DEFORM is an engineering software that enables designers to analyze metal forming processes on the computer rather than the shop floor using trial and error.

Process simulation using DEFORM has been instrumental in cost, quality and delivery improvements at leading companies for nearly a decade.

Today's competitive pressures require companies to take advantage of every tool at their disposal.

DEFORM has proven itself to be extremely effective in a wide range of research and industrial applications.

• Coupled modeling of deformation and heat transfer for simulation of cold, warm, or hot forging processes.
• Extensive material database for many common alloys including steels, aluminums, titaniums, and super-alloys.
• User defined material data input for any material not included in the material database.
• Information on material flow, die fill, forging load, die stress, grain flow, defect formation and ductile fracture.
• Rigid, elastic, and thermo-viscoplastic material models, which are ideally suited for large deformation modeling.
• Elastic-plastic material model for residual stress and springback problems..
• Porous material model for modeling forming of powder metallurgy products.
• Integrated forming equipment models for hydraulic presses, hammers, screw presses, and mechanical presses.
• User defined subroutines for material modeling, press modeling, fracture criteria and other functions.
• FLOWNET (2D, PC, Pro) and point tracking (all products) for important material flow information.
• Contour plots of temperature, strain, stress, damage, and other key variables simplify post processing.
• Multiple deforming body capability allows for analysis of multiple deforming workpieces or coupled die stress analysis.

Heat Treatment

• Simulate normalizing, annealing, quenching, tempering, and carburizing.
  
  • Normalizing (not available yet)
    Heating a ferrous alloy to a suitable temperature above the transformation range and cooling in air to a temperature substantially below the transformation range.
  • Annealing
    A generic term denoting a treatment, consisting of heating to and holding at a suitable temperature followed by cooling at a suitable rate, used primarily to soften metallic materials. In ferrous alloys, annealing usually is done above the upper critical temperature, but the time-temperature cycles vary both widely in both maximum temperature attained and in cooling rate employed.
  • Tempering (not available yet)
    Reheating hardened steel or hardened cast iron to some temperature below the eutectoid temperature for the purpose of decreasing hardness and increasing toughness.
  • Stress relieving
    Heating to a suitable temperature, holding long enough to reduce residual stresses, and then cooling slowly enough to minimize the development of new residual stresses.
  • Quenching
    A rapid cooling whose purpose is for the control of microstructure and phase products.
• Predict hardness, volume fraction metallic structure, distortion, and carbon content.
• Specialized material models for creep, phase transformation, hardness and diffusion.
• Jominy data can be input to predict hardness distribution of the final product.
• Modeling of multiple material phases, each with its own elastic, plastic, thermal, and hardness properties. Resultant mixture material properties depend upon the percentage of each phase present at any step in the heat treatment simulation.

DEFORM models a complex interaction between deformation, temperature, and, in the case of heat treatment, transformation and diffusion. There is coupling between all of the phenomenon, as illustrated in the figure below. When appropriate modules are licensed and activated, these coupling effects include heating due to deformation work, thermal softening, temperature controlled transformation, latent heat of transformation, transformation plasticity, transformation strains, stress effects on transformation, and carbon content effects on all material properties.

Coupling between deformation, heat transfer, transformation, and diffusion effects in a metal alloy system

Application (From www.deform.com)

Gear Carrier

This warm formed gear carrier was the subject of a recent German banchmark. DEFORM-3D results matched the production process with excellent accuracy. High deformation processes such as this part require a very robust analysis and mesh generation capability. In addition to accuracy and robustness, simulation times were very fast. Today, this simulation runs in a few hours on a laptop computer with no human intervention.


Hot Forged Lever

This lever forging with flash is shown in the new DEFORM-3D postprocessor. This postprocessor features OpenGL graphics. Note the transparent dies, with an opaque workpiece and punch. Animations can be created that allows one to clearly visualize a complex process such as this one. Additionally, it's possible to view this through up to six coupled viewports simulatneously. This allows the display of sliced sections, load-stroke curves and a variety of views or variables at once. Of course, the high-quality graphics is most impressive when used to display an interesting simulation. In the case of this lever, the dies form the handle of the lever with the bottom die in a stationary position and top die moving down. As the part flashes and closure is obtained, the load increases. At a critical value, the bottom die is pushed down to allow the mounting cylinder to be reverse extruded over the punch. During this process, the workpiece material is always finding the path of least resistance to determine die fill and the final shape.


Cold Headed Bolt

This bolt is formed from wire using a two-die three-blow cold header. This process has been used for years. It's surprising, but many in industry use a version of the process that is far from optimum. The variations can be analyzed in DEFORM, as a 2D axisymmetric analysis or a general 3D simulation. It is possible to simulate the effects of work hardening on subsequent operations. In one case, DEFORM was used to analyze the influence of starting wire diameter in the initial extrusion. With a smaller initial wire size, the total load is higher in the final heading and there is an increased liklihood of ductile fracture during forming. DEFORM provides critical process details that are necessary to understand and optimize complex metal forming processes.


Rivet Installation

This rivet installation is an example of the multiple deforming body capability of DEFORM. While the analysis of multiple bodies during small deflection is possible with some general purpose codes, large deformation of multiple plastic bodies requires a very powerful analysis capability with a very sophisticated contact algorithm to generate accurate results. This simulation is indicitive of advanced DEFORM capabilities, that are frequently used by fastener manufacturers and their customers. The installation of staked and self clinching fasteners are other frequent targets of DEFORM simulation.

Machining Simulation

Chip morphology and behavior are critical elements of metal cutting. Researchers at leading institutes such as the University of Brescia, have published studies showing accurate comparisons between DEFORM simulation results and experimental chip shape. Chip thickness, chip curl, and transition from smooth to wavy chip form with changes in cutting speed are all accurately predicted. Validations have been published for both 2D and 3D simulations. This 3D simulation of metal cutting with a chip breaking lathe insert can be run in well under a day on a modern PC workstation, making 3D simulation of metal cutting a practical proposition. DEFORM-3D is an ideal tool for both cutting tool manufacturers and users who wish to study the effects of insert geometry and cutting parameters on chip formation and control.


Drill Operation

DEFORM-3D has the maturity that comes with more than 10 years of intensive development. The first DEFORM-3D simulations of the metal cutting process were first demonstrated in the 1990s. Today, complex processes such as this drilling simulation are possible in a reasonable amount of computing time. Finite element simulation of complex processes requires mature, robust adaptive mesh generation capable of producing high quality elements as necessary in the deforming zone. Because a very large number of elements is required to accurately capture the chip geometry in such a process, a fast, efficient solver is also an essential requirement. Computational efficiency is required to achieve acceptable turnaround times. Additionally, the ability to view and interpret results is equally important. The Open-GL post processor is an integral component of the DEFORM System. This provides a fast, extremely powerful and flexible tool for viewing results and extracting simulation data.


Oblique Machining Simulation

This oblique cutting simulation shows basic capabilities of DEFORM-3D to simulate complex processes such as metal cutting. Leading research institutes have been using DEFORM in their research of metal cutting processes since the mid 1990s. Research centers such as ERC at The Ohio State University and WZL at the Technical University of Aachen (RWTH) have thoroughly validated the simulation results. Critical process parameters including cutting and thrust force, workpiece and insert temperature, tool wear, and residual stress in the workpiece can all be predicted accurately. DEFORM can also provide insight into important process variables such as tool stress which are difficult or impossible to measure in experiments.


Hammer Forging Die Stress

Examples of die stress analysis were reported by DEFORM Users in the 1980s. Understanding and preventing die failure is one of the most cost effective uses for process simulation. Many cases of die analysis involve a simple decoupled (one step) analysis. While this is adequate at times, it is possible for DEFORM to perform very sophisticated multiple deforming body simulations with the tool stress coupled to the deformation analysis. In this case, the die movement of this hammer forging is controlled by available energy. The energy is depleted from a moving die as the workpiece is being deformed. With each stroke, the effective stress (red is higher) on each die in the tool stack is shown throughout the process. The highest stress is seen at the end of the last stroke in the die corners, as one would expect.


Axle Beam Forging and Heat Treatment

The forming of this commercial truck axle beam is a combination of roll forming, bending, blocker and finisher forging operations. Once the flash has been removed, the axle beam is heat treated. During the quenching operation, severe distortion can occur as a result of uneven cooling. The animation demonstrates the bender and blocker operations, as simulated with DEFORM-3D. Subsequently, contours of temperature are shown during the quenching simulation. Distortion can result from asymmetric cooling, steep thermal gradients and the austenite to martensite phase transformation. The final frame in the animation shows a direct comparison of the axle beam forging, at room temperature, before and after heat treatment. The silver colored axle beam is that before heat treatment. The sectioned, yellow axle beam shows the condition afterwards. The increased volume from the martensitic transformation is shown clearly from the DEFORM analysis.


Gear Forging and Heat Treatment

Successful process simulation frequently involves the analysis of multiple sequential processes. DEFORM has the capability to analyze the heat treatment of a component after it has been forged and the flash removed. This 10 tooth bevel gear was near-net shape forged with flash as shown in the animation. The flash was trimmed, the bore removed and the heat treatment analysis simulated as a continuation of the forming process. Shaded contours of temperature are illustrated, as the gear is quenched from it's austenitizing temperature to room temperature in oil. The animation continues to show the phase transformations taking place as the gear cools. The initial austenite phase is transformed to martensite in the teeth and a bainite/pearlite mix in the thicker sections. Distortion and residual stress can be analysed in DEFORM, with required design changes made prior to full scale production runs.


Induction Hardening

In this scanning induction hardening simulation, the steel shaft is heated by eddy currents, provided by a moving, two-turn copper coil. The surface of this 1055 steel shaft is austenitized to a predetermined depth. Closely following the heating coil, a water quench jacket (omitted for clarity) moves along the shaft, quenches the austenite material and provides a hard, martensitic case. The martensitic case depth is shown in the cutaway view of the shaft. With DEFORM, analysis of coil design, applied power and induction frequency may be carried out to determine the optimum processing conditions for a given steel shaft application. In addition, the distortion or dillatation of the shaft can be predicted and design modifications made, ahead of production runs.


Cogging With Grain Size

The cogging process is used to convert coarse-grained, cast ingot into fine-grained, wrought billet. Materials used in cogging include titanium or nickel-base alloys for the aerospace industry and steels for marine applications. In the example shown, grain refinement is taking place during the processing of aerospace superalloy 718. Contours of average grain size are shown, the yellow is coarse and the red indicates finer grains. After the four half-passes shown are completed, the billet would be returned to the furnace for re-heat. A typical ingot to billet cogging schedule may involve 5-10 heats, each containing 4-8 passes, with each pass having 10-20 bites. The DEFORM System contains a special pre-processor allowing a complete cogging schedule setup in a single session. Standard industry geometries for billet, dies and manipulators can be selected directly from the template provided. In addition, alternative geometry input is possible via the CAD interface. Process inputs include number of heats and passes, pass rotations, bite size, reductions and dwell times. While a typical cogging simulation may take hours to run, it may be setup in only minutes.


Shape Rolling

Shape rolling is applied to a wide range of materials and processes. In large steel rolling mills, the roll costs can total hundreds of thousands of dollars. DEFORM-3D can simulate shape rolling of steel, aluminum, copper, titanium and superalloys. DEFORM offers a solution that includes both deformation and temperature profile in the rolls and workpiece. It is possible to couple the grain size calculations to the deformation simulation. Roll fill and defects can be predicted using DEFORM-3D.


Chevron Crack

In this shaft extrusion, a chevron crack is formed due to axial tensile stress during deformation along the centerline. The material fracture can frequently be predicted using the damage models in DEFORM. A number of well-known damage models are implemented, along with the ability to develop user defined subroutines. Ductile fracture has been observed in a wide range of processes when subjecting metal to large plastic deformation. In some processes, including shearing, trimming flash or pushing a slug from the center of a reverse extrusion, controlled the fracture surface and shape is desirable. When fracture is not designed into the process, the result is scrap, delays and cost overruns. In these cases, DEFORM is used to test alternative designs, with the goal of eliminating the fracture. Numerous success stories have been published on this topic over the years.


Three Roll Crimp

A three roll crimp rotary forming operation is shown. In this simulation, a round workpiece is roll formed with three rotary dies. DEFORM-3D simulates this process, along with a wide range of other rotary forming processes including spinning, flowforming, pilgering and ring rolling. A specialized die movement capability in DEFORM allows rotating tools to orbit a workpiece, while rolling and translating in a cylindrical coordinate system. This simulation can be performed with the workpiece rotating and dies stationary as well.


Glass Pressing

With full 3 dimensional analysis, including fully coupled thermal calculations in the working material and the tools, DEFORM-3D is ideal for modeling thermally sensitive processes such as glass and polymer forming. Lagrangian geometry description gives accurate free surface description, and robust, fully automated remeshing allows a simulation to be run from start to finish without user intervention. This CRT panel pressing simulation shows temperature contours in the glass and tools, including the temperature gradient in the water cooled plunger. Industrial studies have shown very good agreement between DEFORM predictions and measured temperature distributions.