Shapes & Sizes
Hand forgings are most commonly produced in simple shapes, such as squares, rectangles, biscuits, and multi-faced rounds. However, when a more complex forging would save later machining costs and enhance the metallurgical and mechanical properties of a part, it's often desirable to produce custom hand forgings embodying a more complex design.
In such cases, the internal metal structure can be controlled to a remarkable degree with an appropriately designed, contoured hand forging. Besides saving metal and improving mechanical properties, contoured hand forgings may permit heat treating and aging operations to be performed without intermediate machining, since sections of such forgings can be made to fall within thickness limits that allow heat treatment for optimal properties.
Standard Shapes
Standard-shape hand forgings can be described without the aid of a drawing. The predominant direction of grain flow is normally longitudinal in squares, rectangles, and multi-faced rounds. In biscuits, the predominant grain flow is usually radial.
Squares, rectangles, and multi-faced rounds.
Biscuits.
Specialty Shapes
When a hand forging must closely approximate the shape of a finished part, or when machining or metallurgical considerations warrant special techniques, more complex contoured shapes may be fabricated. Such special shapes may provide maximum directional properties and may substantially reduce machining costs — or may even eliminate the expense of regular forging dies.
Please submit your drawings or specialty requirements. If special grain flow characteristics are required, note this in the part specification at the time of inquiry.
Contoured hand forgings require drawings for their proper description, and may be shaped by forging, sawing, or machining — or a combination of these methods. They are closer to the configuration of the finished-part design than is ordinarily the case with standard shapes, and eliminate considerable subsequent machining time. The shapes may vary widely in complexity; in general, the contoured hand-forging process is facilitated by keeping tapers and bosses symmetrical. Small recesses, holes, and notches are left full, to be subsequently machined by the customer.
As a contoured hand forging increases in complexity, the cost per pound generally rises. However, such designs can easily save enough metal and subsequent machining time to compensate for the initial extra cost many times over. In contoured shapes, the stock is often worked to lighter sections, so that better mechanical properties may be achieved.