Development of a flexible tool system for small quantity production in cold forging

Abstract

Among the technical tasks that have to be fulfilled in order to carry out economically feasible small quantity production in cold forging, low tool costs, short design lead time and quick tool change systems are some of the most important issues. The present paper describes a flexible tool system, which makes it possible to operate with the eight basic cold forging processes; forward rod extrusion, backward can extrusion, forward tube extrusion, open die reduction, ironing, coining, upsetting and heading by changing only a few component specific tool parts like punch, die and ejector, whereas all other tool parts are standard, applicable for many different tool set-ups, thus minimizing the tool costs and the design lead time. The tool exchange time has been minimized by developing special quick tool change systems for punches and dies and a tool positioning system of the hard stop type.