Experimental and numerical investigations on transverse weld of hollow aluminum profile during porthole extrusion process

Abstract

During continuous production of aluminum alloy profiles, the adjacent billet interface flows through die cavity and forms transverse weld in a certain length of the profile due to the unbalance flow of material. Bad transverse welding quality is one of most common effects during hollow profile extrusion. The purpose of this work is to investigate experimentally and numerically the extrusion transverse weld for a 7N01 aluminum alloy hollow profile. Numerically, the transient extrusion process were simulated based on HyperXtrude. By analyzing material flow behavior during extrusion process, the formation mechanism of the transverse weld was investigated and the influences of process parameters on transverse weld was studied. Experimentally, the porthole extrusion die was manufactured and the extrusion process was carried out, respectively. By numerical and experimental comparison and analysis, the numerical results was well verified, and the appropriate process parameters was determined to obtain good welding quality for this profile studied in this work.