Differences Between Forged vs Other Bars

Edward Vojcak P.E. was a colleague in the Technical Services Department at Bliss and Laughlin Steel, a cold finisher on Chicago's South Side.

Today he is a Metallurgist and Professional Engineer with A. Finkl and Sons Co. in Chicago, as well as a leading contributor to LinkedIn'sMetallurgy and Material Science Group.

I was impressed with his response to a recent request on LinkedIn asking "Why are forged bars better than other bars for a piping application?"

Here is Ed's reply:

""Better" is relative. Best practice is to optimize cost, time and quality of performance. Forgings are typically more expensive than bar stock or castings because machined dies and furnaces are required - they are generally tougher because the deformation re-aligns the ever present non-metallic inclusions in metals parallel to applied stress - hence the improved quality. Bar stock can be machined into almost any configuration quickly and has most of the directional strength along its length."

Editor's Note: CR4 would like to thank Milo for sharing this blog entry, which you can finish reading here.