SIMULATION OF THE PROCESS OF CONTINUOUS FORMING OF STRAIGHT-SEAM WELDED PIPES ON THE BASIS OF “TESA 10-50 TRAINER”

One of the most productive and reliable methods for studying the processes of metal forming is direct physical modeling on a real metal. The limitations of this method, as applied to the production of electric welded pipes, are generally related only to the lack of specialized equipment for modeling the continuous roll forming process. In 2014, a laboratory for modeling the most common processes of forming welded straight-seam pipes produced by continuous or discrete methods was established at the “Metal Forming” Department of NUST “MISIS”. The laboratory includes a specialized “TESA10-50TRAINER” (TRAINER), which allows simulation of continuous processes of electric welded pipes of small diameter. At the TRAINER, it is possible to simulate the processes of continuous forming of pipes of small and medium diameter by the basic production schemes of the pipe-electric welding manufactory: obtaining welded pipes of circular cross-section from strand; production of profiled pipes from sheet billet; obtaining profiled pipes from a preformed round or oval billet. In the research part of the article, the focus of deformation of the pipe blank, including the non-contact focus of the folding, the contact deformation center and the sprung portion, is considered. Initially, the shaping parameters of pipe billet in monotonous and roll forming centers were calculated by the adopted methods. The obtained results were compared by dynamics of the change in the width of billet from fixed sections of the deformation center. Further, the parameters of the roller tool were checked for compliance with the calculated dimensions. For the first roll stand of a continuous focus, an experiment was organized and conducted for the same conditions, but in a real roll center. The obtained experimental sample, marked out in eight sections, was measured after the billet had left the drive stand and the obtained data are listed in the table. Analysis of the results showed that the shape change of the cross-section parameters corresponds to the accepted provisions on geometry nature of the billet in the roller drive calibers. The discrepancy between the theoretical and experimental data for the roll center does not exceed 1.5 %.

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