Experimental study of thickness reduction effects on mechanical properties and spinning accuracy of aluminum 7075-O, during flow forming

Flow forming technology is widely used in the production of the axisymmetric industrial parts. The advantage of flow forming process over other manufacturing methods such as press forming is use of simple tooling, reduced forming loads due to localized deformation, and enhanced mechanical and surface quality of finished parts. In this study, the effects of thickness reduction on the mechanical properties and spinning accuracy are experimentally investigated on 7075-O aluminum tube. A prototype spinning machine has been designed and manufactured. The effects of spinning accuracy, surface roughness, percentage of elongation, yield strength, and the ultimate strength as a function of thickness reduction are experimentally examined. The experimental results show that with increment of thickness reduction, the yield strength, ultimate strength, surface hardness, and crystal refining increase, and on the other hand, it has adverse effect on diameter growth, geometrical accuracy, surface roughness, and percentage elongation of spun tube.