Preliminary evaluation of hot extrusion miniaturization

Experiments were conducted to examine the feasibility of hot extruding meta ls on a miniature scale thus providing a quick and cheap method of studying extrusion in general. Aluminium was successfully extruded using a new mini ature hot extrusion rig, producing aluminium wires (maximum diameter 2.6 mm ) as opposed to rods. A preliminary comparison of extrusion pressures on th e miniature rig and on a larger extrusion press was conducted. The effects of temperature, extrusion speed and extrusion ratio on the extrusion pressu re were examined for both miniature and larger scale extrusions. Extrusion speed had little effect on extrusion pressure, because the range of speeds examined was too small (due to speed limitations on the larger extrusion pr ess). Both extrusion sizes generally displayed similar dependencies on temp erature and extrusion ratio. However, the extrusion pressures for miniature extrusions were found to be always lower than for the larger scale extrusi ons. This may have been due the evaluation of parameters in the expression used for strain rate in the comparison. Finite element analysis may prove u seful in gaining a fuller understanding of the miniaturization process. (C) 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers.