Drop Forged Parts

Machines are masters of reproduction, but only people can innovate.

The knowledge gained from FEA simulations and years of experience is constantly incorporated into the technology of our forging tools.

Thanks to the perfect interaction of state-of-the-art machine tools and experienced employees, tools are manufactured in-house, from semi-finished products to ready-to-install.

Several thousand tons of steel and aluminum are processed at Krenhof per year. The 7.5m long, 5-ton steel bar bundles are unloaded from the truck by means of a magnetic crane and stored in our fully automated cassette storage system, with a capacity of 10,000 tons of steel. Three steel bar shears allow the bar material to be cut to the correct section lengths required for forging at one-second intervals. Our aluminum forging lines are supplied by a state-of-the-art circular saw. Due to our huge raw material stock, containing hundreds of steel and aluminum alloys, we are able to service our core markets accurately.

Approximately 12 million drop forged steel parts are produced per year on 9 forging presses, with pressing forces between 1,000 – 1,800 tons. Our aluminum forging presses with pressing forces between 1,000 – 3,500 tons allow us to produce more than half a million drop forged parts per year. These parts involve hundreds of different geometric shapes, with tight tolerances and precisely defined mechanical properties, as well as ready-to-install visible components. Mainly responsible for our quality at the highest level is the harmonious interaction of our employees, forging presses and tools.

In order to achieve and maintain the required mechanical properties in a process-safe manner, optimised heat treatment tailored to each forged part is indispensable. Individual part hardening, directly through the forging heat, can minimise differences in strength or microstructure. With the help of our fully-automated isothermal annealing furnace we are able to anneal up to 4 tons of forged steel parts per hour. Our aluminium heat treatment consists of 4 furnaces for solution annealing, a quenching device and 2 furnaces for artificial ageing. All of our furnaces fulfil the requirements of CQI-9 respectively AMS2750 standards.

Our state-of-the-art quality assurance and measurement technology enable us to carry out economical and high-quality (100%) inspections of our forged parts. The quality of these tests, and the control loops derived from them, ensure our continuous, daily-practiced improvement process. To fulfil the high quality standards of our automotive and aerospace customers all of our aluminum parts run through a fully-automated pre-cleaning and pickling process followed by a liquid penetrant inspection. Additional to that we are able to apply surface finishing technologies such as sandblasting or vibratory grinding.

Maintenance and optimisation of our systems and plants are carried out exclusively by qualified Kernhof employees. To ensure that young workers in the future also follow our motto “A little bit better every day”, we focus on excellence in our apprenticeship training.