JNewell said:
Bar stock is not forged in the sense most of us think of, however. Bar stock may be rolled, but that's different than hot drop forging process.
-not to flame at all; but "rolled" bar is a forging per ASME and SAE, etc. Forging under high-pressure rollers aligns the molecular grain in any number of prescribed directions, adding tensile and tactile ductility (resistance to tearing) from the as-forged billet configurations. Note that "bar stock" begins as an extruded slab of cast (Alpha-temp) poured) metal and gets rolled first into width and thickness for subsequent hammer and roller forging to a billet configuration.
("Billet" is a trendy term in advertising these days, but it really means simply a rough shape, a homogenous chunk of unfinished, non-tempered metal with a non-spec grain alignment. A raw configuration prior to purpose-forging or re-melt).
It is the billet which then gets spec'd out for further roll-forging to a usable size/shape for a customer-deliverable size & length.
That's a cook's explanation of course! I'm no expert, but I've played one for a few decades with a BSME (Materials Engineering) on the wall.
-- I recall not-so-long ago someone here had a cylinder with a large radial crack open to the OD surface. Clearly a forging defect caused by cold-working during the roll-forging process, rare but easily detected (IF Ruger employed common economical NDT methods adequately). Different thread...
8) :wink:
