Our experts will explain how less material stress and more process stability translate into greater productivity at reduced cost.
Hot Forming with LINDOFLAMM Burners
Power up Your Hot Forming Operations with the Speed and Thermal Advantages of Acetylene for Less Stress And More Process Stability
LINDOFLAMM® for hot forming can give you superior accuracy, higher surface profile tolerance, reduction of the metal springback effect, and ease of plastic deformation into complex shapes.
What is Hot Forming?
Hot forming is a flame heating process - a collective term that refers to the heating of a material using a fuel gas flame to a temperature below the melting point of the metal. The forming element refers to the fact that metals, usually steel, can be formed or shaped much more easily when hot.
The workpiece is usually heated to its recrystallization temperature – referred to as the austenitization temperature. This is typically between 40 and 60 percent of the material’s melting temperature. It varies depending on the material's alloy, but is approximately 900°C in the case of steel and appears to the naked eye as a dull red color. At that temperature, the metal can then be shaped with significantly less forming force.
Applications of Hot Forming
Hot forming is frequently used in industries such as automotive manufacturing, aerospace, mechanical engineering and heavy industry. Applications include forging, flaring of pipe ends, pipe bending, and the bending of plate sections. Hot forming is often an essential process step if collaring work is required. It is also widely used in the fabrication of dished heads for pressure vessels such as boilers, for instance, as well as in the manufacture of safety-relevant and structural car body components such as A-pillars and bumpers. Its growing popularity in the automotive industry is driven by the fact that components manufactured with the hot forming technique often offer a higher level of crash safety.
Advantages of Hot Forming
Compared with other forming processes, hot forming can provide numerous advantages including superior accuracy, higher surface profile tolerances, reduction of the metal springback effect, and ease of plastic deformation into complex shapes. The elevated temperatures help to reduce material stresses and deformation forces for enhanced part quality and wear resistance. In addition, thinner component walls can enable lighter components.
Materials Suited to Hot Forming include:
- Low/mild carbon steel
- Stainless steel alloys
Selecting the Right Fuel Gas for Hot Forming
When a small area is to be heated for forming, for instance to bend a plate or section, the area should be heated as quickly as possible, preferably with an oxy-acetylene flame to raise the local temperature rapidly whilst limiting the heat spread through conduction. If a large area or an entire plate or section needs to be heated, an oxy-propane flame may be more suitable.
Large batch production is often automated with sophisticated fixtures and forming tools that only engage when the steel has been heated to the correct temperature.
Pushing Performance in Hot Forming - With LINDOFLAMM
When rapid and concentrated heating is desired, flame temperature is a key factor. The higher the temperature, the faster the transfer of heat from the flame to the workpiece. As acetylene provides the highest flame temperature and the highest flame propagation rate for transitions with optimum flow characteristics, it is the fuel gas of choice with our LINDOFLAMM burner portfolio.
We offer a range of LINDOFLAMM special burners to enhance your hot forming operations. They are powerful enough to heat your workpiece to the optimum hot forming temperatures (950°C) in a short period of time. This lowers the thermal stress on your upsetting tool and increases process stability.
LINDOFLAMM for Hot Forming: Benefits at a Glance:
- Ideally suited to collaring work
- Easy bending of steel collars
- Rapid annealing of desired areas with acetylene as fuel gas
- Minimal heating of surrounding material
- Burner selection adapted to your needs
- Customized gas supply solutions
Everything You Need for Hot Forming
From start to finish, our customers benefit from innovative concepts, in-depth expertise and total support. Our highly skilled experts will advise you on how to improve productivity and quality at reduced cost. The end-to-end offering also extends beyond special LINDOFLAMM burners to include all your acetylene supply and service needs. We can also help you design and implement your acetylene supply system.