Concept for a resource-efficient process chain for hybrid bulk components with optimized energy utilization

Abstract

A significant percentage of energy in hot forming is used to heat the components. Especially in manufacturing hybrid components, workpieces are heated in the preceding hot-joining process in addition to the heating cycles. Nevertheless, previous processing steps require longer times than the following hot forming processes leading to long downtimes. With the pre-production of workpieces, the machine's capacity is fully utilized but prevents the reuse of the residual heat. Consequently, an immense amount of energy is wasted due to additionally required heating cycles. Our approach is to develop a flexible and resource-efficient process chain. We combine two hot forming processes with different cycle times in a single process chain. Therefore, we consider the process of a hybrid bevel gear with heat and time-consuming preparation and a hybrid shaft with moderate preparation effort. To compensate for the bevel gear's high cycle times, the shaft is hot-formed during the downtimes. In order to reuse the residual heat of the bevel gear, their hot-forming process run is prioritized: Whenever the bevel gear's workpiece is manufactured, it will be hot-formed immediately. Combining these process chains allows the forming machine's capacity to be fully utilized and energy utilization optimized.