MODELLING OF FLOW FORMING MANUFATURING PROCESSES FOR INTERNALLY GEARED WHEELS

BAPATLA ENGINEERING COLLEGE

SUBMITTED BY B.SATISH 4/4 MECHANICAL E-mail: bsatish143_bec@yahoo.co.in Ph.no: 08643223418 P.V.VARA PRASAD 4/4 MECHANICAL E_mail:siriprasad_87@yahoo.co.in Ph.no:9866697562

DEPARTEMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING BAPATLA ENGINEERING COLLEGE BAPATLA

ABSTRACT
The production of internally geared wheels by flow forming is a new process developed at the PtU Darmstadt. The technology enables manufacturing in one-piece design without additional machining operation. In this process, an externally geared mandrel is fitted into a cup-like work piece. By reducing the cups outside diameter, the inner wall of the cup is rolled into the mandrels teeth, thereby producing the gears profile. Three tooling concepts with different kinematics and numbers of rolls were analyzed using experimental methods. Numerical analyses revealed several short comings of available finite-element codes to handle complex flow forming processes. The first step of an efficient computation is the development of a parameterized process model. This is able to act as a starting basis for a virtual product and process design.

1. Manufacturing of internally geared wheels

Cutting operations in high volumes currently produces internally geared wheels. By use of slotting technology the toothing is machined incrementally into the cup-like work piece. A rotation is superposed to the stroke movement of the slotting tool. The wheels are made by a one-piece design that demands for complex tool kinematics. Some advantages of the process are a compact construction of the machinery and low power requirements. However, the process also has disadvantages such as long process duration and complicated control systems. For this reason, slotting is not very commonly used to produce internally geared wheels. Broaching of internally geared wheels allows up to 25% reduction in the process duration, but a two-part design is required. The broaching tool is a special construction that is able to cut all teeth at the same time into a ring-shaped work piece. A tool life of 100,000 finished parts is possible if the broach is regularly regrinded . Afterwards, a precisely manufactured and positioned circular blank is joined to the ring by laser welding. The described manufacturing technologies require high volumes of material to be removed and cause overall cost intensive process chains. For this reason, gearing mechanisms are often designed with ring-shaped instead of cup shaped internally geared wheels. The efficient production of ring-shaped wheels by broaching is possible, but in general they have poor usage properties. Furthermore, in many cases it is not possible to use ring-shaped wheels due to constructive restrictions

2. Flow forming processes

The new approach is based on flow forming technology. Similar to many bulk forming processes, the predominating triaxial state of compressive stress allows the achievement of high plastic strains in the work piece. Since it is an incremental process, flow forming is characterized by low power requirements and a relatively small investment In this process, an externally geared mandrel is fitted into a cup-like work piece. By reducing the cups outside diameter, the cup inner wall is rolled into the mandrels teeth, producing the gears profile. Different flow forming principles that are suitable for the production of internally geared wheels are classified by their main contact zone geometry. According to the resulting tooling concepts, the terms three-rolls-principle, multiple-rolls-principle and ringprinciple were introduced for the investigation. Other applicable principles such as cold reducing or radial rolling were not part of the examination. In the following section, the new tooling concepts and the resulting parts are presented.

3. Tooling concepts and experimental results

Starting from common three-roller flow forming machines, the three-rolls-principle was developed. An efficient way of operating this process seems to be through the use of circular blanks as perform. Unfortunately, experimental studies showed that this is not advantageous. Because the material is already exposed to strain hardening effects by forming the cup, further shaping of the toothing requires very high forces. These forces result in an early break-away of the mandrels teeth. For this reason, further investigations used cup-like performs. A perform that is as near as possible to the finished part ensures the profitability of the process. In this case, it should be a cup enclosing the mandrel. The working principle of the three-rolls-concept and a formed internally geared wheel is

shown in Fig. 1. Although the tool life is improved by using a cup-like work piece, it is still not satisfying. Only few parts were produced. Alternating bending loads that act on the mandrels teeth are

responsible for the failure. The movement of the rolls causes a change in the direction of the

transmitted forces F1 and F2, as depicted in Fig. 2. The tangential component of these forces is the source of the bending load. During rolling over of a single tooth from Pos. 1 to Pos. 2, the tangential force component changes its direction. The result is a cyclic load. The mandrels teeth cannot withstand the load after a small number of cycles and break away. Moreover, in order to reach a sufficient filling of the toothing, it is necessary to prevent an axial elongation of the work piece. Consequently, the transmitted forces are increased. This is reflected in even higher bending loads. To reduce the bending loads, a new tooling system called the multiple-rolls-principle was developed [5]. Instead of having three rolls each with its own bearing, several rolls are used together in a single bearing. By reducing their diameters, it is possible to multiply the number of rolls. The short distance of the rolls effects a superposition of the compressive stresses that are induced by the Hertzian contact. This situation is capable of significantly reducing the bending loads. The resulting forces are displayed in

Fig.3. Roll 1 causes the force F3, which acts on the right flank of the tooth in question. At the same time roll 2 affects a force F4 with a smaller absolute value on the left flank. The difference of the two forces results in a tangential component, which is responsible for remaining bending loads. Apparently, this tangential component is much smaller than that solely caused by force F3.The concept was implemented by using a modified taper roller bearing. The rolls are mounted in an

angular position, so axial movement of the bearing gives a defined in feed. Further optimization of the tooling system was achieved by the development of several concepts for an axial blocking. The task of this component is to prevent undesired axial elongation. A basic solution is a fixed blocking located at the cup opening, which stops the axial material flow. The consequence is a material blockage if the taper rolls are approaching the blocking. This results in an excellent filling of the toothing in front of the blocking, but the mandrels loads increase significantly. Prior to the end of the process, the mandrels teeth are destroyed by an overload breakage. Modification of the blocking geometry attenuates this effect, but the desired filling of the toothing is reduced as well. Further investigations resulted in a partitioned blocking consisting of a fixed and a moveable device. The fixed blocking device has the same function as described above, but with a smaller outer diameter. Thus, the axial material flow is not stopped completely and the moveable blocking device is displaced in the axial direction. A force-controlled construction of the moveable blocking device enables the adjustment of the material flow. In the experimental implementation, this function was realized with a ring shaped hydraulic cylinder that is pivoted about the longitudinal axis. The torque of the mandrel is transmitted to both blocking devices. A pivoted connection of the moveable blocking device and the hydraulic cylinder allows only axial forces to be transmitted between these two parts. To minimize the twist of the cup wall during the process the moveable device is additionally equipped with engaging teeth on its front. With these enhancements it is possible to produce internally geared wheels in low volume production using the multiple-rolls-principle. Consequential further development finally resulted in the ring-principle. Here, the rolls are substituted by a ring-shaped forming tool. The load transmission is distributed more uniformly due to the concaveconvex type of contact, as shown in fig 4.. Fig. 4. Bending loads are further decreased in this way. The in feed is achieved by an eccentric

displacement of the ring. Therefore, the inner diameter of the ring has to be greater than the outer diameter of the work piece. The work piece has to be clamped at the open end in order to suppress

any expansion in the circumferential direction. If the inner contour of the ring is able to form the work piece on its whole length, an axial in feed can be omitted. To prevent axial elongation of the work piece, an axial pressure has additionally to be applied by the tail stock. The torque is transmitted to the work piece by engaging teeth. The ring-principle is capable of producing high-quality internally geared wheels. The resulting state of stress during the process causes only minor alternating bending loads on the mandrels teeth, so an economic tool life is feasible. Furthermore, the concept is simpler to implement than the multiple-rolls-principle, and this makes it applicable for low to medium volume production. The ring principle shows the best performance compared to the other tooling concepts in terms of economic efficiency and product quality.

4. Parameterized process modeling

To accomplish parameter studies and to identify an optimized tooling design, the process has to be simulated numerically. This proved to be a challenging task since flow forming of internally geared wheels is an incremental bulk forming process with complex tool surfaces and kinematics. To tap the full potential it is necessary to calculate the mandrels loading during the process with respect to the desired geometry of the wheel. This is realized with an adaptive finite element model that is controlled by a set of parameters. With these parameters the geometry of the mandrel is defined by setting values for the normal module, number of teeth, helix angle, tip and root diameter, pressure angle, face width and addendum modification . The reference circle diameter d can be calculated from the number of teeth z, normal module mn and helix angle with Eq. (1):

The normal tooth thickness sn at the reference circle follows from Eq. (2) if the normal pressure angle an and addendum modification coefficient x are given as

The transverse tooth thickness is given by

The transverse profile can be calculated with the involute function. The tooth thickness at an arbitrary circle with diameter dy can be obtained from

where

and

Fig. 5 shows several generated profiles. The resulting tooth shape of a positive addendum modification is advantageous for the flow forming process. This is caused by the increased tooth thickness at the root circle and the attened progression of the involute curve. The material flow appears more easily and the loading of the mandrels teeth is decreased. Additional fillets at the tip and root circle further improve the process. Without sharp corners it is possible to minimize undesired chip formation. By duplicating the transverse profile of the externally geared mandrel, the whole tool can be modelled. The profile is translated and rotated several times about the longitudinal axis, thus generating the tools surface. On the top side the mandrel is chamfered. If the parameter set is valid, the geometry can be created. Because it is a pure forming process, the tooth geometry of the finished internally geared wheel is defined by the geometry of the tool. It should be pointed out that tip and root circle diameters have to be interchanged and that there is a change of sign with the addendum modification if the tooth geometry of the finished wheel is stated.

Fig. 6 shows several tool surfaces that were generated with a software implementation of the described approach. This provides a convenient way for the modelling. Other characteristics of the finished wheel depend on process parameters and the used work piece. Process specific parameters are number of revolutions, in feed, axial pressure and kinematics and geometry of the rolls. This is related to the tooling concepts mentioned above. The work piece is parameterized by its geometry and material properties.

Resulting models in 2D and 3D are shown in

Fig. 7 with a ring-shaped roll. The cup wall is a deformable body that is to be deformed by the rigid surfaces of the mandrel and ring. In 3D the cup wall has a force controlled boundary condition in the axial direction, while in 2D the plain strain condition is used. The frame of

reference during the modelling process is changed and is different from the frame of reference in reality. Mandrel and work piece are fixed, while the movement of the rolls includes any rotation and in feed. In the case of a ringshaped roll, the movement is described by a helix. 5. Conclusion Flow forming of internally geared wheels is an innovative process that performs very well on low to medium production series. The ring-principle is the best tooling concept to date. This is due to the long tool life and the simple mechanical implementation. The wheels produced with the ring-principle show high quality. A precise and efficient simulation is desired for product and process design. Parameterized modelling provides a convenient way to accomplish this task. The next step will be the solution of the modelled continua. This makes high demands on the used formulations since there are complex boundary conditions on the model. An efficient simulation will help further optimization of flow forming and related processes.

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