Technology and Experiments of 42CrMo Bearing Ring Forming Based on Casting Ring Blank

Bearing ring is the crucial component of bearing. With regard to such problems as material waste, low efficiency and high energy consumption in current process of producing large bearing ring, a new process named ＂casting-rolling compound forming technology＂ is researched by taking the typical 42CrMo slew bearing as object. Through theoretical analysis, the design criteria of the main casting-rolling forming parameters are put forward at first. Then the constitutive relationship model of as-cast 42CrMo steel and its mathematical model of dynamic recrystallization are obtained according to the results of the hot compression experiment. By a coupled thermal-mechanical finite element model for radial-axial rolling of bearing ring, the fraction of dynamic recrystallization is calculated and recrystallized grains size are predicated. Meanwhile, the effects of the initial rolling temperature and feed rate of idle roll on material microstructure evolution are analyzed. Finally, the industrial rolling experiment is designed and performed, based on the simulation results. In addition, mechanical and metallographic tests are conducted on rolled bearing ring to get the mechanical parameters and metallographic structure. The experimental data and results show that the mechanical properties of bearing ring produced by casting-rolling compound forming technology are up to industrial standard, and a qualified bearing ring can be successfully formed by employing this new technology. Through the study, a process of forming large bearing ring directly by using casting ring blank is obtained, which could provide an effective theoretical guidance for manufacturing large ring parts. It also has an edge in saving material, lowering energy and improving efficiency.

Combined Cellular Automaton Model for Dynamic Recrystallization Evolution of 42CrMo Cast Steel

The dynamic recrystallization(DRX) simulation performance largely depends on simulated grain topological struc?tures. However, currently solutions used di erent models for describing two?dimensional(2 D) and three?dimensional(3 D) grain size distributions. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a more universal simulation technique. A cellular automaton(CA) model combined with an optimized topology deformation technology is proposed to simulate the microstructural evolution of 42 CrMo cast steel during DRX. In order to obtain values of material constants adopted in the CA model, hot deformation characteristics of 42 CrMo cast steel are investigated by hot compression metal?lographic testing. The proposed CA model deviates in two important aspects from the regular CA model. First, an optimized grain topology deformation technology is utilized for studying the hot compression e ect on the topology of grain deformation. Second, the overlapping grain topological structures are optimized by using an independent component analysis method, and the influence of various thermomechanical parameters on the nucleation process, grain growth kinetics, and mean grain sizes observed during DRX are explored. Experimental study shows that the average relative root mean square error(RRMSE) of the mean grain diameter obtained by the regular CA model is equal to 0.173, while the magnitude calculated using the proposed optimized CA model is only 0.11. This paper pro?poses a novel combined CA model for simulating the microstructural evolution of 42 CrMo cast steel, which notably uses a ICA?based grain topology deformation method to optimize the overlapping grain topological structures in simulation.