Manufacturing Methods

Methods Of Manufacture
Aim
Briefly consider the manufacturing methods associated with various metals but
mainly steel
How manufacturing affects the mechanical and physical properties of the metals
Look at the various forms of heat treatments that are used

Methods Of Manufacture
Hot and Cold Working (rolling, drawing and forging)
Casting (moulding)
Cutting (flame cutting, sawing, drilling etc)
Fabrication (welding, bolting and riveting)

Methods Of Manufacture
Forging
Forging can be simple hand work carried out by the village blacksmith, or large
mechanised forging processes.
Many items of lifting equipment are produced by forging, eg hooks, shackles etc.
The main object of forging is to bring the steel, as nearly as possible, to the desired
shape and size
Achieved by 3 basic process stages (hand or mechanised)
Drawing out
Swaging
Upsetting

- reducing section thus increasing the length.

- forming the section between dies.
- increasing section thickness.

Methods Of Manufacture
Forging Defects
Gall marks
Laminated material
Cracks
Weld faults
Gouges and Incomplete section
Burnt material
Multiple and offset stamping
Common In Service Faults
Wear, maximum 8% reduction of nominal diameter or 10% loss of material
Burning or bruising and material movement
Distortion and Deformation
Sideways twisting, bending, closing in, opening out and elongation
Nicks, cuts and gouges
Corrosion and chemical attack

Methods Of Manufacture
Casting
Various casting processes are used for ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
Cast iron and cast steel are of particular interest to the tester and examiner. These are usually
sand cast.
In sand casting, a pattern of the article is made in wood, plastic, or metal. Press the pattern half
way into each of two boxes of moulding sand, or other suitable materials to form a mould, so
that when the boxes are brought together, the shape of the complete article is left in the sand.
Many variables can affect the finished casting.
The main faults are porosity and blowholes, which are normally caused by poor venting of the
mould and a consequent build up of gas, some of which becomes trapped in the solidified
casting.
Another fault is cold shuts. Two molten streams of metal come together in the mould at a
temperature insufficient for them to fuse together and they just lay against each other until
under stress they open up.

Methods Of Manufacture
Fabrication
Under this heading comes the common joining processes, welding, bolting and
riveting. In the context of modern lifting equipment, welding and bolting are the
main methods of joining sections and assembling structures.
Bolting & Riveting
Large structures are usually bolted together, but quite often the substructures are of
welded construction. Smaller structures are usually of an all welded construction.

Welding
Welding is the main fabrication technique used for lifting equipment manufacture.
There are two principles of welding, firstly forge welding where the two ends to be
joined are heated to just below their melting point and then pressed or hammered
together causing intermolecular attraction at the interface
The second principle involves melting the metals and either pressing them together or
adding further molten metal so that they fuse together on cooling. Obviously, the
welding process disturbs the metallurgical structure. Often it is necessary to correct
this by heat treatment

Heat Treatment
Overview
You do not need a detailed understanding of heat treatment, but only need identify
the different processes and understand why we use them.
In the course of his duties, the tester and examiner may need to check that an item
has been correctly heat treated and therefore needs a general understanding of the
processes involved.
Heat Treatment
When a piece of steel is worked, stresses are set up between the grains and alter their
shape.
Heat treatment can be used to relieve those stresses and return the grains to shape,
or change the size and structure of the grains.
The smaller the grain the stronger, tougher the steel.

Heat Treatment
Hardening
Carried out to increase the strength and wear properties.
Carbon steel is heated 30 & 50 degrees C above the upper critical point and then
quenched quickly
The quicker the steel is cooled the harder it will be.

Tempering
Tempering is done to remove some of the brittleness and hardness of steel after
hardening.
Suitable temperatures for tempering vary considerably
Tempering by colour still provides an accurate and reliable method of dealing with
plain carbon steels

Heat Treatment
Annealing
Annealing is done to improve ductility (the ability to be drawn and extruded) and
reduce brittleness.
Annealing consists of softening the metal by heating it between 30 & 50 degrees C
above it upper critical point and allowing it to cool slowly.
This can be done in either hot sand, ashes of a fire or by leaving the metal in an oven or
furnace until cooled.
Normalising
The main purpose is to obtain a structure that is uniform throughout the work piece
and is free from any locked up stresses.
Similar to annealing, but the cooling rate is accelerated by taking the work piece from
the furnace and allowing it to cool in still air.
This more rapid cooling results in a finer grain structure which in turn leads to
improved physical properties and improved finishes when machining.

Any Questions