Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-02-06
DROP FORGING A
MIRACLE PROCESS.
RevOlutiOnizes Making of Strong
Light Cars; Makes Quantity
Production Possible

To a great extent the tremendous
production records attained by the
larger American motor car factories
in the past few years have been ac-
complished through the rapid strides
made in the development of the art
of drop forging.
From the very beginning of the
automobile industry, engineers have
sought :. means of obtaining maximum
strength in the parts subjected to
heavy strain, without adding useless
weight to the completed car. Drop
forging and the use of high grade
chrome Vanadium steel proved the
solution of the program, and to-day
the manufacturer who builds the ma
jority of the parts used in his car,
counts an efficient forge shop as one
of his most valuable possessions.
Our old friend, the village black
smith, was the first drop forger. Some
fifty years ago, a member of this
brotherhood evolved the scheme for
using a steam hammer on the larger
forgingS he had to make. But in order
to achieve the desired result, he was
compelled to work out the material
almost to the desired shape by hand,
then with the aid of portable tools
which were used In conjunction with
his crude steam hammer, the forgings
were finished to size. With this
method, much depended upon the
skill of the smith. and uniformity was
more or less a matter of guess work.
fhe human element was strong.
The railroad blacksmith took up the
methods of his predecessor and i'm
proved upon them. and the experts in
the big sewing machine, shoe ma
chinery and harvesting machinery fac
tories added inventions and improve
ments which still further simplified
the process.
The automobile manufacturer, how
ever, has brought the art down to its
greatest point of efficiency, and men
who understand the principles of mo-
tor car construction are inclined to
measure the longevity of an automo-
bile by the number of drop forgings
entering into its construction.
From the fact that drop forging is
nowadays purely mechanical, thus
eliminating the human element of skill
and craftsmanship formerly acquired by
the smith, the methods used are ex-
tremely simple and effect wonderful
reduction in the cost of production and
in addition, uniformity of product is
absolutely assured. In some cases the
production cost is reduced on q ratio
of about 40 or so to l. Forgings can
be made in greater variety, and those
which were most difficult and even i'm
possible to finish over the anvil, are
the drop hammer. There Is almost no
limit to design: any shape from a
cooked hat to a frying pan can be
formed. In addition, the work is ac-
curate and finished.
AS pioneers in the manufacture of
parts for automobiles, Dodge Broth
ers, who have just placed their own
car on the market and seen at the
Palace, rapidly grasped the advantages
of drop forging, and their forge plant
In Detroit is pointed out as typifying
all that is best in the business. The
huge steam hammers with their fall
ing weights, as heavy as two to three
tons, are almost constantly in opera
ton, turning out parts for the new car
Here the visitor can see the stand
ard steel stock, heated TO a white glow
and then placed under the hammers
coming from them magically formed
into front axle, connecting rod, crank
shaft, camshaft. or any kind OF a hun
dred and one parts. There is a spe-
cial set of dies for each part, the ham,
mer head receiving one-half and the
bed of the machine the other. The
first set breaks down the stock into
the general shape required, while the
second set shapes it accurately. Some
times both sets are in one hammer if
the part is small enough to admit two
sets side by side. Often break down
and finishing hammers are separate.
To the visitor making his first trip
through a forge shop, it is a source of
considerable wonder as to how the
men in charge of the hammers stand
the terrific heat from the white-hot
metals. The answer is found in the
type of building erected by Dodge
Brothers to house the forge shop. This
is typical of the big modern manufac-
turing institutions or the kind. The
buildings are long and narrow, of steel
and concrete construction. and built
so that during the summer months il
s possible to open practically all sides
of the structure and admit every par
Gle OF air.