Advantages:

Cold finished steel bars possess improved mechanical properties, greater dimensional accuracy, better surface integrity and higher machinability. These superior product qualities provide a number of significant design advantages & benefits

Mechanical Properties: Cold drawing increases the hardness, yield and tensile strength, which can:

1. Serve to reduce design mass (weight)
2. Eliminate costly heat treating
3. Allow the use of a less expensive grade
4. Provide increased fatigue strength and longer service performance
5. Provide better wear and corrosion resistance
6. Better resist handling damage
7. Provide faster annealing response
8. Provide greater cross-sectional uniformity

Dimensional Accuracy: A cold drawn and/or turned, ground and polished bar offers more precise and consistent cross-section geometries, straightness and bar-end conditions, which can:

1. Reduce or eliminate machining.
2. Reduce the whip and resulting vibration during machining
3. Reduce strain on collets, pusher and fingers during machining
4. Ease machine loading
5. Reduce machine adjustments for size variability
6. Improve work-holding and fixturing compatibility
7. Provide nearer net shape
8. Reduce scrap and yield loss during manufacture

Surface Integrity: Cold drawing or grinding and polishing greatly improves the surface texture, which can:

1. Reduce or eliminate machining.
2. Ease manual handling and machine loading.
3. Significantly improve eddy current testing sensitivity and reliability.

Turning and/or grinding rids a bar of its surface anomalies, which can:

1. Eliminate decarburization.
2. Provide a defect-free surface.
3. Reduce need for all-over machining.

Machinability: The increased beam strength, reduced ductility, clean surface and improved dimensional accuracy of a cold drawn bar can positively affect machining performance by:

1. Allowing the use of rapidly activated, precision colleting.
2. Increase work-holding security with larger bearing contact areas
3. Improve the machined surface finish through reduced tool-edge weldments on ductile grades
4. Improve part size control through less lateral deflection
5. Increase tool life through more stable tool-edge weldments on ductile grades as well as from reduced abrasion with oxide-free, bar surfaces
6. Reduce wear on machine parts and collets and less lubricant contamination due to the absence of hot mill surface scale and/or corrosion products
7. Allow the use of higher spindle speeds with the reduced propensity for vibration
8. Reduce screw machine maintenance

Summary In summary, cold finished steel bars enable design engineers to reduce manufacturing costs and time, and produce superior performance components. Cold finished steel bars are the value-added engineering material of choice for a universe of precision components in almost every industry.