Manufacturing of high-integrity parts for critical applications

Project aim

The main aim is to bridge the gap that exists in forging between research activities and industry. This can be achieved by enabling robust and efficient real-time analysis of the forged components in a scalable manner, that allows easy and cost-effective integration on an industrial scale, saving time, increasing productivity, and reducing waste.

Project background

Forging can create components with improved material properties, compared to parts manufactured by other metalworking processes. Forged components are widely used in sectors where reliability and safety are critical, such as aerospace, oil and gas, marine, nuclear, energy, and automotive. Yet, controlling the dimensions of hot-forged parts is challenging and can lead to a high reject rate and low productivity.

Direct exposure to radiation from hot forgings may cause injuries to workers or equipment, rendering contact measurements unsuitable and although vision systems have been deployed in research to resolve this issue, they are often limited by poor imaging. The quality of an image can be easily distorted due to the camera sensitivity on visible and infrared light radiated by high-temperature components. As a result, the features of hot forgings are insufficiently clear to be extracted robustly and efficiently, imposing difficulties in analysing the workpieces in real-time.