CRANK SHAFT FORGING Forging: Based on the material selection criteria forged steel is the suitable material for

the crank shaft which can with stand at high cycle loads, torsion, and bending properties. And the suitable manufacturing process for the particular material is Forging. At a very high temperature, red heat state steel behaves like a starch syrup and is extremely soft and molds easily to the shape of the forging die. Shaping deep groves for crankshaft cannot be obtained when forged at low temperature1

At high temperature of 700 C forging dynamic recrystallisation takes place, with increased

stress and strain deformation to making the metal hard. Case hardening like carburizing, nitro carburizing and induction hardening give compression residual stress to the surface, thereby significantly improving the fatigue strength.
Induction hardening produces heating over the entire surface and throughout the thickness

and spraying water for quenching expands the crystal lattice of the surface, leaving a compressive residual stress in the surface raising to wear resistance and fatigue strength.
Productive considerations like mach inability and forge ability and further strengthening are

carried out by normalizing and precipitation hardening process. MICROSTRUCTURE The heating of the deformed metal above the recrystallisation temperature causes recrystallisation, which removes the deformed microstructure and generates recrystallised grains.
After eutectoid-carburizing martensite transformation take place and a black portion near

the surface is formed consisting of fine grains of ferrite and carbide. A carburized
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microstructure containing retained austenite is formed which increases the fatigue strength.
Martensite is formed by quenching from the austenite () phase inhibiting diffused

control eutectoid reaction. Martensite transformation is diffusion- less shear transformation.

Martensite formation clearly shows in the microstructure Figure(13) that the needle shape crystals structure is body centered tetragonal supersaturated with carbon Martensite in plain carbon steels is too brittle for practile applications and is subsequently tempered to restore some toughness as shown in the Figure(14)

Normalizing, air cool from austenitising band gives refined grain size which is harder and strong but with reduced ductility.

ALTERNATE MATERIAL SELCTION FOR CRANK SHAFT There is a constant tendency to improve the existing materials in respect of their properties economy, or to replace with them with some new ones which will meet above requirements to a greater extent than the current materials. In such research cheap and common materials are of particular interest. One of such materials is nodular cast iron. The development of crankshaft of ductile cast iron with the object of achieving high fatigue strength and ductility goes a long way towards meeting requirements for a material suitable for light weight construction and thus open up on ever-growing field of applications for cast iron.2 Nodular cast iron satisfies the constraints for the crank shaft in the figure. Nodular cast iron combines the favorable characteristics of other ductile materials. Such as steel with other advantages.
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POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF DUCTILE IRON OVER STEEL Easy machinability (10-16%) Design flexibility, i.e. the free selection of the shape of the component and thus the ability to integrate several functions in single part. High dimensional accuracy of the raw casting and resultant cost reduction in final machining. Surface treatment to improve properties by cold rolling, shot peening, nitriding, hardening. This is 10% lighter than the current using material. Higher damping Capacity. Lower notch sensitivity.

LIMITATIONS Often produces the sharp corners while shaping. Decrease in volume during solidification. The major disadvantage is shrinkage. Unprotected ductile iron is susceptible to corrosion in corrosion environment, both externally and internally, unless suitably protected. ALTERNATE MANUFACTURING ROUTE FOR CRANKSHAFTS[6] Selected Alternative material for the crank shaft is nodular cast iron and the alternate manufacture process which can be suite to the current material is forging. Forging: Generally three processes involved in forging-hammering, squeezing and bending. The forging can be carried out at room temperatures or at elevated temperature, The temperature range of the work piece material can be chosen in terms of homogeneous temperature. Generally

the homogeneous re-crystallization temperature for metals is about 0.5.The steps involved in the forging are billeting, Die forging and die burring.

Manufacturing route for the nodular cast iron connecting rod is as follows:

Figure (15), illustrates the entire manufacturing staring from the initial forging. Nodular cast iron can be easily forged in to complex shapes. They generally posses several desirable properties such as strength, wear resistance, hardness, and good machinability. Heat treatment is started to improve the mechanical properties of the material. so in this contest nodular cast iron is heated to increase the hardenability of the component. And heat treatment is needed to refine the grain size without introducing any new phase into the structure to increase the yield strength.
In our contest ductile iron is heat treated to make it ferritic() and pearlitic(+Fe3C).

Pearlitic is a product of the eutectoid transformation at 723 C. Pearlitic consists of alternating layers of +Fe3C in each grain as shown in the figure 5. Pearlitic is strong and hard with limited ductility.