AUTOMATED FORGING CENTER AS RENAISSANCE OF HAMMER FORGING IN HEAVY INDUSTRY

Modern science and industry have accumulated many efficient methods of forming by hammer forging, such as setting with shift or torsion, sec tional forging, expansion by rolls etc. However, they are difficult fo r realization on forging equipment, what hampers their adoption in ind ustry. Hence technological conservatism in forging. Even state-off-the -art forging complexes have brought no fundamental change into the ham mer forging process. Within the present work we have developed a new c omposition structure of a forging machine suitable for conventional op erations of hammer forging as well as for new operations, unusual for hammer and press forging. The structure of the machine, hereinafter re ferred to as an automated forging center (AFC) permits to solve the pr oblems of combining external forces, producing new shapes of deformati on zones, efficient use of the tool magazine. Physical and mathematica l simulation of technological operations have been carried out to esti mate forming and forse parameters, some results being presented in the paper.