The 1981 North American Forging Technology Conference was held on December 1-2, 1981, in Atlanta, Georgia. It was sponsored by the Forging Committee of the ASM Mechanical Working and Forming Division in cooperation with The Forging Industry Association. The obje‹ tive of the conference was to review and  disseminate  recent  tech- I1O !*8!‘ t’£1l developments related to forgin 8 With elTlphasis on improved utilization of raw material, tooling, machinery, and new processes. The 250 or so conference partit ipants included  overseas attendees from  Japan, Australia,  France,  and  West Germany .  It  was a well-attended and informative event, featui ing  15 presentations  (without publication). The highli ghts of each presentation are covered in this report, along with the detailed conference program  listing  and plans for  next year’s  c onference.70173

AUTOMATION   AND PRODUCTIVITY

The conference began with a presentation by J . Sniezek on Rockwell International’s experience with the forging of close-tolerance drive axle spindles at their Morristown plant. In addressing the background and activities of this plant, Mr. Sniezek indicated that Rockwell’s  1977  decision to build the plant was driven by a desire to change the traditional hot-and-dirty image of the forging industry. Completed in December 1978, the Morristown Forge Facil- ity covers 7 1,000 square feet under the roof,  permits the latest in integrated forging technology, and features a non- union staff with no time clocks. The plant’s Lasco Spindle Forging Line, manufactured by Lasco of Coburg, West Ger- many, was highlighted in a movie  shown  by  the speaker. The spindle line starts with 4 Uz-inch diameter steel bars, 18 to 20 feet in length, delivered one at a time from an 800-ton hydraulic shear into an unscrambler.  Following orientation and weighing, the bars drop on a conveyor for delivery to   an

S. RAJAGOPAL, Manager, Mechanical Systems  and  Design, IIT  Research  Institute,  Chicago,  Illinois 60616.

Ajax Magnatherm 1650 kW induction heater where they are heated to the recommended 1750 °F forging temperature. The hot slugs are fed into the first  of  two  Lasco presses after temperature sensing by an infrared sensor. A mani- pulator pulls out slugs which fall outside the desired temperature range.论文网

In the first press, the hot slugs are busted, indented, back-extruded, pierced, and then deposited on a pad at the back of the press. From there, the parts are transferred into the second press for final extrusion to the finished  length. Die changeover is accomplished via die carts on rails which run perpendicular to the press line or part-flow direction. An automatic lubricant applicator is used to spray the tooling with a graphite-water lubricant. The dies are NC-machined from prehardened H13-type of hot-work die steel, with no further heat-treatment or grinding. They are water-cooled internally. Mr. Sniezek quoted die life figures of nearly 40,000 and 4,000 parts for the dies in the first and second press, respectively. A central control system sequences, monitors, and controls the entire operation. Overall benefits of the new line include material conservation and   improved

86 VOL.  2,  NO.  2,  JANUARY 1982

ISSN 0162-9700/82/0 106-0086$00.75/0

1982 AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR METALS J. APPLIED METALWORKING

productivity. As a result of the f 0.030 maximum ID  and OD runout, together with the absence of flash and parting lines, it is now possible to design the forgings close to net shape. Present forgings weigh 20 pounds, as opposed to 24 pounds previously. On the subject of productivity, in con- trast to conventional upsetters which typically produce 60 spindles per hour with a five-man crew, the Lasco line turns out 275 spindles per hour with a crew of only two men. The plant features 85 pct uptime, and employs a staff of 90. Along similar lines, J.L. Knott of W) man-Gordon Com- pany described the role of careful planning in achieving high machine utilization. According to Mr. Knott, Wyman- Gordon decided, in 1973, to build a new plant in Danville, Illinois, to meet the expanding needs of diesel engine manu- facturers for large crankshaft forgings (200 to 500 pounds). Clean environment, optimum machine utilization, and high overall efficiency were their main objectives. The plant fulfilled these expectations after commissioning in  1976, and has since been expanded to double its original capacity. At the very outset, the Danville township assured Wyman- Gordon of their fullest cooperation on matters relating to optimum plant operation. The company concentrated on selecting the best equipment worldwide to do the job, but contingent on immediate availability since production was scheduled to start within two years of groundbreaking. Ac- cording to Mr. Knott, any cost—cutting that was necessary was done to offices and related expenditures, but not to plant equipment. Plant layout was then selected  to  utilize  the new  equipment  best,  which  included  the  largest available