An Investigation for the Performance of the Design of Hot Forging Die and Workpiece

Abstract

Hot forging is a metalworking process in which metals are plastically deformed above their recrystallization temperature, allowing the material to retain its deformed shape as it cools. In today's industry, the performance of the tools used during the hot forging process has always been a subject of interest. Although it is known that, the tool life used affects 10% of the design costs of the total budget, 80% of the total production costs are determined during the design stages. For this reason, minimizing mechanical stress and changing the die design, so as to optimize the tool life and reduce the cost, have been attractive. In this study, finite volume analysis was performed on 31CrV3 steel using the multi-stage forming process of hot closed die forging using Simufact Forming v16 software. 56NiCrMoV7 hot work tool steel was used as die material and X153CrMoV12 as template blade raw material. In this article, 3 state variables, effective plastic strain, equivalent stress and temperature were evaluated for two different die designs of multi-stage forming processes such as pre-forming, final forging, and cutting. The results were compared for cost for single and dual dies. For both die designs, the initial temperature of the billet is 1100-1200 ºC and the die temperature is 100-110 ºC. Finally, comparative analyzes of both die designs for three state variable parameters were performed in terms of mechanical properties and cost. The main focus is on calculating mechanical properties and cost based on available process parameters using subroutines during the incorporation of different die designs. According to the results obtained from the simulation study, the manufacturability of the product has been proven, the effect of the changes in the die and workpiece design on the cost have been investigated, and the final performance has been revealed by evaluating the profit rate.