WSC series

This machine is designed for producing wheels for passenger cars and trucks, especially for spinning or flow forming of rim contours on aluminium wheels, steel wheels, or wheels made of other high-strength alloys. Cast or forged preforms are used.

Cast preforms can easily be processed in flow-forming since here compressive stresses beneficially arise in the deformation zones. Due to its high strength and corrosion resistance mainly the aluminium alloy GK1-AlSi7Mg is used as raw material. Furthermore, this alloy shows good casting behaviour and chemical resistance. Adding sodium, strontium, or antimony, reduces notch sensitivity and increases fatigue strength. Production of the preform relies on low-pressure casting. The subsequent flow-forming is a warm working process, carried out at approx. 400°C using a triple-roller arrangement.

The flow-forming process following forging yields high-strength homogeneous microstructure. This procedure can be used to produce very thin walls resulting in further weight reduction. Due to its

• good malleability,
• medium to high strength and toughness,
• very good heat retention, and
• corrosion resistance

the aluminium alloy AlMgSi1 is the preferred material for the process. Initially, the forged preform is processed by cold flow-forming. After a heat treatment, the parts are finished by turning on a lathe. The main advantage of cold forming is that only low volumes of metal need to be removed in final cutting.

• Sustained reduction of material and energy costs
• Cost-effectiveness due to only few processing steps
• Low machine costs
• Low tooling costs
• High degree of material utilization
• Increased strength and hardness
• Favourable, uninterrupted texture
• Compressed microstructure
• Complicated or complex geometry
• One-piece multi-functional workpieces
• Short tooling times
• Simple adjustment via program change
• High productivity