Technical review on design optimization in forging

Forging is a traditional and important manufacturing technology to produce various high strength products and is widely used in engineering fields such as automotive, aerospace and heavy industry. To produce highly accurate product, underfill that the material is not filled into the cavity should strongly avoided. For material saving and near-net product, flash should be minimized. To make the tool life long, it is preferable to produce product with low forging load. It is also preferable to uniformly deform the billet as much as possible for high strength product. Crack is a crucial defect and should strongly be avoided. Therefore, many requirements are taken into account in order to produce the forged product. To meet the requirements, design optimization in forging coupled with computer aided engineering (CAE) is an effective approach. This paper systematically reviews the related papers from the design optimization point of view. For the billet or die shape optimization, the papers are classified into four approaches. The process parameters optimization such as the billet temperature, the die temperature, the stroke length and the friction coefficient is conducted, and the related papers are also classified into four categories. The design variables and the objective function(s) used in the papers are clarified with the design optimization technique. The multi-stage forging including the hammer forging for producing complex product shape is also briefly reviewed. Finally, major performance indexes and the future outlook are summarized for the further development of design optimization in forging.