Hot forging

Description

The metalworking process of forging whilst the hot metal is right above its recrystallisation temperature after casting and being solidified.

Alternative labels

heated finishing process
hot fashioning
hot fabrication
hot finishing techniques
heated casting process
heated fabricating process
hot casting
heated fashioning process

Skill type

knowledge

Skill reusability level

cross-sector

Relationships with occupations

Essential knowledge

Hot forging is an essential knowledge of the following occupations:

Surgical instrument maker: Surgical instrument makers create, repair and design surgical instruments, such as clamps, graspers, mechanical cutters, scopes, probes and other surgical instruments.
Blacksmith: Blacksmiths heat metal, usually steel, in a forge and shape it with a hammer, chisel, and an anvil. Contemporarily, they predominantly create artisanal metal products, including ornamental work, as well as horse shoes, one of the sole metal fabricating processes that has not been industrialised.

Optional knowledge

Hot forging is optional for these occupations. This means knowing this knowledge may be an asset for career advancement if you are in one of these occupations.

Hydraulic forging press worker: Hydraulic forging press workers set up and tend hydraulic forging presses, designed to shape ferrous and non-ferrous metal workpieces including pipes, tubes and hollow profiles and other products of the first processing of steel in their desired form by use of compressive forces generated by a piston and fluid pressure.
Coppersmith: Coppersmiths craft and repair items made of non-ferrous metals such as copper, brass and similar materials. They shape and form the raw materials into objects of practical or artistic purpose using smithing tools. Professional coppersmiths create detailed and highly technical devices using appropriate smithing techniques.
Upsetting machine operator: Upsetting machine operators set up and tend upsetting machines, primarily crank presses, designed to form through forging processes metal workpieces, usually wires, rods, or bars, into their desired shape by having split dies with mulitiple cavities compress the workpieces’ length and hereby increasing their diameter.
Drop forging hammer worker: Drop forging hammer workers utilise forging machinery and equipment, specifically machined hammers, in order to form ferrous and non-ferrous metal workpieces to their desired shape. They tend the forging hammers that are dropped onto the workpiece in order to reshape it after the form of the die, which can be closed or open, fully enclosing the workpiece or not.
Mechanical forging press worker: Mechanical forging press workers set up and tend mechanical forging presses, designed to shape ferrous and non-ferrous metal workpieces including pipes, tubes and hollow profiles and other products of the first processing of steel in their desired form by use of preset, compressive forces provided by cranks, cams and toggles at reproducible strokes.
Ornamental metal worker: Ornamental metal workers use finishing equipment and machinery to shape and finish fabricated ornamental metal workpieces, often used for the installation process in construction, such as railings, staircases, open steel flooring, fences and gates, and others.
Swaging machine operator: Swaging machine operators set up and tend rotary swaging machines, designed to alter round ferrous and non-ferrous metal workpieces into their desired shape by first hammering them into a smaller diameter through the compressive force of two or more dies and then tagging them using a rotary swager, a process through which no excess material is lost.

 


 

References

  1. Hot forging – ESCO

 

Last updated on September 20, 2022