, Belgium, (2001), 211-218.
[2] J. Jeswiet, F. Micari, G. Hirt, A. Bramley, J. Douflou, J. Allwood:
CIRP Annals, 54-2 (2005), 623-650.
[3] M. Bambach :, Umformtechnische Schriften Band 139, Shaker Verlag,
Aachen, (2008).
[4] G. Hirt, J. Ames, M. Bambach, R. Kopp: CIRP Annals, 52-1
(2004), 203-206.
[5] B. Taleb-Araghi, G. Manco, M. Bambach, G. Hirt: CIRP Annals, 581 (2009), 225-228.
[6] J. Duflou, B. Callebaut, J. Verbert, H. De Baerdemaeker: CIRP
Annals, 56-1 (2007), 273-276.
921
09.08.2010 14:39:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Incremental Sheet Metal Forming with Multiple-Head Tool

Yongjun Wang1), Xudong Xiao1), Zhenyi Yuan1), Weichao Wu1)
1)
Key Laboratory of Contemporary Design and Integrated Manufacturing Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian / China,
wyongjun@nwpu.edu.cn
A new method with a multiple-head tool for incremental forming was proposed and investigated. The rolling heads of a forming tool pressed
a sheet with rotation during a forming process. Some truncated components were made from a thin Al2024-O aluminiumalloy plate by this
method with inward tool path. Trials suggested that this method can easily improve the forming efficency and surface roughness. The
forming limit was investigated by experiments. The strain distribution was compared between experiment and equivalent FEM model which
used a simplify method to built the incremental forming process with multiple-head tool. An analysis model of tool path was developed and
the local and total strain was calculated. The results agreed with experimental ones.
Keywords: Incremental sheet metal forming, Multiple-head Tool, Formability, Tool locus
Introduction
Incremental sheet forming (ISF) is a promising new
method for forming personal or small batch sheet metal
workpiece which can be formed directly from a 3D CAD
model with high flexible character. There have been a lot
of studies focused on using just a single ball head forming
tool [1-3]. Iseki et al. [4] studied vertical wall forming of
rectangular shell with spherical and cylindrical rollers.
Jeswiet et al. [5] investigated forming parameters for incremental forming of aluminum alloy sheet metal and got
the strain distribution of pyramid shape part. Martins et al.
[6] carried out a new theoretical model for the different
modes of deformation in single point incremental forming.
Kathryn et al. [7] analyzed the mechanics of incremental
sheet forming. Durante et al. [8] investigated the influence
of tool rotation on force and roughness of an incremental
forming process.
The disadvantages of single ball head include that the
tool head cant rotate or it is difficult to make it rotating,
the friction between ball head and sheet is severe and the
surface quality is difficult to be improved. So in the present study, a new incremental forming tool was designed
and the forming process was preformed with experiments
and simulation.
Multiple-Head Tool Setup
A new multiple-head tool setup was designed and developed as Figure 1. In Figure 1, (a) is the designed model of
multiple-head tool and (b) is the forming schematic, (c) is
the setup amounted on milling machine and (d) is the
actual picture of the tool.
The steel tool head ball is fixed on a bearing to the mandrel through the blind hole made by Electron Discharge
Machining (EDM). So it can turn around the mandrel
freely. The diameter of the ball is 18mm, the distance of
two balls is 38mm. The milling machine was controled
manually.
922
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 1. Configuration of multiple-head tool setup.
Analysis of Geometric Model

Aluminum sheets Al2024-O with thickness of 0.6mm
was used. Its hardening exponent is 0.12 and strength
coefficient is 290 MPa. The blank demission is 200 200
mm. The circle grids which diameter is 2.5mm were
printed on the negative surface.
A truncated pyramid quarter model was illustrated in
Figure 2. is the wall angle, e is the width of blank, a is
the bottom width and d is the top width and h is the height
of truncated pyramid model respectively.
As the sine law, which was found in TPSF by Matsubara
is shown as follow,
t1 = t0 sin ( 90- )
(1)
The corner is thinner than the side wall since the slope
angle in central of the corner is
= tg 1 ( sin tg )
(2)
The slope angle varies according the value of , the
relation between and is plotted in Figure 3. It decreases with the increasing.
09.08.2010 14:39:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
dot and the contact area is small when it moves forward
along the locus. The multiple balls repeat to contact the
same zone, so the deformation increases little by little and
the surface quality is better.
Contact of corner
Contact of
straight edge
Figure 2. Truncated pyramid quarter model.

Contact of single ball
Figure 6. Schematic of contact zone between tool and plate.
In Figure 6, it is clear that the single ball has a small

contact zone on straight edge, and the multiple heads tool
has bigger one at straight edge and the biggest one at corner. The sheet deforms in the contact zone and transfers
along the tool path. It was found that the total strain is
plane strain and obeys sine law. The local strain in the
contact zone of single ball was illustrated in Figures 7 and
9 for the multiple heads tool.
Figure 3. Variation of corner slope angle.
Tool Locus Analysis Descript

As shown in Figure 4, the tool head turned while it was
moving from the peripheral to center inward along the tool
path. Tool feed speed was 100 mm/min, the speed of tool
rotation was 290 rpm.
Figure 7. Schematic of view in tool moving direction.
Figure 4. Schematic of tool path.
The two balls turn around the center and sweep out an
envelope surface. The contact happens between ball and
part, but it changes actually according the envelope surface due to the rotation of tool bar. This is shown in Figure 5.
From Figure 7, according to the sine law, it is easy to

find that the major strain in contact arc zone is
(3)
1arc = ln cos( )
The variation curve was calculated by MATLAB and
plotted in Figure 8.
In Figure 8, the local strain along the generatrix direction in contact zone increases with the increasing of angle
. Basically, the angle varies from zero to .
(a) Distance of balls

(b) Envelope surface
Figure 5. Distance of two balls and envelope surface.
As shown in Figure 6, it is different between single ball

and multiple balls during incremental forming process.
The single ball presses on the surface of sheet to make a
Figure 8. Variation of local strain in contact zone.
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09.08.2010 14:39:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
As shown in Figure 9, the strain of circumference direction is zero. But the length view along the transverse direction is different for single ball and multiple heads tool.
According to the plane deformation assumption, so the

circumference strain 2 is
2 = 0
(9)
In order to get the strain distribution, an equivalent FEM

simulation model that has a similar shape die and punch
was built in ABAQUS/STANDARD with shell element,
constraint of x and y coordinates fixed to bulge the blank.
As a result, the convergence was easy to be gotten and the
simulating time was short. The FEM model is shown in
Figure 10.
Figure 9. View of tool in transverse of moving direction.
In Figure 9, it can be found that the contact zone length

in step forward direction increases with step in deep direction and the value is different between single ball and
multiple heads tool.
The contact zone length at straight edge in step forward
direction for single ball is given by
2
d d
(4)
z
4 2
The contact zone length at straight edge in step forward

direction for multiple head tool can be gained as follow
s=
D2 D
Z
4 2
S=
One of the strain distribution of FEM simulation and

one of experimental component is shown in Figure10.
(5)
Times of envelope surface roll over the surface of sheet
is
n=
Figure 10. Simulating model built in ABAQUS.
S
2 v
(a)
(b)
(6)
Times of ball roll over the surface of sheet is
N = 2n =
D2 D
Z
v 4 2
(7)
The values of experiment for Eqs. (4) to (7) is organized
in Table 1, where D=38 mm, d=18 mm, v=1.67 mm/s,
=4.83 rad/s, Z=z=2 mm.
Table 1. Contact situation comparing between single and multiple
balls tool.
S/mm
n/circle
8.485
24.5
49
Single-head tool
5.657
0.1
---
M/S
1.5
245
---
From Table 1, it is clear that the length of contact area at

straight edge of multiple heads tool is 1.5 times than that
of the single ball and circles of the same point rolled by
tool is 245 times, so more high surface quality can be
obtained by the multiple heads tool.
The major total strain 1 of component is
924
(d)
Multiple-head tool
1 = t = ln 1 = ln [sin(90 ) ]
t
(c)
(8)
(e)
Figure 11. Major strain compare between simulation and experiment.
In Figure 11(a)-(c), sample No. 6, of which the wall angle is 43.1. It can be found that the major strains in
side wall from simulation are similar with experimental
09.08.2010 14:39:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
ones. At the same time the major strain can also be calculated by Eq. (10), in this case the 1 = 0.31 . In Figure
11(d)-(e), sample No. 4, of which the wall angle is

62.1 and 1 = 0.76 .
It means that the simulaiton method which uses equivalent FEM model to simulate the forming process can be
used to instead complex classical FEM method to predict
the strain distribution in incremental forming process.
The wall angle of truncated pyramid varies from

21.82s to 79. The process parameters such as level step,
depth step and experimental results such as theory thickness and experimental thickness of sheet, crack state are
shown in Table 2. It is interesting that the crack always
happened in the corner zone. As shown in Figure 12. The
reason is that the depth increment starts at the corner, so
the material met the forming limit at last depth step feed.
Table 2. Numerical and experimental parameters and results.
NO. LS
DS
(deg) (deg) TT
ET
Rc
31.5
39.2
28.9
0.465 0.431 34.62 N
22.1
41.9
29.8
0.446 0.438 35.32 N
1.5
28.6
52.2
42.1
0.368 0.372 36.22 Y
24.5
62.1
49.1
0.281 0.302 36.85 N
45.3
41.8
33.2
0.447 0.441 35.02 Y
The dome bulging test was used to get material FLD

(Forming Limit Diagram) and the grids deformation on
surface of components formed were measured and plotted
in Figure 13.
It was found in Figure 13 that the incremental forming
limit is approximately a negative slope line. The equation
for it is fitted as follows
major = 1.28 min + 0.92
(10)
The surface quality is shown in Figure 14, the inner surface roughness is very good along the moving direction,
but there are period waves along the generatrix direction
with approximately 2 mm due to the depth feed step.
(a) Face of component

(b) Inverse of component.
Figure 14. Surface roughness of component.
Conclusions
A new method with a multiple-head tool for incremental

forming was proposed and investigated. The following
6
2
2
40.2 43.1 30.5 0.438 0.451 35.11 N
1.
The multiple-head tool method can improve forming
7
2
2
39.5 40.8 31.2 0.454 0.443 34.80 Y
efficiency and surface quality.
8 0.2
1
23.7 79.2 72.6 0.112 0.152 37.73 Y
2. The single ball has a small contact zone on straight edge,
Note: LS-Level step (mm/cycle). DS-Depth step (mm/cycle). R- reand the multiple heads tool has bigger one at straight
sult.Y- crack. N- not crack. TT- theory thickness (mm). ET- experiment
thickness (mm). The dimension parameter e=240, f=240, a=130 and
edge.
b=130.
3. The local strain along the generatrix direction in contact
zone increases from zero to the strain in side wall
formed.
4. The equivalent FEM model can be used to instead complex classical FEM method to predict the strain distribution in incremental forming process.
References
Figure 12. Illustration of crack zone.
[1] E. Ceretti, C. Giardini, A. Attanasio: Journal of Materials Processing

Technology, 152 (2004), 176-184.
[2] S. Smith, B. Woody, J. Ziegert, Y. Huang: Annals of the CIRP, 56-1
(2007).
[3] H. Takano, K. Kitazawa, T. Goto: International Journal of Machine
Tools & Manufacture 48 (2008), 477-482.
[4] H. Iseki, T. Naganawa: Journal of Materials Processing Technology
130-131 (2002), 675679.
[5] J. Jeswiet, E. Hagan, A. Szekeres: Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng., 216 Part B,
J. Engineering Manufacture, (2002).
[6] P.A.F. Martins, N. Bay, M. Skjoedt, M.B. Silva: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 57 (2008), 247-252.
[7] K. Jackson, J. Allwood: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
209 (2009), 1158-1174.
[8] M. Durante, A. Formisano, A. Langella, F. Memola Capece Minutolo:
Figure 13. Forming limit diagram for dome bulging test and incremental forming.
925
09.08.2010 14:39:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Frictional Effect on Deformation Behavior in Incremental Sheet Forming

Minoru Yamashita1), Toshio Hattori2), Kenji Yamada2), Naoya Nishimura3)
1)
Center for Advanced Die Engineering and Technology, Gifu University, Gifu / Japan, minoruy@gifu-u.ac.jp; 2) Department of Mechanical
and Systems Engineering, Gifu University, Gifu / Japan; 3) Department of Transportation Engineering, Meijo University, Nagoya / Japan
The incremental forming of a hemi-circular cross-sectional straight groove from a flat sheet was considered. The effect of friction of the
interface between the forming tool and the sheet on the deformation behavior was investigated numerically or experimentally. The tool path
of a forming tool was relatively simple. Varying the frictional coefficient of the interface and the work-hardening exponent of the sheet material, the dynamic explicit finite element analysis was conducted. The forming experiment was carried out using a pure aluminum sheet
under two different frictional conditions. The variation of the in-plane strain was continuously measured by a strain gage. When the frictional
coefficient of the interface became larger, the strain distribution became more uniform and its absolute maximum value decreased both in
the computation and the experiment. The similar tendency was also observed when the work hardening exponent of the material became
greater.
Keywords: Incremental forming, Frictional effect, Formability, Sheet metal
Introduction
14.5
Incremental forming is especially suitable for small-lot

production and for the production of prototypes. This kind
of forming uses a forming tool traveling along the prescribed path to deform the material plastically, whose
geometrical shape is relatively simple. The main forming
parameters are the tool path, mechanical properties of the
blank, lubricating condition and dimensions of tool, etc.
Many experimental studies [1-7] and several numerical
ones [8-10] were performed. However, the frictional effect
of the interface between the forming tool and the sheet on
the formability has not been discussed, even though the
effect is remarkably severe in other metal forming processes.
The main objective of the present study is to examine
the frictional effect on the deformation behavior. The numerical simulation by a dynamic explicit finite element
analysis was first conducted under various frictional conditions. The forming of a hemi-circular cross-sectional
straight groove was calculated. A simple tool path was
used, where the forming tool moved vertical to the sheet
plane then traveled horizontally. Repetition of this pattern
made the groove deeper. The strain distribution of the
sheet and the force acting on the forming tool during forming were observed.
The frictional coefficient of the interface between the
forming tool and the sheet was varied. It is very convenient to investigate numerically in order to observe the
frictional effect exclusively since the errors due to the
experimental technique can be eliminated. The workhardening exponent of the sheet material was also varied
to examine its effect on the deformation behavior.
The experiment corresponding to some computational
cases was carried out. The material was a pure aluminum
sheet and the in-plane strain was measured using a strain
gage bonded on the sheet.
Computation of Incremental Forming of Sheet Metal
Computational Conditions. Numerical simulation of
the forming was conducted using the dynamic explicit
finite element code DYNA3D [11]. Schematic illustration
of the forming process of a straight groove and its numerical model are exhibited in Figures 1 and 2, respectively,
where the forming tool locates at the initial position. The
shape of the forming tool is hemi-spherical whose radius is
1 mm. The sheet is square with 14.5 mm edge length and
the thickness is 0.25 mm. The size is set rather smaller
than that in the practical case for improving the computational efficiency. The sheet is composed of 13,456 hexahedron solid elements and the number of division through
its thickness is four to observe the deformation behavior
precisely.
Forming tool
(Initial position)
Tool path
Indent
2
0.25
14.5
R1
Figure 1. Schematic of forming process of straight groove.
926
Holding tool
(Stationary)
Enlarged view
Figure 2. Numerical model of incremental forming of straight

groove.
09.08.2010 14:39:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
Further, the speed scaling technique was also employed
for improving the computational efficiency, where the
forming tool traveled at 20 m/s. By one of the authors, it
was already found that the inertial effect due to the speed
scaling of this order on the deformation behavior was
almost suppressed under the similar computational conditions [10].
In order to form a straight groove the tool was indented
into the sheet with the stroke of 0.5 mm then traveled
horizontally with 6 mm. This operation was repeated until
the total indentation depth reached 2.0 mm. The frictional
coefficient of the interface between the forming tool and
the sheet was varied as depicted in Table 1 for the parametric study. The specification of the sheet material assumed is listed in Table 2. The mechanical property was
assumed elastic-plastic, in which the nth power hardening
law was given for the plastic property. Two kinds of nvalues were used.
Computational Result and Discussions. An example
of the progressive deformation patterns is demonstrated in
Figure 3, where the forming tool is not displayed for visibility of the entire groove. The distribution of thickness
strain is shown in Figure 4. The higher strain region is
seen along the bottom portion of the groove in all computations and the highest strain appears at the portion where
the forming tool is indented. This is attributed to that the
shape of groove end is spherical, at which the geometrical
constraint for the deformation is stronger. The minimum
true strains under various frictional conditions for two nvalues are graphically summarized in Figure 5.
For the case with the higher frictional coefficient of the
interface, the strain distribution becomes more uniform
than that with the lower one. This may be attributed to that
the plastic flow of the material in the vicinity of the summit of the forming tool readily takes place for the lower
frictional condition than that for the higher one. In addition, the strain distribution in the thickness strain becomes
more uniform for the material with higher n-value. Of
course this is due to that the strain propagation in the plastic deformation is more prominent for the material with
higher n-value. It should be emphasized that the larger tool
friction enables us to obtain the more uniform strain distribution in the incremental forming of sheet metal extending
the apparent limit of ductility.
The forces acting on the forming tool in horizontal and
vertical directions to the sheet plane are shown in Figure 6.
The force in the horizontal direction alters its direction,
because the forming tool reciprocates. The absolute value

becomes larger in proportion to the increase of the frictional coefficient of the interface between the forming tool
and the sheet. On the other hand, the force in the vertical
direction slightly decreases as the coefficient becomes
greater.
Here, let us consider the force vectors acting on the
small area of the tool surface as depicted in Figure 7. The
components of resultant force vector in the horizontal and
vertical directions over the tool surface in contact with the
sheet S are expressed as follows:
Fh = ( f h f h )dS in horizontal direction
S
Fv =
( f v f v) dS in vertical direction
(1)
(2)
Of course, the horizontal force Fh becomes larger in accordance with the increase of friction, where the sign of
the components f h and f h are same. On the other hand,
with respect to the vertical direction, the sign of the component f v is opposite to that of f v . Therefore, the resultant force Fv becomes smaller as the friction gets larger.
Further, the difference of the force among the frictional
conditions becomes more remarkable as the groove becomes deeper. This is due to that the tool surface in contact
Table 1. Frictional coefficients of interface between forming tool
and sheet.
Sliding: 2
Sticking: 1
1
0.0
0.0
2
0.15
0.10
3
0.30
0.20
4
0.45
0.30
Table 2. Density and mechanical properties assumed for sheet
material in computation.
Density
2700 kg/m3
Youngs modulus
72 GPa
Poissons ratio
0.33
Plastic property
= 300 n MPa, n = 0.10, 0.30
t = 0.05
t = 0.30
1 = 2 = 0.0
t = 0.80
(a) n = 0.10
1 = 0.15, 2 = 0.10
t = 0.05
t = 0.30
(a) Initial
(d) di = 1.5 mm
(b) di = 0.5 mm
(e) di = 2.0 mm
(c) di = 1.0 mm
(f) di = 2.0 mm
Figure 3. Example of progressive deformation patterns in computation. di: Indentation depth of forming tool, Frictional coefficients
1 and 2 = 0.0
1 = 0.30, 2 = 0.20
t = 0.50
(b) n = 0.30
1 = 0.45, 2 = 0.30
Figure 4. Distribution in thickness strain of formed groove for

various frictional coefficients. Longitudinal direction of groove:
Holizontal, t: Thickness strain, Indent depth of forming tool: 2.0
mm.
927
09.08.2010 14:39:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
True strain in thickness
-0.4
Direction of tool travel
-0.6
Force for the case

without friction: f
-0.8
-1.0
-1.2
n = 0.10
n = 0.30
-1.4
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
Sliding frictional coefficient
Figure 5. Minimum true strain in sheet thickness under various
frictional conditions for two n-values.
Force (N)
100
50
0
-50
:
:
:
:
-100
0
0.00,
0.15,
0.30,
0.45,
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
10
15
20
Travelling length (mm)
(a) Force in horizontal direction
25
Force (N)
100
50
Enlarged
:
:
:
:
0.00,
0.15,
0.30,
0.45,
10
15
20
Travelling length (mm)
(b) Force in vertical direction
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
25
Figure 6. Force acting on forming tool under various frictional

conditions.
with the sheet S becomes larger as the indent depth increases in addition to the elevation of yield stress due to
the strain hardening property of the material.
Forming Experiment under Two Frictional Conditions
The groove forming experiment was carried out in order
to verify the numerical result qualitatively. The sizes of the
tools and the sheet in the experiment were enlarged in
comparison with those in the numerical simulation for the
convenience of strain measurement by using a strain gage.
Experimental Conditions. The test material was a
commercially available pure aluminum sheet whose nominal thickness was 0.5 mm. The mechanical properties are
listed in Table 3. The incremental forming process of a
straight groove is schematically shown in Figure 8. The
area of the sheet is 38 mm square. A straight groove is
formed with the hemispherical forming tool with 4 mm
928
e2
e1
f h e1
f he1
Frictional force: f
Tool surface in contact

with sheet S
f ve2
Figure 7. Force acting on infinitesimal surface of forming tool in

contact with sheet.
150
-150
Tool surface
out of contact
with sheet
f v e2
radius. The tool is indented into the sheet with 0.5 mm

stroke then travels horizontally 20 mm. The operation is
repeated 4 times then the total indentation stroke attains
2.0 mm.
The in-plane strain during the forming was continuously
measured using a strain gage that enabled us to measure
the large true strain up to about 0.1. The strain gage was
bonded on the sheet surface free from contact of the forming tool. The location was the center of the sheet. The
measurement direction was vertical to the groove. Of
course, the measured value was the averaged one over the
sensing area of the strain gage, whose width and length
were 2.0 and 2.1 mm, respectively.
Two frictional conditions of the interface between the
forming tool and the sheet were tested. A graphite-intallow whose mass ratio was 3 : 1 was applied as a lubricant for achieving the low frictional coefficient of the
interface, on the other hand, no lubricant was applied for
high value. The velocity of the forming tool was set to
about 0.1 mm/s then the deformation could be regarded to
be quasi-static.
Experimental Results and Discussions. A typical example of the deformed sheet is demonstrated in Figure 9,
in which the strain is continuously sensed by a strain gage
with respect to the direction vertical to the groove. Actually the straight part of the groove was formed approximately under the plane strain condition, although the strain
of the end portion of groove was three dimensional. Consequently, the negative value of the measured strain perpendicular to the groove was nearly equal to the thickness
strain of the sheet.
The continuously measured strain is exhibited in Figure
10 for two different frictional conditions. When no lubricant is applied, the measured strain is smaller than that
under the lubricated condition. In this case, the strain distribution is more uniform. This agreed with the computational result in a qualitative manner, although the strain
level was relatively lower than that in the computation due
to that the measured value was the averaged one for the
sensing area of the strain gage and the size was enlarged in
the experiment as stated above.
For the actual production, the shorter tool path is, of
course, preferable. Nevertheless, the interval between the
neighboring lines of tool path has to be narrow in view of
the high dimensional accuracy of the product. However,
09.08.2010 14:39:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
0.10
0.08
True strain
Table 3. Mechanical properties of pure aluminum sheet A1050PH24.

K (MPa)
n-value
U.T.S. (MPa)
E (%)
157
0.05
117
11.7
Plastic property: = K n
U.T.S.: Ultimate tensile strength
E: Total elongation
0.06
di: 2.0
Direction of
tool travel
Indentation depth:di(mm)
0.04
di: 1.5
0.02
38
0
-10
di: 0.5
-5
di: 1.0
0
L (mm)
10
(a) Lubricated condition
20
0.10
0.08
Tool path
Indent
R4
Figure 8. Illustration of forming process in experiment.
True strain
38
Indentation depth:di(mm)
di: 2.0
0.06
0.04
di: 1.5
0.02
0
-10
Direction of
tool travel
di: 0.5
-5
0
L (mm)
di: 1.0
5
10
(b) Unlubricated condition

Figure 10. Variation of true strain in direction vertical to groove at
bottom. Sheet material: A1050-H24, L: Refer Figure 9.
Figure 9. Deformed specimen with strain gage. L: Distance

between tool center and central position of strain gage in initial
sheet plane, Indent depth = 1.0 mm in photo.
by virtue of the fact that the more homogeneous distribution in thickness strain is achieved under the higher frictional condition, the interval between the neighboring path
lines can be increased under such condition without decrease of accuracy. It is should be noted that the frictional
coefficient is one of the dominant factors in the incremental forming.
Conclusions
In the incremental sheet forming, the effect of friction of
the interface between the forming tool and the sheet on the
deformation behavior was investigated. Both the numerical simulation for the parametric study and the experiment
were carried out.
In the parametric computational study, the higher the
frictional coefficient of the interface became, the more
uniform the strain distribution resulted. This tendency was
also observed for the case where the n-value of the sheet
material became larger.
In the experiment, when no lubricant was applied, the
in-plane strain in the vertical direction of the groove at the
groove bottom was smaller than that under the lubricated
condition. This tendency agreed with the computational

result then the thinning of the sheet was more suppressed
and the distribution in thickness became more homogeneous under the higher frictional condition. For the actual
process, the interval between the neighboring lines of tool
path may be set larger under higher frictional condition
without sacrifice of the dimensional accuracy in the thickness of the formed product. This suggests that the improvement in productivity is accomplished by controlling
the frictional coefficient appropriately.
References
[1] H. Iseki, T. Shioura and K. Sato: Proc. 5th International Conference
on Technology of Plasticity, (1996), 935-938.
[2] K. Mori, M. Yamamoto, K. Osakada: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 60 (1996), 463-468.
[3] K. Dai, Z.R. Wang, Y. Fang: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 102 (2000), 164-167.
[4] H. Iseki: JSME International Journal Series C, 44-2 (2001), 486493.
[5] M.S. Shim, J.J. Park: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
113 (2001), 654-658.
[6] H. Iseki, T. Naganawa: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
130-131 (2002), 675-679.
[7] Y.H. Kim, J.J. Park: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
130-131 (2002), 42-46.
[8] O. Sakai, S. Aida, T. Gotou, K. Magara, H. Iseki: Proceedings of 8th
International Conference on Technology of Plasticity, (2005), 355356.
[9] H. Iseki: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 111 (2001),
150-154.
[10] M. Yamashita, M. Gotoh, S. Atsumi: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 199 (2008), 163-172.
[11] J.O. Halliquist: DYNA3D users manual, (1989).
929
09.08.2010 14:39:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of Geometric Parameters on Strain and Thickness Reduction in Incremental

Forming Process
Valentin Oleksik1), Adrian Pascu1), Daniel Mara2), Octavian Bologa1), Gabriel Racz1), Radu Breaz1)
1)
Research Centre of Metal Forming, "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu, Sibiu / Romania, valentin.oleksik@ulbsibiu.ro;
University of Sibiu, Sibiu / Romania
2)
"Lucian Blaga"
The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of geometrical parameters by experimental optical methods on strain and thickness
reduction in single point incremental forming process. Specifically, we aimed to study the influence of the punch diameter and the step in
vertical direction and in the sheet plane. Measurements were made on parts produced from two different types of materials with different
thicknesses. Measurements focused on determining the major and minor strain and thickness reduction. Three different types of trajectory
were chosen and 8 parts were produced for each version of trajectory. In the first version, the punch was placed asymmetrically and initially
it had a perpendicular movement on the sheet's initial plane, until it reached the final depth. In the second phase, the punch followed a
rectangular trajectory along the die sides. In the second version, initially the punch had a vertical motion with a step of 8 mm. In the second
phase, it followed the trajectory along one die side, and then a trajectory in steps (an increment of 2 or 4 mm) along other die side, until the
entire surface of the part was made as a wrap of the punch trajectory. In the third version, the punch had a step motion (the value of the
increment was 1 or 2 mm) in the vertical direction. After each step, the punch again followed a rectangular trajectory, as in the first version.
The conclusions on the influence of geometrical factors on strain and thickness reduction in the three versions are presented.
Keywords: Single point incremental forming, experimental research, optical strain measurement, thickness reduction, influence of geometrical parameters
Introduction
The single point incremental sheet metal forming
represents a complex metal forming process, which, unlike
the classical stretch forming process, the kinematics,
comprises both movement in vertical direction and
movement in the sheet's initial plane. Being able to
programme the punch trajectory allows different forms
without dedicated dies, and this is a major advantage of
the former process.
The applicability of the single point incremental forming
process has greatly increased not only in engineering, but
also in related areas, such as the medical implant field. The
latest research in the area includes studies investigating the
forces in the process, the factors of influence, the precision
of parts obtained by single point incremental forming [1,2],
the control of the forming process during the processing,
the correction of any errors that had occurred, etc. [3]. In
order to investigate the deformation process, numerical
simulations have been made using the finite element
method [4,5], and specific tests have been developed to
determine the forming [6]. There is also research on the
influence of mechanical properties of materials on the
single point incremental forming [7].
This study aims to determine the influence of key geometrical parameters (punch diameter and step in different
directions) on material strain and thickness reduction.
Determining Major and Minor Strain and Thickness
Reduction on Single Point Incremental Forming
Production of Parts. A Fanuk processing centre was
used to produce the parts by single point incremental
forming. The experimental equipment mounted on the
Fanuk machine consists of a bottom plate, two supports, a
die support, the actual punch, and a retaining plate. The
dies can be quickly changed and can have different active
930
shapes, such as circular, square, triangular, or other. The

experimental equipment during the single point incremental forming process is presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Experimental equipment used to produce parts by single

point incremental forming.
The die used to produce all parts was a rectangular plate

with even sides and with the active side dimension L = 60
mm. The radius of the die was R = 6 mm. The punch was
positioned at one corner of the part at a distance d = 18
mm from the centre of the part, both in the x-direction and
y-direction. The length of trajectory followed by the punch
in both directions was Lt = 36 mm. The speed of the machine table was v = 100 mm/min. The punch was imprinted with a rotating motion with speed n = 120 rpm. In
order to decrease friction on the surface that came into
contact with the punch, a thin layer of lubricant was applied. To conduct the research, two types of thin metal
sheets were chosen (SR EN 10130-2000), with a thickness
of 0.4 mm and 0.8 mm, respectively. Material data obtained from uniaxial traction test on an Instron 5587 machine are presented in Table 1. The blank sheets had a
square shape with the side l = 120 mm. Two different
09.08.2010 14:39:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
dimensions were considered for the punch diameters dp =
12 and 16 mm.
Table 1. Material data for two types of sheet.
Thickness
[mm]
0.4
0.8
K
[MPa]
591
626
n
0.248
0.254
u
[%]
42.3
38.55
R00
R45
R90
0.95
1.84
0.93
1.33
1.11
2.21
Prior to the production of parts by single point incremental forming, a network of circles with diameter d = 2
mm was electrochemically deposited during processing on
the external surface of the piece (which does not come in
contact with the punch). The distance between the two
circles on the directions of the coordinate axes was dc = 3
mm.
The system used to measure the forming was an optical
system Argus by GOM. We used a lens with a focal length
of 12 mm. The processed part was mounted on a rotary
table and the camera was set as in Figure 2. Coded bar
and 12 benchmarks that allowed the Argus software package to calibrate the system were mounted next to the part
to be measured.
side of the active plate. For this version we made a total of

8 parts, 4 from each material, and we used the two
punches with different diameters (dp = 12 and 16 mm),
with two different vertical tracks h = 5 and 8 mm. Version
A results are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Measurement results for parts produced in version A.
Code
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
A8
t
[mm]
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
dp
[mm]
16
16
12
12
16
16
12
12
h
[mm]
5
8
5
8
5
8
5
8
1 max
[%]
14.31
34.03
16.22
41.60
15.54
35.14
18.21
42.91
2 max
[%]
6.53
14.12
7.05
16.80
7.41
13.81
7.66
20.79
th
[%]
15.30
28.41
16.37
33.20
16.44
27.02
17.47
34.42
It should be noted that the programme Argus allows the

determination of strain in three different ways: engineering
strain, logarithmic strain, and Green strain. Of these, we
chose to present the engineering strain. The results in Table 2 reveal that for both types of materials there was the
same variation of major and minor strain values and thickness reduction, the maximum values being shown in cases
A4 for sheet thickness g = 0.4 mm, and A8 for a sheet with
thickness g = 0.8 mm. These cases correspond to a maximum depth of penetration of the punch in the material h =
8 mm, and a smaller diameter dp = 12 mm. This is due to
the fact that there was a greater concentration of strain in
the punch area in the case of a smaller diameter. However,
the main influence factor was the diameter of the punch.
Figure 4 presents the variation of major strain 1 for case
A4.
Figure 2. Part to be measured on rotary table, with coded bar

and parts used for calibration.
The measuring technique consisted of acquiring 12-15

images from different successive positions. This table was
rotated with an angle ranging between 30-45.
In order to determine the influence of geometrical parameters in single point incremental forming, three technological versions were chosen. The first version, coded A, is
shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Kinematics of single point incremental forming process

for version A.
Determining Strain and Thickness Reduction for

Version A. In this version, the punch was positioned
asymmetrically and in the first instance it had a normal
movement on the plane of the table. In the second stage,
the punch followed a perpendicular trajectory along the
Figure 4. Major strain variation 1 [%] for case A4.

In the case of the major strain, there were local maximums at the end of each straight line that formed the
punch trajectory, before changing the movement direction.
This was due to the rectangular shape of the part, the corners also being concentrators. In fact, the values of the
local maximums of major strain were obtained at the end
of the first two straight lines, with the values of the local
maximums at the end of the other two lines decreasing in
intensity. Variation of the minor strain 2 for case A4 is
Note that the minor strain variation presented a general
maximum within the penetration area of the punch into the
material, but also areas with negative values for major
strain in the area of the parts wall.
931
09.08.2010 14:39:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
B2
B3
B4
B5
B6
B7
B8
Figure 5. Minor strain variation 2 [%] for case A4.
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
16
12
12
16
16
12
12
2
4
2
4
2
4
2
34.50
41.89
42.89
36.14
36.20
43.01
43.22
14.36
17.04
17.26
13.90
14.08
20.86
21.04
28.80
34.68
34.70
27.90
27.94
34.57
34.68
The main finding was that the value of the step in direction Oy did not influence the values of major or minor
strain, or thickness reduction. Step value on direction Oy
influenced the accuracy of the part at a higher value, producing imprints of the punch on the surface of the part.
Figure 8 shows the major strain variation 1 for case B4,
while Figure 9 shows the minor strain 2 variation for the
same case.
Negative values reached half the values of the positive

maximums of the same strain. Variation of thickness reduction for the points located along a section of the plan
yOz for case A4 is shown in Figure 6.
Figure 8. Major strain variation 1 [%] for case B4.
Figure 6. Thickness reduction variation on section in case A4.
In version A processing, the thickness reduction presented maximums along the sides that formed the punch
trajectory, but the local maximums were not equal for the
parallel sides.
The maximum values of the major strain were touched

along the first straight line made by the punch and the
lowest values were found on the opposite side. In the case
of the minor strain, maximum values were found in the
corners of the part and had approximately equal values in
all four corners. In this technological version, the thickness reduction was found in the corners of the part.

Version B. In this version, the punch was positioned
asymmetrically and initially it had normal movement on
the plane of the sheet with one step pz = 8 mm. In the
second stage, the punch followed a trajectory that tried to
cover the entire surface of the part, as seen in Figure 7.
Figure 9. Minor strain variation 2 [%] for case B4.
Figure 7. Kinematics of single point incremental forming process for version B.
The results for Version B are shown in Table 3.

Version C. In this version, the punch was positioned
asymmetrically and, in the first instance it had a motion
perpendicular to the sheet plane, with a step pz = 1 or 2
mm. After each vertical step, the punch had the same rectangular motion as in version A, as seen in Figure 10.
Table 3. Measurement results for parts produced in version B.

Code
B1
t
[mm]
0.4
932
dp
[mm]
16
py
[mm]
4
1 max
[%]
34.35
2 max
[%]
14.28
th
[%]
28.75
09.08.2010 14:39:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 10. Kinematics of single point incremental forming process for version C.
Version C results are presented in Table 4.
Figure 12. Thickness variation on section in case C4.
Table 4. Measurement results for parts produced in version C.

Code
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6
C7
C8
t
[mm]
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
dp
[mm]
16
16
12
12
16
16
12
12
pz
[mm]
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
1 max
[%]
37.36
42.40
50.49
56.50
41.17
43.16
47.71
59.88
2 max
[%]
24.14
24.34
24.99
25.10
26.80
27.56
26.66
28.8
th
[%]
33.80
39.16
41.12
43.47
32.65
36.87
38.32
42.87
Major and minor strain and thickness reduction were

influenced by the punch diameter, which means that
they increased with the decrease of the diameter and
the step value in the vertical direction. Thus, the maximum values were obtained in the case of sheet thickness g = 0.8 mm by processing with the punch diameter dp = 12 mm and a step pz = 1 mm, giving a total of
8 steps in the vertical direction. Figure 11 presents
major strain variation 1 for case C4 and Figure 12
presents the thickness reduction variation for points
located along a section of the plane yOz for the same
case.
The highest values of the major and minor strain and of

thickness reduction were obtained in version C, for parts
realised with a small pitch in vertical direction, but it
should also be noted that this version also resulted in parts
of the highest precision.
Conclusions
The main conclusions on the influence of geometrical
parameters on strain and thickness reduction in parts produced by single point incremental forming are:
1. The most important factor of influence in terms of geometry is the punch diameter. Thus, strain and thickness
reduction values increase with the decrease in punch diameter.
2. The punch step value in vertical direction influences the
maximum values of strain and thickness reduction.
Thus, they increase with the decrease in step value and
implicitly with the increase in the number of passes required to achieve the part.
3. The punch step value in the sheet plane does not influence or influences very little the maximum values of
the strain and thickness reduction.
In future, we intend to conduct further studies that will
allow a factorial experiment of the order 33 for a quantitative evaluation of strain and thickness reduction according
to the values of geometrical parameters.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Romania Ministry of
Education and Research and the National Council for
University Research CNCSIS-UEFISCSU, project number
698/19.01.2009, PNII-IDEI code 477/2008.
References
Figure 11. Major strain variation 1 [%] for case C4.
In this technological version, the major strain had maximum values along the sides that formed the trajectory and
the minor strain reached maximum values, as well as reduction in thickness in the corners of the part. In this version, the thickness reduction was a uniform value along
the sides of the part.
No firm conclusions may be drawn regarding the influence of material thickness because material properties
were different.
[1] A. Attanasio, E. Ceretti, C. Giardini, L. Mazzoni: Journal of Materials

[2] F. Capece Minutolo, M. Durante, A. Formisano, A. Langella: Journal
of Materials Processing Technology, 194 (2007), 145-150.
[3] L. Filice, G. Ambrogio, F. Micari: CIRP Annals, 55-1 (2006),
[4] M. Yamashita, M. Gotoh, S. Atsumi: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 199 (2008), 163-172.
[5] H. Iseki: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 111 (2001),
150-154.
Manufacture, 47 (2007), 419-435.
[7] L. Fratini, G. Ambrogio, R. Di Lorenzo, L. Filice, F. Micari: CIRP
Annals, 55-1 (2006).
933
09.08.2010 14:39:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
Force and Frictional Conditions in Incremental Forming

Tuomas Katajarinne, Arto Komulainen, Seppo Kivivuori
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Aalto University School of Science and Technology / Finland, Tuomas.Katajarinne
@tkk.fi
Incremental sheet forming (ISF) is a highly flexible manufacturing process for low volume and rapid prototype production of sheet metal
parts. The 3D forming trajectory of the part is based on a 3D CAD model, and forming is accomplished by inducing a local plastic deformation with a hemispheric tool. The process shows a number of advantages compared to traditional processes, whereas some drawbacks are
clearly known. Current problems include slowness of the total forming process, low final part accuracy and knowledge in material properties.
Some of the accuracy problems can be traced to poor surface conditions during forming. The paper focuses on force and frictional conditions in ISF. Equipment for force measurement is utilized to study frictional and force conditions during forming. Both coated and un-coated
tungsten carbide (WC) tools together with three different lubricants are studied. A square cone with alternating wall steepness is used for
test geometry. Formed materials are a deep drawing steel grade and two different types of stainless steels. The tests clearly indicate the
effect of lubrication and coating on deformed surface conditions and forming forces. For more severe conditions proper lubrication is essential to prevent tool and part failure.
Keywords: Incremental forming, Lubrication, Forming forces, Coating, Friction
Introduction
Incremental sheet forming (ISF) is a highly flexible
manufacturing process suitable for low volume and rapid
prototype production of sheet metal parts. ISF is a term
describing a set of sheet metal forming methods. Common
to these methods is an ability to form asymmetrical geometries with simple or no tooling and at low cost. ISF
does not require expensive tools for producing complicated sheet metal parts and the forming equipment is suitable for large variety of products without major technical
nor set up systems, or expensive investments [1,2]. The 3D
forming trajectory of the part is based on a CAD model
enabling effortless changes in the forming geometry.
Forming is accomplished by inducing a local plastic deformation. Different kind of equipment can be used to give
a metal sheet desired shape in ISF. This equipment include
special ISF forming machines, standard CNC milling
machines and the use of industrial robot as a forming
equipment [3-5].
Several studies have been performed with emphasis on
assessing and improving the process parameters affecting
this forming method. The effect of parameters like tool
type, tool size, feed rate and friction have been shown to
affect the formability and limits of formability [6-8]. Feed
rate refers to the vertical step down in the process. Also
the forming geometry itself affects the process, most significantly as the forming angle. The studies have relied on
forming force measurement while varying process parameters. Trough on line monitoring systems the pursuit
has been towards a method to control the process and
avoid failure. These would act as powerful tools for industrial applications as on line force control is cheap and easy.
Of the parameters mentioned, the vertical step was found
to have the least significant impact on the failure and
could be altered without great penalty. This is advantageous in minimizing process duration but care must be
taken in the finishing surface.
Lubrication is vitally important in metal forming processes by reducing friction and improving the finishing
surface. In most cases reduction of friction has a beneficial
effect by lowering the forming forces, reducing the
stresses imposed on the process. Alternatively larger
934
changes in shape can be achieved for a given force level,

this may reduce the number of stages required to make the
final part. In some cases carefully controlled friction levels
could be used to optimize metal flow. Individual lubricants
are recommended for different processes. In incremental
forming lubrication and the surface conditions are significant. Metal particles loosened from the surface act as
grinding particles and lead to premature failure of the part.
Tool life can be extended by the presence of a lubricant
film preventing wear. Lubricants can further be doped with
additives to enhance the EP (extreme pressure) and AW
(anti wear) properties [9]. Tool properties can be further
enhanced by coatings, tool materials seldom meet all the
processes requirements on their own. Often the requirements for tools are opposite e.g. a great hardness and
toughness. Thin and hard nitrides and carbides enhance
tool efficiency and wear resistance [10].
Force and Frictional Conditions
Force and frictional conditions were studied by altering
tool coating, tool diameter, material and lubrication as
indicated in Table 1.
Table 1. Test matrix.
Material
DC04
1.4404
1.4301
Diameter (mm)
8
10
14
Coating
no-coating
WC/C
TiAlN+WC/C
TiCN
Lubricant
CR 45
HHS 5000
Garia 601
DC04 is a deep drawing steel, the two other are metastable austenitic steels. A hard metal material with the brand
name KX40 (10% Co, 90% WC) was chosen for the tools.
The compression strength of the material is 3600 N/mm2
and hardness 1610 HV30. Table 2 lists the properties of
the coatings.
09.08.2010 14:39:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 2. Coatings.
TiAlN+WC/C
TiCN
3000
3000
0.1-0.2
0.15-0.2
0.4
300
800
400
Balinit C
Hardlube
Balinit B
Three different lubrications were used, the commercial

trade names can be found in Table 1. The first is a strongly
chlorinated lubricant for drawing of stainless steels. The
second is a low viscosity PTFE doped fully synthetic spray
oil. The third a sulphur based PAO lubrication oil with 2.55% EP additives.
For the force measurements a special tool was constructed capable of both bending and vertical force measurement. The bending force was measured utilizing strain
gages connected to a Wheatstone bridge. For vertical force
a standard force measurement sensor was utilized.
The forming was performed with the industrial robot application, described in better detail elsewhere [11,12]. A
truncated pyramid with three different wall angles as
shown in Figure 1 was used for the forming tests.
Force (N)
Hardness
(HV 0.05)
Friction against
steel (dry)
Highest Oper.
Temp. (C)
Commercial
trade name
WC/C
(a-C:H:W)
1500/1000
45
60
30
Time
Figure 2. Vertical forming force for test geometry.
The transition from 45 to 30 forming angle results in a

smoothening of the forming force towards a constant value.
The effect of sheet thickness on the forming force shown
in Figure 3 is also convergent with results reported elsewhere [7,8].
Effect of sheet thickness on vertical force
3000
1.25 mm
2500
2000
Force (N)
Coating
Vertical Forming Force

2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1 mm
1500
1000
0.75 mm
500
0
Time
Figure 3. Effect of sheet thickness on forming force.
The forming was performed as negative ISF so that the

initial forming angle was 60. After 20 mm of vertical
transition of the forming path, the forming angle changed
to 45 and likewise to 30. By starting with the steepest
angle bending of the formed geometry is negligible.
Results
A typical forming force curve of the test geometry can
be seen in Figure 2. The vertical force increases until a
peak value is gained, this gradual increase is caused by
bending. With further forming stretching and work hardening dominate the behaviour of the force curve. The small
difference between forces for the first two forming, angles
match previous work in the field. The form of the curve
can be considered identical to results gained elsewhere
[7,8,13].
Vertical Force, lubricant CR45

1800
Uncoated
1700
1600
Hardlube
1500
Force (N)
Figure 1. Test geometry used for forming.
The effect of lubricants and coatings on forming forces

was tested for several combinations. Figure 4 shows the
effect of coating on the force using CR45 lubrication when
forming DC04 deep drawing steel with a 10 mm diameter
tool.
1400
Coating C
1300
1200
1100
1000
Time
Figure 4. Effect of lubricant on forming force.
The coating clearly affects the forming forces. The

lowest forming force with lubricant CR45 can be achieved
using coating C. The TiAlN coating leeds to slightly
elevated forces and the un-coated clearly rises the forces
further. The difference between vertical extreme forming
forces is 12-15%.
935
09.08.2010 14:39:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Comparing vertical forming force for un-coated tools
the difference between lubricants used is minor as shown
in Figure 5. In this case CR45 results in a slightly higher
force than the two other lubricants.
Vertical Force Uncoated
1800
1700
CR45
Force (N)
1600
Wurth
1500
CR45
1400
Garia
1300
Wrth
present during forming and are dependent of the process

parameters [12].
The vertical forces for AISI 1.4404 (316 L) are shown in
Figure 8. For the two steeper angles no actual difference
can be observed With the most gentle forming angle the
un-coated tool together with CR45 shows the lowest
forming force. Coating B was totally inappropriate for
forming of stainless steels as it caused bouncing of the tool
and tearing of the sheet as shown in figure 8. The coating
was destroyed by the critical conditions making the
forming tip un usable.
1200
Vertical Force for Coating/Lubrication pairs AISI 1.4404
1100
1000
Time
2500
Figure 5. Vertical forming force for un-coated tools.
2000
1. Coating B/Wrth
2.
With coating C the lubricants behave differently as

shown in Figure 6. The lubricant that showed the lowest
force with un-coated tools is clearly inferior to the two
others in this case with a difference up to about 10%.
Force (N)
4.
3. Coating C/Garia
1000
4. Uncoated/CR45
1.
500
0
Figure 8. Vertical forces for AISI 1.4404 stainless steel.
1700
1600
Wurth
1500
Force (N)
Time
Vertical Force Coating C
1800
Wrth
1400
Garia
1300
CR45
1200
CR45
1100
1000
Time
Figure 6.Vertical forming force for tools with coating C.
The Hardlube coating acts similarly to coating C as

shown in Figure 7. A possible explanation is the tungsten
carbide present in both coatings. The over all forces are
slightly higher with the Hardlube coating.
The more unstable of the two stainless steels is AISI

1.4301 which means that it is more prone to form strain
induced martesite during forming. The strength of
marteniste is conciderably higher than that for austenite.
The vertical forming forces for AISI 1.4301 are shown in
Figure 9. For the Hardlube coating the forces are clearly
higher when compared to the other combination as well as
when comparing to the forces of 1.4404. In this case the
identical unsuitability of coating B was observed.
Vertical Force for Coating/Lubrication pairs AISI 1.4301
3000
2.
2500
Vertical Force Hardlube Coating

Force (N)
1700
Wurth
1600
1500
Wrth
1400
Garia
CR45
1300
Time
Figure 7. Vertical forming force for tools with Hardlube coating.
Observing Figures 5-7 suggests a resemblance in forces

when comparing lubricants Garia and CR45. The spray oil
lubricant seems to work as well as the two others when
using un-coated tools. In Figures 3-7 the forming
conditions for DC04 deep drawing steel are observed.
ISF of Stainless Steels. The strength of the stainless
steels studied is higher than strength of the deep drawing
grade. The metastable structure of the stainless steels
presents further complexity to the forming. Severe work
hardening and formation of strain induced marteniste are
4. Uncoated/CR45
1000
1.
500
0
Time
Figure 9. Vertical forces for AISI 1.4301 stainless steel.
1100
936
3. Coating C/Garia
1500
CR45
1200
1000
1. Coating B/Garia
2. Hardlube/CR45
4.
2000
1800
Force (N)
2. Hardlube/CR45
1500
For the different coating/lubrication combinations,

C/Garia and un-coated/CR45 achieved the lowest forces.
Conclusions
By using appropriate lubrication and coating combinations it is possible to achieve lower forming forces. Coating B was totally inappropriate for forming of stainless
steels due to its failure during the early stages of forming.
The Hardlube coating performed reasonably well but the
un-coated seemed to work on many occasions as well.
Coating C seemed to work in all conditions reasonably
well.
09.08.2010 14:39:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
For the lubrications, Wrth was totally unsuitable for
forming of stainless steels probably due to its low viscosity and lack of ability to withstand the high pressure between sheet and tool. At the same time when forming
DC04 with un-coated tools Wrth showed the best suitability. A possible cause can also be some kind of chemical
reaction and this should be studied further in detail. Of the
lubricants CR45 was clearly the most difficult to smear,
the easiest was Wrth which was sprayed from a can.
Actual values of friction were not measured for different
combinations of coating and lubrication. The apparatus
built proved to be too rigid for friction coefficient determination as all of the measurable forces always include a
portion of deformation.
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
T. Nakagawa: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 98

(2000), 244-250.
P. Groche, R. Schneider: Mat. wiss. U. Werkstofftech, 31-11
(2000), 958-960.
S. Matsubara: Journal of the JSTP, 35 (1994), 1311-1316.
J. Jeswiet, E. Hagan: Proc. of the International Symposium on
Materials in the Automotive Industry as Held at the 40th Annual
Conference of Metallurgists of CIM, (2001), 109.
L. Lamminen, T. Tuominen, S. Kivivuori: Proc. 3rd International
Conference on Advanced Materials Processing (ICAMP-3), (2004),
331-335.
Y.H. Kim, J.J. Park: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
130-131 (2002), 42-46.
L. Filice, G. Ambrogio, F. Micari: Annals of the CIRP, 55-1 (2006).
J. Duflou, Y. Tuncol, A. Szekeres, P. Vanherck: Journal of Materials
B. Podgornik, D. Hren, J. Vizintin: Thin Solid Films. 476-1 (2005)
92-100.
B. Podgornik, J. Vizintin,S. Jacobsen, J. Hogmark: Surface and
Coatings Technology. 177-178 (2004), 558-565.
T. Katajarinne, S. Kivivuori, L. VihtonenInt. J Mater Form,
1(2008), 11751178
T. Katajarinne, R. Ruoppa, S. Kivivuori: Proc. IDDRG 2008,
Olofstrm, (2008), 651-661.
937
09.08.2010 14:39:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
On-Line Thickness Measurement in Incremental Sheet Forming Process

Steeve Dejardin1), Jean-Claude Gelin2), Sbastien Thibaud2)
1)
ICB, UMR 5209 CNRS, Department of Interface and Reactivity in Materials, M4OXe, University of Bourgogne, 9 av. Alain Savary, BP
47870, 21078 Dijon Cedex / France, steeve.dejardin@u-bourgogne.fr; 2) FEMTO-ST Institute, Department of Applied Mechanics, University
of Franche-Comt, 24 rue de lEpitaphe, 25000 Besanon / France
Since few years, the increasing interest in flexible forming processes like incremental sheet forming (ISF) brings to a growing interest in
both academic and industrial research centers. Indeed, the ISF concept consisting in a progressive and localized plastic deformation of a
sheet metal part without the use of any specialized tooling, allows obtaining a wide range of 3D shapes with a correct definition of the forming tool path controlled by a CNC machine. Despite progresses made to improve the understanding of the deformation mechanism in ISF,
the main drawbacks of ISF need still important researches to provide a technology suitable to industrial requirements. The work presented
in the paper concerns the design of a smart forming tool able to measure thickness during the process. With a minor tool size increasing,
the authors analyze the possibility to use a thickness measurement device based on ultrasonic technology integrated into the forming tool
and first results are reported. This approach addresses the problem of ISF optimization. Results associated to on-line thickness measurement should improve the understanding of the process by providing a relationship between sheet thickness and process parameters.
Keywords: Incremental sheet forming, Thickness measurement, Optimization
Introduction
The requirements associated with customized production and cost reduction are still growing and new technologies seem to offer a sustainable approach to answer to
such requests. This is a reason for the increasing interest in
flexible forming processes like incremental sheet forming
(ISF). Indeed, the ISF concept consisting in a progressive
and localized deformation of a sheet metal part is flexible
because no specialized tooling is required. The movements
over the surface of the sheet of a simple forming tool lead
to a highly localized plastic deformation. Regarding the
concept of such a technology, a wide range of 3D shapes
can be formed with a correct definition of the forming tool
path controlled by a CNC machine. In addition to this, ISF
also leads to a higher material formability in comparison
with conventional forming processes like stamping. These
advantages bring to a growing interest in both academic
and industrial research centers as it is demonstrated in
literature. Automotive panels manufactured by Amino [1]
using ISF or customized medical products produced by
Ambrogio et al. [2] are relevant examples. A global review
of works and achievements made in incremental sheet
forming has been proposed by Jeswiet et al. [3].
Although the deformation mechanism in ISF is not fully
determined, recent results as those obtained by Jackson
and Allwood [4], Micari et al. [5], Dejardin et al. [6, 7]
improve the global physical and mechanical understanding
of the process. Despite these progresses, the main drawbacks of ISF still involve researchers to provide a technology suitable to industrial requirements. Springback and
geometrical deviations between formed and designed parts,
associated to an important thinning of the sheet, are the
major barriers and efforts have to be made in order to
improve the process and to make it suitable for industrial
use.
Context and Objectives
Concepts like measurement, control and process optimization are key points for the industrialization of a manu938
facturing process. Despite numerous analyses carried on

fundamental parameters like forming force in order to
improve knowledge of incremental sheet forming process
[8], few results dealing with sheet thinning in ISF had
been published. However, control of sheet thickness during the process play a major role in the process optimization.
Several commercial devices are available providing an
accurate and reliable solution to perform thickness measurement on a manufactured product. Although this information is necessary in order to improve the understanding
of ISF, control of the thinning has to be performed by an
on-line measurement able to provide the sheet thickness
during the process. Indeed, knowledge of the local thickness could allow to insure the manufacturing of a healthy
component by fitting process parameters, resulting in a
part without any fracture and with a limited thinning by
controlling process parameters.
Nevertheless thickness control remains a difficult task to
develop, but the design of a forming tool able to perform
an on-line measurement means a real progress not only for
ISF optimization but also for the whole of metal forming
processes. In the present work, the authors investigate the
possibility to use a thickness measurement device based
on ultrasonic technology integrated to the forming tool and
the first results are developed.
Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement Device
Design Requirements. The design of a device allowing
simultaneity sheet deformation and thickness measurement
has to respond to specific constraints. In context of control
process, the measurement has to present characteristics
like accuracy, reliability, fast time response and has to be
non destructive. About the device, it has to allow an online measurement, present a minor tool size increasing and
match with CNC milling machine. According to these
requirements, ultrasonic sensor had been retained as a
most suitable technology.
Besides, the set up of a control loop during the process
associated to the thickness measurement in a point localsteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:39:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
ised exactly under the forming tool can be used to detect a
critical thinning and modify process parameters like forming force or tool path in order to guarantee a healthy forming part. The main difficulty of such an approach lies in
the integration of the sensor into the tool. A solution consists on coupling the ultrasonic sensor with a wave guide
directly machining into the tool.
Results of a first analysis carried out to determine the
most suitable type of ultrasonic sensor had led to select an
immersion transducer which main characteristics are
shown in Table 1. The sensor is composed by a single
element longitudinal wave transducer with a quarter wavelength layer acoustically matched to water which had been
specifically designed to transmit ultrasound in application
where the test part is partially immersed. The immersion
technique provides a means of uniform coupling and such
a transducer can be focused spherically or cylindrically in
order to concentrates the sound beam to increase the sensitivity to small reflectors.
Table 1. Main characteristics of ultrasonic transducer used.
Technique
Immersion
Frequency
20 MHz
Nominal element size
3 mm
Case diameter
9,65 mm
Case length
31,7 mm
The transducer is associated to a thickness gage as

shown in Figure 1.
part as it is described in Figure 2. The material used is an

aluminium alloy AA-1050 with 1 mm thick.
Figure 2. Schematic view of validation test of wave-guide.
Three series of measurements had been performed on

several points distributed on the blank along a straight line.
Repeatability of measurements has been demonstrated
with a thickness average equal to 0.99 mm, and the used of
the wave-guide to perform thickness measurements had
been validated.
The stability of measurement had been tested by laying
the blank test down a vibratory device as shown in Figure
3. Each series of measurements had been performed during 20 s. Results indicates that noise interferences are
added to the signal without being harmful for the accuracy
of measurement. Relative variation calculated between
measured thickness and theoretical thickness does not
exceed 2% for low frequencies and 5% for high frequencies. In each case, the measurement is stable after 5 s.
Thus the used of wave-guide enable to isolate ultrasonic
waves from vibrations and make the measurement stationary.
Figure 1. Ultrasonic thickness measurement device.
Validation of Ultrasonic Sensor Associated to WaveGuide. Preliminaries studies had been necessary to determine the wave-guide characteristics and coupling fluid
used to ultrasounds wave propagation. The wave-guide
presents a conical shape and the latter is composed by a
mixing of water and cutting oil. The lubricant is then a
classical one used in the most milling machine. Those
parameters had been evaluated through a series of parameterised tests. Several series of measurements had been
performed with different backgrounds which enable to
validate the use of the transducer used into a wave-guide
in a similar media than the one encountered in process
conditions. Thus, vibratory environment, lubricant conditions and possibility of chip presence had been tested.
In order to validate the use of ultrasonic sensor associated to a wave-guide, a first series of measurements had
been made in static conditions. A cylindrical wave-guide
has been manufactured and positioned on a sheet metal
Figure 3. Thickness measurement in vibratory environment.
Concerning the fluid necessary for ultrasonic waves

propagation, several lubricants were tested. Table 2 gives
mixture compositions tested and the associated results.
939
09.08.2010 14:39:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 2. Measurements results with lubricants used as propagation media.
Oil ratio (%)
Water ratio (%)
Result
100
No measurement
80
20
No measurement
50
50
Poor signal
30
70
Accurate meas-
100
Accurate meas-
urement
urement
These results indicates that the used of lubricant as

propagation background depends on its viscosity. This
observation consists on a key point to take into account for
the choice of lubricant in ISF.
Smart Forming Tool Design
Ultrasonic Transducer Integration into the Forming
Tool. As it has been described in the previous section,
integration of the ultrasonic sensor into the forming tool
requires combining the sensor and a wave-guide. First
experimental campaign results pointed out that the use of a
wave-guide provides an accurate thickness measurement.
However, the design of a tool integrating such a sensor
requires more constraints not only associated to the presence of fluid necessary to make the measurement, but also
associated to the distance between the blank and the sensor.
Indeed, the accuracy of measurement is limited by this
distance.
Besides, the study of the design of the forming tool involves critical size in order to perform thickness measurement and to integrate the sensor, and also to carry out
the forming of the component. Considering design requirements, a first prototype had been manufactured as
shown in Figure 4.
head (S355 steel). So the design of the tool has been validated in static loading conditions.
Thickness Measurements with Smart Forming Tool
Static Measurements. Series of thickness measurements had been performed to analyze the performance of
the tool in service. This experimental campaign is supported by static measurements on different blanks. The
tool was fixed on the spindle of a milling machine and
tested parts were immerged on water.
A first series of measurements consists on measuring a 1
mm thick AA-1050 rectified blank. All measurements had
been performed on the same point to test the repeatability.
A thickness average equal to 0.99 mm was determined
with a mean deviation equal to 0.01 mm as shown in
Figure 5. Differences between real thickness and the one
measured are due to the extreme sensitivity of the device
associated to a tricky set-up of the thickness gage.
Figure 5. Results of first static measurements series.
A second series of static measurements had been performed on an aluminium plate raw. The measured thickness corresponds to 4.5 mm. Results showed a thickness
average of 4.49 mm with a mean deviation equal to -0.01
mm (Figure 6).
Figure 4. Photography of smart forming tool prototype.
In this design, the distance between active element of

the sensor and the blank is equal to 60 mm. This dimension had been evaluated through a von Mises criterion.
Indeed, a critical zone appeared, that can be weakened by
the conical hole manufactured into the tool head. A static
analysis was carried out taking into account an axial load
equal to 1000 N and a radial load equal to 300 N. These
loads have been estimated through results obtained by
numerical simulation of the process [9]. Displacement of
the tool head under forming loads does not exceed 0.06
mm. The maximal stress is equal to 138 MPa that is under
the yield stress of the material used for the forming tool
940
Figure 6. Results of second static measurements series.
Thickness Measurements with Moving Tool. The tool

is still fixed on the spindle of the milling machine and the
sample is immerged on water. For the measurements, the
tool moves along a straight line formed on the blank.
Thickness is measured on 10 points spread on this line and
09.08.2010 14:39:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
spaced out 5 mm. Three series of measurements results are
reported in Figure 7.
(a)
(b)
The reported results show a relatively good repeatability

of measurements and a proper accuracy with a thickness
average equal to 1.00 mm. Observation of snapshot measurements indicates a variation mean equal to -0.01 mm.
Remarks about Measurements. The experimental campaign carried out with the smart forming tool prototype
integrating an ultrasonic transducer associated to a waveguide led to validate the tool design. The results of static
thickness measurements demonstrate the proper repeatability and correct accuracy with a thickness variation
mean equal to 0.01 mm.
Although results are quite promising, several technical
points remain to be solved in order to use the forming tool
in real process conditions; it is necessary to:
- provide a continuous flow of lubricant in order to
always have fluid between the sensor and the blank,
- improve the tool in designing a forming tool head
able to move in rotation under axial loadings.
Conclusions
(c)
The work related in the paper describes the design and

capability of a forming tool able to provide an on-line
sheet thickness measurement during incremental sheet
forming process. This smart forming tool integrates an
ultrasonic transducer associated to a wave-guide. First
results obtained through a series of static measurements
enable to validate the design and are promising for future
developments. However tests in dynamic cases have to be
performed in order to validate the use of the tool in real
process conditions. In addition, investigations remain to be
carried out in order to solve a major design constraint
associated to the necessity to have fluid between the US
sensor and the blank and to make a careful set up of the
measurement device.
References
Figure 7. Thickness measurements with moving tool (a) first

series (b) second series (c) third series.
[1] H. Amino, Y. LU, S. Ozawa, K. Fukuda, T. Maki: Proc. Conference

on Advanced Techniques of Plasticity (2002), 1015-1020.
[2] G. Ambrogio, L. De. Napoli, L. Filice, F. Gagliardi, M. Muzzupappa:
Journal of Materials Processing Technology 162-163 (2005), 156162.
[3] J. Jeswiet, F. Micari, G. Hirt, A. Bramley, J. Duflou, J. Allwood: CIRP
Annals 54/1 (2005), 623-650.
[4] K.P. Jackson, J. Allwood: Journal of Materials Processing Technology
209 (2009), 1158-1174.
Technology 191 (2007), 390-395.
[6] S. Dejardin, J.C. Gelin, S. Thibaud: Metal Forming Conference 2008,
Steel Research International 79 (2008), Special Edition, Vol. 2, 616623.
[7] S. Dejardin, S. Thibaud, J.C. Gelin, G. Michel: Journal of Materials
[8] J. Duflou, Y. Tunkol, A. Szekeres, P. Vanherk: Journal of Materials
[9] S. Dejardin: Ph-D thesis (2008), University of Franche-Comt,
France.
941
09.08.2010 14:39:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
Friction Stir Incremental Forming of Aluminum Alloy Sheets

Masaaki Otsu, Hiroki Matsuo, Mitsuhiro Matsuda, Kazuki Takashima
1)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto / Japan, otsu@msre.kumamoto-u.ac.jp
5000 series aluminum alloys have not enough ductility and the applications of them are limited. To enhance the use of those alloys, it is
necessary to develop new forming processes with high formability. The authors have developed friction stir incremental forming to form
magnesium alloy sheets without heating and reported about formability of magnesium alloy sheets at room temperature. In this study,
friction stir incremental forming was applied to forming of A5052 aluminum alloy sheets and formability was investigated. The tool rotation
rate, tool feed rate and half apex angle of frustum of pyramid shape were changed. The hardness test and tension test of formed parts were
also carried out. A5052 sheets with a thickness of 0.5mm were successfully formed into frustum of pyramid shape with a minimum half
apex angles of 20. This result coincides with the elongation of 192% although fracture elongation in tension test at room temperature of
those sheets was only 14%. Vickers hardness and tensile strength of A5052 formed parts by the developed method were decreased compared with those without forming. Even adding strain by forming, however, elongation of them was greater than that without forming due to
occurring grain refinement by dynamic recrystallization during forming.
Keywords: Incremental forming, Friction stirring, A5052 aluminum alloy sheet, Formability, Tension test, Hardness test, Elongation
Introduction
To reduce environmental load, weight reduction of various industrial products is promoting and it is discussed to
replace steels with aluminum alloys. On the other hand, in
sheet metal forming, a cost of die making is a serious
problem in forming large size sheets and small batch
products. Incremental forming, which does not require
punch and dies except simple tools, is a candidate method
to solve the problem. In incremental forming, not only
forming load becomes smaller due to small deformation
area during forming but also formability of sheet metals
improves [1]. 5000 or 1000 series aluminum alloys with
pre-hardening or heat treatment, however, have not good
formability at room temperature because of their poor
ductility. Even if incremental forming process is employed
for forming those aluminum alloy sheets, the formability
at room temperature is not so large [2].
The authors have developed a new forming process, friction stir incremental forming, by combining the ordinary
single point incremental forming with friction stir welding
to form magnesium alloy sheets at room temperature without any heat sources such as heater, torch, laser and so on
[3]. In this process, the sheet was formed like the ordinary
single point incremental forming except rotation speed of
forming tool is very fast in a range of 1000 to 10000 rpm.
By this process, commercial magnesium alloy AZ31
sheets with thicknesses of 0.5 and 0.7 mm can be formed
at room temperature. Furthermore, the formability of
AZ31 sheets at room temperature by this method was
superior than that at 200 C by the ordinary single point
incremental forming. Grain refinement due to dynamic
recrystallization during forming was observed at the deformed area. Although the mechanism of improving formability by this process has not be clarified, not only temperature rising but also occurring dynamic recrystallization, grain refinement and grain boundary sliding may
affects the formability improvement. Therefore it may
possible to apply this process to forming other sheet metals having poor ductility.
942
In the present study, friction stir incremental forming

process was employed for forming A5052 aluminum alloy
sheets. Formable working conditions and formability were
investigated. Sheet temperature during forming and mechanical properties such as tensile strength, elongation and
hardness of deformed part were also measured.
Experimental Method
A 3-axes NC milling machine (Roland DG, MDX-540)
was employed for forming. A hemispherical tool with a
diameter of 6 mm made of high speed steel was used. A
specimen sheet was put on a die as shown in Figure 1 and
fixed by the blank holder with bolts. A5052-H34 aluminum sheet with a thickness of 0.5 mm was used for specimen. The size of the specimen sheet was 100 mm x 100
mm.
Tool
Sheet
Blank holder
Die
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of forming tool, die and sheet.
The forming tool was moved in a pitch of 0.5 mm as

shown in Figure 2. The sheets were formed into frustum
of pyramid shape with an 80 mm right square bottom.
Formability was evaluated by changing half apex angle of
pyramid as defined in Figure 3. In this case, formability is
greater when the formable half apex angle is smaller. Formability was investigated by changing tool rotation rate
and tool feed rate. To measure the sheet temperature during forming, thermocouple was attached by spot welding
on the reverse surface to forming side to avoid detaching
during forming. After forming, specimens for tensile test
09.08.2010 14:39:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
and hardness test were taken from the formed area as
shown in Figure 4.
Start
(1)
40mm
100mm
(2)
40mm
100mm
Figure 2. Forming path and sequence.
rotation rate was greater than 7000 rpm, formability was

remarkably improved and forming limit height exceeded h
= 20 mm, the limit of forming machine (Figure 6(b)).
The maximum temperature of sheet during forming at
= 6000 rpm, the condition before formability improved,
was 273 C and that at = 7000 rpm, the condition of
improving formability, was 285 C. Both temperatures did
not exceeded the static recrystallization temperature (330
C). Since the difference between the temperatures at =
6000 and 7000 rpm was only 12 C, it is considered that
the cause of formability improvement was not only temperature rising but also other factors.
Tool
Specimen
Figure 3. Definition of half apex angle.
Figure 4. Location of taking specimen for tension test and hardness test.
Experimental Results and Discussions

Effect of Tool Rotation. Forming limit height at a tool
feed rate of v = 3000 mm/min and half apex angle = 30
was shown in Figure 5. Where forming limit height is
defined to maximum height without fracture and the maximum forming limit height is restricted to 20 mm because
of specification of forming machine.
Forming limit height, h /mm
25
20
Forming limit of machine
(a) Without forming
(b) Formed at v = 3000 mm/min,

= 7000 rpm, = 45
Figure 7. Microstructure of sheets with and without forming.
10
5
2000
4000
6000
Tool rotation rate, /rpm
8000
Figure 5. Relation between forming limit height and tool rotation

rate (v = 3000 mm/min, = 30).
When tool rotation rate was = 0 rpm, this coincides

with the ordinary single point incremental forming, the
forming machine stopped due to over loading and the
sheet did not formed at all. In a range of = 2000 - 6000
rpm, the sheet broke during forming and the forming limit
height was h = 6 mm as shown in Figure 6(a). When tool
Figure 7 shows the scanning ion micrographs of cross

section of sheets without forming and formed at = 7000
rpm sheets. Since A5052-H34 is heat treated for stabilizing
after cold rolling, the grains were elongated in the rolling
direction and strain was remained. Distribution of contrast
in the grains was observed in the sheet without forming as
shown in Figure 7(a). The grain size was about 5 - 10 m.
After forming at v = 3000 mm/min, = 7000 rpm and =
30 (Figure 7(b)), grains were refined to about 500 nm at
the area near the surface within 5 m from the surface and
about 1-2 m at the area more than 5 m from the surface.
Contrast distribution in the grains was not observed and
was uniform. This is considered that since large strain was
introduced by tool rotation and tool traveling, dynamic
recrystallization occurred and residual strain was released.
Tool feed rate : 3000mm/min

Half apex angle : 30
15
(a) = 6000 rpm

(b) = 7000 rpm
Figure 6. Appearance of formed sheets (v = 3000 mm/min, =
30 ).
Formable Working Conditions. Half apex angle was

fixed to = 45, and tool feed rate and tool rotation rate
were changed. The result of forming is plotted in Figure 8.
In the figure, open circle marks indicate that the forming
was completed until h = 20 mm. Cross marks mean the
sheet was broken during forming. Triangle marks mean
unstable state, forming was succeeded or failed case by
case. If tool feed rate was less than 4000 mm/min, forming
was succeeded by increasing tool rotation rate while forming was failed at v = 500 mm/min. When tool feed rate
was larger than 5000 mm/min, forming became difficult.
Forming could not succeeded at v = 10000 mm/min.
943
09.08.2010 14:39:59 Uhr
Metal Forming
11000
10000
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
Half apex angle: 45
1000
0
0
2000
4000
6000
Fracture elongation of specimen sheet by tension test at

room temperature was 14%. The minimum half apex angle
by the ordinary single point incremental forming was =
45 and this corresponds to elongation of 41%. That by
friction stir incremental forming was = 20 and this
corresponds to elongation of 192%. Although elongation
was improved by the ordinary single point incremental
forming comparing with that by tension test, that by friction stir incremental forming became much greater and
significant improvement of formability was confirmed.
8000
Tool feed rate, /mm min-1
Figure 8. Formable working conditions ( = 10000 rpm, = 45).
50
40
45
35
40
45
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
35
30
25
20
15
10
Tool feed rate : 3000mm/min
2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
0
0
Figure 10 shows appearance of formed sheets by the ordinary single point incremental forming ( = 0 rpm, =
45) and friction stir incremental forming ( = 10000 rpm,
= 20). In the case of the ordinary single point incremental forming, seizure occurred and the formed surface
became very rough. In friction stir incremental forming
case, very smooth and burnished surface was obtained
although tool track was observed.
Next, tool rotation rate was fixed to = 10000 rpm.
Tool feed rate was changed and formable half apex angle
was investigated. Figure 11 shows the formable working
condition by changing tool feed rate. Forming was possible only in a range of v = 2000 - 4000 mm/min.
As shown in Figure 9, minimum half apex angle was =
45 by the ordinary single point incremental forming. As
shown in Figure 11, that was = 20 by friction stir incremental forming. If the sheet deforms under plane strain
condition and satisfying sine law, theoretical equivalent
strain and elongation as a function of half apex angle was
944
Tool rotation rate : 10000rpm
2000
4000
6000
Tool feed rate, /mm min-1
8000
Figure 11. Formable working conditions ( = 10000 rpm).

3.0
200
180
2.5
160
Elongation
Equivalent strain
Figure 9. Formable working conditions (v = 3000 mm/min).
(b) = 0 rpm, = 45
Formed surface
(c) = 10000 rpm, = 20

(d) = 10000 rpm, = 20
Reverse surface
Formed surface
Figure 10. Appearance of formed and reverse surface (v = 3000
mm/min).
Half apex angle, /
Half apex angle, /
50
(a) = 0 rpm, = 45
Reverse surface
2.0
120
1.5
100
80
1.0
60
40
0.5
0.0
140
Elongation /%
Next, tool feed rate was fixed to v = 3000 mm/min. Tool

rotation rate was changed and formable half apex angle
was investigated. Figure 9 shows the formable working
condition by changing tool rotation rate. Kitazawa et al.
[2] reported that A5052-H34 sheet with a thickness of 0.4
mm could be formed until = 35 by the ordinary single
point incremental forming. In this study, = 0 rpm corresponds to the ordinary single point incremental forming
and sheet with a thickness of 0.5 mm was successfully
formed until = 45. In addition, as tool rotation rate increased, formability improved at more than 6000 rpm and
minimum half apex angle of 20 was obtained at =
10000 rpm.
Equivalent strain
0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
o
Half apex angle, /
20
0
Figure 12. Theoretical equivalent strain and elongation as function

of half apex angle test.
Hardness of Formed Parts. Vickers hardness of cross

section of sheet without forming, formed by the ordinary
single point incremental forming and formed by friction
stir incremental forming is shown in Figure 13. In the case
of the sheet without forming, although the sheet was proc-
09.08.2010 14:40:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
Vickers hardness / HV 0.1
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Without =0rpm =7000rpm =10000rpm

=20
forming =45 =45
Figure 13. Vickers hardness of formed parts (v = 3000 mm/min).
Tensile Strength and Elongation of Formed Parts.

Tension test of the sheet without forming, formed by the
ordinary single point incremental forming and formed by
friction stir incremental forming sheets was carried out.
Tensile strength and fracture elongation of each specimen
are shown in Figure 14. Although the surface became
rough after forming, no processing such as grinding to
eliminate the rough surface was carried out.
Tensile strength and fracture elongation of sheet without
forming were 275 MPa and 14%, respectively. Those of
sheet formed by the ordinary single point incremental
forming were 230 MPa and 5%, respectively. Both tensile
strength and fracture elongation decreased. This reason of
decrease of tensile strength is considerable that the surface
of formed sheet by ordinal single point incremental forming was very rough and deformation was concentrated to
weakest portion. Since strain by tension test was integrated
with that by the ordinary single point incremental forming,
fracture elongation became small.
On the other hand, tensile strength and fracture elongation of sheet formed by friction stir incremental forming
were 240 MPa and 17%, respectively. Tensile strength was
a little larger than that by the ordinary single point incremental forming. It is considered that this is because the
surface roughness was smaller and the degree of stress
concentration was low. Fracture elongation was greater
than that without forming, even adding strain by forming.
This reason is considerable that there was residual strain in
the sheet without forming, however, the strain was released by occurring dynamic recrystallization induced by
friction stir incremental forming, and residual strain after
forming was smaller than that before forming. Furthermore ductility was improved by happening grain refinement.
350
Tensile strength
Elongation
300
20
15
250
200
10
150
100
Elongation /%
Nominal tensile strength / MPa
essed for stabilization, strain by rolling was remained as

shown in Figure 7(a) and hardness was larger than fully
annealed one. After the ordinary single point incremental
forming, more strain was added and hardness increased
due to work hardening. On the contrary, hardness after
friction stir incremental forming decreased. This is because dynamic recrystallization occurred during forming
due to temperature rising and giving large strain by rotating tool very fast, and strain was released as mentioned in
the former section.
50
0
Without
forming
=0rpm
=45
=7000rpm
=45
Figure 14. Tensile strength of formed parts (v = 3000 mm/min).
Conclusions
Friction stir incremental forming was applied to forming
of A5052-H34 sheets. Formable working conditions and
formability were investigated. The formability was compared with that by the ordinary single point incremental
forming. The hardness test and tension test of formed sheet
were also carried out. Vickers hardness, tensile strength
and fracture elongation of sheet without forming and
formed by the ordinary single point incremental forming
and friction stir incremental forming were compared. The
following results were obtained:
1. When tool rotation rate was greater than 7000 rpm,
forming limit height was dramatically improved.
2. Minimum half apex angle by the ordinary single point
incremental forming was 45 and this corresponds to
41% elongation. That by friction stir incremental forming was 20 and this corresponds to 192% elongation,
and significant formability improvement was obtained
by developed method.
3. Vickers hardness of sheet formed by friction stir incremental forming became smaller than that without forming, although that by the ordinary single point incremental forming became greater.
4. Tensile strength of sheet formed by friction stir incremental forming became smaller than that without forming.
5. Fracture elongation of sheet formed by friction stir
incremental forming became larger than that without
forming.
References
[1] Y. Wang, Y. Huang, J. Cao, N.V. Reddy: Proceedings of the 2008
International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference,
(2008), 72547.
[2] K. Kitazawa, T. Nishibayashi, H. Fujino: Journal of Japan Institute of
Light Metals, 51-2 (2001), 103-107. (in Japanese)
[3] M. Otsu, T. Ichikawa, M. Matsuda, K. Takashima: Proc. Processing
and Fabrication of Advanced Materials XVIII, (2009), 1963-1972.
945
09.08.2010 14:40:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
Incremental Forming with Local Heating for Aluminum-Magnesium Alloy Sheet

Ryutaro Hino1), Naoaki Nagaishi2), Yuki Yamamoto1), Tetsuo Naka3), Fusahito Yoshida1)
1)
Department of Mechanical System Engineering, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima / Japan, rhino@hiroshima-u.ac.jp; 2) Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries, Ltd., Nagasaki / Japan; 3) Department of Maritime Technology, Yuge National College of Maritime Technology, Ehime /
Japan
Forming characteristics of a new incremental sheet forming process in conjunction with local heating for an aluminum-magnesium alloy
sheet were investigated. The most important feature of this forming method is a local heating system. The forming tool has a built-in heater,
and sheet metal is locally heated by heat transfer from the tool surface during the forming process. In addition, an electrically heated
chamber is installed on a blank sheet to control ambient temperature. Incremental forming experiments of the aluminum-magnesium alloy
sheet, which is a typical lightweight hard-to-form material, were carried out at several tool-heating temperatures, tool speeds and ambient
temperatures. Formability and shape fixability of the aluminum-magnesium alloy sheet were remarkably improved by increasing the toolheating and ambient temperatures, and by decreasing the tool speed. It was found that the sheet-surface temperature has a dominant
effect on the improvement of formability and shape fixability. The sheet-surface temperature is a key factor for improvement of process
characteristics of the presented incremental sheet forming method.
Keywords: Incremental sheet forming, Local heating, Sheet-surface temperature, Aluminum-magnesium alloy sheet, Forming limit,
Springback
Introduction
For weight reduction of press-formed products,
aluminum-magnesium alloy sheets are being increasingly
used due to their high specific strength. However, press
forming of aluminum-magnesium alloy sheets is not an
easy task since they exhibit limited ductility at room
temperature. Another problem is large springback due to
their low Youngs modulus. To overcome these problems,
warm press forming has been a possible approach [1-3].
Meanwhile, the incremental sheet forming has been paid
to attention as a flexible forming method where sheet
metal is formed by a simple stylus tool with hemispherical
head without using expensive die sets [4-6]. The
incremental sheet forming has great advantages in not only
flexibility but also formability. Forming limit strain in the
incremental sheet forming is much higher than that of
sheet stamping process [5].
Considering the above mentioned background, a
combination of heating with incremental sheet forming
should be a quite attractive choice to form aluminummagnesium alloy sheets for the small-batch production.
Since the forming zone in the incremental forming is
moving with the tool and limited around the tool-sheet
contact area, dynamic and local heating method should be
required. Duflou et al. [7,8] have used a laser beam for
dynamic local heating in incremental forming, and
confirmed that the heating improved formability and
dimension accuracy of the formed parts.
In the previous study [9,10], authors have developed a
new incremental sheet forming system with local heating
where the forming tool has a built-in heater, and sheet
metal is locally heated by heat transfer from the tool
surface during the forming process. Incremental forming
experiments have been carried out for aluminummagnesium alloy sheet and magnesium alloy sheet, and it
has been found that formability and shape fixability
increased remarkably with increasing local heating
temperature [9,10].
946
In the present study, forming characteristics of the

incremental sheet forming with local heating were
investigated by performing forming experiments on JIS
A5083 aluminum-magnesium alloy sheets in order to
understand the process mechanics for expanding the
process capabilities. JIS A5083 sheets were formed under
various conditions changing not only local heating
temperature but also tool speed and ambient temperature,
and then effects of the forming conditions on forming limit,
springback and residual stress were examined.
Incremental Sheet Forming with Local Heating
Figure 1 shows schematic illustration of the incremental
sheet forming with local heating. A blank is formed by the
relative movement of the forming tool, while being
supported by the fixed support tool. The forming tool is
mounted on an x-y-z positioning table so that the x-y plane
corresponds to the horizontal plane. 3-D motion of the
forming tool is numerically controlled by a computer. The
tool is a simple cylindrical punch with hemispherical head
of 14 mm diameter. The blank holder moves in the vertical
direction (i.e. z direction) synchronizing with the z position
of the forming tool.
The most important feature of this forming method is the
local heating system. The forming tool has a built-in heater
(200 W) and a thermocouple. The forming tool is heated
by the heater and the blank sheet is locally heated by heat
transfer from the tool surface. In addition, an electrically
heated chamber is installed on the blank to control ambient
temperature as shown in Figure 1. This chamber produces
nearly isothermal condition on the upper side of the blank
and the temperature in the chamber is kept constant during
the forming process. Ductility of the blank around the toolcontact point becomes higher by the local heating, and the
synergistic effect of the incremental forming and the local
heating enhances the forming limit of the blank. Besides,
residual stress of the formed part becomes lower, and
subsequently springback is reduced, by the local heating.
09.08.2010 14:40:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
Support tool
Chamber
Heater and
thermocouple
Blank holder
Blank
Heater and
thermocouple
Forming tool
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of incremental sheet forming with

local heating using forming tool and support tool.
R.T.
True stress /MPa
400
373K
300
423K
473K
200
523K
100
0
573K
673K
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
True strain
0.5
0.6
Figure 2. Stress-strain curves of A5083 sheet in uniaxial tension at

various temperatures (strain rate: 3.0x10-3 s-1).
Table 1. Experimental conditions of incremental forming with local
heating.
Material / Blank size [mm]
JIS A5083 / 250x250, t = 1
Tool diameter [mm]
14
Tool path
Shown in Figure 3
Product shape
Cone (Angle : from 10 to 80)
Tool pitch [mm]
1
-1
Tool speed [mms ]
1, 4, 8
Tool-heater temperature [K]
From R.T. to 873
Chamber temperature [K]
R.T., 473
Lubricant
SUMIMOLD 201
lightweight hard-to-form material. Material ductility is

limited at room temperature, but it can be improved at
elevated temperatures. Flow stress decreases drastically
with increasing temperature.
Experimental Conditions. The incremental forming
experiments are classified into two types according to the
ambient temperature, i.e. the temperature in the chamber.
For the case where the chamber temperature is room
temperature (283-293 K), the experimental data reported
previously by the present authors [9,10] are used for the
following discussions. For the case where the chamber
temperature is 473 K, the additional experiments are
conducted in the present work.
All the experimental conditions of the incremental sheet
forming with local heating are summarized in Table 1. A
250 mm side square sheet is used as a blank. Simple
circular-cone shapes are chosen as target shapes of the
forming experiments. Figure 3 shows tool path for the
cone-shape forming. The forming tool traces contour of
the cone while changing its moving direction clockwise
and counter clockwise alternately every one pitch.
Conical shells whose base radius is about 50 mm are
formed at several tool-heater temperatures ranging from
room temperature to 873 K and at several angles (i.e. the
half-angle at the apex of the formed cone as shown in
Figure 3) from 10to 80. Tool speed is set to 1, 4, and 8
mms-1, and tool pitch is chosen as 1 mm. Ambient
temperature, i.e. temperature in the chamber, is set to room
temperature or 473 K as mentioned above. Lubricant
containing molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is applied on the
blank surface.
Strain Distribution. Strain distributions of some of the
formed conical shells are measured by means of scribed
circles of 6.35 mm diameter. A typical example of the
measured strain distribution is shown in Figure 4 by solid
marks [10]. Here, 1 is the major strain in the meridional
direction, 2 the minor strain in the circumferential
direction and 3 the thickness strain, respectively. The
slanted wall part of the conical shell is deformed under
almost plane-strain condition (2 = 0). Then the strain
components in the conical shell wall can be calculated
from the sine law as follows:
1 = ln(sin ), 2 = 0, 3 = 1
Pitch
Angle
Figure 3. Schematic illustration of tool path for cone-shape

forming experiment.
Material and Forming Experiment

Material. Aluminum-magnesium alloy (JIS A5083)
sheet of 1 mm thick is used in the present work. Stressstrain curves of the A5083 sheet in uniaxial tension at
strain rate of 3.0x10-3 s-1 at various temperatures are
shown in Figure 2. This material is a typical example of
(1)
The calculated result is also shown in Figure 4 by solid

lines. It is confirmed that the measured strain components
are approximately equal to those obtained from the sine
law at any heating temperature and tool speed.
Formability Improvement. Formability is evaluated by
the forming limit angle that is the possible minimum angle
for successful forming. According to Eq. (1), the smaller
the angle , the larger the major strain 1. Therefore, as
well known, the possible minimum value of the angle
represents the level of formability in the incremental coneshape forming.
947
09.08.2010 14:40:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 5 shows relationship between the forming limit
angle and the tool-heater temperature at various tool
speeds and chamber temperatures. It is confirmed that
formability is remarkably improved by increasing the toolheater temperature and the chamber temperature, and by
decreasing the tool speed. The forming limit angle can be
decreased from 31-36 to 13-20s when the tool-heater
temperature is raised up from room temperature to 873 K.
The local heating has a significant effect on improvement
of formability.
1.2
0.8
Thickness
strain
Experiment
Sine law
-0.4
-1.2
3
0
20
40
60
Height position h /mm
80
Figure 4. Example of strain distribution of conical shell formed at

tool-heater temperature of 873 K, chamber temperature of 293 K
(R.T.), tool speed of 1mms-1 and =25.
Forming limit angle /degree
where R is the radius of the strip curl as shown in Figure 6

(a). Similarly, the curvature change caused by slitting the
cut-out ring is as follows:
Chamber: 473K, Tool speed: 1mm. s-1

Chamber: R.T., Tool speed: 1mm. s-1
40
35
(a)
30
25
20
15
10
200
300
400 500 600 700 800

Tool-heater temperature /K
900
1 = 1/R
r0
r
2 = 1/r0 - 1/r
Figure 6. Evaluation of residual stress and springback based on

curvature changes of (a) strip along meridional direction and (b)
circular ring cut out from conical shells.
Residual Stress and Springback. The formed conical

shell exhibits very small amount of springback because of
their high geometrical stiffness. However, if the shell is
partially trimmed, springback is caused by the release of
residual stresses in the trimmed part.
In the present study, residual stress and springback are
evaluated as follows. As shown in Figure 6, a narrow
948
Curvature change 2 /mm-1
(b)
(a)

0.010
0.008
0.006
0.004
0.002
0.000
200
Figure 5. Relations between forming limit angle and tool-heater

temperature at various tool speeds and chamber temperatures.
(b)
(3)
where r0 and r are the radii of the ring before and after the
slitting as shown in Figure 6 (b). These two parameters
indicate the amounts of residual bending moments due to
the residual stresses in the meridional and circumferential
directions, respectively.
Figure 7 shows the relationship between the curvature
changes and the tool-heater temperature at various tool
speeds and chamber temperatures where the angle is 40
degrees. These results indicate that residual stress reduces
remarkably by increasing the tool-heater temperature and
the chamber temperature. Influence of the tool speed on
residual stress seems to be relatively minor.
Strain
-0.8
(2)
1 = 1/ R
2 = 1/ r0 1/ r
0.4
0.0
metal strip along the meridional direction or a narrow

circular ring is cut out from the conical shell by using a
wire-cut electric discharge machine. When the strip is cut
out, the residual stress is released and the strip curls due to
springback. Then the curvature change of the strip is
approximately as follows:
300
400 500 600 700 800

900
0.006
0.005
0.004
0.003
0.002
0.001
0.000
200

300
400 500 600 700 800

900
Figure 7. Relations between tool-heater temperature and

curvature changes of (a) 1 and (b) 2 at various tool speeds
and chamber temperatures for =40.
Relations between Forming Characteristics and SheetSurface Temperature

The forming characteristics shown in Figures 5 and 7 are
strongly related to the temperature dependence of
mechanical properties of A5083 sheet. Therefore it is
important to know temperature of the blank around the
tool-contact point. Figure 8 shows the sheet-surface
09.08.2010 14:40:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Sheet-surface temperature /K
550
500
450
-1
Chamber: 473K, Tool speed: 1mm. s

-1
Chamber: R.T., Tool speed: 1mm .s
-1
-1
Sheet surface
Blank
400
350
Tool
heater
300
250
200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Forming limit angle /degree
Figure 8. Relations between sheet-surface temperature and toolheater temperature at various tool speeds and chamber
temperatures.
40
35

30
Concluding Remarks
25
20
15
10
250
300
350
400
450
500
Figure 9. Relations between forming limit angle and sheet-surface

temperature at various tool speeds and chamber temperatures.
(a)
0.010
0.008
(b)

0.006
0.004
0.002
0.000
250
300
350
400
450
500
0.006
0.005
Forming characteristics of the incremental sheet forming

with local heating were investigated by performing
forming experiments on JIS A5083 aluminum-magnesium
alloy sheets under various forming conditions. Then
effects of the forming conditions on forming limit,
springback and residual stress were discussed. The results
are summarized as follows:
1. The sheet-surface temperature is found to be an
important key factor to improve formability and shape
fixability in the incremental sheet forming with local
heating.
2. Formability is remarkably improved by increasing the
sheet-surface temperature. However, there would be no
more improvement of formability even if the sheetsurface temperature is raised higher than 450 K.
3. Residual stress and springback are reduced, and shape
fixability is improved, by increasing the sheet-surface
temperature when the sheet-surface temperature exceeds
about 350 K.
4. These forming characteristics are strongly related to the
temperature dependence of mechanical properties of
A5083 sheet.
0.004
References
0.003
0.002
0.001
0.000
250

300
350
400
450
500
Figure 10. Relations between sheet-surface temperature and

curvature changes of (a) 1 and (b) 2 at various tool speeds
and chamber temperatures for =40.
temperature measured at the tool-contact point under

various forming conditions. Then the forming limit angle
( shown in Figure 5) and the curvature changes (1 and
2 shown in Figure 7) are plotted with respect to the
measured sheet-surface temperature as shown in Figures 9
and 10, respectively.
It is found that both the forming limit angle and the
curvature changes strongly depend on the sheet-surface
temperature. The forming limit angle decreases with

increasing the sheet-surface temperature, and reaches its
lower limit of 13 degrees when the sheet-surface
temperature becomes about 400 or 450 K. There would be
no more improvement of formability even if the sheetsurface temperature is raised higher than 450 K because of
the materials deformation capacity. On the other hand, the
curvature changes are reduced when the sheet-surface
temperature exceeds about 350 K, and expected to be
almost zero when the sheet-surface temperature is raised
more than 450 K.
The results indicate that the sheet-surface temperature is
an important key factor to improve formability and shape
fixability in the incremental sheet forming with local
heating, though these forming characteristics are affected
by not only the sheet-surface temperature but also the
temperature distribution of course.
[1] F. Shehata, M.J. Painter, R. Pearse: Journal of Mechanical Working

Technology, 2-3 (1978), 279-290.
[2] T. Naka, F. Yoshida: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
89/90 (1999), 19-23.
[3] T. Naka, G. Torikai, R. Hino, F. Yoshida: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology, 113-1/3 (2001), 648-653.
[4] S. Matsubara: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of
Plasticity, 35-406 (1994), 1258-1263, (in Japanese).
[5] M.S. Shim, J.J. Park: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
113-1/3 (2001), 654-658.
[6] G. Hussain, L. Gao, N.U. Dar: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 186 (2007), 45-53.
[7] J.R. Duflou, B. Callebaut, J. Verbert, H. De Baerdemaeker: CIRP
Annals, 56-1 (2007), 273-276.
[8] J.R. Duflou, B. Callebaut, J. Verbert, H. De Baerdemaeker:
International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, 48-5 (2008),
543-549.
[9] R. Hino, F. Yoshida, N. Nagaishi and T. Naka: International Journal of
Modern Physics B, 22-31/32 (2008), 6082-6087.
[10] R. Hino, F. Yoshida: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of
Plasticity, 51-591 (2010), to be published, (in Japanese).
949
09.08.2010 14:40:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
A Novel Experimental Set-Up for Warm Incremental Forming of AZ31B Magnesium

Alloy Sheets
Andrea Ghiotti1), Stefania Bruschi2)
1)
Department of innovation in Management and Mechanics, University of Padua, Padua / Italy, andrea.ghiotti@unipd.it;
Mechanical and Structural Engineering, University of Trento, Trento / Italy
2)
Department of
Incremental sheet forming operations are more and more widespread thanks to their intrinsic flexibility and applicability to a wide range of
metallic materials. However, even if this kind of processes can assure a significant increase in material formability compared to traditional
sheet forming operations, their application to magnesium alloys is still troublesome. Magnesium alloys, indeed, shows very limited ductility
when processed at room temperature, and their formability can be extended only if the sheet is heated up in a temperature range where
more slip systems can be activated. The paper presents a novel experimental set-up specifically developed to carry out incremental forming
operations at elevated temperatures. The set-up includes a CNC machine and an electric heating system. When the current flows to the
metal sheet, heat is generated and the local material formability is enhanced. Different tests were carried out in order to design the proper
parameters of the heating system, assuring a sufficiently homogenous temperature in the sheet, measured through spot-welded thermocouples. It is demonstrated that carrying out the process in the temperature range between 150 and 250 C can assure a higher formability
than at room temperature. It is demonstrated that material formability in terms of maximum wall angle is mainly affected by the initial sheet
temperature, while the step down size mainly influences the quality of the part inner surface.
Keywords: Sheet metal forming, Incremental forming, Formability, AZ31B alloy
Introduction
Incremental sheet forming processes have recently
gained more and more interest, thanks to the possibility
they offer to produce components with complex geometrical features by using simple tools, with or even without the
aid of supporting dies. The tool, moved by a CNC machine,
deforms the metal blank incrementally, leading to high
local deformations and assuring much higher material
formability than conventional sheet forming processes.
Thus, thanks to their intrinsic flexibility and possibility to
achieve high strains, incremental forming processes are the
best candidates for the production of small batches or even
prototypes, by using new generations of steels and lightweight alloys that are often characterized by low formability in traditional processes.
A survey of the literature has shown that the reason for
the achievement of such high formability limits is not yet
fully understood: several researches [1,2], have focused on
the mechanics of deformation in order to explain the enhancement of material workability when subjected to incremental forming, but none of the proposed theories is
nowadays completely accepted. Furthermore, the geometrical accuracy, the elastic recovery, the surface quality of
the deformed part and the choice of proper tool paths are
still open problems [2-5], which need to be solved in order
to increase the competitiveness of these processes.
Among the new metals proposed in the market, which
allow obtaining high strength-mass ratio in structural
components, magnesium alloys are surely the most interesting, but the very limited formability they present at
room temperature makes them unsuitable for being
worked even by incremental forming. The poor formability exhibited by magnesium alloys at room temperature is
due to their hexagonal close-packed structure (HCP),
which exhibits a lesser number of slip planes in comparison to BCC or FCC crystals [6].
950
Some authors report preliminary studies in performing

incremental forming processes at elevated temperatures,
also on magnesium alloys sheets by investigating (i) the
material formability [7], (ii) the lubrication systems [2],
and (iii) the heating systems both in the case the entire
metal sheet is heated inside a forming chamber to avoid
thermal gradients and when using local heating systems,
such as laser heating sources moved by anthropomorphic
robots, which heats the material locally for a limited period of time [8]. However, all the proposed solutions have
been developed at a laboratory stage and present several
economical disadvantages and weakness for an industrial
implementation.
The objective of the present paper is to demonstrate the
feasibility of performing single-point incremental forming
(SPIF) on AZ31B magnesium alloy blanks at elevated
temperatures by exploiting a novel set-up, which makes
use of an electric current heating system. This system can
assure a fast and robust heating with a homogenous temperature field in the blank, thus making its application to
incremental forming competitive towards more traditional
heating systems utilized in the above mentioned studies.
The first part of the paper presents the material characteristics and the experimental equipment, developed to
heat up the metal blank and adapted to a single-point incremental forming set-up. The effects of the heating parameters on temperature homogeneity are studied in order
to choose the proper ones. Then, material formability in
terms of maximum draw angle and surface roughness of
the components are analyzed as a function of the blank
initial temperature, feed rate and step down size in order to
choose the combination of process parameters that can
assure the best formability and quality. Thanks to the use
of elevated temperatures during the process, relevant enhancement of the final components are also expected due
to the reduction of the forces required during the process
and the elastic recovery as well.
09.08.2010 14:40:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experiments
Cooling inlet Copper electrode
Thermocouple
Metal sheet
Material. The material utilized in the experiments is the

magnesium alloy AZ31B, provided in sheets of 1.5mm
thickness in the annealed condition. The chemical composition of this alloy is reported in Table 1.
Table 1. Chemical composition of AZ31B sheets (in weight %).
Aluminium, Al
2.50 - 3.50 %
Calcium, Ca
< 0.040 %
Copper, Cu
< 0.050 %
Iron, Fe
< 0.0050 %
Magnesium, Mg
97.0 %
Manganese, Mn
> 0.20 %
Nickel, Ni
< 0.10 %
0.60 - 1.40 %
Experimental Equipment. The experiments at elevated

temperatures were performed using a MAZAK VTC-300C
three-axis CNC machine.
The heating system was designed for ensuring continuous heating during the sheet metal deformation by using
Joule heating effect. It includes two electrodes that are
provided by DC power source (1.25 V, 15000 A) and that
are cooled by a water coolant circuit embedded inside
them. The heating temperature is adjusted by a feedback
controller, which acts on the basis of the temperature measurements provided by four K-type thermocouples spotwelded on the sheet. Figure 1(a) and (b) show a model of
the experimental set-up and the prototype used for the
experiments.
Forming tool
Power source
Negative electrode
Upper plate
Lower plate
Cooling system
Positive electrode
Copper electrode
Figure 2. Details of the fixtures, heating system and the thermocouple positioning.
< 0.0050 %
Silicon, Si
Zinc, Zn
Cooling oulet
Thermocouple
The fixtures and jigs used for the experiments were specifically designed to be able to operate at elevated temperatures and to assure electrical isolation. They consist of
two plates, made of composite fibers, which act as insulator and thermal barrier. In the lower plate a steel ring is
inserted, which works as backing plate. The two plates are
overlapped on the two copper electrodes that connected
tightly metal sheet (see Figure 2). The whole system is
placed on a thick composite-fiber plate that is firmly
clamped on the machine table by six bolts (Figure 1(b)),
and guarantees a perfect electrical isolation of the machine
table.
A hemispherical tool for SPIF process was specifically
designed to avoid any magnetic effect of the heating system on the CNC machine spindle. The tool was manufactured by using the heat-treated tool steel BOHLER K100
characterized by high hardness and wear resistance. The
diameter of the tool ball-head is chosen equal to 10 mm.
Previous researches pointed out that smaller diameter can
contribute to increase material formability [2]; however,
the need to assure the tool thermal stability and stiffness at
elevated temperatures did not allow using a smaller diameter.
During SPIF processes, friction conditions at the contact
surface between the tool and the sheet metal can affect the
component surface quality and geometrical accuracy. In
order to minimize friction, solid graphite powder mixed
with MoS2 (suitable for elevated temperatures) was used
as lubricant, and the process parameters were chosen to
make the forming tool roll over the surface of the sheet.
Experimental Plan and Testing Procedure. In order to
determine the influence of the main process parameters
and temperature on the AZ31B formability in SPIF processes, a two level factorial plan 2k with two replicates was
carried out. The process parameters were chosen on the
basis of results from previous studies [2,9,10].
Table 2. The levels of factors for experiments on AZ31B Mg alloy.
Experimental
parameters
Temperature (C)
Figure 1. Model of the experimental equipment with details of the

main parts (top) and the prototype used in the tests (bottom).
Level of Values
Low level
High level
150
250
Depth step (mm)
0.1
0.5
Feed rate (mm.s-1)
2000
6000
951
09.08.2010 14:40:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
The parameters varied in the experiments were the initial temperature of the metal sheets, the step down size,
and the feed rate. The maximum wall angle and the
roughness Ra of the surface in contact with the tool were
considered as responding DOE parameters.
A cone-shaped part with a circular arc as generatrix was
selected to test the formability in the experiments. The part
geometry was designed in order to enable investigating
wall angles from 0 to 90. Since the thickness of the part
changes according to the cosines law and the slope of the
part increases with its depth, the analyzed region is limited
to an angle minor than 90 (see Figure 3).
x
creased to approximately 25C after a soaking time of

120s before starting the deformation. The positioning of
the thermocouples on the sheet and the measured temperatures are showed in Figure 4.
Formability and Roughness. The output parameters
investigated in the experiments were the maximum wall
angle and the surface roughness Ra. The maximum wall
angle obtained in the experiment without any mechanical
failure is considered as index of maximum formability of
SPIF for the given material. The comparison of thickness
variation and failures occurred at different temperatures
are showed in Figure 5.
Thermocouple
Deformed
area
Figure 3. Sketch of the realized part with the geometrical parameters of the part profile measured during the tests.
x
R
= arccos
(1)
where R is the radius of the circular arc and x the vertical

coordinate given by:
x = d z M1
(2)
The value of d is the maximum height of the cone and

zM1 the vertical coordinate of the tool when the failure
appears. This value was recorded by the CNC-controller
interface and verified by using a Coordinate Measuring
Machine (CMM) machine. A constant lubrication was
granted during the experiments. The sheets were deformed
until either wrinkling or tearing occurred. All experiments
were conducted by using a helical tool path. The wall
angle at which either wrinkling or tearing occurred, calculated by Eq. (1), is considered as the index of the maximum material formability.
Results
Temperature Field. In order to perform SPIF experiments for formability determination at elevated temperatures, the temperature field in the forming zone has to be
monitored and kept homogeneous and constant for the
entire duration of the test. To this aim, four kthermocouples were spot-welded onto the AZ31B sheets
outer surface. During the heating phase, a maximum difference of temperatures of 120 C between the different
areas of the sheets was measured, and this difference de952
Metal
150 C
sheet
Figure 4. Temperatures measured at the outer surface of AZ31B

sheets during the SPIF process.
Thickness [mm]
Figure 3 shows the generatrix of the part studied during

in the experiments. The analyzed area is outlined by the
arc MN. The wall angle of a generic point on the generatrix, defined by the tangent to the profile, can be calculated
as follows:
1,6
1,4
1,2
1
0,8
0,6
0,4
0,2
0
Lubricant: MoS2
Feed: 6000 mm/min
Depth step: 0.1 mm
150 C
150C
250C
Theoretical
250 C
10
20
30
40
50
60
Height [mm]
Figure 5. Thickness variation and failure modes of AZ31B parts
formed by SPIF at elevated temperatures.
The surface roughness Ra was measured in the inner part

of the deformed sheets, where the material is in contact
with the forming tool. In this area, the value of Ra depends
on the contact conditions, the lubrication, and the process
parameters. The results of the statistical analysis for
AZ31B sheet are summarized in Table 3.
Table 3. The analysis of variance for AZ31B.
Std. Deviation 0.52
Ra
0.12 R-Squared
Ra
0.9983
0.9848
0.9974
0.9772
Mean
60.62 1.88 Adj. R-Squared
C.V.%
0.85
6.38 Pred. R-Squared 0.99956 0.9611
PRESS
6.87
0.37 Adeq. Precision
99.183
30.665
The analysis of results shows that a predicted R-Squared

value of 0.9956 for wall angle (or 0.9611 for surface
09.08.2010 14:40:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
roughness Ra) is in reasonable agreement with the adjusted
R-Squared of 0.9974 for wall angle (or 0.9772 for surface roughness Ra). In addition, the adequate precision of
the analyzed model is very high. The value of 99.183 for
wall angle (or 30.665 for surface roughness Ra) represents the signal to noise ratio of the measured values with
respect to the average prediction error. Normally, ratios
greater than 4 indicate an adequate model discrimination.
The main results of interactions are summarized in Table 4.
The most relevant interaction effects on AZ31B formability and surface roughness are presented in Figures 6 and 7.
The statistical analysis confirms that the temperature factor has the most important effect on formability of AZ31B
sheets. This factor contributes in the extent of 73.22% to
the effects on material formability, increasing the value of
the wall angle up to 74.2 at 250 C, compared to the
value of 42 at 150C.
Table 4. Effect of the different parameters on the wall angle , and
on the inner surface roughness Ra.
Parameters
Effects on [%] Effects on Ra [%]
73.22
0.01
6.6
11.18
9.33
63.6
AB
8.67
7.6
BC
16.1
A: temperature; B: feed rate; C: step down size
The contribution of the step down size and feed rate on

formability is less significant (9.33% and 6.6%, respectively). Results from previous tests [11] showed that
AZ31B presents high sensitivity to strain rate, thus explaining the probability of failure occurrence at high feed
rates. The step down size is the most important parameter
for the quality of the inner surface measured by Ra (contribution in the extent of 63.6%), since it affects mainly the
vertical machine force and the surface roughness during
the deformation. The interactive effect between the feed
rate and the step down size is also relatively significant
(16.1%). By increasing the former, higher step down sizes
can be used without obtaining the scalloping effect in the
inner surface. The interaction between temperature and
feed rate is also considerable, even if the tested conditions
Figure 6. Interaction effects of step down size and feed rate factors on AZ31 formability.
Figure 7. Interaction effects of step down size and feed rate factors on inner surface roughness Ra.
are mostly below the dynamic recrystallization temperature of the material.

Conclusions
In this paper a novel experimental set-up, specifically
developed to carry out incremental forming operations at
elevated temperatures, has been presented. The set-up
includes a CNC machine and an electrical heating system
through which heat is generated and the local material
formability is enhanced. Different tests were carried out in
order to design the proper parameters of heating system,
assuring a sufficiently homogenous temperature in the
sheet, measured through spot-welded thermocouples. The
1. a heating system based on Joule effect is suitable for
performing SPIF experiments at elevated temperatures;
2. experimental strategies were proposed to investigate
the influences of process parameters on the responses
of SPIF at elevated temperatures;
3. the initial sheet temperature was recognized to have the
most significant influence on AZ31B formability, while
the step down size is the parameter having the main influence on the quality of the part inner surface.
References
209-3 (2009), 1158-1174.
[2] F. Micari, G. Hirt , A. Bramley, J. Duflou, J. Allwood J. Jeswiet:
CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 54-2 (2005), 88-114.
[3] I. Costantino, L. De Napoli, L. Filice, L. Fratini, M. Muzzupappa, G.
Ambrogio: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 153/154-10,
(2004), 501-507.
[4] L. Filice, F. Gagliardi, F. Micari, G. Ambrogio: Proc. 11th SheMet
(2005), 471-478.
[5] J. Jeswiet, D. Young: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 218-11
(2004), 1453-1459.
[6] M. Geiger, M. Klaus, A. Kleiner: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing
Technology, 52- 2 (2003), 521-542.
[7] L. Filice, G. L. Manco, G. Ambrogio: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing
Technology, 57 (2008), 257-260.
[8] J.R. Duflou, B. Callebaut, J. Verbert, H. De Baerdemaeker: CIRP
[9] J. Jeswiet, M. Ham: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 56-1
(2007), 277-280.
[10]J. Jeswiet, M. Ham: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 55-1
(2006), 241-244.
[11]A. Ghiotti, S. Bruschi, D. Pellegrini: Proc. Esaform (2009), 322-326.
953
09.08.2010 14:40:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
Numerical Analysis for Stretch Forming Process Using Flexible Die

Young-Ho Seo, Seong-Chan Heo, Tae-Wan Ku, Jeong Kim, Beom-Soo Kang
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / S. Korea, bskang@pusan.ac.kr
A stretch forming process has been widely used in a sheet metal forming for reducing an elastic recovery of deformed sheet material.
Conventional solid dies, which are designed according to the specific shape and manufactured as a single piece, are usually applied to
stretch forming process, and thus a great number of the solid dies have to be developed and replaced according to the shape of the curved
sheet material. Accordingly, a stretch forming process using a flexible die is proposed to solve and improve the mentioned disadvantage.
The flexible die replaces the conventional solid dies with a set of height adjustable discrete punches. The usefulness of the flexible die is
verified through extensive numerical simulations of the stretch forming process for the simply curved parabolic sheet material in this study.
Formability evaluations are also conducted through a comparison of symmetry plane configurations.
Keywords: Stretch forming, Flexible forming technology, Flexible die, Sheet forming, Elastic recovery estimation, Finite element analysis
Introduction
A skin structure of aircrafts and high-speed trains is
made of aluminum alloy or titanium sheet metals having a
variety of curvature radii [1]. An elastic recovery is inevitable phenomena [2,3] because elastic and plastic deformations are same order of magnitude in purely bending
process of the curved sheet material. Therefore, a stretch
forming process is widely used in the sheet metal forming
as one of the most effective method for reducing the elastic recovery of the sheet metal. However, the skin structures used in manufacturing of the aircraft or the highspeed train have a variety of the shape and the curvature
radius. A great number of solid dies used for the stretch
forming process have to be designed according to the
shape of the skin structures. Thus an increase of production cost is obvious. To solve this problem, a modification
of the forming process is needed.
A flexible forming technology (FFT), which forms various three-dimensional curved sheet metals, was developed
in recent years [4-6]. The FFT replaces the conventional
solid dies with a set of height adjustable discrete punches
combined with a hydraulic press. The punches, which are
arranged regularly, are so-called as punch module. The
punches are only able to be adjusted in the lengthwisedirection and its height is decided by a contact point between the sheet material and the punch. The various threedimensional curved surfaces, that are equivalent to the
objective curved surface, can be constructed and changed
freely using the punch module. Therefore, it is possible to
obtain the curved sheet material with a variety of the shape
using only one flexible die module. A significant amount
of the cost and time, which has consumed for design and
manufacture the solid dies, will be saved. Additionally, the
flexible die can accelerate the development of sheet metal
forming technology.
First of all, verification for usefulness of the flexible die
was performed through finite element method in this study.
The elastic recovery was considered properly. The calculation of contact points between the sheet blank and the
punches for simply curved surface was conducted using
geometrical relationship of the punch tip shape and the
sheet blank. It was applied to finite element modeling of
the flexible dies. The comparison with the distribution of
954
the curvature for the deformed blank between the solid and
the flexible dies was carried out. Moreover, an effectiveness of urethane pad was verified for formability improving the formability of the sheet material. Finally, it was
ensured that the developed flexible stretch forming apparatus in this study could be applied to the thin sheet metal
forming, and then obtained curvature distribution for deformed blank was well matched with required one.
Calculation Scheme for Punch Height
A critical problem of the flexible stretch forming process
is to construct the forming surface, which is equivalent to
the objective surface using adjustable punches. The
equivalent objective surface depends on a relative position
of each punch. It is also determined by the contact point
between the sheet blank and the punches. Therefore, it is
important to determine the contact point in order to apply
the finite element method to the verification for usefulness
of the flexible dies. The scheme of the contact point calculation for the simply curved thin sheet was restrictively
derived in this study. Since each punch tip is a part of
sphere as shown in Figure 1, the width of punch (Wp) is
defined as following equation by the geometrical relationship of the punch radius (R) and the angle ( ) at the center
of the punch radius.
Wp =2Rsin( / 2)
(1)
R (Punch tip radius)
Wp
Figure 1. Schematic view of punch tip.
09.08.2010 14:40:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Blank sheet
Solid die
ru
abs[i-(Np+1)/2]*Wp
1st
Npth
ith
(i-1)th
(a) Solid die
hu,i
Wp/2
Blank sheet
Figure 2. Geometrical relationship for simply curved plate.
( [ (
) ] )
hu,i = ru ru2 abs i Np +1 / 2 Wp
(2)
Usefulness Verification using FEM

Finite Element Model. A simulation model is shown in
Figure 3. Due to the symmetric condition, a quarter models are used for a convenience of the simulations. The
finite element models using the solid and the flexible dies
are presented in Figure 4. The curvature radius in the
stretching direction of the dies is set to be 500mm. The
punches are arranged upon the objective surface, whose
curvature radius is also 500mm, using the scheme of the
punch height calculation. The flexible die is modelled by a
programming language, which is ANSYS parametric design language supported by ANSYS. The material properties of aluminium alloy 2024-O are applied to the sheet
blank in this study. A work-hardening equation based on a
power law is also used. In the simulation, the finite element model for the deformable sheet blank is modelled as
shell elements. The rigid motion is imposed on the solid
and flexible dies. The friction coefficient between the die
and deformable sheet blank was assumed to be 0.2 [1].
The ANSYS LS-DYNA solver, which is based on the
explicit technique, is adopted in the stretch forming analysis and the amount of the elastic recovery was estimated
using the ANSYS, which is based on the implicit technique.
Free forming area
250mm160mm
Y
Constraint area
Forming area
Initial blank sheet
100mm160mm
300mm160mm
1000mm160mm
Figure 3. Analysis model
Flexible die
(b) Flexible die

25
Solid die forming
Flexible die forming
20
Z-coordinate (mm)
As shown in Figure 2, r is defined as the curvature radius based on the neutral line in the thickness direction of
the sheet blank, t of the sheet blank thickness, Wp of the
width of the punch, Np of the number of the punch, and ru
of the curvature radius from the upper line of the sheet
blank, respectively. The relative positions of the punches
on the sheet material are decided by the Pythagorean theorem. It can be expressed as following equation:
15
A
X
10
5
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
X-coordinate (mm)
Figure 5. Sectional profile configuration along A-A.
Simulation Result. A curvature distribution upon the

forming area with regard to the X-direction of the symmetric plane, A-A, is compared. The comparison results show
the almost same distribution as described in Figure 5. The
sectional profile in the flexible forming process was correspond to the that in the solid forming process. The numerical simulation with respect to the elastic recovery is also
carried out. The symmetric boundary condition of the
simulation model was retained and a node placed in the
center of whole model is constrained for the proper behavior of elastic recovery. The curvature distribution on A-A
plane after the elastic recovery is presented in Figure 6.
The curvature radius of the objective surface is 500mm.
But, all of the curvature radii of the deformed blank
through the stretch forming process using the solid and
flexible dies were estimated to be about 520mm. An error
of curvature radius of 20mm is estimated by the elastic
recovery, numerically. Considering the general elastic
recovery characteristic of the sheet metal forming, absolute amount was decreased because of a material stretching on the X-direction.
The sheet material is extended in the stretching direction
according to the characteristic of the stretch forming process. On the other hand, it is constricted with regard to the
width direction because a volume of the sheet material is
not changed. Formability of the sheet metal product is not
affected by the constriction of the material, when the sheet
material is stretched by the solid die. However, when the
flexible stretch forming process is applied, the formability
955
09.08.2010 14:40:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
of the sheet material with regard to the width direction can
be affected by a gap between the punches and the constrictive behavior, which is locally occurred, of the sheet material. In other words, the sheet material could be wrinkled.
Therefore, the surface shape in the width direction after
the elastic recovery is presented in Figure 7 and the result
is investigated. Applying the stretch forming process using
the solid die, the surface shape is straightened without
irregularity.
The wrinkling occurrence along the outer surface of the
punches is estimated in the flexible stretch forming process. The sheet blank is contacted with the gap caused by
the discontinuous punches. The surface on the width direction could not be maintained the original shape by this gap.
Consequently, to solve the gap problem, a series of highstrength urethane pad was suggested and applied between
the sheet blank and the flexible die for minimizing this
geometric effect by the punches.
Urethane Pad Characteristics. The wrinkles in the
sheet blank during the flexible forming process can be
controlled by adopting the specified small-sized punches.
However, the production rate will proportionally increase
with a number of the punch. To solve the wrinkling phenomenon and reduce the effect by the punch gap, the flexible stretch forming using the high-strength urethane pad is
proposed as a solution in this study. For ensuring the effectiveness of the pad, the material properties were obtained
from a series of the compression tests, and then the numerical simulation related to the flexible stretch forming
was additionally performed. Furthermore, the formability
in the width direction is evaluated with the previous result.
The material property of the high-strength urethane inserted between the sheet blank and the flexible die has to
25
= C10(I1 3) + C01(I2 3)
(3)
where C10 and C01 are the temperature-dependent material

properties and obtained from the compressive experiment.
I1 and I2 are the first and the second deviatoric strain
invariants. The analysis model for the flexible stretch
forming including the high-strength urethane is constituted
as shown in Figure 8. The urethane material is modeled in
size of 400mm180mm and thickness of 10mm to avoid
contact between flexible die and sheet blank. The simulation model and condition, except for the urethane pad, is
same with the previous one. The relative position of the
punches is calculated considering the urethane thickness of
10mm.
The sectional profile configuration of B-B is presented
in Figure 9. The effect by the gaps between the punches is
dramatically decreased. The contact condition between the
flexible die and the sheet blank is improved by use of the
high-strength urethane pad. But, some winding is remained comparing with the solid die forming analysis
result. The effect by the gaps of the flexible die is not
perfectly removed in this simulation. Accordingly, advanced study about the urethane pad will be progressed.
Target surface
Solid die forming
20
Z-coordinate (mm)
be taken into account in the numerical simulation. The

hyper-elastic materials as the high-strength urethane could
be modelled as an isotropic and non-linear one. The highstrength urethane model could be described in terms of a
strain energy potential, () , which defines the strain
energy stored in the material per unit volume as a function
of strain. The Mooney-Rivlin form is selected to present
the behavior of the urethane material in finite element
analysis. The strain energy function is defined by following:
Blank sheet
15
Urethane pad
A
X
Flexible die
10
5
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
X-coordinate (mm)
Figure 6. Sectional profile on A-A after elastic recovery.
Figure 8. Finite element model of flexible stretch forming using

urethane pad.
Solid die forming

0.6
Solid die forming

Flexible die forming with pad
0.6
B
X
Z-coordinate (mm)
Z-coordinate (mm)
0.4
0.2
0.0
0.4
B
X
0.2
0.0
-0.2
0
20
40
60
Y-coordinate (mm)
80
Figure 7. Sectional profile on B-B after elastic recovery.
-0.2
0
20
40
60
80
Y-coordinate (mm)
Figure 9. Sectional profile on B-B after elastic recovery.
956
09.08.2010 14:40:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
Flexible Forming Apparatus
The punch module is composed of the punches of

150EA. In detail, the punches of 10EA and 15EA are arranged according to the X- and Y-directions, respectively
as shown in Figure 10. Each punch is controlled by servo
motors. Finally, the flexible stretch forming apparatus is
developed as shown in Figure 11 and its detailed specification is presented Table 1. In the stretch forming process
using the flexible die, the urethane pad is used for the
minimization of the defects by gap between the punches,
which is the fundamental factor of the wrinkles with regard to the width-direction of the sheet material. The
flexible forming experiment using Aluminium sheet material with 1.0mm thickness was conducted. The curvature
radius of objective surface was 500 mm. The experiment
procedure and result are described in Figure 12.
Table 1. Specifications of flexible stretch forming apparatus.
Max. of forming force
50KN
Forming area
300mm 200mm
Cross section of punch
20mm 20mm
Number of punches
150EA
Adjusting height of punch
80mm
with 10.0mm urethane
Figure 12. Flexible stretch forming experiment.
2. The relative positions of the punches on the sheet blank

plate are decided by the Pythagorean theory and geometrical relationship. This calculation scheme for the
punch height is applied to the numerical simulation of
the flexible stretch forming process.
3. According to the simulation result, the flexible die is
useful. Furthermore, the urethane pad improves the
formability of the sheet material.
4. The punch module with 1015 punch array and the
flexible stretch forming apparatus is developed.
Acknowledgements
Figure 10. Developed punch module.
This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) NRL program grant
funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. R0A-2008000-20017-0). And the last author would like to acknowledge the partial support by grants-in-aid for the National
Core Research Center program from MOST/KOSEF (No.
R15-2006-022-02002-0).
References
stretch forming jig
blank
stretch forming jig
flexible die
Figure 11. Flexible stretch forming apparatus.
[1] Z.Y. Cai, S.H. Wang, X.D. Xu, M.Z. Li: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 209 (2009), 396-407.
[2] S.K. Panthi, N. Ramakrishnan, K.K. Pathak, J.S. Chouhan: Journal of
[3] Y.E. Ling, H.P. Lee, B.T. Cheok: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 168 (2005), 296-302.
[4] S.C. Heo, Y.H. Seo, W.J. Song, J. Kim, B.S. Kang, T.W. Ku: Steel
Research International, 79-11 (2008), 640-646.
[5] Z.R. Qian, M.Z. Li, F.X. Tan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 187-188 (2007), 471-475.
[6] F.X. Tan, M.Z. Li, Z.Y. Cai: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 187-188 (2007), 453-457.
Conclusions
The flexible stretch forming process, which is coincided

with the small quantity batch production such as aircraft
and high-speed train industries, is considered. The results
of this study could be summarized as follows:
1. The flexible die is proposed in order to manufacture the
skin structure with low cost. It is composed of the adjustable punches for variation of the forming surface.
957
09.08.2010 14:40:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Punch Geometry on Strain/Stress State Induced in Workpiece by LocalisedIncremental Forging Operations
Ana Mara Camacho1), Carpforo Vallellano2), Francisco Javier Garca-Lomas2), Miguel ngel Sebastin1)
1)
Department of Manufacturing Engineering, National Distance University of Spain (UNED), Madrid / Spain, amcamacho@ind.uned.es;
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. University of Sevilla, Sevilla / Spain
2)
Localised-incremental forging processes are a new approach to bulk forming with the aim of using the main advantages of incremental
technology to result in technically feasible bulk forming processes, which are characterised by greater flexibility and better control of process parameters such as forging forces or local friction and the mechanical properties of the final parts as a result of tighter control of the
tool trajectory. The first step to better understand the behaviour of parts in localized-incremental forging processes is to characterise the
local state of strains and stresses generated in the workpiece. Process parameters such as tool tip geometry, tooling sequence and forging
depth are crucial in this regard and need to be studied in detail, so the use of numerical techniques has become mandatory. Thus, recent
work has been done to improve the capability of analysis in bulk forming processes. In the present paper, several elemental indentations
with the same penetration depth and two different tool geometries, a flat punch with rounded edges and a hemispherical punch, were simulated under frictionless conditions by the finite element method. The forces, contact pressures and residual stresses and strains induced in
the material were analysed in each elemental operation. On the other hand, two-step operations consisting of an initial hemispherical punch
followed by a flat punch were also studied. These two-step indentations tended to reproduce the typical sequence of roughing and finishing
operations. This sequence gave rise to a more homogeneous deformation in the workpiece compared with the elemental operations previously analysed. Finally, a comparison between these indentations is presented in detail, along with a discussion of which is more interesting
and suitable from different technological perspectives.
Keywords: Incremental forming, Forging, LIF, Residual stresses/strains, Forces, Contact pressures, FEM
Incremental technology is increasingly being applied to

sheet forming processes [1-3]. Localised-incremental
forging processes involve a new approach to bulk forming
processes with the aim of using the main advantages of
incremental technology [4,5] to result in technically feasible bulk forming processes, which are characterised by
greater flexibility and better control of process parameters,
such as forging forces or local friction and the mechanical
properties of the final parts as a result of a tighter control
of the tool trajectory [6,7]. The first step to better understand the behaviour of parts in localized-incremental forging processes is to characterise the local state of strains
and stresses generated in the workpiece. Process parameters such as tool tip geometry, tooling sequence and forging depth are crucial in this regard and need to be studied
in detail [8]. The main aim of the present work was to
analyse the effect of different punch geometries on the
stress/strain state of a workpiece after a single forging
operation and the possibility of improving this state by
defining a two-step operation that could be a combination
of elemental operations. The analysis was developed by
finite element simulation, which is a powerful method for
studying these types of processes [9]. Recent studies such
as that by Dejardin et al. [10] highlight the need to use
these types of simulation techniques and the importance of
developing robust 3D models.
Methodology of Analysis
The operation that was analysed consisted of a workpiece of rectangular cross sections that was formed by
applying a compressive force on the centre of its surface
by means of a punch. The dimensions of the workpiece
958
(260x140x10 mm) were chosen in such a way that the

results were not influenced by edge effects. Two different
tool geometries (a flat punch with rounded edges and a
hemispherical punch) were considered (Figure 1). The
diameter of the punch was 10 mm.
Figure 1. Punch geometries.
The material of the workpiece was the 2024-T3 aluminium alloy typically used in aeronautical structures. The
plastic behaviour is shown in Figure 2.
1,0
0,8
(GPa)
Introduction
0,6
0,4
0,2
0,0
0
0,5
1,5
pl
Figure 2. Plastic behaviour of material.
The penetration depth was set to 10% of the workpiece

height. Three different cases were studied. The first and
second cases analysed the stresses and strains induced in
the material as a consequence of the action of the flat and
hemispherical punches, respectively. The third case consteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:40:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
sisted of a sequence of two single operations: first, a hemispherical punching, and second, a flat punching. When the
two-step operation finished, the stresses and strains were
evaluated. Additionally, forces and contact pressures at the
punch-workpiece interface were obtained for further
analysis. For the sake of simplicity, frictionless operations
were assumed.
FEM Model
Analysis Code. A general purpose software, Abaqus
[11], was used to simulate the different cases. The analysis
module was Abaqus/Standard, which solves equation systems by means of an implicit methodology using the Newton-Raphson method.
Mesh. The punch was designed as a rigid part. This
means that all of the part was governed by a reference
node, the reference point, RP. In this node, either loads or
boundary conditions were applied and reactions were
registered. The type of element that was chosen to mesh
the punch was R3D4. This nomenclature denotes that it
was a rigid, three-dimensional and four-node element.
These elements did not provide information, but were
necessary in order to define the contact between surfaces.
Conversely, the workpiece was modelled as a deformable
body. In this case, the type of element was C3D8R, which
means that it was an eight-node linear brick containing
reduced integration with an hourglass control element. The
final mesh of the parts when considering an hemispherical
punch is presented in Figure 3. Only one quarter of the
workpiece was analysed due to the double symmetry of
the problem.
Figure 4. Two paths defined for output variables.
Two-Step Operation. As previously defined, the third

case to be analysed consisted of a two-step operation. In
order to implement this configuration into the FEM model,
several steps were defined. Figure 5 shows the model
initial mesh (a) followed by the sequence of the punch
displacement according to the model conditions (b, c, d, e
and f).
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
Figure 3. FEM model for hemispherical punch.
Output Variables. Three field output variables were requested. Contact pressures between the punch and the
workpiece, von Mises equivalent plastic stresses and
equivalent plastic strains whose expression is given by:
t
pl = pl + pl dt
(1)
2 pl pl
pl =
:
(2)
3
Two paths on the surface of the workpiece were defined
in order to obtain the different profiles of these variables
(Figure 4). Only one history output variable was asked
for: the reaction force in the y axis on the reference point.
Figure 5. Sequence of punch displacement for two-step operation

and equivalent plastic strain results.
Results
Residual Strains. Once the punch had formed the workpiece, it was released and then the residual strains induced
in the material were obtained. Figures 6 and 7 represent
the residual strains along paths x and z for the three cases
mentioned. As can be seen, the results were almost inde959
09.08.2010 14:40:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
pendent of the path direction, meaning that no edge effect

was present. The hemispherical punch provided a
smoothed profile; however, its forming capability was low
because the deformation volume was the smallest. Conversely, the flat punch gave the most inhomogeneous profile, showing a clear peak and a steep gradient in the residual strain around the punch edge. This strain state is
undesirable for localized-incremental forging processes,
where elemental operations will deform an entire workpiece, because it could result in further failure of the workpiece. For the two-step analysed operation, the results
seemed to be more homogeneous in the deformation zone.
(a)
(b)
Residual strains
0,8
hemispherical punch
0,7
flat punch
0,6
two-steps
0,5
0,4
0,3
0,2
0,1
0,005
0
0,015
0,01
True distance along path x (m)
Figure 6. Residual strains along path x.

hemispherical punch
two-steps
0,5
0,4
0,3
0,2
0,1
0
0
0,005
0,01
0,015
True distance along path z (m)
Figure 7. Residual strains along path z.
In Table 1, the maximum values of plastic equivalent

strains for both paths are tabulated. The results seemed to
indicate that the two paths provided similar values of the
variables analysed, so only path x was further considered.
Table 1. Maximum values of equivalent plastic strains for both
paths.
Operation
Max. eq. pl. strains
Max. eq. pl. strains
(path x)
(path z)
Hemispherical punch
0,514
0,511
Flat punch
0,599
0,592
Two steps
0,747
0,756
0,9
hemispherical punch
Residual stresses (GPa)
Residual strains
flat punch
0,6
Figure 8. Contour plots of equivalent plastic strain distributions; (a)

hemispherical punch (top-left), (b) flat punch (top-right) and (c)
two-step operation (bottom).
Residual Stresses. Residual stresses were obtained in

the same way as the residual strains. In this case, the results for path x appear in Figure 9.
0,8
0,7
(c)
0,8
0,7
flat punch
two-steps
0,6
0,5
0,4
0,3
0,2
0,1
0,005
0,01
0
0,015
Figure 9. Residual stresses along path x.
The stress profile for the hemispherical punch grew

from the edge to the centre. The flat punch induced an
inhomogeneous profile, with a peak of maximum stress
that matched the edge of the punch. On the other hand, the
profile obtained by the two-step operation kept a constant
value of the residual stresses with some small peaks along
the profile. Table 2 shows the maximum values of residual
stresses along path x for the three cases.
Table 2. Maximum values of von Mises equivalent stresses.
Figure 8 shows the contour plots of equivalent plastic

strain obtained in the three simulations.
960
Operation
Max. von Mises eq. stresses (path x)

(GPa)
Hemispherical punch
0,541
Flat punch
0,821
Two steps
0,631
09.08.2010 14:40:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 10 shows the contour plots of the von Mises
equivalent stresses obtained in the three simulations.
tions. As expected, the two-step operation and flat punching required a similar force value, whereas the hemispherical punching required a smaller force.
Table 3. Forces and maximum values of contact pressures.
Operation
Max. contact pressures
Forces
(GPa)
(kN)
Hemispherical punch
1,53
10,25
Flat punch
1,61
28,55
Two steps
1,78
28,95
Conclusions
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 10. Contour plots of the von Mises equivalent stress; (a)
hemispherical punch (top-left), (b) flat punch (top-right) and (c)
two-step operation (bottom).
Forces and Contact Pressures. As in previous sections,

the evolution along paths x and z was nearly identical. The
contact pressures along path x are depicted in Figure 11.
flat punch
two-steps
Contact pressure (GPa)
hemispherical punch
0,01
0,011
0,012
0,013
0,014
2
1,8
1,6
1,4
1,2
1
0,8
0,6
0,4
0,2
0
0,015
Figure 11. Contact pressures along path x.
As can be seen, the hemispherical punch gave a smooth

contact pressure profile, but this pressure was concentrated
only in the centre of the deformation zone. Conversely, the
contact pressure profile for the flat punch was focused at
the edges and reduced at the centre. However, the two-step
operation (only the flat punching is shown in the figures)
contact pressure showed an intermediate behaviour. The
contact pressure was similar to that obtained for a single
flat punching; however, the process gained homogeneity at
the edges. In Table 3, the maximum values of the contact
pressures and forces are listed for the three types of opera-
In localized-incremental forging processes, the

stress/strain state of a workpiece after a forging operation
can help decide the type of punch geometry to be used
between those analysed, or even the sequence of operations that leads to a more favourable state. In this work,
the residual strain/stress analysis showed that a two-step
operation provides more homogeneous distributions than
those obtained with a flat or hemispherical punch by
means of elemental operations. This could result in good
mechanical properties of the final parts, mainly close to
the surface, because the material is strain hardened after
cold forming and it is better to fabricate parts with a homogeneous stress/strain state. In further work, it would be
interesting to analyse the behaviour along different paths,
mostly in the depth direction, and to consider other process parameters such as friction.
Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to Spains Ministry

of Science and Innovation for funding this work via Project DPI2009-07300 and the Research Promotion Plan of
the UNED.
References
Technology, 191-1 (2007), 390-395.
[2] A. Attanasio, E. Ceretti, C. Giardini, L. Mazzoni: Journal of Materials
209 (2009), 11581174.
[4] P. Groche, D. Fritsche, E.-A. Tekkaya, J.-M. Allwood, G. Hirt, R.
Neugebauer: CIRP Annals-Manufacturing Technology, 56-2 (2007),
635-656.
[5] R. Kopp: Innovations in metal forming in the world, Proc. Int. Conf.
on Technology of Plasticity (ICTP 2008), Gyeongju, (2008), 5-21.
[6] M.-A. Sebastin, A.-M. Camacho: Proc. Int. Conf. on New Forming
Technology (2nd ICNFT), Bremen, (2007), 295-304.
[7] A.-M. Camacho, M.-A. Sebastin: Proc. Int. Conf. on Innovative
Production Machines and Systems (IPROMS 2007), Virtual Conference, (2008), 457-462.
[8] A.-M. Camacho, C. Vallellano, M.-A. Sebastin, J. Garca-Lomas:
Proc. XVII Congreso Nacional de Ingeniera Mecnica (CNIM08), Gijn, (2008), 279-285.
[9] G. Hirt, R. Kopp, O. Hofmann, M. Franzke, G. Barton: CIRP AnnalsManufacturing Technology, 56-1 (2007), 313-316.
[10] S. Dejardina, S. Thibaud, J.C. Gelin, G. Michel: Journal of Materials
[11] D. Hibbitt, B. Karlsson, P. Sorensen: ABAQUS v6.8 Users Manuals,
Providence, (2009).
961
09.08.2010 14:40:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
Rapid Laser Bending With Line-Shaped Beam Spot

Mohd Azri1), Shigekazu Tanaka1), Kunio Hayakawa1), Tamotsu Nakamura1), Yasushi Yamaya2), Asami Morino2), Hitoshi Omata2)
1)
Department of Engineering, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu / Japan, azri_ajiri@yahoo.com;
Isehara / Japan
2)
Research Laboratory, Amada Co. Ltd.,
A new laser bending process using a line-shaped beam spot has been introduced and successfully performed to speed the process. In
this study, a high power CO2 laser was used and the line-shaped beam spot was obtained through a cylindrical lens. Longitudinal and
transversal spot-scanning paths were tested. In the former path, the line-shaped spot covers the whole width of the specimen and moves
the length of it, while in the latter, the spot is parallel to the direction of the length and transverses it. The latter path produced a large bending angle, while the former path formed the sheet metal into gutter-shape with small bending angle. With optimum condition in the latter, the
stainless steel specimen with 1mm in thickness was bent more than 90 degrees with only 8 scans. Numerical simulation was used in order
to investigate the process transiency and the bending mechanism. The bending along the line spot length is produced preferentially, thus
the bending angle in the longitudinal scanning path is small. Moreover, in the longitudinal scanning path, the flapping of specimen occurs at
the beginning of the irradiation and lowers the bending efficiency. In the transversal scanning path, the specimen bends without flapping
and the final bending angle is determined just after the termination of the laser irradiation.
Keywords: Laser forming, Laser bending, Bending, Stainless steel, CO2 laser, Incremental sheet metal forming,
Introduction
Laser forming is a contact free, flexible process, which
is originated from the well established torch flame bending
used on large sheet material in the ship building industry.
In contrast with conventional press operations, this process
requires no mechanical contact and eliminates the need of
specific hard tooling. Therefore, the cost of the forming
process would be greatly reduced when small batch production or prototyping of large sheet metal parts is involved. Advancement in laser technology enables research
on the laser forming to be conducted which required a
high power energy source [1].
Numerous investigations of the laser forming process
have been carried out to understand the forming mechanisms, the influences of the process parameters on the
deformation, and the mechanical properties of the formed
parts. Vollersten et al. [2] discussed three laser-bending
mechanism, namely temperature gradient mechanism,
buckling mechanism, and upsetting mechanism. Resultant
plastic strains produced through the laser heating strongly
depend upon the geometry of the beam spot and the scanning path. In micro-scale bending, a line spot, which was
obtained by focusing the beam of a pulsed diode-pumped
Nd:YLF laser, was applied by Chen et al. [3]. However,
the bending angle was very small. Unconventional spot
geometries were also applied to bend tubes where lasers
can manipulate stress distribution to optimize the bending
process [4]. Rotating and dithering beams were used to
increase the bending angle whereby larger and more uniform depth of plastic zone across the heated region was
obtained [5].
In this paper, a new bending process using a high-power
line-shaped laser spot was introduced. The CO2 laser beam
with a top-hat beam profile was focused into a line-shaped
spot and irradiated stainless steel specimens with two
different scanning paths. The effectiveness of the scanning
paths and the deformation mechanisms have been investigated experimentally and numerically.
962
Laser Bending Using a Line-Shaped Beam Spot

Experimental Method. In this study, a 2 kW CO2 laser
cutting machine (Quattro, AMADA Co. Ltd.) was used
and the focusing lens was replaced with a cylindrical lens
with focal length of 127 mm. The specimen used was JIS
type 304 stainless steel, 1mm in thickness, 20 mm in width
and 120 mm in length. Each specimen was cut by wireEDM and painted black to enhance the absorption of the
laser beam.
(a) Longitudinal scanning path
(b) Transversal scanning path
Figure 1. Scanning paths for laser bending process using lineshaped beam spot.
The line-shaped laser spot is actually an ellipse with 24

mm in length and 0.37 mm in width. Figure 1 illustrates
two scanning paths used in the experiments. In the longitudinal scanning path, the line-shaped spot covers the
whole width of the specimen in the x-direction and moves
longitudinally. It was expected that the bend line could be
heated in a moment and shorten the forming time. On the
other hand, in the transversal scanning path, the spot was
oriented along the length of the specimen and transverses
09.08.2010 14:40:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
it. In the experiment, the specimen was clamped at one
end and set free at the other end. After every irradiation,
the specimen was cooled down by air blow. Table 1 shows
the experimental conditions involved in the experiment.
beam spot can result with larger bending angle and less
scanning repetition.
Power : P
Frequency : f
Duty ratio: e
Diameter of delivery beam : D0
Focus of cylindrical lens: fC
Scan velocity : vS
2000 W
800 Hz
100 %
24 mm
127 mm
0.0167 - 0.167 m/s
Experimental Result. Figure 2 is the specimen formed

with the transversal scanning path. The unclamped end of
the specimen bent up towards the direction of the incoming laser, but the resultant bending angle was small. It also
distorted into gutter-shape, in which transversal bending
occurred preferentially.
Figure 2. Laser bending using ine-shaped spot (longitudinal scanning path).
Figure 4. Bending angle with increasing number of scans.
Figure 5. Variation in bending angle with scan velocity.
Figure 5 shows the plot of the bending angle obtained

after a single scan versus the scan velocity. The scan velocity of 0.033-0.083 m/s creates the maximum bending
angle. With the scan velocity of 0.067 m/s, it takes only
0.3 s for the laser beam to cross the width of the specimen,
but the deformation did not complete until much later.
Figure 5 also shows the influence of the width of the lineshaped spot on the bending angle, whereby the increase of
the beam width reduced the bending angle due to decreasing intensity.
Numerical Simulation
Figure 3. Laser bending using ine-shaped spot (transversal scanning path).
Figure 3 shows the result obtained through the transversal scanning path. After the first scan, the specimen bent
more than 10. In order to produce the same bending angle
using a circular spot without surface melting, it was necessary to repeat the scanning for four times. Using the lineshaped spot, the specimen bent more than 90 with only 8
scans. Figure 4 shows the bending angle is in proportional
to the number of scans. The results for the conventional
process in which a circular beam spot transverses the
specimen are plotted as reference. Usage of line-shaped
Finite Element Model. The two processes using different scanning paths of a line-shaped spot were examined
using the commercial FEM software Marc 2005r3. A
three-dimensional transient thermo-mechanical analysis
was conducted. Figure 6 shows the mesh model used in
the simulation. Numerical simulations were conducted for
hexahedral solid elements with four layers across the
thickness. In order to capture the high temperature gradient near the scanning path, fine meshes were used in the
region, while coarse meshes were employed in the outer
regions. Displacements of all the nodes on the surface AB
were constrained. The exposed surfaces except for the
clamped surface AB are subjected to the air convection
with 10 W/m2K in heat transfer coefficient. Heat losses
due to radiation are not considered.
963
09.08.2010 14:40:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 2. Simulation conditions.
Power : P
Spot size: 2a2b
Scanning speed : vS
Heat transfer coefficient:
1000 W
1.0 mm 24 mm
0.050 m/s
10 W/m2K

Youngs modulus : E (6), (7)
Poisson ratio: (6), (7)
Thermal expansion : (8)
Heat conductivity :(9), (10)
Specific heat : c (11), (12)
Yield stress : y (13)
103 193 GPa

0.29 - 0.362
13.6 - 18.9 K-1
8.36 13.8 kW/ms
0.50 - 0.64 kJ/kgK
76 - 270
MPa
Figure 6. Mesh model.
The intensity distribution for CO2 laser is not Gaussian

function, but close to top-hat distribution. The distribution
is successfully approximated by the following expression
I E (x, y) =
w2 w w
I R x,
y
ab a
b
(1)
where w is the radius of a reference circular spot, a is the

half of the length and b is the width of a line-shaped spot.
Reference the spot intensity, IR is given by,
I
0
2 x2 + y2 c 2
I R (x, y) =
I
exp
0
2
(
w c)
( x + y c)
( x + y >c )
2
(2)
The solid line in Figure 7 is the intensity distribution obtained by laser beam profiler. The diameter of the laser
beam is defined as the diameter at which the intensity
equals 1/e I0. The laser operation is assumed to be in
CW mode.
Table 2 shows the simulation conditions while Table 3
shows the material properties. Temperature dependency of
the properties is considered, including thermal
conductivity, specific heat, Youngs modulus, Poisson
ratio, and flow stress. [6-13].
Figure 8. Deformation and temperature (longitudinal scanning path).
Figure 7. Top-hat-shaped beam profile of focused CO2 laser.

Figure 9. Deformation and temperature (transversal scanning path).
964
09.08.2010 14:40:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
Numerical Results. Figures 8 and 9 show the deformed
geometries with the temperature contours for both scanning paths. Deformation was magnified for clearer viewing. In the longitudinal scanning path, when the laser spot
starts to heat the specimen, it bends away from the laser
source due to thermal expansion of the top surface. The
specimen then bends towards the direction of the incoming
laser like a wing flap. The total bending angle decreases
because of the redundant work.
In the other hand, using the transversal scanning path, it
does not flap and the total input of the energy could be
used efficiently to obtain a large bending angle. Figure 10
shows the transient bending angle during each process.
The bending angle in the transversal path decreases slowly
until 0.05 s with convex bending, and then it increases
rapidly until the termination of the laser irradiation. The
angle, however, decreases gradually during the cooling
period. Meanwhile, the increase of the bending angle in
the transversal path is monotonous and stopped just after
the termination of the irradiation, so that it is precisely
controllable.
To examine the mechanism, the residual plastic strain
distributions through the thickness at the centre of the
irradiated region (point O) are shown in Figure 11. The
absolute value of the plastic strain xp in the longitudinal
path and yp in the transversal path are large and almost
the same. While yp in the longitudinal path and xp in the
transversal path are small and also shows similar distribution. The line spot heating produces large compressive
plastic strain along the length of the spot. When the plastic
strain at the irradiated surface is smaller than that at the
rear surface, the specimen bends towards the direction of
the incoming laser. The large absolute gradient gives a
large bending angle. In the longitudinal path, the absolute
gradient of xp is larger than that of yp , and the unexpected transversal bending is produced preferentially.
Therefore, the rigidity of the transversal curved geometry
constrains the longitudinal bending. While in the transversal path, the absolute gradient of yp is larger than that of
xp , it produces large longitudinal bending preferentially.
Conclusions
Laser bending method using a line-shaped beam spot has
been developed to speed the forming process. In this work,
a CO2 laser beam was focused into a line-shaped spot, irradiating the surface of a stainless steel specimen. Two scanning paths, the longitudinal and the transversal spotscanning paths, were examined experimentally and simulated with three dimensional finite element analyses to
investigate the bending mechanism. The experiments and
the simulations lead to the following conclusions:
1. In the longitudinal spot-scanning path, the specimen was
formed into gutter-shape with small bending angle. While
the bending angle in the transversal spot-scanning path after
the first scan is several times more than that of the conventional method with a circular spot. The process enables
rapid bending for sheet metal and the bending angle is proportional to the number of scans.
2. At the early stage in the longitudinal scanning path, the

specimen bends downward due to the thermal expansion of
the top surface and the bending efficiency is lowered due to
the flapping. Moreover the rigidity of the transversal curved
geometry, which occurs preferentially along the length of
the spot, constrains the longitudinal bending. In the transversal scanning path, the bending angle increases monotonously without flapping and the final angle is determined
just after the termination of the laser irradiation.
Figure 10. Transient bending angle.
Figure 11. Plastic strain distributions through thickness at centre

of irradiated region (point O).
References
[1] Y. Namba: Proc. International Conference on Lasers, C. P. Wang et.
Al. eds., STS Press, Las Vegas, (1986), 403-407.
[2] K. Geiger, F. Vollertsen: Ann. CIRP, 42 (1993), 301-304.
[3] G. Chen, X. Xu, C. C. Poon, A. C. Tam: ASME J. Manuf. Sci. Eng.,
66 (1999), 772-779.
[4] S. Safdar, L. Li, M.A. Sheikh, Z. Liu: ASME J. Manuf. Sci. Eng., 129
(2007), 592-600.
[5] M. Sistaninia, M. Sistaninia, H. Moeanodini: Computational Material
Science, 45 (2009), 480-488.
[6] S.S. Lee, U-S. Min, B. Ahn, S.H. Yoo: J. Materials Science, 33 (1998),
687.
[7] H.M. Ledbetter: J. Applied Physics, 52-3 (1981).
[8] N. Yamada, M. Okaji, Y. Miki, Proc. 4th Asian Thermophysical
Properties Conf., Tokyo, (1995), 441.
[9] L. Filoni, G. Rocchini, High Temperatures-High Pressures, 19 (1987),
381.
[10] R.P. Tye, R.W. Hayden, S.C. Spinney, High Temperatures-High
Pressures, 4 (1972), 203.
[11] NIST Cryogenic Technologies Group, Bolder Co; W. Poessnecker, U.
Gross, High Temperatures-High Pressures, 34 (2002), 1.
[12] R. Venturi, and R.D. Seibel, DRI Rept. 1023 (1959), 1-31.
[13] J.B. Conway, R.H. Stentz and J.T. Berling, Fatigue, Tensile and
Relaxation Behavior of Stainless Steels, Technical Information Center,
USAEC (1975), 213.
965
09.08.2010 14:40:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
Thin-Sheet-Metal Bending by Laser Peen Forming with Femtosecond Laser

Yoshihiro Sagisaka
Industrial Research Institute of Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka / Japan, sagisaka@iri.pref.shizuoka.jp
A femtosecond laser is a type of ultra-short pulse laser. The focused femtosecond laser pulse can induce a shock wave at a target surface.
Under some irradiation conditions, the shock wave is powerful enough to deform a metal target plastically. Laser peen forming is a sheet
metal forming process using this deformation. The author adopted this process to bend thin-sheet-metals. Some pieces of phosphor bronze
and stainless steel sheet were bent in various shapes, which are difficult to achieve with conventional press forming. Simple changing of
processing parameters allowed to form these various shapes. It indicated that this process was suitable for multikind small lot production.
The forming properties of a pure aluminium sheet were investigated. Some irradiation conditions; as fluence (density of pulse energy),
atmosphere and workpiece constraint condition; were changed. Bending efficiency could be increased by applying pre-bending during the
process. In case of irradiation in air, bending angles increased with fluence. When the laser spot was large, bending angles obtained by
irradiation in water were larger than those in air. When the beam was focused in water, bending angles decreased rapidly.
Keywords: Bending, Thin-sheet-metal, Laser peen forming, Femtosecond laser, Laser induced shock wave, Forming property
Introduction
It has been known that a focused short-pulse laser can
induce shock waves at a target surface [1]. Under some
irradiation conditions, these shock waves are powerful
enough to deform a metal target plastically. Laser peen
forming is a sheet metal forming method using this deformation [2]. Laser peen forming using a neodymium-doped
glass laser has already been used as a forming method of
aircraft skin panels [3]. The mechanism of this process is
based on a mechanical effect, contrary to a laser forming
process, which uses thermal stresses [4].
A femtosecond laser is a type of ultrashort-pulse laser.
Its pulse has very short pulse duration of femtosecond
order (1fs=10-15s) and high peak power of gigawatt order.
This laser can be used for laser peen forming. It has been
known that femtosecond laser generates very little heataffected zone on a target [5]. This property is favourable
for the forming of small parts. The author adopted laser
peen forming with femtosecond laser as a thin-sheet-metal
bending method [6].
This process is a kind of incremental forming, which is
influenced little by springback. It was supposed that this
process is favourable for multikind small lot production
and bending of materials for springs. In order to confirm
these advantages, the author tried to bend thin-sheetmetals used for springs in various shapes.
There are few reports about forming properties of laser
peen forming. In this study, some experiments were conducted in order to clarify the forming properties of a pure
aluminium sheet. The relationships between bending angles and irradiation conditions; as pulse energy, defocus
distance, atmosphere and workpiece constraint condition;
were investigated.
transferred to the target. The irradiated surface is subjected

to a high-pressure and a shock wave propagates into the
target. When the target is irradiated in liquid, the shock
wave becomes larger, because the large inertial force of
liquid confines plasma expansion strongly [7].
The irradiated surface is pressed to the thickness direction by the pressure and elongated to the lateral direction,
as shown in Figure 1. When the target is a sheet metal, it
is curved by this deformation, as irradiated surface is convex. Laser peen forming is achieved by scanning over
whole surface and accumulating these deformations. The
deformation generated by a pulse is very small, thus, this
process needs a lot of pulses and a long processing time.
Usually, a nanosecond laser, which has pulse duration of
nanosecond order, is used for laser peen forming. It needs
some coating on the target surface, in order to increase the
generation of plasma and protect the target from thermal
effects [8]. And a water film is sometimes applied on the
target surface in order to enlarge the shock waves [3].
A femtosecond laser can induce shock waves with lower
fluence (pulse energy per unit area) and with much smaller
thermal effects. Therefore, coating and water film are not
always necessary [6]. The pulse energy of femtosecond
laser is much lower than of nanosecond laser. The laser
spot diameter must be much smaller in order to induce
shock waves. It means that laser peen forming with femtosecond laser is unfavourable for the forming of large parts,
which have large scanning area. For small parts the use of
a femtosecond laser has to be preferred.
Principle of Process
When high intensity short-pulse laser is focused at a target surface, the irradiated top surface is ionized and removed instantaneously, and a high-pressure plasma is
generated. This phenomenon is called laser ablation. Although the plasma expands rapidly, the inertial force of
atmosphere confines the plasma expansion. An impulse is
966
(a) Irradiation
(b) Deformation
Figure 1. Principle of laser peen forming.
09.08.2010 14:40:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experiments
Equipment Used for Experiments. The femtosecond
laser used in this study was Ti:sapphire laser amplified by
chirped pulse amplification. The wavelength was about
800nm; the pulse duration was about 80fs. The pulse frequency was variable from 1Hz to 1kHz. The summary of
equipment is shown in Figure 2. The pulse energy E was
controlled by a neutral density filter (ND filter). E was
200J in maximum. The laser beam was focused by a
35mm focal lens. A workpiece was mounted on a 3-axis
motorized stage. The surface of the workpiece was monitored by a CCD camera provided with a long-distance
microscopic lens. Using the monitored image, the workpiece was moved to the designated position. The irradiations were performed in air as well as in water, in order to
investigate the effects of atmosphere. In case of irradiation
in water, the workpieces were sunk in a water pool made
of a transparent container.
Materials Used for Experiments. Austenitic stainless
steel (SUS304 in JIS, S30400 in ASTM), phosphor bronze
(C5191P in JIS) and pure aluminium (A1100 in JIS, 1100
in ASTM) were adopted as workpieces. Thickness t and
Vickers hardness of each material are shown in Table 1.
Stainless steel and phosphor bronze are typical materials
used for springs. Pure aluminium was selected in order to
investigate forming properties, because it had a better
reproducibility than other materials. The materials were
sheared into stripes of 5mm30mm.
Experimental Set-Up. The outline of the experimental
procedure is shown in Figure 3. A workpiece was
mounted on a 3-axis motorized stage with clamps. Two
different workpiece constraint conditions were adopted, in
order to investigate the influence of constraint conditions
on bending angles. In one condition, the workpiece was
clamped one end only (Figure 3(a)). This constraint condition was called without pre-bending. In the other condition, the workpiece was clamped on both ends and bent to
a pre-bending angle of o=10deg (Figure 3(b)). This constraint condition was called pre-bending.
The clamped workpiece was scanned over the hatched
area of circle A. Laser scanning was performed by moving the workpiece. Scanning speed was 5mm/s. Figure 4
shows the scanning path. The lateral scanning pitch p1 was
decided by used pulse frequency. The longitudinal scan-
to the direction of the laser beam. The focal point was

defined as original point of defocus distance z. When the
workpiece was shifted toward the beam source, z was
defined positive, as shown in Figure 5. When the workpiece is not moved axial to the beam direction during the
scanning, the curvature of pre-bending causes undesirable
defocusing. Thus, in case of pre-bending, the workpiece
was moved axial to the beam direction, and d was kept
constant during the scanning. After the scanning, the
workpiece was released from the clamps and a bending
angle was measured.
Applications to Materials for Springs. Several pieces
of stainless steel and phosphor bronze were bent in various
shapes. They were irradiated in air under the constraint
condition without pre-bending. The used pulse frequency was 1kHz. Scanning pitch p2 and defocus distance
z were changed according to the desired bent shape.
Simple bent shapes are shown in Figure 6. They are difficult to achieve with conventional press forming because
of large springback. These shapes indicate that the influence of springback is negligible in this process; therefore,
this process is suitable for bending of materials with extensive springback behaviour.
Table 1. Materials used for experiments.
Material
Thickness t
Vickers hardness
Stainless steel (SUS304 in JIS)
0.05mm
440
Phospor bronze (C5191P in JIS)
0.05mm
236
Pure aluminium (A1100 in JIS)
0.1mm
50
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of workpiece set-up.
Figure 4. Scanning path.
Figure 5. Detail of defocusing.
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of experimental equipment.
ning pitch p2 was changed by scanning program. A spot

diameter d was controlled by shifting the workpiece axial
967
09.08.2010 14:40:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Spot diameter d /m
250
(a) U-bending (Phosphor bronze) (b) Curl shape (Stainless steel)

Figure 6. Examples of simple bent shape.
E =150Jf =35mm
200
in air
in water
150
100
50
0
-0.6
(a) Wave shape (Stainless steel) (b) S-bending (Phosphor bronze)
-0.4
-0.2
0.2
0.4
14
Forming Properties of Aluminium. It has already been

confirmed that the bending angle increases as the number of irradiated pulses increases [6]. In this paper, the
influences of the irradiation conditions on bending angles
were investigated. Pulse energy E, defocus distance z,
atmosphere around the workpiece and workpiece constraint conditions were changed. The workpieces were
irradiated in air and in water. The used pulse frequency
was 500Hz. Longitudinal scanning pitch p2 was 0.1mm
constantly. The length of scanning area w was 4mm.
At first, the change of spot diameter d with z was investigated. The d was defined by a diameter of ablation mark
left on the irradiated surface. The relationships between z
and d in air and in water are shown in Figure 8.
The minimum d appeared at the point just a little before
the focal point (z=0.1mm) in air. A focused femtosecond
laser pulse can ablate even transparent atmosphere, because of its high peak power. The plasma appears around
focal point even if there is no target. It has been known
that the generation of plasma changes the refractive index
of air in plasma. The beam was diverged before arriving at
the focal point. And the diverged beam made the spot
larger at the focal point.
The value of d was not obtained at the position behind
the focal point (z<0) in water, because clear ablation marks
were not observed. Effective ablation did not occur at
these positions.
The effects of different atmosphere conditions on were
investigated. The relationships between z and in air and
in water without pre-bending are shown in Figure 9.
968
Bending angle(ave) /deg
10
8
in air : E
:200J
:50J
6
4
in water : E
:200J
:50J
2
0
-0.5
0.5
1.5
Defocus distance z /mm
Figure 9. Relationships between defocus distance and bending

angles without pre-bending.
14
A1100
with pre-bending
f =35mm
500Hz
o =10deg
12
Bending angle(ave)
/deg
More complicated bent shapes are shown in Figure 7.

The samples were irradiated at both sides. It was possible
to bend workpieces in various curvatures, as shown in
Figure 7(d). These various shapes were achieved by simple changing of the irradiation conditions and the scanning
paths, without using special dies. And these shapes need
long processing time to form. These facts indicate that this
process is suitable for multikind small lot production.
0.8
A1100
without pre-bending
f =35mm
500Hz
12
(c) Hat bending(Phosphor bronze) (d)S-bending(Phosphor bronze)

Figure 7. Examples of complicated bent shape.
0.6
Defocus distancez /mm

Figure 8. Relationship between spot diameter and defocus distance.
10
8
in air: E
:200J
:50J
6
4
2
0
-0.5
0.5
1.5
in water : E
:200J
:50J
Defocus distance z /mm
Figure 10. Relationships between defocus distance and bending

angles with pre-bending.
Those with pre-bending are shown in Figure 10. The increase of E led to an increase of . In case of irradiation in
air, the maximum was obtained around the z, at which
the minimum spot diameter was observed. (cp. Figure 8)
In case of irradiation in water, maximum were obtained at larger z; before the focal point. decreased rapidly around the focal point, and deformation was not obtained at the point behind the focal point (z<0).
In order to investigate the reason of these changes of ,
the plasma, which appeared around the focal point, was
observed from the side. The plasmas observed in air and in
water are shown in Table 2. The beam travelled from left
to right. The plate was shifted to the direction behind the
09.08.2010 14:40:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 2. Appearance of plasma in air and in water.
14
In water
E=1J
In air
E=50J
Upper view
12
A1100
in air
f =35mm
500Hz
10
8
6
4
pre-bending :
without pre-bending :
2
0
0.1
-2
FluenceF /Jcm
10
100
image, and did not cut off the laser beam. The left face of
the plate was located at the focal point.
The plasma grew toward the beam source with the increase of pulse energy E. Particularly; it grew excessively
in water. It was supposed that the beam consumed most
energy to ablate the water before arriving at the focal point.
This is the reason why clear ablation marks were not obtained at the position behind the focal point. The beam did
not have enough energy to induce a shock wave at the
focal point and thus decreased.
The relationships between fluence F and in air are
shown in Figure 11. Those in water are shown in Figure
12. F was defined by the value of E divided by spot area.
The spot area was obtained by d in Figure 8. The energy
consumption in water was difficult to measure, thus, it was
not considered in Figure 12. Actual F was much lower in
water.
It was obvious that the with pre-bending condition
were larger than those without pre-bending. This was
because the elongation of irradiated surface was encouraged by elastic tensile stress generated by pre-bending.
Applying a pre-bending is an effective method for improving the bending efficiency.
In case of irradiation in air, increased almost in proportion to the logarithm of F. These results indicated that
higher F was favourable to increase the bending efficiency
in air. In case of irradiation in water, when F was lower
than 1J/cm2, increased almost in proportion to the logarithm of F, also. However, when F was made higher by
excessive focusing, started to decrease because of energy
consumption in water.
When F was low, obtained in water were larger than
those in air. However, when F was high, obtained in
water became smaller than those in air. In case of nanosecond laser, it has been confirmed that a water film encourages deformation [3]. However, in case of femtosecond laser, the water did not always encourage deformation.
14
E=150J
Figure 11. Relationships between fluence and bending angles in

air.
pre-bending : E
:200J:50J
A1100
in water
f =35mm
500Hz
12
10
8
without pre-bending : E
:200J:50J
6
4
2
0
0.1
-2
10
100
Fluence F /Jcm
Figure 12. Relationships between fluence and bending angles in

water.
Conclusions
Several pieces of thin-sheet-metal were bent into various shapes by laser peen forming with femtosecond laser.
Several forming properties were investigated. Obtained
conclusions were as follows;
1. This process is suitable for the bending of materials for
springs and multikind small lot production.
2. The bending efficiency could be improved by applying
pre-bending during the process.
3. The bending angle usually increases with the fluence.
The investigation showed that, when workpieces were
irradiated in water, excessively focused beam decreased
the bending angles.
References
[1] L. Berthe, R.Fabbro, P. Peyre, L. Tollier, E. Bartnicki: Journal of
Applied Physics, 82-6(1997), 2826-2832.
[2] Y. Wang, Y. Fan, J.W. Kysar, S. Vukelic, Y.L. Yao: Journal of Applied
Physics, 103(2008), 063525.
[3] Science and Technology Review, Oct. (2003), Lawrence Livemore
National Laboratory, 16-17.
[4] Y. Namba: Proc. Int. Conf. Laser 85 Las Vegas,(1986), 403-407.
[5] Y. Hirayama, M. Obara: Journal of Applied Physics, 97(2005),
064903.
[6] Y. Sagisaka: Proc. 9th Int. Conf. on Technology of Plasticity, (2008),
1878-1883.
[7] J. A. Fox: Applied Physics Letter, 24-10(1974), 461-464.
[8] K. Edwards, S. P. Edwardson, C. Carey, C. J. Williams, G. Dearden,
K. G. Watkins: Proc. ICALEO 2007(2007), 156-165.
969
09.08.2010 14:40:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
Dimple Formation on Stainless Steel by Indirect Laser Peening

Hiroshi Kawakami1), Hiroki Inoue2), Muneharu Kutsuna2), Kiyotaka Saito3), Yasuaki Sonoda1), Hitoshi Ozaki1),
Jippei Suzuki1)
1)
Division of Mechanical Engineering, Mie University, Tsu / Japan, kawakami@mach.mie-u.ac.jp;
Center Co.,Ltd., Anjo / Japan; 3) Saito Kogyo Co.,Ltd., Chita county / Japan
2)
Advanced Laser Technology Research
Indirect laser peening is a new approach for surface reforming and characterized by usage of the thin metal sheet onto the substrate surface. The thin metal sheet is used to protect the peened surface from a direct mischief by laser peening and obtain the surface with the new
function by reduction of frictional resistance or adhesion of the functional powders and particles on material. Formation of the dimple
equivalent to conventional laser peening was confirmed by 3D laser microscope observation. The original surface of the substrate without
heat influence was kept by the thin sheet after indirect laser peening. The depth of the dimple increased with increase of laser pulse energy
and the number of shots in the suitable peening condition range. However, the thin sheet fractured at the excessive peening condition.
Keywords: Indirect laser peening, Q-switch YAG laser, Shock wave, Dimple forming, Stainless steel
Introduction
Indirect laser peening is a new laser peening technique
contrived by the co-authors, Kutsuna and Saito [1]. Propagation of the shock wave in opaque material by laser irradiation has been investigated to enlarge the field of laser
application [2-4]. Laser shock processing can be applied to
improvement of fatigue and wear resistance and hardening
of metal [5]. Focused laser beam irradiation on the opaque
material surface through transparent material produces
vaporization and plasma. Expansion of plasma is suppressed by the surrounding transparent material, for example, glass or water. Suppression of expansion of plasma
generates high pressure and the shock wave to opaque
material. The peak of pressure curve at laser shock processing amounts several GPa [2-4,6,7]. Laser peening or
laser shock peening can obtain the higher pressure on the
surface of metal and control its position precisely as compared with shot peening. Compressive residual stress in
the surface layer of metal results from laser peening. It
improves fatigue strength and obtains resistance for stress
corrosion cracking [8-10]. Laser ablation generates not
only plasma which is the basic phenomena of laser peening also heat influence to laser peened material. Protective
coating layer of aluminum was proposed to prevent the
unnecessary damage of bare steel surface occurred by
laser ablation [9]. Indirect laser peening uses the thin
metal sheet on behalf of the coating layer. The basic advantage of indirect laser peening is improvement of fatigue strength by induced compressive residual stress as
well as conventional laser peening. The additional thin
metal sheet enlarges the application region of indirect laser
peening. Less-heated micro the dimple formed in the surface of aluminum alloy piston for the motorcycle reduces
the friction loss and will contribute the save of fuel consumption of the internal-combustion engine. Moreover,
use of the thin metal sheet with some functional powders
and particles achieves adhesion of them on metal surface
[1]. So, indirect laser peening will obtain not only mechanical refinement also addition of chemical function in
the metal surface. Combination of the thin metal sheet and
the metal substrate is important item on high functionalization by indirect laser peening. Stainless steel has a good
corrosion resistance and has been used as material of the
970
chemical reactor. Because it has high hardness and

strength, selection level of the metal sheet for indirect
laser peening is more severe than the Al alloy substrate.
Ability for several combinations of the thin sheet and the
thick stainless steel substrate was investigated systematically from the viewpoint of a single dimple formation in
this study.
Indirect Laser Peening
Figure 1 shows the schematic diagram of indirect laser
peening. The thin sheet and the substrate were set in a
water bath. Laser irradiation on the thin metal sheet produces plasma by laser ablation. Suppression of expansion
of plasma generates high pressure and the shock wave in
the sheet and the substrate. The maximum pressure during
laser peening in a water bath is estimated about 2 GPa [6].
The thin sheet is exposed at high temperature from plasma
to protect the substrate. It absorbs a part of the shock wave
and deforms with the substrate. If the powders or the particles are set at the space between the sheet and the substrate,
it will be adhered to the substrate during indirect laser
peening.
Figure 1. Shematic diagram of basic indirect laser peening.
JIS SUS304 (AISI 304) stainless steel plate (t=1, 0.6 and
0.3 mm) was used for the substrate as shown in Figure1.
SUS 304 (t=10, 20 and 40 m) and pure Cu (t=50 m) foil
09.08.2010 14:40:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
also used for the sheet as shown in Figure 1. The sheet was
adhered to the substrate by vacuum grease.
The laser peening apparatus consists of a Q-switch YAG
laser (=532 nm), a X-Y stage, a condense lens and a
water bath with a circulating pump [1]. The peening condition related with the laser pulse is shown in Table 1. Indirect laser peening was carried out for a space of 4mm.
The shape of the dimple formed in the sheet and the
substrate was measured by a 3D laser microscope. Each
measurement data of the dimple was smoothed to reduce
the noise by moving average with 16 points.
Figure 3 shows the image and the shape of the dimple

formed at the high direct laser peening condition. The
radiate pattern and the dark oxidation region were observed at the outline of the dimple as shown in Figure 3(a).
The depth and the diameter of the dimple were increased
by high laser input energy. The moderate change of shape
was confirmed clearly at the radiate pattern region as
shown in Figure 3(b). These results show that the appearance of the dimple by direct laser peening without protective coating was influenced significantly by the peening
condition.
Table 1. Indirect laser peening condition.
Pulse energy (mJ)

Spot diameter (m)
Number of shots
25, 50, 100, 200, 300

470
1 to 5
Direct Laser Peening without Protective Coating

Modern laser peening is applied with protective coating.
However, direct laser peening without protective coating
was executed in order to evaluate the role of the sheet in
indirect laser peening. Figure 2 shows the image and the
shape of the dimple formed at the low direct laser peening
condition. Most part of the dimple surface was heated by
plasma. The dark ring formed by oxidization was observed
at the outline of the dimple as shown in Figure 2(a). The
projection formed by plastic deformation occurred at the
dark ring region as shown in Figure 2(b).
Figure 3. Example of laser microscope image and shape of dimple

at high direct laser peening condition.
Indirect Laser Peening

at low direct laser peening condition.
Two typical shapes of the sheet after indirect laser peening are shown in Figure 4. Both laser microscope images
resemble each other in appearance as shown in Figure 4(a)
and (b). Their patterns in the laser irradiation region resemble the pattern observed on the substrate of direct laser
peening as shown in Figures 2 and 3, because laser ablation acted on the sheet surface during indirect laser peening. However, each cross sectional shape revealed a difference of both types. The dimple was introduced in the
sheet by indirect laser peening generally as the lower
curve in Figure 4(c). When the reaction by impact force
occurred strongly, the projection was introduced in the
sheet as the upper curve in this figure. However, the dimple was formed in the substrate at both laser peening conditions properly. These experimental results show that the
cross sectional shape of the sheet at room temperature
does not correspond with behaviour for the dimple formation by indirect laser peening precisely.
971
09.08.2010 14:40:31 Uhr
Metal Forming

formed in sheet by indirect laser peening; sheet: t=20m SUS304,
substrate: t=1.0mm SUS304.
Figure 5 shows the result of laser microscope observation for the dimple in the substrate by indirect laser peening. The appearance of the indirect laser peening area in
the substrate is shown the original surface with no damage
by heat influence in Figure 5(a), because the sheet protected the substrate from laser ablation. This phenomenon
is one of advantage of indirect laser peening. 3D map
revealed the dimple formation in the substrate clearly at
this laser peening condition as shown in Figure 5(b). The
upper and the lower curves in Figure 5(c) show the cross
sectional shapes of the sheet surface and the substrate,
respectively. The depth of the dimple of the sheet is larger
than the substrate. This figure shows that the depth of the
dimple formed in the substrate is about 10m at this peening condition and is near to the dent in the weld toe of
SM490 by conventional laser peening [11]. In this case,
the shape of the substrate corresponds with the sheet and
the geometric property of the dimple in the substrate resembles the sheet. Difference of the geometric property
must be considered difference of the mechanical properties
of the sheet and the substrate under the scale of m order.
972
Figure 5. Example of laser microscope image and 3D map of

dimple formed in substrate by indirect laser peening and shape of
dimple of sheet and substrate; sheet: t=40m SUS304, substrate:
t=1.0mm SUS304, 100mJ 2shots.
The relationship between the depth of the dimple formed

in the substrate and some metal sheets by pulse energy of
50mJ is shown in Figure 6. The depth of the dimple increased with increment of the shot number of indirect laser
peening and decrement of the thickness of the sheet. However, the snag sometimes occurred in the laser peened area
of the thin sheet with increment of the shot number. In
case of the stainless sheet with the thickness of 10 and 20
m, the disappearance of plot in this figure shows the
occurrence of fracture of the sheet at large shot numbers.
When the sheet is fractured slightly, it cannot protect the
substrate completely from heat influence by laser ablation.
Hardness and melting point of Cu are smaller than
SUS304 stainless steel, but the depth of the dimple by
indirect laser peening with Cu sheet could increased in
proportion to the shot number as same as the SUS304
stainless steel sheet.
Effect of increment of the shot number on the dimple
formation for each substrate thickness was confirmed also
in the wide range of laser pulse energy as shown in Figures 7, 8 and 9. In case of the substrate thickness of 0.3
09.08.2010 14:40:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
mm, the maximum depth of the dimple becomes over 20
m, because this substrate is more deformable than other
substrates. The depth of the dimple increased in proportion
to the shot number. However, the depth value is saturated
around pulse energy of 100 mJ in all shot numbers as
shown in Figure 7.
Figure 9. Effect of peening condition on depth of dimple formed in

substrarte by indirect laser peening; substrate t=1.0mm SUS304,
sheet: t=20m SUS304.
Figure 6. Effect of each sheet on depth of dimple formed in

substrarte by indirect laser peening.
In case of the substrate thickness of 0.6 mm, the suitable

dimple formation condition locates also around 100 mJ.
The maximum depth value decreases below 20 m with
increment of the substrate thickness as shown in Figure 8.
In case of 1.0mm, fracture of the sheet induced at 5 shots
condition with pulse energy of 50 and 200 mJ. Unstable
indirect laser peening condition range may enlarge at large
shots condition for the thick substrate as shown in Figure 9.
Conclusions
Indirect laser peening forms the dimple in the stainless
steel substrate without heat influence. The maximum depth
of the dimple shows around 20m at each peening condition in this study. However, fracture of the metal sheet is
promoted by decrease of the sheet thickness and increase
of the shot number.
Acknowledgement
This study is supported as a regional creation innovation
project of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

substrarte by indirect laser peening; substrate t=0.3 mm SUS304,
sheet: t=20 m SUS304.

substrarte by indirect laser peening; substrate t=0.6mm SUS304,
sheet: t=20 m SUS304.
References
[1] M. Kutsuna, H. Inoue, K. Saito, K. Amano: Proc. IIW International
Conference on Advances in Welding and Allied Technologies, (2009),
89-94.
[2] N.C. Anderholm: Applied Physics Letters, 16-3 (1970), 113-115.
[3] B.P. Fairand, A.H. Clauer: Journal of Applied Phisycs, 50-3 (1979),
1497-1502.
[4] R. Fabbro, J. Fournier, P. Ballard, D. Devaux, J. Virmont: Jornal of
Applied Physics, 68-2 (1990), 775-784.
[5] P. Peyre, R. Fabbro: Optical and Quantum Electronics, 27 (1995),
1213-1229.
[6] Y. Sano, N. Mukai, K. Ozaki, M. Obata: Nuclear Instruments and
Method in Physics Reserach B, 121 (1997), 432-436.
[7] P. Peyre, L. Berthe, X. Scherpereel, R. Fabrro, E. Bartnicki: Jornal of
Applied Physics, 84-11 (1998), 5985-5992.
[8] G. Banas, H.E. Elsayed-Ali, F.V. Lawrence Jr., J.M. Rigsbee: Jornal
of Applied Physics, 67-5 (1990), 2380-2384.
[9] P. Peyre, L. Berthe, X. Scherpereel, R. Fabrro: Jounal of Materials
Science 33(1998), 1421-1429.
[10] Y. Sano, M. Obata, T. Kubo, N. Mukai, M. Yoda, K. Masaki, Y.
Ochi: Materials Science and Engineering A, 417 (2006), 334-340.
[11] Y. Sakino. Y. Sano, Y-C. Kim: Document of International Institute of
Welding, XV-1316-09 (2009), 1-8.
973
09.08.2010 14:40:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analysis of Single-Pass Conventional Spinning by Taguchi and Finite Element Methods

Lin Wang1), Hui Long1), Dave Ashley2), Martyn Roberts2), Peter White2)
1)
School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Durham University, Durham / UK, hui.long@durham.ac.uk; 2) Metal Spinners Group Ltd,
Newcastle upon Tyne / UK
Metal spinning has seen significant development in recent years and spun products have been widely used in various industries. However
the process setup for new spun parts still relies on experienced spinners who use trial-and-error methods. In this study, the effects of three
process parameters on variations of dimensions of the spun parts during a single-pass conventional spinning experiment have been analysed using the Taguchi method. Corresponding finite element analysis models have been developed using commercial software ABAQUS.
Some correlations have been found between the experimental and the simulation results. Based on the finite element models, stresses and
strains of the workpiece during the spinning process have been analysed.
Keywords: Single-pass conventional spinning, Taguchi method, Experimental investigation, Finite element method.
Introduction
Sheet metal spinning is commonly known as a process
to transform a flat sheet metal blank into a hollow shape
by a roller which forces the blank onto a mandrel [1]. An
illustration of the spinning process is shown in Figure 1
[2]. The blank is clamped against the mandrel by a backplate and the mandrel bears the final profile of the desired
part.
up in front of the roller, generating compressive radial

stresses and compressive hoop stresses, as shown in Figure 2(b).
Figure 2. Stress patterns in conventional spinning [2].
Figure 1. Illustration of metal spinning process [2].
Due to the inherent advantages of the spinning process,

such as low forming load, simple tooling, good surface
finish and improved mechanical properties of spun parts,
metal spinning has been frequently used to produce components for automotive, aerospace, medical, construction
and defence industries in recent years. Sheet metal spinning can be divided into two categories: conventional
spinning and shear forming. In conventional spinning, a
blank is formed into the desired shape by multiple roller
passes without changing the thickness, but the diameter of
the blank is deliberately decreased. In contrast, shear
forming produces the desired shape in one pass over a
blank, and the thickness is deliberately decreased and the
diameter of the blank remains constant during the process.
In the process of conventional spinning, a local plastic
deformation zone is generated at the roller contact area.
The stress patterns of this zone depend on the roller feed
direction. In the forward pass (when the roller feeds towards the edge of the blank), tensile radial stresses and
compressive hoop (circumferential) stresses are induced,
as shown in Figure 2(a). The tensile radial stresses lead to
a material flow towards the edge of the blank and cause
thinning; these are balanced by the thickening effects of
the compressive hoop stresses, maintaining an almost
constant thickness. Whereas in the backward pass (when
the roller feeds towards the mandrel), the material builds
974
Although metal spinning has been known for centuries,

the process is still operated by specialised craftsmen who
use their experience combined with trial and error when
setting up a new part. The spinning process was often
regarded as an art rather than a science [1]. In this study,
the effects of process parameters on the variations of the
dimensions of the spun parts during a single-pass conventional spinning have been analysed using the Taguchi
method. Simulation using Finite Element methods has
been carried out to investigate the stress and strain of the
workpiece during the spinning process.
Experimental Design
To analyse the effects of process parameters on the dimensions of the final spun product, a one-pass spinning
experiment with 3 process parameters at 2 levels has been
carried out on a spinning machine (Leifeld PNC106).
Figure 3 shows the experimental components and machine setup.
Figure 3. Experimental components and machine setup.
Figure 4 shows an illustration of the experiment set-up

and tooling, where the angle between the axis of the roller
and the axis of the mandrel is 45. The roller path is designed by tracing the contour of the mandrel within one
09.08.2010 14:40:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
single pass. The material of the blank is mild steel (DC01).
The diameter and thickness of the blank are 200 mm and 2
mm, respectively.
z
x
Figure 4. Illustration of experiment set up and tools.
In this experiment, three process parameters, i.e. the

spindle speed, the replay feed rate and the clearance between the roller and the mandrel, are considered as the
experimental input factors. Table 1 shows the levels of
each factor used in the experiment. The initial feed rate in
the longitudinal direction of machine slides (z-axis in
Figure 4) is 316 mm/min, which is calculated from the
recorded CNC program. The feed rate in the transverse
direction (x-axis in Figure 4) changes with time. L4 orthogonal array has been used to generate the experimental
runs, in replacing the full factorial experiment (23). Two
samples have been used for each experimental run. The
final wall thickness, the inside diameter and the depth of
the spun part are measured as the experimental outputs.
Table 1. Experimental input factors and levels.
Taguchi method accounts for the variation as well as the

ability of a system to meet a target. Signal to Noise (S/N)
ratio is used to measure the variability. In the case that the
aim is to achieve the larger value the better but with
minimum variability, the S/N ratio is defined as [3]:
S / N = 10 log(
1 n 1
)
n i= n yi 2
(1)
mm) of the blank is neglected, because it is clamped between the mandrel and the backplate and there is almost
no deformation taking place in the area. The swept meshing method has been applied to create the mesh. There are
2400 elements and the average aspect ratio of the mesh is
2.
A bilinear kinematical model with separate elastic and
plastic slopes has been applied to model the stress-strain
relationship of the blank. The material properties are obtained by a tensile test. Youngs modulus is 190 GPa, the
yield stress (0.2% offset) is 241 MPa, the ultimate tensile
strength is 347 MPa and the elongation is 34.5%. Poissons ratio and the mass density are taken as 0.3 and 7861
kg/m3.
The penalty constraint enforcement method has been
used to simulate the contact between the blank and tools.
Coulombs friction law is used to model the sliding behavior between tools and blank. As the roller rotates along its
own axis during the spinning process, the frictional coefficient between the roller and the blank is set to be low.
Three Coulomb frictional coefficients have been assigned
to the three contact pairs of the tooling and blank: rollerblank 0.02, mandrel-blank 0.2, backplate-blank 0.5.
Three analysis steps have been applied in these spinning
simulations. At the first step, a compressive force of 20 kN
is applied to the backplate, which accounts for the blank
being clamped between the backplate and the mandrel.
The second step involves applying a rotation boundary
condition to the backplate and the mandrel, thus the blank,
the backplate and the mandrel rotate at a specified spindle
speed. Finally, in order to realise the roller path, displacement boundary conditions are applied on the roller, according to the recorded CNC programs in the experiment.
Analysis of Experimental Results
The experimental runs and corresponding results are recorded in Table 2. Figure 5 shows the experimental samples of various experimental runs. Minitab software has
been used for analysing the experimental results.
Table 2. Experimental runs and results.
where n is the sample numbers used in the experiment and

yi are the outputs from different samples. Similarly when
the aim is to achieve the smaller value the better but
with minimum variability, the S/N ratio is defined as:
1 n 2
(2)
S / N = 10 log( yi )
n i=n
The metal spinning process can be considered as a
quasi-static problem which includes large membrane deformation and complex frictional contact conditions.
Therefore the explicit FE analysis method has been chosen
to analyse this process. To improve the computational
efficiency, three tools (the roller, mandrel and backplate)
are modeled as analytical rigid bodies, leaving the blank as
the only deformable body in the simulation. The 8 nodes
continuum shell element (SC8R), which is of a high capability to model twoside contact and transverse shear [4],
is used to model the blank. The central area (radius of 30
Figure 5. Experimental samples.
As shown in Figure 6, which illustrates the effects of

input factors on thickness, the replay feed rate has the
greatest effect upon the thickness; the spindle speed ranks
second; and the clearance has the least effect. The effects
of input factors on the thickness variability are shown in
Figure 7. The replay feed rate again has the greatest effect
on the thickness variability, followed by the spindle speed
975
09.08.2010 14:40:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
and the clearance. Since the spun product is generally
thinned to some extent during the process, the aim of the
thickness analysis is to achieve the larger value the better but with a minimum variability. Using Taguchi
method, the level with a greater S/N ratio gives the least
variability [3]. Thus the most desirable combination of
factors is as follows: spindle speed S = 400 rpm, replay
feed rate R = 200%*initial feed rate and clearance C = 1.5
mm.
M a in E ffe c t s P lo t fo r M e a n s
Mean of Means
D ata M e an s
1 .9
1 .8
1 .7
1
According to the main effects plot for depth means

(Figure 10), the replay feed rate has the greatest effect on
the depth, followed by the spindle speed and the clearance.
By analysing the main effect plots (Figure 11) for depth
S/N ratio, the replay feed rate has the greatest effect on
the depth variability, while the clearance has the least
effect. Because there is no material loss in the spinning
process, the depth has a converse change in relation to the
thickness change. The aim of the depth analysis is to
achieve the smaller value the better but with a minimum
variability. The desirable combination of the input factors
is: spindle speed S = 400 rpm, replay feed rate R =
200%*initial feed rate and clearance C = 1.5 mm.
M a in E ffec ts P lo t fo r M ea n s
1 .9
Data M e an s
1 .8
S
1
Figure 6. Main effects plot for thickness level means.

M a in E ffe c ts P lo t fo r S N ra tio s
5 .5
38
36
34
1
C
38
36
34
5 .0
4 .5
Figure 10. Main effects plot for depth level means.

1
5 .5
M a in Effects Plot for SN ra tios
5 .0
Da ta M e a n s
4 .5
1
S ig n a l- to - n o ise : L a r g e r is b e tte r
Figure 7. Main effects plot for thickness S/N ratios.
Based on the main effects plot for inside diameter

means (Figure 8), the replay feed rate has the greatest
effect upon the diameter; followed by the spindle speed
and the clearance. By analysing the main effect plots
(Figure 9) for diameter S/N ratio, none of these factors
have significant effects on the variability. In terms of inside diameter, the smaller value means that the shape of
the final product better conforms to the shape of the mandrel. Therefore, the aim of the diameter analysis is to
achieve the smaller value the better but with a minimum
variability. The desirable combination of the input factors
to achieve this should be as follows, spindle speed S = 400
rpm, replay feed rate R = 200%*initial feed rate and clearance C = 1.0 mm.
Mean of SN ratios
Mean of SN ratios
Data M ean s
Mean of Means
1 .7
-30.5
-31.0
-31.5
1
-30.5
-31.0
-31.5
1
Sign a l-to-n oise : Sm a lle r is be tte r
Figure 11. Main effects plot for depth S/N ratios.
Analysis of FEA Results

The FEA results presented in this section are based on
the FE model using the parameters of experiment Run 4,
as shown in Table 2. Figure 12 illustrates the material
deformation at different stages in modelling of the spinning experiment.
M a in E ffe c t s P lo t fo r M e a n s
Data M e an s
Mean of Means
1 7 2 .8
1 7 2 .2
1 7 1 .6
1
(a) Initial stage

(b) Middle stage
(c) Final stage
Figure 12. Material deformation at different stages.
C
1 7 2 .8
1 7 2 .2
1 7 1 .6
1
Figure 8. Main effects plot for diameter level means.

M a in E f f e c t s P lo t f o r S N ra t io s
Mean of SN ratios
Data M ean s
S
-44.700
-44.725
-44.750
1
-44.700
-44.725
-44.750
1
S ig n a l- to - n o is e : S m a lle r is b e tte r
Figure 9. Main effects plot for diameter S/N ratios.
976
A mesh convergence study has been carried out by comparing the maximum radial and axial tool forces of various
mesh densities. As shown in Figure 13, when increasing
the element number from 1120 to 2400, the maximum
radial force decreases from 2946 N to 2382 N; the maximum axial tool force decreases from 2574 N to 1639 N.
When further increasing the element number to 4320, the
maximum radial force stays almost unchanged but the
maximum axial force increases 10%. Therefore this study
used FE models having mesh density of 2400 elements in
order to achieve a good computational efficiency.
09.08.2010 14:40:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
local zone has been observed around that area. From the
hoop stress distribution as shown in Figure 17(b), Region
B is subjected to high compressive hoop stresses. If these
hoop stresses are beyond a certain limit, wrinkling failures
would take place.
Force (N)
Mesh Convergence Study on Forces

3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
Element Numbers
Maximum Radial Force
5000
Maximum Axial Force
Figure 13. Mesh convergence study on maximum radial force.
Figure 14 compares the final wall thickness distribution

of the FEA model with the average thickness measured
from experimental samples. The maximum error is 11.1%,
indicating that the simulation results are in agreement with
the experimental results. The difference between the FE
analysis and experiment results may result from the simplified bilinear kinematical material model, and measurement errors. Further validation of the FE analysis models
is also required, e.g. through the measurement of tool
forces during the spinning experiment.
Figure 16. Distribution of Von Mises stress.
Comparison of Thickness Distribution

Thickness (mm)
2.5
(a)
Region
clamped
between
mandrel &
backplate
1.5
1
0.5
Figure 17. Distributions of radial and hoop stresses.
Conclusions
0
0
0.4
0.8
Normalized Radial Distance
Thickness of FE model
(b)
1.2
Thickness of experiment
Figure 14. Thickness distribution.
Theoretically, the wall thickness remains constant in

conventional spinning, and thus the radial strain and hoop
strain should balance each other [5]. As shown in Figure
15, the tensile radial strains and compressive hoop strains
do not mirror each other, resulting in certain degrees of
compressive thickness strains, which indicate the wall
thickness is reduced after this spinning process.
1. Based on the analysis of the single-pass conventional

spinning experiment, the feed rate has shown the greatest effect on the spun part dimensions, followed by the
spindle speed; the clearance between roller and mandrel has the least effect.
2. The wall thickness is reduced in the conventional spinning process, as a result of unbalanced tensile radial
strains and compressive hoop strains.
3. The stress distribution in the spinning process is far
more complicated than the suggested theoretical stress
patterns. In the radial direction, bending effects have
been observed around the roller contact area.
Acknowledgement
This work was funded by the UK Technology Strategy
Board and Metal Spinners Group Ltd., Project No. 6590.
References
Figure 15. Distribution of strains.
Figure 16 shows the Von Mises stress distribution at the

beginning of the spinning process. A high stress zone is
evident locally in Region A, a location between the roller
and the back plate. By analysing the radial stress distribution in Figure 17(a), Region A is subjected to a local
bending effect where its top surface is under tensile radial
stresses, and the bottom surface is under compressive
radial stresses, as also reported in [6]. Although the roller
has not been in contact with Region B yet, a high stress
[1] C. Wong, T. Dean, J. Lin: International Journal of Machine Tools and

Manufacture, 43 (2003), 1419-1435.
[2] M. Runge: Spinning and Flow Forming, (D. H. Pollitt, Trans) Leifield
GmbH and Co. Werkzeugmashinenbau, Werlag moderne industries
AG D-86895 Landsberg/Lech, (1994).
[3] W.Y. Fowlkes, C.M. Creveling: Engineering Methods for Robust
Product Design: Using Taguchi Methods in Technology and Product
Development, Prentice Hall, ISBN-10-0201633671, (1995).
[4] ABAQUS Analysis Users Manual, ABAQUS. Inc., Ver. 6.8, (2008).
[5] H. Long and S. Hamilton: Proceedings 9th ICTP, South Korea, (2008).
[6] G. Sebastiani, A. Brosius, W. Homberg, M. Kleiner: Key Engineering
Materials, 334 (2007), 637-644.
977
09.08.2010 14:40:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Initial Thickness Deviation on Deformed Tube Shape in Tube Spinning

Takashi Kuboki1), Naoto Takahashi1), Kazuhito Takahashi1), Kazuhiko Sanda2), Susumu Moriya2), Keisuke Ishida2),
1)
Makoto Murata
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering & Intelligent Systems, University of Electro-Communications, Chofushi / Japan, kuboki@
2)
mce.uec.ac.jp; Dymco, Ltd., Yokohama / Japan
Tube spinning, or flow forming, is an effective and stable method for manufacturing thin-film metal tubes, which are used as steel belts for
precision conveyers, printing rollers in printers and in flexible photovoltaic film batteries. The original substrate tubes for spinning are
manufactured by plastic-deformation processes, such as deep drawing and ironing. Due to instability in the previous forming, thickness
deviation must inevitably exist initially. In the present research, examination was conducted with the focus upon the effect of initial thickness
on the precision of tubes. As a result of a series of experiments, it is clarified that the thickness-deviation ratio of deformed tube is slightly
larger than initial ratio in tube spinning with a flexible mandrel. It is also noteworthy that the initial thickness deviation causes the warpage
along the tube axis. Therefore, it is concluded that initial thickness deviation should be reduced as little as possible for the precision tube
spinning. Furthermore, numerical analyses were carried out to clarify the mechanism of initial thickness effect.
Keywords: Tube spinning, Flow forming, Thickness deviation, Cylindricity, machine stiffness
Tube spinning is an effective and stable method for

manufacturing thin-film metal tubes, which are used as
steel belts for precision conveyers, printing rollers in
printers, elastic rolls in production lines for optical films
and flexible solar panels and so forth. The thin-film tubes
have some superior performances when they are installed
in these devices. As the thermal capacity is low for the thin
film, the printing rollers made of thin film metal would be
heated within a few seconds. The high elasticity of thin
film would allow the printing rollers to deform in accordance with the shape of the printed objects, and would
realize stable printing. Due to these advantages for the
thinness of tubes, the demand for this thinness is increasing and getting stricter in recent years. However, with the
decrease of tube thickness, the more difficult the realization of precise forming becomes.
In the literature, there are many research works on the
effect of working conditions in tube spinning. Rigorous
study was conducted on the deformation behavior in spinning [1] and the defect development was also studied [2].
Some numerical approaches have been tried [3,4]. However, there are few research works in terms of the precision.
The precision of deformed tube may be affected by the
initial tube shape before spinning. The initial tubes are
manufactured by metal-forming processes, such as deep
drawing and ironing. Due to instability of the setting of
tools in the forming, thickness deviation must inevitably
exist in the initial tubes.
In the present study, examination was conducted with
the focus upon the effect of initial thickness deviation on
the precision in tube spinning with a flexible mandrel. As
a result of a series of experiments, it was clarified that
initial thickness deviation affects the cylindricity as well
as thickness distribution after spinning. This result shows
the importance and the necessity of uniform thickness
distribution in the initial tube. Furthermore, a basic analysis supported by FEM was also carried out for explanation
of the effect of initial thickness deviation.
978
Spinning Conditions for Tube Spinning

Figure 1 shows an experimental set-up which was used
in the present research, whereby the initial tube is cupshaped. This spinning method is categorized in forward
spinning, in which rollers move toward the open end of
the tube. The tube is capped over a mandrel, which rotates
while forming. A set of three idle rollers was fed at a feed
pitch per revolution f. The three rollers were placed with
an interval p. As the interval p is much larger than feed
pitch f, the tube was indented by the three rollers separately. Tension T is imposed on the open end of the tube.
The tip profile of the roller is composed of an arc with
radius rt, and inlet and outlet tapers determined by and .
Closed
end
Roller
DR
2nd
1st
D0
Tube
Flange
Open
end
3rd
p
Introduction
Tension T
t0
rt
Mandrel
Figure 1. Relationship between limiting drawing ratio and annealing temperature.

Table 1. Conditions for initial tube.
Outer diameter D0 / mm
31.0
Average thickness t0 / mm
0.50
Thickness deviation t0/mm 0.00 - 0.08

Material
Stainless steel 304
Process
Deep drawing
Heat treatment
1040x7200s
Stress -plastic strain p

relationship
=1230 (p+0.005)0.3
in MPa
09.08.2010 14:40:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
100
Mandrel length Lm / mm
300
30
0.3
Tension T / kN
2.25-7.25
(Stretching stress for
119 - 250
deformed thickness T/MPa)

0.15
1.5
Tube rotation number N / rpm
500
Lubrication
Oil
Experimental Examination on Effect of Thickness

Deviation
Figure 2 shows examples of tube thickness distribution
after spinning. While (a) and (b) have no initial thickness
deviation, (c) and (d) have initial thickness deviation t0
of 0.08 mm. While tension stress T of 119 MPa imposed
on (a) and (c), T of 250 MPa was imposed on (b) and (d).
[A] and [B] denote the initially thickest and thinnest parts,
respectively, in (c) and (d).
t0:Initial thickness deviation
T: Tension in MPa
Thickness t [mm]
0.23
[A]: thick part in initial tube

[B]: thin part in initial tube
(a)
t0/mm
T/MPa
0
119
(b)
0.18
0
250
0.08
119
10
0.04
0
0
0.04
0.08
0.12
Tension T
119 MPa
184 MPa
250 MPa
5
0
0
5
10 15 20
Initial thickness deviation ratio
t0/t0 / %
Figure 4 shows examples of tube cylindricity after spinning. [A] and [B] denote the thickest and thinnest parts
initially. The contour level means the radius rp at each
point from the straight centre axis of the tube after spinning. If the machine is completely rigid and thickness
becomes uniform, some warpage occurs due to volumetric
constancy. Intuitively it would be predicted that as the
compressive thickness strain must be large at the initially
thickest part [A], the thickest part must be the most elongated and become the extrados of the warpage arc. However, it is noteworthy that the initially thickest part [A]
comes to the intrados of the warpage arc as shown in (c)
and (d). This mechanism of warpage will be discussed in
the remainder part of this paper by analysis.
Figure 5 shows the effect of initial thickness deviation
t0 and tension stress T on curvature -1 of warpage arc.
With increase of the initial thickness deviationt0, the
curvature -1 increases. Tension stress T has suppression
effect of warpage to some extent.
Radius from axis rp [mm]
t0:Initial thickness deviation

T: Tension in MPa
0.08
250
15.6
[A]: thick part in initial tube

[B]: thin part in initial tube
[A] [B] [A] [B]

(c)
(d)
Figure 2. Thickness distribution after spinning (experiment).
0.08
15
(a) Value
(b) Ratio
Figure 3. Effect of initial thickness deviation on thickness deviation
after spinning (experiment).
Table 3. Working condition.
Roller interval p / mm
20
Tension T
119 MPa
184 MPa
250 MPa
Initial thickness deviation t0 / mm
Setting indentation s / mm
Roller feed f / mmrev-1
0.12
Thickness deviation ratio

t /t /%
Table 2. Tool geometry.

Roller diameter Dr / mm
Mandrel diameter Dm / mm
If the machine is completely rigid, the thickness distribution t would be eliminated after spinning. However,
some thickness deviation t remains after spinning when
initial thickness deviation t0 exists.
Figure 3 shows the effect of initial thickness deviation
t0 and tension stress T on thickness deviation t. The
value of thickness deviation t is decreased by spinning.
However, the ratio t/t is slightly larger than t0/t0. Therefore, the suppression of initial thickness is imperative for
the elimination of thickness deviation ratio t0/t0.
Thickness deviation t / mm
Specifications of the tube are shown in Table 1.

Stainless steel 304 was heat-treated at 1040 C for 7200 s
for elimination of residual stress and enhancement of
formability. A stress-strain diagram was obtained as an
envelope curve of maximum tension stress in a tension test
of the deformed tube. The initial tube was produced by
turning to precisely control the initial thickness deviation
t0 of 0 0.08 mm for thickness t0 of 0.5 mm. Tool geometries and working conditions are shown in Tables 2
and 3. As the mandrel length of 300 mm is so long, it
deflects flexibly due to spinning load. The tension stress
T was imposed at three levels of 119, 184 and 250 MPa,
which is calculated by dividing tension T by the area of
the tube cross section after spinning. Indentation s was set
by trial and error so that average thickness becomes 0.2
mm when t0 = 0 and T = 250 MPa.
(a)
t0/mm
T/MPa
0
119
(b)
0
250
15.2
[A] [B] [A] [B]

(c)
(d)
0.08
119
0.08
250
Figure 4. Cylindricity after spinning (experiment).
979
09.08.2010 14:40:38 Uhr
0.2
When
-1 x103= 0.2 mm-1
Tension T
=119 MPa
0.15
Warpage
w=0.25mm
184 MPa
0.1
0.05
250 MPa
0
0
0.04
0.08
0.12
100mm
Initial thickness deviation t0 / mm
Figure 5. Effect of initial thickness deviation on warpage after

spinning (experiment).
Numerical Examination of Spinning

Numerical Approach. As a result of experiment, the
initial thickness distribution remains after spinning and it
might be attributed to the existence of machine stiffness.
Experimental results show that the initially thickest part is
positioned at the intrados after spinning. The mechanism
of these phenomena is beyond intuitive understanding.
In order to clarify the mechanism of the initial thickness
deviation on the thickness deviation and warpage after
spinning, a numerical method was developed. The flow
chart of analysis is shown in Figure 6.
The main assumptions are as follows:

(1) Thickness strain t distribution and contact area A are
calculated based on geometric interference between
roller and tube at (i) in Figure 6.
(2) Effective strain eq is equal to thickness strain t.
(3) Contact pressure is calculated by integrating stress
based on stress-strain relationship at (ii) in Figure 6.
(4) Loads at 3 rollers are equal due to mandrel flexibility.
(5) Straightening effect by applying tension and using a
mandrel is neglected.
Examples of the contact area, which was calculated at
(i) in Figure 6, are shown in Figure 7 attendant upon actual indentation a change. The tip of the roller travels on
the plane of z=0. The contact line has a shape of a trapezoid, which is one of the characteristics for the roller tip
with taper portions in Figure 1. The contact-area shape is
in accordance with the literature [3]. With increase of
indentation a, the contact area elongates in the axis direction.
Tangential position x /mm
Curvature -1x103 /mm-1
Metal Forming
Start
Assumption of actual indentation ai

(i: 1- 3, the number of rollers)
Calculation of geometric contact area Ai
and distribution of interference
Modification
of a1
Calculation of roller load by integrating

stress by contact area Ai
Fi dAi (i 1, 2, 3)
Comparison of roller loads
F1 F2 F3 ?
Yes
Modification of roller load Fi based on
FEM results
Calculation of elastic deflection ei by
dividing roller load F by stiffness k at
roller supporting section
ei Fi k (i 1, 2, 3)
No
(i)
Modification
of a2 and a3
(ii)
No
(iii)
(iv)
Satisfaction of boundary
condition between set
position of rollers and ai ei
Yes
Output
End
Figure 6. Flow chart for numerical analysis of spinning.
980
Actual indentation
a=0.4mm
0.3mm
0.2mm
0.1mm
0
-3
-2
-1
Position in axis z /mm
Figure 7. Effect of actual indentation on contact area (geometric

examination).
Input of working conditions including

set position of rollers without elastic
deformation
Calculation of distribution of
t
t log( 0
) and f ( t )
t0
Roller moving direction

2
Modification of Roller Load by FEA. As the roller

loads are calculated by simple assumptions, the load was
modified by FEA. FEA was conducted on the local deformation at the tip of the roller. Elastic-plastic analysis was
carried out using a commercial code ELFEN [5], which
was developed by Rockfield Software Limited, Swansea.
A von Mises' yield criterion was adopted, and the normality principle was applied to the flow rule. Constraints were
dealt with by the penalty function method. A hexahedra
element was used. An explicit scheme was adopted for the
reduction of computation time. The Coulomb friction rule
was assumed and the coefficient of friction was chosen
as 0.07 referring to an experimental result in cold-rolling
of stainless steel with lubrication in the literature [6].
An example of analysis is shown in Figure 8. The
roller-tip surface tilts during its translational movement.
The roller load is evaluated at the 5th movement so that
the load level might become stable.
Roller tip
Sheet metal
4th
5th
Roller
Feed
Figure 8. FEA model for local deformation by tip of roller.
09.08.2010 14:40:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
12
8
4
20
16
White: basic analysis x 3.2

Black: FEM
Feed f
0.25mmrev-1
12
0.15
0.05
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Indentation /mm
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Indentation /mm
(a) Without modification

(b) After modification
Figure 9. Comparison between basic and FEM analyses.
Machine stiffness at the roller supporting part would be

an important parameter, which determines the performance of spinning. If the machine stiffness works appropriately, the compliance would absorb the machine dimensional errors. In order to determine the machine stiffness k
at (iv) in Figure 6, comparison was made between experiment and basic analysis changing k at (iv) in terms of the
effect of set indentation s on thickness after spinning t.
The result is shown in Figure 10. The increase of indentation s was defined to be 0 when thickness t became
0.24 mm. The experimental and numerical results are in
good agreement when machine stiffness k was 12.8
kNmm-1. This value was used in the remainder part.
Thickness t/mm
0.6
Experiment
Stiffness k
6.4 kN/mm-1
12.8 kN/mm-1
25.6 kN/mm-1
0.4
0.2
0
-0.2
0.2
0.4
Increase of set indentation s/mm
Figure 10. Evaluation of stiffness at roller supporting part (initial

thickness deviation t0=0).
Basic analysis supported by FEM is carried out in order

to examine the mechanism on the effect of initial thickness
on the thickness and warpage observed in Figures 3 and 5.
Figure 11 shows the result of thickness change through
indentations at 1st 3rd rollers for the initial thickness
deviation t0 of 0.08 mm. The difference of thickness
between the thickest and thinnest parts is not eliminated
through the indentations. It can be attributed to the flexibility of mandrel. This tendency is qualitatively equal to
that in experiment.
It is noteworthy that in the expression of thickness strain
t in Figure 11(b), the thinnest part becomes thinner than
the thickest part. It is because as the thinner part causes a
Thickest part
where t0=0.54mm
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
t
Thinnest part
where t0=0.46mm
0.6
1st 2nd 3rd roller
Thickness strain t
16
White: basic analysis

Black: FEM
Roller loadF /kN
Roller loadF /kN
20
smaller load if the thickness strain is the same, the flexible

mandrel comes closer to the thinner part to lead to larger
compressive strain at the thinner part. Due to the volumetric constancy, the thinner part would be elongated longer
than the thicker part. As a result, the thinnest part comes to
the extrados of the warpage arc and the initial thickness
deviation causes larger warpage. These phenomena were
similarly observed in Figures 4 and 5 in experiments.
Thickness t/mm
Figure 9 shows the modification result at (iii) in Figure

6 by comparing loads between basic analysis at (ii) and
FEM analysis. Both the actual indentation and feed are
changed. Figure 9(a) shows a big difference. The difference would be attributed to the effect of friction and constraints from the surrounding part which remains out of
deformation, as Hayama pointed out [1]. However, it is
noteworthy that the two results become the same by simple modification by multiplying the basic result by 3.2.
-0.2
Thickest part
where t0=0.54mm
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
-1
-1.2
Thinnest part
where t0=0.46mm
1st 2nd 3rd roller
(a) Thickness
(b) Thickness strain
Figure 11. Effect of initial thickness deviation on thickness change
through spinning (Basic analysis for t0=0.08 mm).
Conclusions
Tube spinning is an effective and stable method for
manufacturing thin-film metal tubes. The initial tubes for
tube spinning are manufactured by metal-forming processes. Due to instability in the forming, thickness deviation must inevitably exist in the initial tubes. In order to
clarify the effect of initial thickness deviation in tube spinning with a flexible mandrel, a series of experiments and a
basic analysis supported by FEM were carried out, and the
1. Although the value of thickness deviation decreases
after spinning, the thickness-deviation ratio increases
slightly.
2. It is noteworthy that the initially thinnest part becomes
the extrados of the warpage arc despite the intuitive observation. The larger thickness deviation causes the larger warpage.
3. Although tension has suppression effect of warpage to
some extent, uniform thickness distribution in the initial
tube is imperative for the elimination of both thickness
deviation and warpage.
4. A basic analysis supported by FEA was composed to
clarify the mechanism of warpage. The basic analysis
revealed that as the thinner part has larger compressive
thickness strain, the thinnest part comes to the extrados
of the warpage arc due to volumetric constancy.
References
[1] M. Hayama, T. Murota: J. Jpn. Soc. Technol. Plast., 4-30 (1963), 445452, in Japanese.
[2] K.M. Rajan, K. Narasimhan: J. of Failure Analysis and Prevention, 15 (2001), 1547-7029.
[3] M. Gur, J. Trosh: Trans. ASME. J. Eng. Ind., 104-1 (1982), 17-22.
[4] X. Kemin, W. Zhen, L. Yan, L. Kezhi: J. Mater. Process. Technol., 69(1997), 172-175.
[5] P. Mullet, J. Rance: Bench Mark, 1 (2003), 17-24.
[6] Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity: Process Tribology (Lubrication in Metal Forming), 1-3 (1993), 119-120, in Japanese.
981
09.08.2010 14:40:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Reduction in Diameter of Ferritic Stainless Steel Pipe by Spinning

Akihiro Ando, Shinobu Karino
Steel & Technology Development Laboratories, Nisshin Steel Co., Ltd, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo / Japan, n04634@nisshin-steel.co.jp
A spinning process for reducing the diameter of pipes has recently come to be applied to manufacture the shell cases of mufflers and catalytic converters for automotive exhaust systems. The influences of the spinning forming conditions and the material properties on the variation of the wall thickness in the spinning formed region and the deformation of the pipe end during the spinning forming were investigated
for the welded ferritic stainless steel pipes, with both forming experiment and the finite element simulation. For example, the wall thickness
of the spun area showed the minimum in the middle of the tapered area, and beyond, increased toward the pipe end. The decrease of the
wall thickness got larger with the increase of the tapered angle and the rotating speed of the forming rollers, and with the decrease of the
traverse speed of the forming rollers. It is considered that the thickness decrease is caused by the tensile stress in the axial direction of the
pipe, due to the ironing forming of the pipe with forming rollers. The combination of experiment and simulation is considered to be useful to
understand the deformation in the pipe spinning and to predict the suitable spinning forming conditions.
Keywords: Pipe spinning, Stainless steel, Formability, Thickness decrease, Finite element simulation, Spinning conditions
Introduction
For shell cases of muffler (silencer) and gas cleaning
catalytic converter mounted to automotive exhaust system,
pipes with large diameter are used owing to a need for
larger capacity. Ends of these case members need to have
small diameter portions for connecting to adjacent pipe
members. The spinning method has recently come to be
applied to manufacture these shell cases of muffler and
catalytic converter for automotives, substituting conventional stamping and welding method.
The pipe spinning technique is a method of reducing the
diameter of pipes with forming rollers. In the pipe spinning process, the forming rollers, freely rotatable around
the own axes, are rotated around the pipe, as well as traversed in the axial direction of the pipe and gradually
pressed into the radial direction of the pipe, as shown in
Figure 1.
Traverse speed
Forming roller
Number
of passes
Pipe
Shoulder point
(Shrinkage
starting point)
Spinning Conditions. The spinning conditions are

shown in Table 1. The influence of the spinning forming
conditions, such as the tapered angle of the forming region
and the traverse speed and the rotational speed of the
forming rollers, on the variation of the wall thickness in
the spinning formed region, and the mechanical properties
of workpiece on the deformation of the pipe end during
the spinning forming, were investigated.
The workpieces were TIG welded ferritic stainless steel
pipes, with initial diameters of 89 and 120 mm and an
initial thickness of 1.2 mm, and the diameter reduction
ratio was 55%, that is, the diameter of pipe ends were
reduced to 40 and 54 mm, respectively. The roller dimensions are of 100 mm in diameter and 8 mm in roller tip
radius.
Material
Workpiece
Rotating
speed
With the development of the pipe spinning technology

by a computer numerically controlled (CNC) method, the
forming properties of the pipe spinning were experimentally examined. Furthermore, theoretical studies of the
process with finite element simulations, on the influence
of spinning conditions on the deformation of the pipe
spinning in its forming process, have come to be carried
out, recently [1-3]. However, it is still difficult to predict
the formability of the pipe spinning process by simulations,
with relatively severe spinning conditions, which might
982
Experimental and Analytical Method
Table 1. Spinning conditions.
Tapered
angle
Figure 1. Scheme of pipe spinning forming.
cause large thickness decrease. In the present study, the

influence of spinning conditions on the deformation of the
pipe spinning basically with both the forming experiments
and the finite element simulations.
Ferritic stainless steel pipe
Pipe dimension
Stress-strain eq.
Traverse speed (mm/min)
Rotating speed (rpm)
Number of passes
Tapered angle (degree)
Roller number
Diameter reduction ratio (%)
D0=89, 120 mm, 0=1.2 mm

=7830.21
4500, 8000
600, 400
9, 5
30, 45
2
55
These investigations were carried out with both forming

experiments and finite element simulation. The simulation
was performed with the 3D explicit-dynamic finite element simulation software, LS-DYNA. In the simulation
model, the pipe is of elasto-plastic deformable shell elements, and the forming rollers are of rigid body, as shown
in Figure 2. In this study, shell elements are selected, to
avoid the instability of calculation and long calculation
time in the wide range of spinning conditions and to obtain
09.08.2010 14:40:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
a basic understanding of the pipe spinning process, although solid elements should be theoretically used under
relatively large shear stress in the pipe thickness direction
in the actual spinning process. The number of shell elements of pipe is 3240 and the Coulomb friction coefficient
of 0.1 is taken.
Forming roller: Rigid
Pipe: Elasto-plastic
simulations are in good agreement with those of experiments.

Wall Thickness. Figure 4 shows the thickness distribution in the spinning formed region, on the influence of the
tapered angle, with the initial pipe diameter of 89 mm, the
spinning pass number of 9 and the traverse and the rotational speed of 4500 mm/min and 600 rpm. The wall
thickness of the spinning formed region showed the minimum in the middle of the tapered area at the point A , and
beyond, increased toward the pipe end. The regional decrease of the wall thickness tends to get larger with the
increase of tapered angle.
Thickness (mm)
1.8
1.6
1.4
50
Shoulder
point
1.2
Experiment
Simulation
1.0
0.8
(a) Side view
Point A
0
40
60
80
100
Distance from Shoulder Point (mm)

(a) Tapered angle: 30 degree
(b) Front view
Figure 2. Simulation model.
1.8
1.6
Thickness (mm)
Formability. Figure 3 shows the deformed shapes of

the pipe ends, with the initial diameter of 89 mm, the tapered angle of 30 degree and the spinning pass number of
9 and 5, comparing the results of experiments and simulations.
20
40
1.4
1.2
Experiment
Simulation
1.0
0.8
20
40
60
80
100

(b) Tapered angle: 45 degree
Figure 4. Thickness distribution of formed region.
(a) Simulation
(b) Experiment
(1) Pass number : 9
(a) Simulation
(b) Experiment
(2) Pass number : 5
Figure 3. Shapes of spinning formed pipe end (tapered angle: 30
degree).
The buckling at the pipe end tends to occur during spinning forming with smaller pass number. The results of
Figure 5 shows the thickness distribution in the spinning formed region, on the influence of the traverse speed
and the rotational speed of the forming rollers, with the
initial pipe diameter of 120 mm, the tapered angle of 45
degree and the spinning pass number of 9. The regional
decrease of the wall thickness tends to get larger with the
increase of the rotating speed of the forming rollers and
with the decrease of the traverse speed of the forming
rollers.
The thickness distributions are specific for the reduction
in diameter of pipe end by spinning forming. Basically,
the reduction in diameter of pipe will make the wall thickness increase. But, in the spinning forming, the wall thickness shows thinning in the tapered region and thickening
at the end of the pipe, although the diameter of the pipes
are reduced in the entire deformed region. These facts will
indicate that a metal flow occurs not only in the circum-
983
09.08.2010 14:40:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
ferential and radius direction, but also in the axial direction during the spinning forming, and in the thickness
decreased area, the elongation of the pipe is considered to
be larger than the shrinkage.
1.8
Thickness (mm)
1.6
:Experiment
:Simulation
Pipe
Point A
Forming roller
0 N/mm2
300 N/mm2
Pipe end cut
0 N/mm2
0 N/mm2
-300 N/mm2
300 N/mm2
1.4
0 N/mm2
1.2
Traverse speed
(mm/min)
1.0
4500
0.8
(a) Circumferential direction

-300 N/mm2
8000
0
20
40
60
80

(a) Influence of traverse speed
1.8
300 N/mm2
100
0 N/mm2
0 N/mm2
-300 N/mm2
Pipe end cut
Circumferential
direction
Thickness (mm)
1.6
1.4
Rotating speed
(rpm)
1.2
1.0
0.8
20
40
60
60
0
45
0
80
100

(a) Influence of rotating speed
Figure 5. Influences of spinning conditions on thickness distributions.
Stress under Deformation. Figure 6 shows the distribution of stress in the 6th pass of total 9 pass of the spinning process, from the viewpoint above one of the forming
roller contact area, with the initial pipe diameter of 89 mm,
the tapered angle of 30 degree and the traverse and the
rotational speed of 4500 mm/min and 600 rpm.
In the circumferential direction, the large compressive
stress occurs just at the roller contact point, which is considered to cause the shrinking deformation, with the roller
movement in the radius direction. In the axial direction, a
tensile stress is observed in the relative large area, in the
tapered area, after the roller contact point, which is considered to cause the elongating deformation, with the roller
movement in both the axial and radius direction.
Deformation around Welded Zone. The deformation
around the welded zone was investigated, with the initial
pipe diameter of 89 mm, the tapered angle of 45 degree,
the spinning pass number of 9 and the traverse and the
rotational speed of 4500 mm/min and 600 rpm. For the
simulation, the stress-strain relation of the welded zone
was multiplied on that of normal material by the factor of
1.3. The factor was estimated by the ratio of cross-section
hardness of welded zone and normal material under cold
rolled deformation.
984
300 N/mm2
(b) Axial direction
Axial direction
Figure 6. Stress distribution under deformation in spinning (at 6th
pass of total 9 pass).
Figure 7 shows the simulated shape at the end of the

spinning formed pipe around the welded zone, comparing
with the experimental result. As the welded zone had the
larger deformation resistance, the welded zone showed the
depression, the smaller elongation than normal area. The
difference in elongation might be one of the causes of the
cracking under spinning forming.
Depression around welded zone
Welded zone
Welded zone
(a) Simulation
(b) Experimant
Figure 7. Deformation around welded zone.
Influence of Lankford Value on Deformation. The

influence of Lankford value (r-value) in the axial direction
of the pipe was evaluated with the material of high r-value
of 1.8 and low r-value of 1.4.
Figure 8 shows the simulated shapes at the end of the
spinning formed pipe, comparing with the experimental
results. The elongation of the pipe is larger with the material of smaller axial r-value. The smaller r-value in the
axial direction, where tensile stress occurs, may cause the
larger thickness decrease, consequently, the larger metal
flow toward the pipe end and the larger elongation.
09.08.2010 14:40:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Difference in elongation
(a) Axial r-value:1.4

(b) Axial r-value:1.8
(1) Simulation
Difference in elongation
(a) Axial r-value:1.4
(b) Axial r-value:1.8

(2) Experimant
Figure 8. Influence of r-value on Deformation.
Use of Simulation Results. With the simulations, not

only the final state but the change of stress, shape or thickness under deformation can be observed, different to the
experiments. Because the deformation of pipe end progresses little by little in relatively long working period in
the pipe spinning process, it would be rather difficult to
find out when and where the unusual or undesirable
change, such as buckling or sharp thickness decrease,
during the whole spinning process. So, the results of
simulations, those being in good agreement with experimental results, are considered to provide very helpful
information to understand the deformation mechanism,
and to improve the spinning forming conditions.
Conclusions
The influences of the spinning forming conditions and
the material properties on the variation of the wall thickness in the spinning formed region and the deformation of
the pipe end during the spinning forming were investigated for the welded ferritic stainless steel pipes, with both
forming experiments and finite element simulations. The
1. The wall thickness of spinning formed area showed the
minimum in the middle of the tapered area, and beyond,
increased toward the pipe end.
2. The decrease of the wall thickness got larger with the
increase of the tapered angle and the rotating speed of
the forming rollers, and with the decrease of the traverse
speed of the forming rollers. It is considered that the
thickness decrease is caused by the tensile stress in the
axial direction of the pipe, due to the ironing forming of
the pipe with forming rollers.
3. The material properties, such as stress-strain relation of
welded zone and Lankford value, have influence on deformation, like elongation, of the pipe end.
4. The results of the simulations and the experiments were
in good agreement.
5. The combination of experiment and simulation will
provide useful information to understand the deformation of the reduction in diameter by pipe spinning and to
predict the suitable spinning forming conditions.
References
[1] Y. Jianguo, M. Murata: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
166 (2005), 405-410.
[2] Q. X. Xia, Sh. W. Xie, Y. L. Huo, F. Ruan: Journal of Materials
[3] S. Kihara, H. Ishida, Y. Nakata, H. Mizumoto, Y. Ito: Proc. 57th
Japanese Joint Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, (2006),
367, (in Japanese).
985
09.08.2010 14:40:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Taper Angle on Occurrence of Cracking in Spinning of Pipe

Yoichi Takahashi1), Shigefumi Kihara1), Takuo Nagamachi2), Yoshiaki Takada3)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kagawa National college of Technology , Takamatsu / Japan, ytaka@t.kagawa-nct.ac.jp; 2) Institute of Technology and Science, Tokushima University , Tokushima / Japan, 3) Nihon Spindle MFG. Co., LTD, Amagasaki / Japan
The effect of the taper angle on occurrence of crack in spinning of a stainless-steel (SUS409) pipe was investigated by experiments and
three-dimensional finite element simulations. The simulation results were used to calculate the ductile fracture criterion to predict the onset
of cracking. The material used in this study is stainless steel used for automotive exhaust parts. When the taper angle is large, the outside
of the pipe is subjected to considerable compressive stress in the peripheral direction by the contact with the rollers. Simultaneously, the
inside of the pipe is subjected to considerable tensile stress in the peripheral direction. The diameter of pipe progressively decreased in
under repeated tensile stress and compressive stress. The pipe thickness was particularly reduced locally in the taper corners, thereby
resulting in cracking. The ductile fracture criterion using the results of the simulation was employed to predict the cracking. It was shown
that the damage value calculated from the simulation results identifies the spinning conditions where cracking will not occur.
Keywords: Spinning, Necking, Rotary forming, Explicit finite element method, Crack, Stainless steel pipe
Introduction
Experimental and Simulation Methods
Spinning is a typical rotary forming method, and is the

main method used to form plate sheets metals into various
shapes. However, to form cylindrical products, pipes are
used in the spinning [1]. Recently, a high product mix and
low volume production has been required to meet the
demand for increasingly diversified products obtained by
spinning, and the reduction of manufacturing cost is also
strongly desired [2,3]. The force on rollers used for the
spinning is much smaller than that on rollers used for
conventional press forming. Therefore, it is possible to
reduce the size of rollers and other equipment used for the
spinning as well as the manufacturing cost. Because of
these advantages, the spinning of pipes is attracting attention as a forming technique that can easily meet the requirements of reduced manufacturing cost and a high
product mix and low volume production.
Pipes deform in a complicated manner because they
have a large free surface that is not in contact with the
rollers. Furthermore, it is difficult to determine appropriate
forming conditions that can minimize the number of defects, such as cracking and wrinkling, because the spinning involves more factors affecting the deformation of
pipes than other forming methods. Thus far, the forming
conditions and fabrication accuracy during spinning of the
center and end of pipes have been investigated by experimental studies [1,2,4] and numerical simulation [5-7].
However, the deformation behavior still remains unclear,
and the mechanism of the occurrence of cracking has not
yet been clarified.
In this study, we carried out experiments and a simulation to investigate the spinning of car exhaust pipes [8,9].
The mechanisms underlying the deformation of materials
and occurrence of a cracking are discussed using the results obtained. Also, we qualitatively evaluated the occurrence of a cracking from simulation results using an equation of ductile fracture criterion and examined suitable
spinning conditions to avoid the occurrence of a cracking.
Figures 1 and 2 show schematic diagrams of the spinning process. As shown in Figures 1(a) and (b), the pipe
dimensions were outer diameter 120.0 mm, length 112.0
mm, and wall thickness 1.5 mm. The outer diameter was
reduced to 54.0 mm using rollers with an outer diameter of
Figure 1. Schematic diagrams of spinning process.
986
09.08.2010 14:40:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
100.0 mm and radius of curvature of 8.0 mm. The taper
angle of the spinning is . The rollers moved in a spiral
pattern around the pipe, proceeding simultaneously in the
axial and radial direction. Figure 1(c) shows the locus of
the bottom of a roller in the r-z plane. The axial lead and
radial pitch of the rollers during spinning are denoted as L
and P=2.4 mm, respectively. The rollers move forward
then backward for 13 passes and then only move forward
in the final pass to achieve the desired outer diameter of
the pipe end in the final pass. Thus, the spinning process
comprises a total of 14 passes. The total distance moved
by the rollers in the radial direction from the start to the
end of forming is 33.0 mm. As shown in Figure 2, the two
rollers maintain an interval of 180 during spinning.
density of the material was set to 7.810-4 kg/mm3. It was

confirmed that the stress calculated by the above method
was equivalent to that calculated by the static implicit
method (implicit mode of RADIOSS). The calculation
time was 80 h per condition (2 CPUs with 3.6 GHz Xeon
processors).
Deformed Shape after Spinning. Figure 3 shows the
appearance of the pipe after the experiment and simulation
results with = 28.6 and 60.0 and L = 20.0 mm. As
shown in Figure 3(a), the pipe was formed with high dimensional accuracy both in the experiment and in the
simulation. The circularity of the necked portion remained
within 0.13 mm in the experiment and 0.14 mm in the
simulation. In case that the taper angle was 60.0, however,
cracking occurred at the taper corners during the 13th pass,
at which the radius of the pipe r was reduced to 28.8 mm.
The occurrence of cracking is discussed by focusing on the
deformation of the pipe end when r is approximately 28.8
mm in the latter half of the spinning.
Figure 2. Initial model for finite element analysis.
Table 1 and Table 2 summarize the spinning conditions

and the mechanical properties of the initial pipe, respectively. Experiments were carried out and a simulation
under the conditions shown in Table 1. The pipes used in
this study were made of ferrite stainless steel (SUS409),
and the mechanical properties in Table 2 were determined
in a tensile test on a JIS Z 2201 13B specimen cut out
from these pipes.
Table 1. Spinning conditions.
Figure 3. Appearance of formed pipe (L=20.0mm).
Table 2. Mechanical properties of initial pipe.
A pipe-spinning machine (VF-SR150-CNC4-T4: Nihon

Spindle Manufacturing Co., Ltd.), was used in the experiment. In the simulation, the dynamic explicit code RADIOSS (Altair Engineering, Inc.) is used. The pipe was
modelled using a total of 7200 hexahedral element, where
three elements were allocated to the wall thickness. As a
boundary condition, the clamped end was assumed to be
the fixed end. It was also assumed that the rollers are rigid
and that the coefficient of friction between the pipe and the
rollers is 0.15. Considering the calculation efficiency, the
Figures 4 and 5 show the distributions of the thickness

ratio and strain in the axial direction obtained after spinning with L=20.0 mm, respectively. t was obtained by
measuring the wall thickness of the after spinning and t0 is
the wall thickness of the initial pipe. The longitudinal
strain z was obtained by simulation. The longitudinal
position of the pipe at the corner of the tapered section was
assumed to be zC =0 mm, and the tapered section zS zC and
the pipe end zC zF correspond to negative and positive
values of z, respectively. According to Figure 4, the thickness ratio decreased along the zS zC direction and reached
its minimum value near the corner of the tapered section
zC =0 mm for all . In particular, for = 60.0, at which a
cracking occurred, the thickness ratio at zC was very small.
Moreover, the thickness ratio increased along the zC zF
direction. In contrast, the longitudinal strain z increased
along the zS zC direction and reached its maximum value
near the corner of the tapered section, then decreased
along the zC zF direction, as shown in Figure 5. The larger
the taper angle , the larger the longitudinal strain z in the
987
09.08.2010 14:40:59 Uhr
Metal Forming
vicinity of zC = 0 mm. This means that for a large taper
angle, the longitudinal elongation in the tapered section
increases and the thickness ratio at its corner of the tapered
section markedly decreases, thereby resulting in cracking
at the corner.
Figure 4. Distribution of thickness ratio (t-t0)/ t0 in longitudinal

distance (L=20mm, experimental result).
Figure 6. Distribution of peripheral stress p and longitudinal

stress l in cross section at z=zR=110.0mm (rR=28.0mm, simulation result).
Figure 5. Distribution of longitudinal strain z in longitudinal distance (L=20mm, simulation result).
For a more detailed analysis of the mechanisms underlying pipe deformation and cracking occurrence, we discuss
the stress calculated in the simulation. Figure 6 shows the
region of contact between the roller and the pipe and the
distributions of the circumferential stress p and longitudinal stress l in the contact region. The values of stress of
the outer, middle, and inner layers are shown in each figure. The abscissa, -, represents the positional relationship between the pipe and the roller, and - =0 means
that the roller is directly above the pipe. Figure 6(a)
shows the stress distribution in the cross section at z=zR
=110.0 mm for r=rR 28.0 mm after forming with = 28.6
and L=20.0 mm. As shown in the left figure, p for the
inner layer is larger than that for the outer layer when -
is approximately 0. This indicates the occurrence of deformation due to unbending caused by the contact of the
roller with the pipe. Moreover, p for the inner layer becomes smaller than that of the outer layer when - < 9,
corresponding to the bending deformation of the pipe.
Whereas, p of the middle layer is compressive, indicating
that the pipe deforms owing to bending and unbending
under circumferential compressive stress. The stress distribution for = 60.0, similarly obtained by spinning with
L=20.0 mm, is shown
988
Figure 7. Effect of forming conditions on maximum pb of the

difference of outer p and inner sp in contact area shown in Figure
6 (zR =110.0mm, simulation result).
in Figure 6(b). The relationships among p for the inner,

outer, and middle layers in the left figure are similar to
those for = 28.6. However, the difference in p between
the inner and outer layers when - = 0 for = 60.0 is
much larger than that for = 28.6. The difference in p
between the inner and outer layers was then calculated,
and its maximum value while the pipe is in contact with
the roller was denoted as pb.
Figure 7 shows the effect of forming conditions on pb.
pb increases with increasing and L. In particular, pb
under the conditions of L= 20.0 mm and = 60.0, at
which a crack occurred, is larger than that under the other
conditions. It was confirmed experimentally and by simulation that the formed products have high dimensional
09.08.2010 14:41:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
accuracy with the exception of the product formed when
= 60.0 and L= 20.0 mm.
Thus, the mechanisms underlying the deformation of
the pipe and the occurrence of a cracking are explained as
follows. When the taper angle and axial lead of the roller
is large, the outside of the pipe is subjected to considerable
compressive stress in the peripheral direction by the
contact with the rollers. Simultaneously, the inside of the
pipe is subjected to considerable tensile stress in the
peripheral direction. The diameter of pipe progressively
decreased in under repeated tensile stress and compressive
stress. In particular, at the tapered section, the longitudinal
elongation increases, causing the thickness ratio at its
corner to markedly decrease. Namely, the pipe is
simultaneously subjected to large stresses in opposite
directions while its thickness ratio decreases, thereby
resulting in cracking.
The right side of Figures 6 (a) and (b) shows the distribution of longitudinal stress l. The absolute value of the
middle layer of l becomes less than 100MPa. The value is
small in comparison with the absolute value of the middle
layer of p.
Evaluation of Cracking Using Equation of Ductile
Fracture Criterion. In the case of spinning with a large ,
a cracking occurs when L becomes large. The ductile fracture criterion proposed by Cockcroft et al. [10] is used.
The damage value C can be calculated by Equation (1).
(1)
Here, max is the maximum principal stress and f is the
equivalent strain when the pipe fractures. max is divided
by the equivalent stress to obtain a dimensionless value.
The damage value C was calculated from the simulation
result, to evaluate the occurrence of the cracking.
Figure 8 shows the longitudinal distribution of C obtained by spinning with L=20.0 mm and =28.6 - 60.0.
In this figure, the longitudinal position of the pipe z at the
corner of the tapered section is assumed to be zC=0 mm,
and the section from zC to the cramp end and that from zC
to the pipe end correspond to negative and positive values
of z, respectively. As shown in Figure, C increases with
increasing z when z< 0 mm and reaches its maximum
value near z=0 for all . The larger the taper angle , the
larger the damage value C. The maximum C for = 60.0,
at which a cracking occurred, is larger than that for the
other
values of , at which no cracking occurred. As mentioned

above, C be comes maximum and the thickness ratio is
minimum at z=0, which corresponds to the position of the
cracking. It was therefore found that a cracking occurres
when =60.0 and L=20.0 mm under the conditions examined in this study. It was also found that the damage value
can serve as an index for qualitatively evaluating the
occurrence of a cracking.
Conclusion
The effect of the taper angle on the occurrence of a
crack during the spinning of stainless-steel pipes was
evaluated on the basis of the results of experiments and a
three-dimensional finite element simulation. In addition,
the damage value from the simulation result using an
equation of ductile fracture criterion was calculated and
the conditions leading to the formation of a cracking were
investigated. The following findings were obtained.
1. For a large taper angle and axial lead during spinning,
the outside of the pipe is subjected to considerable compressive stress in the peripheral direction by the contact
with the rollers. The inside of the pipe is subjected to
considerable tensile stress in the peripheral direction.
The diameter of pipe progressively decreased in under
repeated tensile stress and compressive stress.
2. The thickness ratio of the pipe decreased in its tapered
section and increased towards the pipe end. The pipe is
simultaneously subjected to large stresses in reverse directions repeatedly while its thickness ratio markedly
decreases, which results in the occurrence of a cracking
at the corner of the tapered section.
3. The calculated damage value increases with increasing
taper angle and reached a maximum in the vicinity of
the corner of the tapered section. The damage value becomes maximum under the forming conditions that
cause a cracking to occurre.
References
[1] M. Hayama: Advances in Rotary Forming Processes, Kindai Henshu
Ltd., Tokyo, (1992,) 241-249.
[2] M. Murata, R. Muta: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of
Plasticity, 42-481 (2001), 124-128.
[3] A. Danno: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity,
43-502 (2002), 1023.
[4] J. Yao, M. Murata: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 166
(2005), 405-410.
[5] A. Andou, K. Sakamoto, S. Karino, K. Hara: Proc. 2007 Japanese
Spring Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, Nagoya, (2007),
185-186.
[6] Q.X Xia, X.Q. Cheng, Y. Hu, F. Ruan: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 48 (2006), 726-735.
[7] Q.X. Xia, S.W. Xie Y.L Huo, F. Ruan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 206 (2008), 500-508.
[8] S. Kihara, H. Mizumoto, H. Ishida, Y. Iio: Proc. 2006 Japanese
Spring Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, (2006), Tokyo,
217-218.
[9] S. Kihara, H. Mizumoto, H. Ishida, Y. Iio, Y. Nakata: Proc. 57th
Japanese Joint Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, (2006),
Takaoka, 367-368.
[10] M.G. Cockcroft, D.J. Latham: Journal of the Institute of Metals,
96(1968), 33-39.
Figure 8. Distribution of damage value C in longitudinal distance

(L=20mm, simulation result).
989
09.08.2010 14:41:02 Uhr
Metal Forming
Design and Validation of Forming High-Precision Cylindrical Components by ThreeRoll Flow Forming Process
Ming He
Timken Technology Center, The Timken Company, Canton, Ohio / U.S.A., ming.he@timken.com
Flow forming is an incremental metal forming process and is capable of making high-precision cylindrical steel components when the forming rolls and process parameters are correctly designed. Development of flow forming is largely through experimental work and its forming
theory is hardly systematic and comprehensive. This paper describes formulation and study of the relationship of the kinematics and kinetics of the flow forming process, which was used as a guideline in establishing process design methodologies and forming procedures of
high-precision cylindrical components. The springback mechanisms, material formability and mechanics for establishing stable forming
conditions have significant influence on the part quality and were primary subjects in the investigation. These analytical studies were instrumental in the course of engineering and problem solving related to precision flow forming. The selected results from the development
are discussed.
Keywords: Precision flow forming, Springback, formability, Reduction ratio, Finite element analysis
Introduction
Flow forming is a complex elasto-plastic deformation
process. Numerous researchers and laboratories conducting fundamental studies have contributed substantially to
the knowledge base of the modern flow forming technology. A detailed description of flow forming classification
and processes can be found in [1]. One of the early technical papers on flow forming mechanics published by Kobayashi and Thomsen [2] summarized the previous studies of
spin forming of cones and approximated the stresses and
forces in spin forming of tubes by the strip and slip-line
methods. Park et al. [3] used the upper-bound method to
calculate the total power consumption of flow forming.
The authors also studied the required force coefficients
according to the variation of friction and the forming roll
leading angle. Roy et al. [4] studied the local plastic strain
distribution under the forming roll. Investigations have
also been carried out to study the effects of process parameters [5-7,11]. In recent years, finite element modeling
techniques became a common practice to assist the flow
forming studies [8-10]. In the industrial sector, the most
important aspect in flow forming applications is concerning the products quality, seeking defect-free production
with sufficient precision and repeatability. For precision
flow forming, the focus is always on the most striking
factors, such as the springback mechanisms, the material
formability and the mechanics for establishing stable
forming conditions. This paper describes the approximate
relationship of the above-mentioned factors in the threeroll flow forming process of the components made from
sheet metal blanks. This was used as a guideline in establishing the design methodologies and forming procedures
of high-precision cylindrical components.
Flow Forming Process
Flow forming is an incremental metal forming method
for making axi-symmetric components from sheet metal or
tubular blanks. Examples include precision needle roller
bearing cups and automotive hollow shafts. Along with the
development work, flow forming is now capable of mak-
990
ing products with complex inner and outer profiles and

contours. Because of its high flexibility, low tooling cost,
and low forming forces, flow forming was developed in
the present study for producing and prototyping small- to
medium-quantity of the net-shaped products requiring the
dimensional precision up to 0.013mm and the surface
roughness up to 0.1m.
The flow forming process for sheet-based products consists of at least two passes. In most cases, multiple passes
are necessary to form a high precision and flawless part
that satisfies the requirements of the geometric and dimensional tolerances and surface finish. These passes can be
categorized into pre-forming and calibrating, based on
their functionalities. The passes performing pre-forming,
deform a flat blank, clamped between the mandrel and
tailstock, into a cup or near cup shape, where most
bending takes place with no or slight wall reduction. In the
pre-forming passes, the preformed blank may or may
not have contact with the mandrel. Usually, only one pass
is needed to perform the calibrating, in which the
cupped blank is formed to its final diameters, geometric
profile and surface finish.
In the present development work, the common failure
modes in the pre-forming stage were wrinkling, chattering, localized necking, cracking or even breaking up. The
major concerns in the calibrating stage were the maximum wall reduction and the defects affecting dimensional
and geometric precision, such as inner under-filling and
surface waviness. These observed failure modes coincide
with that described in other literature, for example [1]. To
prevent defects and failures from occurring, the designs
should keep the forming within its limits.
Approximate Prediction of Springback
In precision flow forming, springback is the first material behavior that needs to be considered in a mandrel
design. In the forming zone of the mandrel there must be a
small draft angle to compensate the springback in the part
when it is formed. The draft angle should be as precisely
estimated as possible in the design phase to avoid repeated
modifications to the mandrel.
09.08.2010 14:41:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
The workpiece materials in use usually display an elastic-exponential, strain-hardening behavior. The degree of
the strain-hardening in a workpiece depends on the working history. Although springback can happen in any moment of the forming, it is evident that springback most
often results from the pre-forming passes where the
blank is primarily bent into a cup or semi-cup shape without significant thinning. An approximate prediction of
springback is formulated by assuming a pure bending in
the plane strain condition in the region of the corner of the
part where the bending occurs. In an elastic-exponential
strain-hardening sheet steel (Figure 1), the bending moment is
t
t
2
2
ye y
M = 2 ydy = 2
y 2 dy + K n ydy
0 y e
0
ye
st 2
2(n + 1)
y y e2 +
3(n + 2 )
2(n + 2 )
(1)
fected by material characteristics (strength and workhardening), material thickness and bending angle. The
calculated springback angle (_cald) was used as the
draft angle in the mandrel manufacturing. After the parts
were flow formed, their inside diameters were measured
by a coordinate measuring machine along the entire deformation height of the parts. The residual angle (-_res
for the inward residual angle and +_res for the outward
residual angle) and the actual springback angle in the parts
can be calculated. Figure 2 illustrates how the actual
springback angle is obtained. Table 1 compares the calculated springback angles to the actual measured ones in a
number of flow formed parts with various sheet steel
grades, thicknesses and bending radii. The results show
that Eq. (6) can provide a close approximation of springback angle in the initial mandrel design. One or two iterations of the draft angle modification to the mandrel are
sometimes necessary when the formed parts require a zero
residual angle.
s
Mandrel
n
=k
ye
t/2
-_res
+_res
Workpiece
Workpiece
Inside
Diameter
_cal'd
_actual=_cal'd-_res
_actual=_cal'd+_res
Figure 2. Actual springback angle in the formed parts.

Figure 1. Bending in elastic-exponential strain-hardening material.
When the sheet is fully plastic, the moment is

st 2
(ye=0)
M=
(2)
2(n + 2 )
At unloading, the strain and stress changes are
=(1/)y and =E', respectively (For plane strain,
E'=E/(1-2)). The moment of unloading is
t
2
1 t3
M = 2 ydy == E
12
0
After springback, M-M=0

1 12
1 t3
M
M = E
or =
3
12
E t
Because (1 / ) = (1 / )( / ) , substituting Eq.

Eq. (4) gives
6 s
=
n + 2 E t
1+ n
4 2
As s = K ns =
3
1+ n
(3)
(4)
(2) into
(5)
2
4 2 6 K 1
(6)
=
y n (1n )
n+2
Et
3
where y is a half of the blank thickness t, is the radius of
the mandrel about which the blank is to be bent, and is
the total angle of the bending.
Eq. (6) indicates that the springback angle is mostly af-
t
0.90
1.66
0.69
2.21
Table 1. Springback angles ().

y=t/2
_cald
_actual
0.45
1.15
1.00
1.19
0.83
1.25
0.64
0.57
0.345
1.0
1.11
1.19
1.105
1.44
0.70
0.70
diff
-0.19
+0.07
-0.08
0
Maximum Blank-to-Part Diameter Ratio
Flow forming, similar to deep drawing, has its forming

limit, which is defined as a ratio of the diameter of the
blank and the inside diameter of the formed part. Unlike
deep drawing, the outer edge of the blank during flow
forming is not supported and therefore is more prone to
defects. The internal work dWI by the incremental move of
the three forming rolls combined is
dW I = i d i dV =
V
K ns , the total springback angle is
Part
1
2
3
4
( r d r + d + z d z )dV
where dV = (R0 + r )tdrd
(7)
(8)
By neglecting the thickness change in the pre-forming

pass (dz=0), d=-dr. Since dr=dr/(R0+r)
dr
dr
i d i = ( r )
= y
(9)
(R0 + r )
(R0 + r )
Substituting Eq. (9) into Eq. (7) yields
dr
dW I = y
dV
(
R
0 + r)
V
(10)
By equating the volumes of the unformed portion of the

blank (Area 1 in Figure 3) and the formed incremental
991
09.08.2010 14:41:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
cylindrical portion (Area 2),
R0
dh
dr =
R0 + r
(11)
Substituting Eqs. (8) and (11) into Eq. (10) gives

R
1
R + R1
dW I
dr
= y R0 td
= y R0 td ln 0
(R0 + r )
dh
R0
0
(12)
ing reached the final stage of the pre-forming passes.

After the ratio was reduced to 1.86 by reducing the starting
blank diameter, a satisfactory part was formed (Figure
4(b)). Wong et al. [8] concluded from a study of flow
forming of a cup-shaped A6061 component from a disc
blank (705mm) that a critical forming limit was reached
at diameter reduction of 25%, after which severe breakage
in the part would occur. In the present development work,
however, a cup-shaped part with the blank-to-part diameter ratio of 1.97, equivalent to 97% diameter reduction in
Wongs study, was flow formed by using 1014.8mm
AISI 1020 blanks.
(a)
Figure 3. Calculation of the maximum blank-to-part diameter ratio.
R + R1
is the flow forming limit.
By definition, 0
R0
dWI
is the maximum incremental force, dFr, at R0 introdh
duced by the forming rolls. The maximum stress at the
same location can be obtained by dividing dFr by the area,
R0td. Rearranging Eq. (12) yields
r
R0 + R1
=e y
R0
(13)
By neglecting the anisotropic characteristics of the

blank (r=y), Eq. (13) predicts the maximum blank-topart diameter ratio to be 2.72. This value is larger than
what is usually achievable in the actual flow forming
process because the formulation does not take friction and
the redundant work into consideration. In the case of an
elastic-exponential strain-hardening material, the workpiece in the R1 region is gradually work-hardened when
forming rolls bend and push down the portion. As a result,
the yield stress is increasing, as shown in Eq. (14). In
addition, the maximum flow stress is affected by the forming roll leading angle and the friction between the forming
rolls and the blank, as shown in Eq. (15).
+ i
y = K (0 + i )n = y 0 0
0
dFr
P (sin + cos )
r =
=
R0 td
R0 td
(14)
(15)
By adding all of these factors, the maximum flow forming limit is reduced. The experience from the development
of a number of products told us that the parts can be successfully flow formed without defects when the maximum
flow forming ratio was controlled within 2. For example,
the bottom of a part with the initial blank-to-part diameter
ratio 2.07, as shown in Figure 4(a), broke when the form-
992
(b)
Figure 4. Influence of the flow forming limit on the formed parts.
It is obvious that when the blank diameter is larger than

the flow forming limit, a significant portion of metal is
wrapped around the forming roll bottom to introduce a
larger force P in the blank. To flow form a part having a
large blank-to-part diameter ratio, one can either start with
a larger initial R0 and gradually close in by adding more
passes or use a smaller forming roll leading angle to make
metal flow easier and therefore effectively reduce the
stresses in the blank. When used properly, these methods
can also help reduce the effect of work-hardening. In general, at the workpiece top corner, thinning occurs due to
tensile stress, whereas in the portion of the workpiece
under the forming roll, thickening occurs due to compressive stress. With a correct forming path and tooling design,
the difference can be minimized.
Approximation of Maximum Wall Reduction in One
Pass
The wall reduction ratio R is defined as

t t 0 t1
1
R=
=
= 1
t0
t0
e
(16)
Because of the stress-strain relationship in Eq. (14), Eq.

(16) shows clearly that the wall reduction ratio is largely
dependent on the material work hardening behavior. For
an ideal plastic material (n=0), without considering friction and the redundant work, the theoretical wall reduction
limit is 63%, which agrees with the result in [2]. In the
flow forming process, the wall reduction, which is mainly
achieved in the calibrating pass, can be approximately
derived from the geometric relations (forming roll leading
angles and tooling diameters) and the material relations
(friction coefficients, stresses and work hardening) (Eq.
(17)) as shown in Figure 5 (Due to limited space, the
derivative steps are omitted). The influence of the work
hardening on the wall reduction limits is depicted in
Figure 6 with a 0.2% initial stress, 0 .
09.08.2010 14:41:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
n
0 + i
t
0
t1
=
R=
t
1+
(2 + m r ) + ( r m )
t1
tan
(17)
Workpiece
Y
t1
t2
t1
t3
The smallest to the largest wall reduction ratios that can

maintain a superior product quality in the present development work were ranged from 17% to 56% in a single
pass. These ratios are in the similar range (24% - 67%)
given by Jahazi and Ebrahimi [11], being aware that the
forming roll leading angles were different in both studies.
The allowable reduction ratio gradually increases in the
subsequent passes even though the absolute wall reduction
is decreasing. The total wall reduction can reach over 95%
with all the passes combined.
p3
mq
p2
rp i
p1
Mandrel
t0
l3
l2
s2
s1
l1
Forming Rolls
Figure 5. Calculation of maximum wall reduction.
(a)
(b)
Figure 7. Defects in the flow formed parts due to a low wall reduction ratio.
To maximize the wall reduction in flow forming, the

forming rolls and the mandrel should have a very low
surface roughness, the friction coefficient between the
mandrel and the workpiece should be greater than that
between the forming rolls and the workpiece and the forming roll leading angle should be reasonably small.
It is worth noting that a balanced selection of the feed

rate of the forming rolls and the mandrel rotational speed
is also very critical in the flow forming high quality and
high precision products.
Maximum Reduction Ratio (R)
100%
m=0.06
r=0.05
90%
e=1.5%, n=0.18
e=1.0%, n=0.18
e=1.5%, n=0.12
e=1.0%, n=0.12
80%
70%
60%
Conclusions
A number of important forming parameters and limits

are formulated and studied for forming the high-precision
cylindrical components by the three-roll flow forming
process. These parameters show significant interactions in
affecting the flow forming process. A thorough investigation and balanced selection of the forming parameters has
proven vital to the finished quality of the flow formed
products when superior precision is required.
References
50%
0
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Forming Roll Leading Angle ()
Figure 6. Influence of work-hardening on maximum reduction ratio.
To maintain stable flow forming, it is important to design the wall reduction ratios in all the passes well within
the maximum and the minimum wall reductions. A small
wall reduction will hardly let deformation penetrate into
the entire wall thickness. Surface or subsurface defects
(fish scaling, flakes, etc. in Figure 7(a)) and undesirable
geometry (out-of-round, wrinkles, chatters, etc. in Figre
7(b)) are commonly seen. On the other hand, when the
wall reduction is too large, the tensile stress in the workpiece is exceeding the strength limit and necking and fracture will occur. Also, a large wall reduction directly results
in excessive material build-up under the forming rolls in
both axial and tangential directions, which makes the
forming difficult and may severely damage the workpiece.
[1] M. Runge: Spinning and flow forming, verlag moderne industrie AG,
Landsberg/Lech, (1994).
[2] S. Kobayashi, E.G. Thomsen: CIRP Annals, 10 (1962), 114-123.
[3] J.W. Park, Y,H. Kim, W.B. Bae: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 66 (1997), 109-203
[4] M.J. Roy, R.J. Klassen, J.T. Wood: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 209 (2009), 1018-1025.
[5] M. Jahazi, G. Ebrahimi: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
103 (2000), 362-366.
[6] Z.E. Ma: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 37 (1993),
217-280.
[7] C.C. Wong, J. Lin, T.A. Dean: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 167 (2005), 344353.
[8] C.C. Wong, A. Danno, K.K. Tong, M.S. Yong: Journal of Materials
[9] Y. Xu, S.H. Zhang, P. Li, K. Yang, D.B. Shan, Y, Lu: Journal of
[10] K. Xue, Z. Wang, Y. Lu, K. Li: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 69 (1997), 172-175.
[11] M. Jahazi, G. Ebrahimi: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
103 (2000), 362-366.
993
09.08.2010 14:41:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
Research on Spinning Method of Hollow Part with Triangle Arc-Type Cross Section
Based on Profiling Driving
Xia Qinxiang1), Lai Zhouyi1), Zhan Xinxi1), Cheng Xiuquan2)
1)
School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou / China, meqxxia@scut.edu.cn;
Department of Aviation Maintenance Engineering, Guangzhou Civil Aviation College, Guangzhou / China
2)
Metal spinning is an advanced forming technique of the hollow parts with circular cross section, which is used recently as a new method to
manufacture the hollow parts with non-circular cross section. The feed movement of spinning roller is the key problem for the new method.
To obtain the desired feed movement, a spinning method based on profiling driving was put forward. The spinning method for manufacturing the hollow part with triangle arc-type cross section was investigated. The profiling mandrel was obtained by analytical method; and the
feed movement tolerance based on profiling driving was verified by MSC.ADAMS software, the tolerance varies between -0.065mm and
+0.065mm, which is less than 3.25% of the workpiece thickness (2mm). The spin-forming device based on profiling driving was manufactured, and experiments show that the method can be used to produce the hollow part with triangle arc-type cross section successfully in the
condition of low feed ratio (fz=0.1 mm/r) and rotation speed (n=45 r/min). The spinning method can also be applied to manufacture the other
kinds of hollow parts with non-circular cross section.
Keywords: Spinning; Triangle Arc-type Cross Section; Hollow Part; Profiling Driving; Analytical Method
Hollow Part with Triangle Arc-Type Cross Section

The hollow part with triangle arc-type cross section is
shown as Figure 1, which is a cornet part with half cornet
angle of externally tangent corn. Its material is SPCC. Its
cross section shown as Figure1 (c) consists of by three big
arcs and three small arcs and its dimension is given in
Table 1. D is the diameter of externally tangent circle, Dav
is the nominal diameter, 2e is the offset distance, is the
994
Small section
The spinning process is used as a new method to manufacture the hollow parts with non-circular cross section
[1,2]. The feed movement of spinning roller is the key
problem for the method. Amano and Tamura used a radically offset roller on a modied spinning lathe to produce
elliptical parts[3]. The feed movement of spinning roller is
obtained through a mechanism of cams and links, driven
by the main motor to synchronise the roller motion with
mandrel rotation. It is difficult to control precisely the
roller-mandrel clearance, and the maximum error is about
23%. Similar to Amano and Tamuras approach, Gao proposed offsetting the mandrel instead of the roller to produce elliptical parts, but the weak accuracy of rollermandrel clearance is still existed [4]. T. Arai used a hybrid
force/position control system to produce nonaxisymmetric products, allowing the roller to track an
asymmetric mandrel [5,6]. Awiszus and Meyer used a pair
of diametrically opposite, spring-controlled rollers on a
standard spinning lathe to produce convex and concave
tripod shape hollow parts[7]. However, these two methods
cannot control the roller-mandrel clearance precisely.
To achieve the desired roller-mandrel clearance precisely,
a new spinning method based on profiling driving was put
forward and was used to manufacture hollow parts with
triangle arc-type cross section. Analytical method was
used to design the profiling mandrel, and MSC.ADAMS
software was used to verify the feed movement tolerance
based on profiling driving.
radius of generating circle, R is the radius of big arc, r is

the radius of small arc, t is the thinness and h is the height.
The relationship of above characteristic parameters is
given by:
2e
D
2e = D Dav , =
, r = , R = 3 + r (1)
2
2 3
Introduction
(a) 3-D model

(b) Half section
(c) Cross section
Figure 1. Schematic drawing of hollow part with triangle arc-type
cross section. 1-Big arc, 2-Small arc, 3-Generating circle, 4Externally tangent circle.
Table 1. Dimension of hollow part with triangle arc-type cross
section.
Small section
D (mm)
(mm)
2e (mm)
84
20
5.36
t (mm)
h (mm)
()
35
45
Spinning Method Based on Profiling Driving

The spin-forming device based on profiling driving is
shown as Figure 2 (a), which consists of spinning mandrel,
spinning roller, tailstock, worktable A, worktable B, profiling roller, profiling mandrel, guide strip, etc. The spinning
roller and profiling roller were fixed on worktable B. The
feed movement of spinning roller is an resultant movement of (a) worktable A along Z axis direction droved by
servo-actuator and (b) worktable B along guide strip
(namely, X axis direction) droved by profiling mandrel.
The spinning mandrel and profiling mandrel droved by
gears, rotated synchronously. The clearance between spin-
09.08.2010 14:41:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
ning roller and spinning mandrel is exactly controlled to
the wall thickness by the profiling mandrel.
Figure 2 (b) is the A-A cross section of the spin-forming
device. For this device, it is assumed that the contact point
T1 between spinning roller and spinning mandrel is the
contact point between neutral plane of spinning roller and
A-A cross section of spinning mandrel, so as the contact
point T2 between profiling roller and profiling mandrel.
(a)
(a)
(b)
Figure 3. Variation of s as spinning mandrel revolved.
The parametric equation of L1 is:
(b)
Figure 2. Schematic drawing of spin-forming device based on
profiling driving. 1-Workpiece, 2-Spinning mandrel, 3-Tailstock, 4Worktable A, 5-Spinning roller, 6-Worktable B, 7-Profiling roller, 8Profiling mandrel, 9-Guide strip, 10- A-A cross section of spinning
mandrel, 11- A-A plane project drawing of spinning roller, 12- A-A
cross section of profiling roller, 13- A-A plane project drawing of
profiling mandrel.
Design and Error Analysis of Profiling Mandrel

For the movement of profiling roller is the same as spinning roller, the section profile of profiling mandrel can be
designed according to the X axis direction movement of
spinning roller, then the 3-D model of profiling mandrel
can be created according to its section profile and half
o
cornet angle (45 ) of externally tangent corn.
The X Axis Direction Movement of Spinning Roller.
The distance of O1 and O2 (named S, S = f ( ) , where is
rotation angle of spinning mandrel) is the X axis direction
movement of spinning roller. L1 is the big arc intersecting
X axis, Figure 3 (a) is the starting position of spinning
mandrel. When spinning mandrel revolved clockwise in an
angle (shown as Figure3 (b)), the L1, A-A plane project
drawing of spinning roller and S vary as follow:
x R cos( ) + ( y00 sin + x00 cos )

(2)
y = R sin( ) ( x sin y cos )

00
00
Where, ( x00 , y00 ) is the center coordinate of L1, R is the
radius of L1, ( R, ) is the polar coordinates point ( x, y ) .

The slope of a point of L1 is:
dy dy / d
1
=
=
(3)
dx dx / d
tan( )
(2) For the A-A plane project drawing of spinning roller
The parametric equation is:
X R1 cos cos + S
(4)
Y =
R1 sin

Where, R1 is radius of spinning roller, point (S, 0) is the

center coordinate of A-A plane project drawing of spinning roller. The slope of a point of A-A plane project drawing of spinning roller is:
dY dY / d
1
=
=
(5)
dX dX / d
cos tan
(3) For S
For T1 is a common point of L1 and A-A plane project
drawing of spinning roller, hence:
x X dy dY
(6)
y = Y , dx = dX

995
09.08.2010 14:41:09 Uhr
Metal Forming
S:
Substitute Eqs. (2), (3), (4) and (5) into Eq. (6), then find
S = (1 cos 2 ) R cos( ) + ( y00 sin x00 cos )

cos 2
( x00 sin y00 cos )
tan( )
Where,
(7)
R sin( ) ( x00 sin y00 cos ) +
is
submitted
by:
R1 tan( )
cos2 + tan 2 ( )
cos = 1
1+
Sx
cos
(11)
S = B B
sin
y
The section profile of profiling mandrel is the envelope
line of the circle C as shown in Figure 4, which obeys the
Eqs. (12) and (13):
f ( xM , y M , ) = 0
=0 ,
tan 2 ( )
cos 2
sin = tan( ) cos 2 + tan 2 ( ) .

The calculation of S = f ( ) is similar to the above when
the spinning mandrel revolved in other angle.
Section Profile of Profiling Mandrel. The design of

section profile of profiling mandrel based on reverse
analysis method is shown as Figure 4. To simplify the
calculation, the project drawing of profiling roller was
substituted by circle C whose centre was B0 and radius was
cosR2.
f ( xM , y M , )
(12)
(13)
=0
For T ( x , y ) in the section profile of profiling mandrel is located at the circle C, so:
M
f ( xM , yM , ) = ( xM xR ) + ( yM yR ) cos R2 = 0
2
f ( xM , yM , )
= 2( xM xR )
dxR
d
2( yM yR )
dyR
d
=0
(14)
(15)
Combine Eq. (14) with Eq. (15), find the section profile
of profiling mandrel:
x M = x R + cos R 2
y M = y R cos R 2
dyR
d
dxR 2
dy
) + ( R )2
d
d
dxR
d
dxR 2
dy
(
) + ( R )2
d
d
(16)
Where,
dxR
dS
cos (r0 + cos R2 S + R R0 + cos R1 )sin
=
d
d
.
dyR
dS
= sin + (r0 + cos R2 S + R R0 + cos R1 ) cos
d
d
Figure 4. Schematic drawing of design of profiling mandrel based

on reverse analysis method.
3-D Model of Spinning Mandrel and Profiling Mandrel. The diameter and fillet radius of spinning roller are
240 and 8 mm, respectively. The diameter and fillet radius
of spinning roller are 12 and 8 mm, respectively. According to Table 1, Eqs. (1) and (16), the 3-D models of spinning mandrel and profiling mandrel are created by software Pro/E (shown as Figure 5).
It is assumed that the centre of profiling roller moves

from point B0 to B when the profiling mandrel rotated
angle , and the movement B B of profiling roller is:
B B = S = ( S S MAX )
(8)
Where, sMAX = R + R1 cos .

The coordinate of point B0 is ( r0 + cos R2 , 0), the relationship of the coordinates of point B ( xR , yR ) is:
xR cos sin xB 0 S x
y = sin cos y + S
B0 y
R
Where,
xB 0 r0 + cos R4
y =
B0
996
(9)
(10)
(a) Spinning mandrel

(b) Profiling mandrel
Figure5. 3-D models of spinning mandrel and profiling mandrel.
Error Analysis of Feed Movement Based on Profiling

Driving with Software MSC.ADAMS. Figure 6 is the
error analysis results based on software MSC.ADAMS.
The i ( i = X S X F ( X S 0 X F 0 ) )is used to evaluate
the tolerance of the feed movement based on profiling
driving, where, X S and X F are displacements of spinning
roller and profiling roller in X axis direction respectively,
X S 0 and X F 0 are initial displacements of spinning roller
and profiling roller in X direction respectively. Error
09.08.2010 14:41:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
analysis results show that i varies between -0.13mm and

0mm, indicating that the profiling mandrel is bigger than
the ideal model. The tolerance is mainly caused by the
assumptions: a) the contact point between spinning roller
and spinning mandrel is the contact point between neutral
plane of spinning roller and a cross section of spinning
mandrel; b) the project drawing of profiling roller is simplified as a small circle.
Increasing the radial dimension of profiling mandrel by
0.065mm, i varies between -0.065 and +0.065 mm, which
is less than 3.25% of workpiece thinness and meets the
requirement of workpiece.
With this spin-forming device, hollow parts with triangle

arc-type cross section were produced on a spinning lathe
successfully (see Figure 8) in low feed ratio (fz=0.1 mm/r)
and rotation speed (n=45 r/min). During the spinning
process, the device runs smoothly. And there are not wrinkling or cracking occur in the workpiece. The spinning
method can also be applied to manufacture the other kinds
of hollow parts with non-circular cross section.
XF
XF0
Figure 8. Spun parts (SPCC, t=2 mm).
X S0
XS
(a)Spinning mandrel
Summaries
(b)Profiling mandrel
0.00
0.05
i
( mm )
0.10
0.15
2 3
4 3 2
8 3 10 3
4
Rotation angle of profiling mandrel (Rad)
Figure 6. The tolerance of feed movement based on profiling

driving.
Experiments
The spin-forming device based on profiling driving was

manufactured (shown as Figure 7).
1. A spinning method based on profiling driving was put

forward to manufacture the hollow parts with noncircular cross section and used to manufacture the hollow part with triangle arc-type cross section.
2. The aanalytical method was used to design the profiling
mandrel and the tolerance was verified by
MSC.ADAMS software: the feed movement tolerance
varied between -0.13 and 0 mm. Increasing the dimension of profiling mandrel, the tolerance varies between 0.065 and +0.065 mm, which is 3.25% of workpiece
thinness (2 mm).
3. The spin-forming device based on profiling driving can
produce the hollow part with triangle arc-type cross section in the condition of low feed ratio (fz=0.1 mm/r) and
rotation speed (n=45 r/min).
Acknowledgement
This research is financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.50775076).
References
Figure 7. Spin-forming device based on profiling driving. 1Spinning mandrel, 2-Tailstock, 3-Worktable A, 4-Spinning roller, 5Worktable B, 6-Profiling roller, 7-Profiling mandrel, 8-Guide strip, 9Gear.
[1] O. Musica, J.M. Allwooda, K. Kawai: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 210-1 (2010), 3-23.
[2] Q. Xia, X. Zhan, S. Zhang, X. Cheng: China Metal forming Equipment & Manufacturing Technology, 6 (2008), 77-82.
[3] T. Amano, K. Tamura: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Rotary Metalworking Processes, 8-10, September, 1984,
Kyoto, Japan, 213-224.
[4] X.C. Gao, D.C. Kang, X.F. Meng, H.J. Wu: Journal of Materials
Processing Technology. 94-2 (1999), 197-200.
[5] H. Arai: Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on
Robotics and Automation, April, 2005, Barcelona, Spain, 2691-2696.
[6] H. Arai: Proc. 2006 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation,
May 2006, Orlando, Florida, 4031-4036.
[7] B. Awiszus, F. Meyer: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Technology of Plasticity, 9-13, October, 2005, Verona, Italy,
353-355.
997
09.08.2010 14:41:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
Numerical and Experimental Investigations of Production of Non-Rotationally Symmetric Hollow Parts Using Sheet Metal Spinning
Sebastian Hrtel, Birgit Awiszus
Chemnitz/ Germany, sebastian.haertel@mb.tu-chemnitz.de
Particularities in numerical modelling of spinning processes using the finite element method are described. Starting with the spinning of
circular hollow parts, a comparison between simulation and experiment was made in order to achieve a calibrated numerical model. This
model enabled a simulation of non-circular spinning. Using this, a design of a machine conception has been developed which is capable of
spinning non-circular hollow parts. The numerical analysis of the new process non-circular spinning was used to determine the essential
factors of influence on the blank thickness and the thinning. After this, measures were taken in order to achieve a nearly constant blank
thickness of the final product.
Keywords: Metal forming, Asymmetric spinning, Incremental forming, FEM-simulation, Process simulation
Introduction
The increasing trend of the individualisation of products
demands an increasing widening of the range of varieties
of the goods on offer while at the same time lot sizes decrease. To handle the challenges this implies, manufacturing needs to use technologies which allow for a flexible
and effective production already in the lower lot size segment. One process which fulfils these requirements is
spinning. According to DIN 8584, spinning is defined as a
manufacturing process to produce circular hollow parts of
arbitrary surface contours. Low tool costs, short set-up
times, small geometrical tolerances as well as an excellent
surface quality allow for a flexible and cheaper production
in the middle and lower lot size segment compared to
conventional forming processes (e.g. deep drawing). One
way to further increase the economic relevance and flexibility of spinning is by expanding the range of parts to be
produced by non-circular spinning. In the following the
process development and its optimization of so-called noncircular spinning with motion controlled rollers will be
described. Based on numerical analyses of conventional
spinning a FE-model to spin non-circular hollow parts was
developed. These FEM-simulations were the foundation
for the following machine conception which can be used
to practically apply non-circular spinning technology. The
aim was to produce non-circular spinning parts of almost
constant blank thickness. The numerical software was also
used for process optimization. All numerical analyses were
done using the simulation software sfForming.SFM 8.1 by
Simufact Engineering GmbH.
Particularities in Simulation of Spinning Processes
The quality of results of a FEM-simulation depends
mainly on the parameters of the simulation input. These
can be divided into technological and numerical parameters. Figure 1 shows the relevant parameters, reduced to
the spinning process.
998
Figure 1. Technological and numerical factors influencing quality

of simulations.
The definition of the roller tool as idle roller allows for a

precise reproduction of real kinematics and an increase of
the simulation precision. A simplification of the realisation
of the kinematics i.e. the roller tools are not defined as
idle rollers and the friction coefficient between blank and
rollers is set to zero - does not properly reflect the tangential material flow during the process. Due to this a higher
plastic strain occurs and the blank thickness is not correctly calculated.
Moreover, the spinning process simulations use volume
elements instead of shell elements opposed to [1-3]. The
use of volume elements increases the prediction accuracy
regarding the modelling of spinning processes by a FEMsimulation. This is caused by the possibility of regarding
the complex three-dimensional strain in the deformation
zone which is characteristic for incremental forming processes [4]. Another advantage of the use of volume elements is the possibility to analyse the tangential compression stress on the blank level. The compression stress is
mainly responsible for the occurrence of wrinkles. A qualitative detection of wrinkling is possible thanks to the use
of FEM-simulations. Hamilton also observed that by using
volume elements the wrinkle occurrence can be simulated
more realistically than by using shell elements [5].
09.08.2010 14:41:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
Model Calibration of Conical Parts
The simulation model designed in sfForming.SFM 8.1,
which heeds real kinematics and uses volume elements,
was adjusted to experimental investigations. The geometry
and corresponding process parameters of the reference
experiment are shown in Figure 2.
spinning mandrel and roller at any point of time during the

spinning process.
The advantage of motion controlled rollers opposed to
force controlled rollers is the possibility to actively influence the arising blank thickness. However, the necessary
forming force changes in axial and radial direction during
the non-circular spinning process with motion controlled
rollers. In order to design a machine conception which
fulfils the demands of non-circular spinning it is necessary
to first determine the necessary forming forces using the
numerical simulation.
Simulation of Non-Circular Spinning
Figure 2. Reference experiment and process parameters.
The simulations are compared to the experiments with

regard to blank thickness, part dimensions and equivalent
plastic strain and then calibrated. As can be seen from
Table 1, the given deviations allowed for are not exceeded
by the results.
deviation
maximum
deviation
FEM
simulation
experiment
characteristic
Table 1. Calibration characteristics and deviations for reference

experiment circular cone 130 mm.
maximal
equivalent
1.05 [-]
0.93 [-]
-12.3 %
+/- 15 %
0.90 mm
0.97 mm
+7.2 %
+/- 10 %
28.7 mm
27.4 mm
-4.8 %
+/- 10 %
A tripodlike geometry was chosen as the research subject for non-circular spinning. This geometry is distinguished by a change from concave to convex sections. The
mandrel needed for spinning is pictured in Figure 3. For
the numerical simulation of non-circular spinning it is
necessary to realize the predefined axial and radial movement of the roller tool synchronous to the mandrel. Depending on the angle of rotation of the mandrel (constant
per time step), the roller tool moves into its target position.
The target positions are determined externally for each
increment and read into the sfForming.SFM 8.1 FEMsystem via an interface as a time-dependent boundary
condition. The system works according to an implicit time
integration method therefore the time segment can be
chosen freely in the simulation and corresponds exactly to
the time step of the real spinning process. Thus it is ensured that the roller movement is synchronous to the chosen mandrel contour.
plastic strain
minimal blank
thickness
average height
The simulation model can be considered as calibrated

and be used in the following for the numerical computation of the non-circular spinning.
Possibilities of Non-Circular Spinning
The production of non-circular hollow parts by spinning
is in principle possible by motion or force controlled rollers. First examinations by AWISZUS and ARAI showed that
non-circular hollow parts can be produced using force
controlled rollers. Awiszus [6] used pre-stressed tension
springs for the technological conversion of the force controlled feeding. These springs push two rollers from both
sides against the mandrel. Arai [7] showed that noncircular parts can be formed using a spinning machine
with help of CNC-controlled axes. Therefore he designed
a machine equipped with high speed linear axes. The spinning force is kept at a constant rate during the spinning
process and the spinning mandrel functions as a spatial
cam disc. To control the force a force sensor was installed
behind the roller tool.
Another possibility to produce non-circular hollow parts
by spinning is the exact feeding of the roller tool in axial
and radial direction. This ensures a constant gap between
Figure 3. Tripod-shaped mandrel.
To achieve a stable machine conception, the first step

was to analyse the influence of the feed rate, blank thickness and blank diameter as well as the influence of the
material on the necessary roller force in the simulation.
The analyses resulted in the following: an increase of the
feed rate, initial blank thickness, blank diameter and the
strength of the material leads to an increase of the roller
tool force in axial and radial direction during one-pass
spinning of non-circular parts. The maximum forces during one-pass spinning of the tripod like geometry occur by
using the below-mentioned process parameters (Table 2).
Table 2. Process parameters at maximum process forces.
initial blank diameter
130 mm
blank thickness
2 mm
material
TRIP780
feed rate
1 mm/R
999
09.08.2010 14:41:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
With these process parameters a maximum force in axial
direction of 13.4 kN and in radial direction of 14.0 kN
could be determined. An increase of the initial blank diameter and the feed rate lead in the simulation to the appearance of wrinkles and is therefore not useful. In order
to produce non-circular parts from blanks with a diameter
>130 mm a suitable circular pre-form had to be used. During the simulation it is necessary to take the forming history of the pre-form into account when spinning the tripod
(see Figure 4).
Figure 4. Non-circular spinning using a pre-form.
The maximum forming forces (axial and radial direction) determined in the simulation are needed to design a
non-circular spinning unit in the following chapter.
Technical Realisation of the Machine Conception
For producing non-circular hollow parts a spinning machine underwent modifications which conformed to the
kinematic demands of the non-circular spinning with motion-controlled rollers. The demands were: the supply of
torque at the main spindle and the independent movement
of the roller in axial and radial direction. The non-circular
spinning machine consists of two main components as can
be seen from the concept visualisation (see Figure 5):
Main spindle as drive component for the mandrel
New developed two-axes table for radial and axial
feed of the roller tool
axes table is necessary to ensure an independent radial and

axial feed of the roller. The independent roller feed allows
the realisation of the complex kinematics which is necessary for the production of non-circular hollow parts. The
translational movement in axial and radial direction is
carried out by electro-mechanical spindle drives which
each consist of one electric cylinder (inclusive one screw
spindle) and the motor. The realisation of highly dynamic
speeds of up to 2.5 m/s and accelerations of up to 10 m/s
are further demands on the electro-mechanical spindle
drive in order to be able to produce non-circular hollow
parts at medium revolutions per minute. A decision had to
be made between stepping motors, direct current motors or
servomotors to be used for the drive. The servomotor for
x- and z-axes appeared to be most suitable. The dimensioning of the servomotors was realised by regarding the
process forces which had been determined in the FEMsimulations.
Roller circulating guidance units were chosen for the axial und radial movement of the roller tool. These prestressed guiding systems fulfil the high demands regarding
stiffness and accuracy. Furthermore, the rolling elements
are protected and the guidance works on a low-noise level.
The integration of the new x-z-table into the already existing machine periphery and the whole assembly plan can be
seen in Figure 6. Also the conception of the guiding elements follows the demands of the process forces and is
suitably dimensioned. An overview of the driving component performance data can be seen in Table 3.
Table 3. Performance data of driving components.
Force
Power main
Force servomotor servomotor spindle
axial
radial
22 kW
19.7 kN
19.7 kN
It can be seen that these motors are much stronger than

those in the conception presented by Shimizu [8]. The
reason is that contrary to Shimizu the maximum force has
been determined via FEM and so also higher strength
material could be used for investigations.
two-axes table
torque
radial roller feed
axial roller feed
main spindle
two-axes table
Figure 5. Main components of non-circular spinning machine.
The main spindle of the spinning machine to be modified should be used for torque generation in order to spin
up the mandrel as well as the blank. The torque is generated by a direct current motor. A new designing of the two-
1000
electro-mechanical
spindle drive for axial
and radial roller feed
roller circulating
guidance units
Figure 6. Integration of x-z-table into machine periphery and

assembly plan.
Analogue to the simulation the real roller feed is dependent on the angle of rotation of the main spindle. More
information regarding the concept of control can be found
in [9].
09.08.2010 14:41:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experiment and Optimization
In order to test the functionality of the developed machine conception for non-circular spinning, the geometry
from Figure 3 was chosen as the object of investigation. In
the first step a robust process range for spinning an Al99.5
blank had to be determined. Based on this it could be recognized that blanks of a wall thickness of 1.5 mm up to a
diameter of 120 mm can be produced without wrinkling in
an one-pass non-circular spinning process (Figure 7).
1st spinning pass

2nd spinning pass
3th spinning pass
4th spinning pass
(final preform)
mandrel
Figure 9. Geometries of spinning passes to minimize thinning rate.
Conclusion
Figure 7. Tripodlike parts made from different blank diameters by

non-circular spinning.
In order to produce wrinkle-free parts of diameters >130

mm by non-circular spinning, the process using a pre-form
presented in Figure 4 was applied. Therefore it was practically possible to spin tripodlike parts without wrinkling
despite high blank diameters (Figure 8).
Figure 8. Production process for blank diameters > 130 mm.
The part produced by this strategy was compared to the

simulation with regard to the equivalent plastic strain,
minimum blank thickness and its height. Because of the
different forming conditions between concave and convex
sections certain calibration criteria for the concave and
convex areas needed to be determined. Only the determination of the plastic strain could be done experimentally in
the convex area. Reason for this is the used method of
optical forming analysis.
The small differences between experiment and FEMsimulation (maximum deviation 14%) allow for the conclusion that the FE-model can be assumed as calibrated for
non-circular spinning. Because of the blank thinning to
0.82 mm in convex and 0.70 mm in the concave areas the
request for a constant blank thickness in the final part
cannot be realised. An analysis of the process shows that
already during the production of the pre-form the blank
thickness is reduced from 1.50 to 0.95 mm. By using the
numerical simulation the spinning process of the preform
could be optimized so that a maximum blank thinning of
13 %in the convex and 24% in the concave areas could be
achieved. The optimization was realized by using a multipass spinning process for the pre-form. Due to this, the
tensile stresses in axial direction are reduced. Those tensile
stresses are the main cause for unintended blank thinning.
Figure 9 shows the geometries of the spinning passes.
Based on numerical analyses of conventional spinning

processes, a FE-model for non-circular spinning was developed. The distinctiveness of this model is the motioncontrolled roller tool. This guarantees a constant distance
between die and roller. The analysis of the simulation
allowed for determining the maximum process forces for a
chosen non-circular part geometry by using a higher
strength material at a blank thickness of 2 mm. Based on
this, a machine conception was developed which was
dimensioned according to the process forces at hand. In
the following this machine conception was used to produce the tripodlike geometry by spinning. Yet the request
for a constant blank thickness by one-pass spinning could
not be satisfied. The simulation was used to optimize the
spinning process and consequently the maximum decrease
of blank thickness of the non-circular part could be reduced to 24%. This is in the range of deep-drawing and
therefore an acceptable result.
References
[1] F. Ma, H. Yang, M. Zhan: Materials Science Forum, 532-533 (2006),
277-280.
[2] G. Sebastiani, A. Brosius, W. Homberg, M. Kleiner: Key Engineering
Materials, 344 (2007), 637-644.
[3] M. Zhan, H. Yang, J. Zhang, Y. Xu, F. Ma: Materials Science Forum,
532-533 (2006), 149-152.
[4] B. Awiszus, S. Kleditzsch, S. Hrtel: Blech Rohre Profile, 5 (2009),
10-13.
[5] S. Hamilton, H. Long: Proc. 12th International Conference on Metal
Forming, 1 (2008), 632-639.
[6] B. Awiszus, F. Meyer: Proc. 8th ICTP, Verona, (2005), 353.
[7] H. Arai: Proc. 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
Automation, Orlando, (2006), 4031-4036
[8] I. Shimizu: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 210 (2010)
585-592.
[9] B. Awiszus, S. Hrtel: Es luft rund Das Unrunddrcken, UTF
science (2010) 1, www.utfscience.de.
1001
09.08.2010 14:41:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
Deformation Behavior in Flow Forming of Cylindrical Cups using Finite Element Method
Chow Cher Wong, Atsushi Danno, Kai Soon Fong
Forming Technology Group, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Singapore, ccwong@simtech.a-star.edu.sg
A 3D finite element model is proposed adopting the Arbitrary-Eulerian (ALE) formulation to simulate the deformation behavior in the flow
forming of cylindrical cups using a commercial software, DEFORM 3D. The ALE formulation is an efficient alternative to deal with large
discontinuities and mesh distortion that occurred in the typical Updated Langrangian formulation. Results predicted from the FE simulations
were compared with experimental results and showed close agreement. It was found that feed rate has a large influence in the plastic
deformation behavior, especially in the flow forming of short cylindrical cups where achieving steady plastic flow is important in the early
stage of forming. For all wall thickness reductions investigated, the FE results predicted that a slow feed rate of 0.2 mm/rev will result in
larger surface strain at the roller side (i.e. surface contact with the forming roller) and small strain distribution across the wall thickness. On
the other hand, higher feed rate at 0.4mm/rev has resulted in smaller surface strain (as compare to slow feed rate) but larger strain
distribution across the wall thickness which encouraged more axial material flow and hence better thickness accuracy. Hardness values
measured from experimental samples confirmed this phenomenon predicted by the FE simulation. The paper also evaluated the state of
stress around the region of the roller at different feed rates to understand the flow forming behavior.
Keywords: Flow forming, Finite Element Modelling, Arbitrary-Eulerian formulation
Introduction
In recent years, flow forming (including shear spinning
process) has gradually matured as a rotary metal forming
process for the production of engineering components in
small to medium batch quantities. Due to its inherent
advantages such as flexibility, simple tooling, low forming
loads and consequently smaller equipment, flow forming
has enabled customers to optimize designs and reduce
weight and cost. The flow forming process, which evolve
from spinning, is a process during which the workpiece is
rotated while the tool, rotating about its own axis, may
also move axially or radially to the axis of rotation of
workpiece, thereby manipulating it to the final desired
shape. It is most widely used to produce thin walled, high
precision tubular products where tubular workpiece is held
onto the mandrel and the material is being displaced
axially by one or more rollers moving axially along the
mandrel.
In order to have a better understanding of this process,
several researchers have conducted finite element analysis
in the flow forming of tubes to evaluate the power and
load requirements as well as the effects of process
variables such as feed rate, approach angle and percentage
reduction on surface finish of the formed workpiece and
forming load. However, simulating this process is very
time consuming and difficult due to the following factors:
(i) As it involves only localised deformation, only a small
portion of the workpiece is in contact with the roller at any
given time and due to the cyclic character in the
application of forces, there is frequent and rapid change in
the contact condition.
(ii) As the workpiece rotates continuously and its transient
plastic deformation is very small, fine mesh discretisation
is necessary in order to allow continuity of contact as
nodal forces transfer from one element to the next.
(iii) Large number of rotations of the workpiece may result
in volume change in FE analysis and also increases
computational time.
1002
(iv) For most incremental forming processes like rotary

forging, cross wedge rolling, spinning and flow forming,
good representation of the actual process can be achieved
only by using 3D model. As a result of the above factors,
modeling of incremental forming processes is inherently
very time consuming and involves large computational
resources.
Thus, efficient Finite Element software with robust and
unique features to model as well as simulate the flow
forming process is necessary. In this paper, a 3D finite
element model is proposed adopting the Arbitrary-Eulerian
(ALE) formulation to simulate the deformation behavior in
the flow forming of short cylindrical cups using a
commercial software, DEFORM 3D. The ALE
formulation is an efficient alternative to deal with large
discontinuities and mesh distortion that occurred in the
typical UL formulation.
Proposed Finite Element Model. In this study, Finite
Element modeling and simulation using the commercial
FE implicit code, DEFORMTM 3D adopting the ALE
formulation was attempted to model the flow forming
process. The initial meshes and model set-up are shown in
Figure 1. The workpiece was considered as an elastic
plastic model and the roller and mandrel was modelled as
a rigid surface. The friction between the roller and the
workpiece interface was expressed as a number known as
the friction factor, m, defined as follows:
= mk = m
(1)
where is the shear stress, k is the shear strength and is

the flow stress of the workpiece material. The constant
shear friction factor was chosen for this study is because
flow forming is a process which involves bulk material
deformation. Since constant lubricant was being fed
between the interface of the roller and workpiece during
the actual flow forming process, the friction is considered
low and is assumed at a value of m = 0.12 between them.
09.08.2010 14:41:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Rollers
Workpiece:
Feed rate = 0.2, 0.4, 0.8mm/rev
Rollers: Rotation = 20rpm

Workpiece
Mandrel
Figure 2. Flow forming experimental set-up.
The material properties were determined using the

uniaxial compression test and expressed in the form of a
n
power law, = K , where k is the strength coefficient
and n is the strain-hardening exponent. The workpiece was
meshed using 3D brick elements where the forming area
has a higher density than the rest of the workpiece, which
resulted in 5000 elements. In order to ensure continuity of
contact as nodal forces transfer from one element to the
next and to reduce severe mesh deformation, a very small
and appropriate time step of 0.0001 (sec/step) was chosen
after several trials. Other conditions for the model are
shown in Table 1, which are similar to the experimental
conditions.
Results. Figure 3 shows the profile obtained from the

experiments as well as those predicted by FE simulations
at a thickness reduction of 20% and 0.8 mm/rev feed rate.
It can be seen from this figure that at two different roller
strokes, the deformed profile predicted from FE simulation
is in close agreement with the ones obtained from the
experiments. In addition, forming load predicted by FE
simulation (Figure 4) is also in close agreement with the
experiments. Computational time is approximately 48 h.
Stroke: 12mm
Table 1: FE Simulation Parameters.
Condition
Material
Material Properties
Workpiece diameter
Workpiece thickness
Workpiece length
Axial feed rates
Thickness reduction
Description
A6061 (Annealed)
K= 220MPa, n=0.211
36mm
3mm
23mm
0.2, 0.4, 0.8 mm/rev
20%
Flow Forming Experiments. To verify the FE results, a

Tsugami-R17NC-II form rolling machine was utilised as a
flow-forming machine as shown in Figure 2. The workpiece was placed on the mandrel and clamped in position
by the hydraulic tailstock. The mandrel was rotated by the
machine chuck at a pre-determined rotational speed. Two
diametrically opposite rollers with an approach angle of
20 were driven at 20 rpm to flow-form the work-piece
under a constant thickness reduction. The experiments
were performed at feed rate of 0.2 mm - 0.8mm per one
revolution of work piece. Strain gauges was mounted on
the axial slide in order to measure the axial forming load
during the flow forming experiments.
Stroke: 23mm
Stroke: 36mm
(a) Experiment
(b) FE
Figure 3. Experimental and FE predicted profile at 20% thickness

reduction & feed rate of 0.8 mm/rev.
1003
09.08.2010 14:41:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
FE
Max. Compressive
Stress : ~130MPa
Experiment
Feed rate: 0.2mm/rev

Max. Compressive
Stress : ~300MPa
Maximum Principal Stress
Figure 4. Comparison of axial forming load for 20% thickness

reduction at feed rate of 0.8 mm/rev.
At this feed rate (0.8 mm/rev), it can be observed from

Figure 5 (from both experiments & FE simulation) that
severe bulging occurred towards the end of the roller
stroke which resulted in bell mouthing phenomenon. This
phenomenon is mainly due to the fact that at very high
feed rate, the real contact area between the roller and the
workpiece led to severe bulging in front of the roller
which subsequently gave rise to large circumferential flow
of material and hence, bell mouthing effect.

Max. Compressive
Stress : ~300MPa

Figure 6. Maximum principal stress at roller contact regions for
different feed rates.
Severe bulging
Bell mouthing
Figure 5. Bulging & bell mouthing phenomenon at 20% thickness

reduction & feed rate of 0.8mm/rev.
1004
This phenonmenon is also evident from the predicted

stresses as shown in Figure 6. For all feed rates, it can be
seen from the figure that the region directly underneath the
roller is mainly undergoing compressive stresses with
faster feed rates showing higher compressive stresses. At a
slow feed rate of 0.2 mm/rev, it can be seen from the figure that the maximum principal stresses were mainly confined to the roller contact and near the roller surrounding.
On the other hand, at faster feed rates of 0.4 and 0.8
mm/rev, the predicted results showed a large zone of tensile stress along the circumferential periphery of the workpiece. The existence of tensile circumferential stress is
largely a result of large circumferential material flow as
mentioned previously. If not control properly, it will lead
to inaccuracies and might cause circumferential cracking.
09.08.2010 14:41:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
Much higher plastic strain
along the surface resulting
in higher hardness
Uniform hardness distribution

for higher feed rates (0.4 & 0.8
mm/rev)
Figure 7. Positions for evaluating strain and hardness value

across the wall thickness.
To further understand the deformation behaviour, strain

values predicted by FE simulation and hardness value
from experimental samples across the wall thickness were
evaluated. The strain and hardness value are taken at three
different positions across the wall thickness, as shown in
Figure 7.
Figure 9. Experimental hardness values measured across the

wall thickness at different feed rates.
Conclusions
Figure 8. Effective strain values predicted by FE simulation across

the wall thickness at different feed rates.
Figure 8 shows the values of effective strain predicted

by FE simulation across the wall thickness at different
feed rates. It can be observed from the figure that at the
slowest feed rate of 0.2mm/rev, deformation is mainly
concentrated on the surface between the roller and the
workpiece (roller side) which resulted in large surface
strain (at position 1) and considerable strain at the middle
section of the wall (at position 2). However, the deformation at this feed rate is not high enough to penetrate across
the whole of the wall thickness. On the other hand, with
higher feed rates (0.4 and 0.8 mm/rev), a large rate of
deformation due to the increased of real contact area has
led to much higher strain penetration across the wall
thickness. This is especially evident for a feed rate of 0.8
mm/rev, where strain distribution across the wall thickness
is fairly uniform. As the feed rate increased, the predicted
strain values decreased on the roller side but increased
over at the mandrel side. These results correlated well with
the measure hardness across the wall thickness, as shown
in Figure 9 where the slowest feed rate of 0.2 mm/rev
induced large surface strain as compared to the faster feed
rates. Furthermore, hardness values measured for 0.4 and
0.8 mm/rev show very uniform hardness distribution
across the wall thickness.
A 3D finite element model is proposed and was

sucessfully adopted using the Arbitrary-Eulerian (ALE)
formulation to simulate the deformation behavior in the
flow forming of cylindrical cups using a commercial
software DEFORM 3D. The computation time was
reduced drastically as compared to Updated Lanrangian
simulation and predicted results showed close agreement
with the experiments. Based on the results from both FE
simulation and experiments, the following conclusions can
be drawn:
1. Too fast a feed rate (0.8 mm/rev) resulted in large zone
of tensile circumferential stress and led to plastic flow
instability during the flow forming process which gave
rise to bell mouthing defect.
2. A slow feed rate (0.2 mm/rev) resulted in localised compressive stress directly under the roller where stable material flow can proceed.
3. A slow feed rate (0.2 mm/rev) resulted in large surface
strain but non-uniform strain distribution along the wall
thickness. This also led to non-uniform hardness distribution along the wall thickness.
4. Higher feed rates of 0.4 and 0.8 mm/rev resulted in
more uniform plastic strain distribution and hence very
uniform hardness distribution along the wall thickness.
References
[1] C.C. Wong, T.A. Dean, J Lin: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 153-154 (2004), 60-66.
[2] A. Hua, Y.S. Yang, Y.N. Zhang, M.H. Guo, D.Y. Guo, W.H. Tong,
Z.Q.Hu: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 168 (2005), 6874.
[3] C.C. Wong, A. Danno, K.K. Tong, M.S. Yong: Journal of Materials
[4] M.H. Parsa, A.M.A. Pazooki, M.N. Ahmadabadi: International Journal of Advance Manufacturing Technology, 42 (2009), 463-473.
[5] M.S. Mohebbi, A. Akbarzadeh: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 210 (2010), 389-395.
1005
09.08.2010 14:41:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Hot Shear Spinning of Cast Aluminium Alloy Parts with Inclined Roller
Ken-ichiro Mori1), Hirokazu Osako1), Osamu Ebihara2), Takayuki Nonaka2), Daigo Sugiyama2)
1)
Department of Production Systems Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi / Japan, mori@plast.pse.tut.ac.jp;
Industries, Ltd., Toyokawa / Japan
2)
Topy
A hot shear spinning process of cast aluminium alloy parts with an inclined roller was developed to improve the formability of the cast aluminium. Hot shear spinning has the function of eliminating dendrites and shrinkage cavities in cast aluminium alloys. The backward metal
flow in the slope region of a blank was prevented by reducing wall thickness perpendicularly to the mandrel by means of an inclined roller,
and thus the wall thickness does not return after passing the gap between the roller and mandrel. As the roller angle increased, the thickness return ratio decreased and was almost zero above 30 . The surface crack length in the corner region of the spun blank was reduced
by the use of the inclined roller. The elongation of the spun blank with the inclined roller was larger than that with a non-inclined roller,
whereas the tensile strength was smaller owing to the reduction in redundant deformation. In addition, the inclined rollers were effective in
forming the step region of the blank.
Keywords: Hot shear spinning, cast aluminium alloys, inclined roller, roller angle, backward flow, casting defects, slope region
Introduction
To reduce the weight of automobiles, the use of cast
aluminium alloys for automobile parts increases [1]. Since
the cast aluminium alloy parts have defects such as dendrites, blowholes and shrinkage cavities, the strength of
the parts is not high. To eliminate the casting defects, hot
forging processes are employed. The casting defects are
eliminated by undergoing large plastic deformation [2].
The dendrites are broken into a wrought structure. The
blow-holes and shrinkage cavities are compressed and
eliminated by diffusion at elevated temperatures. Since it
is not easy to cast parts having small wall thicknesses, the
forging processes are effective in reducing the wall thickness for such parts. For large parts such as automobile
wheels, however, the forging load becomes high, particularly for the reduction in wall thickness. Although semisolid forging processes have been developed to reduce the
forging load, the mechanical properties and dimensional
accuracy of the products are not high [3].
Shear spinning and flow forming processes are attractive
as forming techniques of axisymmetric parts having an
optimum distribution of wall thickness [4,5]. Since the
wall thickness of parts is locally reduced with rollers in the
shear spinning, the forming load is comparatively low. In
addition, the investment in equipment and tooling is low.
The shear spinning has the ability to largely deform aluminium alloy parts for the elimination of the casting defects. The shear spinning is utilised for automobile parts
such as wheels [6,7]. The shear spinning was employed as
splitting of wheel blanks [8]. A simplified threedimensional finite element method was developed to simulate a shear spinning process in a comparatively short
computing time [9]. Although the shear spinning is generally performed at room temperature [4], cast aluminium
alloys do not have enough ductility for the cold forming.
The problems for the high load and low ductility in the
forming of the cast aluminium alloys are solved by local
deformation and elevated temperatures in the hot shear
spinning, respectively. The authors [10] have examined the
effect of hot shear spinning on the elimination of defects
in cast aluminium alloy parts. The hot shear spinning
1006
process is attractive in forming brittle cast aluminium

alloys.
In the present study, a hot shear spinning process of cast
aluminium alloy parts with an inclined roller was developed to improve the formability of the cast aluminium.
The effect of the roller angle on backward flow during the
hot shear spinning was examined.
Hot Shear Spinning of Cast Aluminium Alloy Parts
Hot Shear Spinning with Inclined Roller. Hot shear
spinning processes are applied to improve mechanical
properties of cast aluminium alloy wheels. The aluminium
alloy wheels have not only parallel regions but also slope
regions. Since the wall thickness in the slope region is
reduced perpendicularly to the mandrel as shown in Figure 1, the backward metal flow is caused, and the wall
thickness returns after passing the gap between the roller
and mandrel. The thickness in the slope region becomes
larger than a desired thickness. To prevent the backward
flow, the roller was inclined to the perpendicular direction
to the mandrel. The effect of the roller angle on the backward flow was examined.
Roller
Blank
Mandrel
(a) Non-inclined
(b) Inclined
Figure 1. Comparison of metal flow in slope region of blank between non-inclined and inclined rollers in hot shear spinning.
09.08.2010 14:41:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Spinning Conditions. The hot shear spinning process of
a cast aluminium alloy blank is illustrated in Figure 2. The
roller angle was adjusted between 0 and 45 and was fixed
during the spinning. Although the decrease in temperature
during the spinning for real large wheels is small even
without additional heating, the decrease in temperature for
the miniature bank used in the experiment is not small. To
prevent the decrease in temperature of the miniature blank,
the blank attached to the mandrel was heated by hot air at
700 C in the steel cover, and the spinning operation was
started after attaining desired temperatures. The heating by
hot air continued during the spinning. The forming time
was about 1 min. and the scatter of temperature during the
spinning was 5 C. The temperature during the spinning
was measured with the infrared thermometer. The motion
and feed rate of the roller were controlled with the 2 NC
servo motors. The blank was sprayed with graphite as a
lubricant.
160
Infrared
thermometer
Forming temperature /C
Roller angle /
Tip radius of roller /mm
Ironing ratio R /%
Feed rate of roller /mm rev-1
Revolution speed of mandrel /rpm
Lubricant
400
0-45
2
0-55
0.5
120
Dry graphite
The thickness of the slope region of the spun blank becomes larger than the desired one due to the backward
flow. The nominal ironing ratio Rn is different from the
real ironing ratio Rr;
Roller
Blank
Table 1. Conditions of hot shear spinning.
Prediction of Backward Flow in Slope Region by Inclined Roller
Steel
case
difficult to cast the miniature blank with small wall thickness, the wall thickness of the cast blank was machined
from 8 mm to 2 mm. The bottom of the blank was fixed to
the mandrel with bolts, and the side wall of the blank was
deformed with the roller into the parallel and slope regions
of the mandrel. The shear spinning conditions used in the
experiment are given in Table 1.
Mandrel
Rn = (t0-t1)/t0
(1)
Rr = (t0-t2)/t0
where t0, t1 and t2 are the initial thickness, the set thickness
and the thickness after the spinning, respectively. The
thickness return ratio w is defined as
Hot air
700C
140
w = (t2-t1)/t1
Figure 2. Hot shear spinning of cast aluminium alloy with inclined

roller.
The mandrel, roller and blank used in the experiment of

hot shear spinning are illustrated in Figure 3. This experiment was miniaturised to approximately 1/3.5 the size
of the real automobiles wheels. The chemical compositions of the cast aluminium alloy are Si-7.36, Fe-0.18, Cu0.05, Mn-0.02, Mg-0.57, Zn-0.01 and Ti-0.06 mass%.
Since it is
35
Slope
Corner
Parallel
Mandrel
(2)
The metal flow in the cross-section of the slope region

of blank with and without inclination of the roller for Rn =
40 % is shown in Figure 4, where is the roller angle. In
no inclination of = 0 , the backward flow is caused, and
the wall thickness returns after passing the gap between
the roller and mandrel. In addition, deformation concentrates near the upper surface in contact with the roller, and
thus the dendrites are not sufficiently broken down. The
backward flow is prevented by inclining the roller, and the
dendrites are broken up to the lower surface in the contact
with the mandrel.
Roller
Roller
85
98
R9
R5
R1
78
40
110
40
45
0
12
17 10 20
(a) Blank
(b) Mandrel
(c) Roller
Figure 3. Dimensions of blank, mandrel and roller used for hot
shear spinning.
1mm
(a) = 0
(b) = 45
Figure 4. Metal flow in cross-section of slope region of blank with
and without inclination of roller for Rn = 40 %.
The relationship between the thickness return ratio in the

slope region and the roller angle for Rn = 40 % is illustrated in Figure 5. As the roller angle increases, the thickness return ratio decreases, and thus the backward flow
hardly occurs above = 30 . Although an ironing ratio
1007
09.08.2010 14:41:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
10
20
30
40
Roller angle /
50
Figure 5. Relationship between thickness return ratio in slope

region and roller angle for Rn = 40 %.
Real reduction in wall thickness Rr /%
The relationship between the real reduction in wall

thickness in the slope region and the nominal reduction in
wall thickness for different roller angles is given in Figure
6. The thickness return ratio is decreased by inclining the
roller, and the nominal reduction in wall thickness approaches the real one. Both reductions in wall thickness
are almost equal above = 30 , and thus the desired
thickness is attained.
40
30
20
10
=45,
30
15
0
0
40
10
20
30
Nominal reduction in wall thickness Rn /%
Figure 6. Relationship between real reduction in wall thickness in

slope region and nominal reduction in wall thickness for different
roller angles.
Thickness return ratio w /%
The relationship between the thickness return ratio in the

parallel region and the nominal reduction in wall thickness
is illustrated in Figure 7. The thickness return ratio in the
parallel region is relatively small, and the effect of the
inclination of the roller is small.
50m
10m
75m
(a) = 0
(b) = 45
Figure 8. Surface cracks in cross-section of corner region of blank
with and without inclination of roller for Rr = 40 %.
The relationship between the surface crack length in the

corner region and the real reduction in wall thickness for
different roller angles is shown in Figure 9, where the
surface crack length is average of three maximum lengths
within a range of 5 mm from the corner. As the real reduction in wall thickness increases, the crack length increases,
and the crack length is decreased by increasing the roller
angle. The inclined roller has the function of reducing the
surface cracks.
150
125
100
75
m
5mm 5m
=0
50
15
30
25
45
10
20
30
40
50
Figure 9. Relationship between surface crack length in corner

region and real reduction in wall thickness for different roller angles.
40
30
=0 15 30 45
20
10
0
10
20
30
40
Nominal reduction in wall thickness Rn /%
Figure 7. Relationship between thickness return ratio in parallel

region and nominal reduction in wall thickness.
1008
Prevention of Surface Cracks around Corner

Although the blank undergoes large deformation for
eliminating the casting defects in the hot shear spinning,
surface cracks were induced near the outer surface in the
contact with the roller by the large deformation, particularly around the corner of the mandrel [10]. Since the
metal flow becomes smooth for the inclination of the roller,
the effect of the inclination on the occurrence of surface
cracks was examined.
The surface cracks in the cross-section of the corner region of the blank with and without the inclination of the
roller for Rr = 40 % are shown in Figure 8. The nominal
reduction in wall thickness was adjusted to a real reduction
of 40 %. The large surface cracks are generated for no
inclination of the roller, whereas the cracks become small
for the inclination.
Crack length /mm
Thickness return ratio w /%
more than 20 % is required for the elimination of the dendrites [10], the backward flow becomes remarkable. The
inclination of the roller is efficient in such large ironing
due to the prevention of backward flow.
Elimination of Cast Defects and Mechanical Properties

The dendrites and shrinkage cavities are eliminated by
the hot shear spinning. The relationship between the percentage of shrinkage cavities in the parallel region and the
real reduction in wall thickness for = 0 and 45 is given
in Figure 10. As the real reduction in wall thickness increases, the percentage of shrinkage cavities decreases and
is almost zero above Rr = 20 %.
09.08.2010 14:41:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
25
0.5
Grain aspect ratio
Percentage of shrinkage cavities /%
30
As cast
0.4
3mm
0.3
1mm3mm
0.2
0.1
45
20
40
10
30
0
Figure 10. Relationship between percentage of shrinkage cavities

in parallel region and real reduction in wall thickness for = 0 and
45 .
The solution heat treatment at 400 C and the artificial

aging at 175C were performed for the spun blank, and
then the tensile specimen having a thickness of 1 mm was
cut. The mechanical properties at room temperature were
measured from the uniaxial tension test.
The variations in tensile strength and elongation with
the real reduction in wall thickness in the parallel region
for = 0 and 45 are illustrated in Figure 11. As the real
reduction in wall thickness increases, the tensile strength
increases and the elongation is twice as much as the ascast blank. Although the elongation for = 45 is larger
than that for = 0 , the tensile strength for = 45 is
smaller than that for = 0 . The blank for = 0 undergoes redundant deformation due to the backward flow.
Tensile strength
300
250 Tensile strength, as-cast
200
150
100
Elongation
=0
45
=45
0
Elongation, as-cast
50
30
25
20
15
10
Elongation /%
350
0
40
10
20
30
0
Figure 11. Variations in tensile strength and elongation with real

reduction in wall thickness in parallel region for =0 and 45 .
The relationship between the grain aspect ratio in the

parallel region and the real reduction in wall thickness for
= 0 and 45 is shown in Figure 12. As the real reduction
in wall thickness increases, the grain aspect ratio increases.
The aspect ratio for = 0 is larger than that for = 45 ,
and thus the tensile strength for = 0 shown in Figure 11
is larger due to the large deformation.
15
10
1mm3mm
=0
45
=0
400
20
3mm
0
40
10
20
30
Figure 12. Relationship between grain aspect ratio in parallel
region and real reduction in wall thickness for = 0 and 45 .
Conclusions
A hot shear spinning process of cast aluminium alloy
parts with an inclined roller was developed to improve the
formability of the cast aluminium, and the following results were obtained:
1. The backward metal flow in the slope region was prevented by inclining the roller to the perpendicular direction to the mandrel, and thus the desired thickness was
obtained.
2. As the roller angle increased, the thickness return ratio
decreased, and the backward flow was prevented above
a roller angle of 30 .
3. As the roller angle increased, the surface cracks around
the corner of the mandrel decreased.
4. Although the elongation for the inclination of the roller
is larger than that for no inclination, the tensile strength
is smaller than that for no inclination having redundant
deformation due to the backward flow.
References
[1] M. Kleiner, M. Geiger, A. Klaus: CIRP Annals, 52-2 (2003), 521-542.
[2] S. Kalpakjian: Manufacturing Engineering and Technology, Third ed. ,
Addison-Wesley, Reading, (1995), 384.
[3] W.G. Cho, C.G. Kang: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
105-3 (2000), 269-277.
[4] C.C. Wong, T.A. Dean, J. Lin: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 43-14 (2003), 1419-1435.
[5] O. Music, J.M. Allwood, K. Kawai: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 210-1, (2010), 3-23.
[6] D. Pollit: Sheet Metal Industries, 72-4 (1995).
[7] H. Luccioni: La Revue de Mtallurgie-CIT, (2002), 851-859.
[8] D. Schmoeckel, S. Hauk: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
98-1 (2000), 6569.
[9] K. Mori and T. Nonaka: Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 7-1
(2005), 51-56.
[10] K. Mori, M. Ishiguro, Y. Isomura: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 209-7 (2009), 3621-3627.
1009
09.08.2010 14:41:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
Synchronous Die-less Spinning of Curved Products

Akio Sekiguchi1), Hirohiko Arai2)
1)
Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba / Japan, a.sekiguchi@aist.go.jp;
Manufacturing Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba / Japan
2)
Advanced
Products formed by metal spinning have been inherently limited to straight, axisymmetric shapes. In order to enhance the application of
spinning, this study is aimed at developing a novel sheet spinning method which can form products of curved, non-axisymmetric shape
without using a dedicated die. The fundamental strategy of this process is the synchronization of the motion of the roller tool in the axial and
radial directions with the rotations of the workpiece on the spindle axis. A numerically controlled spinning machine moves the tool along a
trajectory which is calculated based on the desired shape in terms of the contact point with the tool, and the tool velocity relative to the
desired surface is maintained constant. Pure aluminum sheets, 150 mm in diameter and 1.5 mm in thickness, were mainly used as blanks
in our forming experiments. Curved cones with bends of up to 60 degrees and curved asymmetric shapes, e.g. with cross-sectional
changes from a circle to a pentagon, were formed successfully. An equation is proposed to estimate the wall thickness of the product,
based on a curved shear deformation model around a flexural center. It was verified that the model coincides nearly with the measured
thickness distributions of the products along the outer/inner side of the curved cones. The proposed method can be applied to the rapid
manufacturing of a wide variety of products in small quantities simply by changing the NC code of the tool trajectory.
Keywords: Metal spinning, Die-less forming, Curved products, Formability, Numerical control, Tool trajectory, Rapid prototyping
Introduction
Metal spinning [1] is a rotary incremental forming process which is suited to the trend of manufacturing a wide
variety of products in small quantities, e.g. the low-cost
production of special-order parts or trial products.
In recent years, the industrial field of spinning has been
enhanced to encompass more low-cost and flexible shaping, as a result of studies on novel spinning lathes and the
application of intelligent technologies. Dedicated die-less
forming methods for shaping sheet metal into conic parts
have been proposed by Shima et al. [2] and Kawai et al.
[3]. Asymmetric sheet spinning methods have been developed by Amano et al. [4], Gao et al. [5], Awiszus et al. [6]
and Arai [7]. Curved shapes can be successfully formed on
a novel tube-spinning lathe created by Shindo et al. [8],
and incremental sheet forming can be achieved through a
method developed by Matsubara [9], which buckles out
the intended shape. However, there is as yet no method
which brings all of these advantages to metal spinning.
This study is aimed at developing a novel sheet spinning
method which can form curved shapes and nonaxisymmetric sectional shapes without using a dedicated
die. In this method, a numerically controlled spinning lathe
is used to force the spherical head tool onto the preHemispherical
head roller
Initial
thickness
Angle
of curve
t0
hemmed blank disc fixed on the spindle axis via a generalpurpose mandrel, with the tool moving along a trajectory
which is calculated based on the desired shape. The basic
specifications, e.g. the profile, wall-thickness distribution
and forming limit, are discussed with reference to the
results of our forming experiment featuring curved cones
and curved asymmetric shapes made from a 1.5-mm-thick
pure aluminum blank. A simplified shear deformation
model around a flexural center is suggested for the purpose of estimating the wall thickness of the products.
Fundamental Strategy
Arai et al. [10] have shaped tube blanks into nonaxisymmetric products by moving a roller tool in the radial
direction synchronously with the angle of the main spindle.
The fundamental strategy in the present study has a similar
premise: to move the tool in the axial and radial directions
synchronously with the rotation of the spindle axis, and to
form the product according to the virtual curved axis instead of the real spindle-axis, as shown in Figure 1. Since
the flange plane of the workpiece is inclined from the
normal plane of the spindle axis, the position of the roller
and the angle of the spindle should be controlled synchronously, as illustrated in Figure 2.
In this sheet spinning process, the profile of the product
is mainly determined along the envelope surface of the
helix trajectory of the contact points between the workpiece and the roller tool. In accordance with this method,
Curved
axis
Pitch and
cone half angle
Mandrel
p
F
Wall
thickness
Speed on
contact pass
Real
spindle
Workpiece
Figure 1. Schematic of synchronous spinning of curved product.
1010
Figure 2. Motion of tool over course of one round of spindle.
09.08.2010 14:41:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
and the tool offset can be easily calculated. The base of the
tool is supported to allow free rotation with the bearings.
the tool trajectory data are calculated based on the desired

shape in terms of the tight helix trajectory of the contact
points along the above virtual curved axis, and are transformed into coordinates of the numerically controlled
spinning lathe: the spindle angle, , and the movable r-z
plane of the tool.
In shear spinning, it is known that the wrinkling of the
flange of the workpiece can be suppressed by forcing
enough of the roller onto the mandrel, but this is not possible in a die-less process. The edge of the blank sheet in
the present method is bent in advance, to structurally reinforce the flatness of the flange by enhancing the stiffness
against radial tension and circumferential buckling.
Tool Pass Calculation. The helix tool trajectory necessary for obtaining the desired profile is geometrically
calculated from the point of contact with the tool by a
computer in program written in the C language, as exemplified in Figure 4. The production time can be calculated
simultaneously. The feed rate per revolution along the
curved axis, p, was set at 0.2 mm in the maximum gradient
direction of the desired cone shape. In this experiment, the
relative speed of the contact point, F, was mainly configured at 8,000 mm/min as the spalling-less condition.
Experimental Setup
Forming Experiments
Forming System. The numerically controlled 5-axis

spinning lathe developed in [10] was used to test the method. The roller tool can be moved in synchrony with the
angle of the spindle by means of the control panel, while
the tool trajectory data are transferred from a personal
computer. In this study, the number of data points per one
revolution was 60 for circular sectional shapes and 120 for
asymmetric shapes. The intervals between the data points
were linearly interpolated in the mechanical coordinate
system.
Forming of Curved Cone Shells. To evaluate the present method, curved cone shapes, in which the cone axis is
curved in an arc at various half-angles, , and bend angles,
, were formed as shown in Figure 5.
The process took about 12 minutes for the shape shown
in Figure 5(d). The outer surfaces of the products were
covered with glossy feed marks of the trajectory of the
point of contact with the roller. In contrast, the inner surfaces were rough as compared with the original surface of
the blank, since deformations resulted from the successive
integration of localized bending along the helix contact
pass. In the forming of the shape shown in Figure 5(d), the
inclined-head mandrel (Figure 3(c)) was used to prevent
interference between the mandrel and the workpiece. Due
to this same limitation, the maximum bend angle with the
present setup was 60.
Blank and Tools. Figure 3(a) illustrates a blank disc of

pure aluminum (A1050P-H24, nominal thickness of 1
mm), whose edge is hemmed in advance by simple conventional spinning. The blank is formed by fixing two
types of mandrel: one has a simple circular head, and the
other has a head inclined by 30 toward the spindle axis
(Figure 3(b) and (c)). Before the forming, a generalpurpose lubricant, CRC5-56, was sprayed on the blank.
Unlike in conventional spinning using a roller, the spherical head tool shown in Figure 1 is used for fine shaping,
R1
50
t0
140
20
R2
30
50
(a) Straight mandrel
Profile of Product. Figure 6 shows the difference between the outer profile measured by a laser sensor (solid
line) and the desired profile used in calculating the tool
trajectory (dashed line), at = 30 and = 20. The forming time was about 8 minutes. The error of the profile at
the base of the cone is suspected to be the cause of the
springback. Unlike the known process developed by Matsubara [9], which can shape curved shells from sheet
blanks, the present method can form the intended shape
approximately along the envelope surface of the trajectory.
R1
(a) Pre-formed blank
(b) Inclined mandrel
Figure 3. Pre-formed blank and straight/inclined mandrel.

Curved axis
Curved surface
Contact pass
Tool vectors
-10
z /mm
(a) = 30, = 0
(b) = 30, = 20
(c) = 18, = 25
(d) = 22, = 60
10
20
30
40
50
-40
-20
0
20
x /mm
40
60
60
40
20
0
y /mm
-20
-40
-60
Figure 4. Example of helix tool trajectory along surface of curved

product.
Figure 5. Curved cone products.
1011
09.08.2010 14:41:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
t
=
t0
dR
( Rd ) 2 + dR 2
2
= 1 +

tan
1 / 2
(1)
where is the ratio of the distance from the flexural center

to the curvature radius of the curved axis, R/R0, and is
the half angle of the original cone shape along the curved
axis, which is expressed as tan-1{dR/(R0d)}.
Figure 8 shows the wall thickness ratio distribution
along the outer/inner side of the product at = 30 and =
0, 10, 20 and 35, arranged according to the nondimensional distance from the head (= 0) to the base (= 1)
of each cone. In the straight shape ( = 0), the wall thickness confirms the sine law: t/t0 = sin30 = 0.5. The reason
why the thickness is not matched at small values of the
non-dimensional length (upper part of the cones) is that
the corner of the mandrel is rounded 1 mm, and material is
formed as bend. While in the other cases, the thickness
reduction is moderated on the inner wall of the curve and
encouraged on the outer wall, and this effect is stronger as
-0.
0.15
20
0.34
0.92
40
Forming Limit. Figure 9 shows the limit of nonfracture forming of curved cones at various bending angles,
, and cone half-angles, . The fracture condition is indicated by filled marks. At a constant half-angle, the wall
thickness decreases at the outer wall of the bend. The
upward-sloping curves indicate the estimation of the minimum thickness ratio of the wall, t/t0|min. When forming
with a straight mandrel, the limit can be approximated by
t/t0|min = 0.235 (thickness strain: t|min = 1.45), while the
trend is different with the inclined-head mandrel. If the
shear deformation model in Figure 7 can be abstractly
regarded as the real behaviour of the wall thickness, the
stress states at these fractures might be considered as plane
strain, since strains on the blank sheet to the radial and
circumferential directions are zero in the model. In forming conditions exceeding the A-line of the graph, a flexural
uplift of the preformed wall is observed, since partly
becomes negative and the wall is deformed by the rising
flange.
1
= 30, t0 = 1.5mm, p = 0.2mm,

F = 8000mmmin-1, = 45
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
= 0
0.3
10
20
35
0.2
0.1
-60
-40
0.4
-20
0
20
40
Radial position r /mm
60
80
Figure 6. Profile of curved cone product with desired shape.

Flexural center
t0
Blank
R0
Curved
axis
Spindle
axis
R0
d
t
= R/R0
tan = dR/(R0d )
Figure 7. Shear deformation model of curved products around

flexural center.
1012
0.6
Flexural
uplift
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
t0
Product
dR
0.4
0.8
(Base)
Figure 8. Wall thickness ratio distributions along outer/inner wall of

curved products at each angle, , of curve, with estimation lines.
Outer shape
Desired shape
60
0
1
Non-dimensional length along each side
Filled:
outer side
of the curve
0.2
(Top)
Half angle of cone /degree
= 30, = 20, t0 = 1.5mm, p = 0.2mm,

F = 8000mmmin-1, = 45
05
0.
06
Axial position z /mm
-20
the bend angle, , increases. The dash lines are indicating

the estimated wall thickness distributions which are calculated from the Equation (1). The measured thicknesses and
the estimations nearly coincided along the outer/inner side
of the curved cones.
Wall thickness ratio t/t0
Wall-Thickness Distribution and Deformation Model.

Incidentally, in forming a gridded blank disc, it was observed that its flange plane remained flat with no eccentricity toward the cone, and that no deformation occurred
in the radial or circumferential direction. Abstracting from
the local deformations at the point of contact with the tool,
the behaviour can be simplified as an incrustation of the
contour shear deformation along the arc curved axis with a
curvature radius of R0, as illustrated in Figure 7. At minute
fractions, the wall-thickness ratio, t/t0, can be geometrically calculated using the following equation:
t/t0|min
0.7
Mandrel
straight:
inclined:
0.6
[Success]
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.235 (t =1.45)
[Fracture]
Fracture
t0 = 1.5mm, p = 0.2mm, F = 8000mmmin-1, = 45
10
20
30
40
50
Angle of curve /degree
60
Figure 9. Forming results for each curve angle, , and cone halfangle, , with two different mandrels, at estimated value of minimum thickness ratio, t/t0|min.
09.08.2010 14:41:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Forming of Products with Non-Arc Axis. Inclinedcone products with a profile which connects two different
circular sections in a straight line were formed as practical
shapes (Figure 10). The eccentricity of the flange depends
on the positional relationship between the two sections.
These results suggest a deformation mode in common with
the model shown in Figure 8: the flexural center moves
freely during forming.
Forming of Curved Asymmetric Shells. Figure 11
shows curved non-axisymmetric shapes in which the section changes linearly from a circle, 50 mm in diameter, to
an n-sided rectangle (n = 4, 5, 6) or ellipse (oblateness: f =
0.27), 110 mm in circumcircle diameter. These shapes are
formed successfully at a minimum half-angle of = 20,
an arc-curved angle of = 20 and a relative feeding speed
of 10,000 mm/min. The production time was 12 minutes
for the tallest shape with n = 6. The surface of the outer
walls is also glossy, and the corners of the rectangles are
rounded to about 3 mm.
Forming of Steel Plate. The same curved shape as
shown in Figure 5(b) was experimentally formed from 1.0mm-thick SPCE-SD and SUS430 steel plates at a feed rate
of p = 0.2 mm, as shown in Figure 12. To optimize the
results, bi-directional tool pass [11], lubrication oil BM575
(for cutting; Yushiro Chemical Industries) and a tool attachment angle of = 0 were used. At higher speeds of
the contact point, F, and higher feed rates, p, the spinning
of the wall surface occurred more easily. By using the
viscous oil, the SPCE blank could be formed at the high
speed of F = 10,000 mm/min, like 1.5-mm-thick aluminum. In contrast, in the products made of SUS430, the
walls had a scuff-marked glossy surface, and the speed, F,
could not be pushed over 4,000 mm/min, since they became scratched on the flanges due to the pole of rotation
of the tool.
(a) Centered shape
(b) Eccentric shape
Figure 10. Inclined-cone shells.
(a) Rectangle, n = 4
(b) Rectangle, n = 5
(c) Rectangle n = 6
(d) Ellipse, f = 0.27
Figure 11. Curved asymmetric products.
(a) SPCE-SD
F = 10000 mm/min
(b) SUS430
F = 2000 mm/min
Figure 12. Curved cone products made of SPCE and SUS430.
Conclusions
A novel sheet-spinning method using a numerically controlled spinning lathe was proposed and tested in forming
experiments with hollow shells as trial products.
1. It was cleared that several curved-shape products were
successfully formed from pre-hemmed pure aluminum
sheets having 150 mm in diameter and 1.5 mm in thickness, by synchronizing the motion of the roller tool in
the axial and radial directions with the angle of the
workpiece on the spindle axis.
2. Because of springback, the profile of the curved cone
was not conformed closely to the desired shape.
3. The geometrically calculated wall thickness based on
the shear deformation model was found to nearly coincide with the measured wall-thickness distributions
along the outer/inner side of the curved cones.
4. The forming limit to prevent the occurrence of wall
fracture could be described by a value of minimum
thickness strain on the entire wall of the curved cone.
The proposed method can be applied to the low-cost, rapid
manufacturing of a wide variety of products in small quantities, simply by changing the tool trajectory data for the
machine.
References
[1] O. Music, J.M. Allwood, K. Kawai: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 210 (2010), 3-23.
[2] S. Shima, A. Inoue, H. Kotera: Journal of the Japan Society for
[3] K. Kawai, L.-N. Yang, H. Kudo: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 113 (2001), 28-33.
[4] T. Amano, K. Tamura: Proc. 3rd International Conference of Rotary
Metalworking Processes, Kyoto, (1984), 213-224.
[5] X.-C. Gao, D.-C. Kang, X.-F. Meng, H.-J. Wu: Journal of Materials
[6] B. Awiszus, F. Meyer: Proc. 8th International Conference on Technology of Plasticity, Verona, Italy, (2005), 353-354.
[7] H. Arai: Proc. 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
Automation, Barcelona, (2005), 2702-2707.
[8] K. Shindo, K.Ishigaki, K. Kato, T. Irie: Proc. 50th Japanese Joint
Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, (1999), 173-174.
[9] S. Matsubara: Proc. 46th Japanese Joint Conference for Technology
of Plasticity, (1995), 33-34.
[10] H. Arai, S. Fujimura, I. Okazaki: Proc. 56th Japanese Joint Conference for the Technology of Plasticity, (2005), 687-688.
[11] A. Sekiguchi, H. Arai: Transactions of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, Series C, 76-762 (2010). 431-437.
1013
09.08.2010 14:41:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
FEM-Simulation of High-Speed Corrugation Process with Abaqus/Explicit

Thomas Hatzenbichler1), Bruno Buchmayr1), Stefan Weiss2)
1)
Chair of Metal Forming, Department Product Engineering, University of Leoben, Franz-Josef-Strae 18, 8700 Leoben / Austria,
thomas.hatzenbichler@unileoben.ac.at; 2) Rosendahl Maschinen GmbH, Schachen 57, P.O. Box 45, 8212 Pischelsdorf / Austria
With corrugated tubes and cable coatings the bending radius of these products can be decreased significantly. Furthermore, the resistance
against lateral pressure and the density of cable composites can be improved when using corrugated coating tubes. The application of a
spiral line or rings can be done by cold forming with rotating or tumbling tool motion. An innovative device for this purpose is a corrugator
with a free rotating corrugation disk which enables a continuous production of corrugated tubes. For each new profile that shall be produced
on this device the proper settings have to be determined by tedious experimental investigations directly on the machine. To reduce the
experimental effort a 3D - finite element model of this process using shell elements is implemented in Abaqus/Explicit with the aim to get a
better understanding of the interaction of the different process parameters. In this model the complex tool motion as well as the dynamic
material behaviour (this process leads to cyclic plastic deformation in the material) has to be considered. Verification of the model is done
by comparing the geometry of the corrugated tube with the simulation result. With the verified model the process parameters can be varied
in a wide range without blocking any production devices and testing of different tool geometries can be performed in virtual studies.
Keywords: Numerical simulation, Abaqus, corrugated steel tubes
Introduction
Corrugated tubes made from plastics are well known
and widely used in many applications e.g. drainage or
cable conduits. The main advantages of corrugated tubes
compared with smooth tubes are their high stability
against lateral pressure and better bending properties [1].
These advantages led to increasing market requests for
corrugated steel tubes [2]. Main applications for these
tubes are peripheral conductors of coaxial cables, heat
exchanger and solar tubes. Depending on the application
helical and annular corrugated tubes (Figure 1) must be
produced from smooth tubes.
Figure 2. Corrugation device with corrugated tube [1].
The aim of the present work is to develop a finite

element model of the corrugation process described above
to provide a decelerated sight into the tool in order to
obtain a better understanding of what happens during this
process.
Modelling Strategy
Figure 1. Helical (top) and annular (bottom) corrugated tube [1].
To do this in an economic way continuous and stable

processes must be provided [3]. One possibility for this
purpose is a corrugator with a free rotating corrugation
disk as shown in Figure 2. The main tool of this device is
a ring with a specific inner geometry which is positioned
under a certain angle relative to the tubes axis. Eccentric
rotation of the ring leads to a wobbling motion of the tool.
This ensures a continuous and nearly frictionless process,
where a corrugator rotation speed up to 8,000 rpm can be
realized. Depending on the tool geometry and on the
process settings a helical or an annular corrugation can be
produced with this process. It is clear from this description
that a lot of input parameters have to interact to obtain a
stable corrugation process with sufficient results.
1014
Software. The corrugation process as described above is

performed at high rotation speeds and so it is a highly
dynamic process. Furthermore a lot of contact openings
and closures will occur during simulation. To handle these
problems in a numerical analysis is a challenging task.
Usually explicit finite element codes are more appropriate
for this kind of simulations than implicit codes. Hence, the
commercial finite element software Abaqus/Explicit [4]
was chosen for modelling and computation of this process.
Model Parameters. The simulation model is based on
an actual corrugation process to produce an annular
corrugated tube which is performed at Rosendahl
Maschinen GmbH in Austria.
The basic material is a welded smooth tube with an
external diameter of 21 mm, a wall thickness of 0.18 mm
and consists of the austenitic stainless steel AISI 316L
(1.4404).
09.08.2010 14:41:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Though the process speed is high, practical experience
shows that the increase of temperature due to plastic
deformation in the forming zone is not more than 10C.
Hence, the influence of temperature can be neglected and
the computation is performed isothermal at room
temperature (20C). Flow curves for the tubes material at
room temperature are taken from the work of Feaugas [5].
To obtain sufficient results from a simulation in the field
of cold forming it is necessary to use an elastic-plastic
material model. So the Youngs modulus for the steel is set
to 210,000 MPa and Poissons ratio to 0.27, respectively.
Nonlinear kinematic hardening of the material is set by
using the combined hardening option in Abaqus to
consider the cyclic elasto-plastic behaviour of the steel.
The tool geometry provided from the company partner is
shown in Figure 3(a). The forming zone of the
corrugation disk consists of a hole with a helical shaped
engraving. The angle between the disks and the tubes
axis is in the range between 1 and 6 (see Figure 4). The
eccentricity e of the tool acc. to Figure 3(b) lies between 2
and 6 mm. The revolution speed for the investigated
process is 1,400 to 1,700 rpm and the feed rate is
6.4 m/min. In a further simulation the feed rate will be
increased up to 7 m/min to investigate the influence of the
feed rate on the geometry of the corrugated tube. Elastic
deflection of the disk is neglected in the simulation. Hence,
the corrugation disk is implemented as discrete rigid part.
To obtain a stable process an infeed and an outlet bearing
must be placed close to the corrugation tool (Figure 5).
These two bearings were also assumed to be rigid and
implemented as analytical rigid bodies.
the axis between the points 2 and 3 can be released to

provide a free rotation about this axis.
Figure 4. Tool position regarding to tubes axis.
Mesh Strategy for Tube. Because the wall thickness of

the tube is low (0.18 mm) and a significant change in wall
thickness is not expected the tube is meshed with linear
continuum shell elements [4]. The expected wave length
for the corrugated tube is about 4 mm. Hence, the element
length is set to 0.4 mm to be fine enough to provide about
ten elements over one corrugated wave. This leads to a
specific element number of 410 elements per mm tube
length. To prevent rotation of the tube during corrugation a
torsion lock is placed 1160 mm behind the corrugation
disk. This distance must be considered in the model. So it
is necessary to model an entire tubes length of 1200 mm.
With the mesh density mentioned before, this would lead
to a very high element number of 492,000 resulting in very
low computation speed. To reduce the number of elements
on the tube only the part of the tube which contacts the
workpiece during the simulation (ca. 150 mmin length) is
meshed with shell elements. The rest of the tube is
modelled with beam elements which have a tube shaped
profile assignment (Figure 5). The coupling between the
shells and the beam elements is done by a kinematic
coupling condition [4] which is shown in Detail A in
Figure 5. Detail B in Figure 5 shows the back end of the
beam, where v3 denotes the feeding velocity while all the
other translational and rotational degrees of freedom are
locked for this point.
Results
Figure 3. Geometry of corrugation disk (a) and forming zone with

eccentricity e regarding to tubes axis (b).
The contact zone is not lubricated in the actual process

and so a friction factor of = 0.1 has been set for the
contact between tool and tube.
Implementation of Tool Motion. One problem in
simulating this process is the complex movement of the
corrugation disk as described earlier in this work. To
realize this complex tool motion in the simulation model
the tool is driven by two connectors [4]. Point 1 rotates on
the tubes axis and drives the connector, a so called
translator, with the fixed length e between the points 1 and
2 acc. to Figure 3(b). The axis between the points 2 and 3
in Figure 3(b) represents the tools axis (see Figure 4) and
is implemented by a so called cylindrical connector.
With this connector the rotational degree of freedom for
Figure 6 shows the situation during the corrugation

process. At this point a steady state is reached and a
periodic annular corrugation is achieved on the tube.
Steady state is reached when the tube gets in contact with
the outlet bearing. Before the outlet bearing is in contact
with the tube, wrinkling occurs, which can be seen at the
front end of the tube in Figure 6.
Model Validation. Validation of the simulation results is
done by comparing the actual geometry of the corrugated
tube with the simulation results. For this purpose a
corrugated tube is sliced axially and the wave period, the
amplitude and the profile length (l, u and s in Figure 7) as
well as the inner and outer diameter of the actual geometry
produced with a feed rate of 6.4 m/min are compared with
the computed values (see Table 1).
1015
09.08.2010 14:41:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 5. Overview of entire model to simulate corrugation process.
Influence of Feed Rate on Tube geometry. To

investigate the influence of the feed rate on the results of
the corrugation process the feed rate is increased from
6.4 m/min to 7 m/min. This leads to increased axial
pressure in the forming zone and to a change in the
resulting tube geometry. Table 1 summarizes the main
geometric results for this simulation (Simul 2). The
increase in feeding rate has no influence on the outer
diameter of the tube but the inner diameter decreases from
19.3 mm to 18.5 mm. Consequently the amplitude of the
wave increases from 0.8 mm to 1.2 mm. Further, the
simulation shows that the wave period also increases with
increasing feeding rate.
Figure 6. Geometry of tube and corrugation disk during
corrugation process.
Table 1. Comparison between actual geometry produced with feed

rate of 6.4 m/min and computed geometry with feed rate of
6.4 m/min and 7 m/min, respectively average for nine waves.
Experiment
Figure 7. Wave period l, amplitude u and profile length s.
The values in Table 1 represent an average over nine

waves and show a good agreement between the measured
and computed values for the outer diameter. The inner
diameter and the wave period as well as the amplitude
show a small deviation between the experiment and the
related simulation (simul 1). Considering necessary
simplifications in the numerical model the agreement
between the computed and measured values is sufficient.
1016
Simul 1
Simul 2
Feed rate
6.4 m/min
6.4 m/min
7 m/min
Inner Diameter
19.5 mm
19.3 mm
18.5 mm
Outer Diameter
21.3 mm
21.3 mm
21.3 mm
Wave period l
4.71 mm
4.59 mm
4.87 mm
Amplitude u
0.7 mm
0.8 mm
1.2 mm
Profile length s
4.65 mm
4.6 mm
4.84 mm
Computed Strain and Wall Thickness of Corrugated

Tubes. Figure 8 shows the simulated true strain
distribution on the corrugated tube. For both investigated
cases the true strain lies between 20 % on the wave peak
and 80 % in the wave trough. The case with lower feeding
09.08.2010 14:41:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
rate shows a homogenous strain profile over the tube while
the strain for the version produced with higher feeding rate
is very inhomogeneous. This leads to the conclusion that
the feeding rate of 7 m/min is near the upper limit for the
investigated parameter set. A higher feeding rate would
lead to an unstable process i.e. wrinkling will occur.
perform a systematic parameter variation to investigate the

influence of different process parameters without blocking
any production devices.
Figure 9. Computed wall thickness on corrugated tube produced

with feeding rate of (a) 6.4 m/min and (b) 7 m/min.
Figure 8. Strain distribution on corrugated tube produced with
feeding rate of (a) 6.4 m/min and (b) 7 m/min.
The resulting wall thickness on the corrugated tube

(Figure 9) lies between 0.17 mm on the wave peak and
0.20 mm on the wave trough. The wall thickness at the
wave peak experiences a small decrease compared to the
initial wall thickness, while the wall thickness in the wave
trough increases for 0.02 mm. The main difference
between the two cases with the different feeding rates is,
analogous to the strain, that the wall thickness is more
homogenous for the case with 6.4 m/min feeding rate.
Conclusion
The corrugation process of tubes presented in this work
is a very complex manufacturing process. In many cases
the variation of different process parameters directly on
the machine is a very fast way indeed but often the
interaction and impact of different process parameters on
the corrugation result can not be found by experimental
work. Hence, a simulation model of the corrugation
process was developed. With this model it is possible to
The first trials to simulate this process are presented

here. It is shown that it is possible to model this process
with finite elements. By varying the infeed rate the
sensitivity of the model on changed process parameters is
demonstrated. However, a lot of specific assumptions and
a complex model are necessary to obtain accurate results
in suitable computation time. In future work this model
will be used to look on this process in more detail and to
obtain better knowledge about the interactions of the most
important parameters which influence the performance of
the corrugation process.
References
[1] S. Weiss: Proc. XXVIII Conference on Metal Forming, Planneralm,
(2009), 75-89.
[2] H. Bittner, V. Hein: 3R International, 42-5 (2003), 323-325.
[3] T. Estienne, G. Besnier, J.-P. Duc: US Patent 7266886 B2, (2007).
[4] N.N.: Abaqus 6.9 Documentation, Simulia, Providence, RI, (2008).
[5] X. Feaugas: Acta Materialica 47-13 (1999), 3617-3632.
1017
09.08.2010 14:41:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
Graded Ultrafine Grained Materials by Incremental Bulk Metal Forming

Reimund Neugebauer, Markus Bergmann
Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU, Chemnitz / Germany
Ultrafine grained materials provide special properties like high strength at sufficient ductility. These materials can be obtained by various
manufacturing approaches. The most common manufacturing processes using solid coarse grained billets are methods based on extreme
strain generation and are called Severe Plastic Deformation processes. In these processes, the complete material volume is plasticised and
formed. The present article focuses on a new approach for partial Severe Plastic Deformation to create ultrafine-grained materials capable
of bridging the gap between refining the complete volume and the surface only as well as overcoming some technical limitations of Severe
Plastic Deformation methods. Based on the application of incremental bulk forming the theoretical fundamentals of manufacturing of a
graded workpiece and a new type of rolling process for rod shaped billets are presented. The major feature of the process is high strain
generation by kneading. Kneading is characterized and the interaction with forming parameters described. Different aluminium alloys have
been processed and investigated. The change of the materials microstructure and properties in different regions are analyzed. The material
is characterized by a coarse grained core and an ultrafine-grained, several mm thick surface area. The technology provides an approach
for products with a graded grain size and property distributions adapted to the load requirements.
Keywords: Gradation rolling, Severe plastic deformation, Graded material, Ultrafine-grained
Introduction
Polycrystalline metals with grain sizes below 1 m, so
called ultrafine-grained materials, provide special properties without changing chemical compositions. A main
characteristic of ultrafine grained aluminium alloys is high
strength often in combination with reduced elongation at
fracture compared to the coarse grained state. Crack initiation in ultrafine grained aluminium based materials is
delayed, however crack growth is faster. Age hardening
aluminium alloys provide an increase of corrosion resistance compared to coarse grained counterparts.
Ultrafine grained and nanocrystalline materials can be
obtained by various manufacturing approaches. The most
common manufacturing processes, using solid coarse
grained billets, are methods based on extreme strain generation. They are called Severe Plastic Deformation processes. Common processes are Equal Channel Angular
Pressing, Cyclic Extrusion Compression, High Pressure
Torsion and Twist Extrusion, described in [1,2,3,4]. Severe
Plastic Deformation processes enable very high strains by
inducing high hydrostatic pressure. In order to create ultrafine-grained microstructure the processing temperature
is required to remain below recrystallization temperature.
In these processes typically the complete material volume
is plasticized and formed. Currently the application of
ultrafine grained materials is restricted due to technical
limitations during the grain size generation process and
economic feasibility.
The characteristics of ultrafine grained and nanocrystalline materials frequently are not required in the complete
component volume. Most material failures like fatigue
fracture, corrosion or wear occur at or near the surface. A
component with the combination of a ductile core and high
strength areas adapted to the load conditions is desirable.
Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment technologies are
available to create ultrafine grained or nanostructured
surface areas [5]. The thickness of the ultrafine grained
area created by these processes is limited to a very thin
surface layer.
1018
An approach for manufacturing ultrafine-grained parts

with a gradient of the grain size is incremental bulk forming technology.
Grain Size Graded Parts
In order to illustrate the gradation principle and the potential of graded parts an example is introduced first.
The reduction of the grain size in defined areas down to
ultrafine-grained state makes is feasible to create components with enhanced properties. By applying a grain size
distribution a combination of properties in a part can be
obtained. For example, aluminium bolts can have a defined combination of high strength, ductility and corrosion
resistance in separate areas.
Figure 1. Section of bolt with graded grain size.
A layer of high strength material adapted to the final

shape in the section with highest stress enhances the static
and dynamic strength, Figure 1. Dynamic load capacity of
the material is connected to the crack initiation and crack
growth properties. The crack initiation in the ultrafinegrained layer is expected to be reduced and the crack
growth rate is increased, as has been shown on ECAPed
material in [6,7]. The ductile core provides a safety margin.
The growth of a crack that has been initiated is hindered in
the coarse grained layer. Additionally, an ultrafine-grained
respectively nanocrystalline layer provides a higher corrosion resistance [8].
The concept of graded aluminium parts with localized
properties due to local grain size adaption is capable of
meeting increased strength, safety and corrosion requirements. Numerical studies on bolts [9] show the potential
09.08.2010 14:41:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
with respect to the strength of bolts with a layer of ultrafine grained material.
An exemplary process chain can be applied as shown in
Figure 2 for the manufacture of a bolt. The billet is graded
in a first step and then processed in the conventional process chain.
positive amplitude + . The forming direction is permanently changing.

The not undone deformation within a step i is the
difference of the + and . Cumulating this value for

every forming step is termed nominal true strain n , rep-
resenting the geometrical true strain, equation 2.

A large proportion of deformation doesnt contribute to
the final shape or geometrical true strain. This is the so
called knead effect. i.e. strains that are applied to the material that are reversed and not affecting the final shape. At
sufficiently high levels, a strong impact on microstructure
formation is one consequence of this effect.
Figure 2. Process chain graded bolt.
In order to keep the properties of the gradation during later

steps in the chain some precautions need to be taken. For
instance, the formability and the precipitation generation
during processing of age hardening aluminium alloys, and
the temperature regime need to be adequate for the final
material properties.
The focus of this paper is on the theoretical and practical
fundamentals of the initial step of this exemplary sequence,
the gradation of the billet or the stock wire.
Gradation Rolling Process
Incremental Processes. Processes of incremental bulk
forming can be flexibly designed to meet the requirements
of sever plastic deformation. The main requirements are:
Very large plastic strain
Hydrostatic pressure (in plasticized volume)
Forming temperatures below recrystallization
temperature
Incremental bulk forming processes are characterized by
forming the material in steps or increments. An increment
is characterized by one loading and unloading cycle.
One group of incremental forming methods are rolling
processes. In Figure 3 a principle sketch of the forming
area with a section of a billet and a roll illustrates such a
rolling process.
C = +
(1)
n = i
(2)
C = + +
(3)
The cumulated true strain
C cumulates the amounts of
all true strain applied to the material. The grain refinement

effect depends on C . In contrast to Severe Plastic Deformation procedures like Equal Channel Angular Pressing
inhomogeneous stress and strain conditions occur.
Principle of Gradation Rolling. A new principle for the
processing of bulk rod shaped billets has been developed.
The principle is based on the kneading effect.
The main task of the process is the generation of a grain
size distribution with a gradient of the grain size from
coarse grained to ultrafine respectively nanocrystalline
grain size. The term gradation rolling is used. Gradation
rolling has similarities to flow forming which is typically
used for the shape generation of tube shaped parts. In
contrast, gradation rolling is not primarily aimed at shape
generation but it is used for material modification by
kneading the material in defined areas. The geometrical
true strain of gradation rolling is approximately 0. Ideally,
the shape of the workpiece is not changed. The diameter
before and after processing is nearly identical.
Figure 3. Kneading in rolling process.
The characteristics of the kneading in incremental rolling processes are investigated in [10,11].
The material is plasticised with every contact of a roll.
In the plasticised volume a hydrostatic pressure is induced.
A material build up in front of the roll is created, which
equates to a negative forming amplitude . The forming
under the roll in the opposite direction correlates with the
Figure 4. Principle of gradation rolling.
In the illustrated setup shown in Figure 4, gradation

rolling is performed by three forming rolls. The rolls roll
off the actively driven billet and penetrate into the billet.
The friction between rolls and billet is a condition for the
transmission of the rotation from the driven billet to the
rolls. A distinct layer of the materials volume is kneaded
by the rolls which intrude into the material. The kneading
1019
09.08.2010 14:41:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
affects the material up to several millimetres below the
surface.
A defined length of the billet is processed by moving the
rolls in axial direction. During the process the diameter of
the billet is reduced by the penetrating rolls and recreated
after the roll contact (see Figure 5).
In order to minimize the elongation of the workpiece it
is necessary to not plasticise the whole material volume.
An unplasticised core is required.
During processing the initially cold material is heated up
by dissipation energy. The use of pre-heated billets is feasible. A strong grain refinement requires that the materials
temperature remains below the specific recrystallization
temperature. Due to the locally acting forming tools a
cooling of the billet, for instance with a coolant fluid, can
be applied too.
Parameters. The main geometrical and process parameters (see Figure 5) which characterise the process are:
billet diameter DB
the minimum diameter during processing (related to penetration depth) DP
the final diameter DF
forming width B
roll geometry
rotation speed of the billet
feed rate
initial diameter of the extruded rods is 55 mm. The samples where manufactured at different parameter settings.
(a) Al 99.5
(b) EN AW-6082
(c) En AW-7075
Figure 6. Rolled specimen.
The processed materials show local severely deformed

areas with reduced grain size [12]. In principle the technology can be used to modify all deformable metals. The
processing of materials like steels and magnesium alloys is
subject of future investigations.
The gradient of the grain size of the EN AW-6082 sample is shown in Figure 7. The EBSD mappings show the
orientation of crystallites in different regions of the cross
section. Depending on the distance from the surface a
gradient from coarse grained material to grain sizes below
1 m has been detected. The strongest grain refinement is
in the surface region.
10 m
10 m
2.5 mm below
surface
10 m
4 mm below
surface
7 mm below
surface
Figure 7. EBSD mappings of graded billet.
With respect to the objective of designing materials

properties by grain refinement in a defined layer of the
material the grain size gradient and the thickness of the
layer are of interest.
The dimension of the knead area respectively the thickness of the grain refined layer can be influenced by varying the penetration depth. With increasing depth the thickness is increased too and the unplasticised volume is reduced. The penetration depth is limited. Stress and strain
conditions in the material are influenced by the penetration
depth.
Axial feed rate per revolution and width of the forming
area define the amount of overrolling cycles or amount of
roll contacts. Every rollover leads to the kneading of the
material. A lower feed rate and wider forming area leads to
a higher amount of strain and a stronger grain refining
effect.
The geometry of the forming rolls also affects the strain
distribution and the level of strain and the stress conditions.
Processed Billet. Samples of pure aluminium and
wrought alloys EN AW-6082 and EN AW-7075 that where
processed in T6 condition are shown in Figure 6. The
1020
One method to characterize the properties is hardness

measurement. The distribution of hardness indicates the
strain distribution resp. plasticization of the material.
The effect is visualised by a plot of a principle hardness
curve which illustrates the hardness gradient in the cross
section. The diameter of the unchanged region with constant hardness (corresponding to the initial condition) is
called core diameter DC. In a second area up to the diameter DL an approx. linear increasing hardness is produced. A
strain hardening with increasing but low grain size reduction occurs.
DC
Kneaded area
DL
Hardness
Figure 5. Section of a billet and a roll with parameters.
Figure 8. Principle of hardness distribution of cross-section.
09.08.2010 14:41:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
A strong increase of hardness occurs in the region near
the surface. This region correlates with the knead area. The
maximum hardness is reached close to the surface.
The size of the diameters DC and DL depend on the setup
of the forming parameters especially on the penetration
depth.
Deformation Characteristics. The characteristics of the
deformation during processing give information about the
expected grain size, grain shape and texture formation.
To get information about the deformation characteristics
of the gradation rolling process a first theoretical investigation, motivated by the work of Furukawa et al. [13] on
the Equal Channel Angular Pressing process, has been
carried out. The application of this approach to gradation
rolling uses the deformation of a cube shape element to
characterize qualitatively the knead area.
An incremental small cube in the knead area, Figure 9,
is observed regarding its deformation behaviour during
processing. The complex deformation is divided to separate planes and mechanisms in order to reduce to simple
deformation principles.
Z
Y
Figure 9. Cube model.
Focusing on every plane separately a planar deformation

for every plane of the cube, magnification Figure 9, can
be carried out.
Additionally the major mechanism: twisting, kneading,
penetration res. diameter reduction, are considered separately. The twisting is caused by the unidirectional rolling.
The effect has been investigated in [11] on the incremental
bulk forming method spin extrusion. The kneading occurs
during rolling as described earlier in this paper. Penetration refers to the change in diameter during rolling, see
Figure 5.
In Figure 10 the three deformation mechanisms are depicted exemplarily in x-plane. The upper row, A, shows
the distortion caused by the twisting.
Kneading, row B, cause an alternation of elongation and
compression. The number corresponds to the rollover
cycles.
During processing the rolls penetrate into the material.
The material is stepwise upset and restored, row C. The
maximum upset is affected by the penetration depth.
x-plane
A
B
All three deformation routes occur at the same time. The

deformation is a mixture of these 3 main deformation
routes. The number of single elements in every row does
not represent the real number of forming increments and
the three rows have different scales.
Comparing with Equal Channel Angular Pressing processes [13] the deformation during gradation rolling is a
fusion of the characteristics of different Equal Channel
Angular Pressing routes.
In the knead area a rapid microstructural evolution and
the generation of relatively round grains can be expected.
Summary
Materials with a gradient of the grain size can provide a
combination of properties resulting in enhanced component characteristics. A new incremental rolling method for
producing rod shaped billets with gradient grain size is
presented and investigated. The method is characterised by
kneading a defined layer of up to several mm thickness at
the surface of the material. In contrast to common ECAP
processes a severe plastic deformation is induced only in a
local material volume.
The method has been successfully applied to modify different aluminium materials. Microstructural and mechanical analyses demonstrate the methods potential for property modification.
The settings of parameters can be used to design the gradient of the material.
In the knead area a complex strain distribution is generated, which is exemplary investigated on the deformation
of a plane in cross section. Compared to the severe plastic
deformation process Equal Channel Angular Pressing the
deformation is a combination of different forming routes.
References
Lahoti, P. Groche, J. Yanagimoto, N. Tsuji, A. Rosochowski, A. Yanagida: CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 2 (2008), 716735.
[2] Y.T. Zhu, D.P. Butt: Encyclopedia of Nanotechnology, American
Scientific Publishers, Stevenson Ranch, 6 (2004), 843-856.
[3] A. Rosochowski: Solid State Phenomena, 101-102 (2005), 13-22.
[4] Y.T. Zhu, T.G. Langdon, R.S. Mishra, S.L. Semiatin, T.C. Lowe
(Ed.): Ultrafine Grained Materials II; TMS (2002), 297-304.
[5] M.J. Zehetbauer, Y.T. Zhu, (Ed.): Bulk Nanostructured Materials,
Wiley (2009), 649-671.
[6] M. Hockauf, L.W. Meyer, T. Halle, C. Kuprin, M. Hietschold, S.
Schulze, L. Krger: Int. J. Mat. Res., 97 (2006), 1392-1400.
[7] L.W. Meyer, K. Sommer, T. Halle, M. Hockauf: Journal of Materials
Science, 43 (2008), 7426-7431.
[8] B. Wielage, D. Nickel, T. Lampke, G. Alisch, H. Podlesak, S.
Darwich, M. Hockauf: Materials Science Forum, 584-586 (2008),
988-993
[9] M. Bergmann, B. Bruzek, H. Lang: Materials & Design, 31 (2010),
1438-1443.
[10] B. Awiszus, F. Meyer, L.W. Meyer, F. Hahn: Proc. DFG Priority
Program 1074, Aachen, (2005).
[11] F. Hahn: Ph.D. Thesis, TU Chemnitz, (2003).
[12] R. Neugebauer, M. Popp, M. Bergmann: Proc. 16th SFU, Chemnitz,
(2009), 259-282
Materials Science and Engineering A, 257 (1998), 328-332
C
Figure 10. Deformation of x-plane of cube
1021
09.08.2010 14:41:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Prediction of Force-Sustaining Endurance for Micro Half-Blanking Component with

Thin Sheet Material
Tae-Wan Ku1), Joo-Young Jung2), Woo-Jin Song3), Jeong Kim1), Beom-Soo Kang1)
1)
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / S. Korea, bskang@pusan.ac.kr; 2) ERC/NSDM, Pusan National University, Busan / S. Korea; 3) Industrial Liaison Innovation Center, Pusan National University, Busan / S. Korea
After micro half-blanking process using thin sheet material of 1050-H16 aluminum alloy, the residual stress is removed by an annealing
process, and then the final product can be obtained. Force-sustaining endurance of the micro half-blanking component used for the CID
(Current Interception Device) filter within a cylindrical-type secondary battery, which is used to prevent the battery from exploding, is predicted and characterized in this study. To ensure the endurance of the micro half-blanking component against the applied force, a series of
endurance tests is needed. 3-D finite element analysis by DEFORM 3D combined with Cockcroft and Lathams ductile fracture criterion is
carried out to predict the force-sustaining endurance with respect to three influential parameters such as thickness, clearance, and corner
radius of the component. Furthermore, the endurance test is also performed to verify the analyzed results by using the force-sustaining
endurance test apparatus. From the results, the force-sustaining endurance of the micro half-blanking component used for the CID filter is
verified through good agreement with the results of finite element analysis, both sets of results predict well with regard to the fracture that
ensure from the application of an external force.
Keywords: Micro half-blanking component, Force-sustaining endurance, Fracture prediction, Finite element analysis, Endurance test
Introduction
Nowadays, a secondary battery is a prevalent device that
is used in most electric equipment such as mobile phones,
notebook computers, camcorders, and so forth [1,2]. However, due to the phenomenon of the unpredictable explosion of batteries in the mobile device usage, it is necessary
to develop a more precise and safer battery. Therefore, in
order to prevent users and devices that contain the battery
from harm or damage that is caused by its explosion, the
safety of the battery should be considered.
A micro half-blanking operation using shearing force is
often used to produce a series of thin sheet metal components. This process is different from blanking and piercing
processes in which a metal piece is separated from the
original thin sheet metal, and also is influenced by the
tools geometry, speed of the punch and die, and mechanical properties of the material used. One of the components
obtained by applying the micro half-blanking process is
CID (Current Interception Device) filter, which is a device
used to prevent the cylindrical-type battery from explosion.
Therefore, the influence of the geometric parameters on
the force-sustaining endurance of the filter is important, so
that the force that causes fracture in the CID filter is
clearly predicted. After a series of manufacturing processes to obtain the final deformed component of the filter
as shown in Figure 1, the residual stress that obtains in the
micro half-blanking process in the component will be
released by an annealing process, and then the final prototype can be obtained [3].
In this study, the main objective was to predict the forcesustaining endurance of the micro half-blanking component used for the CID filter. The mechanical properties
were investigated with a thin sheet material of 1050-H16
aluminum alloy, following the annealing treatment, applied in the analysis and the experiment. Furthermore, the
endurance test was conducted to verify the analyzed results by using the force-sustaining endurance test apparatus. In addition, to ensure the endurance of the micro half-
1022
blanking component against the applied force, 3dimensional finite element analysis by DEFORM 3D combined with Cockcroft and Lathams ductile fracture criterion was carried out to predict the force-sustaining endurance with respect to three influential parameters, namely,
thickness, clearance, and corner radius of the component.
The force-sustaining endurance of the CID filter was verified through good agreement with the results between the
analysis and the experiment, and the fracture with the
external force was well predicted, resultantly.
Figure 1. Final configuration and prototypes of CID filter.

Table 1. Mechanical properties of 1050-H16 aluminum alloy.
Before Annealing
After Annealing
Youngs Modulus (GPa)
69
69
Yield Strength (MPa)
117
54
Ultimate Strength (MPa)
127
68
Poisons Ratio ()
0.30
0.30
Fracture Strain (f)
0.0433
0.2470
Strength Coefficient, K (MPa)
155.2
133.5
Strain-Hardening Exponent, n
0.049
0.161
Experimental Approach
Mechanical Properties. The material used in this study
is 1050-H16 aluminum alloy with the initial thickness of
0.5mm. To verify the mechanical properties before and
after the annealing process of the deformable blank, the
uni-axial tensile tests were performed according to the
specification as per ASTM standard E517-00 [5]. Figure 2
shows the tensile test results that are used to extract the
09.08.2010 14:42:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
mechanical properties, including the relationship between
the true stress and the true strain. Table 1 describes the
extracted mechanical properties of the material used. The
flow stress for the numerical analysis was obtained as
= 133.5 0.161 MPa, and the fracture strain (f) was 0.247.
Figure 4 shows examples of fracture failure. In addition,

Figure 5 illustrates the run charts for the thickness (t) and
the measured pushing punch force from the experimental
results. From the results, the thickness (t) was distributed
between 0.16 and 0.17 mm, and the maximum punch force
to cause the micro half-blanking component to fail was
investigated to be about 22.5 N.
Ductile Fracture Criterion Combine with FEM
Figure 2. Tensile test rsults for 1050-H16 aluminum alloy.
Ductile Fracture Criterion. In order to ascertain the

magnitude of the force that the micro half-blanking CID
filter can sustain, the finite element scheme was linked to
the fracture criterion. Fracture failure occurs when the
criterion reaches a threshold limit. In the analytic approach,
Cockcroft and Lathams expression is one of the empirical
criteria of the ductile fracture [6,7], and has been successfully introduced in the prediction of the forming limit of
the sheet metal forming process [8]. More specifically,
Cockcroft and Lathams fracture criterion assumes that the
history of the maximum normal stress affects the occurrence of the ductile fractures as follows:
1
C1
I=
Figure 3. Considered shape parameters of CID filter.
Figure 4. Developed apparatus for force-sustaining endurance test

and failure examples.
max d
where f is the equivalent fracture strain, max of the maximum principle stress and C1 of the damage value as the
material constant. Fracture occurs when the value of the
integral I-value reaches 1.0.
Eq. (1) contains an unknown material constant, C1,
which can be determined simply through the uni-axial
tensile test. Using the von Mises yield function and
Reusss constitutive equation, the maximal normal stress
and the equivalent strain increment, under the uni-axial
stress state for the isotropic material, are written as shown
in Eq. (2). From Eq. (2) for the uni-axial stress state and
the result of the tensile test in Table 1, the material constant, C1 , can be obtained approximately.
max = and d = d 1
f
C1 = max d = 133 .5 0.161d = 22 .7
Figure 5. Run charts on thickness (t) and applied punch force from
force-sustaining endurance tests.
Force-Sustaining Endurance Test. The shape parameters of the CID filter were defined as three factors, namely,
thickness, clearance, and corner radius, which are symbolized as t, C and R, respectively, as shown in Figure 3. The
test apparatus shown in Figure 4, which was developed in
this study, was adopted to measure the force-sustaining
endurance after the annealing process for the deformed
component. During the experiment, the external force was
applied to the central position of the CID filter, and measured when the micro half-blanking part was separated
from the micro half-blanking CID filter. Furthermore,
(1)
(2)
(3)
Finite Element Model. For reducing the computational

time, a one-sixth model of the CID filter component according to its symmetrical configuration was constructed
to predict the force-sustaining endurance. According to the
experimental results, the crack occurred at the weakest
region of the micro half-blanking part, as shown in Figure
4. In other words, the crack in terms of fracture will occur
at the thinnest regions, hence these regions have to be
discretized with fine meshes for greater accuracy. Figure 6
depicts the finite element model for analyzing the fracture
phenomenon. As shown in Figure 6, the workpiece was set
on the lower die with the free-support condition. The onesixth finite element model was assumed to be symmetry,
and then the workpiece was modelled as four-node tetrahedral elements. The material of the half-blanking component was assumed as a rigid-plastic object, and the tools
such as the push punch and the lower die were considered
as rigid bodies. In the simulation using DEFORM 3D, this
1023
09.08.2010 14:42:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
process was defined as a quasi-static process, and hence
the effects of the strain rate were neglected.
Prediction of Force-Sustaining Endurance
Influence of Thickness. To investigate the forcesustaining endurance that is influenced by the thickness
parameter (t), the maximum force that the CID filter component can sustain was considered for various cases of the
thickness parameter. The thickness were selected as 0.100.11, 0.16-0.17 and 0.19-0.20 mm, along with other parameters such as the clearance (C) of 0.0 mm and the corner radius (R) of 0.03 mm, and then the FE models were
visualized as shown in Figure 7. Figure 8 shows the examples of the fracture simulation in this study.
During the simulation process, the applied punch force
was increased gradually until the integral I-value reached
1.0, thereafter, it was removed quickly. As summarized in
Table 2, the analyzed results were compared with each
other. Then, in case of the thickness of 0.16-0.17 mm, the
force-sustaining endurance of the micro half-blanking CID
filter was well predicted with the error range of about
1.33 % between 22.5 N from the experiment and 22.3 N
from the analysis. Figure 9 shows the distribution of the
effective strain and the integral I-value in terms of the
damage value for various thickness parameters. As mentioned above, when the fracture criterion I-value reached
1.0, the crack would occur. Therefore, as Figure 9 implies,
the integral I-value was highest at the outer corner, so this
part would be the initial crack region, and then the crack
would propagate from this region to the inner corner with
a similar pattern as shown in Figure 8.
Influence of Clearance. The maximum force that the
CID filter can sustain for various cases of the clearance
parameter (C) was considered for investigating the influence of the clearance on the force-sustaining endurance.
The clearance was adjusted by changing the inner diameter of the CID filter as shown in Figure 10. The clearance
was one of three values, 0 %, 5 %, and 10 %, with other
parameters, namely, the thickness (t) and the corner radius
(R) being 0.16-0.17 mm and 0.03 mm. Figure 11 illustrates the distribution of the effective strain and the integral I-value for various clearance parameters. The influence of the clearance parameter on the force-sustaining
endurance as summarized in Table 3 can be summarized
that the force-sustaining endurance of the CID filter increases with the clearance.
Figure 8. Simulation examples regarding fracture prediction.
Figure 9. Effective stress, effective strain and integral I obtained

by FE analysis for various thickness parameters.
Table 2. Maximum punch force obtained by experiment and analysis for various thickness values.
Thickness, t (mm)
0.10 ~ 0.11
0.16 ~ 0.17
Maesured Punch Force [N]
12.4
22.5
28.8
Analyzed Punch Force [N]
12.9
22.2
27.2
Error [%]
-3.88
1.33
5.88
0.19~0.20
Table 3. Maximum punch force obtained by experiment and analysis for various clearances.
Clearance, C (%)
0.0
5.0
10.0
22.5
25.6
27.3
22.2
24.2
25.4
Error [%]
1.33
5.79
7.48
Figure 10. FE models for various clearance parameters.
Figure 6. Finite element model and boundary condition.
Figure 7. Finite element model for various thickness parameters.
1024
Influence of Corner Radius. To predict the forcesustaining endurance that is influenced by the punch and
the die corner radius (R), the maximum force that the CID
filter can sustain was simulated for various cases of the
clearance parameter. The clearance was set to one of three
different values such as 0.03, 0.05 and 0.07 mm, along
with other parameters such as the thickness (t) of 0.160.17 mm and the clearance (C) of 0.0 %, as shown in Figure 12. The distributions of the effective strain and the
09.08.2010 14:42:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
integral I-value for various corner radii were shown in
Figure 13. As the result, the force-sustaining endurance
had a tendency to increase with the corner radius, as summarized in Table 4.
Table 4. Maximum punch force obtained by experiment and analysis for various corner radii.
Corner Radius, R (mm)
0.03
0.05
0.07
22.5
24.2
26.9
22.2
23.1
25.8
Error [%]
1.33
4.76
4.26
Conclusions

by FE analysis for various clearance parameters.
Figure 12. Finite element models for various corner radius values.
The 3-dimensional finite element method and the ductile

fracture criterion were applied to investigate the influence
of the shape parameters on the force-sustaining endurance
of the micro half-blanking CID filter. The maximum
punch force in the analytic approach was obtained by
using the fracture model. The compared results for the
force-sustaining endurance and the position of the crack of
the component agreed well between the analysis and the
experiment. From the comparative approaches of this
study, the results can be summarized as follows:
1. For all the analyzed parameters, the crack of the CID
filter occurred at the region of the clearance and the
corner radius, it means this region was the weakest one.
2. By using the finite element method combined with
Cockcroft and Lathams ductile fracture criterion, the
maximum force-sustaining endurance was well predicted for various shape parameters.
3. The increment of the thickness (t) tended to increase
the force-sustaining endurance of the micro halfblanking CID filter, and its influence was stronger than
that of other parameters.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Basic Science Research
first author would like to acknowledge the partial support
by the NRL Program (No. R0A-2008-000-20017-0), and
References

by FE analysis for various corner radius values.
[1] T.W. Ku, B.K. Ha, W.J. Song, B.S. Kang, S.M. Hwang: Journal of
[2] T.W. Ku, Y. Kim, B.S. Kang: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 187 (2007), 197-201.
[3] V.H. Bui, T.W. Ku, J. Kim, B.S. Kang: Steel Research International,
79-11 (Special Issue 1) (2008), 32-38.
[4] ASTM Standards: ASTM E517-00 specifications, (2006).
[5] M.G. Cockcroft, D.J. Latham: Journal of the Institute of Metals, 96
(1968), 33-39.
[6] M. Oyane, T. Sato, K. Okimoto, S. Shima: Journal of Mechanical
Working and Technology, 4 (1980), 68-81.
[7] S.E. Clift, P. Hartley, C.E.N. Sturgess, G.W. Rowe: International
Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 32 (1990), 1-17.
[8] H. Takuda, K. Mori, J. Hatta: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 95 (1999), 116-121.
1025
09.08.2010 14:42:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Dry Small Hole Shearing of Cold Rolled Steel Sheet with Electroconductive Ceramic
Tools
Kenji Tamaoki1), Ken-ichi Manabe2), Seiji Kataoka3), Tatsuhiko Aizawa4)
1)
Research and Development Department, Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Technology Research Institute, Tokyo / Japan, tamaoki.kenji@iritokyo.jp; 2) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo / Japan; 3) Department of Applied Design Engineering, Shonan Institute of Technology, Kanagawa / Japan; 4) Department of Engineering and Design, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo /
Japan
Large use and waste of lubricating oil have grown to be a very serious environmental issue. Hence, oil-free metal forming is one of the most
promising solutions to this issue. Among them, ceramic tooling is proposed because of its well-defined tribological properties. In this paper,
dry shearing is proposed by ceramic tooling. In particular, electroconductive ceramics are employed to prevent ceramic tooling from insufficient ductility in the shearing step. Electroconductive ceramic tools are shaped by electric discharge machining; any shape of tools can be
easily accommodated by electric discharge machining. Dry hole shearing by 100,000 repetitions was executed with various ceramic tools.
Blanking sizes were selected to be 15 mm and 5 mm to control the severity in dry shearing. The cold rolled steel sheet was employed as
a work material for shearing. Burr height of blank and depth of burnished surface were employed as a parameter to evaluate the workability
of ceramic tools. As a result, dry small hole shearing of the cold rolled steel sheet by 100,000 repetitions were achieved with some of ceramic tools. Burr height of blank and depth of burnished surface hardly changed before and after 100,000 repetitions.
Keywords: Ceramic tooling, Electroconductive ceramic composites, Dry shearing, Electric discharge machining, Cold rolled steel sheet,
Environmental friendliness
Lubricant is an essential key element in the conventional

metal forming process to reduce the friction between tool
and work material, increase the forming limit, shorten the
forming process, and to prolong the tool life by prevention
of galling and seizure. Hence, adaptive selection of lubricants to each metal forming process is necessary for successful operation and reduction in energy consumption.
This above traditional way inevitably leads to waste of
huge amount of lubricating oils, and induces a serious
environmental issue [1].
As one of the most promising methods without using the
lubricant, several ceramic tooling have been proposed
because of their special tribological properties. Friction
and wear of ceramics were studied [2-4]. Both friction and
wear of ceramics become anisotropic by specific relation
to crystal structure. It was reported that surface contaminants on ceramics affect friction and adhesive wear. In
addition, friction and wear between ceramics and metals
were surveyed [5,6].
Ceramic tooling was applied to dry deep drawing in trial
[7]. The compatibility between monolithic ceramic tools
and metallic sheet materials was systematically studied.
Oxide ceramics like ZrO2 and Al2O3 are effective to improve the dry formability of the cold rolled mild steel
(SPCC) and copper sheets. However, the workability of
ceramics in tooling preparation is inferior to that of alloy
tool steel. New ceramic tooling for dry forming by the
electroconductive ceramic composites was proposed [8].
The electroconductive ceramic tooling is shaped by electric discharge machining. Any shape of tools can be easily
accommodated by these methods.
Great success in dry deep drawing with ceramic tools
has been reported while dry shearing with ceramic tools
has been hardly researched. Aoki and Suzuki [9] reported
experimental shearing tests by ceramic tools. Shearing of
amorphous alloy foils was performed by some ceramic
1026
tools; three kinds of boride ceramics, partially stabilized

zirconia, cermet and silicon nitride. However, the thickness
of amorphous alloy foils was very thin by 40 m or less.
In the present paper, dry hole shearing by 100,000 repetitions was executed with various ceramic tools to investigate their practical feasibility. Five kinds of ceramics including electroconductive ceramics were prepared for the
tool material. Blanking sizes were selected to be 15 mm
and 5 mm to control the severity in dry shearing. The
SPCC was employed as a work material for shearing.
Ceramic Tools. Experimental set-up of dry shearing
with ceramic tools is schematically shown in Figure 1: the
punch, the die and the stripper. Various ceramics were
used for the punch and the die. Alloy tool steel (SKS3)
was used for the stripper.
Six ceramics were prepared for the tool materials: the
electroconductive ceramics (WC-ZrO2), the hot isostatic
pressing zirconia (HIP-ZrO2), the zirconia (ZrO2), the
alumina (Al2O3), the silicon nitride (Si3N4) and the silicon
carbide (SiC). This WC-ZrO2 is composed of 50 vol% WC
and 50 vol% ZrO2. Their physical properties are listed in
Table 1.
1
14.85 or 4.85
3
4
15.0 or 5.0
1 Punch
2 Die
Ceramics
3 Stripper
4 Work material
3.0
Introduction
(Cold rolled steel sheet)
Figure 1. Experimental set-up of dry shearing with ceramic tools.
09.08.2010 14:42:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. Physical properties of ceramics.
WCZrO2
HIPZrO2
ZrO2 Al2O3 Si3N4
SiC
/g cm
10.70
6.00
5.60
3.80
3.30
3.16
Vickers hardness /GPa
16.2
12.7
10.7
15.2
14.0
23.0
Bending strength /MPa
2000
1470
750
310
1020
450
Youngs modulus /GPa
330
220
200
360
300
440
Fracture toughness /MPa m1/2
8.5
7~8
3~4
2~3
Density
Volume resistivity / m
-3
5.9
-6
12
1.6x10 2.0x10 >10
14
>10
14
>10
14
108
Dry Shearing Test. Dry shearing was performed in continual manner up to number of blanking, N = 100,000 by
using the various ceramic tools. Blanking sizes were selected to be 15 and 5 mm to control the severity in dry
shearing. The geometric configurations of the punch and
the die are shown in Table 2. When the blanking size is
15 mm, the diameter of the punch is 14.85 mm and the
diameter of die cavity is 15.00 mm. Figure 2 shows outlook of these ceramic tools for dry shearing of 15 mm
blanks. When the blanking size is 5 mm, the diameter of
the punch is 4.85 mm and the diameter of die cavity is
5.00 mm. Figure 3 also shows the ceramic tools for dry
shearing of 5 mm blanks. The clearance is adjusted to
about 8 %. To be free from chipping, a minute chamfering
is processed to the edge of the punch and the die. Its size is
about 0.1 mm.
When dry shearing the blanks of 15 mm, HIP-ZrO2,

ZrO2, Al2O3, Si3N4 and SiC. While in the case of blanks of
5 mm, WC-ZrO2, HIP-ZrO2, ZrO2 and Si3N4 were employed.
The SPCC was used as a work material, and the thickness was 1.0 mm.
Evaluation of Workability. Both the burr height of
blank and the depth of burnished surface were measured
to evaluate the workability of ceramic tools. These parameters are much sensitive to abrasion and adhesion of
tools. Sample were picked up in every N = 1,000 up to N
= 100,000. The surface profilometer and microscope were
utilized to measure them together with the sheared edge
of blanks.
Dry 15 mm Shearing Test. The SPCC was successfully sheared in dry up to N = 100,000 by using ceramic
tools: the HIP-ZrO2 tool, the ZrO2 tool and the Si3N4 tool.
The Al2O3 tool was damaged at most up to N = 16,000.
The SiC tool was also deteriorated before N = 75,000. This
might be because the fracture toughness of Al2O3 and SiC
are low as shown in Table 1.
Figure 4 shows the variation in burr height of blanks
with N. The burr height in using the HIP-ZrO2 tool, the
ZrO2 tool and the Si3N4 tool was constant and stable up to
N = 100,000 with about 80 m or less. Especially, the burr
height by the HIP-ZrO2 tool was the lowest. Deviation in
Table 2. Geometric configurations of ceramic tools in dry shearing

test.
200
HIP-ZrO2
ZrO2
Al2O3
Si3N4
SiC
180
15 mm
5 mm
/mm
14.85
4.85
Diameter of die cavity /mm
15.00
5.00
Diameter of punch
160
Burr height /m
Blanking size
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
Number of blankings N
Figure 4. Burr height of blank (15 mm) by ceramic tools.
1000
Depth of burnished surface /m
(a) Punch
(b) Die
Figure 2. Photographs of ceramic tools for dry shearing of 15 mm
blanks.
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
(a) Punch
(b) Die
Figure 3. Photographs of ceramic tools for dry shearing of 5 mm
blanks.
HIP-ZrO2
ZrO2
Al2O3
Si3N4
SiC
900
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
Figure 5. Depth of burnished surface of blank (15 mm) by ceramic
tools.
1027
09.08.2010 14:42:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
the burr height was the smallest in using the ZrO2 tool. On
the other hand, the burr height by the Al2O3 tool was high
even in the initial stage, 120 m or more. The burr height
by the SiC tool was low in the initial stage, but increased
gradually to be 130 m in the final stage.
Figure 5 shows the variation in depth of burnished
Tool
N = 1,000
N = 100,000
HIP-ZrO2
Depth of burnished surface
500m
500m
ZrO2
Burr
500m
500m
500m
Si3N4
500m
surface with N. The depths of burnished surface by the

HIP-ZrO2 tool, the ZrO2 tool and the Si3N4 tool were about
600 m and those deviations were small. Figure 6 shows
micrographs of the sheared edge by the HIP-ZrO2 tool, the
ZrO2 tool and the Si3N4 tool with comparison of the
sheared edge of blanks between N = 1,000 and N =
100,000. The sheared edge of blanks at N = 1,000 and N =
100,000 were almost the same. In a word, it is supposed
that the ceramic tools were hardly worn out at N = 100,000.
This is, dry 15mm shearing was excellently done. On the
other hand, the depth of burnished surface by the Al2O3
tool was large from the initial stage, 800 m or more.
Dry 5 mm Shearing Test. The SPCC was successfully
sheared in dry up to N = 100,000 by using all selected
ceramic tools.
Figure 7 shows the variation in burr height of blank
with N. The burr height by the WC-ZrO2 tool was about 80
m with the smallest deviation. The average of burr
heights by the HIP-ZrO2 tool and the Si3N4 tool were
about 90 m with significant deviation. In case of the ZrO2
tool, it was the shortest by 45 m.
Figure 8 shows the variation in depth of burnished surface
with N. The depths of burnished surface by all ceramic
tools were stable. The depth of burnished surface by the
Tool
N = 1,000
N = 100,000
200
WC-ZrO2
HIP-ZrO2
ZrO2
Si3N4
180
140
500m
500m
500m
500m
500m
500m
500m
500m
120
100
80
HIP-ZrO2
Burr height /m
160
WC-ZrO2
Figure 6. Micrographs of sheared edge of blank (15 mm) by

ceramic tools.
60
40
20
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
WC-ZrO2
HIP-ZrO2
ZrO2
Si3N4
900
800
700
600
500
400
Si3N4
Depth of burnished surface /m
1000
ZrO2
Figure 7. Burr height of blank (5 mm) by ceramic tools.
300
200
100
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
Figure 8. Depth of burnished surface of blank (5 mm) by ceramic
tools.
1028
Figure 9. Micrographs of sheared edge of blank (5 mm) by ceramic tools.
09.08.2010 14:42:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
HIP-ZrO2 tool was about 560 m. In case of the WC-ZrO2
tool, it was about 480 m. While in using the Si3N4 and
ZrO2 tools, it was about 450 m and 410 m, respectively.
As mentioned above, the burr height by the ZrO2 tool
was lower than that by other tools, and the depth of burnished surface was also shorter. It might be because the
minute chamfering of the ZrO2 tool was smaller than that
of other ceramic tools. In fact, the minute chamfering of
ceramic tools was set to 0.1 mm and about 0.05 mm in the
ZrO2 tool.
Figure 9 shows micrographs of the sheared edge by the
ceramic tools with comparison of the sheared edge of
blanks between N = 1,000 and N = 100,000. Little change
was observed between the two. In a word, the ceramic
tools were hardly worn out at N = 100,000 in similar to dry
shearing of 15 mm blanks. This suggests that dry shearing of blanks with smaller diameter should be performed
with more excellent success.
Figure 10 shows photographs and micrographs of the
WC-ZrO2 punch: (a) initial, (b) N = 100,000. The surface
of the WC-ZrO2 punch at N = 100,000 was almost the
same as seen in the initial stage. In addition, the adhesion
of the SPCC was hardly seen on the surface of the WCZrO2 punch after N = 100,000. This proves high dry shearing performance of smaller blanks.
Edge
Conclusions
The ceramic tooling is developed for a dry small hole
shearing process, being free from lubricating oils. In particular, the electroconductive ceramic is expected as the
most promising ceramic tool material since any complex
shapes can be done as demanded for die and punch.
Through dry shearing tests, we have concluded the following items.
1. Use of the HIP-ZrO2 tool, the ZrO2 tool and the Si3N4
tool enables us to make dry shearing of the cold rolled
steel sheet with the size of 15 mm up to N = 100,000.
On the other hand, the Al2O3 tool and the SiC tool failed
to be endured in this dry shearing before N = 100,000.
2. Dry shearing of the cold rolled steel sheet with the size
of 5 mm was successfully done up to N = 100,000 by
all selected ceramic tools: the WC-ZrO2 tool, the HIPZrO2 tool, the ZrO2 tool and the Si3N4 tool.
3. Deviation in the burr height of blank became the smallest in using the WC-ZrO2 tool. Its depth of burnished
surface was also stable and constant up to N = 100,000.
Electroconductive ceramic tools provide us a new way
of dry shearing.
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Grant-inAid for Young Scientists (B), 20760093.
References
200m
(a) Initial
Edge
200m
(b) N = 100,000
Figure 10. Photographs and micrographs of WC-ZrO2 punch.
[1] S. Kataoka: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity,

46-528 (2005), 4-10.
[2] D. Buckley, K. Miyoshi: Wear, 100 (1984), 333-353.
[3] H. Czichos, S. Becker, J. Lexow: Wear, 135 (1989), 171-191.
[4] K. Hiratsuka, A. Sugahara: Journal of Japanese Society of Tribologists, 34-11 (1989), 799-806.
[5] A. Enomoto, K. Hiratsuka, T. Sasada: Journal of Japanese Society of
Tribologists, 36-1 (1991), 51-56.
[6] T. Hisakado, H. Suda, H. Watanabe: Wear, 155 (1992), 251-268.
[7] S. Kataoka, M. Murakawa, T. Aizawa, H. Ike: Surface and Coatings
Technology, 177-178 (2004), 582-590.
[8] K. Tamaoki, K. Manabe, S. Kataoka, T. Aizawa,: Journal of Materials
[9] I. Aoki, K. Suzuki: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of
Plasticity, 29-333 (1988), 1017-1023.
1029
09.08.2010 14:42:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Precision Piercing of Small Holes by Striking Punch Having Conical Portion at Cutting
Edge Using Ultrasonic Vibration
Teruie Takemasu
Department of Mechanical Systems of Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, Suwa / Japan, t-tkms@rs.suwa.tus.ac.jp
A simple and effective piercing method using ultrasonic vibration was developed and used to produce small holes with a fine sheared surface. This piercing system comprises two independent units: the vibration unit and the piercing unit. A punch was supported by a coil spring.
An ultrasonic vibration horn was used to push the punch into the target material at a constant speed. Ultrasonic vibration causes the punch
to undergo repeated up-and-down reciprocating motion until a hole is formed. Two kinds of modified punches having conical portion at the
cutting edge with a tip diameter of 1.55 mm were prepared. The commercial stainless steel sheets with different thicknesses - 0.5 mm, 1.0
mm and 1.5 mm - were used as the test material. The clearance was varied in the range of 2~18% by changing the die hole diameter.
Finite element simulation was carried out using Ayadas criterion for predicting crack initiation and propagation. The experimental and
numerical results indicate that this piercing process effectively suppresses crack initiation and produces precise small holes with a very
small fractured zone and a straight line profile in the axial direction.
Keywords: Precision piercing, Ultrasonic vibration, Stainless steel sheet, Sheared surface properties, Ayadas Criterion, Crack behavior
Introduction
In various manufacturing fields, particularly in precision
machining and electronics production, there has been a
growing demand for a simple and economical method to
produce finer, more precise small holes or micro-holes at
high speed in thin sheets of metals, green ceramics, resins,
films, composite laminated materials, and so on. Among
the prevailing methods for fabricating such holes are currently the mechanical punching, the drilling and the electro-discharge machining (EDM) [1-4]. Of late, a drilling
[5] or an EDM [6] that use ultrasonic vibration for producing micro-holes have found industrial use. A local actuator
module for EDM has been developed for drilling microholes [7]. However, there have been very few reports on
mechanical punching using ultrasonic vibration.
In this study, a new piercing system that employs ultrasonic vibration has been developed. In the previous paper
[8], it was demonstrated that this new system could punch
micro-holes having a diameter of about 0.15 mm with high
precision by optimizing the piercing modes. In the present
paper, precision piercing of small holes having a diameter
of about 1.6 mm was carried out by striking a modified
punch using ultrasonic vibration, and the various processing conditions were optimized experimentally. Thereafter,
the crack behavior was investigated using finite element
simulation to clarify the effects of the fracture mechanism
on the quality of a sheared surface.
Piercing Process Using Ultrasonic Vibration. Figure 1
shows the conceptual diagram of the piercing method
proposed in this study. First, a sheet of the target material
#1 is inserted and fixed between the die #2 and the guidebush #3. A coil spring #4 is provided in the guide-bush
hole. A punch #5 is inserted into the hole from above so
that it is supported in a floating state. Next, an ultrasonic
vibration horn #6 (referred to as UV-horn hereafter) is
placed at the rear end of the punch. The initial gap between the punch and the surface of the sheet can be ad-
1030
justed by changing the vertical position of the UV-horn, as

shown in Figure 1 (a). Then, the UV-horn with imparting
ultrasonic vibration is moved downward at a constant
speed. The longitudinal vibration generated at the tip of
the UV-horn causes the punch to push downward and
strike the material, and thus stick to it, as shown in Figure
1 (b). The punch then bounces upward, collides with the
vibrating UV-horn, and is again pushed downward. This
up-and-down reciprocating motion of the punch continues
repeatedly (Figure 1 (c)) until the material is penetrated
(Figure 1 (d)). This process is called reciprocating piercing. To evaluate the effect of ultrasonic vibration on the
quality of the sheared surface, conventional piercing experiments were also conducted. In these experiments, the
punch is statically pushed by the UV-horn without ultrasonic vibration. This process is referred to as press piercing.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 1. Schema of reciprocating piercing process.
Apparatus. Figure 2 shows a cross section of the experimental apparatus. This piercing unit has several advantages: (1) it has a simple and compact hardware structure;
(2) this unit is completely separated from the vibration unit,
making the fabrication process simpler; and (3) the reciprocating motion of the punch can potentially enable high
precision piercing.
Shapes and Dimensions of Punches. Figure 3 shows
the shapes and dimensions of three kinds of punches employed in this study. All three punches have a tip diameter
09.08.2010 14:42:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
of 1.55 mm. Punch-I is a conventional commercial punch
having a land of 0.3 mm height from the cutting edge and
a back-taper of 0.2. Punch-IIA is a modified punch having a small chamfering that is 0.05 mm wide and 0.1 mm
high at the cutting edge. Punch-IIB is a modified punch
having a large, 0.25 mm high conical portion at the cutting
edge, which is designed to suppress crack initiation from
the punch edge during processing.
1:Material, 2:Blank holder, 3:Die, 4:Guide-bush

5:Coil spring, 6:Punch, 7:Hammer punch, 8:UV-horn
Figure 2. Cross-sectional view of experimental apparatus.
horn was moved downward at a comparatively slow speed

of 0.45 mm/s to generate the effective reciprocating motion of the punch. The ultrasonic vibration oscillator was
operated at a frequency of 20 kHz with a 2 kW output. The
mean amplitude of the reciprocating motion of the punch
was approximately 0.3 mm in a free vibration state. All
processings were performed without lubricants.
Comparison of Sheared Surfaces. Figure 4 shows
photographs of the sheared surfaces of holes pierced in
three pieces of stainless steel sheets, each of different
thickness. The diameter of the die hole in each of the three
cases was 1.61 mm. Figure 5 shows the effect of the
clearance on the fractured surface ratio, which is a percentage of the fractured zone height to the sheet thickness.
The characteristics of the sheared surface obtained when
punch-I and punch-IIA were used for press piercing are
very typical. Specifically, a slight roll-over is observed
near the entrance of the pierced holes and the sheared
zones are very smooth. However, the fractured surface
ratio increases more than 20 % in proportion to the increase in the clearance. Hence, the effect of the small corner chamfering of punch-IIA on the decrease in the fractured zone cannot be observed. By contrast, in the case of
punch-IIB, the fractured surface ratio decreases drastically,
i.e., by approximately 25 %, as compared to that of punchPunch-I
Punch-IIA
Punch-IIB
(a) Punch-I
(b) Punch-IIA
(c) Punch-IIB
Figure 3. Shapes and dimensions of punches.
Experimental Conditions. Table 1 shows the experimental conditions. Commercial SUS304 stainless steel
sheets were selected as the test material, because it is assumed to be difficult to produce holes with a fine sheared
surface using a conventional piercing process. Three target
material sheets of varying thicknesses were pierced. The
clearance was varied by changing the die hole diameter,
and the effect of the change in clearance on the sheared
surface properties and the accuracy of pierced holes was
investigated. Experimentally optimized values of the
spring constant and the initial gap were used. The UV-
(a) Press piercing
1.0 mm
Punch-I
Punch-IIA
Punch-IIB

Die hole diameter
1.61 mm
1.67 mm
Material
Stainless steel sheet (SUS304)
Sheet thickness
0.5mm
Clearance
2~18 %
Spring constant
3.6 N/mm
Initial gap:
0.10 mm
Horn press-in speed
0.45 mm/s
1.0mm
1.73 mm
1.5mm
(b) Reciprocating piercing

Figure 4. Comparison of sheared surfaces of pierced holes.
1031
09.08.2010 14:42:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
ately after this deformation stage as shown in Figure 7(a).
In contrast, in the case of punch-IIB, the cracks initiated
only from the lower blade when the punch press-in depth
reached approximately 0.9 mm as shown in Figure 7(b).
After that, the inner surface around the exit of the hole was
burnished by the punch conical corner and a smooth
sheared surface was obtained.
Figure 5. Relationship between fractured surface ratio and

clearance.
I, regardless of the clearance.

In the case of reciprocating piercing using punch-I, since
a destructive crack is generated in a relatively early stage
of deformation, the fractured surface ratio decreases only
10~15 % compared with the press piercing. On the other
hand, the characteristics of the sheared surface obtained in
the reciprocating piercing using punch-IIA and punch-IIB
are clearly different from those obtained by punch-I. Although the sheared zone surfaces appear slightly rough,
the fractured zones are considerably diminished and the
heights of the fractured surface are much smaller than
those in the case of press piercing especially when the
clearance is larger than 10 %. Thus, the fractured surface
ratios are less than 5 % in every case. These results can be
attributed to the effect of the combination of the reciprocating motion of the punch and the modified shape at the
cutting edge. This combination serves to suppress destructive crack initiation, causing the punch to gradually stick
into the material until the final deformation stage.
Metal Flow and Crack Behavior. The above results of
press piercing indicate that a punch with a high conical
portion at the cutting edge suppresses the occurrence and
growth of destructive cracks, and diminishes the fractured
zone, especially when the clearance is less than 10%. To
examine this inference, the press piercing processes using
punch-I and punch-IIB were stopped midway, and the
lateral cross sections near the half-pierced holes were
observed. The photographs in Figure 6 show the metal
flow around the cutting edge during processing; in these
cases, the sheet thickness is 1.0 mm, the die hole diameter
is 1.61 mm and the punch press-in depth is approximately 0.6 mm. Although no cracks are observed thus far
in both operation cases, there are clear differences in the
two photographs. In the case of punch-IIB, the material
around the punch edge is not distorted so severely as that
in the case of punch-I; moreover, the deformation zone
along the shear lines extends to a larger area on both the
hole side and the blanking side than that in the case of
punch-I. In the case of punch-I, destructive cracks initiated
from both the upper blade and the lower blade immedi-
1032
(a) Punch-I
(b) Punch-IIB
Figure 6. Metal flow during piercing process.
(a) Punch-I
(b) Punch-IIB
Figure 7. Lateral cross section when cracks initiated.
Numerical Simulation Results. Press piercing processes using punch-I and punch-IIB were simulated using
the commercial FEM software Deform-2D. To predict the
crack initiation and its growth, Ayadas equation was employed as the fracture criterion of the elements [9]. This
equation is given by

D f = m d ,

(1)
where Df is the damage value, m is the mean normal

stress, and is the equivalent stress. The limiting value of
Df is assumed to be 1.19 from the experimental results.
09.08.2010 14:42:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
piercing; however, the height of the fractured zone becomes considerably smaller especially in the case of
punch-IIA.
Punch-I
Press
piercing
0.3mm
The crack initiation and propagation states calculated by

FEM are shown in Figure 8; for this calculation, the sheet
thickness was 1.0 mm and the die hole diameter was 1.61
mm. The punch press-in depth s is as follows: top row,
0.65 mm; middle row, 0.80 mm; and bottom row, 0.95 mm.
In the press piercing process using punch-I, the crack
initiates from the lower blade when s = 0.65 mm, and the
cracks on the upper and lower blades extend and meet
along the path that connects the punch edge and the die
edge in a straight line when s = 0.80 mm. In the press
piercing process using punch-IIB, the destructive crack
initiates only from the lower blade when s = 0.80 mm;
thereafter, when s = 0.95 mm, the crack extends and
reaches the upper blade. These simulation results are in
good agreement with the experimental results.
Punch-IIA
Punch-IIB
0.05mm
Reciprocating
piercing
Figure 9. Hole profiles in axial direction.
Conclusions
A new piercing method using ultrasonic vibration was
used to produce small holes with a fine sheared surface,
and the operation modes and the process conditions were
experimentally optimized. Those results are summarized
as follows:
1. The combination of the reciprocating motion of the
punch and the conical portion at the punch cutting edge
suppresses destructive crack initiation until the final deformation stage, even when the clearance is greater than
10 %.
2. When a punch with a high conical portion at the cutting
edge was used, the destructive crack appeared only from
the lower blade.
3. The results of finite element simulation of crack initiation and propagation were in good agreement with the
experimental results.
References
(a) Punch-I
(b) Punch-IIB
Figure 8. Crack behavior in FEM simulation.
Comparison of Pierced Hole Shapes. The inner surfaces of the pierced holes were measured using surface
roughness measuring instrument (SE3500, Kosaka Laboratory Ltd.). Figure 9 shows hole profiles in the axial direction; in these cases, the sheet thickness is 1.0 mm and the
die hole diameter is 1.61 mm. In the press piercing using
punch-I and punch-IIA, since the destructive cracks appear
at a relatively early stage of the processing, the diameters
of the pierced holes gradually increase from the crack
initiation position to the exit. In the press piercing using
punch-IIB, as the crack initiation is suppressed and the
fractured zone is remarkably smaller, the sheared surface
is smooth and straight throughout the pierced hole. The
same tendencies are seen in the case of reciprocating
[1] I. Aoki, M. Sasada, T. Higuchi, T. Yano: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 125-126 (2002), 497-502.
[2] C. Diver, J. Atkinson, H.J. Helml, L. Li: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 149 (2004), 296-303.
[3] H.S. Liu, B.H. Yan, F.Y. Huang, K.H. Qiu: Journal of Materials
[4] B.Y. Joo, S.S. Rhim, S.I. Oh: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 170 (2005), 593-601.
[5] O. Ohnishi, H. Onikura, A. Hata, K. Yamamoto: JSME International
Journal, 47-1 (2004), 117-122.
[6] C. Gao, Z. Liu: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 139
(2003), 226-228.
[7] Y. Imai, T. Nakagawa, H. Miyake, H. Hidai, H. Tokura: Journal of
[8] T. Takemasu, S. Yamasaki, H. Miura, R. Mizue, T. Hoshiyama, T.
Ozaki: Journal of the JSTP, 47-548 (2006), 885889.
[9] M. Ayada, T. Higashino, K. Mori: 2nd International Conference on
Technology of Plasticity, 1 (1987), 553-558.
1033
09.08.2010 14:42:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
Influence of Sheet Constraint on Punch Deflection in Shearing

Masahiro Sasada, Isamu Aoki
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kanagawa University, Yokohama / Japan, sasadm01@kanagawa-u.ac.jp
When designing the layout of shearing tools, it should be noted that the shearing conditions influence the accuracy of blanked products. We
discuss the influence of the sheet constraint on shearing phenomena, especially punch deflection, through experiments and the elasticplastic finite element method. Experiments were performed using double-sided shearing equipment. Even though the clearance was balanced, the punch was deflected when the constraint conditions were different. The influence of the constraint on punch deflection became
stronger when the clearance was small. We investigated the lateral displacement of the side of the material when it was free from constraint.
The FEM results indicate that the lateral displacement of the side of the material increases with decreasing clearance. Thus, the constraint
influences material flow. The results suggest a close relationship between material deformation and punch deflection. In precision shearing,
constraint condition is also important for designing the layout of shearing tools.
Keywords: Shearing, Tool, Punch deflection, Elastic-plastic finite element method, Constraint condition, Horizontal force
Introduction
Recently, the demand for high precision at a level of
several microns or above has increased for a wide range of
products fabricated by shearing. In fine precision shearing,
the clearance, the rigidity of the tool and the order of operations are important [1,2]. The mechanism known as the
clearance compensation effect, which compensates for the
difference in clearance between the left and right sides, has
been considered as a means of realizing high-precision
shearing [1]. We investigated the clearance compensation
effect in double-sided shearing in detail for different clearances at the left and right sides. The various forces acting
on the punch during shearing are shown in Figure 1. By
considering the vertical forces acting on the top face to be
VPR and VPL, and the horizontal forces acting on the side of
the punch to be HPR and HPL, the respective friction forces
are VPR , VPL , HPR and HPL. Although these forces are
distributed loads, they are converted to concentrated loads
for simplification. It is clear that punch deflection occurs
as a result of the left shearing force (VPL+HPL), the right
shearing force (VPR+HPR) and the horizontal force difference (HPL+VPL-HPR-VPR) acting on the punch tip [3]. We
also investigated punch deflection for balanced clearances.
When one side of a material is constrained, the punch
deflects toward the opposite side [4]. This result shows the
importance of the sheet constraint in designing the layout
of shearing tools. However, the influence of the clearance,
an important factor in shearing, on punch deflection with a
constraint has not been clarified.
Punch
MHL
HPL
HPL
HPR
VPL VPR
VPL
MVL
HPR
MHR
VPR
MVR
Figure 1. Forces and bending moments acting on punch.
1034
In this paper, we discuss the influence of the clearance

on punch deflection when the constraints of the left and
right sides of the material are different through experiments and the elastic-plastic finite element method.
Experimental Method and Finite Element Method
Experimental Conditions. Experiments were performed using double-sided shearing equipment. Figure 2
shows an illustration of a shearing tool when the left side
of a material is constrained by a blankholder (this situation
is hereafter called LC). The blankholder is in contact with
not only the top surface but also the side surface of the
material. Therefore, the blankholder constrained the lateral
displacement of the material during shearing. Experiments
were also performed when the side of the material was free
from constraint (hereafter called NC).
A blankholder that is in contact with and constrains the
side of material is not generally applied in practical production. In the case of applying a blankholder, as the constraint condition depends on the frictional condition between the blankholder and the material, we adopted a
blankholder in contact with the side of the material to
simplify the constraint condition.
The material used was aluminum with a length of 30
mm, a width of 8 mm and a thickness of 0.5 mm (JIS:
A1100P-O). Two clearances of 10% and 15% of the material thickness were set by varying the die. A paraffinic base
oil (kinematic viscosity 9010-6m2/s) was applied to both
surfaces of the material before starting the experiment.
Shearing forces were measured using strain gauges adhered to the punch flank and punch displacements were
measured using linear position sensors mounted on the
dieset. The punch and die were made of SKD11 (JIS standard) with a hardness of 60HRC. The shearing speed was
set at 100m/s.
The deflection of the punch was obtained by the method
proposed by Takahashi and Aoki using a strain gauge
output [5]. In this method, the outputs from the strain
gauges determine the boundary conditions of Eq. (1),
which gives the relationship between the deflection y and
the moment M at the mounted position x. E is Youngs
modulus of the beam (punch) and I is its moment of inertia.
09.08.2010 14:42:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
Because surface strains are required at four locations on

the punch, as shown in Figure 2, four strain gauges are
adhered at the positions x1=5.5 mm and x2=9 mm. Using
this method, the punch deflection, shearing force and horizontal force difference were calculated.
FEM Conditions. Elastic-plastic analysis was performed using the finite element analysis software
Marc2007. This analysis was carried out from the initial
stage of shearing to a point before cracks occur. Material
deformation was considered as a plane strain state. Three
clearances of 5%, 10% and 15% of the material thickness
were set. When the lateral displacement of the punch tip
obtained by FEM was less than 0.1 m in the cases of NC,
the FEM results were considered reliable for investigating
the influence on the analysis results. Eventually, the number of elements of material for remeshing was set at about
60,000 and the length of one side of the elements near the
cutting edge was about 4 m. The punch and die cuttingedge roundness was set at 20 m. Remeshing was carried
out when one of the following conditions was met.
(1) The punch stroke increased by 3 m.
(2) The overlap between the elements of the punch and the
work material reached 0.5 m.
The punch was an elastic body with a Youngs modulus
of 210 GPa and a Poisson ratio of 0.3. The blank holder
and die were assumed to be rigid bodies. The material was
assumed to be an elastic-plastic body. The tensile tests
were carried out to obtain the characteristic of the material.
The stress-strain curve was approximated by following
equation.
= 33 + 142 p 0.37 (MPa)
(2)
The material in the elastic region had a Youngs modulus

of 69GPa and a Poisson ratio of 0.33.
The Coulomb friction rule was applied to the interface
where the tool and material were in contact. Because the
punch flank and die flank were in contact at virgin surfaces
Experimental and FEM Results

Bending Shape of Punch. Figure 3 shows the bending
shape of the punch as the shearing process proceeds. In the
figure, positive values on the x-axis indicate that the punch
is deflected from the center to the right. Even though the
clearance is balanced, the punch is deflected to the right
when the constraint conditions were different on the left
15
Distance from punch tip (mm)
(1)
assumed for the other interfaces. The validity of these

values has already been experimentally confirmed by the
previous study. In the previous study, the various forces
acting on the punch were measured after the completion of
the separation process in shearing. Then the friction coefficient is defined as the ratio of vertical force to horizontal
force [6].
0
-5
15
Blank holder
Die
30
CL CR
Figure 2. Details of main part of tool (LC).
x1=5.5
1.2
Punch
15
Material
x2=9
Point of contact
between material
and blankholder
10
15
20
25
Lateral displacement of punch ( m)

(a) Clearance 5%
10
Punch penetration
depth (mm)
0.1 0.35
NC (FEM)
NC (Exp.)
LC (FEM)
LC (Exp.)
0
-5
15
Strain gauge
Punch penetration
depth (mm)
0.1 0.35
NC (FEM)
LC (FEM)
10
d2y
M
=
EI
dx 2
10
0
5
10
15
20
Lateral displacement of punch ( m)
(b) Clearance 10%
25
Punch penetration
depth (mm)
0.1 0.35
NC (FEM)
NC (Exp.)
LC (FEM)
LC (Exp.)
0
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
Lateral displacement of punch (m)
(c) Clearance 15%
Figure 3. Illustration of bending shape of punch (FEM Gap=0 m).
of the material, the friction coefficient at these interfaces

was assumed to be 0.3. A friction coefficient of 0.1 was
1035
09.08.2010 14:42:22 Uhr
25
20
15
10
5
Clearance
(%)
5
10
15
0
-5
0
0.1
0.2
FEM
Gap=0 m
0.3
FEM
Exp.
Gap=10 m
0.4
Horizontal force difference (N)
Lateral displacement of punch tip ( m)
Metal Forming
NC
LC
1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Punch penetartion depth (mm)
(a) Clearance 10%
500
400
300
200
100
0
NC
LC
FEM Exp.
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Punch penetration depth (mm)
0.5
and right. Figure 4 shows the variation in the lateral displacement of the punch tip with the punch penetration
depth in the case of LC. The influence of the constraint on
punch deflection becomes stronger when the clearance is
small. In the figure, there is a quantitative difference between the FEM and experimental results. To clarify the
reason for this difference, FEM analysis with a small gap
(10 m) between the material side surface and the blankholder was carried out. The FEM result obtained for a
small gap and the experimental results were in good agreement. Therefore, the difference in results may be caused
by the small gap that inevitably existed at the contact point
between the material and the blankholder.
Shearing Force and Horizontal Force Difference.
Figure 5 shows a diagram of shearing force. The analytical and experimental results were in agreement. Figure 6
shows diagrams of horizontal force difference, which is
approximately zero in the case of NC. In the case of LC, it
increases with the progress of shearing and decreasing
clearance.
Lateral Displacement of Material Side. Figure 7
shows the variation in the lateral displacement of the right
side of the material with punch penetration depth. Figure
8 and Figure 9 show the direction of material flow obtained by FEM. The results for NC indicate that the lateral
displacement of the right side increases in the early stage
of shearing. In the latter stage, the material flows toward
the die. When the left side of the material is constrained,
the
NC
LC
FEM
Gap=0 m
FEM
Gap=10 m
0.5
Exp.
3
2
1
0
-1
0
Figure 5. Influence of clearance on shearing force (Clearance

15%, FEM Gap=0 m).
1036
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
(b) Clearance 15%
Figure 6. Influence of clearance on horizontal force difference (LC).
Lateral displacment of the right side
of material ( m)
Shearing force (N)
600
6
Horizontal force difference (N)
700
Exp.
Figure 4. Variation in lateral displacement of punch tip with punch

penetration depth (LC).
FEM
Gap=10 m
-1
0
0.5
FEM
Gap=0 m
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
Clearance (%)
5
10
15
NC
LC
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
Figure 7. Lateral displacement on the right side of material (FEM
results, Gap=0 m).
lateral displacement of the right side increased in the early

stage of shearing. The lateral displacement increases with
decreasing clearance. Thus, the constraint influences material flow. These results suggest a close relationship between material deformation and punch deflection.
Bending Mechanism. Because the shearing and horizontal forces do not act on the punch individually, the
punch deflection cannot be obtained by combining the
deflections obtained from the two forces. In this case,
because the punch deflection is minute, the deflection was
calculated using eq. (1) from the various forces obtained
by FEM. H is the deflection calculated from the horizontal force difference and V is the deflection calculated
from the shearing force. Figure 10 shows the relation
between the lateral displacement of the punch tip and the
displacement calculated from the horizontal force difference. In the early stage of shearing, the lateral displacesteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:42:23 Uhr
ment of the punch tip and the displacement calculated

from
Pp
(mm)
Clearance 15%
Left
Right
Clearance 5%
Left
Right
0.05
Lateral displacement calculated from

the various forces H , V ( m)
Metal Forming
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Clearance (%)
5
10
15
-5
-10
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
Figure 11. Influence of clearance on lateral displacement of punch
tip, which consists of two bending components caused by shearing
force and horizontal force (LC, Gap=0 m).
0.25
Pp:Punch penetration depth

Figure 8. FEM results showing direction of material flow (NC,
Gap=0 m).
Pp
(mm)
Clearance 15%
Left
Right
Clearance 5%
Left
Right
0.05
0.25
Lateral displacement of punch tip ( m)
Pp:Punch penetration depth

Figure 9. FEM results showing direction of material flow (LC,
Gap=0 m).
20
20
Figure 10. Relation between lateral displacement of punch tip and

displacement calculated from horizontal force difference (LC).
The influence of the clearance on punch deflection for

the constraints of the left and right sides of a material was
discussed from experiments and the elastic-plastic finite
element method, and the following results were obtained.
1. A punch is deflected when the constraints of the left and
right sides of the material are different in double-sided
shearing, even though the clearance is balanced. The influence of the constraint of a material on punch deflection becomes stronger with decreasing clearance.
2. The lateral displacement of the side of a material increases with decreasing clearance.
3. The horizontal force difference increases with decreasing clearance when the constraints of the left and right
sides of the material are different.
The condition of the constraint is also important when
designing the layout of shearing tools in precision shearing,
especially when a small clearance is needed.
Acknowledgement
References
10
5
10
15
Displacement calculated from
horizontal force difference H (m)
Conclusions
The authors would like to thank Mr. T. Sakurai, Mr. M.

Sudou and Mr. Y. Chino for their help in this study.
Clearance FEM
Exp.
(%)
Gap=0 m
5
15 10
15
0
0
the horizontal force difference approximately agreed.

Figure 11 shows that the influence of clearance on the
lateral displacement of the punch tip consists of two bending components caused by shearing force and horizontal
force. H increases with the progress of shearing.
[1] T. Maeda, S. Mekaru: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of

Plasticity, 18-196 (1977), 329-336.
[2] T. Jimma, F. Sekine, K. Sekiya, S. Shouzui, W. Morimoto: Journal of
the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 28-315 (1987), 355362.
[3] M. Sasada, N. Koura, I. Aoki: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity, 47-549 (2006), 968-972.
[4] M. Sasada, T. Sakurai, I. Aoki: Transactions of the Japan Society of
Mechanical Engineers, Series C, 75-758 (2009), 2803-2809.
[5] T. Takahashi, I. Aoki: Journal of the Japan Society for Technology of
Plasticity, 36-409 (1995), 155-160.
[6] M. Sasada, K. Shimura, I. Aoki: JSME International Journal, Series C,
49-4 (2006), 1171-1178.
1037
09.08.2010 14:42:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
Wear Mechanism on Stepped Coated Piercing Punch

Varunee Premanond, Ratchanee Hato, Sompop Lohnab
Department of Tool and Materials Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok / Thailand, varunee.pre@kmutt.ac.th
The purpose of this work is to explore the mechanism of wear from a stepped coated punch. Three types of commercial hard thin film
coating on the JIS-SKH51 high speed tool steel punch were selected; TiC-CVD, TiCN-CVD and TiCN-PVD. The normal hardened punch
was also used for the purpose of comparison. In order to obtain good cutting edge, stepped punch with conventional die was employed.
Punch end has been made in 3 steps; the cutting clearances for each step were 3.92%, 3.08% and 2.33% of sheet thickness. The results
have been recorded from the industrial production line to produce heavy duty chain. The chain material is carbon steel grade JIS S50C of 6
mm sheet thickness. The definite of the burr height and burnish length of piercing parts was set as the criteria to determine tool life. Punch
sharpening was done by grinding operation to shorten its first step, although wear taken place on all 3 steps. Wear mode has been
explored using the SEM. Measurements of flank wear have been carried out under microscope. The results showed that TiCN-PVD coated
punch perform great performance of minimum wear rate. Tool life of punch coated with TiC-CVD, TiCN-CVD and TiCN-PVD has been
increased by 2.07, 3.07 and 6.36 times respectively comparing to that of normal hardening. It was found that the cutting edge on the
workpiece hole surface generated by first contact part of punch influenced the final shape of cutting edge. It can be concluded that the
length of burnish area in piercing operation is depended not only on the final step of punch but also on the first step in contact with sheet
material. Therefore, sharpening of stepped coated punch is proof to be acceptable.
Keywords: Wear mechanism, Adhesive wear, Abrasive wear, Hard film coating, Stepped punch, Piercing
Introduction
The studies of hard thin film coating to increase tool life

have been carried out extensively. It was found that chemical vapor deposition-CVD process which is prepared rather high temperature provides better adhesive strength to
the substrate than that of Physical vapor deposition-PVD
process [1,2]. However several works showed that the
influencing parameters on increasing resistance to wear
included film hardness, film thickness, film structure,
contact pressure, sliding length and the matching of coating film type and workpiece material [3-8]. Three coatings
which were expected to be effective had been selected
from previous research work [9-10].
Application of hard film coating on blanking and piercing processes which involved relatively high contact pressure has been investigated [11,12]. Coating layer peeling
at the tool cutting edge is a common phenomenon. However, it has been proved that the remaining part of coating
film is still effective. Sharpening of tool by grinding operation on punch and die surface is allowed. The coating
parts on the flank of punch and inside surface of die opening still perform their abilities to retard wear mechanism.
Piercing circular holes in a heavy duty chain requires
large area of burnished zone and small burr height on
internal hole surface to enhance the strength of chain assembly and to reduce the level of noise under services.
Stepped punch with increment diameter at the punch end
was designed. The purposes of stepped punch were to
distribute the pressure over its length and to obtain large
burnished area with small burr on the pierced hole. Hard
film coatings were applied for additional improvement of
wear resistance. The objectives of this work are to explore
the wear mechanism of stepped punch, to investigate the
cutting mechanism after tool wear and tool sharpening and
finally to study the effectiveness of applying coating on
stepped punch.
Piercing Tool. The tool was made to pierce a hole of 11

mm diameter on a JIS-S50C material 6 mm thick sheet.
The stepped piercing punch as shown in Figure 1 was
employed. Punch end was designed in 3 steps different
diameters with cutting clearance 3.92%, 3.08% and 2.33%
of sheet thickness respectively. Punch material was a high
speed steel grade JIS-SKH51 hardened to 631 HRC.
Punch penetration strokes were set at 12 mm for each
experiment. Coating selected for the tests were TiC and
TiCN film by CVD process, coated at 1,000oC and TiCN
film by PVD process, coated at 480oC. All films were
coated under commercial conditions. The piercing operations were carried out using a 60 ton mechanical press.
1038
Figure 1. Stepped piercing punch geometry.
Coating Characteristic. The structures of commercial

coating are illustrated in Figure 2. The TiC-CVD is a
single layer film. The TiCN-CVD is a multi layer film and
the TiCN-PVD is a double layer film structure. The hardsteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:42:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
ness of each coating film was measured using nanoindentation test with increasing load linearly from 0 to
1000 N at 200 N/sec. The thickness of coated film was
measured by SEM photograph as shown in Figure 3. The
results of the film hardness and thickness are presented in
Table1.
TiN
TiCN
TiC
TiCN
TiN
SKH5
TiC
SKH51
SKH51
(a) TiC-CVD
(b) TiCN-CVD
(c) TiCN-PVD
(b) TiCN-CVD
Flank Wear on Piercing Punch. After services, some

part of coating layer was removed from all steps of punch
end as shown in Figure 4. The removal of coating layer is
visible for all coating types in these experiments.
1st step
Figure 2. Coating layer structure.

*Information from coating industry
(a) TiC-CVD
respectively. After first sharpening, the numbers of pierce

hole with accepted quality were reduced to 5,500 for TiCCVD and 10,500 for TiCN-CVD. After second sharpening,
no part can be produced with accepted quality. The total
tool life are 14,500 strokes for TiC-CVD punch and
21,500 strokes for TiCN-CVD punch. TiCN-PVD coated
punch can be reused for 2 cycles after sharpening. The
total tool life are 44,000 strokes.
2nd step
3rd step
(c) TiCN-PVD
Figure 3. Photograph with 2500x magnification of coated surfaces.

Figure 4. TiCN-PVD coated punch end of after 11,000 strokes.
Table 1. Coating film characteristics.

Hardness (GPa)
Thickness
(m)
TiC (CVD)
44.07
4.08
TiCN (CVD)
24.03
10.20
TiCN (PVD)
14.64
4.60
Coating film
Color
Silver
Gold
Purple

Tool Life. The quality of part cutting edge are
determined by the length of burnished zone and the burr
height. Maximum burr height of 100 m and minimum
burnish length of 2500 m on the piercing hole cutting
edge were set as the criteria to determine tool life. Punch
sharpening was done using grinding operation to shorten
its first step by 1 mm, although wear taken place on all 3
steps. Die surface sharpening was also carried out at the
same time with punch.
Table 2. Numbers of stroke perform by each tool.
Sharpenin
g
0
1st
2nd
Total
Non-coat
TiC
CVD
TiCN
CVD
TiCN
PVD
7,000
7,000
9,000
5,500
14,500
11,000
10,500
21,500
17,500
14,000
13,000
44,500
Numbers of stroke which represent tool life for each

punch are reported in Table 2. For non-coated punch, only
7,000 strokes can be performed in order to get accepted
part quality. After grinding of punch end, piercing hole
surface produced with unaccepted quality. Therefore, the
total tool life of non-coated punch is counted as 7,000
strokes. For TiC-CVD and TiCN-CVD coated punch, the
new punch can produced upto 9,000 and 11,000 strokes
Figure 5. Flank wear length on the first step of punch end.
The measurements of flank wear length related to number of stroke were done on the first and third steps of
punch end. The results are illustrated in Figures 5 and 6.
The results of flank wear length on the first step of punch
end as shown in Figure 5 were recorded from new series
of punch only while those results on the third step of
punch end as shown in Figure 6 were taken from the beginning up to the last strokes of each punch, including the
reuse cycles. Similar results were obtained from both
graphs. For every sets of test, flank wear length increased
with numbers of stroke. Non-coated tool shows maximum
wear rate. All types of punch coatings increased the resistant to wear of the tool. The minimum wear rate has been
obtained from TiCN-PVD coated punch. It is noticed that
the hardness of TiCN-PVD is comparatively low (see
Table1). This shows that high hardness of the coating layer
is not always benefit for the piercing operation. The debris
of coated layer removed from punch surface may act as
the hard abrasive particles to increase the wear rate. Wear
on the third step is higher than that on the first step of
1039
09.08.2010 14:42:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
punch end comparing at the same stroke due to high contact pressure from ironing at the final step.
Figure 6. Flank wear length on the third step of punch end.

Abrasive wear
experiment helps to reduce adhesive wear. However, the

removed coating layer can become hard particles to accelerate abrasive wear.
Cutting Edge Investigation. The chain components
were cut and the burnished lengths were measured as
shown in Figure 9. Large shear zone by stepped punch
was found. This might due to the delay of fracture by
compressive stress introduced from the second and third
step of punch end. The results of burnished length of
holes surfaces pierced continuously by the series of punch
are illustrated in Figure 10. The burnished length was high
initially and reduced with increasing strokes for each test.
The results obtained from non-coated punch were inferior.
The best results were found from the tests using TiCNPVD coated punch which are related to the results of wear
measurements. The results after first sharpening and second sharpening are shown in Figures 11 and 12, respectively. It was found that after sharpening, even though the
third step of punch was under worn out condition, the
burnished length was as large as received from a new
punch. The results of burr height, which is another indication of wear showed similar trend to those of the burnished
length.
Piercing direction
Figure 7. Magnified photograph of non-coated punch end after
7,000 strokes.
Zone- A
Zone-B
Piercing direction
Figure 8. Magnified photograph of TiC-CVD coated punch end
after 11,000 strokes.
The characteristics of wear were explored using SEM

photograph. Adhesive wear as well as abrasive wear were
dominate for non-coated tool after 7,000 strokes as shown
in Figure 7. Figure 8 shows the photograph of worn surface of TiC-CVD coated punch end after 11,000 strokes.
The coating layer is removed and substrate material is
revealed in zone-A. Zone-B appears abrasive wear with
scratch on the piercing direction on the remaining TiCcoated surface. Adhesive wear was not detected on the
coated surface. Similar characteristics of coating removed
and abrasive type wear on the remaining coated surface
were found from other types of coated punch. This shows
that high hardness of all film coating types used in this
1040
Figure 9. Measurements of burnished length of hole cutting

surface.
The levels of contact pressure on the punch taken place

in these experiments were high enough to remove the
coating layer from SKH51 substrate, both preparation by
CVD and PVD. However, the remaining parts of coating
still perform to reduce wear rate. Wear on the first step of
punch end caused large die roll at the first contact. Some
part of the large die roll still remained after the third step
of punch was penetrated through thus reduced the burnished length. After sharpening, wear on the first step of
punch was removed, therefore reduced die roll and increased burnished length. For non-coated tool, sharpening
was not effective due to the amounts of wear taken place
on the first as well as on the third step of punch were too
high. Sharpening operation could not remove the whole
worn out area. It can be concluded that the burnished
length of holes surface pierced by stepped punch is controlled not only by the characteristic of punch at the final
step but also the geometry of the first step on punch end as
long as the amount of wear on the final step in sliding
against workpiece material has not yet reach the limit.
09.08.2010 14:42:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
2. The TiCN-PVD coated punch proved to be effective to
increase tool life in this experiment by 6.36 times to that
of normal hardening punch.
3. Tool life of punch coated with TiC-CVD, TiCN-CVD
has been increased by 2.07 and 3.07 times respectively
comparing to that of normal hardening.
4. Total tool life of stepped punch is depended on the
amount of wear on the final step in sliding against
workpiece material.
5. Wear on the first step of punch end caused large die roll
which reduced burnished area of the finish hole. Therefore, sharpening on the first step of punch is acceptable
to improve the surface quality.
Acknowledgements
Figure 10. Burnished length on hole surface pierced by new
punch.
This research work has been supported by TRF - The

Thailand Research Fund master research grants contract
no. MRG-OSMEP505E130. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Thai-Metro Industrial (1973) Co,
Ltd.
References
Figure 11. Burnished length on hole surface from punch after first
sharpening.
[1] M. Dubar, A. Dubois, L. Dubar: Wear 259 (2005) 11091116.

[2] J. Sriprasird, A. Khantachawana, V. Premanond, P. Kaewtatip:
Songklanakarin Journal of Science and Technology, 29 (2007),15911598..
[3] B.Podgornik, S.Hogmark, O.Sandberg: Wear 261 (2006) 15-21.
[4] L.A. Dobrzanski, D. Pakula, A. Kriz, M. Sokovic, J. Kopac: Journal
of Materials Processing Technology 175 (2006) 179-185.
[5] L.A. Dobrzanski, M. Polok, P. Panjan, S. Bugliosi, M. Adamiaka:
[6] L.A. Dobrzanski, W. Kwasny, Z. Brytan, R. Shishkov, B. Tomov:
[7] S. Katao, M. Murakawa, T. Aizawa, H. Ike: Surface & Coating
Technology, 177-178 (2004), 582-590.
[8] F. Klocke, T. Mabmann, K. Bobzin, E. Lugscheider, N. Bagcivan:
Wear, 260 (2006), 287-295.
[9] S.J. Bull, D.G. Bhat, M.H. Staia: Surface & Coating Technology, 163164 (2003), 507-514.
[10] T. Polcar, T. Kubart, R. Novak, L. Kopecky, P. Siroky: Surface &
Coating Technology, 193-1-3 (2005), 192-199.
[11] S.Y. Luo: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 88 (1999),
122-123.
[12] D.C. Ko, D.H. Kim, B.M. Kim: Wear, 252 (2002), 859-869.
Figure 12. Burnished length on hole surface from punch after

second sharpening.
Conclusions
For piercing operations carried out using stepped coated
punch in this work, the following conclusions were obtained:
1. Hard film coating on stepped piercing punch help to
reduce wear rate from all steps of punch end.
1041
09.08.2010 14:42:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Reduction in Blanking Noise Using NC Servo Press Machine

Kunlachart Junlapen1), Pongpan Kaewtatip2), Nobuhiro Koga3)
1)
Department of Industrial Engineering, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Pathumthani / Thailand, junlapen@yahoo.com;
Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Mongkut`s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok / Thailand, 3)Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nippon Institute of Technology, Saitama / Japan
2)
An experiment with the aim of developing a technology for reducing blanking noise was carried out using the advantages of an Numerical
Control (NC) servo press machine. The results indicate that, by adopting low-speed blanking, a reduction in blanking noise of approximately
10 dB is possible for mild steels, such as SS330, compared to the case of conventional blanking. Moreover, blanking noise can be reduced
by approximately 14 dB by slide-motion blanking, in which the speed of descent of a slide is reduced immediately before material separation. Furthermore, when blanking is carried out while applying a counter pressure with a magnitude equivalent to the maximum shearing
load at an appropriate timing such that neither a sharp decrease in load nor an increase in maximum shearing load is caused by the breakthrough phenomenon, a significant noise reduction of 24 dB becomes possible, even for a 2-mm-thick SUS304 plate, for which blanking
noise reduction has not been achieved by other methods.
Keywords: Blanking, Noise reduction, NC servo press, Speed control, Counter pressure
Introduction
In the field of press forming in Japan, health problems
of nearby residents and operators become a growing concern, the efforts to reduce health-problem sources are
strongly required. In shearing of metallic sheet, the noise
generated is known to be larger than that of the other processes and therefore become one of the most important
problems.
The noise occurred in the blanking process is mainly
caused by the vibration of the press due to abrupt release
of elastic energy stored in the press and the die set when
breakthrough of material takes place [1]. Some works have
concentrated their studies on the relationship between
breakthrough and blanking noise [2]. The reduction of the
noise was investigated by changing the unloading rate
when breakthrough occurs by using damper and hydraulic
elements [3]. However, in those works, the operation requires large equipment.
After year 2000, NC servo press machines are commercially available in Japan. The press has a programmable
function that allows fully control of the position and velocity of the press slide. Therefore, some authors initiated
work of utilizing those functions of the press to reduce the
blanking noise [4].
In this study, the method of reducing blanking noise by
using NC servo press is experimentally studied. The objectives of this work are to implement the servo press in
blanking operation to reduce blanking noise without giving a worse effect on workpiece cutting edge and to find
the optimum working conditions for various kinds of sheet
material.
Experimental Setup and Methodology
Experimental Equipments. The 600kN NC servo press
(Amada Co. Ltd, SDE-6016) was used in the experiment.
The crank of the press is directly driven by the AC servomotor that can provide high torque even rotates at low
speed. Consequently, for this type of press machine, the
clutch and flywheel are not necessary. The mechanism and
structure of the press are very simple, and the slide of the
1042
press can be stopped at any decided positions by using a

high efficiency brake system. The machine is also
equipped with 50 kN die cushion device. During the operation, the resolution of the slide position can be determined from the control monitor to be as small as 0.01 mm,
while the speed of the slide can be varied from 0 to 373
mm/s (or from 0 to 70 spm). Figure 1 illustrates the press
and the equipment of noise measurement used in the
blanking experiment.
The measurement of blanking noise is based on JIS
Z8731. A sound-level meter is located in front of the noise
source which its position is 1 m away from center of the
die set and 1.2 m from floor level. The available measuring frequency ranges from 20 to 20,000 Hz. The blanking
force (F) and punch stroke displacement (S) are also realtimed monitored and synchronized those data with the
sound level measured by the universal recorder whose
response frequency is 50 kHz.
1 NC servo press
2 Load cell
3 Displacement
meter
4 Universalrecorder
2
3
1m
1.2m
5 Computer
6 Sound level
meter
7 Die set
Figure 1. Schematic of blanking-noise measurement apparatus

using NC servo press machine.
Structure of Blanking Die Set. The schematic diagrams
09.08.2010 14:42:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
of two blanking die sets used in the experiment are shown
in Figure 2. In Figure 2 (a), a die set with a circular punch
having diameter of 30 mm was prepared in order to study
the effects of blanking speed and slide-motion pattern. The
counter punch was also equipped and applied the force via
the press die cushion. The timing of applying the counter
force can be varied by changing the height h (h designates
the distance between the upper face of counter punch and
bottom face of the work material to be blanked). In addition, the practical method of reducing the blanking noise
was studied by using the equipment shown in Figure 2 (b).
In this die set, a 60 mm-diameter circular punch is used.
The counter force was applied by using the hydraulic cylinder (maximum capacity: 200 kN) mounted under the die
set as shown in same figure. In order to measure only the
blanking noise occurs during breakthrough, the fixed type
stripper plate was used to avoid the noise caused by the
movement of other parts.
The clearance (C) used for all experiments was determined to be constant at 10%t (t: sheet thickness) which is
known as the optimum value for the crack to smoothly
propagate. The sheets were blanked at ten times for each
condition. The blanking noise (maximum sound level:
SPLmax) was recorded as well as the load (F) - time (T)
diagram. The mechanical properties and thickness of work
material (all codes refers to JIS) used in the experiment are
given in Table 1.
Displacement meter
Table 1. Mechanical properties and thickness of work materials.

Tensile
Work
Elongation
Hardness
Thickness
strength
materials
/%
/ HV
/ mm
/ MPa
Workpiece
h
Spacer
Counter pressure
(a) 30-mm blanking die
Strain
gage
Workpiece
Strippe
Spacer
Counter
punch
Hydraulic cylinder
3
2
1 Hand pump 2 Pressure gage 3 Check valve 4 Relief valve

(b) 60-mm blanking die
Figure 2. Blanking die sets used in experiment.
121
SAPH440
452
32
160
SPFH590
641
19
216
SPFC980Y
1042
14
304
741
52
210
721
50
198
4.3
Influences of Blanking Speed. In order to investigate

the effects of blanking speed (V) on the level of blanking
noise, the speed are varied at 5 different levels between V
= 2 mm/s (1spm) - V = 102 mm/s (70 spm). At each speed,
6 different kinds of materials with thickness of 2 mm or
more are used as the workpieces. In these experiments, the
counter punch is taken off; the blanking is performed as
drop-through type. The result of the relation between
blanking speed and maximum sound level is given in
Figure 3. Except for SUS304, the noise level is decreased
by the decrease of blanking speed. It is cleared that, for
mild steel such as SS330 and SPCC, the noise level is
decreased by approximately 10 dB comparing between the
minimum and maximum speed level. On the other hand,
for high strength steel (SAPH440, SPFH590, SPFC980Y),
the trend of the values of SPLmax against the speed is not
obvious. Moreover, for SUS304, the value of SPLmax has
not changed even though the speed is reduced by the ratio
of one-fiftieth (or from 102 to 2 mm/s).
105
SPFC980Y
95
85
SUS304
SS330
SAPH440
SPFH590
SPCC
75
Blanking speed (mm/s)

Blanking stroke (spm)
Punch
Die
145
41
Maximum sound pressure level

SPLmax / dB
Counter punch
Displacement meter
41
302
Punch
Die
357
SPCC
SUS304
Load cell
Strippe
r
SS330
102
70
84
50
58
30
20
10
2
1
Figure 3. Relationship between blanking speed and maximum

sound pressure level (SPLmax) for various plate specimens (30
mm, C=10%t).
Figure 4 shows the F-T diagrams for the cases of blanking SS303 and SUS304 plates. SS303 is the representative
of the mild steels which their blanking noise is strongly
related to blanking speed, while SUS304 is the representative of the other group, whose blanking noise dose not
depend on the speed. From the results, the load-rate
(dF/dT) during breakthrough for SS303 changes noticeably with the variation of blanking speed. In contrast, the
value of dF/dT for SUS304 does not show any relation
with the blanking speed and therefore the noise reduction
cannot be obtained.
1043
09.08.2010 14:42:28 Uhr
tan =
120
80
dF
dT
(1) Pattern (a)
100
80
60
40
20
(4) Pattern (d)
Blanking speed V
102 mm/s
(70spm)
2 mm/s
(1spm)
2mm
1mm
Figure 5. Cutting surfaces of circular blanks obtained by highspeed and low-speed blanking (30 mm, C=10%t).
Influences of Slide-Motion Pattern. From previous results, it is found that the noise occurs during blanking mild
steels can be reduced by decreasing blanking speed. However, by using conventional press machine, the decrease of
the speed leads to the low productivity that will not satisfy
the manufacturers requirements. Therefore, in this work,
the servo press is introduced in blanking experiments, in
order to reduce blanking noise without lowering the productivity. Consequently, the slide speed is decreased to
about 2 mm/s only during the punch penetrating the material, while the speed at other region is still maintained as
high as 70 spm. Figure 6 shows six different kinds of
slide-motion patterns that are examined. The workpiece
material is SS303 with the thickness (t) of 4.3 mm.
1044
K
t
(5) Pattern (e)
(6) Pattern (f)
The results of SPLmax obtained from each slide-motion

are shown in Figure 7. All motion patterns are found to be
effective in reducing the blanking noise compared to that
of conventional crank motion. However, the scatter of
SPLmax values can be found for Pattern (a) and (c)
whereas the slide is axially vibrated during penetrating.
Among those, Pattern (f) is the most effective and it is
selected to be further investigated. Since for this pattern,
the position that the slide abruptly changes its speed after
penetrating the sheet (or the value of K) is undoubtedly
important, the influences of K is studied and shown in
Figure 8. In the figure, the ratio of K/t is plotted against
SPLmax values. As a results, the K/t ratio ranged from 0.40.45 provides the best result, at which the noise can be
reduced for approximately 14 dB compared to that of
conventional crank motion. By observing the sheared
edges, it is found that the position at K/t = 0.4-0.45 corresponds to the beginning of the breakthrough of the workpiece. The same experiments are also performed by using
stainless steel. However, the reduction of noise cannot be
achieved.
100

SPLmax / dB
SUS304
t=2mm
(3) Pattern (c)
(2) Pattern (b)
Figure 6. Slide motion diagrams used for blanking with NC servo

press machine (30 mm, SS330, t=4.3 mm).
The examples of cutting surfaces of the blanks obtained

by high-speed (102 mm/s) and low-speed (2 mm/s) blanking of SS330 and SUS304 are illustrated in Figure 5.
Since the strain rate is almost not varied in such narrow
range of speed from 2 to 102 mm/s, the visual observation
results of the cutting edges are almost the same for both
speeds. The results are the same for all sheet materials.
However, for the materials whose blanking noise reduction
can be observed, there is the difference in the roughness of
fractured surfaces of the cutting edges. The higher is the
speed leads to the rougher of the fractured surface. But this
is not true for SUS304 since the roughness of its fractures
surface is not affected by the speed.
SS330
t=4.3mm
Thickness
0.1s
0.01s 0.02s
(a) SS330, t=4.3mm
70spm
30spm 1spm
0.01s 0.01s
0.01s
(b) SUS304, t=2mm
Figure 4. Load-time (F-T) diagrams during blanking for SS330 and
SUS304 plates ( 30 mm, C=10%t).
Work
materials
Time
40
Time T
Blanking load F / kN
1spm
Stroke
70spm 30spm
160
90
80
70
Conventional (a)
Crank Motion
(70spm)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
Slide-motion pattern
Figure 7. SPLmax measured during blanking under the different

types of slide motion (30 mm, SS330, t=4.3mm).
SPLmax / dB
Blanking load F
F-T diagram
Metal Forming
100
(97.4dB)
Conventional crank
motion (70spm)
90
80
70
0.3
0.4
0.45
0.5
0.6
0.7
-1
Slowdown position K t
Figure 8. Relationship between slow-down position of slide K/t
and SPLmax (30 mm, SS330, t=4.3 mm, 70 spm).
09.08.2010 14:42:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
100
Conventional crank
motion
90
(95.9dB)
90
Conventional crank
motion (10spm)
80
70
60
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
Counter pressure Fc Fmax-1

Figure 12. Relationship between counter pressure Fc/Fmax and
SPLmax for blanking (60mm, SUS304, t=2mm, 10spm, h/t =0.5).
80
Conclusions
70
100
100
(88.1dB)
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7

Counter force start position h t-1
Figure 9. Relation between starting position of counter force (h/t)
and SPLmax (30 mm, SUS304, t=1 mm, 70 spm, Fc/Fmax =1.0).
80
h/t=0
h/t=0.3
60
h/t=0.4
h/t=0.5
h/t=0.55
40
20
h/t=0.65
Without counter
pressure
h/t=0.6
h/t=0.7
0.01
0.02
Time T / sec
Figure 10. Load-time diagrams obtained for different starting
positions h/t of counter pressure (30 mm, SUS304, t=1 mm, 70
spm, Fc/Fmax =1.0).
SPLmax / dB
Implemented of Noise Reduction Technique. Since

there is a limitation of the capacity of die cushion
equipped with servo press, it can not be implemented for
cutting thicker sheets. Consequently, the servo press is
modified by installing the hydraulic cylinder with the
maximum force of 200 kN, as shown in Figure 2 (b). The
counter force can be varied by using the relief valve while
the timing of exerting the force is varied by changing the
spacers. In this experiment, the stainless steel sheet with
thickness of 2 mm is blanked into the 60-mm circular part.
The crank motion follows previously mentioned Pattern (f).
The experimental result is given in Figure 12. It provides
the same tendency as the previous result (Figure 11) which
as high as 24 dB of the sound pressure can be reduced.
SPLmax / dB

SPLmax / dB
Influences of Counter Force. In order to accomplish

the aim of reducing the noise, it is needed to develop the
method that can be used for all kinds of materials. In this
part of work, the attempt to reduce the noise of blanking
stainless steel is made by utilizing counter punch as reported in some works [5]. Since the capacity of the air
cushion that equipped in the servo press is limited, the 1mm-thick stainless steel sheet is used as the workpiece.
The influences of counter force (Fc) and timing exerting
counter force (h) are studied. First, the relation between
the ratio of counter force starting position to the sheet
thickness (h/t) and the sound level is plotted as shown in
Figure 9. In this graph, the value of Fc is determined to be
constant at the same value of maximum blanking force (Fc
= Fmax = 40 kN or Fc/Fmax = 1.0). For the range of h/t
=0.6-0.65, SPLmax can be reduced for about 8 dB. The
reasons can be explained by F-T diagrams shown in Figure 10. It is cleared that in order to reduce blanking noise,
the counter force should be applied as soon as the breakthrough begins. The influences of Fc on the sound level
are shown in Figure 11. The most effective range of Fc is
Fc/Fmax 0.8.
100
90
Conventional crank
motion (70spm)
(88.1dB)
80
0.2
0.8
1.0
0.4
0.6
Counter pressure Fc Fmax-1
Figure 11. Relationship between counter pressure Fc/Fmax and
SPLmax for blanking (30 mm, SUS304, t=1 mm, 70 spm,
h/t=0.65).
In this work, the method of noise reduction by using NC

servo press has been proposed. The slide velocity is decreased during penetrating the material and the counter
punch is introduced to reduce the energy released when
break through occurs. By using this method, the equipments are very simple compared to those of the previous
works and the noise is found to be markedly reduced. In
addition, for SUS304 workpiece that is known that blanking noise reduction is quite difficult, by utilizing NC servo
press machine the noise can be extremely reduced by approximately 24 dB.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the support
form Takahashi Industrial and Economic Research Foundation and F-tech Inc. for kindly supporting the high
strength steel.
References
[1] J. Mo, N. Koga M. Murakawa: Journal of the JSTP, 39-448 (1998),
457-461.
[2] M. Murakawa, J. Mo, Y. Wakatsuki, N. Koga: Journal of Materials
[3] E. Doege, H.J. Seidel: CIRP Annals, 34-1 (1985), 507-509.
[4] M.Otsu, C. Yamagata, K. Osakada: CIRP Annals, 52-1 (2003), 245248.
[5] K. Yamaguchi, Y. Uemura, N. Takakura, M. Fukuda: Journal of the
JSTP, 24-264 (1983), 77-84.
1045
09.08.2010 14:42:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
Investigation on Shear Deformation of Polycarbonate Sheet in Blanking Process

Dong Hwan Kim1), Jung Min Lee2), Byung Min Kim3)
1)
Department of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, International University of Korea, Jinju / Korea, dhkim@iuk.ac.kr; 2) Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), Changwon / Korea; 3) School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea
In the blanking of a polycarbonate sheet, the size and shape of burr and burnish zone are very important to evaluate quality of sheared
surface which depend on tool and process parameters. To get smooth-sheared edges over the full polymer thickness in one single operation without secondary machining, not only the parametric study but also studies on fracture behavior in shear band are necessary. So, in
this paper, to investigate the surface deformation in the polycarbonate blanking process, FE-simulation technique has been proposed to
predict the deformation behavior of polycarbonate through the simulation of the blanking process. In the blanking of a polycarbonate sheet,
some factors such as the shearing angle of punch, tool radius and holding force on sheet influence the quality of the cross-section and the
dimension precision. It is indicated that high pressure on the sheet surface of polycarbonate plays a significant role to suppress the generation of fracture zones in the sheared surface. To have a clear picture of formation and propagation mechanism of the shear region in polycarbonate blanking, a series of experiments had been carried out. On the basis of present findings, the mechanisms of the formation and
propagation of shear band in polycarbonate blanking are discussed.
Keywords: Polycarbonate, Blanking process, Sheared surface, FE-simulation, Pressurization tool
Introduction
Blanking of polycarbonate sheet is an industrial process
widely used in electronics and several other industrial
applications. It consists in separating a blank from a sheet
by means of a high-localized shear deformation due to the
action of a punch [1]. However, it is difficult to get the
smooth-sheared edge over the full polymer thickness in
one single operation. Although some studies have involved
an analytical model, the blanking process for polycarbonate sheet is not yet fully understood [2].
Many thermoplastic polymers undergo a significant
amount of inelastic deformation prior to failure. In order to
achieve a smooth-sheared surface in blanking process, it is
necessary to know the constitutive behavior of the material.
A major source of problem in characterizing the inelastic
constitutive behavior of these materials is the fact that
homogeneous deformations are not stable beyond a certain
strain level in the most commonly employed experimental
configurations such as uniaxial tension and compression,
torsion, and simple shear [3].
Blanking of polycarbonate sheet is a constrained shearing operation that involves elastic deflection, plastic deformation and fracture of the work material. The aim of
the blanking process of polycarbonate sheet is not only to
make the material deform to perfect shape and dimensions
but also to break the polycarbonate sheet.
To get smooth-sheared surface over the full polycarbonate thickness in blanking process without secondary machining, not only the parametric study but also study on
fracture behavior in shear band is necessary. So, in this
paper, to investigate the surface deformation in the polycarbonate blanking process, FE simulation technique has
been proposed to predict the deformation behavior of
polycarbonate through the simulation of the blanking
process. In the blanking of polycarbonate sheet, some
factors such as the shearing angle of punch, tool radius and
holding force on sheet influence the quality of the crosssection and the dimension precision. The objective of this
work is to study the effects of shearing angle of punch and
1046
the action mode of punch on the quality of the sheared

polycarbonate sheet. In this paper, finite element simulation has been done using the DEFORM-2D package.
Characteristics of Tensile Deformation for Polycarbonate Sheets
Polycarbonate Sheet. Figure 1 show the mobile phone
with touch screen. Usually, polycarbonate sheet is used in
touch screen. This polycarbonate case is designed to provide all-round production and easy access to mobile phone.
Touch screen sizes range from 2.5 to 3.5 inches wide.
There are as many different types of interfaces as there are
touch screen cell phones.
Tensile Test. The thickness of the polycarbonate sheet is
1mm. To understand the characteristics of materials, the
tensile test is done by INSTRON, universal test machine
whose capacity is 10ton. The specimen is made by the
tools as shown in Figure 2(a) according to ASTM-8 standard requirements.
In Figure 3, the load-elongation diagram from a tensile
test in a polycarbonate specimen is shown. The deformation is macroscopically homogeneous in Stage I and II and
localized deformation appears in Stage III as a macro
shear band visible to the naked eye, coincident with the
peak load which then become a stable neck profile and
propagates along the length of the specimen in Stage IV.
The work of Ravi-Chandar et al. [3] shows similar and
more detailed experimental results.
(a) Mobile phone (b) Touch screen (c) Polycarbonate sheet

Figure 1. Mobile phone with touch screen.
09.08.2010 14:42:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Analysis of Blanking Process for Polycarbonate sheets
(a) Tools for tensile specimens of polycarbonate sheets
(b) Specimens after tensile test

Figure 2. Tensile test for polycarbonate sheets.
Tensile Response of Polycarboante. In Stage I of the

deformation, a linear behaviour is observed and the deformation is macroscopically homogeneous. The measured
elastic modulus from this stage is from 2.1 to 2.5 GPa, in
agreement with the generally quoted value for polycarbonate. In Stage II, the micro shear bands measuring about
1m thick and 100m long are observed distributed
throughout the specimen, particularly near surface defects.
Corresponding to the peak in the load, which marks the
beginning of Stage III, a single macro shear band forms
across the specimen cross-section. With continued elongation of the specimen, at a constant applied force level, the
necked profile generated at the end of Stage III grows up
and down along the length of the specimen, entraining
new materials into the neck.
The numerical approach for studying blanking of polycarbonate sheet is still in its infancy. So, in this paper, FE
simulation technique has been proposed to predict the
plastic deformation of sheared surface by DEFORM 2D.
Modeling of the Blanking Process. Figure 4 represents

the numerical model corresponding to the part geometry
and the initial position of the tools. In this study, to investigate the sheared surface of polycarbonate sheet, shearing
angle of punch and action mode of punch are considered
as process variables. The FEM simulation is preformed
with the same punch speed but with different shearing
angel (60 and 80) and punch type as shown in Figure 4.
The relationship between effective stress-strain for finite
element analysis shown in Figure 3 is obtained from the
tensile test. Initial mesh system for FE analysis is shown in
Figure 5.
Single shearing punch (V) : 1mm
60 and 80 o
90
Nominal (True) stress (MPa)
Nominal stress
True stress
Stage I
60
Stage II
t
y
40
Single shearing punch

Holder (Force = 0)
10
0.2
0.4
0.6
Engineering (True) strain
0.8
Figure 3. Nominal stress vs. engineering strain and mechanical

properties of typical polycarbonate specimen.
Holder (Force = 0)
Die
Die
FEM Simulation. Polycarbonate shear deformation

with different strokes of shearing punch is shown in Figure 6. The plastic deformation begins when the stresses
within the deformation zone increases until the yield limit
of the material is reached. The blanking force continues to
increase until cracks occur in the sheet near to the cutting
edges. When the cracks appear, fracture separation will
begin. Table 1 shows the conditions of FE simulations
Table 1 FE simulations for combination of process variables.
Punch
type
- Elastic Modulus : 2.1 ~ 2.5GPa

- Yield strength : 50.5 ~ 54.5MPa
- Tensile strength : 61.5 ~ 64.5MPa
- Elongation : 130 ~ 160%
20
<Double shearing punch type>
Figure 4. Design and process variables in polycarbonate blanking.
Process variables
Stage IV
30
Lower shearing punch : 0.2mm
<Single shearing punch type>
Stage III
50
0
0.0
Polycarbonate : t=1mm
Figure 5. Initial mesh system for FE analysis.
Necking
70
60 and 80 o
Micro shear
bands
80
Upper shearing punch : 0.8mm
Shearing angle of punch

60
80
Single action
60S
80S
Double action
60D
80D
After finite element analysis for each case, shape factor

such as die roll width(RW), die roll depth(RD), burnish
zone(BZ) and fracture zone(FZ) shown in Figure 6 (d) are
measured in order to know the effects of process variables
on the quality of the sheared polycarbonate sheet.
1047
09.08.2010 14:42:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
(b)
(a)
(a) Single shearing punch type having 60 shearing angle
Die roll width (RW)
Die roll depth(RD)
Pressure
Burnish zone (BZ)
(b) Double shearing punch type having 60 shearing angle
Fracture zone (FZ)
(C)
(d)
Figure 6. Polycarbonate shear deformation with different strokes

of shearing punch.
(c) Single shearing punch type having 80 shearing angle
(a) 60
(b) 80
Figure 7. Single shearing punch type for each shearing angle.
(d) Double shearing punch type having 80 shearing angle
Figure 10. Optical cross-section of a sheared polycarbonate sheet
for test conditions of blanking process (20x).
(b) 80
(a) 60
Figure 8. Double shearing punch type for each shearing angle.
Simulation Results. According to process variables, the

sheared surface are shwon in Figures 7 and 8. The shape
factors are summrized in Table 2. From the results, when
the punch type is the double shearing having 80 shearing
angle, the burnish zone is bigger than for the other case.
Table 2 Comparison of measured data in Figure 4 (unit: mm).
Items
60S
80S
60D
80D
RW
0.035
0.037
0.031
0.030
RD
0.017
0.021
0.015
0.016
BZ
0.668
0.702
0.715
0.746
FZ
0.230
0.193
0.187
0.173
Experiments for Polycarbonate Blanking Process

Blanking Test. To have a clear picture of the sheared
surface in polycarbonate blanking, a series of experiments
had been carried out according to the conditions of Table 1.
The punch used in this study is machined in the rectangular shape of the size 10 x 12 mm. After experiments,
specimens for each case are shown in Figure 9 and the
sheared surface is observed in 3 viewpoints (Figure 9(b))
(a) Specimens
(b) Viewpoints of sheared surface
Figure 9. Specimens after blanking experiments and viewpoint .
1048
Concept for Polycarbonate Blanking. After testing, all

the specimens are sectioned, mounted, polished as shown
in Figure 10. These figures show the optical cross-section
of a sheared polycarbonate sheet for test conditions. By
observing the sectional surface of the specimens, it is
found that shear band develops gradually. As can be expected in the case of a single shearing punch, the crosssection of a sheared polycarbonate sheet causes a bad
quality due to the presence of large edge indentation and
longer fracture length. The results of FE simulations according to punch type and shearing angles are compared
with that of experiments in polycarbonate blanking process. From the above results, the tendency of experiment is
similar to the FE simulation.
The concept for polycarbonate blanking process is
shown in Figure 11 on the assumption that the crack is
stable propagation. The material flow shown in Figure
11(b) in the shearing state is in-flow along the punch
stroke. Generally, after polycarbonate blanking process,
the shape of the sheared surface is curved as shown in
Figure 11(c). From the FE simulations and experiments, it
is thought that force of pressurization on sheet affect the
curved shape depending on elastic deformation in polycarbonate blanking process.
(a) Initial state

(b) Shearing state
(c) Free state
Figure 11. Concept for polycarbonate blanking process.
09.08.2010 14:42:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Pressurization on Sheet. There is a growing need for
the polycarbonate sheet to be shaped precisely without any
tortuousness after blanking. Therefore, in order to know
the deformation and material flow depending on pressing
condition, FE-simulations have been performed. The result
of FE-simulation for the blanking without pressing on
sheet is shown in Figure 12. In this case, the rotating material flow occurred along punch stroke. It means that
elastic deformation would appear after blanking. Figure
13 shows the materials flow in polycarbonate blanking
process with pressurization (0.1mm). As shown in Figure
14, it is known that mainly severe shift of polycarboante
sheet appeared in free state shown in Figure 11(c).
Verifications. In this study, the method which minimizes the elastic deformation after blanking process for
the structural uniformity of polycarbonate sheet is proposed using FE simulation.
The experiment of blanking process for polycarbonate
sheet is performed using 60 ton hyper-hydraulic press. The
punch and pressurization tool are shown in Figure 15.
From the test, the optical cross-section and side section of
a sheared polycarbonate sheet are shown in Figure 16. In
this figure, it can be shown that the crack initiation is
about 90% of polycarbonate thickness.
From the above results, the blanking polycarboante
sheet having pressing tool is useful to prevent defects such
as fracture and elastic deformation and to acquire cleancut surface on the blanked part.
Figure 15. Shape of punch and pressurization tool in polycarbonate blanking process.
Figure 12. Material flow in polycarbonate blanking process without

pressurization.
(a) Cross-section
(b) Side section
Figure 16. Optical cross-section and side section of a sheared
polycarbonate sheet in blanking process using pressurizaton tool.
Conclusions
Figure 13. Material flow in polycarbonate blanking process with

pressurization (0.1mm).
To investigate the surface deformation in the polycarbonate blanking process, FE-simulation technique has
been proposed to predict the deformation behavior of
polycarbonate through the simulation of the blanking
process. It is important to remember that this paper deals
only with the methodology in the polycarbonate blanking
process. However, it is hoped that the results presented
here help to shed some light on polycarbonate blanking.
To confirm this, further studies seem necessary to determine the adequate pressure on polycarbonate sheet during
the blanking process and to compare complete sheared
surface profiles for each case with the identical simulation
conditions mentioned above.
References
(a) No press
(b) Press
Figure 14. Shape of sheared surface with or without press in
polycarbonate blanking process.
[1] D.H. Kim, S.B. Lee, B.M. Kim: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 130-1 (2002), 2-8.
[2] Z.H. Chen, L.C. Chan, T.C. Lee, C.Y. Tang: Journal of Materials
[3] J. Lu, K. Ravi-Chandar: International Journal of Solids and Structures,
36 (1999), 391-425.
1049
09.08.2010 14:42:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Torsion on Shear Droop and Burr in Shearing of Bars and Wires
Satoshi Kajino1), Tomoya Tanaka2), Motoo Asakawa2)
1)
Digital Manufacturing Research Center, AIST, Tukuba / Japan, kajino-satoshi@aist.go.jp; 2) Applied Mechanics and
Aerospace Engineering, Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Shinjuku / Japan
Shearing is advantageous in that the cutting time is shorter and the yield rate is higher than that obtained with a machine, a saw, or in laser
cutting. On the other hand, the cut-face shape of a material after shearing is worse than that obtained after cutting by the other methods
mentioned above: this is because droop and burr are formed at the edge of the cut-face. It is necessary to alter the cut-face shape after
shearing for use in cold forging. Therefore, a new shearing method is required. It is well known that the cut face of a ductile material fractured
by torsion is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of bars or wires and does not exhibit droop and burr. However, it is difficult to control
the cut point of a material in the twisting method. In this research, we developed a new shearing method in which shearing is combined with
twisting to achieve a short cutting time with high accuracy of length and cut-face without droop and burr. The specimens were sheared after
they were twisted at several torsion angles. It was observed that the droop and burr height was lower in the case of shearing with torsion
than in the case of only shearing. In addition, the roundness tolerance was improved in the case of shearing with torsion. As the torsion
angle increased, the droop and burr height decreased. It was considered that the reduction in the droop and burr height was caused by
metal flow along the circumferential direction. In order to synchronize the shearing speed with the torsion speed, the shearing force was
statically loaded on a specimen. As a result, the shape of the cut-face was improved drastically in the case of torsion with a static shear
force.
Keywords: Shearing, Torsion, Static shear load, Droop and burr height, Roundness tolerance, Bars, Wires
Introduction
Experimental Machine and Specimen
Shearing is a commonly used method for cutting

materials from bars or wires. Shearing is advantageous in
that the cutting time is shorter and the yield rate is higher
than that obtained by a machine, a saw, or in laser cutting
[1-3]. On the other hand, the cut-face shape of a material
after shearing is worse than that obtained after cutting by
the other method mentioned above: this is because droop
and burr are formed at the edge of the cut-face (as shown
in Figure 1 (a)) [4,5]. It is necessary to alter the cut face
shape after shearing for use in cold forging. Several
methods have been investigated with the aim of reducing
the droop and burr height. However, this reduction has not
yet been achieved [6-8]. Therefore, a new shearing method
that does not generate droop and burr is required.
It is well known that the cut face of a ductile material
fractured by torsion is perpendicular to the longitudinal
direction of bars or wires and does not exhibit droop and
burr (as shown in Figure 1 (b)) [9]. There is a clear
difference between the cut-face shape obtained by twisting
and that obtained by shearing. However, it is difficult to
control the cut point of a material in the twisting method.
Besides, the entire process of cutting by the twisting
method requires more time than that by shearing. In this
research, we developed a new shearing method in which
shearing is combined with twisting to achieve a short
cutting time with high accuracy of length and cut surface
without droops and burrs.
Low-carbon steel bars (diameter: 1.96 mm) were used

for the experiment so that the effect of pearlite on the
experimental result could be eliminated. The chemical
composition of these bars is shown in Table 1. The bars
were annealed at 1123 K for 2 h.
(b) Twisting
(a) Shearing
Figure 1. Edge shape of wire after cutting.
1050
Table 1. Chemical composition.
in mass %
C Si Mn P
Cu Ni Cr
A
S
N
0.21 0.22 0.66 0.017 0.016 0.01 0.03 0.05 0.051 0.004
A prototype machine was developed to cut a bar by

shearing with torsion (as shown in Figure 2). The
prototype machine comprised a torsion side and a shearing
side. A specimen was rotated by a timing belt connected to
a motor on the torsion side. The leverage was placed on
the shearing side. The short arm of the leverage was
connected to a table. The table was boosted by the
leverage when the bars were cut. The shearing force was
loaded at the edge of the long arm of the leverage and was
hence amplified to 9 times its actual value. The specimen
was clipped by a spacer and a chuck. The specimen and
chuck were set on the table of the prototype machine. The
length between each spacer was termed as the clearance.
Shearing side
Load
Shearing
Torsion side
Bar
Torsion
Clearance
Chuck
Spacer
Figure 2. Experimental machine for shearing with torsion.
09.08.2010 14:42:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental Method
(a) Height of droop and burr

(b) Roundness tolerance
Figure 3. Measurement of edge shape after cutting.
Shearing with Torsion. The specimens were sheared

after they were twisted at several torsion angles180, 360,
450 and 540. The torsion speed was 2 rpm. The droop
height, burr height, and roundness tolerance were
measured and compared with those obtained using only
the shearing method.
Torsion with Static Shear Load. In the above method
of shearing with torsion, the torsion speed (0.2 mm/s) was
much lower than the shearing speed (200 mm/s). Owing to
this difference in the shearing and torsion speed, the effect
of the metal flow along the circumferential direction on
the droop and burr was considered to be insufficient. The
shearing force was statically loaded on a specimen to
synchronize the shearing speed with the torsion speed As a
result, the shearing speed became 0.3 mm/s, and was
synchronized with the torsion speed. Two shear forces
(0.15 kN and 0.5 kN) were loaded on the specimen in this
experiment. Even in the case of 0.5 kN, the shear stress
was 160 MPa and less than the yield stress.
Figures 4 and 5 show the lateral and front views of the
bars after cutting using only shearing and after shearing
with torsion, respectively. The droop and burr height were
observed to be lower in the case of shearing with torsion
than in the case of only shearing. In addition, the
roundness tolerance was improved in the case of shearing
with torsion.
1 mm
1 mm
(a) Lateral view of

(b) Front view of
fracture shape
fracture face
Figure 4. Edge shape after only Shearing.
0.4
100
Decrease
Decrease
Improvement
0.3
90
0.2
80
0.1
70
60
Shearing
Only
Only1
Shearing
Shearing
Only
2
3
4
5
6
shearing with torsion shearing with torsion shearing with torsion
Roundness tolerance %
Burr height b
d,b/mm
D1
Droop and burr height
D2
Figure 6 shows a comparison between the droop height,

burr height, and roundness tolerance obtained in the case
of only shearing and that obtained in the case of shearing
with torsion. The droop height and the burr height were,
respectively, 25% an 35% lower in the case of shearing
with torsion. The roundness tolerance also improved in the
case of shearing with torsion.
(b) Burr height (c) Roundness tolerance

(a) Droop height
Figure 6. Comparison between droop height, burr height, and
roundness tolerance obtained for different methods of cutting.
Figure 7 shows the relationship between the torsion

angle and the droop and burr height. The droop and burr
height decreased as the torsion angle increased. However,
the height was observed to be constant when the torsion
angle was grater than 360.
d,b/mm
Droop height d
1 mm
1 mm
(b) Front view of

(a) Lateral view of
fracture face
fracture shape
Figure 5. Edge shape after shearing with torsion.
0.5
Droop and burr height
Only Shearing. The bar was cut by the conventional

shearing to be compared with the new method. A
photograph of the lateral view of the sheared bars was
captured using a microscope, and the droop and burr
heights were measured as shown in Figure 3. In addition,
the front view of the sheared bars was photographed and
the roundness tolerance was measured. The ratio of the
inner circle radius to the circumcircle radius was defined
as the roundness tolerance as shown in Figure 3.
0.3
Droop height
0.4
0.2
0.1
Burr height
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Torsion angle deg

Figure 7. Relationship between torsion and height of droop and burr.
Figures 8 and 9 show the lateral and front view of the

bars after cutting using torsion with a static load. The
droop and burr height in the case of torsion with a static
load was lower than that in the case of shearing with
torsion. Figure 10 shows the droop height in the case of
torsion with a static shear load. The droop height in the
case of torsion with a static load was lower than that in the
case of shearing with torsion. Figure 10 also shows that
the roundness tolerance was improved in the case of
torsion with a static shear load.
1051
09.08.2010 14:42:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
300
Shearing with torsion
Vickers hardness HV
250
1 mm
1 mm
(b) Front view of

(a) Lateral view of
fracture face
fracture shape
Figure 8. Torsion with small static load.
200
150
Only shearing
100
Torsion with large static shear force
50
0
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Distance from cut point X/m

Figure 11. Distribution of Vickers hardness along longitudinal
direction.
Discussion
1 mm
1 mm
(b) Front view of

(a) Lateral view of
fracture face
fracture shape
Figure 9. Torsion with large static load.
0.4
100
Droop height
90
0.2
80
0.1
70
Only
1
shearing
Shearing
2
with torsion
Static load
0.153 kN
Static load
0.54kN
Roundness tolerance Fs%
Droop height d /mm
Roundness tolerance
0.3
60
Figure 10. Comparison between droop height and roundness

tolerance for difference method of cutting.
Measurement of Vickers Hardness. It was believed

that the area hardened by torsion affected the formability
of the material in cold forging. In the case of only shearing,
the work hardening area was narrow. The twisted area was
desired to be small. The Vickers hardness around the cut
point was measured to investigate the area hardened by
torsion. The sample was mounted in resin and polished
along longitudinal direction. The Vickers hardness was
measured after every 150 m from the cut surface. Figure
11 shows the relationship between the distance from the
cut surface and the Vickers hardness.
In the case of only shearing, the hardness sharply
decreased with increase in the distance from the cut point.
However, in the case of twisting and torsion with a low
static shear force, the hardness gradually decreased with
increase in distance from the cut point. It was ascertained
that the torsion strongly affected the bars. Further, it was
considered that the hardened area around the cut point
affects the formability of the bars in former. In contrast,
the hardness in the case of torsion with a high static shear
force sharply decreased in a manner similar to that
observed in the case of only shearing. It was considered
that the work hardening due to torsion was less.
1052
Effect of Torsion on Droop. As shown in the

experimental results, the droop height was lower in the
cases of shearing with torsion. It has been generally
considered that the droop is caused by the drawing of the
material along the longitudinal direction. It was
considered that this drawing of material was restricted by
torsion: that is, the material flow along the circumferential
direction because of torsion compensated for the lack of
material and resulted in the reduction the droop height.
The burr height decreased because the material flow
caused by torsion resulted in the dispersion of the burr
along the circumferential direction without the generation
of a protuberance.
In the cases of shearing with torsion and torsion with
static shear force, the fracture direction was observed to be
perpendicular to the shearing direction, as shown in
Figure 12 (a). The shear stress condition and calculated
equivalent stress are shown in Figure 12 (b). The shear
stress was generated over the entire surface along the same
direction. However, the direction of torsion stress changed
along the circumferential direction. The equivalent stress
was calculated from the shear stress when a plastic
deformation occurred in the case of torsion with a static
shear force. The equivalent stress was largest at point C in
the figure, whereas it was smallest at G. such a distribution
in equivalent stress was constant, irrespective of the
increase in shear stress. Finally, it was hypothesized that
the fracture started at point C, then extended to point G.
326
260
228
Fracture
direction
1 mm
Shearing
direction
(a) Fracture direction
380
F
E
400
Shearing stress
Torsion shearing
stress
Number: equivalent stress MPa
(b) Distribution of shear and equivalent stress

Figure 12. Fracture direction and distribution of equivalent stress.
Reduction of Droop Height in Case of Torsion with

Static Load. The droop height was lowest in the case of
torsion with a static shear load. It was considered that the
material flow effectively compensated for the lack of
material because the shearing speed was synchronized
with the torsion speed. In addition, Figure 13 shows a
comparison between the shearing force in the case of only
shearing and that in the case of torsion with a static load.
09.08.2010 14:42:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
1.6
equivalent stress exceeded yield stress when the torsion

was small because the shear stress was large. It was
considered that the equivalent stress generated only at the
clearance was higher than the yield stress. Therefore, the
twisted area was narrow, and only the clearance was
deformed plastically.
0
500
400
300
200
0.8
0.6
0.4
Torsion
Shearing
Shear stress
-1.25
1.25
2.5
Distance from cut point X/mm

Figure 14. Distribution of shearing and torsion stress along
longitudinal direction in the case of 0.15 kN shear force.
500
+X
Torsion stress
0
-2.5
Several stresses MPa
Shearing force Fs/kN
Equivalent stress
Cut point
100
1.4
1.2
Clearance
Several stresses MPa
As can be observed, the shearing load in the case of only

shearing was 1.4 kN. However, that in the case of torsion
with a static shear load was 0.15 kN or 0.5 kN. Therefore,
the shearing load in the case of torsion with a static shear
force was 7-35% lesser than that in the case of only
shearing. It was considered that low shear load resulted in
low droop height. We attempted to analyze the reason
behind the considerable decrease in shearing force in the
case of torsion with a static shear load. The shearing stress
at the clearance was 160 MPa even for the static force of
0.5 kN. For the static force of 0.15 kN, the shearing stress
at the clearance was 32 MPa. These stresses were smaller
than the yield stress. Naturally, the plastic deformation did
not occur in this condition. After the torsion was added to
the bar, the torsion stress increased with the torque. The
equivalent stress also increased and finally exceeded the
yield stress. Next, the plastic deformation at the clearance
increased and the bar was cut at the clearance.
Clearance
X
400
0
Cut point
+X
Equivalent stress
300
200
100
Shearing
Torsion stress
Torsion
Shear stress
0.2
0
Only
1
shearing
Static2 load Static3 load

0.15 kN
0.5 kN
Figure 13. Comparison between shear force.
Twisted Area in Case of Torsion with Static Shear Load.

Figures 14 and 15 show the distribution of the searing and
torsion stress along the longitudinal direction. It was
postulated that the cut point was at the center of the
clearance in this case. As shown in Figures 14 and 15, the
shearing stress was generated concentratively at the
clearance of the specimen when the shearing static force
was loaded on the specimen. On the other hand, the
torsion stress was generated between each chuck after the
specimen was twisted. It was considered that the torsion
stress was strongest between each chuck and gradually
decreased as the distance from the chuck increased. As the
torsion increased, the torsion stress also increased, while
maintaining the abovementioned distribution. Thus, the
twisted area was gradually expanded, and finally, the
torsion strain was generated at the material in the chuck.
The equivalent stress was calculated and shown in
Figures 14 and 15. The largest equivalent stress was
generated at the clearance because the shear stress and
torsion stress were the largest. After the specimen was
twisted, the equivalent stress at the clearance increased
gradually. In the case of a low shear force, the generated
equivalent stress was higher than the yield stress: this was
because a large torsion was essential for the equivalent
stress to exceed the yield stress. Therefore, the work
hardening caused by torsion was extended into the
chucked area. In contrast, in the case of a high shear force,
the shear stress, which was slightly less than the yield
stress, was generated at the clearance. Obviously, the
plastic deformation had not yet been generated. The
0
-2.5
-1.25
1.25
2.5
Distance from cut point X/mm

Figure 15. Distribution of shearing and torsion stress along
longitudinal direction in the case of 0.5 kN shear force.
Conclusion
The effect of torsion on droops and burrs was
investigated, and the following results were obtained.
1. The droop and burr height decreased when shearing
with torsion was carried out. The reduction in the
height of droops and burrs was caused by the metal
flow along the circumferential direction.
2. In the case of torsion with a static shear load, the
height of droops decreased drastically. One of the
causes for decrease in droop height was that the shear
force, which was needed to cut the bar, decreased.
3. In the case of a large shear force, plastic deformation
was mainly generated at the clearance. Therefore, the
work hardened by torsion was less.
References
[1] JSTP: Shearing, Corona Publishing, (1992).
[2] M. Murakawa: Journal of JSTP, 35-396 (1994), 3-9.
[3] N. Yanagihara: Journal of JSTP, 35-396 (1994), 43-48.
[4] H. Kudo, T. Nakagawa, K. Tamura: Journal of JSTP, 22-241 (1981),
150-158.
[5] H. Kudo, K. Tamura: Journal of JSTP, 5-43 (1964), 527-535.
[6] M. Murakawa, Y. Lu, N. Koga, K. Ohkawa: Journal of JSTP, 33-374
(1992), 296-301.
[7] M. Murakawa, N. Koga, K. Ohkawa: Journal of JSTP, 31-356 (1990),
1135 1141.
[8] M. Murakawa, Y. Lu, N. Koga: Journal of JSTP, 33-380 (1992),
1063-1068.
[9] S. Thiruvarudchelvan: Journal of Mechanical Working Technology,
19 (1989), 1-10.
1053
09.08.2010 14:42:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Plastic Forming of Hard Brittle Materials under External Hydrostatic Pressure

Masahiko Yoshino, Naoki Yoshikawa, Kazuaki Uchida
Department of Mechanical and Control Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo / Japan, myoshino@ mes.titech.ac.jp
This paper reports experimental studies on plastic deformation properties of hard brittle material (soda glass) under extermally applied
hydrostatic pressure. The Vickers indentation test and machining test under high hydrostatic pressure up to 200 MPa were conducted by
using a specially designed experimental equipment. The Vickers indentation test shows tha hydrostatic pressure improves hydrrate layer on
the surface layer of soda glass, and it decreases Vickers hardness of soda glass. Hydrostaic pressure however exhibits little effects on
crack generation by indenation or fracture toughness. On the other hands, the hydrostatic pressure is effective to reduce the number of
chippings in a machining process. It is shown that ductility of glass is increased under high hydrostatic pressure. Effects of external
hydrostatic pressure on crack generation is discussed based on the fracture mechanics. Difference of experimental results of the machining
test and indentation test is attributed to differece of crack generation process.
Keywords: Hydrostatic pressure, Hard-brittle materials, Indentation, Hardness, Facture toughness
Introduction
Hard-brittle materials such as silicon, glass, quartz, and
other kind of ceramics have unique electrical, optical, and
chemical characteristics. The importance is increasing in
the recent high-technologis such as opto-electronics,
automotive, medical, telecomunication and mechanical
engineering. In order to match these global demands,
techniques such as lithography processes have been
commonly used to fabricate nano/micro structures with
different variation of shapes on the material surfaces.
However, these techniques are not always suitable due to
its limit on work materials, cost, machining time,
stringency in methods and chemical disposal which leads
to fundamental environment problems. In the meantime,
plastic forming processes, such as rolling, forging, bending,
are advantageous in productivity and manufacturing cost.
However, it is known that hard brittle materials are easily
broken when they are subjected to large plastic
deformation. Only gently machining processes, such as
polishing or lapping are available for hard brittle materials,
where little plastic deformation occurrs in the work
material.
Sato et al. conducted torsion tests of stones under high
hidrostatic pressure, and reported that large plastic
deformation is possible even for stones when they apply
sufficent external hydrostatic pressure to the work material
[1]. The authors also proved that ductile manner machinng
is available when a hard brittle matrial is machined under
high hydrostatic pressure [2-4]. It is expected that high
hydrostatic pressure is generally effective to reduce crack
generation regardless of the processing methods.
In this paper indentation tests and machining tests of
soda glass was conducted under high hydrostatic pressure,
and effects of hydrostatic pressure on plastic deformation
of soda glass are discussed.
Equipments
Figure 1 illustrates construction of the high pressure
exprimental setup, in which a indenation/miachining tester
is installed. It consists of a high pressure vessel, a high
pressure pump, a motor controller, data aquisition system,
1054
and a computer. There is a chamber of 80 mm in diameter

and 300 mm in length in the pressure vessel. Water is used
as pressure medium. High hydrostatic pressure up to 400
MPa is generated by the high pressure pump.
Pressure vessel
Machining tester
AMP
Controller
PC
Converter
Drain
Oil pump
Water pump
Water tank
Oil tank
Figure 1. Construction of high pressure experimental setup.
Plug
Stepper motor
Stepper motor
Load cell
Turn table
Tool stage
(a)
Schematic illustration of tester
Stepper motor
Turntable
Plug
Load cell
(b) Photograph of tester
Figure 2. Construction of an indentation/machining tester.
Figure 2 shows (a) a schematic illustration and (b) a

photograph of a the indentation/machining tester installed
09.08.2010 14:42:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
in the chamber. It consists of X stage (axial direction), Y
stage (radial direction), a load cell, a tool, and a turn table.
The X-Y stage is mounted on a cylindrical frame whose
stiffness is sufficiently high. A load cell is mounted on the
X-Y stage. After a specimen is set on the turntable, the
turntabe is connected to the cylindrical frame. The X-Y
stage and the turntable are driven by stepper motors. These
motors are modified so that they can work under high
hydrostatic pressure up to 400 MPa. The stepper motors
are connected to the motor controller outside of the
chamber, and motion of the X-Y stage and turntable is
controlled by a computer. The load cell is connected to the
amplifier, and load data is acquired by the date aquisition
system. Table 1 summarizes the specification of the
equipment.
Table 1. Specification of experimental equipment.
Hydrostatic pressure
0 MPa - 400 MPa
Pressure medimum
water
Chamber size
Motion control
Stroke of the stages
Feed resolution
Rotation speed of the
turntable
80 L300 mm
X-stage: axial direction
Y-stage: radial direction
Turntable: rotation
X-stage: 20 mm
Y-stage: 10 mm
Turntable: continuous
X-stage: 0.078m
Y-stage: 0.1 m
Turntable: 0.72
0300 rpm
A Vickers indenter was used for the indenation test.

This is useful to fabricate dimples on the surface of a
specimen, and also to evaluate material properties. A
specimen is mounted on the turntable. The turntable and Ystage are fixed at a designated position. Then the tool is
indented onto the specimen till the designated indentation
load is achieved. Finally the tool is retracted, and the tool
is transferred to the next indentation position by moving
the turntable or Y-stage. Indentation tests is conducted
under verious atmospheres; air, water (0 MPa) and water
(100 MPa).
As for the machining test, a cutting tool is mounted on
the X-Y stage. Figure 3 shows a micrograph of a single
crystal diamond tool used for the machining test. In the
machining test, a specimen is mounted on the turntable,
and the turntable was rotated continuously at the rotation
speed of 120 rpm. Then the diamond tool is indented onto
the specimen, and then moved to radial direction at the
constant feed rate. By this experiment, continuous grooves
of various depth were machined.
Soda glass (slide glass) were used as a work material.
Soda glass spaecimens were annealed in argon gas at
580 C for 30 minuites prior to the experiment.
50m
Rake face
Table 2 summarizes experimental conditions of

indentation test. Indentation test was repeated 30 times for
each condition.
Indentation speed
1.5m/s, 0.1m/s
Indentation load
Work material
Atomsphere
Rotation speed of
turntable in
machining test
Hydrostatic
pressure
Tool
Soda glass (annealed in Ar)

Water, Air
Indentation test: 0 rpm
Machining test: 120 rpm
0, 100, 150, 200 MPa
Indentation test: Vickers indenter
Machining test: Single crystal diamond
tool (rake angle: 0)
Results of Indentation Test and Machining Test.

Figure 4 shows micrographs of Vickers marks on soda
glass specimens when indentation load F was 0.8, 1.4 and
2.0 N. (a) was tested in air atomspher (0 MPa), (b) was
tested in the water without pressure (0 MPa), and (c) was
test under 100MPa in the water. From micrographs of (a)
and (b), it seems that larger cracks were generated in water
at the same indentation load. Micrographs of (b) and (c) do
not show apparent difference in crack generation even
though hydrostatic pressure was different.
0.8N
(a)
0.8N
(b)
1.4N
In air
1.4N
In water(0MPa)
2.0 N
2.0 N
0.8N
1.4N
2.0 N
(c) In water (100MPa)
Figure 4. Vickes marks on a slide glass.
Figure 5 shows effect of hydrostaic pressure on crack

ratio Rcrack. The crack ratio Rcrack is the ratio of the number
of cracked indenation Ncrack against the total number of
indentation Ntotal at each indentation load.
Rcrack
Figure 3. Diamond tool used for machining tests.
0.4N to 3.0N
N crack
N total
(1)
The crack ratio Rcrack is small when the indentation

load F is about 0.5N. It increases with the increase of the
indentation load, and it reachs almost unity (100%) when
the indentation load F is 1.2 N. The crack ratio Rcrack under
1055
09.08.2010 14:42:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
water atomsphere (0 MPa) seems to be largest, but
difference is small. The figure shows slight effect of
hydrostatic pressure on the crack ratio.
Mechanical Properties of Soda Glass Under High

Hydrostatic Pressure.
1
0.8
Vickers hardness was calculated by Eq. (2), where

diagonal length of a Vickers mark d was measured through
micrograph observation. is the apex angle of the Vickers
indenter, i.e. 136.
0.6
0.4
Air
Water(0MPa)
Water(100MPa)
0.2
0
0
0.5
1
1.5
Indentation load F, N
2.5
Figure 5. Effect of hydrostaic pressure on crack ratio.
Figure 6 shows photographs and micrographs of the

soda glass specimens machined under air atmosphere, 100
MPa and 200 MPa respectively. The specimen is coated
with gold by sputter coater after machining test so that
traces can be observed clearly. Many chippings are
observed along the traces when no pressure is applied (0
MPa), whereas the number of chipping drastically
decreased when 200 MPa is applied.
2F
HV sin 2
2d
(2)
It is found that Vickers hardness under air atomspher is

larger than that under water (0 MPa) when the indentation
load is smaller than 0.8 N. Also, Vicers hardness under
high pressure (100 MPa) is smaller than that under 0 MPa.
Water and hydrostatic pressure are effective to decrease
Vickes hardness.
900
Air
Water(0MPa)
Water(100MPa)
800
Vickers hardness HV
Crack ratio
cut increases with the increase of hydrostatic pressure.

Hydrostatic pressure is effective to increase ductility of
soda glass although it was not effective for indentation test.
700
600
500
400
0
0.5
1.5
2.5
Indentation load F, N
Figure 8. Effcect of hydrostatic pressure on Vickers hardness.

(a) Machined in the air atomospher
Critical depth of cut[m]
(c) Machined under 200 MPa

Figure 6. Machined soda glass under verious pressure.
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0
100
Pressure[MPa]
200
Figure 7. Effect of hydrostatic pressure on critical depth of cut of

soda glass.
The depths of the machined grooves were measured

with a laser microscope, and the critical depth of cut,
where the ductile-brittle transition occurs, was evaluated.
Figure 7 shows the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the
critical depth of cut. It is found that the critical depth of
OSiOH Na+OH
OSiOH Na+OH
Water
Glass
Figure 9. Hydration reaction of soda glass.
1056
OSiONa H+OH
OSiONa H+OH
Water
Glass
This is attributed to the hydration of glass, which

generates hydrated layer on the surface of the soda glass
plate. Soda glass contains alkali impurities such as Na, K
etc. As shown in Figure 9, they are eluted off as ions due
to reaction of water (H2O), and soft hydrated layer was
generated on the surface of glass. Since thickness of the
hydrated layer is about 100 nm, Vickers hardness is
decreaseed only when the indenation load is very low as
shown in Figure 8. It is considered that hydration is
improved by hydrostatic pressure, and as a result, Vickers
hardness under 100 MPa was smaller than that under 0
MPa.
Figure 10 shows effect of hydrostaic pressure on the
fracture toughness of soda glass. The fracture toughness
was evaluated by IF method, which is calculated by using
lengh of median cracks propagated from the edge of a
Vickers mark.
09.08.2010 14:42:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Although difference is seen when the indentation load
is smaller than 0.6 N, these data are not reliable because
their median cracks are not obvious. When the indentation
load is larger than 0.8 N, fracture toughness are almost the
same regardless of atomspher and hydrostatic pressure.
The hydrated layer does not effect on the fracture
toughness because its thickness is much smaller than depth
of indenation.
2
Fracture toughness KIC
1.6
Chip
Micro cracks
Air
Water (0MPa)
Water (100MPa)
1.8
the surface of material, the pressure medium penetrates

into the cracks, and hydrostatic pressure reaches on the tip
of cracks. Since this penetrated hydrostatic pressure
cancels the hydrostatic pressure acting from outside of the
material, the stress intensity factor is not reduced. As a
result, crack generation is not inhibited in the indentation
process in the experiment.
Tool
Micro cracks
Chip
Tool
1.4
1.2
1
Work
Work
0.8
0.6
(a) No external pressure
0.4
(b) Under high external pressure
Figure 11. Crack generation mechanism in a machining process.
0.2
0
0
0.5
1
1.5
Indentation Load F, N
2.5
Tool
Figure 10. Effect of hydrostatic pressure on fracture toughness.
Specimen
Discussion
Experimental results shown above seem to be a contradiction. Hydrostatic pressure is effective to inhibit crack
generation in machining process of a hard brittle material,
and ductility of a hard brittle material is apparently increased under high hydrostatic pressure. Nevertheless,
formability in the indentation is not increased by hydrostatic pressure. Generation of the hydrated layer is improved by hydrostatic pressure, and as a result, hardness of
soda glass surface is decreased. However, fracture toughness is not affected by hydrostatic pressure.
Effect of external hydrostatic pressure on machining
defect is explained by the fracture mechanics. As illustrated in Figure 11, stress field is generated in the vicinity
of the tool edge when a hard-brittle material is machined
by a single point tool. This stress acts on microcracks in
the material, and causes stress concentration on crack tips.
This stress concentration starts crack propagation, and
results in chipping of the material. The condition of crack
propagation is explained by the following equation
(3)
KI KIC
where KIC is the fracture toughness of the material. KI is
the stress intensity factor, which is expressed by the
following equation
(4)
KI a
where is the tensile stress acting on a microcrack, and a

is the size of a microcrack. When hydrostatic stress p is
applied to the material, because the microcrack exists in
the material, its tip is closed by the external hydrostatic
pressure. As a result, stress in Eq. (4) is decreased by p,
and the stress intensity factor KI is reduced as follows,
(5)
KI p a a p a KI KP
Consequently, hydrostatic pressure inhibits crack

generation in a machining process, and reduces machining
fracture, which is recognized as the increase of the critical
depth of cut of hard-brittle materials.
As for the indentation test, on the other hands, cracks
are originated at the edge of the indenter when the indenter
is retracted as shown in Figure 12. Since the cracks are on
(a) Indentation
Tool
Specimen
(b) Retraction
Figure 12. Crack generation mechanism in indentation process.
Conclusion
1. Indentation test and machining test of soda glass was
conducted, and effects of hydrostatic pressure on plastic
deformation properties of hard brittle material was
studied.
2. It was found that external hydrostatic pressure is
effective to increase ductility of a hard brittle material
in a machining process, but not effective in Vickers
indentation test. Hydrostatic pressure exhibited slight
effect on hardness of soda glass when indentation load
is smaller than 1.0N. Effect of hydrostatic pressure on
the fracture toughness was not apparent from the
experiment.
3. Effects of external hydrostatic pressure on crack
generation is discussed based on the fracture mechanics.
Difference of experimental results between the
machining test and the indentation test is attributed to
differece of crack generation process.
Acknowledgement
This research project is supported financially by Grant
in aid for scientific research of Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science (20360064).
References
[1] Y. Sato: Strength and plasticity of material, Morikita-shuppan, (1980).
(in Japanese).
[2] M. Yoshino, G. Kitamura.: Journal of the Japan Society for Precision
Engineering, 68-9 (2002), 1236-1240.
[3] M. Yoshino, G. Kitamura, Y. Ogawa: Journal of the Japan Society for
Precision Engineering, 68-10 (2002), 1351-1355.
[4] M. Yoshino, Y. Ogawa, S. Aravindan: Trans. ASME, J. Manufacturing
Science and Engineering, 127 (2005), 837-845.
1057
09.08.2010 14:42:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Finite Element Analysis of Shaving Direction Effects in Reciprocating Shaving

Process
Sutasn Thipprakmas1), Wiriyakorn Phanitwong 2)
1)
Department of Tool and Materials Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok / Thailand,
sutasn.thi@kmutt.ac.th; 2) Department of Tool and Materials Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok /
Thailand
In a precision sheet metal cutting process, the major problems encountered are the crack and burr formations. Further operations are
required to eliminate these formations, which increase the production cost and time. In the reciprocating shaving process, the workpiece is
half-shaved and then shaved again in the opposite direction. This process could be fabricated to produce a smooth-cut surface without any
crack and burr formations. However, the shaving direction effects were not investigated. In the present study, the finite element method was
used and laboratory experiments were performed to clarify the shaving direction effects. The shaving direction effects could be theoretically
clarified on the basis of stress and strain distributions. The bending feature was a result of the half-shaving in the reverse shearing direction.
Thus, tensile stress on the half-shaved workpiece increased and crack formations occurred. In addition, the roughness and hardness of the
surface half-shaved were higher in comparison to the sheared surface. However, the roughness and hardness of the half-shaved surface
were rarely affected by the half-shaving direction. The bending feature was generated to some extent on the shaving operation. However, it
was easily generated in the case of shaving in the parallel shearing direction. The finite element simulation results were validated by the
laboratory experiments. It was found that the results corresponded suitably with the experimental results.
Keywords: Shearing, Blanking, Shaving, Crack, Burr, Finite element method
Introduction
In a conventional sheet metal cutting process, the quality
of the product, especially the dimensional accuracy, generally degrades with the occurrence of crack and burr formations. Moreover, burr formation could result in injury to
the operators, especially those working in industries involving consumer goods and sanitary products. Thus,
further processing such as grinding is required to eliminate
the crack and burr formations. However, this results in an
increase in the production cost and time. It is very difficult
to prevent crack and burr formations, which is the main
barrier faced in product quality upgrading in the sheet
metal cutting process. Earlier researches, used the Finite
Element Method and experiments for investigating the
technique in order to increase the productivity as well as
improve product quality [1-11]. The counterblanking process has been investigated. It involves half-blanking and
then separating the product by pushing it in the opposite
direction. Further, the relationship between the blanking
conditions and the products has also been studied [6,7]. In
addition, the shaving process, where a cut surface without
any crack formation could be achieved has been investigated [8-10]. With the advantages of these processes,
crack and burr formations could be prevented on the counterblanking process, and on the shaving process, respectively. Thus, the main concepts of counterblanking and
shaving processes were integrated into a reciprocating
shaving process to meet the requirement of a crack- and
burr-free cut surface. In this process, the workpiece was
half-shaved and then the shaving was again done in the
reverse direction [11]. With suitable application of the
working process parameters, the reciprocating process
could manufacture a crack- and burr-free cut surface.
In the present study, the shaving direction effects were
dived into theoretical investigation and clarification in
order to understand the complete process. FEM simulation
was used as a tool to investigate the shaving direction
1058
effects, and laboratory experiments were performed to

validate the results. The effects of half-shaving and shaving directions could be theoretically clarified on the basis
of stress and strain distribution analysis. The results demonstrated that the half-shaving in the reverse shearing
direction caused the bending feature. This resulted in the
increase of tensile stress on the half-shaved surface and
caused crack formations. In addition, the hardness and
roughness on the surface half-shaved were higher than that
in the sheared surface. However, the level of shaved surface roughness and hardness were similar to some extent
in both half-shaving directions. In the shaving operation,
the bending feature had an easy occurrence in the case of
shaving in the parallel shearing direction, in comparison
with the case of shaving in the reverse shearing direction.
The FEM simulation results were validated by laboratory
experiments and it was found that they corresponded well
with the experimental results.
The FEM Simulation and Experimental Procedures
FEM Simulation Procedure. The FEM simulation
model of the reciprocating shaving process is shown in
Figure 1. The workpiece was first sheared as shown in
Figure 1(a). Next, half-shaving was done on the sheared
workpiece in the parallel and reverse shearing directions
as shown in Figures 1(b-1) and (b-2), respectively. Finally,
the workpiece was shaved again in the reverse direction of
the half-shaving operation as shown in Figures 1(c-1) and
(c-2), respectively. The conditions of FEM simulation,
material property, and fracture criterion are shown in Table 1. A commercial analytical code for the twodimensional implicit quasi static finite element method
(DEFORM-2D) was used as the FEM simulation code.
The FEM simulation model used in the present study was
the plane strain model in which the sheet material was set
as an elasto-plastic type. The punch, die, and blankholder
were set as rigid types. To achieve a high accuracy predicsteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
09.08.2010 14:42:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
tion of cut surface, approximately 5000 elements of the
four-node element type were generated on the sheet material and fine element was generated on the shearing zone.
Aluminum (A1100-O) was the material workpiece for
which the constitutive equation and the material properties
were determined from the tensile testing experiment. The
normalized Cockroft&Latham equation was applied with a
critical fracture value of 1.26. Thus, a good agreement was
obtained between the FEM simulation results and the
experimental results in the tensile testing and shearing
process [11].
(c) Shaving operation
(b) Half-shaving operation
(a) Shearing process
Shearing direction
Punch
optical microscope. This was done firstly to measure the

amounts of die-roll, smooth surface, and crack, and secondly to capture the cut surface feature image. In addition,
the surface roughness and hardness were examined.
Punch plate
Punch
Striper plate
Blankholder
Moving plate
Die
Die plate
Figure 2. Die set for the experiments.

Die
Punch
Blankholder
Die
Punch Blankholder
Die
(b-2) Reverse the

shearing direction
(b-1) Parallel the

shearing direction
Die
Punch
Punch
Blankholder
(c-1) Reverse the

shearing direction
Blankholder
Die
(c-2) Parallel the
shearing direction
Figure 1. FEM simulation model.

Table 1. FEM simulation conditions.
Simulation model
Plane strain model
Initial material shape

Shearing clearance (Cls)
Shaving clearance (Clsh)
Shaving allowance (Dsh)
Cutting tool radius
Workpiece : Elasto-plastic
Punch/Die : Rigid
Blankholder : Rigid
A1100-O (Thickness (t): 3 mm)
(B=102.5MPa, =43.5%)
Length: 60 mm, Width: 35 mm
1%t
0%t
0.3 mm
All cutting tool radius: 0.01mm
Flow curve equation
= 153 .5 0.20 + 88
Object type
Material
Fracture criterion equation Normalized Cockroft&Latham

Critical fracture value (C)
1.26
0.1
Experimental Procedure. The die set used for the experiments is shown in Figure 2. The 50 kN universal tensile testing machine (Lloyd Instruments Ltd) was used as
the press machine. Subsequent to the half-shaving and
shaving operations, the cut surface was observed using an
Stress Distribution on Half-Shaving Operation. With

the half-shaving penetration of 0.5 mm, the FEM simulation results indicated the same level of stress distribution
on both cases of parallel and reverse shearing directions as
shown in Figures 3(a-1) and (a-2), respectively. The compressive stress was generated and directed on the halfshaved chip. It was found that when the half-shaving penetration increased to 1.2 mm, in the case of parallel shearing direction as shown in Figure 3(b-1), the half-shaved
chip formation was larger. In addition, the compressive
stress direction was turned slightly to the half-shaving
direction. In the case of reverse shearing direction as
shown in Figure 3(b-2), owing to the large half-shaved
chip formation, the die-roll on the top surface was slightly
pushed back to make contact with the die. This resulted in
directing the compressive stress in the half-shaving direction and forming a small bending feature. The tensile
stress was thus generated on the half-shaved surface. As
the punch proceeded further, the compressive stress direction was turned into the half-shaving direction in the case
of parallel shearing direction as shown in Figure 3(c-1).
Conversely, in the case of reverse shearing direction, the
bending feature was larger. This resulted in an increase of
tensile stress on the half-shaved surface as shown in Figure 3(c-2). This feature caused crack formations on the
half-shaved surface. With the half-shaving penetration of
2.3 mm, the same level of stress distribution was observed
and the half-shaved chip was formed over the die in both
cases as shown in Figures 3(d-1) and (d-2), respectively.
Tensile stress was generated on the half-shaved surface. It
was observed that owing to the effect of the bending feature, the generated tensile stress in the reverse shearing
direction was larger in comparison to that in the parallel
shearing direction. In addition, a small concave feature
was observed on the top surface in the case of the reverse
shearing direction.
The results indicated that stress distribution was affected
by the half-shaving direction. The half-shaving with the
reverse shearing direction resulted in the generation of the
bending feature. The tensile stress was thus easily generated on the half-shaved surface. In addition, the crack
formations were easily formed resulted in the decreasing
of the maximum half-shaving penetration. As shown in
1059
09.08.2010 14:42:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figures 4 and 5, the maximum half-shaving penetrations
were similar in some extent in the parallel and reverse
shearing directions, approximately 2.6 mm, in which well
corresponded with the FEM simulation results. However,
in the other process parameter conditions, the maximum
half-shaving penetrations in the parallel shearing direction
were larger than that in the reverse shearing direction [11].
Half-shaving Operation
Parallel the shearing direction
Reverse the shearing direction
(a-1)
(a) Penetration 0.5 mm
Punch
B
A
C
Blankholder
C
B
A
C
B
Die
Blankholder
(b-1)
(c-1)
(c) Penetration 1.8 mm
C
B
Die
Blankholder
C
A
(d) Penetration 2.3 mm
Punch
B
C
D
(d-2)
E
B
A
D
B C
Die
C
D
Punch
Blankholder
B
Mean stress (MPa): A = -140, B = -84, C = -28, D = 28, E = 84, F = 140
Figure 3. Stress distribution analysis with respect to the halfshaving direction (Cls = 1%t, Clsh = 0%t, Dsh = 0.3 mm).
Surface Roughness, Strain Distribution and Hardness. The cut surface features and their surface roughness
values (Ra) are shown in Figure 4. The results elucidated
that the half-shaved surface roughness values were similar
to some extent in the parallel and reverse shearing directions. In addition, they were smaller than their sheared
surface roughness values. The approximate sheared and
half-shaved surface roughness values (Ra) were 0.495 m
and 0.209 m, respectively. The strain distribution and
hardness value (HV) on the sheared surface are shown in
Figure 5. The initial hardness of A1100-O was approximately 45 HV. After shearing operation, the strain generated on the cut surface resulted in the increasing of hardness to be approximately 60 HV [12]. It can be seen that
1060
Ra = 0.211 m
1 mm
Figure 4. Comparison of the cut surface features (Cls = 1%t, Clsh
= 0%t, Dsh = 0.3 mm).
Smooth
surface
Crack
Ra = 0.208 m
Half-shaving operation
Parallel the shearing
Reverse the shearing
direction
direction
Crack
CB
D
Smooth
surface
Crack
B
D
E
HV = 60
HV = 62
Effective strain: B = 0.3, C = 0.6, D = 0.9, E = 1.2
Die
FE
Smooth surface
Crack
C
E D
Crack
Smooth surface
Crack
Shearing operation
Blankholder
C
B
Half-shaving operation
Parallel the shearing
Reverse the shearing
direction
direction
Smooth surface
Ra = 0.495 m
Die
Blankholder
C
D
Die
B
A
Punch
C
A B
(d-1)
Blankholder
Die
Blankholder
(c-2)
Shearing operation
Punch
Punch
B
(b-2)
B
Punch
Punch
C A
B
C
Die
(b) Penetration 1.2 mm
(a-2)
the strain generated on the half-shaving surface was similar in some extent in the parallel and reverse shearing
directions and they were slightly larger in comparison to
that generated on the sheared surface. The values were 60
HV and 62 HV in the cases of shearing and half-shaving
operations, respectively.
The results illustrated that the half-shaved surface
roughness value was smaller as well as the hardness was
larger in comparison to those on the sheared surface. Further, the half-shaving direction rarely affected the cut surface roughness, in addition to the strain distribution and
hardness value.
Smooth
surface
B
C
D
E
HV = 62
1 mm
Figure 5. Comparison of the strain distribution analysis (Cls = 1%t,

Clsh = 0%t, Dsh = 0.3 mm).
Stress Distribution on Shaving Operation. As shown

in Figure 6 (a), it was observed that the punch shaved the
workpiece from the large chip to the small chip, in the case
of shaving in the parallel shearing direction in which the
shaved chip attempted to bend. Therefore, the tensile stress
was easily generated on the shaved surface. On the other
hand, in the case of shaving in the reverse shearing direction, the punch shaved the chip from the small to the large.
This resulted in the shaved chip moving away easily. Thus,
the bending feature was not yet generated. Therefore, the
tensile stress generated on the shaved surface was small.
As the shaving penetration increased, the bending feature
was generated on both cases, as shown in Figure 6(b). The
formation of the large shaved chip on the half-shaving
operation in the case of shaving in reverse shearing direction made it difficult for the shaved chip to move downwards and it thus attempted to bend. This resulted in the
generation of a bending feature. As a result, the stress
distribution generated on the shaved surface was similar to
some extent in the parallel and reverse shearing directions.
In addition, in case of large half-shaving penetration, the
same shaved chip formations could be observed and they
09.08.2010 14:42:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
were formed over the die in both cases. Therefore, the
same level of stress distribution was obtained.
The result elucidated that the selection of half-shaving
penetration affected the stress distribution in the shaving
operation. The bending feature was easily generated on the
shaving in the parallel shearing direction resulted in the
crack formations were also easily formed.
(a) Shaving str. 0.3 mm
Shaving operation
Parallel the shearing direcReverse the shearing direction
tion
Punch
B A
C
A
B
C A
(b) Shaving str. 0.7 mm
Die
Punch
A
B
C
Die
Blankholder
D
D
B C
C B
A
Punch
C
B
C
D
Blankholder
Die
Blankholder
D
BA E
Punch
of the shaved surface feature analyzed by FEM was approximately 5% in comparison to the experimental results.
Conclusions
The shaving direction effects in the reciprocating shaving process were investigated using FEM. Further, the
results were validated by laboratory experiments. On the
half-shaving operation, the FEM simulation results
showed the difference in the stress distribution, with respect to the half-shaving directions. The reverse shearing
direction resulted in a bending feature and the tensile
stress was easily generated on the shaved surface which
resulted in easy crack formation. The quality of surface
roughness and hardness were also examined. It was found
that the half-shaving direction had no significant effects on
the half-shaved surface roughness and hardness. However,
the half-shaved surface roughness and hardness was better
in comparison to that in the sheared surface. On the shaving operation, it was found that owing to the different
shaved chip formation sizes, the bending feature and tensile stress on shaved surface were easily generated in the
case of shaving in the parallel shearing direction in comparison to that in the reverse shearing direction which
resulted in easy crack formations. In addition, the FEM
simulation results showed a good agreement with the experimental results.
Acknowledgement
Figure 6. Stress distribution analysis with respect to the shaving

direction (Cls = 1%t, Clsh = 0%t, Dsh = 0.3 mm, Half-shaving penetration = 1.5 mm).
FEM simulation results
The authors would like to express our gratitude to the

Thai Research Fund (TRF) (TRF-MRG5380117) for the
financial assistance to this research. The authors also thank
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Masahiko Jin, Nippon Institute of Technology (NIT), Japan, for his advice.
(b) Shaving operation
(a)Half-shaving operation
Blankholder
Die
Mean stress (MPa): A = -100, B = -50, C = 0, D = 50, E = 100 1 mm
Blankholder
Blankholder
References
Punch
Punch
Die
Die
1 mm
Figure 7. Comparison of FEM simulation and experimental results

(Cls = 1%t, Clsh = 0%t, Dsh = 0.3 mm, Half-shaving penetration =
2.3 mm).
Validation of FEM Simulation Results. The FEM

simulation results were validated by laboratory experiments on the half-shaving and shaving operations, as
shown in Figure 7. Regarding the half-shaving operation,
the FEM simulation results showed good conformity with
the experimental results of the half-shaved chip. In addition, the FEM simulation results also showed good conformity with the experimental results on the shaved surface of successful and unsuccessful cases [11]. The error
[1] E. Taupin, J. Breitling, W.T. Wu, T. Altan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 59 (1996), 68-78.
[2] R. Hambli: Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, 44 (2002),
2089-2102.
[3] Z. Tekiner, M. Nalbant and H. Gurun: Material & Design, 27 (2006),
1134-1138.
[4] S.F. Golovashchenko: Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology,
48 (2006), 1384-1400.
[5] C. Husson, J.P.M. Correia, L. Daridon, S. Ahzi: Journal of Materials
[6] M. Murakawa, S. Thipprakmas, M. Jin: Transactions of
NAMRI/SME, 31 (2001), 233-240.
[7] S. Thipprakmas: Key Engineering Materials, 443 (2010), 134-139.
[8] H. Hoffmann, F. Hormann: Key Engineering Materials, 344 (2007),
217-224.
[9] M. Murakawa, S. Thipprakmas, M. Jin: Journal of the Japan Society
for Technology of Plasticity, 44-513 (2003), 53-57, (in Japanese).
[10] S. Thipprakmas, S. Rojananan, P. Paramaputi: Journal of Materials
[11] S. Thipprakmas, W. Phanitwong, M. Chinwithee, T. Morkprom: Key
[12] K. Lange: Handbook of Metal Forming, McGraw-Hill, (1985),
24.15-24.30.
1061
09.08.2010 14:42:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Parametric CAD System for Rapid Design of Fine-Blanking Progressive Dies

Hui-cai Long, Yi-lin Wang
1)
State Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Die & Mould Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan,
Hubei 430074 / China, wangyilin@mail.hust.edu.cn
The present paper describes a parametric CAD system developed for rapid design of fine-blanking progressive dies. The system is comprised of six modules, namely PROCESS, DIEBASE, WORKPART, STANDARD, MOTION and DRAWING. The first module PROCESS is
the first step of design and obtains processes parameters and the strip layout, which are foundation for the die structural design. The following three modules are developed for the rapid parametric design and assembly of die components by working with a design-table-based
standard parts library. The next module MOTION is used to simulate the dynamic behaviour of dies and check whether the interferences
exist, and is integrated into the structural design process to find out design problems in time. The last module DRAWING generates all
drawing files for manufacturing. This system is developed on platform of SolidWorks, and makes use of its user-friendly interface style and
strong parametric modelling modules. The concurrent design and rapid assembly technology are also researched to improve the die design
process. The predominant characteristic of the system is its parameter-based interface for fine-blanking progressive die design. Another
advantage of the system is that the motion simulation and interference checking can be carried out while designing die components so as
to understand motion relationship and working status. By applying the system in a fine-blanking part production company, the lead time and
the cost are significantly reduced. Finally an illustrative example is used to demonstrate the effectiveness and capacity of the system.
Keywords: CAD system, Fine-blanking progressive dies, Rapid design, Parameterized modelling, Rapid assembly
Introduction
Fine-blanking is an advanced and specialized precision
stamping process, which is considered as a forming process rather than a cutting one [1]. By using the special construction die and press for fine-blanking technology, highprecision parts with good shape and smooth surface can be
produced effectively without any secondary operations.
Combining the fine-blanking and cold forming processes
in one single progressive die also makes it possible to
produce complex multifunctional parts. For the high quality and high efficiency, fine-blanking process is widely
used in the automotive industry, electrical/electronic industry and other application areas, which has promoted the
expansion of demand for fine-blanking dies.
To satisfy the requirement of fine-blanking process, the
structures of fine-blanking dies, especially the progressive
dies, are designed to be very complicated. Currently the
design method in most of fine-blanking die companies is
still a traditional 2D CAD method, which have some disadvantages such as heavy workload, time-consuming,
error prone, and difficulty in completing the automatic
modification and interference checking of the die components.
Recently, because of the intuitive and concrete advantage of solid models, 3D CAD software has been widely
used in design of dies and molds, and fundamentally reduces the design time. However, the design task of progressive dies is a complex and highly specialized procedure and needs lots of professional knowledge and experiences. Most commercial 3D CAD systems provide user
the geometric modeling functions, but fail to offer a powerful design knowledge base. In order to improve the die
design process, lots of researches have been done all over
the world. Kumar and Singh [2] developed an intelligent
2D system for automatic modeling of progressive dies. Lin
and Hsu [3] developed a knowledge-based automated
design system for drawing dies. Ismail et al. [4] developed
1062
a feature-based system to support the detailed design of

progressive press tools. Liu et al. [5] proposed a method
for automatically extracting features from the solid model
of sheet metal parts. Choi and Kim [6] developed a compact and practical CAD/CAM system for progressive
blanking of irregular shaped-sheet metal products.
In the present study, a parametric CAD system for rapid
design of fine-blanking progressive dies has been developed. Taking advantage of well-organized fine-blanking
die design knowledge base and an integrated 3D CAD
environment, this system is able to design and modify the
die components effectively and complete the die assembly
and drawing automatically. The results of application in a
company show that this system can significantly reduce
the die design lead time and improve design efficiency.
Structure of Fine-Blanking Progressive Die
The structural complexity of fine-blanking progressive
dies is because of combination of characteristics of fineblanking dies and progressive dies. Fine-blanking dies are
unique in its structure and more complicated than conventional blanking dies. In order to constraint the deformation
of the sheet metal within a narrow zone under triple forces,
a stinger plate with V-ring ridge is added to limit movement of blank and a compound working tools including a
punch, a die and an ejector are used to generate a highly
compressive stress state and nearly pure shearing forces
during fine-blanking process. Unlike the two-plate die
assembly for conventional blanking dies, a three-plate die
assembly is designed to ensure a smooth and accurate
process for fine-blanking. The basic structure of a typical
fine-blanking die is shown in Figure 1.
Typically, there are three sets of components in a fineblanking die configuration. The first set of components is
called die base components, which include top and bottom
die shoes, guide plate, punch plate, die plate, stinger plate
and so on. The second set is called standard components
such as screws and pins. The shape and parameters of the
09.08.2010 14:42:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
first and second sets are almost the same among different
fine-blanking dies, so they can be predefined as parameterdriven standard parts and ordered from standard parts
suppliers. The third set is called working components,
which include punches, dies and ejectors. The irregular
shape of the product and the strip layout determine the
design of these components, so design of working components is the most important and difficult process of the die
design.
strip and the details of each operation must be carefully

considered to ensure the production feasibility.
Initialization
Feasibility check
PROCESS
Blank layout
Strip layout
Die layout
DIEBASE
Die-sets
Die base assembly
Punch
Fine-blanking
Die Design
System
Die
WORKPART
Ejector
Pressure pin
V-ring
Standard components
Figure 1. Basic structure of fine-blanking die.
Another important problem is how to guarantee the correctness of fine-blanking die design. Working in different
moments, the die components, especially the working
components, move to different locations and keep harmonious relations each other, so sheet metal is always in
condition of triple compressive forces during the forming
process. The wrong design of die components will cause
the occurrence of interference and block the normal processing action. In order to avoid the problem, motion simulation and interference checking must be carried out during the fine-blanking die deign process.
CAD System Functions
There are two stages included in fine-blanking die design: process planning and die structural design. During
the die structural design process, the three sets of die components will be designed and modeled while the motion
simulation and interference checking operations can be
done at any time. After finishing most of die assembly, the
drawing files will be outputted to the factory for manufacturing. So this CAD system is comprised of six modules,
namely PROCESS, DIEBASE, WORKPART, STANDARD, MOTION and DRAWING. The functions of the
system are shown in Figure 2.
The first module PROCESS is the first step of design
and obtains processes parameters and the strip layout,
which are foundation for the die structural design. After
checking the forming feasibility of the product, the process
planning is done here. The blank layout decides the arrangement of the blank in order to maximize the utilization
ratio of the material. The strip layout decides the process
order and arranges the geometrical solid features of each
operation on the strip. The sequence of operations on the
STANDARD
Reuse
Hole
Motion state simulation
MOTION
Interference check
Views of parts
DRAWING
Views of die assembly

BOM table
Hole table
Figure 2. Functions of CAD system for fine-blanking progressive

die.
The following three modules are developed for the rapid

parametric design and assembly of die components by
working with the design-table-based standard parts library.
According to the result of process planning, the die layout
is generated and the frame structure assembly is imported
through the DIEBASE module. The configuration knowledge has been set at the same time. Then working components are designed in the WORKPART module. Based on
the assembly environment, both of the assembly relations
and the graphics parameters are considered. Through the
STANDARD module, different kinds of accessory components with different functions can be imported and modified easily and rapidly.
The next module MOTION is used to simulate the dynamic behaviour of dies and check whether the interferences exist, and is integrated into the structural design
process to find out design problems in time. By changing
the assembly relations and the mating parameters, the
location of the punches and dies could be observed intuitively, and the interference checking can be executed at
any action moment. If any problem occurred, the designer
1063
09.08.2010 14:42:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
can fall back to the die structural design modules and
modify the design result.
The last module DRAWING will generate all drawing
files for manufacturing. After selecting the die parts, the
drawing documents can be created automatically. Some
drawing tools are also developed to satisfy the requirement
of die parts and assembly drawing.
A hybrid strategy of top-to-down and down-to-top in
this CAD system is adopted. To management effectively
the design procedure, an assembly tree structure, which
includes original part node, process node and die node, has
been established at the beginning of design. This system is
developed on platform of SolidWorks, and makes use of
its user-friendly interface style and strong parametric
modelling modules.
START
END
Initialization
DRAWING
Hole table
BOM table
Feasibility check
Views of die
assembly
Views of parts
PROCESS
Blank layout
Strip layout
STANDARD
Generate
DIEBASE
Reuse
Die layout
Hole
No
Die-sets
Die base assembly
Need modification
s
Ye
WORKPART
MOTION
V-ring
Ejector
Die
Punch
Pressure pin
Motion state
simulation
Interference check
Figure 3. Design process of fine-blanking progressive die.
Rapid Design Technology of Components

In order to achieve the rapid fine-blanking progressive
die design, a standardized and concurrent die design method is introduced, and the parametric automatic modelling
and rapid assembly technology are used to improve the die
designing process.
Design Process Standardization. In order to provide a
systematic way of designing fine-blanking progressive
dies, a standardized design process, as shown in Figure 3,
is adopted based on the die design guidelines and the char-
1064
acteristics of fine-blanking die structure. User can follow

this standardized process to complete the die structural
design task efficiently.
The concurrent design technology is used to enhance the
design process. After generating the assembly tree structure, the design work of the working components and the
standard components can be done simultaneously. The
drawing documents of die components are created at the
same time while invoking the die components from the
standard parts library.
Parametric Automatic Modelling. The proposed system makes use of SolidWorks API interface and functions
of modelling, assembling and drafting modules for rapid
parametric design of die components and die assembly.
Taking advantage of the parametric modelling technology of the CAD software, a design-table-based standard
parts library is developed. The library consists of two
parts: the model files and the data files. The data files are
Excel-based data tables, which contain series of part parameters. The model files are SolidWorks part files, which
could be driven by the data tables while being imported.
By changing the parameter values from data table, the
required size of standard model is created automatically.
The association technology is also used for the rapid design of the working components. From the start of process
planning, an association link is established between the
original product and the strip layout, then the shape of the
working component is connected with result of the strip
layout. When changing product or adjusting strip layout,
associative working components will update its shape
automatically and rapidly.
Rapid Assembly. To design each die component in the
assembly environment, the assembly relations and the part
parameters will be both considered. By investigating lots
of fine-blanking dies, some experience and knowledge is
concluded. For example, it is found that the movement
pattern of die components is basically translational motions along Z axis that means press direction. Therefore, a
Z axis, a normal plane and a tangential plane are predefined for mating each die component. While the component is inserted into the assembly, a parallel mate feature
with the normal plane, a coincidence mate feature with the
Z axis and an angular mate feature with the tangential
plane are added automatically to constrain the position of
component. A distance mate feature with the normal plane
is also added to constrain the translational motion along Z
axis for plates and working components. By changing the
distance values to transform the location of the components, the motion state can be achieved and the dynamic
behaviour of dies can be observed intuitively.
Case Study
An example of the fine-blanking progressive die is introduced here to display the capacity of our system, as
shown in Figure 4. After modelling the part as shown in
Figure 4 (a), start the process planning. A triple row of
opposite blank layout is arranged to maximize the material
utilization, and a five process step of strip layout is completed as shown in Figure 4 (b). Upon receiving informa-
09.08.2010 14:42:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
tion about the die layout and die-sets from the user, the
system is able to import the die base assembly and adjust
die plates to match strip layout, as shown in Figure 4 (c).
Then punches, dies and ejectors are designed efficiently by
referring the contour edges of the strip. After interference
checking by the motion simulation, the modified working
components are shown in Figure 4 (d). Finally import and
parameterize the standard components, the entire fineblanking progressive die is shown in Figure 4 (e).
This CAD system is not only designed for fine-blanking
progressive dies, but also used for the design of single
stamping dies or compound dies.
Conclusions
This paper presents a parametric CAD system for rapid
design of fine-blanking progressive dies, which is built on
platform of SolidWorks software. High quality design
process is an obvious advantage of this system. Functionally it is capable of accomplishing the strip layout intuitively, generating the die bases and die plates automatically, designing punches and ejectors rapidly, importing
and modifying the parametric standard components easily.
Another advantage of the system is that the motion simulation and interference checking can be carried out while
designing die components so as to understand motion
relationship and working status. The user interface is userfriendly, and the system is easy to learn for a semiskilled
and even an unskilled engineer. The application result of
this system in a fine-blanking part production company
shows that the die design cycle time has been reduced
from four months to three weeks.
Acknowledgement
Project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 50875094).
References
[1] L.C. Chan, Y.C. Leung, T.C. Lee, J.P. Fan, C.Y. Tang: Materials
Science and Engineering A, 364-1 (2004), 207215.
[2] S. Kumar, R. Singh: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
194-1 (2007), 176-183.
[3] B. T. Lin, S. H. Hsu: Expert systems with applications, 34-3 (2008),
1586-1598.
[4] H. S. Ismail, S. T. Chen, K. K. B. Hon: International Journal of
Machine Tools and Manufacture, 36-3 (1996), 367-378.
[5] Z.J. Liu, J.J. Li, Y.L. Wang, C.Y. Li, X.Z. Xiao: Journal of Zhejiang
University Science, 5-11(2004), 14561465.
[6] J.C. Choi, C. Kim: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 110-1
(2001), 36-46.
Figure 4. Example of die design process. (a) Part, (b) strip layout,
(c) die base assembly, (d) punches, dies and ejectors and (e)
entire fine-blanking progressive die.
1065
09.08.2010 14:42:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
Development of Fine Blanking Process for Manufacturing Sector Tooth with Inner
Deep Gear
Myung-jin Chang1), Hong-seok Choi1), Sang-hoon Lee1), Byung-min Kim2), Jae-ho Bae3), Bong-hwan Kim4), Daecheol Ko5)
1)
Precision and Manufacturing Systems Division, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea; 2) School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan
National University, Busan / Korea; 3) Tooling Division, DAS Co., Ltd., Gyeongju / Korea; 4) Department of Vehicle Engineering, Jinju National University, Jinju / Korea; 5) Industrial Liaison Innovation Center, Pusan National University, Busan / Korea, dcko@pusan.ac.kr
The sector tooth has been manufactured by a new fine blanking process in order to improve the strength without the increase of the weight.
It is important to obtain the gear depth at the inner side of the sector tooth, because it carries almost load applied to the seat. However, the
crack at the addendum of an inner gear occurs with increase of gear depth under the previous fine blanking method. For successful manufacture of the sector tooth with an inner deep gear, an available forming diagram which makes it possible to form the gear depth over the
material thickness is determined under the consideration of the geometric shape of the sector tooth. On the basis of the available forming
diagram, FE-analysis is performed to evaluate actual gear depth to form without crack by taking into account the material flow with respect
to the applied load such as the counter force. The optimal process conditions are determined as the rib angle of 60o, clearance of -0.7 mm
and counter force of 100 kN, respectively. As a result of the experiment under the optimal condition, high precision sector tooth can be
produced using initial thickness of 4.0 mm, where inner gear depth without any cracks at the addendum of the inner gear is 4.05 mm.
Keywords: Available forming diagram, Sector tooth, Recliner, Negative clearance, Fine blanking, Gear forming, Rib angle, Counter force
Introduction
In recent years, the automotive components have been
requiring the strength, safety and sensitivity for the passengers. Automotive seat components, the recliner, for
adjusting the seat back, are being also lightened and
strengthened through changing its structure, for example,
from flange type to round type.
Figure 1 shows the components of the round recliner in
automotive seat. The recliner is typically composed of
sector tooth, spring, cam, pawl tooth, plate holder and
guide ring to join those components. The recliner plays an
important role in the safety and sensitivity of passengers.
Kim et al. [1] developed the plate holder, main component of the flange type recliner, by flow control forming
using conventional mechanical press, and also performed
the research to remove the secondary process through
control the formation of burr [2].
Figure 1. Components of automotive seat recliner.
The sector tooth, the main component of the recliner,

carried load by interlocking with outer gear of the pawl
tooth. Figure 2 shows the main dimensions and specifications of the sector tooth. The sector tooth has 180 teeth
which have a very small module about 0.36 at inside, and
its tolerance should be tightly controlled for increasing
strength and sensitivity during operation. Thus, fine blanking has been nearly used in order to produce the high precision sector tooth with high productivity.
1066
53.8
C
L
Punch stroke
Gear depth
P.C.D (mm)
Z (EA)
Ring
joint
Gear
76
78
Rib
thickness
Module
Gear Punch stroke (mm)
Gear depth(mm)
Ring joint distance(mm)
Outer diameter(mm)
P.C.D
R 0.11
65.586+0.10
65
180
0.36
3.5
3.3
Min. 2.7
73.4
64.52 +0.10
Figure 2. Fine blanking process layout for manufacture of sector

tooth.
However, cracks occur unavoidably at the tooth due to

the tensile stress in the addendum during penetration of the
punch. Therefore, when load is applied to the recliner
assembled with the cracked sector tooth, these cracks are
propagated along the circumference of the sector tooth,
and finally the recliner is unexpectedly fractured. Kim et
al. [3] analyzed the crashworthiness for the round recliner
and also insisted that the gears of sector tooth carried almost load applied to the seat.
In the meantime, contact area between the inner gear of
the sector tooth and outer gear of the pawl tooth should be
increased in order to increase the strength of the recliner.
In this study, the new fine blanking process has been proposed to obtain the gear depth over the material thickness
for the sector tooth. For this, an AFD is obtained by considering the geometric shape of cross section in the gear
and constraint for the product with respect to the assembly.
Rib shaped additional cavity at the opposite side of teeth is
considered to form the gear depth over the material. Process variables, such as the rib angle and clearance, are determined on the AFD, and other parameters are optimized
by FE-analysis. The validation of the new fine blanking
process is verified through the experiment under the optimal process condition.
09.08.2010 14:42:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Previous Fine Blanking Process for Manufacturing
Sector Tooth
late the minimum distance between two linear relationships.
4-Stages Fine Blanking Layout. Figure 3 illustrates the

fine blanking layout for the sector tooth. The process consists of piercing, embossing, forming, and gear forming
and blanking stages. This research focuses on gear forming and blanking, because the inner gear performs significant function of the recliner, as compared with the other
parts.
(a) Design parameters

(b) Main dimensions (mm)
Figure 5. Considered design parameters on cross section of
sector tooth.
y1 = tan {x (4.48 Dr )} S p + 4
y2 =
Figure 3. Layout of fine blanking process for sector tooth.
The Sector Tooth by Previous Fine Blanking. Figure

4 shows the schematic drawing of gear forming and blanking and cross section across the addendum of the sector
tooth. Gear depth is about 3.3mm and crack appears at the
root of a tooth. Increasing the depth of gear forming for
improving strength of the recliner leads to shape distortion
during heat treatment due to decrease of the thickness at
the corner of sector tooth. Therefore, it is difficult to produce the sector tooth, which satisfies these geometric constraints with deep gear depth without crack.
1
x 0.4
tan
(1)
(2)
Figure 6 shows the available forming region, which can

be satisfied with the minimum thickness of 1mm at the
corner, by the above mentioned equations. This region
varies with the stroke of the gear punch, Sp, and . It is
observed in the graph that available forming region decreases with increasing the length of Dr. Therefore, the
length of Dr is assumed to be 2.7mm, which is required
length to assemble with guide ring, in order to enlarge the
available forming region as possible.
Figure 6. Available forming region considering minimum thickness

at corner of gear.
Figure 4. Sector tooth and cross section across addendum.
Determination of AFD Considering Geometric Shape

Formulation for Minimum Rib Thickness. It is implemented that the rib shape which allows the depth of
gear to be formed. Figure 5 present design parameters on
the cross sectional drawing of the sector tooth and main
dimensions used for determination of available forming
region, respectively. Although it is effective to assemble
the recliner by increasing the length of flange, Dr, the rib
angle, , should be increased in order to satisfy minimum
rib thickness at the corner, as shown in Figure 5(a). If the
addendum of gear punch and the rib part of the main
punch are assumed to be two straight lines, the distance
between two lines should be satisfied at least 1mm to
minimize distortion during heat treatment as shown in
Figure 5(b). The following equations are defined to calcusteel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9
Formulation for Clearance. Negative clearance btween

punch and die reduces the crack initiation within the shear
band due to increase of hydrostatic pressure at the deformation zone during forming [4]. Thus, effect of negative
clearance is considered to determine another available
forming region. Figure 7 describes the available forming
region to impose the negative clearance between main
punch and gear punch. As the penetration of the gear
punch completed, the negative clearance should be obtained between addendum of the gear punch and contact
area at least. It can be simplified to give negative clearance
as presented Eq. (3). Eq. (4) is obtained by substituting Eq.
(1) into Eq. (3).
y 4 with x = 0.6 c
y = tan {0.6 c (4.48 Dr )} S p + 4 4
(3)
(4)
1067
09.08.2010 14:42:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
In the first step of the procedure, the maximum rib angle,
, on the AFD and maximum counter force, Fc is deter-
Figure 7. Available forming region to give negative clearance between main punch and gear punch.
Available Forming Diagram (AFD). Figure 8 shows

the integrated AFD, considering all variables with respect
to geometric shapes and constraints as presented in Figures 6 and 7. The process conditions such as rib angle,
clearance and stroke of the gear punch are determined
within the region drawn by diagonal line on the diagram.
In this study, AFD is applied to determine FE-analysis
condition and to find optimal process condition effectively.
mined as initial condition. Because the crack at the root of

gear occurs with increasing forming depth, maximizing
the counter force to increase hydrostatic pressure at deformation zone within the allowable range is effective to
prevent the generation of the crack. The initial counter
force is determined as 200 kN by considering the strength
of the tools. Secondly, maximum negative clearance is
selected on the AFD related to the rib angle and punch
stroke. Next, FE-analysis is performed by using determined main punch shape with other conditions. There are
some criteria to manufacture the sector tooth with gear
depth over the material thickness without defects. Ductile
fracture criterion by Cockcroft and Latham [5] is applied
to FE-analysis for estimation of the crack. The critical
damage value of the material is determined from the previous research [6].
FE-Analysis Condition. Table 1 shows the material
properties and process conditions. Flow stress is obtained
by the tensile test. Furthermore, pad and stripper forces to
impose the hydrostatic pressure at deformation zone are 45
and 230 kN, respectively.
Table 1. Material properties and applied conditions in FE-analysis.
Figure 8. Integrated AFD to form gear depth over 4mm.
FE-Analysis of Sector Tooth with Gear Depth over

Material Thickness
Procedure of FE-Analysis. The mechanical properties
of workpiece, material flow and applied load such as stripper and counter force should be considered in the actual
forming stage. Therefore, FE-analysis of gear forming and
blanking is conducted using commercial rigid plastic
simulation tool, DEFORM 3D. Furthermore, optimal condition is easily obtained from AFD. Figure 9 shows the
schematic procedure to obtain the process condition using
AFD and FE-analysis.
Property
Value
Material thickness, t (mm)
4.0
Plastic hardening modulus, K (MPa)
689.4
Work hardening coefficient, n
0.155
Critical damage value, Dc
1.5
Pad force, Fp (kN)
45
Stripper force, Fs (kN)
230
Friction factor, m
0.1
Process layout
45kN
230kN
V
F
FE-Analysis Results. Figure 10 shows the deformed

shape by FE-analysis under a rib angle of 70, a clearance
of -0.2mm, a punch stroke of 4.5 mm and a counter force
of 200kN. The rib thickness decreases due to the shortage
of material caused by the steep rib angle as well as the
large amount of stroke during penetration of the main
punch. Therefore, rib angle is changed to 65 in order to
prevent the decrease of rib thickness.
Start
Select initial condition

(Max. on AFD and Max. Fc)
tr : Rib thickness
Dc : Critical damage
DG : Gear depth
tm : Material thickness
Select Max Negative c (by on Diagram)
FE - Analysis
Modify
=
No
Modify Fc
Fc = Fc Fc
tr 1.0 ?
Figure 10. Deformed shape at gear part by FE-analysis.
Yes
No
Damage < DC ?
Yes
D G > tm
No
Yes
END
Figure 9. Schematic procedure to optimize process conditions.
1068
Figure 11 shows the FE-analysis result of the deformed

shape with damage value under the rib angle of 65. The
other process parameters are determined as the clearance
of -0.4mm, punch stroke of 4. 3mm and counter force of
200kN using the AFD. The occurrence of crack is predicted due to the damage of 2.25 at the root of the gear
although the necking does not appear.
09.08.2010 14:42:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 14(a) and (b) shows the sector tooth by fine
blanking under the optimized process conditions and its
cross section across the addendum of the gear, respectively.
It is observed that the inner gear depth of the sector tooth
is 4.05mm, which is deeper than the material thickness,
4.0mm. And also, any cracks at the corner of the tooth
close to addendum are not found.
Figure 11. FE-analysis result of deformed shape and damage
value.
Lower rib angle is chosen to decrease the damage during

the deformation of gear and Figure 12(a) shows the FE
analysis result under the rib angle of 60. Because negative
clearance, which increases hydrostatic pressure, can be
increased with decrease of the rib angle on AFD, it is observed that maximum damage is lower than 1.5. However,
because the material flow into the cavity of the die decreases due to the material shortage caused by interruption
by the excessive counter force, the maximum gear depth is
obtained only 3.9mm. The counter force should be reduced
in order to increase material flow into the cavity.
Figure 12(b) shows the depth of the inner gear and
maximum damage value with respect to the counter force
by FE-analysis. It is known that the gear depth can be
satisfied under the counter force below 100 kN. Although
the gear depth increases with decreasing counter force, the
damage increases due to the decrease of hydrostatic pressure. Therefore, optimal counter force is determined as
100 kN, which satisfies gear depth over the material thickness without the crack.
(a) Sector tooth

(b) Cross section
Figure 14. Photograph of sector tooth having inner gear depth
over 4mm developed by optimal condition.
Conclusions
The aim of this work is to develop the main component
of a round recliner, high precision sector tooth, which has
inner deep gear. The following conclusions can be obtained in this study:
1. Eq. (1) with respect the rib angle, the length of the
flange, and punch stroke is obtained by considering the
minimum required thickness. Available forming diagram (AFD) based on Eq. (1) can be obtained.
2. Negative clearance is introduced to prevent the crack at
the addendum of the gear. Another AFD is obtained by
considering negative clearance as shown in Figure 8.
3. Optimal process conditions are determined as a rib
angle of 60, a clearance of -0.7 mm and a counter force
of 100kN using AFD and FE-analysis, respectively.
4. As a result of the fine blanking experiment, sector tooth
having an inner gear depth of 4.05 mm can be produced
without cracks at the tooth close to the addendum.
Acknowledgement
(a) Counter force 200 kN (b) Counter force 100 kN

Figure 12. Distribution of damage in deformed zone with maximum gear depth with respect to counter force.
On the basis of AFD and FE-analysis, optimal process

conditions in order to obtain inner gear depth over the
material thickness are determined as the of 60, c of 0.7mm and Fc of 100kN, respectively.
Fine blanking experiment is performed under the optimal process condition. Hydraulic press, which has capacity of 6000 kN, is used to operate the tri-axial load. Furthermore, pad force is applied by using gas spring. Figure
13 shows the die sets for the fine blanking experiment.
Figure 13. Die sets for fine blanking experiment.

of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and Korea Industrial
Resource Training Project for Strategic Technology and
the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded
by the Korean Government (NRF-2009-K2060100000409E0100-00410).
References
[1] B.M. Kim, H.S. Choi, M.J. Chang, J.H. Bae, S.B. Lee, D.C. Ko:
Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering, 25-7 (2008),
55-63.
[2] B.M. Kim, H.S. Choi, M.J. Chang, J.H. Bae, D.H. Kim, D.C. Ko:
Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering, 25-7 (2008),
64-71.
[3] D.J. Lee, C.S. Park, K.T. Lee, S.B. Kim, H.Y. Kim: Transactions of
KSAE, 13-1 (2005), 140-146.
[4] K. Kondo, K. Maeda, A. Maeda, K. Hirota: Journal of the JSTP, 35396 (1994), 67-72.
[5] W.F. Fan, J.H. Li: Materials Science and Engineering A, 499 (2009),
248-251.
[6] D.C. Ko, B.M. Kim, J.C. Choi: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 72 (1997), 129-140.
[7] H.S. Choi: Masters Thesis, Pusan National University (2008), 11-12.
1069
09.08.2010 14:42:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
Finite Element Simulation of Friction Stir Welding

Dipartimento di Tecnologia Meccanica, Produzione e Ingegneria Gestionale, University of Palermo Viale delle Scienze 90128 Palermo /
Italy, fabrizio.micari@unipa.it
Friction stir welding (FSW) is an energy efficient and environmentally "friendly" (no fumes, noise, or sparks) welding process, during which
two sheets are welded together in a solid-state joining process under a combination of extruding and forging. Since its invention in 1991 by
TWI, such process has been reaching a continuously increasing popularity among aerospace, automotive and shipbuilding industries due
to its capability to weld unweldable or difficult-to-weld light alloys in different joint morphologies, included tailored welded blanks (TWB)
made of sheets of different thickness and/or material. The authors already developed a 3D Lagrangian implicit, coupled, rigid-viscoplastic
model to simulate FSW of different joints geometries. Additionally, the model was used to take into account the presence of different materials in the same joint. In the paper the material flow occurring during FSW of butt, lap, T joints together with joints obtained from sheets of
different thickness is numerically investigated at the varying of the most relevant technological and geometrical parameters, including the
sheets material. Important insights on the process mechanics together with a few design rules are found.
Keywords: Welding, FSW, FEM
Introduction
Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid state process invented and patented by TWI in 1991 in which with reference to a butt joint a rotating tool with a properly
shaped pin at its end is inserted with a tilt angle between
the two sheets to be joined and then moved all along the
welding line [1-3]. It should be observed that, due to the
advancing and rotating effect of the pin and shoulder, a
quite complex material plastic flow is obtained resulting in
an advancing and a retreating side. The softened and
heated material flows around the pin from the retreating
side to its backside where it bonds with the material laying
in the advancing part of the joint.
The first attempts to model the FSW process were based
on thermal analyses in which the heat flux generated in the
process by both friction forces work and the material deformation work was introduced through analytical models
[4,5]. Subsequently, a few research groups started working
in the field of numerical simulation of the process through
finite element formulations. It should be observed that the
development of a FEM model for FSW is a rather complex
task, as a full 3D thermo-mechanical simulation must be
carried out, both thermal and cinematic boundary conditions must be taken into account and what is more strong
gradients of the field variables (strain, strain rate, temperature and so on) must be faced [6]. A first contribution was
given by Deng and Xu [7] who used the commercial code
Abaqus to get a 3D model of the FSW process highlighting the velocity field, the material flow characteristics and
the equivalent plastic strain distribution. The model was
founded on Arbitrary Eulerian-Lagrangian finite element
formulation with adaptive meshing and considered large
elastic-plastic deformation and temperature-dependent
material properties, even if a sort of staggered un-coupled
procedure was followed. Furthermore, Ulysse [8] presented a 3D FEM visco-plastic model for FSW of thick
aluminum plates using the commercial FEM code FIDAP.
The effects of the most relevant process parameters were
investigated with the aim to highlight the changes in the
process mechanics due to different levels of the thermal
1070
flux conferred to the joint. A further 3D model was developed by Chen and Kovacevic [9] using the commercial
FEM code ANSYS. The welding tool (i.e. the shoulder and
pin) in the FEM model was modeled just as a moving heat
source. The latter assumption severely limited the accuracy of the mechanical stress and force predictions. Recently further researches and models were presented [1012] aimed to improve the quality level of the obtained
results through a better tuning of the models themselves,
considering proper contact conditions at the toolworkpiece interface and so on.
A few years ago the authors developed, together with
professor Shivpuri, a fully 3D FEM model which is thermo-mechanically coupled and with rigid-viscoplastic
material behavior [13,14]. A unique feature of this model
was the representation of sheet seam (abutting edges) as a
continuum. This continuum hypothesis avoids the numerical instabilities that result from the discontinuities present
at the edge of the two sheets. The model was properly
tuned through an inverse approach starting from experimental evidences and, what is more, it was enhanced with
proper tools in order to follow the evolution of the materials microstructure during the process [15]. Furthermore a
few different applications were carried out through the
simulation of different geometrical configurations, namely
butt lap and T joints. It should be observed that, despite
significant recent advances in numerical modeling of the
FSW process, the latter is still a challenging problem to be
faced with numerical methods and in particular with finite
element models due to the extremely large gradients of
strain and strain rates caused by the disrupting action of
the welding tool during the process. In the paper, the potentialities of the carried out FSW FEM model are described with specific references to the possibility to effectively predict material flow occurring in FSW processes at
the varying of the most important geometrical and technological process parameters, including sheets material.
Calculated results are compared with the experimental
data showing the predicting capabilities of the proposed
model.
09.08.2010 14:43:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
Some Basic Remarks on FSW Numerical Model
As already mentioned the most basic assumption of the

proposed and used model is the so called single block
approach. In other words no actual bonding of two different blanks is considered; in turn, the different phases of the
FSW process are simulated just considering a single sheet
in which the tool is plunged and then moved along the
welding line, generating the needed heat flux by means of
both the frictional forces work and plastic deformation
work decaying into heat.
The developed model was carried out though the commercial FEA software DEFORM-3DTM [16], Lagrangian
implicit code designed for metal forming processes. The
workpiece was modeled as a rigid visco-plastic material,
and the welding tool was assumed rigid. The latter hypothesis is reasonable being the tool material definitively
harder than the blanks material. A rigid-visco-plastic material model with Von Mises yield criterion and associated
flow rule was used. The rigid-viscoplastic finite element
formulation is based on the variational approach. The
actual velocity field is determined from the stationary
value of the variation of the governing functional , as
follows [14]:
= dV + K v v dV Fiui dS = 0
V
SF
(1)
()
= KT A

(3)
where K, A, B and C are material constants determined by

a numerical regression based on experimental data [16]
(for instance K=2.69E10, A=-3.3155, B=0.1324 and
C=0.0192 again for AA7075-T6). A constant interface heat
exchange coefficient of 11 [N/(mm-s-C)], based on previous works [14], was utilized for the tool sheet contact
surface.
As already mentioned, the tool is modelled as a rigid
body but it is meshed in order to permit heat transfer calculations between the tool and the workpiece. It should be
observed that tool pin geometry can be modelled for simple geometries, i.e. cylindrical or conical pin. No complex
geometries as the threaded ones can be considered since a
too heavy calculation would be necessary. In Figure 1,
simple typical tool pin geometries are shown. In particular
in Figure 1c a tool characterized by a double shoulder
typically used for lap and T joints is shown for which an
extra downwards action is required in order to improve the
vertical material flow and to improve the bonding conditions at the horizontal separation line between the two
blanks to be welded. The tool was modeled as rigid body
and meshed, for the thermal analysis, with about 3,000
tetrahedral elements.
where = ( , , T ) , and v = ii is the volumetric strainrate. The penalty constant K allows to take into account
incompressibility constraint. As far as the thermal equilibrium equation is regarded, the finite element formulation
for temperature analysis can be expressed as [14]
[C ]T + [K c ]{T } = {Q}
(2)
The numerical modelling of FSW follows the actual

stages of the experimental process in which first the tool is
plunged into the adjoining edges of the blanks to be
welded (with reference for instance to a butt joint) and
then, after a proper dwelling time in which a thermal flux
is generated in order to warm and soften the blanks material, it is moved along the welding line determining the
material plastic flow. It should be observed that in the
FSW of butt joints the tool is typically tilted of 2 with
respect the vertical axis. Such angle was taken into account and reproduced by the present model during both the
initial heating transitory and the thermo-mechanical phenomena occurring in the moving of the tool.
Widely used values, taken for literature, were used for
thermal conductivity and thermal capacity (k=180
[N/(sC) and c=2.4 [N/(mm2C)] respectively for instance
for AA7075-T6 aluminium alloy). In the model no variation of k and c with temperature was taken into account; in
this way the thermal equation (2) is linearized and faster
convergence is obtained. A rigid-viscoplastic temperature
and strain rate dependent material model is used.
Figure 1. FSW tool mesh; (a) cylindrical pin and (b) conical pin (c)
double shoulder tool.
Single block continuum models (a single sheet blank

without a gap) are used in order to avoid contact instabilities for butt lap, T joints and tailored blanks, with reference to joints made of blanks of different thickness. The
sheet blanks, about 3mm in thickness, were meshed with
about 15,000 tetrahedral elements with single edges of
about 0.75 mm; in this way about four element were
placed along the sheet thickness. A non-uniform mesh with
adaptive re-meshing was adopted with smaller elements
close to the tool and a re-meshing referring volume was
identified all along the tool feed movement (see Figure 2).
The best compromise must be reached between calculation
times and refinement of the results thus identifying the
most effective mesh density. A constant shear friction
factor is used to model the tool-sheet contact conditions on
the basis of an experimental thermal characterization and a
1071
09.08.2010 14:43:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
numerical sensitivity analysis. All the simulations are
performed using the same procedure and process parameters; in particular tool sinking of 0.1 mm and tilt angle of
2 were used while the effects of tool rotating speed and
advancing velocity were investigated.
thermo-mechanical behaviour of the two different materials, i.e. the skin and the stringer, within the single continuum body, i.e. the whole joint, a numerical trick was
utilized on the basis of the possibilities offered by the used
commercial code. In particular the used code allows to
carry out the Diffusion simplified [16] phase transformation model which calculates the material volume fraction that undergoes the transformation as follows:
T T D
s

T
T
e s
j = 1 exp A
(4)
in which j is the material volume fraction which undergoes the phase transformation in the j element, Ts and Te
are the temperatures at which the transformation starts and
ends, respectively. Finally A and D are two coefficients
governing the transformation which have to be properly
determined. In order to obtain the desired effect, first a
phase transformation is allowed for instance in the
stringer; then the phases of the joint are frozen, no more
phase transformations are allowed and the presence of two
different materials in one single simulation object is effectively simulated. It should be observed that a mesh refinement close to the separation surface of the two materials is required in order to get a good definition of the
bound between the two materials in the single block
workpiece. In this way, during the simulation of the welding process, a particle of material, initially laying on the
edge of one of the two blanks to be welded and subsequently moved to the other one because of the occurring
material flow, keeps the initial characteristics in terms of
material model. As a consequence, the effect of the tool
action on the material flow and in particular on the mixing
of materials can be successfully simulated.
The presented model was tuned through an inverse approach starting from experimental evidences regarding
both thermal and mechanical issues. In particular temperature measured through thermocouples embedded in the
blanks and vertical forces measured by a dynamometer,
were used respectively [17].
Obtained Results
Figure 2. FE continuum models at the beginning of the simulation

for butt (a), lap (b), T (c) and tailored blanks (d).
It should be observed that described models are able to

manage just one blank material, i.e. to consider the joining
of blanks made of the same material. In turn, very often
for instance in the skin & stringer welding typical of the
aerospace industries joints made of different materials
are required. In order to take into account the different
1072
Material Flow. Apart from the basic aspects as the plotting of the distribution of the most relevant process variables such as strain, strain rate and temperature, probably
the most relevant issue regarding FSW process is related
to the material plastic flow. Actually the full comprehension of the process mechanics is strictly connected with
the highlighting of the material movement due to the tool
action. Starting from butt joints several numerical investigations and experimental verifications were carried out
with the aim to highlight the actual material movement
and in particular the real bonding surface [18]. In order to
highlight the material flow, i.e. the nodes movements induced by the tool action, the node tracking option of the
software DEFORM-3DTM was utilized, determining for a
set of nodes initially placed along the welding line, their
final position after deformation. In Figure 3, with reference to butt joints of 3mm AA7075-T6 blanks (a: rotating
09.08.2010 14:43:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
speed R=1040 r.p.m. and tool feed rate Vf=105 mm/min;
b: R=1500 r.p.m. and Vf=10 0mm/min), the numerical and
experimental results are shown for sheets welded with a
tool characterized by a shoulder of 12 mm, 30 conical pin
characterized by a major diameter equal to 5.00 mm and a
pin height equal to 2.70 mm.
phases of the same material are coherent with the experimental observation on the copper foil utilized as
marker. In particular different patterns of the marker were
observed going from a continuous periodic pattern to an
irregular one, up to a full fragmentation of the marker.
Such patterns can be explained from both a mechanical
and an energetic point of view on the basis of the combination of tool rotation and feed rate. As far as the bonding
phenomenon is regarded, the actual joining surface is
found in the advancing side of the joint where the material
flowing from the retreating side welds with the undeformed one [18].
Figure 4. Transverse section of FSW butt joint: movement of

particles/nodes starting from welding line (R=715 rpm; Vf=214
mm/min).
Acquiring a proper knowledge on the material flow occurring during FSW is certainly a key factor in obtaining
sound butt joints, but it is even more important as far as T
and lap joints are regarded. In fact, while in butt joints the
surface to be welded is vertical, in lap and T-joints it is
horizontal and placed at the bottom of the top blank to be
welded; in this way a major vertical component of the
material flow is required to obtain sound joints. Starting
from the lap joint, in Figure 5 the distribution of AA2139
(lower 3.2mm thick blank) and AA7075 (upper 2.5mm
thick blank) after welding are shown together with the
experimental macro image taken from a mounted and
polished welded specimen.
Figure 3. Top view of a FSW butt joint: movement of particles/nodes starting from the welding line and horizontal sections
for two different process conditions (a: R=1040 rpm,
Vf=105mm/min; b: R=1500 rpm, Vf=100mm/min).
It should be observed that in the experiments the movement of the material of the blanks edges was highlighted
using a copper marker, i.e. a thin foil of copper placed
between the blanks to be welded. What is more the material movements in the transverse section of the joints were
also numerically investigated using the Diffusion simplified phase transformation approach described in the former paragraph and compared to experimental evidences
(see Figure 4). In this case, in particular, two different
phases with the same material thermo-mechanical characteristics were considered in order to simulate the considered AA7075-T6 butt joint. Overall it can be assessed that
the analysis of the final position of nodes originally placed
on the welding line and of the evolution of the two
Figure 5. Lap joint made of AA2139 (lower blank) and AA7075

(upper blank).
1073
09.08.2010 14:43:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
The referred process was developed with a tool (see
again Figure 1(c)) characterized by a shoulder of 24mm,
by a second shoulder of 12 mm and by a conical pin
with major diameter of 4 mm, height of 2 mm and a cone
angle of 10. What is more R=700 r.p.m. and Vf=70
mm/min were used.
It should be observed that in lap joints the actual bonding surface after the FSW process is not perfectly horizontal and flat, as the material flow induces a bonding surface
characterized by a wavy profile at the advancing side of
the joint. That is due to the concurrent action of both the
second shoulder, that gives an extra amount of heat exactly
where it is needed the most, i.e. close to the actual separation surface between the two sheets to be welded, and the
conical pin, resulting in a enhanced vertical flow component with respect o traditional cylindrical tools. The numerical tool then highlights the final disposition of the two
alloys at the end of the process.
Even more relevant information is obtained investigating the FSW of T-joints made of different materials. The
latter process is definitively characterized by a relevant
forging action since the tool action must also determine
the fulfilment of the die radii up to obtaining the final
shape of the joint avoiding the presence of any superficial
crack between the skin and the stringer. In Figure 6 the
material movement determined by the tool forging action
is highlighted with reference to the FSW of a T-joint of
AA6082-T6 3 mm thick blanks. The used tool was made
in C40 steel and was characterized by a 1 5 mm shoulder,
while a cylindrical pin, made in tungsten carbide, with a
diameter equal to 4.00 mm and an height equal to 4.00 mm.
It should be observed that very often in aerospace application skin & stringer parts are made of two different
materials in order to obtain an increment of stiffness of the
external blanks, i.e. of the skin. In particular the welding
of AA2024 2 mm thick skins with AA7075 3mm thick
stringers was carried out using a tool (see again Figure
1(c)) characterized by a shoulder of 24mm, a secondary
shoulder, 12 mm in diameter and 2mm in height, and a
conical pin with major diameter of 4mm, height of 3mm
and a cone angle of 15. In Figure 7 the transverse section
of the joint obtained with R=340 r.p.m. and Vf=50
mm/min is considered both regarding experiments and
numerical simulation [20].
As far as the numerical simulation is regarded it should
be observed that in Figure 7(b) the movement of material
particles initially laying at the skin-stringer corners is
shown; the material of such areas creates the joint fillets
due to the above described forging action of the tool. In
Figure 7(c) the AA2024-T4 phase percentage is plotted
with respect to the AA7075-T6 one. Both the experimental
observation and the numerical result clearly highlight that
the found fracture zone corresponds to the one where the
actual mixing of the two materials occurs, that is the real
bonding surface. In particular, a wavy profile can be
observed with a larger curvature in the retreating side of
the joint; this is due to the peculiar material flow characterizing FSW processes: the material is subjected to both
an horizontal helicoidal flow, from the retreating side to
the advancing side, and to a vertical flow that forms the
fillets as the authors showed in [19].
1074
Finally, tailored blanks were taken into account with reference to butt joints made of blanks of the same material
and different thickness [22]. First of all both numerical
simulation and experimental evidences suggested to use a
further tilt angle for the tool with the aim to compensate
the difference in thickness of the two blanks. What is more,
a relevant issue of the proposed process is the determination of the retreating and advancing side of the joints.
Figure 7. T-joint made of AA2024 (skin) and AA7075 (stringer) [20].
In particular, both experiments and numerical simulations highlighted that a counter clockwise rotation of the
tool (CCW, see Figure 8(a) with reference to AA7075-T6
joints made of 3 and 3.75 mm thick blanks respectively),
i.e. placing the thicker sheet in the advancing side, results
in a poor material flow, especially at the top surface of the
joint, due to the insurgence of an excess of flash created at
the retreating side of the joint. On the contrary, a clockwise rotation of the tool (CW), with the advancing side in
the thinner sheet, gives out a more correct material flow.
Actually, during the process the typical material flow at
the back of the tool from the retreating side towards the
advancing one determines the spreading of the material of
the thicker blank on the thinner one just after the tool
crosses the joint obtaining a sound joint.
09.08.2010 14:43:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Acknowledgements
This work was made using MIUR (Italian Ministry for
University and Scientific Research) funds.
References
Figure 8. Butt joints made of AA7075-T6 blanks (3-3.75mm) (a)

counterclockwise, (b) clockwise.
Conclusions
A 3D numerical model for the FSW process is proposed,
that is thermo-mechanically coupled, uses rigidviscoplastic material description and a continuum assumption for the weld seam. The proposed model is capable of
predicting the effect of process parameters on process
thermo-mechanics, including the distributions of temperature, strain and strain rate as well as grain size and forces.
The developed tool has been used to study the process
mechanics under different conditions in terms of welded
material and joint morphology. In particular butt, T and lap
joints, together with joints obtained from sheets of different thickness, were taken into account.
The numerical analysis of the transverse and horizontal
sections of the welded joints permitted to highlight the
material movements determining the metal flow during the
FSW processes. In particular, a material flow on the back
of the tool from the retreating side towards the advancing
one was observed for all the configurations. Additionally,
a major vertical flow component is found during FSW of T
and lap joints thus overcoming the potential problems
arising from the horizontal position of the separation surface. Finally a design rule aimed to obtain sound joints
made of tailored friction stir welded blanks is found
through a proper choice of advancing and retreating sides.
According to the above analysis, the present FEM model
for FSW provides an important insight into the process
thermo-mechanics representing a significant step forward
towards a complete computer aided engineering of the
process.
[1] R.S. Mishra, Z.Y. Ma: Friction stir welding and processing: Materials Science and Engineering R: Reports, 50-1-2 (2005), 1-78.
[2] R. Nandan, T. DebRoy, H.K.D.H. Bhadeshia: Recent advances in
friction-stir welding - Process, weldment structure and properties:
Progress in Materials Science 53-6 (2008), 980-1023.
[3] A. P. Reynolds: Visualization of material flow in autogeneous friction stir welds: Science and Technology of Welding and Joining, 5-2
(2000), 120-124.
[4] M. Song, R. Kovacevic: Transaction of NAMRI/SME, 30 (2002),
565-572.
[5] H. Schmidt, J. Hattel, J. Wert, An analytical model for the heat
generation in friction stir welding: Modeling and Simulation in
Materials Science and Engineering, 12 (2004), 143-157.
[6] V. Soundararajan, S. Zekovic, R. Kovacevic: Int. J. Machine Tools &
Manufacture, 45 (2005), 1577-1587.
[7] X. Deng, S. Xu: Transaction of NAMRI/SME, SME, 29 (2001), 631638.
[8] P. Ulysse: Int. J. Machine Tools & Manufacture, 42 (2002), 15491557.
[9] C.M Chen, R. Kovacevic: Int. J. Machine Tools & Manufacture, 43
(2003), 1319-1326.
[10] R.K. Uyyuru, S.V. Kallas: Journal of Materials Engineering and
Performance 15-5 (2006), 505-518.
[11] Z. Zhang, J.T. Chen, The simulation of material behaviors in friction
stir welding process by using rate-dependent constitutive model:
Journal of Materials Science 43-1 (2008), 222-232.
[12] M. Assidi, L. Fourment, S. Guerdoux, T. Nelson: International
Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture 50-2 (2010), 143-155.
[13] G. Buffa, J. Hua, R. Shivpuri, L. Fratini: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 419-1-2 (2006), 381-388.
[14] G. Buffa, J. Hua, R. Shivpuri, L. Fratini: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 419-1-2 (2006), 389-396
[15] L. Fratini, G. Buffa: ASME Journal of Engineering Materials and
Technology, 130-3 (2008), 031001-1-031001-6.
[16] Deform-3DTM manual, SFTC
[17] L. Fratini, G. Buffa: Proc. 2nd International Conference on New
Forming Technology, Bremen, (2007), 41-56.
[18] L. Fratini, G. Buffa, D. Palmeri, J. Hua, R. Shivpuri, Material flow in
FSW of AA7075-t6 butt joints: numerical simulations and experimental verifications: Science and Technology of Welding and Joining, 11-4 (2006) 412-421.
[19] G. Buffa, L. Fratini, F. Micari, R. Shivpuri, On the material flow in
fsw of T-joints: influence of geometrical and technological parameters. Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 44 (2009)
570-578.
[20] G. Buffa, L. Fratini, F. Micari: Transaction of Namri/SME, (2010),
accepted.
[21] L. Fratini, G. Buffa, J. Hua, R. Shivpuri: Annals of CIRP, 55-1
(2006), 279-282.
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09.08.2010 14:43:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Friction Stir Welding of Dissimilar Metal Sheets

Yeong-Maw Hwang, Chien-Hua Lin
Department of Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung / Taiwan, ymhwang@
mail.nsysu.edu.tw
This study aimed to experimentally explore the thermal history of a workpiece undergoing friction stir welding involving butt joining with
dissimilar metal sheets. In the FSW experiments, K-type thermocouples were used to record the temperature history at different locations in
a workpiece. This data, combined with the preheating temperature, tool rotation speeds and tool moving speeds allowed parameters for a
successful weld to be determined. The Vickers hardness tests were conducted on the welds to evaluate the hardness distributions in the
welded product. Tensile tests were also carried out, and the tensile strength of the welded product was compared to that of the base metal.
The FSW experiments of different species of A5052-A6061, C1100-C1100, and A6061-C1100 were conducted. The welding temperature
o
o
for a successful FSW process of A5052-A6061 was found to be about 370 C, whereas that for copper-copper sheets was about 530 C. For
FSW of A6061-C1100, two kinds of tool shoulder diameters were used. From the welding results, it was known that using a larger tool
diameter of 15 mm could increase the welding temperature and improve the surface of the welds. These experimental results and process
control of thermal histories can offer useful knowledge for a friction stir welding based process of aluminum and copper butt joining.
Keywords: Friction stir welding, Thermal-mechanical affected zone, Temperature history, Dissimilar metals
Introduction
The Friction Stir Welding (FSW) technology has been
applied to aluminum products in various industrial fields,
e.g., automobile and aircraft industries [1], due to the
demands for lightweight parts and environmental
protection. The welding in a FSW process is implemented
in a solid state, which prevents many metallurgical
problems, such as distortion, shrinkage, porosity or
splatter that result from the melting and solidification
techniques used in the conventional fusion welding
process. Furthermore, improved mechanical properties can
also be achieved by this technique. In particular, welding
of some metallic materials, which are traditionally difficult
to weld by fusion welding processes, can be easily
accomplished by the FSW technique [1].
Many papers related to FSW processes focused on microstructure observations of the welds after FSW and
explored the micro-mechanism around the joint line during
FSW [2,3]. Understanding the thermal histories and
temperature distributions in the workpiece is an important
issue, not only because it determines whether a FSW
process will be implemented successfully or not, but also
because it influences the residual stress, the grain sizes,
and accordingly, the strength of the welds. Some researchers have proposed analytical models and experimental
methods to explore the temperature distribution within the
workpiece during the FSW process [4,5]. For example,
Chen and Kovacevic [4] proposed a three-dimensional
model based on finite element analysis to study the
thermal history and thermo-mechanical process in the buttwelding of an aluminum 6061-T6 alloy. Hwang et al. [6]
have ever conducted FSW experiments of aluminium alloy
A6061 and discussed the process control of the tool in pin
plunging, preheating, and traversing while obtaining a
successful weld. However, the specimens used in the
literature are mainly the same metals of aluminium alloys.
Chen and Kovacevic [7] conducted FSW of A6061 and
AISI 1018 steel with an adjustable offset of the probe
lacation with respect to the butt line. Few papers on the
1076
FSW process discussed the temperature history in

dissimilar metals such as copper and aluminum, where
their melting points and material properties are
significantly different from each other.
In this paper, FSW experiments of dissimilar metal
sheets using aluminium alloys A6061 and A5052, and pure
copper C1100 as the specimens are conducted and process
control for a successful FSW process is discussed.
Experimental Setup
Configuration of Tool and Workpiece. A schematic of
the welding sequence for an FSW process is shown in
Figure 1. A welding tool comprised of a shank, shoulder,
and pin is fixed in a milling machine holder and is rotated
along its longitudinal axis. Workpiece material is held
firmly in place in a fixture table. The rotating welding tool
is slowly plunged into the workpiece until the shoulder of
the welding tool forcibly contacts the upper surface of the
material. After a preheating time, the welding tool is
forcibly traversed along the joint line until the end of the
weld is reached. The welding tool is then retracted,
generally while the spindle continues to turn. After the tool
is retracted, the pin of the welding tool leaves a hole in the
workpiece at the end of the weld. When the shoulder is
pressed against the surface of the workpiece generating
friction heat, the pin causes some additional heating and
extensive plastic flow in the workpiece simultaneously.
Thus, the micro-structure around the joint line can be
divided into three zones, BMZ, HAZ, and TMAZ.
The spindle of this self-designed FSW apparatus can
spin with rotational speeds from 400 to 1200 rpm, and the
fixture table driven by a servomotor can move with speeds
from 20 to 60 mm/min. Before welding, the workpiece is
polished and cleaned with acetone on the welding surface,
and is then placed on a backing plate and clamped rigidly
by an anvil along the welding direction to prevent lateral
movement. The dimension of the workpiece for aluminium
and copper sheets is L x W x H = 60 x 20 x 3.1 mm.
Because the thickness of the workpiece is only 3.1 mm,
the length of the pin is designed to be 2.8 mm. The
09.08.2010 14:43:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
diameter of the tool shoulder, Ds (=12 or 15 mm), is about
four times of that of the pin, 3 mm, at its root. An
inclination angle of 1o backward, for the welding tool with
respect to the normal of the workpiece, was set before
welding to make the tool traverse the workpiece smoothly.
Joint line
Metal B
Metal A
AS
RS
a: Base metal zone (BMZ)

b: Heat affected zone (HAZ)
c:Thermal-mechanical
affected zone (TMAZ)
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of FSW process of dissimilar metal

sheets.
Layout of Thermocouples. K-type grounded thermocouples with a sheath diameter of 1 mm were used. Small
holes with a diameter of 1 mm were drilled on both sides
of the set-up workpiece to accommodate the thermocouples. The positions of the thermocouples inside the workpiece are shown in Figure 2. A small indent at the entrance
of each drilled hole was made to prevent the thermocouple
from being crushed by the clamp. The holes used to accommodate the thermocouple have depths of L1 and L2, on
the advancing and retreating sides, respectively. L1 and L2
may be different from each other if the position of the
welding pin is not located on the contact line of the two
sheets. The distances between the tips of the thermocouples and the joint line are 6 mm for Ds=12 mm. The thermocouples are securely embedded in the holes and the
temperature can be measured correctly without any external disturbances. Two of the four thermocouples (TC1 and
TC3) are placed on the advancing side, and the other two
(TC2 and TC4) are placed on the retreating side. The distance between TC1 and TC3, d2, is 22 mm.
Ds
Figure 2. Layout of thermocouples inside workpiece.
Process Control and Measurement of Thermal History

Thermal histories during FSW and their maximum values depend on the energy input from the tool, the heat loss
to the backing plate and to the shank, and the staying time
of the tool for preheating the workpiece before it starts to
move forward. A successful FSW process is largely influenced by the highest temperature at the joint line of the
workpiece. A too-low temperature around the joint line
will make it difficult for the pin to traverse the workpiece,

which will probably result in breakage of the pin. A higher
temperature can decrease the flow stress of the workpiece
and make the tool move forward easily. However, a toohigh temperature will probably make the workpiece material stick on the pin and shoulder, and larger grain sizes of
the microstructure in the welds may also be obtained.
FSW of A5052 and A6061 Sheets. Three kinds of welding conditions, (a) =800 rpm, v=20 mm/min, (b) =800
rpm, v=80 mm/min, and (c) =500 rpm, v=40 mm/min,
are selected for the welding experiments. Figure 3(a) and
(b) show the temperature histories of the four thermocouples with respect to the welding time for welding conditions (a) and (b), respectively. The temperature histories of
the four thermocouples with respect to the tool displacement from the starting point are also shown in the figures.
Time instants t1, t2, and t3 shown in the figures denote the
welding time when the pin plunges to the bottom of the
workpiece, the initiation of traverse on the workpiece, and
time to reach the end of the joint line, respectively. After t3,
the pin of the tool is retracted from the workpiece. From
Figure 3(a), it is known that the time periods for pin
plunging (t1), preheating (t2-t1), and traversing (t3-t2) are
about 19, 10, and 106 seconds, respectively. Because of
heat transfer in the workpiece from the joint line to the tip
of the thermocouples, there is a 5 mm shift between the
positions of the highest temperature and the thermocouple
location. The distance span between the temperature profile maximum values of thermocouples TC1 and TC3, 20
mm, is quite close to that between the locations of thermocouples TC1 and TC3, 22 mm. The above results imply
that the temperature histories are quite steady and reasonable.
In Figure 3(b), the tools moving speed in this case is
faster than that in Figure 3(a). The time period needed
from the maximum value of the thermocouple TC1 to that
of the thermocouple TC3 is about 13 seconds, which is
about one fourth of the time period 50 seconds for the case
in Figure 3(a). The temperature profiles on the advancing
side are slightly higher than those on the retreating side.
When the temperature of thermal couple TC1 reached
about 350 oC, the pin was started to travel and weld
through the welding line. In this way, the highest temperature obtained was about 370 oC.
The appearances of welded products with conditions (a)
and (b) are shown in Figure 4(a) and (b), respectively.
Circular rings on the surface of the weld could be clearly
observed and a hole was left after the pin retracted from
the workpiece, just as a standard FSW process did. In
Figure 4(a), due to excessive heat resulted from a slower
moving speed, material overflow at the edge of the welding path was clearly observed. In Figure 4(b), the moving
and rotation speeds were appropriately controlled, thus,
there was no material overflow at the edge of the welding
path. The temperature range for a successful welding
process is about 350oC - 370oC.
1077
09.08.2010 14:43:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
=800 rpm and v=20 mm/min.
Figure 5. Stress-strain curves of welded products.
Figure 6 shows the hardness distributions obtained

across the transverse cross-section of the welds. The left
part of the hardness is on the advancing side (A6061) and
the right part is on the retreating side (A5052). The hardnesses of the base metals of A6061 and A5052 are about
92 and 70 Hv, respectively. The hardness of the welded
part is smaller than that of the base metals, just like the
case for tensile strengths in Figure 5. The hardness at the
TMAZ with welding condition (b), =800 rpm and v=80
mm/min, is about 80% of the base metals.
(b) =800 rpm and v=80 mm/min.

Figure 3. Temperature profile versus welding time and tool
displacement for FSW of A6061 and A5052 sheets.
(a)
A5052
TC4
A6061
TC3
TC2
TC1
A5052
A6061
=800 rpm, v=20 mm/min.
(b) =800 rpm, v=80 mm/min.

Figure 4. Appearance of welded products.
The welded products were cut into two halves, one of

which was used for the tensile test piece and the other for
a hardness test piece. Figure 5 shows the engineering
stress and engineering strain relationship of the welded
products with the three welding conditions. The tensile
strengths of the base metals A6061 and A5052 are about
290 and 225 MPa, respectively. The tensile strength and
elongation of the weld with condition (b) are larger than
those with conditions (a) and (c). A higher temperature at
the joint line, about 390 oC, using welding condition (a)
led to a lower tensile strength.
1078
Figure 6. Vickers hardness distributions on welds.
FSW of Copper and Copper Sheets. The welding condition for FSW experiments of copper-copper metals is
=1000 rpm, v=40 mm/min. Figure 7 shows the temperature histories of the four thermocouples with respect to the
welding time and the tool displacement. The preheating
temperature for the initiation of transverse of the tool is
about 450 oC. The maximum value of the thermal histories
obtained is about 530 oC. The temperature range for a
successful welding process is about 460-530 oC. The total
travel length is about 43 mm.
09.08.2010 14:43:29 Uhr
Metal Forming

displacement for FSW of copper and copper sheets.
(a) Ds=12 mm
FSW of Copper and Aluminium Sheets. The welding

condition for FSW experiments of copper-aluminium
metals is =1000 rpm, v=40 mm/min just like the case for
FSW of copper-copper metals. Two kinds of shoulder
diameters, Ds=12 and 15 mm were selected. Figure 8(a)
and (b) illustrate the temperature histories of the four
thermocouples with respect to the welding time and the
tool displacement for Ds=12 and 15 mm, respectively. The
harder metal is usually positioned on the advancing side
and the softer metal on the retreating side. In Figure 8(a),
the preheating temperature at t2 always could not be raised
to over 250 oC, and the maximum value of the thermal
histories becomes under 300 oC. In Figure 8(b), the preheating temperature was increased to about 320 oC using a
larger shoulder diameter. Nevertheless, the maximum
temperature is still under 350 oC. From the comparisons of
Figure 8(a) and (b), it is known that using a larger shoulder
diameter (Ds=15 mm) can increase the friction heat on the
sheet surface and make the preheating temperature increase by about 100oC.
(b) Ds=15 mm
displacement for FSW of copper and aluminium sheets.
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
In this paper, the thermal histories in a workpiece were

determined experimentally during a Friction Stir Welding
(FSW) butt joining process of dissimilar metal sheets. In
the FSW of aluminium A5052-A6061 sheets, the rotation
speeds of the tool for a successful FSW process were
found to be 600-900 rpm and the moving speeds were 4080 mm/min. In this way, the wanted welding temperatures
for a successful FSW process, 350-370 oC, could be
reached. The tensile strength and the hardness at the
TMAZ were about 80% of the base metals with welding
condition of =800 rpm and v=80 mm/min. In the FSW
of copper-copper sheets, the preheating temperature was
found to be 450 oC and the welding temperatures for a
successful FSW process were 470-530 oC. In the FSW of
aluminium-copper sheets, due to short of heat generation,
the maximum temperature could not be raised to over
300oC. A larger tool shoulder diameter could be used to
increase the friction heat and the preheating temperature.
The authors would like to extend their thanks to the National Science Council of the Republic of China under
Grant no. NSC 94-2212-E-041-001. The advice and financial support of NSC are greatly acknowledged.
References
[1] H. Kakimoto: Journal of Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity,
46 (2005) 939-943.
[2] G. Liu, L.E. Murr, C-S . Niou, J.C. McClure, E.R. Vega: Scripta
Materialia, 37 (1997) 355-361.
[3] C.G. Rhodes, M.W. Mahoney, W.H. Bingel, R.A. Spurling, C.C.
Bampton: Scripta Materialia, 36 (1997) 69-75.
[4] C.M. Chen, R. Kovacevic: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 43 (2003) 13191326.
[5] Y. J. Chao, X. Qi, W. Tang: Transaction of ASME, Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engeering, 125 (2003) 138-145.
[6] Y.M. Hwang, Z.W. Kang, Y.C. Chiou, H.H. Hsu: International Journal
of Machine Tools and Manufacture, 48 (2008) 778-787.
[7] C.M. Chen, R. Kovacevic: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 44 (2004) 12051214.
1079
09.08.2010 14:43:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
Optimization of Friction Stir Welding Parameters on Aluminium Alloys AlSi1MgMn

Milan Vukcevic1), Mileta Janjic1), Miroslav Plancak2), Nikola Sibalic1)
1)
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Montenegro, Podgorica / Montenegro, milanvu@t-com.me;

ences, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad / Serbia
2)
Faculty of Technical Sci-
The paper provides details of the friction stir welding process. The joining of the aluminium alloy sheets AlSi1MgMn, numerical labels 6082T6, with a thickness of 7.8 mm is performed. The area of research of process parameters is current and under-explored. The paper includes experimental researches performed on the basis of the adopted experimental plan. Values that are varied in the experiment are:
welding speed or the traversing speed of tools, rotation speed of tools, angle of pin slope, pin diameter and diameter of shoulder. The experiment was performed in the laboratory at room temperature in conditions similar to production. During the experiment the following was
carried out: measurement of the forces that occur during the course of the friction stir welding process (down force or welding force, traversing forces and side force), as well as other relevant values. Based on the measured values of welding force Fz for all points of the experimental plan, the process of optimization was performed using the Box - Wilson gradient method and the model of the FSW process was
obtained.
Keywords: Friction stir welding , Pin, Shoulder, Process optimization, Welding force
Introduction
Nowadays friction stir welding is a process used in almost all areas of industry. The widest application it has in
shipbuilding, railway, aircraft, space and other industries.
The process was patented by The Welding Institute - TWI
from England, in 1991. and founded by Thomas who had
successfully jointed sheets of aluminium-alloy [1]. The
process was very quickly applied to the similar and dissimilar materials. A friction stir welding process is performed by deformation in the solid state without melting
the material. The FSW process is primarily used for joining sheets of greater thickness. This process can be used
for joining sheets with 0.5 mm to 50 mm of thickness [10,
13].
Tools used in the FSW process are cylindrical and consisted of two concentric parts, which rotate at high speed.
Part of the tool with larger diameter is called the shoulder,
while the part with smaller diameter is called the pin. Tool
and workpieces that are welded are shown in Figure 1 [3,
4,7-9].
Figure 1. Presentation of tool and sheet.
Then rotating tool slowly approaches the joint line and

plunges into the material, whereby heat is generated. Due
to that the temperature increases and reaches the hot metal
forming condition where mechanical mixing and joining
of materials is performed, enabling the tool to move in the
longitudinal direction or along the joint lines. After passing of the tool along the joint lines the solid phase of weld
remains. The upper plane remains smooth and flat thanks
to the tool shoulder, while the lower plane of the workpiece is formed from the basis on which the workpiece is
standing and it is also smooth and flat. The development
1080
of friction stir welding process - FSW is given in Figure 2

[11,12].
Figure 2. Presentation of friction stir welding process.
In order to determine geometrical parameters of tools

and regimes of welding, process is optimized with the
values of welding force Fz.
As a method of optimization the Box-Wilsons gradient
method is used. An operative procedure of gradient
method consists of a number of successive cycles, i.e.
moving along a gradient line up to optimum process.
Within the cycle, describing a smaller reaction area is
done by polynomial function of first degree based on the
realized matrix plan. The number of cycles depends on the
size of the "noise" field. The cycles continue until the
moment when all the coefficients of linear model regression become insignificant, namely when an optimal forming process field is entered, the linear model is mostly
inadequate one. More precise assessment of optimum
position in this field is performed by models of the second
or higher order [5, 6].
Experimental Research
Definition of Experiment. The process of friction stir
welding is one of the most complex processes of plastic
deformation of the material, and it is difficult to determine
its values [2]. This research aims to optimize the process
of FSW, based on measurable parameters such as welding
force Fz.
For welding of sheet of aluminium alloy the family of
tools is adopted where the geometrical parameters are
09.08.2010 14:43:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
varied. The tool is axisymmetrical and consisted of the
workpiece and body of the tool. The body of the tool is
adjusted to the jaws of the machines used in the experiment. The general appearance of the family of tools for
FSW process is given in Figure 3.
Figure 4. Set of tools made according plan of experiment.

Table 2. Chemical composition of used alloy AlSi1MgMn.
% Al % Fe % Si % Ti % Cu % Zn % V % Cr % Mn % Mg % Na
98.25 0.22 0.85 0.01 0.002 0.062 0.006 0.001 0.16 0.43 0.002
Figure 3. Tool with accepted dimensions and parameters D, d and

.
For the experimental investigation of material joining by

friction stir welding following has been adopted:
1. Material used in experimental research is AlSi1MgMn
aluminium alloy (6082-T6), which has a wide industrial
application.
2. The thickness of the welded material is 7.8 mm.
3. FSW process is achieved in constant welding speed.
Plan of Experiment. Based on preliminary researches,
the multifactor orthogonal plan with varying of factors on
two levels, and repetition in the central point of plan n0=4
times. For input values, factors of the welding regime are
adopted: X1=v mm/min (welding speed), X2= rpm (rotation speed of tool) and geometrical factors of tools: X3= o
(angle of pin slope), X4=d mm (diameter of the pin) and
X5=D mm (diameter of the shoulder). Levels of variation
of input factors are adopted and given in
Table 1.
Table 1. Levels of variation of input factors.
Input factors
Upper level:
Lower level:
Basic level:
X1
28
25
26.46
X2
5.92
X3
3.87
X4
1000
630
793.76
X5
200
80
125
Based on the adopted values of X1, X2 and X3, the set of

nine tools is made, and shown in Figure 4.
Chemical composition of alloy aluminum sheet used in
the experiment is given in Table 2. Workpieces are with
dimensions of 200 x 50 mm and obtained by cutting the
sheet with the thickness of 7.8 mm.
Measurement of Forces. During friction stir welding

process, the recording of forces was performed. The complete presentation of the friction stir welding process, with
tools, materials, auxiliary equipment and equipment for
recording of forces is given in Figure 5. Measurement of
forces Fx, Fy and Fz was performed by using precise analog-digital equipment connected to the information measurement system. Sensors that are used are strain gauges
(HBN 6/120LY11) affixed to the special holder that are
adjusted to the conditions of the experiment and directions
of the measured forces.
Figure 5. Research site: 1 - accessories, 2 - workpieces of

AlSi1MgMn alloy, 3 - FSW tool, 4 - special holder with affixed
strain gauge, 5 - equipment for recording of forces.
Figure 6 shows welded workpieces for 36th point of

experimental plan.
Figure 6. Presentation of welded workpieces.
Figure 7 shows the diagram of obtained forces in function of time in the central point of the plan. FSW process,
depending on the direction of movement of the tool, can
be divided into three steps. The first step is penetration of
tools into the material, which lasts from the moment when
the top of the pin makes contact with the surfaces of workpieces until shoulder makes contact with surfaces of
1081
09.08.2010 14:43:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
welded workpieces. In this step the welding force Fz
reaches its highest value. In the second step, the welding
process is performed. This step lasts from the moment
when the tool is given a command to perform traversing
movement until termination of traversing movement. As it
is known, this is the main step of the FSW process and the
force that will be analyzed is constant during the process.
The third step refers to the drawing of tool out from the
welded material. In this step welding force Fz is zero. [4]
Experimental point number 36.
where b0, bi and bij are coefficients of regression of model

in the real coordinates. As the table values of dispersion
relations according to Fischer's criterion the following is
adopted: for assess of significance of coefficients
FT(5%,1.3)=10.13, for checking the adequacy of the model
FT(5%,5.3) = 8.64.
Cycles of Optimization. In the first cycle the values of
factors are varied according to the adopted experimental
plan and are given in Table 3.
Table 3. First cycle of optimisation.
8
7
x0i
wi
xgi
xdi
Fz=3.5849 kN
code
Fx=1.3967 kN
Fy=0.18513 kN
0
0
20
40
60
80
Time t sec
100
120
140
Figure 7. Diagram of forces Fz, Fx and Fy in FSW process.
FSW Optimisation Process

Regression and Dispersion Analysis. When processing
the results, it is suitable to use normal factors and form
mathematical model. Mathematical model of optimization
processes, is described in terms of the polynomial function
and takes into account the effects of interaction of factors:
y = a0 +
a x + a x x
i =1
i< j
ij
(1)
where xi is the coded coordinates and a0, ai and aij are

coefficients of regression.
xi =
X i X oi
wi
(2)
where Xi is the real values of factors, wi is the interval of

the factor variation and X0i is the basic level factors Xi [5,
6].
The program is written for complete process of optimisation which includes input data at the beginning of the
program, such as varying factors (welding speed, rotation
speed of tools, angle of pin slope, pin diameter and diameter of shoulder). The program calculates the regression
coefficients, estimates their significance, gives the model
and examines its adequacy, and also calculates model
values. Model in real coordinates has the form:
YM = b0 + b1 X1 + b2 X 2 + b3 X3 + b4 X 4 + b5 X5 + b12 X1 X 2 3 +
+ b13 X1 X + b14 X1 X 4 + b15 X1 X5 + b23 X 2 X3 + b24 X 2 X 4 +
+ b25 X 2 X5 + b34 X3 X 4 + b35 X3 X5 + b45 X 4 X5
1082
(3)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
x0
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
bi
(=0.5)
biwi
rounded
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Experiment
Exp. on gradi. line
Force F kN
125
75
200
80
v
800
200
1000
630
3.87
1.13
5
3
x1
x2
x3
d
D
5.92 26.46
1.08 1.54
7
28
5
25
x4
x5
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
-1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
-1
+1
+1
+1
-1
-1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
-1
+1
+1
-1
+1
-1
+1
+1
+1
-1
-1
+1
+1
-1
-1
-1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
-1
+1
-1
+1
+1
-1
+1
+1
-1
+1
-1
+1
-1
-1
+1
-1
+1
+1
+1
-1
-1
+1
-1
+1
-1
-1
+1
+1
-1
-1
-1
+1
-1
-1
-1
-1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
-1
-1
+1
+1
+1
-1
+1
-1
+1
+1
-1
-1
-1
+1
+1
-1
+1
+1
-1
+1
-1
-1
+1
-1
+1
-1
+1
-1
-1
+1
-1
-1
-1
-1
+1
-1
+1
+1
+1
-1
-1
-1
+1
+1
-1
-1
+1
-1
+1
-1
-1
-1
-1
+1
-1
-1
+1
+1
-1
-1
-1
-1
+1
-1
-1
-1
+1
-1
-1
-1
-1
-1
-1
-1
-1
-1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.247 -0.135 0.171 0.380 0.645
2.019 2.019 2.019 2.019 2.019
37.5 54.47 0.391 0.830 2.007
40
60
0.4
0.8
0.8
120
690
2.6
4.2 24.2
160
750
3
5
25
200
810
3.4
5.8 25.8
240
870
3.8
6.6 26.6
280
930
4.2
7.4 27.4
320
990
4.6
8.2 28.2
360
1050
5
9
29
400
1110
5.4
9.8 29.8
Fz
5.148
4.792
5.479
5.200
4.943
4.612
5.106
4.896
4.269
4.060
4.466
4.374
4.152
3.461
4.975
3.163
3.963
3.489
4.080
3.531
3.552
3.004
3.805
3.256
3.261
2.815
3.616
2.969
2.680
2.409
3.234
2.776
3.593
3.619
3.604
3.584
5.135
4.960
5.395
5.102
4.961
4.625
5.270
4.818
4.364
4.066
4.690
4.274
4.141
3.682
4.516
3.939
3.768
3.592
4.027
3.734
3.537
3.201
3.845
3.392
3.260
2.962
3.585
3.169
2.980
2.521
3.355
2.778
3.887
3.887
3.887
3.887
2.404
3.052
3.763
4.460
5.144
5.814
6.471
7.115
09.08.2010 14:43:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
After the dispersion and regression analysis, it was
found that the coefficients b15 and b25 are not significant.
Values of steps by gradient line and experimental points
are determined. Model values of points in gradient line are
calculated. From Table 3, it is clear that the welding force
Fz is permanently increasing function. The third point
from gradient route is taken as the most suitable one. It
presents the basic level for the second cycle.
The second and third cycles are performed in a analogous manner to the previous. After the regression and
dispersion analysis, the experimental points on gradient
line are obtained. The function of welding force Fz is in
these cycles also an increasing function, which determinates the manner of selection of a basic level.
In the fourth cycle (Table 4), after the regression and
dispersion analysis is performed, it was found that the
model is an adequate one. The values of the steps by gradient line as well as the experimental points (8 points it
this cycle) are determined. In this cycle the function of
welding force Fz has its minimum. The most favourable of
these points is the third point, (=230 mm/min, v=840
rpm, =3.4 o, d=6.2 mm and D=26.4 mm), which also
represents the optimum input parameters of FSW process,
obtained on the basis of minimum of welding force Fz.
Using the program output data of varied factors are obtained. The curve Fz vs. v for the fixed values of , , d
and D is shown in Figure 8.
Table 4. Fourth cycle of optimisation process.
v
d
D
250
840
3.4
6.2 26.4
10
5
0.1
0.3
0.2
260
845
3.5
6.5 26.6
240
835
3.3
5.9 26.2
x0i
wi
xgi
xdi
code
x0
bi
(=0.5)
biwi
Exp. on gradi. line
rounded
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
4.34
x1
x2
x3
x4
x5
Fz
0.033 -0.005 0.006 0.088 0.087

14.85 14.85 14.85 14.85 14.85
5
0.375 0.010 0.394 0.259
5
0
0
0
0
220
840
3.4
6.2 26.4
225
840
3.4
6.2 26.4
230
840
3.4
6.2 26.4
235
840
3.4
6.2 26.4
240
840
3.4
6.2 26.4
245
840
3.4
6.2 26.4
250
840
3.4
6.2 26.4
255
840
3.4
6.2 26.4
4.216
4.200
4.183
4.233
4.250
4.267
4.284
4.300
For =840 rpm =3.4, d=6.2 mm and D=26.4 mm
Conclusion
Sheets of AlSi1MgMn alloy with a thickness of 7.8 mm

were successfully jointed by Friction Stir Welding process.
In this paper the measurement of the forces that occur in
the process of FSW in presented.
The application of Box-Wilsons gradient method of optimization and the parameters that characterize the process
of FSW in the real conditions of welding were optimized.
Optimization was performed by standard procedure. The
mathematical model of optimisation process was formed,
i.e. the coefficients of the model (regression coefficients)
are determined by regression analysis and dispersion was
calculated. Checking of the adequacy of the model and
estimation of significance of regression coefficients was
performed. According to gradient line the values of geometric factors of tools are founded: D=25.8 mm, d=5.8
mm and =3.4o, for the defined initial conditions, as well
as the kinematics parameters of welding v=230 mm/min
and =840 rpm.
The paper is part of a wider research process of FSW.
References
[1] W. Thomas, et al.: 1991 Friction Stir Butt Welding international
Patent Application No PCT/GB92/02203. W. Thomas. et al 1995
Friction Stir Butt Welding GP Patent Aplication No 9125978.8. W.
Thomas et al 1995 Friction Stir Butt Welding UP Patent 5.460 317.
[2] K. Panneerselvam, S. Aravindan, A. Noorul Haq, Karthikeyian:
International Conference on Advanced Materials and Composites
(ICAMC-2007), (2007), 608-613.
[3] M. Vukevi, M. Janji, N. ibali: Proc. 7th International scientific
conference on production engineering. RIM 2009, Cairo, Egypat,
(2009), 43-44.
[4] M. Vukevi, M. Planak, M. Janji, N. ibali: Journal for
Technology of Plasticity, 34-1-2 (2009), 49-57.
[5] J. Stani: Metod inenjerskih merenja, Mainski fakultet Beograd,
(1990).
[6] N. ibali, M. Vukevi, M. Janji: Proc. 12th International Research/
Expert conference, TMT 2008, Istanbul, Turkey, (2008), 1073-1076.
[7] M. Vukevi, M. Janji, N. ibali: Tehnika, Beograd, 2 (2008), 1 - 6.
[8] A.L. Stahl, C.D. Sorensen: Friction Stir Welding and Processing III, A
Publication TMS, (2005), 179-190.
[9] B. Tweedy, W. Arbegast, C. Allen: Friction Stir Welding and Processing III, A Publication TMS, (2005), 97-104.
[10] T. Watanabe, H. Takayama, A. Yanagisawa: Journal of Materials
[11] V. Soundararajan, E. Yarrapareddy, R. Kovacevic: ASM Journal of
Materials Engineering and Performance, 16/4 (2007), 491-496.
[12] M. Song, R. Kovacevic: International Journal of Machine Tools &
Manufacture, 43 (2003), 605-615.
[13] B. London, M. Mahoney, W. Bingel, M. Calabrese, D. Waldron:
Proc. 3rd International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Kobe,
Japan, 27-28 Sept. (2001), 1-7.
4.32
Welding force Fz kN
4.3
4.28
4.26
4.24
4.22
4.2
4.18
4.16
220
225
230
235
240
245
250
Welding speed v mm/min
255
260
Figure 8. Curve Fz vs v.
1083
09.08.2010 14:43:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Fatigue Behaviour of Cast Aluminium Alloy Surface-Modified by Friction Stir Surface

Processing
Yoshihiko Uematsu1), Keiro Tokaji1), Yasunari Tozaki2)
1)
Department of Mechanical and Systems Engineering, Gifu University, Gifu / Japan, yuematsu@gifu-u.ac.jp;
Institute for Machinery and Material, Seki / Japan
2)
Gifu Prefectural Research
The surface modification by friction stir surface processing (FSSP) was applied to a cast aluminium alloy, A356-F, using a specially designed tool without a probe, having a scrolled groove on its shoulder. Microstructural observations revealed that the dendrite structure of the
as-cast material was completely broken up and casting porosities were successfully eliminated by FSSP in the surface layer of the material.
Plane bending fatigue tests have been performed using as-cast, FSSPed and post T5-treated specimens and the crack initiation and
growth behaviour was monitored by a plastic replication technique in order to figure out the effect of the FSSP and post T5 treatment on the
fatigue behaviour. The fatigue strengths of the FSSPed specimens were nearly the same as those of the as-cast ones. This was because
casting porosities were successfully eliminated by FSSP, but FSSP developed a texture which was detrimental to the crack initiation and
growth resistances. The post T5 treatment could enhance the fatigue strengths of the FSSPed specimens, which could be attributed to both
precipitation hardening and reduced intensity of the texture.
Keywords: Fatigue, Cast aluminium alloy, Friction stir surface processing, Surface modification, Post heat treatment, Microstructure, Crack
initiation
Introduction
Cast aluminium (Al) alloys are widely used for structural components because of their advantages such as cost
saving and flexibility in fabrication compared with
wrought alloys. However, as-cast materials generally reveal a coarse microstructure and contain many casting
defects arisen from shrinkage and release of dissolved
gases during solidification. Such casting defects act frequently as the fatigue crack initiation site and reduce the
fatigue strengths in cast Al alloys. From a viewpoint of
fatigue reliability, therefore, controlling casting defects is
extremely important, but it is very difficult to completely
eliminate casting defects during casting process even
though the advances in casting technology can reduce the
defect size.
Friction stir processing (FSP), a variation of friction stir
welding (FSW), has recently attracted interest as an effective approach to microstructural modification after casting.
By the application of FSP, microstructural changes such as
break-up of as-cast microstructure, grain refinement, homogenization of precipitates and elimination of casting
defects are expected [1]. Thus FSP is believed to be one of
the most useful methods for improving mechanical properties, particularly fatigue properties. However, there have
been very limited studies on the effect of FSP on fatigue
behaviour [2, 3]. In addition, FSP is usually performed
using a tool with a probe, consequently a probe hole inevitably remains at the end of FSP. The remained probe hole
could be one of the shortcomings of FSP.
In the present study, a tool without a probe was developed [4, 5] and applied to a cast Al alloy A356-F to modify the surface microstructure, which was defined as friction stir surface processing (FSSP). Plane bending fatigue
tests were performed and the effect of FSSP on the fatigue
behaviour was discussed based on the microstructural
consideration, crack initiation, crack growth behaviour,
and fracture surface analysis.
The material used is a cast aluminium alloy A356-F

(AC4CH-F in Japanese Industrial Standard: JIS) whose
chemical composition (wt.%) is Si: 6.94, Mn: 0.3, Cu:
0.016, Fe: 0.137, Ni <0.05, Ti: 0.097, Na <0.0005, Al:
balance. Specimen blanks of a 5 mm thickness were cut
from ingots and then friction stir surface processed
(FSSPed) on the upper and lower sides.
A photograph of a newly designed tool is presented in
Figure 1. It should be noted that the tool has no probe, but
a scrolled groove of 0.5 mm depth on its shoulder surface,
which is defined as the scroll tool. The FSSP conditions
are the tool rotational speed of 3000 rpm, the tool travelling speed of 200 mm/min and the shoulder plunge depth
of 0.5 mm. Plate fatigue specimens with a reduced section
of a 8 mm width were cut from the FSSPed plate as shown
in Figure 2, where the thickness is 4 mm due to the tool
plunge from the upper and lower sides. The fatigue specimen configuration for the as-cast material is the same as
that of the FSSPed one.
1084
10mm
Figure 1. Photograph showing geometry of scrolled groove shoulder tool.
Before fatigue tests, the upper and lower surfaces of the

gauge section were mechanically polished using progressively finer grades of emery paper and finally buff finished.
Three different kinds of fatigue specimens were used in
the fatigue tests; as-cast, FSSPed and post T5 treated after
FSSP where the FSSPed specimens were aged at 428 K for
5 h.
09.08.2010 14:43:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Plane bending fatigue tests were conducted using a resonance type bending fatigue testing machine operating at a
frequency of 33 Hz and a stress ratio, R, of -1. The fatigue
crack initiation and growth behaviour was monitored by
plastic replication technique.
20
(a)
(b)
10.5
40
50m
18
200m
Figure 4. Microstructures of post T5-treated specimen: (a) Unmodified zone and (b) Microstructurally modified zone.
120
Figure 2. Fatigue specimen configuration.
t=4
Results
(a)
1mm
(b)
500m
(c)
50m
Figure 3. Microstructures of FSSPed specimen: (a) Macroscopic

view, (b) Unmodified zone and (c) Microstructurally modified zone.
Hardness Distribution. Vickers hardness was measured

on a cross section of the specimens in the depth direction
at the centre of the modified zone. Figure 6 shows the
hardness profiles. The FSSPed specimen exhibits higher
hardness than the as-cast one in the surface modified zone,
which could be attributed to the microstructural modification such as grain refinement. Furthermore, the post T5
treatment increased the hardness around the centre of the
cross section, and achieved higher hardness in the whole
section than the as-cast specimen.
5mm
Figure 5. Macroscopic appearance of FSSPed specimen surface.
90
Vickers hardness HV
FSSPed Microstructure. The microstructures of the

FSSPed specimen are revealed in Figure 3. In the macroscopic view (Figure 3(a)), it is clear that the surface layer
is microstructurally modified by FSSP. A typical dendrite
structure with eutectic Si particles is recognized in the
unmodified zone (Figure 3(b)). In the modified zone (Figure 3(c)), however, the dendrite structure of the as-cast
material is completely broken up and Si particles distribute
uniformly. Figure 4 shows the microstructures of a post
T5-treated specimen in the unmodified and modified zones.
The Si particles are dispersed more extensively in the
unmodified zone (Figure 4(a)) compared with the as-cast
microstructure (Figure 3(b)), while the post T5 treatment
has little effect on the modified microstructure (Figure
4(b)). Figure 5 reveals the macroscopic appearance of the
FSSPed specimen surface. The plastic flow patterns induced by FSSP is recognized on the specimen surface as
shown by the arrow in the figure, which are often called
onion rings in friction stir welds [6]. It should be noted
that the specimen surface in Figure 5 is etched in order to
clarify the onion ring pattern.
Microstructuremodified
zone in FSSPed specimen
A356F
80
70
60
50
ascast
FSSP
FSSP/T5
0
Distance from top surface d (mm)

Figure 6. Vickers hardness profiles on the cross section.
Fatigue Behaviour. The S-N diagram is shown in Figure 7. The fatigue strengths of the as-cast and FSSPed
specimens are nearly the same. On the other hand, the post
T5-treated specimen exhibits higher fatigue strengths in
the finite life region (Nf < 107 cycles, Nf: fatigue life) and
fatigue limit (fatigue strength at N = 107) than the others.
Figure 8 reveals the SEM micrographs of the fracture
surfaces near the crack initiation sites in the as-cast,
FSSPed and post T5-treated specimens. In the as-cast
specimen (Figure 8(a)), a large porosity, whose size is
about 100 m, is recognized at the crack initiation site,
indicating that the crack initiated from the casting defect.
On the contrary, in the FSSPed specimen (Figure 8(b)),
casting porosities are not seen at the crack initiation site,
thus the crack was generated due to the cyclic slip deformation in the matrix. In the post T5-treated specimen
(Figure 8(c)), casting porosities were not recognized at the
crack initiation site similar to the FSSPed one.
The relationship between surface crack length, 2c, and
cycle ratio, N/Nf, is illustrated in Figure 9. The crack initiation lives are nearly the same among three materials,
while the post T5-treated specimen exhibits slightly longer
crack initiation life. This indicates that FSSP could not
improve the crack initiation resistance, but the post T5
1085
09.08.2010 14:43:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
treatment could enhance it. Crack growth rates, da/dN, are
shown in Figure 10 as a function of the maximum stress
intensity factor, Kmax, for small cracks, where crack depth,
a, and Kmax were obtained by assuming the aspect ratio of
a/c=1. The crack growth rates of the as-cast and FSSPed
specimens are nearly the same, while the post T5-treated
specimen exhibits slightly slower crack growth rates compared with the other ones.
A356F
Plane bending, R=1
120
100
80
60
40 4
10
ascast
FSSP
FSSP/T5
5
10
10
10
Number of cycles to failure Nf

Figure 7. S-N diagram.
(a)
10
(b)
Surface crack length 2 c mm
Stress amplitude (MPa)
140
ing axis. In contrast, the crack growth path of the FSSPed

specimen is not straight. The etching of the specimen
surface revealed the onion rings on the surface, and it is
clear that the crack grew along the ring in the FSSPed
specimen. It has been reported that the conventional FSW
using a tool with a probe developed the texture in which
{111}<110> slip systems were parallel to the cylindrical
probe surface [7, 8]. Therefore, the onion rings were related to the texture, so that the fatigue cracks could initiate
and grow preferentially along the onion rings [2, 3]. Although the tool without a probe was used in this study, the
plastic flow induced by the scroll tool developed the texture similar to the conventional tool with a probe and resulted in the detrimental effect on the crack initiation and
growth resistances of the FSSPed specimen.
2.5
2
A356F
Plane bending, R=1
= 110MPa
ascast
FSSP
FSSP/T5
1.5
1
0.5
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Cycle ratio N/Nf

Figure 9. Surface crack length as a function of cycle ratio, N/Nf.
(a)
100m
(c)
100m
100m
Figure 8. SEM micrographs showing crack initiation sites: (a) ascast ( = 100MPa, Nf = 3.9105), (b) FSSPed ( = 110MPa, Nf =
2.2104) and (c) post T5-treated ( = 110MPa, Nf = 6.3105).
Discussion
Effect of FSSP on Fatigue Behaviour. The crack initiation sites shown in Figure 8 revealed that the casting porosities were successfully removed by FSSP, and consequently induced the transition of fatigue crack initiation
mechanism. Cracks were generated due to the stress concentration at the casting porosity in the as-cast specimen,
while due to the cyclic slip deformation in the matrix in
the FSSPed and post T5-treated ones. However, crack
initiation resistance was not improved by FSSP in spite of
the elimination of casting porosities. Furthermore, FSSP
could not enhance the crack growth resistance as shown in
Figure 10. Small crack growth paths on the specimen
surfaces are represented in Figure 11 for the as-cast and
FSSPed specimens, where the arrow indicates the crack
initiation site. In the as-cast specimen (see Figure 11(a)),
the crack initiated from a casting porosity, and macroscopically grew in the direction perpendicular to the load1086
10
Crack growth rate d a/dN (mm/cycle)
100m
A356F
= 110MPa
10
ascast
FSSP
FSSP/T5
10
10
0.5
Maximum stress intensity factor
10
1/2
Kmax (MPam )
Figure 10. Relationship between da/dN and Kmax.
Effect of Post Heat Treatment on Fatigue Behaviour.

The post T5 treatment could improve both crack initiation
and growth resistances, resulted in the higher fatigue
strength. Figure 12 reveals the macroscopic appearances
of the fatigue fractured specimens. As mentioned above,
the fatigue crack macroscopically grew perpendicular to
the loading axis in the as-cast specimen, while along the
onion ring in the FSSPed one as shown by the arrows in
the figure. In the post T5-treated specimen (Figure 12(c)),
the crack partially grew along the onion ring similar to the
FSSPed one. However, a half part of the crack path is
macroscopically perpendicular to the loading axis, indicat-
09.08.2010 14:43:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
ing that the intensity of the texture was reduced by the post
T5 treatment. It is considered that the hardness increase
shown in Figure 6 by the post T5 treatment was due to the
precipitation of hardening phases, and could contribute to
the improvement of the crack initiation and growth resistances. In addition, the intensity of the texture induced
during FSSP was reduced by the post T5 treatment because the T5 treatment temperature might be close to the
recrystallization temperature, and consequently resulted in
the higher crack initiation and growth resistances.
3. Fatigue cracks initiated from porosities in the as-cast

specimens, while due to the cyclic slip deformation of
the matrix in the FSSPed and post T5-treated ones. Although the texture developed during FSSP had detrimental effect on the crack initiation resistance, post T5
treatment reduced the intensity of the texture.
4. The post T5-treated specimen showed lower fatigue
crack growth rates, indicating that the precipitation
hardening and the reduced intensity of the texture by the
post T5 treatment enhanced the crack growth resistance.
(a)
(a)
200m
2mm
(b)
(b)
200m
Figure 11. Crack growth paths ( = 110MPa): (a) as-cast and (b)
FSSPed. The specimen axis is the vertical direction.
2mm
It should be noted that FSSP has both favourable and unfavourable effects to fatigue properties. Elimination of
porosities, uniform microstructure without dendrite, and
grain refinement are favourable, while onion rings with a
strong texture are unfavourable.
(c)
Conclusions
Friction stir surface processing (FSSP) was applied to a
cast aluminium alloy A356-F (AC4CH-F) by means of a
specially designed tool without a probe in order to modify
the as-cast microstructure in the surface layer, and plane
bending fatigue tests have been performed using as-cast,
FSSPed and post T5-treated specimens. The effects of
FSSP and post T5 treatment on the fatigue behaviour were
discussed based on the microstructural consideration,
crack initiation and crack growth, and the following results
were obtained:
1. FSSP resulted in the microstructural changes in the
surface layer such as elimination of porosities, break-up
of dendrite as-cast microstructure, hardness increase and
development of onion rings. Post T5 treatment increased
hardness due to the precipitation of hardening phases.
2. FSSP could not enhance the fatigue strengths of the ascast specimen, while the post T5 treatment could increase both fatigue strengths in the finite life region and
fatigue limit.
2mm
Figure 12. Macroscopic appearances of fatigue fractured specimens: (a) as-cast ( = 110MPa, Nf = 2.4105), (b) FSSPed ( =
110MPa, Nf = 9.6105), (c) post T5-treated ( = 130MPa, Nf =
1.0105). The specimen axis is the horizontal direction.
References
[1] Z.Y. Ma, S.R. Sharma, R.S. Mishra: Materials Science and Engineering A433 (2006), 269-278.
[2] Y. Uematsu, K. Tokaji, Y. Tozaki, H. Shibata, K. Fujiwara, T. Murayama: Journal of the Society of Materials Science, Japan 58-1 (2009),
69-75. in Japanese.
[3] Y. Uematsu, K. Tokaji: Materials Science Forum 638-642 (2010),
3727-3732.
[4] Y. Tozaki, Y. Uematsu, K. Tokaji: Trans. of the Japan Society of
Mechanical Engineers, Series A 75-750 (2009), 228-234. in Japanese.
[5] Y. Tozaki, Y. Uematsu, K. Tokaji: J. Materials Processing Technology,
in press.
[6] Y. Uematsu, K. Tokaji, H. Shibata, Y. Tozaki, T. Ohmune: International Journal of Fatigue 31-10 (2009), 1443-1453.
[7] Y.S. Sato, H. Kokawa, K. Ikeda, M. Enomoto, S. Jogan: Metallurgical
and Materials Transactions A 32A (2001), 941-948.
[8] Y.S. Sato, H. Kokawa: Materia Japan 42 (2003), 214-220.
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09.08.2010 14:43:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Investigation of Friction Stir Welded Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Aluminum Alloys

Izabela Kalemba1), Mateusz Kopyscianski1), Stanislaw Dymek1), Carter Hamilton2)
1)
Faculty of Metals Engineering and Industrial Computer Science, AGH University of Science and technology, Krakow / Poland,
kalemba@agh.edu.pl; 2) Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio / USA
This research evaluates the influence of scandium on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy extrusions joined
through the friction stir welding (FSW). Two alloys were investigated: a commercial 7136-T76 containing zirconium (no scandium) and
SSA038 (produced by UES, Inc.) containing both zirconium and scandium. The addition of scandium resulted in the formation of minute
coherent Al3(Sc, Zr) precipitates. The friction stir welding applied to these alloys produced high quality, sound welds. The center of welds
was composed of extremely small and equiaxed grains with an average diameter of several micrometers. The grain size in the weld center
was smaller for the alloy containing scandium. The microstructures on the advancing and retreating sides differed: on advancing side there
was a sharp boundary between the TMAZ and the SZ while on the retreating side, the microstructure changed continuously between the
two regions. There was also a significant difference between hardness profiles for AA7136 and SSA038 alloys: the profiles for SSA038
exhibited singular minima resembling those profiles usually encountered in work hardened aluminum alloys. The beneficial role of Sc in the
Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys was also manifested by the higher joint efficiency, defined as the ratio of the yield strength of welded samples to the
baseline yield strength, for the alloy containing scandium.
Keywords: Friction stir welding, Aluminum alloys, Zirconium, Scandium,
Introduction
Conventional Al-Zn-Mg-Cu (7000 series) alloys are
widely used in aerospace applications due to their favorable mechanical properties. The strength, the highest
among all aluminum alloys, arises from high density of
minute precipitates produced upon aging. However, the
mechanical properties degrade above 150 C due to the
coarsening and/or dissolution of the strengthening phases
within the microstructure. There is currently strong interest
in adding zirconium and scandium to Al alloys in order to
improve the overall performance of these alloys [1,2].
Additions of scandium and zirconium to these alloys can
stabilize the microstructure at elevated temperatures and
can augment the mechanical properties through the formation of fine, secondary strengthening phases such as Al3(Sc,
Zr) [3,4]. Addition of Zr together with Sc improves the
effectiveness of Sc as an inhibitor of recrystallization and
increases the stability of the alloy during prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures [5]. What is more, the addition of Zr reduces the susceptibility of the Al3Sc precipitates to coarsening.
The broad application of the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys is
limited due to problems associated with their welding. In
general, the age-hardenable aluminum alloys are classified
as non-weldable because of the poor solidification microstructure, large porosity in the fusion zone and a vanishing
hardening effect due to dissolution and coarsening of hardening phases. Thus, producing high-quality, sound welds
in these alloys constitutes a great challenge for aircraft
designers. Due to the inability of joining these alloys by
conventional fusion welding, research into the application
of a novel joining technique - friction stir welding (FSW)
has been undertaken by numerous scientific groups
around the world [6]. The current status of FSW research
pertaining to aluminum alloys has been recently well
summarized by Threadgill et al. [7]. With the increasing
utilization of FSW as a joining methodology, its influence
on Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys with additions of Zr and/or Sc
becomes more important to research and understand. The
1088
Sc-modified alloys are of particular interest since the

nanometer-sized Al3(Sc, Zr) particles also stabilize the
microstructure during hot working operations and inhibit
recrystallization during heat treatment. Therefore the potential for enhanced residual properties following friction
stir welding arises.
This research addresses the introductory characterization
of the microstructure of the weld and the surrounding
regions and its influence on mechanical properties in friction stir welded extrusions of Al alloys modified by Zr and
Sc.
Two aluminum alloys of 7xxx series were investigated:
the commercial AA7136 alloy in T76 temper and the
SSA038 alloy produced for this investigation by UES, Inc.
Both alloys were cast by direct chill technology and then
extruded as 6.35 mm thick bars. The SSA038 alloy was
heat treated to the T6 temper. The content of the principal
elements in the examined alloys is shown in Table 1.
Whereas AA7136 primarily utilizes zirconium to control
grain growth and recrystallization, SSA038 utilizes a synergistic combination of scandium and zirconium to stabilize the microstructure.
Table 1. Content of principal elements in examined alloys.
Element
Al
Zn
Mg
Cu
Zr
Sc
SSA038
Bal.
6.89
2.38
1.45
0.14
0.25
AA7136
Bal.
7.94
1.99
1.93
0.14
The FSW was performed by the Edison Welding Institute in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The joining parameters
were: tool rotation speed 250 revolutions per minute
(RPM), welding velocity 2.1 mm /s and the applied force
09.08.2010 14:43:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
26.7 kN (for AA7136) and 22 kN (for SSA038). The diameter of the FSW tool shoulder was 17.8 mm, the pin
diameter tapered linearly from 10.3 mm at the tool shoulder to 7.7 mm at the tip and the pin depth was 6.1 mm.
Microstructural evaluation was performed by light (LM)
and electron microscopy (scanning SEM and transmission TEM). The samples for the microstructural examination were excised from sections perpendicular to the
weld direction. The SEM investigation comprised an analysis of crystallographic orientations using electron back
scattered diffraction (EBSD). Each EBSD map was processed to identify the grain and sub-grain boundaries. In the
data presented, high-angle boundaries are defined as having misorientations greater than 15 and low-angle
boundaries are defined as having misorientations of 3-15.
Specimens for SEM and TEM (thin foils) were electropolished in a solution of nitric acid/methanol (1:2) at 30 C. The used voltage was 12 V.
To characterize mechanical properties of the welds,
hardness measurements and tensile tests were performed.
The hardness measurements were performed on the entire
section perpendicular to the weld direction at an indentation load of 9.81 N. The distance between sampling points
was 1 mm. Tensile samples were excised perpendicular to
the friction stir weld with the weld centered along the
tensile specimen in the reduced section. Tensile tests were
carried out on base and as-welded materials according to
the ASTM E 8 standard.
Figure 1. Scheme of FSW process.
elements (Zn, Mg, Cu), their microstructures are different.

Since the alloys used in this study were in commercial
tempers, no attempt was made to discern the precipitate
crystallography and chemistry. It is well established that
the predominant strengthening particles in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu
alloys are ' Mg(Zn,Cu,Al)2-type and the grain boundary
precipitates of MgZn2-type and/or Mg3Zn3Al2 [8,9].
However, the addition of scandium to the SSA038 alloy
brings about the formation of other strengthening phase in
the form of minute coherent Al3(Sc, Zr) precipitates [10].
The Al3(Sc, Zr) precipitates (marked by arrows in Fig. 2
(b) exhibited a line of no contrast characteristic for coherent precipitates. Numerous dislocations indicate that recrystallization was inhibited during extrusion and following heat treatment.
Figure 2. Microstructure of base material: (a) AA7136 and (b)

SSA038, TEM.

The friction stir welding is a solid-state joining process
whose basic concept is extremely simple. A rotating tool
with a specially designed pin is inserted between abutting
edges of pieces to be joined and traversed along the line of
the seam as shown in Figure 1. Friction between the tool
and work pieces increase the temperature in the materials
to be joined. The localized heating and applied pressure
plasticize the material and effectively stir it around the pin,
thus forming the weld. No melting occurs during FSW,
however, severe plastic deformation accompanied by mixing of material as well as heating and cooling cycles alters
the microstructure (and thus properties) in a significant
manner.
The typical microstructures of the alloys in the asreceived conditions (base materials) are shown in Figure 2.
Though both alloys belong to the age-hardenable ones
(7000 series) and both have a similar content of principal
Figure 3. Macrostructure of FSW weld: (a) AA7136 and (b)

SSA038, LM.
Despite the microstructural differences of the parent materials, the microstructures of the welds observed in light
microscopy scale appear very similar (see Figure 3). The
1089
09.08.2010 14:43:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
microstructures are fundamentally free of defects, but
visually without the characteristic nugget usually observed
for 2xxx and 6xxx series alloys [11]. However, the typical
zones: stir zone (SZ), thermo-mechanically affected zone
(TMAZ) and heat affected zone (HAZ) can be distinguished. The subtle "onion ring" pattern, frequently found
in other Al alloys joined by FSW [6,12] can also be discerned. The origin of "onion rings" has not been fully
explained to date, though some attempts have been undertaken [13,14]. It is believed that the heat input may cause
turbulent metal flow around the tool pin due to excess
plasticization of base metal under the tool shoulder and
thus promote less uniform microstructure of the weld, i.e.
formation of "onion rings".
Figure 4. EBSD images of weld in SSA038 alloy: (a) advancing

side and (b) retreating side.
The welds in both of the examined alloys exhibited another common feature: the microstructure of the advancing
side was characterized by a sharp boundary between the
SZ and the TMAZ, while the retreating side of the joint
had a more complex microstructure with no well-defined
boundary between the SZ and the TMAZ. The differences
in microstructure on the advancing and retreating sides are
also clearly visible in images formed in the SEM by EBSD
(see Figure 4). This technique enables grain misorientations to be measured over large areas and can therefore
obtain statistically significant quantitative data on the fine
grain structures present in friction stir welds. The SZ has
extremely small, on the order of several micrometers,
relatively equally-sized grains. This is due to severe plastic
deformation combined with the physical flow of the material around the pin (stirring) and substantial increase of
temperature. Dynamic recrystallization takes place in this
region forming a microstructure composed of fine equiaxed grains. In the TMAZ grains were larger and elongated since the extent of plastic deformation and the temperature increase was less than that in the weld center. In
addition, the EBSD analysis provided information regarding the grain boundary character in specific zones: the SZ,
TMAZ and HAZ have various boundary misorientation
distributions. Figure 5 shows the difference in the distributions for the SZ and TMAZ. The weld center is dominated by high angle boundaries (22 - 60) while the TMAZ
1090
has a high frequency of low angle boundaries. It is worthy

to note, however, that for the SSA038 alloy containing Sc
the grain boundaries in the TMAZ is greater. This confirms the role of Sc as an element controlling recovery and
recrystallization during the FSW process.
Figure 5. Distributions of boundary misorientation for weld center

and TMAZ: (a) AA7136 and (b) SSA038.
Figure 6. Hardness profiles for welds of SSA038 and AA7136

alloys.
Results of hardness tests are shown in Figure 6. The

plots in Figure 6 represent the hardness in mid-thickness
of a plate, but variations in hardness through the thickness
were not significant. Both alloys demonstrated similar
hardness of base material (hardness averages 200 HV).
However, there is an ample difference between hardness in
the weld region for AA7136 and SSA038 alloys. In the
case AA7136 alloy, the hardness profile has a typical Wshape, as in most investigated FSW welds [7]. The hardness of the weld center in this alloy is about 155 HV, while
in the regions at TMAZ/HAZ boundaries the hardness
drops to about 130 HV. The drop in hardness is due to
partial dissolution and coarsening of the strengthening
precipitates. The W-shape of the hardness profile (the
09.08.2010 14:43:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
increase in the weld center) likely results from the more
intense dissolution of the hardening phase (temperature
above the solvus of the initial precipitates) and its further
reprecipitation due to natural aging. On the other hand, the
hardness profile of the SSA038 alloy shows a single minimum. The entire weld area and TMAZ have similar hardness, which averages 120 HV. In this respect, such a profile resembles hardness profiles often observed in work
hardened aluminum alloys [7]. Again, this "flat" profile is
associated with the influence of Sc on microstructural
changes occurring during friction stir welding.
Table 2. Mechanical properties of examined alloys.
Alloy/Properties
Yield Strength [MPa]
Elongation [%]
Yield Strength [MPa]
Elongation [%]
AA7136
Base
634
607
11
As-welded
476
386
6
SSA038
651
597
15
442
409
5
Tensile properties are summarized in Table 2. After

FSW, the yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation
decreased relative to the baseline properties. The reason
for this decrease is the same as discussed above for variations in hardness, i.e. coarsening and dissolution of the
strengthening phase due to the increase in temperature
during the FSW process. The fall of elongation is due to
concentration of strain in softer regions. The fracture of
the AA7136 samples always occurred on the retreating
side where the hardness reached a minimum. In the
SSA038 samples, on the other hand, there was no preferential site of fracture. The joint efficiency, defined as the
ratio of the yield strength of welded samples to the baseline yield strength, is higher for the SSA038 alloy (69 %)
compared to the alloy AA7136 (64 %). The difference in
the joint efficiency gives another evidence of the beneficial role of scandium in the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the Polish Ministry of Science
and Higher Education (Grant No. N507 446337) for their
support of this research. The authors would like to thank dr.
Krzysztof Muszka from AGH University of Science and
Technology for his help in conducting and elaborating
EBSD results.
References
[1] J.D. Staley: Acta Materialia, 52 (2004) 1409.
[2] Y.W. Riddle, T.H. Sanders: Materials Science Forum 331337 (2000)
799.
[3] S.V. Senkova, O.N. Senkov, D.B.Miracle: Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 57-12 (2006) 3569-3575.
[4] R.B. Bhat, J.D. Schloz, S.V. Senkova, O.N. Senkov: Metallurgical
and Materials Transactions A, 36-8 (2005) 2115-2126.
[5] V.G. Davydov, T.D. Rostova, V.V .Zakharov, Y.A. Filatov, V.I.
Yelagin: Materials Science and Engineering A, 280 (2000) 3061.
[6] R.S. Mishra , M.W. Mahoney: Friction Stir Welding and Processing,
ASM International, Ohio, USA, (2007).
[7] P.L. Threadgill, A.J. Leonard, H.R.Shercliff, P.J. Withers: International Materials Reviews, 54-2 (2009), 49-93.
[8] I. Polmear: Light Alloys From Traditional Alloys to Nanocrystals,
fourth edition, Elsevier (2006).
[9] J.Q. Su, T.W. Nelson, R. Mishra, B. Mahoney: Acta Materialia, 51
(2003) 713-729.
[10] O.N. Senkov, M.R. Shagiev, S.V. Senkova, D.B. Miracle: Acta
Materialia, 56 (2008) 3723-3738.
[11] C. Hamilton, S. Dymek, M. Blicharski and W. Brzegowy: Science
and Technology of Welding and Joining, 12 (2007) 732-737.
[12] M.A. Sutton, B.C. Yang, A.P. Reynolds and R. Taylor: Materials
Science and Engineering A. 323 (2002) 160.
[13] G. Biallas, R. Braun, C. Dalle Donne, G. Staniek, W.A. Kaysser:
Proc. of 1st Int. Symp. on Friction Stir Welding, Thousand Oaks, CA,
USA, (1999).
[14] K.N. Kishnan: Materials Science and Engineering A, 327 (2002)
246.
Conclusions
Friction stir welding applied to the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys
produces high quality, sound welds. The characteristic
nugget typical for FSW joints of other aluminum alloys
was not observed. The center of welds was comprised of
extremely small and equiaxed grains with an average diameter of several micrometers. The microstructures on
advancing and retreating sides were different: on the advancing side there was a sharp boundary between the
TMAZ and the SZ while on the retreating side, the microstructure was changing in a continuous way. There was a
striking difference between hardness profiles for AA7136
and SSA038 alloys: profiles for the SSA038 exhibited
singular minima resembling profiles met in work hardened
aluminum alloys. The beneficial role of Sc in the Al-ZnMg-Cu alloys is manifested by the higher joint efficiency,
defined as the ratio of the yield strength of welded samples
to the baseline yield strength, for the alloy containing
scandium.
1091
09.08.2010 14:43:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Friction Stir Welding of Dissimilar Al 5052 to Ti-6Al-4V Alloy with WC-Co Tool
Jae-Keun Hong, Chae-Hun Lee, Jeoung-Han Kim, Jong-Taek Yeom, Chang-Gil Lee
Structural Material Division, Korea Institute of Materials Science, 66 Sangnam-dong, Changwon, Gyeongnam, / South Korea,
jkhong@kims.re.kr
The joining of dissimilar Al 5052 H32 and Ti-6Al-4V alloys was carried out by the friction stir welding (FSW) process using WC-Co and
SKD61 tools. The microstructure, hardness distribution and tensile properties of those dissimilar joints have been investigated depending
on welding variables and offset distance. The microstructures of base materials, weld nugget, heat affected zone (HAZ) and thermomechanical affected zone (TMAZ) were investigated by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscope. The effects of the rotation
speed, welding speed, offset distance and rotation direction of the pin on the microstructure and tensile properties were investigated. The
compositional microanalysis of the interface between Al and Ti was performed by electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA). The defects of
dissimilar joints were evaluated by X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT). The tensile strength and of the friction stir welded titanium and
aluminium joints reached 212MPa representing 88% of the Al 5052 H32 alloy. The elongation of the FSW joint reached 9.1%. With increase
in offset distance of the pin, tensile strength was decreased, and defects, Ti fragments and Ti oxide film were increased.
Keywords: Friction stir welding, Ti-Al dissimilar welding, Tool material, Offset distance, Butt joint
Introduction
Titanium and its alloys are used in aerospace, automotives, chemical/power plants and biomaterials application
owing to their excellent strength to density ratio, attractive
strength at elevated temperatures, outstanding corrosion
resistance and reasonably good high-temperature oxidation
resistance [1,2]. Moreover, low weight, high strength and
cost reduction concurrently required in aviation industry.
Due to the increasing use of titanium alloy, better welding
technology for titanium and dissimilar metals may be
required in the aerospace and automobile industries.
Several researches have been reported about joining of
dissimilar materials, such as titanium and aluminium [3-6].
However, fusion welding of titanium and aluminium
showed several problems, such as the formation of brittle
intermetallic phases and the necessity for high cost equipments [7].
The friction stir welding (FSW) patented by TWI is a
solid state joining process [8]. Therefore, FSW is expected
to solve the problems of the fusion welding and, recently,
some results have been reported about dissimilar joining
using FSW [3,7,9,10]. Friction stir welding of titanium
alloys differs from FSW of aluminum alloys with regard to
the tools and FSW machine [11]. However, FSW of a Ti
and Al dissimilar joint has a number of differences compared to that with titanium. Dressler [3] reported on feasibility to produce dissimilar butt joints of TiAl6V4 and
AA2204-T3 by FSW and their characterization in terms of
microstructure and mechanical properties. Chen and Nakata [7] reported on the characteristics of friction stir lab
welding (FSLW) between pure titanium and Al alloy investigated from both mechanical and metallurgical point
of view.
In this paper, the microstructures and mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V and Al 5052 H32 dissimilar joints
joined by FSW were investigated in terms of the welding
speed, tool RPM, tool material and offset distance. In
addition, the defects in dissimilar joints were evaluated by
X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT).
1092
Titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) and Aluminium alloy
(Al5052) plates with a thickness of 2.5mm were friction
stir welded along a butted joint. The chemical compositions of the materials is given in Table 1. The welding tool
has a shoulder that was 12mm in diameter and a straight
probe of 4mm. The length of the probe was 2.45mm and
the welding tilt angle was 3. Tools made of WC-Co and
tool steels (SKD61/SKH57) were used in this experiment.
The shoulder and pin were coated to improve wear property.
Colegroove and Soundararajan [12,13] reported that the
relative velocity of the retreating side is higher than that of
the advancing side. Titanium was on the advancing side,
and the aluminium was on the retreating side in this study.
Figure 1(a) shows a schematic of the Ti-Al friction stir
welding process. By controlling or reducing the volume of
sheared titanium, it was easy to fill a void on the titanium
side with plasticized Al material from an interface [12].
The offset distance was defined and varied from 0mm to
0.1mm, as shown in Figure 1(b) [10].
After FSW process, the soundness of the dissimilar
joints was analyzed by X-ray examinations. Tensile tests
were performed with test specimens having a longitudinal
direction perpendicular to the welding directions. The
microstructures and cross-sections were observed with an
optical microscope and a scanning electron microscope
(SEM). An electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA) was
used for a compositional microanalysis.
Table 1. Chemical compositions of Ti and Al alloy sheets (wt.%).
Si
Fe
Cu
Mn
Mg
Cr
Zn
Ti
Al
Ti-6Al-4V
0.13
Bal.
3.90
6.22
Al 5052
0.12
0.28
0.03
0.03
2.40
0.17
0.03
Bal.
09.08.2010 14:43:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
Tool rotation
Weld direction
300mm
zone and the Ti-Al interface. Upon increasing the pin

rotation speed, the tensile properties decreased. This was
attributed to wear of the pin from the higher heat input and
to defects from the lack of stirring.
Advance side
Retreating side
Fracture path
Ti -6Al-4V
Al 5052
Welding direction
100mm
100mm
(a) 1000 RPM
Pit
(a)
(b) 1600 RPM

Al alloy
Ti alloy
Offset distance
(c) 2000 RPM
Figure 2. Surface appearances and cross-sections of Ti-Al FSW

joints depending on pin rotation speed.
Al alloy
Ti alloy
Offset = 0mm
(b)
Figure 1. (a) Schematic diagram of Ti-Al dissimilar FSW and (b)

offset position; location of pin in relation to butt line of welded
plates.
The welding speed was varied from 100 to 200 mm/min.

The maximum tensile strength was observed at a welding
speed of 150 mm/min, as shown in Figure 3. According to
these results, the optimum conditions for Ti-Al FSW are a
welding speed of 150 mm/min and a pin rotation speed of
1000 rpm.
300
Effect of Tool Traverse and Rotation Speed on the

Tensile Properties. The rotating speed was varied from
1000 to 2000 rpm, and the welding speed was varied from
100 to 200 mm/min. Figure 2 shows the surface appearances and cross-sections of FSW joints at a welding speed
of 150 mm/min. The tensile properties depending on the
pin rotation speed and welding speed are shown in Figure
3.
At a tool rotation speed of less than 800 rpm, the incomplete fusion was occurred along the interface between the
Ti and Al. Figure. 2(a) shows the upper welding surface
without defects at a tool rotation speed of 1000 rpm.
Therefore, a maximum tensile strength FSW joint was
reached at 88% of the Al base material under these conditions; fracturing initiated at the upper region of the interface and occurred at mainly in the aluminium base metal.
At tool rotation speeds of 1600 and 2000 rpm, there
were defects that were identified as pits on the upper surface. The strength of the welds in these samples was lower
than that at 1000 rpm. The fracture path was along the stir
Tensile Strength (MPa)
200
150
100
50
0
50
100
150
200
250
Welding speed (mm/min)
(a) tensile strength

1000RPM
1600RPM
2000RPM
Elongation (%)
Wear Properties of Tools. Tool steels of WC-Co,

SKD61/SKH57 (Ti-C-N or Ti-Al-C-N coating) and TZM
(Ta-Zr-Mo alloy) alloy were used as tool materials for TiAl FSW and the friction properties were evaluated. After
FSW process for a distance of 1m at the same welding
speed, RPM and offset, the pin diameters of WC-Co,
SKD61, SKH57 and TZM were respectively 3.95, 3.90
3.70 and 3.20 mm. The wear property of the Ti-Al-C-N
coating was superior to that of the Ti-C-N coating. According to these results, SKD 61 material coated with TiAl-C-N was used to tool materials.
1000RPM
1600RPM
2000RPM
250
50
100
150
200
250
(b) elongation
Figure 3. Tensile properties of Ti-Al FSW joints depending on pin
rotation speed and welding speed.
The soundness of the Ti-Al joint depending on the pin

rotation speed was analyzed by X-ray examinations, as
shown in Figure 4. At a pin rotation speed of 1000 rpm
and a welding speed of 100 mm/min, there were no defects
of Ti fragments in the stirred zone and interfaces. However,
there were defects and Ti fragments at pin rotation speeds
of 1600 and 2000 rpm.
1093
09.08.2010 14:43:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
defect
Ti
Al
Ti
Al
(a) 1000RPM
(b)1600RPM
mechanically affected zone (TMAZ) was distinguishable

from the HAZ due to partial recrystallization and plastic
deformation. The microstructure of the stir zone showed a
fine grain size due to dynamic recrystallization.
Figure 6 shows a cross-section of the sample and its
fracture path depending on the pin offset distance. Fracturing was occurred at the interface and in the stir zone. Upon
increasing the offset distance, the tensile strength was
decreased to 20% of that of the Al base material. This was
attributed to an oxide film that formed at interface, as
shown in Figure 7.
defect
Ti
Offset distance
Al
0.05mm
0.1mm
(c) 2000RPM
Figure 4. X-ray transmission images of Ti-Al FSW joints depending on the pin rotation speed.
Microstructures Depending on Offset Distance. The

offset distance was varied from 0mm to 0.1mm with a
specially designed jig and backing plate. Figure 5 shows a
cross-section and the microstructures of the Ti-Al joint at
an offset distance of 0mm, a welding speed of 150mm/min
and a pin rotation speed of 1000 rpm.
Al-5052
Ti-6Al-4V
TMAZ
HAZ
Figure 6. Cross-sections and fracture path depending on offset

distance.
Al
Al
Ti Al
Al
Al
40mm
Ti
Ti
Al
Ti
Ti
Al
Ti
40mm
HAZ
(b) Offset 0.1mm

Figure 7. EPMA results depending on offset distance.
40mm
40mm
Ti base metal
40mm
Al
(a) Offset : 0mm
TMAZ
Weld joint
Ti
Stir zone
Base metal
Al base metal
Ti
Weld joint
Base metal
Stir zone
40mm
Figure 5. Microstructures of FSW joints at offset distance of 0 mm,

welding speed of 150 mm/min and a pin rotation speed of 1000
rpm.
Hardness Distributions Depending on Pin Rotation

Speed. The hardness distribution measured along the
transverse cross section of Ti-Al joint at the bottom and
top region, as shown in Figure 8. Retreating side (RS, Al
5052 alloy side) had an average hardness value of about
68 Hv. At the bottom region of Al side, hardness of -1.2
mm distance from interface was increased to 88 HV. This
is the reason why Ti fragment, dynamic recrystallisation
and grain refinement. The hardness sharply increased
toward the advancing side (AS, Ti side) having circa 373
HV. The hardness of Ti-Al joint showed nearly same values at the pin rotation speed from 1000 to 1600 RPM.
The interface was defect-free, and grain size of the heataffected zone (HAZ) side was slightly coarser than that of
the Al base metal. The microstructure of the thermo-
1094
09.08.2010 14:43:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
Acknowledgements
Hardness (Hv)
This research was supported by a grant from 2008 Aerospace R&D program (Technology development of Ti-6Al4V sheet forming, solid state bonding, and vacuumassisted resin transfer moulding of carbon composites for
aircraft structure) of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy,
Republic of Korea.
upper region
bottom region
400
300
200
References
100
0
-8
-6
-4
-2
Distance from interface (mm)
(a)150mm/min, 1000RPM
upper region
bottom region
Hardness (Hv)
400
300
200
100
0
-8
-6
-4
-2
Distance from interface (mm)
[1] F. Sun, K.-O. Yu: Innovations in Titanium Technology, ed M. N.

Gungor, M. A. Imam, F. H. Froes, TMS, (2007), 19-27.
[2] G. Adam, D. L. Zhang, J. Liang: Innovations in Titanium Technology,
ed M. N. Gungor, M. A. Imam, F. H. Froes, TMS, (2007), 29-36.
[3] U. Dressler, G. Biallas, U. A. Mercado: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 526 (2009), 113-117.
[4] A. Fuji: Science and Technology of Welding and Joining 7 (2002),
413-416.
[5] J. Wilden, J.P. Bergmann: Welding and Cutting, 3 (2004), 285-290.
[6] M. Kreimeyer, F. Wagner, F. Vollertsen: Optics and Lasers in Engineering, 43 (2005), 10211035.
[7] Y.C. Chen, K. Nakata: Materials and Design, 30 (2009), 469474.
[8] W.M. Thomas, E.D. Nicholas, J.C. Needham, M.G. Murch, P. Templesmith, C.J. Dawes: Improvements Relating to Friction Welding,
European Patent, EP 0 615480 B1, (1992).
[9] W.B. Lee, M. Schmuecker, U. A. Mercardo, G. Biallasb, S.B. Jung:
Scripta Materialia 55 (2006), 355358
[10] T. Watanabe, H. Takayama, A. Yanagisawa: J. of Materials Processing Technology, 178 (2006), 342-349
[11] R.S. Mishra, M.W. Mahoney: Friction Stir Welding and Processing,
ASM, (2007).
[12] V. Soundararajan, R. Kovacevic: Proceedings of 6th International
Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, Canada, TWI, (2006)
[13] Colegrove P., Shercliff H.: 2-dimensional CFD modeling of flow
round profiled FSW tooling, TMS Annual Meeting, Friction Stir
Welding and Processing II, (2003), 13-22.
(b)150mm/min, 1600RPM
Figure 8. Hardness distribution of cross-section taken perpendicular to welding direction.
Conclusions
The effects of welding variables and the tool material in
the Ti-Al FSW were investigated. The following results
were obtained.
1. WC-Co and SKD 61 were usable as tool materials for
dissimilar FSW between titanium and aluminium alloys.
2. At a tool rotation speed of 1000 rpm, a maximum tensile
strength of nearly 88% of the Al base material was observed at a welding speed of 150 mm/min, and fracturing of the welded specimen initiated in the upper region
of the interface, occurring at mainly in the aluminium
base metal.
3. The pin rotation speed is more influential than the welding speed on the tensile properties. In the range of 100200 mm/min, the welding speed of 150 mm/min was the
optimum condition.
4. Upon increasing the offset distance, the tensile strength
decreased. This is attributed to Titanium fragments and
the formation of a Titanium oxide films.
1095
09.08.2010 14:43:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Observation on Plastic Flow in Friction Stir Spot Welding between Aluminum Alloy and
Steel
Masahiro Fukumoto, Masami Tsubaki, Toshiaki Yasui, Katashi Miyagawa, Keitaro Miyagawa
Department of Production Systems Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi / Japan, fukumoto@tut.jp
Friction stir spot welding is an attractive process for the welding between aluminum alloy and steel. In this process, plastic flow in aluminum alloy may be a domination for welding property. In this study, plastic flow in aluminum alloy was traced by copper wires installed into
aluminum alloy and zinc coating on a steel plate placed between steel and aluminum alloy. The decentralization of the copper wire was
observed with X-ray CT. Temperatures at a rotating tool tip and weld interface were measured by K-type thermocouples embedded in each
place. From the observation of Cu or Zn flow in Al alloy, it was indicated that plastic flow extends gradually from the tool tip and expands
from the welding center to the periphery side. From the temperature measurement result, it was found that the temperature at weld center
was higher than that at periphery side at the weld interface.
Keywords: Friction stir spot welding, Welding between dissimilar materials, Plastic flow, Temperature at weld interface
Introduction
Spot welding between aluminum alloy and steel is
needed for construction of an ideal light weight and fuel
efficient car [1]. Conventional resistance spot welding
between aluminum alloy and carbon steel is fairly difficult,
because thick intermetallic compound (IMC) layer is
formed at the weld interface. IMC is essentially fragile and
deteriorates the mechanical strength of the weld joint [2-5].
Recently, solid phase welding between dissimilar metals
by friction stirring was newly developed by authors [6,7].
We succeeded in friction stir spot welding between
aluminum alloy and steel [8,9].
The effective factors for friction stir spot welding
between aluminum alloy and steel are temperature at weld
interface and plastic flow in aluminum alloy. These factors
are closely related, because aluminum alloy softens
according to the temperature. So, to clarify temperature
history and the behavior of plastic flow of aluminum alloy
is important to figure out the welding state between
aluminum alloy and steel by friction stir spot welding.
In this study, friction stir spot welding between
aluminum alloy and steel, temperature at tool tip and weld
interface were measured during welding. And plastic flow
in aluminum alloy during welding was traced by two types
of tracers to clarify the relation between temperature at
weld interface and plastic flow in aluminum alloy.
Figure 1 shows the detail of the friction stir spot welding
between aluminum alloy and steel. The welding experiments were conducted by a machining center (Enshu
S400). The rotating tool has a shoulder with 10 mm in
diameter with a small conical center probe of 0.3 mm in
height. Tool material is WC-Co cemented carbide. Weld
materials are aluminum alloy (AA5052) and low carbon
steel both with 30 mm x 200 mm x 1 mm size. Low carbon
steels have two kinds, one is Zn plated and other is without Zn coating. The chemical compositions of weld materials are listed in Table 1. Table 2 shows the welding
1096
conditions. In this study, the effects of some process parameters were investigated.
Figure 1. Friction stir spot welding between aluminum alloy and

steel.
Table 1. Chemical compositions of weld materials.
(mass%)
Alloy
Si
Fe
Cu Mn Mg Cr
Ti
C
P
S
A5052
0.09 0.26 0.03 0.02 2.37 0.19 0.02 SPC270C 0.016 others 0.18 0.04 0.13 0.01
09.08.2010 14:43:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
C1020 wire(2mm) r =0, 2.5mm
Table 2. Welding conditions.

Tool Rotation N (rpm)
Tool Plunge Speed v (mm/min)
Tool Plunge Depth d (mm)
Hold Time of Tool t (s)
50
0.1-0.7
1, 3, 5, 10
Figure 2 shows the schematic view of temperature

measurement. Temperature at rotating tool tip and weld
interface was measured by the K-type thermocouples
which were embedded in the tool and at weld interface
from steel side at the same three radial positions as shown
in Figure 2. Temperature at tool tip was monitored by the
telemetry system as shown in Figure 3.
4mm
2mm
Rotating tool
1000, 3000, 5000
Thermocouple
Rotating tool
AA5052
SPC270C
Figure 4. Alignment of copper tracer in AA5052.

Figure 5 shows the result of temperature measurement.
It was found from the figure that temperature at weld interface was lower than the melting point of aluminum.
And temperature at weld center was higher than weld
periphery both at tool tip and weld interface, and temperature at weld interface was higher than that at the tool tip.
4mm
2mm
Thermocouple
Rotating
tool
AA5052
SPC270C
Figure 2. Schematic view of telemetry system for measuring
temperature at tool tip during welding.
AA5052
SPC270
C
Melting point
Weld end
of aluminum
Plunge start Hold start

Tool
holder
1000
Battery
0, 2, 4mm
Transmitter
Center
Temperature /K
800
600
Center
2mm
4mm
4mm
400
Rotating Tool
K type thermocouple(0.5)
Figure 3. Temperature measurement device at tip of rotating tool
by K-type thermocouple.
Time /s
(a) Tool tips

Plunge start Hold start
Weld end
1000
10
Melting point
of aluminum
Center
2mm
4mm
Center
800
Temperature /K
Figure 4 shows the alignment of copper tracer in

AA5052. An arbitrary position of AA5052 was punctured,
and copper wire with 2 mm was installed there. In this
study, insert position of copper wire r is 0 or 2.5 mm from
weld center. After the welding, the decentralization of
copper wire was observed with X-ray CT. Before the observation, SPC270C was removed mechanically.
To investigate the plastic flowing behaviour of aluminium alloy at weld interface, welding between AA5052 and
SPC270C with zinc coated was conducted. As Zinc on the
SPC270C is decentralized during welding, plastic flow of
AA5052 at weld interface can be traced by the decentralization behaviour of zinc.
2mm
2mm
4mm
600
400
0
Time (s)
10
(b) Weld interface

Figure 5. Temperature history during welding, N=3000rpm, v=50
mm/min, d=0.3 mm and t=5 s.
1097
09.08.2010 14:43:43 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figures 6 and 7 shows the observation results by X-ray
CT. From Figure 6, it is found that copper wire on central
position flattened with hold time. From Figure 7, it is
recognized that copper wire on 2.5 mm position flowed
along tool rotating direction and expanded to outside from
initial position.
AA5052
SPC270C
C1020 Wire(2mm)
Legend of the figure
Tool position
Tool rotation
Initial position of Cu wire
Figure 8 shows the cross-section macrostructure at

weld point between AA5052 and zinc coated steel. Temperature measurement results at three points of tool tip
were shown together. A pair of inclined black line on
cross-section in aluminum side indicates Zn flow into
aluminum alloy from steel surface by friction stirring. It is
found from the figure that aluminum stir zone penetrates
so quickly from tool contacted surface up to the interface
to the steel plate as shown in the figure of d=0.1 mm. With
increase the plunging depth and holding period, stir zone
showed widening and thinning to outward. And secondary
stirring area is formed at d=0.3 mm, that is, plastic flowing
stir zone is constructed by two parts. First central part may
be brought about by the friction heating by the plunging
pin, while second periphery part brought about by the
heating by the shoulder part of the tool. The plastic flowing intrinsically depends on the heated temperature, that is,
the material start to plastic flow over a certain critical
temperature. The temperature measurement results at each
point correspond well to the expansion of the stir zone.
Cross-section images
Temperature
Center 2mm
4mm
AA5052
Steel 608K 464K 333K
(a) d=0.1mm, t=0s
644K 533K 395K
<t=0s>
<t=5s>
2mm
(b) d=0.2mm, t=0s
Figure 6. Penetration image of plastic flow in AA5052 traced by X

ray, N=3000 rpm, v=50 mm/min, d=0.3 mm and r=0 mm.
669K 585K 465K

(c) d=0.3mm, t=0s
r=2.5mm
782K 754K 715K

(d) d=0.3mm, t=3s
AA5052
SPC270C
C1020 Wire(2mm)
Tool rotation
Initial position of Cu wire
<t=0s>
(e) d=0.3mm, t=5s

Figure 8. Cross section macrostructure at weld point between
AA5052 and zinc coated steel and temperature at tool tips,
N=3000 rpm and v=50 mm/min.
Legend of the figure

Tool position
792K 753K 727K
Figure 9 shows the observation result on interface macrostructure, indicating plastic flow of Al at interface traced
by the Zn flow. In Figure 9(b), zinc is rolled into the central portion and there is a vortex of zinc at weld interface
as shown in Figure 9(c). By comparing the intervals of the
vortex, it is found that interval of central region of the
vortex is wider than that of periphery region. From the
result, it is indicated that intensely flowing occurs near
central region of the weld than periphery region. This
intensely flowing at central region may originate from the
higher increasing of temperature as shown in Figure 8.
<t=5s>
2mm
Figure 7. Penetration image of plastic flow in AA5052 by X ray,

N=3000 rpm, v=50 mm/min, d=0.3 mm and r=2.5 mm.
1098
09.08.2010 14:43:44 Uhr
Metal Forming
AA5052
Steel
1mm
Observed direction of (b)

(a) Observation position and direction
Tool Rotation
Tool Position
Conclusions
Temperature at a tool tip and weld interface during friction stir spot welding between aluminum alloy and steel
was measured by K-type thermocouples. And plastic flow
behavior of aluminum alloy during welding was monitored
by two kinds of tracers to clarify the relation between
temperature at weld interface and plastic flow of aluminum alloy. Following results were obtained by this study.
(c)
2mm
(b) Overview of weld interface
780K
748K
671K
500m
(c) Plastic flow behavior at weld interface
Figure 9. Zinc distribution at weld interface, N=3000 rpm, v=50
mm/ min, d=0.3 mm and t=5 s.
Figure 10 shows the thickness increase of intermetallic

compound, IMC, layer at the weld interface. The characteristic of weld joint by friction stir spot welding between
aluminum alloy and steel greatly depends on the formation
state of the IMC at the interface. It is found from the figure
that the thicker IMC layer is formed at central region,
which corresponds to a higher temperature increasing,
than the periphery region.
Thickness of reaction layer /m
5
Center
2mm
4mm
From these results, it is indicated that joining of friction

stir spot welding between aluminum alloy and steel is
dominated by the temperature reached and the plastic
flowing generated, which may enhance the inter diffusion
of both materials, at interface.
1. Temperature at weld interface was lower than the melting point of aluminum. And temperature at weld center
was higher than weld periphery at both tool tip and
weld interface, and temperature at weld interface was
higher than that at the tool tip.
2. Macroscopic plastic flow in the stir zone was constructed by two parts. The first central part may be
brought by the friction heating by the plunging pin,
while the second periphery part is brought by the heating by the shoulder part of the tool.
3. From the tracer observation result, it was indicated that
intensely flowing occurred near the central region of the
weld than periphery region.
4. It was found that the thicker IMC layer is formed at
central region, which corresponds to a higher temperature increasing, than the periphery region.
5. By summarizing the results, it is indicated that joining
of friction stir spot welding between aluminum alloy
and steel is dominated by the temperature reached and
the plastic flowing generated, which may enhance the
inter diffusion of both materials, at interface.
References
3
2
1
4
6
8
10
Hold time of tool /s
Figure 10. Thickness distribution of reaction layer at weld interface,
N=3000 rpm, v=50 mm/min and d=0.3 mm.
[1] T.A. Barnes, I.R. Pashby: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,

99 (2000), 62-71.
[2] Shinichi Kuroda: Quarterly Journal of the Japan Welding Society, 173 (1999), 484-489.
[3] T. Taka: Welding Technology, 3 (1993), 83-87.
[4] H. Oikawa: TETSU-to-HAGANE, 83 (1997), 641-646.
[5] S. Mukae: Quarterly Journal of the Japan Welding Society, 12 (1994)
528-533.
[6] M. Fukumoto, M. Tsubaki, Y. Shimoda, T. Yasui: Quarterly Journal of
the Japan Welding Society, 22-5 (2004), 309-314, (in Japanese).
[7] T. Yasui, Y. Shimoda, M. Tsubaki, T. Ishii and M. Fukumoto:
Quarterly Journal of the JapanWelding Society, 23-3 (2005), 469-475.
(in Japanese).
[8] M. Fukumoto, K. Miyagawa, T. Yasui, M. Tsubaki: Proc. 6th
International Symposium on Friction Stir Welding, (2006), CD.
[9] K. Miyagawa, M. Tsubaki, T. Yasui, M. Fukumoto: Quarterly Journal
of the Japan Welding Society, 26-1 (2008), 42-47, (in Japanese).
1099
09.08.2010 14:43:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
Microstructural Evolution during Friction Stir Welding of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy

Sergey Mironov, Yutaka Sato, Hiroyuki Kokawa
Department of Materials Processing, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University / Japan, ytksato@material.tohoku.ac.jp
The successful application of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy relies heavily on the availability of a welding process producing superior quality joints.
Friction stir welding, being an innovative solid-state joining technology, is potentially attractive for Ti-6Al-4V. As a solid-state process, FSW
avoids (or limits) solidification problems and thus provides defect-free welds having excellent mechanical properties. In order to improve the
basic physical understanding of FSW of Ti-6Al-4V, the present contribution was focused on microstructural evolution during the welding
process. The microstructural development was found to be a complex process involving -to- phase transformation during a heating stage,
deformation in the high-temperature -phase field during stirring stage and -to- phase transformation upon a cooling stage of FSW.
Reconstruction of the -grain structure demonstrated that the microstructural evolution in the high-temperature phase field was a complex
process involving geometrical effects of strain, transverse grain subdivision and the limited discontinuous recrystallization induced by local
grain boundary migration. The -to- phase transformation after the FSW is established to be governed by Burgers orientation relationship
which dictated the final weld crystallography.
Keywords: Ti-6Al-4V alloy, Friction stir welding, Electron back-scatter diffraction, Grain structure reconstruction, Burgers orientation relationship
Introduction
The two-phase - titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V is featured
by a very promising balance of properties including low
density, superior specific strength, high stiffness, excellent
fracture toughness and good corrosion resistance. As a
result, this material is commonly considered to be a
workhorse titanium alloy in various industrial, domestic,
and medical applications, such as turbine engine parts,
chemical reactors, bicycle frames, orthopedic implants, etc.
The successful application of the Ti-6Al-4V relies heavily on the availability of welding process producing superior quality joints. Fusion welding technologies, which are
conventionally used to join the titanium alloys, generally
enable to produce high-quality welds with a relatively high
productivity. However, the undesirable solidification structure may significantly deteriorate some service properties
of the weldments, especially ductility and fatigue performance.
Friction stir welding (FSW), an innovative solid-state
joining technology [1], might be potentially attractive for
Ti-6Al-4V. As a solid-state process, FSW avoids (or limits)
solidification problems associated with conventional fusion welding and thus provides defect-free welds having
good properties even in materials that are not generally
considered for welding applications.
Given potential advantages of FSW, several research efforts have been made recently to evaluate effect of FSW
on structure and properties of the Ti-6Al-4V [3,4]. The
first studies in this field have shown that FSW is very
feasible for the Ti-6Al-4V [3]. These encouraging results
necessitated the development of a more fundamental understanding of the FSW process with the aim to precisely
control weld properties through the structure-properties
relationship.
Unfortunately, the research activity in this field is still
very limited. For instance, a relatively little attention has
been paid to the mechanisms governing the microstructural evolution during FSW and many important aspects of
1100
the physical phenomena involved remain unclear. Obviously, more research efforts should be directed to this field.
The current work is focused on fundamental issues of
the microstructural development of Ti-6Al-4V during FSW.
For this purpose, electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD)
technique in conjunction with field emission gun scanning
electron microscopy (FE-SEM) has been employed in an
attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of microstructural evolution during FSW of Ti-6Al-4V.
Experimental
The material used in present investigation was a commercial Ti-6Al-4V alloy having a chemical composition
(wt. %) of Al 6.09, V 4.02, C 0.011, Fe 0.14, N 0.008, H
0.0023 and balance Ti. The material was received as 3 mm
thick sheets 250 mm long and 60 mm wide.
The received sheets were butt-welded along longitudinal
direction on an FSW machine fitted with an automated
control system. Welding tool was fabricated from a Mobased alloy, and consisted of a convex shoulder having a
diameter of 15 mm and a pin, tapered from 5.1 mm at the
shoulder to 3 mm at the pin tip. FSW was performed at a
tool rotational speed of 500 rpm and a travel speed of 60
mm/min. The FSW machine operated under depth control
with the plunge depth maintained at ~ 2 mm. To minimize
surface oxidation, argon shielding was employed around
the tool during FSW. In this paper, the reference directions
in FSW geometry are denoted by the conventional FSW
terminology, i.e. WD, welding direction; ND, normal direction; TD, transversal direction.
Following FSW, the obtained welds were crosssectioned perpendicular to the WD for the microstructure
examinations. For optical microscopic (OM) and scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) observations, the samples
were ground with water abrasive paper, mechanically
polished with a final polishing step comprising of colloidal
silica, and then etched in Krolls reagent (2 vol% HF, 4
vol% HNO3 and 94 vol% H2O). A suitable surface finish
for EBSD was obtained by applying a mechanical polish-
09.08.2010 14:43:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
ing in a similar fashion followed by electro-polishing in a
30-ml acetic acid + 50-ml perchloric acid solution at ambient temperature with an applied potential of 25 V. All
microstructural observations were made on the transversal
(i.e. ND-TD) plane. The OM studies were carried out
using Nikon Optiphot-100 optical microscope. SEM observations and high resolution EBSD analysis were performed with a Hitachi S-4300SE field emission gun SEM
FE-SEM equipped with TSL OIMTM EBSD system.
Low Magnification Overview. A low magnification
overview of transverse cross section of the friction stir
weld is shown in Figure 1. Three distinct zones may be
seen: base material, stir zone (SZ) and a narrow (~ 500 m
width) transition region. The SZ exhibits a basin-like
shape significantly widening towards the upper surface.
The SZ is approximately symmetric about the centerline
and shows relatively homogeneous contrast; no welding
defects or evident features are seen.
Figure 3. Typical microstructure in SZ
ing FSW might be estimated as high as ~70%. Closer to

the tool, it increases rapidly achieving ~95% directly near
the SZ (see Figure 2(c)).
The -to- phase transformation in titanium alloys is
well known to follow the Burgers orientation relationship
(OR) between the phase, which can be expressed
as {0001} // {110} and close packed directions
< 1120 > // < 111 > . In order to examine the Burgers
OR between the phases in the present study, highresolution EBSD map was obtained from the central part
of the SZ, as shown in Figure 4(a).
Figure 1. Low-magnification overview of transversal cross section

of friction stir weld.
Transition Region. SEM images of the microstructures

developed at different distances away from the SZ are
shown in Figure 2.
Near outer edge of the transition region (-550 m from
the SZ), the -phase begins to grow epitaxially from the
pre-existing phase, consuming the phase (see Figure
2(a)). At the distance of ~ 150 m from the SZ, a bimodal
(or duplex) microstructure develops which consists of
primary phase mixed with transformed structure; the
transformed structure may be described in terms of very
small prior- grains containing secondary platelets (Figure 2(b)). The phase volume fraction in this region dur-
Figure 4. (a) EBSD phase map with selected area shown at higher
magnification in (b) and (c) orientation of particle and grains
numbered 1 to 7 in (b).
To evaluate the orientation relationship between the

and phases, local crystallographic orientations of both
phases were compared with each other in many different
locations within the map. A typical example of the analyzed region is shown in Figure 4(b); grains whose
orientations were compared with those of the particle are
numbered 1 to 7. The obtained orientation data are summarized in Figure 4(c) as {110} and {111} pole figures
Figure 2. SEM observations of the microstructures developed at

different distances from the SZ: 550 m (a), 150 m (b), and adjacent to the SZ (c).
for the phase and as {0002} and {11 2 0} pole figures

for the phase. For simplicity, crystallographic directions
in the phase which are close to those in the phase are
encircled. It is seen that the < 0001 > and < 112 0 > directions of the grains numbered 1 to 6 are nearly parallel
to the < 110 > and < 111 > directions of the phase,
respectively. This indicates that these grains and phase
1101
09.08.2010 14:43:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
nearly satisfy the Burgers OR. On the other hand, there is
no the Burgers OR between the phase and the grain 7
(Figure 4(c)). In total, 32 pairs of particle grain were
compared in the present study in a manner described
above and lack of the Burgers OR was found in 7 cases.
It should be stressed, however, that the laths are very
thin (~0.1 m) and are usually featured by very diffuse
Kikuchi-patterns. As a result, it is difficult to know
whether a few examples given in Figure 4 show representative trend or not. To provide a thorough investigation,
more statistically reliable evidences are required.
Figure 5. Misorientation data taken from the phase: (a) misorientation-angle distribution and (b) misorientation-axis distribution.
Grain boundaries between colonies may be used for

this purpose. Due to crystal symmetry of the and
phases, there are 12 possible orientations (each satisfying the Burgers OR) that can transform from a single parent grain (i.e., there are 12 variants) in transformed
microstructure. Misorientations between the variants
(also known to as colonies) inherited from the same
parent grain are very specific. This may serve as an
additional indicator for the Burgers OR.
Misorientation distribution of the phase derived from
a large (~60,000 laths) EBSD map (not shown) is given
in Figure 5. Two types of misorientation-angle distribution are shown in Figure 5(a). Misorientations measured
between neighboring pixels are illustrated by a solid line.
In this type of representation, boundary segments are
1102
weighted by their respective length and the relative frequencies are proportional to the boundary area fraction.
Misorientation data measured between neighboring
grains (which are identified as regions completely surrounded by a boundary with misorientation higher than 5o),
are shown as a vertical bar chart.
Both misorientation-angle distributions have a very
complex shape exhibiting three sharp peaks: near 10o, 90o
and a split peak in the vicinity of 60o; the distribution for
neighboring pixels is additionally featured by a strong
low-angle maximum. Misorientation axes (Figure 5(b)) are
not oriented randomly but form one cluster around the
< 0001 > pole and four clusters near the < 2 1 1 0 > pole.
The cluster near the < 0001 > is composed primarily of
boundaries with misorientation angles ranging from 5o to
15o, whereas the clusters near the < 2 1 1 0 > pole are
mainly produced by the boundaries in the angular ranges
of 55-65o and 80-90o.
The measured fraction of the boundaries between the variants (within 5-degree tolerance) achieves ~55-60% of
the total grain boundary area in the phase. Therefore, the
misorientation distribution for the -phase additionally
confirms that crystallography of the and phases in the
SZ is related via the Burgers OR.
Microstructural Evolution in High-Temperature
Phase Field in SZ. Microstructural observations presented
in the previous section provided insight into phase transformation occurring after FSW upon cooling down to
ambient temperature. However, these results virtually do
not convey vital information about microstructural development during FSW. This is primarily because material
flow in the SZ occurred in the high-temperature -phase
field and, therefore, -to- phase transformation taking
place during FSW cooling cycle, significantly complicated
the final microstructure by the phase transformation products. As a result, dynamic features of the friction-stirred
structure cannot be observed directly.
Hereafter, we attempt to overcome this problem by
adopting of -grain reconstruction technique as well as by
direct crystallographic measurements in the retained phase.
In the present study, morphology of the -grain structure
existing before -to- phase transformation was reconstructed by using an approach developed by Gey and
Humbert [5]. This method is simplest among the methods
currently employed for the grain reconstruction [e.g. 5]
and is based on the idea that the variants inherited fro
the same parent grain are characterized by very specific
misorientations linked to the Burgers OR. Therefore, grain
boundaries between these variants can be readily discriminated from all other boundaries. The remaining boundaries
are believed to separate -variants originating from different parent -grains, i.e., they represent grain boundaries.
In this way contours of prior- grains might be identified
in the structure.
A reconstructed EBSD map showing arrangement of the
boundary traces of the prior- grains in the SZ is given in
Figure 6(a); some selected areas are shown at higher magnifications in Figure 6(b)-(d). Black clusters in the map
09.08.2010 14:43:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
correspond to the retained -phase. It is seen that the
boundary traces are arranged as an evident grain structure;
this supports reliability of the approach used for the grain reconstruction.
subboundaries, which tend to subdivide them into several

nearly equiaxed grains (some examples are arrowed in
Figure 6(d)). Careful examination of the microstructure
within the SZ showed that these highly elongated and
partially subdivided grains are typical features of the reconstructed -grain structure. Based on this observation, it
may be hypothesized that the low-aspect ratio grains
dominating in the reconstructed -grain structure resulted
from preliminary severe elongation (shearing) and subsequent transverse subdivision of the -grains. It seems
likely that this mechanism is one of the main contributors
to the microstructure development in the -phase field in
the present study.
Conclusions
Figure 6. Reconstructed grain structure in the SZ (a) with selected areas shown at higher magnifications in (b)-(d). Note: black
clusters correspond to the retained phase.
The dotted line in Figure 6(a) illustrates the orientation

of the border between the SZ and the transition region. It
is seen that the reconstructed -grains tend to be aligned
approximately parallel to this border. Directionality of the
transformed structure in the SZ has also been reported
by Lienert [3]. This observation indirectly indicates that
the grains were deformed (sheared) during FSW.
The high-magnification images in Figure 6(b)-(d) demonstrate that the boundary traces of the reconstructed grains are not straight over a long distance and exhibit
some bulges. Of particular interest is the observation that
some of the bulges tend to form fine grains (some examples are arrowed in Figure 6(b)). It should be noted that
these grains are significantly larger than the pixels size
(0.5 m) and, therefore, are unlikely to be a result of misindexing error during EBSD mapping. On the other hand,
they also have not been able to be introduced by the
grain reconstruction technique because the approach employed in the preset study only involves removal of grain
boundaries between variants from the EBSD map.
Therefore, the fine grains are thought to reflect the real
microstructure and the observed phenomenon may be
interpreted as an evidence of discontinuous recrystallization induced by local grain boundary migration. However,
the fraction of the fine grains in the microstructure is obviously low and, therefore, contribution of this mechanism,
if any, to the microstructural evolution is probably minor.
The principal microstructural feature of the reconstructed -grain structure is a relative low-aspect ratio of
the -grains (Figure 6(a)). However, closer inspection of
the EBSD map reveals that some -grains are very highly
elongated, as exemplified in Figure 6(c) and (d). In some
cases, these high-aspect ratio -grains contain transverse
The present study examined microstructural evolution

of the Ti-6Al-4V during FSW. The microstructural development was found to be a complex process involving to- phase transformation during heating stage, deformation in the high-temperature phase field during stirring
and -to- phase transformation upon cooling down to
ambient temperature after FSW.
The -to- phase transformation is shown to be governed by epitaxial growth of the pre-existing phase consuming the phase. Reconstruction of the -grain structure have demonstrated that microstructural evolution in
the high-temperature phase field is a complex process
involving grain growth, geometrical effects of strain,
transverse grain subdivision and discontinuous recrystallization stimulated by local grain boundary migration. The
-to- phase transformation after FSW is established to be
governed by Burgers orientation relationship which dictated the final weld crystallography.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by Global COE Program Materials Integration (International Center of Education and Research), Tohoku University, MEXT, Japan
References
[1] W.M. Thomas: Friction stir butt welding, Int. Patent No.
CT/GB92/02203, (1991).
[2] S.H.C. Park, Y.S. Sato, H. Kokawa: Met. Mater Trans A, 34 (2003),
987-994.
[3] T.J. Lienert: Friction Stir Welding and Processing, ASM International,
(2007), 123-154.
[4] A.J. Ramirez, M.C. Juhas: Mater. Sci. Forum, 426-432 (2003), 29993004.
[5] N. Gey, M. Humbert, Journal of Materials Science, 38 (2003), 12871294.
1103
09.08.2010 14:43:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
Numerical Simulation of Friction Stir Welding of Ti-6Al-4V Titanium Alloys

Dipartimento di Tecnologia Meccanica, Produzione e Ingegneria Gestionale, University of Palermo Viale delle Scienze 90128 Palermo /
Italy, g.buffa@dtpm.unipa.it
In the last few years Titanium alloys have been increasingly used for aeronautical and aerospace applications due to their favorable mechanical properties as the large strength-weight ratio. Unfortunately, for such applications, quite complex geometries are often required and,
in this way, welding operations represent the most cost effective solution. Friction Stir Welding (FSW), as a solid state process, is one of the
most promising technologies for titanium alloys permitting to eliminate most of the defects arising by using traditional fusion welding processes. FSW can be considered mature for butt joints configurations and aluminum alloys as a large number of publications can be found in
literature; however, a lack of knowledge is present as far as FSW of Titanium alloys is regarded. In this way a numerical model can represent a useful tool for a fast and effective process design. In the paper a fully 3D FEM model for the FSW process is proposed reproducing
experimental clamping systems. Predicted results are compared with temperature experimental data to validate and asses the potential of
the model. Finally, the main field variables distributions, together with mechanical loads on the welding tool, are calculated allowing a
deeper knowledge on the effect of the process parameters on the weld integrity.
Keywords: Friction stir welding, FEM, Titanium alloys
Introduction
During the last years titanium alloys have been more
and more extensively applied in aeronautical and aerospace as well as in nuclear and chemical industries because of their high specific strength and corrosion resistance properties. Welded joints are often required as an
extremely cheaper alternative choice, with respect to machined parts, in order to obtain the complex shapes used
for such applications. Unfortunately, when titanium welding is regarded, traditional techniques, i.e. fusion welding
techniques, present several drawbacks as the formation of
brittle and coarse microstructures, the elevated residual
stresses after the process and the consequent large distortions found in the final component; additionally such alloys can be easily contaminated by air, forming brittle
compounds by absorbing oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen.
For the above reasons, solid state welding processes
seems to be the best technical solution in order to obtain
sound joints. In particular Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a
solid state welding process, patented in 1991 by The welding Institute (TWI), in which a specially designed rotating
pin is first inserted into the adjoining edges of the sheets to
be welded with a proper nuting angle and then moved all
along the joint. The composition of the tool rotation and
advancing velocity vectors induces a peculiar metal flow
all around the tool contact surface. The tool movement
determines heat generation due to friction forces and material deformation work. The process has been demonstrated
effective and is currently industrially utilized for difficult
to be welded or unweldable aluminum and magnesium
alloys. It should be observed that avoiding melting allows
to overcome the insurgence of defects, for instance due to
the presence of oxygen in the melting bath, and to limit the
negative effect of material metallurgical transformations
and evolutions strictly connected to its changes of phase.
Finally, the reduced thermal flux with respect to traditional fusion welding operations allows the reduction of
the residual stress state in the joints and, consequently, of
the distortions in the final products [1,2]. Unfortunately,
1104
when titanium alloys are concerned, additional problems

arise. As a matter of fact, welding of titanium alloys is a
challenging process due to the chemical, mechanical and
thermal characteristics of such materials. First of all the
latter are subjected to atmosphere contamination resulting
in joint hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen embrittlement;
furthermore, due to the high melting temperature, large
distortion and residual stress are found in joints obtained
by traditional fusion welding processes as gas metal arc
welding [3], electron beam welding and laser welding [4].
In this way a solid state process, as FSW, represents a
valid choice in order to overcome problems related to the
material melting. It should be noticed that FSW of titanium alloys is definitely more complex than the same
process referred to aluminum alloys. In fact, as a consequence of the large reached temperatures and reacting
forces on the pin, the choice of tool material is limited to
extremely high strength refractory materials as WC alloys,
Re and Mo based alloys and PcBNs [5]. What is more, a
gas shield must be used due to the reactivity of the considered alloys with air at the process temperatures.
Just few papers can be found in literature on FSW of titanium alloys focusing for example on the mechanical and
metallurgical properties of welded joints [6,7], and on the
residual stress effects on fatigue crack growth [8].
As far as numerical simulation of FSW is concerned, in
the recent past, a few research activities were focused on
the development of numerical models in order to pursue a
systematic computer aided engineering of the process.
First of all a simplified approach was proposed for thermal
analyses on the basis of calculated equivalent thermal
fluxes, taking into account the heat generated by both
friction forces work and the material deformation work [9].
Then, finite element thermo-mechanical models were
presented for FSW by Deng et al. [10]. Recently, the author proposed a 3D continuum based FEM model [11] that
is able to highlight the FSW process mechanics and to
show the distribution of the most important field variables,
namely temperature, strain and strain rate. This model was
09.08.2010 14:43:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
applied to optimize tool design and select proper process
conditions [12].
Although numerical simulation can represent the optimal solution in order to perform an efficient and effective
process optimization with affordable costs, at the moment,
no publication dealing with FEM models for FSW of titanium alloys is known by the authors.
In this paper, a fully 3D FEM model for the FSW process is proposed, that is thermo-mechanically coupled and
with rigid-viscoplastic material behavior. Experimental
clamping and cooling systems are reproduced and predicted results are compared with temperature experimental
data to validate and asses the potential of the model. The
main field variables distributions, as temperature and
strain, together with mechanical loads on the welding tool,
are calculated in order to highlight the effect of the process
parameters on the soundness of the weld.
Experiments
As briefly outlined in the previous paragraph, FSW of
titanium alloys requires a more careful design of both the
clamping fixture and the tooling with respect to FSW of
aluminum alloys.
A far as the clamping fixture design is regarded a first
problem to be overcome is due to the high temperatures
reached during the process; under such extreme conditions,
the welded blanks are likely to remain stuck to the backplate compromising both the soundness of the joint and the
integrity of the fixture itself due to the carbon contamination of titanium. A 30mm wide tungsten insert was then
introduced in a pocket milled in the center of the backplate
in order to assure the contact between tungsten and titanium at least close to the welding line, i.e. where temperature levels may lead to contamination problems. In Figure
1 a sketch of the developed fixture, showing the relative
positioning between sheets to be welded, tungsten insert
and backplate, is presented.
Figure 1. Sketch of experimental clamping fixture.
The tool represents a further decisive key factor for the

process; shoulder and pin wear and breakage set a severe
limitation for the tool material choice. As a matter of fact
the tool must be able to maintain high mechanical resistance as well as sufficient wear and oxidation resistance at
the temperatures reached during the process. It should be
observed that in FSW processes temperature typically
reaches about 80% of the processed material melting tem-
perature; however, temperature in the tool is always larger

than maximum values reached in the sheets because of the
less favorable thermal exchange conditions. Based on the
above considerations WC alloys, Re and Mo based alloys
and PcBNs appears at moment as the only possible choice
although not even such high refractory materials can assure the required mechanical properties over the extremely
high temperatures that can be reached especially at the
base of the tool pin, at the tool shoulder-workpiece interface.
As far as the developed experiments are regarded, 3mm
thick Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy sheets 200x200 mm in
dimensions were welded together under different process
conditions. In particular rotating speeds of 340, 500, 700
and 1000 rpm were selected. Fixed advancing speed equal
to 35mm/min, nuting angle equal to 2 and tool shoulder
sinking of 0.2 mm were considered for all the welds. In
this way an increasing Specific Thermal Contribution
(STC) is conferred to the joints at the increasing of the
rotational velocity. A tungsten carbide tool with a 16 mm
shoulder and a 30 conical pin, 2.6 mm in height and 5
mm in major diameter, was utilized. Additionally, temperatures were measured during the welding by two thermocouples placed between the two sheets, at 1.5 mm from
the bottom of the joints, at a distance of 5 and 40 mm,
respectively, from the edge of the sheets to be welded. In
this way, through the thermocouple placed at 40mm from
the sheets edge, temperatures can be measured at the center of the weld till the tool shoulder contacts and destroys
the thermocouple itself. The next Figure 2 a and b shows
the above described positioning together with the measured temperature histories obtained for the 700 rpm case
study. As far as the T1 thermocouple is regarded, temperature increases during the first seconds (see the shaded
area) corresponding to the final part of the sinking stage
and to the dwelling stage; then it decreases as the tools
moves forward. As the T2 thermocouple is regarded, temperature increases till the tool shoulder comes into contact
with it; after such point, corresponding to about 27 s and
highlighted in the figure, measurements are no longer
reliable.
Figure 2. (a) Thermocouples positioning and (b) measured temperatures for 700rpm case study.
It should be observed that the maximum temperature observed in Figure 3, i.e. about 800 C, does not correspond
to the maximum temperature reached during the weld. The
latter is typically observed at the back of the tool pin after
the material closes right behind it. Finally, all the welds
were protected from atmospheric contaminants by a shield
of argon inert gas.
1105
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Metal Forming
FE Model
The commercial FEA software DEFORM-3DTM, Lagrangian implicit code designed for metal forming processes, was utilized to investigate the FSW of Titatium
alloys. The numerical simulation was divided into two
stages: the sinking stage and the welding (advancing) one.
During the sinking stage, simulated to reach a high enough
temperature level for the subsequent welding process, the
tool moves down vertically at 0.1 mm/sec with an assumed rotating speed. Then, during welding or advancing
stage, the rotating tool moves along the welding line
(seam). As far as the thermal characteristics of the considered Ti-6Al-4V alloy are regarded, constant values, taken
from literature [13], were utilized. This assumption makes
the thermal problem linear speeding up the numerical
solution at each time increment.
A temperature (T), strain () and strain rate ( ) dependent rigid-viscoplastic flow stress was used to model
the plastic behavior [14]. The tool and the components of
the clamping fixture, namely the backplate and the WC
insert, were modeled as rigid bodies and meshed, for the
thermal analysis, with about 5,000 and 15,000 and 8,000
tetrahedral elements, respectively. The upper part of the
clamping fixture (i.e. the actual clamping system) was
modeled through proper boundary conditions given to the
workpiece. A single block continuum model is used to
model the workpiece in order to avoid contact instabilities
due to the intermittent contact at the sheet-sheet interfaces.
The sheet blanks were meshed with about 20,000 tetrahedral elements with single edges of about 0.75mm; in this
way about four elements were placed along the sheet
thickness. A non-uniform mesh with adaptive re-meshing
was adopted with smaller elements close to the tool and a
re-meshing referring volume was identified all along the
tool feed movement [11]. Experience in previous FEM
simulation showed that a coarser mesh leads to incorrect
results and a finer mesh results in unaffordable computation time without significant improvement of simulation
results. In the next Figure 3 a sketch of the proposed
model is shown.
friction factor equal to 0.3. The latter was chosen in such a

way to maximize the fitting of the numerical results with
experiments.
Results
First of all temperature histories calculated at the points
highlighted in the previous Figure 2 and corresponding to
the actual thermocouples positioning, were compared to
the experimental ones in order to asses the validity of the
model. In the next Figure 4 the obtained results are shown,
for both the thermocouples, for the 700 rpm case study.
Figure 4. Comparison between measured and calculated temperatures for 700rpm case study.
A quite good agreement is found, especially after the

beginning of the welding phase indicating a correct modeling of the thermal phenomena occurring between the single block sheet and the rigid objects, namely the tool, the
backplate and the WC insert. Interesting information can
be acquired from the temperature distributions along a
transverse section of the joint at the varying of the STC
conferred to the joint (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Temperature distributions in a transverse section at

varying of rotational speed: (a) 340 rpm, (b) 500 rpm, (c) 700 rpm
and (d) 1000 rpm.
Figure 3. Sketch of assembled fem model.
The contact conditions at the tool-workpiece interface

were modeled through a constant interface heat exchange
coefficient of 11 [N mm-1 s-1 C-1] and a constant shear
1106
As expected, temperature increases at the increase of the

rotational speed but the extension of the areas interested
by temperature values in excess of 400 C remains approximately the same due to the extremely low thermal
conductivity of titanium alloys. It should be observed that
quite different distributions are observed with respect to
09.08.2010 14:43:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
the ones known for aluminum alloys [11], being the most
visible difference the absence of the typical V shape at
the center of the transverse section. As already highlighted,
this is once again due to the utilized material thermomechanical properties and heavily affects the microstructural modifications the material undergoes during the
process. In particular no thermo-mechanically affected
zone (TMAZ) and no nugget are observed, while a large
stirred zone (SZ) is found corresponding to the zones interested by temperature values in excess of 600 C.
A top view of the joints showing the distribution of the
effective strain can be found in Figure 6. Two interesting
observation can be made: first the distributions are shifted
toward the advancing side of the weld, indicating that, like
in aluminum alloys, the material rotates with the tool going from the retreating side to the advancing side where
the actual bonding surface is found [15]. Then quite large
values are observed, due to the large rotation pitch (RP, the
ratio between rotational and advancing velocities) values
utilized for both the experiments and the numerical simulations. In this way one material particle is put into rotation together with the tool for long times, resulting in large
deformations further increasing at the increasing of the
rotational speed.
Figure 7.Vertical force evolution during weld at varying of rotational speed.
Conclusions
A 3D numerical model for FSW process of Titanium alloys is proposed, that is thermo-mechanically coupled,
uses rigid-viscoplastic material description and a continuum assumption for the weld seam. The proposed model is
capable of predicting the effect of process parameters on
process thermo-mechanics, such as the temperature, strain,
strain rate as well as material flow and forces. Predicted
results are compared with experimental data and good
agreement is obtained. The model has been utilized for
investigating the effect of tool rotational speed on the
FSW process. Future work includes a fine tuning of the
model parameters as the friction factor and the thermal
exchange coefficient.
References
Figure 6. Top view of effective strain distributions at varying of

rotational speed: (a) 340 rpm and (b) 1000 rpm.
Finally the welding forces acting on the tool have been

considered. It should be observed that in FSW processes
the vertical material reaction is the most important component [12]. The component along the welding direction,
although useful in order to predict the fatigue life of the
tool, is typically about one order of magnitude smaller.
Finally, the component along the transverse direction is
usually not considered because even smaller in modulus.
The next Figure 7 shows the evolution of the calculated
welding forces during the weld. The figure well puts in
evidence the difficulties occurring during FSW of Titanium alloys in terms of both the choice of the tool material
and the correct design of an adequately stiff clamping
fixture. In fact quite large values are observed; such values
decrease during the process due to the progressive heating
of the sheets before reaching the steady state. As far as the
effect of the rotational speed is regarded, the force decreases at the increasing of the STC (i.e. rotational speed
in this study) due to the enhanced material softening
reached.
[1] R.S. Mishra, Z.Y. Ma: Materials Science and Engineering R: Reports,
50-1-2 (2005), 1-78.
[2] R. Nandan, T. DebRoy, H.K.D.H. Bhadeshia: Progress in Materials
Science, 53-6 (2008), 980-1023.
[3] A.B. Short: Materials Science and Technology 25-3 (2009), 309-324.
[4] Q. Yunlian, D. Ju, H. Quan, H. Liying: Materials Science and Engineering A, 280-1 (2000), 177-181.
[5] Y. Zhang, Y.S. Sato, H. Kokawa, S.H.C. Park, S. Hirano: Materials
Science and Engineering A, 485-1-2 (2008), 448-455.
[6] W.B. Lee, C.Y. Lee, W.S. Chang, Y.M. Yeon, S.B. Jung: Materials
Letters, 59-26 (2005), 3315-3318.
[7] Y. Zhang, Y.S. Sato, H. Kokawa, S.H.C. Park, S. Hirano: Materials
Science and Engineering A, 488-1-2 (2008), 25-30.
[8] S. Mironov, Y. Zhang, Y.S. Sato, H. Kokawa: Scripta Materialia 59-1
(2008), 27-30.
[9] M. Song, R. Kovacevic: Int. J. of Machine Tools & Manufacture, 43
(2003), 605-615.
[10] X. Deng, S. Xu: Transaction of NAMRI/SME, 29(2001), 631-638.
[11] G.. Buffa, J. Hua, R. Shivpuri, L. Fratini: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 419/1-2 (2006), 389-396.
[12] G.. Buffa, J. Hua, R. Shivpuri, L. Fratini: Materials Science and
Engineering A, 419/1-2 (2006), 381-388.
[13] Hot Working Guide A compendium processing maps (1997). ASM
Interantional, edited by Y.V.R.K. Prased, S. Sasidhara.
[14] Deform 3D user manual- SFTC
[15] L. Fratini, G.. Buffa, D. Palmeri, J. Hua, R. Shivpuri: Science and
Technology of Welding and Joining, 11-4 (2006), 412-421.
1107
09.08.2010 14:43:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Tool Shape on Material Flow in Welding between Aluminum and Steel by
Friction Stirring
Yoichiro Shimoda1), Masami Tsubaki1), Toshiaki Yasui1), Masahiro Fukumoto1), Tomoyuki Fujita2), Jiro Osawa3)
1)
Department of Production Systems Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi / Japan,
shimoda@ajp.pse.tut.ac.jp, 2) Musashi Seimitsu Industry Co., Ltd., Toyohashi / Japan. 3) OSG Co., Ltd., Toyokawa / Japan.
Welding between aluminium and steel by friction stirring is a promising way to realize a high performance joint. The weld joint property
strongly depends on the heat input during welding. The effect of tool shape on the macrostructure and the material flow of butt weld was
investigated. The joint fabricated by a welding tool with a screw probe exhibited superior tensile properties. From X-ray CT observation, the
material flow of aluminium was visualized by removed iron from the weld interface. In the experiments, internal temperature and the threedimensional force during the welding were measured to estimate the material flow in the welding.
Keywords: Friction stirring, Dissimilar metal welding, Material flow, Tool shape
Introduction
Dissimilar metal joining offers the potential advantages
for utilization of different materials from engineering
requirements. This is especially effective in the automotive
industry for the weight reduction of vehicle. Light weight
structures in the automobile industry has increased interest
in the use of both aluminum and magnesium as structural
materials. However, the cost of these materials compared
to steel restricts its application for automobile parts. Thus,
hybrid structures between aluminum and steel are economical way to use. In order to incorporate these hybrid
structures, proper joining methods of dissimilar metals
between aluminum and steel are necessary [1-2]. However,
conventional fusion welding, like TIG or MIG, are difficult
to be applied at the joining of dissimilar metals due to the
formation of thick fragile intermetallic compounds in the
weld interface. As a solid-phase joining method of aluminum alloys, friction stir welding (FSW) was developed by
The Welding Institute (TWI) [3]. A welding tool with a
probe and a shoulder, travels along the welding line of
plates that have to be joined. The joint is produced thanks
to the plastic flow of the material induced by the friction
between the tool and the work piece. The welding is controlled with rotating speed of tool, welding speed, axial
force, tool shape etc. Among them, shape of tool probe
play an important role in deciding the material flow and
the joint quality [4-6]. In our recent trials, welding between aluminum alloy and steel was successfully performed by fiction stirring [7-11]. However, effect of tool
shape on the joint properties and material flow in dissimilar metal welding is not clear.
In this study, effect of tool shape in welding between
aluminum and steel by friction stirring was investigates
material flow in the weld observed by X-ray and computed
tomography technique after welding and measuring the
internal temperature and the three dimensional forece of
weld during welding.
Welding experiments were performed by a machining
center (Enshu S400). The welding tool was composed with
a shoulders, which was made of tool steel with 20mm in
1108
diameter, and a probe, which was made from WC-Co

cemented carbide and 4.0 mm in length on the top. Two
types of the probe shape were used for changing material
flow in the weld. The one is a straight probe with 5 mm in
diameter and the other is a screw probe with 5 mm in
diameter and 0.8 mm of thread pitch (Figure 1). The weld
materials were aluminium alloy (AA6061) and carbon
steel (S45C) with 20 mm in width, 200 mm in length and 6
mm in thickness.
(a) Straight probe

(b) Screw probe
Figure 1. Appearance of welding tool.
It is known that the joint properties in aluminum alloy

welding by friction stirring depend on tool shape and
welding conditions (rotating speed and welding speed) [6].
Figure 2 shows the arrangement of weld materials and
movement of the tool. The probe is plunged into the aluminum, moves along the weld line, and slightly removed
the steel on the weld interface. The rotating speed varied
from 1000 to 5000 rpm, and welding speed varied from
200 to 800mm/min. Applied forces on the weld materials
during welding were measured with a dynamometer (Kistler 9366BB) which is set underneath the weld materials.
Measured three-dimensional force is divided into horizontal components (transverse force Fx, and side force Fy)
and a vertical component (down force Fz) as depicted in
Figure 2.
Material flow of aluminium can be visualized by marker
material [6]. In the dissimilar metals welding between Al
alloy and steel, the tool ground the steels surface and
finely crushed steel material was incorporated into the
weld of Al alloy. The incorporated steel acted as a marker
material for visualization of the material flow of aluminium. The incorporated iron was observed by X-ray scanner
(SkyScan 1072). The observation specimens were cut out
from the weld joint due to the limitation in area of tomography observation.
09.08.2010 14:43:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
Straight probe
Rotation
Welding
tool
S45C
AA60
61
Fy
Fz
S45C
Fx
Fy
Dynamometer
Fz
Internal temperature of weld during welding was evaluated with temperature measurements on the top of the
shoulder and probe surface by a temperature measurement
telemetry system (Tateyama Electronics). Figure 3 shows
schematic view of the telemetry system. The temperature
was measured with a K-type thermocouple fixed on the
welding tool. Measured data was transmitted by a transmitter in the tool holder through antenna, received by a
receiver, and logged by a data logger.
Battery
Transmitter
Transmitter Antenna
Receiving Antenna
Receiver
Data Logger
Welding
tool
flash
Rotating direction S45C

Welding direction AA6061
20mm
AA6061
Figure 2. Schematic view of welding experiment and measured

direction of force during welding.
Screw probe
flash

800
500
200
ld
We
tion
irec
(a) Appearance
Straight probe
800
500
200
Load
d
ing
Screw probe
Interface cavity
Bottom cavity
AA6061
S45C
Bottom cavity
Probe trace
Welded interface 5mm
(b) Cross-section macrostructure

Figure 4. Appearance and cross-section macrostructure of weld
joint at 2000rpm.
Figure 5 shows welding conditions depend on rotating

speed and welding speed. From the appearance of cross
section macrostructure of the weld, welding conditions are
divided into three types as followed: (1) Interface cavity,
(2) Defect free, (3) Bottom cavity. Defect free conditions
using screw probe was wider than straight one. However
screw probe was broken at high rotating speed condition.
In case of straight probe, interface cavity was observed at
low rotating speed and low welding speed such as 2000
rpm and 100 and 200 mm/min respectively.
Pin trace
Termocouple
Shoulder
Probe
Measured Point
AA6061
Interface cavity
Figure 3. Schematic view of telemetry system for measuring

internal temperature of weld during welding.
Rotating speed, rpm
Appearance, Cross-section Macrostructure and

Welding Conditions. Figure 4 shows appearance and
cross-section macrostructure after welding at 2000 rpm.
Weld bead at 200 mm/min of welding speed was wider
than that of at higher welding speed 800 mm/min on both
straight and screw probe. In each welding speed, weld
beads of straight probe was slightly wider than that of
screw probe. Weld flash were observed on both probes at
200 mm/min. There was no defect in the weld at 500
mm/min on both probes. Bottom cavity was observed in
the welds at 800 mm/min on both probes. Interface cavity
was observed in the weld at 200 mm/min at straight probe.
Defect free
Bottom cavity
(a) Schematic view of welding conditions.
6000
Interface cavity
Bottom cavity
Defect free
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
0
Rotating speed, rpm
S45C
200
6000
400
600
800
Welding speed, mm/min
(b) Straight probe
1000
Tool break
Bottom cavity
Defect free
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
0
400
600
800
1000
Welding speed, mm/min
(c) Screw probe
Figure 5. Welding conditions depend on rotating speed and welding speed.
200
1109
09.08.2010 14:43:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Intermetallic Compound Layer and Mechanical
Properties of Weld Joint. Figure 6 shows the SEM and
EDX images of cross-section microstructure of weld interface at 2000 rpm and 500 mm/min. The shape of weld
interface of straight probe was straight line but that of
screw probe was wave line in Figure 6 (A) and (B). The
intermetallic compound layer (about 400 nm in width) of
Fe and Al at weld interface using straight probe was observed as in Figure 6 (a), (c) and (e). However, the layer
was not observed using screw probe as in Figure 6 (b), (d)
and (f).
Straight probe
Screw probe
(B)
AA6061
S45C
AA6061
(a)
S45C
(b)
Weld start
200m
High magnification
(a)
AA6061
Intermetallic
compound layer
200m
(b)
S45C
AA6061
S45C
400nm
1m
1m
(d) EDX analysis of area (b)
EDX (Fe)
EDX (Al)
Figure 6. SEM and EDX images of cross-section microstructure of

weld interface at 2000rpm and 500mm/min.
Figure 7 shows the mechanical properties of weld joint

and fractured surface after tensile test in defect free welding condition at 2000 rpm and 500 mm/min. The tensile
strength and elongation of screw probe was higher than
that of straight probe. The fracture surface of straight and
screw probe were respectively weld interface and near
weld interface.
Tensile strength
(MPa)
Elongation (%)
Joint efficiency (%)
BM(AA6061) Straight probe

310
177
207
17
-
5
57
6
67
S45C
Appearance
Screw probe
Weld
interfac
S45C
Fracteure face
AA6061
Figure 7. Mechanical properties of weld joint and fractured surface
after tensile test (2000 rpm and 500 mm/min).
1110
800
AA6061 solidus temperature (933K)

Probe temperature of straight probe
Probe temperature of screw probe
700
Shoulder temperature of straight probe
Shoulder temperature of screw probe
600
500
Straight probe
5
4
Screw probe
3
1.8
(f) EDX analysis of area (b)
Torque, Nm
(e) EDX analysis of area (a)
900
Weld end
400
Fz Force, kN
(c) EDX analysis of area (a)
Welded interface
1000
Temperature, K
Low magnification
(A)
Internal Temperature of Weld, Force and Torque

during Welding. Figure 8 shows the measured temperature of shoulder, temperature of probe, Fz force and torque
during welding at 2000 rpm of rotating speed and 500
mm/min of welding speed. Shoulder temperature of
straight probe (650 K) is higher than screw probe (500 K)
and it is lower than AA6061 solidus temperature (933 K).
Probe temperature of straight probe (800 K) is slightly
higher than that of screw probe (750 K). However, the
both temperature are lower than solidus temperature. The
down force (Fz) on both probes has similar tendency and
ranges from about 4 to 6 kN. On the other hand, the transverse force (Fx) and the side force (Fy) are below 1 kN
both the straight probe and screw probe. The torque on
both straight and screw probe has similar tendency and
ranges from about 1 to 1.5 Nm.
Straight probe
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
18
Straight probe
Screw probe
Screw probe
20
22
24
26 28
Time, s
30
32
34
Figure 8. Measured temperature of shoulder, temperature of

probe, Fz force and torque during welding at 2000 rpm and 500
mm/min.
Cross-section Grain Structure and Material Flow.

Figure 9 shows the cross-section macro and microstructure of AA6061 side at 2000 rpm and 500 mm/min. From
the microstructure observation, stir zone (SZ) and heat
affected zone (HAZ) are distributed in it. The area of SZ
using screw probe is slightly wider than that of straight
probe as in Figure 9 (a). The microstructure showed the
grain size of the SZ (about 10 m) is finer than that of
base metal of AA6061 (about 60 m) on both probes as in
Figure 9 (b). The HAZ area of straight probe is wider than
that of screw probe as in Figure 9 (a). The grain in HAZ
recrystallized and grew new grains in the deformed metal,
and the grain size was over 200 m as in Figure 9 (b).
09.08.2010 14:43:53 Uhr
Straight probe
AA6061
Screw probe
Metal Forming
AA6061
HAZ
(C)
(E)
(A)
SZ
Probe trace
HAZ
(D)
(E)
(B)
SZ
1mm
(a) Macrostructure
HAZ(AA6061)
SZ(AA6061)
Straight probe
Screw probe
(A)
(B)
Crystal grain
Crystal grain
10m
(C)
10m
(D)
Conclusions
The effect of the tool shape on material flow in welding
between aluminum and steel by friction stirring was investigated by measuring the three-dimensional forces, internal
temperature during welding and material flow by X-ray
CT. Following results were obtained in this paper.
1. Welding conditions both of the straight and screw probe
were divided into three types as follows: (1) interface
cavity, (2) defect free, (3) bottom cavity.
2. The joint properties using the screw probe (207 MPa)
was higher than that of the straight probe (177 MPa).
3. Internal temperature during welding was higher using
straight probe than screw probe but the temperature was
lower than AA6061 solidus temperature.
4. The down force is similar both probes that it ranged
from about 4 to 6 kN.
5. From X-ray CT, the material flow using screw probe
was wider than that of straight probe. the material
moved from top to bottom of probe.
Acknowledgments
Crystal grain
20m
20m
Crystal grain
(E)
This research was partly supported by the Grants of Future Vehicle research center in Toyohashi University of
Technology in Japan.
BM(AA6061)
Refferences
Crystal grain
20m
(b) Microstructure
Figure 9. Cross-section macro and microstructure of AA6061 side
at 2000rpm and 500mm/min.
Figure 10 shows the material flow in the weld visualized by X-ray CT at 2000 rpm and 500 mm/min. From
observation of stirred steel, the material flow using screw
probe was wider than that of straight probe. Stirred steel
using straight probe was distributed in the middle of probe
trace and it was not clear material flow direction. On the
other hand, stirred steel using screw probe was distributed
at bottom of probe trace and that of steel was along the
weld interface. Therefore, the material flow direction using screw probe was estimated that aluminum was moved
from top to bottom of probe and stirred by rotating probe
as in Figure 10 (a) and (b).
Straight probe
AA6061
[1] O. Pasic, I. Hajro, D. Hodzic: Weld World, 51 (2007) 377-384.

[2] E. Taban, J.E. Gould, John, C. Lippold: Materials and Design, 31
(2009) 2305-2311.
[3] W. M. Thomas: International patent application, No. PCT/GB92, GB
Patent Application, No. 9125978.8.6, (1991).
[4] K.Colligan: Welding Journal, 78-7 (1999) 229-237.
[5] H. Schmidt, J. Hattel: 6th Int. Symp. on FSW, Nr Montreal (2006)
CD.
[6] H. N. B. Schmidt, T. L. Dickerson, J. H. Hattel: Acta Materialia, 54
(2006) 1199-1209.
[7] T. Yasui, Y. Shimoda, M. Tsubaki, M. Fukumoto: Materials Science
Forum, 446-452 (2004) 433-436.
[8] M. Fukumoto, Y. Shimoda, M. Tsubaki, T. Yasui: Proc. Int. Symp. on
FSW, Metz (2004) CD.
[9] T. Yasui, Y. Shimoda, M. Tsubaki, M. Fukumoto: Proc. Int. Symp. on
FSW, Metz (2004) CD.
[10] T. Yasui, Y. Shimoda, M. Tsubaki, M. Fukumoto: Proc. ISOPE,
Seoul (2005) CD.
[11] T. Yasui, T. Ishii, M. Tsubaki, M. Fukumoto: Proc. 6th Int. Symp.
on FSW, Nr Montreal (2006) CD.
Screw probe
AA6061
S45C
S45C
(a)
(b)
Welded
interface
Welded
interface
Welding direction Probe trace

AA6061
S45C
1mm
View direction
Figure 10. Material flow in weld visualized by X-ray CT at 2000
rpm and 500 mm/min.
1111
09.08.2010 14:43:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
Temperature Distribution and Material Flow in Friction Surfacing

Toshiaki Yasui, Fahridin Usmonov, Kazuo Oouchida, Masami Tsubaki, Masahiro Fukumoto
Department of Production Systems Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi / Japan, yasui@pse.tut.ac.jp
Friction surfacing is an effective way to fabricate thick coating with high strength, wear resistance and corrosion resistance. A rotating coating-rod is pressed down on a substrate, and generates frictional heat at the interface with the substrate. The rod is plastically deformed by
the heating, and form the plastically deformed layer, which is called rotational plane, with the interface. The part of the plastically deformed
layer is coated on the substrate by pressing the rod down and traversing the rod perpendicular to the rod axis. It is expected that the plastically deformed layer does not exceed the melting point of the rod material during the process. However, nobody measured the temperature
inside of the rod during friction surfacing. It is difficult to understand the formation mechanism of rotating plane without temperature field
inside of the rod. Moreover, cross section microstructure observation of the coating is needed to understand the plastically deformed flow in
the coating. Thus, temperature distribution inside of the coating rod (SUS304) and surface of substrate (SUS304) was measured, and
material flow in the coating and the rod was observed. The maximum temperature of 1570 K was obtained above the rotational plane inside
the tool. It was below the melting point of SUS304. From the material flow observation, SUS304 coating of friction surfacing had layered
structure and changed with heat input during process. Also, dense material flows are observed from advancing side and retreating side of
coating with different direction.
Keywords: Friction surfacing, Thick coating, Temperature distribution, Material flow
Introduction
There is a demand for fabricating wear and corrosion resistance coating with the thickness in the range from few
mm to tens of mm. Cladding by welding or laser and thermal spray meet this demand. However, these techniques
heat the substrate excessively during process, and generate
fume, spatter, high intensity light emission and high-noise.
On the other hand, friction surfacing is a solid state technique and environmentally clean process, without fume,
spatter, high intensity light emission and high-noise. Friction surfacing is an effective way to fabricate thick and
hard metal coating. Recently, the process has been applied
to practical industrial process [1].
Figure 1 show the schematic drawing and photo of the
friction surfacing process. A rotating consumable rod is
pressed down on a substrate, and generates frictional heat
at the rubbing interface between the rod and the substrate.
This heat plasticize the consumable rod, and form the
plastically deformed layer, which is called rotational plane,
with the interface. The part of the plastically deformed
layer is coated on the substrate by pressing the rod down
and traversing the rod perpendicular to the rod axis [2]. It
is expected that the plastically deformed layer does not
exceed the melting point of the rod material during the
process. Thus it can be avoided the defect which attributed
to the fusion process.
Friction surfacing process is controlled with rotating
speed (N), feeding force (Fz), and cross feeding speed
(Vx) of the rod. Although effect of rotational speed on heat
input rate was explaneed [3] and temperature field and
heat flow during the process were simulated [4], the coating mechanism is still not clear. Friction force is not
equally distributed along the contact surface. Obviously,
temperature is also not similar along the radius of contact
surface. It is necessary to measure temperature distribution
and heat input during the process and correlate the material flow during process. However, the temperature inside
1112
of the consumable rod during the process has not been

measured
In this study, mechanism of the friction surfacing process was investigated with temperature measurement inside
of the consumable rod and the substrate surface, and the
material flow observation.
Rotating speed (N)
Consumable od
Fz
Vx
Coating
Substrate
Rotational plane
(a) Schematic drawing
Coating
Consumable rod
Substrate
(b) Photo during process
Figure 1. Friction surfacing process.
Materials. In this experiment, austenitic stainless steel
(SUS304) was used as a substrate and a consumable rod to
emulate repairing by similar material coating. The diameter of consumable rod is 10 mm to enable coating under
low feeding force below the maximum load capacity of
equipment. The substrate is 11.5 mm in thickness and
clamped by a vice with a backing plate.
09.08.2010 14:43:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
Friction Surfacing Process. Figure 2 shows the experimental setup of friction surfacing. A 3-axis vertical
machining center without load control was used as coating
equipment in this experiment. Feeding force of the consumable rod was controlled by changing the feeding speed
of the consumable rod. The feeding force was measured
with a dynamometer which was set underneath the backing plate. At preheating, the consumable rod was rotated
and fed in two stages with different feeding speed. After
reaching necessary heat, the rod was traversed along the
substrate. Feeding speed during traverse was different
from ones in preheating. Experimental conditions are
shown in Table 1. During coating, the measured feeding
force of the rod (Fz) were 3.5 kN at Vz=70 mm/min and
Vx=300 mm/min, and 3.7kN at Vz=70 mm/min and
Vx=280 mm/min.
Telemetric device
AS of coating
CP of coating
RS of coating

Tool rotation (N)
2000 rpm
Vertical feeding speed
70 mm/min
T/C
Upset
T/C
Substrate
Figure 2. Experimental setup of friction surfacing.

2.5
Consumable rod
Material Flow Observation. It is important to understand the material flow behaviour during the process. Thus,
the material flow was observed from the microstructure of
the coating and the rod after experiment. Cross-sectioned
specimens were etched in Vilellas reagent (1g Picric acid,
5ml HCl, 100ml Ethanol) for 35 min to obtain images of
material flow.
Temperature Measurement. Three thermocouples were
placed under the substrate to measure temperature in advancing side (AS), center part (CP) and retreating side
(RS) of coating as shown in Figure 2. Thermocouples for
AS and RS were 4 mm away from the one for CP. Their
tips were exposed on the surface and brought to the same
level by filing. One or two couples of thermocouple were
mounted on the consumable rod for direct measurement of
rods temperature. Inserted tips of thermocouples laid in
the rotation axis (RCP rod center point) or 2.5 mm away
from it (ROS rod outer side), and 30 mm above from the
rods bottom end as shown in Figure 3. In the experiments,
the rod fed axially until just before break the thermocouples inside of the rod. Data from the thermocouple inside
of the rod was received via telemetric device. Thermocouples were inspected before and after mounting to the substrate and the rod, and after experiment.
Consumable rod
ROS T/C
RCP T/C
30
T/C
Substrate
RS
AS
4
Moving direction of rod
Figure 3. Measurment points of temperature.

Material Flow of Coating. Under the process parameters
as shown in Table 1, fabricated coating bonded with the
substrate well. Figure 3 shows the fabricated coating at
N=2000 rpm, Vz=70 mm/min and Vx=300 mm/min traverse speed. From the side view as shown in Figure 3(a),
average thickness of coating is 1.15 mm. As shown in
Figure 3(c), coating has layered structure and form pronounced compressed circles in the center which resemble
to a macrostructure of friction stir welds which is called
onion ring [5]. It means that some small amount of plastically deformed material from the center of rod was layered
on substrate. Then another layer was piled on it. As substrate was cold, plastically deformed material immediately
cooled and formed coating [6]. However, there are undercuts on both side of the coating. Undercut of AS and RS
are about 0.4 mm and 0.5 mm, respectively.
(Vz)
Cross feeding speed (Vx)
1cm
280, 300 mm/min
Consumable rod
SUS304 (10mmx100mm)
Substrate
SUS304 (t11.5mm)
(a)
AS
RS
RS
(b)
1cm
AS
0.5mm
(c)
Figure 3. SUS304 coating on SUS304 substrate at N=2000 rpm,
Vz=70 mm/min, and Vx=300 mm/min: (a) side view of coating, (b)
planar view of coating, coating length of 120 mm, and (c) cross
section of coating.
1113
09.08.2010 14:43:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 4 shows the fabricated coating at N=2000 rpm,
Vz=70 mm/min and Vx=280 mm/min. Although the cross
section microstructure resemble to that of Figure 3, the
undercut of AS and RS decrease to about 0.25 mm and
0.35 mm, respectively as shown in Figure 4(b). Decreasing
of cross-feeding speed (Vx) increased the heat input, and
improve the quality of coating by changing material flow.
AS
RS
(a)
1cm
(b)
0.5mm
RS
AS
Material Flow of Consumable Rod. Figure 6 shows

appearance and cross section of consumable rod after
experiment at N=2000 rpm, Vz=70 mm/min, and Vx=280
mm/min. The plastically deformed part of consumable rod
went for upset or coating during process. It is considered
that coating materials supply through the rotational plane
between rod and substrate. Extent of rotational plane was
assumed from the extent of the socket which is indicated
with white long dash line in Figure 6(c). Size of upset or
socket depends on process parameters [7]. It may be suggested that volume of socket or plastically deformed material may be constant during the process. In each feeding of
rotated rod, new layer of material is added to that volume
and the same quantity of material is deposited from it. At
concerned process parameter, tips of rods show similar
upset.
Figure 4. SUS304 coating on SUS304 substrate at N=2000 rpm,

Vz=70 mm/min, and Vx=280 mm/min: (a) planar view of coating
and (b) cross section of coating.
Figure 5(a) shows the longitudinal section of advancing

side of Figure 3(b). Figure 5(b) shows the longitudinal
section of retreating side of Figure 3(b). Figure 5(c) shows
planar section of Figure 3(b). Dense material flows are
observed in AS and Rs with different direction. However,
the material flow dissapeared on the coating surface. Thus
it is difficult to see the mateial flow from the planar
section.
(a)
(a)
Coating
Vx
Substrate
(b)
Coating
(b)
Vx
Substrate
Vx
(c)
(c)
Coating
Figure 6. Material flow observation of consumable rod after experiment at N=2000 rpm, Vz=70 mm/min, and Vx=280 mm/min. (a)
appearance of rod, (b) cross section of rod and (c) magnified view
of (b).
Figure 5. Material flow observation of coating at N=2000 rpm,

Vz=70 mm/min, and Vx=300 mm/min from (a) advancing side, (b)
retreating side and (c) planar section.
1114
09.08.2010 14:43:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
Distance from substrate surface, mm
Figure 9 shows temperature development inside the rod

at its rotation axis measured with RCP thermocouple and
2.5 mm away from the axis measured with ROS
thermocouple at N=2000 rpm, Vz=70 mm/min, and
Vx=300 mm/min. Obviously, temerature inside of the tool
rapidly increases as the thermocouple approuch the
rotaional plane. However, the difference between RCP and
ROS is very small. This attributed to the formation of
upset to keep warm the rod, and an increasing area of
rotational plane was formed in wide area.
Distance from substrate surface, mm
Hardness Profile of Coating. Figure 7 shows the hardness profile and measured temperature in the coating.
Material of consumable rod is coated on the substrate after
plasticization and cooling, and changes its mechanical
characteristics. Also, heat from the rotating and traversing
rod affects the substrate. In order to survey those changes,
micro-hardness of coating and substrate was measured
with Vickers micro-hardness tester. Load was 4.9 N and
indentation time was 15 s. Figure 7 shows the hardness
profile at N=2000 rpm, Vz=70 mm/min, and Vx=280
mm/min. In the center part (CP) of substrate, heat affected
as deep as 1.6 mm. In the coating, heat affected zone
(HAZ) is wider in AS than in RS. The coating hardness of
CP is lower than that of AS or RS.
Coating height and substrate depth, mm.
0.65
Vickers Hardness, Hv
375
-0.35
-1.35
-1.6
350
325
300
275
250
225
200
-8
-6
-4
-2
Distance from the designated coating path, mm
Figure 7. Hardness profile of coating and substrate at N=2000 rpm,

Vz=70 mm/min and Vx=280 mm/min.
Temperature Distribution. Figure 8 shows the temperatures obtained at those process parameters. The temperature inside the rod was higher than temperature on the
substrate under rotating plane. The maximum temperature
of 1570 K at RCP above rotational plane did not exceed
the melting point of SUS304 (1673 K). Temperature of
periphery between the rod and the substrate was measured
with infrared thermograph. The maximum temperature is
1082 K, and well below the temperature of inside of the
tool.
Temperature, K
2200
1800
RS
CP
AS
ROS
RCP
Periphery
1400
1000
600
24,6
RCP
ROS
19,6
14,6
9,6
4,6
0
0
1000
2000
Temperature, K
Figure 9 Rods temperature development at N=2000 rpm, Vz=70

mm/min, and Vx=300 mm/min.
Conclusions
Temperature distribution inside of the rod and on the
substrate surface was investigated, and the material flow
was observed to understand the friction surfacing process.
The obtained results are summarized as follows:
1. SUS304 coating was successfully fabricated on SUS304
substrate by friction surfacing with good bonding.
2. SUS304 coating of friction surfacing has layered structure. The macrostructure was changed with heat input
during process.
3. Dense material flows are observed in the coating from
advancing side and retreating side with different direction.
4. From the material flow observation of rod, extent of
rotational plane was clarified from the extent of the
socket on the tip.
5. The maximum temperature of 1570 K was obtained
above rotational plane inside of the tool. It was below
the melting point of SUS304.
References
200
10
15
20
Time, s
25
30
Figure 8. Temperature measurement results at N=2000 rpm,

Vz=70 mm/min, and Vx=300 mm/min.
[1] R.A. Dennis: US Patent 5183390, February 2, (1993).

[2] T. Shinoda, J.Q. Li, Y. Katoh, T. Yashiro: Surface Engineering, 14
(1998), 211-216.
[3] K. Fukakusa, Welding International, 10 (1996), 524-529.
[4]X.M. Liu, Z.D. Zou, Y.H. Zhang, S.Y. Qu, X.H. Wang: Surface &
Coating Technology, 202 (2008), 1889-1894.
[5] K.N. Krishnan: Materials Science and Engineering A, 327 (2002), 46251.
[6] G.M. Bedford, V.I. Vitanov, I.I. Voutchkov: Surface and Coatings
Technology, 141 (2001), 34-39.
1115
09.08.2010 14:43:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Probe Shape on Joint Strength of Friction Stir Welded Cold-Worked Die Steel
Haruki Sano1), Noboru Nakayama1), Hiroyuku Takeishi2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Shinshu University, Nagano / Japan, t09a182@shinshu-u.ac.jp; 2)Department of Science
and Mechanical, Chiba Institute of Technology, Chiba / Japan.
With a view to identifying new ways to repair die steel molds, friction stir welding was performed for a cold-worked die steel used for molds
and the effect of a probe shape on joint strength was examined. There are three types of probe shape patterns, no thread, right-hand thread
and left-hand thread. At a probe shape of 5.0 mm diameter, only 720 rpm succeeded in joining. In addition, at a probe shape of right-hand
and left-hand thread, 720 rpm and 935 rpm succeeded in joining. For the metallographic observations for the cross section using scanning
electron microscope, the average grain size in the stir zone was about 3 m, and in the heat affected zone about 5 m. Effect of shape was
not observed. The stir zone and heat affected zone in all conditions yielded hardness values in excess of the quenching hardness of SKD11.
No variation in hardness was observed between right-hand and left-hand thread; the reason being grain size reduction. However, the
hardness of 5.0 mm diameter significantly lowers than other thread. For the test specimens of left-hand thread, the breaking stress was
comparable with the annealed SKD11. However, the breaking stress of 5.0 mm diameter was lower than the left-hand thread one. Based on
the above results, the left-hand thread is thought to be best.
Keywords: Friction stir welding, Cold-work die steel, Joint strength, Probe shape, Hardness, Tensile strength , Microstructure.
Introduction
In factory manufactured industrial products, if a mold
becomes worn, cracked, or scratched; one of two solutions
are employed, i.e. replacement or repair. Replacement
incurs high cost and delivery lead times. Currently, repair
involves precision cladding by welding; specifically
tungsten inert gas welding [1] or yttrium aluminium garnet
laser welding [2]. The joint strength of the welded joint is
better than that of the base material and does not cause
delamination. However, these repairs do require special
expertise and equipment.
One solution to these problems is Friction Stir Welding
which uses existing facilities [3]. FSW was invented in
1991 at The Welding Institute of the UK as a solid-state
joining technique. The basic concept of friction stir
welding is remarkably simple. A rotating tool with a
specially designed probe and shoulder is inserted into the
abutting edges of sheets or plates to be joined and then
traversed along the joint. However, it was initially applied
to light metals such as aluminum alloys [4-6] and there are
a few real examples for steel materials and no example for
cold-worked die steel [9-12].
Herein, with a view to identifying new ways to repair
die steel molds, friction stir welding was performed on a
cold-worked die steel used for molds and the effect of
probe shape on joint strength was examined.
The specimens used were made from SKD11 annealed
cold-worked die steel cut in to 403010 mm blocks. The
micro Vickers hardness was 238 HV and the chemical
composition is given in Table 1.
A friction stir welding tool, made of a WC-based
material (K01), was employed [7]. It had a 10.0 mm in
shoulder diameter, 5.0 mm in probe diameter and 1.5 mm
in probe length. There are three types of probe shape
patterns, no thread, right-hand thread, and left-hand
thread.
1116
A schematic illustration of the tool is presented in

Figure 1 and the chemical composition of the tool is given
in Table 2.
In the present study, the base material of two specimen
blocks were friction stir welded along the contacting
surface using a vertical milling machine, schematically
presented in Figure 2. In order to examine the effect of
tool rotational speed on joint strength, the rotational speed
was incremented in the range 250-1350 rpm and the
welding speed was constant at 1.0 mm/min [8].
After welding, the appearance of the samples was first
observed with an optical microscope. Next, for the
metallographic analysis, micro Vickers hardness tests, and
tensile tests; the joint was cross sectioned through a plane
perpendicular to the welding direction.
The cross section surfaces of the metallographic
specimens were polished with a diamond polishing agent,
etched with a reagent (a 1.5:100 solution of nitric acid and
ethanol), and examined with an optical microscope and
scanning electron microscope.
The micro Vickers hardness profile of the weld was
measured at interval a cross the section surface,
completely traversing the stir zone, heat affected zone, and
base material using a 1500 mN load for 15 s. The hardness
test was performed using a dynamic ultra micro hardness
tester. Measurements were taken at a 1 mm depth from the
weld surface, and at 1 mm incremental distances from the
abutment surface, thirteen points in total.
Tensile tests were carried out at room temperature and a
crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min using a tensile testing
machine. The test specimen was rectangular with
dimensions of 6021 mm. In order to measure the tensile
strength of the joint, it was held on either side of the
boundary between the base material and heat affected
zone.
09.08.2010 14:43:58 Uhr
Metal Forming
Results and capital
Table 3 shows the results of each shape by friction stir
welding. At a probe shape of 5.0 mm diameter, only 720
rpm succeeded in joining. However, at a probe shape of
right-hand and left-hand thread, 720 and 935 rpm
succeeded in joining.
Figure 3 shows the appearance of SKD11 joints
through the optical microscope for tool rotational speeds
of (a) 720 rpm, and (b) 1350 rpm by a probe shape of
left-hand thread. As an example, at a tool speed of 720
rpm; smooth, consistent semi-circular patterns were
formed. However, at a tool speed of 1350 rpm, cracking
and spalling occurred leading to a poor quality weld. The
tool speed range in which good quality semi-circular weld
patterns were formed was from 720 to 935 rpm.
Table 1. Chemical composition of cold working die steel
SKD11(%).
C
Si
Mn
Cr
Mo
1.4~
1.6
0.4
0.6
0.03
0.03
11.0~
13.0
0.8~
1.2
0.2~
0.5
(a) 720 rpm

(b) 1350 rpm
Figure 3. Appearance of SKD11 joints by left-hand thread.
(a) 5.0 mm diameter 720rpm
Table 2. Chemical composition of K01. (%)

WC
94~97
Co
3~6
(b) 5.0 mm diameter 935 rpm
TiC TaC
0~5
(c) Right-hand thread 720 rpm

(a) 5.0 mm diameter
(b) Right-hand
(c) Left-hand
thread
thread
Figure 1. Tool schematic illustration.
Load
Rotation
Welding direction
(d) Right-hand thread 935 rpm
Joint interface
(e) Left-hand thread 720 rpm

Figure 2. Schematic illustration of SKD11 butt joining.
Table 3. Results of each shape by friction stir welding.
rpm
M5
M5-LH
5
250
375
540
720
935
1350
(f) Left-hand thread 935 rpm

Figure 4. Cross-section of SKD11 joints.
1117
09.08.2010 14:44:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conversely, for all conditions, the heat affected zone
yielded hardness values which decrease with increasing
distance from the joint center. However, observing the
state of quenching using the optical microscope images
suggests possible carbonization.
1200
Vickers hardness[HV]
Figure 4 shows optical microscope images of the cross

section for various welding conditions. The microstructure
of the weld can be classified into three distinct regions, i.e.
the stir zone, heat affected zone, and base material. The
sample of 935 rpm by 5.0 mm diameter shows that a
cavity has formed. Here, the heat input by the tool exceeds
the heat transfer of SKD11 and consequently abnormal
plastic flow occurs. Joining is successful by right-hand
thread but with shallow depth. It occurs when welding
conditions are not properly met and indicates incomplete
bonding due to insufficient penetration of the surface
oxide layer. The above defects are not present in left-hand
thread. A joint depth of about 2 mm is achieved with good
joint quality.
Figure 5 shows metallographic observations for the
cross section using scanning electron microscope. The
average grain size in the stir zone is about 3 m, and in the
heat affected zone about 5 m. No influence of tool shape
was observed. FSW is a solid-phase bonding process and
the action of stirring using the welding tool tends to
reduce grain size.
1000
800
600
400
200
0
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
Distance from center : x[mm]
SKD11
5.0-mm diameter
Annealing hardness
Right-hand thread
SKD11
Left-hand thread
Quenching hardness
Figure 6. Micro Vickers hardness distribution of SKD11 lap joints.
(a) 5.0mm diameter,

Stir zone
(b) 5.0mm diameter,

Heat affected zone
Figure 7 shows the result of tensile tests that were run

for the 720 rpm by all thread. For the test specimens of
left-hand thread, the breaking stress was comparable with
the annealed SKD11. However, the breaking stress of 5.0
mm diameter was lower than the left-hand thread one. It
was affected by the distribution of hardness.
Figure 8 shows that fracture occurred between the stir
zone and base metal. Furthermore, the breaking stress was
equivalent to that of the base metal. It may therefore be
concluded that the fracture strength of the material in the
weld is higher than that of the base metal.
(c) Right-hand thread,

Stir zone
(d) Right-hand thread,

Heat affected zone
Normal Stress [MPa]
800
600
400
200
0
0
(e) Left-hand thread,

(f) Left-hand thread,
Stir zone
Heat affected zone
Figure 5. Scanning electron microscope pictures of cross sectional
view of SKD11 lap joints.
The micro Vickers hardness tests were run for the 720
rpm specimens. Figure 6 shows the results of these micro
Vickers hardness tests. It can be seen that, for right-hand
and left-hand thread, the stir zone yielded hardness values
in excess of the quenching hardness of SKD11. The reason
for this is the reduction of grain size, as observed in Figure
5. However, the hardness of 5.0 mm diameter significantly
lowers than other thread. The reason for this is insufficient
stirring.
1118
0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008

Norrmal Strain,
5.0-mm diameter 720 rpm
0.01
Left-hand thread 720 rpm

Figure 7. Normal stress-strain diagram.
Figure 8. Appearance of joint after tensile test.
09.08.2010 14:44:00 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusion
In the present study, with a view to identifying new
ways to repair die steel molds, FSW was performed on a
cold-work die steel in order to examine the effect of probe
shapes on joint strength. For this, a constant welding speed
was employed whereas the tool rotational speed was
changed incrementally. After welding, the appearance of
the samples was observed with an optical microscope.
Next, in order to identify the mechanical properties, the
joint was cross sectioned perpendicular to the welding
direction and subjected to metallographic analysis, micro
Vickers hardness tests, and tensile tests. As a result, the
following conclusions were achieved.
At a probe shape of 5.0 mm diameter, only 720 rpm
succeeded in joining. However, at a probe shape of
right-hand and left-hand thread, 720 and 935 rpm
succeeded in joining. The FSW temperature was about
1273 K, equivalent to the quenching temperature of
SKD11. Heat penetration and a consequent state of
quenching can clearly be seen around the joints. In the
present study, the weld surface was discolored black
because a shielding was not employed.
For the metallographic observations for the cross
section using scanning electron microscope, the average
grain size in the stir zone was about 3 m, and in the heat
affected zone about 5 m. Effect of shape was not
observed. FSW is a solid-phase bonding process and the
action of stirring using the welding tool tends to reduce
grain size.
The stir zone and heat affected zone in all conditions
yielded hardness values in excess of the quenching
hardness of SKD11. No variation in hardness was
observed between right-hand and left-hand thread; the
reason being grain size reduction. However, the hardness
of 5.0 mm diameter significantly lowers than other thread.
The reason for this is insufficient stirring. In addition,
there was some suggestion of carbonization due to the

welding heat input.
For the test specimens of left-hand thread, the breaking
stress was comparable with the annealed SKD11. However,
the breaking stress of 5.0 mm diameter was lower than the
left-hand thread one. It was affected by the distribution of
hardness. In addition, the breaking stress proved to be
equivalent to that of the base metal with fracture occurring
between the stir zone and base metal. Therefore, it can be
concluded that that the fracture strength of the material in
the weld is higher than that of the base metal.
Based on the above results, the left-hand thread is
thought to be best. It has a point of characteristics. The
course of plastic flow is download direction. It inhibits the
effects of shallow depth. In the present study, it obtains the
adoption of the probe shape.
References
[1] L. Liu, X. Qi: J. Master. Sci., 44 (2009), 5725-5731.
[2] X. Cao, M. Jahazi: Optics and Lasers in Engineering, 47 (2009),
1231-1241.
[3] R.S. Mishra, Z.Y. Ma: Materials Science and Engineering R, 50
(2005), 1-78.
[4] T. Tanaka, T. Morishige, T. Hirata: Scripta Materialia, 61 (2009),
756-759.
[5] R.S. Coelho, A. Kostka, J.F. Santos, A.R. Pyzalla, Advanced
Engineering Materials, 10-12 (2008), 1127-1133.
[6] Y.C. Chen, K. Nakata: Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 39
(2008), 1985-1992.
[7] M.K. Kulekci, A. Sik, E. Kaluc: Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol., 36
(2008), 877-882.
[8] S.H.C. Park, Y.S. Sato, H. Kokawa, K. Okamoto, S. Hirano, M.
Inagaki, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 40 (2009),
625-636.
[9] S.H.C. Park, Y.S. Sato, H. Kokawa, K. Okamoto, S. Hirano, M.
Inagaki: 51 (2004), 101-105.
[10] L. Cui, H. Fujii, N. Tsuji, K. Nogi: 56 (2007), 637-640.
[11] H. Fujii, L. Cui, N. Tsuji, M. Maeda, K. Nakata, K. Nogi: Materials
Science and Engineering A, 429 (2006), 50-57.
[12] T. Saeid, A. Abdollah-zadeh, H. Assadi, F.M. Ghaini: Materials
Science and Engineering A, 496 (2008), 262-268.
1119
09.08.2010 14:44:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
Fatigue Behaviors of Aluminum Alloy/Steel Dissimilar Joint by Friction Stirring

Masaki Okane1), Yuichiro Takami1), Katashi Miyagawa2), Toshiaki Yasui2), Masahiro Fukumoto2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Toyama National College of Technology, Toyama / Japan, okane@nc-toyama.ac.jp;2)
Department of Production Systems Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi / Japan
Al-Mg alloy and low carbon steel joints by the friction stir spot welding were used for the fatigue tests. The influences of joining conditions
on the fatigue behaviors were studied by using the joints which were joined under the different plunge depth conditions. From the experimental results, it was found that under the higher applied load, the fatigue life of the joint welded under the 0.3mm plunge depth was the
longest and this tendency was almost similar to that of tensile strength of the joint used in this study. However, under the lower applied load,
there was no significant difference in fatigue life of the joint. There were three types of fatigue fracture modes which depend on both of
plunge depth condition and applied cyclic load level, i.e., shear type fatigue fracture at the joining interface between Al alloy and steel,
fatigue crack growth in Al alloy and plug type fracture due to crack growth along the adhesive region. The fatigue crack seemed to be initiated by stress concentration at the deformed region by FSW.
Keywords: Fatigue, Friction stir welding, Spot FSW, Al alloy, Steel, Dissimilar, Fracture mode
Introduction
Friction stir welding (FSW) is one of the recent joining
techniques of metallic materials which can weld the materials in the solid phase without melting. Therefore, it is a
promising technique for joining aluminum alloy and steel,
which was difficult by conventional welding, due to the
brittle intermetallic compound created between aluminum
Table 1. Chemical compositions of SPC270C (wt. %).
C
Si
Mn
Fe
0.04
0.016
0.18
0.13
0.0099
bal.
Table 2. Chemical compositions of A5052 (wt. %).

Si
Fe
Cu
Mn
0.25
0.40
0.10
0.10
Mg
2.302.80
Zn
0.10
Cr
0.150.35
Al
bal.
Table 3. Spot FSW conditions.

Tool diameter d, mm
10
Tool rotating speed N, rpm
3000
Tool plunge speed v, mm/sec.
0.83
Tool holding time t, sec.

Tool plunge depth P.D., mm
5
0.1 , 0.3 , 0.7
Figure 1. Shape and dimensions of fatigue specimen used.
1120
and ferrum. The characteristics and properties of the FSW

process in aluminum alloy and steel, and the possibility of
applying the FSW in dissimilar materials were reported in
our previous studies [1-4]. However, it is important to
clarify the mechanical properties especially the fatigue
properties of the dissimilar joint before it will be used in
actual components and structures. There are some reports
on fatigue behaviors of both Al alloys or both Mg alloys
joints [5-7]. However, there are no available reports on
fatigue properties of the Al alloy/steel spot FSW joint. In
this study, the fundamental fatigue properties of the dissimilar joint between Al-Mg alloy and carbon steel by
friction stir spot welding were investigated. The influence
of welding condition on the fatigue behaviors was also
studied under different plunge depth conditions.
Materials and Fatigue Specimen. Low carbon steel
SPC270C and Al-Mg alloy A5052 were used as dissimilar
joint specimen. The chemical compositions of both materials are summarized in Table 1 and Table 2, respectively.
Each SPC270C and A5052 plates with dimensions of 30
mm x 120 mm x 1 mm were used for the friction stir spot
welding joint. Both plates were lapped over 40 mm longitudinally, and joined at center of the lapped region. Cemented carbide tool with a diameter of 10 mm was used
for spot FSW. Shape and dimensions of the fatigue specimen are shown in Figure 1. The spot FSW conditions are
summarized in Table 3. Three kinds of joints which were
different in tool plunge depth conditions of 0.1, 0.3 and
0.7 mm were prepared for the fatigue tests. Cross sectional
observations of each specimen are shown in Figure 2.
Fatigue Tests. An electro-hydraulic servo fatigue test
machine with 19.6 kN capacities was used for fatigue tests.
All the tests were carried out under a load-controlled sinusoidal wave form condition with a load ratio
R(=Fmin/Fmax)=0.05, and frequency f=20 Hz in air at room
temperature. Schematic illustration of cyclic loading for
the fatigue specimen is shown in Figure 1. Therefore cyclic shearing load was applied to the interface between
A5052 and SPC270C, by means of pulsating tensile load
09.08.2010 14:44:01 Uhr
Metal Forming
(b) Plunge depth: 0.3 mm
Maximum applied load Fmax, [N]
(a) Plunge depth: 0.1 mm
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
Sinusoidal wave: 20 Hz
Load ratio R(Fmin /Fmax )=0.05
Plunge depth
: 0.1 mm
: 0.3 mm
: 0.7 mm
,
,
:
: Shear type fracture at interface

: Fracture due to crack growth in A5052
Plug type fracture
104
105
106
107
Number of cycles to failure Nf, cycles
Figure 3. S-N curves for Al alloy / steel spot FSW joints.
(c) Plunge depth: 0.7 mm

Figure 2. Cross sectional views of joints used.
to the fatigue specimen.
(a) Overview

S-N Curves. The relationship between maximum applied load and number of cycles to failure (S-N curve) is
shown in Figure 3. In the figure, data points with arrows
show that no failure occurred up to the testing cycles of
1107. The difference in shape of data plots indicates the
difference of plunge depth condition and the difference in
painting of data plots indicates the difference in fatigue
fracture modes as described later. It can be seen that there
was no significant difference in fatigue life of the joints
with difference in plunge depth conditions in which the
applied load Fmax is lower than 700 N. On the other hand,
under Fmax is higher than 700 N, the fatigue life of the joint
welded under the 0.3 mm plunge depth condition (open
circles and closed circles) was generally longer than those
of 0.1 mm depth condition (open squares). And the fatigue
life of both plunge depth specimens was longer than those
of 0.7 mm depth condition (closed triangles and half
closed triangles). This tendency was almost similar to that
of tensile strength of the joint used in this study.
Fatigue Fracture Modes. There were three types of fatigue fracture modes which depend on both plunge depth
condition and maximum applied load level. Typical example of the shear type fatigue fracture at joining interface
between A5052 and SPC270C is shown in Figure 4. Figure 4(a) shows an overview of the specimen. Figure 4(b)
shows a detail observation of the detached FSW interface
on A5052. This type of fracture occurred in case of all
specimens welded under the 0.1 mm (open squares in
Figure 3), and under the 0.3 mm (open circles in Figure 3)
plunge depth condition tested under the highest level of
applied load. As shown in Figure 4(b), secondary crack
(b) Detail of the detached interface on A5052.

Figure 4. Shear type fracture at FSW interface. P.D. 0.1 mm,
(Fmax=600 N, Nf=1.47x106 cycles).
perpendicular to the loading direction and may not affect

the fatigue fracture directly was found clearly at a border
between the internal circular region and the external ring
region on the detached FSW interface in A5052. The secondary cracks were found in all specimens in the shear
type fracture. This type of fatigue crack is significantly
similar to the fretting fatigue crack which initiates on the
elastic contact surface between sphere body and flat plate
with small relative motion [8,9]. In the fretting contact
area, there are stick zone and slip zone. The stick zone i.e.
adhesive region is generated at vicinity of center in the
contact region which is round shape, and slip zone is generated around the stick zone. The fretting fatigue crack
generally initiates at a border between two zones where
the tangential force is maximum. Therefore, in the spot
FSW interface between A5052 and SPC270C, the internal
circular region seemed to be adhesive, and the external
ring region seemed to be adhesive with extremely weak
force or non-adhesive.
Figure 5 shows typical example of the fatigue crack
growth in A5052. This type of fracture occurred in case of
the joints welded under 0.3 mm in plunge depth tested
1121
09.08.2010 14:44:03 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) P.D. 0.3mm, (Fmax=500N, Nf=2.97x106cycles)
Figure 7. Mises stress distribution around spot FSW region. P.D.=

0.7 mm, Fmax=1000 N.
(b) P.D. 0.7mm, (Fmax=650 N, Nf=2.41x105 cycles)
Figure 5. Fatigue fracture by crack growth in A5052.
(a) P.D. 0.7 mm, (Fmax=700 N, Nf=4.75x105 cycles)
(b) P.D. 0.7 mm, (Fmax=650 N, Nf=1.43x106 cycles)

Figure 6. Plug type fatigue fracture.
under the applied load lower than 1000 N (closed circles

in Figure 3), as shown in Figure 5(a). Furthermore, similar
fatigue fracture mode observed in case of the specimens
welded under 0.7 mm in plunge depth tested under the
applied load lower than 650 N (closed triangles in Figure
3), as shown in Figure 5(b). It is thought that the main
fatigue crack initiated near the joining (the region "a" in
Figure 2(b) and (c)) by means of stress concentration, and
propagated to the perpendicular direction against the loading on A5052 plate.
Typical example of the plug type fatigue fracture is
shown in Figure 6. This kind of fracture mode occurred on
the specimens which were welded under 0.7 mm plunge
depth, tested under the applied load higher than 650 N
(half closed triangles in Figure 3). It is found that the main
fatigue crack propagated roundly along a bottom corner of
the spot FSW region (the region "b" in Figure 2 (c)), finally the A5052 plate was thought to be pulled out although the center of FSW region was still adhesive. Moreover, secondary fatigue crack propagated into A5052 plate
1122
through the joining fringe was also found clearly in Figure

6(b), which may become the main fatigue crack in case of
the fracture mode shown in Figure 5(b). The length of the
remaining secondary cracks became shorter with increasing the applied load level and no significant secondary
cracks were found in case of Fmax>700 N as shown in
Figure 6(a). Furthermore, under the maximum applied
load of 650 N, both fatigue fracture modes as shown in
Figure 5(b) and 6(b) were observed. Therefore, it is
thought that both fracture process propagated concurrently,
and the final fracture occurred when either process attained to the critical stage, under the maximum applied
load of 650 N.
Stress Distribution around Spot FSW Region. Stress
distribution around the spot FSW region was simply calculated in elastic-plastic by using free FEM code CalculiX
1.8. Mises stress distribution around the spot FSW region
on the specimen joined under the condition of 0.7 mm
plunge depth, is shown in Figure 7. It is clear that stress
concentrations occurred around "a" and "b" in Figure 2(c)
where the fatigue crack initiated or propagated, as described before.
SEM Observation and EDS Analysis of Detached
FSW interface. SEM micrographs of the detached FSW
interface on the A5052, welded under the 0.3 mm plunge
depth and tested under the maximum load of 1200 N, are
shown in Figure 8. It is found that there are remarkable
"beach marks" in the circular area with about 6 mm diameter, as shown in Figure 8(a). This area is optically observed as the internal circular region as shown in Figure
4(b). Figure 8(b) shows detail observation of the region
"A" in the Figure 8(a). It is found that there is plenty of
debris which seems to be brittle. Detail observation of the
region "B" in the Figure 8(a) is shown in Figure 8(c),
which shows the border between internal circular region
and external ring region. It is clear that there were lots of
debris in the internal circular region and no remarkable
debris existed in the external ring region. Figure 8(d)
shows the remarkable striations observed on the fracture
surface of the secondary fatigue crack. Since this specimen
was tested under the highest level of applied load, the
internal circular region was significantly deformed to the
09.08.2010 14:44:04 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a) Overview
(c) Detail of the region B
(d) Detail of the secondary crack
Figure 8. SEM micrographs of detached FSW interface on A5052.

P.D. 0.3mm, (Fmax=1200 N, Nf=2.17x104 cycles)
direction of specimen thickness after the final fracture

occurred. It is thought that the main fatigue crack grew
along the FSW interface in-plane shear mode (i.e. Mode
II) in case of this type of fatigue fracture, and the secondary crack propagated concurrently in opening mode (i.e.
Mode I). The stress distribution around the interface
changed with increasing the secondary crack length due to
changing the compliance (stiffness) of the joint. That was
the reason of beach marks existed on the detached FSW
interface.
Figure 9 shows results of Energy Dispersive x-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis at the region "A" in Figure 8(a).
Figure 9(a) shows secondary electron image (SEI), (b) and
(c) show the analysis of aluminum (Al) and ferrum (Fe),
respectively. Bright color in the analysis figures indicates
the regions in which the analyzed element was concentrated. It is clear that high concentration of Fe existed in
the debris, and high concentration of Al existed on the
regions of the dark colored in SEI image. The dark colored
region in SEI image seems to be A5052 surface under the
debris. Fe/Al which is chemical abundance ratio of the
debris (atomic percent) was about one third, measured by
using EDS. Therefore, the debris is intermetallic compound FeAl3, and the Mode II fatigue crack propagated
with crumbling the brittle FeAl3.
Conclusions
Fatigue tests of dissimilar joint of Al-Mg alloy A5052
and low carbon steel SPC270C welded by spot friction
stirring were carried out. Three kinds of the joints welded
under plunge depths of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.7 mm were used for
the fatigue tests to study the influence of welding conditions on the fatigue behaviors. The main results obtained
are summarized as follows.
1. There was no significant difference in fatigue life of the
joints with changing the plunge depth under middle and
low applied loads.
(a) Secondary electron image
(b) Detail of the region A
(b) Al mapping
(c) Fe mapping
Figure 9. EDS analysis of detached FSW interface on A5052
2. There were three types of fatigue fracture modes which

depend on both plunge depth and applied load level.
Those were shear type fracture at the spot FSW interface, crack growth type in A5052 and plug type fracture.
3. Under the applied load level where the fracture mode
switched into the other mode, both fatigue fracture process propagated concurrently and final fracture occurred
when either process attained to the critical stage.
4. In the shear type fatigue fracture at the interface, Mode
II fatigue crack propagated with crumbling the brittle
intermetallic compound which was created during FSW
process.
Acknowledgement
Authors greatly thank Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and
OSG Corporation for supplying test materials and FSW
tools, respectively. Authors also greatly thank Mr. T. Shimizu for his support in calculating the stress distribution
by using FEM code.
References
[1] T. Yashi, Y. Shimoda, M. Tsubaki, T. Ishii, M. Fukumoto: Journal of
the Japan Welding Society, 23-3 (2005), 469-475.
[2] T. Yashi, Y. Shimoda, T. Ishii, M. Tsubaki, M. Fukumoto: Journal of
[3] K. Miyagawa, M. Tsubaki, T. Yashi, M. Fukumoto: Journal of the
Japan Welding Society, 26-1 (2008), 42-47.
[4] K. Miyagawa, M. Tsubaki, T. Yashi, M. Fukumoto: Journal of the
[5] Y. Uematsu, K. Tokaji, S. Murata, Y. Tozaki, T. Kurita: Journal of the
Society of Materials Science, 56-6 (2007), 537-543.
[6] Y. Uematsu, K. Tokaji, Y. Tozaki, T. Kurita, S. Murata: Journal of the
[7] Y. Uematsu, K. Tokaji, Y. Tozaki, T. Kurita, T. Ohmune: Journal of
[8] Edited by R.B.Waterhouse, Fretting Fatigue, Applied Science
Publishers Ltd. London, (1981).
[9] Edited by R.B.Waterhouse, Fretting Corrosion, Pergamon Press,
(1972).
1123
09.08.2010 14:44:05 Uhr
Metal Forming
Flat-Clinching New Possibility for Joining Different Kinds of Components in Flexible

and Effective Way to Planar Material Compound
Ulrike Beyer, Birgit Awiszus
Chemnitz / Germany, ulrike.beyer@mb.tu-chemnitz.de
Flat-clinching is a new single-step mechanical joining method in which the material flow that occurs during the deformation is influenced in a
way that allows the join materials to mesh a characteristic feature of clinch connections, which results in a force-closed and form-closed
interlocking within the total sheet thickness. Thus, it is also possible to use clinching for parts in visible or functional areas, which opens up
new application areas for mechanical joining. Moreover, the procedure is suitable for joining various materials (e.g. metal and plastic) and
therefore boosts multi-material design.
Keywords: Joining by forming, Cold forming technology, Clinch connection, Finite element method, Process simulation
Introduction
Climate protection and scarcer resources are widely discussed nowadays [1]. Therefore it is necessary to use the
development of new technologies to shape the challenges
of the future. The trend continues in direction of intelligent
light weight design and construction. This means the use
of suitable material for every part regarding function,
durability, production and costs (Figure 1). Multi-material
components have a positive impact on the properties of the
product and contribute to the preservation of resources.
But according to [2] the joining of the parts is the biggest
challenge and at the same time responsible for the biggest
costs. Together with increasing qualitative requirements
for semi-finished products, also joining technologies face
new demands. Besides gluing, innovative joint technologies are used more and more [3].
an even anvil instead of a cavity-like split or unsplit die (as

is used for conventional clinch connections) and a specific
precision adjustment of the influencing parameters. Thus,
keeping the punch and the blank-holder, it is possible to
produce a strong, form-closed, and force-closed connection, which can be used in visible areas and as functional
surface [5].
Figure 2. Comparison of (a) conventional clinching and (b) flatclinch connection.
Aims
Figure 1. Multi-material-design in automotive industry [4].
For a couple of years, the increasing importance of mechanically joined punctiform connections in short: mechanical joins has led to increased developments in this
field. Apart from numerous advantages of these conventional connections, there are, among other things, some
limitations due to the outside protrusion (Figure 2a) which
causes a bump jutting out of the sheet evenness. An approach to solve this problem is the flat-clinch connection
that has been under development for a couple of years.
Here, a punctiform connection is created which is even on
one side and joined in a single step (Figure 2b) by using
1124
The fundament of the realized research work is the flatpoint connection, which has been developed some years
ago at the Chemnitz University of Technology and distinguishes itself by a material-locking of the work pieces.
The join strength of the advanced connection was to be
achieved without this material-locking caused by elaborate
preliminary work and based on a form closure and force
closure, which is characteristic for conventional, mechanical join connections. Another aim was the total evenness
of the connection the precondition for using flatclinching for visible or functional surfaces. Moreover,
based on a stress analysis it should be investigated whether
flat-clinching can be used for connecting metal and plastic
components. To realize these aims it was necessary to
develop new, numerical simulation models which display
the effects of the most important process parameters and
influencing parameters of flat-clinching on the connection
characteristics. Reasons for this are that the various influencing parameters and their multifactorial relations could
only be determined experimentally and not precisely
enough. In particular, the aim was to analyze the joining
09.08.2010 14:44:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
behavior of the work pieces as well as the material flow
within the connection caused by the deformation and to
achieve a targeted, sufficient form closure (interlocking)
within the joining area through appropriate measures.
spring force optimization have been gained, e.g. by adapting the spring stiffness. This exact adaption of the joining
forces allowed predicting the required punch forces and
blank-holder forces for specific joining tasks.
Recording of Characteristic Values
Parameter Identification
In order to have meaningful input parameters for the

FEM-calculations, the mechanical properties of the work
pieces which were used in the preliminary analyses have
been determined. Flat-clinching allows deformation degrees up to v = 3.5, which is why a conventional test
method would not work because only deformation degrees up to around v = 0.2 can be experimentally determined. Because material databases cannot provide more
information, a method of carrying out tension tests on
specifically preformed sheets has been used. Thus, flow
curves of deformation degrees of around v = 2.0 could be
determined experimentally. The sheets were preformed by
rolling them to a particular thickness. The reduction of the
sheet thickness leads to an increasing deformation degree,
which can be calculated according to the following relation.
At the beginning, the work focused on a systematic

analysis and quantification of the parameters which influence the joining process. In doing so, the influencing values determined in the experimental preliminary examinations were integrated into the numerical side conditions of
the FE-models and varied systematically by doing analyses based on numerical methods. Thus, it was possible to
find and quantify the most important influencing parameters. Figure 3 shows the four main foci of the analyses:
1. Process parameters (e.g. punch feed, punch force,
blank-holder force, punch / blank-holder interconnection),
2. Tool geometry (e.g. blank-holder form, punch diameter),
3. Material properties (e.g. yield strength, deformability, part thickness/ thickness ratio, arrangement),
as well as
4. Boundary conditions, such as friction and temperature influences.
= ln 1
s0
(1)
(s0 original sheet thickness,

s1 sheet thickness after rolling)
After that, the Rp0,2 elastic limit and the tensile strength Rm
of the work pieces were determined in a standardized
tension test. The dependence of the elastic limit on the
comparative deformation degree is one of the most important input parameters for the numerical models.
Modeling
For an exact simulative display of the experimental examinations of flat-clinching, it was necessary to implement all technological and material conditions as realistic
as possible in a FE-model. The simulation software simufact.formingGP of the Simufact Engineering GmbH
especially developed for dimensioning and optimization of
manufacturing processes has been used. This software
distinguishes itself, among other things, by a 'mesher',
which works steadily despite of the reduction of the sheet
thickness during the forming process and the consequently
low, remaining bottom thickness. This circumstance was
particular important for displaying the flat-clinching procedure since the thickness in the joining area is reduced up
to 90% of the initial thickness. Moreover, aforementioned
software allows to easily integrate the recorded mechanical features of the experimental work pieces into the
model.
The flat-cinching process has been modeled using the
axial symmetries in two-dimensional space after a detailed
analysis of the process course. As a result a significant
influencing aspect the spring coupling between punch
and blank-holder could be included by applying a spring
characteristic that has been determined in a real process.
Thus, an exact display of the interaction between punch
and blank-holder has been achieved and findings for the
Figure 3. Variables influencing the process of manufacturing flatclinch connections.
Calibration
During the calibration, the simulation results were compared to the results of the experimental examinations. The
deviations which were found in the first stage of this process were analyzed and the conclusions were applied to the
FE-model.
Figure 4. Comparison between (a) numerical and (b) experimental

investigations.
1125
09.08.2010 14:44:06 Uhr
Metal Forming
These steps were finished when the most important characteristic
values interlocking f, neck thickness tn, remaining bottom thickness tb and the joining force FFS were sufficiently accurate (Figure 4). The thus developed calibrated models were the basis for
the further optimization process.
Material Flow Optimization
Following this, the simulation and the real process were
compared for tools that were used earlier in experiments.
This fundamental check of the applied punch was analyzed especially with regard to the interlocking production.
In doing so, various punch forms that were not practicable
could be excluded. A cylindrically concave as well as a
cylindrically flat geometry for the punch head turned out
to be particularly useful. Using the simulation it could be
detected that the bottom radius is reciprocally proportional
to the interlocking for the concave punch form, e.g. the
smaller the bottom radius, the larger the interlocking.
However, when having a too small bottom radius, the
anvil-sided sheet metal becomes extremely thin and the
neck thickness very low. For the concave as well as the
cylindrically flat shape it was proven that the relation of
edge radius and interlocking in the simulation model is
reciprocally proportional, e.g. the smaller the edge radius,
the bigger the resulting interlocking. This circumstance
was also confirmed by an experiment. By using the created two-dimensional FE-model for linear joining kinematics, first indications for the adaptation of the punch
diameter (which was kept constantly at 5.0 mm in experiments) for different sheet thicknesses have been found
afterwards, which is important, for instance, for the flatclinching of sheets of greater thickness. This is important
e.g. for flat-clinching of work pieces of greater thickness
as can be found when working with plastics. As for the
punch geometries, the blank-holder used in the experiment
was also thoroughly checked. Here, the influence of different blank-holder geometries on the formation of the
interlocking was investigated as well. Figure 5 shows the
essential result of these simulative tests.
1.
First of all, a material flow in the opposite direction

of the punch movement has to be ensured, and
2. with adequate actions, this flow can be limited in
axially opposite punch direction as well as radially
in a particular distance to the punch, which allows
an interlocking maximization.
This interrelation has not been detected in experiments
until now. Only due to the visualization of the material
flow in the simulation, a "material flow limiter" on the
blank-holder has been systematically designed adding an
edge to the blank-holder bore. For the blank-holder with a
ring contour, that has been analyzed in tests, the position
and the shape of the contour were varied in simulations,
which showed the necessity to differentiate between two
blank-holder contours. On the one hand a knife-edged ring,
which interrupts the material flow in a radial direction and
thus improves the interlocking. This contour is especially
suitable for softer materials with a yield strength Rp0,2 <
300 MPa. On the other hand a particular knife-edged ring
for harder materials (Rp0,2 > 300 MPa). This contour effects that when the blank-holder touches the punch-sided
work piece the latter is pressed extensively in the axial
direction the counter punch direction and therefore a
better material flow of the anvil-sided work piece results
in an extension of the interlocking. The results of the material flow analysis during the joining process were also
used to develop a new blank-holder form without ring
contour, which allowed a further refinement of the anvilsided flatness of the connection in particular, besides improving the interlocking. The blank-holder with an inner
radius contour has been developed exclusively by examining the dependence of the interlocking on the edge radius
and the inner diameter. These tests were executed and
displayed in the FE-model. Generally, it can be stated that
the tools need to be adapted to the respective joining task,
e.g. the respective work pieces and sheet thicknesses (as
well as their relations) which requires complex experiments but can be done easily and economically using the
FE-simulation. Especially the diameter or rather the radii
of the blank-holder contours as well as the contours of the
edge radius of the punch have to be modified.
Connection Characteristics
Figure 5. Phases of flat-clinch process.
The material flow during the join formation of flatclinch connections goes through two phases:
1126
The examination and testing of the new geometries of

the punch and the blank-holder were always executed
shortly after receiving the simulation results. Especially
for the all-purpose blank-holder geometry with inner radius contour, a very good correlation with the predicted
numerical results could be achieved. Created diagrams, as
in Figure 6, for instance, support the design of the operation with optimal tool geometries, the latter of which allow
for achieving an improved interlocking depending on the
preferences.
Thanks to the optimization of the flat-clinch connection
it was possible to improve the features concerning cross
tension strain and tensile shear strain. Using a tensile shear
test it was recognized that on softer work pieces (R0,2 <
300 MPa), the flat-clinch connections joined in a linear
way were more resistant than the conventionally produced
uneven clinch connections. In a cross tension test, the
softer work pieces show a connection that is less resistant
09.08.2010 14:44:07 Uhr
Metal Forming
by 0.5 kN on average than the conventional ones. These
results essentially from the smaller interlocking due to the
method compared to standard clinch connections with
protrusion.
Figure 6. Interlocking against inside diameter and edge radius.
Application Area
Summery
The mechanical interlocking of the join materials is a
process influenced by many factors with multi-factorial
relations. In order to quantify these factors and to display
the material flow during the formation of the connection, it
was necessary to represent the flat-clinching numerically
in a simulation model. Systematic analyzing and quantifying of the parameters influencing the flat-clinch process
allowed determining the most important ones. In doing so,
it was recognized that the connection formation mainly
depends on the chosen work pieces, each of them has
individual tool geometries and process parameters. The
numerical display of flat-clinching and the resulting technological optimization finally led to a further procedure
development that suits industrial needs. Furthermore, the
latest research results prove that the method can also be
applied for joining different materials, such as plastic and
metal. For these reasons, flat-clinching presents an excellent opportunity to guarantee a flexible multi-materialdesign with a short and effective process chain. Moreover,
the intelligent lightweight construction and the trend to
mix materials can be advanced further.
First analyses, numerical calculations as well as experiments show that during the production of flat-clinch connections very useful tension-compression-relations occur
in the joining zone. Therefore it is possible to use flat
clinching not only for joining metal materials such as steel
or aluminum (Figure 7(a)) but also for the mechanical
joining of materials with low or no flow ability, such as
brittle plastics (Figure 7(b)) , wood or cardboard without
material failure.
Figure 9. Establishing and potential of flat-clinch connections.
Acknowledgements
Figure 7. Different flat-clinch joinings consisting of (a) two aluminum components, (b) polystyrol und aluminum.
The limits of mechanical joining without an extra joint are

pushed further using these alternative materials or highstrength steel such as CPW 800 (Figure 8) as a compound
which was considered as problematic or plain unsuitable
for clinching until now.
The authors are very grateful to the German Research

Foundation DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V.)
for supporting this work.
References
[1] G. Meschut: ke Komponenten + Systeme, 4 (2005), 92-93.
[2] M. Lesemann, M. Brckerhoff, P. Urban: lightweightdesign, 3 (2008),
32-36.
[3] G. Ahlers-Hestermann, G. Meschut: Der Praktiker, 2 (2006), 38-42.
[4] L. Eckstein: www.ATZonline.com, 8 (2008), 14-20.
[5] B. Awiszus, U. Beyer, F. Riedel, M. Todtermuschke: Proceedings 9th
Interntional Conference on Technology of Plasticity (9th ICTP 2008),
September 7- 11 (2008), Gyeongju, Korea, 584-585.
Figure 8. Flat-clinch connection with CPW 800 and aluminum.
1127
09.08.2010 14:44:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Joining of Hot-Dip Coated High-Strength Steel Sheets by Mechanical Clinching

Yohei Abe1), Toru Kato2), Masaya Kishimoto1), Ken-ichiro Mori1)
1)
Department of Production Systems Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi / Japan, abe@pse.tut.ac.jp;
ment of Engineering, Nippon POP Rivets and Fasteners Ltd, Toyohashi / Japan
2)
Depart-
To improve the joinability of hot-dip coated high-strength steel sheets in mechanical clinching, the modification of die shape was proposed.
In mechanical clinching, the sheets are joined by local hemming with a punch and die without heating. The fracture of the upper sheet
occurs because of the low ductility of the sheet for 590MPa grade high-strength steel. To prevent the occurrence of the fracture, the modification of a die shape for the diameter and the depth was proposed. The effects of the die shapes on the deforming behaviour of the sheets
are investigated using the finite element simulation. The high-strength steel sheets were successfully joined using the die with appropriate
shapes. The corrosion resistance and the strength of joined sheets were investigated. Although the mechanical clinched sheets had larger
corrosion resistance than the welded ones, the clinched sheets had smaller joint strength than the welded ones.
Keywords: Joining, Mechanical clinching, High-strength steel sheet, Hot-dip coated steel sheet, Die design
Introduction
Conditions of Mechanical Clinching
In order to improve fuel efficiency of automobiles, the

reduction in the weight of automobile parts is required.
For the reduction, mild steel automotive parts tend to be
replaced by high-strength steel ones. In addition, hot-dip
coated high strength steel steels having high corrosion
resistance are attractive due to the increase in life of automotive parts.
In the joining of automobile body panels, the resistance
spot welding is generally used. In the resistance welding
of coated steel sheets, the life of copper electrodes is shortened due to low electrical resistance and low melting temperature of the coating layer [1,2] In addition, the thickness of the coating layer becomes small due to the heating,
and thus the corrosion resistance of the welded sheets
deteriorates. It is desirable in the automobile industry to
develop a joining process suitable for the hot-dip coated
high strength steel steels.
The self pierce riveting [3] is a cold process for the joining of two sheets by driving a rivet through the upper sheet
and upsetting the rivet in the lower sheet without penetration into the lower one. However, the running costs become relatively high due to use of rivets [4]. In the mechanical clinching, sheets are joined by local hemming
with a punch and die [5]. Although the strength of joined
sheets is not high, the mechanical clinching has the advantage of low running costs [4].
The authors [6] investigated the joinability of hot-dip
coated 370MPa grade steel sheets using the mechanical
clinching. Although the joinability was high because of
high ductility of the sheets, the joining of the high-strength
steel sheets having low ductility is not easy.
In the present paper, the joinability of the hot-dip coated
high-strength steel sheets having low ductility by the mechanical clinching was improved by the modification of
the die shape. The effects of the die shapes on the deforming behaviour of the sheets are investigated using the finite
element simulation. The strength and the layer thickness of
coating of the joined sheets were examined.
Mechanical Clinching. In the mechanical clinching, the

two sheets are mechanically joined by forming an interlock between the lower and the upper sheets with the
punch and die as shown in Figure 1. The strength of the
joined sheets is determined by the amount of the formed
interlock x and minimum wall thickness tmin. It is requisite that the joined sheets do not fracture.
1128
Punch
Sheet holder
Upper sheet
Lower sheet
Die
(a) Initial
(b) Flaring
Minimum wall thickness tmin
Interlock x
(c) Joining
Figure 1. Mechanical clinching.
The cross-sectional shapes of sheets joined by the conventional tools [6] for 590 MPa grade high-strength steel
sheets are given in Figure 2. The upper sheet fractures in
the side wall of punch due to the occurrence of localised
necking.
09.08.2010 14:44:08 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 1. Mechanical properties of hot-dip coated high-strength
steel sheets.
590MPa
370MPa
780MPa
606
377
811
Reduction of area /%
50
67
Components of coating
Initial layer thickness
of coating /m
Effect of Die Shape. The effect of the die shape on the

deforming behaviour of the sheets is shown in Figure 3.
The die shape was optimised to decrease severe plastic
deformation of the upper sheet. As the diameter of the die
cavity increases and the depth decreases, the decrease in
thickness of the side wall of the upper sheet is prevented,
whereas the amount of interlocking decreases.
Punch
r0
.5
8.2
Sheet holder
5.2
Upper sheet
Lower sheet
Die
h
Small x
Large d
b Large die diameter
Small h
Large tmin
Small x
(c) Small die depth
Figure 3. Effect of die shape on deforming behaviour of sheets.
Joining Conditions. The mechanical properties of the

hot-dip coated high-strength steel sheets are shown in
Table 1. 1.2 mm of 590 MPa grade hot-dip coated highstrength steel sheets were used. To investigate the effects
of the ductility and strength of the sheets on the deforming
behaviour of the sheets, 370 and 780 MPa grades steel
sheets were also employed. The 590 and 370 MPa grade
sheets are Zn-Al-Mg alloy coating sheets having high
corrosion resistance. The 780 MPa grade sheet is a conventional GA coating sheet.
The apparatus used for an experiment of mechanical
clinching of hot-dip coated steel sheets is illustrated in
Figure 4. The effect of the die diameter D and the die
depth h on the deforming behaviour of the sheets was
investigated. The same steel sheets were joined. The sheets
were pressed with the punch up to 35% of the initial thickness.
7.5
The mechanical clinching process was simulated by

means of the commercial finite element code LS-DYNA.
Axi-symmetric deformation was assumed by limiting the
calculation to the vicinity undergoing plastic deformation.
The cross-sections of the sheets were divided into quadrilateral solid elements and the no layers of coating of the
sheets were assumed. The die, punch and sheet holder
were assumed to be rigid.
Determination of Die Shape
The effect of the die diameter on the interlock obtained
from the calculation for h=1.8 mm and 590 MPa grade the
high-strength steel sheets is illustrated in Figure 5. As the
die diameter increases, the interlock increases. The excessive diameter brings the no interlocking. The diameter
d=8.5 mm was determined.
0.2
Interlock x /mm
Small x
aSmall die diameter
12.5
Figure 4. Joining conditions.
Large tmin
Small d
Zn-Fe
1.2
Figure 2. Cross-sectional shapes of sheets joined by conventional

tools for 590MPa grade high-strength steel sheets.
48
Zn-6%Al-3%Mg
1.2
Fracture
Steel sheets
0.1
0
8
8.25
8.5
8.75
Die diameter d /mm

Figure 5. Effect of die diameter on interlock obtained from calculation for h=1.8mm and 590MPa grade high-strength steel sheets.
The maximum reduction in the wall thickness of the upper sheet is shown in Figure 6. The maximum reduction
was calculated from the minimum wall thickness of at the
occurrence of fracture tf and the initial sheet thickness. As
the tensile strength of the steel sheets increases, the maximum reduction decreases.
1129
09.08.2010 14:44:09 Uhr
Maximum reduction in wall thickness of upper sheet /%
Metal Forming
100
tmin=0.43mm
80
tmin=0.40mm
x=0.13mm
x=0.14mm
60
Experimental
Calculated
(a) 590MPa for d=8.5mm and h=1.8mm
40
20
tmin=0.62mm
tmin=0.47mm
tf
x=0.06mm
x=0.03mm
0
200
400
600
800
Tensile strength of steel sheets /MPa
1000
Calculated
Experimental
(b) 780MPa for d=8.5mm and h=1.5mm
Figure 6. Maximum reduction in wall thickness of upper sheet.
The effect of the die depth on the interlock and the

minimum wall thickness of the upper sheet obtained from
the calculation for 590 MPa grade high-strength steel sheet
is given in Figure 7. As the depth of the die cavity decreases, the minimum wall thickness increases. The underestimated depth brings the no interlocking. To obtain the
certain thickness and interlock, the die depth h=1.8 mm
was determined.
Interlock x, Minimum wall thickness of upper

sheet tmin /mm
0.5
tmin
0.4
Limit of thickness
0.3
Figure 8. Cross-sectional shapes of sheets by modified die obtained from calculation and experiment.
Joining Strength of Joined Sheets. The strength of the

joined sheets was measured from the conventional crosstension [7] and tension-shearing [8] tests. The maximum
joint loads of the joined sheets in the cross-tension and
tension-shearing tests are shown in Figure 9. In the figure,
the maximum loads of the welded sheets are shown. In the
cross-tension test, the upper sheet is pulled out from the
lower sheet. The maximum cross-tension loads of the
joined sheets are about 30% of that by the welded sheets.
In the tension-shearing test, the side wall of the depression
in the upper sheet is fractured. Although the maximum
shearing load for 590 MPa grade steel sheet is larger than
that of the 370 MPa sheet, the maximum is about 30% of
that by the welded ones.
0.2
Upper sheet
Upper sheet
0.1
0
1.4
Improvement of Joinability by Modified Die
Cross-tension test
ng
di
el
W Pa
0M
59 Pa
M
0
37
1130
Lower sheet
10
ng
di
el
W Pa
0M o r d
59 Pa f an
m
0M m
37 8.5 m
d= =2m
h
Joinability by Modified Die. The cross-sectional

shapes of the sheets by the modified die obtained from the
calculation and the experiment are illustrated in Figure 8.
The sheets are joined by the determined die without the
occurrence of the fracture. The calculated minimum wall
thickness and interlock are similar to experimental ones.
For the joining of 780 MPa grade sheet, the shape of the
die was determined by the same procedure. The sheets are
successfully joined by the die without defects.
Lower sheet
15
Maximum load /kN
2.0
2.2
1.6
1.8
Die depth h /mm
Figure 7. Effect of die depth on interlock and minimum wall thickness of upper sheet obtained from calculation for 590MPa grade
high-strength steel sheets.
Tension-shearing test
Figure 9. Maximum joint loads of joined sheets in cross-tension

and tension-shearing tests.
09.08.2010 14:44:10 Uhr
Metal Forming
Corrosion Resistance of Joined Sheets. The distributions of the coating layer thickness in the depression and
projection obtained from the experiment for 590 MPa
grade high-strength steel sheet are illustrated in Figure 10.
In the depression, the ratio of the thickness in the bottom
and sidewall surfaces is small. In the projection, the ratio
of the top surface becomes small.
the occurrence of the rust on the surface of sheets. Although the corrosion resistance of the joined sheets is 40%
of that of the initial coated sheet, the resistance became
twofold resistance of the welded sheets.
Rust
Coating
Rust
Sheet
100m
Projection
Ratio of coating layer

thickness
Sidewall
No contact
0.5
2
4
6
Distance from bottom centre/ mm
aDepression
Ratio of coating layer

thickness
1.5
0.5
Top
0
Side wall
2
4
6
Distance from bottom centre/ mm
Figure 10. Distributions of bProjection

coating layer thickness in depression
and projection obtained from experiment for 590MPa grade highstrength steel sheets.
The corrosion resistance of the joined sheets obtained

from the experiment is given in Figure 11. Because the
Zn-Al-Mg alloy coating has high corrosion resistance, the
accelerated cycle corrosion test were carried out. The acid
solution eroded the joined sheets for 30minutes and at 30
o
C, and the sheets were dried in the heater at 30 oC for 30
min. The cycle of the erosion and dry was carried out to
40
20
0
Depression Projection
a590MPa
60
40
20
0
Depression Projection
b370MPa
Conclusions
60
Welded
Figure 11. Corrosion resistance of joined sheets obtained from

experiment.
1.5
Bottom
Ratio of corrosion
resistance /%
Depression
Ratio of corrosion
resistance /%
80
A mechanical clinching process of hot-dip coated highstrength steel sheets was developed, and the following
1. The high-strength steel sheets were successfully joined
by optimising the shape of the die to prevent the occurrence of the fracture.
2. The maximum load of the joined sheets by the mechanical clinching was about 30% of that by the welded ones.
3. The coating layer thickness of the joined sheets in the
bottom and sidewall surfaces of the depression was
small. In the projection, the thickness of the top surface
became small.
4. Although the corrosion resistance of the joined sheets
was 40% of that of the initial coated sheet, the resistance became twofold resistance of the welded sheets.
References
[1] T. Shimizu, A. Andoh, H. Asada, S. Morikawa: SAE paper, (2005),
2005-01-1330.
[2] X.-Q. Zhang, G.-L. Chen, Y.-S. Zhang: Materials and Design, 29
(2008), 279-283.
[3] L. Han, A. Chrysanthou: Materials and Design, 29 (2008), 458-468.
[4] J. Varis: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 172 (2006),
130-138.
[5] T. Barnes, I.-R. Pashby: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
99 (2000), 72-79.
[6] Y. Abe, M. Kishimoto, T. Kato, K. Mori: International Journal of
Material Forming, 2-1 (2009), 291-294.
[7] JIS-Z-3137, JISC (1999).
[8] JIS-Z-3136, JISC (1999).
1131
09.08.2010 14:44:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
Comparison of Impact Energy Absorption by Double-Hat Thin-Walled Specimens Made

of HSLA Steel Joined by Clinching and Spot Welding
Zbigniew Gronostajski, Sawomir Polak
Institute of Production Engineering and Automation, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw / Poland, zbigniew.gronostajski@pwr.wroc.pl
Energy-absorbing systems of different kinds are of considerable interest to many industries, especially the automotive industry for controlled body crushing zones in vehicles. The most popular technique of joining deformable zone components is spot welding. This paper
presents a new technique of joining energy absorbing thin-walled specimens using a metal forming process called clinching. Two methods
of clinching: round press joining (RPJ) and square press joining (SPJ) are considered. Dynamic crushing tests of thin-walled specimens
joined by respectively spot welding and clinching were carried out. The results show that clinch joining could replace the welding of vehicle
energy absorption components.
Keywords: Forming, Joining, Dynamic.
Introduction
There are numerous researches, both experimental and
theoretical, on the capacity to absorb kinetic energy by the
different thin-walled specimens used in controlled body
crushing zones [1-3]. The parts have different (circular,
square, polygonal) cross-sections, are made of various
materials (steel, aluminium, composites) and their mechanisms triggering the formation of regular buckling folds
are different.
The first major work in this field was published by Alexander (1960) who on the basis of experiments on axisymmetrical thin-walled specimens developed a model which
made it possible to determine the average deformation
force and the size of the folds forming during deformation
[1]. The model was employed in further research. It was
found that a given folding mode can be associated with the
values of the specimen geometric parameters: D/t (diameter/thickness) and L/D (length/diameter) as well as the
properties of the materials.
Crushing force is changed during deformation of thin
walled sections according to folding modes therefore the
maximum energy absorption is obtained in a given sample
if progressive collapse mode is sustained in a profile
throughout the whole deformation process. On the other
hand the regular folding process is often disturbed by
global bending caused by incorrectly designed profiles and
geometric and material imperfection (Figure 1).
changes within the weld, leading to considerable strain

hardening of the material in this area and a reduction in its
deformability. The research of the dynamic deformation of
welded thin-walled specimens carried out by the paper
authors showed that the deformed material very often
cracks at low strains in the heat-affected zone (HAZ).
Then the amount of energy absorbed by the element being
deformed is much reduced. For this reason mechanical
joining, consisting in local pressing one metal sheet into
another is considered as a method which could replace
spot welding. The technique can be used to join elements
having the same or different thickness and made from
different materials. There may also be an intermediate
layer (foil, paint, sealing, etc.), which does not lower the
quality of the joint, between the joined elements [5-7].
In recent years new materials, such as aluminium alloys,
new-generation steels and composites, have been increasingly used in the automotive industry [8-11]. The use of
such materials brings substantial benefits connected with
their high strength and the vehicles reduced weight and
fuel consumption. Unfortunately the use of such materials
sometimes imposes severe restrictions on the welding of
aluminium and steel alloys, composites and metals or on
the joining of elements with an intermediate layer between
them [12,13]. The available literature does not provide any
information on the dynamic deformation of thin-walled
specimens joined by clinching.
In the present paper, the behavior of clinch joints during
dynamic deformation and the capacities for absorbing
kinetic energy by thin-walled specimens made of HSLA
steel joined by clinching are presented.
Methodology
(a)
(b)
Figure 1. Deformation of double - hat thin walled sections; (a)

global bending and (b) progressive folding.
The way in which the thin-walled specimens are joined

is also a highly important parameter affecting their energy
consumption. Today car structure components are most
often joined by welding and recently by laser welding [4].
Besides many obvious advantages, the methods have their
limitations which are mainly associated with structural
1132
In order to study the effect of different joining of thinwalled specimens on their energy absorption, spot welding
(weld diameter: 6 mm) and two clinching methods, i.e.
round press joining (RPJ8, diameter of bottom bulge - 8
mm) and square press joining (SPJ4, side length: 4 mm)
(Figure 2(c) and (b)), were applied. The idea of clinch
joining by Eckold GmbH & Co.KG is illustrated in Figure
3a. The thin-walled specimens were made of steel HSLA
320. The geometrics of the researched thin-walled specimens are shown in Figure 3.
09.08.2010 14:44:11 Uhr
Metal Forming
(a)
punch
sheet
die
The above mentioned parameters describe the physical

properties which depend on the geometry, the material,
etc., as well as on the thin-walled specimen joining technique.
In order to determine the effect of joining on the above
parameters, the thin-walled specimens used in the tests
were made of the same material and had the same geometry, differing only in the joining method.
clinching
element
sheet
(b)
(c)
Strength Tests
Figure 2. Idea of clinch joining using; (a) round tools, (b) square
press joining and (c) round press joining (Eckold GmbH & Co.KG).
The thin-walled specimens were subjected to an axial

crushing test on a dynamic test stand with a drop crush
tower, where thin-walled specimens can be deformed at a
very high velocity and data can be registered for very short
times [14].
Strength parameters of the joints depend mainly on their

cross section area. It is difficult to determine precisely the
cross section area of clinched joints. According to Eckold
GmbH & Co.KG joints made by spot welding of 5 mm in
diameter, round press joining of 8 mm in diameter of bottom bulge (RPJ8) and square press joining of 4 mm in side
length (SPJ4) have similar area of cross section and could
be compared. Unfortunately the spot welded of 5 mm in
diameter did not ensure good joining of thin-walled specimens therefore the spot welded of 6 mm in diameter was
applied in all investigations. The strength parameters of all
the joints made by: spot welding, round press joining
(RPJ) and square press joining (SPJ) were determined in
the pull-out test and in the tensile test, in accordance with
the standards (Figure 4).
(a)
(b)
Figure 3. Dimensions of specimens.
Cashworthy car component thin-walled specimens

should be characterized by efficient and controllable energy absorption and a collapse force below the maximum
tolerances allowable for the car user. To assess the performance of the thin-walled specimens during a car accident the following indexes were experimentally determined.
Pmax is the maximum load. It is the force required to initiate deformation and energy absorption process. This load
should be within the tolerance limit for the user. The mean
load Pm is defined as
Pm =
(1)
where E is the energy absorbed during deformation and

is the plastic axial displacement.
It is an indicator of a cars ability to absorb energy. For a
vehicle designer this value is important since the length of
energy-absorbing car elements is limited. However, a too
high mean load value of the energy-absorbing structure
leads to high deceleration and to the death of car users.
CFE - coefficient of crush force efficiency, which describes the change of the force during crushing. It is a ratio
of the mean load to the maximum load.
CFE =
Pm
Pmax
Figure 4. Strength testing; (a) pull-out test and (b) tensile test.
The results show that separation of the spot-welded

(SW) joints occurs at a normal force almost three times
higher than in the case of clinch joints (RPJ and SPJ) (Figure 5). At a small displacement (up to 5 mm) of the grips
the course of the normal force is similar for all the joining
methods. At a displacement of about 6 millimeters the SPJ
joint begins cracking, whereas the RPJ joint cracks at a
displacement of about 12 mm. In the case of the spotwelded joint the material separates at a much larger displacement of about 20 mm. At 9 mm the normal force of
the spot-welded joint increases rapidly in comparison with
the clinch joints. As regards the normal separation force,
RPJ is a little better than HPJ.
The correlation between the shearing force and displacement is shown in Figure 6. Also in this case the
shearing force of separation for the spot-welded joint is
much higher than for clinching. The course of the shearing
force is the same for all the joints, but only up to a displacement of 0.5mm. In contrast to the course of the normal force, separation displacement for all the kinds of
joints is almost similar.
(2)
1133
09.08.2010 14:44:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
Normal Force [kN]
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
SW
RPJ
SPJ
0
12
16
20
Displacement [mm]
Figure 5. Normal force versus displacement for different joints in
pull-out test.
Shear Force [kN]
12
SW
10
8
6
RPJ
SPJ
2
0
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
Displacement [mm]
2,5
Figure 6. Shear force versus displacement for different joints in

tensile test.
At this stage of the research it became apparent that the

strength of the clinch joint is much lower than that of the
spot-welded joint. The strength of clinch joints could be
increased, for example, by increasing the clinching diameter, but in the case of energy absorbing thin-walled specimens the strength of the joints is not as important as
proper progressive deformation ensuring high energy
absorption. Proper deformation could be obtained by combining different properties, but this is difficult to determine
by means of simple (pull-out and tensile) tests. It is also
hard to predict the behavior of clinch joints in energy
absorbing thin-walled specimens because the stress state in
such thin-walled specimens during dynamic deformation
is more complex than in the above simple tests. As opposed to spot welding, clinch joining by introducing material inhomogeneity may improve the way in which the
specimen deforms. The above observations and the advantages of mechanical clinching mentioned in the introduction, encourage to carry out dynamic crushing tests of
thin-walled specimens joined by clinching
Axial Crushing Tests
A hammer bob weight of 227 kg and a crush velocity of
7.27 m/s were used in the crushing test. The impact energy
was equal 6 kJ. The force-displacement curves for the
double-hat thin-walled specimens joined by respectively
spot welding and clinching are shown in Figure 7. The
absorbed energy is represented by the area below the
curves. The curves for all the specimens are almost the
same, except for SPJ where displacement is larger.
1134
Figure 7. Load-displacement curve for thin-walled specimens in

dynamic test.
The first increase in the force is caused by the formation

of the first fold. After the formation of plasticity nodes the
force decreases. The next folds are formed by a smaller
load. Each oscillation in the load curve corresponds to the
formation of another fold. In the case of SPJ clinching, the
deformed length is the greatest because of the low strength
of this kind of clinch joint. For the other kinds of joining
deformed length is almost the same.
Figure 10 shows the collapsed specimens. As one can
see, all the specimens underwent progressive folding.
Buckling started from the top end and proceeded towards
the centre. Transition from progressive folding to global
bending was observed only in the specimens clinched by
SPJ, which could have been due to the failure of the joint
and results in large displacement (see Figure 8).
Figure 8. Collapse thin-walled specimens in dynamic test.
The crashworthiness indexes of the thin-walled specimens are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Crashworthiness indexes.
designation
[mm]
Pmax [kN]
Pm [KN]
CFE [%]
SW-s1
0.109
312.3
50.2
16.1
SW-s2
0.107
327.3
51.3
15.7
RPJ-s1
0.102
303.8
46.8
15.4
RPJ-s2
0.105
293.1
50.8
17.3
SPJ-s1
0.116
276.1
46.0
16.7
SPJ-s2
0.129
312.2
40.3
12.9
09.08.2010 14:44:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
Clinch joining is better as regards maximum load Pmax
which is smaller than for spot welding. This means that
clinching ensures a lower car user overload. Plastic axial
displacement is the largest for the thin-walled specimens
joined by square press joining (SPJ). This is due to the too
low joint separation force (Figure 8) the joint separated
during dynamic deformation. The other crashworthiness
indexes, i.e. Pm and CFE, are very similar for all the joints,
except for the specimens jointed by SPJ and marked SPJs2 in Table 1, whose joints cracked at an early stage of
deformation. Generally, the deformation of the specimens
jointed by RPJ is very similar to that of the welded specimens.
In the case of RPJ joining the neck thickness and undercut are the main parameters determining the force at which
the joint fails (Figure 9(b)). The microstructure research
shows that macro shear bends are created due to large
plastic deformation at side wall and it causes adhesion of
the sheets. There is no visible boundary between the sheets
in this area (Figure 9(a)), however too large deformation
causes small crakes on the surface that propagate during
following crash test. Therefore in few cases failure mode
by cracking clinch joining during dynamic deformation
was observed (Figure 10). It occurs in bent clinch joining
which is placed in the fold but it does not cause separation
of sheets.
(a)
200 m
(b)
1 mm
undercut
bottom thickness
Figure 9. Cross section of RPJ joining; (a) shear band and (b)
microscopic view.
(b)
Figure 10. View of crack in RPJ joining; (a) from die side and (b)
fro punch side.
SPJ joints behavior entirely different from RPJ joints

during dynamic deformation. The most of thin-walled
specimens joined by square press joining fail due to separation of sheets because of insufficient material deformation in this method of clinching (Figure 11).
Conclusions
Double-hat thin-walled specimens joined by spot welding
and by two clinching methods: round press joining (RPJ)
and square press joining (SPJ), were researched. As the
strength diagrams show, clinch joints have lower strength
than spot-welded joints, which is due to their structure.
But the higher strength of the joint has no significant effect on energy absorption by the thin-walled sections. A
comparison of energy absorption by the thin-walled sections joined by clinching with circular tools and that by the
spot-welded sections showed no significant differences in
the process of deformation.
The crashworthiness indexes of SPJ clinching are lower
than those of RPJ due to the cracking of the joints - pullout of sheets is the dominant mode of failure. In the case
of RPJ only sometimes cracking of clinching occurs without separation of sheets.
The experimental results show that clinch joining could
replace spot welding in vehicles. But then suitable clinch
joining techniques should be selected.
References
neck thickness
(a)
Figure 11. Failure characteristic of HPJ clinching.
[1] J.M. Alexander: The Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied

Mathematics, 13-1 (1960), 10-15.
[2] M.D. White, N. Jones: International Journal of Mechanical Sciences,
41-2 (1999), 179-208.
[3] W. Abramowicz, T. Wierzbicki: Journal of Applied Mechanics, 56-1
(1989), 113-120.
[4] G. Borino, L. Fratini, F. Parrinello, A. Burgarella: Computer Methods
in Materials Science, 9-1 (2009), 37-42,
[5] O. Hahn, M. Horstmann: Materials Science Forum, 539-543 (2007),
1638-1643.
[6] R. Neugebauer, M. Todtermuschke, R. Mauermann, F. Riedel: Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 8-4 (2008), 51-60.
[7] W. Voelkner: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 106-1
(2000), 236-242.
[8] A. Grajcar, M. Opiela, G. Fojt-Dymara: Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 9-3 (2009), 49-58.
[9] M. Hyrcza-Michalska, F. Grosman: Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 9-1 (2009), 69-81.
[10] T. Van den Boogaard, S. Kurukuri, M. Ghosh, A. Miroux: Computer
Methods in Materials Science, 9-1 (2009), 5-1,
[11] R. Kuziak, R. Kawalla, S. Waengler: Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 8-2 (2008), 103-118.
[12] M. ST. Wglowski, K. Kwieciski, K. Krasnowski, R. Jachym:
Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 9-4 (2009), 85-97.
[13] Z. Gronostajski, S. Polak: Archives of Metallurgy and Materials, 543 (2009), 695-703.
[14] J. Gronostajski, Z. Gronostajski, A. Niechajowicz, S. Polak, M Stru,
A. Tobota, P. Wiewirski, P. Zajc: Archives of Civil and Mechanical
Engineering, 4-2 (2004), 5-23.
1135
09.08.2010 14:44:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Plastic Joining of Aluminium Alloy Sheets by Aluminium Alloy Cylinder

Toru Kato1), Yohei Abe2), Ken-ichiro Mori2)
1)
Department of Engineering, Nippon POP Rivets and Fasteners Ltd, Toyohashi / Japan, kato-t@popnpr.co.jp; 2) Department of Production
Systems Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi / Japan
To attain high recyclability of automobiles, aluminium alloy sheets were joined by means of an aluminium alloy cylindrical rivet. Although
steel rivets used in the conventional self-pierce riveting are removed from the aluminium alloy sheets in the recycling, the removal is not
required for the aluminium alloy rivets, and thus the joined sheets with the rivets were directly melted due to the same aluminium. To join
aluminium alloy sheets by the aluminium alloy cylindrical rivets, the shapes of the rivet and die were optimised. The effects of the shapes of
the rivet and die on the deforming behaviour of the sheets and rivet were investigated using a finite element simulation. The effectiveness of
the designed cylindrical rivet and die was evaluated. The aluminium alloy sheets were successfully joined by the optimised aluminium alloy
cylindrical rivet.
Keywords: Joining, Self-piercing rivet, Aluminium alloy sheet, Aluminium alloy rivet
Introduction
For the reduction in the weight of automobiles, the utilisation of aluminium alloy sheets increases. It is not easy to
apply the resistance spot welding generally used for steel
sheets to the aluminium alloy sheets due to the high thermal conductivity, low melting range and the natural surface oxide layer. For the joining of the aluminium alloy
sheets, the friction stir welding [1, 2], the mechanical
clinching [3, 4] and the self-pierce riveting [5] have been
developed. The spot friction stir welding is a joining process using frictional heat generated by a rotating tool,
whereas the joining speed is not enough to join a lot of
points in automobile body panels [1]. On the other hand,
in the mechanical clinching, sheets are joined by local
hemming with a punch and die. Although the mechanical
clinching has the advantage of low running costs, the
strength of joint and the tool life are not high.
The self-pierce riveting is a cold process for joining two
or more sheets by driving a rivet through the upper sheet
and upsetting the rivet in the lower sheet without penetration into the lower one. Since this riveting does not require
a pre-drilled hole unlike the conventional riveting, the
joining speed is the same level with that of the spot welding, and the equipments are also similar. Since the selfpierce riveting is mainly employed to join aluminium alloy
sheets [5, 6], the authors [7, 8] have extended this riveting
to the joining of steel and aluminium alloy sheets.
For the self-pierce riveting of aluminium alloy sheets,
the recyclability is a problem. Although hard steel rivets
are conventionally applied to pierce the sheets in the selfpierce riveting, the removal of the steel rivets from the
aluminium alloy sheets in the recycling is requisite due to
the dissimilar metals. It is desirable in the automobile
industry to develop a riveting technique with aluminium
alloy rivets. The authors [9] have developed a process to
join the aluminium alloy A5052 sheets by an aluminium
alloy A7075 rivet. The recyclability is not high because
the components of the A5052 and A7075 are large different [10]. The joining by rivet of similar components to the
A5052 sheets is desirable.
In this present study, a self-pierce riveting process of
aluminium alloy A5052 sheets with aluminium alloy cy-
1136
lindrical rivet has been developed to improve the recyclability and to reduce the weight of the joint. The aluminium alloy A6061 was chosen for the rivets because of
harder and similar components for the A5052 sheets. The
shapes of the aluminium alloy cylindrical rivet and die
were optimised from the finite element simulation. The
aluminium alloy sheets were joined by the developed
aluminium alloy cylindrical self-piercing rivet and die.
Aluminium Alloy Cylindrical Self-pierce Riveting
Joining of Sheets by Cylindrical Self-Piercing Rivet.
In the cylindrical self-pierce riveting, the sheets are joined
by direct piercing with the rivet having a cylinder as
shown in Figure 1. The requisites of the riveting for the
joining are given by
Driving of the rivet tip through the upper sheet (Figure 1 (b))
Flaring of the rivet tip in the lower sheet (Figure 1
(c))
Forming of the flange by upsetting (Figure 1 (c))
Punch
Rivet
Sheet
holder
Driving through
upper sheet
Formation of flange
Upper sheet
Lower sheet
Die
Interlock
(1) Initial
(b) Driving through

(c) Formation of
upper sheet
flange and interlock
Figure 1. Joining process of cylindrical self-pierce riveting.
The upper sheet is not joined with the lower one unless
the tip of the rivet is not driven through the upper sheet.
On the other hand, the rivet without the formation of the
interlock in the lower sheet and the flanging in the upper
sheet after the joining comes easily off the sheets by upward tension.
09.08.2010 14:44:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
Riveting Conditions. The aluminium alloy sheets are

A5052-H34 because it is typical for automobile body
panels. The material of the rivet is A6061-T6 because it
uses typical outer panels for aluminium cars. The upper
and lower sheet thicknesses are tu=1.0mm and tl=2.0mm,
respectively. The mechanical properties of sheets and rivet
are shown in Table 1. The mechanical properties of the
sheets and rivet are measured from the uni-axial tensile
and compression tests, respectively.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of sheets and rivet.
1.0
2.0
Yield
stress /
MPa
205
196
Tensile
strength
/ MPa
258
244
277
Material
Thickness
/ mm
Sheets
A5052H34
Rivet
A6061T6
Elongation
/%
8.2
9.3
-
Design Procedure of Rivet and Die Shape. The design

procedure of the determination of the rivet and die shapes
are shown in Figure 2. In the rivet, the diameter D and the
length l of the rivet are chosen as the design parameters. In
the die, the diameter d and the depth h of the die cavity are
optimised. The values of these parameters are so determined as to satisfy joining requirements.
Start
Punch
Rivet
D
Sheet
holder
2 1
Upper sheet
Die diameter d,
Die depth h
Rivet length l
Lower sheet
Rivet diameter D
Die
End
Driving through
upper sheet
Lower sheet fracture
Interlock
Formation of flange
(a) Parameters
(b) Design flowchart
Figure 2. Design procedure of determination of rivet and die
shapes.
For the optimisation of the shapes of the rivet and the die,
the deformation of the rivet and sheets in the riveting was
simulated by the commercial finite element code LSDYNA. Axi-symmetric deformation was assumed by limiting the calculation to the vicinity undergoing plastic
deformation. The cross-sections of the sheets and rivet
were divided into quadrilateral elements. Not only the
sheets but also the rivet undergoes plastic deformation
during the riveting, and the die, the punch and holder were
assumed to be rigid. The coefficient of friction at the interface between the rivet and sheet in the simulation was 0.2.
yielding load of the rivet Pr is required to be between the

shearing load of the upper sheet Pu and the shearing load
of the total sheets Pall.
Pu Pr Pall ,
(1)
where Pr, Pu and Pall are estimated as

Pr r
D 2
(2)
Pu 0.8 u Dtu
(3)
P all 0.8 all Dt all ,
(4)
where r is the yield stress of the rivet, u is the tensile

strength of the upper sheet, all is the average tensile
strength of both upper and lower sheets, and tall is the total
sheet thickness. Equation (1) is satisfied between 3 and
6mm of the rivet diameter as shown in Figure 3.
12
Shearing load of sheet Pu, Pall,

Yielding load of rivet Pr / kN
Design of Riveting Using Finite Element Simulation
9
6
Lower sheet
fracture
Pall
Pr
Joining
Pu
No driving through
upper sheet
0
2
4
6
8
Rivet diameter D / mm
Figure 3. Relationship between yielding load of cylindrical rivets

and rivet diameter.
The deforming shapes of the rivet and the sheets obtained from the calculation for D=5 and 6 mm without the
die projection are shown in Figure 4, where s is the punch
stroke, the ratio of rivet diameter D and length l is 1 and
the clearance between the punch and die is 2 mm. Although the small plastic deformations of the rivets are
observed in both conditions, the rivets are able to driven
through the upper sheet. Because the large rivet diameter
brings large material cost, D=5 mm was selected.
Influence on Joinabilities of Die Shapes. The effects
of the die depth and diameter on deformation behaviour of
the sheets and rivet are shown in Figure 5. As the depth of
the die cavity increases and the diameter decreases, the
reduction in the wall thickness of the lower sheet and the
interlock increase. The excessive die diameter causes
insufficient interlock because of no pushing the lower
sheet to wall of die.
Rivet and Die Shapes

Rivet Diameter. The range of the rivet diameter for the
joining was calculated from the shear load of sheets and
the yielding load of the rivet. To pierce the upper sheet and
to prevent the occurrence of the lower sheet fracture, the
1137
09.08.2010 14:44:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
0.2
Interlock / mm
Driving through
upper sheet
d=8mm
0.15
Small deformation
9mm
0.1
0.05
10mm
Joining
0
1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6
Die depth h / mm
Figure 6. Relationship between die depth and interlock obtained

from calculation for D=5mm.
s=2 mm
(a) D=5 mm, l=5 mm
s=3.3 mm
The relationship between the die depth and the maximum reduction in wall thickness of the lower sheet during
the deformation obtained from the calculation is illustrated
in Figure 7, where the limit of fracture of the lower sheet
is added. As the die depth increases, the ratio increases. To
prevent the occurrence of the fracture and to form sufficient interlock, h=2.1 mm and d=9.0 mm were chosen.
Driving through
upper sheet
6
10
Rivet
s=3 mm
Lower sheet
Figure 4. Deforming shapes of rivet and sheets obtained from

calculation for D=5 and 6 mm.
Small
interlock
Middle d
Large d
Figure 5. Effects of die depth and diameter on deformation behaviour of sheets and rivet.
Optimisation of Die Shape. The relationship between

the die depth and the interlock obtained from the calculation for D=5 mm is shown in Figure 6. The minimum
interlock required for joining the sheets is 0.02mm. As the
depth of the die cavity increases and the diameter decreases, the interlock increases.
9mm
0.2
10mm
0
1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6
Flange length
0.15
(b) Die diameter
1138
0.2
Interlock / mm
Interlock
0.4
Optimisation of Rivet Length. The relationship between the rivet length and the interlock, the flange length
and the riveting load obtained from the calculation is given
in Figure 8. As the length of the rivet increases, the flange
length and the maximum riveting load increase. The length
of the rivet was chosen to be l= 6 mm because of the maximum interlock.
(a) Die depth
Lower sheet
fracture
d=8mm
Lower sheet
0.6 fracture
Die depth h / mm
Figure 7. Relationship between die depth and maximum reduction
in wall thickness of lower sheet during deformation obtained from
calculation for D=5mm.
Lower sheet fracture
Middle h
Small h
Interlock
Die
Large h
Small
interlock
tl1
0.8
Interlock
0.1
Flange 0.8
length
40
0.6
30
0.4
20
0.2
10
Interlock
0.05
0
Joining
3
50
Flange length / mm
Riveting load / kN
s=2 mm
(b) D=6 mm, l=6 mm
Upper sheet
tl0
s=0 mm
Small d
Maximum reduction in wall

thickness of lower sheet tl0-tl1)/tl0
s=0 mm
Rivet length l / mm
(a) Interlock and flange length
7mm
6mm
5mm
l=4mm
Stroke s / mm
(b) Riveting load
Figure 8. Relationship between rivet length and interlock, flange

length and riveting load obtained from calculation.
Joining by Aluminium Alloy Cylindrical Rivet

Joining by Optimised Rivet and Die. The calculated
deformation shapes of the sheets and rivet for the selected
shapes are shown in Figure 9. The riveting load and the
cross-sectional shapes of the sheets and rivet obtained
09.08.2010 14:44:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
Riveting load / kN
0.8
40
50
0
50
0
Self-piercing rivet
0.11
Figure 9. Calculated deforming shapes of sheets and rivet for
selected shapes.
100
Cylindrical rivet
100
150
Mechanical clinching
2.1
Cross-tension strength / MPa
150
Self-piercing rivet
0.55
Cylindrical rivet
Mechanical clinching
Driving through
upper sheet
The maximum tension-shearing and cross-tension

strengths of the joined sheets are shown in Figure 12. To
compare the joined sheets by different joining process, the
maximum strength was calculated from the maximum load
and the area. The initial area of the rivet leg in the riveting
and the cross-sectional area of the punch in the mechanical
clinching are used. The tension-shearing strength by the
cylindrical riveting is as large as the conventional steel
riveting, whereas the cross-tension strength by the cylindrical riveting is almost half of the conventional one and is
2 times by the mechanical clinching.
Tension-shearing strength / MPa
from the experiment were shown in Figure 10. The sheets

are successfully joined by the selected shapes. The weights
of the cylindrical and conventional steel rivets are 0.31
and 0.74 g, respectively. Therefore, a weight reduction of
58% was achieved.
(a) Tension-shearing strength

(b) Cross-tension strength
Figure 12. Tension-shearing and cross-tension strengths of joined
sheets.
30
20
Conclusions
10
0.14
2
4
6
8
Stroke s /mm
Figure 10. Riveting load and cross-sectional shapes of sheets and
rivet obtained from experiment.
0
Joining Strength of Joined Sheets. The strength of the

joined sheets was measured from the conventional tensionshearing and the cross-tension tests as shown in Figure 11.
The measuring conditions were based on the Japanese
Industrial Standard [11,12].
Lower Sheet
20
Rivet
40
Upper sheet
125
(a) Tension-shearing test
15
Upper sheet
Lower sheet
50
Rivet
(b) Cross-tension test

Figure 11. Tension-shearing and cross-tension tests.
A joining process of aluminium alloy A5052 sheets using an aluminium alloy A6061 cylindrical self-pierce rivet
has been developed to attain high recyclability of automobiles. To join the sheets by an aluminium alloy rivet, the
shapes of rivet and die were optimised by means of the
finite element simulation. The shape of the optimised
cylindrical rivet was simple and a weight reduction of 58%
was achieved for the conventional steel rivet. The tensionshear strength was approximately equal that of the conventional steel riveting. The self-pierce riveting with the aluminium alloy cylindrical rivet is effective in joining aluminium alloy automobile panels.
References
[1] T.-A. Barnes, I.-R. Pashby: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 99-1-3 (2000), 62-71.
[2] C. Chen, R. Kovacevic: International Journal of Machine Tools &
Manufacture, 44-11 (2004), 1205-1214.
[3] T.-A. Barnes, I.-R. Pashby: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 99-1-3 (2000), 72-79.
[4] C.-J. Lee, J.-Y. Kim, S.-K. Lee, D.-C. Ko, B.-M. Kim: Material and
Design, 31 (2010), 1854-1861.
[5] W. Cai, P.-C. Wang, W. Yang: International Journal of Machine Tools
& Manufacture, 45-11 (2005), 695-704.
[6] T. Kato, Y. Abe, K. Mori: Key Engineering Materials, 341 (2007),
1461-1466.
[7] K. Mori, T. Kato, Y. Abe, Y. Ravshanbek: Annals of the CIRP, 55-1
(2006), 283-286.
[8] Y. Abe, T. Kato, K. Mori: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
1771-3 (2006), 417-421.
[9] Y. Abe, T. Kato, K. Mori: Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. New Forming Technology (ed. F. Vollertsen et al.), (2007), 451-460.
[10] JIS-H-4000 (2006).
[11] JIS-Z-3136 (1999).
[12] JIS-Z-3137 (1999).
1139
09.08.2010 14:44:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
Numerical and Experimental Studies of Riveting Process and Strength of Riveted

Joints
Nanjiang Chen1),2), Jean-loup Chenot1), Min Wan2), Julien Malrieu3), Maxime Thonnerieux3), Richard Ducloux4)
1) CEMEF Mines ParisTech, BP 207 06 904 Sophia Antipolis Cedex / France, jean-loup.chenot@mines-paristech.fr; 2) School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, 100091 / P. R China; 3) Cetim Saint Etienne, 7 rue de la presse, 42952, Satint
Etienne / France; 4) Transvalor, Les Espaces Delta, BP 037 Sophia Antipolis Cedex / France
The riveting process is a very important mechanical fastening process for a wide range of applications for aerospace, car industry, etc. Today the use of rivets is mainly based on experience and some industrial laboratory tests. More recently a need for a more accurate and
faster approach has emerged in order to evaluate the process of riveting and the strength of the assembly. The purpose of this paper is to
illustrate some preliminary results which were obtained during the MonaLisa project. A computer code must take into account the rivet, two
or more metal sheets, the riveting tools and their interactions. A three-dimensional finite element approach is considered in order to be able
to treat non axisymmetric deformation, e. g. shearing of the assembly or riveting with different axes for the rivet and the sheets. The space
+
discretization for our velocity-pressure formulation is performed using P1 P1 tetrahedral elements. The riveting process was simulated for
different rivet sizes and compared with experimental data. Different levels of material description were introduced including a map of initial
hardness in the rivet and a simple damage law. The strength of the assembly was tested using a tension test.
Keywords: Riveted joints, Solid rivet, Strength, Finite element method
Introduction
Configurations of the tools are illustrated in Figure 1.
Riveting technique is an industrial method to achieve an

assembly of two or more sheets. In a number of kinds of
rivets, solid rivet is the oldest and most reliable one. It can
be found in the Bronze Age [1], as well as in the modern
aircrafts. Firstly complex analytical mathematical methods
were used [2,3]. More recently, thanks to the efficiency of
numerical technique, abundance of works emerged almost
on every aspect of the riveted joint. Blanchot et al utilized
15 sector, axisymmetric and symmetric models to simulate the riveting process and showed strain and stress distribution [4]. Bouchard et al simulated the self-pierce riveting process with Forge2005, with damage analysis, up to
fracture [5]. Langrand et al dealt with the experimental
and numerical characterization of dynamic failure models
[6]. Liam Ryan et al studied the failure mechanism of the
riveted joint [7]. However, a more systematic and comprehensive study is necessary to give confidence in the results
of numerical simulation for a routine use in industry.
In this paper simulations and experiments have been
compared for the riveting process, for the tensile and the
shearing test of the riveted joint and the influence of several technical parameters have also been studied on the
riveting process. The work was carried out with two new
computer codes: Riv3D for the riveting process, Join3D
for the mechanical tests and Forge3.
Rivet Configuration
Three button head rivets and one pan head rivet are considered, the sizes of which are shown in Table 1.
Figure 1. Configuration of riveted joint, left one is case (a), (b) and
(c) right is case (d) as shown in Table 1.

In order to be able to treat the case with different axes
for the rivet and the sheets, our model is 3D and generally,
thanks to the symmetry of the riveting process, only one
half of the rivet has to be modelled. In this study the riveting process is a cold forming process, therefore the heat
effect can be neglected. Coulombs friction law is used in
the simulation and the friction coefficient between the
objects is 0.15.
Constitutive Parameters. To obtain the material parameters of the sheets, uniaxial tension tests of the material is performed. The rivet material is mainly subjected to
compression stress during the manufacturing process,
while in the tension of the riveted joint, it is mainly subjected to tensile stress. To make sure that the initial yield
stress in the shank of the rivet is uniform, a Vickers test on
the initial rivets is made to obtain the hardness distribution
on the section as shown in Figure 2.
Table 1. Initial sizes of riveted joints (unit: mm).

Case
dh
L1
L2
14.9
36
16
7.8
5.8
11.6
32.4
12.5
7.8
5.8
9.8
30.4
10.5
7.8
5.8
5.8
15.4
6.45
2.8
2.8
1140
Figure 2. Hardness indentation points distribution on section.
09.08.2010 14:44:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
In Table 2, hardness values of the shank of each rivet,
show that the initial yield stress is almost uniform.
Table 2. Vickers hardness values on section surface of rivet for
case a, b and c (unit: kg/mm2).
Case
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Point 4
Point 5
Point 6
140
155
147
152
155
151
120
121
122
119
120
119
122
123
122
123
120
120
The true stress strain curves from the upset and uniaxial
tension test are shown in Figure 3. Due to the Bauschinger
Effect in the manufacturing process of the rivet, the curve
from the uniaxial tension is lower than that from the upset
test and the difference between the two curves is almost
constant for strains less than 0.2.
in each case exhibit almost no change, it can be used to

calibrate the two photos from experiment and from simulation. In Figure 4, the final shapes of the riveted joints
from the simulations are almost the same as those from the
experiments.
Figure 4. Comparison of final shapes of the riveted joints between

experiments (left) and simulations (right) for the four cases.
To compare the inner shape of the joint, one of the

15mm riveted joint is cut into two pieces. In Figure 5, it is
obvious that the results from the simulation and from the
experiment have the same final shape.
Figure 3. True stress strain from upset test and uniaxial tension
test.
For the rivet material, the following hardening law was

found to be the most accurate one:
(1)
= 3k (1 + a n )
where is the yielding stress, is the plastic strain and k, a
and n are material parameters.
Riveting Process and Results
Figure 5. Cross section of riveted joint of case (a), left part is from
simulation while right part is from experiment.
In Table 3, the parameters of each material are listed.

Table 3. Material parameters of the rivets and sheets used in
riveting process.
Name
k (MPa)
E (GPa)
S235JR
242.5
0.9542
0.4796
210
0.3
FR8
194.7
1.013
0.4879
210
0.3
FR5
242.2
0.5025
0.6298
210
0.3
S700MC
242.7
0.5740
0.1300
210
0.3
HLES600MC
346.2
1.072
0.5635
210
0.3
HLES355MC
225.0
1.249
0.6660
210
0.3
All the deformed parts including the rivet and the sheets
are meshed with tetrahedral elements while the surfaces of
the dies are considered as rigid and meshed with triangular
elements. In the riveting process, to avoid distortion of the
meshes, our automatic remeshing module is utilized to
remesh the critical area timely.
The displacements of the low die are controlled in the
experiments and in the simulations, they are set to the
following values (in mm): a: 11.5, b: 11.8, c: 11, d: 7.5.
Final Configuration of Riveted Joints. Figure 4 shows
the final shapes of the riveted joints from the experiments
and the simulations. Because the thicknesses of the sheets
The height and the diameter of the head, as shown in

Figure 6, are the two important parameters which are
compared in Table 4 for both the simulation and the experiment (average value of several samples). For all the
four cases, the biggest error is less than 4%.
Figure 6. Two important parameters of forming head.

Table 4. Comparison of final shapes of forming head.
h (mm)
Case
d (mm)
exp
sim
Error
Exp
sim
Error
12.35
12.34
-0.1%
21.51
21.00
-2.3%
8.84
9.11
3.1%
18.79
18.36
-2.3%
7.8
7.63
-2.2%
16.05
16.32
-1.7%
10.5
10.6
1.0%
3.3
3.4
3.0%
1141
09.08.2010 14:44:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Relationship between Load and Displacement of
Lower Die. The relationship between the riveting load and
the displacement of the lower die is one of the engineers
major concerns. It shows how much load is needed to
obtain a given kind of forming head, which is determined
by the displacement of the lower die. In Figure 7, the load
displacement curves during the riveting process are drawn
for the four riveted joints. The comparison between the
curve from Riv3D, or Forge3, and that from the experiment for each case is excellent. In each figure, there are
two apparent turning points in each curve: the first one at
A, is due to yielding of the rivet material, while the second
one at B is because the expansion of the rivet shank starts
to contact the wall of the hole of the sheets.
Table 5. Comparison of hardness distribution in riveted joint between simulation and experiment for case a.
Hardness in
Point
experiment
(kg/mm2)
Simulation
Strain
Hardness
Error (%)
(kg/mm2)
169
0.07
181.64
7.48
184
0.16
189.17
2.82
182
0.17
189.88
4.33
189
0.31
198.05
4.79
202
0.38
201.35
-0.32
242
0.92
219.06
-9.48
223
0.77
215.03
-3.57
212
0.62
210.45
-0.73
(a) Assembly for tension

(b) after tension
Figure 8. Illustration of the tension of the riveted joint (a) and the
sample (b) after tension test in the experiment.
Tension Process of Riveted Joint for Case c and Result
Figure 7. Load displacement curve from experiment and from

simulation.
Comparison of Hardness Distribution between Experiment and Simulation for Case a. According to Tabor
[9], the Vickers hardness is proportional to the yield
stress:
(2)
Hv = c ( 0 + 0.08)
where Hv is the Vickers hardness in MPa, c is a constant

usually equals to 3, 0 is the local equivalent strain of the
metal and (0+0.08) is the yielding stress in MPa at
equivalent strain (0+0.08).
In order to obtain the work hardening information of the
inner material of the rivet after the riveting process, the
rivet of case a in Table 1 was selected to be cut into two
pieces along the longitudinal direction. As shown in Figure 5, since the driven head had more complicated deformation than the shank of the rivet, more test points are
located in this part to better illustrate the hardness distribution of the rivet. In the experiment, 9 points of the right
part of the rivet were selected to obtain the Vickers hardness. Correspondingly, in the simulation result, the equivalent strain of the points having the same coordinates as the
points in the experiments were obtained and then the hardness of all points was calculated using Eqs. (2) and (1).
The comparison results are shown in Table 5. The absolute errors of all points between the simulation and the
experiment are all less than 10%.
To obtain the tensile strength of the riveted joint, the

lower die is fixed while the upper die moves in the axis
direction of the rivet. The sample of case c after tension in
Figure 8 shows that the shank of the rivet is subjected to
the tensile stress and the deformation locates mainly in this
part. Hence, in the simulation, the material parameters
from the uniaxial tension should be utilized in this process.
Furthermore, the shank breaks during the tension process
of the riveted joint, so the damage model is necessary to
be taken into account in the simulation. In view of the
importance of the largest tensile stress, Cockcroft and
Latham [10] proposed a fracture criterion based on critical
value of the tensile strain energy per unit volume. The
normalized version can be written as:
( 1 / )d = C
(3)
where 1 is the largest tensile stress, is the equivalent

stress and C is a material parameter set equal to 1.5 after
iterative simulations.
Figure 9. Load displacement curves of tension from simulation

and from experiments for case c.
1142
09.08.2010 14:44:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Relationship between Load and Displacement of Upper Die for Tension of Riveted Joint. The comparison of
the load and displacement between experiments and simulations is quite good even if, in Figure 9, the maximum
load in the simulation is slightly overestimated. One reason for this phenomenon may be that, in the simulation,
the material parameters are determined from the uniaxial
tension of the rivet while, due to Bauschinger effect, the
compressive riveting process may decrease the tensile
strength.
Shearing Process of the Riveted Joint for Case d and Result
the experiment. Hence, by varying those parameters, it is

important to study their influence on the simulations. In
this study, the parameters of case d in Table 1 are set as the
standard ones and in each batch only one parameter is
changed. In Table 6 are the results where d is the diameter
of the rivet, L is the length of the rivet, dh is the diameter
of the hole of the sheets, L1 and L2 are the thickness of the
upper sheet and the lower sheet respectively. When the
friction coefficient between the lower die and the rivet
changes from 0 to 0.45, the load displacement curve has
almost no variation compared with result with the value
0.15.
Table 6. Geometrical parameters influence on maximum force in
riveting process for case d.
Parameters
Change (%)
Change of max force (%)
-3
-12.4
12.1
-3
dh
-3
4.1
L1=L2
-3
-5.2
Conclusions
(a) Assembly for shearing
(b) after shearing
Figure 10. Shearing of riveted joint (a) and sample (b) after shearing test in experiment.
The finite element simulations of the riveting process

and of the mechanical test of the assembly were carried
out. It shows that the results reproduce accurately the
experimental measurements, including the configurations
of the riveted joints, the load displacement curves and the
hardness distribution on the longitudinal section of the
rivet after riveting. A sensitivity analysis allowed us to
asses the variations of the riveting parameters to the initial
geometry.
Acknowledgement
This work is a part of the MonaLisa project, financed by

Cetim with a close cooperation between Cetim, Cemef and
Transvalor.
Figure 11. Load displacement curves of shearing from the simulation and from experiments for case c.
To test the shearing strength of the riveted joint, the end

of each sheet is clamped by the press machine and then the
press machine moves in the direction as shown in Figure
10. For the shearing test, the material parameters are also
the ones from the uniaxial tension test and the damage
model is Cockcroft and Latham law the same as that used
in the tension test. The constant value C in Eq. (3) is 0.5,
using the same method as that in the tension test.
Relationship between Load and Displacement of Upper Die for Shearing of Riveted Joint. Figure 11 shows
the load and displacement from the experiment and from
the simulation with a good agreement.
Parameters Influence on Riveting Process for Case d
References
[1]http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=23736e9c33cc7
9d0eab2bd7322386ffd&ct=lc&hl=fr
[2] H. Huth: Fatigue in Mechanically Fastened Composite and Metallic
Joints, ed. By J.M. Potter, ASTM SPT 927 (1986), 221-250
[3] Y. Xiong: Int. J. Solids Structures, 33, 29 (1996), 4395-4409
[4] V. Blanchot, A. Daidie: Journal of Materials processing Technology,
180 (2006), 201-209
[5] P.O. Bouchard, T. Laurent, L. Tollier: Journal of Materials processing
Technology, 202 (2008), 290-300
[6] B. Langrand, E. Deletombe, E. Markievicz, P. Drazetic: Aerospace
Science Technology, 3 (1999), 431-446
[7] Liam Ryan, John Monaghan: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 103 (2000), 36-43
[8] S. Akhtar, K. Khan, M. Jackson: International Journal of Plasticity,
15 (1999), 1265-1275
[9] D. Tabor: The Hardness of Metals, Oxford, Clarendon Press, (1951),
105-107
[10] J. Landre, A. pretence, P.R. Cetlin, J.M.C. Rodrigues, P.A.F. Martins: Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, 39 (2003), 175-86
In the reality, especially in the industry, the initial conditions including the geometry of the rivets, the assembly
positions, etc, are not possible to be set as same as those in
1143
09.08.2010 14:44:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Joining of Cold-Reduced Carbon Steel Sheet and Aluminum Sheet by Impulsive Riveting Method
Hiroyuki Kinoshita1), Koichi Kaizu2), Tomohiro Yoshihara1), Ryusuke Kawamura1), Kiyohiko Ikeda1)
1)
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, University of Miyazaki, Gakuen-Kibanadai-nishi, Miyazaki / Japan, t0d165u@
cc.miyazaki-u.ac.jp; 2) Department of Mechanical and System Engineering, University of Hyogo, Shosha, Himeji / Japan
In riveting of dissimilar sheet metals, it has the characteristics that the deformation of one sheet with a lower strength becomes large, and the
joint strength is remarkably influenced in the mechanical properties of the sheet with the lower strength. However, the dissimilar materials joint
is required to have the high joint strength as much as possible. In this study, to make the sheets deformation small as well as to obtain the high
joint strength in riveting of the dissimilar materials joint, the impulsive riveting method was applied to the joining of a cold-reduced carbon steel
sheet and an aluminum sheet. The deformation and the strength of the joints made by the impulsive riveting method were examined in
comparison with those of the joints made by caulking. In addition, the disjoining tests of the joints made by the impulsive riveting method were
carried out to examine whether the joint could be disjoined without deforming the sheets largely for recycling of the sheet metals. The
usefulness of the impulsive riveting method in the joining of dissimilar sheet metals was confirmed from those results.
Keywords: Joining, Riveting, Impulsive riveting method, Caulking, Dissimilar sheet metals, Joint strength, Deformation of sheet
Introduction
Recently, the applying of a self-piercing rivet for joining
of automobile parts increases rapidly because the lower
costs of the production and labor saving have strongly been
required in the automobile industry [1,2]. The joining
method by the self-piercing rivet has the excellent
characteristics that the sheets are joined without drilling of
the sheets, the working time for the joining is very short,
and it is able to join dissimilar sheet metals. On the other
hand, it also has the characteristics that the joint strength is
not very high and the deformation of joined sheets is large
comparatively [3]. So, for the purpose of developing the
new riveting method that the sheets are joined without
drilling of the sheets, the deformation of joined sheets is
small and the joint has the high strength, we have proposed
the impulsive riveting method [4,5]. The proposed
impulsive riveting method also enables the disjoining of the
joint.
In riveting of dissimilar sheet metals, it has the
characteristics that the deformation of one sheet with a
lower strength becomes large, and the fracture of the joint
arises around a rivet hole of the sheet with the lower
strength. The performance of the joint is remarkably
influenced in the mechanical properties of the sheet with a
lower strength. However, the dissimilar materials joint is
required to have the high joint strength as much as possible.
Therefore, in riveting of dissimilar sheet metals, it is very
important to make the sheets deformation small as well as
to obtain the high joint strength. So, in this study, to make
the sheets deformation small as well as to obtain the high
joint strength in riveting of dissimilar sheet metals, the
impulsive riveting method was applied to the joining of a
cold-reduced carbon steel sheet and an aluminum sheet.
The deformation and the strength of the joints made by the
impulsive riveting method were examined in comparison
with those of the joints made by caulking. In addition, the
disjoining tests of the joints made by the impulsive riveting
method were carried out to examine whether the joint could
be disjoined without deforming the sheets largely for
1144
recycling of the sheet metals. The usefulness of the

impulsive riveting method in the joining of dissimilar sheet
metals was clarified from those results.
Experiments
Impulsive Riveting Method. Figure 1 shows the joint of
dissimilar sheet metals used in this study. We made the
joints constructed of an aluminum alloy sheet
(A1050P-H24) with thickness of 1.0mm and a cold-reduced
carbon steel sheet (SPCC-SD) with thickness of 0.8mm by
the impulsive riveting method and caulking. Figure 2
shows the shapes and dimensions of rivets, a rivet holder, a
die and a weight for the impulsive riveting method. Figure
3 shows the experimental equipment. Figure 4 also shows
the schematic illustrations of the impulsive riveting
method. The impulsive riveting method is carried out by the
following process of several steps.
1) As shown in Figure 4(a), an aluminum sheet and a steel
sheet without drill holes are set on the die which the
rivet holder (Figure 2(b)) is inserted into. And they are
set under the exit of a circular pipe as shown in Figure 3.
Then, the rivet shown in Figure 2(a) is set on the sheets
as shown in Figure 4(a).
2) The weight shown in Figure 2(d) is set on upper part in
the pipe as shown in Figure 3. The air compressed by an
air compressor is stored in an air reservoir.
3) By opening the valve of the air reservoir, the weight
accelerated in the compressed air as shown in Figure
4(a) collides with the rivet head set on the sheets. And
then the axis of the struck rivet penetrates the sheets.
4) The rivet axis which passed a hole of a rivet holder set
under the sheets collides with a pin inserted in the die,
and the rivet axis and the rivet holder are jointed by the
plastic deformation of the rivet axis in the collision. The
sheets are tightened by the head of the rivet and the rivet
holder as shown in Figure 4(b).
09.08.2010 14:44:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
7.6
3.0
4.7
(a) Rivet
8.0
10.0
Steel sheet
Aluminum sheet
4.7
3.0
42
Rivet head
7.5
7.6
5.8 3.0
50
21.8
100
50.0
8.0
Figure 1. Dimension of joint.

15.0
Valve
Weight
1.0
Pin
Insert box
of weight
(e) Caulking rivet
(d) Weight
(b) Rivet holder
3.0
50
0.8
1.0
4.9
25
5.0
Air reservoir
(c) Die
Figure 2. Shape and dimensions of rivets, rivet holder, die and weight.
Rivet
Air compressor
Die
Die
(a)
1 MPa
(b)
Figure4. Joining methods.
Die
Figure 3. Experimental equipment.
Die
Figure5. Caulking method.
Rivet
Rivet holder
Rivet
0.8
Steel sheet
1.0
The dissimilar materials joints were made in two

manners. The joint is called the Type A joint when an
aluminum sheet was lapped on a steel sheet and joined as
shown in Figure 4, and it is called the Type B joint when a
steel sheet was lapped on an aluminum sheet and joined. A
rolled steel for general structure (SS400) was used for the
rivet and the rivet holder. The rivet and the rivet holder
were made by cutting from a bar. Alloy tool steel (SKD 11)
was used for the die and weight.
The diameter of the rivet axis was determined based on
the relationships between the diameter of the rivet axis and
the thickness of the sheets for the structural joint [6]. The
rivet holder is used in order to make possible the
disassembly of the joint for recycling of the sheet metals.
The outer diameter of the holder is nearly equal to the outer
diameter of the rivet head and the inner diameter is a little
larger than that of the rivet axis. The die has the hole with a
diameter of 8 mm and a depth of 3 mm for setting the rivet
holder, and the hole with a diameter of 5 mm and the depth
of 1mm is set up to store the blanked pieces of the sheet.
The cylindrical weight has a weight of 7.2 g. In this study,
the weight was accelerated to an average velocity of 119
m/s (with kinetic energy of about 50J) and collided with the
rivet. The velocity of the weight was measured by two
photo sensors mounted on the circular pipe as shown in
Figure 3.
The caulking rivet shown in Figure 2(e) has a longer axis
than that of the rivet used for impulsive riveting to form the
other rivet head. For the process of caulking, a hole with the
Pin
Aluminum Punch
sheet
Die
Die holder
Pin
Rivet
Aluminum sheet
Weight
Rivet
Steel sheet
Blanked plate
Rivet holder
0.8
Plate
Circular pipe
1.0
Photo sensor
Light
Discharge switch
5.8
(Inner diameter:
7.8)
To photo
transistor
Weight
Circular pipe
7.8
3000
Supporter pin
of weight
Valve
Figure 6. Disjoining method.
diameter of 5 mm was drilled in each sheet beforehand. The

caulking method is shown in Figure 5. The sheets were
joined by compressing the rivet axis at the load of 35kN
using a flat punch. The diameter of the formed rivet head
becomes larger over 1.6 times in comparison with an initial
diameter of the rivet axis. In the same manner as the
impulsive riveting method, the joint is called the Type C
joint when an aluminum sheet was lapped on a steel sheet
and joined as shown in Figure 5, and it is called the Type D
joint when a steel sheet was lapped on an aluminum sheet
and joined.
Measurement of Configuration of Fastening Part. To
evaluate the deformation of the joint made by the impulsive
riveting method and that of the joint made by caulking, the
configuration around the fastening part of each joint was
measured using the CCD lazar displacement sensor.
Hardness Measurement around Fastening Part of
Sheet Metal. To examine the work hardening of the sheet
metal around the fastening part of the joint, Vickers
1145
09.08.2010 14:44:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
hardness of the sheet
Micro-Vickers tester.
was
measured
using
the
Test for Joint Strength. In order to evaluate the joint

strength, the tension test of the joint was carried out using
the tension tester. For the tension test, the both the edges of
the joint were held so as to make two pieces of sheets
parallel and they were pulled with a tension speed of
10mm/s.
Test for Disjoining of Joint. Figure 6 shows the
disjoining method of the joint. The disjoining force was
measured when the joint was disjoined by pushing out the
rivet axis from the holder.
Aspects of Riveting. Figure 7 shows aspects of
fastening parts of the joints made by the impulsive riveting
method. Upper figures represent the Type A joint and lower
figures represent the Type B joint. From these photographs,
it is found that an aluminum sheet and a steel sheet can be
joined by the impulsive riveting method.
Figure 8 shows cross sections of fastening parts of joints
8mm
Steel
Face
Configuration of Fastening Part of Joint. Figure 9

shows configurations around the fastening parts of the joints
measured by the CCD lazar displacement sensor. From these
figures, it is found that the deformation of the sheets joined
by the impulsive riveting method is smaller than that of the
sheets joined by caulking.
Hardness around Fastening Part of Sheet Metals.
Figure 10 shows distributions of Vickers hardness around
the fastening parts of the joints. In both cases of the
Aluminum
Aluminum
8mm
made by the impulsive riveting method and caulking. The

deformation of sheets joined by caulking is very large in
both cases of the Type C and D joints. Though the sheets
were fastened strongly near a rivet hole, they were not
sufficiently fastened at the peripheral portion of the rivet
head. In general, caulking has a problem that large
deformation of sheets generates easily when the rivet
material with the high flow stress in comparison with that
of one sheet is used. On the other hand, the deformation of
the sheets joined by the impulsive riveting method is very
small in comparison with that of sheets joined by caulking.
The sheets are fastened uniformly by the rivet head and the
rivet holder.
8mm
Steel
4 mm
Steel
Back
Side
Type A
Aluminum
(a) Impulsive riveting
Aluminum
Face
8mm
Aluminum
8mm
Side
Type B
Figure 7. Aspects of riveting.
Type B
Steel
Steel
8mm
4 mm
Type A
4 mm
Steel
Type C
Back
4 mm
Aluminum
Type D
(b) Caulking
Figure 8. Cross-sectional appearance of joints.
Aluminum sheet
10mm
Type A
Rivet head
Steel sheet
Hardness HV
60
Rivet head
50
40
30
10
10mm
Type B
(a) Joint by impulsive riveting
(Velocity of weight: 119m/s)
-- Joint by impulsive riveting
( Type A )
20
0
0
--
Joint by caulking ( Type C )

4
10
12
Distance from centeral axis of rivet mm

(a) Hardness of aluminum sheets in Type A and Type C
Aluminum sheet
150
Type C
Steel sheet
Type D
10mm
Rivet head
10mm
(b) Joint by caulking

(Riveting force: 35kN)
Figure 9. Configurations of fastening parts of joints.
1146
Hardness HV
200
Rivet head
100
50
0
0
--
Joint by impulsive riveting
--
Joint by caulking ( Type D )
( Type B )
10
12
Distance from centeral axis of rivet mm

(b) Hardness of steel sheets in Type B and Type D
Figure 10. Vickers hardness distributions around fastening parts of sheets.
09.08.2010 14:44:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
Joint Strength. Figure 11 shows the aspects of joints

fractured by tension tests. Both the joints made by the
impulsive riveting method and caulking are fractured by
extending of the holes of an aluminium sheet and a steel
sheet because the rivet material has higher strength than
those of sheets. Figure 12 shows the comparison of the
maximum tensile forces of the joints. The heights of bar
graphs express the average of ten samples and the error bars
express the standard deviation. From the results, in the case
of the Type B joint made by the impulsive riveting method,
the joint strength is nearly equal to that of the Type D joint
made by caulking. On the other hand, in the case of the
Type A joint made by the impulsive riveting method, the
joint strength is much higher than that of the Type C joint
made by caulking. As reasons, it is considered as follows.
1) From the cross-sectional appearance of the impulsive
riveting of Figure 8(a), it is found that two pieces of
sheets are fastened uniformly without the large
deformation by both the rivet head and the rivet holder in
comparison with the case of caulking. It is considered
that the friction force between the aluminum sheet and
the steel sheet is higher than that of the joint made by
caulking. Therefore the joint strength made by the
impulsive riveting method is high.
2) From the cross-sectional appearance of caulking of
Figure 8(b), the thickness around the rivet hole of an
aluminum sheet decreased at high pressure of the rivet
head with the higher strength than that of the aluminum
sheet. As the results, the joint strength is lower.
Direction of tensile load

Aluminum sheet
Direction of tensile load
Steel sheet
Aluminum sheet
Steel sheet
10mm
(a) Impulsive riveting (Type A)
10mm
(b) Caulking (Type C)
Figure 11. Aspects of fractured joints.

3
Maximum tensile force kN
impulsive riveting method and caulking, the hardness

increased near the hole of sheets. But the hardness of the
Type A joint made by the impulsive riveting method is a
little higher than that of caulking in the region where the
distance from the central axis of the rivet is from 3.5mm to
5 mm. In the case of the Type D joint made by caulking, the
hardness is relatively high at the peripheral portion of the
rivet head.
Impulsive riveting
Caulking
Type A
Type B
Type C
Type D
Figure 12. Tensile strengths of joints by impulsive riveting and joints

by caulking.
5 mm
5 mm
(a) Rivet
(b) Rivet holder
10 mm
(c) Aluminum sheet

Type A
Figure 13. Aspects of disjoined
rivet, rivet holder and aluminum
sheet.
Disjoining of Joint. Figure 13 shows an example of the

rivet and the rivet holder and the aluminium sheet when the
Type A joint was disjoined. From these photographs, it is
found that the joint can be disjoined without deforming the
sheet largely. The average of five samples of the maximum
load for pushing out the rivet axis from the rivet holder was
2.4kN in the Type A joint and it was 2.6kN in the Type B
joint. From the results, it is also found that the joint can be
easily disjoined.
1. An aluminum sheet and a steel sheet can be joined by the

impulsive riveting method.
2. The deformation of the sheets joined by the impulsive
riveting method is smaller than that of the sheets joined
by caulking.
3. The strength of the joint made by the impulsive riveting
method is higher than that of the joint made by caulking.
4. The dissimilar materials joint made by the impulsive
riveting method can be easily disjoined without
deforming the sheets largely.
Conclusions
References
To make the sheets deformation small as well as to

obtain the high joint strength in riveting of dissimilar sheet
metals, the impulsive riveting method was applied to the
joining of an aluminum sheet and a cold-reduced carbon
steel sheet. And the deformation and the strength of the
joints made by the impulsive riveting method were
compared with those of the joints made by caulking.
Besides, the disjoining tests of the joints made by the
impulsive riveting method were carried out. The obtained
results are as follows:
[1] Y. Takaki, T. Masuda, S. Yasunaga: Kobe Steel Engineering Reports,

54-3 (2004), 42-46.
[2] T. Inaba, H. Yamashita, Y. Takebayashi, T. Minoura, S. Sasabe: KOBE
Steel Engineering Reports, 55-2 (2005), 66-74.
[3] T. Kato, Y. Abe, K. Mori, W. Xaun: Journal of the JSTP, 47-541 (2006),
119-123.
[4] K. Kaizu, H., Kinoshita, K. Tsutsui, K. Ikeda: Journal of Materials
Science, 57-7 (2008), 712-717.
[5] H. Kinoshita, K. Kaizu, T. Yoshihara, R. Kawamura, K. Ikeda:
Transactions of Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, 40-5
(2009), 1309-1314.
[6] M. Masuko: Machine Design, (1985), 71-92, Yokendo Co. Ltd.
1147
09.08.2010 14:44:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
Comparison of Mechanical Efficiency of Two Microstructures of Ti5553 Alloy in case of

Bolted Flanges Submitted to Tensile Loading
Thibaut Van Hoof1), Mohamed Ben Bettaieb2), Frederic Lani1), Philippe Dufour3), Pascal J. Jacques3), Astrid Lenain4),
Anne Marie Habraken2)
1)
CENAERO - Centre de Recherches en Aronautique, Btiment Eole, Rue des Frres Wright, 29 B-6041, Gosselies / Belgium,
thibaut.vanhoof@cenaero.be; 2) Department ArGEnCo, Division MS2F, University of Lige, Chemin des Chevreuils 1, 4000 Lige, Belgium;
3)
Institute of Mechanical, Materials and Civil Engineering, Universit catholique de Louvain, Place Sainte Barbe 2, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve,
Belgium, 4) Techspace Aero, DT Matriaux & Procdes Route de Liers 121, 4041 Milmort, Belgium
A combination of numerical and experimental methods is used to compare the efficiency of two microstructures of Ti5553 titanium alloy in
an industrial test case. The test case consists in two parts of sectors of aircraft engine stators linked together by an Inconel bolt and
submitted to tensile loading. The efficiency of these microstructures is evaluated by using finite element (FE) models. The chosen FE
models take into account elasto-visco-plastic material behaviors, contact with friction (bolt heads/flanges and flange/flange), and the initial
bolt tightening. The parameters of the elasto-visco-plastic (EVP) material law are adjusted from experimental results extracted from tensile
tests performed on Inconel, and Ti5553 alloys. Viscous properties are observed at different strain rates. The studied alloy is assumed to be
plastically isotropic. In order to compare the fracture resistance of both microstructures, a simple maximum strain rupture criteria is used.
Keywords: Ti5553 alloy, Bolted flange, Finite element method, Elasto-visco-plastic behavior
Introduction
The titanium alloys are selected in the aeronautic industries considering their low density, their good corrosion
behavior and their excellent mechanical properties. The
well known Ti-6Al-4V is the most commonly used titanium alloy for aerospace fasteners for almost 50
years. However, the need to increase the strength of Ti6Al-4V fasteners combined with the inherent limitation in
through hardenability of Ti-6Al-4V, has created interest in
other alloys. Over the past few years, several scientific and
industrial partners have identified the Ti5553 (Ti-5Al5Mo-5V-3Cr-0.5Fe) as a promising alloy [1-3]: the ability
to retain the phase at room temperature gives a large
range of microstructures with different mechanical properties. It is thus possible to obtain a microstructure highly
stronger than Ti-6Al-4V leading to increase weight reductions. The aim of this research work is to understand and
then to evaluate the mechanical properties and behavior of
this new alloy. In this aim, two distinguish microstructures
of the Ti5553 alloy, are used. These microstructures will
be called hereafter Ti5553-1 and Ti5553-3. The mechanical behavior of these microstructures is identified on the
basis of various tensile tests at room temperature and at
different strain rates. The efficiency of these two microstructures is evaluated by the comparison of the predicted
mechanical response of bolted flanges made of Ti5553-1
and Ti5553-3 submitted to tensile tests.
Currently, the sectors of the aircraft engine stators are in
Ti-6Al-4V materials and tested in Techspace Aero (from
the group Safran). So, tests presented in this work were
performed on specimens extracted from real forging. In
this paper, virtual tests are computed by FE simulations
where Ti-6Al-4V material is replaced by Ti5553-1 and
Ti5553-3 alloys.
The present paper is organized as follow: first the material used is presented. The experimental results and the
numerical simulations are then discussed. Finally, the
overall conclusions are highlighted.
1148
Material
The tensile specimens of Ti5553 are cut from forged
slices (Figure 1). The forging of these pieces is performed
at 815 C.
Figure 1. Forged Slice.
The difference between the two microstructures is related to their heat treatment. This difference has an impact
on the mechanical properties of these two microstructures
as will be shown in the experimental identification part:
lower second aging of the microstructure Ti5553-1 results
in a higher strength but a lower ductility compared to
Ti5553-3. The heat cycle related to the elaboration of the
two different microstructures is displayed in Figure 2.
09.08.2010 14:44:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
where is the equivalent total strain and is the strain
rate. The parameters P1, P2, P3 and P4 are related respectively to softening, strength, viscosity and plasticity behaviors. The fit is performed with a homemade python
script involving the Nelder-Mead Simplex algorithm in
order to minimize the mean square distance between experimental and model curve defined as:
3
MSD = SExp (, ) NH (, )
S =1
Figure 2. Cycle of heat treatment of two microstructures of Ti5553

alloy.
The only difference between these two cycles is the

temperature of the second aging. This step is responsible
for the formation of the secondary precipitates. In both
microstructures, these precipitates appear as needles. For
the microstructure Ti5553-1, they are slightly finer and
more dispersed, due to a lower temperature. Figure 3
shows the two considered microstructures.
(2)
The values of the adjusted parameters are presented in

Table 1. Figures 4 and 5 allow to compare the model and
experimental stress-strain curves for Ti5553-1 and Ti55533 for different strain rates. It is observed that the NH
model is able to reproduce correctly the experimental
results for all strain rates and both microstructures except
the yield initiation in the case of high strain rate Ti5553-3
which is underestimated.
Table 1. Values of NH parameters for both titanium microstructures.
P1
P2
P3
P4
Ti5553-1
1.54
1175
0.00595
0.083
Ti5553-3
0.35
912
0.00316
0.064
(a)
(b)
Figure 3. Microstructures of Ti5553 alloy: (a) Ti5553-1 and (b)

Ti5553-3.
Experimental Results and Material Law Adjustment

The experimental true strain-true stress curves obtained
for Ti5553-1 and Ti5553-3 at different strain rates (10-2, 4
10-3, 2 10-4, 1 10-5) are presented in Figures 4 and 5. For
each strain rate, three samples have been tested. The experimental curves are used to adjust the four parameters of
the Norton-Hoff (NH) [4] elasto-visco-plastic behavior
law with the following expression:
= exp( P1 ) 3P2 ( 3 ) P P
3
Figure 4. Ti5553-1 true strain-true stress curves at low (bottom)

and high (top) strain rates.
(1)
1149
09.08.2010 14:44:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
Numerical Results
Model Description. The studied system is composed by
two sectors of aircraft engine stators linked together using
bolted flanges as depicted in Figure 7. The system is submitted to tensile loading and its behavior is computed
using the finite elements software Abaqus. In a first simulation step, the bolt tightening, with a resulting force of 17
kN, is imposed taking advantage of the 'bolt load' method
present in Abaqus standard. In the second simulation step,
the tightening is preserved and displacement is imposed at
the external upstream stator surface while the external
downstream stator surface is clamped as depicted in Figure 7. The displacement is imposed with a constant velocity of 4.5 10-3 mm/s which corresponds to the velocity
used in the Ti-6Al-4V experiments performed on the actual parts in Ti-6Al-4V.
Figure 5. Ti5553-3 true strain-true stress curves at low (bottom)

and high (top) strain rates.
Figure 7. Snapshot of the whole system with boundaries conditions.
Figure 6 allows to compare the fitted model tensile

curves for both microstructures at different strain rates.
Compared to Ti5553-3, the Ti5553-1 exhibits a higher
strength and a lower ductility.
In the following calculations, a maximum principal
strain rupture criterion shall be used to compare both microstructure efficiencies in an industrial test case. The
choice of such a simple criteria results from the lack of
experimental data concerning rupture up to now. As a first
(strong) approximation, the rupture criteria are equal to the
maximum measured true strain before necking for each
material. From Figure 4, the Ti5553-1 selected rupture
strain is 0.05 while the value of 0.08 is chosen for Ti55533 from Figure 5. The rupture criteria definition and adjustment shall be refined in following studies.
Two models are compared in the following. In the first,

the stators are made of Ti5553-1 while Ti5553-3 is used in
the second. The previously defined NH material law is
coupled to Abaqus through the UHARD interface to model
flanges behavior. Note that with the NH law, the yield
stress value tends toward zero when strain rate tends toward zero. To avoid immediate onset of the plastic regime
at the beginning of the simulation, the minimum allowed
strain rate for the yield stress calculation is imposed to be
10-5 s-1 which corresponds to the lowest velocity used for
the material tests. The bolt and nut, which are respectively
made of Inconel718 and A286 stainless steel, are described
using classical J2 elasto-plastic theory with tensile curves
obtained from Techspace Aero. The system mesh contains
800k first order tetrahedral elements with typical mesh
size of ~0.4 mm on the flanges. Contact with Coulomb
static friction is taken into account between the two
flanges and betweens the flanges and the bolt. The friction
coefficient is 0.4 for all contacts which avoid relative
sliding of the different bodies during the simulation.
Figure 6. Comparison of Ti5553-1 and Ti5553-3 NH fitted traction

curves. Presented curves ultimate strains correspond to maximum
measured strain in three experimentally tested samples.
1150
Results. A typical snapshot of the deformed systems after

a 5 mm imposed displacement is presented in Figure 8.
Equivalent configurations are obtained with both Ti5553-3
and Ti5553-1 systems. A separation of the two flanges is
observed far from the bolt. Most of the stress is sustained
by the flanges in the vicinity of the bolt. The maximum
strain level measured in the upstream flange is a factor 2
higher than the maximum strain level measured in the
downstream flange. For this reason attention is focused on
the upstream flange in the following.
Using the previously defined strain based rupture criteria; it is observed that rupture always occurs on the up-
09.08.2010 14:44:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
stream flange surface in contact with the downstream
flange, in a region close to the bolt hole. For the Ti5553-1
and Ti5553-3 systems, the rupture criteria are reached for
imposed displacement of 3.23 mm and 5.06 mm respectively, corresponding to reaction forces of 7720 N and
10030 N. An image of the strain map observed for the two
systems at the rupture is given in Figure 9. It is shown that
the rupture occurs in two symmetrical regions in the bottom of the hole. Those regions are indeed highly stretched
by the conjugated effects of the applied displacement and
bolt tightening. As a conclusion, the simple strain based
rupture criterion used here predict a higher ductility of the
Ti5553-3 flanges compared to the Ti5553-1 (+30%) due to
higher material ductility even if the material plastic stress
level are lower.
Both microstructures behaviors are now compared for
the same imposed displacement value of 3.23 mm. The
Ti5553-3 system reaction force is 7500 N which is slightly
lower than the Ti5553-1 case described previously (7720
N). The maximum value of the maximal principal strains
and strain rates in the Ti5553-3 upstream flange (5.74 10-2
and 1.72 10-4 s-1) are slightly higher than in Ti5553-1 (5.31
10-2 and 1.46 10-4 s-1). Those results are direct consequences of the fact that the Ti5553-1 alloy exhibits a
higher strength.
Conclusions
In the present work, the mechanical behavior of two titanium microstructures Ti5553-1 and Ti5553-3 are compared using a combination of experimental results and
numerical models. In a first step, the elasto-visco-plastic
Norton-Hoff behavior law for both alloys is adjusted on
experimental tensile curves obtained at different strain rate
ranging from 10-5 s-1 to 10-2 s-1. The Ti5553-1 alloys exhibit a higher strength and a lower ductility compared to
Ti5553-3. In the second step, the efficiency of both alloys
is compared using finite elements models of bolted titanium flanges submitted to tensile. Using a simple maximum principal strain rupture criteria, it is observed that
Ti5553-1 flanges breaks at a lower imposed force than
Ti5553-3 due to lower ductility. However, due to higher
strength, the Ti5553-1 exhibit lower strain than Ti5553-3
for the same applied force amplitudes. As a consequence a
more refined rupture criterion is needed in order to compare the efficiency of both titanium alloys. In the future
works, a micromechanical rupture criteria proposed by D.
Lassance in [5] shall be used. Moreover, experimental
tensile tests on Ti-6Al-4V bolted flanges shall be used in
order to validate the finite element model and compare the
efficiency of Ti-6Al-4V and Ti5553 alloys.
Acknowledgement:
The authors thank the Walloon Region (Winnomat2 Titaero project) for his financial support.
References
Figure 8. Snapshot of deformed system after 5mm imposed displacement. Darker region corresponds to higher stress.
[1] A.F. Gerday: Phd Thesis, Facult des Sciences Appliques, Universit
de Lige, (2002-2003).
[2] R.R. Boyer, R.D. Briggs : ASM International, 14 (2005), 681-685.
[3] P-J. Arrazola, A. Garay, L-M. Iriarte, M. Armendia, S. Marya, F. Le
Matre : Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 209 (2009),
2223-2230.
[4] F. Pascon: Phd Thesis, Facult des Sciences Appliques, Universit
de Lige, (2002-2003).
[1] D. Lassance, F. Scheyvaerts, T. Pardoen: Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 73 (2006), 1009-1034.
Figure 9. Strain map of upstream flange close to hole at rupture.

Same kind map is obtained for both alloys. Difference lies in strain
amplitudes given in legend.
1151
09.08.2010 14:44:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
Integration and Control of Arc Stud Welding in Sheet Metal Tools

Dominic Gru1), Rouven Nickel1), Bernd-Arno Behrens1)
1)
Department of Production Technology, IPH - Institute of Integrated Production Hannover gemeinntzige GmbH, Hannover / Germany,
gruss@iph-hannover.de
Sheet metal parts often have to be connected by fasteners. Also, the visible side of sheet metals often may not be optically impaired and
sheet metals are supposed to be extreme thin. By these requirements condenser discharge arc stud welding is commonly used as a joining
process. Arc stud welding with tip ignition applying the contact method is characterised by a low energy input and a suitable kinematics of
joining for integration in forming tools. Every executable manufacturing step inside the forming tool shortens the process chain for production of sheet metal parts significantly. Furthermore, using a combined process the precision of position and orientation like studs improves.
To realise integration, a new modular tool concept is presented in this paper. However, negative process effects like weld splatters can
occur. As preventing counteraction an extraction system, mechanical solutions and a new kind of process control are introduced. The new
welding concept demonstrates good joining results, high process stability and robustness in an automated test tool. Welded studs were
examined by reverse bending experiments and achieved maximum values related to the sheet material used. Disturbances were reliably
detected by monitoring the voltage and current curve progression as well as the stud movement. The analysis of the measurements
showed the robustness of the automated welding process. Welding emissions were efficiently removed by suction from the shielded welding area in the tool without negative influences on joining qualities.
Keywords: Condenser discharge (CD) arc stud welding, Tip ignition, Process integration, Progressive die, Transfer tool
Introduction
Sheet metal parts are often manufactured using multistage progressive dies. Sheet metal strip fed from a coil is
gradually transported with each press stroke to the next
tool stage. At the end of this tool integrated process chain,
detached pre-cast parts fall off ideally. Up to now, the
production stages were mainly limited to cutting, forming
and cold joining processes such as the setting of press-in
nuts and bolts. Tool-integrated manufacturing steps allow
a contraction of the process chain and an increase of
automation level. Expensive, often manual handling operations can be saved [1,2]. Figure 1 illustrates the conventional process chain in comparison to the welding
system integrated in a progressive die.
Press-in processes have proven to be very reliable and

economical, but they still require punching of the sheet
metal. For applications that require gas- or liquid-tight
connection, or whose visible side should not be impaired
optically, welding technologies are preferred. Up to now,
the welded connection of standard parts has mostly been
conducted outside the sheet metal tool after the forming
and stamping processes on separate welding stations and
often manual [3,4]. The components must be transported
to these welding stations and are repositioned, oriented
and clamped. For the joining of standard parts such as pins,
screw nuts and threaded bushings stud welding processes
are preferred due to their high repeatability and welding
quality [5,6]. Figure 2 shows the condenser discharge
(CD) arc stud welding process with tip ignition in the
contact method. This kind of stud welding method was
chosen for integration in a progressive die because of its
simple kinematics, short welding time and low energy
input [7].
Figure 2. Process phases of condenser discharge (CD) arc stud

welding with tip ignition.
Figure 1. Conventional process chain of sheet metal forming in
comparison to process chain with integrated welding stage.
1152
Typical elements for stud welding like different threaded

studs, internally threaded bushings and pins are standardised by DIN EN ISO 13918 [8].
09.08.2010 14:44:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Tool Technology to Integrate CD Arc Stud Welding Process
in Sheet Metal Forming Tools
Test Tool System. The new tool technology allows a
fully automated arc stud welding process for sheet metal
parts during manufacturing by being integrated in sheet
metal forming tools. Figure 3 illustrates the components
of the production system to automate the test tool including a welding stage. The test tool consists of punching,
welding and cutting stages. Prior to the implementation of
the welding stage initial conceptual solutions had to be
developed. Equipped with appropriate sensors the test tool
was connected with the spiral conveyor, the welding
power source (a condenser with a capacity of 66,000 F),
the slit strip feeder and the hydraulic press. The test tool
system is steered by a programmable logic controller
(PLC). A steering programme controls all actuators depending on the position of the slide of the press and allows
completely automated operation. Voltage and current flow
during the operation of the welding process and the
movement of the stud are recorded and evaluated by the
monitoring software STUD-DI [9] for the first time by an
automated arc stud welding process. The movement particular provides information on the impact speed of the
stud into the melting bath.
below 1 ms and longer welding times between 2.5 and

4 ms of the contact method. The high speed is the result of
a high pre-load of the comparative soft drive spring
(c = 4.8 N/mm), low accelerated mass (100 g) and low
friction bearings.
Figure 4. Cross section of CAD-model of welding head for installation in upper plate of sheet metal forming dies.
Feeding Technology. The joining elements are fed

through the blank holder by pneumatic injection from a
vibrating spiral conveyor. Therefore studs are inserted into
the stud holder of welding head through the feeding
mechanism of the die (see Figure 5).
Figure 3. Components of production system for automation of a

progressive die with integrated CD arc stud welding stage.
Welding Head. The welding process is conducted via a

welding head, which is adapted to the kinematics of the
die and mounted in the upper tool. Figure 4 shows the
construction of the welding head. After implementing of
the test tool some mechanical properties of welding head
were identified. The developed compact welding head
reaches impact speeds between 600 and 1,000 mm/s.
Compared with previous appropriate references, whereby
the CD arc stud welding process applying contact method
reached a maximum of 700 mm/s impact speed, the new
system reaches up to 800 mm/s average. Because of the
faster movement the test tool can realise welding times
below 2 ms. So the test tool closes the present difference
between the gap-variation method with welding times
Figure 5. Four-stage mechanism for feeding studs into stud holder

of welding head and shield welding area.
1153
09.08.2010 14:44:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
The kinematics of this mechanism consists of four
stages. After stud insertion, the stud is rotated by a wedge
system in joining direction and gets picked up by the stud
holder of the welding head mounted in upper tool plate.
Than the mechanism opens and uncovers the welding area
before a shield of PTFE-elements moves to protect the
mechanism against welding emissions. Exceptional advantages of this mechanism are an easy-to-disassemble blank
holder, the compact installation space and the free space
around the welding area.
The robustness of the process and the reliability of the

installed welding control were obtained through interspersed disturbances in endurance tests. Figure 7 shows a
test part and the typical look of the welding zone. The
achievable welding quality was analysed by visual inspection, bending tests, the analysis of microsections and
evaluations of the recorded process data of welding current, voltage and time.
Elimination of Emissions. Protective shielding of the

welding area and an extraction system guarantee an efficient removal of welding residues like combustion or
spillings. The welding process takes place in a strictly with
PTFE elements shielded area wherefrom the welding
emissions were extracted by a controlled air flow. Figure
6 shows the glowing emissions in air flow by suction
process during welding.
Figure 7. Punched, joined and cut sample part with welded stud.
Figure 6. Suction of emission out of tool after arc ignition.
The tested emissions extraction system for reducing

contamination proved to be successful. Even with permanent extraction an arc blow was not observed.
Welding Results. Microsections of test weldings demonstrate high join quality, reproducibility and process
safety under appropriate settings. Figure 8 (a) exemplary
shows the microstructure of a test tool integrated welding.
In the tests all analysed test welding under proper execution of the welding process passed the simple bending test,
where a single bending of an angle > 60 degrees according
to DIN EN ISO 14555 has to be performed. Figure 8 (b)
demonstrates the deformation of a test part after bending
test. Bearing strength of the weldings has been tested by
multiple reverse bending tests of +/- 20. In multiple reverse bending tests weldings unbuttoned completely off
the sheet (Figure 8 (c)) in a comparative large band of
charging voltage of the capacitor (66 mF) from 120 to
150 V. Endurance tests with no disturbances have shown a
good repeatability of welding quality.
Deliverables and Welding Results

Welding Tests. The test tool was aligned to threaded
studs with ignition tips in accordance with DIN EN ISO
13918 of the size M5 x 16. In experimental series optimal
settings of the welding process for achieving high joint
strength and a minimum of emissions were determined by
varying the following parameters: elastic joining force,
capacitor charging voltage and surface condition. Subsequent experiments with appropriate parameter settings
(Table 1) under continuous operation were conducted to
analyse the process safety and stability as well as the joining qualities.
Table 1. Appropiate process parameter for test tool.
Sheet metal material
1.00 mm - DC 04, thinly greased
Stud material
M 5 x 16 - S235 (DIN EN ISO 13918)
Condenser capacity
66.000 F
Charging voltage
130 V
Elastic force
75 N
1154
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 8. (a) Microsection of welding zone, (b) Stud after single
bending test, (c) Shearing zone after multiple reverse bending test.
In seven random tests (each containing 20 pieces of ca.

3,500 units) the welding were statistically evaluated with
respect to the unbuttoned shearing diameter after multiple
reverse bending test. The size of the plug averages 6.0 mm.
The coefficient of variation varies only slightly from 3.5 to
7. The measured welding parameters welding time, total
energy, maximum amperage, arc voltage, depth and impact
speed shows little variation and confirm the well reproducible welding process.
Experiments with various inserted disturbances exemplify the robustness of the in-tool welding process and the
09.08.2010 14:44:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
reliability of the welding control. Figure 9 in form of boxwhisker plots shows the statistic interpretation of the
shearing diameter of unbuttoned test weldings after multiple reverse bending test. Figure 9(a) demonstrates only
minimal change of the strength of welding by disturbances
of suction and stud holder compared to reference welding.
The analysis of shearing diameter by thick oil sprinkled
sheet metal surface and a shorted ignition tip of the studs
in Figure 9(b) show the negative effect of these disturbances. Test weldings with only one-sided mass contact or
water sprinkled sheet metal surface have a significant
higher variance of strength.
Shearing diameter in mm
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Reference
Suction
stopped
Suction
permanent
Stud holder
worn
Stud holder
new
Reference
Mass contact
only one-sided
Thick oil
sprinkled
Water
sprinkled
Tip
shorted
(a)
8
Shearing diamter in mm
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
(b)
Figure 9. Statistic interpretation (maximum, minimum, upper and
lower quartile, median) of unbuttoning shearing diameter by different disturbances compared to undisturbed reference weldings.
Conclusions
The welding results show good possibility of integration
of the CD arc stud welding process with tip ignition in
contact method in sheet metal tools. Due to its high welding speed and beneficial kinematics the arc stud welding
process is well appropriate to e. g. progressive dies. This
joining technology can be integrated without destabilising
the welding results. Especially the developed speed varia-
tion of welding times around 1.5 ms shows high process

stability, robustness and high quality welding results.
Occurring emissions can be compensated without any
negative effects on the welding results by an adequately
controlled extraction system. Process monitoring consistently shows good reproducibility of the welding process.
The developed tool technology for integration the arc
stud welding process with tip ignition in sheet metal tools
is characterised by:
1. The mechanical solution of a feeding mechanism together with the chosen pick-up principle enables a
compact and modular design of the joining stage.
2. The welding head with high impact speed of the stud by
joining realises high process stability.
3. The new kind of emission extraction by arc stud welding process significantly reduces contamination of
welding area and prevents the sheet metal tool of defilement. Even with permanent extraction, an arc blow
was not observed.
4. The process control with monitoring of the stud movement, in addition to voltage and current flow, discover
disturbances with high reliability.
The documented deliverables are developed in the
research project Integration and control of welding of
standard parts in metal-composite tools (AiF-Nr. 14.938
N). This project has been funded by the German
Federation of Industrial Research Associations "Otto von
Guericke" e.V. (AiF) and has been supervised by the European Research Association for Sheet Metal Working (EFB
e.V.) with financial resources of the Federal Ministry of
Economics and Technology (BMWi) fort he period of
01.06.2007 to 31.05.2009. The final documentation is
published as EFB research report no. 300.
The authors thank all funders and partners.
References
[1] Ultra Tool & Manufacturing, Inc.: Case Study: In-Die Welding,
www.ultratoolmfg.com, 14.02.2009.
[2] Ocon Automated Systems S.L.: http://www.ocon-ik.com/eng_home.
htm, 15.04.2009.
[3] Neubauer, H.: Forschungsbericht Nr. 167, Verbundinitiative Automobil NRW (VIA NRW), Ldenscheid, (2003).
[4] Lau, P.; Gru, D.: Blech Rohre Profile, Meisenbach Verlag, 55. Jg.
(2008), H. 3, S. 12.
[5] Schmitt K.-G.: Dissertation an der Universitt-GesamthochschulePaderborn 1983.
[6] N. N.: Forschungsbericht 5146/2008: SLV Mnchen NL der GSI
mbH (2008).
[7] Nickel, R.; Gru, D.; Zech, F.; Cramer, H.: EFB-Forschungsbericht
Nr. 300, Europische Forschungsgesellschaft fr Blechverarbeitung
e.V., Hannover, (2009).
[8] DIN EN ISO 13918:2008: Beuth Verlag, Berlin, (2008).
[9] Gdde, J.: www.schweissqualitaet.de, 31.05.2009.
1155
09.08.2010 14:44:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Joining Condition on Plastic Deformation, Microstructure and Bonding

Strength for WC-Co to WC-Co
Hidenobu Gonda, Yasuhiro Shirai, Toshiaki Yasui, Osamu Ohashi, Masahiro Fukumoto
Department of Mechanical & Structural System Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi / Japan, hgonda@
isf.me.tut.ac.jp
Tungsten carbides sometimes are brazed to high speed steel or tungsten carbides for cutting tools. In the case of cutting tools with a small
diameter, the joining strength of the brazing method tends to be rather weak for being used as cutting tools. In this study, a potential for
applying the diffusion bonding of tungsten carbides was examined. On the joining of brittle materials such as tungsten carbides, plastic
deformation occurred. The effects of joining conditions on the bonding strength and plastic deformation were investigated, and higher bonding strength than the strength of brazing was obtained. In addition, the distribution of cobalt and tungsten in the bonding interface was
measured, and the strength of the bonding interface was almost the same as that of the base metal.
Keywords: Tungsten carbides, WC-Co, Diffusion bonding, Bonding strength, Plastic deformation, Segregation
Introduction
Recently, tungsten carbides are used for cutting tools because of long tool life compared with high speed steels.
Those applications tend to increase, but tungsten carbides
are more expensive than high speed steel. Since the cost of
raw materials for tungsten carbides increases, it is desirable in cutting tool industries to develop new production
processes of tools.
Primarily, in cutting tool, the essential part of expensive
material is cutting edge. It is effective clearly that cutting
edge and shank consist of the difference materials. But in
the case of that, a problem to be solved is a method of
joining. It is difficult for warranty of mechanical properties in existing methods, for example, brazing, because
those joints have the interlayer. Therefore, direct bonding
such as diffusion bonding is desirable. It was reported on
the diffusion bonding in Titanium alloys using interlayer,
stainless steels and so on [1-3]. However, there are few
studies on the direct diffusion bonding for tungsten carbides. In addition, it was reported on the friction welding
characteristics between tungsten carbide and steel [4]. The
joints of the friction welding dont have the interlayer. But
the joints have a large deformation part. The deformation
must be removed for the cutting tools.
In this study, on the direct diffusion bonding expected
for joining strength, a potential for applying diffusion
bonding between tungsten carbides was developed and the
proper bonding condition was selected.
lar pump and a rotary pump. The pressure was measured

by Pirani and ionization gauges.
Vacuum chamber
Current
High frequency transformer
transistor inverter
Vacuum pump
Figure 1. Diffusion bonding devices betweem tungsten carbides.
Bonding Process. The specimens were rinsed in acetone,

and set verticality underneath the upper attachment as
shown in Figure 2. Alumina ball and plate were set to
avoid heat conduction. After the pressure in vacuum chamber was reached at 4x10-3 Pa, the high frequency induction
heating was started. The heating rate was 5.8 C/s, where
tB was the holding time at the fixed bonding temperature.
The bonding pressure was constant during the heating. The
bonding temperature was TB = 900-1200 C, the bonding
pressure was PB = 8-30 MPa, tB = 300-900 s. The basic
conditions were TB = 1100 C, PB = 8 MPa and tB = 300 s.
Upper
attachment
Specimens and Bonding Device. The diffusion bonding
devices was shown in Figure 1. Tungsten carbides (WC10%Co) with 30 mm in length and 6 mm and 12 mm in
diameter were prepared as specimens. The high frequency
(30 kHz) induction heating systems (SPC Electronics
Corporation, 10 kW) is used to control the bonding temperature. The temperature of specimens was measured
with a thermocouple (the type R) near the bonding surface.
The bonding pressure is controlled by mechanical leverage
systems. The chamber was evacuated with a turbo molecu-
1156
Specimen
Alumina
ball
Specimen
Themo couple
Lower
attachment
Induction
heating coil
Alumina
plate
Figure 2. Installation chart of specimen.
09.08.2010 14:44:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
5.0
Base metal
4.0
3.0
4.0
Brazed
1.0
Interface fracture
0.0
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
Bonding temperature, T B /
Figure 3. Effect of bonding temperature on transverse rupture
strength.
Base metal
fracture
2.0
Interface
fracture
1.0
0.0
Interface fracture
including base metal area
1000
1100
1200
1300
Bonding temperature, T B /
5.0
4.0
(b)Bonding pressure
Base metal
3.0
2.0
Interface
fracture
1.0
0.0
0
Interface fracture
12
16
Bonding pressure, P B /MPa
Effect of Bonding Condition on Bonding Strength of

Joints with Grinding
Because the previous bending test was carried out
without grinding of joints, The TRS in Figure 3
deteriorated. Therefore, the joints were ground before the
bending test. The diameter of the specimens was 12 mm.
The diameter of the joints was reduced from 12 to 6 mm.
Figure 4 shows the results of the bending test after
grinding. For TB = 1200 C, the TRS of the joint was
almost the same with the base metal. But in a certain
bonding condition, the fracture morphology was interface
fracture because of remaining the unjoint part. In the case
of the TRS lower than that of brazing, the fracture
morphology was interface fracture. If the joints had the
TRS higher than that of brazing and lower than that of the
base metal, the fracture morphology was interface fracture
including the base metal area. In the case of the TRS equal
to that of the base metal, the fracture morphology was the
base metal fracture. The fracture morphology of the joint
could become a standard in the evaluation of the bonding
strength. The fracture morphology at each bonding
temperature is shown in Figure 5. For TB = 1000 C, the
fracture morphology was interface fracture with the
bonding area of 10% or less like the plane, for 1100 C,
interface fracture including the base metal area with the
(a)Bonding temperature
Base metal
3.0
Interface fracture
2.0
5.0
900
Transverse rupture strength,

S T/GPa

S T/GPa
Figure 3 shows the result of bending strength test. The

diameter of specimens was 6 mm. The bonding strength
(transverse rupture strength, TRS) was increased with
bonding temperature. The ratio of the joint that shows the
fracture morphology including the base metal was
increased. For TB = 1200 C, the average (1.1 GPa) of the
TRS was higher than that (0.8 GPa) of the silver brazing
for the brazing temperature 700 C.

S T/GPa
Effect of Bonding Condition on Bonding Strength of

Joints as Bonded
bonding area of 92-98%, and for 1200 C, the base metal

fracture with the bonding area of 100% .

S T/GPa
Evaluation of joints. The bending test in 4-point was

carried out on the joints (6 mm in diameter) by Shimadzu
Precision Universal Tester. A microstructure of the bonding interface was analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS),
X-ray diffraction (XRD). Hardness was measured with a
Vickers hardness tester.
5.0
4.0
(c)Bonding time
Base metal
Base metal
fracture
3.0
2.0
Interface fracture
1.0
0.0
0
600
1200
1800
Bonding time, t B /s
Figure 4. Effect of each bonding condition on transverse rupture
strength.
(a)Interface fracture
(b)Interface fracture
(c)Base metal fracture
Interface
Fracture Interface
position
Bonding area<10%
1000, 8MPa, 300s
Fracture Interface
position
Fracture
position
Bonding area:92-98% Bonding area=100%

1100, 8MPa, 300s 1200, 8MPa, 300s
Figure 5. Fracture morphology at each bonding temperature.
Microstructure and Distribution of Tungsten, Cobalt

near Bonding Interface. Figure 6 shows each SEM
micrographs near the bonding line for TB = 1000, 1100 and
1200 C, PB = 8 MPa, tB = 300 s. The horizontal bonding
line in SEM can be confirmed clearly for 1000 C of the
bonding temperature. However along with the rise of the
bonding temperature, the identification of the bonding line
1157
09.08.2010 14:44:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
becomes difficult. The interface completely disappeared
for 1200 C. Therefore, the TRS was improved by the rise
of the bonding temperature, and the change in the fracture
morphology took place. Moreover, the cracks of the
bonding part were not confirmed at all temperature.
bonding, the specimen for TB = 1200 C of the bonding

temperature and of the base metal were analyzed by XRD.
Figure 8 shows XRD patterns of the bonding interface for
1200 C and the base metal. In both, the detected elements
were WC and cobalt. Neither the phase, nor the altered
layer such as oxidation layer was confirmed.
Bonding
line
(a)1000
5m
Analysis
line
Interface
Co
3m
(a)1000
Bonding
line
(b)1100
5m
Interface
Analysis
line
Bonding
line
(c)1200
Co
3m
(b)1100
5m
W
Figure 6. SEM micrographs of bonding line.
Deteriorated Layer of Bonding Interface. The stability of the surface layer has an influence on the bonding
strength [7]. In tungsten carbides, it is known that the
existence of the phase caused by the diffusion of the
carbon causes the deterioration of mechanical properties
because of the brittleness [8]. To avoid the generation of
the phase, it is important to avoid the decrease of the
carbon concentration of tungsten carbides. That is, it is
necessary to prevent the decarburization of WC. To investigate the existence of the altered layer by the diffusion
1158
Analysis
line
Interface
Co
3m
(c)1200
Figure 7. Distribution of W and Co by EDS line analysis near

bonding interface.
WC
Co
Intensity (CPS)
Figure 7 shows the distribution of tungsten and cobalt

by EDS line analysis near the bonding interface for TB =
1000, 1100 and 1200 C, PB = 8 MPa, tB = 300 s. The dark
area in SEM was shown element of cobalt. In the dark area
on the vertical bonding interface, the distribution of
tungsten was decreased and the distribution of cobalt was
increased for any condition. The existence of cobalt in an
obvious bonding line also was able to be confirmed. In
other words, the segregation of cobalt could be caused at
the early stage of the diffusion bonding between tungsten
carbides. It is known that the vapor transfer of cobalt
makes the joining progress at the early stage of the
diffusion bonding for tungsten carbides [5,6]. Then, the
segregation of cobalt in the bonding interface was
promoted by raising the bonding temperature, and the joint
part was made up.
1200
Base metal
20
40
2 (deg)
60
80
Figure 8. XRD patterns of bonding interface for 1200 C and base

metal.
Relationship between Plastic Deformation and Bonding

Strength
09.08.2010 14:44:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
Diameter, D /mm
1700
Upper
Lower
Base metal
1600
1200
1100
1000
12.05
12.04
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
Bonding temperature, T B/
Figure 12. Effect of bonding temperature on hardness of plastic
deformation part.
12.03
Conclusions
12.02
12.01
0
10
20
30
Distance from bonding line, D B/mm
Figure 9. Effect of bonding temperature on diameter of joint.
Bonding deformation (%)
1800
1500
12.06
0.3
Diameter
Length
0.2
0.1
The effect of joining conditions on plastic deformation,

microstructure and bonding strength in the diffusion bonding between tungsten carbides was examined. The following results were obtained:
1. Tungsten carbides were successfully bonded by diffusion.
2. The strength for the diffusion bonding was higher than
that for the brazing, and that for 1200 C is almost the
same with the base metal.
3. The interface between the tungsten carbides completely
disappeared for 1200 C.
4. As plastic deformation during the diffusion bonding
increased, the bonding strength increased.
References
0.0
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
Bonding temperature, T B/
Figure 10. Effect of bonding temperature on bonding deformation.
Transverse rupture strength

S T /GPa
Hardness of Plastic Deformation Part. In the plastic

strain part, the change in hardness before and after the
bonding was investigated at the positions of upper and
lower 0.5 mm from the bonding line. Figure 12 shows the
result of a measurement. The change in hardness by the
plastic strain was not admitted.
Vickers hardness,
HV /HV0.5
Plastic Deformation and Bonding Strength. Figure 9

shows the Effect of the bonding temperature on diameter
of joints. Figure 10 shows the effect of the bonding temperature on the bonding deformation. Figure 11 shows the
relationship between the bonding deformation in diameter
and the bonding strength. The deformation grows along
with the rise of the bonding temperature, and is growing
especially for TB = 1200 C of the bonding temperature.
The bonding strength equal to the base metal strength
could be obtained when exceeding 0.1% in the amount of
the deformation. In other words, the segregation of cobalt
was occurred by the higher bonding temperature and the
longer time, and the joints were deformed by the higher
bonding pressure.
Base metal
4.0
Base metal fracture
3.0
Interface fracture
2.0
1.0
Interface fracture
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.2
[1] M.I. Barrena, J.M. Gomez, N. Merino, L. Matesanz: Materials Characterization, 59 (2008), 1407-1411.
[2] A. Wang, O. Ohashi, N. Yamaguchi, M. Aoki, Y. Higashi, N. Hitomi:
Nuclear Instrument and Methods in Physics Research, B 206, (2003),
219-223.
[3] A. Kouno, S. Hioki, K. Taguchi H. Nakae: Japan Welding Society, 31 (1985), 104-109.
[4] A. Narumi, T. Fuda, M. Nakamura, T. Yagyu: Japan Welding Society,
85 (2009), 208-209.
[5] E.A. Almond, A.M. Cottenden, M.G. Gee: Metal Science, 17 (1983),
153-159.
[6] Y. Nakajima, H. Esaki, M. Tobioka, M. Tokizane: Japan Inst. Metals,
51-3 (1987), 228-233.
[7] O. Ohashi, K. Tanuma, K. Yoshihara: Japan Welding Society, 3-3
(1985), 477-483.
[8] X. Shi, H. Yang, G. Shao, X. Duan, S. Wang: Ceramics International,
34 (2008), 2043-2049.
0.3
Bonding deformation (%)

Figure 11. Relationship between bonding deformation and transverse rupture strength.
1159
09.08.2010 14:44:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
An Investigation on Bump Formation in Forming of Micro Dimples

Jian Cao1), Kuniaki Dohda2), Rui Zhou1), Takehiko Makino2), Masaru Futamura2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Chicago / USA, jcao@northwestern.edu;

Physics, Electronics & Mechanics, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya / Japan
2)
Department of Engineering
Micro dimples have various applications, ranging from reducing friction in energy-related applications, being a template for growing nanotubes in a controlled manner, to generating patterned reflections in optical applications. Microforming has the potential of economically
creating micro dimples over a large surface area. However, to make this process fully viable in achieving high quality micro-dimples, one
has to address the bumps or pile-ups built up in the process. This research investigated the effect of relative velocity on shape distribution
of the micro-dimples as the relative velocity between the forming tool and sample affects frictional force, which plays an important role in
determining the final profile of the formed dimple. Both experimental and numerical studies were employed to analyze the micro dimple
forming. The results demonstrated a clear relationship between relative velocity and frictional force, and its significant effect of relative
velocity on the final profile of the dimple. The experimental results and FEM simulation results matched very well.
Keywords: Micro forming, Surface texturing, Relative velocity, Bump formation
Introduction
Engineering new energy resources and saving of energy
consumption can be enabled through innovative micro
manufacturing technologies which bridge macro-scale
production and nano-scale enabling sciences [1-5]. Micro
dimples as a form of surface texture have various applications, ranging from reducing friction in energy-related
applications, being a template for growing nano-tubes in a
controlled manner, to generating patterned reflections in
optical and visual applications.
Microforming, based on the deformation theory, has a
minimum material waste and has the potential of economically creating microdimples or microchannels over a
large surface area. One application of micro dimple forming is to increase energy efficiency by fabricating micro
dimples or micro channels on metallic surface. Arrayed
microchannel device (AMD), a stack of laminas with
thousands of microchannels, has a direct impact on increasing energy efficiency in lots of application areas,
such as distributed power generation, hydrogen generation,
fuel cells and nanomaterial deposition for solar cell fabrication. Miniature fuel cell, one example of AMD for electronic industry, is highly energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The metallic bipolar plate accounting for
more than 80% of the total weight and 30% of the total
cost in a fuel cell stack can be fabricated by micro dimple
forming [6]. The micro dimple forming technique could
also be implemented in the industry to rapidly and inexpensively surface texturing parts, greatly improving the
viability of widespread use of surface texturing for friction
and wear reduction. As energy efficiency has become
increasingly important due to escalating fuel costs, the
desire to reduce friction and wear of contacting surfaces
has intensified. It is estimated that up to one third of all
energy usage worldwide is used to overcome friction,
resulting in a potentially significant energy savings with
even moderate friction reduction [7]. Dimples are intentionally created on the surface of a part in sliding contact,
resulting in a significant friction reduction [8-10]. Micro
dimples serve as micro-reservoirs for the lubricant, resulting in a reduction in lubricant leakage. During sliding,
1160
lubricant pressure builds up in the dimples, which in turn

helps to create a separation between the contact parts. The
dimples also function as receptacles for debris and wear
particles, eliminating potential scratching of the substrate
surface during relative motion of the interface parts.
Compare to photochemical machining, micro forming is
more environmental friendly and more efficient, thus is
ideal for mass production. If the micro dimple forming
process successfully meets the tolerance requirement, it
will lead to many launches of applications in the areas of
energy generation, energy utilization and optical illusions.
However, during the forming process, the bump or pile-up
is built up around the dimples. Futamura et al. [11] developed a micro dimple forming process to improve the antiseizing properties of sliding surfaces of mechanical components and reduce frictional resistance. They found
bumps building up when forming the dimples on A2017
aluminum alloy and S45C carbon steel pipes, as shown in
Figure 1. After burnishing the bumps, the depth of the
dimples on A2017 pile almost kept the same, while the
dimples on S45C pipe disappeared totally. The reason for
this difference is that to remove the bump of carbon steel
which has a much higher Youngs modules and strength
than those of the aluminum alloy, burnishing roller has to
go deeper, which flattened not only the bumps but also the
dimples.
Figure 1. Section profile of micro-dimple forming of (a) A2017

aluminium alloy A2017 and (b) S45C carbon steel [11].
09.08.2010 14:45:12 Uhr
Metal Forming
Yamamoto and Kuwabara [12] investigated the imprinting ability of microgrooves on SUS303 stainless steel
shafts and A5056 aluminum alloy shafts. During the form
rolling microgrooves of SUS303 shafts, material piling up
was clearly observed, as shown in Figure 2. In the study
of ribbed strip rolling, Jiang and Tieu [13] found that as
the friction increases, the rib height increases. Metal was
prevented forming in the rolling direction due to a higher
frictional resistance. Instead, metal flew to the width direction and built up the ribs. The conclusion of their research
indicated the effect of friction force on the bump formation.
Figure 2. Imprinting microgrooves on metal shafts [13].
To enable the micro forming process for the applications

mentioned above, it is important to investigate the bump
formation in microforming to characterize the achievable
tolerance. As known from previous work [13], friction is
one key forming process parameter which contributes to
the formation of the bump and the profile of the bump. It
is our hypothesis that relative velocity between the forming tool and sample has a significant effect on the friction
force, therefore, affects the final depth of the dimple and
height of the bump. In the following sections, the experimental and numerical work will be employed to study the
formation of the bump and the effect of relative velocity.
Experimental Study of Bump Formation in Micro
Forming
Figure 3 shows the experimental setup for micro dimple
forming. A load cell is used to measure the normal force
and a shearing-force sensor is used to measure the frictional force. The rotation speed of the ball tool and the
sliding speed of the sample are controlled independently
enabling the study of the effect of relative velocity on the
final feature profile. When the rotational speed of ball tool
is smaller than the translational speed of sample, the relative velocity is defined as negative; when the rotational
speed is larger than the translational speed, the relative
velocity is defined as positive. The ball tool is made of
SKH51 steel with a diameter of 6 mm. The sample is made
of SCM440 steel block with dimensions of 40 x 40 x 10
mm. The experimental parameters are listed in Table 1.
Table 1. Dimple forming parameters.
Parameters
Values
Speed of ball rotation VR ( mm/s)
9 to 11
10
12
Speed of sample movement VM ( mm/s)

Depth of ball indentation ( m)
Press
Press
direction
Lord cell
Motor
Dimple-forming tool
Pulley
Workpiece
Shearing-force sensor
(Motor)
Feeding
direction
(Slider)
Figure 3. Experimental setup and detail view of ball tool.
1161
09.08.2010 14:45:13 Uhr
Metal Forming
The ball tool is set to start rotating at the beginning of
each experiment, and keeps rotating throughout the entire
experiment. The ball tool is pressed down into the sample
and meanwhile, the sample is moving translationally at a
certain speed. Figure 4 shows the workpiece with a 20 mm
length and 8 m depth of dimple formed by micro forming
process. The start and end points of the formed dimple are
labeled.
20mm
Dimple
Start point
End point
Figure 4. Workpiece after micro dimple forming.
FEM Analysis of Bump Formation in Micro Forming

FEM Model. The micro dimple forming process is
simulated using the finite element method. In the FEM
simulation, the ball tool was set to be rigid body and the
material of the sample was set to be SCM440 alloy steel.
In view of the symmetry of the deformation zone along the
width of sample, only half width of sample was simulated
to increase the computation speed. Fifty thousthand eightnode linear brick elements with hourglass control have
been generated to discretize the sample. Two extreme
cases of rotational speeds, -90 mm/s and 110 mm/s, were
studied. Figure 5 shows the displacement contour along
the Z direction (press direction) of the formed sample.
Side bump and front bump are clear to be seen from the
contour plot.
Figure 5. Workpiece after dimple forming.
1162
Friction Model. When a relative velocity exists, the

contact is between a rigid surface and a deformable body
moving with different velocities. A modified Coulomb
friction model with shear stress limit has been used in the
simulation. An equivalent shear stress limit, max, is
specified, so that, regardless of the magnitude of the
contact pressure, sliding will occur if the magnitude of the
equivalent shear stress reaches this limit. This shear stress
limit is typically introduced in cases when the contact
stress becomes very large, causing the Coulomb theory to
provide a critical shear stress at the interface that exceeds
the yield stress in the material beneath the contact surface.
In the simulation, a reasonable upper bound estimate for
max , y /3, is chosen, where y is the von Mises yield
stress of the material adjacent to the surface.
Allowable elastic slip i is calculated as a small fraction
of the characteristic contact surface length li. The
allowable elastic slip is given as i =Ff li , where Ff is the
slip tolerance. In this friction model, the slip tolerance is
set to be 0.005, which provides a conservative balance
between efficiency and accuracy for rolling contact
problems. Using a larger slip tolerance makes convergence
of the solution more rapid at the expense of solution
accuracy. Using a smaller slip tolerance imposes the no
relative motion constraint more accurately but may slow
the convergence rate.
Both experimental and numerical studies were employed
in this research to investigate the effect of relative velocity
on bump formation in forming of micro dimples. The
experimental results and FEM simulation results match
very well. Several important relationships were found and
strategy to reduce the bump height was proposed based on
these relationships.
Relationship between Frictional Force and Relative
Velocity. Figure 6 shows the relationship between frictional force and relative velocity. In the FEM simulation,
the ball tool was set to be a rigid body to cut computational time, which may cause the slight difference in the
values of frictional force. However, both experimental and
numerical results show the similar trend of frictional force
as relative velocity changes. When the relative velocity is
between -0.5 and 0.5 mm/s, a proportional relationship is
noticed between the frictional force and relative velocity.
However, the curve levels off and frictional force stays the
same as the absolute value of the velocity keeps increasing.
From the trend of this data obtained from a set of experiments, we can predict that the transverse force becomes a
constant value when the absolute value of relative velocity
is larger than 1 mm/s. To confirm this prediction, simulations with two extreme cases, -100 and 100 mm/s relative
velocities, were run and the results showed that the frictional force levels off as the absolute value of relative
velocity increases. Therefore, the relative velocities in the
range of -1 to 1 mm/s have a significant effect on the frictional force.
09.08.2010 14:45:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
velocity increases from 1 to100 mm/s or reduced form -1
to -100 mm/s. The FEM simulation results verified this
prediction of similar dimple depth and bump height. The
experimental results and numerical results march pretty
well. Based on the above results, we can make a conclusion that to obtain a deeper dimple with lower bump, we
should introduce a positive relative velocity between the
forming tool and sample. If the depth of the dimple is the
only concern, negative relative velocity will be the best
choice.
Figure 6. Relationship between frictional force and relative velocity.
Relationship between Dimple Profile and Relative

Velocity. Our experimental results show that the profile of
dimple depends on the value of the relative velocity. As
shown in Figure 7, both the height of bump and the depth
of dimple varied by about 20% with different relative
velocities. The computed results of the profile of the dimple are in good agreement with the experimental results. It
is clearly seen from Figure 8 that both negative and positive relative velocities have the effect of increasing dimple
depth. The difference between the effects of negative and
positive relative velocities is that negative relative velocity
lead to higher bump height, while positive relative velocity
leads to wider bump without increasing the height of the
bump. As we discussed earlier, once the absolute values of
relative velocities are larger than 1 mm/s, the frictional
force will become a constant or vary slightly. Therefore,
the profile of dimple should be similar when the relative
Figure 7. Relationship between profile of dimples and relative

velocity.
Figure 8. Profile of dimple along the feeding direction.
Relationship between Stress and Relative Velocity. To

further investigate the formation of the bump, stresses of
the samples under three different relative velocities, -0.5, 0
and 0.5 mm/s, were compared. Based on Figure 9, the
values of maximum stress of the deformed samples in the

three cases are very close to each other. However, the
stress contours have big difference, especially in the high
stress area, under the three cases. The high stress area
1163
09.08.2010 14:45:14 Uhr
Metal Forming
under the ball tool in case (a) is larger than those in case
(b) and case (c), which means more material in case (a) are
deformed by the ball tool. During forming process, material first builds up in the front bump, then part of the front
bump were pushed along the transverse direction becoming part of side bump. This finding marches the earlier
conclusion that negative relative velocity leads to deeper
dimple and higher bump. In case (c), high stress not only
happens in the contact area with ball tool, but also in the
side area of the dimple. This high stress keeps pushing the
bump along the transverse direction, which explains the
earlier finding of width increase of the bump under positive relative velocity.
(a)
As we know, the relative velocity between the forming

tool and workpiece affects frictional force, which plays an
important role in determining the final profile of the
formed dimple. Both experimental and numerical studies
were employed in this research to investigate the effect of
relative velocity on shape distribution of the micro dimples, including the depth of the dimple and the height of
the bump. The experimental results and FEM simulation
results matched very well. Both results demonstrated a
clear relationship between relative velocity and frictional
force, and the significant effect of relative velocity on the
final profile of dimples with both the height of bump and
the depth of dimple varied by about 20% with a relative
velocity changing from -1 to 1 mm/s. A proportional relationship is noticed between the frictional force and relative
velocity when the relative velocity is between -0.5 and 0.5
mm/s. However, as the absolute value of the velocity
keeps increasing beyond 1 mm/s, the curve levels off and
the frictional force almost keeps the same. Based on the
results, a conclusion can be made that to obtain a deeper
dimple with lower bump, we should introduce a positive
relative velocity between the tool and sample. If the depth
of the dimple is the only concern, a negative relative velocity will be the best choice.
References
[1]
(b)
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
(c)
Figure 9. Stress contour under different relative velocities: (a) -5
mm/s, (b) 0 mm/s, (c) 5 mm/s
Conclusion
Micro forming has the potential of economically creating micro dimples over a large surface area of metallic
material. However, to make this process fully viable in
achieving high quality micro-dimples, one has to address
the problem of bumps or pile-ups built up in the process.
1164
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
T. Furushima, K. Manabe: J. Mater. Process. Technol., 187-188

(2007), 236-240.
M. Geiger, M. Kleiner, R. Eckstein, N. Tiesler, U. Engel: CIRP, 501 (2001), 445-462.
K. Hirota: J. Mater. Process. Technol., 191 (2007), 283-287.
F. Vollertsen, Z. Hu, H.S. Niehoff, C. Theiler: J. Mater. Process.
Technol., 151 (2004), 70-79.
J. Cao, W. Yuan, Z. J. Pei, T. Davis, Y. Cui, M. Beltran: ASME,
Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, 131-6 (2009).
A. Kumar, R.G. Reddy: Journal of Power Sources, 129-1 (2004),
62-67.
E. Z. Szeri: Tribology, Friction, Lubrication and Wear. New York:
Hemisphere Publishing Corp., McGraw Hill, (1980).
U. Pettersson, S. Jacobson: Tribology International, 36 (2003), 857864.
Q.J. Wang, T. Nanbu, Y. Yasuda, D. Zhu: Proc. STLE Annual
Meeting, Calgary, (2006).
F. Meng, R. Zhou, T. Davis, J. Cao, Q. Wang, D. Hua, J. Liu:
Applied Surface Science, 256-9 (2010), 2863-2875.
M. Futamura, K. Dohda, T. Makino, T. Suzuki: Proc. 3rd
JSME/ASME, (2008).
M. Yamamoto, T. Kuwabara: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 201-1-3 (2008), 232-236.
Z.Y. Jiang, A.K. Tieu: Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture,
40-15 (2000), 2139-2154.
09.08.2010 14:45:15 Uhr
Metal Forming
Micro-Manufacturing of Metallic Micro-Fluidic Devices by Soft Embossing Replication

Process
Mohamed Sahli, Xiangji Kong, Thierry Barrire, Chrisitne Millot, Jean-Claude Gelin
FEMTO-ST Institute, Applied Mechanics Dept., CNRS UMR 6174, ENSMM, 25030, Besanon / France, Mohamed.sahli@ens2m.fr
The paper investigates the way to get metallic micro-fluidic devices through the soft embossing process. The micro-manufacturing process
consists of four stages. In the first stage, a metallic master is used to get micro-shaped cavities on a plastic loaded substrate with a mixture
based on polypropylene (PP), paraffin wax (PW) and stearic acid (SA). Firstly, a silicone rubber (Sylgard 184) has been used as the material to get an elastomeric moulds. These moulds have been realized by casting in micro-fabricated steel masters that have been used to
emboss plastic loaded components. The advantages of this approach include: rapid manufacturing of injection tools with high-quality, easy
demoulding of metallic components from the elastomeric moulds and great flexibility in material choices. In the second stage, the optimum
binder composition has been determined by torque rheology measurements. The metal feedstocks with 60% powder loadings in volume
have been prepared with the mixing equipment. A suitable formulation for powder soft embossing has been selected based on torque
measurements, rheological behaviour characterization and homogeneity of feedstocks. Finally, a rapid prototyping process based on soft
embossing in loaded polymer enables the fast and cost-efficient manufacturing of a steel mould. This mould is as a pre-stage for later
injection moulding. A micro-fluidic chip is presented as an example. The paper describes all the processing stages and the way to characterize the geometrical, physical and mechanical properties of the resulting micro-parts.
Keywords: Hot embossing, Polymers, Injection moulding, 316L Stainless steel, Solid state sintering
Introduction
The miniaturisation is a global trend foreseen to have a
huge market potential. This trend is supposed thought the
increasing demand for micro-components in engineering
applications such as micro-fluidic devices [1]. This rising
demand has prompted the development of various micromanufacturing processes as a first attempt for mass production of micro-components. A special process has been
developed to produce micro-structured components from
plastics, ceramics and metals particularly for microinjection moulding.
The micro-structural shapes are determined mainly by
the mould insert. Until now, mould inserts have been
manufactured either by micro-EDM process, electroforming, or by machining (turning, milling...) [2,3]. In
these cases there are limitations on structuring either
thought the fabrication process or by the sizes of the
smallest available milling heads and especially roughness
and surface state of mould insert. To avoid these structuring limitations, a new process for manufacturing mould
inserts has been developed. Photolithography, casting,
mixing, hot embossing, debinding and sintering have been
combined to manufacture a mould insert which is characterized by a surface with low roughness.
Among the micro-manufacturing processes used in this
analysis for manufacturing of metallic mould inserts, the
soft embossing has been chosen as a patterning technique
[4]. It enables the replication of complex shape structures
by applying temperature and forming pressure lower than
in injection moulding. The process offers many unique
advantages: cost efficiency, accuracy, reproducibility fast
development of the complex shapes, great flexibility in
material choice and relatively rapid time cycles with a
notably reduced cost as compared to conventional manufacturing processes.
The technique was eventually be developed to be used
for the rapid manufacturing of metallic replicas of high
quality on to the elastomeric mould. The process mainly

involves four steps: mixing, hot embossing, debinding and
sintering, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Schematic manufacturing diagram of powder components by Rapid prototyping.
Since recent years, some works have been focused to obtain micro-components with very fine stainless steel powders [5]. Furthermore, the final mechanical properties and
metallographic studies have been especially devoted to get
sintered micro-parts obtained by -PIM. In recent years,
there are lot of investigations concerning the effect of
powder loading on the micro-injection moulding of metal
and ceramic powders. Huzzard and Blackburn [6] have
studied the influence of the powder loading on the
rheological behaviour of alumina aqueous pastes at five
levels of powder loadings. Liu and Tseng [7] studied the
influence of powder loading on the green microstructure
evolution and sintering behaviour on moulded parts. Tseng
[8] evaluated the influence of powder loading on the dimensional control in ceramic injection moulding using a
statistical analysis.
An integrated prototyping chain has been established for
rapid manufacturing of micro-fluidic insert in stainless
steel made from elastomers and replication by hot emboss1165
09.08.2010 14:45:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
ing into metal feedstock. This paper covers the manufacturing process, first tests, and experimental results of
manufacturing of a micro-fluidic system with low surface
roughness.
Materials and Methods
Materials. The powders used to develop the mixtures
dedicated to the soft embossing process, are fine 316L
stainless steel powders with average particle size of 16m.
The powder shape is mostly spherical and the powders are
provided by Sandvik Osprey Company with the density is
equal 7.9g.cm-3. This analysis shows a spherical shape of
the powders. This shape is more appropriated to get feedstock with the low viscosity value. The chemical composition for this stainless steel powders is respectively 17.4%
Cr, 10.9% Ni, 2.5% Mo, 1.2% Mn and <1% Si, C, P and S.
The optimum binder composition has been determined
by torque rheology measurements. The metal feedstocks
with 60% powder loadings in volume have been prepared
with the mixturing systems. The binder consists of a mixture of polypropylene (PP), paraffin wax (PW) and stearic
acid (SA). A suitable formulation for powder soft embossing has been chosen based on torque measurements,
rheological behaviour and homogeneity of feedstocks.
Typical characteristics of binder components are shown in
Table 1.
Table 1. Characterisation of different polymeric binders used for
mould cavity process.
mixer is connected with appropriate software to measure

the mixing torque, according to the same processing conditions: mixing temperature equal 160C, mixing time
equals 30min and mixing rotation speed equals 30rpm.
The homogeneity of the mixture can be evaluated, through
mixing torque curves. The uniform mixing is achieved
when torque reaches a steady state value. Finally, the feedstocks have been granulated into small pellets for easy soft
embossing process.
Figure 3. Description of mixing equipment used to mixer polymer

and powder feedstock.
The curves related in Figure 4 show the final torque

variation
related
to
the
formulation
[PP(16)+PW(32)+SA(2)] vs. kneading time. That is characterized by the low final torque.
The typical morphology of the powder after mixing is

shown in Figure 2 and reveals the spherical shape of the
powders.
Binder
Stearic acid (SA)
Density
0.94g/cm3
3
Melting
Degradation
temperature
temperature
70C
395C
Paraffin wax (PW)
0.91g/cm
60C
300C
Polypropylene
0.90g/cm3
140C
400C
(PP)
Figure 2. Morphology of 316L stainless steel powders observed by

scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
Mixing Tests. Experiments related to mixing of binders

and feedstocks have been conducted using a Branbender
mixer with a pair of roller rotor blades. The maximum
capacity of the mixing chamber is 55cm3. The twin-screw
1166
Figure 4. Mixing torque vs. kneading time diagrams corresponding

to 316L feedstock (solid loading 60%, 160C, 30min, 16m).
Rheology Tests. The rheological properties of the prepared feedstocks have been sequentially tested using a
capillary rheometer, considering different shear rates with
the same capillary die diameter (1mm) at 160, 180 and
200 C. Figure 5 indicates the rheological characteristics
of the feedstocks vs. temperature. The experimental results
obtained have been individually plotted onto the curves as
related. Typically, it was observed that lower viscosities
are obtained for the higher temperatures. It is clear too that
the viscosity of the feedstock decreases with an increasing
shear rate. The results indicate that the feedstocks possess
pseudo-plastic rheological behavior up to a shear rate of
104s-1, and that are increasing of the powder loading leads
to an increase of the viscosity.
09.08.2010 14:45:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
assembly is then cooled to the room temperature. After
cooling, the metallic replicas have been easily peeled away
from the elastomeric mould. The elastomeric mould could
be used in a repetitive way with little degradation.
1,E+02
Shear viscosity (Pa.s)
160C
180C
200C
1,E+01
1,E+00
1,E+02
1,E+03
1,E+04
Shear rate (/s)
Figure 5. Shear viscosity vs. shear rate measured with capillary

rheometer at different temperatures, capillary die diameter equal
1mm as same 316L stainless steel feedstock.
Elastomeric Micro-structured Mould. An elastomeric

mould has been manufactured by casting the liquid material over a SU-8/Si master that enables to realise the micro-structures with very well defined and smooth sidewalls.
Silicone rubber (Sylgard 184) from Dow Corning Inc. has
been used as the reference material for an elastomeric
mould with compounds A and B that are thoroughly mixed
at a ratio of 1:10. The mixture has been degassed during
approximately 5min in primary vacuum to avoid air
trapped in the cured silicone leading to a porous matrix
and defects in the later replicas. Next, it is poured over the
SU8/Si and cured at 70 C during 3 h and can easily be
pealed off from the SU-8 master. The elastomeric mould
has been obtained with internal surface containing in negative all the details of the original.
Figure 7. Photographs of the measurements apparatus and measuring heads.
Debinding and Sintering Stage. The debinding is used

to eliminate the binder in the component after soft embossing replication it has been realized in an oven at 220 C in
nitrogen atmosphere. The debinding temperature cycle
consists in two stages: 2 h heating from ambient temperature to 130 C and 24 h heating from 130 to 220 C. While
the sintering has been carried in a high temperature furnace at vacuum state (5x10-5 mbar). After sintering, the
metallic components have been obtained with more than
10% shrinkage. The sintering kinetic cycle, used for experiments, in sintering, is composed of a first ramp at
10 C/min, with a first set point at 600 C during 30 min,
and a final set point at 1360 C, during 120 min. The kinetic cooling cycle corresponds to 10 C/min cooling rate
to ambient temperature.
Results and discussions
Figure 6. (a) Geometry of patterns of elastomeric mould insert and

(b) definition of mould size dimension.
As seen in Figure 8, the metal replicas exhibit approximately 10m shallower than designed, probably due to
shrinkage after the sintering stage. In this stage, the component undergoes an important dimensional shrinkage in
the range of 10%.
Scanning Mechanical Microscopy. To assess the dimensional and geometrical quality of the metal parts, comparative 2D profile measurements have been carried out
on the elastomeric mould and the metallic mould replica,
using scanning mechanical microscopy (SMM). The apparatus using in this study is a tactile profilometer used to
measure the roughness (Ra and Rt) (Figure 7(a)). The
profilometer probe is a conical diamond tip with a radius
point equal to 2 m and a cone angle equal to 45 (Figure
7(b)).
Hot Embossing. The elastomeric mould has been used
for the soft embosing 316L stainless steel powders with a
mixture based on polypropylene, paraffin wax and stearic
acid (Figure 6). The tools were heated from room temperature to 220C within 20 minutes while the clamping
force has been slowly increased to 5kN allowing the feedstock to take a shape conformal to the die mould. With the
force still applied, the elastomeric mould and feedstock
Figure8. 2D topographical profiles of metallic replica obtained by

hot embossing at 200C, along x-x direction.
The 3D topography views related in Figure 9 correspond

the comparative data recorded on the metallic replica (die
mould) and elastomeric mould with circular shapes cavity
and an intersection at positions 1 and 2. After several tests,
one found that the higher the forming temperature is, the
1167
09.08.2010 14:45:16 Uhr
Metal Forming
more the filling ratio increases leading to an accurate replica of the original imprint. This observation is correlated
to the feedstock viscosity, as the viscosity strongly decrease with the increasing temperature.
Elastomeric mould
Figure 10. Moulded microstructures after final solid state sintering.
Conclusions
(a)
(b)
Metallic replica
(c)
The paper describes an innovative way to get microstructured mould cavities, by employing the soft embossing replication technology. The soft embossing process
first consist to mix metallic powders with polymeric binders, then to cast the polymer/powders mixture silicium
mould cavities. The rheology of the polymer/powders
mixtures has been carefully characterized starting from the
analysis of the mixing torque and then the shear viscosity
of the feedstock, that determine the replication possibilities over the metallic master. It has been shown that the
obtained viscosities permit to perform the replication.
Then it is demonstrated that the polymer could be evacuated from the soft polymer metallic plates leading to micro-structured metallic plate that can be used to perform
polymer embossing.
This would provide significant advantages in terms of a
shorter cycle time, the low cost manufacturing as well as
improved product clearly quality. Moreover, the experiment results confirm that the components after debinding
and sintering exhibit shrinkage in range from 8 to 10 % in
a homogeneous way. An important aspect is that binder
with low viscosity permits to limit powders segregation
during soft embossing process. The experiments show too
that the replication quality associated with these comparative characterizations significantly depends with the selected forming temperature; in order to be sure that the
material mixture has fill well the bottom of the cavity.
References
(d)
Figure 9. Cartography of elastomeric mould (a), (b) and metallic
replicas (c), (d) obtained at 200C after forming by hot embossing
process at same position.
The replication process with selected operative conditions reproduces faithfully the mould insert micro-cavities,
in particular in the areas corresponding to the microstructures of the elastomeric mould insert (Figure 10).
1168
[1] A. Denoual, L. Griscom, H. Toshiyoshi, H. Fujita: Journal of Applied

Physics, 42 (2003), 4598-4601.
[2] S.K. Choudhury, K.S. Mangrulkar: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 99 (2000), 120-128.
[3] J. Recha, Y-C. Yen, M.J. Schaff, H. Hamdi, T. Altan, K.D. Bouzakis:
Wear, 259 (2005), 1168-1176.
[4] M. Sahli, C. Millot, C. Roques-Carmes, C. Khan Malek, J.C. Gelin, T.
Barrire: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, (2009) 58515861.
[5] Q. Wang, H. Yin, X. Qu and J. L. Johnson: Powder Technology, 1931 (2009), 15-19.
[6] R.J. Huzzard, S. Blackburn: Br. Ceram. Trans., 98-2 (1999), 49-56.
[7] D.M. Liu, W.J. Tseng: Journal of Materials Science, 32-24 (1997),
6475-6481.
[8] W.J. Tseng: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 79-1-3
(1998), 242-250.
09.08.2010 14:45:17 Uhr
Metal Forming
Nano-Laminated DLC Coating for Dry Micro-Stamping

Tatsuhiko Aizawa1), Kuniyoshi Itoh2), Eiji Iwamura3)
1)
Department of Design and Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo / Japan, taizawa@sic.shibaura-it.ac.jp;
Hachi-ohji / Japan, 3) Arakawa Chemicals, Co. Ltd. Osaka / Japan
2)
MFU, LLC.
In the micro-stamping, use of lubricating oils causes various issues of nuisance; e.g. contamination to products, wide clearance intolerable
to design, or, dirt handling in operation. Hence, tools and dies must be coated to improve engineering durability in dry micro-stamping
without use of lubricating oils. In practical operations, however, conventional Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) coated tools and dies often suffer
from delamination or break-away in severe stamping steps like ironing or blanking with less clearance between work material and coated
tools. The nano-laminated DLC coating is invented and applied to improve the coated tool life, where delamination of coated layers is
significantly retarded or saved by optimum interlayer and nano-scopic lamination of DLC sublayers. Due to this technology, SKD-tool
materials are acceptable even in the severe dry micro-stamping steps. In the present study, fundamentals of this nano-laminated DLC
carbon coating are introduced with comments on its application to stamping tools. For experimental demonstration on its effectiveness in
practice, micro stamping system is used. Ironing and bending step is employed in the progressive dry micro-stamping where SKD-11
punches undergo severe wearing in stamping of AISI-304 stainless sheets or pure titanium sheets.
Keywords: Dry micro stamping, Diamond like carbon, Nano-lamination, Stainless steel sheet, SKD-tools, Narrow clearance, Hardness
control, Bilayer thickness, Sublayer ratio, Bending , Ironing
Introduction
Green manufacturing has grown-up as a keyword to
make less emission of wastes from works and factories
and to reduce the oil consumption in practice [1]. In
particular, once lubricants are used in practical operation
of fine and precise stamping, complete removal of oils is
difficult or nearly impossible even by using huge amount
of cleansing agents. Hence, dry fine stamping is only a
unique environmentally benign processing on the basis of
the coated tools with sufficiently high wear toughness [2].
Among them, DLC-coated tools are much popular since
their tribological properties are improved by Si- and Wdoping [3-5], and, polymer tribofilms are naturally grown
from t-a-C at the presence of low-carbon alcohol [6]. The
above single-layer coating often suffers from delamination
and high-rate wear in severe tribological conditions at high
pressure or normal loading [7].
The authors have invented the nano-lamination process
where low-density and high-density amorphous carbon
sub-layers are alternatively stacked into a multi-layered
film with the bi-layer thickness less than 10 nm [8-12]. In
the literature [13,14], two different metallic layers like
titanium and aluminum, or, two different ceramic layers
like TiAlN and TiAlSiN are alternatively piled up to attain
higher hardness and Youngs modulus than each constitutive sub-layers. For an exmaple, TiN and TiBN sub-layers
were stacked into a nano-laminated film which has higher
hardness and Youngs modulus than each TiN and TiBN
sublayers [15].
In the present paper, a nano-lamination technique in the
diamond-like carbon coating is developed to fabricate the
tailored multi-layered coating to each unit process in the
progressive schedule for micro-dry stamping. Owing to
this precise tuning-up in microstructure of, the hardness of
nano-laminated films is controllable. Furthermore, the
lowest friction coefficient is attained with comparison to
conventional DLC and graphitic coatings. Mechanical
properties of this nano-laminated DLC coatings are first
introduced to describe the controllability of hardness by
varying the bi-layer thickness and sublayer ratio. In

addition, both scratch testing and ball-on-disc experiments
are perfomred to demonstrate the wear toughness and low
friction coefficient of this coating. Bending and ironing
processes are employed to prove the effectiveness of this
nano-laminated tools on the dry micro stamping without
delamination.
Coating Method. RF-sputtering was used for film
deposition of amorphous carbon (a-C:H) by using the
carbon target with the purity of 5N, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. RF-sputtering system for nano-lamination in diamondlike carbon coating: 1. Sample holder, rotating in two dierctions, 2.
Metallic target, 3. Carbon target, 4. Maching box, mechanically
wokring, and 5. Flow system and controller for three gaseuous
components.
The sputtering pressure was constant, P = 0.5 Pa; the gas

mass-flow ratio of CH4 to Ar was also constant, 10 to
15 %. Both mono-layered and nano-laminated a-C:H
films were prepared with use of pulse bias voltage
1169
09.08.2010 14:45:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
DC bias voltage /V
sequence. The bias voltage (Vb) to form mono-layered

films was constant, Vb = - 200 V. While, Vb was
alternatively controlled, to be 0 V for formation of lower
density graphitic layers and to be -200 V for formation of
higher density disordered layers. The applied power was
constant, 0.7 kW. The pulse duration () was preset to be
= (tF/L)/Dp, where tF is the total film thickness for
nano-lamination, L, the number of laminates, and Dp, the
deposition rate. The measured Dp in this coating was
around 7 nm/min.
The whole processing parameters were monitored
during RF-sputtering. Figure 2 depicts a typical variation
of DC bias voltage for nano-lamination control.
/2
Time /s
Figure 2. Variation of DC bias volatge (Vb) for nano-lamination
control in DLC coating.
To be noted, this can be controlled by = 1 + 2

where 1 is a time duration for fomation of low-density
sub-layer and 2, for that of high-density sub-layer. The
sub-layer ratio affects on the mechanical properties of
nano-laminated DLC coating. That is, this ratio was also
controllable by varying 1 and 2, respectively.
Silicon substrate with 6N purity and 20x20x0.5 mm3
was utilized for microstructure observation and nanoindentation tests. SKH-11 square plate with 15x15x5 mm3
was employed for scratch test; tF = 1 m. SKH-11 upper
punch with the curved head of 2.1 mm in width and 1.2
mm in thickness, was also prepared for bending and
ironing process in the dry micro-stamping test; tF = 1 m.
The graded interlayer was first deposited with the
thickness of 50 nm.
Microstructure Characterization. The field-emission
type, in-lens SEM, S-4800 (Hitachi) with the resolution of
1 nm by 15 kV, was used for microstructure observation
both on the surface and in the cross-section of coated
silicon substrate. A sample for cross-sectional observation
was prepared by cracking the brittle substrate, and, the
fracture surface was set up in the sample-holder. Electron
beam intensity was controlled to be weak enough to
reduce the irradiation damage on the fracture surface.
Mechanical Measurement. Tribo-indentation system
ENT-1100a (Hysitron Inc.) with the Berkovich type
diamond indentor, was used for nano-indentation testing.
In this case, the indentation depth is controlled to be less
than 1/6 of total thickness, in order to be free from the
1170
effect of substrate on the load-displacement curve. Both

the Youngs modulus and hardness were measured as the
average of five sampling data. The scratching tester
equipped with acoustic emission sensor (REVETEST,
CSEM, Co. Ltd.) was used with the lateral speed of 10
mm/min, the loading rate of 100N/min and the maximum
load of 100 N. The surface profilometer (ZYGO) was
utilized to measure the geometry and dimension around
the scratched trace.
The ball-on-disc method was
employed to measure the average friction coefficient.
Dry Micro Stamping Method. A micro-stamping test
machine was used to run the progressive stamping with the
maximum load of 50 kN and the working speed of 60 rpm.
AISI-304 austinitic stainless steel sheet with the thickness
of 0.211 mm was employed as a work material. In the step
of shearing process, holes were punched out without any
significant burrs only by using the bare cemented carbide
tools and dies. In the bending and ironing step, severe
wear might occur on the ironed surface between punch and
work sheet; no lubricating oils was used since the total
clearance between die and punch is strictly fixed to be less
than 2 to 3 m. In fact, mono-layered DLC coated tools
suffer from severe delamination even after punching out
by 100 times, and, the severe galling of stainless steel
sheet occurs on the uncoated WC tools after 200 stamping
operations [11,12].
In the present stamping experiment, the number of
operations (N) was increased step-by-step up to N = 10000.
The thickness and surface roughness was evaluated by fine
micrometer with the resolution of 1 m and surface
profilometer. In addition, the surfaces of coated punch
were also observed by optical microscope.
Microstructure Control. Different from the conventional diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating, this nanolamination enables us to change the microstructure of
coating. Figure 3 depicts a typical cross-section of nanolaminated DLC coating. As controlled by the pulse bias
voltage in Figure 2, this microstructure takes multi-stripe
of black and white sublayers in the alternative manner.
The former black sublayer has lower-density of amorphous carbon while the latter white, higher-density. Owing to the previous studies [16-17], lower density attained
without the bias voltage is about 1.6-1.7 g/cm3 while high
density by Vb = - 200 V, 2.4 2.6 g/cm3. This stepwise
change of mass density in the nano-laminated DLC coating, is controlled by the sequence of bias voltage in Figure
2. The bi-layer thickness (L) composed of black and
while sublayer pair, is also controllable by in Figure 2.
Figure 3 a) shows the nano-laminated DLC coating
with L = 20 nm while Figure 3 b), L = 10 nm. As
measured in Figure 2, this bi-layer thickness becomes
halved by reducing the pulse time duration by half. As
arrowed in Figure 3, the cross-sectional image indicates
skewed asperity; this proves that a crack in preparation of
a sample for inlens SEM observation is significantly bent
by nano-lamination. That is, the fracture toughness is also
improved by this nano-lamination as reported in [13-15].
09.08.2010 14:45:18 Uhr
Metal Forming
a)
= 0.1 to 0.15 during the testing duration of 3600 s, irrespective to the initial stage, when the applied load is 10 N
and the speed, 160 rpm.
Hardness /GPa
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Si-Substrate
200 nm
b)
L=10 nm L=10 nm L=10 nm L=5 nm

35:35
50:20
20:50
35:35
Figure 4. Controllability of hardness by nano-lamination.
L=50
L=25
100N
100N
L=100
Si-Substrate
100N
200 nm
Figure 3. Typical cross-sectional image of nano-laminated DLC
coating: a) L = 20 nm and b) L = 10 nm.
Mechanical Properties of Coatings. The above microstructure reflects on the mechanical properties of nanolaminated DLC coating. Figure 4 shows the effect of bilayer thickness on the measured hardness by nanoindentation as well as the effect of sub-layer thickness
ratio. Hardness is significantly improved only by reducing
the bi-layer thickness from L = 10 nm to 5 nm or by
halving the pulse duration time in Figure 2. Enhancement
of hardness often leads to deterioration of fracture toughness; in case of nano-lamination Refs. [13-15] discussed
the effect of number of laminated layers on the delamination. Since the crack propagation is hindered by nanolamination, the fracture toughness is expected to increase
itself via nano-lamination as suggested by Figure 3.
Figure 5 compares the scratched surface of nanolaminated DLC coating when the applied load is 100 N
with different number (L) of laminates. Irrespective to L,
the scratching strength exceeds 100 N in every case. With
consideration on the fact that the conventional CVD-DLC
coating with Si has 70-80 N, this nano-lamination promotes to increase the toughness against delamination or
chipping. This improvement of strength and toughness via
nano-lamination, also affects on the tribological behaviour.
In fact, the average friction coefficient becomes constant,
Figure 5. Effect of number of laminates (L) on the scratching

strength via nano-lamination.
Dry Micro Stamping. Our developing CNC-controlled

table-top mini-stamping machine has capability with the
maximum load up to 50 kN and the speed over 200 rpm.
Hence, a progressive stamping is scheduled to be loaded
by this system. Figure 6 depicts a typical operation of
progressive stamping test, which is composed of seven
steps. Among them, the ironing and bending step was
employed as a dry micro-stamping process to investigate
the effect of DLC coating on the dry stamping behavior.
In this testing, the work stainless steel sheet is forced to be
bent with the angle of 90 degrees as depicted in Figure 7
a). In parallel with bending, the work sheet is also subjected to ironing to fix the geometric dimension of bent
product; then, the punch is thought to suffer from severe
wearing from the end of curvature to the flat surface as
indicated in Figure 7 b). Figure 7 c) depicts a typical
coated punch in preparation for this dry micro stamping
experiment.
1171
09.08.2010 14:45:19 Uhr
Metal Forming
Upper
Punch
N=50
N=100
Bending + Ironing
Step
Work Sheet
N=500
Shearing
Step
N=1000
Die
Figure 8. Variation of punch surface with N when using the monolayered DLC coating.
Figure 6. Bending and ironing process to investigate the dry

stamping behaviour by using DLC coated punch.
a)
b)
N=50
N=100
N=500
N=1000
c)
2 mm
1 mm
Figure 7. Bending and ironing test with use of DLC-coated punch:

a) Bent product, b) SKH-11 punch to suffer from wearing, and c)
DLC-coated surface.
Figure 8 depicts the variation of worn surface by repetitive stamping when using the mono-layered DLC coating.
Even when N = 50, the coating started to wear out; most of
coating delaminate before N = 1000. Figure 9 depicts the
variation of punch surface when using the nano-laminated
DLC coating with L = 10 nm and L = 100. Little change
of puch surface can be seen even up to N = 1000. This
proves that wearig toughness should be promoted by nanolamination in case of dry micro stamping of stainless steel
sheets
Conclusions
Nano-lamination is effectively applied to diamond-like
carbon or amorphous carbon films to be working as a
protective coating in severe wearing conditions. Intrinsic
nano-structure to nano-laminated DLC coating is accurately varied by pulse control of bias voltage in the developed RF-sputtering system. Owing to this control, mechanical properties of nano-laminated DLC coating become controllable in correspondence to each requirement
in practice. Nano-lamination can afford to promote the
life time of coated tools in dry micro stamping. With aid
of interfacial layer between nano-laminated coating and
tool surface, wear toughness of coated tools must be prolonged to meet the practical requirement in tooling even
without use of lubricating oils.
1172
Figure 9. Variation of punch surface with N when using

the nano-laminated DLC coating.
References
[1] J. McCabe, et al.: Lubr. Eng. 57 (12) (2001) 22.
[2] S. Kataoka, et al.: Jpn. J. Light Metals. 55 (2005) 39.
[3] K.Y. Kim, et al.: Surf. Coat. Technol. 87 (1996) 569.
[4] K. Vercammen, et al.: Surf. Coat. Technol. 134 (2000) 466.
[5] H. Tachikawa, et al.: Proc. ICMCTF-2007 (2007, April, San Diego)
46.
[6] M. Kano, et al.: Tribology Lett. 18 (2) (2005) 245-251.
[7] T. Aizawa, et al.: Surf. Coat. Technol.202 (2007) 1177-1181
[8] E. Iwamura, Ceram. Trans. 148 (2003) 139.
[9] E. Iwamura and T. Aizawa: Proc. MRS-2005, Session-I (2006)
CR-ROM.
[10]T. Aizawa, et al.: Proc. Jpn. Soc. Technol. Plast. (2007) 45-46.
[11] T. Aizawa, et al.: Proc. 1st Asia Workshop on Micro-Stamping.
(2007, Sappro) 33.
[12] T. Aizawa, et al. Surf.Coat. Technol. 203 (2008) 794-798.
[13] S.A. Barnett, A. Maden: Scr. Mater. 50 (2004) 739-743.
[14] M. Stoiberm et al.: Surf. Coat. Technol. 177 (2004) 348-354.
[15] G. Abadias, et al.: Surf. Coat. Technol. 202 (2007) 844-848.
[16] T. Aizawa, Jpn. Patent under accessing (2010).
[17] T. Aizawa, et al. To be presnted in ICMCTF-2010 (2010).
09.08.2010 14:45:20 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Decrease in Sample Dimensions on Plasticity: Application to Nickel Microforming

Clement Keller1), Mohammed Bettaieb1), Mitica Afteni4), Mihaela Banu4), Anne-Marie Habraken1), Eric Hug2), Sylvie
Castagne3), Laurent Duchne1)
1)
Department ArGEnCo, Division MSF, University of Liege, Chemin des Chevreuils 1, 4000 Liege / Belgium; 2) CRISMAT laboratory, University of Caen, 6 Bd Marchal Juin, 14050 Caen / France; 3)School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, 50, Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore; 4)University of Galati, 111 Domneasca St., 800201 Galati / Romania
The mechanical behavior of polycrystalline nickel is investigated in tension as a function of the dimensions. Experimental tests and finite
element simulations with a crystalline plasticity code are carried out for samples with thicknesses ranging between 12.5 m and 3.2 mm
and grain size around 100 m. Results show three different kinds of behavior depending on the number of grains across the thickness due
to the apparition of stress and dislocation density gradients. Bulge tests are then used to study the formability of nickel polycrystals with
thickness lower than 400 m.
Keywords: Nickel, Tensile tests, Finite element simulation, Crystalline plasticity code, Bulge tests
Introduction
The trend of miniaturization of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) for applications such as medical,
electrical or mechanical ones, has considerably increased
the industrial demand for small metal parts. Thin films and
plates or micro-springs and micro-screws with dimensions
lower than 500 m are today mass produced by metal
processing technologies such as stamping, blanking, bending and milling. Nevertheless, due to this miniaturization,
size effects generally occur and modify both mechanical
behavior and forming ability of these small parts [1-3]. As
a consequence, the industrial know-how in metal forming
of massive parts cannot be employed to carry out correct
forming processes, leading to an increase of cost production and to bad quality results. To improve the micro forming, one challenge is hence to understand the physical
origin of the behavior modification due to size effects in
order to design new solutions for the forming process.
For polycrystalline metallic materials, it is now well attested that one of the most important size effect occurring
with miniaturization is due to the decrease of the number
of grains across the thickness [4,5]. With a decrease of this
latter, the flow stress [4-6], the hardening behavior [5] and
the fracture strain [6] are modified. This phenomenon
seems to be due to surface effects for specimens with less
than a critical number of grains across the thickness (i.e.
t/d ratio). This latter depends on the grain size and on the
stacking fault energy [4]. These surface effects involve a
stress gradient around 30% between core and surface
grains which has been characterized by TEM investigations for nickel [7]. However, only a few studies were
dedicated to the experimental characterization of this
stress gradient and this point stays speculative.
In Finite Element (FE) simulations of forming process, it
is therefore necessary to take into account the modification
of the mechanical behavior of such small samples to predict the forming conditions (force, geometry) and the appearance of fracture or necking. New experimental tests
are then necessary to model the mechanical behavior and
to propose new constitutive laws which take into account
the occurrence of size effects.
The objective of this work is hence manifold. First, the

aim is to characterize the effect of a thickness reduction on
the mechanical behavior of nickel samples tested in tension. Nickel is widely used in addition with chromium
(Ni20%w.t.Cr alloys) in several MEMS due to their thermomechanical and electric properties. The second objective is to perform FE simulations with crystalline plasticity
code for samples with 1, 2 and 4 grains across the thickness to investigate the origin of the mechanical behavior
modification observed experimentally. Finally, the effect
of this modification on the formability is tested thanks to
finite element simulations of bulge tests.
Experimental Procedure and Results
Polycrystalline 99.99 wt% Ni rolled sheets consisting of
various thicknesses were annealed in vacuum at temperatures between 600 C and 1000 C in order to obtain a
mean grain size around 100 m for each sample. The
thickness of the samples ranges from 12.5 m to 3200 m
corresponding to t/d ratios (thickness t to grain size d ratio) between 0.125 and 27. A similar crystallographic
texture was revealed by electron backscattered diffraction
measurements for all samples.
Dog bone shape samples with a gauge section of 70 mm
in length and 12 mm in width were submitted to tensile
tests at a strain rate controlled value of 2.4 10-4 s-1. For Ni
foils of thickness higher than 250 m, strain measurements were achieved by a classical extensometer while for
samples with thicknesses lower than 250 m an optical
device based on the work of Mazza et al. [8] was employed.
Figure 1 shows the tensile curves of nickel samples of
different thickness values. Two beams of curves appear,
one for samples with thickness values higher than 500 m
and another one for samples with thicknesses lower than
125 m. These two critical thickness values correspond to
4 and 1 grains across the thickness respectively. Due to
the almost constant grain size, all the stress levels are
approximately identical inside each beam. As previously
reported for others materials, the stress decrease induced
by the thickness reduction is due to a decrease of the t/d
1173
09.08.2010 14:45:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
ratio below a critical value [4,5]. The two critical thickness
values obtained here are in agreement with previous published ones [5-6]. For specimens with less than one grain
across the thickness, the flow stress is not sensitive to the
t/d ratio. The fracture strain is also clearly affected. Due
to the early strain localization, the thin specimens present
lower fracture strain than thick ones.
Figure 2. Plot of the flow stress in tension for a strain of 0.1 as a
Figure 1. Experimental tensile curves of nickel samples with

various thicknesses.
These results can be compared to other ones previously

published [5]. This previous study deals with the mechanical properties of nickel samples with thickness of 500 m
and grain size lying between 35 and 500 m [5]. For these
samples, t/d ratios between 0.9 and 14 were obtained and
results also show a strong decrease of stress due to a decrease of t/d ratio.
Using the results of the present paper and the results
previously published [5] it is hence possible to build a 3D
plot of the flow stress versus the thickness and 1/ d (Figure 2). This plot, obtained for a strain level of 0.1, is an
extension of the well known Hall-Petch (HP) graph which
links the flow stress and the grain size by the following
relationship:
= 0 +
k HP
d
(1)
Figure 2 is a plot of the HP relationship as a function of

sample thickness. This figure shows three stress domains
bounded by the two critical t/d values of 1 and 4. For t/d>4,
the specimen behavior is fully polycrystalline independently of the grain size and thickness. For this first kind of
samples, grain size effect follows a classical HP relationship. For 1<t/d<4, specimen behavior is multicrystalline
and deeply affected by the decrease of the t/d ratio. The
lower is the t/d ratio, the lower is the flow stress. For samples with t/d ratios lower than 1, the t/d ratio has no effect
and mechanical behavior trends to single crystal one. For
these quasi-single crystal samples, thickness effect appears
for specimens with large grain size value (>200 m) as
reported for Cu single crystals [9]. Following previous
works [5,10], this evolution of the mechanical behavior
from polycrystalline to quasi-single crystalline samples is
due to surface effects. For metal forming considerations,
polycrystalline samples must be used in order to avoid size
effects.
1174
function of the thickness and of 1/ d , experimental values are

depicted by white dots and proceed from this study and previous
published results [5].
Finite Element Simulations

Crystalline Plasticity Code. The presence of surface
effects can be ideally confirmed by Finite Element simulations with crystalline plasticity code. Tensile tests of samples with 1, 2 and 4 grains across the thickness were carried out with the strain gradient crystalline plasticity
model developed by Evers et al. [11]. This model takes
into account the strain gradients and can reproduce the
grain size effect by the introduction of Geometrically
Necessary Dislocations (GND) in addition to the Statistically Stored Dislocations (SSD). Due to their complexity,
the different equations of the model are not reproduced is
this paper. Details of these latter can be found elsewhere
[11]. The model parameters were first identified thanks to
tensile tests of single crystals. Two multiple slip orientations (111 and 001) and one single slip orientation were
used for the identification. Details of the identification of
the parameters and of their values can be found in another
paper [12].
Figure 3 shows the comparison between simulated and
experimental tensile curves for specimens with 1, 2 and 4
grains across the thickness. Results obtained from both
experiments and simulations are in good agreement. Due
to the large time calculations (21 degrees of freedom per
node) and to the symmetry of the specimens, simulations
were performed on a quarter of sample for t/d=1 and 2 and
on an eighth of sample for t/d=4. For specimens with t/d=1
and 2, the two sides are free surfaces. For t/d=4, one side
is a free surface while the other one presents a restrained
normal displacement and restrained GND densities. 12
quadratic elements with 20 nodes were employed to mesh
each grain. For the sake of simplicity of the mesh, cubic
grains were used. Due to this cubic shape, the agreement
between experiments and simulations was reached for
cubic grains of 300 m edge. The tensile curves of the
Figure 3 proceed from similar grain orientations which are
representative of the crystallographycal texture of the
experimental tensile tests. The simulations reproduce cor-
09.08.2010 14:45:21 Uhr
Metal Forming
rectly the effect of a decrease of the number of grains
across the thickness.
Figure 3. Comparison of tensile curves obtained by finite element

simulations with a crystalline plasticity model and experiments for
samples with different number of grains across the thickness.
Figure 5. Profile of equivalent stress, SSD density and GND

density for t/d=2 along the vertical A line depicted Figure 4.
Figure 4 shows the distribution of the Von Mises

equivalent stress into the cross section of the sample with
t/d=2 strained to 0.04. The distribution was averaged along
the tensile direction. Grain boundaries are depicted by
bold straight lines. For the three grain columns, a stress
gradient appears between surface and core regions. The
characteristics of this gradient depend on the location into
the specimen due to the different grain orientations.
The equivalent stress ( eq ), SSD density ( ssd ) and
GND density ( gnd ) profiles along the A dashed vertical
line (see Figure 4) is plotted in Figure 5 for t/d=2 and
Figure 6 for t/d=4. For a given specimen, the evolutions
of eq , ssd and gnd are similar with a decrease of each
parameter near the free surfaces. Independently of the
number of grains across the thickness, the stress gradient
occurs over a distance around 150 m below the surface.
This phenomenon is due to the emergence of the SSD and
GND dislocations through the free surface. The stress
gradient is hence more influent for thin specimens than for
thick ones involving the stress decrease observed in Figure
1.
Figure 6. Profile of equivalent stress, SSD density and GND

density for t/d=4 along the vertical A line depicted Figure 4.
Bulge Test Simulations. The influence of the size effects on the formability of small parts was then investigated by FE simulations of bulge tests. The configuration
of the bulge test is summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Geometry of the simulated bulge test.
Figure 4. Distribution of the equivalent Von Mises stress into the

cross section of a t/d=2 sample strained to 0.04, the stress was
averaged along the tensile direction and grain boundaries are
schematized by bold straight lines.
Sample thickness
0.1 0.4 mm
Sample diameter
10 mm
Punch radius
4.8 mm
Die diameter
5 mm
Die curvature radius
1 mm
0.2
For these simulations, a classical J2 von Mises elastoplastic constitutive law with a Voce isotropic hardening
was used for the sake of calculation time. To this aim, the
experimental tensile curves of samples with thicknesses
ranging between 100 and 400 m were fitted by the following equation and extrapolated up to strains of 0.8.
(2)
= A B(1 exp(C ))
Table 2 summarizes the values of the A, B and C parameters for thickness of 100, 200, 300 and 400 m.
1175
09.08.2010 14:45:22 Uhr
Metal Forming
Table 2. Values of the Voce parameters of the constitutive law (Eq.
2) used for the simulations.
Sample thickness (m)
A (MPa)
B (MPa)
100
17.5
316
7.1
200
18.9
384
7.6
300
21.3
435
7.25
400
22.3
458
7.15
Figure 7 shows the Punch force punch displacement

curves for the simulated bulge tests. As for the tensile
tests, for a given punch displacement value, the punch
force is reduced for thinner specimens. For the sample of
100 m thickness, the maximal force value is around six
times lower than the 400 m thickness specimen.
Figure 7. Punch force punch displacement curves for simulated

bulge tests for samples with different thickness values.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the Interuniversity Attraction
Poles Program -Belgian State - Belgian Science Policy
(Contract P6/24). The Belgian Fund for Scientific Research FRS-FNRS is also acknowledged. The work of M.
Afteni was supported by Project SOP HRD-SIMBAD
6853,1.5/S/15-01.10.2008 "Dunarea de Jos" University of
Galati, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Galati, Romania.
References
[1] U. Engel, R Eckstein: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
125-126 (2002), 35-44.
[2] F. Vollertsen, H. Schulze Niehoff,. Z Hu: International Journal of
[3] T.A. Kals, R. Eckstein: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,103 (2001), 95-101.
[4] S. Miyazaki, K. Shibata, H. Fujita: Acta Metallurgica 27 (1979), 855862.
[5] C. Keller, E. Hug, D. Chateigner: Materials Science and Engineering,
A500 (2009), 207215.
[6] G. Simons , Ch. Weippert, J. Dual, J. Villain: Materials Science and
Engineering, A416 (2006), 290299.
[7] C. Keller, E. Hug, X. Feaugas: Mechanics of Materials, 42 (2010),
44-54.
[8] E. Mazza, G. Danuser, J. Dual: Microsystem technolgies, 2 (1996),
83-91.
[9] J. T. Fourie: Philosophical Magazine, 17 (1967), 735-756.
[10] P.J.M. Janssen, Th.H. De Keijser, M.G.D. Geers: Material Science
and Engineering, A419 (2006), 238-248.
[11] L.P. Evers, W.A.M. Brekelmans, M.G.D. Geers: Journal of the
Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 52 (2004), 2379-2401.
[12] C. Keller, A.M. Habraken, L. Duchne: Acta Materialia. To be
published.
[13] C. Keller, M. Afteni, M. Banu, A.M. Habraken, E. Hug, S. Castagne,
L. Duchne: Proc. Numiform 2010 Conference, to be published in
June 2010.
Conclusions
The FE simulations carried out with the strain gradient
crystalline plasticity model associated to the experimental
tensile tests confirm the strong influence of surface effect
for thin specimens with few grains across the thickness.
For these multicrystalline samples, a strong stress gradient
develops between core and surface regions due to the
emergence of dislocations through the free surface. This
phenomenon reduced the overall stress response observed
experimentally. For samples with less than one grain
across the thickness, the stress gradient is reduced as no
horizontal grain boundaries prevent the dislocation to
escape. For these quasi single crystal samples, the flow
stress is weakly affected by size effects.
For metal forming considerations, these results give a
microstructural criterion to avoid size effects during the
forming process. If the material has more than four grains
across the thickness, samples behave as standard polycrystals and their mechanical behavior can be easily modeled
by constitutive laws already defined for massive samples.
If not, a specific constitutive law must be used for core
and surface regions to predict the mechanical response of
these specimens [13]. In this case, the force necessary to
form the final product is considerably reduced.
1176
09.08.2010 14:45:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
Size Effect of Tribology Behaviour in Micro U-Deep Drawing with T2 Copper Foil
Chunju Wang1),2), Bin Guo1)2), Debin Shan1),2) , Ying Yao1), Feng Gong1)
1)
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin / China, cjwang1978@hit.edu.cn; 2) Key Laboratory
of Micro-systems and Micro-structures Manufacturing (Ministry of Education), Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin / China
Since microforming is very suitable for the mass production of micro parts, it gains widely attentions in recent years. With the miniaturization
of parts, the ratio of contact area to volume becomes larger, which leads that friction has more and more effects on microforming process.
In this investigation, a micro U-deep drawing device is developed, and a precision load sensor is embedded in the die to directly measure
punch force in the U-deep drawing process. A series of female die is selected with the cavity width of 0.6-1.4mm to study the effects of
female die dimension, and the clearance between the female die and punch is equal to the thickness of a specimen. T2 copper foil of
0.09mm in thickness is selected as experimental material. The dimensions such as width are changed to investigate the effects of contact
area. To investigate the size effects of tribology in details, several kinds of lubrication are applied. The surface topography of specimens is
modified using an electrochemical polishing process. The results show that the dimensions of specimens have an obvious effect on the
friction coefficient. With the decreasing of specimens, the friction increases clearly. Size effect of tribology behaviour occurs. The surface
topography of specimens before and after polished is observed with the confocal laser scanning microscope. The results indicates that the
polishing process is very helpful for improve surface quality, which reduces the friction for the larger specimen. However, friction of polished
specimen is slightly higher than that of original specimen when a small specimen is applied. An increasing model of contact area is developed to explain this phenomenon.
Keywords: U-deep drawing, Size effect, Friction, Surface topography, Increasing model, Contact area
Introduction
It is foreseeable that micro-electro-mechanical systems
(MEMS) as a technology of the integration of mechanics,
electronics and software will take over more and more
functions that were performed in the past purely by mechanical elements [1,2], which promotes rapidly increasing demand of micro parts. In recent years, microforming
gains rapidly development since it is very suitable for the
mass production of micro parts. Microforming is a technology to produce micro parts or structure of at least two
dimensions in sub-millimeter range using metal deformation method [3,4]. During miniaturization of part dimensions, some parameters such as mean grain size and surface roughness do not decrease at the same time, size effects occur clearly, which is different from the macro plastic deformation. Friction size effect is one of them. Messner et al measured the friction coefficient during the decreasing of specimen diameter in ring compression tests,
and the results showed that the friction coefficient increased from 0.12 to 0.22 when the initial specimen diameter reduced from 4.8mm to 1.0mm [5]. Engel et al
carried out double cup extrusion tests, and he found that
friction factor dramatically increased from 0.02 to 0.4 with
the specimen diameter decrease from 4.0mm to 1.0mm
using the lubrication of extrusion oil. However, the friction
factor did not change without lubrication or when a solid
lubrication was used [6,7]. In our group, Guo found that
the friction factor increased with liquid lubricant when the
specimen diameter decreased from 8mm to 1mm in cylinder compression tests [8]. To unclose the mechanism of
size effect, Engel developed an innovative open-closed
pocket model. The real contact area was measured and
introduced to the simulation model, and the results showed
that simulation agreed with tests results [9]. In order to
describe friction in micro forming processes in more details, the evolution of surface nanotopography was investi-
gated [10]. Vollertsen et al investigated friction coefficient

in microforming with deep drawing processes, the results
showed that the absolute friction coefficient in microforming was much greater than that in macroforming [11,12].
Based on the experimental researches, he developed a new
friction calculation equation, and the calculated results
agreed with the experimental results. Riemer investigated
the tribological behavior of micro structure surfaces for
micro forming tools machined by micro milling and micro
grinding processes [13].
In the present study, a micro U-deep drawing was set up
to investigate the change of specimen dimension on the
friction. The surface topography is improved by electrochemical polishing process, and the effect of surface topography on the tribology behavior is analyzed.
Foundation of Experiments
Micro Mould Device. To investigate the friction size
effect in more details, a micro U-deep drawing device was
developed as shown in Figure 1 (a) because that plastic
deformation in this process is simple compared to other
drawing processes. Since the friction is smaller than deep
drawing force when a liquid lubrication is applied, it is
easily effect by other force, such as friction from guide
pillar and guide sleeve. A high accuracy load sensor is
selected to measure the deep drawing, which is installed
upside the punch directly. The micro mould device is
drove by a precision extension machine manufactured by
the SANS company, and the high accuracy load sensor in
micro mould is also connected with the data input port of
extension machine. Then, the displacement of punch and
punch force can be obtained at the same time. The diagram
of micro mould device is shown in Figure 1 (b). The
width of U female cavity Wd is selected from 0.6mm1.4mm, and the clearance between female die and punch C
1177
09.08.2010 14:45:23 Uhr
Metal Forming
is equal to the thickness of specimen. The radius of female
die Rd and punch Rp is 0.3mm at the edge corner.
Load sensor
Female die
(a) Photograph of micro mould

F
Blank holder
Fh
Punch
Rp
20
0
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
Punch stroke /mm
3.0
Figure 2. Curves of punch force-punch stroke under various female die widths.
80
70
60
Punch force /N
Wd
(b) Diagram of micro mould

Figure 1. Micro mould device.
Pb
As
40
30
20
10
no lubricat
soybean oil
castor oil
0
-20
0.0
0.5
99.90
0.002
0.002
0.005
0.002
0.005
0.06
Effect of Female Die Width on Deep Drawing Force

With the micro mould device, a series of U-deep drawing experiments are carried out with the specimen of 8mm
and 4mm in length and width, respectively. In this section,
no lubrication is applied under the blank holder force of
100N. The obtained experiment results are shown in Figure 2. During miniaturization of female die width, the
maximum punch force increases clearly. The phenomenon
maybe induced by changes of drawing ratio. With decreasing of female cavity width, the drawing ratio increases
when the same specimens are selected. Then the decreasing leads to the increasing of deep drawing force.
Effect of Specimen Dimension on Friction
1.0
1.5
2.0
3.0
(a) 4.5mm in width

30
20
10
no lubricat
soybean oil
castor oil
0
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Punch stroke /mm
(b) 2mm in width
30
25
20
15
10
no lubricat
soybean oil
castor oil
5
0
To investigate the specimen size on the tribology behavior, a serial of experiments are carried out with specimens
2.5
Punch stroke /mm
Punch force /N
Sb
50
-10
Table 1. Chemical composition of T2 (wt.%).

Bi
0.6mm
0.8mm
1.0mm
1.2mm
1.4mm
40
Female die
Blank
Cu
60
Punch force /N
Female die Rd
80
of different widths on various lubrication conditions. The

results are shown in Figure 3. When lubrications such as
soybean oil and castor oil are applied, the punch force is
smaller than that under no lubrication. From the analysis
of force during U-deep drawing, the punch force mainly
contains deep drawing force and friction. Since the deep
drawing force is almost constant for the same dimension
specimen, the reduction of punch force comes from the
decreasing of friction. This means that the applying of
lubrication leads to the reduction of friction. The reduction
of punch force between no lubrication and applying lubrications becomes smaller with the decreasing of specimen
dimension. This indicates that the friction increases when
a small specimen is selected on the same lubrication con-
Punch
Blank holder
Fh
100
Punch Force F/N
Prepare of Specimen. T2 copper foil of 0.09mm in

thickness was selected as experimental material and it is
machined to specimen of 9mm in length with electro discharge machine. The width of specimen is changed to
investigate the effects of contact area dimension. The
surface topography of specimens is modified using electrochemical polishing process. Two kinds of lubrication
soybean oil and castor oil are selected.
120
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Punch stroke /mm
(c) 1mm in width

Figure 3. Curves of punch force-punch stroke under various
specimen dimensions.
1178
09.08.2010 14:45:24 Uhr
Metal Forming
dition. Size effect of friction occurs clearly. This phenomenon can be analyzed with the open-closed pockets
model developed by Engel in conference [9]. Due to the
scale invariance of topography, there is a region of constant width at the edge of specimen where the surface
cannot keep the lubricant. These are so called open lubricant pockets area. With the decreasing of specimen size,
the open lubricant pockets become more effective, which
leads to the increasing of friction.
Effect of Surface Polishing on Friction
Since the surface topography has an effect on the fluidity of lubricant, it is necessary to investigate the effect of
surface quality on size effect of friction during the deep
drawing process. In this section, the electrochemical polishing method is accepted to improve the surface quality
of specimens. The polishing liquid is selected as the phosphoric acid solution, and the ratio of pure phosphoric acid
to water is about 2:1. The two electrodes are both copper
foil. The voltage between two electrodes is 1.5 V, and the
polishing time is about 15 s. The U-deep drawing process
is carried out with specimen of 9mm in length under the
lubrication of castor oil. The results of original surface
specimen and polished surface specimen are shown in
Figure 4. When the different width specimen is used, the
80
70
Punch force /N
60
50
40
30
20
10
original surface and castor oil

electrochemical polishing surface
and castor oil
0
-10
-20
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Punch stroke /mm
reduction of punch force is not the same. Figure 4 (a)

shows that the reduction of punch force is about 4 N at the
punch stroke of 1.5mm. This means that the polishing
process is very helpful for reducing the friction because
that the plow ditch effect is decreased by the polishing
process. However, the effect of polishing process decreases clearly with the decreasing of specimen width as
shown in Figure 4(b) and (c). The interesting one is that
punch force of polished specimen is slightly higher than
that of original specimen when the width of specimen is
selected as 1 mm.
To analyze the effect of electrochemical polishing on the
friction, the surface topography of specimens before and
after polishing is observed with confocal laser scanning
microscope (LEXT 3D, OLS3000) as shown in Figures 5
and 6, respectively. The surface roughness is improved
from Ra 0.20 to 0.09 m after polishing process. From the
analysis of contour lines map, the spiky peak becomes
smooth. The effect of polishing process on the specimen
topography can be analyzed with Figure 7. Since the plow
ditch effect is minished, the smooth surface leads to the
reduction of friction when the specimen of 4 mm in width
is used. On the other side, the polishing process leads to
the increasing of contact area as shown in Figure 8. When
a big specimen is applied, the lubricant is trapped in the
roughness valleys for the plastic deformation under
forming load. The increasing of contact area has a slightly
effect on the friction. But with the miniaturization of
specimen size, the situation is changed. Most of roughness
valleys do have a connection to the edge of surface, which
can not keep the lubricant. Some contact area that
becomes real contact area leads to the increasing of
friction obviously. When the specimen is very small, most
of contact area is real contact area for the spillover of
lubricant, and the punch force with specimen of polished
surface may be larger than that of original surface.
(a) 4.5mm in width
Punch force /N
30
20
10

and castor oil
0
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Punch stroke /mm
(b) 2mm in width
30
(a) Photograph of surface topography
Punch force /N
25
20
15
10
and castor oil
5
0
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
Punch stroke /mm
(c) 1mm in width

Figure 4. Curves of punch force-punch stroke under various
surface qualities.
(b) Contour lines map

Figure 5. Photograph of specimen original surface.
1179
09.08.2010 14:45:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conclusions
(a) Photograph of surface topography
(b) Contour lines map

Figure 6. Photograph of specimen electrochemical polishing
surface.
Since some parameters such as surface roughness are

not changed during the scaling down of specimen dimensions, size effect occurs obviously. Therefore, it is desirable to investigate the mechanism of size effect. In this
research, a series of micro U-deep drawing experiments
are carried out, and the following results are obtained:
1. The maximum punch force increases with the decreasing of female die width, which can be explained with
the drawing ratio.
2. When a small specimen is selected, the friction becomes
larger on the same lubrication condition. The openclosed pockets model can be used to explain the phenomenon.
3. The polishing process is very helpful for reducing the
friction because that the plow ditch effect is decreased
by the polishing process for a large specimen. However,
the friction of polished specimen is slightly higher than
that of original specimen when a small specimen is selected. An increasing model of contact area after polishing was developed to analyze experimental results.
Acknowledgements
(a) Original surface
(b) Polished surface

Figure 7. Diagram of polishing process effect on specimen surface
(a) Forming with original surface
This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50835002 and No.
50805035), the Foundation for Innovation Scholars of
Harbin (2008RFQXG041), China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (20090460889) and Key Laboratory Opening
Funding of Micro-systems and Micro-structures Manufacturing (Ministry of Education) (HIT. KLOF. 2009008).
References
[1] M. Geiger, M. Merklein, M. Tolazzi: Proc. 8th ICTP, Verona, (2005).
[2] U. Engel, R. Eckstein: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
125-126 (2002), 35-44.
[3] M. Geiger, M. Kleiner R. Eckstein, N. Tiesler, U. Engel: CIRP
Annals-Manufacturing Technology, 50-2 (2001), 445-462.
[4] J. Jeswiet, M. Geiger, U. Engel, et al.: CIRP Journal of Manufacturing Science and Technology, 1(2008), 2-17.
[5] A. Messner, U. Engel, Kals R, et al.: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 45(1994), 371-176.
[6] N. Tiesler, U. Engel, M. Geiger. Proc. 6th ICTP. Nuremberg, (1999),
889-894.
[7] N. Tiesler, U. Engel: Proc. Metal Forming 2000, (2000), 355-360.
[8] B. Guo, F. Gong, C. J. Wang, et al. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals
Society of China, 19(2009), 516-520.
[9] U. Engel: Wear, 260(2006), 265-273.
[10] U. Engel, S. Weidel: Proc. International Conference on Tribology in
Manufacturing processes, Yokohama, (2007), 143-150.
[11] F. Vollertsen, Z. Hu, H. S. Niehoff, et al.: Journal of Materials
[12] Z. Hu, F. Vollertsen: Proc. International Conference on Tribology in
Manufacturing processes, Yokohama, (2007), 163-168
[13] E. Brinksmeier, O. Riemer, S. Twardy: International Journal of
Machine
Tools
and
Manufacture,
(2009),
doi:10.1016/j.ijmachtools.2009.11.006
(b) Forming with polished surface

Figure 8. Increasing model of contact area
1180
09.08.2010 14:45:25 Uhr
Metal Forming
Manufacturing of Stainless Steel and Cu Bi-material Micro-components with MicroPowder Injection Molding Process
Xiangji Kong, Thierry Barrire, Jean-Claude Gelin
FEMTO-ST Institute, Applied Mechanics department / ENSMM, 24 rue de lEpitaphe, 25000 Besanon / France, xkong@univ-fcomte.fr
Important research tasks at Femto-ST and Ensmm concern the micro powder injection molding. Principle of this process is the
manufacturing of complicated metallic micro-components via replication of die cavity mould. The feedstock realized with metallic powders
has been developed and characterized. Certain optimal formulations have been selected by testing the different feedstock formulations with
various polymer binders (polypropylene, wax and stearic acid). In the paper, bi-injection with the adaptive feedstocks has been realized.
Keywords: 316L stainless steel, Powder injection molding, Bi-injection, Cu
Introduction
Powder injection molding process is composed of four
stages: i) mixing of fine metallic powders and
thermoplastic binders to get feedstock, ii) injection of
powder/binder mixtures in the mould micro-cavity, iii)
thermal/catalytic or solvent debinding and finally iv)
sintering by solid state diffusion. Due to its high efficiency
and the near-net-shape capability to manufacture the
complex shaped parts, powder injection molding is
considered as one of the key technologies to manufacture
micro-components or to realize micro-structured surfaces,
and it exhibits excellent economic prospects [1, 2].
Concerned research works have been carried out in our
laboratory. Barriere et al. used a commercial feedstock
provided by Advanced Metalworking Practises
(Advamet) composed of 316L stainless steel powders of
(16m) that has been used for various injection and
sintering simulations [3]. Quinard et al. have investigated
the development and identification of 316L stainless steel
feedstock with mean powder particles size equals 5 m
and 16m (D90), for a solid loading fixed at 60% [4].
In this study, some adaptive feedstock formulations have
been developed. In addition, in order to process the bimaterial injection, Cu powder has been used.
10 m
Figure 2. SEM of 316L stainless steel powders (D90=16 m)
In the present study, 316L stainless steel gas atomized

pre-alloyed powders of 5 m and 16 m (D90, density=7.9
g.cm-3) have been chosen to perform the proposed analysis.
Figures 1 and 2 give the SEM photos of these two
powders.
Besides, Figure 3 shows the microstructure of the Cu
powders used in the bi-material injection tests.
Powders
Compared to the master alloyed powders, the sintering
strength of the produced material using the pre-alloyed
powder is relatively higher [5].
Figure 3. SEM of copper powders (D90=10.81 m, provided by
Eurotungstene)
Binders
10 m
Figure 1. SEM of 316L stainless steel powders (D90=5 m)
The binder is used as a fluid to carry the powder

particles to fill into the mould cavities during injection
molding, and then in debinding stage the binder should be
disposable [6]. Two main requirements have to be satisfied
by the binder: the first one is to allow the easily flow of
the particles into the die cavity during molding, wax
polymers which generally have low viscosity meet well
this demand; the second one is to avoid separation of the
powder during the preparation of feedstock and molding.
1181
09.08.2010 14:45:26 Uhr
Metal Forming
Pure waxes are not sufficient with this respect. For this
reason, most of binder systems contain at least two
components; the added polymeric components have
increased the viscosity in order to hold the component
shape after cooling time. Besides, some additives
polymers like surfactants are generally employed in the
binder system to coat the powder and bridge the powders
and the binder particles [1]. Consequently, polypropylene
and polyethylene have been tested as the primary binder
system to keep the component shape after injection
molding and debinding; waxes have been chosen as the
secondary binder in order to decrease the feedstock
viscosity and increase the replication ability of the
feedstock; the additive surfactant stearic acid and oleic
acid have been added to facilitate powder wetting by
lowering the surface energy of the binder-powder interface.
The physical characteristics of the different binders used to
elaborate the feedstocks are related in Table 1.
However, for each polymer, wax or acid, different

grades and volume contents have been tested to get the
maximal fluidity. The binder system details have been
given in Table 2.
Mixing Tests
The mixtures elaborated from the proposed formulations
have been developed by using a twin-screw mixer
connected with data acquisition software in order to
measure the mixing torque. The associated tests have been
carried out during 30 min at 160 C (exceptional 180 C
for F 6 and F 7 because of the high melting point of
PP_A2). The mixing rotation speed equals 30 rpm.
The mixing torques measured during the tests are
illustrated in Figures 4, 5 and 6, respectively for the three
series of feedstock batches.
Density,
Melting temperature, C
Polypropylene (PP_G)
140
0.90
Polypropylene (PP_A1)
>160
0.90
Polypropylene (PP_A2)
160~165
0.90
Polyethylene (PE_G)
130
0.91
Polyethylene (PE_A)
125~140
0.95
Paraffin Wax (PW_G)
58~60
0.91
Carnauba Wax (CW_G)
83~91
0.99
g.cm-3
Stearic acid (SA)
70.1
0.94
Oleic acid (OA)
16.7
0.91
20
15
F1
10
5
F2
0
0
10
F3
#2
#3
Powder (60) + PP_A2(16) + PW_G(22) + SA(2)
Powder (60) + PP_A2(16) + CW_A(22) + SA(2)
1182
Powder (60) + PE_G(38) + OA(2)
10
Mixing torque [Nm]
F6
F7
F5
15
F7
F3
20
25
30
Time [min]
Figure 5. Mixing torque vs. time for feedstocks (powder loading

equals 60%) corresponding to formulations F3, F4, F5, F6 and F7.
Powder (60) + PE_A(16) + PW_G(24)
F6
F3
F5
0
Powder (60) + PP_A1(16) + PW_G(22) + SA(2)
F7
F4
F7
25
F6
F3
0.5
Powder (60) + PE_G(16) + PW_G(24)

Powder (60) + PP_G(16) + PW_G(22) + SA(2)
F5
Powder (60) + PP_G(16) + CW_A(22) + SA(2)
F4
F4
30
30
1.5
Compositions and Contents (in Volume, %)
25
Mixing torque [Nm]
#1
20

equals 60%) of F1 and F2.
Table 2. Components and related contents used for the proposed

feedstock formulations.
Formulation
15
Time [min]
Feedstock Formulations
The quality of the feedstock injected into the mould
cavity is one of the main aspects of micro-PIM technology.
It largely influences the final properties of the resulting
components associated to the process. The determination
of proper feedstock formulation becomes very important
to ensure the requirements.
Based on the physical properties of binders above
mentioned, three characteristic feedstock formulations
have been developed, based on polymer + wax
(Formulation #1), polymer + wax + acid (Formulation #2)
and polymer + acid (Formulation #3) respectively.
F2
25
Mixing torque [Nm]
Polymers used for binder
F1
30
Table 1. Characterization of the employed binders.
F8
F8
20
15
10
5
0
0
10
15
20
25
30
35
Time [min]

equals 60%) corresponding to formulation F8.
09.08.2010 14:45:27 Uhr
Metal Forming
Rheological Tests
In addition, the viscosities of the three series of
feedstock have been measured and are related in Figures 7,
8 and 9. One can clearly reminded that the feedstocks
corresponding to Formulation #2 exhibit the lowest
viscosities compared to the two other series considering to
the same shear rates. However, the viscosities of
feedstocks corresponding to formulations F3 and F5 are
not sufficiently continuous, which will result in the
problems of injection molding.
In conclusion, the feedstock corresponding to
Formulation #2 polymer (polypropylene) + wax (paraffin
wax or carnauba wax) + acid (stearic acid) has been
retained considering both mixing and rheological tests.
1000
Shear viscosity [Pa.s]
F1_ 160 C
F2_ 160 C
100
F8_160 C
100
10
100
1000
10000
Shear rate [s-1]
Figure 9. Shear viscosity vs. shear rate for feedstocks F8 (powder

loading equals 60%, capillary die diameter equals 1 mm).
Bi-Injection Tests
Bi-material injection tests have been carried out using
two different moulds cavities. Figure 10 shows the
injected components realized with the first mold (in
Battenfeld Microsystem 50, injection temperature =
220 C for both feedstocks, injection volume = 30 mm3).
A primary feedstock loaded at 60% (316L stainless steel
5 m) according to formulation 3 and the other
feedstock are loaded at 64% (316L stainless steel 5 m).
10
1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
Shear rate [s-1]
Figure 7. Shear viscosity vs. shear rate for feedstock F1 and F2

(powder loading equals 60%, capillary die diameter equals 1 mm).
1000
1000
Due to the absence of the good wetting and low

viscosities effects of the waxes, F8 gives much higher final
mixing torque than the other formulations.
As the result, the final mixing torque corresponding to
F1, F2 and F8 are much higher than these corresponding to
Formulation #2 which is always less than 1.5 N.m.
F3_ 160 C
F5_ 160 C
F7_180 C
10
1000
10000
-1
Shear rate [s ]
Figure 8. Shear viscosity vs. shear rate for feedstocks

corresponding to formulations F3, F4, F5, F6 and F7 (powder
loading equals 60%, capillary die diameter equals 1 mm).
F3, 316L 5
m, 64%
powder
loading
2 mm
Figure 10. Bi-material component injected with feedstock (316L

stainless steel powder, 5 m) loaded at 60% and 64%.
F4_ 160 C
F6_ 160 C
100
1
100
F3, 316L 5
m, 60%
powder
loading
However, the interface (Figure 10) between both

feedstocks is not straight, and the position varies with the
injection parameters. So another mold specially designed
for bi-injection molding with two separated injection
chambers has been developed. The component (in
Battenfeld Microsystem 50, injection temperature =
220 C for 316 L feedstock and 180 C for Cu feedstock)
injected with this new mold is shown in Figure 11. This
component is composed of a cylinder and a ring.
As indicated in Figure 11, the central cylinder ( 3mm x
5.6 mm) is injected with the 316L stainless steel feedstock
according to formulation F3, while the feedstock for the
ring ( 6mm x 2.4 mm) around the central cylinder
corresponds to a Cu powder (D90= 10.81 m) according to
F 3 as well.
1183
09.08.2010 14:45:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
F 3, 316L 16
m, 60%
powder
loading
F 3 (Cu,
D50=6.34 m)
60% powder
loading
Figure 11. Bi-material component injected with 316L stainless

steel feedstock and Cu based feedstock.
One can conclude from these injection tests that the two
components realized with the feedstock with F3 have been
injected successfully without obvious defect.
Debinding Tests
In the present study, a thermal debinding process has
been used to remove the binder from the injected for the
sake of simplicity, safety and environment respect.
A standard thermal debinding cycle has been used with a
nitrogen atmosphere. The injected parts are heated in the
first stage with a ramp corresponding to 0.1 C/min from
the ambient temperature to 130 C, then the temperature is
increased up to 220 C with a heating rate equals
0.075 C/min, followed by a holding time corresponding
to 120 min. Finally, the components are cooled during 120
min in order to reach ambient temperature. The debinded
components after this cycle are shown in Figure 12.
Sintering Tests
Conclusions
The different feedstock formulations have been tested;
the rheological behavior has been also investigated
associated to the investigation of mixing torque and
viscosity. As a result of these investigations, one has
clearly shown that the feestocks formulations are well
adaptive to PIM processing, and these lead to the required
geometrical and physical properties after processing.
Afterwards, the bi-injection tests, especially the one with
the feedstock 316L stainless steel and Cu, have been
realized successfully. After thermal debinding tests, the
specimens have been properly sintered in an appropriate
furnace and significant shrinkage has been obtained from
the sintering stage. The debinding and sintering tests for
the component injected with feedstock of 316L stainless
steel and Cu will be carried out to investigate the physical
and mechanical properties of the resulting biomaterial
component.
Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the Eurotungstene Company
to provide the powders. The research activities are carried
out through the Newpim project founded by several
authorities.
References
In this analysis, primary vacuum is used in the related

two sintering tests. The first one corresponding to a tensile
test specimen (Figure 10); and the second one corresponds
to a copper wire injected on a stainless steel cylinder. In
the first stage, the debinded components have been heated
from ambient temperature up to 600 C through
approximately 120 min, then this temperature is
maintained during 30 min; afterwards the temperature is
increased up to 1200 C to generate fast sintering
mechanisms with an heating rate equals 10 C/min and
kept at this temperature during 120 min. Finally a cooling
stage at a temperature rate equals -10 C/min has been
applied to the components.
Injected
The sintered components issued from this cycle are

shown in Figure 12. The sintered components exhibit
mean shrinkage equal about 12% in the length direction.
[1] R.M. German, A. Bose: Injection molding of metals and ceramics,

1997, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, MPIF.
[2] R.M. German: Proc. Int. Conference on Injection Moulding of Metals
and Ceramics, (2007).
[3] T. Barriere, J.C. Gelin, B. Liu: Powder Metallurgy, 44-3 (2001), 228234.
[4] C. Quinard, T. Barriere, J.C. Gelin, Powder Technology, 190 (2009),
123128.
[5] D.F. Heaney, T.J. Mueller, P A. Davies: Powder Metallurgy, 47-4
(2004) 367-373.
[6] X. Kong, T. Barriere, J.C. Gelin, C. Quinard: International Journal of
Powder Metallurgy, (2010), in press.
Debinded
Sintered
11 mm
9.7 mm
Figure 12. Bi-material injection specimen injected with feedstock

(F3, 316L stainless steel powder, 5 m) loaded at 60% in the first
part and 64% in the second one.
1184
09.08.2010 14:45:28 Uhr
Metal Forming
Micro-Sheet-Forming and Case Studies

Jie Zhao, Andrew Brockett, Akhtar Razali, Yi Qin, Colin Harrison, Yanling Ma
1)
Department of Design, Manufacture & Engineering Management, The University of Strathclyde, UK, qin.yi@strath.ac.uk
An innovative desktop machine and tool-system were developed to perform micro-sheet-forming at a production scale. The paper gives a
summary of the machine and the tool developed, followed by presenting tests on the forming of three types of the components - microspring, micro-cap and micro-electronic-contact, as case-studies of micro-sheet-forming. The forming results were analysed and discussed,
based on which concluding remarks are given, including issues concerning further development of micro-sheet-forming for production
applications.
Keywords: Microforming, Micro-sheet-forming, Micro-component, Progressive forming-tool
Introduction
There are significantly growing demands on high quality
micro-components and some of these can be produced at a
low cost and in high volumes, with processes such as micro-forming and micro-replication processes [1]. It is also
noticed that a large number of micro-components are
sheet-metal components such as electrical connectors and
lead-frames, micro-meshes, micro-springs, micro-cups, etc.
Although forming of sheet-metal miniature-components
has gained increasing recognition in the area of research
and in industry, difficulties and challenges are apparent
when the sizes/features of the components to be produced
are at the submillimetre scale or when the precision requirements of the formed parts reach certain levels, such
as less than several microns: these challenges having been
subjected to a wide range of investigations [1-6]. Main
issues concern not only fundamental understanding of the
materials and processes such as size-effect but also technological measures to bring laboratory processes to volume
production. Developing micro-forming techniques into
mature, reliable processes for the manufacture of microcomponents at volume scales was particularly addressed in
the EU MASMICRO project [5]. This paper describes one
of the validation works performed on micro-sheet-forming
with a facility developed through this project.
Multi-Stage Forming Tool. Design of the tooling is

such that there are five progressive stages available for a
range of micro-stamping operations with replaceable
punch and die inserts, shown in Figure 2. The replaceable
inserts are positioned to allow progressive forming between each stage when used with the in-house developed material feeding system. The tool design took extracares on the holding of the thin sheet-metal during stamping, guide of the punches, alignment of the strip with the
dies and the punches, scrap release and part-transfer, etc.
Figure 1. CAD model of machine (left) and machine (right) for

micro-sheet forming.
Micro-Sheet-Forming Machine and Forming Tool

Forming Machine. The micro-sheet-metal machine developed is shown in Figure 1. This linear-motor driven
machine targets applications of the forming of thin sheetmetal miniature/micro-parts (t < 100 microns), and it can
be operated with a rate up to 1000 pieces per minute. The
machine is equipped with force/displacement monitoring
directly onto the tooling, automated strip-feeding (with a
newly developed servo linear-motor gripper-feeder), and
automated part-carrying and transport system. The machine design was with a modular and flexible set-up concept to enable easy re-configuration of the machine and
tooling. Considering characteristics of high-speed impact
during stamping, to maintain the bench-top design features,
careful machine-dynamics design was conducted with
support of Finite-Element dynamics analysis of the machine-frames and tooling. The machine-frame design was
optimised for minimum vibrations.
Figure 2. CAD model of tooling (left) and fabricated assembly

(right).
Forming of Micro-Spring
A demonstrating part selected was micro-switch spring,
shown in Figure 3. Whilst the overall dimensions are
relatively large (2.4x4.3 mm) the part contains a number
of features in the sub-millimetre range. The smallest feature of the part is a corner of radius 0.1 mm, with two
central slot features measuring 0.3 mm in width. Processes
of two stamping, two bending and a blanking were involved.
1185
09.08.2010 14:45:29 Uhr
Metal Forming
Forming of Micro-Cap
Following the exercise of forming the micro-spring,
micro-deep-drawing was examined. The demonstrating
part selected was a micro-cap for micro-packaging (a
housing to a micro-chip which is cooled by a micro-tubebased fluidic device). Forming of this part involved
blanking of 2D geometries, using experience gained from
previous tests, but also demanded deep-drawing of a 3D
dome-feature. Several iterations of the part design were
made in order to produce the design shown in Figure 5
that would satisfy the required assembly requirements and
be feasible to produce whilst still providing a challenge to
the forming at a volume production scale.
Figure 3. 3D drawing of micro-spring (above), main dimension
layout (bottom left) and sample part (bottom right).
A reason for the selection of this part was the fact that it
contains two formed features, in opposing directions and it
needs extra considerations to form these correctly, including the strip transfer from one stage to another, for which
the component features at different stages are depicted in
Table 1.
Table 1. Process planning for stamping of the micro-spring.
Stages
I
II
III
IV
V
Processes
Blanking Bending Blanking Bending Blanking
Strip/Blank
Form
Five progressive stamping processes were specified to

completely form the part and its features for which the
punch and die sets used are shown in Figure 4. The slotting operations were carried out first to allow the material
to be formed into the central curved feature and edge features of the spring. It was followed by separating it from
the strip by the last blanking process.
Figure 5. Design and formed parts of micro-cap.
A number of tests were conducted using a modular

forming-tool to assess the suitability of both the material
and the forming geometry before committing to a final
draft of the tooling. During these tests it became apparent
that the blank-holder shape and holding-force were critical
to achieve the desired shape and to avoid defects of
wrinkling or tearing. For this reason a special drawing-tool
was designed and it has an integrated blank-holding and
deep-drawing assembly, as illustrated in Figure 6. Using
Belleville springs stacked in series or parallel, combined
with two pre-loading screws, allowed the stroke of the
blank holder to be altered along with the spring force.
These values allowed the spring stiffness to be set between
25 and 2545 N/mm.
Figure 4. Image of multi-stage tool with sets of punch and die for
producing micro-spring.
Initially this was set up to produce the micro spring

component by using 50-micron-thick brass material. This
was also successfully achieved in stainless steel.
Figure 6. Integrated assembly of blank-holder and drawing tool for
micro-deep-drawing .
1186
09.08.2010 14:45:30 Uhr
Metal Forming
A series of experiments were conducted with the microsheet-forming machine, following the manual testing
phase. Part of the experimental work involved acquiring
data from the load cell and Renishaw linear encoder
through the Labview setup. The data was then manipulated
to visualise the profile of the applied force over the stroke
of the ram as shown in Figures 7 and 8, respectively.
4000
Brass 2.0321
3500
Stainless Steel 1.4310
Measured Force (N)
Measured force (N)
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
10 10. 10. 10. 10. 11 11. 11. 11. 11. 12 12. 12. 12. 12. 13 13. 13. 13. 13. 14 14. 14. 14. 14. 15
-500
2
4
6
8
2
4
6
8
2
4
6
8
2
4
6
8
2
4
6
8
Time (s)
Time (s)
Figure 7. Force profiles for two 50 micron thick materials (cold

rolled brass and Stainless Steel) for single stroke.
4000
3500
Measured force (N)
Measured force (N)
3000
2500
2000
1500
Figure 10. LED bars with soldered micro-connectors formed

(above) and sample parts and punch/die set (below).
Examination of Raw Materials and Sheared Profiles

To assist in the understanding of the size-effect, materials' performance, as well as its relation to the forming
quality, besides the standard tensile tests to qualify the
size-effect on the definition of the material strength values
and enable macro-scale observation of the material yield,
micro-structures of the materials used were examined with
1000
500
0
-500
32
42
52
62
72
82
Tim e (s)(s)
Time
Figure 8. Force profile of the progressive forming with 50 micron
stainless steel.
Forming of Micro-Electronic-Connector
A micro-electronic-connector was required to be made
from a customer with a certain volume and drawing of the
part is shown in Figure 9. Reason to use this part as a
demonstrator was to examine the quality of tools for the
blanking of sharp corners, alignment of tooling to achieve
precise geometry, as well as effectiveness of holding/guiding the thin strip (50 micron thick), etc.
10 m
50 m
Figure 11. EBSD microstructure-mapping images of 50 micronthick strip: Carbon Steel (left) and Stainless Steel (right).
10 m
10 m
Figure 9. Dimensions of micro-electronic-connector.
To achieve this part, a special blank-holder was designed

to match the shape to be produced. The blank-holder was
controlled to be able to contact the strip first and then hold
the strip during the blanking to ensure a better quality of
the part. The speed of this process was relatively high,
which was up to 5 Hz and the feeding distance 3mm. The
punch/die set and some of the formed parts are shown in
Figure 10.
Figure 12. Comparison of shearing quality for two specimens at

500x magnification: Carbon Steel (left) and Stainless Steel (right).
assistance of using an EBSD technique (Figure 11). Lightmicroscopy images of the strips and sheared sections at
500x magnification (Figure 12) were also used to examine
the forming-defects, including form-errors such as
geometric irregularities that appear at the sheared profiles
and burr formation on the finished parts/products.
1187
09.08.2010 14:45:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Discussion on Forming Results
Quality of Micro-Blanking. Clearance between the
punch and the die is an important parameter in microstamping. Should the clearance prove to be too large, excessive levels of plastic deformation may occur in the
material (Figure 12 (right)) whereas too small a clearance
may result in the initial fractures in the material failing to
meet and so incurring the formation of secondary shear
fractures in the material. Therefore to imprive the microforming quality, tool-fabrication capabilities need to be
improved correspondingly.
Feeding Accuracy. The feeding accuracy plays a vital
role in a multi-stage process. A micro-scale error could
lead to the product failure and even tool-failure. This is
particualrly reflected during the forming of the microspring (Figure 3) and the micro-cap (Figure 5) where the
postional errors resulted in the shift of the centre of the
formed parts. For a continuous production process,
compensation for the accumaulted positional errors has to
be enabled with the effective control of the feeder(s). This
has been, somewhat, improved with a newly developed
servo linear-motor gripper-feeder.
Micro-Deep-Drawing. Control of the blank-holding
force in micro-stamping proved to be difficult to achieve
although the similar issue has been intensively studied in
macro-scale forming. One of the facing issues is limited
space available for arrnging tooling components to enable
the holding-force control. Similar to macro-scale deep
drawing, two types of major defects were observed wrinkles at the flange of the cup and fractures at the dome
and/or dome-edge area (Figure 5), which were due to a too
small holding force and too high hloding force
respectively. The latter has been somewhat compensated
for using soft counter punches to subimposs a compressive,
counter pressure on the surface of the sheet-metal at the
dome-area. Using the integeated punch and holder design
(Figure 6) enabled easy adjustment of the holding force
through several trials.
Machine and Tool Dynamics. Correct compensation
for the punch-displacement errors caused by the machine
and tool system's dynamics characteristics proved to be
crucial for succeful micro-forming at a production scale,
espcailly for very thin sheet-metal such as a 50 micron
thick strip. As the punching rate increases, an insufficient
stroke was observed, which resulted in non-penetration
even no cutting by the punches. For a very small feature to
be formed, length of a punch is usually short due to the
limitation to the length to diameter ratio. This futher
emphasizes the importance of controlling the punch stroke,
especially at a high production rate.
Material Properties and Micro-Structures. Initially
cold-rolled shim materials were used for the blanking
experiments, which were suitable for the shearing action
and provided relatively clean sheared edges. These were,
1188
however, less suitable for the forming operations due to

the work hardened state of the materials which proved
difficult to form to the required depthes. Late, these were
achieved with annealed materials.
For a large punchdie clearance, the deformed grains of
the stainless-steel strip (Figure 12) were seen to be flowing
and causing ductile fracture, hence resulting in burrformation. Due to its ductility and larger grain sizes, the
deformation seemed propagating easily between the grain
boundaries rather than trying to break one large grain.
Burr-formation on the stainless-steel strip was caused by
the large plastic-deformation and material flow of the large
grains. Smaller neighbouring grains may tend to separate
from each other relatively easily, while larger grains may
be difficult to break rather than to be deformed and caused
to flow. On the other hand, the carbon-steel strip exhibits
smaller grain-sizes, where the bonding between
neighbouring grains seemed being able to break easily,
causing a relatively-clean sheared surface (Figure 12).
Conclusions
Research into micro-sheet-forming aims to progress this
knowledge and continue development of the process and
equipment into an industrially viable facility for the
manufacture of micro-sheet-metal components. One of the
main motivations was potentials of high-rate massproduction of micrio sheet-metal parts with such a process
configuration. Development of the forming machine, tools
and experimental validations proved feasiblity to achieve
such a goal. The modular micro-sheet-forming machine
has performed to a satisfactory level while the formed
demonstraotrs indicate good perspectives of the
applications of the process and the forming machine/tool.
The development has also resulted in new knowlegde in
micro-sheet-forming, especially on the issues concerning
incoproation of production-related requirements to the
process and equipment development. Significant number
of the issues are raised when a high production rate is to
be met, some of which may not be relevant when a slow
process is to be dealt with. The experience gained from the
research reported in this paper should be very helpful for
the future development of industrially viable microforming facilities.
References
[1] Y. Qin, et. al.: The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing
Technology, 47-9-12 (2010), 821-837.
[2] M. Geiger, M.Kleiner, R.Eckstein, N.Tiesler, U.Engel: Annals of
CIRP, 50-2 (2001), 445-462.
[3] F. Vollerston, Z. Hu, H.S. Niehoff, C. Theiler: Journal of Materials
[4] U. Engel, S. Geidrfer: Keynote paper, Proc. 1st Int. Conf. on MicroManufacturing, Urbana-Champaign, USA, (2006), 21-30.
[5] EU Masmicro Consortium, Project Technical Reports (2004-2007),
NMP2-CT-2004-500095.
[6] Y. Qin: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 177-1-3 (2006),
8-18.
09.08.2010 14:45:31 Uhr
Metal Forming
Multi-Functional Hot-Embossing of Bulk Metal Glasses at Low Temperature

Jung-Kuei Tseng1), Tsung-Tien Wu2), Cheng-Tang Pan2,3), Zong-Hsin Liu2), Yi-Chian Chen2), Chia-Jung Wu2), Jia-Lin
Chen2), Jacob Chih-Ching Huang3),4)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, R.O.C. Military Academy, Kaohsiung / Taiwan; 2)Department of Mechanical and ElectroMechanical Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung / Taiwan, panct@mail.nsysu.edu.tw; 3)Center for Nanoscience &
Nanotechnology, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung / Taiwan; 4)Institute of Materials Science & Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen
University, Kaohsiung / Taiwan.
The imprinting method promises low-cost fabrication of optical film with nano- and micro-structures by a modified embossing process from
a master mould onto thermoplastic materials. A new hot-embossing process of Mg58Cu31Y11 bulk metal glass (BMG) at less than 150oC is
demonstrated in this study. Due to its unique mechanical and supercooled characteristics, the BMG is an excellent candidate for mould
material. Rather than electroforming, the embossed BMG template is used as a secondary mould to transfer patterns to polymer sheets,
such as PMMA or ultraviolet curable polymer. As a result, both convex and concave triangular-pyramidal patterns can be successfully
replicated onto polymer sheets to be optical films. To realize the behavior of hot-embossing process, the finite element method is used to
predict the thermoplastic forming behavior of the BMG. In addition, optical performances such as luminance and uniformity are measured
by PR-650 (Photo research 650). Compared to the well-known optical thin films of 3MTM, this developed film with micro-triangular-pyramidal
lenses shows a better uniformity for a LED source. The variation relative to the incident light can be controlled below 10000 cd/m2
comparable with the results of 3MTM thin films. Thus, this optical films can be fabricated using this modified hot-embossing process.
Keywords: Hot-embossing, Bulk Metal Glass, Triangular-pyramidal, Luminance, Uniformity
Introduction
Recently, micro-optical elements have been gained a lot
of attention due to their wide applications in the fields of
optical communication, optical storage, and digital displays.
In the display industry, microstructures fabricated on optical films were used to increase efficiency of optical system reported by [1-3] for liquid crystal display (LCD)
backlight. Ezell [4] applied micro-lens technology to
enhance optical intensity output in a laptop display. In
addition, optical films with micro-lens array were combined with light emitting diode (LED) to improve the
brightness and chroma [5]. Furthermore, the films were
used to maximize the directivity of the output beam of
LED, to optimize the external quantum efficiency, and to
focus the light on a spot at a certain distance [6]. Thus it
can be seen that an optical film plays an important role in
the development of LED. Meanwhile, many of fabrication
techniques such as photoresist reflow process [7-12],
moulding [13-15], excimer laser micromachining method
[16], and focused ion beam (FIB) milling method [17]
were reported to manufacture micro-lenses. In general, hot
embossing technology can offer a low cost process to form
circular micro-lens array [18].
It is known that bulk metal glass (BMG) alloys exhibit
not only the unique physical properties such as excellent
elasticity and strength, but also the significant plasticity
occurred in the supercooled liquid region, T (T = Tx Tg, where Tx is the crystallization temperature and Tg is the
glass transition temperature), due to a drastic drop in
viscosity during glass transition upon heating [19]. Several
researchers have reported the mechanical properties by
uniaxial tensile testing [20-22] and uniaxial compression
testing [23-26]. The literatures indicated that BMGs
exhibited high strength and brittle property at room
temperature, and showed low stress and superplasticity in
the supercooled liquid region. Mg-Cu-Y-based system
exhibited reasonably good forming ability (GFA) with a

wide supercooled liquid region before crystallization [27].
Both higher accuracy and lower cost of micro-lens
fabrication methods are needed to meet the rapid growth
of commercial devices. Therefore, it is an important issue
to make a highly accurate and strong mould to replicate
micro-lens array. The selection of BMG is based on the
fact that amorphous alloys contain no dislocation that can
be responsible for yielding in crystalline materials, and are
therefore expected to be strong and hard [28-32].
In the past, we have done researches including hotemobssing process [33-34] and scratching [35] on
Mg58Cu31Y11 BMGs. It shows that Mg58Cu31Y11 BMGs
perform a good workablity on thermo forming. Base on
the uninque characteristics of BMGs, this study presents a
modified hot-embossing method to fabricate micro
triangular-pyramidal array (MTPA). In addtion, optical
performance of the MTPA film is explored. When the
light passes through the optical film with MTPA, it can be
used to improve the uniformity of light distribution.
Combined with precision machining method, a tungsten
(W) steel mould with triangular-pyramidal array is
manufactured by optical projection grinding, lapping, and
polishing. Then, the MTPA is transferred on Mg58Cu31Y11
BMG to form a smaller MTPA. To predict BMG hotembossing process, simulator based on Finite Element
Method is applied to simulate the thermoplastic forming
behavior of the BMG. In addtion, using a modified multistep hot-embossing method with position-adjustable
mechanism, more miniaturized MTPA than the original
one on W-steel mould can be formed on Mg58Cu31Y11
BMG, which is used as the secondary mould. Then with
this mould, MTPA is embossed on PMMA
(PolymethylMethacrylate) sheet by a secondary hotembossing process.
1189
09.08.2010 14:45:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Forming Ability of BMG Mg58Cu31Y11
Strain (%)
Thermoplasticy. The Mg58Cu31Y11 BMGs in the rod

form were prepared by a copper mould injection casting
technique, through the induction melting of pure Mg and
pre-alloyed Cu-Y ingots in an argon atmosphere. The
basic thermal properties were first measured in a
continuous heating mode by differential scanning
calorimetry (DSC, TA Instruments DSC 2920) and a
thermomechanical analyzer (TMA, Perkin Elmer
Diamond). The applied heating rate was 10 K/min. The Tg,
Tx and Tm (solidus temperature) are 140oC (413 K), 206 oC
(479 K), and 438oC (711 K), respectively, which are
obtained by DSC. In the supercooled liquid region, T,
between the Tg and the Tx temperature, Figure 1 shows
the temperature dependence of the relative displacement
of the bulk amorphous Mg58Cu31Y11 alloys obtained by the
thermomechanical analyzer (TMA) operated in the
compression mode at various stress levels and a fixed
heating rate of 10 K/min [36]. The maximum
displacement (Lmax) occurring in the supercooled liquid
region reaches aobut 60, 160, and 260 m under the
applied compressive load of 0.8, 2.4 and 7.1 kPa,
respectively. Such displacements correspond to
engineering strains Lmax/L0 (where L0 is the original
specimen) of 1.52, 4.07 and 6.63%. The relative
displacements become pronounced at temperatures greater
than Tg, indicating the high deformability of the glassy
alloy in the supercooled liquid region.
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
350
Emobssing on BMG
or P MMA sheet using
mold (Si base, W base
etc.) at T > Tg
Sizereduced
process
Mold
Tool a rc
One-step embossing
on BMG or P MMA
C onc ave le ns ar r ay
Two-step embossing
on BMG or P MMA
C onc ave le ns ar r ay
Ma te ria l
Second
replicated
process
UV curing process
Cura ble polyme r
BMG
BMG
0.8 kPa
2.4 kPa
7.1 kPa
300
BMG on hot-embossing process, simulation using Finite

Element Method (FEM) is used to predict the thermoplastic forming behavior of the BMG. In Figure 2, the
relationship between the embossing deformation time and
applied pressure is predicted in the supercooled liquid of
Mg58Cu31Y11 BMG at a constant imprinted velocity of
0.0005 mm/sec for 60 seconds. The intermediate die with
a dimension of 1 1 mm2 is Mg58Cu31Y11 BMG. Figure 2
shows that a very low applied pressure of about 0.68 kPa
is needed to make Mg58Cu31Y11 formed at the sixtieth
second at a temperature of 150oC. Thus, in the
supercooled liquid region, Mg58Cu31Y11 BMG can be
easily formed.
PMMA
400
450
500
550
BMG
UV
600
Temperature (K)
Figure 1. TMA measurement under different applied pressure.

8
.
Applied pressure (kPa)
PMMA
(6.8 kPa, 60 sec)
At 150 oC
BMG
C onve x le ns ar r ay
Polyme r thin film
Figure 3. Illustration of size-reduced imprint processes.
4
3
(1.65 kPa, 30 sec)
1
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Hot-embossing time (sec.)
Figure 2. Prediction of applied pressure by FEM simulation.
Pressure Prediction. The thermoplastic properties of

Mg58Cu31Y11 BMG illustrated in Figure 1 show that
different pressure levels make different relationships
between the stain and temperature. It demonstrates that
this BMG has a good forming ability even at a low applied
pressure, and it can be a potential material in microforming field. In order to apply the unique quality of the
1190
Hot-Embossing Procedure. BMGs have been researched since its unique thermoplastic characteristics. In
this study, Mg58Cu31Y11 BMG is chosen as the material for
mould due to its excellent mechanical and supercooled
characteristics as illustrated in Figure 1. A new hotembossing process at a temperature of less than 150oC is
illustrated in Figure 3. Since the Tg of Mg58Cu31Y11 BMG
is about 140 oC, the temperature chosen to hot-emboss on
the BMG is 150 oC. In addition, a very low applied pressure promises that it has easily forming ability. This
method promises a low-cost fabrication of optical film
with microstructures by a modified embossing process
from a master mould onto thermoplastic materials.
09.08.2010 14:45:32 Uhr
Metal Forming
Sample
Thin film
1
3M-M
Table 1. Samples for optical measurement using PR-650.
3MTM
3M-T
convex
4
5
This study (on PMMA sheet)
concave
convex
6
concave
Arrangement
reducible hot-embossing process, and shows a potential to

substitute for 3MTM thin films for LED package.
70000
Standard deviation (Uniformity)

Average luminance
Variation of lumination
2500
60000
50000
2000
40000
1500
30000
1000
20000
500
10000
Luminance (cd/m^2) .
3000
Standard deviation
Instead of electroforming, the embossed BMG template is

used as a secondary mould to transfer patterns to PMMA
sheets and curable polymer. As a result, optical films with
both convex and concave patterns can be fabricated onto
polymer sheets. In Figure 4, the master die, W-mould
(Figure 4(a)), is fabricated by precision machining. Then,
the size-reduced patterns can be replicated by one- or
multi-step hot-embossing method onto PMMA sheet (Figure 4(b) and 4(c)) and Mg58Cu31Y11 BMG material (Figure
4(d)). Finally, triangular-pyramidal array is formed on
PMMA (Figure 4(e)) and curable polymer (Figure 4(f))
replicated from the BMG mould.
0
0
3
4
Sample
Figure 5. Optical properties measured by PR-650.
Conclusions
Figure 4. Concave MTPA array on (a) W-mould, (b) (c) PMMA

sheet, (d) Mg58Cu31Y11 BMG, and convex MTPA array on (e)
PMMA and (f) curable polymer.
Optical Measurement. In order to realize optical characteristics such as luminance and uniformity, the optical
film are measured by using an optical instrument, PR-650.
A LED (light emitting diode; 1505 White SMD LED, LT15056C1-WD-CA1-0A) of lampshade is used as a light
source. It is packaged with the optical film with MTPA.
The specification of tested samples from Nos. 1 to 8 are
arranged in Table 1. The samples of Nos. 1 and 2 are the
purchased 3MTM optical films (from 3MTM Vikuiti
TBEF2-M-65i and TBEF2-T-65i, respectively), which
have been widely used in back light module (BLM) package for TFT LCD (thin film transistor liquid crystal display). The samples from Nos. 3 to 8 are the PMMA thin
film fabricated according to the process mentioned in the
above section. In Figure 5, compared to the optical thin
films of 3MTM, the results of the samples Nos. 3 and 4
with MTPA for a LED package shows a better uniformity,
but those of Nos. 5 and 6 is not satisfactory in uniformity.
Thus, the arrangement of optical films (placed upsidedown) also influences the uniformity of light distribution
obviously. In addition, the variation of luminance relative
to the initial light can be controlled below 10000 cd/m2
(an error of about 15% relative to initial luminance) comparable with the result of 3MTM thin film. Thus, this optical film can be fabricated by using this multi-step size-
Since Mg58Cu31Y11 BMG owns the superplasitc

properity in the supercooled liquid region as well as high
strength at room temperature, it is an excellent candidate
for mould material. In this study, a new hot-forming
concept is presented by employing the unique
thermoplatic of Mg58Cu31Y11 BMG at less than 150 oC.
The embossed BMG template is used as a secondary
mould to transfer patterns to polymer sheets. As a result,
both convex and concave MTPA can be successfully replicated onto polymer sheets to be optical films. Besides,
optical function such as uniformity modified by the optical
films with MTPA is demonstrated better than that of the
3MTM optical thin films for a LED source. Also, an error
of about 15% relative to initial luminance is obtained,
which is comparable with the results of 3MTM thin films.
Thus, the potential of the optical films can be fabricated
by using this modified hot-embossing process.
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Metal Forming
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1192
09.08.2010 14:45:33 Uhr
Metal Forming
Experimental and Numerical Investigations into Micro-Hydroforming Processes and

Machine Design
Christoph Hartl, Gerald Anyasodor
Faculty of Automotive Systems Engineering and Production Engineering, Institute of Production, Cologne University of Applied Sciences,
Cologne / Germany, christoph.hartl@fh-koeln.de
Today, microsystems technology is increasingly used by a multitude of industries to develop new and improved products. Examples are to
be found in the areas of medical engineering, telecommunication technology and micro-mechatronics systems for automotive industry. In
case that these products require the mass production of micro-components made from metal materials, micro-forming processes can offer
considerable advantages in comparison to currently used techniques, based on the removal of materials, either by chemical or mechanical
means. Against this background, the novel process of micro-hydroforming was developed with the objective to provide a technology for the
economic mass production of complex shaped hollow components. Hydroforming is a metal forming technology based on the application of
pressurized liquid media to generate defined workpiece shapes from tubular materials. Experimental and theoretical investigations were
carried out to develop first fundamentals for micro-hydroforming processes and suitable design of tools and machines. Based on these
results, a prototype micro-hydroforming machine capable of series production was developed, and experimental tests were conducted
producing micro-hydroforming demonstrators. The paper presents results of latest research concerning the configuration of tools and machines for micro-hydroforming, and the optimisation of devices with the aid of the finite element method to improve the produced component accuracy.
Keywords: Micro-hydroforming, Micro-forming, Machine design, Tool design
Introduction
The current trend of an increasing application of microsystems technology in modern products for an evergrowing market necessitates efficient and time saving
production methods for the manufacturing of the required
micro-components. In this context, forming technology
plays a decisive role for the mass production of such components made from metal materials as it can provide the
demanded productivity and accuracy. Currently, a number
of forming processes are investigated concerning their use
for micro-component production. These investigations
predominantly deal with sheet and bulk forming processes
as presented for example by [1-3]. With the objective to
provide a forming process for the economic massproduction of complex shaped tubular micro-components
made form metal materials micro-hydroforming was developed as a novel technique. Merchandised products
show an important demand in tubular micro-components
and especially medical engineering represents a capacious
market. Elements for micro-fluidic chips, micro-needles
and implanted micro-tubes for drug delivery are only some
examples. Non-medical applications of micro-components
concern for example elements for micro heat exchangers,
fluidic sensors and shafts for micro-motors or cameras.
Hydroforming is today extensively used in massproduction of high-quality macro-components for automotive and sanitary applications [4]. Complex shaped aluminium space frame components for car bodies [5],
stainless steel exhaust system elements [6], and chassis
parts made from low carbon steel [7] are only some examples for the use of hydroforming in series production.
Advantages of this forming process, which have led to this
intensive application, consist in the possibility to form
hollow complex shaped components with integrated structures from single tubes, combined with improvements in
stiffness and strength behaviour due to the reduction of
welding seams, and with reduced assembly costs [4]. Miniaturization of metal forming processes requires the consideration of size-dependent effects which can result from
physical and structural sources according to [2]. Against
this background, theoretical and experimental investigations were carried out concerning the influence of these
effects on hydroforming of micro-tubes. Investigations
with a plain strain crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE)
based modelling technique, presented in [8,9], show the
influence of grain size of tube material as one important
structural source of size effects on the forming result. For
first experimental investigations into the behavior of micro-tubes in hydroforming processes, a test device was
developed which enabled the free expansion of microtubes with diameters below 1000 m by applying an internal pressure up to 4000 bar [10]. The fundamental experiments conducted with this test device verified the feasibility of micro-hydroforming and delivered a first basis for
adequate machine and tool design for mass production
[10,11]. Based on these results, a prototype microhydroforming machine capable of series production was
developed, and experimental tests were conducted producing micro-hydroforming demonstrators. Within the context
of this research work, investigations into measures for
optimisation of produced part accuracy were of utmost
importance. Due to the comparatively high amounts of
forming loads, strategies for the compensation of elastic
deflection of forming tool elements resulting from these
loads are particularly of interest to improve the accuracy
of the forming result.
Process Principle of Micro-Hydroforming
The principle of hydroforming processes is shown in
Figure 1. The tube to be formed is placed in a die cavity
which corresponds to the final shape of the component.
The die halves are closed with the closing force Fc while
1193
09.08.2010 14:45:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
the tube is internally pressurized by a liquid medium with
the internal pressure pi to effect the expansion of the workpiece. The tube ends are sealed by sealing punches and can
be loaded with an increased axial force Fa to move material into the die cavity during the forming process.
Figure 1. Principle of micro-hydroforming processes for the example of rotationally symmetrical expansion (sectional view, schematic).
Micro-Hydroforming Production System
parent housing covers the machine for occupational safety.

Common sensors are used to measure strokes and forces of
all moving axis and to measure the hydraulic system pressure and the forming pressure. The machine is equipped
with a flexible control system based on a conventional
programmable logic controller system. The hardware for
the control system is integrated in a separate cabinet adjacent to the machine table.
Demonstrator parts presented in Figure 3 were the first
examples of micro-hydroformed components produced
with this machine system. Tubes made from stainless steel
with an outer diameter of d0 = 800 m and a wall thickness of t0 = 40 m were used for the forming of these
products. Properties of the used tube material are presented in Table 1. According to the recorded forming
parameters for these components, Figure 4, an internal
pressure of about pi = 1200 bar was required and a closing
force of about Fc = 16 kN was applied.
Micro-Hydroforming Machine. Figure 2 shows the

developed micro-hydroforming machine prototype which
was designed for investigations into mass production of
micro-components.
Figure 3. Micro-hydroforming demonstrator components.

Table 1. Properties of tubes used for production of microhydroforming demonstrator components.
Outer diameter d0
800 m
Wall thickness t0
40 m
Material
AISI 304
Yield strength Y
330 Mpa
Tensile strength UTS
700 Mpa
Elongation at fracture
53 %
Figure 2. Micro-hydroforming machine prototype.
The machine is applicable for the micro-hydroforming

of components with cross section dimensions between
200 m and 1000 m. It is equipped with a spindle driven
pressure intensifier which enables to apply up to
pi max = 4000 bar internal pressure. The closing force of the
hydroforming dies is realized by a hydraulic drive with a
maximum force of Fc max = 20 kN. The axial sealing
punches are moved by linear actuators with spindle gears
with a maximum force of Fa max = 800 N. The devices for
generating hydraulic pressure, forming medium pressure
and air pressure are integrated into the machine table
which carries the press frame on the upper side. A trans1194
Figure 4. Recorded forming parameters for demonstrator production.
Micro-Hydroforming Tool System. A significant difference between hydroforming and other forming processes is the comparatively high amount of load acting on
the tools due to the closing force Fc and the internal pressure pi. The minimum closing force which is required
throughout the forming process to ensure that the hydroforming tool remains closed is directly proportional to the
09.08.2010 14:45:34 Uhr
Metal Forming
internal pressure according to the correlation
Fc min = pi Ap
(1)
where Ap is the projected component surface perpendicular

to closing direction [12]. These loads generate elastic
deflections of the micro-hydroforming tool which influence the produced component accuracy as well as the
reliability of the process. In this context, an important
topic in tool design was to avoid the occurrence of relative
deflection between the sealing punches and the die cavity
in vertical direction due to these elastic deformations.
Such deflections can cause an unreliable sealing during
hydroforming, an increasing wear of the sealing punches
or even a damage of tool elements. Against this background, a mounting of the sealing punches was developed
which ensures that the vertical position of these punches
corresponds to the position of the die cavity, independently
from elastic tool deflections. Figure 5 shows a schematic
drawing of the tool system as well as the manufactured
system based on this principle.
loads Fc max up to 20400 N. The maximum measured values for y amounted to about 16 m for (y1o - y1) and
about 8 m for (y2o - y2) where y1o and y2o are the dimensions of the unloaded tool. These deflections do not affect
the relative position between the sealing punches and the
die cavity as a result of the developed tool design.
Figure 6. Measured vertical deflections of loaded tool.
Figure 5. Micro-hydroforming tool system.
The system consists of a bottom and top die which are

mounted to the press table and press slide respectively.
The bottom die bears two guiding columns with the slide
carriages for the axial sealing punches. The drives for the
sealing punches are fastened to the base plate. Drive and
slide carriage are coupled in such a way that no lateral
forces are transmitted between drive and carriage to enable
free vertical movement of the guide columns. An important advantage of this concept is that the guiding columns
are located in the area of the tooling split line. A vertical
shifting of the tube ends against the sealing punches due to
an elastic deformation of the tool under the applied closing
force is minimized by this. Figure 6 presents results for
the ratio of the deflection y to the tube diameter d0 of the
developed micro-hydroforming tool for forming of tubes
with an outer diameter d0 of 800 m under maximum
Additionally, besides the effect of the forming loads on

the relative movement of the micro-hydroforming tool
components, an elastic deformation of the forming die
cavity is caused by these loads. This elastic deformation is
composed of a vertical compression due to the closing
force Fc and a radial expansion induced by the internal
pressure pi. The resulting die cavity deflection influences
the hydroformed part accuracy. A strategy to reduce the die
cavity deflections in micro-hydroforming processes consists in the superposition of bending stresses as presented
in [11]. FE-simulations with systematic variation of closing force and tool parameters which determine the amount
of superimposed bending were carried out to investigate
their influence on die cavity deflection. The simulations
were conducted for the example of a cylindrically expanded shape. A tool cross section was selected representing a die cavity diameter of d = 1040 m and an internal
pressure of pi = 4000 bar was applied. The commercial
system Abaqus was used to conduct the analysis. Figure 7
shows the prepared half-symmetrical model of the tool
containing approximately 5000 elements. 4-node bilinear,
reduced integration plane strain elements were selected,
assuming elastic, isotropic material behaviour with
Youngs modulus of 216000 Mpa and Poissons ratio of
0.3. Between top and bottom tool contact was specified by
using the surface-to-surface contact capabilities of the
software to consider compressive stress transmission as
well as possible loss of contact.
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09.08.2010 14:45:35 Uhr
Metal Forming
Figure 7. FE-model for die cavity deformation analysis.
Figure 8 represents the determined deflection of the die

cavity in vertical and horizontal direction with and without
superimposed bending deformation.
Figure 9. Influence of tool closing force on several dimensions of

micro-hydroforming demonstrator (: ratio of measured dimension
to nominal dimension, tcd: tool closing direction).
Conclusions
Figure 8. Results of elastic die cavity deflection.
It is obvious from this figure that without the application

of bending stresses (a = 0) the die cavity expands in horizontal direction (dx) as well as in vertical direction (dy) and
can not be kept constant to the nominal size of 1040 m. A
reduction of the vertical deflection for this case is merely
possible by applying an excessive high closing force Fc.
On the contrary, the superposition of bending deformation
(a = 20 m) enables to keep the die cavity closer to the
nominal size in horizontal as well as in vertical direction
as to be seen from Figure 8. However, the closing force Fc
and the joint face width b have to be adapted to the selected amount of bending. For the example shown here,
the die cavity deflection is minimal when a joint face
width of b = 780 m is selected (which is 75% of the die
cavity width d), and a closing force of 14.3 kN is applied
(which is 130% of the here required minimum force Fc min).
This strategy was applied to the tool and process design
for the manufacture of the micro-hydroforming demonstrator parts presented in Figure 3. As an example, Figure 9 shows the influence of the closing force Fc on the
determined deviation of several component dimensions
after hydroforming. According to these results, the described measures are suitable to counteract the expansion
of the die cavity which is caused by the applied internal
pressure. However, it has to be taken into account that an
additional influence on accuracy results from the elastic
spring back behaviour of the hydroformed parts after
unloading.
1196
With the objective to provide a technology for the economic mass production of complex shaped hollow components made from metal material the novel process of micro-hydroforming was developed and investigated in detail.
Based on conducted fundamental research work, a microhydroforming machine system was developed and successfully tested by the production of micro-hydroforming
demonstrator parts. Further on, concepts and strategies for
improvement of process reliability and component quality
have been provided. Potential applications of the here
presented marketable manufacturing concept for microhydroforming concern the production of components for
medical devices, micro-fluidic and micro-mechatronic
technology.
Acknowledgement
The here presented research work was part of the project
MASMICRO which was supported by the European
Commission within the 6th Framework Programme.
References
[1] Y. Qin: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 177 (2006), 8-18.
[2] F. Vollersten, H. Schulze Niehoff, Z. Hu: International Journal of
[3] Y. Qin, Y. Ma, C. Harrison, A. Brockett, M. Zhou, J. Zhao: ESAFORM Conf. Proc., Lyon, France, (2008), 1-4.
[4] Ch. Hartl: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 167 (2005),
383-392.
[5] A. Boehm: North American Hydroforming Conf. Proc., Waterloo,
Ontario, (2004).
[6] P. Mertes, M. Schroeder: Proc. EndForm2000 Conf., Paderborn,
(2000), 47-66.
[7] Ch. Hartl, H.-U. Luecke, A. Boehm: Proc. Chemnitzer
Karosseriekolloquium Conf., Chemnitz, (2002), 169-182.
[8] W. Zhuang, S. Wang, J. Cao, J. Lin, Ch. Hartl.: International Journal
of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 47 (2010), 859-865.
[9] W. Zhuang, S. Wang, J. Cao, J. Lin, Ch. Hartl: Proc. Metal Forming
2008 Conf., Krakow, (2008).
[10] Ch. Hartl, J. Lungershausen, J. Eguia, L. Uriate, F. Lopez Garcia:
Proc. EUSPEN Conf., Bremen, 2 (2007), 69-72.
[11] Ch. Hartl, G. Anyasodor, T. Ptaschlik, J. Lungershausen, S. Lippert:
International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology 47
(2010), 853-858.
[12] Ch. Hartl: In: Hydroforming for advanced manufacturing, editor M.
Koc, Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, (2008), 52-76.
09.08.2010 14:45:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Numerical Modeling of Thixotropic Flow with Internal Variable Convection Method

Piotr Macio, Maciej Pietrzyk
AGH - University of Science and Technology, Department of Applied Computer Science and Modelling, al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakw /
Poland, pmaciol@agh.edu.pl
Numerical modelling of thixotropic flow is a challenging task, and both solid modelling methods and CFD techniques have significant disadvantages. In this paper, methods for numerical modelling of thixoforming are reviewed. The Internal Variable Convection (IVC) method for
thixotropy modelling is proposed. It is based on a convection of certain artificial parameters, which represent internal variables and allows it
to simulate history dependent phenomena on the basis of an Eulerian mesh. The IVC algorithm is described and the Characteristic Based
Split algorithm for solving the Navier-Stokes equation system is presented. The software is validated using the Lid Driven Cavity benchmark.
A thixotropy model based on the IVC is compared with experimental results. Assumptions and results of simulation of T-shape form filling
are presented next and compared with experimental data. Some disadvantages of the IVC method and the developed code are highlighted,
as well as perspectives for its revision.
Keywords: Numerical modelling, Computational fluid dynamics, Thixoforming, Thixotropy, Characteristic based Split, Internal variable
convection
Introduction
Semi-solid forming processes such as thixoforming,
rheocasting and continuous casting variants involve phenomena which are characteristic for both fluid and solid
behaviour. High deformations and time-dependent properties of materials mean that neither structural nor fluid
computational methods can be effectively applied. Structural solutions are commonly based on a Lagrangian description of motion, so remeshing is required if the mesh
becomes too distorted. This dramatically increases the
time of computations and decreases the accuracy of solutions. Beyond this, in solid computations dynamic effects
are usually not considered, despite the fact that in highspeed forming such as thixoforming, dynamic effects play
a significant role, see for example Soek et al. [1]. All
these problems limit applications of structural solutions to
modelling of semi-solid forming. On the other hand, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods, based on Eulerian or ALE description of motion, are not applicable in
modelling of the behaviour of materials with historydependent properties. Nevertheless, CFD solutions seem to
be more flexible and promising than solutions based on a
Lagrangian description.
In this paper an alternative method of thixotropic modelling of deformation is described.
Numerical Modelling of Thixotropic Flow
Thixoformed materials are usually assumed to be viscoplastic or elastoviscoplastic (Bellet & Moto Mpong [2],
Kopp et al. [3]) as well as shear-thinning or HershelBulkley fluids (Huilgol, You [4], Alexandrou [5]). Compatibility of CFD methods with viscous, non-Newtonian
fluids and with solutions based on structural mechanics of
viscoplastic material has been proven by Zienkiewicz and
Cormeau [6]. Eventually, despite some disadvantages, the
majority of researchers use CFD methods for thixoforming.
When CFD techniques are employed, thixotropic effects
become one of the most important problems to deal with.
These phenomena are related to long-lasting variations of
rheological parameters, which occur after changing the

conditions of flow. A detailed description of this problem
can be found in the paper of Muyumdar et al. [7]. Numerical modelling of dependency of rheological parameters on
the process history requires remembering the material state
in the computational domain. Nevertheless, it is not possible when classical CFD methods are applied. A more detailed description of this subject is presented in earlier
work of Macio [8].
Numerical Model of Thixotropy
A wide review of numerical thixotropy models can be
found in publications of Atkinson [9], Mujumdar et al. [7]
and Barnes [10]. In this paper, a modification of an indirect model proposed by Modigell and Koke [10] is employed:
d
(1)
= aeb e ( )
dt
where
a = a + for e ( ) 0
and
a = a for e ( ) < 0
where a+, a- and b are constants, e is the equilibrium
structural parameter, is the structural parameter and is
the shear rate. In the original Modigell-Koke equation,
both a+ and a- coefficients are equal.
The relationship between the viscosity and structural parameter is based on the equation:
(2)
= 0 ( f s ) + e cf d m
where c, d and m are constants, is the viscosity, 0 is the
viscosity when , fs is the solid fraction. In this
work, only the constant solid fraction is taken into account,
so 0 and ecfs are constants. Equilibrium structural parameter is defined by the equation:
1
(3)
e =
1 + ( )n
where = 1 and n is a coefficient.
s
1197
09.08.2010 14:45:36 Uhr
Metal Forming
Internal Variable Convection (IVC) Method
It is stated in the introduction, that the structural models
are not well applicable in thixoforming modelling, due to
the existence of high deformation and dynamic effects. It
is also stated that the main limitations in the application of
CFD methods arise from an Eulerian description of motion,
which is fundamental for CFD. Consequently, with mesh
nodes not corresponding to material points, the properties
dependent on history of the process are not represented.
Thus, the Internal Variable (IV) method, which is fundamental for structural modelling, cannot be used. A convection of the IV seems to be a possible solution to this problem. In this case, the IV is no longer connected to material
points, but its values are evaluated in the Eulerian mesh
nodes. When the convection of the IV is employed, both
the dependence of material properties on history, as well as
material point convection, are attainable. When convection
equations are employed, a source term becomes a natural
mechanism for the IV time dependency. It should be noted
that in some works the IV method has already been used,
but with the convection being neglected (i.e. Chowdhury et al. [12]). It could become a source of significant
errors, which are discussed in detail by Macio [13].
Internal variable convection (IVC) method is based on a
convection of artificial species, which represent internal
variable, similarly as in the case of mass transfer. In the
recent publications convection of the physical quantities,
like e.g. volume or solid phase fraction, is introduced, while
convection of the state variable (aggregation coefficient) is
employed in the present work. From the numerical point of
view, this approach corresponds to a coupled solution of
fluid motion and mass or heat transport in pure convection
(without diffusion). Distribution of the IV can be modified
with sources, which are dependent on the flow properties.
Reassuming, IVC methodology allows to simulate transient flows of materials with history dependent properties
in any geometry, where convection parameters and IV
dependency on time and flow parameters are accounted for.
CBS and Implementation
The Characteristic Based Split (CBS) algorithm is a universal algorithm for the modelling of compressible and
incompressible fluid flows. It was proposed by Zienkiewicz and Codina and solves the set of Navier-Stokes
equations [14]. Two main techniques are combined in this
method: discretization in time along characteristic lines
and fractional time step (called split). CharacteristicGalerkin (CG) approximation is described by Morton [15].
A concept of CG variant implemented in the CBS algorithm is illustrated in Figure 1. In a simple 1D problem,
the value of variable in the time step n+1 is computed on
the basis of this value in the time step n, taking into account that it is convected along a characteristic line. This
line is not known in time step n and has to be approximated.
1198
Figure 1. Convection of value in methods based on characteristic lines.
Evaluation of along the characteristic line eliminates

the convection dependency from the momentum conservation equation.
The split is a second feature of the CBS. Originally,
fractional step methods were proposed by Chorin for Finite Difference Methods [16]. Zienkiewicz and Codina
adapted this method in the FEM based solution. The basic
idea of split relies on the introduction of an intermediate
(called also auxiliary) value of velocities u*. They are
computed neglecting the pressure in the time step n, and
depend only on mass and viscous forces. Subsequently a
pressure field in the time step n+1 is computed on the
basis of u*, and finally the velocity field in the time step
n+1 is computed based on u* and pressure. The first stage
is always explicit, while remaining ones could be either
explicit or implicit.
Unification of these two methods in the CBS provides
two important advantages. The solution is stable for convection dominated problems and secondly, of more importance, Ladyzhenskaya-Brezzi-Babauska (LBB) criteria of
solvability are automatically satisfied for all pairs of pressure and velocity approximations. A full description of the
CBS algorithm could be found in Zienkiewicz and Taylor
[17].
Implementation
IVC methodology constitutes a basis for the application
of the CompFlower software developed by the Authors.
The CBS method was chosen to solve the Navier-Stokes
system of equation. The code is written in C++ language
and in accordance with policy based programming. Interfaces for external mesh generator (GMsh), solver (PETSc)
and postprocessor (gnuplot) are provided.
Simulations
Numerical tests can be divided into three groups: software validation, thixotropy model validation and real
process models. In the first group, some typical CFD
benchmarks are provided. The second includes a comparison of the IVC based solution with measurements of viscosity in thixotropy tests presented in the literature. In the
third group, numerical model of steel thixoforming experiment has been developed. Only a brief description of
software benchmarks and computations are presented in
the present work. Complete description can be found in
earlier publications [8,[13].
09.08.2010 14:45:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
Thixotropy Modelling. The main applicability domain

of the CompFlower software is modelling of the thixotropy.
In order to validate the programs predictive capability as
far as modelling of thixotropy is considered, a numerical
model of the Modigell & Koke experiment [10] was developed. Viscosity and the internal variable derivative
were computed in accordance with Eqs. (1)-(3). Computations for a series of shear jumps and drops, corresponding
to those shown in [10], were carried out.
T-Shape Form Filling. The majority of thixoforming
processes are connected with filling of moulds. Current
work is inspired by the experiment presented by Modigell
et al. [19]. The shape of the computational domain is
shown in Figure 2. Computations for the three inlet pressures were conducted. In all cases, the mould was initially
filled with air. No-slip conditions were selected along the
boundaries and zero-pressure condition at the outlet.
area and IV implements only convective corrections.

When IV is greater than zero, the element is assumed to be
filled with liquid metal. Then, full IVC method is applied,
with both convective and source based mechanisms of IV
changes. There is no special procedure for boundary layers.
Lid-Driven Cavity. The result obtained coincides with
the literature data for Re < 5000 and prove that the implementation of the CBS algorithm in the CompFlower is
correct.
Thixotropy Modelling. Viscosities computed in the
CompFlower, which are based on the numerical model
presented in this paper, are compared with the experimental data in Figure 3. The thixotropic behaviour shown by
Modigell & Koke is observable in two effects. Firstly, in
the delay in reaching the equilibrium shear stress when
shear rate jumps and drops. Secondly, short peaks or pits
occur after instances of shear jumps or drops. Classical
CFD methods are unable to reproduce those results. As
observed in Figure 3, IVC methods supply such a possibility. Differences between the experimental and numerical
results in the range of high shear stress are caused by the
imperfections of the numerical model. Coefficients of the
model were chosen manually and could be still optimized
with automatic methods, such as an inverse method.
Viscosity [Pas]
10
Modigell & Koke (1999)

CompFlower
Shear rate
250
200
150
100
50
Shear rate [1/s]
Lid-Driven Cavity. This basic benchmark has been

studied by many investigators. In the present work the
simulation results are compared with those measured by
Lewis et al. [18]. In this test, the flow in an area of a
closed rectangle is considered. The most common boundary condition is assumed to be a no-slip condition on three
walls of the rectangle and a constant, tangential velocity
on the remaining wall. The velocity distribution along the
centre line for different values of the Reynolds number are
the measures of the correctness of computations.
0
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
Time [s]
Figure 3. Comparison of experimental and computed viscosities in

the shear jump/drop test.
Although numerical and experimental data do not completely conform, viscosity peaks and pits are predicted
properly. It can be concluded that qualitatively good accuracy of the Comp-Flower software with the IVC algorithm
is confirmed.
Figure 2. Dimensions of the T-shape mould [in mm].
It should be mentioned that the capabilities of the

CompFlower software are limited at certain points. The
main two issues concern simplifications in front tracking
and some issues with boundary layers. The front tracking
algorithm is based on the IVC methodology. IV values can
vary in the range [-1;1]. When the value is less than zero,
an assumption is made that there is no fluid in this element.
In such a case, the rheological model assumes air in the
T-shape Form Filling. Distributions of the IV value for

an inlet pressure of 1000 Pa is presented in Figure 4. Results of simulations of the T-shape form filling are described in [13] in details.
The computed flow is compared with the experimental
results presented by Modigell et al. [19]. In the experiment,
the piston velocity was approximately 20% lower than the
inlet velocity in computations, where inlet pressure equal
to 1700 Pa is assumed. Computational and experimental
1199
09.08.2010 14:45:37 Uhr
Metal Forming
results are generally in agreement. Differences are caused
mainly by the simplified boundary layer treatment, the
front tracking method and some artificial diffusion, which
is necessary to obtain convergence in the numerical solution.
The boundary layer drawbacks are the main disadvantage of the developed model. A homogenous finite element
mesh, no-slip condition and fluid motion tracking with
internal variable result in certain artefacts in the boundary
layer - a gap between the formed material and the walls.
The results show that inlet pressure in the given range
has no significant influence on the metal flow directions.
Of course, since forming speeds are dependent on inlet
pressure, this conclusion cannot be extrapolated to higher
or lower pressures. On the other hand, the higher pressure
at inlet constrains higher shears. It can be noticed that the
internal variable values are lower when forming speeds are
higher. It is in agreement with the expectations and validates good predictive capabilities of the IVC based model.
Conclusions
With IVC methodology, it is possible to simulate flows
of fluids, which have rheological parameters dependent on
the process history. This approach is not possible with the
use of classical CFD techniques. IVC can be applied for
both steady-state and transient problems. Nonetheless, the
front tracking method and boundary layer solution used
here are strongly simplified. This is the main obstacle in
obtaining fully reliable results. Beyond this, it is not possible now to quantitatively compare numerical and experimental results, despite the fact that it is necessary for further improvement in the developed software. It is only a
technical problem, which is under consideration. Hitherto
results clearly show that the IVC methodology can be
efficiently used for modelling of any flows of fluids with
history dependent properties.
The planned future works compose, implementation of
the IVC methodology in the 3D CFD Comp-Flower software, as well as remeshing, application of more sophisticated front tracking, special treatment for boundary layers
and distributed computing.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the MNiSW, project no.
134/N-COST/2008/0
References
(a) t = 0.25 s
(b) t = 0.75 s
Figure 4. Internal variable values for inlet pressure equal to 1000
Pa.
1200
[1] K. Soek, T. Stuczyski, A. Biaobrzeski, R. Kuziak, Z. Mitura:

Material Science and Technology, 5-21 (2005), 551-558.
[2] M. Bellet, S.M. Mpong: Proc. 7th Int. Conf. on Numerical Methods
in Industrial Forming Processes NUMIFORM 2001, ed. K. Mori,
Toyohashi, (2001), 1087-1092.
[3] R. Kopp, J. Choi, D. Neudenberger: Journal of Material Processing
Technology, 135-2-3 (2003), 317-323.
[4] R. Huilgol, Z. You: Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics,
128-2-3 (2005), 126-143.
[5] A.N. Alexandrou: Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Semi-Solid Processing of
Alloys, Composities, (1996), 132-136.
[6] O.C. Zienkiewicz, I.C. Cormeau: International Journal of Numerical
Methods in Engineering, 8 (1974), 821-845.
[7] A. Mujumdar, A.N. Beris, A.B. Metzner: Journal of Non-Newtonian
Fluid Mechanics, 102-2 (2002), 157-178.
[8] P. Macio: Steel Research International, Special Issue, 79 (2008),
332-339.
[9] H.V. Atkinson: Progress in Materials Science, 50-3 (2005), 341-412.
[10] H.A. Barnes: Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, 70-1-2
(1997), 1-33.
[11] M. Modigell, J. Koke: Mechanics of Time Dependent Materials, 3
(1999), 15-30.
[12] J. Chowdhury, S. Ganguly, S. Chakraborty: International Journal
of Heat and Mass Transfer, 50 (2007), 2692-2703.
[13] P. Macio: Zastosowanie metody konwekcji zmiennej wewntrznej
do modelowania zjawiska tiksotropii, PhD thesis (2008), AGHUniversity of Science and Technology, Krakw, (in Polish).
[14] O.C. Zienkiewicz, R. Codina: International Journal for Numerical
Methods in Fluids, 20 (1995), 869-885.
[15] K.W. Morton: Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering,
52 (1985), 847-871.
[16] A.J. Chorin: Mathematics of Computation, 22-104 (1968), 745-762.
[17] O.C. Zienkiewicz, R.E. Taylor: The Finite Element Method, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, (2000).
[18] R.W. Lewis, P. Nithiarasu, K.N. Seetharanu: Fundamentals of the
Finite Element Method for Heat, Fluid Flow, John Wiley & Sons,
(2004).
[19] M. Modigell, M. Hufschmidt, J. Petera: Steel Research International, 75-8-9 (2004), 513-518.
09.08.2010 14:45:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
Atomistic Simulation for Nanoupsetting Process of Copper Block

Ji Zhong1),2), Shi Huigang1),2), Liu Ren1),2)
1)
Key Laboratory for Liquid-solid Structural Evolution & Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan / China,
zhongji@umich.edu; 2) School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan / China.
Techniques such as nanoforging have been used to fabricate free-standing nanosize components. As a basic form of nanoforging,
nanoupsetting is studied in this paper via atomistic simulation. Two different models (defect-free and with void defect) for upsetting process
of single crystalline copper block were created first, and then the deformation mechanism was investigated at the atomic scale. The results
show that: (1) During elastic deformation, both blocks gradually take on drum shapes. High local strain accumulates at the corners of both
blocks, which serves as the driving force of the dislocation nucleation. (2) At the end of the elastic deformation stage, the atoms on the
boundary of the void move towards the centre of the void due to the resistance of the neighboring atoms.(3) Before the void collapses, two
Shockley partial dislocations are emitted beneath the void. The pressure of the block with void defect is 5.536GPa, which is 14.6% lower
than the defect-free one. (4) After the initial plastic deformation, Shockley partial dislocations nucleate at the corners of both samples and
slip along [101] and [011] directions. Several a/3<111> dislocations and atom clusters form at the same time. (5) The simulated load during
nanoupsetting process agrees well with the theoretical one.
Keywords: Nanofabrication, Nanoupsetting, Atomistic simulation, Shockley partial dislocation, Void defect, Single crystalline copper
Introduction
Developments in the area of nanofabrication have created opportunities to manufacture parts and structures at
the nanometer scale, recent literature demonstrated the
possibility of nanoforging, which is applying conventional metal shaping techniques to nano-objects [1]. In
this process, the shape of the nanosize metallic block is
changed by a forging die. The ability to produce highstrength metallic components with dimensions of nanometers by nanoforging opens up new possibilities to eventually produce complex microsystems by assembling freestanding nanocomponents.
For better understanding and controlling of the nanoforging process, it is crucial to study its deformation
mechanism and mechanical response. Numerical methods
such as Quasicontinuum (QC) and Finite Element Method
(FEM) are strong tools for analyzing such problems. Tadmor and Dupont simulated the nanoindentation process by
QC method [2,3], Roters simulated by crystal plasticity
FEM [4]. In this paper, two different models (defect-free
and with void defect) for upsetting process of nanoscale
single crystalline copper were investigated via atomistic
simulation, the different load-displacement curves during
the loading process were obtained, and the atomistic
mechanisms responsible for these curves were presented
and analyzed based on the nucleation and propagation of
dislocations.
Computational Model
Two different models were studied, as shown in Figure
1, one model is with void defect and another one is defect-free (without void). The models are of a quasi-2D
nature [5]. Though the atomistic calculations were made
in three dimensions, the displacement fields were constrained to have no variation in the out-of-plane direction
(z-direction), thus,
ux =ux (x, y) , uy =uy (x, y) , uz =uz (x, y)
(1)
where ux, uy and uz are the displacements in the respective

directions.
Figure 1. Computational model of nanoupsetting process of

copper block.
The copper block investigated here was 96 wide, 50

thick, and infinite in the out-of-plane direction. The
void was 8 wide, 6 high, and 16 deep away from
the top surface of the block. The crystallographic orientation of the copper single crystal is also shown in Figure 1.
The hammer was assumed rigid and moved along the
[110] direction, it had no interfacial interaction with the
copper single crystal. The block was fixed at the bottom
with no degree of freedom in all directions. A displacement boundary condition was applied to the top surface.
Like the atoms at the bottom, the atoms at the top surface
were not allowed to move along the x or z direction. The
other sides of the block were left free. Periodic boundary
conditions were imposed along the out-of-plane direction.
In this atomistic simulation, the embedded atom method
(EAM) [5,6] was employed as the underlying atomic
interaction model. Within the EAM model, the total
energy E for a system can be written as,
E =
1
i Fi ( i ) + 2
V
ji
ij
( R ij )
(2)
where the summations in Eq. (2) extend over the total

number of atoms N in the system, Fi is the embedding
1201
09.08.2010 14:45:38 Uhr
Metal Forming
function, i is the electron density at atom i, Vij is a pair
interaction function and Rij is the distance between atoms
i and j.
The total energy of the system can be computed from
Eq. (2) and equilibrium configurations are calculated by
energy minimization. The minimization is carried out by a
quasi-Newton solver. At each relaxed configuration the
forces on the atoms are brought to below 10-6 eV/2.
The semi-empirical EAM potential for copper used in
the simulation was developed by Voter and Chen [6]. To
start the simulation, the system was first relaxed to
accomplish minimized energy. Then the hammer was
forced down until the height of the copper block was
reduced by 4.6 , corresponding to a total strain of 9.2%.
At each load step the displacement of the hammer was
increased by 0.1. Before every step, energy minimization was carried out to adjust to the new boundary conditions. The whole process was carried out under zero
temperature, which means the thermal motion of the
atoms was neglected.
3(a). The atoms did not only move in the x-y plane, but
also experienced displacement along the out-of-plane
direction. Thus the original [112 ] plane was distorted.
The elastic limit is 62.211 N/m according to the simulation results, and the corresponding mean pressure exerted
on the top surface is 6.48GPa. This value is extremely
high, because no pre-existing defects were available and
the crystalline orientation of the sample was not preferable for dislocation nucleation.
(a) defect-free
Simulation Results and Discussion

Load-Displacement Response. The computed loaddisplacement curves are presented in Figure 2. The load
was calculated from the total force acting on the surface
atoms under the hammer. At the beginning of both curves,
there were two very small load drops, which corresponded to the initial surface relaxation under the hummer,
for the atoms were artificially held at zero displacement at
the initial stages. From point O to point A, the response
was quasi-linear as predicted by elastic theory for the
defect-free sample. However, there were some distinct
inflection points (a, b and c) produced by minor yielding
due to the inelastic deformation of the block with void
defect. When the curves climbed to point A and point A',
the load dropped abruptly, corresponding to the plastic
deformation. The simulation was terminated at a displacement of 4.6 and the results were analyzed as follows.
(b) with void defect

Figure 3. Displacement of atoms along z direction in different
models: (a) 3.8 at point A, (b) 3.7 at point A'.
However, as to the copper block with void defect, the

load-displacement curve was almost linear except for
some distinct inflection points corresponding to unusual
movements of the atoms in the vicinity of the void. The
linear portion of the load-displacement curve terminated
at the displacement of 2.6 (point a) with the emission
of the dislocations beneath the void. After a single minimization step, a load deflection occurred, which corresponded to the simultaneous nucleation of two Shockley
partials under the void, see Figure 4(a). The dislocations
were composed of 1/6 <112> Shockley partials which
bound a stacking fault [5]. On the left,
1
1
1
(3)
[11 0 ] [121] + [ 21 1]
2
Figure 2. Computed load versus displacement curves for nanoupsetting of copper blocks with rigid rectangular hammers.
Elastic Deformation. The defect-free copper block

experienced elastic deformation before the displacement
reached 3.8 . Because the top surface and the bottom
surface were fixed in all directions, the copper block was
upset into a drum shape at the end of the elastic deformation. Displacement of the atoms at the end of the elastic
deformation stage along z directions are shown in Figure
1202
(top) (bottom)
and on the right,

1
1
1
[110 ] [121] + [ 211]
2
6
6
(4)
(top) (bottom)
Isolated Shockley partials carry an out-of-plane component of 6a0 / 12 where a0 is the lattice parameter. For
copper this yields a value of 0.74. In addition, as displacement increased to 2.7, an interesting phenomenon
09.08.2010 14:45:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
arose: the atoms on the boundary of the void moved towards the centre of the void due to the resistance of the
neighboring atoms (see Figure 4(b)). The void defect is
best viewed from the energy plot shown in Figure 5. At
point c, the void collapsed, and was replaced by disordered atoms, see Figure 4(c). Further upsetting led to
elastic behavior, which corresponded to the cA' linear
section. There was no other evident change in the dislocation structure. When the curve climbed to point A', the
elastic deformation terminated at a load of 53.147 N/m
(14.6% lower than the defect-free one) which corresponded to a compressive force of 5.536GPa. Displacement of atoms along z direction was presented in Figure
3(b). Apparently, the atoms in the vicinity of the void
have large displacement.
point A', which was a little earlier than the defect-free one.
The displacement of atoms along z direction was displayed in Figure 6(b). The difference between the two
figures is that the atoms in the bottom-left corner of the
second figure has little displacement along the z direction,
and the area of the left triangular zone is apparently
smaller than that in the first figure as a result of the existence of void, which has absorbed part of strain energy
during the upsetting process.
Figure 5. Atom configuration and energy plot at point b.
(a)
(a) defect-free
(b)

Figure 6. Displacement of atoms along z direction at displacement of 3.9.
(c)
Figure 4. Atoms distribution corresponding inflection points of
load-displacement curve: (a) dislocations nucleated beneath void
at point b. (b) atoms on the boundary of the void moved towards
void centre at displacement of 2.7. (c) void disappeared in single
step by 0.1 at point c, and was displaced by disordered atoms.
Plastic Deformation. For the defect-free sample, the

elastic deformation terminated at point A. The elasticplastic transition occurred during a single loading step.
The atom configuration changed greatly after the transition as shown in Figure 6(a). Atoms in the two triangular
zones experienced large displacement along both x and z
directions. Compared with the first one, the block with
void defect experienced the initial plastic deformation at
In order to investigate how the plastic deformation was

initiated, the von Mises strain after the initiation of plastic
deformation was calculated. As shown in Figure 7, it was
observed that the strain is high at the corners of both
samples, which would lead to the break of the metallic
bonds. As a result, dislocations nucleated at the corners
and propagated into the bulk. The nucleated dislocations
were not a/2 [110] perfect dislocations. The a/2 [110] dislocations in the (111) plane can not be formed, given the
geometry and boundary conditions. Instead they are
Shockley partials and the slip plane is (111) plane. The
partials propagate along the [101] and [011] directions.
The region experienced severe strain was the path of the
dislocation motion. The orientation of the tracks further
1203
09.08.2010 14:45:39 Uhr
Metal Forming
proved that the slip directions were [101] and [011]
directions.
(a) defect-free

Figure 7. Von Mises strain after initiation of plastic deformation.
Formation of a/3<111> dislocations and atom clusters

were also observed. The defects are best viewed from the
energy plot shown in Figure 8. Those defects were all
formed at the left part of the crystal. The right part of the
crystal was defect-free. Thus the symmetry was broken,
due to the numerical noise. This is reasonable because the
symmetry will also be broken in real systems due to imperfections and misalignments.
Here b is a0 /2, a0 is the lattice parameter. The computed

load drop is 41.847 N/m, which is quite consistent with
the simulation result. And for the block with void defect,
here the load dropp =36.716 N/m. The actual load drop
observed is 37.071 N/m.
From point B to point C, there was no significant
plastic behavior. The a/3<111> dislocations did not move
with the development of the plastic deformation.
Likewise, the block with void defect experienced elastic
deformation from point B' to point C'.
Conclusions
Atomistic simulation of nanoupsetting process of two

different copper blocks (defect-free and with void defect)
was conducted in this paper. An embedded atom potential
was used. After studying the underlying mechanism of the
deformation, the following results were obtained:
1. During elastic deformation, both blocks gradually take
on a drum shape. High local strain accumulates at the
corners of both blocks, which serves as the driving
force of the dislocation nucleation.
2. At the end of the elastic deformation, the atoms on the
boundary of void move towards the centre of the void
due to the resistance of the neighboring atoms.
3. Before the void collapse, two Shockley partial dislocations are emitted beneath the void. The pressure of the
block with void defect is 5.536GPa, which is 14.6%
lower than the defect-free one.
4. After the initial plastic deformation, Shockley partial
dislocations nucleate at the corners of the sample and
slip along [101] and [011] directions. Several a/3<111>
dislocations and atom clusters form at the same time.
5. The simulated load during nanoupsetting process
agrees well with the theoretical one.
Acknowledgements
This work is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50775131, No. 50875154),
the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province
(No.Y2007F55) and the Scientific Research Foundation
for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry.
Figure 8. Atom configuration and energy plot at point B.
For the perfect block without defect, following nucleation the load dropped from 62.211 N/m to 17.154N/m,
with a disparity of 45.057N/m. The load drop p corresponded to relaxation of a Burgers vector worth of elastic
displacement [5]. Thus,
(5)
p = kb
where k represents the initial linear slope of the loaddisplacement curve, b is the module of the Burgers vector.
1204
References
[1] J. Rosler, D. Mukherji, K. Schock, S. Kleindiek: Nanotechnology, 18
(2007), 1253031-5.
[2] E.B. Tadmor, R. Miller, R. Phillips: Journal of Material Research,
14 (1999), 2233-2250.
[3] V. Dupont, F. Sansoz: Acta Mater., 56 (2008), 6013-6026.
[4] F. Roters: Compounds Material Science, 32 (2005), 509-517.
[5] E.B. Tadmor, R. Miller, R. Phillips: Journal of Material Research, 14
(1999), 2233-2250.
[6] A.F. Voter, S. P. Chen: Intermetallic Compounds Principles, 1st
edition, Wiley, (1994), 77.
09.08.2010 14:45:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
A Bi-Linear-Vibratory Feeder System for Micro-Bulk-Forming Applications

Antonio. J. Sanchez-Salmeron, C. Ricolfe-Viala
Instituto de Automtica e Informtica Industrial, Universidad Politcnica de Valencia, Valencia / Spain, asanchez@ai2.upv.es
At a micromanufacturing facility, handling processes include transporting components from one location to another, orientation control and
sorting. It is essential that the components are presented in a specific position and facing the right direction and at a suitable rate in all
workstations. This paper presents a feeder system designed for accomplishing the requirements of bulk-forming micro-applications. Basically, the feeding system defined in this paper controls billets flowing on two independent vibratory linear track devices, to feed billets into a
bulk forming machine. A piezoactutor generates the vibration to control the second linear track device. This vibration is transmitted through
an inclined linear track to move the billets. Feedback data is billet speed on the track. This feedback data is estimated using information
captured by a smart camera. Then, a control loop is closed using a PID regulator which defines vibration signals to reduce speed errors.
This feeder system has been designed, developed and tested.
Keywords: Micromanufacturing, Microhandling, Feeding systems, Linear feeders, Visual control
Introduction
Nowadays a large number of industrial developments
are being made for compact products. The trend toward
miniaturising products such as electronic, optical and
mechanical devices is motivating fundamental innovation
in production processes. These compact products are composed by microcomponents which are fabricated using
different kinds of micromanufacturing machines. Therefore, a micromanufacturing plant must be composed by
different kinds of manufacturing machines and several
inspection, assembling and packaging stations.
At a micromanufacturing facility, handling processes include transporting components from one location to another, orientation control and sorting. It is essential that
components are presented in a specific position and facing
the right direction and at a suitable rate in all workstations.
These points should be solved by any feeding system [1].
Automated positioning at the meso-scale is easily solved
using conventional closed-loop control and a variety of
sensors. In meso-handling, the main challenge concerns
objects picking and subsequent development of tools that
are stiff enough to resist gravity effects and inertial forces.
However, automated positioning at a micro-scale becomes
a difficult problem. When components size decreases,
handling becomes the bottleneck in any fabrication process and the most expensive task, owing to automation
difficulties. A key problem area, limiting the emergence of
automated microhandling technology, is the nonavailability of flexible and highly-precise microhandling
machinery [2].
The aim of this paper is to develop a new automated intra-machine handling system to feed raw material into a
bulk forming machine. In this case the handing system has
been developed for manipulating billets. A two linear vibratory feeder system has been designed to accomplish
bulk forming machines requirements. Prototypes for different devices has been developed and tested.
to maintain sufficient accuracy for a completely preprogrammed manipulator. In this case, the manipulator
performs a serial pick-and-place task using a specific gripper mounted on the manipulator. Vision systems are often
used for recognizing and positioning processes to locate
individual microcomponents.
Figure 1. Handling process based on manipulator.
For large volume of manufacturing, employing a dedicated mechanical part-feeding apparatus may be justified.
A particular form of mechanical feeders is known as
tape-and-reel for feeding parts of relatively small sizes,
which can be placed on tapes of standard width. Tape-andreel is a method of housing parts in separate cavities in a
long continuous strip. These cavities are covered with a
plastic sheet to facilitate winding the strip around a reel for
component presentation or feeding to automated placement equipment. These particular mechanical feeders are
based on standard belt or tube magazines.
The most common mechanical approach to automated
feeding is the vibratory bowl feeder, which consists of a
bowl filled with parts guided by a mechanical track. The
bowl and track are made to vibrate, causing parts to move
on the track, where they encounter a sequence of mechanical devices such as grooves, gaps, balconies, etc. Most of
these devices are filters that reject parts in all orientations
except those parts which go in the desired one. Thus, a
stream of oriented parts emerges at the end, after successfully running the full track.
Microhandling Technology
A common feeding concept is shown in Figure 1. A specially designed carrier for each micro-part family is used,
1205
09.08.2010 14:45:40 Uhr
Metal Forming
Vibratory Feeders
Vibratory feeders are generally either (i) linear moving
feed mechanisms or (ii) bowl-shape feeders which vibrate
about an axis along the centerline of a feeder bowl which
carries pieces to be dispensed. Feeder bowls typically
include an inclined ramp located along the inside circumference of the bowl. Spirals from the bottom portion of the
bowl centerline cause slow travel of pieces at the bottom
of the bowl to up the inclined ramp or to a guiding chute
which guides pieces from the periphery of the bowl to one
or more workstations.
Typically, vibratory feeders are driven at the A.C. line
frequency. Therefore, amplitude adjustment is continuously required with loadings variations. The prior art techniques require time consuming tuning procedures to be
performed at installation. In addition, tuning the line frequency may not provide the optimum bowl vibration frequency to achieve a maximum feed rate of piece parts.
Generally, mechanical feeders often fail due to jamming,
and most significantly, they require retooling when a microcomponent is changed.
independent vibratory linear devices which have been

designed to avoid jamming problems along the billets path
from the input buffer until the bulk forming machine [4].
The first vibratory linear device is composed by a big
input buffer, a driver to produce the vibration and a linear
track to guide the billets into a small buffer of the second
device. The second vibratory linear device is composed by
the small buffer, a second linear track, a driver and a camera.
Input buffer
Piezoactuato
Bulk Forming Requirements

Micro forming machines have special requirements and
they need an appropriate technology to manufacture very
small metal parts, in particular for bulk production [3]. For
example, if they need high throughputs of 300 parts per
minute, commercial manipulators do not meet this
throughput requirements and therefore employing a dedicated mechanical part-feeding apparatus is justified.
High speed specifications for feeding device _impose
special control strategies, in the context of dynamics feedback control. One strategy is using an integrated approach
that combines motion, vision, and data-acquisition systems.
While a motion controller guides the component, the vision devices provide visual feedback. A motion/vision
combination allows taking several measurements - movement, position, and alignment - along with visual inspection.
The raw material to feed into the bulk-forming machine
is an amount of billets which is shown in Figure 2. Billets
must be introduced into an input buffer of the feeding
system.
Senso
Final track
Input buffer
First linear
Camera
Second linear
Small buffer
Figure 3. Proposed vibratory feeder system.
First Linear Track Device

1 mm.
(a) Billet example

(b) Amount of billets
Figure 2. Billets to feed into bulk forming machine (from IPU).
Proposed Vibratory Feeder System

The feeding system presented in this paper is shown in
Figure 3. Basically, the feeding system consists of two
1206
The first subsystem controls the amount of billets which

are loaded on the second device. This part does not need a
fine control of the billets flow. In this case, an A.C. line
frequency driver is enough to accomplish this propose.
The first driver is shown in Figure 4. This driver is an
inline vibrator where the solenoid and its energisation coil
are fixed to a base. The armature plate is mounted above
the inline vibrator, with pole faces separated by an air gap
and parallel with those of the solenoid. The leaf springs
are positioned at an angle (approx. 20) connecting the
armature plate to the base. An attracting force prevails
between the armature and the solenoid. When an A.C.
voltage is applied to the energisation coil, the force effect
09.08.2010 14:45:41 Uhr
Metal Forming
of the electromagnetic alternating field is superimposed on
the force effect of the permanent magnet (type
OMW516004). The frequency of the resulting force
matches the frequency of the A.C. voltage applied, which
moves the armature in the same rhythm. The curving oscillatory movement of the armature plate and the vibrating
conveyor attached to it conveys the billets in one direction.
This curving oscillatory movement is caused by the angled
arrangement of the leaf springs.
back data is estimated using the information captured by a

smart camera.
Vertical
vibration
Final
track
Figure 4. Inline vibrator (from Kendrion Magnettechnik).
This driver produces a horizontal vibration which moves

the billets from the input buffer to the small buffer on the
second linear feeder. This movement is along the first
linear track until the billets drop sequentially. The mechanical assembly of this driver on the feeder system is
shown in Figure 5.
First
di
Horizontal
Vertical
vibration
Second driver
vibration
Input buffer
First track
Final track
Figure 5. Top view of the proposed feeder system.
Second Linear Track Device

The main goal of the second vibratory system is a fine
control of billets flow on the final linear track to feed the
billets into a bulk forming machine. In this case, a vertical
vibration controls the billets flow. This vertical vibration is
generated by a parallel pre-stressed piezoactutor PPA40M
designed by Cedrat Technologies. This model has a very
compact size which makes easier their integration in the
mechanical assembly as is shown in Figure 6. The
PPA40M produces displacements up to 40 m and can
generate a pushing blocked force of 800 N.
A linear converter LC75B and a linear amplifier allow
controlling the frequency, the amplitude and the shape of
signal (sinusoidal, square, triangular, etc.) of the vibration
of the PPA40M. To move the billet, vibration is transmitted through an inclined final track shown in Figure 7. The
feedback data is the billet speed on the track. These feed-
Figure 6. Mechanical assembly of vertical vibration device.
Camera
First track
Final
track
Vertical
vibration
Small buffer
Figure 7. Side view of proposed feeder system.
Camera
PPA40M
Open Loop Experiments and Results

After designing and developing of all devices, some experiments have been performed to evaluate two important
parameters. The first parameter is the billet speed on the
final track. The second one is the dispersion of pieces
location when they drop from the final track into the bulk
forming machine. The billet speed was measured by the
camera and the location dispersion was measured by a
calibrated dartboard shown in the Figure 8. The dartboard
centre simulates the bulk forming machine input location.
Figure 8. Calibrated dartboard to measure location dispersion.
Some experiments changing frequency, amplitude and

wave shape of the piezoactuator input signal have been
performed for measuring billet speed and dispersion of
location. Experiments reveal that with a frequency of 450
Hz and an amplitude signal of 4 Volts, dispersion is
smaller and speed is highest. No influence was observed
changing the kind of wave used.
1207
09.08.2010 14:45:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Visual Feedback
In a meso-domain, visually servoing has been used to
effectively compensate uncertainty of camera-lens systems
calibration, manipulators and workspaces. However,
manufacturing engineers usually strongly prefer calibrated
parts handling systems due to cost and reliability issues. In
micro-domains, precise calibration is highly dependent on
precisely modeled kinematics which is subject to thermal
growth errors. Two common techniques for compensating
thermal errors include either expensive cooling systems, or
waiting several hours for stabilizing the device thermal
equilibrium. These factors greatly affect the cost and reliability of the handling systems. To improve the performance in a micro-domain real-time visual feedback can be
used effectively and economically. If real-time feedback is
used, several factors referred with vision systems must be
taken into account which can increase the cost of the feeding system. Image processing time must be sufficiently
short to guaranty the measurement. Also, programming of
the vision system can be result in a difficult task and being
error prone due to glare, reflection and other unwanted
contaminants in the captured image. Additionally, it is
important to emphasize problems with image processing
equipment setting up and long downtimes may arise if an
error occurs. Even, processes that may seem straightforward like focusing or aligning the camera properly become
complicated and extremely difficult to carry out in the
micro-domain. Moreover, camera resolution must be compatible with manipulated objects dimensions. Normally,
optical microscopes or scanning electron microscopes are
used. Applications in confined spaces require compact
camera systems such as fibrescopes or micro-cameras.
Figure 9. VCM-50 camera (Vision Components GmbH).
The Model VCM-50 camera of Vision Components

GmbH shown in Figure 9 was selected for monitoring the
billets flow along the final track. Only 100 mm in length
and 30 mm in diameter, the VCM-50 is arguably the
smallest industrial smart machine vision system in the
world. This smart camera contains a CPU board with an
ADSP 2185 processor (75 MHz). Additionally, it has some
PLC compatible inputs and outputs for controlling machines. This camera is suitable for precise progressive scan
applications. Sony CCD sensor ensures sharp images, even
for inspection of fast-moving parts. Exposure times are as
low as 20 microseconds, and full-frame rates of up to 50
frames per second are available.
This camera includes micro video lens and a LED ring
strobe but in our system an external light is used to illuminate homogeneously the final track. The external light is a
direct bar light model PLD1302A-W00C (from DCM
Sistemes). Figure 10 shows an image of the final track
1208
captured with the camera. This image shows two billets on

the final track which can be easily segmented from the
background using a local adaptive threshold algorithm.
Camera can be programmed by user in C. The run length
encoding (RLE) algorithm is used to speed up the computational cost of the binary image processing algorithms.
Morphological operations and blob location algorithms are
performed in few milliseconds. After that, the billet speed
is estimated from the tracking of the billet locations along
a sequence of images. As a result this sensor is able to
estimate the location and speed of a billet approximately at
the acquisition frame rate of the camera. In this case, the
frame rate of the camera is set at 40 frames per second.
Each image is captured and processed every 25 milliseconds.
Final
track
Bille
t
Figure 10. Image captured from camera.
The billets flow is controlled on the final track setting

the vibration amplitude proportional to the billets speed
error.
Conclusions
This paper defines a two linear vibratory feeder system for bulk-forming micro-applications. Basically, the
presented feeding system controls the flow of a billet on
a two independent linear tracks to feed the billets into a
bulk forming machine. A piezoactutor generates a vibration to control the billets movement. This vibration is
transmitted through an inclined track to the billet. The
feedback data is the billet speed on the track estimated
using images captured by a smart camera. The throughput of this feeding system is approximately five billets
per second.
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the European
Community FEDER funds and European Community
research funds (MASMICRO, Project number 500095-2).
We would like to thank the IPU Denmark Institute for
supplying the billets to perform the experiments.
References
[1] A.J. Sanchez-Salmeron et al.: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 47-9 (2010), 937-943.
[2] A.J. Sanchez-Salmeron et al.: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 167 (2005), 499-507.
[3] Y. Qin, et al.: The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing
Technology, 47 (2010), 821-837.
[4] A.J. Sanchez-Salmeron et al.: Patent reference WO2009112616-A1.
09.08.2010 14:45:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
Preform Design for Cold Forging of Micro Gear

Chao-Cheng Chang, Chien-Kuo Huang
Department of Mold and Die Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung / Taiwan, ccchang@cc.kuas.
edu.tw
This study presents a micro gear manufacturing method using three stages in a cold forging process. A method for evaluating the level of
potential folding defects in the forged gear was proposed in terms of the curvature radius of the metal flow front predicted by a commercial
finite element software. The proposed method combined with the Taguchi analysis was used to design the preforms for fabricating 8-tooth
copper gears with a modulus of 0.4, a pressure angle of 20 degrees and an integral shaft having 1.6 mm diameter. Simulated results show
that the proposed method successfully improves the preforms and ensures a complete die filling without folding defects. Based on the
optimum preforms, the dies and punches were then designed and manufactured for experiments. The results show that the tooth cavities of
the micro gear were completely filled and the predicted loads were in good agreement with the experimental ones. Micro gears have successfully been produced by the proposed forging process with preforming stages.
Keywords: Preform design, Cold forging, Micro gear
Introduction
Product miniaturization has been widely interested in
electronics, information technological, medical and other
industries. This trend creates a big demand for micro parts
including micro pins, micro connectors and micro gears.
Micro gears are the essential components in transmission
system and may be used in a miniaturized product. They
could be fabricated by a material removal process, such as
a high speed machining or an electrical discharge machining process. However, the problems with fatigue life, high
cost and low production rate in the machining process may
be disadvantages to mass production. Thus, there is a need
to develop new methods for producing micro gears.
Metal forming processes which enable mass production
in an economical, environmentally friendly and reliable
manner are potential technologies for micro gear manufacturing. However, the existing knowledge of conventional
forming cannot be simply transferred to the micro scale
because so-called size effects appear. The effects influence
not only material flow behavior but also formability, dimension accuracy, tooling and assembly [1-4]. Except the
issues on size-effects, the design of preforms which are
intermediate shapes between the initial billet and the desired forging product is also a challenge to micro metal
forming, in particular where a complex shape is involved
in the product.
To retain the benefits of work hardening on improving
the strength and fatigue life, gears may be produced by
cold forging processes. However, gears have complex
shapes and are difficult to be manufactured by a singlestage forging process at relatively low temperature. This
obstacle could be overcome using a multi-stage cold forging in which preforms are required. In general, forging
preform design is still performed by experience-based
methods, or trial-and-error approaches with or without
computer simulations. With the progress on the modeling
of metal forming, numerical simulations which are able to
predict the metal flows and properties of the product are
useful tools for assessing the preform design. These design
approaches usually require appropriate methods for assessing the quality of the patterns of metal flows to ensure a
complete die filling without defects. Various methods

including knowledge-based system [5], artificial neural
networks [6], genetic algorithms [7], optimization [8] and
reverse simulation methods [9-11] have been proposed.
These methods are useful for specific conditions but a
further improvement might be needed in practical applications.
This study proposes a new method based on the measurement of the curvature of metal flow patterns for preform design. The method combined with Taguchi analysis
was used to determine the preforms for the forging of
micro copper gears. The concept of the proposed method
is firstly presented. The factors for Taguchi analysis, simulations and experimental setup are then described. Finally,
the results and discussion on forging load and die filling
and the comparisons between experiments and simulations
are given.
Preform Design
Curvature of Metal Flow Front. A complete die filling
is an essential requirement for a successful design of forging preforms. This requirement can be achieved by a control of metal flows in which convex-shaped fronts move
into the die cavities. An inappropriate preform, which
causes a small radius of the curvature of the metal flow
front with a concave shape as shown in Figure 1, may lead
to a folding defect in the forged product. On the other hand,
the preform with a large radius of curvature could result in
a complete filling without defects. It is also possible to
have a boundary of the metal flow that bulges outward. In
such a case, the complete die filling could easily be
achieved. This concept has been used to develop a measure of quality of metal flows for preform design.
Three-stage Cold Forging of Micro Gear. A threestages forging process was developed to fabricate micro
involute spur gears which employ a module of 0.4 mm, a
pressure angle of 20 and have 8 teeth and an integral shaft
with 1.6 mm diameter. The CAD model and main dimensions of the gear are presented in Figure 2. Based on the
experiences and the consideration of the positioning of the
1209
09.08.2010 14:45:42 Uhr
Metal Forming
workpiece, a three-stages forging process was initially
determined, as shown in Figure 3. The initial design of
preforms was then improved by the Taguchi method to
fulfil the complete filling without folding defects.
were estimated by double cup extrusion tests and the calibration curves obtained from simulations.
Table 1. Factors and levels of Taguchi experiments.
Factor symbols
and names
Friction
factor
Billet
diameter
Upper
length
Lower
length
Upper
radius
Middle
radius
Lower
radius
Stroke
A
(a) Small radius of curvature in metal flow
B
C
D
E
(b) Large radius of curvature in metal flow

Die profile
Circle of curvature
Metal
fl
Figure 1. Forming processes with different metal flow patterns.
Figure 2. CAD model and main dimensions of micro gear.
BB
1st stage
2nd stage
3rd stage
Figure 3. Three-stages forging process of micro gear.
Taguchi Method for Improving Preforms. According

to the Taguchi method, the quality of design can be improved in an efficient way in terms of analysing the effect
of several factors on specific responses. This study uses an
L18
18 orthogonal array to arrange 7 factors for improving the
initial design of the preforms for the forging of micro gear.
According to the experiences and the limits on the geometry and positioning, the factors selected in the study are the
friction factor (A), the billet diameter (B), the upper length
(C), the lower length (D), the upper radius (E), the middle
radius (F), the lower radius (G) and the stroke of the final
stage (H) (see Figure 3 and Table 1). Each factor was
chosen to have three levels except the friction factor using
two levels. The friction factors of 0.02 and 0.1, representing well and normal lubricated conditions respectively,
1210
Unit
1st experiment
Level
1
2
3
Nil
0.02
0.1
mm
2.5
mm
0.8
mm
2nd experiment
Level
1
2
3
0.02
0.1
3.5
2.5
3.5
0.9
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.7
2.1
1.3
1.7
2.1
mm
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.8
0.9
mm
0.5
1.5
0.3
0.4
0.5
mm
1.5
2.5
1.5
2.5
95
98
100
90
93
95
Simulations. The three-stage forging process of micro

gear was simulated by a commercial package DEFORM
3D. The punch and the die were considered as rigid materials and the workpiece was modelled by having rigidplastic behaviours. To obtain the stress-strain curves for
the simulations, simple upsetting tests were also conducted
at room temperature. The constant shear model was employed to model the friction at the contact interface between the workpiece and the dies. Due to the axisymmetric and periodical conditions on the arrangement of gear
teeth, only one eighth of the gear was constructed to reduce computational time. Moreover, numerical tests for
assessing the validity of the simulations were also performed. The result shows the convergence on forging load
can be made for the workpiece model having more than
50000 finite elements, which was applied to all test conditions in the Taguchi method for improving the preforms.
The punch speed of 0.1 mm/s was used in all simulations
and also in later experiments.
Analysis. The radius of the curvature in the final stage
forging was calculated by the least-square-method from
the simulated results for all test conditions. Figure 4
shows the circles of the curvature of the flow front in the
workpiece at 80% and 95 % of the strokes in the final
stage forging. The case (a) with smaller values of the curvature radius is more likely to result in folding defects
than the case (b), which has been observed in the simulations. In this study, the mean value of three least values of
the curvature radius was used to calculate signal-to-noise
(S/N) ratios for analysing the effect of all test conditions
on preforms. To reduce the potential folding defects, the
measured value of the curvature radius was expected to be
as large as possible, i.e. the larger-the-better case was
desired in this study. The S/N ratios presented in Figure
5(a) show the stroke (H), the lower radius (G) and the
upper length (C) are most important factors affecting the
die filling in the 1st Taguchi experiment. The S/N ratio
responses also show the optimum values for the billet
diameter (B), the lower length (D) and the lower radius (G)
09.08.2010 14:45:45 Uhr
Metal Forming
have been obtained. Therefore, only the others factors
were adjusted for the 2nd Taguchi experiment. Figure 5(b)
shows the optimum condition for the larger-the-better
quality characteristic is A2B2C3D2E3 F1G2H1. For 18 conditions in the standard L18 orthogonal arrays, the number of
cases without folding defects in the final stage increased
from 4 to 7 and the minimum curvature radius decreased
from 2.81 mm to 2.65 mm after the 2nd experiment. The
results show the Taguchi analysis improves the preform
design. The optimum condition was later used to create the
shapes of the dies and punches for the forging of micro
gear.
load capacity of 50 kN and a position accuracy of 0.01

mm. Commercially produced copper rods (JIS C1100)
were used to prepare billets for the experiments. The billets were lubricated with MoS2-based grease and a punch
speed of 0.1 mm/s was applied for all experiments. The
developed system has successfully produced micro gears
as presented in Figure 6.
Top plate
Upper die
older
1X
1X
(a) The forming condition resulting in small curvature circles
(b) The forming condition resulting in large curvature circles

Figure 4. Three smallest curvature circles of metal flow fronts
indicated by arrows at 80% and 95% of stroke for two different
forming conditions.
Response
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
B1 B2 B3
C1 C2 C3
D1 D2 D3
E1 E2 E3
F1 F2 F3
G1 G2 G3
H1 H2 H3
Main effects
(a) 1st Taguchi experiment

4
Response
Workpiece
Forgin
g Die
Bottom die
older
(a) Schematic illustration of die

assembly
(b) Die assembly
20X
20X
A1 A2
Punch
(c) Die and punches
(d) Billet, preforms and forged gears
Figure 6. Experimental setup.

Die Filling. It is important to ensure a complete filling
of the tooth cavities without folding defects. If the preforms were not appropriate, it is possible to cause folds in
forged gears. A predicted result as illustrated in Figure
7(a) shows potential folding defects may occur in the
corners of the teeth. These defects have been successfully
removed by using the proposed preform design method, as
presented in Figure 7(b).
2
0
-2
-4
-6
A1 A2
B1 B2 B3
C1 C2 C3
D1 D2 D3
E1 E2 E3
F1 F2 F3
G1 G2 G3
H1 H2 H3
Main effects
(b) 2nd Taguchi experiment

Figure 5. Plots of main effects.
Experiments
A close-die forging system shown in Figure 6 was developed to produce micro gears. The upper die holder was
pressed by the springs and aligned with the bottom die
holder through the forging die. During the forging process,
the punch slides inside the forging die to ensure the alignment. To fabricate the cavities of the forging dies, micro
electrical discharging machining was employed. The developed forging system was installed on a press with a
(a) With potential folding defects
(b) Without folding defects
Figure 7. Predictions of die filling from different conditions.
Load Comparison. The load curve is useful information for the design of metal forming process. Figure 8
shows the predicted loads are in good agreement with
experimental ones and the loads gradually increase with
the punch stroke in all stages of the forging processes.
1211
09.08.2010 14:45:46 Uhr
Metal Forming
Flow Patterns. The flow patterns given in Figure 9
show the tooth cavities were completely filled. The grains
in the tooth are smaller than those in the center region.
Moreover, the flow lines exist along the tooth surfaces,
which could improve the strength of the forged gear.
Preforms. The initial design of preforms for the threestages forging was improved by the Taguchi method. Figure 10 show that a completely filling without folding
defects has been obtained and confirmed by both simulations and experiments.
(a) Simulation
10
(b) Experiment
Load (kN)
Figure 10. Developed forging process of micro gear.
Experiment
Simulation
Conclusions
4
2
0
0
0.25
0.5
0.75
1.25
1.5
Stroke (mm)
(a) 1st stage
Load (kN)
8
6
Simulation
4
Experiment
2
0
0
0.25
0.5
0.75
1.25
1.5
Stroke (mm)
(b) 2nd stage
Load (kN)
20
Acknowledgements
Simulation
15
10
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial

support of the National Science Council of Taiwan (Grant
No. 97-2221-E-151-027).
Experiment
5
0
0
0.25
0.5
0.75
1.25
1.5
Stroke (mm)
(c) 3rd stage

Figure 8. Forging load comparisons.
A
B
C
(a) Forged gear
(b) Micrograph
Figure 9. Forged gear and its photomicrographs.
1212
This study considers that the metal flows with convex

fronts can easily lead to a complete filling of die cavity
without folding defects. This concept was used to develop
the proposed method of preform design for three-stages
cold-forging process of micro gears. The following conclusions were made:
1. The proposed method based on the evaluation of the
curvature radius of metal flow front can be used to assess the potential folding defects in forging.
2. The method combined with the Taguchi analysis has
been successfully applied to improve the preforms for
the forging of micro gear.
3. Both simulated and experimental results demonstrate
the usability of the proposed method for forging preform design.
1.75
References
[1] M. Geiger, M. Kleiner, R. Eckstein, N. Tiesler, U. Engel: CIRP
Annals-Manufacturing Technology, 50 (2001), 445-462.
[2] U. Engel, R. Eckstein: Journal of Materials Processing Tech., 125
(2002), 35-44.
[3] F. Vollertsen, H. Schulze Niehoff, Z. Hu: International Journal of
Machine Tools and Manufacture, 46 (2006), 1172-1179.
[4] L. Peng, X. Lai, H. Lee, J. Song, J. Ni: Materials Science &
Engineering A, 526 (2009), 93-99.
[5] M. Bakhshi-Jooybari, I. Pillinger, P. Hartley, T. Dean: International
Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, 36 (1996), 1021-1032.
[6] R. Roy, K. Chodnikiewicz, R. Balendra: Journal of Materials
[7] J. Chung, S. Hwang: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 72
(1997), 69-77.
[8] L. Fourment, J. Chenot: International Journal for Numerical Methods
in Engineering, 39 (1996), 33-50.
[9] G. Zhao, E. Wright, R. Grandhi: International Journal of Machine
Tools and Manufacture, 36 (1996), 755-769.
[10] C.C. Chang, A.N. Bramley: Proceedings of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering
Science, 214 (2000), 127-136.
[11] A.N. Bramley: Journal of Materials Processing Tech., 116 (2001),
62-66.
09.08.2010 14:45:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
Manufacture of Miniature Bulge Test Apparatus Suitable for Micro-Sheet Metal Forming
Hamid Montazerolghaem 1), Mahmoud Farzin 2), Alireza Fadaei Tehrani2)
1)
Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch / Iran, h_montazerghaem@me.iut.ac.ir;
University of Technology, Isfahan / Iran
2)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Isfahan
With the development of modern industry, the requirements for sheet metal part shape and properties are becoming stricter and tougher. In
sheet metal forming operations the mechanical properties of the sheet material greatly influence metal flow and product quality and limits of
forming. Therefore, accurate determination of the mechanical properties of sheet metal is very important for more realistic FEM simulations.
In this research, a simple miniature apparatus for determination of mechanical properties of very thin sheet metals is proposed. Thin sheet
metal samples are formed into dome shapes. By measuring the applied pressure and thickness and radius of formed samples, the yield
stresses of the samples during the forming process can be extracted. Therefore the mechanical properties i.e. the stress-strain curve of the
sample can be evaluated. To measure the applied pressure, a new method is used. In this approach, by signal processing from strain
gauges, the pressure-time diagram can be extracted. In addition FEM simulation has been used which well agrees with results of practical
tests. Simple and quick set up of this system is another advantage of this apparatus.
Keywords: Sheet metal forming, Finite element method, Miniature apparatus, Mechanical property, Signal processing technique
Introduction
The bulge test provides a method to obtain mechanical
properties of a sheet metal. In many cases it is necessary to
develop materials and/or monitor performance of components used in the petroleum industry, chemical plants,
thermal power stations, etc. The requirement of a miniature specimen test technique has arisen in the last few
years. The nature of design for small systems necessitates
the development and application of a small specimen test
techniques [1]. To determine forming limit diagrams
(FLDs), engineers are using a variety of tests and the bulge
test is one of them [2].
The problem that commonly has occurred is the measurement of the mechanical properties of thin sheet metal
using bulge tests. In this research a viscous bulge test
method specifically designed for very thin sheets has been
proposed.
Medium viscosity has a favorite result on distributions
of stresses and sheet thickness. The stress states of the
sheet during bulging are shown in Figure 1. The friction
role can be ignored during hydro bulging, so the sheet only
bears the normal pressure (Figure 1(a)). When a steel
punch or polyurethane medium is used, only a local area
of sheet bears the normal pressure and friction force due to
rigidity of the tool (Figure 1(b)). Of course, the normal
pressure and the friction force will be distributed over the
whole sheet surface gradually, in the forming process,
when bulging with polyurethane. In viscous pressure forming (VPF), the friction role cannot be ignored because of
the high viscosity of the viscous medium. Thus besides the
normal pressure, there is a tangential friction force (Figure
1(c)) [3].
The objective of this study is to develop a simple practical method to determine stress-strain behavior of very thin
sheet metals by the bulge test and using a viscous material
as a pressure medium. In the development of this method,
a new approach for determination of applied pressure is
used. In this approach signals from strain gauges are processed and hence pressure-time diagrams can be recorded.
Besides experiments finite element simulation of the hydraulic bulge are carried out. As an example, flow stress
curve of very thin copper sheet has been evaluated with
the viscous pressure bulge (VPB) test.
a
Pi
b
c
fi
fi
Pi
Pi
Figure 1. Force states of sheet: (a) hydro-bulging, (b) steel or

polyurethane bulging and (c) viscous medium bulging [3].
Components of Viscous Miniature Bulge Test Apparatus

In viscous bulge test apparatus, a viscous medium is
employed for generating pressure on one side of sheet
metal. The experimental setup is schematically illustrated
in Figure 2. A ground cylinder and piston as shown are
used in this apparatus to generate the required pressure.
These ground parts have been made from hardened steel
with 2 microns accuracy.
In this apparatus, two pairs of V-Rings as shown in Figure 3, are used for effective sealing of pressure chamber
and preventing leakage of the viscous fluid. To perform
the test, the sheet metal is clamped between these two
pairs of circular v-rings i.e. the middle face and lower face
of the die. Thus, the sheet metal is only allowed to stretch
with no drawing. Then the pressure chamber is filled with
a viscous medium through the ground cylinder.
When the ground piston moves down, the piston pushes
the medium into the upper face of sheet. When piston is
moving down, trapped air on the top of cylinder as well as
1213
09.08.2010 14:45:47 Uhr
Metal Forming
some of the viscous fluid is drained out through the air
vent holes on cylinder body. Then piston moves downwards and pressure is generated within the medium. This
pressure acts on the upper side of sheet surface which
stretches the sheet. Pressure is built in the pressure chamber and hence the sheet is deformed as the piston moves
down.
Upper Plate
Ground Cylinder
Air vent
Die holder
Pressure chamber
Sheet metal
Lower plate
Lower plate
Sensor position
Design of Pressure Chamber for Bulge Test Apparatus

In this work, a hydraulic press is used and maximum
acting force is 30000N. Since the diameter of VPF piston
is 10mm then target pressure in the forming chamber is
400MPa. Considering the maximum pressure and diameter
of the chamber, total clamping force can be calculated
which is about 500KN. The required screws can then be
designed based on this clamping force.
Finite element simulation and material selection for the
chamber holder MO40 steel (corresponding with DIN
42CrMo4) was used for pressure chamber holder. This
type of steel has a very good stiffness.
A stress analysis was performed on the components of
viscous miniature bulge test apparatus by the finite element
methods.
The result of finite element simulation of pressure
chamber holder is shown in Figure 4. Simulation result is
verified and compared with thick cylinder theory. Von
Misses stresses shown in Figure 4., ensures that pressure
chamber can withstand the required pressures with a safety
factor of 3.
Air vent hole
Strain gage
Figure 2. Miniature bulge test apparatus.
2 V-rings
Figure 4. Finite element results on pressure chamber.
Determination of Flow Stress Curve

Figure 3. Effective sealing by 2 V-rings.
1214
For the determination of the flow stress curve, it is necessary to know the radius and the thickness at the top of
09.08.2010 14:45:48 Uhr
Metal Forming
the dome during the deformation. The radius and the
thickness are calculated as a function of the dome height.
Hill [4] proposed an analytical method to describe the
deformation in the hydraulic bulge test. In his calculations
he assumed that the locus of each point on the sheet is a
circle during the deformation. With this assumption the
thickness at the top of the dome can be calculated by the
following equation [4]:
(1)
where dc is the diameter of the cavity, hd is the dome
height, t0 blank thickness and td is the thickness at the top
of the dome as shown in Figure 5.
where Rd and dc are the radius of the dome and the diameter of the cavity respectively and hd the dome height fillet
in the cavity.
In the present work, the pressure-time diagram can be
extracted by signal processing from a strain gauge output.
Also by using a displacement measuring sensor the height
of dome shapetime diagram is obtained. Hence stressstrain curve can be obtained from the above mentioned
equations.
Pressure in the viscous media also acts on the pressure
chamber. Then this pressure causes a tension on the strain
gauge which was mounted on the ground cylinder. Deformation of this strain gauge unbalances the Weston Bridge
as shown in Figure 6. The output voltage from Weston
Bridge can be recorded and hence the pressure curve can
be obtained. The strain gauge used in this apparatus was
FLA-6-240-11-002LE made by Japan with 6 mm length
and 120 Ohm resistant.
Figure 5. Bulge test geometry.
Sketches of the die for the bulging experiment are

shown in Figure 5. The diameter of the die is 20 mm,
and the die profile radius is 2.5 mm.
The relationship between measured strain by strain gage
and pressure in the chamber is obtained by the following
equation:
(2)
where P is pressure in the chamber, r and t are mean radius and thickness of the ground cylinder, respectively and
K is a constant.
During the experiments, the bulging pressure is measured by signal processing from a strain gauge located in
ground cylinder of the viscous medium and the height of
dome shape was measured by non contact displacement
sensor of lower plate as shown in Figure 2. By this procedure sheet metal mechanical properties were obtained.
By using a constant pressure which is applied on the
sheet, maximum displacement of the center point (dome
height) can be measured. Stress and strain of each point on
stress-strain curve can be obtained by [4].
Figure 6. Strain gauge in Weston Bridge.
A FEM model is used to simulate bulge test with known

material. The simulation results are shown in Figure 7,
where the Von Misses stresses of a thin cooper sheet are
plotted. The edge of the sheet is completely constrained. A
rigid die with a coefficient of friction of 0.1 is assumed.
Simulation result has been verified by experimental result
and it was shown that difference between FEM simulation
and experimental results was less than 10% which shows a
good agreement and hence verifies the FEM results.
(3)
(4)
where td is calculated by Eq. (1) and Rd is obtained by [4].
(5)
Figure 7. Simulation bulge test result.
1215
09.08.2010 14:45:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
The dome height (hd) which is measured in experimental
result has been compared with results in these simulations.
Step time and mesh sizes were also altered to check the
FEM accuracy. This proves that the results are mesh and
time independent.
The deformed copper sheet in the bulge test apparatus
Figure 10. Result of zooming on pressure curve.
Conclusions
Figure 8. Deformed thin cooper sheet in bulge test.
The pressure recording system was very sensitive. As an

example the pressure curve caused by two impact loads
were recorded and is shown in Figure 9.
The soft-ware used, can monitor 2 output channels such
as pressure and displacement simultaneously.
Figure 9. Impact pressure curve obtained from signal processing.
The measured pressure curve by this method can be captured accurately, particularly by selective zooming on the
pressure curve. Figure 10 shows the result of zooming on
pressure curve.
1216
Accurate determination of the mechanical properties of

thin sheet metal is very important for more realistic FEM
simulations. In this work, an innovative bulge test apparatus for determination of mechanical property for very thin
sheet metals and miniature parts was developed. An experimental apparatus was made to show the feasibility of
the idea. The objective of this study was to develop a simple and practical method to determine flow stress-strain
behavior using the hydraulic bulge test where a viscous
fluid is used as a pressure medium instead of a hydraulic
fluid.
Besides experiments, FEM simulations of the bulge test
were performed for thin copper sheet (0.1 mm thick) and
FEM results were in close agreement with experiments.
Among the advantages of the designed apparatus was
rapid and easy set-up of equipment.
This was concluded that the proposed miniature bulge
test apparatus is suitable to determine mechanical properties of very thin sheets to be used for micro-sheet metal
forming. This apparatus operates based on signal processing of a strain gauge and a displacement transducer. Main
advantages of this method are high accuracy and feasibility of wide range of pressure measurements. In other
words the pressure curve can be captured and recorded
accurately and in detail.
References
[1] M.P. Manahan, A.S. Argon, O.K Harling: Journal of Nuclear Materials, 103-104 (1981), 1545.
[2] M. Aghaie-Khafri, R. Mahmudi: International Journal Mechanical
Science, 46-49 (2004), 1289-1300.
[3] X.Y. Wang, J.C. Xia, G.A. Hua, Z.J. Wang, Z.R. Wang: Journal of
[4] R. Hill: Phil. Mag., 7 (1950), 1133-1142.
[5] H. Montazerolghaem, M. Farzin, A.R. Fadaei Tehrani: Proc. 9th
International Conference on Technology of Plasticity, (2008), 11341139.
[6] M. Farzin, H. Montazerolghaem: Journal of Archives Metallurgy and
Materials, 54 (2009), 501-513.
[7] G. Montay, M. Franc-ois, M. Tourneix, B. Guelorget, C. Vial-Edwards,
I. Lira: Journal of Optics and Lasers in Engineering, 45 (2007), 222228.
[8] D. Xu, K.M. Liechti: Experimental Mechanics, 50(2010), 217-225.
[9] H. Shim, D.Y. Yang: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 169
(2005), 134-142.
09.08.2010 14:45:49 Uhr
Metal Forming
Microscale Laser Peen Forming of Titanium Foil

Chao Zheng, Sheng Sun, Zhong Ji, Wei Wang, Jing Liu
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution & Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan / Peoples
Republic of China, zhongji@umich.edu
Microscale laser peen forming is a novel micro-forming process which employs the shock wave induced by the transient, intense laser
pulse to deform thin metals to 3D configurations, and it has great potential to become a flexible manufacturing process for MEMS components. In the present study, microscale laser peen forming of commercial pure titanium was investigated by both numerical and
experimental methods. An FEM model was proposed to simulate the dynamic deformation of the shocked material which was implemented
in two steps: plastic deformation calculation of the metal sheet during the laser shock loading and the springback analysis in the static
equilibrium. The effects of laser energy, die diameter and sheet thickness on the forming behaviour of titanium foils were studied. Both the
experimental and numerical results show that: (1) Microscale laser peen forming can be used for plastic forming of titanium foils as a high
speed forming process at the micron level. (2) With the increase of sheet thickness, the height of formed parts decreases, while the degree
of forming becomes larger as the enhancement of laser energy. (3) The dome height is almost constant with change of die diameter, but the
ratio of the dome height to the die diameter decreases as the die diameter increases.
Keywords: Microscale laser peen forming, Forming mechanism, Numerical modelling, Technological parameters, Laser shock wave
Introduction
Microscale laser peen forming is a novel laser processing technology that can not only fabricate 3D micro parts,
but also impart compressive residual stresses in the target.
In the traditional laser thermal forming process, the inhomogeneous distribution of temperature in the thickness
direction of the metal sheet is usually responsible for the
deformation. However, microscale laser peen forming is a
non-thermal laser forming method using the highamplitude shock wave pressure induced by the laser irradiation. Therefore, this process combines the beneficial
effects of microscale laser shock peening with the advantages of laser thermal forming, and shows a promising
application for fabrication of micro electro-mechanical
systems based components.
Vollertsen et al. experimentally investigated the influence of technological parameters on the deformation of
aluminum with 50 m thickness in laser stretch-forming
[1]. Vollertsen et al. further studied the forming behavior
of stainless steel and copper foils with different number of
pulses in laser stretch-forming [2]. To better understand
the complex influence of technological parameters on the
deformation mechanism of metals in microscale laser peen
forming, a combination of numerical and experimental
methods is quite effective. Yao et al. employed both the
experimental and numerical approach to study the laser
induced micro-bending process of copper and single crystal aluminum [3-5]. Ocaa et al. also studied laser microbending of stainless steel strips by means of numerical
simulations and experiments [6]. It has been improved that
the combination of numerical and experimental methods is
a beneficial way to reveal the forming mechanism of metals in microscale laser peen forming.
In this paper, microscale laser peen forming of commercial pure titanium is studied using both numerical and
experimental methods. An explicit/implicit finite element
analysis model was developed to simulate the plastic deformation of materials during laser shock process. The
effects of laser energy, die diameter, and sheet thickness

on the degree of forming were investigated.
Principle of Microscale Laser Peen Forming
In a typical microscale laser peen forming process, the
metal target is subjected to a very strong shock pressure
(1~10 GPa), a quite short interaction time (10-100 ns) and
extremely high strain rates (106-107 /s). The metal target is
placed on a mold and a confining overlay and an absorbent
coating are laid above the target. The confining overlay of
water or glass can confine the produced plasma and increase the magnitude of shock pressure. The absorbent
coating, having a lower threshold of vaporization than that
of the metal target, can protect the targets surface from
laser ablation. While a short, intense laser pulse (1~10
GW/cm2) irradiates the target, the absorbent coating vaporizes and forms a plasma. After that, the expansion of
the plasma creates a shock wave and propagates into the
target. If the pressure of the shock wave exceeds the dynamic yield strength of the target, plastic deformation
occurs and the target expands to a specific configuration.
Due to the short laser-material interaction time, only the
absorbent coating is vaporized during the process. Hence,
microscale laser peen forming is a non-thermal forming
technique, and the shock wave is the unique energy source
for the plastic deformation.
A Q-switched Nd: yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser
with a wavelength of 1064 nm was used in microscale
laser peen forming. The pulse duration was 11 ns and the
laser beam diameter was 1 mm. A 1 mm thick quartz glass
was placed above the sample as the confining overlay, and
a thin layer of black paint (about 50 m in thickness) was
spread evenly on the samples top surface as the absorbent
coating. The sample was clamped tightly by the holder to
be bulged during the process. The schematic of experimental setup is shown in Figure 1.
1217
09.08.2010 14:45:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
Reflecting mirror
Reflecting mirror
Laser beam
the following 11-33 ns, as shown in Figure 2(a). The

shock pressure was assumed non-uniform in the irradiation
region of the laser spot and calculated by
r2
P ( r , t ) = P ( t ) exp 2
2r
0
Shock wave
Black paint
Forming die
Unformed sample
Formed sample
X-Y stage
pressure /GPa
Q-switch
Nd: YAG
laser
Quartz glass
Numerical Modeling
Analysis Procedure. The commercial finite element
code MSC.MARC was employed to accomplish the simulation. The simulation was divided into two steps. Firstly,
an explicit dynamic transient analysis was performed to
solve the dynamic response of the material during the laser
shock loading. Typically, the time of the explicit solution
is run two orders of magnitude longer than the pressure
pulse duration to make sure that all plastic deformation has
occurred [7]. After the dynamic analysis finished, the
information of the transient deformation state was imported into the MSC.MARC again to perform an implicit
static analysis to obtain the springback deformation in the
final static equilibrium.
Laser-Generated Shock Pressure. The analytical shock
pressure model proposed by Fabbro et al. was adopted, so
the peak pressure induced in a confined geometry can be
given by the following relationship [8]
4
3
2
1
0
Figure 1. Schematic of experimental setup.
(2)
where P(t) is the pressure at a certain moment deriving

from the temporal curve of the shock pressure; r is the
radial distance from the center of the laser beam; r0 is the
radius of the laser spot (r0=0.5 mm). The spatial distribution of the shock pressure over the laser spot is shown in
Figure 2(b).
Convergent lens
Holder
Pressure /GPa
The samples of commercial pure titanium with 30 m

and 50 m thicknesses have been chosen in this study.
Pure titanium offers a good balance between moderate
strength and ductility, so it has a wide application in industry. After the shocking process, the remaining absorbent
coating was solved by acetone solution, and the shockinduced deformation was measured. For each laser shock
condition, a single pulse was applied on the sample.
10
20
30
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4
time /ns
Distance /mm
(a) Temporal distribution
(b) Spatial distribution
Figure 2. Profiles of temporal and spatial distributions of shock
pressure (Pmax=4.89 GPa, laser duration=11 ns, r0=0.5 mm).
Constitutive Model. In the numerical simulation, the

Johnson-Cook plasticity law was chosen to account for the
plastic behaviour of the material at high strain rates. In
microscale laser peen forming, the temperature effect is
negligible because there is no thermal effect, so the Johnson-Cook model can be modified to
y = A + B n 1 + C ln
(3)
where y is the dynamic yield strength; is strain; is

strain rate and 0 is the reference strain rate ( 0 =0.01 /s).
A, B, C and n are material constants. For studied commercial pure titanium, the main mechanical properties and
Johnson-Cook constants are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Material parameters of commercial pure titanium [9].

2
2
9
Pmax ( GPa ) =
Z kg / m s I 0 W/m 10 (1)
+
2
3
Density
4.51103 kg/m3
Poissons ratio
0.34
Elastic modulus
112.5 GPa
where is the efficiency of the interaction ( = 0.1);

Z=2/(1/Z1+1/Z2) is the shock wave reduced impedance; Z1
is the impedance of pure titanium (Z1=2.25107 kg/m2s)
and Z2 is the impedance of quartz glass (Z2=1.31107
kg/m2s); I0 is the laser power density. The peak pressure
Pmax obtained from the above model ranged from 3.47 to
4.89 GPa while the laser power density was in the 2.32 to
4.631013 W/m2 range.
For the temporal history of the shock pressure in a single
laser shock process, a triangular simplified model was
used in the simulation. The shock pressure rises linearly to
the peak value at 11 ns and then decreases linearly during
0 MPa
725.2 MPa
1218
) (
0.025
0.1434
FEM Model. In the simulation, an axisymmetric deformation state was assumed, as shown in Figure 3. This is
reasonable because the shapes of both the die hole and
laser spot are round. To accurately calculate the dynamic
response of the material, refined elements were applied
both in the radial and axial directions for the material in
the die hole. All degrees of freedom of the material out of
09.08.2010 14:45:50 Uhr
Metal Forming
the die hole were constrained because this region of the

sample was clamped tightly by the holder in the experiment. The quadrilateral axisymmetric ring elements were
employed in the analysis.
Laser shock zone
Metal sheet
Holder
1mm
1mm
(a) t=30 m
(b) t=50 m
Figure 5. Images of titanium samples with 30 m and 50 m
thicknesses (Pmax=4.89 GPa, die =2.0 mm, a single pulse).
Refined finite elements

Coarse finite elements
Forming die
Radial
Axial
Figure 3. FEM model for microscale laser peen forming.

Deformation Characterization. The samples of titanium foils with 30 m and 50 m thicknesses were calculated, and the global deformation profiles are shown in
Figure 4. It can be seen that the material in the die hole is
bulged downwards to form a dome for the samples with
two thicknesses as a result of laser shock. However, for the
30 m titanium sample, the maximum height of the dome
is up to 283 m, while the maximum value is as small as
167 m for the 50 m titanium sample under the same
shock conditions in the simulation. According to experimental results, it is also clear that as sheet thickness increases, the maximum height of the dome diminishes. The
reason for this phenomenon is that more energy is necessary to make thicker metal sheet deform. Figure 5 shows
the optical images of pure titanium samples with two
thicknesses.
0
-0.05
Depth /mm
-0.1
-0.15
-0.2
50 m, experimental
-0.25
50 m, numerical
30 m, experimental
-0.3
30 m, numerical
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
Distance from centre /mm
Figure 4. Comparison of experimental and numerical dome profiles of titanium samples with 30 m and 50 m thicknesses
(Pmax=4.89 GPa, die =2.0 mm, a single pulse).
Laser shock induced micro-bending of copper strips by

Yao et al. also shows the same trend [4]. The magnitude of
the deformation was about 10 m for the 100 m sample
under the 4.95 GW/cm2 laser density, while the maximum
of the deformation decreased to 5 m for the 200 m sample under the same laser density.
Laser Energy Effect on Deformation. In Figure 6, the

experimental and calculated results under different laser
energies for 30 m titanium samples are shown. Laser
energy of 200, 300 and 400 mJ was used in the study.
According to the numerical results, the sample with 200
mJ is deformed to 201 m whereas the 300 mJ sample is
deformed to 245 m and the 400 mJ sample is deformed to
283 m. On the other hand, the experimental results also
show the trend that the deformation degree increases almost linearly with the laser energy.
0.4
0.3
Depth /mm
Axis of symmetry
0.2
0.1
30 m, experimental
30 m, numerical
0
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Laser energy /mJ
Figure 6. Comparison of experimental and numerical dome height
of 30 m titanium samples with different laser energies (die=2.0
mm, a single pulse).
The effect of laser energy on the deformation in laser

induced micro-bending process was also investigated in
the research of Ocaa et al. [6]. They applied various laser
pulse energies on a thin metallic film of stainless steel 304
under a one-side pinned boundary condition, and found
that the net bending angle of samples became bigger with
the increase of the incident laser energy.
It is obvious that the higher laser energy leads to the
ablation of the absorbent coating more efficiently and a
larger plasma can be generated, so the shock pressure
induced by the expansion of the plasma in the confined
geometry is more powerful and more forming energy is
available for the metal in the die hole. Thus, the sample
subjected to higher laser energy can obtain a larger magnitude of the deformation.
Influence of the Die Diameter on Deformation. The
comparison between the measured deformation height of
the bulged titanium foils and the predicted results by simu-
1219
09.08.2010 14:45:51 Uhr
Metal Forming
lations is displayed in Figure 7. For the die diameters of

1.2, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 mm, both the experimental and numerical results show that the dome height is almost constant. However, it can be seen that the numerical results
tend to overestimate the deformation of titanium samples
in laser shock process. This phenomenon is also shown in
Figure 4 and Figure 6. There may be two reasons accounting for this difference. One is that the shock pressure calculated by the analytical model may be a litter higher than
that in the practical shock experiment; the other is that
Johnson-Cook model could not cover the ultra high strain
rates (>106 /s) in microscale laser peen forming. The material parameters used in the simulation were obtained on a
pendulum-driven tensile Kolsky bar in which the strain
rates ranged from 102 to 103 /s [9]. Due to the absence of
constitutive data of studied material at ultra high strain
rates, we used the constitutive data at low strain rates to
estimate the dynamic response of materials in microscale
laser peen forming.
0.5
30 m, experimental
0.4
30 m, numerical
Depth /mm
F. Vollertsen's results
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
Diameter of the die /mm
of 30 m titanium samples with different diameters of the die.
Aspect ratio
1.2
The effect of the die diameter on laser induced stretchforming of Al 99.5 with 50 m thickness has been investigated by Vollestren et al. [1]. The dome height almost kept
constant for the die diameters of 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 mm, and
the aspect ratio also presented the same trend as the results
in this study, shown in Figurse 7 and 8.
It is manifest that a smaller die diameter means that the
shock pressure will impact to a smaller surface area because the material in the die hole is also smaller. So more
deformation energy is acquired for these materials and a
higher degree of deformation can be achieved.
Conclusions
Microscale laser peen forming of commercial pure titanium samples was investigated using both experimental
and numerical methods. The effects of laser energy, die
diameter, and sheet thickness on the degree of deformation
have been studied, and the following results are obtained:
1. Microscale laser peen forming can be used for plastic
forming of titanium foils as a high speed forming process at the micron scale.
2. As thickness of samples increases, the maximum height
of the dome diminishes.
3. The degree of deformation increases almost linearly
with the laser energy.
4. In the range of die diameters in this study, the dome
height is almost constant. However, the ratio of the
dome height to the die diameter decreases as the die diameter increases.
Acknowledgements
0.3
30 m, experimental
This work is sponsored by the National Natural Science

Foundation of China (No. 50775131, No. 50875154), the
Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province
(No.Y2007F55) and the Scientific Research Foundation
for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry.
0.25
30 m, numerical
F. Vollertsen's results
References
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
Distance of the die /mm
of 30 m titanium samples with different respect raitio.
The degree of forming can also be represented by a ratio

of the dome height to the die diameter, named as the aspect ratio. As seen in Figure 8, the aspect ratio is highest
for samples with 1.2 mm in die diameter and decreases as
the die diameter increases. Both the experimental and
numerical results show the same trend.
1220
[1] F. Vollertsen, H.S. Niehoff: Advanced Materials Research, 6-8 (2005),

433-440.
[2] F. Vollertsen, H.S. Niehoff, H. Wielage: Production Engineering
Research and Development, 3 (2009), 1-8.
[3] Y. Fan, Y. Wang, S. Vukelic, Y.L. Yao: Journal of Applied Physics, 98
(2005), 104904-104914.
[4] Y.N. Wang, Y.J. Fan, S. Vukelic, Y.L. Yao: Journal of Manufacturing
Processes, 9-1 (2007), l-12.
[5] Y.N. Wang, Y.J. Fan, J.W. Kysar, S. Vukelic, Y.L. Yao: Journal of
Applied Physics, 103 (2008), 063525-063532.
[6] J.L. Ocaa, M. Morales, C. Molpeceres, O. Garca, J.A. Porro, J.J.
Garca-Ballesteros: Applied Surface Science, 254-4 (2007), 997-1001.
[7] W. Braisted, R. Brockman: International Journal of Fatigue, 21
(1999), 719-724.
[8] R. Fabbro, J. Fournier, P. Ballard, D. Devaux, J. Virmont : Journal of
Applied Physics, 68-2 (1990), 775-784.
[9] J.M. Yuan, V.P.W. Shim: International Journal of Solids and Structures, 39 (2002), 213-224.
09.08.2010 14:45:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
Conical Expanding Process of Metallic Microtube by Axial Compression

Mohammad Ali Mirzai1), Ken-ichi Manabe2)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hormozgan, Bandar-Abbas, P.O. Box: 3995 / Iran, mirzaima@gmail.com; 2) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo / Japan, manabe@tmu.ac.jp
A conical expanding process of metallic microtube by axial compression was investigated. The microtubes used are made of stainless steel
(SUS 316L) and phosphorous deoxidized copper (C1220). The stainless steel microtube has a 500 m outer diameter and 50 m wall
thickness. The latter has same outer diameter and 25 m wall thickness. Deformation behaviour and expansion limits of the microtubes are
examined by experimental and finite element methods. The formability and forming load are investigated experimentally and numerically
under different lubricant conditions and by using tools with different conical angles. As a result, it is confirmed that formability of microtube
increases with increasing conical tool angle as well as with increasing friction between tool and microtube.
Keywords: Microforming, Microtube, Conical expanding process, Tube end forming, Formability
Introduction
Miniaturization and high packing density of devices
tends to increase because of saving materials, energy,
space and money as well as raising efficiency of them.
They have been demanded in many different fields.
Estimation of miniaturization markets shows that we need
the microparts further and cheaper in near future.
Therefore, the microtechnologies should be transited from
the period of batch production to the period of mass
production. In this field, metal forming takes up quite a
special position due to its well known advantages such as
high production rates, high accuracy, high quality and low
cost for mass production.
Considering sheet, bulk and tube metal forming
processes, the large potentials of this technology are to be
applied in the microworld. However, The material
behavior changes with miniaturization, owing to size
effects that occur when a process is scaled down from its
conventional size to the microscale. There are several
studies [1-4] on microforming technologies, their
problems and some influence factors. For example, in the
micro sheet metal working area, Manabe and co-workers
[5] had examined production of microcup with diameter
500 m and thickness 20 m of SUS304 in the two-stages
micro deep drawing process. In the bulk metal area, there
are several microforming processes such as, extrusion,
upsetting, forging and wire bending. For instant, Saotome
and Iwazaki [6] investigated the backward extrusion
process to produce microgears with a module of 20 m
and a pitch circle of 200 m of LiAlNi amorphous alloy
and Al-78Zn superplastic alloy. For microtubes,
Furushima and Manabe [7,8] studied experimentally and
numerically the fabrication process of superplastic
microtubes using multi-pass dieless drawing. The Zn
22%Al alloy microtube with outer and inner diameters of
190 and 91 m, respectively, was fabricated successfully.
On the other hands, tube end forming processes on the
macroscale were evaluated for thin-walled tubes by
analytical, numerical and experimental methods [9-14].
For example, Manabe and Nishimura [9,10] studied the
effects of the mechanical properties of tubes, lubricants
and punch head semi-cone angle on the flaring process.
Meanwhile, the strain and stress distribution in conical
flaring was also investigated to clarify the deformation

behavior.
There have been few reports on the microtribology of
microtubes. Since the microtube is one of the most
important micromaterials to be used in many microdevices
such as microsensors, microradiators and micro fuel cells,
its microtribology is of great interest. The conical
expanding process of the microtube, as a secondary tube
forming process, is an easy and useful method to deform
the end of microtube for some applications to joinning
microcomponents and etc. Few researches, however, have
been carried out on fundamental forming characteristics of
the process.
The objective of this study is to confirm the conical
expanding process of the microtube by axial compression.
The formability and forming load are investigated
experimentally and numerically under different lubricant
condition and using tools with different conical angles.
Referring to the results, the deformation behavior of the
microtube and some influence factors on the foresaid
process were discussed.
Experiment
Materials Used. The microtubes used are made of
stainless steel (SUS 316L) and phosphorous deoxidized
copper (C1220).
Table 1. Specifications and mechanical properties of metal microtubes used.
Material
Stainless steel Copper
(as-resived)
(SUS316L)
(C1220)
Outer diameter, D0 /m
500
500
Wall thickness, t0 /m
50
25
Production method
Cold drawn
Cold drawn
Young's modulus, E /GPa
193
117
Strength coefficient, k* /MPa
447
240
Strain hardening exponent, n*
0.114
0.247
Total elongation, % (L010 mm)
10.5
1.5
Poisson's ratio,
0.3
0.34
* = k
The specification and mechanical properties of the

metallic microtubes are shown in Table 1. Tensile test was
1221
09.08.2010 14:45:52 Uhr
Metal Forming
carried out to determine the mechanical properties of the
microtubes.
Experimental Apparatus and Procedure. A schematic
illastratration of the conical expading process for the
microtubes is shown in Figure 1. The experiments were
performed in a computer-controlled universal testing
machine with a load cell capacity of 500 N under a
constant crosshead speed of 0.05 mm/min. Under these
conditions, no inertial effects on forming mechanisms are
likely to occur and therefore no dynamic effects in
deformation mechanics needed to be taken into account.
The experiment was carried out under dry and lubricated
conditions at room temperature and before performing the
test, the microtubes were cleaned with acetone in an
ultrasonic cleaner. Also, before each test, the conical tool
and the free end of the fixed microtube were cleaned with
acetone to remove any deposits and to ensure a
mechanically clean condition. The lubricants used were
two spray-type lubricants, a penetrating oil composed of
PTFE and organic molybdenum and a fluorocarbon resin,
which are called in this paper, oil and fluorine, respectively. The oil lubricant is always liquid and its dynamic
and kinematic viscosities at 20 C are 4 mPa.s and
5.2610-6 m2/s, respectively but the fluorine, five minutes
after being sprayed on the tool, changes from liquid to
solid. The conical tools were made by lathe machine and
then polished by means of a centerless grinding machine.
The surface asperity of conical tools are Ra = 0.005 and Rz
= 0.02 m.
e =
De
1
D0
(1)
Simulation
Simulation Models. The numerical simulation of the
conical expanding process for the microtube was implemented with an explicit dynamic finite element code, LSDYNA. The simulation setup was similar to the one in
Figure 1 and the geometries and mechanical properties
were the same as in the experiment. The microtube was
assumed to be an isotropic elasto-plastic body and the
conical tool was assumed to be a rigid body.
For the microtube, two types of models were considered.
To evaluate the deformation behavior in the foresaid process, the microtube was simulated using 3D full model with
a solid structure. The finite element mesh was composed
of 8-nodes brick elements. To determine the expansion
ratio with different conical tool angles and different materials, the microtube was modeled by a 3D full model using
shell elements. The contact conditions were characterized
by classical isotropic Coulomb friction and for both of the
static and dynamic friction coefficients between the microtube and conical tool were considered to be s = d = 0.15.
Deformation Behaviour. The deformation behaviour of
the microtube in the conical expanding process is the same
as that in the flaring test that was investigated experimentally and numerically in [15]. According to those results,
there are the stability and the instability deformations for
the microtubes. In the stability case, the three different
forming phases are (i) elastic deformation, (ii) bending
deformation, and (iii) steady-state expansion deformation.
(a) Experimental apparatus

(b) Mechanism
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of conical expanding process for
metal microtube.
The microtube is fixed using the collet chuck and accurately aligned with the conical tool by means of X-Y table
under a digital microscope. The desired shape of the
microtubes was achieved by forcing conical tools, with
different geometries, into the end of the specimens. The
conical tools with semi-angle = 10, 20 and 30 are
considered in this study to evaluate the effect of conical
tool angle in forming parameters such as formability and
forming load. The deformation behavior of the microtube
was observed during the process using the digital microscope with a magnification of 150X. The expansion ratio
e which expresses the degree of expansion of the microtube in the taper expanding process is defined by:
1222
Figure 2. Forming load vs. displacement curve of microtube in

conical expanding process (Experimental results).
Figure 2 shows the above three forming phases for the

microtube on the forming load displacement curve. The
instability deformations will be explained in the next section.
09.08.2010 14:45:53 Uhr
Metal Forming
Expansion Limits. Expansion of the microtube during
this process is limited by two instability phenomena. The
first one is the loss of global stability due to the buckling
of the straight part of the microtube. If the length of the
microtube is not selected appropriately, steady-state expansion of the microtube is stopped with this phenomenon.
In this study, a suitable microtube length for both materials is 2 mm long, which was obtained by the numerical
analysis. Figure 3 shows the buckling of the stainless steel
microtube in the experimental and numerical results when
the length of microtube has been not selected appropriately.
for expanding the microtube with the same expansion ratio,

conical tools with semi-angles =20 and 30 are more
appropriate than that with =10.
(a) Stainless steel microtube (SUS 316 L)
(a) Experiment
(b) Simulation
Figure 3. Buckling of microtube occurred in conical expanding
process.
The second instability phenomenon is the diffuse necking that starts at a stage of the expansion process when the
circumferential strain at free end of the microtube reaches
certain critical value. As shown in Figure 4, multi-necking
sometimes occurred instead of a necking. In this case,
maximum expansion ratio e max is calculated according to
Eq. (1).
(b) Copper microtube (C1220)

Figure 5. Effect of Conical tool angle on forming load (Numerical
results).
The effect of conical tool angle on maximum expansion

ratio e max was investigated experimentally and numerically for both microtubes under oil lubrication.
(a) Simulation
(b) Experiment
Figure 4. Multi-necking of microtube occurred in conical expanding process.
Effect of Conical Tool Angle. Figure 5 (a) and (b)

show the effect of conical tool angle on the forming load
for the stainless steel and copper microtubes, respectively.
As shown in these figures, in the steady expansion deformation stage larger than expansion ratio e = 0.1, forming
load for both microtubes is higher when using conical tool
with semi-angle =10 and it is almost equal to each other
when using conical tools with =20 and 30. Therefore,
Figure 6. Effect of conical tool angle on maximum expansion ratio

of microtubes (experimental and numerical results).
In the numerical method, the maximum expansion ratio of

the microtube, e max, was calculated by using Oyane
ductile fracture criterion [16] , which is the same as the
flaring limit in the flaring test of microtube [15]. As shown
in Figure 6, the maximum expansion ratio of microtube, emax, increases with increasing semi-angle of coni1223
09.08.2010 14:45:54 Uhr
Metal Forming
cal tool. It means that the formability of microtube in the
expanding process when using conical tool with semiangle =30 is higher than when using conical tools with
=10 and 20.
Effect of Lubrication. The effect of lubrication on the
forming load displacement curve for the stainless steel
microtube is shown in Figure 7. The deformation behaviour of the microtube does not affect with applying different lubricant conditions because the path and tendency of
curves are similar. However, the load peaks change with
using different lubricant conditions because of changing
friction. The load peaks is maximum in the case of dry
condition and it is minimum when using fluorine.
Figure 7. Effect of lubrication on forming load vs. displacement

curve (Experimental results).
Figure 8 shows the effect of lubrication on the maximum expansion ratio e max for the stainless steel microtube. In the case of dry condition, the e max is higher than
when using lubricants and it is lower than others when
using fluorine.
Figure 8. Effect of lubrication on maximum expansion ratio of

microtube (Experimental results).
1224
This means that formability of the microtube in this

process is higher when using dry condition and is lower
when using fluorine lubricant. Also, as shown in Figures 7
and 8, the effect of lubrication on the e max is similar to
that on the forming load. Therefore, it is concluded that the
formability of the microtube in this process improves with
increasing friction between conical tool and microtube.
Conclusions
Basic forming characteristics of a conical expanding
process of the metallic microtube by axial compression
were investigated, and the following results were obtained:
1. By comparison with the reported results of conical expanding process of metallic tubular materials on the
macroscale, the deformation behaviour of microtube in
this process is similar to that on the macroscale.
2. The formability of the microtube increases with increasing conical tool angle.
3. The formability of the microtube increases with increasing friction between the conical tool and microtube.
Also, the forming load decreases with decreasing friction between the conical tool and microtube.
4. The forming load and formability of the microtube in
this process when using fluorine as solid lubricant is
lower than when using oil as well as dry condition. Also,
in case of oil condition, they are lower than dry condition and higher than fluorine condition.
References
[1] M. Geiger, M. Kleiner, R. Eckstein, N. Tiesler, and U. Engel: CIRP
Annals - manufacturing technology, 50 (2001), 445-462.
[2] Y. Qin: International Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 177
(2006), 8-18.
[3] U. Engel: Wear, 260 (2005), 26-273.
[4] S. Mahabunphachai, M. Koc: International Journal of Machine Tools
and Manufacture, 48 (2008), 1014-1029.
[5] K. Manabe, T. Shimizu, H. Koyama, M. Yang, K. Ito: Journal of
[6] Y. Saotome, H. Iwazaki: Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
119 (2001), 307-311.
[7] T. Furushima, K. Manabe: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 187-188 (2007), 236-240.
[8] T. Furushima, K. Manabe: Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, 191 (2007), 59-63.
[9] K. Manabe, H. Nishimura: Journal of the Japan Society for
Technology of Plasticity, 24 (1983), 47-51, (in Japanese).
[10] K. Manabe, H. Nishimura: Journal of the Japan Society for
Technology of Plasticity, 24 (1983), 276-282, (in Japanese).
[11] T. Daxner, F.G. Rammerstorfer, F.D. Fischer: Journal of Computer
Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 194 (2005), 25912603.
[12] F.D. Fischer, F.G. Rammerstorfer, T. Daxner: Journal of Mechanical
Science, 48 (2006), 1246-1255.
[13] M.L. Alves, B.P.P. Almeida, P.A.R. Rose, P.A.E. Martins: Journal of
[14] Y.H. Lu: Journal of Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, 40
(2004), 305-318.
[15] M.A. Mirzai, K. Manabe, T. Mabuchi: Journal of Materials
[16] M. Oyane, T. Sato, K. Okimoto, S. Shima: Journal of Mechanical
Working Technology, 4 (1980), 65-81.
09.08.2010 14:45:55 Uhr
Metal Forming
Effect of Plastic Anisotropy on Micro-Deep-Drawability of Ultra-Thin Metal Foils

Tetsuhide Shimizu1), Masahiro Ogawa1), Kuniyoshi Ito2), Ken-ichi Manabe1)
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo / Japan,
simizu-tetuhide@ed.tmu.ac.jp ,2) Microfabrication Laboratory Llc., Tokyo / Japan
Metal foils have great advantages to produce microcomponents with high-aspect three-dimensional shapes by miniaturizing the process
dimensions of sheet metal forming technologies. In order to characterize the existing rolled metal foils in a manufacturing site and to clarify
the impact on micro formability, tensile tests and geometrically scaled micro deep drawing tests of ultra-thin rolled phosphor bronze foils
with thickness of 20 to 300 m were performed experimentally. Ultra-thin rolled foils indicated the general tendency of high strength and
considerably low elongation. In addition, mean normal anisotropy, r , and planar anisotropy, r , were calculated, and lower mean normal
anisotropy in thinner foils was shown. The trend of normal anisotropy in different thickness had a correlation with thickness distribution in
micro deep drawing experiment, which was precisely evaluated from the tiny drawn cups. Moreover, it was found that the large thickness
reduction at cup corner part due to low normal anisotropy generates the larger surface roughening at cup corner radius. The availability and
the importance of normal anisotropy in micro sheet metal forming for ultra-thin foils were experimentally demonstrated.
Keywords: Microforming, Rolled metal foil, Plastic anisotropy, Micro deep drawing, Tensile test, Mean normal anisotropy, Surface roughening, Phosphor bronze
Introduction
Microforming technology has been receiving much attention as one of the most economical mass production
methods for microcomponents [1]. Especially, metal foils
have great advantages to produce high-aspect threedimensional shapes by miniaturizing process dimensions
of sheet metal forming technologies. However, due to size
effects, the process cannot directly be transferred to microscale [2].
Over the last decade, a number of basic researches of
size effect on material properties in sheet metals have been
performed worldwide by several testing methods, e.g.
tensile test [3-8], bending test [4-6,9], and bulge test
[7,8,10]. General understanding of these researches is that
material flow stress strongly relates to the decreasing ratio
of sheet thickness to grain size and the increasing strain
gradient with thinning of sheet metals. Although these
results are comprehensive to apply the size effect to ultrathin metal foils theoretically, almost of the studies were
investigated by using annealed homogeneous isotropic
materials in terms of the study on size effects.
Meanwhile, in manufacturing site, rolled metal foils are
widely provided. Because of high reduction ratio in foil
rolling process, microstructure and plastic characteristics
might have strong anisotropy and there would be a large
difference with annealed homogeneous material. Several
characteristics for thin rolled sheets or foils were reported,
e.g. high tensile strength and low elongation [3], higher
bending force and large springback [6], and low mean
normal anisotropy [4]. Although the results showed the
basic characteristics of thin rolled foils, the effects on
micro sheet formability are not well discussed.
The aim of this study is to characterize the existing
rolled metal foil in manufacturing site and to clarify the
impact on micro formability. In our previous report [11],
the difference in micro-deep-drawability between rolled
and annealed phosphor bronze foils was demonstrated. In
the present study, we focused on plastic anisotropy, r-value,
which indicates the ratio of thickness strain to width strain
in tensile test, and is well known as one of the index parameters for conventional sheet formability. In order to
firstly understand the difference in plastic anisotropy of
rolled metal foils with different thickness, tensile tests of
phosphor bronze foils with a thickness of 20 to 200 m
were conducted. Moreover, geometrically scaled micro
deep drawing tests with the three different thickness foils
were performed to investigate the influence of the plastic
anisotropy on micro formability,
Plastic Anisotropy of Thin Rolled Foils with Different
Thickness
Materials. Thin rolled phosphor bronze foils (JIS:
C5191-H) of several thicknesses (20, 50, 100 and 200 m)
were used for the tensile test. Figure 1 shows the microstructures of the foils observed by optical microscopy. As
shown in the figure, the ellipsoidal grains elongated in the
rolling direction were observed in each specimen. Especially, the 20 m and the 50 m thick samples have a
highly elongated grain structure. The grain size to thickness direction in the both foils seems to be about less than
5m and there are only few grains to thickness direction in
the 20 m thick sample.
5m
5m
5m
5m
Figure 1. Microstructures of thin-rolled phosphor bronze foils.
In comparison between the 100 and the 200 m thick

foils, the 100m thick sample has larger grain size (5-8
1225
09.08.2010 14:45:56 Uhr
Metal Forming
r 2r45 + r90
r0 + 2r45 + r90
(2),
(3)
r = 0
2
4
where w is the width strain, t is the thickness strain, w is
r=
the specimen width and L is the gauge length.
Material Characterisation of Thin Rolled Foils. Figure 2 shows the nominal stress-strain diagram for the
specimens along to the rolling direction (0 to RD) in
different thicknesses. The ultra-thin 20 and the 50 m
thick foils exhibited higher tensile strength and considerably lower elongation than the other foils. These tendencies
are consistent with a report in Ref. [3]. Lower tensile
strength of the 100 m thick foil seems to be attributed to
larger grain size than the 200 m thick foil.
20
42
9.6
6
R20
t0=20m
t0=50m
t0=100m
t0=200m
Figure 2. Nominal stress-strain diagram for phosphor bronze foil

specimens along to the rolling direction.
Figure 3 shows the comparisons of mechanical properties between the specimens along to different orientations
in each thickness. In comparison between specimen orien-
1226
700
45
650
90
600
14
550
12
0 to RD
45 to RD
90 to RD
10
90
45
6
4
500
20
50
100
200
Foil thickness [m]
20
50
100
200
Foil thickness [m]
Figure 3. Comparisons of tensile strength and elongation between

three tensile directions in each thickness condition.
Plastic Anisotropy in Each Thickness Foils. Mean

normal anisotropy r and plane anisotropy r were calculated from the tensile test results in each thickness condition, as shown in Figure 4. Lower mean normal anisotropy r was observed at the thinner foil conditions, while
planar anisotropy r appears to be no changes in every
thickness conditions. The similar trends were reported by
Kals et al. for CuNi18Zn20 sheets with a thickness of until
100 m [4]. This result indicates that ultra-thin rolled foils
are easier to deform at thickness direction than in-plane
direction and appears to be prone to fracture during the
forming process.
Planar anisotropy
t0=100m
20
750
Vertical
anisotropy
Mean
normal
anisotropy
t0=200m
16
0 to RD
45 to RD
90 to RD
800
Phosphor bronze C5191-H
t0=20m
t0=50m
RD
850
Elongation [%]
Tensile Test of Ultra-Thin Rolled Foils. The specification of test specimen was according to a DIN 50125
H6x30 standard in reference to [8]. Specimens were cut
along to the three orientations (parallel, perpendicular, and
45 to the rolling direction) by conventional wire electrical
discharge machining. A commercial tensile test machine,
Autograph AG-IS 50 kN (Shimadzu Corp.), was used for
the tensile tests. Elongation was measured optically by
using a video type non-contact extensometer DVE-201
(Shimadzu Corp.). Tensile test were performed at room
temperature at a strain rate of 4 10-4 /s. In order to obtain
plastic anisotropy value, specimen width was measured at
a certain strain in every test specimen. The strain was
determined to 0.8%, which is in between yield point and
uniform elongation in the every thickness conditions. By
means of the measured width, normal anisotropy in each
tensile direction, r, mean normal anisotropy, r , and planar anisotropy, r , are calculated according to the following equations:
ln (w w 0 )
(1)
r = w =
t
ln (L w L 0 w 0 )
tations to rolling direction, it should be noted that the

ultimate tensile strength in 90 to RD specimens exhibits
the highest value irrespective of thickness. Moreover, for
the elongation data, although the largest elongation at
rolling direction was observed in the 100 and the 200 m
thick foils, the 20 and 50 m thick foil specimens exhibited the lowest elongation at the same direction. The largest elongation was exhibited in 90 to RD specimens in the
20 and the 50 m thick foils, which was the lowest in the
100 and 200 m thick foils. Thus, different anisotropy
between the different thickness conditions could observe
and confirmed.
Ultimate tensile strength [MPa]
m) than the 200 m thick foils (<5 m). The differences

in microstructures are clearly responsible for rolling process conditions such as a rolling reduction and an annealing
temperature.
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2
Phosphor bronze (JIS:C5191-H)
r
r
Mean normal anisotropy
Planar anisotropy r
50
100
150
Foil thickness/ m
mm
200
Figure 4. Plastic anisotropy in different thickness foils (Phosphor

bronze, JIS: C5191-H).
Geometrically Scaled Micro Deep Drawing Test

Materials and Experimental Set Up. In order to investigate the effect of plastic anisotropy in the different thickness foils, the same phosphor bronze (JIS: C5191-H) as
09.08.2010 14:45:57 Uhr
Metal Forming
described above was employed. The 50, 100 and 300 m
thick foils were chosen in view of micro-, meso-, and
milli- scale process dimension. The similar mechanical
properties of the 300 m thick sheet with the 200 m thick
sheet, as mentioned, were preliminarily confirmed.
Geometrically scaled micro deep drawing die assembly
were designed to produce the micro cups with a drawing
ratio of 1.9. A blankingdrawing process was used for the
improvement of experimental accuracy (details in [12]).
Table 1 lists the dimensions of the microtool sets for each
foil thickness condition. The all microtools were made of
sintered WC-Co hard alloy (JIS: V20 tungsten-carbidecobalt alloy). The microtool set was exchangeable and the
experiments with different scales are possible to conduct
in the same die assembly and press machine. A developed
miniature precision press machine systems (details in [12])
was used for the experiment.
Table 1. Process dimensions of the geometrically scaled deep
drawing tool sets.
Foil thickness, t 0 [m]
Blanking punch diameter, D bp[mm]
Drawing die diameter, D dd [mm]
Drawing die corner radius, r dd [mm]
Drawing punch diameter, D dp [mm]
Drawing punch corner radius, r dp [mm]
Blank holder constant gap, h BH[mm]
50
1.6
0.97
0.25
0.85
0.25
0.07
100
3.2
1.94
0.50
1.70
0.50
0.14
300
9.6
5.82
1.50
5.10
1.50
0.42
Experimental Procedures. Micro deep drawing experiments were conducted under unlubricated condition at
room temperature. Drawing punch speed was 0.4mm/s and
no blank holder force was applied for better reproducibility, so that the constant gap between the drawing die and
the blank holder was 1.4t0 (Table 1). In order to evaluate
the effect of mean normal anisotropy on micro deep
drawability under each thickness condition, thickness
strain distribution of the drawn cup was precisely evaluated along three plane orientations based on the rolling
direction (parallel, perpendicular, and 45 to the rolling
direction) as shown in Figure 5(a).
Drawn cup
45 to
RD plane
RD plane
RD
90 to RD
plane
(a)
Measuring planes
(b) Measuring part of the cross-section
orientation
Figure 5. Schematic illustration of methodology for thickness
distribution measurement.
The measurement part was divided to three parts, cup

bottom, cup corner and cup wall, following to a certain
dimension as shown in the Figure 5(b). In order to compare at the geometrically similar position in each thickness
condition, thickness distribution was measured at a regular
interval of t0/3 at the cup bottom and the wall part, and that
of 5 angle at the cup corner part. Additionally, surface
roughening phenomena, of which importance to micro-
formability was reported in [12], were also evaluated.

Since roughening phenomena are strongly attributed to the
strain quantity, it might have influence of plastic anisotropy. Surface roughness of the drawn cups was also measured from the three planes based on the rolling direction
by using a confocal laser scanning microscope.
Forming Results of the Geometrically Scaled Micro
Deep Drawing Test. As shown in Figure 6, the process
could succeed to produce the geometrically scaled micro
cups with thin-rolled foils. From the top and side view of
the micro-cups in the figure, slight difference in cup geometry can observe. High earing with small wrinkles at
45 to the rolling direction was observed only in 50m
thick micro-cup, while there are low earing and no wrinkle
in 100 and 300 m thick micro-cups.
t0=300m
3mm
(b) t0=300m
t0=100m
1mm
(c) t0=100m
t0=50m
5yen coin
0.5mm
(a) Geometrically scaled

(d) t0=50m
microcups on 5 yen coin
Figure 6. Appearance of drawn cup in geometrically scaled micro
deep drawing test.
Effect of Plastic Anisotropy on Thickness Strain Distributions of Drawn Cups. Figure 7 shows a thickness
strain distribution result at the measuring plane along the
rolling direction in different thickness conditions. The 50
m thick and the 100 m thick microcups exhibited the
largest reduction at the cup corner part. This tendency
corresponds to the relation of normal anisotropy along to
the rolling direction in each thickness, which was about
r0=0.6 in the 50 and 100 m thick foils, and r0=0.7 in
300m thick foils. The difference in thickness at wall part
seems to be attributed to the normal anisotropy along to
90 to RD (r90,50m=0.58, r90,100m=0.62). The lower r90
value in the 50 m thick micro cup would indicate the
larger thickening due to the circumferential compression at
flange part. Thus, the correlation between normal anisotropy and thickness reduction during the process could
confirm in micro-scale forming.
Figure 8 shows the comparison of minimum thickness
strain between the different measuring planes in each
thickness condition. The smallest reduction in the thickness strain occurs at the perpendicular plane to 90 to RD,
irrespective of thickness. This trend is well correspond to
the anisotropy of tensile strength as mentioned. It seems
that the resistance at the loaded part at cup corner in 90 to
RD has high strength more than the whole resistance of
circumferential material flow at flange part and friction at
die corner radius.
1227
09.08.2010 14:45:58 Uhr
Thickness plastic strain p t/-
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
RD plane
0.35
t0=50m (r0 =0.62)

t0=100m (r0 =0.60)
t0=300m (r0 0.70)
1.0
0.8

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Cover_Metal Forming 2010.pdf 09.08.

2010 15:39:02 Uhr

Volume 81, Number 9

Special Edition 2010

Publishing Company Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA

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Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Metal Forming

METAL FORMING 2010

September 19 22, 2010, Hotel Nikko Toyohashi,

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METAL FORMING 2010

AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland

Imperial College London, UK

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steel research int. 81 (2010) No. 9

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International Scientific Committee

Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan

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Matthias Dnckelmeyer, Christian Krempaszky, Ewald Werner ,

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Elena Lyamina, Sergei Alexandrov, Dragisa Vilotic, Dejan Movrin

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