The ERW Tube Cold Roll Forming Simulation with Different Cage Roll Arrangement and Fin-Pass Design

ERW (Electric Resistant Welded) pipes are generally used in the industries, such as the petrochemical pipes, the transportation, the construction and the mechanical structures. The most important advantage of the ERW pipes is high strength weight ratio. The production of ERW pipes were generally made using the cold roll forming (CRF) process. The CRF production line is designed using the break down forming, the cage roll forming, the fin pass finishing, the squeeze welding, and the sizing and straightening passes. In this paper, three fin-pass profile designs were proposed by using the single-arc (design 1), the bi-arc, (design 2) and the three-arc (design 3) composition for the top roll, the side roll, and the bottom roll, respectively. FEM simulations were carried out the predict the contact pressure distributions of the fin-pass rolls and the circumferential strain distributions of the blank at the fin-pas 1, 2, and 3. The single arc fin-pass roll profile design had shown more even contact points and contact pressure distributions. The three-arc fin-pass profile design had shown the possibility of using only two fin-pass roll stand to form the tube perfectly.