Metal Forming Industries

Specialty Cold Heading

Cold heading is an established manufacturing process, where metal wire is shaped, by being forced into a punch and die set, without loss of material. A simple metal blank is cut from wire or bar and transferred to a punch and die station where the metal blank is pressed into the shape of the punch and die set in a completely contained manufacturing process. The mechanical force of the punch being driven into the die where the metal blank is contained causes the metal to flow around the punch and take the shape of the punch and die without loss of any material. Because the metal forming process is done at room temperature and no heat is applied to the metal, the process is called cold heading.

Specialty cold heading uses the same basic cold heading process of punch and die metal forming, however it is focused on lower volume parts manufactured from higher cost materials such as copper, bronze, and aluminum. Our specialty cold heading delivers the low-cost production advantages of the high-speed automated cold-heading process, and at significantly lower production volumes. MFI’s unique combination of its specialty cold heading process coupled precision, secondary CNC machining to manufacture low volume parts, allows our customers to achieve total part cost savings of 35% or more compared to conventional machining with material cost savings of up 50% without the requirement for high production volumes.