Study On The Control Technology Of Radial-Axial Ring Rolling Of Aluminium Alloy Rings

Radial-axial ring rolling is an advanced near-shape forming technology tomanufacture large rings. By controlling the related deformation in radial and axialdirection of the deformation zone, adequate plastic deformation can be made. Combinedwith controlled temperature, rings with high mechanical property, homogeneousmicrostructure and fiber orientation can be manufactured.This paper investigated the large aluminum alloy rings. The radial–axial ringrolling technology is explored to replace the rings with two half welded together. Theprinciple of kinematics of radial-axial rolling of rings was analyzed, the model ofradial-axial rolling was built, the manufacture of large aluminum alloy rings wasdeveloped, the width spread was researched. The forming technology of radial-axialrolling can be helpful to improving the quality consistency and security of rings, so it isof great importance to develop the astronautic technology.Firstly, the relationship of diameter increasing with rotation rate and accelerationwas obtained. Not only the feeds of idle roll was studied, but also the axial cones wasstudied. The influence factors and influencing law were investigated. Theoretic basesfor controlling of the rolls in production were provided as well as the references for thesetting of boundary conditions in finite element simulation.Secondly, the building of FE model of radial-axial ring rolling was introduced inall aspects. The results showed that the model can direct the rolling process effectivelyand provide a basis for production. The rings in size3400mm3183mm260mmcan be achieved with a ring blank1600mm1150mm300mm, and the optimizedprocess parameters is1315mm/s in rolling speed,0.4~4mm/s in growth rate,0.15~0.43mm/s in radial fed rate,0.15~0.21mm/s in axial fed rate.Thirdly, according to the parameters optimized by finite element simulation, themanufacture of large aluminum alloy rings was developed. The dimension, surfacequality, microstructure, mechanical property of the ring all satisfied the design request.The results showed that the strength improved10%and the plasticity improved25%compared with standard values.Finally, The influence of width spread on radial and axial passes were analyzed,and the ways of improving the defects were also presented. The results showed that thenon-defects ring can be achieved with a ring blank which wall thickness is lower than200mm and height thickness ratio is lower than1.5.