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

medium surrounding the billet

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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. Hot billet causes the following problems:
Because the billet is hot, it develops an oxide film unless heated in an inert-atmosphere
furnace. This film can be abrasive and it can affect the flow pattern of the material.
It also results in an extruded product that may be unacceptable in cases in which good
surface finish is important.
 In order to avoid the formation of oxide films on the hot extruded product, the
dummy block placed ahead of the ram is made a little smaller in diameter than the
container. As a result, a thin cylindrical shell (skull), consisting mainly of the
oxidized layer, is left in the container. The extruded product is thus free of oxides;
the skull is later removed from the chamber. The following figures illustrate the hot
extrusion process for producing solid products by
Forward or direct extrusion process and
Backward or indirect extrusion process

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 Direct extrusion, also called forward extrusion, is a process in which is the billet
moves along the same direction as the ram and punch do. Sliding of billet is against
stationary container wall.Friction between the container and billet is high. As a
result, greater forces are required. A dummy block of slightly lower diameter than
the billet diameter is used in order to prevent oxidation of the billet in hot extrusion.
Hollow sections like tubes can be extruded by direct method, by using hollow billet
and a mandrel attached to the dummy block.

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 Extrusion force, which is the force required for extrusion, in direct extrusion, varies
with ram travel as shown in figure above. Initially the billet gets compressed to the
size of container, before getting extruded. Also, initially static friction exists between
billet and container. Once the billet starts getting extruded, it length inside the
container is reduced. Friction between billet and container now starts reducing.
Therefore, extrusion pressure reduces. The highest pressure at which extrusion
starts is called breakthrough pressure. At the end of the extrusion, the small amount
of material left in the container gets pulled into the die, making the billet hollow at
centre. This is called pipe. Beyond pipe formation, the extrusion pressure rapidly
increases, as the small size billet present offers higher resistance. As the length of
the billet is increased, the corresponding extrusion pressure is also higher because
of friction between container and billet. Therefore, billet lengths beyond 5 times the
diameter are not preferred in direct extrusion.

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 Indirect Extrusion: Indirect extrusion (backward extrusion) is a process in which punch
moves opposite to that of the billet. Here there is no relative motion between container and
billet. Hence, there is less friction and hence reduced forces are required for indirect extrusion.
For extruding solid pieces, hollow punch is required. In hollow extrusion, the material gets
forced through the annular space between the solid punch and the container. As seen,
extrusion pressure for indirect extrusion is lower than that for direct extrusion. Many
components are manufactured by combining direct and indirect extrusions. Indirect extrusion
can not be used for extruding long extrudes.

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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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 Impact Extrusion: Impact extrusion is performed at higher speeds and shorter
strokes than conventional extrusion. It is for making discrete parts. For making thin
wall-thickness items by permitting large deformation at high speed.

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Hydrostatic Extrusion
 In hydrostatic extrusion the container is filled with a fluid. Extrusion pressure is
transmitted through the fluid to the billet. Friction is eliminated in this process
because of there is no contact between billet and container wall. Brittle materials
can be extruded by this process. Highly brittle materials can be extruded into a
pressure chamber. Greater reductions are possible by this method.

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Tube-Extrusion
 Tube-drawing operations, with 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 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
 Advantages of extrusion
 Low cost per part
 Flexibility of operation
 In hot extrusion, post execution alterations are easy because product is still in
heated condition
 Continuous operation
 High production volumes
 Many types of raw materials can be used
 Good mixing (Compounding)
 Surface finish obtained is good
 Good mechanical properties obtained in cold extrusion

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Disadvantages
 Variations in size of product
 Product limitations because of only one type of cross section can be obtained at a
time
 High initial cost setup

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