Repairing Hot Forging Die with MIG welding process: Industrial application and Life cycle Analysis

Abstract

In Hot forging process, numerous factors affect service life of forging die. Since the concept of hot forging dies repair been introduced way back in 1960, various industry oriented improvements have been carried out to enhance forging die life. Initially, the repair of big dies was quite in fashion, gradually interest propagated towards smaller hot forging dies. This  research is an endeavor to bridge-up the gap in context of repair of hot forging dies for smaller automotive parts of intricate shapes (having flange and long stem like 2-wheeler Crankshafts of dimension range Flange (Ø): 80-120mm & Stem (L): 90-130mm), by using MIG welding. This research pivot around Hot forging die (finisher top, used) made up of material DB6. The trials were carried out (on 1600T hot forging press, YOM 1980). Thorough review of literature helped in designing setup and executes trial conditions effectively. Deterioration in condition of forging press is not taken into account for this Experiment. Simulation techniques were employed to assess forces prior to the actual experiment. It is pertinent to mention that first attempt shown an above mark improvement of 1.29% in die life, whereas in second trial the results are promising, die service life increased up to 11.5%. The application of this research can find its way to the medium and small scale industries working on small items having complex geometry. Prototyping will become fast and cost effective as the die developed out of used forging die, therefore the cost is low. This will also help reducing carbon footprint by re-using consumed die block.