Three-Rolls-Type Hot Ring Rolling Process of Large Seamless Rings

Hot ring rolling is one of useful processes for production of large seamless rings such as bearing races for ships, airplanes and windmills. The ring rolling is classified into two types, a two-rolls-type and three-rolls-type, by the roll layout. In this study, deformation characteristics on three-rolls-type ring rolling process have been experimentally investigated. FE analysis with the ALE method was also carried out for the ring rolling. FE analysis with the ALE method can simulate deformation characteristics in the three-rolls-type ring rolling. It has been found that deformation characteristics near the center of the width of the ring were similar to those of plane strain compression. In this region, grain flow toward the outer side was observed. It was found that the three-rolls-type ring rolling process shows less lateral spread and relatively uniform deformation than the two-rolls-type process.