Something Need to Consider When Choosing Cold Forging

Consider that cold forging has several benefits: First, it's done at room temperature and doesn't require heating the metal, which helps keep the cost of individual parts to a minimum. All equipment related to hot forging such as blast furnaces and industrial furnaces are not necessary.

Parts produced using cold forging are manufactured quickly, uniformly, and with superior dimensional control, making them attractive to companies with high volumes and requiring fast turnaround times. With the widespread use of computers, every manufactured component is identical in detail and complexity. Dies used for cold forging last longer because they don’t have to withstand the stress and wear of hot metal.

The cold forging process is more precise and can produce precision parts with high tolerances. Specified designs give them increased uniformity of each part, less chance of defects or errors requiring repeat production, and superior particle structure.

In this age of environmental concerns, an important consideration is the eco-friendliness of cold forging, as parts are formed at room temperature and under high pressure. Unlike other processes, cold forging ensures that there are no air bubbles or other deformations in the workpiece.

Some other benefits of cold forging include improved material usage, lower energy costs, and little to no finishing. With rising energy costs and material shortages, cold forging is one of the solutions that can effectively reduce the impact of these factors on the production of parts.

The Unique Process of Cold Forging

The most common metals in cold forging are standard alloy steels or carbon alloy steels. For the production of small batches of products such as nails, screws, rivets and other fastener products. Since no heating is required, it is cheap and efficient. The type of cold forging method is highly dependent on the metal and the desired shape. Below is a description of some common cold forging processes.

Impression die forging

A common form of cold forging is die forging, where metal is placed into a die attached to an anvil. Hit the metal with a hammer to force it into the mold. Depending on the product, the hammer may drop several times in quick succession.

Squeezing

Squeezing, also known as sizing, minimizes metal thickness by applying pressure, which is determined by the necessary variation in sizing area, metal type, and metal thickness. This is usually done to improve the dimensional accuracy of the forgings.Cold rolling

Cold-roll forming produces a more attractive finished surface with closer tolerances on various shapes and can be easily galvanized, painted or powder coated. Sheets of metal, usually steel, are rolled into shapes, such as floor and roof panels, C or Z shapes.

Drawing

Drawing is the use of pulling force to pull metal to a specific shape or thickness. Wire drawing comes in two forms: sheet and wire, rod or tube. Tensile can only be applied to certain types of metals or materials that have sufficient tensile strength. Although it looks similar to cold rolling, it differs in the amount and location of the force applied.

Cold forging has other processes used to shape metals. These listed here are common, but only a few of the many in use. It is a common process for automakers to produce steering and suspension components, certain braking systems, axles and many other automotive components.