Machining a forging

Scott:

Our standard draft angle ranges from 5 to 7 degrees. We use 7 the most. If a part has a fairly deep, narrow cavity (deeper than it is wide) we may go to 10 to prevent sticking. The draft angles don't really vary with the part size.

Fillets & corner radii vary a lot more. Our standard here is to have .094" corners and .125" fillets, but .063" for both is also fairly common. Some of our smaller parts have corners as small as .031" where necessary (clevis legs, for instance, or the flats on a hydraulic fitting) but this is best kept to shallow features where the stress concentrations in the die aren't going to be a huge problem, or where a thin rib leaves room only for that.

Fillets are usually more critical because they become corners in the die, which metal must flow around. Picture a rib standing from a flat part, with fillets at the base. As the dies close, metal flows around these fillets into the rib. If the fillet is too sharp, it won't quite make the corner, but will leave a gap, and as the rib fills, the metal may turn back on itself, leaving a crack at the rib base. Yuck.

Tougher material also calls for larger radii, because it flows less readily.

This has not been the most orderly post, unfortunately, but I hope I have answered your questions.

Cordially yours: Gerard Pawlowski Lakeview Forge Co.

P.S. Cliff: True enough that we have some good alloys nowadays. Unfortunately they aren't always easy to get, but that wasn't my point, really. I have on my desk a forged brake part that has been cut in half and etched to bring out the grain patterns, which follow the part's contour quite closely. With a hogged-out part, you can't get this; the grain follows the original block. This isn't so good for fatigue resistance. Of course the parts were probably heinously overdesigned to begin with, if they are government parts...

Reply to
autobus_prime
Loading thread data ...

Thanks very much.

This answers my questions perfectly.

Scott

Reply to
Scott

That's what we do also. Start out with both forge and finished parts and create the forging model. Then each of the machining operations gets it's own configuration. That way, when designing the machining fixtures, we know exactly how the partially finished part is going to look in the fixture.

Reply to
Jo

My opinion is that it depends on the product and the situation:

1 You can predict the end result of a machined forged part by simulating it in SolidWorks (use casting as base-part / assembly cuts method). 2 You can work fast and model the machined part you need and derive the casting from it (use machined part as base part / configurations method).This method does allow you to re-use your casting...

Michiel

Reply to
Michiel

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.