Fracture Splitting of Powder Forged Connecting Rods

The paper studies the fracture splitting of powder forged (P/F) connecting rods, analyzes the effect of material, and compares the effect of machined V-notches and forged-in notches. Connecting rods made out of two different powder forged materials, P/F-11C59 and P/F-11C47 were statically and dynamically fractured. The fractured surface was analyzed using an SEM. Fracture mechanic tests were carried out with both materials using the disk-shaped compact test specimen according to the ASTM standard. The results show that the forged-in notch requires less force to fracture and that the ductile portion of the fracture surface is reduced. Furthermore, the lower carbon content of the material has no significant effect on fracture behavior but may offer the advantage of better machinability and ductility. Dynamic splitting may be an alternative solution to the current impact loading technology.