Process-chain simulation for prediction of the distortion of case-hardened gear blanks

Abstract

In this study, a process-chain simulation model is presented for the prediction of distortion of low-pressure gas carburised SAE 5120 (EN 20MnCr5) steel gear blanks. For this purpose, the evolution of the banded microstructure stemming from the continuous casting process was traced by computer simulations of subsequent shape rolling, forging and machining steps. Then, the simulated local orientation angles of the deformed banded microstructure are transferred to heat treatment simulation module as an input for the recently developed material model that exploits the Anisotropic Transformation Strain (ATS) concept to reproduce the dishing behaviour which cannot be reproduced by former models. The results indicate that the suggested procedure provides quite good predictions of the dishing directions and dishing-free cutting strategy, whereas; the dishing magnitude is predicted fairly reasonably considering large scatters in the experiments.