ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have great pleasure in expressing my profound sense of gratitude to Dr. Manoj kumar, Associate
Professor, NIFFT, Ranchi for his guidance and suggestions throughout the course of my project
work. His inspiration, keenness of observation and solicitous advice has immensely benefited me
to complete my project work within stipulated time.

I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to all library members and computer lab
members of NIFFT, who helped me a lot while collecting various articles from different
sources during my project work.

To my ever worshipful parents and my family members I owe more than words can describe for
their continuous support and encouragement, which enabled me to complete this project in
this form.

Date: Tadi Siva Prasad

Place: M.Tech (Foundry Forge Technology)
National Institute of Foundry Forge Technology
Hatia, Ranchi 834003.

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 ABSTRACT
The shift forks are normally a "U" shaped piece of steel that engage the slider gears and
push them into the positions desired by the driver to create the intended gear. The normal position
for each slider is freewheeling, or neutral. When a gear is desired, first the driver moves the lever
to a range position, such as 1&2, or 3&4 and then by moving the shift lever forward or rearward
the driver causes the chosen fork to push the slider so that it locks the intended gear to the shaft.
In the current project an attempt has been made to model the dies in PRO-E and simulate in
DEFORM 3D software. First a component drawing is modelled in PRO-E as per the dimensions
and different allowance like machining, fillet radius, corner radius and draft are added to convert
component drawing to forging drawing. And all allowance are taken from IS 3469.Corresponding
blocker and finisher dies are modelled in PRO-E as per the dimensions and exported in .stl format
for simulation. Billet size and load capacity for forging press are calculated.

In first attempt simulation is performed without blocker, which results incomplete filling
of finisher die cavity, it suggests the necessity of blocker. Two blocker designs are used to know
the ease of filling finisher die cavity. Billet with different aspect ratios are simulated in blocker.
Similarly different mesh sizes varying from 1000 to 50,000 are verified for checking grid
independence. Different billet temperatures varying from 12000C to 10000C, different die
temperature varying from 300 to 200 and different friction coefficients varying from 0.2 to 0.4 are
simulated in 9 combinations in DEFORM 3D software. Besides ram velocity varying from 1 mm/s,
5mm/s and 10mm/s are also simulated.

The mesh size of 30,000 and above at which solution is found to be converged. And billet
size with 40% extra material is found to be satisfactory die filling. The simulation with forging
temperature of 1200oC is found to come up with low effective stress and load compared to other
forging temperatures. The difficulty in forging of high surface area to volume ratio is explained.
The graphs explaining grid independence and variation of load versus temperature is drawn. The
trend curves for temperature and effective stress and between the ram velocity and load is drawn.

Key words: Closed die forging, Hot forging, Process parameter, PRO-E, and DEFORM 3D.

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 CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i
ABSTRACT ii
CONTENTS iii-iv
LIST OF FIGURES v-vi
LIST OF TABLES vii
1. INTRODUCTION 1-9
1.1 Introduction to Forging 1
1.1.1 Why Forgings are stronger 1
1.2 Types of Forging 2-3
1.2.1 Based on Temperature 2
1.2.2 Based on Die sets 3
1.2.3 Based on Forging equipment 3
1.3 Forging process variables 4
1.3.1 MAJOR FACTORS INFLUENCING THE METAL FLOW 4
1.4 Advantages and Applications of Forging 6-8
1.4.1 Advantages of Forging 6-7
1.4.2 Applications of the Forging 7-8
1.5 Flow diagram for hot forging 8
1.6 Introduction to Shifter fork 9

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 10-26

2.1 Literature survey 10-14
2.2 Design Considerations 15-22
2.2.1 Brief explanation of forging drawing 15
2.2.2 Selection of parting line 15-18
2.2.3 Finishing Allowance 19
2.2.4 Design Considerations for Draft 19
2.2.5 Design Considerations for Fillet and Corner Radii 19-20
2.2.6 Design Considerations for Flash and Gutter 20-22
2.3 Prediction of forging stresses and loads 22-23
2.4 DEFORM 24-26
2.4.1 Capabilities of DEFORM 3D 24
2.4.2 Analyzing Manufacturing Process 25-26

3. OBJECTIVE & METHODOLOGY 27-28

3.1 Objective 27
3.2 Methodology 27-28

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4. DIE DESIGN & MODELLING 29-44
4.1 Component drawing 29-30
4.2 Billet material selection 30-31
4.2.1 Chemical composition 30
4.2.2 Mechanical properties of DIN 42Cr Mo4 31
4.3 Forging drawing 31-34
4.4 Die design 35-36
4.4.1 Design principles 35-36
4.5 Blocker 37-42
4.5.1 Design of Blocker (Preform) Dies 37-42
4.6 Die material 43
4.7 Die material composition and mechanical properties 44

5. EXPERIMENTAL WORK & SIMULATION 45-56

5.1 Prerequisite for simulation 45-46
5.1.1 Stock size determination 45
5.1.2 Load calculation 45-46
5.2 Initial simulation trails 46-48
5.3 Grid independence test 49-52
5.4 Trail cases with varying stock volume 53-54
5.5 Test cases with forging process variables 55-56

6. RESULT ANALYSIS & DISCUSION 57-62

6.1 Data analysis 57-58
6.2 Step wise simulation of SHIFTER FORK 58
6.3 Temperature distribution 59
6.4 Effective stress distribution 60
6.5 Effective stress distribution 61
6.6 Effect of ram speed 61-62

7. CONCLUSIONS 63
7.1 Conclusions 63
7.2 Future work 63
REFERENCES 64-65

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Fig No. Figure Label Page No
1.1 A cross-section of a forged connecting rod that has
been etched to show the grain flow 7
1.2 Flow diagram for hot forging 8
1.3 Application of shifter fork 9
1.4 Component drawing of shifter fork 9
2.1 Selection of parting line to avoid deep impression 15
2.2 Die set with counter lock 16
2.3 Elimination of counter lock by changing the parting line 16
2.4 Symmetrical positioning of the work piece in the die 17
2.5 Flat surface at the parting line 17
2.6 Parting line and grain flow 18
2.7 Design of Flash and Gutter 21
2.8 Load-stroke curve for closed-die forging 22
2.9 Metal flow and the corresponding load-stroke curve 23
4.1 Component drawing of shifter fork 29
4.2 3D model of shifter fork (component drawing) 30
4.3 Forging drawing of Shifter fork 33
4.4 Component drawing to forging drawing conversion 33
4.5 3D model of forging drawing with flash & gutter 34
4.6 Cross-sectional view of forging drawing 34
4.7 Reference figure for die block design 35
4.8 Finisher bottom die block 36
4.9 Finisher top die block 37
4.10 Figure showing stepwise blocker design 38
4.11 Equidistant planes for blocker die design 39
4.12 Plane of maximum cross-sectional area (Plane 8) 40
4.13 Plane of minimum cross-sectional area (Plane 5) 40
4.14 Shape of blocker according to theoretical deign 41

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4.15 Variation of plane area from plane1 to plane 15 41
4.16 Bottom die of the blocker 42
4.17 Top-die of the blocker 42
5.1 BLOCKER DESIGN "A" 48
5.2 BLOCKER DESIGN "B" 48
5.3 Forging with 1000 mesh 50
5.4 Forging with 10000 mesh 50
5.5 Forging with 20000 mesh 50
5.6 Forging with 30000 mesh 51
5.7 Forging with 40000 mesh 51
5.8 Forging with 50000 mesh 51
5.9 Graph for Grid independence test 52
5.10 Forging with aspect ratio of 1.2 53
5.11 Forging with aspect ratio of 1.3 54
5.12 Forging with aspect ratio of 1.36 54
5.13 Forging with aspect ratio of 1.46 54
6.1 Main effects plot for S/N ratios 57
6.2 Stepwise simulation of "shifter fork" 58
6.3 Temperature distribution 59
6.4 Variation of load with billet temperature 59
6.5 Effective stress distribution 60
6.6 Variation of average effective stress with temperature 60
6.7 Load curves 61
6.8 Variation of load with ram velocity 62

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 List of tables
Table No Label Page No
1 Forging temperatures of some Metals/Alloys 5
2 Finish allowances for drop and press forgings 19
3 Recommended draft angles 19
4 Recommended Fillet and Corner radii 20
5 Recommended Fillet and Corner radii on weight basis 20
6 Empirical formulas for design of flash thickness 21
7 Values of b, b1, t1, R 21
8 Chemical composition of DIN 42Cr Mo4 30
9 Mechanical properties of billet material 31
10 Flash & Gutter dimensions 32
11 Modelling parameters 32
12 Cross-sectional data of planes 39
13 Chemical composition of AISI H13 44
14 Mechanical properties of AISI H13 44
15 Press capacity calculations 46
16 Initial simulation trails for better design 48
17 Data for Grid independence test 52
18 Details of stock size determination 53
19 Process variables and their ranges 55
20 Process parameters and their levels 56
21 Orthogonal Array for optimization 56
22 Response table for S/N ratios 57
23 Optimum factor levels for each parameter 58
24 Effect of ram velocity on load & operational time 61

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