Increase Forging Value With Turnkey Machining Solutions

Partnering with a full-service forger like Presrite means you won’t have to make dozens of calls looking for vendors, and instead will have a one stop vendor with the capability to deliver partially or fully finished forgings. When time is money, here are just a few ways the right forging partner can accelerate your parts to the finish line.

Heat Treating & Cooling Techniques

There are multiple bottom-line reasons for heat treating, from increased forging consistency to enhanced part performance. These processes are designed to improve steel’s metallurgical properties, such as increasing durability and machinability.

Heat treating techniques may include:

• Annealing – The forging is heated and then allowed to cool gradually to improve the metal stability, so it’s less likely to crack or fracture.
• Normalizing – The part is held under extreme heat, as high as 1700°F, then air cooled to increase ferritic grains in the steel for consistency.
• Quenching/hardening – After heating, the forging is “shock” cooled in a tank of oil, water, or other “quench” fluid, to increase surface hardness.
• Tempering – Normally performed after quenching, the part is heated long enough at high temperatures to increase the steel’s ductility.

In some cases, heat treating steps can be eliminated with a special process called controlled conveyor cooling. After a forging comes hot off the press and is trimmed, it is slowly cooled as it moves through the conveyor and to its holding position. This process is ideal for parts and components that require more durability and less ductility.

Stamping & CNC Machining

A full-service forger like Presrite can apply multiple techniques to manipulate forgings to create custom features for specific machining requirements, such as drilling holes in crawler pads that can be assembled with pins.

Additional value-adding turnkey services may include:

• Hot stamping – The forging is heated until it is malleable enough to create pressed letterings, branding, or other relief features.
• Cold coining or stamping – Instead of heating, the metal is punched inside the die to increase part tolerance and create features on flat stock.
• CNC machining – CNC machining can improve the forging surface finish and a qualified supplier should provide CNC straight turn, bore, face, and broach operations.
• Mill-turn CNC – Also, more complex Mill-Turn CNC operations with up to 4-axis milling can provide a production solution to purchase finished products.

Cleaning & Quality Control

To produce gears and other forgings that are close to finished products, steel impurities should be removed, such as the oxide flakes that can collect on the part. Full-service forgers can use a tumbler machine that uses centrifugal force to bounce “shot” off the parts. The forgings are shot blast cleaned until the steel surface is free of debris. This reduces contamination in the machining process.

Additional quality control procedures can ensure consistent part precision and performance. These measures may include:

• Charpy impact testing, where a notched forging is hit repeatedly with increasing pounds of pressure per impact to determine failure rate.
• Elongation testing, where ends of the forging are grabbed and pulled to test tensile strength.
• Hot inspections, which are conducted before each newly forged part cools. Final inspections should also be conducted before shipment.

Value-Adding Turnkey Services

A full-service forger, Presrite is your turnkey machining solution, providing a broad range of value-adding services to produce more complete parts that require less cleanup and finishing prior to machining.

These turnkey services include:

• Heat treating and micro conveyor cooling options that are best suited for each forged part’s expected machining requirements.
• Cold coining or stamping, where the metal is punched inside the die to increase part tolerance and create features on flat stock.
• Shot blast cleaning, as well as coating and painting services to produce purchase-finished parts.
• Time-saving CNC machining and other automation options, including Fanuc and Faro robotic technology.
• In-house tooling with qualified engineers who are well-versed in industry-specific tool and die requirements.

Our engineering and quality assurance teams are staffed by ISO-certified professionals, many of whom have over 25 years experience in forging and machining solutions. Plus, our state-of-the-art Technical Center gives us the ability to work closely with your team to design forgings for your unique industry specifications.

Contact us today to to learn how Presrite’s forging engineers can work with you to save time and money for your organization. Or read our white paper to learn how our turnkey machining solutions can reduce your production time and costs.