Parametric study of metal flow in closed die forging

Abstract

The objective of the present work is to study the influence of input parameters on the metal flow during the closed die forging process. The forging data of actual parts with different shape complexity factor, being manufactured in the industry was collected for the simulation of forging process in virtual environment. The input parameters considered were billet size, shape, temperature, coefficient of friction and flash allowance. Response Surface Methodology was used to design the combinations of input parameters for simulated experimentation. The designed experiments were simulated in four sets for each part, by varying the shape of billet and flash allowance. The results from round and square billets were compared to study the effect of the change in billet shape on the forging process. Further, square and round billet, each was simulated first using flash allowance that was currently used in the industry, then using ISO recommended flash allowance criteria to minimize the flash production. Extensive simulations were performed for each part and the results were observed for folding and underfilling defects. The set of input parameters which resulted in minimum defects were chosen for further quantitative analysis. The quantitative output responses were effective stress, effective plastic strain, effective strain rate, material flow rate and die wear that were analyzed using Analysis of Variance. newline