If the forging industrial process is stable and steady, it generates profit!

Today more than ever it is very important that the industrial process, in our case the hot forging one, remains stable and steady during operations time. As a matter of fact, by achieving this goal it is possible to generate profit.

The costs increase in raw materials, energy and specialized personnel is a more and more important and relevant constant for every manufacturing business. The profit of each order or job must always deal with these variables which can hardly be controlled.

The production stability can be controlled: the process must always be repeatable in the performances and must grant steady operative costs.

The metals hot forging is not an exception. Annual productions can reach tens of millions of pieces and each of these must be produced following the expected and planned parameters, the profit expectation must be guaranteed!

How is it possible to manage, monitor and correct tens of parameters, for millions of parts, granting the stability?

It is possible to grant the process stability even when millions of parts are produced and the process parameters are numerous, in this way:

Statistics teaches that Cp and Cpk parameters are fundamental for controlling the progress of the forging process, for each variable in fact they are the key to understand its stability.

The example of the shooting with darts game allows you to quickly understand the concept:

a good Cp indicates that we are very repeatable in our shots, but it does not mean that we are hitting the target.

Only by obtaining a good Cpk, too, as a matter of fact, the optimal result is guaranteed!

=> Cp e Cpk must be much higher than one.

Let’s move on to a practical forging example:

• Forging a batch of 25,000 water meters.

• or forging a batch of 50,000 gas control valves

The dimensions of the forged parts are determined:

1. by the surfaces of the part shape created in the die.

Cp depends on the presses rigidity performance and on the die design.

Cpk depends on the correct evaluation of the material shrinkage, which is related  to the forging temperatures, to the part geometry and raw material chemical composition.

2. by the punches involved in the material deformation.

Cp is obtained from punches rigidity and thrust force.

Cpk is obtained from the possibility to adjust the punch arrival position.

During the forging tests carried out with our customers from all over the world, the dimensional statistical analyses carried out on the produced samples (batches of thousands of pieces) have demonstrated that Cp and Cpk parameters were always abundantly and stably higher than one.

The complex geometries or the parts dimensions are not a problem.

How could we maintain the forging industrial process stable on our ME Hydraulic Presses?

• Mecolpress presses are equipped with Calipso software for operative parameters setting and their continuous control. Calipso, software entirely developed by Mecolpress, allows you to control the main process parameters in real time (forging forces, position, speed, …). Even before measuring the pieces, it is possible to understand if the forging process is stable and guarantees constant performance.

• Our presses are designed with advanced calculation systems (FEM) which allow to predict the rigidity of the components with the utmost precision, minimizing their deformations, even if subjected to high loads.
  => Cp under control

• We have designed our hot forging presses in order to have the highest possible dies closing force and maximum punch thrust force.
  => Cp under control

• The stroke adjustment of the individual punches occurs in real time, thus allowing the related dimensions to be modified during production.
  => Cp under control

• The long experience in dies design and the collaboration with the best specialized companies in the sector have allowed us to create the dies with extreme accuracy, in order to guarantee stable production of the pieces.
  => Cp under control