There are many elements that are used in daily life and most of them are made of metals. For the elaboration of these products a process known as forging is carried out. Previously, this process was done as a laborious technique in which people used to prepare each piece with their hands. On the other hand, the modern forging process has adopted various new techniques to carry out this process. This process involves four commonly mechanized techniques that are adopted by manufacturers and they are press forging, stamping forging, cold forging, and roll forging.
Forging is basically a technique that consists of heating metals to a temperature that is workable and then working directly on the anvil. This process requires a high degree of strength and technical skill and is used by manufacturers to craft various items such as horseshoes, fine arts, and other custom metal pieces.
Forging can also be summarized as hot and cold forging. In these techniques, the temperature does not facilitate the use of organic-based lubricants such as soaps or minerals. However, these mineral oils burn and soap lubricants melt at this high temperature. Therefore, only selected lubricant systems are available for this process.
Four common materials used as forging lubricants for the aircraft industry are graphite, MoS2, synthetics, and glass. Among these lubricants, Mos2 is used only for the hot forging process, as its molecules break down at a higher temperature. For this reason glass lubricants are used for forging processes. Various types of glass such as refractory glass, extrusion glass, and insulating glass are used for the forging process. Glass is one of the common forging lubricants and is generally used in the forging process of stainless steel, which is an important metal in the aircraft industry.
It is used as a lubricant or protective coating for forging glass in the hot forging process of this metal. In addition to stainless steel, these glass lubricants can also be used for metals such as titanium, tungsten alloys, and nickel, which are again vital to the aerospace industry.
During the lubrication process of forged glass, the glass is used in suspension or powder form. Either it is applied to the metal in the form of an aqueous suspension or it is spread over the workpiece in the form of a powder. At much higher temperatures, these glass lubricants melt into high viscosity solutions that are thick in nature. This leads to the formation of a sharp viscosity gradient that is molten glass around the workpiece and solid glass near the dies. The creation of this viscous solution due to the forging glass helps to separate the metals from the dies included in it.
Glass is considered a vital lubricant for ring rolling as it is very effective in carrying out this process. It can withstand high temperatures compared to other lubricants and for these reasons it is used for other metals as well such as copper, magnesium and nickel.