Tafila Technical University

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Manufacturing processes (2) / Metal forming processes
Dr. Ahmad Mostafa
2nd semester 2020/2021

FUNDAMENTALS OF METAL FORMING

Formability (workability): is the ability of a given metal workpiece to undergo plastic
deformation without being damaged.
Desirable material properties in metal forming:
- Low yield strength
- High ductility
Formability of the material depends on:
1- Process variables, such as stress, strain, strain rate, temperature, lubricant, etc.
2- Metallurgical changes during deformation, such as void formation, composition,
inclusions, precipitation, etc.
Temperature in metal forming:
 Strength and strain hardening are both reduced at higher
temperatures
 Any deformation operation can be accomplished with lower
forces and power at elevated temperature
 Ductility is increased at higher temperatures, which allows
greater plastic deformation of the work metal
There are three temperature ranges that are used in metal forming:
1- Cold working: is metal forming performed at room temperature or slightly above.
2- Warm working: is temperatures somewhat above room temperature but below the
recrystallization temperature.
3- Hot working: involves deformation at temperatures above the recrystallization
temperature.
Homologous Temperature: is the temperature of a material as a fraction of its melting point
temperature using the Kelvin scale.

Most metals strain harden at room temperature according to the flow curve (n > 0) but if heated to
sufficiently high temperature and deformed, strain hardening does not occur, instead, new grains
are formed that are free of strain. The metal behaves as a perfectly plastic material; that is, n =
zero.
Isothermal forming: is a process that eliminates surface cooling and the resulting thermal
gradients in the workpart during forming heating the tool to the same working temperature.

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Strain hardening (work hardening): is where a material becomes less ductile, harder and
stronger with plastic deformation during cold working.

Figure 3.1: For 1040 steel, brass, and copper, (a) the increase in yield strength, and (b) the
decrease in ductility (%EL) with percent cold work.
With increased amount of cold-working, Yield strength (σy) increases, Tensile strength (UTS)
increases and Ductility (%EL or %AR) decreases, because:
 Dislocation density increases with CW and thus their motion is hindered
 The stress required to cause further deformation is increased
Strain hardening is used commercially to improve the yield and tensile properties of:
- Cold-rolled low-carbon steel sheet
- Aluminum sheet
Strain hardening exponent n indicates the response to cold work (i.e. larger n means greater strain
hardening for given amount of plastic strain)
Advantages of Cold Forming vs. Hot Working:
 Better accuracy, closer tolerances
 Better surface finish
 Strain hardening increases strength and hardness
 Grain flow during deformation can cause desirable directional properties in product
 No heating of work required (less total energy)

Disadvantages of Cold Forming:

 Equipment of higher forces and power required
 Surfaces of starting workpiece must be free of scale and dirt
 Ductility and strain hardening limit the amount of forming that can be done
- In some operations, metal must be annealed to allow further deformation
- In other cases, metal is simply not ductile enough to be cold worked
Annealing: refers to a heat treatment in which a material is exposed to an elevated temperature
for an extended time period and then slowly cooled.

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Purposes of annealing:
(1) Relieve stresses
(2) Increase softness, ductility, and toughness
(3) Produce a specific microstructure
The properties and structures of a metal may revert back to the precold-worked states by annealing.
Such restoration results from: recovery and recrystallization, which may be followed by grain
growth.

Figure 3.2: Schematic illustration of the effects of recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth
on mechanical properties and on the shape and size of grains
Recovery
 Occurs during heating at elevated temperatures below the recrystallization temperature
 Dislocations reconfigure due to diffusion and relieve the lattice strain energy
 Electrical and thermal properties are recovered to their precold worked state
Recrystallization
 Recrystallization results in the nucleation and growth of new strain-free, equiaxed grains
 The driving force to produce this new grain structure is the difference in internal energy
between the strained and unstrained material
 Recrystallized structure contains low dislocation density equivalent to the pre-cold
worked condition
 Recrystallization restores mechanical properties → softening

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  Rate of recrystallization increases with amount of cold work
 Require a critical amount of cold work to cause recrystallization (2-20%)
 Recrystallization is easier in pure metals than alloys and occurs at lower temperature
– 0.3Tm (in pure metals) versus ~0.7Tm (in alloys)
 Hot-working involves deformation and concurrent recrystallization at high temperature

For deformations less than the critical

(about 5%CW), recrystallization will
not occur.

Figure 3.3: The variation of recrystallization temperature with percent cold work for iron.
Grain Growth
 Growth of new grains will continue at high temperature
 Does not require recovery and recrystallization
 Occurs in both metals and ceramics at elevated temperature
 Involves the migration of grain boundaries
 Large grains grow at expense of small ones
 The driving force for grain growth is the reduction of grain
boundary area
Grain Growth Kinetics
Variation of grain size (d) with time is:

where do = initial grain size at t = 0, and K and n are time-independent constants, n is ≥ 2

 log d versus log t plots give linearity at low

temperatures
 Grain size increases with temperature
 Toughness and strength are superior in fine
grained materials

Advantages of Warm Working:

 Lower forces and power than in cold working
 More intricate work geometries possible
 Need for annealing may be reduced or eliminated
 Performed at temperatures above room temperature but below recrystallization
temperature

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Why Hot Working?
 Strength coefficient is substantially less than at room temp.
 Strain hardening exponent is zero (theoretically)
 Ductility is significantly increased
Advantages of Hot Working vs. Cold Working:
 Workpart shape can be significantly altered
 Lower forces and power required (equipment)
 Metals that usually fracture in cold working can be hot formed
 Strength properties of product are generally isotropic
 No strengthening of part occurs from work hardening
– Advantageous in cases when part is to be subsequently processed by cold forming
Disadvantages of Hot Working:
 Lower dimensional accuracy
 Higher total energy required, due to the thermal energy to heat the workpiece
 Work surface oxidation (scale)
 Poor surface finish
 Short tool life
Friction in metal forming
 In most metal forming processes, friction is undesirable because it leads to:
– Metal flow is retarded
– Forces and power are increased
– Wears tooling faster
 Metalworking lubricants are applied to tool-work interface in many forming operations to
reduce harmful effects of friction
Benefits of lubricants:
– Reduced sticking, forces, power, tool wear
– Better surface finish
– Removes heat from the tooling
Considerations in Choosing a Lubricant:
– Type of forming process (rolling, forging, sheet metal drawing, etc.)
– Hot working or cold working
– Work material
– Chemical reactivity with tool and work metals
– Ease of application
– Cost

Strain rate sensitivity

Strain rate: is the rate at which the metal is strained in a forming process and is directly related
to the speed of deformation, v.

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where 𝜀 . true strain rate, m/s/m, or simply s–1; and h instantaneous height of the workpiece being
deformed, m.
 Strain rate can reach 1000 s–1 or more for some metal forming processes such as high-speed
rolling and forging.

Classification of manufacturing processes based on loading:

1- Quasi-static processes 𝜀 . = (10−4 − 10−2 )𝑆 −1
 All processes fall in this range
 Time ranged from seconds to hours order
2- Intermediate rate processes 𝜀 . = (100 − 102 )𝑆 −1
 All the hammering processes fall in this range
 Time ranged in millisecond order
3- High strain rate, dynamic loading, high energy rate forming (HERF), impact forming 𝜀 . =
(102 − 104 )𝑆 −1
 Time ranged in microsecond order
4- Shock loading 𝜀 . > 104 𝑆 −1
 Nuclear bomb
Strain rate sensitivity: The effect of strain rate on strength properties.

 The flow stress of a metal is a function of temperature.

 At the temperatures of hot working, flow stress depends on
strain rate.
 As strain rate is increased, resistance to deformation increases.

Yf: The flow stress

C: The strength constant (similar but not equal to the strength
coefficient in the flow curve equation)
𝜺. : Strain rate
m: The strain rate sensitivity exponent

 The value of C is determined at a strain rate of 1.0, and m is the slope of the curve.
 Increasing temperature decreases the value of C and increases the value of m.
 This is important in hot working because deformation resistance of the material increases
so dramatically as strain rate is increased

Table 3.1: Typical values of temperature, strain-rate sensitivity, and coefficient of friction in
cold, warm, and hot working

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