Successful Pass Schedule Design in Open-Die Forging Using Double Deep Q-Learning

In order to not only produce an open-die forged part with the desired final geometry but to also maintain economic production, precise process planning is necessary. However, due to the incremental forming of the billet, often with several hundred strokes, the process design is arbitrarily complicated and, even today, often only based on experience or simple mathematical models describing the geometry development. Hence, in this paper, fast process models were merged with a double deep Q-learning algorithm to enable a pass schedule design including multi-objective optimization. The presented implementation of a double deep Q-learning algorithm was successfully trained on an industrial-scale forging process and converged stable against high reward values. The generated pass schedules reliably produced the desired final ingot geometry, utilized the available press force well without exceeding plant limits, and, at the same time, minimized the number of passes. Finally, a forging experiment was performed at the institute of metal forming to validate the generated results. Overall, a proof of concept for the pass schedule design in open-die forging via double deep Q-learning was achieved which opens various starting points for future work.

Optimization of Slab Edge in Roughing of Stainless Steel

To reach high demands of a stainless steel surface quality the location of a slab edge is optimized utilizing multiphysical finite element (FE) analysis. The slab edge forms in roughing process when the longitudinal edge of the stainless steel slab moves parallelly towards the center of a transfer strip surface due to several rough and edge rolling passes. Strip spreading and location of the slab edge are managed by edge rolling process which is accomplished concurrently with roughing. Deformation resistance has a significant role characterizing the strip spreading and material flow in the roll bite, thus experimental material compression testing was carried out and the results fitted to the Hensel-Spittel equation. Multiple edger roll profiles were designed, and the most feasible details of the roll profile were iteratively utilized for the new profiles. In this way the location of the slab edge was optimized closer to the edge of the transfer strip by developing a new edger roll profile and resetting edge rolling passes according to results of FE-simulations. To mimic an industrial-scale roughing process an automated pass schedule control was developed in the FE-model. Therefore, multipass simulations require only a pass schedule data to run simulation.

Fine Electrolytic Tough Pitch Copper Multistage Wiredrawing Pass Schedule Design by Analytical and Numerical Methods

Electrolytic tough pitch copper is commonly used in electric and electronic applications while fine copper wires are widely used in electronic conductors. A multi-pass wiredrawing process was designed for the manufacturing of fine pure copper wire, from 0.50 mm to 0.10 mm in diameter. The analytical model and the finite element analysis (FEA) were performed to validate the pass schedule design. The initial wire was mechanically characterized, and the pass schedule design was stablished by the analytical method according to the specific criteria. The sequence of wiredrawing passes was modeled in the finite element method (FEM) software in order to analyze and validate the designed pass schedule. The combination of these methods allowed designing and validating the wiredrawing pass schedule to implement it in a real process with guaranteed results. This work contributes in showing a combined methodology for the design and virtual validation of the pass schedule in the case of multistage wiredrawing of ETP copper fine wires.

Fabrication of 50.0 μm Ultra-Fine Pure Rhodium Wire, Using a Multi-Pass Wire Drawing Process, for Probe Card Pins

Rhodium is a rare material that is widely used in electrical and electronic components due to its excellent mechanical and electrical properties. Ultra-fine rhodium wires in particular are widely used in electronic components. In this study, a multi-pass wire drawing process was designed to fabricate ultra-fine pure rhodium wire with a diameter of 50.0 µm from an initial diameter of 80.0 µm, which is used as probe card pins. An elastic–plastic finite element (FE) analysis was performed to validate the pass schedule that was designed for this study. A fine wire drawing experiment was also carried out to verify the effectiveness of the designed process. As a result, the ultra-fine rhodium wire was fabricated using the design process without wire breaks and the diameter of the final drawn wire was 47.80 µm.

Modelling Central Consolidation during Hot Rolling of Cast Products

Extending the range of finished product sizes from a given ingot or concast bloom or billet section is often limited by the minimum area reduction required to ensure effective central consolidation and final mechanical properties. Predicting effective consolidation or level of remnant porosity for a range of steel grade, billet size, pass schedule/roll design and thermo-mechanical conditions has always been an important issue on plant, much more lately in view of recent trends for larger ingots and development of combined forging/rolling strategies. This paper will focus primarily on a fast analytical technique based on roll gap shape and consolidation factors obtained from Finite Element (FEM) Models. New developments based on FEM submodelling are presented briefly. Healing capabilities based on diffusion bonding can be obtained from [1-3].

Improvement of Ductility with Maintaining Strength of Drawn High Carbon Steel Wire

The effect of areal reduction for one pass on mechanical properties of high carbon steel wire drawn using wet-type non-slip drawing machine was investigated. The wires of 0.443 mm in diameter with carbon 0.98% were drawn to 0.06 mm in diameter by reducing the sectional area of the wire by 14 % and 27 %. Tensile strength increased monotonically with increasing drawing strain and there were very few differences of tensile strength by pass schedule. Elongation had the minimum value at 2.5 of drawing strain and reduction of area also had the maximum value at 1.2 of drawing strain. Elongation and reduction of area were improved in the region of drawing strain more than about 3 by decreasing areal reduction for one pass. Therefore, the wire can be drawn with maintaining strength and ductility under small areal reduction for one pass at latter pass regardless of areal reduction at former passes.