The current five-stage cold extrusion process to produce an axle-housing is investigated for the purpose of improved process. The main goal of this study is to obtain an appropriate reduced process sequence which can produce the required part most economically without tensile crack-ing workpiece buckling and overloading of the tools. The current process sequence is simulated and design criteria are examined. during the simulation several remeshings are done due to severe mesh distortions, Based on the results of simulations of the current five-stage process, design strategy for improving the process sequence are developed using the thick hollow pipes. The finished product of an axle-housing is produced in two operations and one annealing treatment while the conventional sequence consists of five operations and one annealing treat-ment. Also die loads of the new process are compared with those of the current one.

A dynamic mill set-up technique was developed to achieva a more precise roll gap set-up of the finishing mill stands for steel strip rolling. In the conventional mill set-up model the set-up values such as roll gap and roll speed are determined before the sheet bar reached the entry side of the finishing mill train and maintained constant until the strip top end passes through the last stand. In the way however a dynamic set-up logic that gives a way to adjust the roll gap value of the final mill stand for the strip ingoing from the ahead of the front stand was developed and attached to the existing set-up model. The roll gap modification is based on the analysis of the observation in the third stand of the finishing mill train. The dynamic set-up model was proved very effective for the more precise mill set-up and for operational stability in the hot strip finishing mill train.

A new forming technology has been developed to fabricate near-net shape products using light metal. A semi-solid forming technology has some advantages compared with the conventional forming processes such as die casting squeeze casting and hot/cold forging. In this study the numerical analysis of semi-solid filling for a straight die shape and orifice die shape in gate pattern is studied on semi-solid materials(SSM) of solid fraction fs =30% in A356 aluminum alloy. The finite difference program of Navier-Stokes equation coupled with heat transfer and solidification has been developed to predict a filling pattern and the temperature distribution of SSM. The programdeveloped in this study gives die filling patterns of SSM and final solidifica-tion region.