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The hydro-assisted tube pressing (HATP) process is a new severe plastic deformation method that is proposed in this paper to improve the mechanical properties of long tubes. The pressured fluid between the tube and die eliminates the friction force between the tube and die and, thereby, decreases the required forming force. This facilitates the production of high-strength relatively long tubes. In the current study, this process was applied to a commercial pure copper tube during six passes at room temperature. Then, the hardness, tensile and electrical properties, and also microstructure of the samples were investigated. With increasing the number of passes, the grain size of the copper tube decreased. After two passes of the HATP process, the values of yield strength and ultimate tensile strength increased from 150 and 223 MPa to 347 and 366 MPa, respectively, and the total elongation decreased from 32 to 10%. After four passes, the tube hardness significantly increased from 81 to 132 HV, and a homogeneous distribution of hardness was obtained along with the tube thickness. The electrical conductivity of the copper tube decreased by 3% after two passes. Also, the effective plastic strain and the required processing force were investigated using the Abaqus commercial finite element software. It is concluded that the required force and the strain distribution are independent of the tube length. The hydro-assisted tube pressing method potentially can be used in the industrial production of long tubes with high mechanical strength and electrical conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forming temperature of cross-wedge rolling (CWR) usually ranges from 950 to 1150 °C, but reducing the forming temperature has some advantages. This paper presents a comprehensive study of warm and hot cross-wedge rolling by using high-strength bolts as a case. Numerical simulation and experimental trials were conducted to make a detailed comparison of warm and hot cross-wedge rolling. Forming quality, microstructure, and mechanical properties of the rolled rods were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and tensile testing. The results show that the rolling force and torque of warm cross-wedge rolling (WCWR) are more than three times greater than those of hot cross-wedge rolling (HCWR), and the workpiece rolled by WCWR shows more pit and stacking defects but fewer central cavities. The dispersing spheroidized cementite on ferrite matrix generated in WCWR results in decreased hardness and tensile strength of the rolled rods and a significant increase of elongation, which improves subsequent machinability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]