Development of Orbital Forging Processes by Using Marciniak Rocking-Die Solutions

In orbital forging, the workpiece placed in the lower die moves towards the upper die with orbital motion. Thus, the forging force is applied only to a limited area of the workpiece surface at a given time and the required force could be substantially lower as comparing to conventional forging where a whole workpiece is deformed at once. This paper begins with presentation of past development of orbital forging processes. Special attention is paid to the driving mechanism of the upper die proposed by Z. Marciniak, which made a significant breakthrough within the knowledge of orbital forging. It had become possible to obtain four types of orbital motion of the die what improved processing range and production of parts with a big variety of shapes. Next, development of orbital forging presses as well as further applications and potential challenges in the field of orbital forging processes are discussed.