CHARACTERIZATION OF METAL FLOW IN METALS PROCESSING BY A COMBINED APPROACH USING ADVANCED EXPERIMENTAL GRID PATTERN TECHNIQUES COUPLED WITH FE-ANALYSIS

摘要

A review is given regarding the latest advancement within the area of analysis and characterization of metal flow in deformational processing of metals. Experimental grid pattern (GP) techniques have lately been developed to a very high level of sophistication. Thanks to this, the engineer now can determine the real metal flow in industrial or laboratory processes with high accuracy. Concurrently, software for FE-analysis has been developed to a very powerful tool that allows detailed observations to be made regarding metal flow on the computer in any industrial process. The advanced experimental GP-techniques currently available are described and it is shown how they can be used to analyze metal flow inside and on the surface of the workpieces subjected to metal forming. It is also shown how accurate FE-models can reproduce the deformational behavior of the metal during the processing. In this way useful information can be deduced, for instance it can be explained how typical process-related defects are created in a process, so that preventive measures can be taken to avoid the occurrence of such defects in an industrial environment. Examples are shown of application of metal flow analysis in processing techniques like extrusion, rolling, forging, wiredrawing and sheet-metal forming.