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May, 1925 forging- Stamping - Heat Tieating 147
ting stock for axles and camshafts. On hammers that
formerly drew out collars for crankshafts, a run of 90
to 100 per day was considered big production. The
upset forging machine increased this production to
600 or 700 per day, and on every crankshaft produced
at present, the collars are upset. The tremendous increase
in production on crankshafts led to the making
of other simple forgings, such as large valve stems.
A few examples of the wide variety of work that
can be handled by upset forging are shown in Fig. 2.
The weight of these parts vary from 10 to 250 pounds
and includes flanged shafts, gear blanks, wire wheel
hubs, spools, hub flanges, stem pinions, cluster gears
and many others. Flanged shafts having a 15-in.
diameter head, 5^4-in. diameter shaft, head thickness
of 2-in. and weighing up to 360 pounds have been
produced by upsetting. Although upsetting is limited
to work of a concentric nature, the saving effected by
the elimination of draft, flash, tong holds, etc., is an
item of no small importance.
Manufactures Upset Forgings Exclusively.
In 1915, the American Forge Company, 2621 Hoyne
Avenue, Chicago, 111., made a radical departure from
the customary method of manufacturing alloy steel
gear blanks in producing them by the upset method.
The results were so satisfactory and the prospects so
promising that this company devoted its entire effort
to this class of work and today enjoys the distinction
of being the largest exclusive upset forging plant with
a capacity of producing 1,500 tons per month.
Anticipating the great demand for upset forgings
as their merits became known, the company built up
an organization and erected a plant that for efficiency
can hardly be excelled. Although the plant covers a
comparatively small area it is so designed and laid out
that there is little retrogression in the handling of ma­
terial. There is scarcely a foot of space that is not
utilized and yet every unit of equipment is so located
as to provide adequate space for the workmen, and at
the same time convenient enough to eliminate unnecessary
movements.
Plant Well Arranged.
A glance at Fig. 4 will reveal the efficiency of the
plant layout. Two separate railroad sidings handle
the raw material and finished product. The raw material
is unloaded into the stock yard on the west side
of the main forge shop. After shearing, the stock is
placed on tote racks and conveyed to the forging machines
by electric trucks. The rough forgings are
placed in tote boxes, transported to the grinding and
inspection department on the east side of the plant,
and loaded direct from the department into box cars,
the siding tracks being depressed to facilitate loading.
If the forgings are to be heat treated they are conveyed
to that department located in a continuation of
the grinding and inspection department. After heat
treatment the forgings are tumbled or pickeled to remove
scale and loaded direct from this department into
the cars. Since the grinding, inspection, heat treating
and shipping departments are located in the same
building there is no retrogression in the handling of
the material. The same careful attention was given
to the placing of the die room and die storage. The
two departments located adjacent to each other and in
the end of the main forge shop make handling of the
dies a simple matter.
Efficient Equipment Installed Throughout Plant.
As to the equipment, no expense has been spared
to provide the ultimate in efficiency, every unit having
been selected as to performance. Almost without exception
equipment has been standardized thus reducing
the stock of spare parts to a minimum. All ma-
FIG. 2—A few samples of upset forging work. A—Wire wheel hub flange, B—flanged shaft, C—cluster gear, D—gear blank,
E—hub flange and F—transmission stem pinion.