Analysis of Forging Process in 7075 Aluminium Alloy of Innovative Bicycle Stem Using Taguchi Method

Abstract

Recently, it gained attention because of environmental protection and energy conservation consciousness. It most had the representation by the bicycle. Forging is simple and economical in mass production. Metallic materials are processed through plastic deformation. This not only changes the appearance but also alters the internal organization of materials that improve mechanical properties. This paper discusses 7075 aluminium alloy, which is commonly used to produce bicycle stems, and employs rigid-plastic finite element (FE) DEFORM TM 3D software to simulate and analyze bicycle stem designs. First, we used Solid works 2010 3D graphics software to design the 7075 aluminium alloy mold and appearance of the bicycle pedal, and then we imported FE DEFORM TM 3D software for analysis. A series of simulation analyses, in which the variables relied on different temperatures for forging a billet, friction factors, forging speed, and mold size, were run to examine the stress, effective strain, damage, and die radial load distribution when forging bicycle stems. Finally, we used the Taguchi method to determine the best design parameters. In the design process, our results confirmed the suitability of the FE method and the manufacturing process for innovative bicycle stems.