Semi-solid forging and joining of steel components and their properties

This paper shows the possibility of producing demonstrating components by combining the forming operation with a simultaneous insertion of additional components. With this technology it is possible to shorten conventional process chains and to create a new generation of components. As base materials two different steel alloys are used, the low melting cold forming tool steel X210CrW12 and the bearing steel 100Cr6. As insert materials steel alloys as well as copper based alloys are considered. Consequently, the main challenges for this technology are the embedding of the inserts into the semi-solid matrix without destroying the geometry due to deforming or remelting. To characterise the produced components concerning their microstructure development and resulting material properties optical and mechanical testings were carried out. As result it could be shown that the die filling and the embedding of the inserts were feasible. The development of the microstructure of the solidified material was influenced by the geometrical conditions which also cause differences in the mechanical properties. Furthermore, there could be shown design restrictions which have to be considered in future to avoid the damaging of the inserted components.