Investigation on contact parameters in cold rotary forging using a 3D FE method

Cold rotary forging is an advanced but very complicated metal plastic forming technology with continuous local plastic deformation. Investigating the contact parameters between the contact interactions has a great importance to improve the contact performance. This paper is aimed to utilize the finite element (FE) method to study the contact parameters in a complex continuous local forming technology of cold rotary forging. For this purpose, a reasonable 3D elastic–plastic dynamic explicit FE model of cold rotary forging of 20CrMnTi alloy is developed using the FE software ABAQUS/Explicit. Based on this valid 3D FE model, some important contact parameters, such as the contact pressure, contact slip rate, contact slip distance, and contact force, are numerically examined in detail. The results of this research help to better understand the complicated contact mechanisms in cold rotary forging.