Journal of Materials Processing Technology 91 (1999) 226 – 230

Study on the deformation mode of conventional spinning of plates

Da-Chang Kang a, Xi-Cheng Gao a,*, Xiao-Feng Meng a, Zhi-Hui Wang b
a
Harbin Institute of Technology, PO Box 435, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
b
Beijing Research Institute of M./E. Technology, Beijing 100083, People’s Republic of China

Received 21 January 1998

Abstract

The deformation mechanism of conventional spinning is studied in this paper through experiment and analysis. Three types of
roller trace have been applied: straight line, concave curve and convex curve. As a result, all experiments have indicated that the
deformation mode of conventional spinning of plates is quite different from that of the drawing process, but quite similar to that
of shear spinning. Furthermore, when the original blank is a plate the deformation in the first pass has a decisive effect on the
wall thickness distribution of the product of spinning. © 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Conventional spinning; Deformation mechanism; Shear spinning; Plate

1. Introduction Sometimes, even qualitative guiding theory is not avail-

Conventional spinning is one of the chief working
methods to produce thin-walled rotary shell work-
pieces, because it has many evident advantages over
other forming processes, such as smaller deformation
force, less investment in equipment, etc.
The development of spinning machines had gone
through three periods: the manual spinning machine,
the hydraulic copying spinning machine and the ad-
vanced NC spinning machine. The NC spinning ma-
chine can realize arbitrary 2D curves, as indicates that
the spinning machine is well developed. However, the
technical study and engineering study of conventional
spinning lags substantially behind the equipment devel-
opment, because conventional spinning is very flexible
and complex [1–5]. Until now, the condition of the
technical level badly hinders the further application of
conventional spinning. Available research results
provide only collections of experiment data and experi-
ence, which is referable for engineers, but is badly
insufficient. In most cases of practice, the determination
of the technological parameters, especially the designing
of roller paths, depends deeply upon on-the-spot exper-
iments. No quantitative theory is effectively used.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-451-6414459; fax: + 86-451-
6221048.
able. Therefore, the technical study and engineering
study should be enhanced.
Conventional spinning is often a multiple-passes pro-
cess. As any particular pass is considered, experiments
have established that blank shape is the most important
factor influencing the deformation mode [6–8]. The
shapes of conventional spinning blanks can be classified
into three basic types: plant, rotary shell and tube.
According to this classification, studies had been car-
ried out separately in depth. This paper will firstly
report research results on the deformation mechanism
of the conventional spinning of plates.
2. Experiments and analysis
The roller path of conventional spinning is usually
determined by means of a template, which comprises
two parts: the fixed part and the moveable part. The
profile of the fixed part coincides with that of the
generating curve of the final workpiece and is used in
the final pass, whilst the moveable part is used in
foregoing passes. Therefore, two kinds of roller paths
are often used: a curve family of variant swinging
angles and a curve family of variant translations. Al-
though an arbitrary path can be designed and realized
in an advanced NC spinning machine, any complex-

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 D.-C. Kang et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 91 (1999) 226–230
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a conventional spinning device (1,
roller; 2, clamp; 3, mandrel; 4, blank; and 5, support block).
path curve can be divided into three kinds of basic
curves: straight lines, concave curves and convex
curves.
Concave paths are used widely, whilst linear paths
help to discover the deformation characteristics. In
both of the cases, the conventional spinning of plates is
dieless spinning. Relevant simulation experiments have
been carried out with a playback spinning machine.
Convex paths are applied to produce some particular
convex cone-shaped parts sometimes, such as a con-
tainer head, a special lampshade and so on. To produce
such kinds of parts, the device needed is a little more
complex, because a core die or a pad roller is often used
to enhance the rigidity of the blank. In order to study
the deformation mode of conventional spinning with a
convex path, the thickness of a container head pro-
duced by spinning has been measured and analyzed. In
the following, the deformation of conventional spinning
of plates is discussed for three cases, according to the
different path curves.
2.1. Experiments on a linear path
A linear path is the simplest path, but helps to
discover the deformation characteristics, so this kind of
path is studied first. The experiments have been carried
Fig. 2. Longitudinal section of the blank after the 1st pass: (a) case 1; and (b) case 2.
227
out with a playback spinning machine. The device used
is shown in Fig. 1.
In all the experiments, the common working condi-
tions are as follows: (i) roller parameters: diameter
Dr = 110 mm, corner round radius r= 8 mm; (ii) man-
drel parameters: diameter d=50 mm, corner round
radius r= 4 mm; (iii) blank parameters: annealed Alu-
minium sheet (L3), diameter D0 = 110 mm, thickness
t0 = 1 mm; and (iv) feeding parameters: rotation speed
of spindle n=400 r min − 1, feeding rate, 6 =0.2 mm
r − 1. The deformation of the blank is surveyed by the
mesh approach.
Since the blank will spring back locally when the
roller moves, the generating curve of the blank does not
coincide with the roller path. The generating curves of
the deformed blanks are measured and shown in Fig. 2.
The measured and calculated thickness of the deformed
blanks is plotted in the curves of Fig. 3.
In all of the experiments above, the widths of the
final flanges are greater than 50 mm. As a result, the
diameter of the flange remains unchanged. The wall
thickness reduces, the rate of reduction agreeing well
with the calculated results according to the sine law
(t= t0 sina). In the process of experiment, the outside
flanges are transferred, keeping vertical and moving
parallel, similar to that in shear spinning.
Similar results have been obtained when the widths
of the final flanges are greater than 30 mm. This
indicates that the deformation in the conventional spin-
ning of plates is shear spinning when the roller feeds
along an inclined line and the flange width is greater
than a particular value. At the same time, this estab-
lishes that a mandrel is not necessary for shear
spinning.
In the final stage of conventional spinning, when the
residual flange becomes quite narrow, the blank begins
to shrink and often wrinkles. Obviously, the deforma-
tion mode deviates from the shear spinning mode.
Experiments have established that the critical flange
width Bc at which the outer edge of the blank begin to
shrink is quite narrow (under the working conditions
228 D.-C. Kang et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 91 (1999) 226–230
Fig. 3. Comparison of calculated and measured values of the wall thickness of the deformed blanks: (a) case 1; and (b) case 2.
stated above, Bc 5 25 mm). Therefore, it can be said
that the deformation in the conventional spinning of
plates is mainly shear forming.
Experiments have shown that spring-back deforma-
tion in dieless spinning is relatively larger and the
generating curves of the blanks do not coincide with the
roller path curves. In the experiments above, the angles
between the generating curves and the spindle axis are
about two to three degrees greater than those between
the path curves and the spindle axis, establishing that
the working accuracy of spinning is low. This can be
explained as follows. The blank is suspended in the air
in conventional spinning, so that the stability of the
flange is relatively poor. Therefore, the deformation
force may cause more elastic deformation and less
plastic deformation. When the roller moves, the elastic
deformation will cause spring-back and the generating
curve of the blank will deviate from the roller path
curve.
2.2. Experiments on a conca6e cur6e path
In this case, the experimental device and the basic
working conditions are the same as in Section 2.1. The
generating curve of the deformed blank is measured
Fig. 4. Longitudinal section of the blank after the first pass.
and shown in Fig. 4. The wall thickness is calculated
and measured (shown in Fig. 5). Clearly, the calculated
values coincide well with the measured values.
Based on a great number of experiments, Hayama
suggested that an involute curve path, which is a special
type of concave curve, be applied in conventional spin-
ning and that the initial angle of the path be restricted.
According to the opinion that the deformation mode in
the conventional spinning of plates is mainly shear
forming, the restriction to the initial angle can be
explained as follows. The initial point of the involute
curve path is the location where the oblique angle a
achieves the minimum, so the reduction of the wall
thickness achieves the maximum at this point. If the
initial angle is too small, the blank will deform by fierce
shearing at the adjacent area, which often makes the
workpieces be excessively thinned. Thus, the initial
angle should be restricted.
A concave curve is the most widely used roller path
in conventional spinning production. The thinning rate
of the wall thickness should be well taken into account
in the design of the roller path of the first pass, because
the deformation in the first path plays a decisive part in
the final wall thickness distribution of the workpiece.
Fig. 5. Comparison of the calculated and measured values of the wall
thickness of the deformed blank.
 D.-C. Kang et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 91 (1999) 226–230
Fig. 6. A typical large-scale container head (dimensions: mm).
2.3. Experiments on a con6ex roller path
The spinning production of the convex camber of a
container head is typical example of convex-roller-path
conventional spinning. This paper will take it as an
example to study the deformation of conventional spin-
ning by measurement and analysis.
A container head is a widely-used kind of workpiece.
Although it can be of many forms, it is usually a
convex rotary shell, where the curvature radius of the
generating curve becomes smaller from the center to the
edge. Fig. 6 is a typical contained head, the generating
curve of which consists of two arcs. The convex camber
refers to the center area, the curvature radius of which
is relatively larger.
The forming process of the container head is indi-
cated in Fig. 7. The convex camber is formed from a
plane blank in the first pass, then the edge part is
formed by multiple passes. Since spinning is a kind of
local forming process, the center area of the blank does
not deform after the first pass. Thus, the thickness
reduction caused by the first pass in this area can be
measured when all of the passes have finished. The
measured and the calculated values of the thickness of
the container head are illustrated in Fig. 8.
Considering Fig. 8, it can be seen that the real values
of the wall thickness in the convex camber coincide well
with the calculated values of the sine law. This indicates
that when the roller moves along a convex curve, the
deformation mode of conventional spinning is still
mainly shear forming.
Considering the spinning process of the convex cam-
ber of a container head, the gap between the mandrel
and the roller pass should be adjusted according the
sine law, given that elastic deformation of the device is
ignored.
Fig. 7. Spinning process of the container head.
229
Fig. 8. Comparison of the calculated and measured values of the wall
thickness of a container head.
Although a practical roller path may be more com-
plex, it can be regarded as a combination of the three
basic curves discussed above. Therefore, the deforma-
tion mode as deduced in this paper is of general
significance.
3. Conclusions
1. The deformation mode of conventional spinning
using plate blanks is completely different from that
using shell or tube blanks.
2. The deformation mode of the conventional spinning
of plates is mainly shear spinning and the wall
thickness in the deformed area coincides well with
the sine law (t= t0 sina). Therefore, the deformation
of conventional spinning in the first pass (the initial
blanks are plates) plays a decisive part in the wall
thickness distribution of the final workpieces.
3. A mandrel is not essential for shear spinning. When
the width of the remaining flange is greater than a
particular value (the critical width of flange), the
conventional spinning of plates without a mandrel
will realize shear forming.
4. The spinning deformation of the convex camber of a
container head is shear spinning. Therefore, the
theoretical gap between the mandrel and the roller
path should be adjusted according to the sine law.
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