In this guide 6 sections
A forging company should track the heat number of each billet, the furnace run, the die used, the inspection result and the customer order on one linked record. Hot, cold and precision shops differ in detail, but a part should always trace back to its steel and forward to its shipment.
Start with the billet and its heat number
Every forged part begins as a cut length of bar or a billet carrying a mill heat number. That number is the root of the record. Lose it and nothing else can be proven.
Capture the mill test certificate on receipt, noting grade, supplier, diameter and weight. Link the certificate file to the heat so anyone can open it straight from the lot.
Cutting matters too. When a bar is sawn into billets, each billet batch inherits the heat, so write that down at the saw before the shift ends.
- Heat number and mill certificate file
- Grade, diameter and bar length received
- Billets cut per heat and scrap from cut ends
- Storage bay and rack for each heat
Record every furnace run and press shift
Hot forging depends on temperature. An induction heater or gas furnace has a set point, a soak time and a billet count per run. Log all three against the forging lot. A cold billet and a burnt billet both end as rejects.
Cold forging has no furnace. It has lubrication, annealing and phosphate coating instead. Precision forging adds tighter control of die temperature and flash trim, so each type needs its own short list of fields.
Keep the operator, press number and shift on the same record. Filter rejects by press or by shift, and patterns show up quickly.
Give each die a life of its own
A die is the costliest consumable in the shop. Track strikes per die, polish, reworks and the heat it last forged. A die that cracks early may point to a bad billet batch, not the die.
Link the die to every lot it produced. When a customer reports a lap or an underfill, one search returns the die, the strike count at that moment and the last rework.
Retirement should follow a written rule. A strike limit works, as does measured wear on a critical radius.
- Die number, material and hardening record
- Strike count since last rework
- Polish and rework history with dates
- Retirement rule and replacement die ready
Tie inspection to the lot, not to a sheet
Inspection findings live on paper in many shops: a dimension sheet, a hardness reading, a magnetic particle test, an ultrasonic report. Paper is hard to search. A customer calls about a lot shipped two years ago, and the dimension sheet sits in a cabinet nobody has opened. A linked record answers in seconds.
Enter first off approval, in process checks and final inspection against the forging lot. Add the gauge and the inspector. Photographs of a defect help the next shift recognise a lap or a crack.
Where a customer needs a certificate of conformance, generate it from these records. Nobody retypes heat numbers into a Word file.
Link orders, heat treatment and dispatch
A forging order rarely ships straight from the press. Parts go to a heat treatment bay or an outside vendor, then to shot blasting, machining and packing. Track each hand off and each return.
Show the planner which orders wait on which stage. A load stuck at an outside vendor shows on the board, not on the delivery date.
Start small. List the fields you already write on your lot card, since those become your first screen. Add the rest once the floor trusts the first entries and asks for more.
Forging shop tracking sheet
Five blocks make up this single sheet: billet receipt, furnace or heater run, die use, inspection and dispatch. Each block has its own columns, such as heat number, set point, strike count, hardness reading and delivery note number. Fill it for one live order to see the gaps.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Do hot, cold and precision forging need different records?
The backbone is the same: heat, lot, die, inspection and order. Hot forging adds furnace data, cold forging adds lubrication and annealing, and precision forging adds tighter die and trim control.
Is a spreadsheet enough for a small forging shop?
It works for a single press and a handful of orders. It struggles once dies, heats and outside processing multiply, because the links between sheets break and nobody trusts the totals.
What should be tracked first?
Start with heat numbers and lot cards, since customer audits ask for them first. Die strike counts are a close second because the savings show quickly.
Who enters the data on the shop floor?
The operator or line leader, at the press or the saw, on a tablet or a fixed screen. Keep each entry to a few taps or it will be skipped.