Why do tools have "drop forged" stamped on them?

Tools that say "drop forged" have been created using a technique called drop forging. Find out how drop forging and several other kinds of forging work, and why drop forging is a sign of a sturdy tool, in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:31):
Hi am Mars Brain with today's question, why do tools
have drop forge stamped on them? What is drop forging?
You see the words drop forge stamped on so many tools.
It makes you wonder what the big deal is? Why
do manufacturers want you to know that a tool is
drop forged. If you've ever seen a blacksmith beating on

(00:54):
a piece of red hot iron with a hammer, you've
seen the simplest type of for ing. Striking a piece
of hot metal with a hammer is forging, and blacksmiths
have been doing this for centuries. As blacksmiths experimented with
new techniques, they learned that complex shapes could be created
by hammering metal into a dye. The dye contains the

(01:17):
shape of the finished product. Modern manufacturers use either a
falling hammer or a powered hammer to do the hammering
rather than doing it by hand, and usually used dyes
on both sides of the piece. This is drop forging.
Manufacturers now use many different techniques to forge metal. Four

(01:37):
of the most common include drop forging, which is hammering
hot metal into dyes, press foraging. Instead of forcing hot
metal into a dye with a hammer blow, it's pressed
into the dye with hydraulic pressure, roll foraging, where the
hot metal is pressed between two rollers, and cold forging.

(01:58):
This is for smaller piece is and here the metal
can be pressed into the die without heating it ahead
of time. The reason why manufacturers want you to know
that a tool is drop forged is because this tells
you something about the strength and the durability of the tool.
The other two ways to make a tool would be
to cast it for molten metal or to machine it

(02:20):
that has cut material away from a larger block of metal.
The advantage of forging is that it improves the strength
of the metal by aligning and stretching the grain structure
inside the metal. A forge part will normally be stronger
than a casting or a machine piece. Do you have
any ideas or suggestions for this podcast. If so, please

(02:42):
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