Method for producing forged crankshaft

A production method of a forged crankshaft which includes:

• a plurality of journals each defining a rotation center;
• a plurality of pins each decentered with respect to the journals;
• and a plurality of crank arms that connect the journals with the pins, respectively, the production method comprising:
• a first preforming process for obtaining a first preform from a billet;
• a second preforming process for obtaining a final preform from the first preform;
• and
• a finish forging process for forming the final preform into a finish forged preform with finishing dimensions of the forged crankshaft by at least a single die forging step, wherein
• in the first preforming process, a region to be the pins and a region to be the journals of the billet are pressed in a direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the billet, thereby reducing a cross sectional area of each of the regions to form a plurality of flat parts,
• the second preforming process includes:
• a process of pressing regions to be the plurality of journals in a pressing direction corresponding to a width direction of the flat part, by using a pair of first dies;
• and a process of, after pressing by the first dies has started, while regions to be the plurality of journals are restricted by the first dies, decentering regions to be the plurality of pins in a decentering direction corresponding to the width direction of the flat part, by using second dies, in the final preform, a thickness of each region to be the plurality of crank arms is equal to a thickness of the crank arms of the forged crankshaft,
• the first dies include journal-processing parts which are to abut against regions to the plurality of journals, and wherein
• the second dies to not project further than the journal-processing parts before pressing by the first dies has started.