Bingji (Benjamin) Li
www.Meta4-0.com/bli
Metal Pass LLC
www.Meta4-0.com
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Key Words: Metal Technology, Metal
Information, Web-Based, Tech Resources, Tech Directories,
Categorization, Data Population
ABSTRACT
A list of web-based metal property and metal information databases have been
developed and made accessible through Meta4-0.com. The property databases
include Flow Stress, High-Temperature Property and General Property, etc. The
information databases consist of Metal Dictionaries (both Tech Terms and
Translation), Metal Software, Metal Patents, and Metal Directory, etc. Number of
entries in each database usually ranges from several thousand to over fifty
thousand. Flow stresses in dependence of strain, strain rate and temperature,
etc. are provided in the form of both data and models, while high-temperature
properties are available in temperature dependence. As extensions to the
databases, over a thousand pages of short papers describing technical details
and dozens of applications for predicting process/product parameters are
provided. Besides data development, data management and data application, etc.,
technical significance of the data such as temperature dependence of metal
properties in hot forming modeling is also covered.
INTRODUCTION
In modeling metal forming processes such as rolling,
forging and extrusion, one of the most critical factors to
achieve high prediction accuracy is to enter accurate metal
property data such as flow stress and physical properties
(specific heat, thermal expansion coefficient, thermal
conductivity, modulus of elasticity, and Poisson ratio, etc.).
Increasing degree of process automation and computer
application in the manufacturing industry has led more and
more process modeling to be integrated into production
operation. For example, in the steel rolling, especially the
flat rolling, the use of Level 2 model to create instant draft
schedule for compensating any variation of rolling conditions
(e.g. slab temperature and slab dimension) has become a common
practice. Draft scheduling is mainly based on rolling process
modeling such as determination of roll separating force,
temperature, roll deformation and metal flow in the roll gap,
etc. The high requirements for equal deformation targets,
metallurgical temperature targets and high productivity
targets, etc. in such a complicated process involving both
roll deformation and metal flow, are far beyond operator?s
knowledge, and therefore, a computer model (Level 2 model) is
of great help to operators. Today, process modeling is not a
theoretical concept any more; it has since long become a
manufacture-operational practice. Prediction accuracy has very
high impact on the production performance. For example, for
many steel plate mills (often with an annual sales of 800
million US dollars), an increase of force prediction accuracy
of 1% often has an economic value of 1 million US dollars per
year! [1]
Most hot-forming models, either offline or online ones,
have considered flow stress as a function of temperature,
strain and strain rate, though problems involving high-level
understanding of the flow stress still occur, such as formula
valid range, balance between accuracy and robustness, and
metallurgical effects (especially when warm forming is
involved) [2][3]. High quality flow stress data and model will
greatly increase force prediction accuracy. In this aspect,
Metal Pass?practice of the Guided Two-Parameter Learning
[2][3], by accurate designing flow stress coefficients and
applying them in the adaptive learning, usually achieves a
high accuracy with force prediction error below 5%.
In comparison with the flow stress, the material property
data are often greatly simplified in most models. For example,
the material properties are usually entered as constant values
and so, temperature dependence for them is usually ignored.
Temperature dependence of metal property could be significant;
so in certain situation the value of specific heat, for
example, could be doubled from one forming temperature to
another. A prediction model with too much simplification will
heavily reduce its quality and reach only a limited accuracy.
See discussion in the ?High-Temperature Properties?section.
Even in the room temperature, material data are different
from grade to grade. Many systems use the same property values
for all grades of steels and cause system errors.
Metal Pass has collected a great number of metal property
data and models, and posted them in the website Meta4-0.com,
in order for development and design engineers to improve model
quality. The property databases hosted in the Meta4-0.com
currently consist of three sections: Flow Stress (Meta4-0.com/flowstress)
[4], High-Temperature Property (Meta4-0.com/hit) [5] and
General Property (Meta4-0.com /general) [6].
As one of the largest metal technology networks,
Meta4-0.com also hosts technical information databases, such
as Metal Dictionary - Tech Terms, Metal Dictionary -
Translation, and Metal Software. Metal Pass also categorizes
and posts a great number of industry patents, and provides
over 50,000 supply listings for technical products and
services. As extensions of the information databases, over a
thousand pages of short papers and dozens of software programs
are available.
In this paper, primary attention is paid on the metal
property databases, though the key features of the metal
information databases are also outlined.
SUMMARY
This paper introduces a list of web-based metal property
and metal information databases accessible through
Meta4-0.com. The property databases include Flow Stress,
High-Temperature Properties and General Properties. The
information databases consist of Metal Dictionaries (both Tech
Terms and Translation), Metal Software, Metal Patents, and
Metal Directory, etc. Primary focus is on the metal properties
such as flow stress. Data for flow stress are provided with
model coefficients. Model types and user screens for the flow
stress database are described. Outlines for metal information
databases were provided including the extensions of the
information database with short papers and model-based
software suites.