Orbital Forging

• Orbital forging is a compressive forging

technique which uses the upper die to apply
uniform forging effects throughout a rotating
part. In order for orbital forging to be
optimum a number of factors need to be
controlled, just one example being the
workpiece material including chemical
composition, microstructure and
deformability.
• Metal forging is known to produce some of the
strongest manufactured parts compared to other
metal manufacturing processes, and obviously, is
not just limited to iron and steel forging but to
other metals as well. Different types of metals
will have different factors involved when forging
them, some will be easier to forge than others.
Aluminum, magnesium, copper, titanium, and
nickel alloys are also commonly forged metals.
• Metal forging, specifically, can strengthen the
material by sealing cracks and closing empty
spaces within the metal. The hot forging process
will highly reduce or eliminate inclusions in the
forged part by breaking up impurities and
redistributing their material throughout the
metal work. However, controlling the bulk of
impurities in the metal should be a consideration
of the earlier casting process.
• Orbital forging is a manufacturing process by which
a part is held in a forging die cavity and forged by
compressive forces applied through the upper die.
The upper die applies these forces as it travels in
an orbital path. This upper die revolves on an
inclined axis, and thus through its revolution it will
only apply force to a small portion of the work at a
time. Forging force will be administered to the
entirety of the work with the completion of a
revolution of the upper die on its inclined orbit.
• There are several different variants of orbital forging. In the most
common, the workpiece is positioned between the upper and
lower tool in a vertical press machine, in which the axis of the
upper tool is slightly tilted to a specific angle (typically 1 - 2°).
The upper tool performs only a rotary motion and lower tool
moves upwards. The lower surface of the workpiece is in full
contact with the tool, while the contact surface between the
upper workpiece surface and upper tool is smaller compared to
classical forging, due to the tilted axis. A repercussion of the
decreased contact surface is lower forming load. A comparison
between classical and orbital forging is illustrated in Figure 1a. In
classical forging angle γ = 0° and there is no rotation of the die.
• The contact area between the upper tool and
workpiece is dependent on the tilted angle of
the upper tool axis: the greater the angle, the
smaller the contact surface and, therefore,
lower forming load. However, a larger angle
causes more complex machine maintenance
as well as greater frame deflection, which
makes it more difficult to keep constant
forming precision.
• There are a number of parameters that influence the orbital
forging process and thereby, the quality of final product. All
influential factors can be divided into four different groups:
1) Workpiece material (chemical composition,
microstructure, deformability...)
2) Tools properties (tool construction, workpiece
positioning, contact surface properties...)
3) Machine properties (load – energy, production capacity,
cinematic, level of automation...)
4) Technical factors (forming load, temperature, contact
conditions, deformation level, workpiece shape...)
• Compared to extrusion processes, orbital forging
offers the following benefits:
• Greater degree of deformation in a single operation
• Considerably smaller presses required
• Reduced load on forming dies
• More parts thanks to longer die life
• Significantly lower generation of noise and
vibration; no impact
• Ready integration into production cells