Hot Bending Capability Assists World’s Largest Cable Laying Vessel
Brooks Forgings has the capability to hot bend various materials up to 80mm solid diameter bar and 80mm thick plate.
A world-leading engineering firm approached us to assist them with the development and production of chain drive link profiles, used within a capstan to be installed on the world’s largest cable laying vessel - Nexans Aurora.
One of the key reasons for using a bent plate profile was to gain the benefits of aligned grain flow, ensuring the strength and longevity of the final component. Before the bending process, we worked with a DNV-GL contact assigned to the project who witnessed the raw material processing and flat profile production at one of our approved suppliers. This was to ensure that full raw material traceability was maintained, and the profile was produced with grain flow running in the correct orientation.
Special tooling was produced to hot bend the flat profiles measuring 400x300x20mm, bent to the final form shown in the photos while maintaining an inner bend radius of 20mm.
After forming, the blanks were heat treated and independently inspected by a UKAS-approved laboratory to obtain test reports for tensile, yield, elongation, and charpy.
Initial Sample Inspection Reports were also required for 10% of the overall quantity.
A total of 150 chain link blanks were manufactured and supplied for the project.
The finished blanks were shipped to a second local firm involved in the project to be finished machined and assembled with other supporting components.
