Metals, in industries, like manufacturing, construction, aircraft and automotive play a vital role. A highly ductile form of metal is required by these sectors for manufacturing of various necessary units like vehicles, transportation and other significant units. For this reason, forging has become an important process in extrusion of metals.
Forging is a process which is carried for forming or molding of metals. It is done through various methods that are different for different metals and are used according to their temperature. Different lubricants are used for carrying out this process and most common of them are MoS2, graphite, synthetics, and glass. Glass lubricants for forging process are used as they are very brittle even at higher temperatures. So, for this reason these glass lubricants are used in hot forging process which is carried at a temperature of 1300 degrees Celsius and is later reduced to 750 degrees Celsius.
During this process, a forged glass coating is formed over metals which are water based and lead free. This glass coating is inculcated with high lubrication and heat insulation properties. So, they are used for forging of some specific alloys of metals like titanium, stainless steel, tungsten, and nickel. Some of the benefits that make this process important as a forging lubricant for aircraft industry are as follows:
– This process prevents oxidization of metals that has undergone forged process. So, it helps the structures prepared from these metals to remain in its original shape and prevents their reaction with oxygen.
– This is an excellent lubricant as it takes the form of plastic at higher temperatures.
– Most importantly forged glass is the only lubricant that can bear so much high temperature without losing its scientific properties.
A common forging process used in aerospace industry is seamless ring rolling forging. In this process a hole is punched in thick, piece of metal which creates its shape like a donut. After this these pieces are drawn under rolling and squeezing process into a ring. The diameter of ring varies according to the quantity of metal to be forged.
These seamless rings rollers can be either flat or cylindrical in shape. The height of these configurations varies between half inches to 9 feet. All this depends on the equipment utilized and according to it wall thickness and height are proportioned. The common ratio range is 1:16 at the bottom and 16:1 at the top, but this can vary in case of special processings.
Forging process is vital for increasing ductility and tangential strength of metals that make them suitable for components that are resistant to pressure like engines for aircraft, couplings, gears, rotor pacers, cases and sealed discs, pressure vessels, wheel bearings, valve bodies and flanges.