closed die forging?

C

clockworkfish

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Dec 1, 2010
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Hey, so i've been looking into mass manufacturing methods and this thing called drop forging or closed die forging came up. It is often used in making hammers, kitchen knives, axes, and various other items in MASSIVE quantities. Does anyone know much about this process? i feel like it would be worth learning, and though it sounds crazy i would like to one day have a closed die forging system. I feel as though it would be possible to do if you had a heavy enough hammer and a decent sized cnc and kiln.

has anyone had experience with this? possibly in the die making side of it?
 
I believe the old Marbles were made by die forging. Roselli uses a similar technique today, I believe.
 
I have done some die work. They need to be made to VERY tight tolerances. I also believe they use very large hammers/presses like 500tons. I have heard of smaller 100ton forges but not much smaller. Not very practical for a small operation. But if you put something together many would love to hear/see it.
 
So 100 ton would work fine? do you think it would require multiple heats?

Do you think it would be possible to hire someone to make a die for a home made hydraulic press? Or better yet are there any books on die making that you could recommend?
 
I dont believe a press will do it. I have been around some closed die forging and as Stacey said they are Humongous. A hot bar goes into the die and this huge hammer makes one stroke which smashes the hot bar out into a rough shape it is the moved to another die which comes down and trims the forging to the final shape. for a hydraulic press to do this it would most likeley have to be quit a bit bigger tonnage wise and/or move with the same speed as the forging hammer.

for a one or two man show you would probably do better getting a medium sized punch press and stamp your knives from sheet then stock remove them.
 
Here is a video of the Gransfors Bruks factory with a die and power hammer set up for making their axes. This is as close to a one man operation for such as I can imagine. http://youtu.be/E89nlVmPeeU Not sure if this is how to post a link. I always intend to find the tutorials on posting that I'm sure are here somewhere, but reading about HT and steel is more interesting.
 
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