Why are standard fasteners all made by cold heading?

The key steps in manufacturing screws: In the forming process, cold heading, hot heading, and turning are all methods for processing screws. But why is cold heading the most suitable processing method for standard fasteners?

Cold heading of screws is the process of using a mold to apply external force to deform the wire, making it change to the required length and extruding the screw cap. Cold heading is a well-known advanced manufacturing process that is most suitable for producing standard fasteners such as bolts, screws, nuts, rivets, and pins.

This is because the advantages of cold heading are prominent. It is a high-precision, high-efficiency, high-quality, and low-consumption advanced production method that can save raw materials, improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and be suitable for mass production.

Cold heading uses the plastic deformation of metal to transform the wire into the desired shape, which significantly reduces the loss of raw materials caused by cutting processing and improves the utilization rate of materials, reducing waste.

With the cooperation of molds, cold heading can process various complex-shaped and difficult-to-cut fasteners, and the molds can be reused for mass production, improving production efficiency and being very suitable for large-scale production needs.

Also, the screws made by cold heading have no burrs and are relatively smooth. The screws processed in this way basically do not need further cutting processing or heat treatment.

Moreover, the hardness and strength of the screws after cold heading are higher than the raw materials, and they can also improve fatigue strength. For example, some fasteners that originally required high-strength materials can be produced using slightly lower-strength materials through cold heading processing, meeting the strength requirements without incurring additional costs.

Of course, the cold heading process also has its drawbacks. For instance, it requires high-quality molds, a large-tonnage press machine, no advantages in small-batch production, the wire needs to be pre-treated before cold heading, it is not suitable for processing high-strength wires, and the produced parts have certain size limitations.