CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 61 (2012) 275–278

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology

jou rnal homep age : ht t p: // ees .e lse vi er . com /ci r p/ def a ult . asp

Cold joining of rotor shaft with flange by using plastic deformation

K. Kitamura a,*, K. Hirota b, Y. Ukai c, K. Matsunaga d, K. Osakada (1)e
a
Department of Eng. Physics, Electronics and Mechanics, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan
b
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan
c
Engineering Planning Department, Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota, Japan
d
MEG Inc., Anjo, Aichi, Japan
e
School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A plastic cold joining method of a rotor shaft with a flange was developed to produce automobiles axle parts.
Joining
In this process, a high strength shaft with serrated teeth was indented into the hole of a thick disc at room
Forming
temperature. The serrated shaft acts as a tool to indent to the hole. Since the disc with the teeth-shaped hole
Forging
was strengthened by work hardening, the yielding strength of the join was 1.5 times as high as that of a joint
produced by metal cutting. Those conditions and mechanism were experimentally determined.
ß 2012 CIRP.

1. Introduction
Axle shafts with a gear or a coupling are important components
for the automotive driving chain and they are usually manufac-
tured by hot forging. But hot forging necessitates an expensive
heating furnace and a large-sized press, and subsequent machin-
ing. Since the diameter of the flange is much larger than that of the
shaft, it is hard to be manufactured efficiently and economically
with a small number of forging processes.
Another possibility of manufacturing an axle shaft is to join the
shaft with the flange manufactured separately. Joining of the two
parts is not limited by the differences in shape, diameter, and
materials of the two parts. Although welding is the most
commonly used process for joining two parts, the strength of
the welded joint is high, but the production time is long.
To attain joints with high reliability, the methods utilizing
plastic deformation such as riveting [1], shaving-joining [2] and
application to camshaft [3], and plastic joining of rod and shaft by
upsetting [4] or indenting [5] have been investigated. In this paper,
to obtain accurate axle shafts with high torsional strength to be
made only at room temperature, a method [6] to indent a hard
shaft with serration teeth formed by cold extrusion into the hole of
a thick disc is proposed.
2. Joining of shaft with flange
2.1. Materials tested
In Table 1, the materials used in this paper are listed. The
Vickers hardness numbers and mean yield stress of the disc
materials are given in Table 1. The names of the materials are those
of the Japanese standard. S45C is 0.45% plain carbon steel, S10C is
0.10% carbon steel, C1100-F is industrial pure copper as fabricated,
C1100-O is annealed industrial pure copper. A1070-O is annealed
industrial aluminum.
* Corresponding author.
Fig. 1 shows the flow curves of the used materials measured by
simple compression test under a well-lubricated condition. The
mean flow stress in Table 1 is calculated as the average flow stress
in the strain range between 0 and 0.4.
2.2. Geometries of disc and shaft
In Fig. 2(a), the geometries of the shaft and the disc with a hole
to be joined are given. The shaft is a specially designed unique
shape to prevent slipping and deforming of the teeth during
functioning: one side of a tooth is in the radial direction and
another side is inclined, and the top of the tooth is rounded. The
inclined directions of the teeth are altered at every 908 to ensure
high strengths in both directions of twisting. There are four
toothless parts at every 908 to allow any number of teeth which
may not be divisible reasonably by 4.
The diameter of the shank part of the shaft without teeth is the
same as the top of the teeth. The serrated part of the shaft is formed
by cold extrusion. To indent the shaft, the front end of the shaft has
a nose of lead angle a of 158, 308, 458 or 908.
The disc is 25 mm in thickness and 115 mm in diameter, and
has a round hole at the center. The diameter of the hole is varied
between the top and the bottom of the serration teeth. An
overlapping ratio of the shaft and the disc is defined by (ds dh)/
(2h) = d/h where ds is the diameter of the shaft, dh is the diameter of
the disc hole, and h is the height of the tooth.
2.3. Joining procedure
In a series of experiments, the following joining process is
employed as shown in Fig. 2(b):
1. The shaft of S45C-F is extruded through a serrated die exit at
room temperature. The hardness of the teeth becomes
HV = 270–330 by work hardening from HV = 198–216.
2. The serrated outer section of the shaft is partially hardened by
carburizing and subsequent quenching to a hardness of

0007-8506/$ – see front matter ß 2012 CIRP.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2012.03.099
276 K. Kitamura et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 61 (2012) 275–278

Table 1 process, the hard and serrated shaft works as a tool to transcribe
Lists of tested materials and hardness and mean yield flow stresses.
the teeth shape to the surface of the disc hole.
Symbols Tested materials Hardness HV0.1 Ym

S45C-F 0.45% C steel as fabricated 198–216 823 When the lead angle a is near to 908, shaving of the disc
S45C-O 0.45% C steel annealed 165 – material by the teeth on the shaft occurs and no material flows into
S35C-O 0.35% C steel annealed 157 – the space between the teeth, and thus the filling ratio does not
S15C-F 0.15% C steel as fabricated 208 –
increase. When the lead angle a is small, the hole is expanded by
S15C-O 0.15%C steel annealed 121 –
S10C-1 0.10% C steel as fabricated 142 587 the teeth on the shaft, and the disc material is pushed into the
S10C-2 0.10% C steel annealed 112 513 space between the teeth, but too small lead angle a leads to a large
C1100-F Fabricated pure copper 84–92 317 stroke and a large indentation load.
C1100-O Annealed pure copper 55–69 206 By the plastic flow, the material near the hole is strengthened by
A1070-O Annealed pure aluminum 26–31 101
work hardening, and the residual compression stress in the disc
fastens the shaft tightly.
Two important parameters of the lead angle a and the
HV = 660. By the heat treatment, the work-hardening is overlapping ratio d/h influence on the joining load and the degree
cancelled. of filling. It is considered that the torsional strength of the joint
3. The serrated and hardened shaft is indented into the hole of the increases as the filling ratio increases.
S10C-1 disc with 25-mm thickness at room temperature. In this
2.4. Material flow during joining process

The behavior of the material flow during the joining process is

examined experimentally to decide an appropriate value of lead
angle a. The serrated shafts with a = 308 and 908 are indented into
the hole of the disc with the overlapping ratio of d/h = 0.5 without
applying lubricant.
After joining, the product was split by wire electrical-discharge
machining (wire EDM) to observe the inside surface of the hole of
the disc. When a = 908, Fig. 3(a), there are some chips plowed up at
the section A and the edges at the section B is severely damaged,
and thus a = 908 is not suitable for reliable joining. When a = 308,
the teeth were formed without cutting chip and fracture as
Fig. 3(b).
Fig. 1. Flow stress–strain curves of tested materials.
To examine the plastic flow in indentation, 3D rigid-plastic FEM
simulation was carried out by using DEORM 3D. As shown in Fig. 4
the FEM simulation revealed that most of the materials are divided
into both sides of each tooth with a small bulge in the forward
direction, and they flow into the space between the teeth.

Fig. 3. Comparison of influence of lead angle, a (d/h = 0.5).

Fig. 2. Joining procedure and geometries of shaft and flange. Fig. 4. Material flow inside disc simulated by 3D rigid-plastic FEM.
 K. Kitamura et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 61 (2012) 275–278 277

Fig. 5. Influence of lead angle and overlapping ratio on filling ratio.

Fig. 7. Influence of overlap ratio and lead angle on distribution of hardness inside
2.5. Quality of joint tooth formed on hole surface of disc after cold joining (z = 6 mm).

Fig. 5(a) shows the influence of the lead angle a on the filling
ratio d/h when the overlapping ratio d/h = 0.5. The largest filling in the shaft, not in the joined portion. To measure the joining
ratio of d/h of 0.7 is obtained when a is 308. The filling ratio strength, the joined part is shortened by machining to 6 mm after
decreases when a  458. Since larger a tends to cause shaving (see indenting by 10 mm. The yielding torque and the maximum torque
A in Fig. 3(a)), the disc material does not flow to fill the space increase with increasing d/h as shown in Fig. 8.
between the teeth and thus the filling ratio is almost the same as Fig. 9 shows the results of the torsion tests of the products made
the overlapping ratio. Further, development of the forward flow by cold joining and a mechanical assembly. Mechanical assembly is
causes tensional fracture (see B in Fig. 3(a)). Thus large lead angles fitting of a serrated shaft with a disc with the serrated hole of the
a are not suitable for good joining. same shaped teeth produced by wire EDM. Since the teeth of the
Fig. 5(b) shows the influence of d/h on d/h when a is fixed to be disc was strengthened by work-hardening in the cold joining, the
308 or 908. The average of three values of d/h in the indenting yield torque of the joint was 1.5 times as high as that of the joint
direction is plotted. The value of filling ratio d/h is equal to that of made by mechanical assembly.
the overlapping ratio d/h when a is 908. This means that shaving
takes place and the material does not flow in the radial direction. 3. Joining of disc and shaft without carburizing
The transcribed teeth are partially fractured when d/h  0.5. The
large d/h is unsuitable for good joining. 3.1. Combination of materials of shaft and disc
The value of d/h at a = 308is larger than that at a = 908, and this
implies that enough amount of the material flows into the space When the shaft material S45C-F with HV = 216 is carburized the
between teeth as shown in Fig. 3. As d/h becomes large, the value of hardness becomes HV = 660 which is about 5 times harder than the
d/h increases but d/h hardly attains the value 1.0. Besides, the S10C-1 disc material with HV = 142. This means that successful
indentation load at d/h = 0.75 is two times as high as that at d/ joining was possible when the shaft was much harder than the
h = 0.5 as shown in Fig. 6. The increase in hydraulic pressure and disc. Since it is desirable to avoid carburizing operation for
frictional area must hinder the material from flowing into the
space between the teeth.
The hardness value around the root of the transcribed tooth is
measured as shown in Fig. 7. The measuring points are located at a
distance x = 0, 1, 2 mm from the root of the tooth. The Vickers
hardness numbers at x = 1, 2 mm are close to 112 HV when d/
h = 0.25 and a = 908. Since the initial Vickers hardness number of
S10C-2 is HV = 112, it is clear that these parts are not hardened. The
parts near the root when d/h  0.5 and at a = 308are definitely
hardened by work hardening. Hardening of those parts is properly
advantageous to high torsion acting on the joining part.

2.6. Static torsional strength of joining

After indenting with a stroke of 10 mm, the joined product is

subjected to static torsion using a torsion tester. Fracture occurred Fig. 8. Enhancement of torsional strength with increasing filling ratio.

Fig. 9. Comparisons of yield torque and maximum torque in torsion test between
Fig. 6. Indentation load during cold joining process (a = 308). cold joining by using plastic deformation and joint by mechanical fitting.
278 K. Kitamura et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 61 (2012) 275–278
Fig. 10. Cross-sectional views of joining boundary (z = 4 mm).
Fig. 11. Indentation loads and joining qualities.
economical manufacturing, a serrated shaft which enables
indentation only by work hardening is examined.
To find the smallest hardness ratio (shaft hardness/disc
hardness), discs of various materials were joined with the S45C-
F hardened only by cold extrusion (HV = 330) under the condition
of a = 30, d/h = 0.5, and L = 10 mm.
Fig. 10 shows the cross-sectional views of the interface of the
joints. When aluminum or copper was used for disc, the material
flew into the gap between the teeth without plastic deformation of
the teeth of shaft. In the cases of S10C-1 and S45C-O for disc, the
teeth were deformed and they did not work well.
The indenting load increases with stroke, but the load tends to
saturate when the teeth on the shaft is plastically deformed. The
relationship between the indentation load at a stroke of 1 mm and
the mean flow stress of the disc material is shown in Fig. 11. The
circles (*) in the figure denote that the teeth on the shaft are not
deformed and the crossed marks () of S10C-1 and S45C mean that
the teeth are deformed.
The indentation load was about 24 kN when the disc of S10C-1
and S45C were used. When a disc material softer than S10C-2
(HV = 112) was chosen, the load was lower than 24 kN, the teeth on
the shaft were not deformed and the teeth were transcribed well
on the disc hole. From the above result, it can be concluded that
successful joining is possible when the hardness of the disc is less
than 112/330, nearly = 1/3 of the hardness of the shaft material as
long as the special teeth shape given in Fig. 2 is used.
3.2. Improvement of joining condition using trapezoidal serration
It is considered that harder disc materials may be used if the
tooth shape is resistant against plastic deformation. To increase the
strength of the tooth, in indentation, trapezoidal tooth with a wide
and low shape was designed as shown in Fig. 12(b). The shaft with
the trapezoidal teeth was made of S45C-F (HV = 216) by cold-
extrusion and the hardness of the teeth is about 270–330. The discs
materials are the materials listed in Table 1.
Fig. 12. Influence of different material of disc on deformation of teeth of shaft.
In lower part of Fig. 12, the results of joining with the special
shaped teeth and the trapezoidal teeth are given. While the
successful joining is possible when the disc hardness is less than
112HV in the case of the special shaped teeth, the disc of S45C-O
with HV = 165 was successfully joined with the shaft of HV = 330. It
was confirmed that the joined product with a disc of S45C-O
fractured at the shaft in the static twisting test.
4. Conclusions
A cold joining method of a rotor shaft with a disc by using
plastic deformation was developed. In this process, a shaft with
serration teeth was indented into the hole of a thick disc at room
temperature by transcribing the teeth shape to the inside hole
surface of the disc. The following results were obtained:
1. The yielding strength of the joint was 1.5 times as high as that of
the mechanically fit joint.
2. Good quality of joining was obtained under a condition that the
disc was 112/330 times as hard as the teeth when the specially
designed teeth with round top and a slope were used.
3. When the low and wide trapezoidal teeth were used, good
joining without deformation of teeth was obtained with the disc
material with a hardness ratio of 165/330.
References
[1] Abe Y, Mori K, Kato T (2012) Joining of High Strength Steel and Aluminium Alloy
Sheets by Mechanical Clinching with Dies for Control of Metal Flow. Journal of
Materials Processing Technology 212(4):884–889.
[2] Machida T (1987) Shave-Joining Process of Dissimilar Materials and its Appli-
cation for Mild Steel. Journal of JSTP 28(322):1158–1165. (in Japanese).
[3] EP 0521354 B1, 1994, A Patent, Camshaft for Valve Control in Internal Combus-
tion Engines, Etablissment Supervis, Date of Publication 19.10.1994 (in Ger-
man).
[4] Monaghan J, Naughton P (1991) The Production of Permanent Joints by Plastic
Flow. International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture 31(3):283–293.
[5] Matsumoto R, Hanami S, Ogura A, Yoshimura H, Osakada K (2008) New Plastic
Joining Method Using Indentation of Cold Bar to Hot Forged Part. Annals of the
CIRP 57:279–281.
[6] Hirota K, Matsuura T, Kitamura K, Ukai Y, Matsunaga K (2007) Plastic Flow
Joining of Quenched Shaft and Flange with Emphasis on Torsional Strength.
Journal of JSTP 48(522):66–70. (in Japanese).