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Realising the benefits of orbital cold forming

Story added 28 May 2010.

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The manufacture of many large or complex parts has traditionally been achieved using processes such as machining and forging. Although these have their advantages they can be expensive, time consuming and require multiple process stages to produce precision parts, with high definition surface finishes. Additionally, machining operations are generally extremely wasteful in that they generate large volumes of scrap as parts are cut or milled from solid billets of material.

For high volume parts, such as bevel, side and pinion gears and steering racks, or smaller volumes of larger components such as flanges and impellors, orbital cold forming technology offers a far more cost effective production method. In particular, orbital cold forming delivers unrivalled levels of quality, accuracy and flexibility in sectors including automotive, aerospace, rail, energy generation and offshore, as components that are extremely strong and lightweight, with superior surface finishes can be created in a single production operation.

Essentially, orbital cold forming is a process where billets of advanced engineering metals, such as copper, brass or steel alloys, are extruded under pressure in a specially designed die set. Unlike traditional cold forming processes, however, where operating pressures are typically around 200 tons, with force being applied equally across the face of the upper part of the die set, an orbital cold forming press uses an innovative arrangement so that pressure is concentrated on a far smaller area.

Consequently, orbital cold forming enables a compressive force to be progressively applied both axially and radially in a rotating motion. This effectively produces forming pressures as high as 2,000 tons, from a press that is nominally rated at 400 tons.

As cold forming plasticises metals along their grain boundaries, rather than cutting across, it is possible to produce parts with extremely low levels of stress deformation, with high levels of integrity, resulting in far greater levels of performance and reliability. Furthermore, orbital cold forming offers outstanding level of definition, even on parts with complex contours. Typically, dimensional tolerances can be to within plus or minus two microns, with the added benefit of extremely fine surface finishes, which in many cases, require no further machining or polishing.

As well as being an extremely versatile and cost effective method of manufacture, orbital cold forming offers manufacturers with a number of other important benefits. Ultimately, it can help different customers across industry significantly improve the profitability and productivity of their operation.

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