What is a cold headed fastener?  Cold Heading is a fast and more efficient method to produce both standard and special fasteners and custom shaped components. It is also known as Cold Forming.

This is what happens during the process. A slug of wire is cut off and pushed into a die. Once through, it is then bent in an outward direction, thus the name heading. Through this process, metal is formed and usually involves changing the diameter of a wire as an extrusion.

This method offers numerous types of equipment to head parts, from screws to shoulders to fasteners. Cold heading is superior to screw machining in the sense that the parts coming off are complete and has minimal scrap. It also generates significant raw material savings compared to that of screw machining. Cold heading fasteners have many advantages, for example, it can provide material savings of up to 70% as well as savings through its higher speed processes. It also improves product performance. Its process rearranges grain structure, improving shear strength performance and prevents grain flow interruptions.

Cold heading consistently provides higher quality because its surface will show the smooth condition and dimension of the dies, usually eradicating secondary finish. It also has the potential of converting multi part to single part, thus saving on many costs such as parts, labor, inspection, tolerance issues, and purchases. Furthermore, cold heading results in repetitious tight tolerance consistency. This process can be used as a combination of primary and secondary machining, to achieve part configuration where it may require a tighter tolerance, beyond the usual.

Specialty Screw Corporation is a manufacturer of Cold Headed Fasteners. For more information contact us at: www.SpecialtyScrew.com