Development of Universal Friction Calibration Curve for Ball Ironing Test

The friction calibration curve (FCC) is normally constructed to indirectly approximate the friction value for any simulative friction test based on sensitive friction indicators (i.e., forming load or final geometry) by finite element modeling (FEM). For calculation, these indicators are highly dependent on flow stress data and the techniques to extrapolate them. A universal FCC is preferable with the independence of these factors. In this paper, the sensitivity of the material data and our proposed extrapolation techniques for the ball ironing test (BIT) were studied to construct a new universal FCC. A specific load was proposed as a new friction indicator for this universal FCC. It was used to approximate the friction value for different materials and lubricants. This friction value was also validated to determine the maximum load and geometry for pulley forming. The results obtained from the simulation were in good agreement with the experiment.