30 Jul Manufacturing with Cold Forming: A Sustainable Approach
As the world moves towards making more environmentally safe choices, the manufacturing industry has not been left behind. Modern manufacturing recognises the importance of choosing responsible methods and resources and understanding their impact on nature and all living beings. The greater benefits of shifting business needs towards minimising environmental impact include gaining a competitive edge, becoming more innovative and increased profitability. With environmental consciousness in mind, manufacturers are not just focusing on methods that yield the best results, but also on finding sustainable practices that help their businesses in the long run.
Cold forming is one such engineering process which forms high quality precision components for a wide range of applications and industries, including aerospace, automotive, machine parts and power generation. In simple terms, cold forming is the process of utilising high speed and pressure to form parts with metals and alloys.
Cold forming is beneficial to industries that require high performance, mechanical strength, and reliable components such as aerospace and automotive, high precision, complex design and made of superior material such as medical, and resistant to wear and require different types of finishing such as electronics and power generation. Using cold forming reduces time to market, cost of production, energy spent in creating the products and increases durability and overall lifetime of the products produced.
Environmentally safe choices are gaining popularity around the world, and the manufacturing industry is no exception. Manufacturing today recognises the importance of choosing responsible methods and resources and understanding their impact on nature. By shifting business needs towards minimising environmental impact, businesses can gain a competitive edge, become more innovative, and increase profitability. As manufacturers become more environmentally conscious, they are not only seeking the best methods to achieve results, but also sustainable practices that will ultimately benefit their businesses.
Cold forming is a great example of how traditional manufacturing methods can evolve to address modern sustainability challenges by minimising energy consumption, optimising material utilisation and advancing technology and materials. In an increasingly sustainable manufacturing environment, the role of cold forming is set to further expand.
Cold forming is a precision engineering process used to manufacture components for a variety of applications, including aerospace, automotive, machine parts, and power generation. The process of cold forming uses high speeds and pressures to form metals and alloys into parts.
In industries like aerospace and automobile that require high performance, mechanical strength, and reliability, cold forming is beneficial. Medical, for instance, requires high precision, complex design, high-quality materials, and resistance to wear and different types of finishing, such as electronics and power generation. With cold forming, the time to market, the cost of production, the amount of energy spent in creating the product, and their durability and lifetime are increased.
Our discussion in this blog will focus on how cold forming technology can aid in the development of sustainable manufacturing.
Eco-Friendly Manufacturing: How Cold Forming Leads the Way
Energy efficiency:
One of the greatest advantages of cold forming technology is its relatively low energy consumption. Hot forming requires temperatures above 900 degrees Celsius, whereas cold forming requires only 350 degrees Celsius: every hot process produces roughly three times more greenhouse gases.
Material utilisation:
The material is not heated in cold forming, so the process is precise. As a result, off-cuts and scrap are minimised since more complex shapes can be made in precise dimensions. There is no waste that cannot be reused and recycled back into its original form.
Enhanced material properties:
By cold forming metals, strain hardening increases their mechanical properties, such as tensile strength and hardness; this not only means that less material is required to reach specific strength levels, but also that the finished products are much longer lasting and require less frequent replacement.
Reduction of emissions:
In terms of reduced emissions, cold forming processes are better for the environment since they use less energy. Due to the lack of heating steps, there are also fewer emissions from fuel combustion, as well as a more pleasant working environment.
Developing sustainable cold forming practices
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- Recycling systems with a closed loop: systems in which scrap material is recycled back into the production process in order to minimise waste.
- The concept of collaborative innovation refers to the process of partnering with material scientists and engineers in order to develop new materials and processes that improve sustainability.
- Designing products so that they have a long life and can be easily recycled so that their environmental footprint is as small as possible from conception through disposal.
There is no doubt that cold forming technology is a testament to the power of engineering ingenuity. In addition to this, it is also one of the cornerstones of green manufacturing. It saves you a great deal of energy. There is a reduction in the use of materials. It reduces emissions. It contributes to making manufacturing a little more environmentally friendly. Through adopting cold forming technology’s inherent advantages, several industries including automotive, aerospace, medical and electromechanical connectors have benefitted significantly.
Industries can thus function sustainably, delivering quality and performance. In the future, cold forming will only be able to play a more and more important role in promoting a sustainable industrial future as it continues to advance, demonstrating that innovative manufacturing practices can come hand in hand with environmental responsibility at the same time.
A Legacy of Innovation: Dawson Shanahan’s Sustainable Cold Forming Techniques
Through our latest innovation in cold forming, stainless steel, along with other metals such as titanium, can be cold formed without the use of hazardous chemical solutions. Dawson Shanahan’s research and development team created this unique shell to eliminate galling. Consequently, components and tooling are not damaged, which often manifests itself in the form of scores or surface imperfections, ensuring consistent quality throughout. To find out more about our sustainable approach, please visit – cold forming using innovative sustainable and responsible practices.
You can rely on Dawson Shanahan for your manufacturing needs and for helping you support sustainability initiatives using cold forming techniques – get in touch with us to discuss how we can work together to achieve your goals.
With over 80 years of experience in cold forming, at Dawson Shanahan we have contributed to innovative sustainable and responsible practices by developing alternatives to conventional cold forming processes that avoid using hazardous chemical solutions and creating more reliable stainless steel components to use with biofuels.
Our sales experts help you find tailor-made solutions for your engineering and manufacturing needs – contact us here or +44 (0)1938 551700.