Custom Metal Stamping | A Comprehensive Guide

Custom metal stamping is designed exclusively for specific parts and their functions. Unlike mass-produced stampings, custom metal stamping is selected when precision and complex dimensions are essential to produce a unique part. This process requires the development of a custom metal stamping tool that cuts and forms the part as the metal passes through the stamping press. Custom metal stampings can range from large components for automobiles and custom assemblies to micro-miniature parts for medical devices or electronics.

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Techniques for Shaping Custom Metal Stampings

Stamping consists of various sheet metal forming processes. These may involve a single-station operation where each stroke of the press produces the desired metal part or may occur through a series of stages. The following techniques are employed to achieve the required shape in the press.

Bending

Bending creates a formed feature by angular displacement of a sheet metal workpiece. In some processes, one edge of the workpiece is clamped in a stationary position while the opposite edge is clamped by a metal tool and bent over a form, creating a precise bend or shape. Alternatively, the metal piece may be pushed into or against a form.

Blanking

The blanking process removes a metal piece from the primary metal strip or sheet by punching through the strip or sheet. The material removed becomes the new metal workpiece or blank.

Coining

Coining is a forming process that applies significant pressure to push the workpiece into a die. The die then shapes the metal into a precise form and creates permanent features in the workpiece. Coining also smooths the edges of metal parts by striking them forcefully, thereby removing existing burrs and hardening the metal. This process may reduce the need for deburring, grinding, and other secondary processes, saving both time and money.

Crash/Crush Forming

This process deforms the metal using only a punch and cavity. These dies do not control metal flow and cannot prevent the metal from wrinkling or buckling. They are utilized to form simple parts, such as brackets and braces, made from thick, rigid metals that resist wrinkling better than thinner metals.

Cutting

One of the most common stamping operations, cutting trims the metal into a part using extremely high force in the stamping press. Cutting operations include trimming, notching, piercing, blanking, lancing, and shearing.

Drawing

A complex drawing die is utilized to create large metal parts, such as automotive components. This process involves controlling metal flow into a cavity via a pressure-loaded draw pad, preventing wrinkling as the material flows over a forming punch.

Embossing

Embossing is a cold-forming process that creates specific formations or designs on metal pieces. Male and female embossing components press the workpiece between them with sufficient force to produce a three-dimensional feature.

Extruding

Extrusion forms the metal inside the diameter of a pierced hole, which may be used for applications such as holding fasteners during part assemblies.

Flanging

The flanging operation bends metal along a curved axis, which may be employed to form a projection or the rim of a part related to assembly and stiffness requirements.

Forming

Metal stamping involves various forming operations. The stamping press shapes the metal material by applying tension, compression, or both. The specific forming operation selected is influenced by the material's properties and the part's critical dimensions, balancing formability and strength.

Ironing

Similar to coining, ironing uses compression to form the part, squeezing the metal along a vertical wall to achieve exact thickness and length dimensions.

Lancing

Lancing involves slicing or slitting the metal to free up metal without separating it from the strip, which can be used in progressive dies as a part carrier.

Piercing

This metal cutting operation, also known as perforating, creates a hole in a formed part or sheet metal, which can be round, square, or a custom shape. The slug produced is then discarded.

Pinch Trimming

Pinch trimming is a specialized method in which the vertical walls of a drawn or stretched vessel are cut by pinching the metal.

Punching

This forming process utilizes a punch press to force a tool, called a punch, through the workpiece/material, creating a hole and producing a scrap slug that is deposited into the die below the sheet metal.

Restriking/Sizing

This process, primarily used after major forming operations are complete, employs an additional station in the die to finish precision details such as small embossing and sharp radii.

Shaving

This operation is designed to eliminate or minimize die-break while maximizing the amount of sheared edge. The general concept involves pre-punching the hole slightly smaller and then post-punching it to size using very tight die clearance. This can also apply to a straight or outside edge.

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Shearing

Shearing applies cutting force perpendicular to the material, causing it to yield and break.

Trimming

The trimming process establishes the specified profile of a stamped part by forming its perimeter or cutting away excess metal, with precision trimming designed to minimize scrap.

Custom Metal Stamping Production Methods

The method chosen for metal stamping production considers the complexity of the part and how metal stamping can best form it. For precision parts with tight tolerances, in-die sensors may be used to continually monitor part quality, alongside other inspection methods. The method also considers secondary operations, such as plating, heat treating, welding, and cleaning or sterilization.

Progressive Die Stamping

Progressive metal stamping is a process that advances a metal strip from station to station, performing different operations on the same part in the die until completion. Conical-shaped pilots are inserted into pre-pierced holes in the strip to ensure precision alignment as the part advances, guaranteeing the accuracy of the finished product. Since the part is attached to a metal strip throughout its formation, the entire process will be out of tolerance if the strip deviates even slightly.

Progressive die stamping offers advantages such as being highly repeatable. Since the material continuously feeds into the stamping press, long production runs can be completed, resulting in more finished parts in less time, which lowers the cost per part.

Progressive Stamping Delivers High-Speed Production and Lower Costs.

Transfer Die Stamping

Transfer die stamping uses one press to operate multiple tools. The part is removed from its metal strip to allow for free transfer. Each station shapes the part, which can be turned or rotated, until it is complete. Automating the transfer process streamlines the operation into a single press.

Transfer dies can manage many part features in one press pass, such as holes, cutouts, or threading, eliminating costly secondary operations.

Is Progressive Die Stamping or Transfer Die Stamping Best for Your Next Precision Metal Stamping Project?

Deep Drawing

Deep drawing is beneficial for applications requiring recessed cavities, where the depth of the drawn part exceeds its diameter. This process uses blanking, swaging, or sizing to deform the base material and apply recessed features.

Fine Blanking

Fine blanking is optimal for parts requiring smooth, precise edges or exceptional flatness. It is particularly suitable for moving parts like gears. This process combines metal stamping and cold-metal extrusion techniques and requires special presses.

Progressive Stamping vs. Fine Blanking: Three Questions OEMs Should Ask

Multi-slide / Four-slide Stamping

Multi-slide / Four-slide stamping is best suited for fabricating complex components with numerous bends or twists and for forming wire. The difference between the two is that four-slide metal stamping machines have four moving slides, while multi-slide machines have more than four. The slides or rams strike the material to produce finished parts.

Multi-slide / Four-slide equipment can manufacture complicated parts with multiple, complex bends and twists, including clips, brackets, flat springs, terminals, retainers, and wire-formed parts. Both flat and round materials can be formed.

L E A R N M O R E

Understanding Custom Precision Metal Stamping

Custom precision metal stamping is a manufacturing process that shapes metal sheets into specific forms using high-force presses and custom-engineered dies. This process is crucial for producing components that require high precision and intricate detailing, essential in various high-spec applications. It is favored for its ability to produce large volumes of consistent and uniform parts, making it indispensable in industries such as automotive, aerospace, electronics, and medical devices.

The essence of custom precision metal stamping lies in its versatility and adaptability to different metals and complex designs. The process begins with a flat metal sheet, often termed the blank. This blank undergoes high pressure in a stamping press, where it is forcibly shaped into the desired form by the die. The dies used are custom-made and can vary significantly in complexity based on the final product’s requirements. They are designed not only to cut and shape but also to perform additional tasks such as punching holes, embossing, or bending the metal in various ways.

A primary advantage of custom precision metal stamping is maintaining tight tolerances while achieving high levels of detail and complexity. These capabilities are crucial for producing components that fit precisely where needed and perform their functions reliably. Moreover, the efficiency of metal stamping allows for quick and cost-effective production of large quantities of parts, particularly beneficial in time-sensitive and budget-constrained industries.

Through custom precision metal stamping, manufacturers achieve a balance among durability, precision, and cost-effectiveness, making it a core component of modern manufacturing strategies focused on high-quality and reliable parts.