Taubensee Background
Taubensee Steel
Kieserling

Supporting Our Customers

"As 100% sourcing with TSW, we put great faith in their abilities to meet our daily needs. When one of our straighten and cut machines required a lengthy repair, TSW stepped in immediately, cutting several truckloads of wire for us and thus keeping our production flowing."

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PURCHASING MANAGER
WIRE MANUFACTURING COMPANY

Cold Finished Bars - More Information

Selection Tips

For many applications cold finished steel bars are selected in preference to hot rolled bars because of their better finish or closer size accuracy. All cold finish steel bars have these advantages - in varying degrees of course. And it's simple enough to select a type for your job if these properties alone are needed. But many times selection involves additional factors - and the following quick facts should help you get maximum performance at lowest overall cost:

Machinability. All drawn bars machine better than hot rolled. If the prime requirement is machinablitiy, the leaded steels provide maximum production of machined parts at lowest cost per piece.
Minimum Warpage. When bars are cold drawn through a die, strains are set up in the steel. Unless relieved, warpage may occur as soon as the bars are machined. Turned bars, however, may be machined or keyseated with practically no danger of warpage.

Strength. Drawn bars have a 10 - 20% greater strength in the areas affected by cold drawing. There is no increase in strength when hot rolled bars are turned. The higher carbon steels are frequently selected for more strength.



The Cold Finishing Process

Cold Finishing is the term generally used to distinguish products that have been subject to cold processing from the as rolled original section.  Cold finishing comprises the following classifications:

  • Cold Drawing
  • Cold Turning
  • Cold Grinding


Cold Drawing

Cold drawing has been used for a great many years to improve the as-rolled condition of hot rolled bars, rounds, squares, hexagons, flats, and a variety of sections termed "special shapes."

Other processes such as cold drawing and grinding, cold turning and polishing, and cold grinding and polishing are used to refine the as rolled condition of hot rolled bars, but by far the largest demand is confined to cold drawn bars.

Various practices are employed to obtain the maximum effects of cold drawing, but generally speaking, TSW's standard practice would averages as follows:

  • Rounds up to 13/8"
  • Hexagons / Shapes up to 1"

Cold drawing is by far the outstanding method yet developed that will improve, at minimum costs, the surface imperfections, lack of true cross section, straightness and many other defects constant in hot rolled products. The advantages of cold drawing are not confined to the above mentioned improvements as it-is the only operation besides heat treatment that produces a marked effect on the physical properties of the as-rolled original section . Of course, different results are obtained in physical properties due to the varying sizes and analysis.

The reduction in the as-rolled original section varies with different analyses and the required physical properties. Generally speaking, the original hot rolled section is reduced about 1/16th" of an inch plus the average rolling tolerance of the original section.

Cold drawing radically reduces the necessity of extra machining and straightening operations and eliminates considerable heat treating. Cold drawing has a very decided influence on another important property of steel-machinability. Comparative tests on the same material, machined in both the as rolled and cold drawn condition, show that from 15% to 20% greater production is obtained in machining cold drawn bard in automatic screw machines. The problem of machinability is very complex as it is made up of varying factors which cannot always be evaluated or stated in absolute terms.

Cold Drawn Bars also supplied in the Ground and Polished state where maximum uniformity and close tolerance to size in the overall dimension is essential. This class of material is usually supplied in Rounds 1 1/8" and smaller.


Cold Turning / Grinding & Polishing

Cold Turning plays a very important part in Cold Finished Steels. While this process does not produce any marked change in the physical properties of the original section, it does have a distinctive effect on the surface. The principle results of cold turned bars are:

  1. Uniformity of section
  2. Improved size tolerance
  3. Bright, smooth finish

Cold grinding has the same effect on the original section as cold turning. This process further improves the qualities of the cold turned bar to a greater degree from the standpoint of (1) uniformity of section, (2) improved size tolerance and (3) bright, smooth finish.

Cold grinding is essential where maximum uniformity in the overall dimension is a requisite.