Process-Integrated Heat Treatment of Hot Forged Components

Classical hot forging process chains for the manufacturing of high performance components consist of numerous heating and cooling cycles. These cycles lead to a high optimization potential of ecological and economical aspects. Hereby, the heat of the hot forging process can be used for an integrated final heat treatment of the forged components. Depending on the cooling rate different microstructures can be set in steel forgings. By an isothermal heat treatment after a rapid and controlled cooling a bainitic microstructure can be set, which combines high strength with high toughness of the material. With the numerical simulation of the microstructural transformation, from the austenitic starting phase into the bainitic microstructure, an optimization of the process development of hot forging processes with a subsequent heat treatment can be achieved.