The article presents the problem of material cracking in metal forming processes. The authors describe and compare the values of damage obtained in classic tensile and compression tests as well as rotational compression of 1050A aluminium alloy in cold working conditions. The presented research methodology contains experimental tests as well as a numerical simulation conducted in Simufact.Forming v.15. An analysis of the damage values was calculated according to the normalised Cockcroft – Latham criterion. The research conducted showed that the damage value in the rotational compression test is greater than the values obtained by the means of other tests.