The Tailored Forming process chain is used to manufacture hybrid components and consists of a joining process or Additive Manufacturing for various materials (e.g. deposition welding), subsequent hot forming, machining and heat treatment. In this way, components can be produced with materials adapted to the load case. For this paper, hybrid shafts are produced by deposition welding of a cladding made of X45CrSi9-3 onto a workpiece made from 20MnCr5. The hybrid shafts are then formed by means of cross-wedge rolling. It is investigated, how the thickness of the cladding and the type of cooling after hot forming (in air or in water) affect the properties of the cladding. The hybrid shafts are formed without layer separation. However, slight core loosening occurres in the area of the bearing seat due to the Mannesmann effect. The microhardness of the cladding is only slightly effected by the cooling strategy, while the microhardness of the base material is significantly higher in water cooled shafts. The microstructure of the cladding after both cooling strategies consists mainly of martensite. In the base material, air cooling results in a mainly ferritic microstructure with grains of ferrite-pearlite. Quenching in water results in a microstructure containing mainly martensite.

The Collaborative Research Center 1153 is investigating an innovative process chain for the production of hybrid components. The hybrid workpieces are first joined and then formed by cross-wedge rolling. Pinion shafts were manufactured to investigate the behavior of the joining zone under increased complexity of the forming process. For this purpose, six types of workpieces produced by three types of joining processes were formed into pinion shafts. The reference process provides a shaft with a smooth bearing seat. It was found that the increased complexity did not present any challenges compared to the reference processes. A near-net shape geometry was achieved for the pinions made of steel.

Tailored forming is used to produce hybrid components in which the materials used are locally adapted to the different types of physical, chemical and tribological requirements. In this paper, a Tailored Forming process chain for the production of a hybrid shaft with a bearing seat is investigated. The process chain consists of the manufacturing steps laser hot-wire cladding, cross-wedge rolling, turning and deep rolling. A cylindrical bar made of mild steel C22.8 is used as the base material, and a cladding of the martensitic valve steel X45CrSi9-3 is applied in the area of the bearing seat to achieve the strength and hardness required. It is investigated how the surface and subsurface properties of the hybrid component, such as hardness, microstructure and residual stress state, change within the process chain. The results are compared with a previous study in which the austenitic stainless steel X2CrNiMo19-12 was investigated as a cladding material. It is shown that the residual stress state after hot forming depends on the thermal expansion coefficients of the cladding material.

The Collaborative Research Center 1153 is investigating a novel process chain for manufacturing high-performance hybrid components. The combination of aluminum and steel can reduce the weight of components and lead to lower fuel consumption. During the welding of aluminum and steel, a brittle intermetallic phase is formed that reduces the service life of the component. After welding, the workpiece is heated inhomogeneously and hot-formed in a cross-wedge rolling process. Since the intermetallic phase grows depending on the temperature during hot forming, temperature control is of great importance. In this paper, the possibility of process-integrated contact temperature measurement with thin-film sensors is investigated. For this purpose, the initial temperature distribution after induction heating of the workpiece is determined. Subsequently, cross-wedge rolling is carried out, and the data of the thin-film sensors are compared to the temperature measurements after heating. It is shown that thin-film sensors inserted into the tool are capable of measuring surface temperatures even at a contact time of 0.041 s. The new process monitoring of the temperature makes it possible to develop a better understanding of the process as well as to further optimize the temperature distribution. In the long term, knowledge of the temperatures in the different materials also makes it possible to derive quality characteristics as well as insights into the causes of possible process errors (e.g., fracture of the joining zone).