Forming of hemispherical and hemi-ellipsoidal parts of low carbon steel sheet by mandrel free metal spinning process

Metal spinning (MS) is an efficient and economical alternative method for low-volume functional sheet metal products. It has higher potential to shape three dimensional parts without employing matching die. The focus in advancement of shape forming shall bring an effective approach to produce defect free shapes and economically viable products. This paper is going to discuss about the modification in the MS process, without using matching dies or mandrel to produce a hemispherical and hemi-ellipsoidal profile product. The forming occurs by the deformation of sheet metal when the roller feed is against the rotating metal blank. Low carbon extra deep drawing Al killed steel sheets of thickness 1.6 mm were exploited as forming material. Further the paper illustrates on thickness variation, hardness, micro-structure, surface roughness and forming limit diagram (FLD) of the various zone of the formed part. It is examined that as the depth varies, the changes in thickness of formed part also varies. Also, the surface roughness was proportionally increased with increasing in percentage of reduction in thickness. In all zone of the formed steel part are in tension- tension strain conditions, there is no tension compression and plane strain condition occurred in the forming process. Due to this reason wrinkles failure is eliminated in die less MS process.