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Implementing approach of rolling process for inner spline sleeve with medium diameter: radial-feed rolling and through-feed rolling

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Abstract

Spline connection is a key component for force- and torque-transmission, which is widely used in mechanical engineering. External splines in spline connection have been manufactured by rolling process, but the matched inner splines manufactured by plastic deformation are few. Especially, the long inner spline is usually manufactured by cutting process. The rolling process is a plastic forming process with local loading and force saving; so, this study investigated the rolling process and its implementing way for inner spline sleeve. A radial-feed rolling process and two through-feed rolling processes with different structure of entry-angle section were proposed, and the finite element (FE) models were established for different rolling process, respectively. For the FE model of the through-feed rolling process, a multiple meshing strategy is used such as the local refinement window moving along axial direction with rolling die and the total number of mesh increasing by stages. The results indicated that the contact area is the same along axial direction and increases in situ during radial-feed rolling process, but the contact area changes and moves along axial direction during through-feed rolling process; the full and clear shape of inner spline can be obtained by the three rolling processes, but the shapes near the end of expected zone with inner spline are different for the different processes, and the geometry near the end of billet and the rolling process have the influence on the shapes near the end; some metal is accumulated in front of the through-feed rolling die, so non-full teeth present in the entered end by the rolling die and full teeth in the exited end will be out of the expected zone with inner spline.

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Funding

The work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51675415 and 51305334) and Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi (grant no. 2021GXLH-Z-049).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Xi’an Key Laboratory of Intelligent Equipment and Control, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 28 Xianning West Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710049, People’s Republic of China

    Da-Wei Zhang, Qiu-Tong Liu, Xu-Cheng Li, Lin-Quan Chen, Guang-Can Yang, Qi Zhang & Sheng-Dun Zhao

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  1. Da-Wei Zhang
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  2. Qiu-Tong Liu
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  3. Xu-Cheng Li
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  4. Lin-Quan Chen
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  7. Sheng-Dun Zhao
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Correspondence to Da-Wei Zhang.

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Appendix 1 Verification of finite element model of inner profile rolling processes

Appendix 1 Verification of finite element model of inner profile rolling processes

The following FE models of complex profile rolling processes were all developed in DEFORM code. The motion transformation and only part of billet were both used in the FE models. The simulations corresponding the experiment were also carried out, and the comparisons between experimental results and FEM results were done.

1.1 A.1 Radial-feed rolling process of inner ring gear with large diameter [12]

Figure 16a illustrates the radial-feed rolling process with internal and external local constraints, and the rolling process is suitable for manufacturing inner ring gear with large diameter. An experiment was carried out on the modified apparatus (Fig. 16b) based on a counter-roller spinning equipment. The expectant inner gear has a pitch diameter in 560 mm. In consideration of the capacity of equipment, 5052 aluminum alloy was used as billet.

Fig. 16
figure 16

Radial-feed rolling process of inner ring gear with large diameter [12]: a processing principle, b experimental apparatus

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Figure 17 illustrates the experimental results and FEM results. The comparison indicated that the error for height of tooth predicted by FE model is less than 5% and for axial thickness at root of rolled gear is less than 1.5%. The FE model can describe the rolling deformation of radial-feed rolling process for inner gear.

Fig. 17
figure 17

Comparison of geometrical parameter of rolled inner ring gear

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1.2 A.2 Through-feed rolling process of inner thread [14]

Figure 18a illustrates the through-feed rolling process for a nut with inner thread. An experiment was carried out on the through-feed rolling machine for helical profile, as shown in Fig. 18b, where the expectant inner thread has a pitch diameter in 98.701 mm, and AISI 1035 was used as billet in the experiment.

Fig. 18
figure 18

The through-feed rolling process of inner thread [14]: a processing principle, b experimental apparatus

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The height of thread obtained from experiment and simulation is listed in Table 3, respectively. The comparison indicated that the error for height of thread predicted by FE model is less than 2%. The FE model can describe the rolling deformation of through-feed rolling process for inner thread.

Table 3 Comparison of height of thread
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Zhang, DW., Liu, QT., Li, XC. et al. Implementing approach of rolling process for inner spline sleeve with medium diameter: radial-feed rolling and through-feed rolling. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 130, 2457–2473 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-12789-w

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