Analysis of a New Process of Forging a 2017A Aluminum Alloy Connecting Rod

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a theoretical analysis of a new process of hammer forging of a connecting rod and the technology currently used. In the industry at present connecting rods are forged from extruded rods. The new forging technology assumes the use of a workpiece in the form of a cast preform. For the calculations, it has been assumed that the billet material will be a Ø30 × 148 mm rod and a cast preform. Two variants of preforms have been modeled, from which products of the assumed geometry with different degree of strain are obtained. Calculations were made using the finite element method (FEM) in the Deform 3D program. The input material was 2017A aluminum alloy in the form of rods and sand cast preforms. On the basis of the conducted research, it was found that the use of cast preforms reduces material waste by about 80% in relation to the technology of forging from the bar and reduces the energy consumption of the process by about 75%. Both geometrical variants of the forging preforms ensure obtaining a forging with the assumed shape and dimensions, although forging from the forging preform with a smaller degree of strain seems to be a safer variant in terms of the possibility of cracking of the material. This is supported by the lower strain and normalized Cockcroft–Latham integral values.