What is Forging?

• Forging: A forming method

which shapes a metal part
through controlled plastic
deformation.
 Advantages of Forging
• Hardness and Ductility

• Grain Flow

• Tougher Metal

• Intricate Shapes

• Impurity Uniformity
 Disadvantages of Forging
• High Temperature

• Cost

• Tolerances

• Maintenance
 The flash serves two purposes:
• Acts as a ‘safety value’ for excess metal.
• Builds up high pressure to ensure that
the metal fills all recesses of the die cavity.
Remark: It is necessary to achieve
complete filling of the forging cavity
without generating excessive pressures
against the die that may
cause it to fracture.
Closed die forging
 Die design in closed die forging
• Overall success of the forging operation
requires an understanding of flow stress of
material , frictional conditions and flow of
material in order to develop the optimum
design of dies
• The important step toward the design of
closed die forging is the classification of
shapes commonly produced in this process
• The degree of difficulty increases based on the geometry
• Roughly 70% of forgings fall in 3rd category with one dimension is
significantly longer than other two. This classification of system usefull in
cost estimation and for pre forming steps
The design of closed die involves the prediction of
• Work piece volume and weight
• Number of preforming steps and their configuration
• Flash dimensions
• The load and energy requirements for each forging operation.
• Preform design is the most difficult task( success in forging depends on
defect free flow , completely die fill, minimum flash loss)
• Metal flow consists of two basic types
• Extrusion flow- flow parallel to direction of die motion
• Upsetting -flow perpendicular to direction of die motion
• An important step in understanding the metal flow is to identify the neutral
surfaces. metal flows away from the neutral surface in a direction
perpendicular to the die motion
• In designing a preform it is usual practice to take key cross sections
through the forging and design the preform , on the basis of the metal flow
• Some general considerations
• The area at each cross section along the length must equal the area in the
finished cross section plus the flash
• All concave radii on the preform should be larger than the radii on the final
forged part
• The milestone in metal working is the use of
CAD in establishing the preforming and
finishing dies in closed die forging.
• CAD can be applied to any class shape( rib and
web type forgings) for which there is a
suitable volume of parts to justify the
development of work
 Flow diagram of CAD/CAM APPLIED TO CLOSE DIE FORMING

Material properties Forging drawing

Preform design(FORTRAN) PART geometry(APT)

Data on forging cross

N/C tape for preforming dies(APT)
sections(APT OUTPUT)

FORGING design( FORTRAN) N/C tape for finishing dies(APT)

• The CAD systems defines the geometry in terms of points, planes , cylinders and
other regular shapes using APT computer language
• APT-specialized computer language for describing geometrical changes
produced in metal cutting . That is the heart of NC machine.
• The coordinates of various cross sections of the forging are determined and used
to perform design calculations to establish factors such as location of neutral
surface, shape difficulty factor , cross sectional area volume , flash geometry ,
and the stresses , loads and the center of loading.
• An imp aspect in this system is it take the part geometry and flash dimensions to
generate the N/C code for forging
 Calculations of forging loads in closed die forging
• The prediction of forging load and pressure in closed die forging is
quite a difficult calculation.
• There are 3 general approaches
1. The approach used In many forge shops is to estimate the forging load
required for a new part from information available from previous
forgings to the same material and similar shape.
2.Empirical approach= P=(yield stress)*(At*C1)
• Where At = c/s area of the forging at the parting line including flash.
• C1 = a constraint factor which depends on the complexity of the
forging.
• C1 has a value of 1.2 to 2.5 for upsetting , 3 to 8 for close die forging
of simple shapes with flash and from 8 to 12 for more complex
shapes
3. slab analysis – used for special situations found in
forging
• This analysis does not consider non uniform
deformation
• The slab analysis for forging a plate in plane strain
has been extended to include forging between
inclined die surfaces.
• The basic approach is to divide the actual forging
into simple geometrical shapes which can be
treated by slab analysis .the total forging load is the
sum of the loads found for the components parts
 Die Failures
• Improper Die Design
• Overheating
• Excessive Wear
• Improper Material Selection
• Overloading
• Bad Alignment
• Improper Finishing
• Misuse
• Improper Setup
 Hammer Forging
• “Open-Die Forging”

• Oldest Style

• Free Fall or Steam Driven

• Low Rate and Accuracy

 Drop Forging
• Aligned Cavity Dies

• Horizontal Impact Forging

• High Accuracy

• High Tensile Strength

 Press Forging
• Large Forgings Produced

• Slow, Steady Pressure

• Uniform Deformation

• Mechanical or Hydraulic
 Forging Defects: Types, Causes and Remedies
1.) Unfilled Section:
As the name implies in this type of defect some of the forging section remain unfilled. 
This is due to poor design of die or poor forging technique. This is also due to less
raw material or poor heating. 
• This defect can be removed by proper die design, proper availability of raw
material and proper heating.
 2) Cold Shut:
Cold shut includes small cracks at corners. These defects occur due to improper design
of forging die. It is also due to sharp corner, and excessive chilling in forge product.  
• The fillet radius of the die should be increase to remove these defects.
 3) Scale Pits:
Scale pits are due to improper cleaning of forged surface. This defect generally
associated with forging in open environment. It is irregular deputations on the
surface of forging.  
• It can be removed by proper cleaning of forged surface.
4.) Die Shift:
Die shift is caused by misalignment of upper die and lower die. When both these dies are
not properly aligned the forged product does not get proper dimensions.
 
This defect can be removed by proper alignment. It can be done by provide half notch on
upper die and half on lower die so at the time of alignment, both these notches will
matched.
 
5.) Flakes:
These are internal cracks occur due to improper cooling of forge product. When the forge
product cooled quickly, these cracks generally occur which can reduced the strength of
forge product.  
• This defect can be removed by proper cooling.
 
6.) Improper Grain Growth:
This defect occurs due to improper flow of metal in forging which changes predefine grain
structure of product. 
 
• It can be removed by proper die design
 
 
7.) Incomplete Forging Penetration:
This defect arises due to incomplete forging. it is due to light or rapid
hammer blow.
 
• This defect can be removed by proper control on forging press.
 
8.) Surface Cracking:
Surface cracking occurs due to exercise working on surfaces at low
temperature. In this defect, So many cracks arise on work piece.
 
• This defect can be removed by proper control on working
temperature.
 
• The deformation produced by the forging results
in certain degree of directionality to the
microstructure in which inclusions are oriented
parallel to the direction of deformation .when
viewed at the low magnification ,this appears as
flow lines or fiber structure.
• The existence of fiber structure is a characteristic
of the forgings and it is not considered to be a
forging defect.