ORIGINAL ARTICLE Design and manufacturing of a straight bevel gear in hot precision forging process using finite volume method and CAD/CAE technology Saman Khalilpourazary & Abdolrahman Dadvand & Taher Azdast & Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi Received: 13 September 2010 / Accepted: 3 January 2011 # Springer-Verlag London Limited 2011 Abstract Forging simulation offers significant cost and time advantages by providing detailed insight into the forging process before tool selection and process decisions are made on the shop floor. Process data such as material flow, stresses, strains and temperature are readily accessible to a user at any point throughout the simulation process, as well as at any location within the forged part. Potential defects such as laps and under-fill of die cavities can be easily identified and corrected before part production begins. In addition, the influence of the process conditions such as lubrication and pre-form can be easily quantified and assessed. In the present work, hot precision forging process of the straight bevel gear is simulated numerically using finite volume method and computer-aided design/ computer-aided engineering technology. The required force for the forging process, as well as the final shape of the bevel gear, is determined through numerical estimation. The simulation results are confirmed through the compar- ison with the experimental data available in DIN standards. Finally, the pre-form dies, the final die, and the bevel gear are manufactured. It is concluded that this method can be effectively used to optimize the forging process to maximize the mechanical strength, minimize material scrap, and hence reduce the overall cost of manufacture. Keywords Straight bevel gear . Hot precision forging . Die design . Finite volume method . CAD/CAE Abbreviations FV Finite volume FE Finite element CAD Computer-aided design CAE Computer-aided engineering STL Stereo lithography AISI American Iron and Steel Institute DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung AFNOR Association Française de Normalisation JIS Japanese Industrial Standards BS British Standards 1 Introduction Higher precision and enhanced strength of mechanical parts with low cost and high productivity characterize the recent trend of manufacturing. In general, forged gears are manufactured in either near net shape or net shape. The near net shape forged gears are widely used due to their improved mechanical strength, especially fatigue strength [1, 2]. Precision forged gears require minimum machining operations after the forging process is accomplished. Therefore, they are used as an alternative to the machined ones. Due to the wide range of sizes and types of the gears used in manufactures, the design of the corresponding forging processes requires more systematic approaches, and the trial-and-error method does not meet the requirements S. Khalilpourazary : A. Dadvand (*) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia, Iran e-mail: a.dadvand@mee.uut.ac.ir T. Azdast Department of Mechanical Engineering, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran M. H. Sadeghi Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Int J Adv Manuf Technol DOI 10.1007/s00170-011-3159-z