Analysis of the production process of the forked forging used in the excavator drive system in order to improve the currently implemented technology by the use of numerical modeling

The study concerns a comprehensive analysis of a multistage hot-die forging on hammers, in order to produce a yoke-type forging, used as a component of excavator power transmission systems. The investigations were conducted with the aim to analyze and identify the sensitive areas in the process and then improve the currently implemented forging technology by using finite element (FE) simulation. QuantorForm (the developer of the QForm program) has developed a thermomechanical numerical model for the production of forked forging. The software Computer-Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application (CATIA) was used to develop and build Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models of forging tools. As a result of the numerical simulations, the plastic deformations and temperature distributions for the forgings and tools were obtained, and the force courses during the forging process were analyzed. The obtained results enabled a thorough analysis of the forging process, including identification of potential forging defects (laps) as well as those tool areas that are the most loaded and exposed to damage. On this basis, changes were implemented in the production process, which allowed for the improvement of the currently implemented technology and obtaining the corrected forgings.