Ring rolling research at the Dresden University of Technology - its history from the beginning in the 70s to the present

The paper presents a brief history of ring rolling development at the Dresden University of Technology (DUT) from the 70s to the present. The technological scope covers the techniques explored at the DUT Tangential profile ring rolling, axial profile tube rolling/roll plunging and the TRENPRO(R) method to produce shaped rings. Starting from the state of the art, technological principle, range of application and machine-oriented implementation of these techniques are described. Furthermore, other common ring rolling variants, such as axial profile ring rolling, skew-rolling and radial-axial ring rolling, are taken into consideration. Finally, the authors provide a summary of problems still to be solved and ways to refine and disseminate the "ring rolling" discipline, assessing the rolling methods' potential as extremely forward-looking.