I Learned How To Drop-Forge Titanium.

this episode is sponsored by Squarespace welcome back we are in wolver Hampton at wh tilsley which is a drop forging company that has been running for 149 years straight they have made parts for both World Wars on this very site and the drop forging that we are going to see it's ridiculous we're going to learn about it too what you see mostly on our channel is open die forging either with a hand hammer or with a power hammer well drop forging is a closed ey operation you remember when we went to do the factory tour at DMM we saw a snipp it of that here they are specialists in oneoff jobs crazy materials like titanium and nickel Alloys and they've got some wild simulation software to be able to design the dyes that they then make in house and it starts like this a giant block of steel where they've swn out the beginnings of a dob tail the block then comes to this Mill where the Dov tails are cut [Applause] [Music] in Dave thank you very much for having us could you tell us a little bit about what happens when the customer says hey we need this part made and you need to make a plan for how those dies are going to be made what does that look like well the start of the process is the customer sends us an engineering drawing we then interpret that into a cad cam drawing we plug the information the parameters into the simulation software and that gives us a first idea on an estimated method of manufacture and which hammer or which machine we're going to manufacture on and it suggests to us how many blows what it's going to look like the flow of the material it's a best estimate at the time we start we then Forge based on that estimate and then we can feed back into the software to get an even more finite cut of how to manufacture there is no data base out there that says right for Titanium or for carbon steel this is the temperature the exact temperature best for forging that material under this particular under this particular Hammer so we have to create our own data space of Parts versus temperature versus hammer versus shape but we creating our own tily database of metalogy and that's what we excel in here is metalogy and knowledge of how a super duplex is going to behave versus carbon steel versus titanium the biggest factor is the knowledge of the guys it's a horrible expression but they are metal Whisperers they understand the metal they can feel it there's there's a really interesting kind of dynamic between feel and Tey you got all theology to make you lovely simulation but at the end of the day the guys on the floor say no needs this this one particular part needs eight hits instead of seven hits got a guy on our biggest hammer whose father worked here and his grandfather worked here and he's only ever worked here and his wife works here so you talk about institutional knowledge you talk about you know the knowledge feel experience it's generational here yes that's wild so you've got your simulations done you need to make the dies you make them in house in this machine shop right here see some dies now before we talk about the space that is removed by the milling machine for the material to go into why don't we talk about the space where your business lives on the internet your Squarespace website who's the sponsor of this episode it's an all-in-one platform and their mission is to empower absolutely anybody to have a beautiful website that they can create maintain and update themselves giving you the artist small business owner or even large business owner the ability to serve their clients no matter how it might be you can sell unlimited physical or digital products with Squarespace you can use Squarespace Integrations to then interact with thirdparty Drop Shipping merchandise printing or other fulfillment services and if you sell your time you can book it out using Squarespace scheduling it intersects with your other existing calendars to make sure you never have a double booking and you'll never have to worry about plugins patches or upgrades ever because it is a truly all-in-one platform from purchasing your domain to running your email marketing campaigns you can do it all and if you go to squarespace.com you'll get a free trial to see just how good it is and using Code Forge at checkout will get you 10% off your first purchase that includes the purchase of your domain check him out let's get back to the video the simulation will create a a cutter path which is effectively a direction for the this machine to cut the metal to create the Dy and that transforms it from looking like this to looking like that they'll typically have multiple impressions in one die block this is a molder so it's more of a rough form and then over here this is a finisher so this one is much more detailed and it has the lettering that needs to be stamped in as well so since you guys deal with crazy Alloys sometimes these dyes don't last very long sometimes they'll last 100 Parts sometimes 800 Parts but because the material is so hard and the Hammers are so heavy more often we'll get break down in the very edges of the Dy once that these surfaces here break down we have to recut the die and so it could be 100 components and then you've got to completely Mill off all of this and start again that is incredible expense are you able to say like roughly how expensive a set of Die blocks is to make it can vary from a few thousand to many thousands of pound it's very hard to identify when a Dye is about to collapse that's where I'm very reliant on the experience I've got because I've got Stampers who have been stamping for 30 40 years they can tell by the feel of the material that the D is about to go off the mill it's not yet ready to go into the drop hammer it needs of final hand finishing hope you don't mind if we come and see your work and what you're doing 45 45 years incredible look at this amazing workbench that they have with this spinning Lazy Susan on there to be able to position the D as it's being worked right so you got to make sure there's no sharp Corners in here and that's going to be your role all the millon marks you put the lettering in by hand so can I synopsize for the camera over here with pneumatic Di Grinders and angle grinders it gets the final polish put on and what we've just learned is that if there isn't a good enough polish the park can get stuck and then that's not practical is it for all of the different jobs that they have they have 10,000 dyes this is just one of their die storage areas filled with hundreds of tons of precisely machined steel oh Jamie we're about to see a big old smile on my face those dyes then get taken through to a room that might just be the coolest room I've ever been to the drop forging room have a look at these beautiful [Music] machines okay so we are here with Ash lovely to meet you do all so what are you making today we're going to make some fireman's axes fireman's axes brilliant and you've got some beautiful tools to play with this Massy clear space power hammer yeah 500 weight it is just beautiful and then how big is your drop Hammer uh 1.6 T I'll lift it up have we go on the pedal see how it works okay and then we'll start for you so you got the molding on the left finishing on the right oh I do love it clear space it's been a while so are you wanting you just like floor ity BL up you just floor it to the bot yeah there this is the furnace right here and I thought these bars are going to be way too H in the hold check it out they've got an Air Blast blowing a curtain of air up look at that right next to that big furnace and the metal is cold enough to touch okay here we go first fireman's Hatchet oh that power hammer is beautiful okay into the first forming die what look how hot it gets wow that's ridiculous and then into clipping and trimming the bar who that is nuts all right here we go that's it on not really good oh my goodness go I made that one right here we go again into the first set of dies there wo oh my goodness I'm having such a good time these machines are so cool and wow I can't believe it I can't believe I've made any functional Parts you're a great teacher next up we are going to drop Forge some titanium this is more of the awesome unique stuff they do drop Forge titanium here in Great Britain that is a 3.2 ton drop forging Hammer it's that twice as heavy as the 1.6 ton that I was using earlier and again the scale of the clipping press all all of this it's just enormous so here is some titanium billets ready to be Dro forged into these Conrads so when we were looking at the simulation software earlier we found that it is not just a one andone operation it is very much an iterative process so the software might have said hey start with this bar but in testing they found that in fact they needed to preform it pre machine it and we're going to see just why that is as we go through all these different the titanium here has a ceramic coating on it to extend the amount of duration they can forge it that's why it looks white the titanium they're making these conrods from is recycled titanium and what's Wild is it is cented they are forging cented recycled titanium so the furnace rotates and he's got a foot pedal there on the ground the pedal doesn't just spin it as you press one pedal or the other it moves the furnace from one slot to the next so you can go oh I want my Billet here and and then 15° around in a circle I want another Billet you press the treadle to move the furnace round to where your next piece is when you got to change dieses this is the hammer for driving the keys they hook it on a chain up to here and it's a swing hammer for driving Keys how cool there the dies for the titanium preheated no it just didn't go well that titanium didn't flow come on he's now where near field around here yeah you're probably F you got a crack running down there what we saw is is a village shape that wasn't quite right was a little bit better was a little bit better but still not quite right and this is what they've had to come up with to actually make the part it's this turned round section that is a much nicer [Applause] pre oh yeah woohoo which you look at that we did it that was stressful this part filled the diey properly and that's because of the preform that they had to develop they had to develop the perfect free form and that takes not only the computers but also skill and experience of these talented people here to come up with a free form that works even for an amateur like me who steps under the machine for the first time in this part of the factory we have one of the largest drop hammers here Banning 3114 this is a 4ton drop Hammer over there is an even larger Massy clear space power hammer behind an enormous clipping press check this out that's a swing Hammer oh yes they have a Gantry system that is in an oval and it goes the whole way around so that they can hoist material with that chain on all of the equipment and here at of this 85 mil 3 and 1/2 in round are they're going to be making a chain rod end this is a 1000 weight Massy clear space power hammer the Massy clear space is one of the most iconic power hammers in the world best control it's just special and they've got so many of them 1000 weight that is a ram that is over 1,000 lb half a ton of falling weight I love it come have a look at this you thought that we've looked at the biggest Massy clear space power hammer we haven't we're going power hammer hunting look look at this that is A500 weight Massy clear space power hammer this is the largest Massy clear space power hammer I've seen in my life it's beautiful oh that is lovely wo beautiful machine holy crap here we go oh yeah that's some steel so they just knocked the scale off on that first hit [Applause] then necking it [Music] down that's a big forging that's a big bloody forging wo that's a lot of metal moved that's a big bit of Steel let's have a look at how this 1000 weight Mas is set up first of all they got themselves a nice little table area right here for resting tongs and putting the work piece there so it doesn't drop down past the Anvil all of their equipment has one of these big blowers blowing air through pipes that way they can get an air stream down onto the dies to blow off the scale you can imagine if you had scale on your work piece and then took that scaly work piece to the drop Hammer you're just pushing that scale right back into it you're going to mess up the dies and mess up the work piece to having as little scale as possible is really important to these guys and then the same thing over here big blower through this massive bit of pipe work blowing more air onto the D to force away the scale it also makes it safer for The Operators because then as you hit when the lubricant and the scale wants to fly out you blow it away from the operator's face the furnace just like the furnace for the titanium spins constantly so it gets an even heat got three pedals on the bottom middle one does the doors they are some nice Forge doors dare I [Music] say oh my goodness look at that thrilling just thrilling the cppy [Music] oh that was fun thank you thank you for letting me do this I feel like a kid in a candy shop you know thank you very much thank you very much this is serious work serious skill and incredible Machinery folks thank you so much for joining us here at wh tilsley and learning about drop forging in Great Britain at this phenomenal specialist manufacturer check out their website down below thank you so much for watching

Channel: Alec Steele

Views: 629,252

Keywords: alec steele, alex steele, steel, alec, damascus, blacksmith, make, forge, anvil, mill, lathe, weld, tig, mig, engineering, blacksmithing, blade, bladesmithing, knife, knifemaking, sword, handmade, diy, craft, woodworking, forged in fire, axe, fabrication, art, making, how to, maker, lord of the rings, game of thrones, restoring, restoration, forging, dagger, replica, prop, grinding, bevel, bevels

Id: by6gO9PUwAU

Length: 17min 53sec (1073 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 16 2023