A combined cold extrusion for a drive shaft: experimental assessment on dimensional compatibility

A combined cold extrusion process is experimentally visualized to manufacture a drive shaft. Due to the requirements of a face width of about 92.00 mm for the spur gear section and a groove depth of roughly 22.70 mm for the internal spline region, a preform is adopted to prevent excessive accumulation of plastic deformation. AISI 1035 medium carbon steel material is spheroidized and annealed to use as the initial billet workpiece. In order to verify the deformed configuration and the dimensional accuracy, both shoulder angles of (θ₁, θ₂) are selected to be (30°, 30°) and (45°, 45°) on each extrusion die for the preform forging and the combined extrusion. Using the prepared tool components, experimental investigations on the dimensional relevancy of the cold forged drive shaft are performed. When the shoulder angle set of (30°, 30°) is applied, the required dimensions with respect to the face width and the groove depth are sufficiently satisfied, but unpredictable forging defects are observed. With the shoulder angles of (45°, 45°), the drive shaft is well deformed and fabricated without any cold forging defects. As a result, it is confirmed that the drive shaft can successfully be actualized with the dimensional precision satisfied by the combined cold extrusion.