Dry rotary swaging with structured and coated tools

Marius Herrmann, Christian Schenck, and Bernd Kuhfuss

Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1960, 160011 (2018); doi: 10.1063/1.5035037

View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5035037
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apc/1960/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics

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 Dry Rotary Swaging with Structured and Coated Tools
Marius Herrmann1, a), Christian Schenck1, b) and Bernd Kuhfuss1, c)
1
bime, Bremen Institute for Mechanical Engineering, MAPEX Center for Materials and Processing,
University of Bremen, Badgasteiner Str. 1, 28359 Bremen, Germany.
a)
Corresponding author: herrmann@bime.de
b)
schenck@bime.de
c)
kuhfuss@bime.de

Abstract. Rotary swaging is a cold bulk forming process for manufacturing of complex bar and tube profiles like axles
and gear shafts in the automotive industry. Conventional rotary swaging is carried out under intense use of lubricant
usually based on mineral oil. Besides lubrication the lubricant fulfills necessary functions like lubrication, flushing and
cooling, but generates costs for recycling, replacement and cleaning of the workpieces. Hence, the development of a dry
process design is highly desirable, both under economic and ecological points of view. Therefore, it is necessary to
substitute the functions of the lubricant. This was realized by the combination of newly developed a-C:H:W coating
systems on the tools to minimize the friction and to avoid adhesion effects. With the application of a deterministic
structure in the forging zone of the tools the friction conditions are modified to control the axial process forces.
In this study infeed rotary swaging with functionalized tools was experimentally investigated. Therefore, steel and
aluminum tubes were formed with and without lubricant. Different structures which were coated and uncoated were
implemented in the reduction zone of the tools. The antagonistic effects of coating and structuring were characterized by
measuring the axial process force and the produced workpiece quality in terms of roundness and surface roughness. Thus,
the presented results allow for further developments towards a dry rotary swaging process.

INTRODUCTION
Green and sustainable manufacturing is more and more of interest. This trend also becomes more relevant in
forming processes even though they already belong to the resource-efficient production techniques [1]. But in most
forming processes a high amount of lubricant is still used usually consisting of mineral oil with additives. On the
one hand the lubricant is beneficial and fulfils important functions in the process like the reduction of friction and
thus the reduction of tool load and wear. Also, the lubricant provides a separation of tool and workpiece to minimize
cold welding processes. In addition, it regulates the process temperature and flushes the forging zone to remove
possible abraded particles. On the other hand, also disadvantages arise by the use of lubricant. For example, the
replacement of lost lubricant which is removed during the process and the recycling of lubricant causes high costs.
Furthermore, the cleaning of the workpiece for the preparation for following process steps is expensive. Hence, a
dry forming process design – i.e. the elimination of lubricant – offers even three significant advantages: reduction of
financial costs, less environmental impacts and reduction of possible health burden. For this reasons, the interest in
dry metal forming is increasing to improve the sustainability of those processes [2].
One of those forming processes is rotary swaging, an incremental cold near-net shape forming process for
complex axisymmetric parts. It has an important field of application in the automotive industry e.g. for the
production of axes, steering spindles and gear shafts from tubular blanks. The process leads to advantages of the
produced parts like improved material properties as increased tensile strength and hardness as well as an undisturbed
force flow inside the part. Furthermore, especially for tubes the wall thickness can be adjusted by the process to
yield an optimal use of material resources and to exploit the lightweight potential. During the process the swaging
unit is rotating and the base jaws are passing the cylinder rollers and by the cam all tools are striking simultaneously
radially to the center, see Fig. 1 (a). By this oscillating motion of the tools with amplitude h T the workpiece is

Proceedings of the 21st International ESAFORM Conference on Material Forming

AIP Conf. Proc. 1960, 160011-1–160011-6; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5035037
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1663-5/$30.00

160011-1
incrementally reduced in diameter [1]. There are two variants of the process: i) plunge rotary swaging in which the
diameter is reduced in a limited cross section by an overlay of the oscillating motion and a radial progression of the
tools; ii) infeed rotary swaging in which the workpiece is fed inside the swaging unit and the diameter is reduced
over the length of the workpiece. During infeed rotary swaging the axial reaction force FA counteracts against the
feeding force Ff, see Fig. 1 (b). This axial reaction force FA is caused inter alia by the radial forming force FR and the
tool angle α. Therefore, conventional tools feature a sputtered tungsten carbide layer in the reduction zone, thus the
effective friction is increased which reduces the reaction force FA [3]. This sputtered tungsten carbide layer is not
applicable in a dry process because the layer is rapidly clogged by abraded particles due to the missing flushing
function of the lubricant. By the dynamic resilience of the feeding system, the axial reaction force results in a back
pushing ΔZ of the workpiece. The maximum rebound amplitude is a qualitative measure of the axial reaction force
[3].

(a) swaging head (b) longitudinal section of the process

FIGURE 1. Principle of infeed rotary swaging process.

The basic feasibility of dry rotary swaging was already introduced in the micro range [4]. In the macro range the
great potential of dry rotary swaging was demonstrated by the analysis of the recorded process parameters and the
formed geometry of the workpiece, but also the difficulties that arise [3,5]. Dry rotary swaging required a
modification of the process and system parameters as well as a modification of the tools. To realize a dry rotary
swaging process, the function of the lubricant had to be realized in another way. To meet this challenges a coating
on the tools was intended to reduce the friction und thus to minimize wear of tools and workpieces, especially
aluminum adhesion [6]. But with lower coefficient of friction values μ the axial reaction force increased [7]. Thus,
the grip of the workpiece needed to be increased to reduce the axial reaction force, which was done by an additional
structuring of the tool surface in the reduction zone [8]. Finally, both tool modifications were combined with the
contrary requirements on the one hand to reduce the friction in the calibration zone and on the other hand to increase
the clamping in the reduction zone. Thus functionalized tools provide a robust dry rotary swaging process. However,
by analyzing the recorded process parameters and the measured formed geometry and quality of the finished
workpieces after dry rotary swaging with the first generation of functionalized tools some additional challenges were
carved out. On the one hand the structured tool surface lowered the workpiece quality [9], on the other hand the
performance of the coating and the interaction of coating and structuring needed to be enhanced [10]. Furthermore,
the discharging of abraded particles out of the swaging unit was to be improved [11].
In this work further developments of functionalized tools are presented. Graded structured tools were examined
with and without coating. The results are compared with conventional tool sets for lubricated forming and with the
first generation of functionalized tools as the state of the art for dry rotary swaging. With the new functionalized tool
set the axial reaction force could be reduced effectively and also the workpiece quality was improved.

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 EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
Rotary swaging experiments were conducted with different tool sets. All tool sets had the following
characteristics in common: tool material 1.2379; tool angle α = 10°; calibration length lcal = 20 mm; nominal
diameter dnom = 15 mm. The applied tool sets were as listed in Table 1 and they are shown in Fig. 2.

TABLE 1. different structurings and coatings of tool sets.

Tool Tool structuring Tool coating Fig. 2
Tconv no sputtered tungsten carbide (a)
Tcos cosine structure (λ = 1.3 mm, A = 0.05 mm) [12] no (b)
Tcos/coat cosine structure (λ = 1.3 mm, A = 0.05 mm) Cr/CrNx/a-C:H:W/a-C:H [10] (c)
Tgrad graded cosine structure; (λ = 1.3 mm) decreasing from no (d)
A = 0.05 mm - at the wave 8 in the reduction zone
which is the first in contact with the workpiece - to
zero at the calibration zone II [14]
Tgrad/coat graded cosine structure Cr/CrNx/a-C:H:W/a-C:H (e)

With the five tool sets aluminum 3.3206 and steel 1.0037 tubes with a wall thickness of s0 = 2 mm and an initial
diameter of d0 = 20 mm were reduced to a final diameter d 1 = 15 mm. The tubes were fed with a feed velocity of
vf = 500 mm/min by a linear direct drive into a swaging unit over a feed length of Z = 130 mm. The experiments
were carried out with and without lubrication of the process, -called wet and dry in the following. Before each dry
experiment the tools and the workpiece were cleaned thoroughly using ethanol. Every parameter setting was
repeated five times. Further settings were kept constant: stroke height hT = 1 mm; stroke frequency fst = 37.5 Hz. To
analyze the performance of the tools the process parameters were recorded during the entire process. Comparable to
earlier measurements the actual and the set values of the feed position were measured and by the difference the back
pushing ΔZ was calculated as a qualitative value for the force F A [3]. This value was averaged over all strokes
during forming and over five samples per parameter setting and finally normalized with the maximum value that
was achieved with the conventional tool as a reference for lubricated rotary swaging (Tconv). The tool set Tcos/coat
served as the actual reference for the state of the art in dry rotary swaging. Furthermore, after the process the
workpiece quality was investigated also over five samples per parameter setting. It was quantified by the roundness
deviation RONt (least square circle, six measurements per sample) measured with a Talyrond and by the surface
roughness Sa (arithmetical mean height, 30 measurements per sample at representative positions) measured by a 3D
laser scanning microscope.

30 mm 30 mm 30 mm 30 mm 30 mm
(a) Tconv (b) Tcos (c) Tcos/coat (d) Tgrad (e) Tgrad/coat
FIGURE 2. Applied rotary swaging tools (1 out of a set of 4 each); (a) conventional, (b) cosine-structured, (c) cosine-structured
and coated, (d) graded cosine-structured, (e) graded cosine-structured and coated.

160011-3
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
At first the recorded process parameters were analyzed. The recorded back pushing for steel was higher than for
aluminum due to the higher needed forging force. Thus, the requirement to control the axial reaction force is more
relevant for steel and in the following only results for steel were considered. It was found that during forming with
lubricant (“wet”) the maximum axial reaction force FA was reached for the tool set T grad/coat, see Fig 3. For this tool
set the sum of all structure height which are in the intervention is the lowest of the deterministic structures and by
the coating the friction and thus the back pushing was influenced to the lowest value, consequently the axial reaction
force was highest. Comparing FA during wet forming with Tgrad/coat with the state of the art (conventional tool set)
Tconv the force FA was increased to 116%. The tool sets Tcos and Tcos/coat reduced FA during wet forming even up to
52% which showed that the cosine structure enabled a good clamping of the workpiece. Forming without lubricant
(“dry”) reduced FA for all tool sets. The dry friction conditions led for T conv only to a reduction of FA up to 82%. The
tool sets Tcos/coat which was state of the art in dry rotary swaging showed a low value for FA to 60% compared to wet
forming. However, the coating of this tools exhibited coating failure. The tool sets Tcos led to the lowest FA of 50%
which again proved good clamping. The Tgrad/coat showed no difference of FA compared to the reference in dry
forming. Furthermore, the decrease from wet to dry of this tool set is the largest of all tool sets by 56%. In addition,
almost no coating failure were observed at Tgrad/coat compared to Tcos/coat.

FIGURE 3. Relative force value FA_rel with standard deviation of steel tubes formed with different tool sets wet dry.

The workpiece quality was analyzed by measuring the roundness deviation RONt and surface roughness Sa. The
workpiece quality of the formed steel tubes was better than the quality of the formed aluminum tubes. Especially
after dry forming the quality was strongly influenced due to the strong adhesion tendency of aluminum. Hence, in
the following only the workpiece quality of aluminum was discussed.
Aluminum tubes that were formed wet with the tool set Tconv showed a roundness deviation of RONt = 10 μm,
see Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 (a). The forming with both structured tool sets Tcos and Tcos/coat led to an increasing RONt value
due to the rough transition from the structured forging zone to the calibration zone. Periodic structures were
imprinted in the conical reduction zone. The final smoothing of the surface was not achieved in the calibration zone
of the tools due to these strong disruptions, see Fig. 5 (b) and (c). A smoother transition was realized with the tool
sets Tgrad and Tgrad/coat which enabled smaller roundness deviations and smoother surfaces, see Fig. 5 (d) and (e).
Furthermore, the workpiece quality after dry forming of aluminum was analyzed, but for the conventional tool
set Tconv dry forming of aluminum tubes was not possible due to massive abrasion of the tubes. During dry forming
of aluminum, the sputtered tungsten carbide layer of the tools was immediately clogged with aluminum by adhesion,
thus the tool set was directly destroyed and not applicable any more. For the other tool sets all formed aluminum
tubes showed worse roundness deviations then the roundness deviation after conventional wet rotary swaging, see
Fig. 4. The tool sets without coating showed also a high am
ount of aluminum adhesion on the surface. The highest RONt value was generated by the tool sets T cos, also the
tool set for the reference of state of the art dry rotary swaging Tcos/coat showed high RONt values. Again, peripheral
valleys were formed in the surface of the tubes. The best RONt value during dry forming was generated by the
Tgrad/coat which was twice better than the dry reference, but it was still two and a half times higher than after
conventional (wet) rotary swaging.

160011-4
FIGURE 4. Roundness deviation RONt with standard deviation of aluminum tubes formed with different tool sets wet and dry.

5 mm 5 mm 5 mm 5 mm 5 mm
(a) Tconv wet (b) Tcos dry (c) Tcos/coat dry (d) Tgrad dry (e) Tgrad/coat dry
FIGURE 5. Formed aluminum tubes with different tool sets: (a) Tconv wet (state of the art for wet rotary swaging), (b) Tcos dry,
(c) Tcos/coat dry (state of the art for dry rotary swaging), (d) Tgrad dry, (e) Tgrad/coat dry.

Next, the workpiece quality was evaluated by the surface roughness Sa. After wet forming the tool sets Tcos and
Tcos/coat reached not the same surface quality compared to conventional swaging, but by the tool sets Tgrad/coat and Tgrad
even better Sa values were produced, see Fig. 6. The tool set Tgrad/coat showed the lowest span between maximum and
minimum value. Considering state of the art of dry forming the tool set Tcos/coat produced high values for the surface
roughness Sa with a high span. This can be explained by the high amount of abraded particles which were observed
after forming. This particle stuck at the tools and the workpiece due to the missing lubricant and missing flushing.
The tool set Tgrad only led to a slightly better result in the surface roughness. But a much better surface roughness
was found for the aluminum tubes after forming with the tool set T grad/coat due to the lowest amount of abraded
particles. The coating significantly reduced the aluminum adhesion and abrasion which lead to a better quality
compared to forming without coating. With Tgrad/coat even better Sa values were found compared to wet conventional
swaging. Furthermore, the deviation of maximum and minimum value were the lowest.

FIGURE 6. Surface roughness Sa with min and max values of aluminum tubes after forming with different tool sets wet and dry.

160011-5
 CONCLUSION
Rotary swaging of aluminum and steel tubes with different modified tools was experimentally investigated.
Conventional and newly designed tool sets were tested dry and wet. The recorded process parameters and the
measured geometry of the formed workpieces were analyzed. Following conclusions were drawn:
x Dry rotary swaging of steel tubes is feasible with reduced axial reaction force in the process. Cosine-
structured forming tools enabled a good clamping of the workpiece and considerably reduced the axial
reaction force.
x A coating of the tools increased the axial reaction force less compared to a lubrication of the process.
x Dry rotary swaging of aluminum could be realized by a coating of the tools which reduced the
aluminum adhesion significantly.
x Huge structure heights led to strong disruptions on the surface which could not be smoothened by the
calibration zone of the tools.
x The best workpiece quality during dry forming of aluminum was achieved by graded structured and
coated tools due to less disruptions of the surface by the structure and less amount of abraded particles.
x Graded structured and coated tools yielded the best compromise of reducing the axial reaction force and
producing a good workpiece quality. Furthermore, less coating failures occurred.

In future work the graded structured tools will be modified to enable an active discharge of abraded particles. A
first modification will be a helix structure. Furthermore, by this change of the orientation of the structure a better
calibration of the surface is expected due to a more stochastic interaction of structure and workpiece. By the
limitation of the structure height due to arising surface disruptions further structuring methods like by deterministic
changing of property instead of geometry can be taken into regard. Additionally, a nitration of the tools after
structuring and before coating will be investigated to improve the coating strength to avoid delamination of the
coating during dry forming of steel.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the German Research Foundation (DFG) for funding this work within a sub-
project of the priority program SPP 1676. Furthermore, the authors appreciate the Leibniz Institute for Materials
Engineering IWT for the manufacturing of the tools as well as for the applied coatings.

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