Cold Working Sheet Metal

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Cold working sheet metal. Touching a hot piece of sheet metal can burn an employee s hands or body of course sheet metal is equally conductive to cold temperatures as it is for heat. Cold rolling is often used commercially in order to produce sheet metal plates and bars. Be it manual or powered equipment we have the solutions you need. Since they are generally stronger and work harden more rapidly than the austenitic stainless steels the application of greater force is normally required to achieve the same amount of cold deformation.

Most of cold working processes are performed at room temperature. The process consists of a set of two or more rollers spaced closed together and the sheet or strip of metal is passed through them. Cold working refers to the process of strengthening metal by changing its shape without the use of heat. Metal is said to be cold worked if it is mechanically processed below the recrystallization temperature of the metal.

Like heat treatable aluminum alloys cold working aluminum alloys will be placed within certain series designations based on the type of alloying element that was added and the characteristics that the metal has. Sheet metal cold working can be used to produce controlled surface finish. Subjecting the metal to this mechanical stress causes a permanent change to the metal s crystalline structure causing an increase in strength. When a metal is cold rolled it is plastically deformed as it is forced between the two rolls.

The force exerted by rollers on the sheet reduces its thickness and increase the strength of the sheet. Hot working usually results in the refinement of grain structure whereas cold working merely distorts the grains and does little towards reducing its size. The three series are 3xxx 4xxx and 5xxx. Cold working or cold forming is any metalworking process in which metal is shaped below its recrystallization temperature usually at the ambient temperature.