Proceedings of the 47th ICFG Plenary Meeting (ICFG2014)

Ankara, Turkey, September 21-24, 2014

Piercing extrusion of long hollow component

with subsidiary tension
Atsushi Ogura1*, Eisuke Murai1
1

Nichidai Corporation, Japan

Summary
In forming hollow components by backward can extrusion, the depth of the hole is mainly limited by
buckling of the long piercing punch. By inserting the punch into a protecting sleeve, buckling of the
piercing punch is eliminated at the beginning of extrusion and the attainable depth of hole is extended.
Deeper hole can be formed by reducing the punch pressure with subsidiary tension applied from the
extruded part. To realize punch in sleeve and tension from exit, a special tool structure with a stationary
punch sleeve and retreating counter punch supported by pressure is proposed. By using this tool structure,
maximum ratio of hole depth/diameter is improved from about 4 to 11.
Keywords: piercing extrusion, long hollow, subsidiary tension, cold forging
1. Introduction
In the automotive industry, light weight
components are strongly demanded to reduce fuel
consumption. In the case of gear box of
transmission, many long shaft parts are used and
thus reduction of the shaft weight is particularly
important.
To produce a long hollow part, the hole is
usually made by drilling with a gun drill, which
needs a long working time and low yield rate of
the material. From the viewpoints of productivity
and yield rate of the material, cold forging of long
hollow parts is desirable.
Since a long punch used in cold extrusion of
long hollow part is subjected to very high axial
pressure, and tends to be buckled easily at the
early stage of extrusion. Thus it is very difficult
to produce long hollow shaft by cold forging.
In this paper, a method to solve the problem
associated with buckling of punch is proposed,
and experimental results obtained by applying the
method are introduced.
2. Buckling of Punch in Cold Extrusion
To form hollow parts by cold forging, backward
can extrusion is a strong candidate of the forming
method. In the case of can extrusion of steel
products, the hole depth/diameter ratio is usually
less than 5 because of the limit set by buckling of
the piercing punch as shown in Fig.1.

Fig.1 Fractured punch by buckling

( punch length/diameter =12.7)
Fig.2 shows the dimensions of the punch and the
hole of a product when the maximum
depth/diameter ratio is attained. Since buckling
occurs at the onset of extrusion, the maximum
attainable hole depth/diameter is the same value
as the largest value of the length/diameter ratio of
the effective unconstrained part of the punch
without buckling.
Punch

Same length of punch with product

d
L

Billet
Container

(a) initial state

(b) final state

(c) product

Fig.2 Relation between punch and product

dimensions when buckling does not occur

When an axial compressive stress of b is

applied to a punch with diameter d and Youngs
modulus of E, the critical ratio of
/ of the punch without
length/diameter
buckling is derived from the Eulers buckling
equation as:
=

ratio of punch length without buckling is about

30mm or punch length/diameter is about 4.
To attain large ratio of punch length/diameter
greater than 8 in backward extrusion, it is
necessary to realize a punch with pinned or fixed
end.

(1)

Different values of constant c are given for the

buckling modes shown in Fig.3. In the case of
extrusion punch, one end of the punch is
completely fixed, and the constraint of the other
end may be changed by tool structure.
Backward
(Experiment)

Fig.4 Relation between punch pressure

and critical punch length without buckling
of punch of 7.1mm in diameter
(a) Free

(b) Pinned

(c) fixed

Fig.3 Possible modes of buckling of punch

In the case of Fig.3 (a), the punch end is free, i.e.
the punch end can move and rotate, c=0.25. If
lateral movement of the punch end is restricted
but rotation is allowed, i.e. pinned as in Fig.3 (b),
c is 0.7. If punch end is fixed as Fig.3 (c), c is 4.
Thus the buckling limit can be extended greatly
by constraining the punch end.
The ordinary punches for backward extrusion
have free ends as shown in Fig.2 (a) and thus the
effective punch length and the attainable hole
depth are small.
Fig.4 shows a case study of the relation between
the punch length and buckling stress calculated
with eq.(1) for a realistic condition of cold
extrusion: medium carbon steel is extruded with
an extrusion ratio of 2 by a punch of 7.1mm in
diameter made of PM high speed steel. The
modulus of elasticity of the punch material is
230Gpa. Since the yield stress of the punch
material is about 2500 - 3000MPa, the maximum
punch pressure applied to the punch without
yielding is assumed to be 2500MPa. ;
approximately same value as the extrusion
pressure of the medium carbon steel with an
extrusion ratio of 2.0.
The result for the ordinary punch with free end
is given by the broken line. When the axial
pressure of 2500MPa is applied, the maximum

3. Method of preventing buckling of punch

3.1 Restriction of initial deflection of punch
Because buckling of punch occurs easily at the
beginning of extrusion if the punch tip is not
restricted as Fig3 (a), it is desirable to decrease
the freedom of punch tip as Fig.3 (b) and (c) to
extend the critical length/diameter. If the
deflection of the punch by bending is restricted
by inserting the punch in the punch-sleeve with a
small clearance as shown in Fig.5 (a), initial
buckling of the punch can be avoided completely
because the length of the free part of the punch
can be very small at the beginning of extrusion.
piercing
punch
punchsleeve

Tension
counter
punch

Pressure
(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig.5 Restricting methods of bending of punch

(a)Piercing punch in moving sleeve
(b)Stationary sleeve and retreating
counter punch
(c)Stationary sleeve and counter punch
supported by pressure

However, in this case, it is necessary to move the

punch-sleeve upwards at the same speed with a
extruded part.
An alternative method for preventing punch
deflection without moving the sleeve is to retreat
the counter punch with an appropriate speed, as
shown in Fig5 (b).
3.2 Extrusion with subsidiary tension
Although initial buckling of the punch can be
prevented by applying the methods shown in Fig5
(a) or (b), buckling or bending of the punch
during extrusion may not be prevented because
the length of the punch pushed out of the sleeve
against high forming pressure increases as
deformation proceeds. Although typical buckling
may be hard to take place because the pushed-out
part of the punch is surrounded by the billet
material, bending of the punch due to buckling
may not be prevented completely. Thus it is
desirable to decrease the axial pressure acting on
the end surface of the punch.
Kudo and Shinozaki proposed a method to
reduce the extrusion pressure in extrusion by
adding subsidiary tension from the extruded part
as shown in Fig.5 (c). In this method, the billet
with a flange is hung from the end surface of the
container and tension is caused in the extruded
part. As a result, the punch pressure of this case
is lowered than simple backward extrusion
without tension. It is apparent that this method
can be combined with the punch sleeve to prevent
initial buckling of punch: the piercing punch,
which keeps good concentricity with the
container during extrusion.
3.3 Subsidiary tension and punch pressure
To calculate the change of axial pressure applied
to the piercing punch by subsidiary tension
simplified estimation is made as below. At first,
the stress state in backward extrusion without
subsidiary tension, shown in Fig.6 (a), is
considered.
P1

P2

Ap

(a) backward
extrusion

/( 1)

(1)

for simple backward extrusion (a).

In the case of piercing extrusion with a tensile
stress
in the extruded part, and a pressure to
the counter punch Pb as Fig.6 (b), the balance of
forces is given by:
+

= ( 1) ,

=(

or

)/( 1)

(2).

Since the theory of plasticity provides the

following relation between the stresses,
+

(3).

With eqs.(2) and (3), the axial pressure to the

piercing punch is given by:
=
( 1) /( 1)
(4)
=
This equation suggests that the punch pressure of
piercing punch is reduced by the same amount as
the tensile stress in the extruded part.
4. Experiment
4.1 Experimental condition
For piercing extrusion with subsidiary tension,
the piercing punch, the punch-sleeve and counter
punch should be moved independently by
controlling the positions or applied force as
shown in Fig.5 (c). To realize the motions,
experiments are carried out on a 3-axis hydraulic
press HED-800 shown in Fig.7, which has 3
controlled driving axes, and 800ton (8GN)
capacity with controlled motions.
The main axis in the upper side of the press drives
the piercing punch, and the upper sub-axis moves
the punch-sleeve. The lower axis moves the
counter punch. The moving velocity of the
piercing punch is kept to be about 20mm/sec.

Ab
P0

When the cross-sectional area of the piercing

punch is Ap and that of the billet is Ab, and
pressure to the counter punch is P0, the extrusion
ratio is R=Ab/(Ab-Ap). If we neglect the frictional
force, force balance leads to:

Pb
(b) piercing extrusion
with subsidiary tension

Fig.6 Stress states in backward extrusion

and piercing extrusion with tension

Fig.7 Three-axis 800ton hydraulic press HED-800

4.2 Experimental result

The experiments are carried out at an extrusion
ratio of 2. Fig.8 shows the appearances of the
billets after extruding with different back
pressures to the counter punch. When the
pressure is low (499MPa), the billet is ruptured at
the hole bottom when the hole length/diameter is
12 as shown in Fig.8 (a). When the pressure is
624MPa, extrusion is continued up to the hole
depth/diameter 14, but cracks appear on the side
wall as shown in Fig.8 (b).

110 L

7.1 (D

Hole depth/diameter
4
8
12

0
Concentricity /mm

The billet material is annealed SCM415 in JIS.

The flow stress at a strain of 1.0 is about 750MPa.
The diameter of the billet is 10mm and the height
is 70mm, and the flange has a shape of 15mm in
diameter and 4mm in thickness. The billet is
lubricated with MoS2

16

0.2
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0

20

40
60
80
Hole depth/mm

100

120

Fig.9 Concentricity for forged hole of

piercing extrusion with subsidiary tension
4.3 Product example
A practical product example is made by using
the proposed process as shown in Fig.10. The
flange is formed by upsetting in the 1st process,
the piercing extrusion is carried out with
subsidiary tension in the 2nd process, and spline is
formed in the final process.

10.1

a) 499MPa

b) 624MPa

) 749MPa

Fig.8 Sample of piercing extrusion with

subsidiary tension (backup pressure)
When a pressure of 749MPa is applied to the
counter punch, inside crack is not generated as
Fig.8 (c) up to hole depth/diameter =15.
Thus application of an appropriate back pressure
to the counter punch is a key factor for this
process.
Although the hole depth/diameter ratio can be
extended to about 15 by the proposed process,
concentricity of the hole tends to be reduced as
the ratio exceeds about 11. Fig.9 show the
distribution of concentricity of the billet shown
in Fig.8 (c). It is observed that the concentricity
is kept 0.01-0.02mm up to the hole depth of about
80mm, or the depth/diameter ratio of about 11. It
is considered that, when the hole depth exceeds a
certain value, the stress state of the punch may
become unstable similarly to buckling although
the punch is surrounded by the extruded part.

Billet

Forged hole and piercing

Spline

Fig.10 Practical sample of piercing

extrusion with subsidiary tension
5 .Conclusion
By moving the punch-sleeve, the piercing punch
and the counter punch with an appropriate back
pressure independently, extruded products with
hole/diameter ratio up to 11 can be formed by the
proposed piercing extrusion with subsidiary
tension.
6.Reference
1 Kudo,H and Shinozaki,K :Extrusion of
Hollow Component with Additional tension,
CIRP(1970),pp.327-333