Journal of Materials Processing Tech.

282 (2020) 116660

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Materials Processing Tech.

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

New billet cutting process combining torsion and shear load to reduce droop T
height
Satoshi Kajinoa,*, Motoo Asakawab
a
Advanced Manufacturing Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 1-2-1, Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8564, Japan
b
Waseda University, 3-4-1 Ookubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 169-8555, Japan

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Associate Editor: E. Budak A novel cutting method that combines shearing and torsion was investigated. Shearing is a fast process that has
Keywords: high precision in term of cut length. However shape defects such as droop and burr occur. Droop and burr do not
Shearing occur in a rod cut using torsion, but, controlling the location of the cut is difficult. As each of these processes can
Torsion compensate for the other’s shortcomings, by combining them, the new cutting method benefits from the ad-
Cropping vantages of both processes. The aim of this study was to apply the new cutting method to produce a high-quality
Droop billet that has high precision in term of cut length without shape defects. To achieve this, an experimental
Burr apparatus that simultaneously subject a wire to shear load and torsion was developed. The effects of shear load
and torsion on shape defects and cut location in billets were investigated to elucidate the characteristics of the
new cutting method. When cutting the wire using torsion, it was found that the cut location was determined by
the shear load. Moreover, droop did not occur when a concentrated small shear load was applied over a narrow
area.

1. Introduction
Metals are typically transported in the form plates, sheets, bars or
wire coils, but these configurations cannot easily be applied in all in-
dustrial applications. Thus, a cutting or trimming process is an essential
precursor to several metal forming processes, including forging, part
forming, heading, and form rolling. Shearing is one of main methods for
preparing billets used in forging processes or rods used in part forming
processes.
Chan et al. (1998) showed that shearing processes are advantageous
in terms of reducing processing times and material loss. The processing
time associated with shearing is shorter than that associated with cut-
ting a bar using a saw, blade, or laser. Material loss is also low in the
case of shearing. However, Organ and Mellor (1967) showed that the
shape of the cut edge after shearing is imperfect because droop and burr
occur at the edge of the material. In addition, the surface roughness of
the sheared end face is suboptimal. Conversely, billets cut with a blade
or laser exhibit no droop or burr and possess fine end-face surface
characteristics. Typically, subtle adjustments or additional processing is
necessary after shearing to achieve a base material with surface char-
acteristics of sufficient precision to support cold forging or part
forming. This requirement reduces productivity and increase cost.
However, shearing is often adopted for mass production of billets for
part forming because of its shorter processing time.
Many efforts have been made to improve the quality of billets, in-
cluding reducing the droop and burr at the billet edge and decreasing
the roughness of the cut surface. Song et al. (2009) investigated the
effects of high shearing speed and restraint state on the cutting surface
characteristics in wire. Furthermore, the relationship between the
shearing speed and the surface roughness of the cut face has been
studied. Gotoh and Yamashita (2001) who investigated the high-rate
shearing of pure aluminum sheets, found that the sheared-off edge-face
appeared smooth and glossy under high shearing rates. Das et al. (1979)
investigated die wear characteristics during high-speed cropping and
found that the wear of the blades affected the angularity of the cropped
billets.
Furthermore, the effect of axial load on the edge shape of cut wires
has been studied. Jin-de et al. (1992) investigated the process of
cropping under an axial load through finite element analysis and ex-
perimental studies. They found that a high axial load was needed to
realize plastic precision cropping. Chen et al. (2007) investigated the
effect of axial compressive loads on the fracture zone of sheared sur-
faces. Basily and Das (1978) investigated crack restraint at increased
shearing speeds. Zhao et al. (2007) examined the effect of a V-shaped

Abbreviations: SCT, shearing in combination with torsion; TASSL, torsion in combination with static shear load; TCASL, torsion with a concentrated shear load
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kajino-satoshi@aist.go.jp (S. Kajino).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2020.116660
Received 29 March 2019; Received in revised form 19 February 2020; Accepted 21 February 2020
Available online 22 February 2020
0924-0136/ © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).
S. Kajino and M. Asakawa Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 282 (2020) 116660

Fig. 1. Edge shape of a rod after cutting.

notch on the edge shape and on the processing time. Wang et al. (2007)
investigated a shearing process involving the vertical vibration of the
shearing die and found that the vibration reduced the required shear
force. Maiti et al. (1975) analyzed the dynamics of a cropping machine
and applied the analytical result to the design of a large cropping ma-
chine. Al-Qureshi and Das (1976) investigated the cropping of a thin-
walled tube with an elastomer as an inner rod. The use of the elastomer
effectively improved the shape of the cut surface produced by cropping
of the thin walled tube. Despite these efforts, to the best of our
knowledge, no effective methods for improving droop and burr in bil-
lets have been previously reported.
Torsion can be used to break ductile materials along the cross sec-
tion without introducing droop and burr. The difference between
shearing and torsion in terms of cut surface characteristics is clearly
revealed by the produced edge shapes as shown in Fig. 1.
A few minutes are required to cut materials using torsion, whereas
shearing can cut materials within a few seconds. Therefore, the pro-
ductivity of torsion cutting is low. It is also impossible to cut materials
at predetermined locations between the chucks using torsion, which
leads to low precision in terms of cut length.
In this study, torsion was combined with shearing to develop a new
cutting process that can be used to cut materials at predetermined lo-
cations and produce good edge shape characteristics. The character-
istics associated with several cutting methods that combine torsion and
shearing were investigated

2. Experimental apparatuses and methods

2.1. Experimental apparatus for combined torsion and shearing tests

A new experimental apparatus was constructed that cut materials

through a combination of torsion and shearing, as shown in Fig. 2. An
electric motor was used to twist the material. A timing belt was pro-
vided on the torsion side, and a lever was used to move a bench ver-
tically on the shearing side. The lever had a short and a long arm. The
long arm was nine times longer than the short arm. Force was exerted at
the edge of the long arm, and the lever amplified the force and trans-
mitted it to the bench. This force was used to shear the bar. The
shearing speed was 200 mm/s. Two spacers were used to constrain and
support the wire, and two chucks were used to pinch the two spacers.
In addition, a novel apparatus was constructed to apply shear force
to a narrow area of a wire (Fig. 3). The blade, which was fixed to a
slide-guide, could move only in the vertical direction. The blade applied
a stable shear force to a narrow area of the wire. It was ascertained that
the contact area between the blade and the wire was similar to a point
contact. An electric motor along with a timing belt was used to twist the
wire.
Test sample used in this study is shown in Fig. 4 along with the
spacer and chuck, which are cutting tools. It was ascertained that the
edge shape of the spacer had a small radius of 0.3 μm. The distance
between each spacer was the clearance c, the value of which was de-
termined by sandwiching a few sheets of predetermined thickness be-
tween the spacers. After measuring the actual distance between each
Fig. 2. Experimental apparatus combining shearing with torsion.
spacer as the clearance, the test sample was set between the torsion and
shearing side.
A load-cell under the bench was used to measure the shearing load.
A laser displacement meter was used to measure the displacement of
the bench. A strain gage attached to the torsion axis was used to
measure the torsional strain, which was used to calculate the torsional
torque.
2.2. Cutting methods
Three methods of cutting materials were examined in this study.
First, using shearing in combination with torsion (SCT), the wire was
cut using shearing after it was twisted to a predetermined angle.
Second, using torsion in combination with static shear load (TASSL),
the wire was cut using torsion under while applying a static shear load.
Third, using torsion with a concentrated applied shear load (TCASL),
the wire was cut using torsion while a concentrated shear load was
applied to it at one point. The characteristics of each method are de-
scribed later.

2
S. Kajino and M. Asakawa Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 282 (2020) 116660

Fig. 3. Experimental apparatus used for torsion cutting with a shear load applied to a narrow area.

Table 1
Chemical composition of wire specimen.
C Si Mn P S Cu Ni Cr Al N

0.21 0.22 0.66 0.017 0.016 0.01 0.03 0.05 0.051 0.004

Fig. 4. Test sample for SCT, TASSL and TCASL.
3. Characteristics of the TASSL cutting method
3.1. Reduction of droop height in a wire cut using TASSL
For the TASSL cutting process, the newly developed experimental
apparatus was used to exert a simultaneous static shear load and torsion
on a wire. The static shear load was either 0.15 or 0.5 kN. Four wires
were prepared for comparison of the edge shape characteristics. The
first was cut using only shearing, the second was cut using shearing
after 360° torsion (SCT), and the third and last was cut using TASSL
(0.15 and 0.5 kN). The chemical composition of the wires used in this
experiment is shown in Table 1. The chemical composition was taken
from inspection literature provided by the supplier (Sumitomo Metal
Industries (former), Nippon Steel Corporation (present)). The wire
diameter was 1.96 mm. The wires were annealed at 1123 K for 2 h
before cutting. The wires possess a shear yield stress of 250 MPa. The
effect of torsion in the case of close clearance (0.05 - 0.08 mm) will be
discussed in the following section.
A magnifying glass was used to obtain photographs of the side and
front views of the wire’s edge after cutting, as shown in Fig. 5. The
droop height λd, burr height λb and the angle θs of the leaned cut face
were defined as shown in Fig. 5. These values were measured from the
side-view photographs. The diameters of the circumscribed and in-
scribed circles (D1 and D2 respectively) defined the roundness Rt, that is
Rt = D1/D2.
Fig. 6 shows the edge shapes and cut faces of wires cut using several
cutting methods. Fig. 7 (a) shows a comparison of the droop height λd
and roundness Rt achieved in the different cutting tests. The wire cut
using only shearing had a large droop height and burr. The droop

3
S. Kajino and M. Asakawa
Fig. 5. Measurement of the edge shape of a cut wire.
heights and the roundness were measured from 5 samples, and the
average values were indicated in the graph of Fig. 7. The average droop
height was 0.379 mm in the case of shearing only. That was 0.24 mm in
the case of SCT. Compared with only shearing, SCT decreased the droop
and burr height of the cut wire. Furthermore, SCT improved the
roundness Rt of the cut face. Notably, TASSL significantly decreased the
droop height and improved the roundness of the cut face from 80 % to
91.4 %. The wire cut using TASSL of 0.15 kN possessed the smallest
droop height and best roundness, which were 0.106 mm and 97.6 %.
The average drop height and roundness were 0.166 mm and 92.7 % in
the case of TASSL (0.5 kN). Fig. 7 (b) shows the angles θs between the
cut face and the wire axis. The angle was 72° in the case of shearing
only. The angle leaned vastly from right angle in the case of sharing
only. The angle was 80° in the case of SCT. TASSL of 0.15 kN achieved
the best angle 88°, which was almost right angle. TASSL improved the
angle between leaned cat face and axis.
Fig. 6. Edge shapes and cut faces of wires cut using various cutting methods.
4
Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 282 (2020) 116660
3.2. Measurement of torsional strain and torsion area
The method for determining the torsional strain used a wire with a
scribed line along its length. The clearance c between the chucks during
the torsion test was 50–80 μm. Fig. 8 shows the scribed line after the
wire has undergone torsion.
The inclination angle θ was measured between the scribed line and
the wire axis at 50 μm intervals between point A and B. Point A in-
dicates the starting point of the inclination and point B indicates the
torsion end point. Point C in Fig. 8 exemplifies the measurement of the
angle θ. Fig. 9 shows the relationship between the inclination angle θ
and the distance from the torsion starting point.
The torsion angles applied to the wire were 180°, 360° and 540°. The
inclination angle θ increased from the torsion starting point, became
constant after a certain distance, and then finally decreased. The dis-
tance at which the inclination angle was constant was 2 mm in the all
S. Kajino and M. Asakawa
Fig. 7. Comparison of droop height, roundness and angle between leaned cut face and axis for the various cutting methods.
Fig. 8. Scribed line after torsion.
Fig. 9. Distribution of inclination angles between scribed line and wire axis in
the longitudinal direction.
torsion angle applied to the wire. This distance corresponds to the
distance between the gripping force points at each edge of the wire. The
length of the torsion area increased as the torsion angle increased. This
torsion area corresponded to the layer affected by deformation and was
necessary to facilitate cutting of the wire. The cutting method used a
variety of deformation layer depths from the cut edge. As an ideal wire-
cutting method would require zero depth in the affected layer, an af-
fected layer would be unnecessary. The relationship between the depth
of the affected layer and the cutting method was investigated.
Fig. 10 shows the torsion distance for the TASSL test. The torsion
distance for a static shear load of 0.15 kN was 4 mm, whereas that for a
static shear load of 0.5 kN was 1.8 mm. The torsional strain χt was
calculated as tanθx using the θx values from Fig. 9. The shear de-
formation area was 1.5 mm for shearing only. The shear deformation
area was determined from the sharp angle present in the scribed line
after shearing.
Fig. 11 shows the relationship between the maximum torsion strain
and the torsional angle applied to the wire in three cases: shearing only,
torsion only, and TASSL. The maximum torsional strain increased with
an increase in the torsion angle applied to the wire in all samples. These
results clearly indicate that increasing the shear load reduced the tor-
sion area and torsional strain.
5
Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 282 (2020) 116660
Fig. 10. Measurement of torsional strain using a scribed line.
Fig. 11. Maximum torsional strain for various cutting methods.
3.3. Hardness distribution near the cut edge in the case of TASSL
The hardness distribution near the cut edge was measured to ana-
lyze the effect of torsion on the physical characteristics of wires cut with
TASSL and SCT. The ideal situation would involve confining the tor-
sional deformation to a particular clearance area with no deformation
occurring outside that area. However, torsional deformation actually
occurred under the chuck, which was outside of the clearance area.
Torsional deformation under the chuck altered the mechanical prop-
erties of the wire due to work-hardening of the wire. The measured
hardness distributions revealed variations in the mechanical properties
of the wires. Wires cut using shearing only, SCT and TASSL were em-
bedded in resin and then ground down to expose the central axis of the
wire in the longitudinal direction. The hardness measurements were
performed at three points at each longitudinal measurement location,
starting 100 μm from the wire’s central axis with a distance of 200 μm
between each point. The first longitudinal measurement location was
positioned 50 μm from the cut edge and measurements were performed
S. Kajino and M. Asakawa Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 282 (2020) 116660

Table 2
Shear force for the various cutting methods.
Cutting method Shear force Fs (kN)

Shearing only 1.4

TASSL 0.15 kN 0.15
TASSL 0.5 kN 0.5

Table 3
Torsional torque for the TASSL tests.
Torsional torque (N·m) Torsional stress at surface layer (MPa)

TASSL 0.15 kN 727 489

TASSL 0.5 kN 415 279

Fig. 12. Measurement points for the Vickers hardness test. typically caused a droop when shear-cutting the wire. In the TASSL
tests, the low shear load decreased the droop height because the
amount of material drawn in the longitudinal direction decreased.
at 150 μm intervals along the length of the wire for a distance of 2700
Next, the ratio between the shear strain and the torsional strain is
μm, as shown in Fig. 12. Therefore, the three hardness values having
discussed. The angle between the longitudinal axis of the wire and the
the same distance to the cut edge were measured and averaged.
tangential line of the cut edge in the transverse view of the cut wire was
Fig. 13 shows the distribution of the measured Vickers hardness
measured and used to determine the shear strain. Fig. 14 shows sche-
values. In the case of the wire cut by shearing alone, the hardness near
matics of the method used for the shear strain measurement.
the cut edge was high and decreased sharply as the measurement lo-
For the wire cut by shearing only, the value of ls and ds were mea-
cation shifted away from the cut edge. The hardness at the location
sured, where ls is the distance over which the scribed line is angled and
1.5 mm from the cut edge was identical to that of the raw material that
ds is the gap between the scribed lines on either side of the angled
was not exposed to deformation. Thus, it was ascertained that plastic
section (Fig. 14a). Then the strain by shear load χs was calculated as ds/
deformation due to shearing occurred only near the cut edge.
ls. As shown in Fig. 14b, ls and ds were measured similarly from the
In the case of TASSL with a static shear load of 0.15 kN, the hardness
scribed line on a twisted wire to determine the strain by shear load in
decreased gradually as the measurement location shifted away from the
the TASSL case. This measurement method was imperfect for measuring
cut edge. The torsion hardened a relatively deep area of the wire at the
the exact strain by shear load at the cutting point. However, this
cut edge in the case of torsion with a static load of 0.15 kN. When the
method was considered to give the average strain by shear load in the
static shear load was increased to 0.5 kN, the hardness decreased
deformation area caused by the shearing process.　
sharply as the measurement location shifted away from the cut edge.
Using a line scribed on the wire in the longitudinal direction, the
This phenomenon was similar to that noted for shearing alone, which
inclination θx of the scribed line was used to determine the torsional
also demonstrated a sharp decrease in hardness as the measurement
strain χt as shown in Figs. 9 and 10.
location shifted away from the cut edge. Plastic deformation occurred
It was estimated that the wire was cut when the average strain by
only at the area near the cut edge. The observation of a narrow work-
shear load in pure shear stress field was 1. As the calculated strain by
hardened area is consistent with the torsion angle measurement results.
shear load was approximately 1, the method used in this study for
measurement of strain by shear load is considered valid. Thus, rea-
3.4. Relationship between torsion strain and strain by shear load sonable comparisons of the strain by shear load and torsional strain
ratios can made using the calculated average strain values. Table 4
The shear loads for the TASSL test (0.15 kN and 0.5 kN) were much shows the equivalent plastic strain calculated from the strain by shear
smaller (65 % and 90 % respectively) than that for the shearing only load and torsional strains using Eq. (1). The normal strains and the
test (1.4 kN) (Table 2). shear strain in other directions were ignored in this equation. The
However, the torsional torque increased in the case of the TASSL normal strains were approximately zero, as confirmed by the observa-
test (Table 3). Torsion was the main factor associated with cutting the tion of the scribed lines in the specimens.
wire using TASSL. Material drawn in the longitudinal direction

Fig. 13. Distribution of Vickers hardness along the longitudinal direction of

wires cut using the TASSL process. Fig. 14. Shearing strain measurement.

6
S. Kajino and M. Asakawa Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 282 (2020) 116660

Table 4
Strains for the various cutting methods.
Strain by shear Torsional strain Equivalent plastic strain
load γs γt γeq

Shearing only 1.09 0 0.63

SCT 0.55 1.23 0.78
TASSL 0.15 kN 0.14 1.19 0.6
TASSL 0.5 kN 0.24 0.77 0.47

Fig. 17. Distribution of shear stress and torsional stress.

action was exerted around the fracture surface in a circumferential

Fig. 15. Ratios of strain by shear load and torsional strains to the equivalent
plastic strain.
1 torsion under a static shear load and the specimen was analyzed to
2 2
= ( + s)
eq
3 t
(1)
Fig. 15 shows the ratios of the strain by shear load and torsional
strains to the equivalent plastic strain (black and gray bars, respec-
tively).
The equivalent plastic strain was the smallest with a static shear
load of 0.5 kN. In the case of a static shear load of 0.15 kN, the ratio of
the torsional strain to equivalent strain was 98 %, whereas that in the
case of a static load of 0.5 kN was 90 %. The ratio was much larger for
the TASSL cutting methods than for the SCT cutting method. A decrease
in the torsional strain ratio caused an increase in the droop height.
Thus, torsional strain was effective in reducing the droop height, but an
increase in torsional strain caused the work-hardened area to expand.
3.5. Cut direction in the case of TASSL
The cut direction was vertical to the shearing direction in the case of
TASSL, as shown in Fig. 16. Fig. 17 shows the force applied to a virtual
micro volume at the fracture surface in the circumferential direction
during the TASSL process.
The shear force exerted by the shearing action was exerted only in a
vertically downward direction. The shear force exerted by the torsion
direction. The equivalent plastic stress was calculated for each virtua-
lized micro volume when the maximum equivalent stress was in excess
of the yield stress in the case of a static shear load of 0.15 kN. Fig. 17
indicates the distribution of the equivalent plastic stresses, which are
noted as numerical values. The equivalent stress reached a maximum
value at point C. The equivalent stress reached a minimum value at
point G, which was diametrically opposite to point C. It was estimated
that plastic deformation began at point C, where the equivalent stress
was the highest and progressed to point G. When the equivalent stress
at point C reached the yield stress, the equivalent stresses at the other
points were lower than the yield stress. Thus, it was considered that
cutting propagated from point C to point G. The test was halted during
ascertain the crack progress direction from point C to point G. Fig. 18
shows the test specimen in a transverse direction after the halted test.
These pictures reveal the condition of the specimen during the TASSL
process.
After halting the test, the specimen was forcibly separated by
bending to analyze the face of the fracture surface (Fig. 19). This image
reveals the fractures and connected areas present during the TASSL
process.
A crack occurred at cutting point C because the specimen was se-
parated as shown in Fig. 18b. However, the specimen maintained a
connection point at point G as shown in Fig. 18a. As the crack did not
propagate to point G, it was estimated that cutting began at point C and
progressed towards point G. After separating the specimen, a visual
analysis of the fracture surface clarified that the fracture condition at
point C was different to that at point G as shown in Fig. 19. The fracture
surface at point C seemed to be indicative of a cut surface and occurred
during torsion under application of a static shear load. The fracture
surface at point G displayed some minor unevenness. This fracture
surface occurred after the connected specimen was forcibly separated
subsequent to the halting of the cutting test. In the analyzed test
sample, the cutting direction was vertical to the shearing direction
because the cutting process progressed from the highest equivalent
stress to the lowest.

4. Characteristics of the TCASL cutting process

4.1. TCASL experimental conditions

Fig. 16. Cut direction in the TASSL process.
Adding torsion to the shearing process improved the droop and burr
characteristics. However, TASSL did not achieve a zero-droop height.
Material flow in the longitudinal direction caused droop at the initia-
tion of the shearing process. Thus, the method of applying the shear
load was considered in terms of achieving a zero-droop height. Fig. 20
shows the mounting fixture used to mount the wire by completely en-
closing it and then used to apply a shear force to the wire in the pro-
posed shearing direction during the shearing process. This mounting
method resulting in the shear force being applied to approximately half
the peripheral surface of the wire. Fig. 21 shows the area of wire over
which the shear force was applied.

7
S. Kajino and M. Asakawa Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 282 (2020) 116660

Fig. 18. Specimen in the transverse direction after halting the test during the TASSL process.

Fig. 19. Face of the fracture surface after forcible separation of the specimen by
bending.
The area over which shear force was applied was large because the
traditional mounting fixture was in contact with the entire cir-
cumference of the wire. The large area exposed to the shear force
caused material flow in the longitudinal direction, leading to the oc-
currence of droop. Reducing the area over which shear force is applied
would reduce the material flow in the longitudinal direction, and it was
anticipated that applying the shear force to a single point would
achieve a zero-droop height. Inserting a thin blade between the chucks
allowed the application of force directly to only one point on the wire as
shown in Fig. 22. This method narrowed the contact area between the
blade and the wire. The blade applied shear force intensively to the
wire because the contact area between the blade and the wire was si-
milar to a point contact. The novel apparatus for this method is shown
in Fig. 3.
The test material was annealed low carbon steel wire with a
1.96 mm diameter. The blade used to apply shear force to the wire, was
constructed of CR1 (cold rolled steel) of 0.3 mm thickness. The three
shear force values applied to the wire were 0.05, 0.08 and 0.1 kN. The
droop height and roundness were measured using the previously de-
fined methods. The clearance between the chucks varied from 0.4 to
0.8 mm. The torsional torque of TCASL was larger than TASSL and was
almost same as the torsional torque of torsion only. The shear force of
TCASL was less than 0.08 kN. The smallest shear force of TASSL was
0.15 kN. Thus, the shear force of TCASL was less than the half of TASSL.
The wire was cut mainly by torsion rather than shear force in the case of
TCASL than TASSL.

4.2. Reduction of droop height in a wire cut using TCASL

Fig. 20. Fixture used to mount the wire and direction of the applied shear force. Fig. 23 shows photographs of the edge shape and the fracture sur-
face of the wire after TCASL cutting.

Fig. 21. Contact areas in traditional and concentrated shear load methods.

8
S. Kajino and M. Asakawa Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 282 (2020) 116660

Fig. 22. Schematics of the TCASL.

Fig. 23. Edge shape and cut face of a wire cut using the TCASL process.

Applying torsion with a concentrated shear load improved the edge Table 5
shape of the cut wire. The TCASL method reduced the droop height Comparison of droop heights obtained under static and concentrated shear
significantly in comparison with the previously discussed TASSL loads.
method and improved the roundness of the fracture surface. The droop View point Droop height λd (mm)
height of the cut wire was measured at four points around the cir-
cumference of the wire at 45° intervals as shown in Fig. 24. TASSL 0.15 kN TCASL 0.05 kN
Table 5 shows the droop height measurement results for the TCASL
A 0 0
test at a concentrated shear load of 0.05 kN as well as those for the B 0.06 0
TASSL test at a static shear load of 0.15 kN. C 0.08 0
The droop height was found to be zero from several different view- D 0.11 0
points in the case of the TCASL cutting test. At all three shear loads (0.05,
0.08, and 0.1 kN), the TCASL process resulted in droop heights of zero.

4.3. Success ratio of test pieces cut within a predefined clearance

The ratio of test pieces cut within a predefined clearance was cal-
culated for all test pieces. This ratio indicated the success of the cutting
process for various cutting methods. Fig. 25 shows the success ratio and
the droop height associated with the torsion only, TASSL, and TCASL

Fig. 25. Comparison of success ratio and droop height associated with various
cutting methods.

cutting methods. The clearance was 0.06 mm for torsion only and
TASSL, whereas it was 0.4 mm for TCASL.
The success ratio of the torsion only method was close to zero, in-
Fig. 24. Droop height measurement points after the TCASL cutting process. dicating that controlling the cut location was difficult in this case.

9
S. Kajino and M. Asakawa
Fig. 26. Distribution of Vickers hardness along the longitudinal direction of
wires cut using the TCASL process.
Applying a slight shear force using the TASSL method could confine the
cut location to within the clearance, with a success ratio for cutting
within the clearance of 40 %. However, the shear force applied in the
TASSL process caused droop, even though the shear force was relatively
small. Notably, the TCASL method decreased the droop height to zero
and improved the success ratio to almost 90 %.
4.4. Hardness distribution near the cut edge in the case of TCASL
Fig. 26 shows the hardness distribution near the cut edge of the wire
cut using the TCASL process.
For the wires cut using TCASL process, the hardness decreased
slightly from the cut face in the longitudinal direction. This hardness
distribution was similar to the results for the wire cut by torsion alone.
This result suggested that torsion generated torsional strain extensively
along the longitudinal direction in the case of the TCASL process, in a
similar fashion to that for the torsion only process.
5. Discussion
5.1. Effect of shearing force on droop height and success ratio
Fig. 27 shows the relationship between the shear load and the droop
height for the TASSL and TCASL processes, whereas Fig. 28 shows the
relationship between the shear load and the success ratio.
Successful cutting of the wire within the predefined clearance re-
quired the application of a shear load of at least 0.15 kN in the case of
TASSL. The application of a lower shear load made it impossible to
accurately determine the cut location. However, the droop height in-
creased significantly with the application of a 0.15 kN shear load. The
Fig. 27. Relationship between shear load and droop height for the TASSL and
TCASL cutting methods.
10
Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 282 (2020) 116660
Fig. 28. Relationship between shear load and success ratio for the TASSL and
TCASL cutting methods.
application of a shear force to a large area of the wire inevitably led to
droop. In contrast, in the case of TCASL, the wire could be cut within
the clearance under the application of a shear load of less than 0.15 kN.
Moreover, the droop height was zero because only a slight shear load
was applied. The contact area between the wire and the blade was
extremely small because the blade made contact with the wire at only
one point. Thus, even though the shear load was slight, the contact
stress between the blade and the wire was extremely large because of
the small contact area. This large contact stress determined the cut
location. An applied shear force of less than 0.05 kN enabled the de-
termination of the cut location in the case of TCASL, which is one third
of the shear force required in the case of TASSL (0.15 kN). However, the
contact area in the case of TCASL was found to be only one tenth of the
size of that in the TASSL process. Thus, the estimated contact stress in
the case of the TCASL process was larger than that associated with the
TASSL process. Although this contact stress generated some slight shear
deformation around the shear loading point, the slight shear deforma-
tion caused only a small amount of material to flow in the longitudinal
direction. As material flow in the longitudinal direction is the typical
cause of droop, the small extent of material flow during the TCASL
process one of the reasons for the zero-droop height.
Furthermore, the hardness test result suggested that torsional strain
occurred extensively in the longitudinal direction (Fig. 26). Torsional
strain was caused by material flow in the circumferential direction
around the wire’s central axis. However, material flow in the cir-
cumferential direction did not contribute to droop formation. In the
case of TCASL, the main factor affecting cutting of the wire was tor-
sional strain. This cutting method applied a large torsional strain but
only a small shear strain to the wire. This result indicates that a small
shear deformation was able to cut the wire while it was under a large
torsional strain.
5.2. Comparison of TASSL and TCASL process properties
The droop height was decreased vastly in the TASSL process as
compared with the shearing only process. However, a slight droop
height was generated and the cutting direction was different from the
shearing direction in the TASSL process. This phenomenon was caused
by the distribution of the equivalent stresses as shown in Fig. 17, when
shearing was combined with torsion. In contrast to the TASSL process,
the TCASL process achieved a zero droop height, but the use of a blade
was necessary. Notably, the TCASL process only required a slight shear
force to cut the wire within the clearance.
A larger work hardened area at the edge of the wire was produced
with both the TASSL and TCASL processes than with shearing only
because the wire was mainly cut by torsion in TASSL and TCASL pro-
cesses. It is considered that the large hardened area affects the pro-
ductivity of the second processes such as forging and parts former.
S. Kajino and M. Asakawa
6. Conclusions
This study investigated new cutting methods for steel wire (low
carbon steel), which combined both shearing and torsion. The effects of
the new cutting methods on the droop height of the cut wire were ex-
amined and the process characteristics of the new cutting methods were
clarified. The following conclusions could be drawn from this study:
1 Combining torsion and shearing decreased the droop height of the
wire. The inhibition of droop required a high ratio of torsional strain
to equivalent strain when cutting the wire. An increase in the ratio
of torsional strain decreased the associated droop height.
2 Cutting the wire using torsion inhibited material flow in the long-
itudinal direction, which is the main factor contributing to droop.
Thus, the TCASL process, in which torsion was the main factor as-
sociated with the cutting the wire, generated a zero-droop height.
3 Torsion was the main factor associated with cutting the wire.
Shearing was a determining factor for the cut location because of the
associated stress concentration. Combining torsion with shearing
enabled cutting of the wire at a predetermined location with zero
associated droop height.
4 In this study, the TCASL process was applied to cutting a wire with a
diameter of 1.96 mm. However, wires with diameters of 10–20 mm
are typically used for part forming and heading. Thus, the TCASL
process should be applied to larger wires. As twisting large wires is
difficult because a large torque is required, a method of twisting
large wires will be developed in future work.
5 The TCASL process was performed as a batch process in this study.
However, as cutting or trimming processes are essential for mass
production, a continual TCASL process should be developed, and a
novel apparatus will be constructed in future work.
Funding
This works was supported by the Amada Foundation [grant num-
bers AF-2007026]; and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Satoshi Kajino: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis,
11
Journal of Materials Processing Tech. 282 (2020) 116660
Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing,
Visualization, Project administration. Motoo Asakawa: Formal ana-
lysis, Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks are expressed to the Advanced Manufacturing
Research Institute in the National Institute of Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology for their advice on the experimental works in
this paper; to the Material Engineering Laboratory of Waseda University
for their assistance with the experimental work in this paper; and to
Editage by Cactus Communications Inc. for language editing.
References
Al-Qureshi, H.A., Das, M.K., 1976. Thin-walled tube cropping using elastomer. Int. J.
Mach. Tool Des. Res. 16, 77–85.
Basily, B.B., Das, M.K., 1978. Factors affecting stress cracking in cold/warm cropping of
steel billets. J. Mech. Work. Technol. 2, 217–239.
Chan, L.C., Lee, T.C., Wu, B.J., Cheung, W.M., 1998. Experimental study on the shearing
behavior of fine-blanking versus bar cropping. J. Mater. Process. Technol. 80-81,
126–130.
Chen, M., Li, H., Li, X., Liu, C., 2007. Characterization of deformation microstructure and
fractured surface of plastic shearing of copper bar. Mater. Sci. Eng. A 452-453,
454–461.
Das, M.K., Lui, S.W., Tobias, S.A., 1979. Die wear characteristics in high speed cropping.
Int. J. Mach. Tool Des. Res. 19, 221–235.
Gotoh, M., Yamashita, M., 2001. A study of high-rate shearing of commercially pure
aluminum sheet. J. Mater. Process. Technol. 110, 253–264.
Jin-de, C., De-Hong, Y., Yu-wei, W., Zi-gong, Z., 1992. Plastic precision cropping of metal
materials. Int. J. Mach. Tools Manuf. 32-3, 425–433.
Maiti, S.K., Das, M.K., Tobias, S.A., 1975. The dynamics of a H. E. R. F. cropping machine.
Int. J. Mach. Tool Des. Res. 15, 129–152.
Organ, A.J., Mellor, P.B., 1967. Some factors affecting the quality of cropped billets. Int.
J. Mach. Tool Des. Res. 7, 369–389.
Song, J.L., Li, Y.T., Liu, Z.Q., Fu, J.H., Ting, K.L., 2009. Numerical simulation and ex-
periments of precision bar cutting based on high speed and restrained state. Mater.
Sci. Eng. A 499, 225–229.
Wang, Z., Zhao, S., Yu, Y., 2007. Study on the dynamic characteristics of the low-stress
vibration cropping machine. J. Mater. Process. Technol. 190, 89–95.
Zhao, S.D., Zhang, L.J., Lei, J., Wang, Z.W., 2007. Numerical study on heat stress pre-
fabricating ideal crack at the bottom of V shaped notch in precision cropping. J.
Mater. Process. Technol. 187-188, 363–367.