Multi-stage forging process design of steering system output shaft for reduction of energy consumption

The purpose of this study is to propose a method for reducing carbon emissions produced during the manufacture of output shafts by increasing productivity and reducing energy consumption. To this end, the existing machining process was redesigned as a multistage cold forging process, using a computer-aided engineering technique. The critical parameters considered for the redesigning were material deformation, metal flow, and load. Rigid plastic finite element analysis software DEFORM-2D3D was utilized to identify and analyze these parameters. The derived multi-stage cold forging process was designed on the basis of the test results. It was also verified that the new process substantially increased productivity. A carbon life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to compare the amounts of carbon emission, material loss and energy consumption of the existing machining process and derived multistage cold forging processes. The comparison results indicated considerably lower carbon emissions, material loss and energy consumption in case of the latter.