A forging series

This forging series comes to us from Terry McInerney of Impact Forge in Columbus, IN.

Terry spoke at our ASM teacher material camp at the University of Indianapolis as part of the Forging Foundation's outreach through the camps. Terry spoke to the advantages of forged parts and brought with him a number of finished products. I asked Terry if it would be possible to have a full forging series to show my students (and campers) the process from start (the billet, the cylinder on the left above) through to the finished product (the far right) and the flash (the 'waste' that is 'cut' off in the final forging step - the ring and punched center on the farthest right).

Terry was kind enough to send me two sets of the series - one for my classroom and one to travel with (though the 40+ pound series is a bit daunting for anywhere that requires a flight.)

Terry had the following to say about this series...

In each box is a complete progression of a Ford Explorer wheel hub. One billet, preform, blocker, finished part, perimeter flash, and pierced slug. These parts are forged at 2300 degrees f in a 2500 ton mechanical press, then trimmed and pierced in a 300 ton trimming press. The material is 1045V, quite normal for hubs. The [V] represents vanadium added [for grain refinement] during the heat treatment process. A finished hub is normall around 38 to 43 RC. The parts in the condition you see are microalloy material and have been rapidly air quenched on a special cooling conveyor to reach the desired hardness. They are then shipped to the customer for machining and assembly.

Big, big, big thanks to Terry McInerney and to Impact Forge for the donation to our program.