The Fomichev plug is of characteristic producing equal unit-reduction of wall thickness along its perforation section during seamless tube piercing. This paper introduces the design of a novel Fomichev plug based upon the analysis of roll opening, taking into account for both feed angle and toe angle of a cone type piercer, then presents a 3-D coupled thermo-mechanical simulation of the novel Fomichev Plug’s performance characteristic during cone-roll piercing process, with the aid of FE code MSC.SuperForm. In comparison with conventional plugs, as FEM simulation result shows that the new plug makes the metal deformation distribute uniformly along its perforation section, which brings about well-distributed plug wear. The novel Fomichev plug is able to decrease the slip between the roll and workpiece and avoid rolling block owing to its smaller plug force, which can increase piercing efficiency so, moreover, analyzing stress distribution, it’s more suitable for metal deformation with fewer defects in tube piercing, makes resistance to metal elongation smaller, reduces wedge cleaving to tube billet, and prevents lamination defects during piercing high-alloy billet.
Capabilities of Using Fem in Sheet-Metal Forming
