Quantification of the material flow pattern and its impact on the distorsion heat treated powertrain components
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Scania CV Aktiebolag - Avd UTMN |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 300 000 |
| Project duration | November 2013 - July 2014 |
| Status | Completed |
Purpose and goal
The purpose of the project was to evaluate the potential to achieve a time-and cost-efficient production through reduced distortion thanks to optimal control and exploitation of the forging grain flow. In this project, the variations in grain flow were studied using an innovative methodology for a crown gear. The potential for this characterization method has been evaluated with good results. The potential is estimated as high.
Results and expected effects
An objective quantification of the grain flow have been carried out with a newly developed concept tool. The concept tool can identify if grain flow appears locally and how it is oriented. The result of the preliminary study show that there is a clear difference in grain flow appearance locally in the crown wheel which can be related to the billet geometry from which the blank origins. Distortion after case hardening can also be related to grain flow appearance and billet geometry.
Approach and implementation
A feasibility study has been made to establish working methods for identifying the cause and effect between grain flow and distortion for case-hardened powertrain-components. The project approach included: (1) Development and demonstration of an innovative methodology for quantifying the local grain flow through image analysis. (2) Establishment of working methods to perform experiments in the production chain (forge-OEM). The methodology has been successfully tested on a small series of gears.