A: Material grain runs the length of the bar stock like wood grain. So when parts are cut or machined from bar stock, the grain is cut and stress risers are created. The material grain of extruded parts flows along the contour of the part increasing tensile strength and reducing stress risers.
A: Specialty cold forming enables the production of complex shapes by moving metal with punches and dies to obtain net shapes or near net shapes products with improved structural strengths.
A: Die and punch controlled dimensions (i.e. diameters, lengths, feature to feature position) are close tolerance areas. Diameter tolerance can be as close as ±0.0005. Lengths and feature to feature position tolerances can be as close as ±0.001.
A: Because little or no material is lost in a net or near net shape cold forming operation, a considerable material cost savings can be realized. Machining hollow parts of multi-diameter parts from bar stock produces considerable scrap. Likewise, joining two parts to make the desired geometry still has kerf scrap plus the assembly operation cost.



