Process Design of Pilot Warm Rolling Mill for Difficult-to-deform Materials Research

Due to the increasing demands for warm rolling research of difficult-to-deform materials, the State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation of Northeastern University (NEU-RAL) developed a set of pilot warm rolling mill with its functions including: rolled piece heating online, rolls heating online, hydraulic screwdown, tension control and reversing rolling. The rolls heating uses induction heating mode and the rolled piece heating adopts direct resistance heating way. The warm rolling process is designed based on the characteristics of pilot warm rolling mill. The AZ31 magnesium alloy samples were rolled successfully and demonstrated that warm rolling is an effective method to process difficult-to-deform materials. The new pilot warm rolling mill has been successfully put into use in several research institutes of China, it will contribute further studying on warm rolling characteristics of difficult-to-deform materials.