Experimental Tooling for Contact Stress Measurement in Bulk Metal Forming Processes

Knowledge of contact stresses in metal forming operations is essential not only for optimal die design, but also for theoretical and numerical analysis of the metal forming processes. Determination of contact stresses can be performed theoretically and experimentally. This paper presents a tool construction with built-in pin-load cells for experimental determination of contact stresses and friction coefficient at upsetting of prismatic specimen with cylindrical dies. This construction allows measurement of contact stresses in any point of the contact surface of specimen, due to adjustable location of pin-load cells. The adjustments are performed by turning cylindrical dies around its own axis in combination with the change of axial position of the specimen. Experimental determination of contact stresses in upsetting of Ck35 prismatic specimens using cylindrical tools was performed at the Laboratory for technology of plasticity, FTN Novi Sad.