Vertical Integration
Vertical integration allows us to expand our business into areas that are at different points on the same production path.
One Roof, Start to Finish
American Handforge is vertically integrated, which allows us to expand our business into areas that are at different points on the same production path. Vertical integration helps us reduce costs and improve efficiency by decreasing transportation expenses and reducing turnaround time — along with the advantages below.
Increased Quality
Processes are controlled and maintained in-house, preventing the long lead times, delays, and quality problems typical when using multiple suppliers.
Shorter Lead Times
Multiple suppliers add transport time and cost without adding value. All functions under one roof means more efficient production and shorter lead times.
Reduced Delays
More control over the entire process. Multiple suppliers often mean unforeseen delays when an outsourced step runs behind.
Convenience
A single source means you don't spend time coordinating, tracking, and shipping product between suppliers — we do it all in-house.
Save Time
Stop coordinating production across multiple suppliers. We can handle your job from raw material to shipping, start to finish.
Raw Materials, Stocked and Ready
American Handforge stocks various types of aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium alloys, so we have product on hand when you need it — reducing lead time and delivery schedules. That means faster quotes, shorter lead times, and quicker delivery to you. American Handforge commonly stocks millions in raw material, in various shapes, sizes, and configurations, to help ensure quickturnaround when you need it.
Sawing: Precision Cuts, Minimal Waste
The sawing operation is an important part of the vertical integration process at American Handforge. Sawing consists of cutting initial stock before forging. Precision cuts allow us to minimize any waste of raw material, reducing your parts' end cost.
American Handforge controls the speed, feed rate, and pressure at which the blade is fed into the material, in order to process it effectively and efficiently. We've developed optimal matrix patterns for all the materials we process, so we eliminate mistakes and keep your project on schedule.
Forging: Matched to Your Application
Different products require different metalworking processes. American Handforge provides open die forgings, special shape or bent forgings, and forged rings. Depending on your product needs and specifications, we're happy to work with you in finding your solution.
For forgings and special-cut forgings, American Handforge can process your material in a way that optimizes its performance characteristics. Whether cold work, cross-grain, hot forge, upset, upset & cross-grain, or warm work, talk to us about which method will work best for you.
It's important, when designing a new product or redesigning an existing one, to select the process that delivers the right material properties for you. Our vast forging capacity means American Handforge can handle your work — whether it's an order of 1,000, or 1.
Forging Techniques: A Glossary
Permanent plastic deformation of a metal at a temperature below its recrystallization point — low enough to produce strain hardening. Usually, but not necessarily, conducted at room temperature. Also referred to as cold forming or cold forging. Contrast with hot working.
To restrike a forging cold in order to hold to closer tolerance, sharpen corners or outlines, reduce section thickness, flatten a particular surface, increase hardness, or add lettering.
Preliminary working of forging stock in alternate planes, usually on flat dies, to develop mechanical properties — particularly in the center portions of heavy sections.
Same as hot working — plastically deforming an alloy at a temperature above its recrystallization point, i.e., high enough to avoid strain hardening.
A method of forming parts by pressing a heated slug, cut from wrought material, in a closed-impression die.
A combination of Cross-Grain forging — work done on alternate planes — and Upset Forging, used to increase the cross-sectional area of a portion or all of the stock.
(1) A forging made by upsetting an appropriate length of bar, billet, or bloom. (2) Working metal to increase the cross-sectional area of a portion or all of the stock. (3) A forging formed by heading or gathering material by pressure upon hot or cold metal between dies operated in a horizontal plane. This method is not used as frequently for copper alloys as it is for steels, for example, due to the ability of copper to be easily extruded.
Deformation at elevated temperatures below the recrystallization temperature. The flow stress and rate of strain hardening are reduced with increasing temperature, so lower forces are required than in cold working. For steel, temperatures range from about 1000°F to just below the normal hot working range of 1900 to 2300°F.
Heat Treating: Controlled, Consistent, In-House
American Handforge's ability to handle your needs in-house means single-source convenience you can rely on. Since it's all done under one roof, you benefit from increased quality, faster delivery, and consistency throughout the process.
Properly heat treating your material is key to getting the right material characteristics for your process. American Handforge has state-of-the-art controllers. Our furnaces are periodically surveyed and maintained to ensure set-point accuracy, and that variation within the chamber meets our standards. This results in better control of processing parameters, which translates to optimum properties that meet your specifications. American Handforge is continually evaluating our heat treating processes to maximize material performance.
Knowing the right time-and-temperature relationships is essential to giving you optimal material properties. Our services include annealing and/or stress relieving, quenching, and solution annealing — services that contribute to our reliable delivery record.
Testing: Verifying Every Lot
American Handforge provides testing for mechanical properties (tensile, yield, elongation), grain size, hardness, and conductivity.
Non-destructive test (NDT) services — such as dye penetrant, ultrasonic, and radiographic testing — round out the services American Handforge can provide for you.