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Forging

Mechanical Engineering

Forging shapes metal using localized compressive force, delivered by a hammer, press or die, usually after heating the workpiece to make it more malleable. Unlike casting, forging does not melt the metal; the applied force deforms and aligns the material internal grain structure, which typically leaves the finished part stronger and tougher than an equivalent cast or machined part. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Disputed
Origin Year
3000 BCE 2
Bronze Age smiths were forging metal by around the third millennium BCE; a single point of origin is not established.
Core Principle
Deforming a heated or cold metal workpiece under compressive force from a hammer, press or die, shaping it while it stays solid and aligning its internal grain structure along the part contours. 1
Connections

Associated With

Annealing, Methods

Forged and cold-worked metal is frequently annealed afterward to relieve the stresses working introduced.

Brass, Materials
Bronze, Materials
Casting, Methods

Casting and forging are the two principal ways of shaping a metal part, one through a liquid mold and one through solid deformation.

Duralumin, Materials
Inconel, Materials
Smelting, Methods

Forging typically works metal that smelting has already extracted from its ore.

Steel, Materials
Titanium, Materials
Wrought Iron, Materials

Wrought iron is worked and consolidated principally by forging and hammering, not casting.

In Field

Sources
1. Forging (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Quote, Lead section
Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die.
View the Source
2. A History of Technology
Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors, Oxford University Press, 1954View the Source
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