Objectives  In order to understand the factors of springback in the local hot rolling of medium-thick steel plates,

  Methods  a 3D thermal-elastic-plastic analysis is conducted to investigate the factors affecting the amount of springback. Through a series of numerical analyses, the influence of deformation temperature, temperature field distribution, plate size and local loading are examined.

  Results  The results show that when the deformation temperature exceeds a certain level at which material yield stress begins to decrease significantly, the springback will reduce markedly with the increase in temperature. Due to the distribution characteristics of the deformation area, the influence of temperature distribution on springback where the local deformation scale is larger is dominated by the three dimensions of temperature field distribution. Changes in the length and width of the plate have a certain influence on the springback, in which changes to the length of a plate where the local deformation scale is larger have a more obvious influence on springback. The springback of the plate decreases with the increase of local loading.

  Conclusions  The results of this study can assist in the optimization of parameters in the automatic hot rolling of thick plates, while also having a basic guiding effect on the further study of springback in the local hot rolling of thick plates.