Wikijunior:How Things Are Made/Metal/Nails

Products

• 
  A cluster of nails

Nails consists of a metal rod or shank, pointed at one end and usually having a formed head at the other side. It can be hammered into pieces of wood or other materials to fasten them together.

What do we need to make this thing?

Most nails are made of steel. Aluminum, copper, brass, bronze, stainless steel, nickel, silver, monel, zinc, and iron are also used.

What is the step by step process?

• Step 1: Wire is drawn from a coil and fed into the nail-making machine where it is gripped by a pair of gripper dies. The shape of the head of the nail has been machined into the end of the dies.
• Step 2: While the dies clamp the wire in place,the free end of the wire is struck by a mechanical hammer. This deforms the end of the wire into the die cavity to form the head of the nail.
• Step 3: With the wire still clamped in the dies, a set of shaped cutters strike the opposite end of the nail, forming the point and cutting the nail free from the rest of the wire coming off the coil.
• Step 4: The dies open and an expelling mechanism knocks the nail into a collection pan below the machine. The free end of the wire is drawn from the coil and fed into the machine. The cycle then begins again.
• Step 5: The nails are cleaned in a rotating barrel filled with hot caustic soda. This removes any oil from the forming machine and cleans up any small metal scraps, or nipping, that might be clinging to the nails.

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  Step 1: The wire are feed into the machine
• 
  Step 2&3: The wire head is deformed to form the head of nails and the end are cut off forming sharp point