Investigation on flow forming process using Taguchi-based grey relational analysis (GRA) through experiments and finite element analysis (FEA)

Flow forming is the shape change process which is used to manufacture high-precision seamless products for defense, aerospace and aviation industries. The tooling design in flow forming has vital importance in terms of online forces measurement and monitoring for desired output. Further, power consumption during the operation can be helpful to optimize the energy utilization. Moreover, the formability is always a great concern in metal forming processes. Hence, an attempt is made to investigate forces, power consumption and formability using Taguchi L36 mixed design. The analysis is performed using experiments and finite element analysis. Three levels of three operating parameters (i.e., speed, feed and reduction percentage) and two levels of two roller shape parameters (i.e., roller leading/attack angle and nose radius) are considered. It is observed that reduction percentage, roller attack angle, roller nose radius are the major factors which influence the resultant force. The power consumption is mainly influenced by speed and feed. The reduction percentage and depth of forming are the governing factors for the formability. Further, the multi-performance optimization is carried using grey relational analysis. The results between experiments and finite element analysis are compared and found to be in good agreement.