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152 Fbrging-Stamping - Heat Treating May, 1925
Electric Trucks Convey Material.
A wide concrete mad way for the electric trucks
runs entirely around the forge shop and a short connecting
roadway in the middle of the shop and in line
with the entrance to the cleaning and shipping department
facilitates material handling. An idea of the
efficiency of this method of interdepartment transpor-
FIG. 11—The die storage room showing the stands and racks
for the systematic storage of dies and headers.
tation can be gained from the fact that the handling
of 1,500 tons of material monthly requires only three
trucks. This includes hauling raw stock from shears
to forging machines, thence to the grinding and inspecting
department, loading into cars and the removal
of scrap from around the forging machines.
All forgings are carefully ground and inspected for
surface defects and customers dimensions. (Fig. 8.)
In cases where the flash is too thick to be profitably
removed by grinding, it is trimmed off by means of a
Toledo punch press. Forgings not requiring heat treatment
are loaded into box cars by electric trucks, Fig.
7, direct from the grinding and inspection department
which are both located in the same building. The
shipping tracks are depressed on the east side of the
building so that the trucks can pick up the full tote
boxes and run them into the cars.
Adequate Heat Treating Facilities.
Forgings that are to be heat treated, after being
ground and inspected, are transported to the heat
treating department, Fig. 9, located at the south end of
the building. The equipment of this department consists
of four double-end, car type, Tate-Jones furnaces,
with an extra car for each furnace. These furnaces.
which are of the overhead combustion type, artequipped
with thermocouples connected to a Wilson-
Maeulen indicating pyrometer to insure accurate temperature
control. Necessary tanks are installed for
the quenching and proper handling of the heat treatment
as specified by customers. After heat treatment.
the forgings are tumbled or pickeled. Fig. 10, to remove
scale and loaded into box cars for shipment. Final
heat treatment or case hardening is done bv the customer
after machining operations are completed. A
Rockwell hardness tester is used to check the results
of heat treatment of the forgings as well as for determining
the hardness of die blocks and headers.
The die room and repair department, 100 ft. x 80
ft., is located in a continuation of the main forge shop
at the south end of the building. The equipment of
this department is similar to that found in most any
machine shop, such as lathes, shapers, planers, boring
mills and drill presses.. Since practically all of the
forgings produced are of a concentric nature, the dies,
headers and inserts can be produced by turning or
boring, thus greatly reducing the time and cost to produce
the die and eliminates the necessity of expensive
die sinking machinery. The die room is covered by
a 10-ton overhead Whiting crane, and space is also left
for overhauling and repairing machines.
Systematic Die Storage.
The die storage room. Fig. 11, is located on the
east side of the main building between the die shop
and the main forge shop. Racks are provided along
both sides of the room to accommodate small dies,
headers, etc., while the heavier ones are stored on the
floor in the center of the room. All dies are numbered
and systematically arranged so that any die may
be located on short notice. This is necessary in any
shop carrying a great number of dies, and is as
essential to efficient operation as modern equipment
and material handling facilities. A three-ton Niles
crane covers this department.
A well equipped hammer shop is located at the
south end of the plant. The equipment consists of
one 2,000 pound Chambersburg steam drop hammer
which is used for forging headers and other miscellaneous
work required around the plant. A Bradley
helve hammer, together with the steam drop hammer,
is used to take care of certain types of work that require
a forging machine and hammer operation. An
oil fired heating furnace, constructed by the American
Forge Company, is used to heat the stock. A Toledo
trimming press and a Stewart muffle furnace
round out the equipment of this department.
A 250 hp. boiler is installed to supply the necessary
steam for preheating the oil, operating the drop hammer
equipment, heating the building and pickling
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FIG. 12—A corner in the locker and wash room provided for
the comfort of the employees.
tanks. Motor generators furnish d.c. for operating
cranes, machine tools and electro magnet.
A mezzanine floor over the machine shop provides
space for the general offices, locker rooms and shower
baths. In addition to the elaborate wash rooms, with
hot and cold showers and individual lockers, Fig. 12,
drinking fountains are placed throughout the plant.
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