Spotlight On Cold Forming Machinery & Tooling
by Mike McNulty, Editor, Fastener Technology International
The cold forming process itself goes back to the 19th century, and was used as early as 1850 to make nails. Basically a chipless process, it is the application of a force with a punch and/or die to a metal blank, slug or billet at a force above the metal’s elastic limit, but below its ultimate tensile strength, to form a new shape. If you exceed the ultimate tensile strength, then the material will fracture. The name cold forming comes from the fact that the metal is formed without the application of heat, but the metal gets hot as it is formed. Other terms for cold forming include cold forging, cold heading, precision forming, cold extrusion and upsetting.