Numerical simulation of stagger spinning for D406A high-strength steel

Metal spinning process is widely used because of its low power requirement to producing complex symmetry components. In this paper, a modified 3D finite element(3D-FE) model is developed under the FE software environment based on characteristics of stagger spinning process. Analysis of the multi-pass spinning deformation mechanism and the effects of spinning parameters on spinning deformation were carried out. The results showed that large internal diameter of tube blank and low dimensional accuracy were caused by too little feed rate of spinning roller, especially for thin-walled tube. But if the feed rate was larger than 60mm/min, large spinning forces and instability appeared. Strain rate and forming instability increased with the increase of rotational speed of mandrels, on the other hand, more obvious friction lead to bigger strain of surface of tube blank. With the radius of corner of spinning roller getting 13mm, the extensive overlaps lead to the improvement of spinning efficiency, while low forming quality accompanied by the large spinning forces occurred. Cutting phenomena lead to worse surface quality even tended to crack with the radius of corner of spinning roller being smaller than 8mm. An ideal combination of process parameters is obtained: the roller feed rate is 50mm/min, the rotational speed of mandrel is 40rad/min, the radius of corner of spinning roller is 10mm.