Method of Eliminating the Heat Affected Zone in a Welded Crankshaft
OwnerDusan Milicevicinventor
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Abstract
A method of manufacturing a crankshaft comprising providing two parts, each part comprising two webs, a portion of a crank journal and a portion of a main journal, welding the two portions of the crank journal together, heating the crank journal, inserting a shim between the webs, and upset forging to reduce the length of the crank journal to form a forged segment. Alternatively, the portions of the main journal may be welded, heated, shimmed, and forged to form a forged segment. The crankshaft may be lengthened by adding additional parts or forged segments using the same steps. A production line for carrying out this method when producing a crankshaft with n number of crank journals, where n is an even integer.
Claims20
A method of manufacturing a crankshaft comprising steps of:
- providing two parts each part comprising a web, a portion of a crank journal on one side of the web and a portion of a main journal on the opposing side of the web;
- welding the two portions of the crank journal together to form a segment comprising two webs, a crank journal, and two portions of a main journal;
- heating the crank journal;
- inserting a shim between the webs of the segment;
- and
- upset forging the segment to reduce the length of the crank journal and create a forged segment.
A production line for producing crankshafts with n number of crank journals and n−1 main journals or n number of main journals and n−1 crank journals, where n is an even integer, comprising:
- a first section comprising n welding stations, heating stations, and upset forging stations, and
- each consecutive section thereafter comprising half as many welding stations, heating stations, and upset forging stations as a previous section,
- wherein the total number of sections, x, is determined by n=2x-1.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.