초록
The use of ceramic inserts in steel forging tools offers significant technical and economic advantages over other materi-als of manufacture. These potential benefits can however only be realised by optimal design of the tools so that the ceramic insert are not subjected to stresses that led to their premature failure. In this paper the data on loading of the tools is determined from a commercial forging simulation package as the contact stress distribution on the die-workpiece interface and as temperature distributions in the die. This data can be processed as load input data for a finite-element die-stress analysis. Process simulation and stress analysis are thus combined during the design and a data exchange program has been developed that enables optimal design of the dies taking into account the elastic detections generated in shrink fitting the die inserts and that caused by the stresses generated in the forging process. The stress analysis of the dies is used to determine the stress conditions on the ceramic insert by considering contact and interference effects under both mechanical and thermal loads. Simulation results have been validated as a result of experimental investigation. Laboratory tests on ceramic insert dies have verified the superior performance of the Zirconia and Silicon Nitride ceramic insert in order to prolong maintenance life.
