Influence of cooling condition of tools on central deformation of workpiece and tool wear in cross wedge rolling

In this paper, a thermal–mechanical coupled simulation model for two-roll cross wedge rolling (CWR) was developed to investigate the influence of cooling condition of tools on central deformation of workpiece and tool wear by using three-dimensional rigid-plastic finite element method. Based on the simulation results, the information about central deformation of workpiece and tool wear with and without tool cooling was compared and analyzed. The study results indicate that forging quality and tool life can be improved by means of cooling the tools with cooling water. Subsequently, an industrial example of CWR in blank forming for engine connecting rod was presented to verify the feasibility of study results. In this industrial application, higher forging quality and longer tool life were obtained, which benefits the decrease of production cost. This study provides insights into the mechanisms of central deformation of workpiece and tool wear under different cooling conditions of tools in CWR process as well.