BULK DEFORMATION PROCESSES

-EXTRUSION
Extrusion Process
 Extrusion is a process that forces metal or plastic to flow through a shaped
opening die. The material is plastically deformed under the compression in the die
cavity. The process can be carried out hot or cold depending on the ductility of the
material.
 The tooling cost and setup is expensive for the extrusion process, but the actual
manufactured part cost is inexpensive when produced in significant quantities.
 Materials that can be extrudes are aluminum, copper, steel, magnesium, and
plastics. Aluminum, copper and plastics are most suitable for extrusion.

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Extrusions Products
 Typical products made by extrusion are railings for sliding doors, tubing having
various cross sections, structural and architectural shapes, and door and window
frames. Extruded products can be cut into desired lengths, which then become
discrete parts such as brackets, gears and coat hangers.

Aluminium sunroof channel Side intrusion beams Extruded aluminium roof rails.

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Extrusion Processes
 Depending on the ductility of the material used extrusions can be caries out various
ways:
 Hot Extrusion: Extrusion carried out at elevated temperatures
 Forward or direct extrusion and

 Backward or indirect extrusion

 Cold Extrusion: Extrusion carried out a ambient temperature. Often combined with
forging operations

 Hydrostatic Extrusion: Pressure is applied by a piston through incompressible fluid

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Hot Extrusion
 Extrusion is carried out at elevated temperatures-for metals and alloys that do not
have sufficient ductility at room temperature, or in order to reduce the forces
required. In this extrusion, die wear can be excessive and cooling of the hot billet in
the chamber can be a problem, which results in highly non-uniform deformation. To
reduce cooling of the billet and to prolong die life, extrusion dies may be preheated,
as is done in hot forging operations.

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 Direct Extrusion: In this extrusion process, the heated billet is placed in the
container. A ram towards the die pushes it. The metal is subjected to plastic
deformation, slides along the walls of the container and is forced to flow through the
die opening. At the end of the extruding operation, a small piece of metal, called
butt-end scrap, remains in the container and cannot be extruded. Direct extrusion
process is shown in the following Figure

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 Indirect Extrusion: For the production of solid part, the die is mounted on the
end of a hollow ram and enters the container as shown in the following Figure, the
outer end of container being closed by a closure plate. As the ram travels, the die
applies pressure on the billet and the deformed metal flows through the die opening
in the direction opposite to the ram motions and the product is extruded through
the hollow ram. In indirect extrusion, there is practically no slip of billet with
respect to the container walls.

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Cold Extrusion
 This process is similar to hot extrusion except that the metals worked possess the
plasticity necessary for successful forming without heating them. Usually, These
metals have a high degree of ductility. Cold extrusion is also done to improve the
physical properties of a metal and to produce a finished part. Cold extrusion is done
mostly on vertical mechanical presses because they are fast and simple. The method
is fast, wastes no or little materials and gives higher accuracy and tolerance. The
widely employed cold extrusion method is Impact extrusion or extrusion up
method.

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Hydrostatic Extrusion
 A Billet that is smaller that the chamber is used.
 The Chamber is filled with a fluid. Pressure is then applied to the pressing stem
 There is no friction to overcome

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Tube-Drawing
 Tube-drawing operations, with and without an internal mandrel. Note that a variety
of diameters and wall thicknesses can be produced from the same initial tube stock.

Examples of tube-drawing operations, with and without an internal mandrel. Note that
a variety of diameters and wall thicknesses can be produced from the same initial tube
stock (which has been made by other processes).
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Advantages
 The range of extruded items is very wide. Cross-sectional shapes not possible by
rolling can be extruded, such as those with re-entrant sections.
 No time is lost when changing shapes since the dies may by readily removed and
replaced.
 Dimensional accuracy of extruded parts is generally superior to that of rolled ones.
 Very large reductions are possible as compared to rolling.
 Automation in extrusion is simpler as items are produced in a single passing.
 Small parts in large quantities can be made. For example, to produce a simple pump
gear, a long gear is extruded and then sliced into a number of individual gears.

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Disadvantages
 Process waste in extrusion is higher than in rolling, where it is only 1 to 3%
 Service life of extrusion tooling is shorter because of high contact stresses and slip
rates.
 Relatively high tooling costs, being made from costly alloy steel.
 In productivity, extrusion is much inferior to rolling, particularly to its continuous
varieties.
 Cost of extrusion are generally greater as compared to other techniques

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Applications
 Extrusion is more widely used in the manufacture of solid and hollow sections from
poorly plastic non-ferrous metals and their alloys (aluminum, copper, brass and
bronze etc.)
 Steel and other ferrous alloys can also be successfully processed with the
development of molten-glass lubricants.
 Manufacture of sections and pipes of complex configuration.
 Manufacture of parts of high dimensional accuracy
 The range of extruded items is very wide: rods from 3 to 250 mm in diameter, pipes
of 20 to 400 mm in diameter and wall thickness of 1 mm and above and more
complicated shapes which can not be obtained by other mechanical methods.

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