Hot forging is done at the highest temperature without destroying the metallurgical elements of the considered alloy. The temperature has to be maintained all through the process above a particular minimal, depending on the alloy.
Benefits of hot forging
Fasteners manufacturers in India perform hot forging process to make different shapes, and the dies are cheap to produce, so it is generally used for small batches and shapely components. Other forging processes, such as warm and cold forging are used for high volume production such as automotive, and fasteners elements, with less geometry, for which complicated dies can be designed, and amortized on a high volume of parts produced with.
Hot forging brings you the following benefits;
- Excellent ductility
- Good surface quality
- Ability to produce customized parts
- High formability ratios
- Reduced yield strength and so less energy needed
- Enhanced diffusion and so decreased chemical inhomogeneity
Elements to consider when doing hot forging
Cooling: Cooling should be done with great care as it can brings the risk of warpage.
Tolerances: This is one important element to consider when choosing hot forging. Less precise dimensional tolerance should be chosen compared to cold forging.
Flash: Hot forging is divided into forgings with and without flash. Flash includes complicated 3D geometries when compared to the flashless one, and is normally limited to axisymmetric elements or elements with cyclic symmetric geometries.
Dies: Dies used for hot forging are customized to match the clients’ part designs. The procedure is done with drop, power drop or counterblow hammers, screw or hydraulic presses and other similar machinery to compact the heated metal into the needed part shape. Dies used in hot forging goes through different thermal cycle and mechanical loading, plastic deformation, cracking, thermal fatigue cracking; therefore wear should be considered well. To keep the life of dies longer, good ductility and toughness and increased levels of both hot hardness and hot tensile power are needed.
Best materials for hot forging
SS bolts and nuts for hot forging are used to produce a wide spectrum of parts, and are performed with ferrous and non-ferrous metal alloys as;
- Free-cutting steels
- Structural steels
- Aluminum and magnesium wrought alloys
- Stainless steels
- Molybdenum alloys
- Titanium alloys
- Nickel/cobalt alloys
Most of the steel alloys are hot forged as they work hardening on hard materials and as the process advances, their deformation becomes more difficult. Besides this, it is economically interesting to hot forge materials, such as steel and then carry out a heat treatment. Hot forging is considered as the best available manufacturing process for complicated shapes, high-duty alloys and heavy-weight elements.
Industries that can benefit from hot forging
Hot forging product applications are generally found in agricultural, automotive, aerospace and construction configurations, which demand strength and durability. Choose the masters in the whole spectrum of forging methods so that you can grab a complete development of elements, it can be hot, warm or cold forged. Ensure the team has solid metallurgical knowledge to adjust all necessary parameters to guarantee clients the flawless design, simulation and execution of the whole process.