The anticipation for the outstanding mechanical components of today’s development has enabled the manufacturing industry to provide the highest and best-engineered products. As an integral part of every structure and machinery in a vast range of everyday products, fasteners are at the center of importance to achieve progress in effectiveness and reliability.

In a more traditional production of industrial fasteners, the process involves lengthy and extensive hours of hard work. This was before different methods were discovered to have better and more efficient results in fabricating the hardware devices. The cold heading process also known as the cold forming of fasteners has become one of the standards for high-quality features of fasteners. The process merely involves progressive steps, quicker production time, minimal to no waste, and significant material cost savings for the most part.

Cold heading was introduced and became a practical technology after World War II to strengthen the structural integrity of mechanical assemblies. The modern process of cold heading has been transformed for the suitability of evolution in technology and advancements yet may still have similarities to the hot forging process. It all starts with a wire coil of a selected material (i.e. steel, aluminum, titanium) which is fed into a machine that cuts and forms them into the desired diameter and then shaped into different machines before they undergo heating and low-temperature hardening of the material.

The results achieve higher durability of fasteners and with a strengthened material and smooth surface of its body with only 60% waste generated in the overall process. Generally, cold heading of fasteners proposes many benefits in manufacturing such as large volume production, reduced raw material waste, larger diameter range for fasteners, and capabilities to configure customer specifications in standard and non-standard.

Reference: What is Cold Heading?

Cold-headed Fastener Materials and the Advantages of Cold Heading in Fasteners

The many variations of fastener materials can be processed for improvement through cold heading for the ultimate solutions of the fastener industry. Here are some examples of desirable materials for fastener cold heading:

Carbon steel is a common material for fasteners due to its abundance, versatility, and other beneficial characteristics in manufacturing. There are three classifications of carbon steel: low carbon, medium carbon, and high carbon. Low carbon steel can be easily cold-formed achieving wear resistance on fasteners, medium carbon steel is more heat-treatable with fair cold-formed properties yet can offer the best strength-cost ratio on fasteners, while carbon steel with high carbon content is rarely cold-formed yet can be modified in specification.

Alloy steel is a mix of alloy and steel material with special properties that will be generally enhanced after being cold-formed. The process of cold heading on alloy steel fasteners can be difficult yet the results will allow improvements in strength, hardenability, toughness, good temperature resistance, and corrosion resistance.

Stainless steel fasteners have the best strength and corrosion resistance among other materials and with cold heading processing can be further enhanced and improved in quality. Just like carbon steel, stainless steel materials have various types of series with significant unique properties to offer, they can be cold-formed into fasteners due to their rapid hardening with similar elements to alloy steel.

Other fastener materials that can be processed in cold-heading to enhance their excellent characteristics in different fastening applications;

• Aerospace Alloys
• Aluminum
• Brass
• Bronze
• Copper
• Magnetic and Non-magnetic Stainless Steel
• Nickel Alloys

Each metal proposes its particular properties that improve the functionality and effectiveness of fasteners in any assembly. They can be manufactured in precise specifications according to the needs of industries to match the needs and required properties in their application area.

Need custom fasteners for your projects? Visit the leading manufacturer and supplier of high-quality precision fasteners – Prince Fastener Manufacturing Co., Ltd. We carry diverse capabilities to meet the requirements and demands of your industry, whether it is in cold-formed fasteners or heat-forged to standard and non-standard components.