Stability of steel thixoforming process

To improve the industrialization of the process, the study of a thixoforming line stability was proposed. The thixoforming line is fully automated to optimize the repeatability of the experiments. Parameters of the heating cycle, the slug temperature, the tool temperature and the forming speed were studied. For each of them, a range of the expected variations in a steady-state process as well as the effects of these variations on the process itself (forming load and parts quality) were given. These variations are shown to be acceptable. Three different tools were used in the experiments. Some mathematical simulations were realized on the finite elements code Forge2008(c) with a semi-solid constitutive law. The capacity of the model to represent the process stability was discussed. The simulation results are in agreement with the experiment results.