D2 Connecting rod is one of the important components of engine that cannot be absent during the services.

Back to history, connecting rod is invented earlier than before, in 1206 Al Jazari described several which utilized crank connecting rod system which used animal and water to generate movement of connecting rod. In Europe, connecting rod is invented in the fifteen century, due to limitations on the usage of connecting rod, it was not popular. The first connecting rod used in internal combustion engine is invented by a French inventor in 1860. Modern connecting rod today in vehicle engine is applied in 1885 by karl benz now Mercedes benz. z The first cast connecting rods is manufacture in year 1962 and apply in Buick V-6 engine. General Motors, one of the largest automotive industry in United State of America have manufactured 50 million cast pearlitic malleable iron connecting rods for use in 11 different engines, ranging up to 428 cubic inches in displacement. These connecting rod is cast in green sand mold, melted at temperature 1750 Fahrenheit and 18 hours of cooling. After cooling the material is reheated up again to 1650 Fahrenheit and quenched in oil to form martenstic microstructure and heat in 1150 Fahrenheit for 3 hours. In the year, casting is consider lower price compare to forging. In year 1993, cast malleable iron and ductile iron is studied which found that the fatigue life of ductile iron is longer than cast malleable iron. As the studied conducted longer, they found that cast malleable iron connecting rod extremely brittle in cast manufacturing process. Today cast iron is not consider as the engine part due to its weight is heavy and not economical in producing, it does not contains mechanical properties that require in automotive today. In further development, plain carbon steel is introduced for connecting rod. The material is manufacture through forging. After the forging process which punching and compressing form the final shape, the connecting rod is heat treated to achieve desire mechanical properties. The process waste about 25-30% of material to finish the final shape of connecting rod.

In the early 1990, many development of wrought forging of connecting rod is appearing. Company such as Nakamura has invented connecting rod that is high fatigue strength, 0.3 wt% carbon steel with additions of vanadium, sulfur, phosphorus and/or calcium, displayed a 26% higher fatigue strength than the traditional connecting rods and displayed equal machine tool life as traditional connecting rods. The mechanical properties is achieve by cooled condition which eliminates old style heat treatment. In the early 2000, Europe invented crack able connecting rod and widely adopted as standard alloy for crackable wrought forged connecting rods in the United States of America. In 1970, connecting rod becomes one of the powder metallurgy targets in technology. The first powder forged was made in 1970 by Porches use for Porches 928 engine. At the time, powder forging reduced machining operations. In the year powder forging material is more expensive than wrought forging. In 1980, Toyota applies powder forging to manufactured their own connecting rod. They attempted to lower the cost by using a FeCu-C powder blend. In further year 1987, Ford ued powder forged connecting rod in their engine. Other companies such as General Motors and Chrysler used powder forging connecting rod in their engine further year. In Europe BMW and jaguar used powder forged connecting rod in their engines, but the used of this connecting rod is limited in Europe that time. In 1995 Hyundai start to apply powder forged connecting rod to their engine due to the advantages of low noise, vibration, harshness and lower cost of manufacturing. The development of manufacturing of connecting rod and material gives huge contribution for the automotive engines today. The uncomfortable and the limitations is reduced much until today. Daniel Viser, 2008, A Comparison of Manufacturing Technologies in the Connecting Rod Industry, Online, Obtain from
http://www.forging.org/members/docs/pdf/A_Comparison_of_Manufacturing_Technologies_in _the_Connecting_Rod_Industry.pdf [Accessed 20 September 2011]