Each material requires the right forging technology
Mecolpress hydraulic, mechanical, and screw presses for hot forging of brass, aluminum, and stainless steel
Brass, aluminum, and stainless steel require different forging technologies. Mecolpress, with over 50 years of experience in hot forging metals and alloys, offers the most suitable solution according to the material, component geometry, and required productivity.
Mecolpress can propose three different technologies:
ME hydraulic presses
Mecolpress hydraulic presses reach up to 500 tons of dies clamping force and can be configured with four horizontal punches, up to 350 tons, and one vertical punch.
They are particularly suitable for forging complex-shaped brass and aluminum components, flash and with deep holes pre-forming
SEO and Heavy mechanical eccentric presses
Mecolpress mechanical presses have capacities of up to 600 tons and can be equipped with hydraulic cushions of up to 120 tons.
They are suitable for the high-productivity forging of brass and aluminum components, with speeds of up to 40 strokes per minute.
TDS and FDS screw presses
Mecolpress screw presses are designed for forging steel, stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, and other special alloys.
They are particularly suitable for components with complex geometries, thin thicknesses, and for processes requiring high deformation energies.
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Efficiency and process control
Mecolpress technologies are designed to improve productivity, efficiency and control of the forging line.
Among the main advantages:
- reduced energy consumption, thanks to modern electronic and hydraulic power management systems;
- high production capacity, thanks to short cycles, multi-cavity dies, and process automation;
- control of forging parameters through Calipso software;
- reduced setup times, thanks to quick dies changing systems;
- remote and on-site assistance and availability of spare parts to ensure production continuity.
The Calipso software allows to collect and monitor the main press parameters during each forging cycle, comparing them with the set values and contributing to improve process quality control.
How the forging process changes depending on the material
Material types influence temperature, required force, dies design, and process parameters.
Brass features high ductility and good hot fluidity, with a relatively wide thermal window and generally low risk of cracking.
The forging temperature is approximately between 650 and 750°C, depending on the alloy.
It allows for short cycles, high productivity, and the creation of complex shapes and deep holes. It is widely used in the production of fittings, valves, hydraulic components, and complex parts produced in large quantities.
Depending on the component and the required productivity, Mecolpress can offer ME hydraulic presses or SEO and HEAVY mechanical presses.
Alluminum
Aluminum offers good deformability but requires more precise thermal control.
The process temperature for the most common forging alloys is approximately 430 to 500°C.
The 6000 series alloys generally have good forgeability, while some 7000 series alloys require more attention during the process.
Aluminum offers an excellent strength-to-weight ratio and is particularly used in the automotive, aeronautics, and transportation sectors.
Depending on the alloy, geometry, and production volume, it can be processed with hydraulic presses, mechanical presses, or screw presses.
Stainless steel
Stainless steel offers greater resistance to deformation, even at high temperatures, and therefore requires higher pressing forces and particularly robust dies.
The forging temperature is approximately between 900 and 1,200°C, depending on the alloy.
It guarantees high mechanical strength and excellent corrosion resistance, making it particularly suitable for the food, medical, chemical, and structural industries.
For these processes, Mecolpress primarily offers its screw presses.
Brass, aluminum, and stainless steel compared
| Material | Hot forgeability | Process temperature | Indicative mechanical resistance | Corrosion resistance | Process complexity |
| Brass | High | 650–750 °C | 300–400 MPa | Good | Low |
| Alluminum | Good | 430–500 °C | 250–450 MPa | Optimal | Medium |
| Stainless steel | More challenging | 900–1.200 °C | 550–600 MPa | Excellent | High |
The values shown are indicative and may vary depending on the alloy, the geometry of the component and the process used.
Mecolpress technology for each material
Each material presents specific forging requirements.
Mecolpress combines hydraulic presses, mechanical presses, screw presses, automation, and Calipso software to identify the best solution for the material, component, and customer production objectives.
Contact Mecolpress to identify the most suitable technology for your forging process
The Mecolpress team is available to provide a customized technical analysis.
📩 Contact us through our website: www.mecolpress.com
HOT FORGING PRESSES INTERVIEW WITH MECOLPRESS
Company manufacturing hot forging presses.
We report an interview of the digital magazine Easy Engineering of 28 April 2020.
Established in 1969, MECOLPRESS was founded as a manufacturing company of mechanical presses for brass components hot forging. Up to today, Mecolpress has developed and installed more than 1.950 presses, at over 400 customers all around the world, used for forging brass, aluminum, copper, titanium, steel. The current production site in Flero, in the highly productive area of Brescia, takes up a 30.000 square meters surface, 10.400 of them are covered and employees 55 people, reaching a turnover in 2018 of 11.5 million Euro.
In 2019, in occasion of EMO exhibition in Hannover, Mecolpress officially presented the new series of continuous and discontinuous cycle eccentric presses, the HEAVY series.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
MECOLPRESS: At the beginning all efforts were concentrated on brass hot forging field; in the time, also through the acquisition of the historical brands Osterwalder and Dellavia in the screw presses section, the variety of machines that we design and produce is now so wide and complete to satisfy the most different requirements of the customers: for each specific material, shape and quantity to be forged, we are in the position to offer the most suitable solution.
Mecolpress is today the only company among the manufacturers of presses for the hot forging of brass, aluminum steel, copper, titanium, with a so complete production program.
Our present production program consists of:
- TDS: direct drive with electrical servomotor;
- Dellavia and Osterwalder: Traditional disc friction.
PG Knuckle joint presses
for calibration and coining of parts.
Presse Meccaniche Eccentriche
- SOV and SEO/F: for the vertical hot forging;
- SEO and HEAVY: for forging with horizontal cores, in single or continuous cycle.
for forging brass and aluminum parts without flash.
- PO: single station;
- S: multiple station, rotary table with hydraulic motor;
- E: multiple station, rotary table with electric motor.
In addition, Mecolpress is particularly active in after-sales service. The heart and pride of Mecolpress is its large spare parts warehouse, which is able to supply accessories or spare parts for machines produced fifty years ago. For this reason, in addition to the sale of machinery, there is a wide activity related to the service and supply of accessories (such as tools, arms, spare parts, etc..).
E.E: What’s the news for 2020 about new products?
MECOLPRESS: At the end of 2019 Mecolpress presented at EMO fair in Havvore a brand-new series of eccentric presses, named HEAVY, which defines a new standard for the hot forging of brass.
A machine concept that offer highest durability and reliability together with an innovative software system that allows the maximum control on the process and the a very easy operation.
E.E: What are the ranges of traded products?
MECOLPRESS: As a manufacturer with an own wide range of products, the additional equipment that we simply trade is limited to ancillary machines, to offer complete forging lines (delivering a finished part from the input of a raw material bar) to those customer that prefer to have a turn-key plant from one source.
Typical traded machines are: billets heating furnaces, forging dies, sand blasting machines.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
MECOLPRESS: Since our machines are dedicated to a very wide panorama of applications (from house building to automotive, from gas control to biomedical) there are always new developments in these sectors.
This is for us very stimulating because we are constantly involved in the design of new solution, to support our customers with the most suitable equipment to manufacture parts that are chancing in the shapes, in the alloys and in the technical requirements.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
MECOLPRESS: In the past our customers were mainly subcontractors, producing many different kinds of parts for the most differentiated OEMs. We see now more and more companies that are interested in bringing back into their own activity the hot forging process, to have full control over the entire production line. And also, the subcontractors that still exists, are increasing in size, in capability, and in specialization: they are requested to be much more accurate, reliable, more flexible and fast in changing production and technologies.
For these reasons, the machines that both our customer types (the subcontractors and the OEMs) need, are machines that can easily switch from one application to the next, and that can record and control really in depth every aspect of the production process. The user is therefore becoming more an engineer, that study and program the process in advance and then let the machine run autonomously, instead of an operator that has to stay full time at the machine, checking and adjusting the settings.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
MECOLPRESS: As above indicated, one of the most innovative products that we offer today is the new range of Heavy presses.
In parallel to this, we are widening the offer for the ME hydraulic presses which are designed to forge net shape parts. These machines are extremely versatile, can communicate in two directions with the company ERP software to exchange production data, recipes, preventive maintenance information. And are also able to automatically detect a non-conforming product and separate it from the good ones. This makes the ME forging presses a fully automatic system, that does not require operators to work but also does not need regular presence of quality control staff to check periodically the output.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2020?
MECOLPRESS: At the end of 2019 we planned a very aggressive budget of sales for the 2020, and supported it with several activities and strategies, from the participation to many international shows, to the production of machines for stock, to grant to our customer very fast deliveries.
Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 virus spreading, many commercial activities had to be reprogrammed or postponed. We are now investigating the world markets to assess what will be the customers’ propensity to invest for the remaining months of this year. We are very optimistic that we will in any case be able to reach most of our targets also thank to the availability of machines in our workshop, which is allowing us to complete deliveries in this year of machines ordered in the second and third quarter.
