Abstract
Net shape forging technologies give many effects into the costs and qualities for the finished products. So, the studies to reduce the additional machining amount are very important in forging industry. Specially, there are two main topics in cold forging industry, such as, tool life and precision forging. In this study, new forging technique was proposed to eliminate the machining process for fixing up the length and improve the lead accuracy of gear. The luck-up hub is manufactured through many processes, such as upsetting, piercing and direct extrusion. The gear is formed in direct extrusion process; however, lead accuracy of the gear is over allowance limit. Therefore, the additional sizing process must be added. In this study, process design for closed-die forging of a lock-up hub used for a component of automobile transmission was made using three-dimensional finite element simulations, and the strain distributions and velocity distributions are investigated through the post processor. The rigid-plastic finite-element method for back pressure forging has been used in order to reduce development time and die cost. Using the FEM simulation, we found the optimum value of back pressure. The prototypes of lock-up hub parts were forged into the net-shape. In the experiment, lead precision of tooth are measured by the CCMM(Contact Coordinate Measuring Machine). The dimensional accuracy of forged part was improved up to the 40% when back press was applied.
