Analysis of Tube Spinning

Tube spinning is a bulk deformation process used to produce seamless, cylindrical, conical, and contoured tubes. Over the last six decades, tube spinning process has been applied in a wide range of engineering applications; especially in automotive, aerospace, and nuclear industry. However, the process has seen little change, and despite a large volume of literature investigating the process, understanding of the process mechanics is limited and the key references have been published about 50 years ago. This paper investigates the process mechanics, looking into the mechanism of deformation. The process is investigated using a numerical model using an implicit time integration and Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian scheme (ALE). The numerical model has been developed and validated against physical trials. The maximum difference between tube geometry predicted by the model and measured in the trials is 4%. Model results further show that both equivalent plastic strain and plastic strain rate are concentrated in the region immediately under and ahead of the roller and that the process reaches a steady state early in the process. The stress state is dominated by compressive normal stresses in all three directions.