Custom Steel Forging for Off-Highway Equipment

Off-highway equipment puts critical components through repeated load, impact, vibration, wear, and demanding operating cycles. Diesel engines, transmissions, powertrains, track systems, and ground-engagement equipment all depend on parts built for the requirements of the application.

Walker Forge provides custom steel forging for off-highway equipment manufacturers and suppliers. We produce custom forgings for construction, agriculture, mining, and other heavy-duty equipment applications, including transmission components, engine gears, track components, shafts, spindles, and severe-service ground-engagement tools.

Our primary process is closed die forging, supported by engineering, in-house tooling, heat treating, precision machining, and metallurgical testing.

Send us your print or 3D model, material specification, anticipated annual quantity, and secondary operation requirements. We can review the component and determine the right production approach.

Off-highway equipment can require forged components throughout the engine, transmission, drivetrain, track system, and other mechanical assemblies.

Walker Forge produces custom forgings for applications including:

• Engine timing and transmission gears
• Transmission components
• Track components
• Spindles and shafts
• Severe-service ground-engagement tools
• Drill cones
• Other custom components built to customer specifications

These are established applications within Walker Forge’s current closed-die and custom-forging capabilities.

The manufacturing process depends on the part itself. Geometry, steel grade, mechanical-property requirements, production volume, heat treatment, machining, and inspection requirements can all affect how the component should be produced.

We develop each forging around the customer’s print and specifications rather than supplying a standard catalog part.

Off-highway components may experience shock, torsion, fatigue, abrasive conditions, and high mechanical loads. The forging process has to produce more than the right external shape.

During closed die forging, heated steel is compressed through a progressive series of dies that form the required geometry and control material flow.

This process can provide internal consistency, optimized grain flow, and repeatable dimensional and mechanical properties from part to part and lot to lot. Those characteristics make closed die steel forgings well suited for high-load and high-stress applications. For off-highway OEM programs, that repeatability matters across every production run.

Track components are a good example of how forging, heat treating, machining, and engineering can work together in one production program.

Walker Forge produces a track link using 2,500- and 3,500-ton forging presses. The component then goes through quench-and-temper and induction hardening, followed by machining operations that include milling, boring, broaching, and wire EDM.

Bringing those processes together gives customers a more direct path from forged blank to a component that is further along in production.

The same approach can be useful for track, drivetrain, transmission, and other heavy-equipment components that require more than one manufacturing step.

Material selection starts with the component’s requirements. We work with special bar quality, or SBQ steel, sourced through approved mills. SBQ steel is used in demanding applications including shafts, gears, axles, drivetrains, off-highway vehicles, and industrial equipment. Its chemistry can also be verified through metallurgical testing.

Walker Forge works with carbon, alloy, and stainless steel across more than 1,000 grade and size combinations.

Alloy steel may be specified when the application requires particular combinations of strength, toughness, hardenability, wear resistance, or impact strength. Available alloy families include 4000, 5000, 8000, 9000, and 52100 series grades. Carbon steel may also be a fit when its mechanical properties meet the component requirements.

Customers provide the required material designation or specification, and we build the forging process around that material and the part design.

A reliable forging program starts before steel reaches the press. Customers typically provide a print or 3D model along with the required material specification. From there, our engineering capabilities include forge process design, tool design, 3D modeling, QForm forging simulation, and gauge and fixture design.

Forging simulation allows us to evaluate material flow and the proposed forging sequence before production tooling is finalized.

We also design and manufacture forging dies in-house. Keeping tooling connected to engineering and production helps reduce unnecessary handoffs as a new component moves toward repeat manufacturing.

A forged component may still require additional processing before it is ready for assembly.

Walker Forge provides heat treating for components that require specific hardness, strength, wear resistance, or other mechanical properties.

Available processes include:

• Normalizing
• Quench and temper
• Stress relief and annealing
• Carburizing
• Vacuum hardening
• Induction hardening

Some components also require additional features after forging and heat treatment. Our precision machining capabilities can move forged components closer to their final condition while keeping more of the production process with one supplier.

That can be especially useful for off-highway components with multiple processing requirements before final assembly.

Off-highway component specifications may include requirements for material chemistry, microstructure, strength, hardness, impact properties, or other metallurgical characteristics.

Our metallurgical lab is ISO/IEC 17025 accredited and supports validation of material composition, microstructure, and mechanical properties. Keeping testing close to forging and heat treatment allows us to evaluate the component as part of the same manufacturing program.

The production process also has to fit the volume of the program. Walker Forge operates 13 forging press lines ranging from 850 to 4,000 tons and supports production quantities from a few thousand parts per year to approximately 750,000 parts annually.

That range allows us to support specialized forged components as well as repeat production for larger OEM programs.

A track component does not have the same requirements as a transmission gear, shaft, spindle, or ground-engagement component. We start with the requirements for each part.

Send us your:

• Part print or 3D model
• Material designation or specification
• Anticipated annual quantity
• Mechanical-property requirements
• Heat-treatment requirements
• Machining requirements
• Testing or inspection requirements

We can review the component and determine how our custom steel forging for off-highway equipment, closed die forging, engineering, heat treating, machining, and metallurgical capabilities fit the program.

Explore our other markets or request a quote to discuss your next forged component.