A novel constrained ring rolling process of deep-groove rings by coordinate controlling the roller motion

Deep-groove rings are typical profiled rings which are widely used in connect flanges, casing, etc. In traditional ring rolling, the metal is easy to flow circumferentially to expand ring diameter, but it is difficult to flow axially and radially to form the irregular section contour, making it difficult to achieve near-net forming of the deep-groove ring. In this work, a novel constrained ring rolling of the deep groove ring is proposed, which can make the ring into a multi-point constrained deformation state by changing the control mode of guide roll and conical roll, limiting the circumferential metal flow ability and promoting the axial and radial metal flow ability, thus realizing the coordinated forming of the ring diameter and section profile. The evolution law of the ring geometry, metal flow deformation behavior, and the mechanical states between the roll and ring under the traditional ring rolling and constrained ring rolling were compared and analyzed by FE simulation. The influence of guide roll and conical roll motion control parameters was further studied and found that guide roll motion and conical roll speed have great influence on ring forming. Finally, a typical deep groove ring rolling experiment is carried out and the near-net rolling of deep groove ring can be realized by using the constrained ring rolling.