<p>In traditional ring rolling processes, the circular blanks are primarily subjected to radial squeeze between the main roll and mandrel, and inevitably, there is limitation in the forming of some profile rings under such a loading manner. The current study proposed a novel ring forming process called Confined Axial Ring Rolling (CARR), featured by utilizing a rotating tapered drive roll to axially compress the blank placed on a rotatable lower die with shaped groove, and incrementally changes the cross-section under the action of drive roll. The stable CARR deformation conditions, including the linear velocity matching and bite-in conditions within the contact zone of drive roll and ring blank, and the forming force as well, were analyzed. A full-size CARR prototype machine was developed and the forming of an Al7050 rectangular ring was conducted to examine the flow behavior. It was found that the ring top expands inwards and outwards simultaneously along the radial direction, forming an asymmetrical mushroom-shaped cross-section, is the basic deformation mode of the blank. Such a deformation feature is suitable for forming profile rings with large radial dimension difference and/or small ratio of height and diameter. The conical angle and kinematic parameters (the angular velocity, feed speed, and their ratio) of the drive roll are the key factors influencing the bidirectional radial flow of the ring. A slight diameter increase of the ring bottom was also observed in the experiment and numerical simulation. Finally, a large-tapered profile ring was formed by CARR to validate the ability of the method.</p>