The Effect of the Bridge's Angle during Porthole Die Extrusion of Aluminum AA6082

During the porthole die extrusion, the separated metal streams are welded together in the welding chamber. The conditions under which this occurs and the integrity of weld seam in the extrudate are impacted by the design of the bridge, including features such as its shape and dimensions. In this research, the commercial finite element method (FEM) software package, DEFORM, was used to run a series of simulation experiments in order to quantitatively understand the relationship between the bridge design and the thermal mechanical history experienced by the material during welding and the impact this has on final weld seam quality. The bridge can be roughly divided into two parts: the lower part, close to the welding chamber, and the upper part, which initially split the billet into metal streams. The results showed that increasing the lower bridge angle led to slightly higher extrusion loads and higher extrudate exit temperatures. As the lower bridge angle increased, creating a streamlined profile to a blunt profile, a dead metal zone formed under the bridge that produced higher strains near the surface of the material. In contrast, changes to the geometry of the upper bridge had little effect on the porthole die extrusion process or the thermal mechanical conditions experienced by the material.