Size effects in the production of micro strip by the flat rolling of wire

Comparison between down scaled flat rolling experiments of thin round wire and numerical simulation of those experiments have shown that the production process of manufacturing micro strip out of thin round wire is influenced by size effects. Decreasing the wire diameter into the microscopic domain is accompanied by decreasing yield stresses of the wire and turned out to be the dominating size effect for low rolling reductions. For high rolling reductions an increase of friction becomes of major influence. The plane strain compression test is applied as an experimental simulation of the rolling process. It is also used for further investigation of the determined size effects. An experimental set-up has been built, that allows scaled experiments on small and miniaturised specimens maintaining geometric similarity. Micro structural effects, such as the Hall-Petch effect and effects on the evolution of the surface roughness have been determined with this plane strain compression set-up.