Influencing Factors of Void closure in Skew-Rolled Steel Balls Based on the Floating-Pressure Method

Due to the instable conditions caused by the wear of rollers, macro voids inevitably occur in skew rolling steel balls. Macro voids in rolled balls greatly weakens the mechanical properties, resulting in the scrapping of about 23% of all skew rolling balls. This paper adopts the floating-pressure method (FPM) to eliminate macro voids in rolled steel balls, and mainly focuses on the investigation of the influencing factor void closure in skew-rolled balls. The research contents are listed as follows: Firstly, the mechanical model of FPM eliminating void in rolled steel balls is established, and the theoretical relationship between influencing factors of void closure is obtained. Then, the metal flow behaviors, the stress distribution and the effect of process parameters on void closure are revealed by numerical analysis. Subsequently, based on the uniform design method, the prediction equation of the required temperature and air pressure for compacting various inferior rolled balls with different diameter by FPM is deduced. Finally, the FPM experiment is carried out to verify the results of numerical analysis. The research results provide theoretical guidance for eliminating macro voids in skew-rolled steel balls.