February 2020 Volume 2

INDUSTRY NEWS & CALENDAR

Experience with Industry 4.0 at Equipment In Open/Closed Die Forging Shops and Visions in Automation Rainer Dango, Dango &Dienenthal Maschinebau Presentation Room A It is obvious that industrial plants and engineering of special machines, as well as the design of commodities, have a new focus today since the opportunities the Internet offers along with cloud and server-based applications are continuously growing. Dango & Dienenthal has implemented options in this respect to support predictive maintenance and plant operation with machine data and its analysis via telemetric services. Within a conservative environment like an open die forging plant it could be successfully demonstrated to capture a lot of operational data and after analyzing this data by data specialists to find correlations and define threshold values systematically according to analysis. A different but most interesting topic within the field of Industry 4.0 is the autonomous movement of special machinery in the plant. The Dutch company Hencon, a rather new member of the Dango & Dienenthal Group, has developed such machinery for material transportation in some Aluminum smelters in the world. It is obvious that one want to benefit of this development within the group for other mobile equipment, such as transport manipulators in forging plants. Another topic of this paper is a newly developed special machine tool that is capable to cut rolled rings and sleeves into thin slices. This Ring Cutting Machine is just now being launched by Dango & Dienenthal. The use of that machine significantly reduces the material consumption and the machining time. At the same time, the accuracy and surface flatness of the end product is within the lowest tolerances. The first test pieces have been produced on a prototype machine with very good results. With add-on modules, the machine becomes a machining centre that performs several functions such as turning, milling or drilling or ultrasonic testing in one clamping process.

Enhancing Tool Life by Manipulating the Punch &Die Elastic Strain Field During Forging Gracious Ngaile, North Carolina State University Presentation Room B In the forging industry, tool life is a major factor in the cost of forgings, productivity, and part integrity. This presentation will discuss a new methodology of enhancing the tool life of forging tools by manipulating the elastic strain field induced in the die and punches during forging, such that the contact stresses at the tool workpiece interface are minimized or eliminated during punch ejection and release of the forging from the dies. The retained contact stress at the tool-workpiece interface after the forging load is released is mainly attributed to the spring-back of the dies/ punches. The retained contact stress has detrimental effects on tool life, as it exacerbates tool wear, increases temperature dissipation from the workpiece to the tools, and worsens the tribological conditions. Finite element simulations of the proposed forging tooling architectures which facilitate the relaxation of elastic strain field in the die at the end of the forging stoke will be presented. To assess the viability of this technique, a number of forging geometries have been simulated including, CV joint, pinion shaft, hub spindle, and gearbox main shaft. The researchers are currently developing a laboratory-scale tooling setup for experimental validation. How Forging Simulation Saves Time andMoney Nick Biba, Qform/Forge Technology, Inc. Presentation RoomC Simulation is significantly more cost effective than the outdated trial and error method of forging design and simulation ensures the shortest time period from the start of design to delivery of the optimal product. Simulation eliminates the need for shop floor verification of designs that takes a press out of production as well as eliminates the high cost related to trial tools and potential tool modifications. Simulation of the entire forging process ensures that the final product will be delivered quickly and defect free with the dimensional and mechanical properties required by the customer. This presentation will evaluate several multi-step forging operations and show how simulating various methods can eliminate defects and optimize production very quickly without any shop floor trials. Many real-world examples will compare actual forgings with simulated results from QForm simulation software. Special tools in QFormwill be used to identify laps, non-fill and other material flow issues. ■

FIA MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020 23