This article continues FORGE’s series on forging materials. The first installment on nonferrous forging materials discusses aluminum alloys that are used in forged components. A general description of aluminum alloys is followed by details of their chemistry and microstructure.

Lehigh Heavy Forge Corporation of Bethlehem, Pa., is the sole remaining super-heavy open-die forging company in the Western Hemisphere. More than a century old, the company’s historic facilities were the birthplace of the modern U.S. defense industry.

Operating for more than a century, this company grew from a small supplier of forged products to western railroads into an important supplier of precision forgings with global reach.

Measuring the strain on load-bearing members of hydraulic forging presses is one way to diagnose potential equipment trouble before it becomes a major downtime incident. Using linear variable differential transformers and related hardware, a distribution-of-forces system can alert equipment operators to potential problems.

In the first four articles in this series, the operation and use of four types of forging equipment – hammers, mechanical presses, hydraulic presses and screw presses – were reviewed. In this fifth and final article, a general comparison of these four types of forging equipment is made. Each type of equipment can perform well or poorly depending on conditions and circumstances. It is hoped that the comparisons made in this article will help readers select the right type of equipment for the specific job.

As much of the forging industry’s dynamics were stalled with the threat of recession in the last two years, Fox Valley Forge saw an opportunity. By investing in a new automated production line, it is now positioned to not only serve existing markets and customers, but to cultivate new domestic and international markets as well.