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An Investigation of Die Wear Behavior During Aluminum Alloy 7075 Tube

Extrusion

Article  in  Journal of Tribology · December 2012

DOI: 10.1115/1.4023081

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 Cunsheng Zhang
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural
Evolution and Processing of Materials
(Ministry of Education),
Shandong University,
Jinan, Shandong 250061, P. R. C.;
State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing
and Die & Mould Technology,
Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
Wuhan, Hubei 430074, P. R. C.
e-mail: zhangcs@sdu.edu.cn
Guoqun Zhao1
e-mail: zhaogq@sdu.edu.cn
Tingting Li
e-mail: litingting198801@163.com
Yanjin Guan
e-mail: guan_yanjin@sdu.edu.cn
Hao Chen
e-mail: chenhao1984223@163.com
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural
Evolution and Processing of Materials
(Ministry of Education),
Shandong University,
Jinan, Shandong 250061, P. R. C.
An Investigation of Die Wear
Behavior During Aluminum
Alloy 7075 Tube Extrusion
During hot extrusion process, die wear shortens markedly the service life of extrusion
dies under the high-pressure, high-temperature conditions. In this paper, based on modi-
fied Archard’s wear model, a user-defined subroutine for calculating die wear depth was
developed and implanted into DEFORM-3D. On the basis of the numerical model, the
die wear behavior during aluminum alloy 7075 tube extrusion has been investigated. The
numerical results show that process variables have multiple effects on die wear behavior.
With the increasing ram speed, wear depth of die bearing rises and then tends to decline
gradually. From the ram speed of 15 mm/s, die wear depth begins to increase again.
Wear depth rises suddenly with the increase of friction coefficient, then gradually
reduces. When friction coefficient is greater than 0.8, wear depth tends to be a constant.
A maximum wear depth occurs at 430  C of billet temperature, and a minimum wear
depth occurs at certain die temperature in the range of 400–425  C. In addition, the
required extrusion force has strong dependence on process variables. The extrusion force
rises clearly with the increase of ram speed and friction coefficient and with the decrease
of initial temperatures of billet and die. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4023081]
Keywords: aluminum tube extrusion, Archard’s wear model, die wear behavior, wear
subroutine

Peng Li
CSR Qingdao Sifang Co. Ltd.,
Qingdao, Shandong 266111, P. R. C.
e-mail: Lipeng@cqsf.com

1 Introduction feasible in cases where plastic deformation was not significant.

Lee and Im [3] analyzed the wear profile in dies during cold extru-
Aluminum extrusion is a technique used to manufacture elon-
sion by implementing Archard’s wear model into a rigid-thermo-
gated products with a definitive cross-sectional profile for a wide
viscoplastic finite element (FE) analysis program. It was shown
range of uses. In general, product quality and extrusion productiv-
that wear and stress levels were the main factors that affect the
ity depend highly on extrusion dies in hot extrusion processes,
service life of dies. By comparison, the numerically determined
where they have to endure high temperature, high pressure, high
wear profile was consistent with the trend of available experimen-
friction, and the action of sudden heating and sudden chilling
tal results. Saha [4] investigated thermodynamic and tribological
again and again.
relationships during aluminum extrusion. It was found that extru-
Proper selection of the die material and of the die manufactur-
sion thermodynamics greatly affects the die wear behavior, and
ing technique determines, to a large extent, the service life of
the tribology in aluminum extrusion has direct influence on the
an extrusion die. Dies may have to be replaced for a number of
accuracy of shape and the surface finish of extrusion. Eriksen [5]
reasons, such as changes in dimensions due to wear or plastic
investigated the influences of die edge geometry on the maximum
deformation, deterioration of the surface finish, breakdown of
wear depth and the wear distribution over the die edge in a stand-
lubrication, and cracking or breakage. In such factors that affect
ard deep drawing process. This investigation showed that the
the service life of extrusion dies, die wear plays a determinant
maximum wear depth on a die edge was influenced by the geome-
role, especially in hot extrusion processes; more than 70% of die
try. By experiments with physical simulation of deep drawing, the
replacements are due to premature die wear, according to an
numerical model was verified and used to optimize the die edge
investigation carried out by Stahlberg and Hallstrom [1].
geometry. Björk et al. [6] studied the wear mechanisms of gas-
Currently, many researchers have investigated the influences of
nitrided tools and duplex coated tools. It was found that duplex
process conditions on die wear behavior during the material form-
coating prolongs the tool service life at least five times as com-
ing process experimentally and numerically [2–12]. Painter et al.
pared to conventional nitriding. Behrens and Schaefer [7] ana-
[2] developed a program to predict die wear behavior during hot
lyzed tool wear numerically and experimentally during hot
extrusion of engine valves. They found that accurate abrasive and
forging. A program was developed to calculate the tool wear by
adhesive wear prediction of steel and ceramic extrusion dies was
using the Archard wear model, taking into account the hardness
1
change of the tool surface layer with increasing number of forging
Corresponding author.
Contributed by the Tribology Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL
cycles. Finally, the wear model was verified by comparing with
OF TRIBOLOGY. Manuscript received March 9, 2012; final manuscript received August the experimental results. Lepadatu et al. [8] carried out the statisti-
28, 2012; published online December 20, 2012. Assoc. Editor: Robert Wood. cal process control analysis of the tool wear evolution during the

Journal of Tribology Copyright V

C 2013 by ASME JANUARY 2013, Vol. 135 / 011602-1
metal extrusion process. The strong dependence is found between
the wear variation and the process factors variation, especially in
the active part of the die. Biglari and Zamani [9] calculated wear
accounts by two different wear models (traditional Archard’s
model and energy wear model). It was found that these two mod-
els are in agreement with each other and are also consistent with
the prediction of the location of heavily worn areas on the die sur-
face. They also found that friction coefficient has no significant
influence on die wear. Abachi et al. [10] carried out the wear anal-
ysis of a closed hot forging die used at the final stage of a compo-
nent. The wear depth was evaluated with a constant wear
coefficient. By comparing the numerical results with experimental
measurements, the wear coefficient has been evaluated for differ-
ent points of the die surface, and finally a value of wear coefficient
was suggested. The wear behavior of dual-phase PM steel was
investigated experimentally by Tekeli et al. [11]. They found that
the sintered specimen showed very high wear rate caused by Fig. 1 Extrusion die designed in this work (unit: mm)
severe plastic deformation of surface resulted by low hardness.
The wear resistance model for AISI 1040 steel was developed in
terms of boronizing time, applied load, sliding distance, and slid-
ing speed using the Taguchi method. It is demonstrated that, for
AISI 1040 steel, the boronizing time had the greatest effect on the
wear, followed by sliding distance. A good agreement between
the predicted and experimental results from wear tests was
observed [12].
From the above analysis, much research on wear behavior is
mostly focused on forging dies, while less attention has been paid
to hot extrusion dies, especially on porthole extrusion dies in the
literature. In addition, it is found that the research on die wear
behavior using finite element method (FEM) is generally carried
out in two steps. The first step is to extract the temperature and
velocity field data by defining the rigid extrusion tooling. The sec-
Fig. 2 1/8 model used in the numerical simulation
ond one is to simulate again the extrusion process by taking use of
the boundary conditions from the first step and by defining the
extrusion tooling and billet as plastic bodies; thus, die wear infor- workpiece and die, while it is inversely proportional to the die
mation could be obtained. hardness (H) [5].
The present study was attempted to investigate die wear behav-
ior during the hot extrusion process. Firstly, based on modified LP
W¼K (1)
Archard’s wear model, a subroutine for calculating die wear depth H
was developed and implanted into DEFORM-3D to overcome the
limitation that the present FE software cannot directly calculate where die hardness (H) and wear coefficient (K) are the constants
wear depth. By means of the developed program, the extrusion related to materials. But it is found that material properties (such
process of a hollow aluminum tube has been simulated and as wear coefficient, hardness, etc.) will be changed greatly along
die wear behavior during the hot extrusion process has been with the varying temperature during the hot extrusion process
investigated. (generally above 400  C); therefore, the traditional Archard model
is not suitable to describe wear behavior of hot extrusion dies. For
this purpose, Kang modified the traditional Archard model by
2 Construction of Analytical Model considering that the die hardness is the function of the temperature
2.1 Design of Extrusion Die. The aluminum profile in the and it is softened with the processing cycles [13,14]. They
present case study is a typical circular tube for industrial applica- determined the softening curve by experiments and described die
tion with the outer diameter of 34.8 mm, inner diameter of hardness as the function of temperature and processing cycle.
22.2 mm, and wall thickness of 6.3 mm. The cylinder billet used With the modified model, wear behavior of a hot forging die has
in the simulation is 95 mm in diameter, and the extrusion ratio been analyzed and the numerical result has been then validated by
is 12.57. To produce this kind of aluminum tube, a porthole experiments.
extrusion die is usually designed, as shown in Fig. 1, where four In addition, Lee and Jou also put forward a modified Archard
portholes are distributed symmetrically in the upper die in order wear model [15], where die hardness and wear coefficient are con-
to obtain a better uniformity of material flow. In addition, to con- sidered to be functions of temperature. The modified wear model
trol and balance the metal flow throughout the die orifice at identi- can be expressed as
cal velocity, constant bearing lengths of 4.5 mm on die mandrel LP
and 4.0 mm on die orifice are taken. W ðT Þ ¼ K ðT Þ (2)
Due to its geometric symmetry of the billet, extrusion tooling H ðT Þ
(container, die, and stem), and the extrudate, only one-eighth (1/8)
of the objects were modeled to save simulation time (Fig. 2). The relations between wear coefficient, hardness, and die tem-
perature have been determined by experiments for hot-working
die steels, which are described as
2.2 Development of the User-Defined Wear Subroutine.
The traditional Archard wear model is widely used to analyze KðTÞ ¼ ½29:29  ln T  168:73  106 (3)
wear behavior of dies, as listed in Eq. (1). In this model, the
wear depth is proportional to the wear coefficient (K), die surface
pressure (P), and relatively sliding distance (L) between the HðTÞ ¼ 9216:4  T 0:505 (4)

011602-2 / Vol. 135, JANUARY 2013 Transactions of the ASME

 In modified Archard’s wear model, interface pressure, tempera-
ture, and velocity field vary with forming time and the relative
position between the workpiece and die, so Eq. (2) can be written
in the following type:

Lij Pij
DWij ¼ Kij ðT Þ (5)
Hij ðT Þ

In Eq. (2), DWij is the wear depth of die at the jth time incre-
ment and at ith forming position and Lij and Pij are the relatively
sliding distance and die interface pressure at this moment,
respectively. Thus, the whole wear depth of die during the form-
ing process could be expressed as

X
j¼n
Lij Pij Fig. 3 Flow stress curve of AA7075
Wi ¼ Kij ðT Þ (6)
j¼1
Hij ðT Þ

where n is the number of simulation steps during the whole nu-

merical simulation.
In this paper, according to Eqs. (3)–(6), a wear subroutine has
been developed based on ABSOFT PRO FORTRAN 8.0 and
implanted into DEFORM-3D. Then, the extrusion process of the
aluminum tube has been simulated. At the end of each conver-
gence step, the subroutine is called to calculate wear depth for
each element, which is saved in the file of usr_wear. Finally, by
means of numerical simulation, wear depths and wear distribution
on the extrusion die could be obtained directly in the postproces-
sor of DEFORM-3D.

2.3 Definition of Simulation Parameters. Aluminum alloy

7075 and H13 steel are chosen as billet and tool materials, respec-
tively. To describe its high deformation behavior of AA7075
during the hot extrusion process, Sellars and Tegart’s constitutive
equation is used [16].
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
e_ ¼ A n sinhðarÞ exp½DH=ðRTÞ (7)
where e_ is the effective strain rate; r is the flow stress; a, n, and A
are the temperature-independent material parameters; DH is the
activation energy; R is the universal gas constant; and T is the
absolute temperature. Parameters values used for AA7075 are
as follows: A ¼ 1:027  109 s1 , a ¼ 0:0141 MPa1 , DH ¼ 1:294
105 J=mol, n ¼ 5:41, and R ¼ 8:314 J=ðmol  kÞ. The flow
stress-strain curve of AA7075 under different temperatures and
strain rates is shown in Fig. 3. For a specific forming temperature,
the flow stress increases with the increase of stain rate, and for a
fixed strain rate, the flow stress decreases apparently with the rise
of forming temperature.
To analyze the metal flow, temperature and deformation distri-
butions, wear behavior, etc., during the extrusion process in this
work, the plastic billet and rigid extrusion tooling are defined. In
order to control the element number and ensure also calculation
accuracy, especially in the concerned areas, several local windows
with a higher element density and finer elements were applied.
Figure 4 shows the FE mesh for extrusion die. Around the die
cavity, especially near die bridges, relatively fine elements are
meshed. The element number of the whole model is about 55,000.
During the extrusion process, the aluminum billet is in direct
contact with the container and die manufactured in hot-working
steel, where there exhibits a significant chemical affinity and
adhesion tendency between aluminum billet and iron [17]. Thus,
to really model friction behavior of aluminum alloys, the shear
friction model is used for all of the interfaces between the billet
and the tooling (container and die) and an initial value of 1.0 is
defined firstly. At the die bearing land, a Coulomb friction factor
of 0.3 is prescribed, so as to simplify the complex interfacial con-
ditions ranging from full sticking at the die entrance to slipping at
the end of the bearing. To define the friction relationship (friction
Fig. 4 Definition of friction window
type and friction coefficient) between billet and mandrel bearing,
a cylindrical zoom window is chosen, as shown in Fig. 4. Another
friction window will be defined for the interaction between orifice
bearing and aluminum billet.
According to the enterprise process regulations for AA7075
extrusion, initial temperatures of the billet and extrusion tooling
are defined as 480 and 450  C, respectively. The heat transfer
coefficient between billet and die is set for 11 N/(smm  C), and
the heat transfer coefficient between tooling/billet and air is
0.02 N/(smm  C).
The user-defined wear type is chosen for defining the relation-
ship between the billet and extrusion tooling in DEFORM-3D. In
addition, symmetrical planes should be assumed to be immobile
with no material moving across due to the use of the one-eighth
model. The initial extrusion ram speed is assumed as 0.5 mm/s.
The number of the simulation step is 150, and the simulation in-
formation is saved every 5 steps. The length of the simulation step
is determined in terms of ram displacement, and each step is
defined as a constant value of 0.3 mm.
2.4 Analysis of Flow States During Extrusion Process.
Figure 5(a) shows the velocity distribution along the extrusion
direction of the forming workpiece at the 97th simulation incre-
ment. From this figure, it is seen that metal flows faster in the cen-
ter than that at the periphery of the extruded tube caused by the
strong friction (sticky condition) on the inner die cavity. Due to
the nonuniform flow velocities in the cross-section of the profile,
unequal lengths of the nose-end are observed in Fig. 5(b). In the
whole section of the extrudate, the regions with respect to high
velocities continuously squeeze those with low velocities, which
leads to the upward bent extrudate, as shown in the figure. This

Journal of Tribology JANUARY 2013, Vol. 135 / 011602-3

 Fig. 5 Velocity distribution and node-end of the forming workpiece
Fig. 6 Load-stroke curve at the ram speed of 1 mm/s
present study aims to investigate die wear behavior during the hot
extrusion process and does not focus on the optimization of extru-
sion die; therefore, the following research is still on the basis of
the present extrusion die.
The load-stroke curve during the extrusion process at the ram
speed of 1 mm/s is shown in Fig. 6, which is clearly divided into
seven forming stages. The comparison of metal flow states in cor-
responding stages is shown in Fig. 7.
In the I stage, the extrusion ram begins to contact billet and
then forces material to fill the gap between the billet and con-
tainer. The extrusion process in the stage is similar to the cylinder
upsetting, where metal flows mainly along the axial direction. As
the observation in the upsetting process, there is obvious drum
shape on the side surface of the cylindrical billet due to the strong
friction between billet and extrusion tooling, as shown in
Fig. 7(a). Due to the slight material deformation in this stage, the
required extrusion force almost does not vary.
In the II stage, material is continuously forced to flow along the
radial direction and to fill out the gap, so the required extrusion
load rises rapidly until the Point 2 (s ¼ 6.6 mm) in Fig. 6. At this
moment, metal in the billet center begins to flow into the portholes
(Fig. 7(b)).
011602-4 / Vol. 135, JANUARY 2013
In the III stage, metal is forced to fill out the portholes until it
contacts the bottom of the welding chamber, as shown in
Fig. 7(c). This forming stage is similar to the direct extrusion
process, where metal in the portholes is deformed only by rigid
displacement, while shear friction occurs between the workpiece
and die cavity. Thus, required extrusion force in this stage almost
keeps the same.
In the IV stage, metal arrives at the bottom of the welding
chamber and begins radial upsetting until the metal streams are
welded (Fig. 7(d)). In addition, due to strong shear friction and
increasing contact area between the workpiece and die inner sur-
face, required extrusion force increases dramatically.
In the V stage, parts of the material begin to enter the die orifice
and others continue to flow along the radial direction until it is
welded completely (Fig. 7(e)); consequently, the required extru-
sion force is increased stably in this range.
In the VI stage, metal begins to flow out through the die orifice.
In this stage, severe deformation occurs and extrusion load rises
rapidly to maximum until the nose-end of the profile is extruded
out of the die orifice (Fig. 7(f)). Then, material tends to be more
stable and the required extrusion force begins to slightly decline
in the next stage (VII).
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 7 Metal flow states in different stages during extrusion process
3 Investigations of Die Wear Behavior During
Extrusion Process
3.1 Effects of Ram Speed on Extrusion Process and Wear
Behavior. Extrusion ram speed plays a crucial role in product
quality, productivity, and service life of extrusion dies. In order to
investigate the effects of ram speed on the extrusion process and
die wear behavior, five different values of ram speed (1, 5, 10, 15,
and 20 mm/s) are taken.
3.1.1 Effect of Ram Speed on Die Temperature. Here, we
take the numerical model at the ram speed of 1 mm/s at the 150th
simulation step as an example to analyze the temperature distribu-
tion on the extrusion die, as shown in Fig. 8. Thirteen measured
points are picked along the distance between the start of the
Fig. 8 Temperature distribution on extrusion die at a ram
speed of 1.0 mm/s
Journal of Tribology
portholes and the end of the die bearing to study the distribution
of field information on extrusion die. It can be seen that the tem-
perature in the die cavity is higher than the initial preheating value
(450  C). The maximum value occurs on the die mandrel and port-
holes, where the temperature rises faster, while away from this
part, the temperature keeps almost level as the preheating value.
Along the distance between the start of the porthole entrance and
die bearing (from P1 to P9), the die temperature rises gradually
until P9. At the bearing on die mandrel (near P9), the material
undergoes severe shear deformation, because the final shape of
the profile is formed in the extrusion stage. Moreover, the heat
exchange process between the extrudate and bearing keep a long
time, so the maximum temperature appears at this region and then
the temperature reduces sharply (from P9 to P13). The same tem-
perature distribution can be also observed from Fig. 9, and the
maximum temperature appears near P9. In addition, it can be
observed from the figure that the die temperature at all measured
points rise with the increasing ram speed, which can be explained
as follows. At a greater ram speed, less time is allowed for this
heat to dissipate, so more heat is retrained by the billet during the
hot extrusion process, and plastic deformation work in unit time
becomes more significant, which leads to a higher die tempera-
ture. Therefore, at a ram speed of 1.0 mm/s, there is a clearly
lower temperature on the extrusion die.
Figure 10 shows the influence of ram speed on the temperature
evolution of the forming workpiece and extrusion die. From the
figure, it can be seen that temperatures of the workpiece and
die rise with the increase of ram speed. This is because that alumi-
num extrusion process occurs in the closed die cavity under an
approximately adiabatic environment, and most heat of the plastic
Fig. 9 Die temperature of measured points under various
extrusion velocities
JANUARY 2013, Vol. 135 / 011602-5
Fig. 10 Maximum temperatures on the forming workpiece and
extrusion die Fig. 11 Effects of ram speed on wear coefficient and die
hardness

Table 1 Maximum temperature, wear coefficient, and hardness

of extrusion die

Ram speed Maximum temperature Wear coefficient Die hardness

(mm/s) of extrusion die (K) (106) (HB)

1 762 25.64 322.98

5 796 26.92 315.94
10 807 27.32 313.75
15 811 27.46 312.97
20 818 27.71 311.62

Fig. 12 Effects of ram speed on interface pressure of meas-

deformation transfers to the workpiece and extrusion die. In addi- ured points
tion, the friction heat produced by strong friction between the
forming workpiece and tooling also leads to the temperature
increase of the workpiece and die. However, due to a relatively
long duration required for heat transfer to extrusion die, the die
temperature rises at a moderate speed, while the workpiece tem-
perature rises faster.
3.1.2 Effect of Ram Speed on Wear Coefficient and Die
Hardness. In terms of Eqs. (3) and (4), die hardness and wear
coefficient are calculated by extracting die temperature, as listed
in Table 1, and thus the relations between die hardness, wear coef-
ficient, and ram speed could be also obtained, as shown in Fig. 11,
respectively. Because the die wear coefficient is proportional to
the temperature, which goes up with the increasing ram speed, the
wear coefficient rises with the increase of ram speed. Oppositely,
the die hardness decreases with the increase of ram speed. Fig. 13 Effects of ram speed on wear depth of measured
3.1.3 Effect of Ram Speed on Interface Pressure. Figure 12 points
shows that ram speed has no significant effect on the interface
pressure of extrusion die, but for a certain ram speed, the interface
pressure drops gradually from Pl to P13 and there are two clear gradually and a relatively heavy wear occurs at the entrance of
fluctuations near P7 and P11. The phenomenon could be illus- portholes. This is because the billet is split into distinct streams
trated as follows. The billet metal is split into distinct streams upon entering the portholes and large deformation occurs here,
upon entering the mandrel of a porthole die, which can be consid- which leads to relatively strong friction and great interface pres-
ered as a multihole flat die extrusion process. In this extrusion sure; consequently, wear depth is very significant at the start of
stage, metal advances stably forward and the variation in interface the porthole entrances. From the figure, maximum wear depth
pressure on the extrusion die is very small. However, P7 is the occurs near P11, where the profile gains its shape and dimensions.
end of the porthole stage and the start of the welding stage, where Die bearing, where the largest plastic deformation of workpiece
the material in the welding chamber gradually accumulates again; and the highest die temperature and interface pressure occur, is
therefore, increased interface pressure leads to the first fluctuation the most severe area of die wear and is more likely to cause die
near P7. Then, the inner hydropressure increases in the welding failure.
chamber until it flows out of the die orifice under high temperature Figure 14 shows the wear depth distribution on the extrusion
and pressure. Therefore, the second fluctuation occurs near P11, die at a ram speed of 1.0 mm/s. It is found that the maximum die
which is the entrance of the die orifice (or die bearing). From that wear depth concentrates mainly on the entrance of the portholes.
moment on, material advances smoothly forward and the interface However, for aluminum profile extrusion, the wear depths at die
pressure on the extrusion die drops quickly until zero. bearing play direct effects on dimension precision or product qual-
ity. Therefore, in the following work, much attention will be paid
3.1.4 Effect of Ram Speed on Die Wear Behavior. Figure 13 to the wear depth and distribution on die bearing.
shows the influence of ram speed on die wear depth for measured Figure 15 shows the dependence of wear depth on ram speed. It
points. It can be seen that, from P1 to P8, wear depth decreases can be seen that, from 1 mm/s to 20 mm/s, the wear depth of die

011602-6 / Vol. 135, JANUARY 2013 Transactions of the ASME

 Fig. 16 Effects of ram speed on required extrusion force

Fig. 14 Wear distribution on extrusion die at a ram speed of

1.0 mm/s

Fig. 17 Effects of billet preheating temperature on maximum

wear depth of bearing

(such as nitriding, carburizing, etc.). Therefore, with the applica-

tion of nitrided hot work tools and innovative surface treatments
in practical production, the actual lengths of the tube will be far
higher than the ones predicted by numerical simulation.
Fig. 15 Effects of ram speed on maximum wear depth of die
bearing 3.1.5 Effect of Ram Speed on Required Extrusion Force. Too
high extrusion force will lead to an intolerable amount of die
wear, so it is important to minimize the extrusion force.
Table 2 Prediction of maximum tube length extruded by nu- Figure 16 shows that the required extrusion force increases
merical simulation along with the increasing ram speed, which can be explained by
analyzing the material flow behavior (Fig. 3). The greater the ram
Ram speed Wear depth of bearing Number of Maximum tube speed, the higher the deformation extent in unit time and the
(mm/s) per cycle (lm) cycles length (m) higher the flow stress. Thus, greater extrusion force is required to
deform aluminum billet to the desired shape.
1 0.621 805.2 68.44
5 0.735 680.3 57.82
10 0.723 691.6 58.78 3.2 Effects of Extrusion Temperatures on Extrusion
15 0.678 737.5 62.68 Process and Wear Behavior. In the hot extrusion process, two
20 0.721 693.5 58.95 main factors should be considered when a metal billet is trans-
ferred into products: metal plasticity and flow resistance; there-
fore, the billet usually has to be preheated in order to improve the
metal plasticity, to reduce the flow resistance, and to elevate the
material flowability.
bearing increases quickly and then decreases as a combined effect But on the other hand, a high initial temperature of the billet
of temperature, wear coefficient, die hardness, interface pressure, will make heat exchange between the workpiece and tooling more
etc. At a ram speed of 15 mm/s, the local minimum value of wear intensive; thus, the temperature of the die surface rises greatly,
depth appears. Then, with the increase of ram speed, die wear which causes the hardness of the die surface and the wear resist-
depth begins to increase again. ance to be reduced.
An excessive wear depth of die bearing easily leads to scrap
caused by the dimensional tolerance and surface quality of the 3.2.1 Effect of Initial Billet Temperature on Extrusion
profile beyond the required scope; therefore, in practical produc- Process and Wear Behavior. In order to study the effects of the
tion, the wear depth of die bearing should be well governed. initial temperature of the billet on the extrusion process and die
Through simulation and calculation, an about 85 mm tube flows wear behavior, five different initial temperatures of the billet are
out of the die orifice at the end of the 150th numerical step. chosen in the recommended range (405, 430, 455, 480, and
According to the given die tolerance of 0.5 mm, the product length 505  C). Then, the extrusion process is simulated by keeping other
could be calculated, as listed in Table 2. However, it is worth not- parameters unchanged. Throughout calculation, an increase in the
ing that the above results have been obtained without considering initial temperature of the billet from 405 to 505  C leads to an
the heat treatments and reinforcement effects of the die surface about 12.8% decrease in required extrusion force from 495 to 439

Journal of Tribology JANUARY 2013, Vol. 135 / 011602-7

Fig. 18 Effects of die preheating temperature on maximum Fig. 19 Effects of friction coefficient on required extrusion
wear depth of bearing force

tons. The influence of the initial temperature of the billet on wear

depth of the bearing is shown in Fig. 18. It can be seen that, from
405 to 505  C of the initial temperature of the billet, the wear
depth of the die bearing reaches a peak value at about 430  C,
and then it reduces gradually. As explained in Sec. 3.2, the
temperature has multiple effects on die wear behavior; the initial
temperature of the billet has no straight influence on the wear
depth of die bearing (Fig. 17).
3.2.2 Effect of Initial Die Temperature on Extrusion Process
and Wear Behavior. In order to study the effects of the initial
temperature of the extrusion die on the extrusion process and die
wear behavior, five different initial temperatures of the die are
chosen in the recommended range (350, 375, 400, 425, and
450  C). Then, the extrusion process is simulated by keeping the
other parameters unchanged. Throughout simulation and analysis, Fig. 20 Effects of friction coefficient on wear depth of bearing
along with the increase of die temperature, the required extrusion
force reduces significantly and there is a 28.1% decrease from 591
to 461 tons when the die temperature is improved from 350 to thus, die hardness reduces, wear coefficient increases, and die
450  C. However, with the varying die temperature, the wear wear becomes heavier. But on the other hand, the increase of the
depth of bearing firstly reduces and then increases quickly. A min- friction coefficient blocks flow velocity of the interface nodes
imum wear depth occurs at a certain temperature in the range of between the billet and die and increases material stickiness at the
400–425  C (Fig. 18). interface, which may reduce die wear. For this case, as shown in
Fig. 20, wear depth of bearing rises suddenly with the increase of
friction coefficient, then gradually reduces. When greater than
3.3 Effects of Friction Coefficient on Extrusion Process
and Wear Behavior. Good lubrication between the forming 0.8, die depth tends to be a constant, due to a nearly sticking con-
dition between the workpiece and die cavity.
workpiece and extrusion tooling can not only reduce surface
roughness of products and lessen flow resistance, but also
improves the surface quality of the extrusion die and enhances its 3.4 Experimental Verification. According to the extrusion
service life. die used in the numerical procedure, a real mold will be manufac-
In Archard’s wear model, although it does not include direct tured and practical profile extrusion will be accomplished on an
friction-related factors, friction condition influences material flow, 800T extrusion machine. Process parameters will be all under
stress distribution on extrusion dies, and the interface state close control in order to duplicate the conditions that were applied
between the billet and die; therefore, friction condition has also in the FE simulations.
certain effects on wear behavior. In this work, the effects of the
friction coefficient on the extrusion process and wear behavior 4 Conclusions
will be investigated. At die bearing, the material flow is almost
In this work, the extrusion process of an aluminum tube has
sliding and has no obvious effect on the extrusion process, so here
been simulated using DEFORM-3D and the effects of process
only the friction condition in the die cavity will be considered,
variables on die wear behavior have also been investigated by a
while Coulomb’s coefficient of 0.3 at the bearing land is kept
user-defined wear subroutine. Through a series of numerical simu-
unchanged. Five different values of friction coefficient between
lations and analysis, the following conclusions were drawn:
the die cavity and workpiece are chosen for 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8,
and 1.0. (1) Based on modified Archard’s wear theory, a wear subrou-
Figure 19 shows the effect of the friction coefficient on the tine for calculating die wear depth was developed and
required extrusion force. It can be seen that, with the increase of implanted into DEFORM-3D. By means of the user-defined
friction coefficient, more extrusion force is required to overcome subroutine, die wear depth and wear distribution on extru-
the interface friction between the forming workpiece and sion die could be directly obtained by carrying out only one
extrusion die, which accords totally with the actual observation. simulation, which overcomes the limitation that the present
Compared to the 374 tons for the friction coefficient with 0.5, the FE software cannot directly calculate die wear depth.
required extrusion force is increased to 462 tons for the friction (2) The most heavy die wear is located near die bearing and is
coefficient with 1.0. more likely to cause die failure, because of the largest plas-
Throughout the analysis, with the increase of friction coeffi- tic deformation, the highest die temperature, and interface
cient, the workpiece and die temperature increases significantly; pressure. Due to the multiple effects of ram speed on wear

011602-8 / Vol. 135, JANUARY 2013 Transactions of the ASME

 behavior, with the increase of ram speed, wear depth
increases firstly and then tends to decline gradually. When
larger than 15 mm/s, die wear depth increases again.
(3) Due to the complex influence of the friction coefficient on
die wear behavior, wear depth of bearing rises suddenly
with the increase of friction coefficient, then gradually
reduces. When greater than 0.8, die depth tends to be a
constant, due to a nearly sticking condition between the
workpiece and die cavity.
(4) Effects of billet and die temperatures on wear behavior
have been investigated too. With the increasing initial
temperature of the billet, the wear depth of bearing firstly
increases and then reduces gradually. A maximum wear
depth occurs at 430  C. However, with the varying die tem-
perature, the wear depth of bearing firstly reduces and then
increases quickly. A minimum wear depth occurs at a
certain temperature in the range of 400–425  C.
(5) Process variables have significant effects on required
extrusion force. The extrusion force rises clearly with the
increase of ram speed and friction coefficient and with the
decrease of billet and die temperatures, which is totally
accordant to practical observation.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge financial support
from National Natural Science Foundation of China (51105230),
State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mold
Technology (2011-P09), Program for Changjiang Scholars and
Innovative Research Team in University of Ministry of Education
of China (IRT0931), and National Science & Technology Pillar
Program in the Eleventh Five-year Plan Period of the People’s
Republic of China (2009BAG12A07-B01).
Journal of Tribology
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