Die Science: Training new tool- and diemakers

I must get two or three calls a week from companies needing tool- and diemakers, die maintenance specialists, or die repair specialists. The demand for skilled labor has skyrocketed in the last year or so.

Unfortunately, most of the time I can’t help them.

The Dwindling Talent Pool

While the demand for skilled mechanical jobs goes up, high schools continue to cut back or, in some cases, completely eliminate their skilled-trades programs. It’s truly a shame. To compound the problem, the number of people wanting to go into the skilled-trades programs has dropped. Unfortunately, society seems to think a college or university degree is required to achieve success.

I am a tool- and diemaker. I am proud of it. If I had to start over again, I would be a tool- and diemaker. I don’t have a college degree, yet I travel around the world conducting training and performing consulting. I don’t have a college degree, but I am the author of this column and have been for almost 15 years. I don’t have a college degree, but I make a good living doing what I love.

The tool and die trade is a professional career equal to any career that requires a college or university degree. It requires a great deal of skill and knowledge to design, troubleshoot, and repair stamping dies.

How to Make a Skilled Worker

So where do you find these skilled people? Well, you don’t. You make them from the resources you have. That means you are responsible for training them. Some of that training can be internal, and some might have to be done at a local college or trade school.

Following are training topics that are critical to the success of apprentices and trainees:

1. The basics of the sheet metal stamping process and the role of dies.
2. The types of tool steels available and their best applications, as well as tool steel coatings, types, and application methods.
3. Stamping die setup procedures and methods.
4. The key principles of designing, building, and troubleshooting progressive dies.
5. How to process and troubleshoot drawing and stretching operations for the proper design of deep-drawing and stretching dies.
6. How to design a product for formability, focusing on product design features from a die engineer’s perspective.
7. Stamping die maintenance and troubleshooting, focusing on identifying and correcting the root causes of stamping die problems.
8. How to work efficiently and effectively.

The effectiveness of an organization greatly depends on each employee’s ability to communicate. In addition, the working culture must stimulate internal motivation from its employees. A leadership program provides an introduction to the key concepts of communication, counseling, teams and teambuilding, leadership behaviors, internal motivation principles, and performance.

Spread the Good Word

These are just a few of the die-related classes that you can offer to your staff. Other classes might include math, trigonometry, geometry, metrology, safety and first aid, and quality control.

If you are unable to find sources for this training, consider appointing someone from your own company to be the trainer. An internal trainer is likely to know more about how the shop operates than an external source, such as the local college.

In today’s world, you have to grow your own skilled labor. And if you are a tool and diemaker or stamping technician, please do me a favor and help to change the perception of our career. The next generation needs to understand this is a professional and desirable career path.

Until next time … best of luck!