Hill Engineering Archives - Page 4 of 5

Rapid Forge Design

Hill Engineering’s Rapid Forge Design™ software is an automated tool for fast and reliable design of 2-piece, closed-die impression forgings. Rapid Forge Design™ reads the final part geometry and automatically designs a forging according to accepted industry guidelines and user inputs. Rapid Forge Design™ is intended for use by forging suppliers and forging consumers/OEMs.

The Rapid Forge Design™ software comes with a user-friendly, graphical interface that allows for forging designs using a simple, 3-step, menu guided approach.

Illustration of Rapid Forge Design™ user interface

The inputs to Rapid Forge Design™ are the 3D geometry of the machined part (to be manufactured from the forging) and critical, user-defined parameters that allow for customization of the resulting forging design (e.g., minimum thickness and minimum radius values).

The forging design is generated by Rapid Forge Design™ according to a set of prescribed, industry-accepted design rules. After the user inputs are provided, the automated forging design process is completed by Rapid Forge Design™ in minutes without any further user intervention. With this approach, Rapid Forge Design™ enables the design of forgings with significantly less effort than existing manual processes.

Rapid Forge Design™ outputs the 3D geometry of the forging and a host of useful forging statistics and properties including volume, plan view area, periphery length, heat treatment section thickness, and other dimensional information. These metrics are essential to support the quoting process (material producers) and planning and costing activities (OEMs).

The preliminary forging designs produced by Rapid Forge Design™ can be used as the starting point for the finished forging’s more detailed design and tooling CAD files.

The Rapid Forge Design™ process is outlined in the flowchart below. The operator can input and customize important design parameters including: web thickness, draft wall cover, draft wall angle, plan view radius, fillet radius, and corner radius. Default values are provided based on alloy dependent industry standards. Help menus provide additional support and guidance, where necessary.

Summary of Rapid Forge Design™ workflow

Numerous examples taken from publicly available CAD files come with the software. The following are a few illustrations showing the ability of Rapid Forge Design™ to effectively produce forging designs for a wide variety of supplied final part geometry.

Illustration of forging designs produced by Rapid Forge Design™ (gold) along with the final machined part geometry that was used as the input for design (grey)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV3Vb4-DUV4

To place an order for Rapid Forge Design™ related goods and services, please contact us.

Case Study: Rapid Forge Design

by John Watton

Hill Engineering’s Rapid Forge Design^TMsoftware is an automated tool for fast and reliable design of 2-piece, closed-die impression forgings. Rapid Forge Design^TM reads the final part geometry and automatically designs a forging according to accepted industry guidelines and user inputs. Rapid Forge Design^TM is intended for use by forging suppliers and forging consumers/OEMs.

HE Pet Spotlight: Sir Loin

by Robert Pires

Unless you’re a sponge living under the sea, you probably don’t have an aquatic snail as your primary pet. That’s not the case in my household, however, where our only non-human friend is Sir Loin, the freshwater ramshorn snail.

Happy 20th birthday to the contour method

by Adrian DeWald

Today marks a major milestone in the field of residual stress measurement. The contour method, one of the most useful and advanced residual stress measurement techniques, was first successfully implemented on this date (August 16th) in 1999 by Mike Prime at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The most significant feature of the contour method is its ability to generate detailed two-dimensional residual stress maps like the one shown below. Please join us in wishing the contour method a very happy 20th birthday! Continue reading Happy 20th birthday to the contour method

Announcing agreement with ESRD for joint BAMF/StressCheck marketing

by Adrian DeWald

Hill Engineering and Engineering Software Research and Development, Inc. (ESRD) have executed a joint marketing agreement to collaboratively promote the combined use of our software tools: Broad Application for Modeling Failure (BAMF) and StressCheck® for fatigue analysis. Continue reading Announcing agreement with ESRD for joint BAMF/StressCheck marketing

Strain gage in a bottle

by Robert Pires

A representative composite overwrapped pressure vessel. Image courtesy of CompositesWorld: https://www.compositesworld.com/articles/thermoplastic-composite-pressure-vessels-for-fcvs

We’re putting something in a bottle, and no, it’s not an SOS to the world. It’s a strain gage!

Hill Engineering has recently developed technology to orient and apply strain gages inside a pressure vessel with restricted interior access. Continue reading Strain gage in a bottle

Additive Manufacturing Benchmark Publication

by Adrian DeWald

Hill Engineering recently contributed to a publication related to residual stress measurement in additive manufacturing (AM) test specimens titled, Elastic Residual Strain and Stress Measurements and Corresponding Part Deflections of 3D Additive Manufacturing Builds of IN625 AM‑Bench Artifacts Using Neutron Diffraction, Synchrotron X‑Ray Diffraction, and Contour Method. The work was performed under the NIST AM-Bench program in collaboration with researchers from NIST, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of California Davis, and Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source. The abstract text is available here along with a link to the publication. Continue reading Additive Manufacturing Benchmark Publication

ASIP Conference 2019

by Adrian DeWald

Hill Engineering is presenting about residual stress aerospace forgings at the upcoming 2019 United States Air Force Structural Integrity Program Conference (ASIP) in San Antonio, TX. The 2019 ASIP Conference is specifically designed to bring together the world leaders in the area of aircraft structural integrity and to disseminate information on state-of-the-art technologies for aircraft structures in both the military and civilian fleets. Hill Engineering’s presentation will include a summary of recent work to quantify the residual stress variability in aerospace forgings. The abstract text is presented below. Continue reading ASIP Conference 2019

Welcome Dallen Andrew

by Adrian DeWald

We would like to welcome Dallen Andrew to Hill Engineering. Dallen has 10 years of experience as a mechanical engineer supporting aircraft structural integrity programs. He received a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Utah State University in 2009, and a MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah in 2011.

During his career, Dallen has gained experience in many aspects of aircraft structural integrity, with specialization in the fatigue and fracture of metals. He has worked on many projects requiring him to utilize his capabilities in fatigue crack growth analysis, fracture mechanics, durability and damage tolerance analysis (DADTA), fatigue testing, continuing damage, residual stress, finite element analysis (FEA), and non-destructive inspection.

Dallen is an organizer of the Engineered Residual Stress Implementation (ERSI) working group developing the analytical framework to allow the benefits from deep engineered residual stresses to be applied to aircraft inspection intervals for the United States Air Force. Dallen has significant experience supporting the A-10 and T-38 aircraft fleets. He also has significant expertise in the use of AFGROW and NASGRO fracture mechanics and damage tolerance software packages.

Please contact us today for additional information about Hill Engineering and the services we offer.

Agreement with VEQTER for Deep-Hole Drilling technology

by Adrian DeWald

Hill Engineering, answering strong demand for its residual stress measurement services, would like to announce our agreement with VEQTER, Ltd to license the Deep-Hole Drilling (DHD) technology. VEQTER, along with the University of Bristol, aided in the development of the DHD technique, and have practiced the technology for over 25 years. With this agreement, VEQTER will provide Hill Engineering with the equipment, technology, and support to deliver state-of-the-art DHD measurements within the North and South American Continents. Continue reading Agreement with VEQTER for Deep-Hole Drilling technology