Tools for optimised rolling of long products

Purpose and goal

The focus in the OptiRoll project has been to develop a user-friendly, fast and sufficiently accurate simulation tool for the process engineer for studying and optimizing the process of high-speed wire rolling. Exploring roll-pass designs and mill layouts which are outside current process windows with the objective of increasing productivity, reduce scrap, increase process predictability and improve product quality in high-speed wire/rod rolling processes are the objectives of this software.

Expected results and effects

5 materials that have proven to be difficult to roll were identified and characterized mechanically using low to high strain rate deformation. EBSD and optical microscopy are also used to gather supplementary information about the material behavior. A physically based material model for low strain rates and phenomenological model for the complete range of temperature and strain rate is calibrated for all the materials. An FE software to be used by plant engineers that require very low knowledge threshold is developed. This software has proven to be useful in predicting wire melting.

Planned approach and implementation

The focus of this project has been to develop user-friendly simulation software for high-speed wire rolling. A surrogate model based on results from a large set of simulations performed using MSC Marc was the original core idea behind the software. When proven that this is not sufficiently accurate, a finite element code based on large-deformations and rotations, generalized plane strain formulation, and elasto-plastic material model (temperature and strain-rate dependent) is developed in Matlab. The software is calibrated and validated using numerical tests and plant trials.