Unlike hot forging, cold-forming technologies produce highly accurate shapes that minimise or eliminate the need to machine the forged component — which is why they are preferred for orbital forming, cold forging, cold upsetting (nuts and screws) and cold thread rolling. QForm models elastic tool deformation through uniquely designed models, including a coupled mechanical task where the workpiece deforms as an elastic-plastic body while the tool behaves elastic-plastically, plus a thermo-elastic-plastic cooling model that accounts for local thermal stresses.
Advantages
- Assess the dimensions of forged components to gauge forming quality.
- Identify defects in the forged parts.
- Forecast deformation load and validate the capacity of the cold former or press.
- Estimate tool lifespan and predict vulnerable areas in the die and punch.
- Anticipate tool wear and optimise performance.
Special features for cold forming
- Cockcroft-Latham fracture criterion to forecast fracture defects.
- Coupled mechanical and thermal tasks to assess the impact of die deflection on final shape.
- Prestressed die assemblies.
- User subroutines written in the LUA programming language.
- Forging-quality prediction via the plastic-strain field and user-defined fields.
- Application of different lubricants on distinct die surfaces.
- Enhanced finite-element mesh control, crucial for sheet-bulk metal-forming processes.