What are the material choices and advantages and disadvantages of universal-joint forgings?

The material selection and advantages and disadvantages of universal joint forgings mainly include the following aspects:

Cast steel material: cast steel universal joint fork has the advantages of high strength, high hardness, good wear resistance, but its disadvantages are also more obvious, easy to crack, high manufacturing cost, large weight, etc., so the application scope is gradually narrowed.

Aluminum alloy material: Aluminum alloy universal joint fork has the advantages of light weight, good thermal conductivity and low manufacturing cost, but its strength and hardness are relatively low, easy to deformation and wear and other shortcomings, so it is suitable for some urban cars and lightweight vehicles.

Special steel materials: Special steel materials have the characteristics of high strength, high hardness, wear resistance, high temperature resistance, etc., so it is widely used in the manufacture of universal joint forks. Among them, the commonly used special steel materials are 4130, 4340 and so on.

Powder forming press: Powder forming press has the advantages of high precision, high density and high production efficiency in the manufacture of universal-joint forks, which can achieve high precision pressing of complex shapes while improving product reliability and consistency. However, the equipment cost and maintenance cost of powder molding presses are high, and problems such as powder recovery and environmental pollution need to be solved.

In summary, the material selection of the universal joint forgings needs to be comprehensively considered according to the use requirements and manufacturing conditions. Cast steel materials and special steel materials are suitable for the manufacture of high strength, high wear resistance requirements of the universal joint fork, aluminum alloy materials are suitable for lightweight and high thermal conductivity requirements of the universal joint fork. Powder forming presses have advantages in manufacturing high-precision, high-density and high-productivity universal-joint forks, but they need to solve cost and environmental problems.