The global production of die forgings is an important branch of the motor industry for obvious reasons, resulting from the very good mechanical properties of the forged products. The expectations of the recipients, beside the implementation of the forging process, include also a range of supplementary procedures, such as finishing treatment including shot blasting, thermal treatment, and machining, in order to ensure the proper quality of the provided semi-product or the ready detail for the assembly line. Especially important in the aspect of the operational properties of the products is the thermal treatment of the forgings, which can be implemented in many variants, depending on the expected results. Unfortunately, a treatment of this type, realized separately after the forging process, is very time and energy-consuming; additionally, it significantly raises the production costs due to the increased energy consumption resulting from the necessity of repeated heating of the forgings for such thermal treatment. The article reviews the most frequently applied (separately, after the forging process) thermal treatments for die forgings together with the devices/lines assigned for them, as well as presents an alternative (thermoplastic) method of forging production with the use of the forging heat. The paper also presents a prototype semi-industrial controlled cooling line developed by the authors, which allows the development of the assumed heat treatment of forgings directly after forging with the use of forging heat, together with sample results of conducted tests.
Keywords: controlled cooling line; heat forging; thermal treatment design; thermoplastic treatment technology.