In the forging industry the biggest part of production costs are material costs. Different processes are used to get the final shape. Some processes e. g. machining have a bad material utilization. To raise the competitiveness of SMEs, one approach is to improve the material utilization by decreasing scrap material (flash, chips). A possibility for a higher material utilization is cross wedge rolling (CWR), which is a flashless forming operation. Conventionally CWR uses expensive round wedge tools. This is only economic at large batch sizes due to high machine and tool cost. Most SMEs do not have such large batches.The aim of the project is a reduction of valuable materials (stainless steel, titanium) and energy consumption for SMEs in the European forging industry. One possibility is the usage of CWR tools in flat wedge configuration by which process costs can be decreased significantly for small and medium batch sizes. Such a CWR-machine has been built and tested under laboratory conditions, but is not in industrial use in the EU until now.Using CWR the material utilization shall be improved for two model product (turbine blade and heavy duty common rail) made of titanium and stainless steel. So far, the preforming methods lead to high amounts of flash. CWR of these materials needs further scientific research in order to enable a process with a narrow temperature field to avoid typical CWR-defects like voids in the work piece. For the model products tools in flat wedge configuration will be designed. A temperature sensor with a computer-based analysis method will be developed as online quality control, in order to avoid defects on the work pieces. In parallel, a CWR-machine will be developed for the special needs of SMEs. For industrial tests, the CWR-machine will be build up, the tools will be mounted and a batch will be produced. In comparison the conventional process chain including a machining, material savings up to 25 % will be possible using the project results.