Deformation characteristic of thread and spline synchronous rolling process

Abstract

In the thread and spline synchronous rolling (TSSR) process, the thread rolling deformation couples with the spline rolling deformation. The deformation behavior in the synchronous rolling process is very complex due to multi-die constraint, multi-axes motion, and multi-parameter association. Exploring the deformation characteristics in the TSSR process is important for parameter optimization and process control of the TSSR process. In this paper, the finite element method (FEM) was adopted to investigate the deformation in the TSSR process. The data were extracted from FE code DEFORM and were processed in code MATLAB. The deformation characteristics in the TSSR process were studied by mean of analyzing displacement, strain, and invariants of deviatoric stress tensor. The results in the present study indicated that: direction of rotation of workpiece has an influence on the direction of axial displacement in cores of threaded section and splined section; the influence of tooth profiles (such as threaded profile, splined profile) on the TSSR process only presents in the superficial zone; the deformation-affected region along radial direction in the threaded section is larger than that in the splined section; the deformation in the threaded section and splined section has little influence on axial regions.