Equal channel angular extrusion of flat products

The paper considers equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) of sufficiently long rectangular billets with different width-to-thickness ratios W/T. A stress analysis is performed inside plastic zone and inlet and outlet channels depending on contact friction and the billet geometry. Optimization of the processing mechanics and strategy to design tools are formulated. It is shown that flat billets with W/T ≫ 1 provide important technical advantages for processing of massive slab-like billets and technology commercialization on the large metallurgical scale.