Production Process

Production process.

Forgiatura Moderna Arese houses within 100.000 m2 all the facilities necessary to carry out all stages of production of open die and shaped forgings up to 100 tons in carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel, duplex, superduplex and special alloys.

Raw
Material Selection

Raw material is purchased only from qualified suppliers recognized at European and global level.

L’attenzione alla qualità del prodotto forgiato inizia proprio con la scelta del lingotto con la geometria più adeguata (tondo, quadro, poligonale, colata continua) e dal processo di affinazione più adatto (ESR, VIM-VAR, ESR-AOD). Compliance of incoming raw material is verified according to corporate procedures in order to abide to the standard reference and to client requirements.

The attention to quality for the final forged piece starts with selecting the ingot with the most adequate shape (round, square, polygonal, continuous casting) and the most suitable secondary melting process (ESR, VIM-VAR, ESR-AOD).

Cutting

The cutting department

The cutting department is located in the most recent building and it consists of 19 saws with a maximum capacity of 3000mm x 3000mm. Here ingots are cut according to the weight which has been previously evaluated by the expert staff from the technical department.

Forging and Rolling

The forging department is located in two different buildings, the pieces coming from the cutting department are placed in the forging furnaces and taken to very high temperatures.

Once the steel has reached a temperature where it gains greater plasticity the forging process can begin, now the hydraulic presses and the rolling mills can modify the shape of the pieces in order to get as near as possible to the ones of the finished product

In the Small Forging Department the 1000 ton press and 2000 ton press with integrated manipulator can forge pieces up to 8 tons such as:
- discs with diameter 180÷1500 mm, minimum height 80 mm;
- shafts with length 200÷12000 mm, diameter 160÷1300 mm;
- special pieces according to drawing with external dimensions up to 1500 mm, maximum length 12000 mm.
Moreover, the SMS RAW 200 rolling mill can produce rings with external diameter 300÷3500 mm, height 50÷1000 mm, maximum weight 8 tons.

In the Large Forging Department the 5000 ton and 8000 ton presses, which are both equipped with integrated automatic manipulators, are able to produce forged pieces up to 100 tons, such as:
- discs with diameter 800÷4300 mm, minimum height 80 mm;
- shafts with maximum length 20.000 mm, diameter 245÷4000 mm;
- special pieces according to drawing with external dimensions up to 4500 mm, maximum length 20000 mm.
Moreover, the SMS RAW 400 (630)/315 (500) rolling mill produces rings with external diameter 500÷8000 mm, height 50÷2500 mm, thickness depending on the maximum weight of 55 tons.

Heat Treatment

Heat treatment is a crucial process in order to guarantee the best quality forged steel and reach the mechanical and metallurgical features required by the technical specifications received by the clients.

Depending on the grade of steel that is being used, the forged pieces go through specific heat treatment cycles (heating and cooling) in dedicated furnaces and tanks, such as:

normalizing;
quench & temper;
tempering;
solution annealing;
annealing;
stress relieving.

The heat treatment furnaces can automatically load rings up to a diameter of 7 meters and other products up to a maximum length of 22 meters and the high stirring and cooling tanks reach 6.5 meters in width and 20 meters in length. The heat treatment plants of FMA is in compliance with the API 6A and AMS 2750 qualifications.

Machining

Once the necessary characteristics have been obtained, the forging is ready to proceed with the mechanical machining, in this phase the excess material will be removed in order to be able to carry out the final tests in a thorough and rigorous way. The internal department for pre-machining and rough-machining is made up of numerically controlled parallel and vertical lathes, milling and boring machines.

The parallel lathes reach a maximum length of 18 meters, a maximum height of 2.5 meters and a capacity of 100 t.
The vertical lathes have a maximum turning diameter of 6.3 meters, a maximum height of 3.5 meters and a maximum capacity of 100 t.
The drills and boring machines reach a maximum capacity of 100 t, with a stroke of 10 meters, height of 4 meters and ram of 2 meters.

Furthermore, when customers need to receive a product at its finished dimensions, Forgiatura Moderna Arese relies on the expertise of specialized and qualified external suppliers.

Final Inspection

The quality of products is ensured by the inspections carried out during the production process and by the final tests, attended on request by the main inspection bodies from which FMA is certified. The technicians, qualified level 2 and 3 ISO 9712 and ASNT-TC-1A perform the following non-destructive tests: ultrasound, contrasting and fluorescent penetrating liquids, contrasting and fluorescent magnetic particles, visual and dimensional controls with a laser scanner and a three- dimensional arm, borescope examination with an endoscope.

The internal mechanical and metallographic laboratory is qualified according to UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17025 and performs the following tests: tensile tests at room and high temperature, impact test up to -196° C, HB and HV hardness, corrosion tests, metallographic analysis, replicas, electrolytic attacks, chemical analysis and PMI.

Production Process

PRODUCTION PROCESS