Tube ring rolling is a process for forming seamless rings. Usually a pierced and headed ring is used as a raw part to be profiled and expanded using a rolling machine. Rotating dies are therefore used for this purpose. The diameter of the rings grows while maintaining a constant volume by reducing the height and wall thickness. Profiled rollers allow the production of shape ring cross sections. The process produces rings of diameters from 10cm to 10m. Cold rolling processes have been used since the 1980s, however hot methods are more common.
The typical products they are found in are turbine disks, bearings, gear blanks and slewing bearings. Wheel rolling machines create wheel disks and solid wheels for locomotives, trams and trains. Further examples of diverse uses of tube ring rolling are for transmission manufacturing, automotive industries, offshore wind turbines, and plant building industries.
Interestingly, the process is developing into more complicated component geometries, using expensive high grade materials. For this reason the knowledge accumulated over decades by specialists is not sufficient to predict the outcome of different processing diameters. Therefore specialists are relying on software that simulates the process whilst calculating the material flow and properties; this helps to assist with avoiding errors.
When designing a rolling process, the geometry of it prior to rolling must be tuned accurately to reach the required final shape as closely as possible. An additional challenge is rolling profiled rings, as a complete contour needs to be attained while keeping the correct wall thickness and diameter. Some target samples can be anything like reaching a high geometric precision, staying within a temperature window, or staying in the load limits of your machine.
Multiform Tubes specialise in tube ring rolling; using our comprehensive understanding of the process, we are able to produce high quality tubes for many applications. If you require our expertise, please don’t hesitate to get in contact today.