Hollow forged products are required by several industries for many different applications. While boring was the method that was used to create such hollow pieces in the past, hollow forging has replaced the process for good. As compared to boring, hollow forging offers a number of advantages, like producing near net shapes which consume lesser materials, reduced machining, no inclusions and better quality and strength.
However, the recent advancements in the hollow forging technologies have further enhanced the forging process, resulting in the creation of forging ingot of a new shape for enhanced accuracy and convenience.
Hollow Ingot for Creating Larger Forgings
This innovative method for creating hollow ingots was actually developed for manufacturing cylinder type forgings in a cost-efficient manner. The most important benefit of this method is that the inner and outer steel pipes, as well as the intermediate refractory, can be instantly constructed and enable controlled cooling from the inner surface of ingot without defects, like cracks on the inner side.
Larger hollows up to 120 ton can be created with this new ingot shape with minimum segregation as compared to the conventionally used ingots. As a result, this new method is usually used for high-grade forgings like that of pressure vessels to reduce the production costs effectively.
Benefits of Using New Forging Ingot Shape
Conventional ingot shapes were created with the help of hot top process in which the heat from inside the ingot mold was accumulated. By replacing the hot top with cooling element, ingots with narrow shrinkage cavity which extends near the axis can be created.
When the conventional hot top is used, the axial porosity which affects the transverse dimension of the ingot can be as much as 15% of the diameter of the ingot. However, with the help of this new ingot shape and forging hammer, the affected region reduces to about 8.5% of the diameter of the ingot. As a result, removing the defective part with the help of drilling or piercing becomes easier during forging conversion.
Other benefits of Solidification
Apart from this, some of the other benefits related to solidification include-
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Shorter solidification time
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Rate of minimum solidification is high
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No rapid final solidification
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Slow solidification from the inner surface
With the help of this new forging ingot shape, forging industry can effectively reduce their production costs while also experiencing a number of additional benefits. There are many forging products manufacturer which excel in making hollow forgings of different shapes and sizes. However, some of these manufacturers use latest techniques that ensure lesser wastage and better efficiency resulting in better quality products at lower prices.
