The Technical and Commercial Potential of an Incremental Ring Rolling Process

A novel incremental ring rolling process is proposed, in which a narrow mandrel is moved both radially and axially. The process has potential to allow flexible near-net-shape forming of both hot and cold rings, and has been assessed by experiments on commercial cold ring rolling machines, a physical simulation using wax rings, and two finite element models. The results suggest that the process is technically feasible although the cycle time increases with the degree of flexibility and the stability of deformation depends on careful design of the tool path.