METAL FORMING PROCESS

1) Drawing
2) Extrusion
3) Forging
4) Metal spinning
5) Rolling

Drawing/ Wire Drawing

1) Wire drawing involves reducing the diameter of a rod or wire by passing through a series of
drawing dies or plates. The subsequent drawing die must have smaller bore diameter than the
previous die.
2) Tube Drawing: - Tube drawing involves reducing the cross section and wall thickness through
a draw die. The cross section can be circular, square hexagonal or in any shapes.
3) Drawing operations involves PULLING metal through a die by means of a TENSILE FORCE
applied to the exit side of the die. The plastic flow is caused by COMPRESSION FORCE,
arising from the reaction of the metal with the die. Starting materials materials: hot rolled
stock (ferrous) (ferrous) and extruded (nonferrous). Material should have high ductility and
good tensile strength.
a. Rods: relatively larger diameter products,
b. Wires: smaller diameter products < 5mm diameter.

Drawing die materials

1) Most drawing dies materials are cemented carbide or industrial diamond ( for fine wires).
2) Cemented carbides: - are the most widely used for drawing dies due to their superior strength,
toughness, and wear resistance. It is composed of Ti, W, Ni, Mo.
3) Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD): - used for wire drawing dies- for fines wires. Longer die life,
high resistance to wear, cracking or bearing.
 Wire Drawing Process
Hot rolled product

Pickling, descaling Lubricating (Cu,Sn are used as lubricants for

high strength materials),Oil & greases for
wire drawing, Mulsifiable oils for wet wire
drawing and soap for dry drawing.

1) % reduction of material per reduction is given by: -

Drawing
 D outlet
a. % RA= [1-{ }]*100
Dinlet
2) Steels with carbon content > 0.25% requires Patenting heat treatment.
a. Patenting: -Heating above Ac3 temperature,
- Then quenching below Ac3 temperature, holding at this temperature
for a given period of time, then cool in lead bath normally to ambient
temperature.
- Provides austenitic structure with rather large grain size, good
combination of strength and ductility.
- Rapid cooling plus small cross section area of wire change
microstructure to very fine pearlite preferably with no separation of
primary ferrite.
Defects in rod and wire drawing
1) Centre burst or chevron cracking

2) Defects in the starting rod (seams, slivers and pipe).

Tube Drawing
1) Following the hot forming process, the tubes are cold drawn using dies, plugs or mandrel to
the required shape, size, tolerances and mechanical strength.
2) It provides good surface finish, increase mechanical properties by strain hardening.
3) can produce tubes with thinner walls or smaller diameters than can be obtained from other hot
forming methods. Can produce more irregular shapes.
4) Tube drawing process is further classified into 3 types: -
a. Sinking
b. Plug drawing
i. Fixed plug
ii. Floating plug
c. Mandrel drawing.
 Residual stress in rods, wires and tubes

Defects in cold drawn products

1) Longitudinal scratches
2) Slivers
3) Internal cracks
4) Corrosion induced cracks.

ROLLING
1) The process of plastically deforming metals by pressing/ passing it between the rolls. Rolling
is the most widely used forming process, which provides high production and close control of
final product.
2) The metal is subjected to high compressive stresses as a result of the friction between the rolls
and the metal surface.
 3) Principle: - The gap between the rotating rolls is less than the thickness of the entering bar

therefore a friction force is necessary in order to bite the bar and to pull it through the rolls. A
metal bar passing through the rotating rolls is squeezed, and it elongates while its cross-
section area decreases.
a. A machine used for rolling metal is called rolling mill.
b. A typical rolling mill consists of a pair of rolls driven by an electric motor
transmitting a torque through a gear and pair of cardans. The rolls are equipped with
bearings and mounted in a stand with a screw-down mechanism.
4) Rolling mill performs two main functions: -
a. Pull the work into the gap between them by friction Pull the work into the gap
between them by friction between work part and rolls between work part and rolls
b. Simultaneously squeeze the work to reduce its cross section.
Some important terminologies
1) Bloom: - product after the first breakdown of ingot. (X section area > 230 cm^2).
2) Billet: - is the product obtained from a further reduction by hot rolling. (X section area >
40*40 cm ^2).
3) Slab: - is the hot rolled ingot (X-section area > 100 cm ^2 and width >=2*thickness).
4) Plate: - thickness >6mm.
5) Sheet: -thickness < 6mm and width > 600mm.
6) Strip: - thickness < 6mm and width 600mm.

There are three forms of rolling: Hot rolling, warm rolling and cold rolling.
Hot Rolling: - The initial breakdown of ingots into blooms and billets is generally done by hot-
rolling. This is followed by further hot rolling into plate, sheet, rod, bar, pipe and rail. Hot rolling is a
metalworking process that occurs above the recrystallisation temperature of the material. After the
grains deform during processing, they recrystallize, which maintains an equiaxed microstructure and
prevents metals from work hardening. The starting material is usually large pieces of metal, like semi-
finished casting products, such as slabs, blooms, and billets.
Hot rolled metals generally have little directionality in their mechanical properties and deformation
induced residual stresses.
Hot rolling is used mainly to produce sheet metal or simple cross sections, such as rail tracks. Other
typical uses for hot rolled metal includes truck frames, automotive wheels, pipe and tubular, water
heaters, agriculture equipment, strappings, stampings, compressor shells, railcar components, wheel
rims, metal buildings, railroad hopper cars, doors, shelving, discs, guard rails, automotive clutch
plates.
Cold Rolling: - The cold-rolling of metals has played a major role in industry by providing sheet,
strip, foil with good surface finishes and increased mechanical strength with close control of product
dimensions.
Cold rolling occurs with the metal below its recrystallization temperature (usually at room
temperature), which increases the strength via strain hardening up to 20%. It also improves the surface
finish and holds tighter tolerances. Commonly cold rolled products include sheets, strips, bars, and
rods.
Typical uses for cold-rolled steel include metal furniture, desks, filing cabinets, tables, chairs,
motorcycle exhaust pipes, computer cabinets and hardware, home appliances and components,
shelving, lighting fixtures, hinges, tubing, steel drums, lawn mowers, electronic cabinetry, water
heaters, metal containers, and a variety of construction-related products.

Rolling Mill Configuration

1) Two high mills: two opposing rolls.

2) Three High rolling mills: work passes through rolls in both direction.
 3) Four high rolling mill: backing rolls support smaller work rolls

4) Cluster Mill: multiple backing rolls on smaller rolls.

5) Tandem rolling mill: sequence of two high mills.

 Types of Rolling process

 1) Tandem rolling,
2) Transverse rolling,
3) Shape/section rolling,
4) Ring rolling,
5) Powder rolling,
6) Continuous casting rolling,
7) Thread rolling.
Rolling Defects
1) Wavy edges
2) Edge cracks
3) Alligatoring
4) Zipper cracks

FORGING
 1) Forging is the working of metal into a useful shape by hammering or pressing. The oldest of
the metalworking arts (primitive blacksmith). Forging machines are now capable of making
parts ranging in size of a bolt to a turbine rotor. Most forging operations are carried out hot,
although certain metals may be cold-forged.
2) Forging is basically involves plastic deformation of material between two dies to achieve
desired configuration. Depending upon complexity of the part forging is carried out as open
die forging and closed die forging.
a. In open die forging, the metal is compressed by repeated blows by a mechanical
hammer or manually.
b. In closed or impression die forging, the desired configuration is obtained by
squeezing the workpiece between two shaped and closed dies.

Various Forging operations

1) Edging (Fig a & b)
2) Fullering(Fig c)
3) Drawing (Fig d)
4) Swaging( Fig e)
5) Piercing (Fig f)
6) Punching (Fig g)

There are two types of forging hammers: -

1) Board hammer
 2) Power hammer

There are two types of forging presses: -

1) Mechanical press
2) Hydraulic press

Open Die Forging

1) Open-die forging is carried out between flat dies or dies of very simple shape. The process is
used for mostly large objects or when the number of parts produced is small. Open-die
forging is often used to perform the workpiece for closed-die forging.

Closed Die Forging

1) In closed die forging, the workpiece is squeezed between two die halves which carry the
impressions of the desired final shape. The workpiece is deformed under high pressure in a
closed cavity. The process provide precision forging with close dimensional tolerance.
Closed dies are expensive.
2) On squeezing the die cavity gets completely filled and excess material comes out around the
periphery of the die as flash which is later trimmed. Press forging and drop forging are two
popular methods in closed die forging. In press forging the metal is squeezed slowly by a
hydraulic or mechanical press and component is produced in a single closing of die, hence the
dimensional accuracy is much better than drop forging.

3) Both open and closed die forging processes are carried out in hot as well as in cold state. In
forging favourable grain orientation of metal is obtained.
a. Flash: - is the excess metal which squirts out of the cavity as a thick ribbon of metal.
 b. Function of Flash: - Acts as “safety value” for excess metal, regulates the escape of
metal, thin flash builds up high pressure to ensure that the metals fills all the recesses
of the die cavity.
Die materials
 Required properties: -
o Thermal shock resistance
o Thermal fatigue resistance
o High temperature strength
o High wear resistance.
o High toughness and ductility.
o High hardenability.

 Die materials:
o alloyed steels (with Cr, Mo, W, V), tool steels, cast steels or cast iron (Heat treatments
such as nitriding or chromium plating etc).
Defects in Forging
1) Mis-alignment,
2) Incomplete die filling,
3) Buckling,
4) Cold shut,
5) Incomplete forging penetration,
6) Forging laps,
7) Surface cracks
8) Internal cracking
9) Swaging