Study on the thixoforming for pressing process with aluminum material

The thixoforming process is becoming more and more important in the field of metal-forming. In this process, the most difficult part is heating the sample while keeping the temperature uniform. The pressing speed is one of the main parameters that impacts strongly on product quality. In this paper, the mold for studying the effect of pressing speed was designed and manufactured. The Deform 3D software was applied for observing the relationship between the pressing speed and the force history, stress, and temperature distribution. The results show that a pressing speed of v = 8 mm/s results in the smallest stress. The stress depends on many elements. For example, the pressing speed of v = 6 mm/s makes the heating process happen fast. The billet is cooled faster so the stress increases and even changes the structure unexpectedly. When the pressing speed is too high, the metal on the surface of the billet flows with high speed so it collides with the folding segments causing great resistance thus creating high stress.