Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols.

813-814 (2015) pp 563-568 Submitted: 2015-04-21

© (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Revised: 2015-05-26
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.813-814.563 Accepted: 2015-07-12

Optimization of process parameters in hot forging of medium carbon

micro-alloyed steel
Pinaki Talukdar1,a, RajKumar Ohdar2,b , Balbir Singh3,c and Md Israr Equbal4,d*
1
Department of Forge Technology, National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi,
India -834003
2
Department of Forge Technology, National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi,
India -834003
3
R&D Centre for Iron and Steel, Steel Authority of India Limited, Ranchi, India-834002
4*
Department of Forge Technology, National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi,
India -834003
a
pinaki.t@rediffmail.com, brkohdar@yahoo.com, cbalbir712@rediffmail.com,
d
*israr_equbal@yahoo.co.in

Keywords: Micro-Alloyed, Hot Forging, Taguchi Method, Grey Relational Analysis.

Abstract. In this paper, a combination of taguchi method and grey taguchi method has been studied
for optimization of the hot forging of medium carbon micro-alloyed (MC–MA) steel. The influence
of forging parameters viz. forging temperature, percentage reduction and cooling rate are
investigated for the responses tensile strength and impact strength after forging operation. In order
to optimize the responses simultaneously, Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) is employed along with
Taguchi method. Through GRA, grey relational grade is used as a performance index to determine
the optimal setting of process parameters for above mentioned responses simultaneously. Analysis
of variance (ANOVA) is employed to determine significant parameters. The results indicated that
the cooling rate has a remarkable effect on the tensile strength and impact strength at room
temperature. Optimization of the parameters simultaneously leading to a higher tensile strength and
impact strength and it is also verified through a confirmation experiment for validation of these
results.

Introduction
Forging is the metal processing technology known for producing parts of superior mechanical
properties with minimum waste. In order to improve die life, product quality and forging cost, it is
vital to systematically analyze various process parameters for recommending best parameter
configuration. In order to achieve this goal, extensive research has been carried out in the past.
Srivastava S. et al. [1] studied the effect of forging temperature, die velocity and coefficient of
friction on forging load and strain rate. Kim D.H. et al. [2] explained the effect of lubricants and
surface treatment on the life of hot forging dies. Switzner N.T. et al. [3] shows that less
strengthening occurs in lower strain rate processes due to longer deformation times and increase in
strain rate reduces the within-part hardness variation. Maarefdoust M. et al. [4] concluded that the
effective plastic strain will increase with increase in billet temperature. A. Kaynar et al. [5] found
that the cooling rate after finishing deformation stage has a significant effect on the mechanical
properties. These works reveal that the optimization of forging process depends upon many variable
but the vital parameters which can have major influence are forging temperature, friction
coefficient, strain rate, percentage deformation, cooling rate after forging etc. Forging temperature
plays vital role in achieving better flow-stress in order to decrease the forging load with increasing
die life. Friction influenced the deformation of workpiece, metal flow and load required to fill the
die cavity and hence die life. Strain rate is a dominating factor for developing proper
microstructure which directly affects the product quality. Percentage deformation indicates the
capability to undergo deformation by forging without cracking. The cooling rate after finishing
deformation stage has a significant effect on the mechanical properties. In order to increase the die

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564 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

life and product quality forging process need to systematically consider these parameters, and
finally come out with the best parameter configuration for better process performance.

Experimental Procedure
The present work involves the study of effect of process parameters viz. forging temperature,
percentage reduction and cooling rate after final deformation on the mechanical properties like
tensile strength and impact strength of hot forged part to achieve an optimum combination of
mechanical properties. Taguchi experimental method is utilized to design the parameter
combinations so as to identify the relative influence of each parameter on the studied responses. The
material used in this study is the medium carbon vanadium micro-alloyed steel 38MnVS6 used for
several engineering applications such as connecting rods, crankshafts, wheel hubs etc. The chemical
composition and mechanical properties of as received steel is given in Table 1.

Table 1 Chemical Composition and Mechanical properties of Experimental 38MnVS6 steel

38MnVS6 C Mn Si S P V UTS (MPa) CVN I.S. (Kg-m)
0.401 1.213 0.198 0.024 0.017 0.085 737.37 6

All forgings have been completed in between flat dies of 150 ton hydraulic press with specimen
geometry, 60 mm diameter by 90 mm long given in Fig. 1. All the specimens were heated in an
electrically heated muffle furnace at three different temperatures of 9000C, 10000C and 11000C for
30 minutes during the process of forging to get the required reduction i.e. 40%, 50% and 60%
respectively. The forged samples have been cooled in normal air, forced air and quenching oil
respectively. Tensile test and Impact test specimens have been prepared from as forged bars
according to ASTM A 370-05 standard [6] and shown in Fig. 2 and the value has measured at room
temperature on a universal testing machine and in a dynamic fracture toughness testing machine.

(b)
(a)
Fig. 1 Sample prepared Fig. 2 (a) Tensile test specimen (b) Charpy V- Notch (CVN) Impact test
D= 60mm and H= 90mm specimen (all dimensions are in mm)

Taguchi design of experiment is a powerful analysis tool for modeling and analyzing the influence
of control factors on performance output. An exhaustive literature review reveals that the quality of
the forged parts largely influenced by forging temperature, percentage reduction and cooling rate.
These parameters each at three levels are considered for the present study and are given in Table 2.

Table 2 Factors and their levels

Factors Level
1 2 3
0 0
Forging Temperature (FT) 900 C 1000 C 11000C
Percentage Reduction (PR) 40% 50% 60%
Cooling Rate (CR) Normal Air (NA) Forced Air (FA) Quenching Media (QM)

In Taguchi method, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio is used to represent quality characteristics, and
the largest value of S/N ratio is required [7]. There are three types of S/N ratio—the lower the
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 813-814 565

better, the higher the better, and the nominal the better. The S/N ratio with higher-the-better
characteristics for tensile strength and impact strength can be calculated using Eq 1.

S⁄N = log (1⁄n) ∑ (1)

Where n= number of replications, yij= observed response value and i = 1,2..........n; j = 1,2...k.

Determination of Optimal Process Parameters Using Grey Taguchi Method

Conventional Taguchi method can effectively establish optimal parameter settings for single
performance characteristic. When multiple performance characteristics with conflicting goals are
considered, the approach becomes unsuitable. Recently, some researchers have used genetic
algorithm, data envelopment analysis, desirability function approach etc. for multi response
optimization in various fields of engineering [8-10]. Grey based Taguchi method is a new method
forwarded by Deng Ju-long to solve multi response optimization problems. Deng first proposed
grey relational analysis for dealing with poor, incomplete and uncertain systems [11]. It combines
the entire considered performance characteristic into a single value that can be used as the single
characteristic in optimization problems. To apply this method, input attributes need to be
normalized. This process is called grey relational generation (GRG). Grey data processing must be
performed before calculating the grey correlation coefficients. In this study, a linear normalization
of the experimental results (S/N ratios) for effective strain rate and forging load were performed in
the range of 0 and 1, which is also called the grey relational generating. yij is normalized as Zij
(0≤Zij≤1) by the following formula to avoid the effect of adopting different units and to reduce the
variability. A linear data pre-processing method for the S/N ratio can be expressed as follows,
( , , ,….. )
Z = ( , ,….. ) ( , ,….. )
(2)
, ,

The grey relational coefficient is calculated to express the relationship between the ideal (best) and
actual normalized experimental results. The grey relational coefficient can be expressed as:
∆ ξ∆
γ ((k), yi (k)) = ∆ (3)
( ) ξ∆

Where; Zij is the sequence after the data processing, j = 1,2...n; k = 1,2...m, n is the number of
experimental data items and m is the number of responses. yo(k) is the reference sequence (yo(k) =
1, k = 1,2...m); yj(k) is the specific comparison sequence.
∆ = y (k) − y (k) = The absolute value of the difference between y (k)and y (k).

∆ min = ∀ ε ∀
|| yo (k) – yj (k)|| is the smallest value of yj(k) and

∆ max = ∀ ε ∀
|| yo (k) – yj (k)|| is the largest value of yj(k)

Where ξ is the distinguishing coefficient, which is defined in the range 0≤ ξ ≤1. The Forging
parameters are equally weighted in this study, and therefore ζ is 0.5 [12]. The overall performance
characteristic of the multiple response process depends on the calculated grey relational grade. The
grey relational grade can be expressed as:

γ = ∑ γ (4)

Where the grey relational grade for the jth experiment and k is the number of performance
characteristics. This approach converts a multiple response process optimization problem into a
566 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

single response optimization situation with the objective function of an overall grey relational
grade. A higher grey relational grade implies better product quality; therefore, on the basis of the
grey relational grade, the factor effect can be estimated and the optimal level for each controllable
factor can also be determined. Therefore, grey relational analysis is utilized in this study for multi
response optimization of parameters in hot forging of 38MnVS6 forging steel.

Results and discussion

Experiments are run as per Taguchi experiment plan and respective values of tensile strength and
impact strength for each experiment are converted into their respective S/N ratios as per Eq. 1 and
are given in Table 3. Table 4 shows the grey relation coefficient and grey relational grade for each
experiment using the L9 orthogonal array. Data analysis is made using MINITAB R14 software at
95% of confidence. Main effect plots are used to determine the optimum factor levels for each
response and results are shown in Fig. 3. Relative influence of each factor is determined by analysis
of variance method (ANOVA) and results are presented in Table 5 and Table 6. ANOVA results
shows that cooling rate (CR) is significant for tensile strength whereas cooling rate (CR) and
percentage reduction (PR) are significant for impact strength. Significant factor for grey relational
grade is cooling rate (CR).

Table 3 L9 orthogonal array with their responses

Exp. No. parameter Response S/N ratio
FT PR CR T.S. (MPa) I.S. (Kg-m) T.S. (dB) I.S. (dB)
1 1 1 1 781.23 11.40 57.8556 21.1381
2 1 2 2 797.55 8.85 58.0352 18.9389
3 1 3 3 891.14 5.30 58.9989 14.4855
4 2 1 2 847.36 8.90 58.5614 18.9878
5 2 2 3 899.82 4.30 59.0831 12.6694
6 2 3 1 762.70 10.80 57.6471 20.6685
7 3 1 3 926.38 6.40 59.3358 16.1236
8 3 2 1 763.09 9.20 57.6515 19.2758
9 3 3 2 788.01 6.95 57.9306 16.8397

Table 4 Results of Grey Taguchi method calculation

Grey relational generation Grey relation coefficient Grey relation grade
Exp. No. T.S. I.S. T.S. I.S.
1 0.123469 0.780092 0.363232 0.694533 0.528883
2 0.229811 0.740311 0.393642 0.658164 0.525903
3 0.800519 0.407881 0.714816 0.457825 0.586321
4 0.54141 0.492438 0.5216 0.496248 0.508924
5 0.850376 0.214453 0.769677 0.38894 0.579308
6 0 1 0.333333 1 0.666667
7 1 0 1 0.333333 0.666667
8 0.002629 0.944546 0.333919 0.900165 0.617042
9 0.167915 0.74609 0.375351 0.663209 0.51928
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 813-814 567

(b)
(a)

(c)

Fig. 3 Main effect plot for S/N ratio (higher is better) for (a) tensile strength (b) impact strength (c)
grey relational grade (GRG)

Table 5 ANOVA Table for Tensile Strength and Impact Strength

Tensile Strength Impact Strength
parameter DOF SS V %- C F- SS V %- C F-
value value
FT 2 0.03354 0.01677 0.96 1.71 0.843 0.4215 1.29 4.85
PR 2 0.26518 0.13259 7.63 13.49 9.839 4.9195 15.1 56.65
CR 2 3.15774 1.57887 90.84 160.62 54.32 27.158 83.34 312.72
Error 2 0.01966 0.00983 - - 0.174 0.087 - -
Total 8 3.47613 1.73806 - - 65.17 32.586 - -
DOF=degree of freedom, SS=sum of square, V=variance, F=F-value, %- C= Percentage
Contribution

Table 6 ANOVA Table for GRG

Parameter DOF SS V %-C F- value
FT 2 0.004607 0.002304 15.02 0.5
PR 2 0.000824 0.000412 2.68 0.09
CR 2 0.016066 0.008033 52.39 1.75
Error 2 0.009167 0.004584
Total 8 0.030664 0.015332

The confirmation test at the optimal parameter setting has been conducted to evaluate the tensile
strength and impact strength after hot forging. The optimum parameter level for tensile strength and
impact strength on the basis of main effect plots illustrated in Fig. 3 (a) and Fig. 3(b) are FT2, PR1
and CR3 and FT1, PR3 and CR1 respectively. The response values obtained from the confirmation
experiment are tensile strength = 936.89 MPa and impact strength = 11.5 Kg-m. The optimal
parameter level on the basis of grey taguchi method is FT1, PR3 and CR2 as shown in Fig. 3(c) and the
response values obtained from the confirmation experiment are tensile strength = 888.383 MPa and
impact strength = 6.2 Kg-m.
568 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Conclusion
In present work, hot forging for 38MnVS6 micro-alloyed steel has been studied. The influence of
forging parameters viz. forging temperature, percentage reduction and cooling rate are investigated
for the responses tensile strength and impact strength after forging operation. Grey relational
analysis (GRA), along with Taguchi method were employed to optimize both the responses
simultaneously. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is employed to determine significant parameters.
Using Taguchi method, tensile strength and impact strength were optimized individually. Two
different optimal settings of process parameters were found for tensile strength and impact strength.
Using ANOVA on experimental results, cooling rate (CR) is significant for tensile strength whereas
cooling rate (CR) and percentage reduction (PR) are significant for impact strength under 95%
confidence level. ANOVA for Grey Relational Grade reveals that the cooling rate is the most
significant parameter affecting the responses.

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