EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF DIE CHANGE SCHEDULE IN A FORGING INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY by Mohkam Singh
Abstract
Hot Forging is a metal forming process which is applied to a wide variety of high strength automotive
components. To satisfy demand of high production rate at lower cost, it is very important to consider the life of dies. In general, the possible causes of die failure in metal forming include cracks, plastic deformation and wear.A preliminary survey of forging industries revealed that dies experience everal problems during embossing and stamping processes like surface cracks and changes in dimensional unstability etc. On an average the production need to be stopped 2-3 times in typical day. In this study, the die dismantling cycle and methods to increase die life in upset forging has been done in a local industry. The hot forging operation was carried out at a work-piece temperature of 1100°C and die temperature of 200°C for a batch of rear axle shaft on a 1200 ton horizontal upsetter. The work-piece and die materials were AISI 1038 mild steel and AISI DB 6 die steel, respectively. After changing the die material i.e.H13 die steel and implementing the graphite with water lubrication, the die life increases 50% and the production rate increases 15%. The die dismantling cycle also reduces
