7 Most Popular Sheet Metal Stamping Processes

07, Oct. 2024

 

7 Most Popular Sheet Metal Stamping Processes

Sheet metal fabrication can be an expensive venture, with projects ranging from under $800 to several thousand per piece. If you dont know what the processes are for shaping and forming metal from a sheet to the products you love, you should get informed. Sheet metal stamping is a powerful process with lots of applications for creating products and objects that can aid our everyday life.

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Here are seven of the most popular metal stamping processes that you should know about before your next big fabrication venture.

1. Blanking

While blanking isnt always required for metal stamping, when it is, its the first step of the metal stamping process.

Before the blanking process begins, youre usually faced with a large and difficult to manage sheet or coil of metal. After the blanking process concludes, youll be able to start stamping your sheet the way you need it to be stamped.

Blanking requires you to cut your sheet down into smaller pieces that will be easier to manipulate when you need it.

Blanking is most often performed when the metal piece that is about to be stamped will be drawn or formed later in the process.

2. Piercing

If youre building something that needs to be fastened to something else, youre going to need to pierce it. If its going to connect to another piece or if youll need to make a window in it, youll need to have it pierced.

Piercing allows for lots of cutouts to be placed in a sheet of metal, allowing it to be joined to another piece or metal or to let air in.

Whatever your reasoning for piercing, it requires specialized tools that will punch out the shapes you need cut from your metal sheet. In some cases, the tools that do your blanking can pierce your sheet simultaneously.

3. Drawing

This is whats considered the real stamping in the process of metal stamping. Drawing is the part of the process that pushes the metal through a die. If metal needs to be shaped, its drawn as part of the creation of the basic shape of the part youre creating.

If the depth of the part that youre drawing is less than the primary opening, its called a shallow drawing. When the drawing is deeper than the opening that youve got, its considered a deep drawn part.

When drawing is completed, the part is then prepared for a more complicated shaping process later on.

4. Bending

Bending is a fairly clear concept as its when the part itself has to be manipulated severely to get what you want out of it.

The part that is being formed will be put on top of a die thats specially designed. Then a powerful ram with a lot of torque will be pushed against the metal. This is how you get the proper bend that youre looking for.

Bending is always done after drawing because its impossible to punch the metal once its been bent. If you do that, youll end up causing your entire piece of metal to deform and undo all of the work youve put into the metal at this point.

5. Air Bending

An alternative version of bending is air bending. The flat surface of a part will be bent by a punch. It gets forced into a die thats usually V-shaped.

The space that exists between where the die and the punch are is usually thicker than the metal itself. This means that the bend will be slightly relaxed after the part is released from the air bender.

Air bending uses low pressure and creates smooth bends with less power. Other methods require a lot of energy and can cost companies a lot of resources.

6. Bottoming and Coining

If youre using a bending process that needs to be much more permanent, you need to use an alternate method. Bending processes similar to air bending, like bottoming or coining, will force material fully into a tight die.

When a die is tighter fitting and more intensely formed, it will last much longer. However, if you dont have a strong enough machine, you will have to expend a lot of resources.

Tight-fitting dies are also subject to getting material stuck in them, so you need to be careful that your draught angles are able to release materials easily.

7. Pinch Trimming

If youre looking for a method of cutting a piece for its finished treatment, you need to do some pinch trimming. This is an unconventional process, but it will cut a piece from a metal sheet and allow scrap metal to be cut off the edge. What youll be left with is a clean and finished piece of metal.

To perform a pinch trim, the metal will be pinched against a flat surface. This kind of a trim can help to cut round shapes from your metal sheet. If you need deep drawn round shapes, like cups, this is the method to get the job done.

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Pinch trimming can be done one piece at a time or in batches that will create a large quantity of one uniform shape.

Sheet Metal Stamping is a Powerful Process

Sheet metal stamping is a process that makes it quick and easy to create sturdy objects that can last for years in a streamlined fabrication environment. If youre about to venture into a new area or are working on a new project, you should get to know the ways that sheet metal stamping can serve you.

If you want to know what some of the most important applications are for metal stamping machines, check out our guide for more tips.

7 Process Characteristics of Metal Stamping Parts

Metal stamping is a common manufacturing process that involves forming flat metal sheets into various shapes and sizes. The process can produce high-quality and consistent metal parts with precise dimensions and tolerances that are widely used in daily life. In this article, we will discuss the process characteristics of metal stamping parts and how they are manufactured.

Overview of the Metal Stamping Process

Metal stamping is a process that involves a series of operations to transform flat metal sheets into complex shapes and sizes. The process includes cutting, bending, stretching, and punching the metal sheet with a stamping press. The stamping press applies pressure to the metal sheet using a die and punch set, which creates the desired shape of the metal part.

The process can be performed on various types of metals, including steel, aluminum, copper, and brass. The thickness of the metal sheet used in the process can range from thin foils to thick sheets.

  • Hardware: parts produced from steel or some rare metals, production, and processing methods: cold/hot stamping, extrusion, extrusion, electric welding, and drilling, these also include other processing techniques, which are widely defined.
    (Further reading: Hardware in Hardware Parts Processing)
  • Stamping parts: It is widely used in hardware processing, which means that under the indoor temperature standard, material plates such as steel or rare metals pass through the mold, and are produced and processed by the press to form a metal product with a specific shape under the pressure of the machine.
    Generally speaking, stamping parts generally refer to cold stamping parts. For example, if you want to turn a stainless steel sheet into a disc, you must first design a set of molds. The work surface of the mold is the plate. It looks like, pressing the stainless steel plate with a mold will turn it into the disc you want. This is cold stamping, which is immediately using a mold to stamp the hardware material.
  • Precision shrapnel stamping parts: That are widely used in all walks of life in our daily life, including some electronic components, auto parts, and architectural decoration materials.

Process Characteristics of Metal Stamping Stamping

There are several process characteristics of metal stamping parts that make it an ideal manufacturing process for producing high-quality metal parts. These characteristics include:

  1. Precision

    Metal stamping can produce highly precise and accurate metal parts with tight tolerances. The process can be controlled to achieve the desired dimensions and shapes of the metal part.

    The product quality is stable and the interchangeability is good. The metal stamping die is used to form the product. There are a few factors affecting the change in product quality and the degree of harm is low. Some factors can be corrected by taking appropriate measures so that the quality of the product is controlled within the ideal range, and the stability of the product quality can effectively ensure its interchangeability. Good interchangeability is the basic guarantee for mass production of the assembly line. At the same time, it is also conducive to the maintenance and replacement of products.

  2. Efficiency

    Metal stamping is an efficient manufacturing process that can produce large quantities of metal parts in a short time. The process can be automated to increase production rates and reduce labor costs.

    The number of parts or process content completed per unit of time is several times higher than that of ordinary processing methods, even hundreds of times. Moreover, the metal stamping process can further improve production efficiency by using one mold with multiple pieces and multiple process contents combined processing on a set of molds.

  3. The high utilization rate of materials

    Through different layout methods, such as cross, oblique, multi-row, mixing, nesting, and even non-waste layout, the utilization rate of materials can be effectively improved and the material cost of products can be reduced.

    The material does not need to be heated. Under normal circumstances, the material does not need to be heated during the stamping operation. This can not only save energy, reduce the occupation of heating equipment and space, but also avoid the unstable shape and size of products caused by surface oxidation, burns, and deformation caused by heating. It is also possible to prevent adverse effects on the mold due to temperature rise.

  4. Consistency

    Metal stamping can produce consistent metal parts with uniform shapes and sizes. The process can be repeated to produce identical metal parts with the same dimensions and tolerances.

    The product quality is stable and the interchangeability is good. The metal stamping die is used to form the product. There are a few factors affecting the change in product quality and the degree of harm is low. Some factors can be corrected by taking appropriate measures so that the quality of the product is controlled within the ideal range, and the stability of the product quality can effectively ensure its interchangeability. Good interchangeability is the basic guarantee for mass production of the assembly line. At the same time, it is also conducive to the maintenance and replacement of products.

  5. Versatility

    Metal stamping can be used to produce a wide range of metal parts with different shapes and sizes. The process can be customized to meet the specific requirements of each metal part.

  6. Mechanical properties

    The mechanical properties of punching parts are improved. Affected by the hardening phenomenon of metal stamping, the surface structure of punching parts is tight, the hardness and wear resistance is increased, and the strength and rigidity of punching parts are also improved.

  7. Wide range of applications

    There are many products suitable for stamping and forming. It can solve many processing contents that cannot or are difficult to be completed by general machining, especially for the processing and forming of some thin, soft, difficult, strange, micro parts, or parts of non-metallic materials, metal stamping forming is almost only one method of processing and forming.

Manufacturing Process of Metal Stamping Parts

The manufacturing process of metal stamping parts involves several steps, including:

  1. Design: The first step in the process is to design the metal part using computer-aided design (CAD) software. The design includes the dimensions, shape, and tolerances of the metal part.
  2. Tooling: The next step is to create the tooling for the stamping press. The tooling includes the die and punch set that will be used to shape the metal part.
  3. Material preparation: The metal sheet used in the process is prepared by cleaning and lubricating it to prevent scratches and damage during the stamping process. Various metals and alloys can be used in the metal stamping process, including Steel, Stainless steel, Aluminum, Brass, Copper, Nickel, Zinc, etc.
  4. Stamping: The metal sheet is then fed into the stamping press, where the die and punch set is used to shape the metal part. The process can be repeated to produce multiple identical metal parts.
  5. Finishing: After the metal part is stamped, it undergoes finishing operations such as deburring, polishing, and coating to improve its appearance and protect it from corrosion.

Production testing after stamping die development

Conclusion

The metal stamping process is a cost-effective, efficient, and versatile way to produce high-quality metal components in large volumes. The process involves several steps, including design, material selection, cutting, forming, and quality control. Proper maintenance and safety precautions are essential for the longevity and safety of the stamping equipment. The future of metal stamping process is expected to include more advanced technologies and materials.

If you have any metal stamping needs or questions, welcome to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you and helping you take your products to the next level.

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