Journal of Materials Processing Technology 117 (2001) 209±215

Failure analysis of cold forging dies using FEA

Conor MacCormack*, John Monaghan
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Parsons Building, Dublin 2, Ireland
Accepted 5 September 2001

Abstract

The results presented within this paper represent part of a larger collaborated investigation being conducted by Trinity College, Dublin
and an industrial partner. The particular cold forging process analysed was the method used to `trim' a hexagonal shape on the head of a
fastener. The fastener head geometry is achieved by forcing the die, known as a trim die because of its function, onto the workpiece,
whereupon a combined forging and cutting action produces the desired well-known hexagonal shape for the head. The size of the trim die
modelled was that for an M6 fastener. The trim die material was taken as M2 high-speed steel.
When the trim die reaches the end of its stroke, a knockout pin shears off the excess trimmed material. A ®nite element analysis package
called DEFORM# was implemented to simulate the trim die forging process. DEFORM utilises Cockroft and Latham's fracture criteria to
calculate the damage induced within the workpiece material during the process. Elements are deleted from the model when they exceed a
speci®ed damage value. The trim die geometry, if incorrect, can cause premature shearing of the waste material during forging. This
premature shearing has a detrimental effect on tool life and the forging machinery. The relationship between the trim die geometry and its
®nal stopping distance, the consequent induced stresses and the energy required to shear off this excess material was investigated. Finally
the effect of altering the damage value C was analysed, see Eq. (1). From this investigation, conclusions as to the optimum trim die shape
and ®nal stopping distance, which would facilitate increased die life, were obtained. # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Trim die; Cold forging; Finite element analysis; DEFORM; Fracture

1. Introduction
In the last few decades, the mass production of compo-
nents by cold forging has increased drastically. Cold forging
has various advantages compared to other forming pro-
cesses, such as machining. It involves little loss of material,
improved strength, geometrical precision of components,
and high production rates. However, considerable dif®cul-
ties can be encountered due to the high stresses induced
within the workpiece and tooling because of the very large
forming loads [1]. Obviously, the prediction and reduction of
these high stresses within the tooling is paramount. A
signi®cant economical advantage can also be achieved
through an increase in the service life of the tooling [2].
With recent advancements in software development and the
availability of more powerful computers, a ®nite element
analysis (FEA) package called DEFORM-2DTM v6.0 run-
ning on a UNIX based Silicon Graphics O2TM, has enabled
an entire cold forging process to be simulated, while simul-
taneously predicting all the necessary stress/strain states in
both die and workpiece. The prediction of ductile fracture is
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: ‡353-1-6081663; fax: ‡353-1-6795554.
E-mail address: mccormc@tcd.ie (C. MacCormack).
far more dif®cult than ¯ow induced defects such as folding,
under ®lling and piping [3]. Fig. 1 shows a 3D representation
of the cold forging operation considered. The typical bolt
blank, known as the cheese head, with the standard trim die
underneath is illustrated before and after the `trimming'
operation. The cheese head material was a medium carbon
low alloy steel, while the trim die material was M2 tool steel.
The manufacturing process is achieved by forcing the die,
known as a trim die because of its function, onto the
workpiece, whereupon a forging and cutting action produces
the desired `trimmed' hexagonal shape for the bolt head. The
size of the trim die analysed was an M6. This relates to the
size of bolt produced.
The entire trimming process consists of two phases. Phase
1 encompasses the time when the trim die ®rst makes contact
with the workpiece and reaches its ®nal stopping distance.
Phase 2 deals with the shearing off of the excess material to
produce the trimmed hexagonal fastener head. Extensive
research has been carried out in the area of phase 1, to
determine the stresses within a trim die during a forging
process, has been completed but will not be presented here,
see Ref. [4±6] for more details. One of the conclusions from
phase 1 was that the stresses within the trim die rise very
sharply at the end of the stroke. This is due to the material

0924-0136/01/$ ± see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 0 1 ) 0 1 1 3 9 - 6
210 C. MacCormack, J. Monaghan / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 117 (2001) 209±215
Fig. 1. Workpiece and trim die before and after the forging process.
becoming trapped between the die and the holder for the
workpiece. With this in mind, analysis was initiated to
investigate the possibility of optimising the ®nal stopping
distance and study the effects on the load required to shear off
the excess material. The results presented in this paper relate
to phase 2, the ®nal operation of shearing off of the excess
material. To date there is no exact criteria for determining the
®nal stopping distance between the trim die and the tool that
holds the workpiece, with different operators in different
plants using their own methods to `set' this ®nal distance.
Eleven FEA models were constructed using different ®nal
stopping distances ranging from 0.25 to 0.75 mm in steps of
0.05 mm. The load required to shear off the excess material
together with the ®nished fracture surface were obtained. An
explanation of DEFORM's fracture criteria along with the
relevant results is discussed in the following sections.
2. Fracture criteria
Ductile fracture criteria can be generally represented by a
function having the form:
Z With reference to Fig. 2, it can be seen that increasing the
F…deformation history† de ˆ C (1)
where e is the effective strain and C the damage value. The
common hypothesis of ductile fracture, as represented by
Eq. (1), is that ductile fracture occurs when the maximum
damage value in a workpiece exceeds a critical value or
`critical damage value' [3]. For a homogeneous material,
this critical damage value can be considered as a material
constant, similar to yield stress or tensile strength. Since
different ductile fracture criteria lead to different damage
values, the critical damage values corresponding to different
ductile fracture criteria are different for a given material.
Many experimental studies have been conducted to establish
testing methods to determine formability and/or fracture
limit diagrams [7] and several ductile fracture criteria have
been suggested [8±12]. Mathematically derived ductile
fracture criteria, have been proposed based on experimental
observations [13±17]. Extensive research has been focused
on testing seven ductile fracture criteria by using the FEA
package DEFORM and experimental testing. This research
concluded that the Cockroft and Latham's criterion may be
the best for practical applications [3]. The Cockroft and
Fig. 2. Graph of effective stress versus stopping distance with a 0.25
compound trim die.
Latham's criterion is as follows:
Z ef 
s
de ˆ C (2)
s
where ef is the effective fracture strain, s the Max principle
stress and s the effective stress. The critical damage value,
C requires experimental validation. The critical C values
used to obtain the shearing loads, presented in this paper,
were 0.5, 0.25 and 0.1. These values have not yet been
experimentally validated, but are appropriate to illustrate
the location and path of likely fracture behaviour.
3. Altering the stopping distance
As outlined earlier, a total of 11 FEA models were
simulated, each one having a different ®nal stopping dis-
tance. They range from 0.25 to 0.75 mm in steps of 0.05 mm.
A graph comparing stopping distance and the induced
effective stress within the trim die are illustrated in Fig. 2.
®nal stopping distance from 0.25 to 0.75 mm lowers the
induced effective stress within the trim die from 2.242 to
1.845 MPa, which is a drop of 17.7%. Obviously it would be
advantageous to stop the trim die at its maximum allowable
distance from the workpiece holder, but what this allowable
distance is, and what the contributing factors are dif®cult
to ascertain.
4. Shearing load
When each of the FEA simulations had ended at their
predetermined stopping distance, a new object was intro-
duced into the model to represent the action of the knockout
(KO) pin. The fracture criterion, within DEFORM, was
activated and the KO pin instructed to move in a downward
direction. This downward movement, along with the fracture
criterion, caused the workpiece to fracture across the dotted
line A±A is shown in Fig. 3.
When the shearing load and effective stress are plotted
against the stopping distance, we observe that they are
directly proportional, see Fig. 4. Obviously due to the
 C. MacCormack, J. Monaghan / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 117 (2001) 209±215
Fig. 3. Detail view of fracture initiation in workpiece due to KO pin.
increase in the amount of material that has to be sheared, the
corresponding load required to cause this shearing or KO
action is increased. At the minimum stopping distance of
0.25 mm, the required KO load is 7.27 kN while at the other
extreme of 0.75 mm the KO load increases to 14.74 kN. This
is an increase of 102%. In conclusion:
 It can be stated that by increasing the final stopping
distance caused an expected increase in KO load.
 This increase in the final stopping distance reduces the
level of effective stress within the trim die by a 17.7%,
which will have a large effect on the life of the die.
Fig. 4. Shearing load and effective stress plotted against the final stopping
distance.
211
 Although the required KO load has doubled in value to
reach a maximum of 14.74 kN, the value is relatively low
in comparison to the load required in phase 1 (see Section
2). The load induced onto the trim die in phase 1 is in the
order of approximately 60±70 kN, yet under correct con-
ditions, the trim die should last for 15±20,000 cycles. The
KO pin is made of the same material as the trim die, M2,
so it can be assumed that failure of the KO pin, due to this
doubling of the KO load, is unlikely.
5. Fracture surface
Figs. 5±7 illustrate the fracture surface produced with a
®nal stopping distance of 0.25 mm. Fig. 5 illustrates the high
mesh density concentrated in the vicinity where fracture is
known to occur. This high density is necessary to reduce the
error of volume loss due to element deletion within the
DEFORM fracture criterion. Figs. 6 and 7 show the onset of
fracture, as the KO pin moves downward, and the ®nal
fractured surface, respectively.
With reference to Figs. 7 and 8, two important factors can
be concluded:
 When the final stopping distance is small (0.25 mm)
there is a tendency for material to be `dragged through'
212 C. MacCormack, J. Monaghan / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 117 (2001) 209±215

Fig. 5. Finite element mesh at a stopping distance of 0.25 mm.

Fig. 6. The onset of fracture as the KO pin moves downward.

C. MacCormack, J. Monaghan / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 117 (2001) 209±215 213

Fig. 7. Final fractured surface with a stopping distance of 0.25 mm.

Fig. 8. The final fracture surface when the stopping distance is increased to 0.75 mm.
214 C. MacCormack, J. Monaghan / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 117 (2001) 209±215

Fig. 9. Fracture surface corresponding to a stopping distance of 0.25 mm, C ˆ 0:25.

Fig. 10. Fracture surface corresponding to a stopping distance of 0.25 mm, C ˆ 0:1.
 C. MacCormack, J. Monaghan / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 117 (2001) 209±215
Table 1
The variation in KO load with a variation of C
Critical damage value, C KO load (N)
0.5 7272.9
0.25 7273.01
0.1 7232.9
(see Fig. 7). The fracture in Fig. 7 is a function of tensile
necking and final shearing.
 Large plastic deformation is induced on the top surface of
the trimmed material when the final stopping distance is
large (0.75 mm), see Fig. 8. Notice that there is less
evidence of necking as the fractured surface has been
caused mostly by a shearing action.
6. Critical damage value, C
The models illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8 had a critical
damage value, C of 0.5. To analyse the effect of altering the
C value, these models were simulated again but with new C
values of 0.25 and 0.1. Figs. 9 and 10 had damage values of
0.25 and 0.1, respectively. Both models had a predetermined
stopping distance of 0.25 mm. With reference to Figs. 7, 9
and 10, the amount of `drag through' is inversely propor-
tional to the damage value C. The model shown in Fig. 7 had
a C value of 0.5, because of this the ®nite elements in the
area of possible fracture, required a higher level of damage
before fracturing could occur. This produced a greater level
of elongation, necking and drag through. The shearing, or
KO, load required to complete this phase 2 operation, with
varying damage values is shown in Table 1.
7. Conclusions
The essence of this research is to increase the life of the
trim die. Stopping the trim die further away from the
workpiece holder reduced the induced effective stresses
by 17.7%. This stopping distance cannot be increased
inde®nitely. The controlling factors for determining the
optimum stopping distance can be broken up into two areas:
 KO load required;
 fractured surface quality.
The KO load required is directly proportional to the
stopping distance, as expected. The maximum load of
14.74 kN is not suf®cient to cause failure. Therefore from
a point of view of KO load, the stopping distance of 0.75 mm
is acceptable. Analysis of the fractured surface highlighted
the tendency of the material to become elongated when the
stopping distance is small. This leads to the conclusion of
increasing the ®nal stopping distance to 0.75 mm.
215
As mentioned in Section 3, on fracture criteria, the critical
damage value C requires experimental validation, however,
the values chosen in the models presented in this paper were
not. This analysis showed that altering the C value affected
the fractured surface shape, see Figs. 8±10. Therefore with-
out experimental validation, the shape of the fractured
surfaces cannot be guaranteed. However, although the frac-
tured shape might not be entirely accurate, the required KO
load remained virtually unchanged when C was altered, see
Table 1. Therefore although altering the C value has an effect
on the fractured surface, the required shearing, or KO load
remains unchanged.
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