A study of manufacturing tubes with nano/ultrafine grain structure by stagger spinning

Highlights: • Proposing a method of manufacturing tubes with nano/ultrafine crystal. • Obtaining the refined ferritic grains with an size of 500 nm after stagger spinning. • Obtaining the equiaxial ferritic grains with an size of 600 nm after annealing. - Abstract: A new method of manufacturing tubes with nano/ultrafine grain structure by stagger spinning and recrystallization annealing is proposed in this study. Two methods of the stagger spinning process are developed, the corresponding macroforming quality, microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of the spun tubes made of ASTM 1020 steel are analysed. The results reveal that a good surface smoothness and an improved spin-formability of spun parts can be obtained by the process combining of 3-pass spinning followed by a 580 °C × 0.5 h static recrystallization and 2-pass spinning with a 580 °C × 1 h static recrystallization annealing under the severe thinning ratio of wall thickness reduction. The ferritic grains with an average initial size of 50 μm are refined to 500 nm after stagger spinning under the 87% thinning ratio of wall thickness reduction. The equiaxial ferritic grains with an average size of 600 nm are generated through re-nucleation and grain growth by subsequent recrystallization annealing at 580 °C for 1 h heat preservation. The tensile strength of spun tubes has been founded to be proportional to the reciprocal of layer spacing of pearlite (LSP), and the elongation is inversely proportional to the reciprocal of LSP. This study shows that the developed method of stagger power spinning has the potential to be used to manufacture bulk metal components with nano/ultrafine grain structure