SBIR Phase I:Manufacturing Hollow Transmission Shafts With Cross Wedge Rolling

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to develop a process to manufacture hollow transmission shafts with cross wedge rolling (CWR). Current manufacturing processes for hollow transmission shafts involve multiple procedures and they are time-consuming and expensive. Manufacturing transmission shafts with cross wedge rolling is a great opportunity as well as an exciting challenge to stride toward high productivity, high cost-saving, high material utilization and high product quality. This process inherits all benefits of CWR and expands the range of CWR products beyond the traditional scope and this process offers substantial simplification of current hollow rotational part manufacturing process. It revolutionarily changes the manufacturing method from traditional multiple forging processes to a directly rolling process. It will drastically increase the productivity and material utilization, as well as significantly improve quality. The process can be applied on similar products without difficulty. The commercial potential of successfully using the cross wedge rolling process to produce hollow shafts could be very large. Automotive transmission shafts are the largest potential product group followed by transmission shafts for heavy trucks, farm equipment and construction equipment. The cross wedge rolling process is substantially faster than competing processes of closed die forging, cold forging, hot upset forging, and machining from bar stock. By starting with hollow stock prior to cross wedge rolling the difficult task of drilling long holes through the center of the shafts is eliminated. The shafts can be successfully finished at the ideal temperature and normalizing can also be eliminated further reducing cost and energy. As a result, cost saving of 10-30% over the competing processes is the norm. Developing this technology is the first necessary step to unlock this saving.