A New Configuration for Equal Channel Angular Extrusion Dies

Equal channel angular extrusion or pressing (ECAE or ECAP) is a process used in order to impart severe plastic deformations to processed materials with the aim of improving their mechanical properties by reducing the grain size. The grain size reduction leads to mechanical properties improvement. In the present study, a new die configuration is proposed for the ECAE process. The advantage of this die geometry is that it allows us to obtain higher plastic strain in each ECAE passage than traditional ECAE dies. It is important to optimize the die geometry, as the main aim of the ECAE process is to impart severe plastic deformations to the processed materials. Consequently, the higher the deformation, the better the improvement on the mechanical properties of the processed materials. In order to determine how variations on geometry affect the plastic strain of the processed materials finite element modeling (FEM) is used. Both analytical and FEM methods will allow us to affirm that by using this new die configuration it is possible to achieve higher deformation values per ECAE passage.