3.5 Designing Products Made From Forgings

As early as possible, preferably in the preliminary design stage, the designer should:

• Select the appropriate forging process
• Select the optimum alloy
• Decide whether heat treatment is required and, if so, select the optimum process.

These decisions will enable the designer to work toward a forgeable shape, and optimize feature sizes based on functional and structural requirements. Often more than one forging process may be selected, and frequently there are several combinations of alloy and heat treatment that may be used, particularly in the ferrous alloy group.

• Factors that drive the process selection are discussed in Section 3.4.2.
• Factors driving the selections of alloys and heat treatment are discussed in Section 4, and summarized in Section 3.5.3 below.

The design of a product to be made by forging typically proceeds as follows:

1. The purchaser designs the finished part, and submits the design to the selected forging company.
2. The forging company generally provides design assistance to the design engineer, based on finished part specifications.
3. The forging company:
   • designs the tools
   • develops the process
   • may recommend an alternate forging alloy or heat treatment.