Cold Work

1. Cold working of metals is permanent deformation of metals and alloys below the temperature at which a strain-free microstructure is produced continuously (recrystallization temperature). Usually in room temperature.

2. Cold working causes a metal to be strain-hardened, deformed and strengthened.

3. When a sheet metal or ingot in cold work process, crystalline structures (lattice) are changed, distort and stretched to the direction of the worked. 4. The metal will be hardened and increased the strength for internal strained causing the decreasing of ductility. Change its strength and increase the electricity resistance.

These cold works usually applied after hot work process :

(a) drawing

(b) pressing / rolling

(c) extrusion

- tube drawing

- cold rolling

- cold extrusion

- wire drawing

- thread rolling

- impact extrusion

It is a finishing process in production to produce and function as :

i. to maintain accurate dimension of the product
ii. achieve clean and smooth finishing iii. achieve various of hardness degrees by applying various of cold works iv. repairing the machineability

Cold Rolling
1. Long lengths of metals sheet and plate with uniform cross sections can be produced. 2. The coils of metal are usually given a reheating treatment called annealing to soften the metal to remove internal stress introduced during the hot-rolling operation. 3. Smaller diameter roller will be operated to thinning the metal, and bigger roller used as support which will absorb vibration and maintaining the thickness. 4. Lubricating material usually applied to the work piece before and after it is rolled to refine the surface and to prevent grain formation. 5. It is able to produce sheet metals as thin as 0.008mm 0.009mm called foil.

Advantages of Cold Rolling:

i. surface free from oxidation

ii. smoother and shinier surface

iii. fine fitting iv. increase the tensile strength and toughness

Wire and Tube Drawing

1. Used to produce wire, rod and tube.
2. A process in which wire stock is drawn through one or more tapered wire-drawing dies to the desired cross section.

3. Only annealed metal and with high ductilities metal can be processed.
4. Friction, shear and tough pressure occurred at the joint part of the die and the work piece and will heatened the parts. 5. Therefore, cooling elements are needed and dies has to be tough and strong enough to resist wear and abrasive by those effects.

The advantages of cold work

i. good surface finishing because it smoother with no oxidation process
ii. exact measurement can be achieve with exact dimension control because of no dimension shrinkage iii. increase the machineability of the metal

iv. the product does not need any finishing works

v. good finishing properties

The disadvantages of cold work

i. costing higher than hot work process
ii. the material become less in ductility caused by hardening work iii. causing more brittle to the metal and lesser elasticity iv. cold work only can be use to the elastic metal v. bigger equipment and higher power usage

Hot Work
1. Hot working of metals is permanent deformation of metals and alloys above the temperature at which a strain-free microstructure is produced continuously (recrystallization temperature). 2. The recrystallization temperature for steel begins at 950F - 1300F. 3. If the temperature being work is sufficiently high, recrystallization takes place as quickly as the crystals become deformed and the metals can be heavily worked with ease without risk of cracking. 4. As the temperature falls during processing, recrystallization occurs more slowly, not only more force is required to achieve plastic deformation, but there is an increased risk of surface cracks appearing. 5. If the metal temperature is rising, become burnt, oxidation of the grain boundaries occurs and the material is severely weakened. 6. Main processes of hot work : i. hot rolling ii. hot forging iii. hot extrusion iv. hot forming v. welding hot pressing

Hot Forging
1. The metal is hammered or pressed into a desired shape in the closed-die forging. 2. The usage of closed-die forging : i. The die cavity is the shape of finished component ii. Both part of dies attach to hammer and anvil iii. When force delivered, both parts combined and become one iv. To ensure full filling of the metal in the die, material quantities has to be more than the cavity v. The surplus metal will run out through the die and forming the flash

3. Applications : spanners, bolts, shafts

Hot Rolling
1. Hot rolling is carried out to have greater reductions in thickness of metal ingots, until certain thickness achieve, taken by rolling pass when the metal is hot.
2. The ingots will go through two big cylinder roller and then other rollers until achieve the needed thickness. 3. Discontinuities in the ingots will be sealed or welded under huge pressing process and gained a homogenous structure.

4. Applications : railways, construction frames

Hot Extrusion
1. The extrusion process is used to produce cylindrical bars or hollow tubes. 2. Extrusion is a plastic forming process in which a material under high pressure is reduced in cross-section by forcing it through an opening in a die. 3. The advantages : The ability to produce varies of complicated shape with accurate dimension and good finishing.

4. Its produce continuously but only to metals with low melting point and with good melting ability such as bronze, brass alloys and aluminium and its alloys.

The advantages of hot work

i. metal are in plasticity condition. Energy and needed forces are small. Can be worked for bigger size metals
ii. blow holes in ingots can be disappeared by compression iii. suitable to almost all types of metal iv. if finishing temperature are correct, smoother structure can be achieve

The disadvantages of hot work

i. better surface cannot be achieve because of corrosion by oxidation process in high temperature ii. higher in cost iii. accuracy in last dimension hard to achieve because of shrinkage factor when the hot metal are cooling iv. life expectation for tools are lessen caused by working in higher temperature