What is a former?

A former is a multi-stage horizontal forming machine.
After steel coils or bar material are cut to a certain length, they are conveyed into multiple dies that face each other and shaped using pressure.

Forming mechanism

A former transmits the rotation of the flywheel from the main motor to the crankshaft, which changes the rotation to reciprocating motion in the ram.
Pressure is added to the material and formed using a punch (moving die) set in the ram and die (static side).

Hot forming

Hot forming is heating a metal to 1000 or 1250°C and forming it under low pressure.
This allows forming of large size work-piece, complicated shapes, or material that cannot be formed at room temperature because of low pressures.
In addition, it is possible to improve the mechanical properties of the metal through forming by creating homogenizing impurities, bonding of gas pockets, and refinement of crystal grains because the heated metal reaches temperatures above recrystallization temperatures.

Structure of hot formers

Sakamura hot formers basically convert crankshaft rotation to coordination of each driven section through cam or eccentric structure.
Furthermore, some drive is controlled by a servo motor.
The process starts with the supply of material from the bar rack, followed by heating by a heater and then cutting and forging by the hot former (#2 process to #4 process)