DYNA JOURNAL ENGINEERING

Key words:

Conformado semisólido, tixoconformado, acero, automoción, moldes, Semisolid forming, tixoforming, steel, automotive, dies

Article type:

ARTICULO DE INVESTIGACION / RESEARCH ARTICLE

Section:

RESEARCH ARTICLES

Due to raw material and production costs, near net shaping of mechanical components will become a key factor to get the desired competitiveness. Semi-solid forming is one of those near net shape forming techniques, which shows a great potential for material and energy savings. In order to verify that sound commercial parts can be produced, commercial automotive spindles have been manufactured. The material employed for that purpose has been the LTT C45, a material especially designed for semi-solid processes and supplied by Ascometal. In comparison with the conventional forge process, the manufacturing steps have been reduced from 3 to 1, as well as it has been used a press of 4.000 kN instead of the 25.000 kN one. On the other hand, through the analysis of the mechanical properties and defects, validation of the process has been confirmed. In parallel, a study on used dies in this process has been performed. The first ones, made of 1.2344 steel, failed after 72 cycles, while the seconds, made of 1.2344 as well but with a heat treatment and nitruration, still do not exhibit any damage or degradation