Rolled Ring Forging
1. What is Rolled Ring Forging?
Rolled Ring Forging is an advanced process in which the prefabricated metal blank is rolled into a circle or a certain step through a CNC Ring Rolling Machine after the blank is made by a hydraulic press and the small hole is punched. The process combines forging and rolling techniques to make metal flow through radial and axial rolling, resulting in high-precision, high-performance ring forgings.
Process steps:
Preform: A cake blank with a center hole is made by free forging or die forging
Ring Rolling: Billets are simultaneously squeezed by Mandrel and Main Roll on the ring rolling machine, while the height is controlled by the axial Rolls (Conical Rolls), so that the metal extends outwards, and the conical rolls rotate on the radial end face to ensure the flatness of the end face, and finally form a ring forging.
Sizing: Sizing to ensure roundness and wall thickness uniformity to meet final requirements.
2. Why do we use Rolled Ring Forging?
✅ High strength & long life: The rolling process optimizes the grain flow of the metal to improve strength, toughness and fatigue resistance.
✅ Ultra-large size capacity: can produce a diameter of several meters to ten meters of giant ring parts (such as wind power flange, nuclear power).
✅ uniform structure: no weld, avoid welding defects, suitable for high pressure, high load environment.
✅ High material utilization rate: compared with the whole forging or machining, the material utilization rate is high, reducing waste.
✅ Low production and machining cost: in mass production, it is more economical than die forging, especially for titanium alloy, high strength steel and other expensive materials (material utilization rate >80%).
3. Main application areas of Rolled Ring Forging
Wind energy: wind turbine, tooth ring, connecting flange, bearing ring, tower cylinder flange, gear box ring
Aerospace: turbine support rings, rocket shell spinning forgings, connection rings
Nuclear power vessel: reactor pressure vessel flange, sealing ring, high pressure sealing flange
Petrochemical: High pressure pipe flange, valve assembly, deep sea drilling equipment pressure ring
Heavy machinery mining equipment bearing seat, gear ring, rotary support ring
4.what are the main products of ring forging?
Ring forgings are widely used in high-end equipment manufacturing, mainly including:
Flange category: cylinder flange, wind power flange, pipe flange, pressure vessel flange
Bearing ring: large rotary bearings (such as wind turbine yaw bearings).
Gear ring: heavy machinery transmission gear blank (tower crane, excavator slewing support).
Structural ring: aerospace engine casing, rocket fuel compartment.
Seal ring: high pressure sealing assembly for nuclear power equipment.
5. Core advantage of Rolled Ring Forging
Advantage specification
Excellent mechanical properties: rolling makes the metal fiber distributed along the circumference, improves the tensile and fatigue resistance, and is superior to cast and welded ring parts.
Seamless integrated structure without weld, avoid welding cracks, pores and other defects, suitable for high pressure, high temperature, corrosion environment.
Large size capacity can produce diameter 0.5m~12m+ ring parts (such as wind power flange diameter up to 10 meters).
High material utilization rate (Near-Net Shape), reduce the amount of machining, save costs (especially for precious metals such as titanium alloy).
Suitable for a variety of materials for carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel, titanium alloy, aluminum alloy, nickel base alloy and so on.
High production efficiency Suitable for mass production, shorter processing cycle compared to free forging.
6. Compare other ring manufacturing processes
Process characteristic limitation
Cast rings: Low cost, suitable for complex shapes. Poor mechanical properties, porosity, shrinkage and other defects.
Welded rings: Oversized rings can be manufactured (such as storage tanks). The weld is easy to crack, low fatigue life and poor reliability.
Integral die forging ring: excellent performance, but requires a large tonnage press. Specifications are limited, material waste is serious, and the cost is extremely high.
Rolled Ring: High performance + seamless + low cost, comprehensive advantages are obvious. Equipment investment is large, small batch production is not economical.
With the development of clean energy (such as wind power) and high-end equipment, the importance of ring rolling forging technology will continue to increase! 🚀
