Abstract
A Combined extrusion operation consists of forward and backward extrusion forming and it is possible to make the process be simple by employing it. But the metal flow pattern induced by the operation is hard to analyze accurately because the flows are non-steady, which have at least two directions dependent upon each other. So engineers in the industrial factories had conducted the two extrusion operations separately. A new process was designed by the industrial expert for forming of an alu-minum preform using the combined extrusion operation. In this study, experiments and finite element analysis was carried out to determine the process parameters. Through the preliminary experiment, it was shown that warm forming condition was more desirable than cold or hot ones. And optimal shape of initial billet could be also determined. From the compatibility test, bonde-lube was chosen as the optimal lubricant and 20$0^{\circ}C$ as the material temperature by the inspection of micro-structure. The operation was simulated by the rigid-plastic finite element method to examine the metal flow. Disap-pearing of dead metal zone was observed as the punch fell down and desirable shape was obtained from the one operation. As a result of this study, 7 operations could be reduced and 225% of material saved.