Effect of floating axial holder on oscillating cold forging of spline shaft

Abstract

Oscillating technique is applied into the axial forging process of spline shaft to decrease the forming load and improve the quality of products. A floating axial holder with dwell force is designed to control the material flow. The influences of the floating axial holder have been analysed by finite element (FE) simulation and then verified by experiments. A FE model that considers material property change, elastic recovery and elastoplastic friction was built. The constitutive material model, which is mainly composed of variable elastic modulus and rate-dependent hardening, was used to simulate changes in material properties. Results showed that material flow was improved by decreasing dwell force. Tooth shape can be controlled by changing the dwell force of floating axial holder. The nonlinear function between addendum circle diameter and dwell force has been found. Hence, an optimal value of dwell force was determined considering the forming force, forming defects and tooth shape. Based on the simulating results, the optimal and irrational parameters of dwell force and frequency have been compared in the experiments. The typical defects of flash and accumulation can be eliminated by using the floating axial holder with optimal parameters.