International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946

Analysis and die design of at-die hot extrusion process

2. Numerical design of bearing lengths
Geun-An Leea , Yong-Taek Imb; ∗
a
Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, 35-3 Hongchonri, Ibjangmyun, Chonansi 330-825, South Korea
b
Computer Aided Materials Processing Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, ME3227, Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 373-1 Kusong-dong, Yusong-gu, Taejon 305-701, South Korea
Received 28 February 2001; received in revised form 25 February 2002

Abstract

This paper deals with the assignment of bearing lengths for the control of material ow in the at die
hot extrusion. The design process makes the use of the three-dimensional non-steady analysis using the
thermo-rigid–viscoplastic 5nite element method that includes an automatic remeshing module. The exit velocity
distribution of the workpiece obtained from the analysis results was used to 5nd appropriate values for the
factors used in the proposed bearing length design equation. This equation for designing bearing lengths is a
function of the cross-sectional thickness and distance from the die center of die exit section. A geometric factor
was included in formulation of the design equation to consider the end region of the die exit. The appropriate
values of factors were determined from three-dimensional analyses of at-die hot extrusion processes with
single and double channel-sections. The analysis of a at-die hot extrusion process with a L-section was used
to verify the proposed design equation. It was found that the design equation determined bearing lengths that
resulted in a fairly uniform exit velocity distribution throughout the extruded section. From the results of this
study, it was found that the proposed design equation can be e7ectively used to estimate appropriate bearing
lengths. ? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Hot extrusion; Material ow; Bearing length; Exit velocity; De ection; Channel-section

1. Introduction

Hot extrusion is a deformation process used to produce long and straight products such as bars,
solid sections and tubes. In order to obtain a high-production rate with acceptable quality, many
process parameters must be controlled in consideration of the material characteristics and section

∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-42-869-3227; fax: +82-42-869-3210.
E-mail address: ytim@mail.kaist.ac.kr (Yong-Taek Im).

0020-7403/02/$ - see front matter ? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 2 0 - 7 4 0 3 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 3 0 - 9
936 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946

Nomenclature
b bearing length
r radial distance from the die center
t section thickness
k geometric factor
C1 ; C2 factors
br reference bearing length
bavg average bearing length
Ei value of errors in each sub-section
Eavg average error value
N the number of sub-sections

geometry. In particular, the material should have uniform exit velocity throughout its cross-section
when being extruded to prevent de ection of the 5nal product. Without such a ow control, even
simple shapes cannot be extruded straight. Therefore, die designs must properly consider bearing
lengths to maintain uniform velocity of the workpiece. Thus, numerous studies have been made
both experimentally and numerically for the development of better die design methods considering
material ow at the bearing land.
Avitzur [1] predicted the forming load and material ow for wire drawing and extrusion through
conical dies with large cone angles. Keife [2] studied experimentally the material ow to obtain the
appropriate bearing lengths and the position of die openings in extrusion through two die openings.
Many other studies for the analysis of material ow in hot extrusion can also be found in literature
[3,4]. With the studies of material ow during hot extrusion, Zasadzinski et al. [5] and Tashiro et
al. [6] investigated the in uence of the exit velocity to minimize distortion of the 5nal product.
Numerical analysis has also been used in the design of extrusion dies as many researchers have
investigated the in uence of material ow during hot extrusion [7,8]. In particular, the assignment
of bearing lengths must be carefully considered since it has a signi5cant e7ect on the velocity
distribution of the extruded section. In most cases, the assignment of bearing lengths has relied on
experiments or experience. Akeret et al. [9] studied the in uence of bearing lands experimentally and
Miles et al. [10,11] studied the assignment of bearing length using the medial axis transform method.
Other researchers conducted studies for the assignment of bearing lengths by controlling metal ow
during hot extrusion [12,13]. For an understanding of the metal ow in the bearing section during
extrusion, Kiuchi et al. [14] studied the in uence of process parameters for at die extrusion through
rectangular and angle sections using the three-dimensional 5nite element analysis.
In this study, in order to control the material ow, the length distribution of bearing land at
the die outlet was designed in consideration of cross-sectional thickness and distance from the die
center of die exit sections. Information provided by non-steady three-dimensional 5nite element
simulations was used in this design process. As mentioned in the companion paper (Part 1) of this
study, thermo-rigid-viscoplastic simulations of hot at-die extrusions were carried out to obtain the
deformation behavior of the workpiece and its velocity distribution at the die exit. Accuracy and
eKciency are important factors for such non-steady-state simulations of at-die extrusion. That is,
 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946 937

special care must be given in handling the contact algorithm to prevent penetration of contact nodes
into die surfaces since sharp edges are involved in at-die extrusion. Thus, the contact algorithm
was made to determine appropriate normal vectors and local transformation coordinates for various
contact states to ensure that contact nodes would travel only along die surfaces. Also, non-steady-state
simulations usually require long computing time due to the large number of necessary remeshings.
The very simple method of section sweeping which properly considers the pro5le of the extruded
workpiece was used for eKcient remeshing. This simple remeshing scheme allowed for the entire
simulation procedure of solving, remeshing and transferring of state variables to be carried out
automatically without manual intervention to greatly reduce the required simulation time.
The information provided by such numerical simulations was used to determine appropriate values
of factors required in the design of bearing lengths. More speci5cally, in the proposed design equation
for determining suitable bearing lengths, numerical factors were applied to the thickness and distance
parameters, and a geometric factor was used to consider the end regions of the die outlet. Values of
such factors were determined from the numerical analysis results of at-die hot extrusion processes
with single and double channel-sections. And 5nally, the e7ectiveness of the design equation was
examined through 5nite element analysis of a at-die hot extrusion process with a L-section using
the designed bearing lengths. It was found that the designed bearing lengths resulted in a relatively
uniform distribution of exit velocity.

2. The design of bearing lengths

In order to obtain straight extrusion products without de ection, the die designer must ensure
that the workpiece ows uniformly through the die exit. Generally, the designer can control the
material ow by constraining the ow in thick sections by increasing the bearing length. In other
words, variation of the bearing length is the main method of controlling the material ow and feed.
There are no absolute rules for calculating appropriate bearing lengths, but the general procedure is
to increase the bearing length in thicker sections and to reduce the length with increasing distance
from the center of the die. Also, the bearing length should be reduced at the end regions of the die
opening to decrease friction levels which are usually high in such regions. Fig. 1 shows an example
of longer bearing lengths assigned to the thicker cross-section region.
The design equation used in the present study for the design of bearing lengths is as follows:
b(r; t) = k{C1 t + C2 (rmax − r)}: (1)
Here, b is the bearing length, r is the radial distance from the center of the die, t is the section
thickness and k is a geometric factor used to consider the end regions. C1 and C2 are factors applied
to the cross-sectional thickness and radial distance parameters in the above equation, respectively.
The appropriate values for k, C1 and C2 cannot be easily determined. Thus, non-steady 5nite
element analysis was used in determining these factors. More speci5cally, analysis results of at-die
hot extrusion processes with single and double channel-sections using constant bearing lengths were
used. The exit velocity distributions of these two cases are given in Figs. 14 and 15 of Part 1 of
this study. It should be mentioned that these two channel-section cases are representative of the
two main classes of channel sections, namely, the class of sections in which the end section is the
thickest and the other class in which the end section is the thinnest.
938 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946

Section AA
Die
A

B B A Section BB
Bearing length

Bearing

Fig. 1. The assignment of bearing lengths in a channel-section.

3. The determination of factors

The determination of C1 and C2 was carried out by the procedure shown in Fig. 2. The input data
for this procedure are the geometry of the die exit and the exit velocity distribution obtained from
the 5nite element analysis using constant bearing lengths. The geometry of the die exit is divided
into sub-sections of the uniform cross-sectional thickness and the end regions are also separated as
sub-sections. This division of sub-sections is the same method that was used in Part 1 of this study
to illustrate the die exit velocity distribution, that is, Figs. 14 and 15 in Part 1. The exit velocities
obtained from the simulation using constant bearing lengths are averaged in each sub-section and
the reference bearing length is calculated from this average exit velocity for each sub-section. More
speci5cally, the sub-section with the maximum exit velocity is 5rst given the maximum bearing length
and the other sub-sections are given bearing lengths according to the ratio of average velocity relative
to the maximum velocity. C1 and C2 are set to be the values in 0.5 –3.0 and 0.001– 0.5, respectively.
After the bearing lengths are calculated by Eq. (1) for each sub-section, these are averaged in each
sub-region. The errors are calculated by Eq. (2) using the reference and this average bearing lengths.
Then, the average error is calculated by Eq. (3) using the errors in sub-sections. After the above
procedure is carried out within the given ranges, C1 and C2 are determined when the average error
Eavg is the minimum value
Ei = |{(br )i − (bavg )i }=(br )i |: (2)


Eavg = (Ei )=N: (3)
Here, br and bavg are the reference bearing lengths in each sub-section and the average bearing
lengths, respectively. Ei is the value of errors in each sub-section, Eavg the average error value and
N the number of sub-sections.
From these procedures, the values of C1 and C2 were determined for single and double channel-
sections, respectively. For the single-channel-section case, C1 and C2 were determined as the values
of 1.0 and 0.27, respectively. For the double-channel-section case, C1 and C2 were determined as
the values of 1.0 and 0.04, respectively.
 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946 939

Fig. 2. Flow chart for determining the values of C1 and C2 using the exit velocity obtained from the 5nite element
analysis.

Also, as mentioned previously, k is the geometric factor used to consider the end regions. Since
the exit velocity was the smallest in the end regions of the exit due to the high friction in these
areas as shown in Figs. 14 and 15 of Part 1 of this study, k is given the values of 0.3– 0.5 to reduce
the friction in the end regions.

4. Results and discussion

Using C1 and C2 obtained from the procedure of Fig. 2, the bearing lengths were designed using
Eq. (1) for the single channel-section extrusion example. The geometry of the single channel-section
case is depicted in Fig. 3(a). Comparison of bearing lengths between the design and actual data
from industry is shown in Fig. 3(b). As shown in this 5gure, although the designed bearing lengths
940 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946

Dim.: mm

40.6
à Â

t1 Ä

Å Æ Ç Á

25.4
t1= 7.1 È À
t2= 5.2 t2
C
L
(a)
100 20

(A) Constant bearing length of 5 mm
90
(B) Designed bearing lengths
(C) Actual bearing lengths from industry
Exit velocity(mm/sec)
(D) Exit velocity distribution resulting from (A)
16
(E) Exit velocity distribution resulting from (B)
(F) Exit velocity distribution resulting from (C)

80

Bearing length (mm)

12
(B)
70
(C) 8

60
(A)
4
50
(D)
(E) 0
40 (F)

30 -4
À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È

(b)

Fig. 3. (a) The double-channel-section geometry; and (b) comparison of exit velocity distributions resulting from bearing
lengths assumed to be constant, obtained from the current design, and obtained from industry for the single-channel-section
extrusion case.

deviate from the actual industry data, the resulting exit velocity distribution is quite uniform and
compares well with the industry bearing length results. The improvement compared to the case
with constant bearing lengths can be clearly seen. Fig. 4 compares the deformed workpiece shapes
between the cases using constant bearing lengths of 5 mm and designed bearing lengths at the present
investigation.
The geometry of the double channel-section case is depicted in Fig. 5(a) and in Fig. 5(b), the
exit velocity distribution with a constant bearing length of 5 mm is compared to the results obtained
from the designed bearing lengths. It can be seen that the exit velocity distribution of curve (D) is
more uniform than the result of curve (C). However, the gap between the maximum and minimum
velocities in curve (D) is about 10 mm=s, which is not a small value. This was mainly due to
the fact that the sub-sections of and in Fig. 5(a) were too large. That is, these sub-sections
should be divided further for the bearing land in this region to be able to accommodate the velocity
 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946 941

Fig. 4. The deformed shapes of the workpiece using: (a) constant bearing lengths of 5 mm; and (b) the designed bearing
lengths for the single channel-section at punch stroke of 1:32 mm.

distribution. Thus, these sub-sections were divided into more sub-sections as depicted in Fig. 6(a).
As shown in Fig. 6(b), introduction of more sub-sections improves the uniformity of the resulting
velocity distribution compared to the previous results of Fig. 5(b). In this case, di7erence between
the maximum and minimum velocities was found to be reduced to about 4 mm=s.
Fig. 7 shows the improvement of using the designed bearing lengths compared to the case using
constant bearing lengths. These results show that the current approach gives a reasonable design of
bearing lengths for extrusion processes.
Next, the validity of the design equation was investigated by designing bearing lengths for a
L-section and examining the resulting velocity distribution from the 5nite element analysis. The
design of bearing lengths was carried out by using the factors determined in the two channel-section
cases. The input data for this procedure is the geometry of the die exit. The geometry of the die
exit is divided into sub-sections of uniform cross-sectional thickness and the end regions are also
separated as sub-sections.
The distances from the die center are calculated along the boundary of the cross-section. Then, C1
and C2 are applied by checking whether end regions are thicker or not than the other sub-sections.
The value of k is applied by checking whether the current sub-section is an end region or not. For the
quadruple channel-section case, C1 and C2 were 1.0 and 0.04, respectively. k was given the value of
0.5 at end regions. Using the factors, the bearing lengths are calculated by Eq. (1). After following
the above procedure, the bearing lengths are determined in sub-sections of the cross-section.
The L-section geometry and sub-sections are depicted in detail in Fig. 8(a). The designed bearing
lengths are shown in curve (A) of Fig. 8(b). Three-dimensional 5nite element analysis was carried
out for this quadruple L-section using the designed bearing lengths. The analysis conditions are
given in Fig. 9. Due to symmetry of the problem, only a quarter section with appropriate boundary
942 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946

Dim.: mm

43.0
à Â
t1 Ä
Å Æ Ç Á

19.0
t1= 6.0 È À
t2= 7.0 t2
CL
(a)

80 24
(A) Constant bearing length of 5 mm
(B) Designed bearing lengths 20
70 (C) Exit velocity distribution resulting from (A)
(D) Exit velocity distribution resulting from (B) 16
Exit velocity (mm/sec)

Bearing length (m)

60 (B) 12

50 8
(A)
4
40
(C) 0
30
(D)
20

10
À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È
(b)

Fig. 5. (a) The double-channel-section geometry; and (b) the exit velocity distribution using the designed bearing lengths
and constant bearing lengths of 5 mm.

conditions was used. The initial workpiece was taken as a cylindrical billet with diameter of 200 mm
and height of 50 mm, and the initial temperatures of the workpiece, die and atmosphere were set as
◦ ◦ ◦
420 C, 400 C and 18 C, respectively. The friction constant was assumed to be 0.3 and the punch
velocity was set as 1 mm=s. The ow stress obtained from the compression test of Al6061-T6 was
used in simulations as follows:
0:09
O = 91:0 Ȯ (MPa): (4)

Here, O and Ȯ are the e7ective stress and the e7ective strain rate, respectively.
The exit velocity distribution and deformed shape of the workpiece were obtained from the sim-
ulation. The exit velocity distribution is shown in curve (B) of Fig. 8(b). It was found that the exit
velocity distribution was fairly uniform with velocity deviations less than 1:0 mm=s. Also, Fig. 10
shows the deformed shapes of the workpiece at various strokes for the quadruple L-section extrusion
process. It can be con5rmed that the workpiece exits the die without having much de ection.
 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946 943

Dim.: mm

43.0
Å Ä Ã Â
t1 Æ

Ç È É
11 Á

19.0
12

t1= 6.0 À
t2= 7.0 t2 13

CL
(a)

80 24
(A) Constant bearing lengths of 5mm
(B) Designed bearing lengths 20
70 (C) Exit velocity distribution resulting from (A)
Exit velocity (mm/sec)

16
(D) Exit velocity distribution resulting from (B)

Bearing length (mm)

60 (B) 12

8
50 (A) 4

0
40
(C)
30 (D)

20

10
À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É 11 12 13

(b)

Fig. 6. (a) The double-channel-section geometry divided into more sub-sections; and (b) the resulting exit velocity distri-
butions using the designed bearing lengths and constant bearing lengths of 5 mm.

Fig. 7. The deformed shapes of the workpiece using: (a) constant bearing lengths of 5 mm; and (b) the designed bearing
lengths for the double channel-section at punch stroke of 1:5 mm.
944 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946

Dim.: mm
y 30.0
Æ Å Ä Ã
Ç
È É Â

30.0
11 Á

12 À
13

6.0
C
L
(a) x

23 20
Designed bearing length
Exit velocity distribution 16
22
12
Exit velocity (mm/sec)

Bearing length (mm)

8
21
4

20 0

19

18

17
À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É 11 12 13

(b)

Fig. 8. (a) The L-section geometry; and (b) the designed bearing lengths and resulting exit velocity distribution.

This shows that the proposed equation for designing bearing lengths can be applied for similar
channel-section type extrusion processes.

5. Conclusions

In this study, using the exit velocity distribution obtained from 5nite element simulation results,
bearing lengths for channel-section-type die geometries were designed in consideration of the thick-
ness and distance from the die center of die exit sections and the end region with high friction
was considered. The designed bearing lengths resulted in improvement of the uniformity of exit
velocity distributions. Also, it was found that the proposed design equation worked reasonably well
for a L-section die exit geometry under the present investigation and that the current approach o7ers
useful information to the die designer of shape extrusion processes.
 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946 945

Fig. 9. (a) Full analysis model; (b) top view of die container; and (c) simulation conditions for analysis of extrusion
through the quadruple L-section.

Fig. 10. The deformed shapes of the workpiece for the quadruple L-section die at various strokes: (a) 0:28 mm; (b)
0:56 mm; (c) 0:84 mm; and (d) 1:16 mm.
946 G.-A. Lee, Y.-T. Im / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 44 (2002) 935 – 946

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support from the BK (Brain Korea) 21 project.

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