Pipe flanges are usually welded or screwed to the pipe end and are connected with bolts. This approach is very simple and widely used for a long time, however, it results in high development cost and low productivity and some safety problems at the welding area. In this research, a new approach of forming pipe flange based on cold forging and floating die concept is presented. This innovative approach increases the effectiveness of the material usage and save the time cost compared with conventional welding method.
To ensure the dimensional accuracy of the final product, finite element analysis are carried out to simulate the process of cold forging, and orthogonal experiments method are used to investigate the influence of four manufacturing factors and predict the best combination of them. In addition, a real product is manufactured in terms of the best factors predicted by FEA and optimization method to validate the proposed approach. The experimental results show that the approach is effective for the forming of pipe flange, and can be widely used later.