The Custom Metal Stamping Process

Today, manufacturing has embraced a wide range of advanced technologies that have enabled the reduction of turnaround time considerably. As a result, demand on the metal stamping industry has also increased as the components have to be made to be exactly suitable to the final product. This has made precision and custom metal stamping much more important in the manufacturing industry.

Custom metal stamping is the process of creating metal products according to the required sizes and shapes through a method called stamping. It involves the pressing or stamping of the metal in dies or press tools to give it the right shape. In custom metal stamping, the final products are made according to customer's precise requirements and conditions. Custom metal stamping is used in various industries like construction, electrical, bearing, automotive, medical and janitorial, among others.

Metal stamping typically involves the normal process of metal stamping but with certain changes. These can be the change in the kind of metal to be used, changes in the size and shape of the final product, the need to produce many kinds of sizes and shapes, high quality of the tools used, the volume and the number of units to be produced, the kinds of presses required and the number of presses and dies required. Some producers are changing their processes to accommodate any volume, up to thousands of tons.

There are several challenges to be met by the custom metal stamping companies. These are producing a high quality product, designing new products or re-engineering existing products to suit customers' needs while also meeting delivery requirements. The company has to be involved in every stage right from product design assistance to the final delivery. Additionally, the costs also have to be kept low even as the scope of offerings is increased.

Sheet metal stamping is the system wherein metal sheets are used for producing final products. When a metal sheet is inserted into the die or the press, it is molded into the required shape and size. Metal sheets of only a certain thickness can be inserted into metal stamping machines. The maximum limit for most metal stamping machines is ? inch. However, machines can be designed to accommodate sheets of greater thickness also. Even the kind of metal sheets that can be processed in metal stamping are also specific. Only certain metals or alloys can be used like aluminum, brass, steel (hot rolled or cold rolled), galvanized steel, stainless steel, copper, zinc and titanium.

Before the metal sheet is inserted into the machine, the customer provides the prototype or at least a diagram of the final product. In case the customer doesn't have a clear idea of what the final product should look like, most metal stamping producers also offer engineering services for designing the products as well. Even some secondary services such as deburring and plating are provided by the metal stamping companies after the metal sheet is stamped.

There are three main components in sheet metal stamping -- the die, the punch and the binder/blank holder. The sheet is kept between the blank holder and the die and the punch is driven into the die wherein the sheet spreads over the die because of the drawing and stretching. The blank holder provides the restraining force that is required to control the sheet flow into the die. This force prevents wrinkling and tearing of the sheet as the quantity of material going into the machine can be controlled. For some processes where the blank holder force is too high for the material, draw beads are used to create the restraining force.

Sheet metal stamping is also known as thin stampings. Sheet metal stamping is used most primarily in the case-building process. It is also the most important part as each of the panels has to be stamped one by one. First the motherboard tray is stamped, then one-side panels on the right and left from bottom to top and back.