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Study on the regulation of deformation uniformity and microstructure law in the forming of gear shafts by cross wedge rolling

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Abstract

Gear shafts are commonly manufactured by machining of gear teeth and shaft separately. This kind of approach entails quite some problems, such as long processing time, large die, and low production efficiency. To tackle these problems, this paper innovatively proposes a new process of cross wedge rolling (CWR) that is specifically tailored to the manufacturing of gear shafts, with which the shaft and teeth are formed at one go. The finite element model of CWR forming of gear shaft is established to simulate and analyze the CWR forming process. A three-factor and three-level response surface test is designed to optimize the processing parameters, where the friction coefficient, rolling temperature, and die movement speed are chosen as three factors, and inhomogeneous deformation is set as the response. The optimal parameters are obtained as follows: the rolling temperature is 1240 ℃, the speed of the die movement is 336 mm/s, and the friction coefficient is 0.8. This result is subsequently verified by experiments. Further on, the microstructure evolution of the characteristic points of the CWR forming process of gear shaft is analyzed. It is found that the grains at the gear teeth section are continuously refined and grown from the boundary at the early section of deformation, and the final grains grown are much smaller than the original ones. In addition, the grains appear to grow in a short range of time in the process of deformation, but the overall trend is towards refinement. In the shaft section, the evolutions of the grains in the two stepped shaft segments are almost the same; the grain deformation shows cyclic changes; the degree of grain refinement in the shaft is higher than that in the teeth; and the degree of grain refinement in the shaft center is higher than that in the shaft edge. The results of the study provide a theoretical basis for short-process forming of high-performance gear shafts by cross wedge rolling.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang, China (Grant Number: LZ22E050002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: U23A20629, 52375346), and the Major Project of Science and Technology Innovation 2025 in Ningbo City, China (Grant Number: 2022Z064, 2022Z009, 2022Z015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Chen Lulu, Shu Xuedao, Chen Xiaogu, Gong Wenwei, Li Zixuan & Xu Haijie

Authors
  1. Chen Lulu
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  2. Shu Xuedao
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  3. Chen Xiaogu
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  4. Gong Wenwei
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  5. Li Zixuan
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  6. Xu Haijie
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Contributions

Conceptualization: L.L.C. and X.D.S.; modeling and simulation: L.L.C. and X.G.C.; data analysis: L.L.C. and Z.X. L.; data interpretation: L.L.C. and W.W.G.; experiment: L.L.C., H.J.X., Z.X.L. and G.X.C.; writing—original draft preparation: L.L.C.; writing—review and editing: X.D. S. and H.J. X. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shu Xuedao.

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Lulu, C., Xuedao, S., Xiaogu, C. et al. Study on the regulation of deformation uniformity and microstructure law in the forming of gear shafts by cross wedge rolling. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 132, 2461–2476 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-024-13525-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-024-13525-8

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