Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg, Russia

D. A. Pavlov, Cand. Eng., Associate Professor, Dept. of Metal Forming, e-mail: d.a.pavlov@urfu.ru

Modern pipe mills primarily use screw-type piercing mills for piercing billets into shells. These mills enable piercing billets made of various alloys with high speed, dimensional accuracy, and surface quality. Therefore, an important area of research is the search for a working tool calibration that reduces the energy parameters of the piercing process and improves wear resistance. The working cone is the most heavily loaded part of the plug. The shape of this section determines the stability of the screw piercing process. The influence of the shape of the plug’s working cone on the energy-force parameters of the piercing process, as well as on plug wear, was studied. The study was conducted using the QForm software package, based on the finite element method. It was found that increasing the radius describing the working cone reduces the force acting on the plug, as well as its wear, due to reduced resistance to metal flow in the deformation zone. However, this also increases the force acting on the roll. Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that the working cone of the piercing mill plug should have a shape intermediate between spherical and conical to ensure the best balance between energy-force parameters and tool wear.
This work was carried out at the Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin under agreement with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education No. 075-03-2023-006 dated January 16, 2023 (topic number FEUZ-2023-0015).

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