Main Steps Of A Perfect Hot Forging Process

The hot forging process is not a complicated as some people make it appear. It is a process that should not include a lot of complicated steps. In this guide, we are making it easy for you. We have put together the main steps that make a perfect hot forging process. If you want to hot forge, here are the steps to follow:

Have The Metal and Machine Ready

Start with organizing for the hot forging. The first thing is getting the right metal for forging if you want a product with certain features, you need a metal that will produce these features. The other thing you need to do is preparing the hot forging press. These are the machines that produce the compression needed to press the blanks to form the required product. Check the tonnage and all the aspect of the machine.

Mold Design and Making

The second step is designing and making the mold. The mold depends on the shape and size of the product you want to hot forge. The design and the making of the mold is not a big complicated with modern technology. With CAD software, you can easily design and used the machining equipment to produce a highly accurate mold.

Heating the Billet

With the mold or die ready, it is time to heat the material you want to forge. Depending on the metal that you want to forge, they have different forging temperature. Therefore, you need to know the crystallization temperature the metal you want to for. The trick is heat the billet till it gets into a molten form. This is the time it has already reached plastic deformation making it easy to hot forge.

Forge the Billet

With the biller already in molten form, preform it a bit before placing it on the mold. This helps to avoid having some of the billet getting out the mold. Then press the hot metal against the two molds using the hydraulic press punch. That’s how you get hot forged products.

Heat Treatment

To improve the forged part strength and hardness, you must treat with heat. Depending on the metal and expected products properties, the treatment may differ from heating to cooling. Some may require soaking in industrial soaps.

Finishing Work

If the surface is a bit rough, you can use the machining equipment to smooth then it. If you want to engrave the product for marketing, all this is done at this hot forging process stage. Finishing gives the product the expected look.