×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

locating cone material

locating cone material

locating cone material

(OP)
I need to get some locating cones made. In the past we have made them out of A2 and heat treated to 56-58Rc. I was wondering if there was a cheaper alternative say 1045 or 4041 and flame hardened. Would that have similar wear? The cones are 6" dia x 1.5" high with a 30deg taper and will locate 20ga steel sheetmetal before palatalizing. The cell will make several million sheets per year.

Thanks

Certified SolidWorks Associate
SW2009 X64 SP4.1
Dell Precision T3600
Nvidia Quadro 4000
Xeon 3.2GHz Quad Core, 8GB RAM
Win 7 Pro X64

RE: locating cone material

(OP)
No,a blank for stamping. The cell is a secondary process after being blanked from a coil.

Certified SolidWorks Associate
SW2009 X64 SP4.1
Dell Precision T3600
Nvidia Quadro 4000
Xeon 3.2GHz Quad Core, 8GB RAM
Win 7 Pro X64

RE: locating cone material

Flame hardened 1045 or 4140 will not have the same wear resistance as A2 through hardened to 56-58 HRC. I would use a proper tool steel rather than experiment with something "cheaper".

RE: locating cone material

A2 tool steel is probably at least twice the $/lb price of 4140(?) alloy steel. But the cost difference between A2 and 4140, per part based on the tool dimensions you provided, would not seem to be a significant factor unless you are making this tool in large quantities.

Another thing to consider is that flame hardening will only produce a hard outer case layer. The surface hardness after finish grinding of your flame hardened 4140 tool will likely be <Rc 54. 4150 alloy steel would give slightly better results than 4140 with flame hardening. The 4150 finish ground surface would be a bit harder (maybe Rc 56) and the case would be a bit heavier. A2 tool steel is nice because it is very stable in heat treat, and should require less finish grind stock removal than flame hardened 4140/4150 tools. Something to consider with flame hardening large numbers of parts is that a flame hardening set up usually can only process one part at a time, while the A2 parts can be heat treated in batches.

If you are producing large quantities of this locating cone tool (which sounds like it has an axis-symmetric shape), one thing you might consider doing to reduce raw material and machining costs would be to have blanks roll forged close to net shape. The cost to roll forge a near net shape blank for this cone tool is likely quite modest, and could easily be offset by reduced material scrap and machining time.

Good luck with your project.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources