Conception of Hollow Axles Forming by Skew Rolling with Moving Mandrel

The article presents a conception of manufacturing a hollow axle using three skewed rolls moving at the same rotating speed, axially moving chuck and a moving mandrel. The outer shape of the axle is obtained as a result of combining the radial feed of the rolls with axial feed of the chuck. The hole in the axle, however, is obtained as a result of the mandrel acting on the workpiece while moving along with it. In order to assess the correctness of the presented concept of forming, a numerical simulation was performed in Simufact.Forming commercial software. The results of the simulation confirmed that the applied method allows one to manufacture large-size hollow axles. Moreover, information on force parameters of the forming process, which can be used for designing an industrial rolling mill was obtained.