Forged Crankshafts

Forged crankshafts are frequently used in situations where a superior product is required. Custom forged crankshafts are used in many industrial applications, including the pump industry and the oil & gas industry. Forged crankshafts are generally superior to cast crankshafts or turned crankshafts, but more costly to mass produce and are often custom-made by open die forging crankshaft manufacturers.

Manufacturers of Forged Crankshafts

• Great Lakes Forge is a custom open die forging company located in Michigan, and a manufacturer of custom forged crankshafts. With decades of experience and a wide variety of steel grades in stock, Great Lakes Forge offers the best lead times of any manufacturer in the forging industry.

The Advantage of Forged Crankshafts

The forging manufacturing process both shapes and strengthens the metal being forged, by creating a finer grain. Forging is preferred to other manufacturing processes whenever strength and durability is an important requirement -- for example the oil & gas industry often makes use of forged crankshafts for oil pumps. When compared to turned crankshafts or cast metal crankshafts, forged crankshafts have many clear advantages:

• Forged crankshafts offer a finer grain size with continuous grain flow, because the forging process maintains the metal grain structure.
• Forged crankshafts are stronger
• Forged crankshafts possess superior fatigue resistance

The disadvantage of forged crankshafts is that they are more costly to produce than lower quality manufacturing processes. The crankshaft is not complete through forging alone, and for this reason manufacturers of forged crankshafts often offer secondary machining or rough machining services. Forged crankshafts are almost always custom-made, though they can, of course, be produced in volume even to the very exacting specifications requires by the oil and aerospace industries. Forged crankshafts are produced using open die forging techniques, in which the metal being forged is not confined laterally. Open die forging is required in the manufacture of forged crankshafts.