Prediction of service life and failure probability of cold forging tools

Abstract Tools systems for the production of cold forged parts, especially for parts with net-shape or near-net-shape attributes, can be denoted as extremely high stressed technical components. Due to this circumstance they often fail by fatigue crack initiation in surface areas, which are characterised by high load levels. Therefore, the primary goal of this publication is to present a methodology for the lifetime calculation of cold forging tools. Beside the principle demand — the improvement of the prediction accuracy - a so-called stochastic-deterministic method enables it to trace back the stochastic lifetime characteristics to the scatter of the primary parameters of influence and the fatigue properties of the tool material.