Metal Forming

Processes
Dr. Sunil Jha

Introduction
z Practically all metals, which are not used in
cast form are reduced to some standard
shapes for subsequent processing.
ƒ Manufacturing companies producing metals
supply metals in form of ingots which are
obtained by casting liquid metal into a square
cross section.
ƒ Slab (500-1800 mm wide and 50-300 mm thick)
ƒ Billets (40 to 150 sq mm)
ƒ Blooms (150 to 400 sq mm)

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Introduction
ƒ Sometimes continuous casting methods are
also used to cast the liquid metal into slabs,
billets or blooms.

ƒ These shapes are further processed through

hot rolling, forging or extrusion, to produce
materials in standard form such as plates,
sheets, rods, tubes and structural sections.

Sequence of operations for

obtaining different shapes

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Different Shapes

Primary Metal Forming

Processes
z Rolling
z Forging
z Extrusion
z Tube and wire drawing
z and Deep drawing
z Although Punching and Blanking operations
are not metal forming processes however
these will be covered due to similarity with
deep drawing process.

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Rolling

Change in Grain Structure in

Rolling

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Rolling – Salient features
z Rolling is the most extensively used metal
forming process and its share is roughly 90%
z The material to be rolled is drawn by means
of friction into the two revolving roll gap
z The compressive forces applied by the rolls
reduce the thickness of the material or
changes its cross sectional area
z The geometry of the product depend on the
contour of the roll gap

Rolling – Salient features

z Roll materials are cast iron, cast steel and
forged steel because of high strength and
wear resistance requirements
z Hot rolls are generally rough so that they can
bite the work, and cold rolls are ground and
polished for good finish

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Roll passes to get a 12 mm rod
from 100 x 100 mm billet

Roll configurations in rolling

mills
z Two-high and three-high mills are generally
used for initial and intermediate passes
during hot rolling, while four-high and cluster
mills are used for final passes.
z Last two arrangements are preferred for cold
rolling because roll in these configurations
are supported by back-up rolls which
minimize the deflections and produce better
tolerances.

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Various Roll Configurations
(a) Two-high (b) Three-high (c) Four-high
(d) Cluster mill (e) Tandem mill

Other deformation processes related to

rolling

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Defects in Rolling

Forging
z Forging is perhaps oldest metal working process
and was known even during prehistoric days when
metallic tools were made by heating and
hammering.
z Forging is basically involves plastic deformation of
material between two dies to achieve desired
configuration.
z Depending upon complexity of the part forging is
carried out as
z open die forging and
z closed die forging.

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Open Die Forging
z In open die forging, the metal is compressed
by repeated blows by a mechanical hammer
and shape is manipulated manually.

Closed Die Forging

z In closed die forging, the desired configuration is
obtained by squeezing the workpiece between two
shaped and closed dies.
z On squeezing the die cavity gets completely filled
and excess material comes out around the periphery
of the die as flash which is later trimmed.

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Press & Drop Forging
z Press forging and drop forging are two
popular methods in closed die forging.
z In press forging the metal is squeezed slowly
by a hydraulic or mechanical press and
component is produced in a single closing of
die, hence the dimensional accuracy is much
better than drop forging.

Flash less Forging or

Precision Forging

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Defects in Forging

Extrusion
z It is a relatively new process and its commercial
exploitation started early in the nineteenth century
with the extrusion of pipes.
z In extrusion, the material is compressed in a
chamber and the deformed material is forced to flow
through the die. The die opening corresponds to the
cross section of the required product.
z It is basically a hot working process, however, for
softer materials cold extrusion is also performed.

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 Direct & Indirect Extrusion
z In direct extrusion metal flows in the
same direction as that of the ram.
z Because of the relative motion
between the heated billet and the
chamber walls, friction is severe and is
reduced by using molten glass as a
lubricant in case of steels at higher
temperatures. At lower temperatures,
oils with graphite powder is used for
lubrication.

z In indirect extrusion process metal

flows in the opposite direction of the
ram. It is more efficient since it
reduces friction losses considerably.
The process, however, is not used
extensively because it restricts the
length of the extruded component.

Impact Extrusion
z It is similar to indirect
extrusion.
z Here the punch descends
rapidly on to the blank which
gets indirectly extruded on
to the punch and to give a
tubular section.
z The length of the tube
formed is controlled by the
amount of metal in the slug
or by the blank thickness.
z Collapsible tubes for pastes
are extruded by this method.

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Drawing
z Large quantities of wires, rods, tubes and other
sections are produced by drawing process which is
basically a cold working process. In this process the
material is pulled through a die in order to reduce it to
the desired shape and size.
z In a typical wire drawing operation, once end of the
wire is reduced and passed through the opening of the
die, gripped and pulled to reduce its diameter.

Wire Drawing
z By successive drawing operation through dies of
reducing diameter the wire can be reduced to a very
small diameter.
z Annealing before each drawing operation permits
large area reduction.
z Tungsten Carbide dies are used to for drawing hard
wires, and diamond dies is the choice for fine wires.

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Tube Drawing
z Tube drawing is also similar to wire drawing, except that a mandrel
of appropriate diameter is required to form the internal hole.
z Here two arrangements are shown in figure (a) with a floating plug
and (b) with a moving mandrel
z The process reduces the diameter and thickness of the tube.

Deep Drawing
z This operation is extensively used to for
making cylindrical shaped parts such as
cups, shells, etc from sheet metal.

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Defects in Drawing

(a)Wrinkling in the flange or (b) in the wall (c) tearing,

(d) Earing, (e) surface scratches

Wrinkling Prevention
z Wrinkling is avoided by applying a blank holder force
through a blank holder.
z Blank holder force increases friction and hence the
required punch load. Therefore, blank holder force
should be just enough to prevent wrinkling of the flange.
z The edges of the punch and die are rounded for the easy
and smooth flow of metal.
z Sufficient clearance is also provided so that sheet metal
could be easily accommodated. Insufficient or large
clearance may result into shearing and tearing of sheet.
z A drawn cup can be redrawn into a smaller cup but it
must be annealed to prevent failure.

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Punching & Blanking
z Objective of punching and blanking is to remove material
from the sheet metal by causing rupture, the punch and
die corners are not provided with the any radius.
z Tool steel is the most common material for tool and die.
Carbides are also used when high production is needed.

Punching & Blanking

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