FEM analysis for tangible component production

In high temperature metal forming techniques, analysis of the material flow and deformation as well as wear distribution during forging are very important, because they are directly correlated to the quality of the final component and to the productivity and die life. In this paper a commercially available Finite Element Method based simulator, namely Transvalor Forge 2008©, is used to numerically investigate on the effects of the various parameters on the mode of the failure of dies during hot forging. The exploration has the purpose to evaluate the possibility and related benefits of the advancement from a traditional hot forging process to a modern thixoforging one in the case study of steel-made steering pistons production. As a first step, the part related to the hot forging process is in detailed analyzed, in order to get an exhaustive description of the role of the different parameters. One step and two step solutions are proposed and discussed.