Cold heading machine is a specialized equipment used for mass production of fasteners such as nuts and bolts. It is a type of stamping processing machine in mechanical manufacturing.
Cold heading is the process of forming metal at room temperature. The use of the cold heading technique to produce fasteners is not only efficient and of good quality, but also economical and low cost due to the material saving aspect. Cold heading technology has high quality requirements for raw materials. The steel used to manufacture fasteners and connectors (such as bolts, nuts, screws, rivets, etc.) via cold heading processing is referred to as cold heading steel or colloquially known as rivet screw steel. The commonly used types include quenched and tempered alloy steel, low temperature tempered alloy structural steel, low carbon low alloy high strength steel, and ferrite-martensite dual phase steel.
A brief history of the development of cold heading machines:
World War II – Germany developed the earliest cold heading machines for the manufacture of bullet casings.
Late 1950s – Cold heading forming equipment started to be imported from the former Soviet Union.
21st Century – With the advent of the 21st century, some Chinese firms with advantages in cold heading machines have created a good brand image and core competitiveness in the field of cold heading forming equipment, through rich technical research and development, production, and market experience. Consequently, they have gradually caught up to the advanced levels of the international industry.