Advantages and Disadvantages of Cold Welding
Posted on July-07-2022
If you’ve read our blog on The Science Of Cold Welding, you should have a good understanding of what it is. For those of you who haven’t read it, go take a look for a more detailed explanation of what cold welding is and what it is used for! Whilst cold welding may not be one of the most popular welding techniques, it is definitely a valuable option. This article will help you have a better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of cold welding.
Advantages of Cold Welding
1. Clean and Strong Welds
Other welding techniques can cause mess around the weld area that needs to be cleaned up. Cold welding avoids this problem as there is no melting or fusion happening, so it won’t need to be cleaned up with a grinder or wire brush.
The issue of weak welds is also avoided. Cold welding offers welds that are the strength as the parent materials used.
2. Joining Dissimilar Materials
Cold welding offers a great advantage over other types of welding techniques in its ability to join dissimilar metals. A good example is attempting to join aluminium and copper. This is always difficult as the two metals have melting temperatures that are over 800 degrees apart. Cold welding doesn’t need heat energy and creates a bond through properly cleaning and pressing the materials. This is why it is a good go-to! You may find that joining dissimilar metals with other techniques is much more difficult.
3. No HAZ
This type of welding does not produce a HAZ zone, also known as a heat affected zone. If you aren’t careful when using common welding techniques, it is possible to overheat a piece of metal and burn straight through the workpiece. Common welding processes tend to create HAZ around the base materials, resulting in materials becoming weakened, compromised and deformed. However, cold welding avoids these problems as there is no heat energy being used.
Other advantages include:
It is simple, inexpensive and a fast welding process once dies have been produced.
No surface preparation for the ends of the wire/rods is needed and as the material is placed on the die, the alignment of the two butt ends is automatic.
Disadvantages of Cold Welding
As with any method of welding, there are some disadvantages. For a lot of welders, these are the reasons as to why it is rarely used as a primary process.
1. Limited Materials
For this welding technique to be successful, the metals need to be ductile and soft. This means that cold welding is not able to join all metals to another. Any metals that have undergone severe hardening processes will not be able to be welding together through cold welding. This is because there is no heat to soften the metals.
You will also need to consider the type of metal you want to weld. If it contains any form of carbon, cold welding will simply not work.
2. Shape and Size Limitations
Flat, regular surfaces are key in cold welding in ensuring that you create the strongest weld possible. They ensure that the distribution of pressure is even between the two metals being welded. If there are any irregularities on the metals surface, this can make it difficult to weld together through cold welding. For this reason, it is important to remove any surface irregularities during the preparation process.
3. Time Consuming
For this method to work properly, you need to invest time into preparing the materials. This is what can be time consuming and understandably, is the reason as to why it is not used unless it is absolutely necessary. The time it takes compared to other processes means that they are preferred. Other welding techniques will be more cost effective and manageable in environments that require high production levels.
Other disadvantages include:
Where the two metals are welded together, the thickness of the parts is significantly reduced.
It is difficult to inspect the weld as it is made in a solid state.
Contact Arc Welding Services Ltd
If you are looking to hire or purchase welding equipment, Arc Welding Services Ltd are here for you. We have a team of experienced and knowledgeable staff on hand to help you find the equipment you are looking for. For more information on the services we provide please get in touch on
0121 327 2249 or fill out our
online contact form.
