Study of dieless radial spinning for thick-walled cylindrical parts with external grooves

Thick-walled cylindrical parts with external grooves are widely used in the automobile and aviation fields. Traditional processes for fabricating such components can’t meet the requirements of properties and efficiency. The dieless radial spinning process was proposed to produce the thick-walled cylindrical parts with external grooves. The forming characteristics of the spinning process and the effects of various process parameters on forming were studied by using orthogonal tests and finite element simulations. During the forming process, bulge and thinning occur because of material flow. Parameter study shows that the load-yield ratio (ξ) has no significant effect on forming quality. However, the feed-thickness ratio (η) and initial wall thickness of the tube (t₀) play a crucial role in the forming quality (e.g., the heights of bulges and thickness reduction in the groove area). Different thicknesses differ the forming quality because of various flexural capacities. The inner surface quality of the grooves is governed by the initial wall thickness. The processing window was defined to recommend suitable parameters for eligible parts.