(Hindawi, 2015) Fuertes Bonel, Juan Pablo; León Iriarte, Javier; Luis Pérez, Carmelo Javier; Salcedo Pérez, Daniel; Puertas Arbizu, Ignacio; Luri Irigoyen, Rodrigo; Ingeniería Mecánica, Energética y de Materiales; Mekanika, Energetika eta Materialen Ingeniaritza
Ultrafine grained materials have a great deal of both scientific and technological interest because they allow outstanding properties
to be obtained. An improvement in the mechanical strength and in the ductility and a better fatigue behaviour are properties to
be expected with these materials. However, in spite of the great number of scientific publications that deals with the mechanical
property improvement, the number of practical applications of these materials is scant. In this present research work, equal channel
angular pressing (ECAP) is used as a severe plastic deformation process (SPD) to obtain billets which are subsequently isothermally
forged to obtain a connecting rod with submicrometric grain size. The optimization of the design process is shown as well as the
die design. The objective variables to be fulfilled are the correct filling of the die and the required force to obtain the part. Moreover,
a comparison is also included between the mechanical properties thus obtained and those obtained with traditional methods.
Moreover, optical and SEM micrographs are also included in this research work.
