Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274

An expert system for cold forging process design

based on a depth-rst search
Hong-Seok Kim, Yong-Taek Im*
Computer Aided Materials Processing Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, ME3227,
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Taejon, 305-701, South Korea

Received 20 May 1998

Abstract

Due to the non-deterministic nature of process sequence design for multi-stage cold forging, various process designs are available
depending on the initial billet geometry and the order of basic processes such as forward/backward extrusion, upsetting and trimming
process. Therefore, various process sequences should be determined and compared to obtain an optimal solution. For this purpose, a depth-
rst search, a searching technique used in articial intelligence, has been introduced in developing an expert system for multi-stage cold
forging process design. As a result, process designers can select the optimal process sequence from the searched feasible solutions by
estimating the values of evaluation functions that are introduced to represent the important design characteristics. In the present
investigation, the distributions of the global effective strains in the nal product and the forming loads required at each forging stage were
selected to be controlled. In general, a more realistic process sequence should be determined by taking into account manufacturing
conditions such as the number of forming stages, the forming loads, the shearing diameter of the coil, the open upsetting diameter, and the
knock-out lengths of the die and punch. In this paper, a methodology of applying the searching technique for process sequence design is
discussed, and the exibility of the introduced searching technique is evaluated by generating design examples of a shaft part, a wrench and
hexagonal bolts of AISI 1045. # 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Cold forging; Expert system; Depth-rst search

1. Introduction ing the necessary database, there are difculties in setting up

The mass production of high precision parts such as gears
and fasteners that have good surface nish, dimensional
accuracy and improved mechanical properties has been
accomplished by means of the cold forging process [1,2].
However, the time consuming effort required in process
sequence design to set up the process increases the total
manufacturing cost [3]. In general, process sequence design
is an experience-oriented task depending on the designer's
knowledge and skill. Therefore, several expert systems for
the design of a cold forging process sequence have been
developed in order to reduce the time and cost required at the
design stage [414].
Although existing expert systems previously developed
have made much progress by developing algorithms to
automatically regenerate design knowledge and construct-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-42-869-3227; fax: +82-42-869-3210
E-mail address: ytim@convex.kaist.ac.kr (Y.-T. Im)
the proper hierarchy in implementing proprietary know-
hows to the existing design rules. For example, there is a
number of the designer's own rules that might conict with
general design rules, and the specication of forming facil-
ities has not been considered in the developed systems. Kim
and Altan [15] pointed out that only routine sequences that
are well known to experienced process designers can be
generated by the developed systems since the rule-based
knowledge is very limited. In addition, a new sequence
obtained by the expert systems may not be accepted by
process designers, who are often conservative. Therefore, it
was pointed out that instead of trying to develop computer
systems to automate forming sequence design, the goal
should be to develop computer-aided tools to assist human
designers.
In order to overcome the drawback of existing expert
systems, several researches have been made. A distinguish-
ing approach amongst them is the development of an
integrated design system that couples an expert system

0924-0136/99/$ see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 3 4 1 - 6
 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274
and a nite element analysis. The reliability of the designed
process sequence generated by the expert system can be
veried by nite element simulations, and several useful
items of information that may not be obtained by human
intuition can be offered to designers with this approach. In
the integrated system, both expert system and nite element
analysis play a role in assisting tools and decisions, respec-
tively, for process designers. Thus, Kim and Altan [12,15]
developed an integrated design system that utilized an expert
system FORMEX and a nite element (FE) program DEFORM.
Another integrated design system for closed die forging was
developed by Mynors and Bramley [16].
The second approach is to reinforce an inference engine of
an expert system by introducing articial intelligent tech-
niques such as neural network and search. The expert system
developed by Osakada and Yang [10] is one of such
approaches using the neural network. Search is a core of
articial intelligence [17]. If it is applied to the process
sequence design of cold forging, various possible process
sequences can be generated as feasible solutions and the
process designer can select the best solution amongst them
by satisfying the design constraints. In addition, it is easy to
incorporate exibility in solving hierarchy problems.
Therefore, in the present investigation, an expert system
was developed by introducing a depth-rst search. In the
developed system, various process sequences will be gen-
erated according to the introduced searching technique, and
an optimal solution can be found by estimating evaluation
functions that minimize the deviations of the global effective
strains in the nal product and the forming loads required at
each forming stage. In addition, it was attempted to deter-
mine a more practical process sequence in consideration of
several design variables related with forming machines by
applying a pruning technique of the search. The developed
system was programmed with Prolog language on an IBM
Fig. 1. Designed process sequences for a solid part with several initial billet diameters.
263
PC. The possible geometries of the nal product cover a bolt
shape, and axisymmetric solid and hollow parts. A numer-
ical algorithm for applying the searching technique to the
process sequence design is developed in this paper, and the
applicability of the developed system is evaluated by gen-
erating design examples of a shaft part, a wrench and
hexagonal bolts of AISI 1045.
2. Process sequence design using the searching
technique
Several process sequences can be designed for the same
nal product by changing the initial billet diameter in the
cold forging process as shown in Fig. 1. In this gure, two
stage upsettings are used in ``case 1'' with an initial billet
diameter of 6.0 mm. However, there is a danger of ductile
fracture at the free surface of the head part with a diameter of
15.0 mm, since the ratio of the diameters between the initial
billet and the head part is 2.5, which exceeds the limiting
design value. Also, it is difcult to obtain the bottom element
with the diameter of 6.0 mm with one stage of forward
extrusion in ``case 5'' since the reduction of area of 84% is
greater than the limiting value for trapped extrusion. There-
fore, ``case 1'' and ``case 5'' cannot be applied in real
practice. However, a possible range of initial billet diameters
exists and a number of process sequences can be designed by
using diameters of the initial billet within the ranges such as
7.0, 8.0 and 10.0 mm, as shown in Fig. 1. The maximum and
minimum diameters of the initial billet are determined by
considering the forming ratios of the basic processes and the
machine capacities such as the maximum shearing diameter
and the maximum diameter of open upset. In addition,
various further process sequences can be designed by chan-
ging the order of the basic processes and combining them.
264 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274
Fig. 2. A part of a search tree for cold forging process sequences.
The several cold forging process sequences can be repre-
sented as a search tree by linking intermediate processes
from the initial billets to the nal part, hierarchically. A part
of a search tree for the process sequences in Fig. 1 is given in
Fig. 2. The problem that is described as a search tree can be
solved efciently by using searching techniques. Therefore,
in this study, a depth-rst search is introduced into the cold
forging process sequence design.
In the searching procedure, the task of producing possible
situations is repeated until a solution is found. In general, a
searching algorithm is composed of: (1) the denition of
searching problem and the organization of state variables;
(2) the creation of initial open nodes and the selection of a
successor; (3) the examination of solutions and the creation
of new open nodes [1819]. The open nodes are the next
possible situations generated from the current state and a
successor is the next situation to which the searching will be
actually moved. Once the evolution to the successor is
completed, the property of the successor, which was
``open'', is changed to ``closed''. This means that it will
not be considered in the remaining search. After arriving at
the successor, a comparison of states between the successor
and the goal is conducted. If the current state coincides with
the goal state, the searched path from the start to the
successor becomes a feasible solution. Otherwise, new open
nodes will be created from the successor and a new suc-
cessor will be determined amongst all of the open nodes. In
general, this procedure will be repeated until a feasible
solution is determined. However, all feasible solutions
can be found by using the net search such as a depth-rst
search and an optimum can be selected from amongst the
searched feasible solutions by using evaluation functions.
Therefore, in this study, a depth-rst search was introduced
to obtain various process sequences and an evaluation
function was applied to select an optimum. The searching
technique was applied to cold forging process sequence
design as follows.
2.1. Definition of searching problem and organization of
state variables
The intermediate process sequences are determined by
geometrical comparison between an initial billet and the
nal product. The geometry of the nal product can be
divided into several elements such as truncated cone, con-
vex, concave and bolt. If any diameter of each element is
larger than that of the initial billet, the element should be
upset, otherwise, forward extrusion should be applied.
Therefore, the comparison of diameters between the initial
billet and the nal product makes it possible to determine the
types and applied number of basic forging processes such as
upsetting, forward/backward extrusion, and trimming.
According to this feature, initial billets with various dia-
meters become initial open nodes and the evolution of the
search is conducted by applying the determined basic for-
ging processes one by one.
A state variable should store the information about the
current state and the searched path from the initial to the
current state. In this study, the state variable is organized as
follows:
statusNnod ; D0 ; Leval ; Lproc1 ; Lproc2 ; Lproc3 ; Lapplied (1)
Here, Nnod is a number of each searching nodes and D0 is
the diameter of an initial billet which is one of the initial
open nodes. The third argument, Leval, is the list of values of
sub-functions composing an evaluation function. Intermedi-
ate basic processes determined by comparison of the dia-
meters are stored in Lproc1, Lproc2 and Lproc3. The last
 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274
argument, Lapplied, stores the process sequence from the
intial billet to the current searching node, which means
the searched path.
The initial state is a cylindrical billet, for which none of
the basic processes is applied yet. Therefore, Lapplied in Eq.
(1) will be blank at this state, whilst Lproc1, Lproc2 and Lproc3
are blank at the goal state, since all of the determined basic
processes are already applied.
2.2. Creation of initial open nodes and the selection of a
successor
As mentioned previously, initial open nodes are cylind-
rical billets with various diameters, which are determined by
considering the geometry of the nal product with cold
forging design rules [20]. Therefore, ``billet 1'' and ``billet
2'' as shown in Fig. 2 are created as initial open nodes.
In this study, the direction of the search follows ``Path 1''
in Fig. 2, since a depth-rst search was introduced, whilst a
breath-rst search can be developed in the direction of ``Path
2''. In general, the number of forming stages required in cold
forging is 5 or 6 and the number of initial billets created in
the developed system is around 20. Therefore, the number of
widths is usually larger than that of depths in the constructed
search tree. For the wide search tree, a breadth-rst search
would create more open nodes than a depth-rst search [21].
If the number of open nodes increases, the amount of
running memory required in searching is so large that the
search takes a long time and the system may be halted. This
is the reason for using a depth-rst search in this study.
2.3. Examination of solutions and creation of new open
nodes
Once the evolution to a successor is completed, compar-
ison between the current and the goal states is made. If the
state of the successor is in accordance with that of the goal, a
searched path in the state variable of the current searching
node will be stored in a list of feasible solutions: otherwise,
new open nodes are created from the successor. In this study,
new open nodes are created by changing the order of
determined basic forging processes. For an example, the
order of processes in manufacturing a solid part can be
composed of: (1) the process of forward extrusion applying
rst; (2) the process of upsetting applying rst; (3) the
combined process of upsetting and forward extrusion; and
(4) the combined process of two forward extrusions. There-
fore, four open nodes can be created from a successor for a
solid part.
2.4. Pruning of new open nodes
Pruning is an operator to remove an unnecessary branch
which does not lead to any feasible solution during search-
ing. In this study, pruning operations are applied in con-
sideration of the order of basic processes and the
265
specication of the machine used. For example, pruning
is applied to the combined process of ``link 1'' in Fig. 2,
because it is impossible to x the billet for open forward
extrusion when an element to be upset is adjacent to an
element to be extruded. In addition, ``link 2'' and ``link 3''
should be pruned since it is impossible to trap the whole part
of the billet for trapped forward extrusion due to upsetting. If
the number of forming stages or the length of the knock-out
of a searching node exceeds the capacities of the former
used, then the searching node will be ruled out from an open
node list so that it will not be considered further. The rules
applied to pruning are constructed by considering design
rules of cold forging, and the number of open nodes can be
reduced by pruning.
2.5. Determination of an optimum with an evaluation
function
In this study, all feasible solutions are found by using net
search and the feasible solution with the minimum value of
evaluation functions given in Eq. (2) was selected as the
optimum.
X
2
f n wi fi n (2)
i1
Here, fi(n) is the ith sub-function and wi is the weight of
fi(n). Quantities f1(n) and f2(n) are the deviations of the
global effective strains of the nal product and of the
forming loads required at each forging stage, respectively,
as dened in Eqs. (3) and (4).
s
PNE n 2
i1 f"i n"ave ng
f1 n (3)
NE n
s
PNs n 2
i1 fLi nLave ng
f2 n (4)
NS n
In Eq. (3), NE(n) is the total number of elements for-
mulating the forging geometry at the nth searching node, and
ei(n) and eave(n) are the global effective strains of the ith
element and the mean value of ei(n), respectively. For the
process sequence shown in Fig. 3, NE(n) at the nal stage is
3. In Eq. (4), NS(n) is the number of forming stages at the nth
searching node, and Li(n) and Lave(n) are the forming loads
required at the ith stage and the mean value of Li(n),
respectively. Once all the feasible solutions are searched,
f1(n) and f2(n) are non-dimensionalized to the range of [0,1].
In addition, the weights wi in Eq. (2) range from 0 to 1 also,
and the sum of the weights is 1. Therefore, if w1 is set to 1.0,
then f1(n) becomes the evaluation function and only the
deviation of the effective strains is considered in the search-
ing procedure. On the other hand, only the deviation of the
forming loads is considered with w2 = 1.0. If the two weights
have the same value of 0.5, the evaluation function will be
the mean value of the sub-evaluation functions.
266 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274

Fig. 3. An example of the process sequence of an axisymmetric pin-shape part and the deviation of the global effective strain " lnl1 =l0 ln D20 =D21
at each deforming stage.

3. Expert system of process sequence design for cold
forging
The ow chart of the developed expert system is given
in Fig. 4. The input data covers the nal forging geometry,
and the material and former types. Once the input is
completed, various sequences are searched as feasible
solutions and an optimal sequence is determined from
amongst the feasible solutions according to given weights
of the evaluation functions. The value of the evaluation
functions of feasible solutions was provided as a graph
so that all of possible sequences can be examined by
considering values of the functions. The design rules applied
to the search were collected from Refs. [2226] and major
features of the developed expert system were illustrated
as follows.
3.1. Classification of forging geometry group
Theforginggeometry grouprepresentsafamilyof geometry
types that can be produced by similar forging sequences.
Currently, the developed system has three geometry groups
such as solid, hollow and bolt. In this study, only a trimming
bolt was designed although bolt parts can be manufactured
by closed-die upsetting also. Each forging geometry group
has an individual rule-base. Once the group is determined
by examining the nal forging geometry, the only relevant
rule-base will be accessed to a working memory.
3.2. Specification of former
The type of forming machine considered in the developed
system is limited to a multi-stage former, the available

Fig. 4. Flow chart of the developed expert system.

 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274
design variables related with the former being composed of:
(1) the maximum number of forming stages; (2) the max-
imum forming load; (3) the maximum shearing diameter of
the coil; (4) the maximum diameter of open upset; (5) the
maximum length of die knock-out; and (6) the maximum
length of punch knock-out. In a multi-stage former, the
number of designed process sequences should be smaller
than that of the selected former, and the sum of the forming
loads should not exceed the machine capacity. In addition,
the diameter of the initial billet should be smaller than the
maximum shearing diameter of the coil, since the initial
billets are obtained by shearing the coil in a multi-stage
former. There are available ranges of the diameter and length
of forging, since the sizes of the dies are limited.
In searching under the given conditions of the machine, a
higher priority was given to the sequence of which the
number of forming stages is closer to the maximum stage
number of the selected former. Amongst the feasible solu-
tions with the highest priority, a process sequence with the
minimum value of the evaluation function was selected as an
optimum.
3.3. Modification of design process sequence for tolerance
In order to insert the billet into a die, the diameter of a
billet should be smaller than that of the die cavity. Therefore,
dimensional modication should be conducted to the
designed sequence without considering tolerances. For an
example, a process sequence of a pin part is given in Fig. 5.
In this gure, the relationship between D1(n) and D2(n)
before allowing tolerances is summarized in Eq. (5):
D1 1 D1 2 D1 3 D1 4;
D2 2 D2 3 D2 4: (5)
However, D1(1) should be smaller than D1(2), and D1(2)
should be smaller than D1(3), and so on. Therefore, if
is
the tolerance, then the dimensions of elements after allowing
tolerances should be determined from the relations of Eq.
(6):
D1 i D1 i 1D : i 1 to 3;
D2 j D2 j 1 D : j 2 to 3: (6)
For other basic processes such as trapped forward extru-
sion, backward extrusion and trimming, tolerances are given
Fig. 5. An example of the process sequence for a pin part.
267
by considering die contacting parts. Currently, tolerances for
external and internal diameters are set up as 0.04 and
0.02 mm, respectively. However, values of the tolerances
can be changed easily by the user since they were stored in
an independent database.
4. Results and discussion
In order to evaluate the applicability of the developed
system, process sequence designs were conducted for a shaft
part, a wrench bolt and a hexagonal bolt. For examination of
the introduced searching technique, process sequences were
designed without rst considering the machine conditions,
and then the results were compared with designed sequences
taking into account the machine conditions.
The designed process sequence for a shaft part made of
AISI 1045 with weights of w1 = 1.0 and w2 = 0.0 is given in
Fig. 6. The top and front views of the designed intermediate
processes are shown in this gure and the information
available are written as a table at the bottom. The designed
sequence was composed of four forward extrusion stages
and a combined process of upsetting and open forward
extrusion. The diameter and height of the initial billet were
11.96 and 38.3 mm, respectively. The total sum of forming
loads and maximum length of die knock-out are 176.2
metric tons and 73.7 mm, respectively. In this gure, the
information about the selected former indicated in the right-
side of the table were set to zero, since the machine condition
was not considered in this case. The condition of w1 = 1.0
means that only the effect of f1(n), which indicates the
deviation of global effective strains of the nal product,
was considered in determining the optimum. Therefore, the
effective strain distributions of the nal part produced
should be more uniform with the selected optimal process
sequence than those for other process sequences.
In Fig. 7, the distributions of forming loads and the global
effective strains for the sequence shown in Fig. 6 are given
on the bottom and right-hand side of the gure, respectively.
The mean value and deviation of the forming loads were
35.2 and 19.7 metric tons, respectively. In addition, the
global effective strains of the nal product ranged from
0.6 to 1.4, with the mean value and deviation of the strains
being 0.950 and 0.296, respectively.
The distributions of forming loads and effective strains of
the designed sequence for the same shaft part in Fig. 6 with
weights of w1 = 0 and w2 = 1 are given in Fig. 8. Contrary to
the sequence in Fig. 6, the condition of w2 = 1.0 means that
only f2(n) was considered in selecting the optimal sequence.
Therefore, the forming load deviation of the designed
sequence should be smaller than that of other sequences.
The mean value and deviation of the forming loads of the
process sequence in Fig. 8 were 29.4 and 11.5 metric tons,
respectively. Also, the global effective strains ranged from
0.1 to 1.5, with the mean value and deviation of the strains
being 0.7 and 0.55, respectively.
268 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274

Fig. 6. The designed process sequence of a shaft part of AISI 1045 with weights of w1 = 1 and w2 = 0.

Fig. 7. The distribution of forming loads and global effective strains for the designed sequence in Fig. 6.

The effects of the introduced searching technique
could be examined by comparing Figs. 7 and 8. The effec-
tive strain deviation of 0.296 of the designed process
sequence with w1 = 1 was smaller than that of the sequence
in Fig. 8, which was 0.55. The forming load deviation
of 11.5 metric tons of the designed sequence with w2 = 1
was smaller than that of the sequence in Fig. 7, which was
19.7 metric tons. As a result, it was found possible to
generate a process sequence to incorporate the process
constraints such as the effective strain and the forming load
by changing the magnitude of the weights of the relevant
evaluation function.
 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274 269

Fig. 8. The distribution of forming loads and global effective strains for the designed sequence of the shaft part shown in Fig. 6 with weights of w1 = 0 and
w2 = 1.

Fig. 9. The non-dimensionalized evaluation function values for the searched feasible solutions of a shaft part.

The distribution of f1(n) and f2(n) of the searched feasible
solutions is given in Fig. 9. In this gure, the horizontal axis
and vertical axis represent the numbers of feasible solutions
and the non-dimensionalized value of each sub-function,
respectively. The line with circles and the line with crosses
mean the non-dimensionalized f1(n) and f2(n), respectively.
It was found from this gure that 43 sequences were
searched as feasible solutions. The minimum value of the
f1(n) occurs at the 41st, 42nd and 43rd solutions with the
minimum value of f1(n) being the ninth solution. If each
element can be produced by the same basic process, the
effective strain of the same element of the nal product will
be the same despite the differences in the order of its
application. This is the reason why several solutions are
270 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274
Fig. 10. The designed process sequence for the 41st feasible solution for a shaft part.
available with the same value of f1(n). For comparison, the
designed process sequence of the 41st solution is given in
Fig. 10. In this gure, it was found that the combined process
in the nal stage of the sequence given in Fig. 6 was divided
into open forward extrusion and upsetting. In addition, it was
found that the diameter of the initial billet was changed from
11.96 to 11.92 mm, which was due to the different condition
of tolerances allowed. This comparison demonstrates that
the number of processes was forced to be reduced and
forward extrusion was also forced to be applied in the initial
stage to set up the higher priority during the design stage.
If all the weights were set to 0.5, the optimal sequence
with the solution number of 39 is given in Fig. 11. As shown
in Fig. 9, the f1(n) value of the ninth solution which has the
minimum f2(n) is relatively large. Contrarily, in the 43rd
solution f2(n) becomes relatively large, although f1(n)
reaches the minimum. However, if w1 and w2 have the same
values, process sequences with relatively small values of the
two sub-functions can be found. Therefore, a quasi-optimal
solution can be obtained by setting the weights equal.
Optimal solutions with and without considering the spe-
cication of the former type used would be different. The
designed process sequence of the same shaft part shown in
Fig. 6 in consideration of the specication of a BPF-535SS
former is given in Fig. 12. In this case, w1 and w2 were set to
1.0 and 0.0, respectively. The BPF-535SS manufactured by
Sakamura is an 170 metric tons former with ve forming
stages. Its maximum diameters of the coil shearing and open
upsetting are 18 and 25 mm, respectively. The knock-out
length of the dies and punches are 110 and 35 mm, respec-
tively. It was found that the designed process sequence could
be applied to the BPF-535SS since the design variables
written at the bottom of Fig. 12 did not exceed the cap-
abilities of the former specied. The designed process in Fig.
6 was not selected as the optimum with the current condi-
tion, since its total sum of forming loads was larger than the
maximum forming capacity of the selected former.
For all of the weights set to the same value of 0.5, the
selected optimal solution is shown in Fig. 13. The process
sequence shown in Fig. 11 that had the same values of
weights was not selected as the optimum since the number of
forming stages and the magnitude of the forming loads
required exceed the capacities of BPF-535SS. However, it
can be found that the process sequence satised all of the
machine conditions as given in Fig. 13.
If the weight w2 was increased to 1.0 the selected optimal
solution is given in Fig. 14. From comparison between Figs.
14 and 8, it was found that the process sequence that was
designed without considering the machine conditions was
selected as the optimum again, since it does not exceed the
capacities of the former used. However, the solution number
was changed from 9 to 6 since pruning occurred during
searching under the condition of the selected former. There-
fore, the total number of feasible solutions in this case is
smaller than that of searching without considering machine
conditions.
The evaluation function considering the specication of
BPF-535SS is given in Fig. 15. In this gure, it was found
that the number of feasible solutions was decreased from 43
to 20. In addition, it was also found that 20th and 6th
solutions had the minimum value of f1(n) and f2(n), respec-
tively, and the 12th solution, which was selected with the
 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274 271

Fig. 11. The distribution of forming loads and global effective strains for the designed sequence of the pin part shown in Fig. 6 with weights of w1 = w2 = 0.5.

same values of weights of 0.5, had the minimum mean value
of the sub-evaluation functions.
In the present developed system, it is possible to design
hollow and bolt parts, considering the machine conditions,
as shown in Figs. 16 and 17. The process sequence of a
wrench bolt is given in Fig. 16. In this case, all of the weights
were set to 0.5 and the specication of BPF-540SS was also
considered. As shown in this gure, backward extrusion was
applied to make a hexagonal hole and all of the design
variables required for forming did not exceed the machine
conditions. The process sequence for manufacturing a hex-
agonal bolt given in Fig. 17 was designed in consideration of

Fig. 12. The designed process sequence of a shaft part considering the specification of BPF-535SS with weights of w1 = 1 and w2 = 0.
272 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274

Fig. 13. The designed process sequence of a shaft part considering the specification of BPF-535SS with weights of w1 = w2 = 0.5.

Fig. 14. The designed process sequence of a shaft part considering the specification of BPF-535SS with weights of w1 = 0 and w2 = 1.

the machine specication of BPF-560SS. As shown in this
gure, two stages of trimming processes were required to
make a hexagonal bolt with a ange.
From the above results, it was found that various feasible
sequences could be obtained by introducing a depth-rst
search and optimal solutions considering two design con-
straints could be searched by introducing a necessary eva-
luation function. This kind of procedure of searching is
fundamentally similar to the decision procedure of design
engineers, resulting in producing various sequence designs
to determine the optimum. Therefore, the effect of setting up
the proper evaluation function and its weight to arrive at a
 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274 273

Fig. 15. The non-dimensionalized evaluation function values for the searched feasible solutions under the specification of BPF-535SS.

Fig. 16. The designed process sequence of a wrench bolt considering the specification of BPF-540SS with weights of w1 = w2 = 0.5.

better process sequence can be compared easily with the use by introducing a depth-rst search. In the procedure of
of the developed system. developing the system, the following conclusions were
obtained.

5. Conclusions 1. Various feasible sequences can be designed by the

depth-rst search introduced considering the two
In the present investigation, an expert system for design variables by applying evaluation functions
cold forging process sequence design was developed and their weights. Therefore, designers can examine
274 H.-S. Kim, Y.-T. Im / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 95 (1999) 262274
Fig. 17. The designed process sequence of a hexagonal bolt considering the specification of BPF-560SS (w1 = w2 = 0.5).
various possible sequences and select the best sequence
corresponding to the values of the evaluation functions.
2. An evaluation function was introduced as a function of
two sub-functions which were the deviation of the
global effective strain distributions of the final product
and the forming loads required at each forming stage.
The influence of these sub-functions on the process
sequence design could be controlled by changing the
value of the weights. Therefore, it is possible to design a
process sequence according to the designer's purpose
which can be represented as design constraints such as a
relatively uniform distribution of effective strain and
forming load. In addition, it seems to be possible to
consider other design variables such as die life and
ductile fracture: a more practical process sequence can
be obtained by extending the current approach.
3. It was found that the optimums with and without con-
sidering machine conditions were not the same. Therefore,
the machine capacities of the facility should be considered
in the designing stage in order to apply designed sequences
into manufacturing. In the developed system, a more
practical process sequence can be designed by considering
machine conditions and tolerances.
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