forging, in metallurgy, process of shaping metal and increasing its strength by hammering or pressing. In most forging an upper die is forced against a heated workpiece positioned on a stationary lower die. If the upper die or hammer is dropped, the process is known as drop forging. To increase the force of the blow, power is sometimes applied to augment gravity. The number of blows struck is carefully gauged by the operator to give maximum effect at minimum wear on the die.
For high-speed work in which the heavy impact of the drop hammer is not needed, an adaptation of the old-fashioned smith’s technique, called helve-hammer forging, is used. The striking force is delivered by a wooden helve (handle) operating with the motion of a hand sledge. The helve hammer is usually used for preparatory and finishing operations.
Forging presses employ hydraulic or mechanical pressure instead of the blows of the drop forge. Most forging presses can exert only a few hundred tons of pressure, but giant presses, used for forging parts of jet aircraft, are capable of up to 50,000 tons of pressure.
Several other forging processes are also used. In roll forging, the metal blank is run through matched rotating rolls with impressions sunk in their surfaces. Impact forging is essentially hammer forging in which both dies are moved horizontally, converging on the workpiece. Counterblow forging is similar, except that the dies converge vertically. A principal advantage of these last two methods is that the two dies mutually absorb energy, eliminating the need for heavy foundations.