Most of automobile steering parts are manufactured through the multi-stage cold forging process using round-bar drawn materials. The same process is applied to the ball stud parts of the outer ball joint, and various research activities are being carried out to reduce the extreme manufacturing cost in order to survive in the limitless competition. In this paper, we present a quantitative prediction method for the limiting life of the die as a method for cost reduction in the multi-stage cold forging process. The load on the die was minimized by distributing the forming load based on process optimization through finite element analysis. In addition, based on the quantitative prediction algorithm of the limiting life of the die, the application of the split die and the optimization of the phosphate treatment of the material surface are presented as a conclusion as a method to improve the limiting life of the die.

In this study, as part of the paradigm shift for manufacturing innovation, data from the multi-stage cold forging process was collected and based on this, a big data analysis technique was introduced to examine the possibility of quality prediction. In order for the analysis algorithm to be applied, the data collection infrastructure corresponding to the independent variable affecting the quality was built first. Similarly, an infrastructure for collecting data corresponding to the dependent variable was also built. In addition, a data set was created in the form of an independent variable-dependent variable, and the prediction accuracy of the quality prediction model according to the traditional statistical analysis and the tree-based regression model corresponding to the big data analysis technique was compared and analyzed. Lastly, the necessity of changing the manufacturing environment for the use of big data analysis in the manufacturing process was added.

The objective of this study was to investigate the optimal design on the tubular shaft and solid shaft for A-IMS of commercial vehicle. The tubular shaft and the solid shaft were designed by 6 stage processes and the results were analyzed by using a finite element analysis method. The coefficient of friction was set to Oil_Cold conditions as referred to the analysis library. It was found that the actual underfill phenomenon was not observed on the tubular shaft and solid shaft. The metal flow of the tubular shaft and solid shaft revealed that the folding phenomenon was not occurred, so there is no problem in actual production. Principal stress and load characteristics of tubular shaft were higher than those of solid shaft since the tubular shaft has many deformation from stage 1 to stage 3.