A Study on the Heating Process for Forging of an Automotive Crankshaft in Terms of Energy Efficiency

AbstractThis work studies the in-line induction heating process before hot forging of an automotive crankshaft to find the potential solutions for improving the energy efficiency. We optimized the process parameters and proposed an insulating system to reduce the radiation and convection losses at the open spaces between adjacent heaters. The results obtained from the analytical model of the heat transfer show that using insulating covers can roughly reduce 9% of heat losses compared to the energy stored in the workpiece. Approximately additional 6% of energy can be saved by process parameters optimization