Hot Forging Vs. Cold Forging

Hot Forging Vs. Cold Forging

Hot forging and cold forging are two different techniques widely used in the construction of machine tools. In fact, they are the direct opposite of each other. However, they have been found to delivers the same results at the end. But what are the main differences between these two techniques? Well, this article tries to elaborate on this:

What is Hot Forging?

Hot forging is definitely one of the widely used techniques in the manufacturing machine wear parts. As the name suggests, hot forging is the use of heat to deform the work piece to attain the required features. The process involves the heating of workpiece to a point where it is almost melting. With that, you can turn to the shape or size that you want.

How Hot Forging Works

Hot forging works by raising the temperature of the work piece above the crystallization point. At this point, the metal is in its molten form hence making it easy to deform to any shape and the size that you want. That is how tools are formed from the rudimentary pieces of metal.

Advantages of Hot Forging

• Increased wear part ductility
• More flexible
• Excellent surface quality
• Cheap production cost

Cold Forging

Unlike the hot forging, cold forging is a process that used low temperatures. The technique is the direct opposite of the hot forging.  As the name suggests, a cold forging process is performed at room temperature.

How Cold Gorging Works

The process is quite simple. As mentioned, you only need room temperature to construct wear parts using this technique. However, not all metals can form machine tools using this technique. The most commonly used are the carbon and standard alloy steels. During the cold forging process, the work piece is placed into the carbide die, and it is stuck multiple times rapidly until it assumes the required shape.

Advantages of Cold Forging

There are many reasons why manufacturers are still using cold forging for manufacturing machine wear parts. Here are the main advantages:

• Less energy consumption
• Less or no finishing

• Improved dimensional control
• Easier to impart directional properties
• Material saving
• Excellent surface quality

Limitations of Cold Forging

• Forms simple shapes only
• Less ductility

These are some of the main differences between hot and cold forging. The bottom line is that they both produce almost the same product. However, if you are looking for more ductility features, hot forging could be your best option.