ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON OF GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONS OF COLD DRAWN TUBES USING FEM SIMULATION

Abstract

The paper focuses on the analysis and comparison of tube wall thickness after cold drawing. The tube wall thickness obtained by the experiment was compared with the wall thickness obtained using finite element method (FEM) simulation in the simulation software DEFORM-3D. For the experiment the tube sinking technology was performed and all tubes were made of steel E235. Tubes were the outer diameter of Ø14, Ø16, Ø18 mm and the tube wall thickness was 1 and 2 mm. All tubes were drawn by single-pass tube sinking technology to the final diameter of Ø12 mm. Tube sinking process is a tube drawing technology through a drawing die without the use of a mandrel. Tube sinking is used as a final drawing operation, especially in the production of precision tubes of smaller diameter. The resulting comparison showed that the tube wall thickness obtained by the simulation in the DEFORM software very well matches with tube wall thickness obtained in the experiments. Based on the results, it can be stated that in the future it will be possible to replace some of the real experiments with FEM simulation in the DEFORM software.