Forklift Tines - Material? 1

[mewhg]

Does anyone know what type of steel and heat treat are used to make forklift tines? Hardness? Are they forged or bent when hot out of bar?

Just courious for my own general knowledge.......I have never seen one break....

TIA

 

[NickE]

There was thread on this, I woudl wager a guess that its somthing like 4340....

 

[EdStainless]

The only ones that I ever checked were medium carbon plain steel. The hardness was fairly low so they could have been either Q&T or N&T.
My guess is hot formed, normalized and tempered

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Corrosion, every where, all the time.
Manage it or it will manage you.

http://www.trent-tube.com/contact/Tech_Assist.cfm

 

[swall]

One of my friends was a metallurgist at Clarke Eqpt. at their metallurgical lab and he thought (didn't recall exactly) that they were just a low carbon structural steel.

 

[unclesyd]

We used so many of one brand of Fork Truck that we became an authorized repair station so we could make inhouse repairs on various components. At the time there was an ANSI/OSHA requirement that all weld repairs on lift trucks be accomplished by an manufacturers authorized repair shop.

In the repair procedures for this particular truck the fork material was 4140. Even though there was considerable welding during the manufacture of same we elected not to repair forks cracked in the bend. Small edge cracks were removed by grinding. Another area that we put off limits was the yoke on the lifting column.
We made repairs to the chassis, tilt and lift frame, and almost anything else.
All fork trucks (60-70)at one time were inspected once a year using MT and VT. The was normally one cracked fork taken out of service during each inspection.

 

[lewtam]

I've seen 15B30 on OEM specs, so that would show up as low carbon on analysis and if you didn't know what the 0.005% Boron does it would look like a residual trace.

LewTam Inc.
Petrophysicist, Leading Hand, Natural Horseman, Prickle Farmer, Crack Shot, Venerable Yogi.

 

[MOB1]

I have seen many fork lift tines forged from materials ranging from 1045 up to alloy steels (4340 I think) which were quenched and tempered. It all depended on the thickness and the load capacity.
Many tines break by fatigue cracking in the inside of the bend. Many are replaced due to wear on the underside.