Cold Vs. Hot Forging: The Main Differences

When it comes to producing machine parts, forging technology remains one of the widely used hardening methods. The technique helps to improve the quality of the parts by making them harder than the standard tools in the market. There are various types of forging available in the market. Cold forging and hot forging are the most common types, but warm forging is also doing despite being a newcomer.

The most widely used forging techniques are the hot and cold forging. Each is the opposite of the other. However, most people cannot tell the differences between the two forging techniques. In this guide, we are going to look at some of the main differences that set the two techniques apart. Here is our cold vs. hot forging comparison:

Temperature

One of the biggest differences when comparing cold vs. hot forging is the temperature that is used. As the two names suggest, the techniques use very different temperature settings. With the aim to change the state of the metal to the crystallization, manufacturers produce extremely high temperatures or low-temperature setting.

As the name suggests, cold forging is the technique that uses extremely low temperatures to change the state of the metal to crystallization. For this technique to work, the workpiece will be put in a chamber where the temperature is reduced to the crystallization point. Then the workpiece is worked on to form the desired tool.

For the hot forging, it is the opposite. As the name suggests, the workpiece is heated at very temperature to reach the crystallization point. Once the state of the metal changes to crystallization, then the workpiece is worked on to make the desired shape.

Metals Worked On

The other difference common in the cold vs. hot forging comparisons is the kind of metals that each technique works on. Both techniques do not work on any metal. There are specific types of metals that only do well when hot forged and others in cold forging.

For the cold forging, it is widely used for soft metals. Some of the common metals that are cold-forged include aluminum. Other metals that can be cold-forged include standard or carbon alloy steel. These are metals widely used for the construction of various machine parts.

On the other hand, hot forging is used for hard metals. Metals such as iron and its alloys are the most hot-forged. In addition to that, titanium alloys can also be hard forged.

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