Grain Size Modification by Micro Rotary Swaging

Abstract

Rotary swaging is a well established cold forming process e.g. in the automotive industry. In order to modify the material properties by swaging systematically, a new process of swaging with asymmetrical strokes of the forming dies is investigated. The newly developed tools feature flat surfaces and do not represent the geometry of the formed part as in conventional swaging. Numerical simulation and physical tests are carried out with special regard to the resulting geometry, mechanical properties and the microstructure. During these tests copper wires with diameter d0=1 mm are formed. Regarding the microstructure in the longitudinal section of formed specimens, elongation of grains in the central part and grain size reduction in the boundary area are observed. Furthermore, this approach opens up new possibilities to configure the geometry of wires. 2D-simulation is applied and discussed in the paper to investigate change of the processed geometry (cross-section) and shear strain distribution during the rotary swaging process.