November 2024 Volume 6

FORGING RESEARCH

FIERF RESEARCH GRANTS & PROJECT UPDATES

T he Forging Foundation (FIERF) annually awards grants to advance the science of forging and to engage students and professors in industry-relevant research. The FIERF Board of Trustees has implemented the use of a Stage Gate Process to manage industry research projects over $10,000 or one year in length. Grant requests of less than $10,000 and one year in length may complete a Micro-Grant application. Industry participation in the form of industry representatives and/or partners is required for funding. Below is a compilation of the current projects being funded by FIERF. *New* Investigation of Anti-Scale High Temperature Coatings for Forging Cleveland State University Industry Partner: IMT/PC Forge The goals of this project are 1) Identify new anti-scale high tempera ture coatings and compare their oxidation protection performance with previously used coatings by performing weight/height loss anal ysis, XRD, and SEM-EDS. 2) Investigate the coating behavior and protection mechanisms. The focus is on minimizing or eliminating any potential surface reactions between the coating and the steel. 3) Explore the effect of a “primer oxide coating” on preventing bonding between the coating and the forging billet during the preheating. 4) Check the benefits of this approach for other forgeable steels like 15-5 PH stainless steels. 5) Provide actionable, cost-effective and practical Industry Partner: Ellwood Materials Technologies The goal of this project is to determine whether the skin effect in induction heating can accelerate metallurgical kinetics in the same manner as resistive (Joule) heating. In this proposal, it is hypoth esized that the eddy currents induced in the skin effect layer during induction heating can cause the same acceleration of metallurgical kinetics. Specifically, it is hypothesized that the kinetics of both recrystallization and grain growth will be accelerated. *New* Exoskeleton for Reducing Injuries in the Forging Industry recommendations for industrial implementation. *New* The Role of Induction Heating in Microstructure Evolution University of Florida

showed the most strain/pain occurred in the wrist and back. Both anatomical sites could benefit from an exoskeleton. (b) Collect addi tional biomechanical data on workers performing different tasks. (c) Develop an exoskeleton that addresses the problem of musculoskel etal fatigue an cumulative trauma in the upper extremity. *New* Development of a Joint Modeling- and Experimental-Based Methodology to Evaluate Heat Checking Resistance in Open-Die Forge Tooling Michigan Technological University Industry Partner: Scot Forge The goals of this project are 1) Develop a thermal-mechanical fatigue-based testing methodology that physically simulates the heat checking mechanism in die steels. 2) Evaluate the heat checking resistance of various die steels through experimental out-of-phase thermal-mechanical fatigue testing. 3) Develop a quantitative, mate rial property-based relationship to predict heat checking resistance of different die steels. 4) Correlate microstructural changes during thermal-mechanical cycling to heat checking performance. *New* Design of a Micro-scale Forging Machine for Rapid Assessment of Additive Manufactured Die The goal of this project is to design, build, and test a micro-scale forging machine for rapid assessment of additive manufactured die coatings for die repair. The micro-scale forging machine will contain replaceable small flat cylindrical punches which are composed of standard die material. Automation of the workpiece will be achieved using an Arduino system, which will engage with either a rotating stage or a stage which can move in both x- and y-planes. The small die-head punches on the micro-forging machine will be assessed before, during, and after testing using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Friction Stir Processing as a Manufacturing Pathway for Forging Preforms Colorado School of Mines Industry Partner: Queen City Forging The goal of this project is to determine the feasibility of using friction stir processing to create bulk samples of high-temperature aluminum alloys that can be used as forging pre-forms. Currently, these alloys can only be processed via rapid solidification, which precludes the manufacture of bulk samples. Coatings for Die Repair University of North Texas Industry Partner: Queen City Forging

Cleveland State University Industry Partner: SIFCO

The goal of this project is to reduce injury risk within the forging industry by: (a) Utilizing the results of a FIERF micro-grant that focused on injury prevalence in workers in a forging plant. The study

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2024 62