Comments by "mpetersen6" (@mpetersen6) on "How's It Made: A Giant Machine That Makes MG Links" video.

  1. I used to work in facility that produced among other things (1) the rocker arms for ICE engines. We had one Tool and Die maker that worked full time maintaining the die sections of the progressive die due to the wear caused by the process. The single most impressive operation was stamping a small hole on the order of 1mm through steel about 2mm thick. 1) The other things include complete engines, rear ends, body stampings and finished cars all under one roof.
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  2. Coil feeder, progressive die, heat treat furnace to bring link up to Austenizing temperature (1) and quench. Then into the draw furnace to bring the hardness down to I'm guessing around 50RC or so. I wonder what the alloy is and the quench solution. 1) The temperature at which steel changes from a face centered cubic structure where the alloying element (carbon, chrome, molybdenum (2), vanadium whatever is centered in the faces of of a cube of iron atoms to a body centered structure where the alloying elements are in the center of the cubic structure. If the steel is quenched fast enough the alloying elements will stay inside the cubic structure. Drawing or tempering allows a certain percentage of the alloying elements to migrate back into a face centered grain structure. This gives the steel enough of its ductility back while still maintaining enough of the body centered material to provide toughness and resistance to impact and wear. Heat treating steels and any other metal is at once both a science and a black art depending on the scale it's being done at. A similiar manufacturing process is used to produce stamped rocker arms for engines. Although in that case the heat treatment is likely done in a seperate area. Plus the stamping presses are much larger.
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