Track chain link and forging process for the manufacture of track chain links

摘要

The invention described herein concerns a forging process for the manufacture of track chain links, especially for worksite machines and vehicles; this process produces links that conform to the tolerances required by the dimensions and the surface quality of opposed attachment mounting and link contact surfaces and nut seats of finished links without it being necessary to machine these surfaces or nut seats. This process includes heating a metal billet in an electric furnace, the billet having a mass that is approximately equal to that of a finished link, preforming the billet, then flat stamping the heated billet. A combined shaping and levelling step carried out on the stamped piece forms parallel opposed sides and nut seats in predetermined spaced relationship to each other. The resulting link is controllably sized and then subjected to a heat treatment. At the end of this process, which requires no machining, a link is obtained (1) whose opposed surfaces (10, 11) and nut seats (32,33) have geometric and dimensional relationships that are conform to the limits of the required tolerances.