3. Factors contributing to the fatigue failure
The origin of the premature fatigue fracture of splined regions of the mandrel was attributed to one or a combination of
the followings:
3.1. Ineffective tempering; this failed to reduce the brittleness of the tool steel. Indeed, heat treatment of the mandrel should
be selected to maximize toughness and minimize untendered martensite and retained austenite.
3.2. Presence of sharp corners, which acted as a stress raiser. Compressive strength of mandrel’s steel, S7, is very low
(Table 1) and therefore mandrel’s teeth cannot tolerate the compressive force of rollers and workpiece during forming.
Therefore, the working situation (applied stress and number of cycles) will be in the un-safe area in the S/N curve and
highly susceptible to fatigue fracture.
3.3. Employing EDM to make the teeth on the mandrel which makes the teeth corner locally harder (and more brittle) than
other regions.
3.4. High amounts of sulfur and oxygen in local regions of the mandrel. These regions may be sites for easy fatigue crack
initiation and propagation. Fig. 10 shows the elemental composition of iron oxides which are distributed in the base
metal.
3.5. Combination of fatigue and impact caused by metal (mandrel)-to-metal (work piece) contact which will be more
detrimental. Metal/metal, AISI 1020 as work piece and S7 as mandrel, contact will reduce fatigue limit sharply