How Dies are Used with Our Metal Stamping Services in Minneapolis, MN

September 15th, 2015 · No Comments

At Thomas Engineering Company, our metal stamping services in Minneapolis, MN revolves around the use of dies. Without die technology, we would not be able to offer our customers our most basic service, not to mention our more complex in-die spot welding, tapping, and staking services. Our precision metal stamping services rely on dies for cutting and forming minute parts vital to the automotive, medical, and electronic industries.

We want our customers to know as much as possible about the process used to produce their parts. How we use dies is the important part of that process.

Die Basics:

  • Dies are a metal forming technology designed to stamp or cut out a certain shaped part.
  • The most basic elements of a die are its two halves: the punch and the die cavity. The punch forces a metal sheet (blank) into the die cavity, cutting or forming the desired part.
  • A die set consists of the punch, the die cavity, and the guiding metal plates called die shoes.

 Size and Material:

  • Dies need to be made from durable tool steels that can withstand the shock of a push thrusting the punch into the cavity with enough force to alter the metal blank. Dies must be built of high quality materials in order to stamp and form high quality steel parts.
  • Most dies are made from tool steels that can be specially hardened, but some sections of a die can be made from solid carbide or other wear-resistant materials.
  • Our dies range in size from our smallest, used to form micro-electronic parts, to our largest, used to stamp and form automotive parts.

 Cutting and Forming:

  • Dies perform two basic functions: cutting and forming.
  • Cutting dies separate a part by placing it between the punch and die that are forced together with a small gap between the two (called cutting clearance) where the part is cut and created.
  • The problem with cutting dies is the high intensity shock that is continually imposed on the die itself. Many dies have dampeners designed to absorb this excess energy.
  • Forming dies form and shape a metal blank into a formed shape. The shape of the part depends on the design of the punch and cavity combination.
  • Many dies combine forming and cutting into one tool or into a progressive die.

For more information on dies and metal stamping services in Minneapolis, MN, contact us at Thomas Engineering Company.

Tags: Metal Stamping ·


 

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