Manufacturing Process

1. Open-Die Forging

The steel is heated and shaped under pressure using open-die forging. This process is commonly used for large and heavy-duty shafts. Forging helps consolidate the material, reduce internal porosity, and improve the internal grain structure of the steel.

2. Preliminary Heat Treatment

After forging, the shaft may be normalised or annealed to relieve internal stresses and create a more stable material condition before machining. This helps reduce the risk of movement or distortion during later machining.

3. Rough Machining

The forged shaft is rough machined to remove the outer forged surface and bring the shaft close to its finished shape. Extra material is left on the shaft so it can be accurately finished after final heat treatment.

4. Quenching and Tempering

Where required, the shaft is quenched and tempered to achieve the required mechanical properties. This improves strength while maintaining toughness, which is important for heavy-duty rotating and impact-loaded equipment.

5. Finish Machining

The shaft is finish machined to suit the final application. This can include bearing journals, seal areas, shoulders, threads, keyways, splines, coupling fits, and other required features.

7. Inspection and Testing

All forged shafts are dimensionally inspected before dispatch, and a test certificate is supplied with the finished component. Additional Non destructive testing can be deployed such as.

• Ultrasonic testing

• magnetic particle testing

• Hardness Mapping

Forged Shafts

Eastwell Engineering can supply custom forged shafts for heavy-duty industrial equipment where strength, toughness, and reliability are critical.

Forged shafts are used when a shaft is exposed to high torque, shock loading, bending loads, or repeated cyclic loading. The forging process forms the steel under pressure, helping improve the internal structure of the material and reduce the risk of internal defects. This makes forged shafts well suited to critical applications where shaft failure can lead to major downtime.

Typical Materials

• 1045

• 4140

• 4340

• EN 26