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Any metal component undergoes various treatments to get desired shape and desired properties. Some of the important properties are strength, hardness, % elongation etc. which comes under mechanical properties. These properties can be easily achieved through heat-treatment process. Typical example of heat-treatment processes are hardening and tempering in case of steel and aging process in case of aluminium alloys. Some of the new emerging materials viz. micro alloy steel does not require any hardening and tempering if cooling rate is maintained. Heat-treatment cycle depends on material grade and its alloying elements. A heat-treatment cycle for any grade is generally fixed based on conventional methods but they are not optimized. The need of hour is to optimize the heat-treatment cycle to improve productivity and energy consumption. Dilatometer is used to optimize heat-treatment cycle on sample level whereas simulation tools can be used for component level.

New process development of forging component requires in-depth knowledge and experience related to the process. Also it requires number of physical trials to arrive at optimum process and initial billet dimensions. With the help of reliable computer simulation tool, it is possible to optimize the complete forging process and billet dimensions. Simulation provides much more insight about the process and possible forging defects. This saves considerable time and money. This paper describes about a complete forging process designed for a complex component. With the help of metal forming simulation software, complete forging process was simulated and optimized. Forging defects were removed during optimization of the process. Billet weight optimization was also carried out. Deciding the preforming shape of the billet was the main challenge. An innovative pre-forging shape was arrived which resulted in eliminating one process stage.

To achieve first time right product in any new part development, the process requires number of trials, skilled manpower, huge cost and massive time. In case of forging process, to develop a new component lot of physical trials are required to be conducted due to the process variations. The need of the hour is shorter development time with highest quality. All these requirements can be achieved with the help of reliable computer simulations. With computer simulation, the process can be optimized and crack analysis can be carried out. Additionally the use of computer simulation in forging process reduces no. of trials, ultimately saves time and energy. The paper deals with forging process optimization by effective use of computer simulation. Existing forging process and modified forging process was simulated.