Optimum Design of a Pilger Mill Process for Wire Forming Using CAD/CAE

Abstract

The optimum design of a die shape for Pilger mill process was carried out using FEM analyses considering various processing factors. The important design parameters of the Pilger mill machine are feed rate and profile of the grooved die. Optimum design procedure was conducted in order to investigate effects on forming load and the deformed shape of a material depending on the die surface profiles. Profiles of the die surface for the optimum design were testified with linear, cosine and quadratic curves considering physical forming process. The results of the analyses provided that the model of the quadratic profile gave the lowest forming load and the proper deformed shape.

Profile Design of the Grooved Die and Rolling Force Prediction in the Cold Pilger Rolling Process

“…The groove shape in the cold pilger rolling process has been designed in several ways and can be classified into three categories [7,8]. (1) The shape in which the radius of the surface semicircle between two angles is linear (linear profile); (2) the shape that has a cosine curve with small cross-section reduction in the inlet and outlet parts, while sudden cross-section reduction occurs in the middle part (cosine profile); and (3) the shape that has a quadratic curve with large cross-section reduction in the inlet and small cross-section reduction in the outlet (quadratic profile).…”

“…When the pilger die shape has a quadratic profile (Figure 2c), the load increases sharply at the inlet part and then slowly decreases from the middle part. To summarize the results of the three shapes presented above, the shape of the quadratic profile shows the best outcome when considering the forming load distribution, the time required to reach a steady state, and the shape change in shape in the pilger rolling process [8].…”