A New Friction and Lubrication Test for Cold Forging

N. Bay (2), 0. Wibom, J. Aa. Nielsen

Institute of Manufacturing Engineering, Technical University of Denmark
Received on January 6,1995

Abstract

This paper presents a new friction and lubrication test for cold forging. The test allows controlled
variation of the surface expansion in the range 0-2000% the tool temperature in the range 20-
270C and the sliding length between 0 and infinite. Friction is decreasing with increasing
temperature in the range 30-150C. Above this temperature range friction increases. As regards
lubricant performance Lubrication Limit Curves (LLC) are plotted in a sliding length-surface
enlargement diagram with the tooi temperature as a parameter. Larger tool temperature
implies lower acceptable surface expansion and sliding length.

Keywords: Forming, friction, lubrication

1. INTRODUCTION 2. TEST PRINCIPLE

The knowledge about the quantitative influence of
the basic parameters on friction and lubrication in
cold forging is very sparse. This is due to the great
variety of parameters and the problems of
performing isolated analyses of one individual
process parameter like normal pressure, surface
expansion, sliding length or sliding velocity in the
processes themselves, since varying one para-
meter at a time under controlled conditions is
normally impossible. For this purpose simulation
tests have to be applied, but although a large
number of tests have been proposed in literature
/1-6, 8-24, 27/ the development of such tests is still
insufficient. Critical reviews of existing tests are
given in /2,5,22/. Bay, Hansen and Christophenen
/1,6/ have earlier developed and tested a
compression-twist test based on simple upsetting
and subsequent rotation of the circular cylindrical
specimens against a plane, overhanging tool. This
test enables direct measurement of friction as well
as normal stress under conditions corresponding to
many cold forging operations. Although the test is
flexible as regards variation of surface expansion
and sliding length it is only suitable for testing at
low to medium surface expansion (0-250%) and
thus not satisfactory for simulation of the conditions
under heavy deformation processes like backward
can extrusion, where the surface expansion may
reach values as high as 2000%. The present paper
presents a new test principle, which enables
testing under such conditions. Besides measuring
friction it is important to quantify the limits of
lubrication characterized by film breakdown and
pick-up of workpiece material on the tool surface
leading to scoring of the workpiece surface. An
important parameter controlling this is the average
tool temperature, which in the present test is
possible to control within the range 20-270C.
Hansen and Bay, /6/,have earlier developed a test
for simulation of processes involving high pressures.
In that test the cylindrical workpiece was
plastically deformed by backwards can extrusion
in a cylindrical die tool and then, under a constant
load kept at the maximum value, rotating the
workpiece together with the die whilst the punch
was kept stationary. The punch nose was designed
according to the recommendations of the Int.
Cold Forging Group, /7/, but with a modified very
short punch land. This means that the friction on
the punch end is measured, i.e. the test area is
subjected to a normal pressure of 2.0-2.5 times the
flow stress of the material but the surface
expansion in the tested area is low.
The new test, which is schematically outlined in
Fig. 1a,is a variant of the above mentioned aiming
at measuring under large surface expansion
conditions. The basic test principle is the same, i.e.
a backward can extrusion and subsequent rotation
of the punch with respect to the workpiece and
the die under constant load. The difference
between the earlier and the new test is the design
of the punch nose. In the new test a long punch
land is applied thus measuring the friction on this
land as well as on the end face of the punch.
Subtracting the torque measured when testing
with zero punch land the net friction on the land is
determined. In order to ensure a well defined
normal pressure the punch land is slightly conical,
with an included angle of 4 O . The dimensions of the
tools are chosen as follows: die bore 01 1.6 mm,
diameter of punch nose 09.0 mm implying a
reduction of r = 0.6, length of punch land 4.5 mm.
Fig. 1b shows the geometry of the punch nose in
details.
The container is mounted on a specially designed
load cell measuring the punch load. The load cell

Annals of the ClRP Vol. 44/1/1995 217

 4
Punch
Container
a
Specimen
Counter punch

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

Can heightlpunch diameter ratio
b Fig. 2: Relationship between can height and
surface enlargement of test area.

RO small plastic deformation of the can wall just after

being formed ensures a well-defined normal
-!-I- pressure in the test area. Calculations adopting the
0.95
slab method of analysis show the normal pressure
to be in the range of 1 .O-1.4 times the flow stress for
Fig. 1: Test principle. a: schematic outline, b: punch
the tool geometry chosen in case of good
nose geometry.
lubrication (frictionfactor m = O.l), /25/.
is placed on the moving upper ram of o twist-
The authors have earlier found the tool
compression machine. The punch is mounted on a
temperature to have vital influence on friction and
torque transducer which is placed on the rotating
lubrication performance, /26/. An important
lower anvil of the twist-compression machine. The
feature of the test is therefore that it can be
machine has a load capacity of 175 kN and a
carried out under controlled tool temperature in
torque capacity of the lower, rotating tool of 140
the range 20-270C. Fig. 3 shows a schematic
Nm. The speed of rotation can be varied in the
outline of the temperature control. An electric
range 0.3-6.0 rpm corresponding to a mean sliding
heating unit is mounted on the punch. In the
speed in the test area (0 9.0 mm) in the range 0.14-
heater a thermocouple is embedded near the
2.83 mm/sec.
punch nose for temperature measurement. In order
to protect the strain-gauges of the torque trans-
The very large difference in forces required for the
ducer from heating, the punch is mounted with a
can extrusion and the rotation of the punch makss
union provided with water cooling. In this way it
the transducer design complicated. It was found
turned out to be possible to control the punch
necessary to build two independent transducers
nose temperature within f 1C. The calibration
for this purpose. The load cell as well as the torque
curves in Fig. 4 give the relationship between the
transducer are strain-gauge equipped. In order to
nominal punch temperature measured by the
obtain a torque measurement with no cross
thermocouple in the heater and the real punch
sensitivity from the load the orientation of the
nose temperature measured by a surface ther-
strain-gauges on the bar-formed torque transducer
mometer with the time between removal of the
were optimized to have minimum influence of the
heater and measurement as a parameter.
load on the torque signal. /25/.

Thermocouples
3. TEST PROCEDURE

The test affords independent variation of the

surface enlargement and the sliding length under
well-controlled conditions. The surface enlarge-
ment AI/& is varied by varying the can height.
Measurements performed by milling concentric
circles in the end surface of the cylindrical billets
before lubrication and testing and measuring the
1 ,Cooling tool

distance between the circles after testing gave

the relationship between can height and surface
enlargement shown in Fig. 2: Torque transducer

The sliding length in the test area can be varied Thermocouples

from 0 to infinity by varying the angle of rotation.
The sliding speed was chosen to 2.7 mm/sec. The
Fig. 3: Schematic outline of temperature control.
slightly conical shape of the punch land causing a

218

-E 300
250
3
w factor the average value and the 95% confidence
E 200
!i
$ 150
w
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Nominal punch temperature [C]
Fig. 4: Relationship between nominal and real
punch temperature.
Experiments were done 20 seconds after removing
the heater. After extruding the can to the desired
height, the maximum load was kept while rotating
the punch. The load, torque and angle of rotation
were recorded on a PC data aquisition system.
The workpiece material investigated was annea-
led steel W. No. l .0303,phosphate coated and
soap lubricated. The stress-strain curve of the
material was determined by simple upsetting to:
The friction factor in the contact interface along
the punch land i s determined by:
2&(M, - Mo)
m=
ndph,0 ,
where Mcand Mo are the moments measured with
the punches with and without land respectively, dp
is the diameter of the punch, hc is the length of the
punch land, 00 is the flow stress of the can wall
determined by eqn. (1) with the average effective
strain E is given by:
1 test, /1,2,6/.Comparing the three test series in Fig.
& =ln--=0.916
1-r
giving:
= 640
CT, [WU]
Determination of lubricant film breakdown was
done by visual inspection of the punch as regards
possible pick-up. After each experiment the punch
was repolishedwith 1 pm diamond paste.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Fig. 5 shows the determined friction factor as a
function of the tool temperature with the surface
enlargement AdAo as a parameter. Two series of
experiments have been performed, at a surface
enlargement of AI/Ao = 6 and 20 respectively. For
each tool temperature five experiments were
carried out. In the diagram showing the friction
interval is shown. In case of AdAo = 20 minimum
friction is found at a temperature between 100 and
150C. This corresponds well with earlier obser-
vations by the authors using the ring test, /26/.The
results for the test series corresponding to AdAo = 6
are not sufficient in number for determining a
similar optimum in tool temperature. A significant
influence of the surface enlargement on the
friction factor is noted, the friction factor increasing
from a range of 0.04-0.05 to 0.06-0.08 when increa-
sing the surface enlargement from 6 to 20.
0.20
0.18
z 0.16
E 0.14
g 0.12
*
g 0.10
.c
g 0.08
0.06
z 0.04
0.02
0.00
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Tool temperature [C]
Fig. 5 The friction factor as a function of the tool
temperature and the surface enlargement
Figs. 6-8 show a quantification of the lubricant
performance in form of Limits of Lubrication
Diagrams (LLD) plotting the limiting curves of
lubrication without pick-up in a sliding length-
surface enlargement diagram for three different
tool temperatures, t = 30, 125 and 225C. A distinct
threshold between good and bad lubrication is
noted, pick-up occurring only above the curves.
increasing surface enlargement results in smaller
critical sliding length due to decreasing film
thickness. This is in good accordance with earlier
observations using the simple compression-twist
9, the marked influence of the tool temperature on
the limits of lubrication is noted. The lubricant
performance at 225C is significantly poorer than
that determined at t = 30C and, in case of low to
moderate sliding length (up to 150 mm), also
poorer than that corresponding to a tool tempera-
ture of 125C.The lubricant performance at 30 and
125C seems rather similar at low to medium sliding
length whereas prolonged sliding results in lower
maximum surface enlargement at higher tool tem-
perature. This may be due to the prolonged
contact time and frictional heat which eventually
cause breakdown of the lubricant film.
219
 25 25 3 I I I I I I

Q Qd 20
620

:5
50 l ; g
v)
5
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Sliding length [mm] Sliding length [mm]
Fig. 6: Lubricant performance at a tool tempera- Fig. 9: Lubricant performance at varying tool tem-
ture t = 30C. perature.

25
9 CONCLUSIONS
620
+
cI
The proposed test enables measurement of friction
g 15 and lubricant performance at high surface
expansion. Combined with the earlier proposed
gF 10 compression-twist test using simple upsetting the
two tests cover the whole range of surface
8 expansion and sliding length in cold forging at a
$ 5 normal pressure in the range of 1 flow stress. Further
v) developments should concern testing at higher
0 pressure.
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Sliding length [mm] ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Fig. 7: Lubricant performance at a tool tempera- The authors are indebted to M.Sc. Ssren Lassen
ture t = 125C. and M.Sc. Claus B. Andersen for valuable discus-
sions and M.Sc.-students J. H. Larsen and P. Skov-
25 Hansen for their help with the experimental work
3
620 REFERENCES

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