Numerical and experimental study on the hot cross wedge rolling of Ti-6Al-4V vehicle lower arm preform

Cross wedge rolling (CWR) has unique advantages in the production of shaft preforms with refined grains and improved mechanical properties. Considering the sensitivity of Ti-6Al-4V(TC4) alloy to heat treatment temperature, the effect of different initial deformation temperatures (IDTs) on the forming quality, mechanical properties, and microstructure evolution of the TC4 alloy lower arm preforms in CWR forming was studied in this work. The flow stress curves of TC4 alloy in the two-phase region were obtained by isothermal compression experiments. The Arrhenius constitutive model was established and applied to DEFORM-3D finite element (FE) software to simulate the CWR forming process of TC4 alloy lower arm preforms. The forming quality of TC4 alloy parts was compared and analyzed by 3D FE simulation and experiment. And their mechanical properties at room temperature were tested by tensile test. The results showed that the rolled part has well forming quality (no steps and necking defects) and higher geometric dimension accuracy at the IDT 885°C. Moreover, with the increase of IDT, the radial force and torque in the rolling process decrease. In addition, there were no internal defects in the parts rolled by different IDTs, because the die gap reduces the number of alternating cycles of tensile-compressive stress in the rolled workpieces. Compared with the initial state, the microstructure was refined. When the IDT is 885 °C, the ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS), and elongation (EI) of the parts were 987 MPa, 924 MPa, and 16.8%, respectively, which was able to ensure the mechanical performance requirements of the lower arm preform. The results provide theoretical guidance for the actual production of lower arm preform by CWR.