A review of the longitudinal rolling of tube on two- and three-roll mills

Abstract The longitudinal rolling of tube through two- or three-grooved rolls is an important part of the sequence of hot rolling processes in seamless tube manufacture. To enable the process to be operated efficiently, that is with the greatest reduction in area consistent with the production of high quality tube, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the influence on the process of such parameters as front and back tension and roll profile. To this end a considerable amount of empirical work has been undertaken in Europe but most work has been done in the U.S.S.R. However, little fundamental work has been published and only a small proportion of this is available in the English language. Very limited attention, anywhere, has been given to modern plasticity theory. In this paper all the available important two- and three-grooved roll longitudinal tube rolling papers are reviewed and the conclusion is drawn that for two-roll mills the fundamental work of Vatkin and Kirichenko is most suitable for the development of more comprehensive and industrially useful theories. For the three-roll process, Biller's thesis is of fundamental significance and the work of Gulyaev et al. is useful industrially.