Quoting the job:
Let’s say you are asked to quote a new job for a customer. You can very quickly generate a preliminary simulation, which gives you detailed information that allows you to accurately quote the job competitively but with a comfortable profit margin.
You can quickly and accurately determine:
- what press you will need to run it on
- what size billet will be required and scrap percentage
- how many blows it will require
- what kind of production rate you can expect
- you can get a good idea of what kind of die life you can expect
The simulation arms you with the data necessary to quote the job with confidence.
Sales and marketing:
The simulation allows you to make a great presentation to the customer. Your sales people can go to the customer with QForm Viewer on a laptop computer and show the customer exactly what you intend to do.
Video files and pictures can easily be generated and emailed. This is an extremely effective tool for communicating particularities of the forging with the customer.
The impressive 3-D graphics also provides quite a “wow” factor, which can help give your shop the advantage, and allows you to represent to your customer that you are a technically advanced forge shop.
Forging design:
Your designers fine-tune the geometry to:
- optimize material flow
- eliminate any excess waste
- optimize preform shapes
- minimize overall load and determine the required press/hammer size
- Insure that no defects occur
You will be sure that when you start production on the new part, you will be producing defect free parts with a minimum of waste.
Die design:
Your die designers work to maximize die life. They can experiment with:
- inserts
- shrink rings
- die cooling or heating
- different die materials and hardness’s
Before you cut your first die, you will be confident of getting good die life with no premature die failure.
Usually the savings in dies alone can easily justify the cost of the software!
Metallurgy:
Your metallurgical department can maximize metallurgical properties by:
- Anylyzing grain size with microstructure module
- Analyzing phase constitution with heat treat module
- Seeing if any part of the workpiece exceeds some critical temperature at any point
- Looking at the machined part contour inside the forging to see the qualities at the machined part surface
- Experimenting with different die temperatures
- Experimenting with different initial temperatures of the work piece
- Adjusting the time between blows
- Adjusting the time the billet sits on the die
- Analyzing the grain flow within the forging
- Determining if the part will require intermediate re-heating
Shop floor instruction:
Once your process has been completely designed, your operators can play the simulation to see the particularities of the forging before they begin to run the job. They can see exactly how the material flows and what the forging should look like after each impression. They can see if the forging needs to be flipped over between impressions, and they can see where lubrication is critical or how various billet placements will affect the forging.
Forge Technology, Inc. 