Roll forging of profile section is a kind of forging process. In practice, it has drawn wide attention from engineering mechanics and forging industry, showing great promotion prospects in both commercial and tradition forging parts’ production. For example, rods, angles, channels, I-beams and T-shape, which are usually combined with common technological parameters and shapes.
In practice, it is essential to choose the corresponding groove type for roll forging of profile sections. The selection of suitable grooves is the fundamental condition for obtaining good profile section in roller forge system. It is well known for users that the selection of groove type should be based on experience and experiments instead of theory. To ferret out a suitable groove type still needs some practice tests and experiments.
In general, a few general principles are always adopted to select suitable roll grooves. For example, only flat groove should be used in the process of roll forging of plain sections. In roll forging of profile section, such as concave and convex sections, a combination of plane groove and circular groove is often adopted. When a larger part has been forged with plane grooves, circular grooves can be used to forge the small parts or the parts near end ends. In order to prevent overstocking of groove surfaces, the frontal corner of irregular sections should be finished with flat plane grooves before being forged with circular grooves.
Moreover, the same groove should not be repeated in the same forging operation. The process of forging plane sections requires plane groove and the process of forging round sections requires circular groove. At the same time, the gap between roll groove and billet is determined according to the material and thickness of materials. Generally, when the area of rollers is large and the working area (or billet surface) is relatively small, it is advisable to use small gap or no gap (0.00mm).
Last but not least, when determining the groove with medium profile section, one should always remember to check both the internal and external forces applied to the workpiece under the action of rollers. In other words, shear force, scaling pressure and the number of rolling cycles should be taken into consideration.
In conclusion, it is essential to carefully select suitable roll grooves according to user’s practical experience, process technology and material characteristic when adopting roll forging of profile section. It should be stressed that only correct selection of groove type could guarantee qualified and safe product in roller forging system.
