The many variables of manufacturing stamped components

Figure 1 – While your customer will specify the component geometry, material grade, material thickness, dimensions, and dimensional accuracy of the formed component, you control your technology, processes, and talent.

Artisanship supported human progress through much of our history. Trained craftsmen learned the skills to form products, cultivate soil for agriculture, and sail the world in support of trade. With their experience and observational skills, artisans discovered that alloys could make metals stronger. Imagine the excitement of early men who discovered that adding tin to copper made for a more useful material. Trial and error allowed them to learn to form tools and weapons with their new metals. Our ability to build more robust tools grew, and civilization advanced.

Around the mid-16th century, humans started looking at the world differently. Their new instruments and education allowed them to dig deeper into the cosmos and physical world and discover, not only how things worked, but new approaches to evaluating the world around them.

As sheet metal forming evolves, we have many more materials available, new forming technologies, and new ways to develop forming processes. During our current stage of development, artisans and scientists must work together to learn both from the science of metal forming and from our experiences on the plant floor and in tool and die development.

The days of manufacturing vehicles mostly from mild steel are gone. Over the past 25 years, the body in white evolved to include a variety of materials, including aluminum, magnesium, and advanced high-strength steels. Today’s advanced materials are lighter and stronger than those we used 30 years ago. Cars are safer, more resistant to corrosion, and more fuel-efficient.

Forming components for today’s vehicles is different than 25 years ago. While art and experience may have been your best tools for success then, today’s sheet metal former must also understand the evolving sciences of metallurgy and forming technologies.

While advanced materials contribute to better, more responsible vehicles, they create new challenges for stamping plants. Once, it may have been enough to know your material’s tensile properties, die design, and press tonnage. Today, there are dozens of variables that influence your forming results. Stamping professionals should know what those variables are and understand their impact on forming results. Awareness and understanding open business opportunities and contribute to profitable forming results.

Assuming you are a tiered supplier, there are factors you control and factors you have limited influence over (see Figure 1). Your customer will specify the component geometry, material grade, material thickness, dimensions, and dimensional accuracy of the formed component. You control your technology, processes, and talent.

And these are only a few of the factors you must understand to achieve efficient, profitable manufacturing of quality components. Your organization must understand myriad variables to form efficiently and take advantage of all the evolving opportunities available to the industry.

If you mass produce components, efficiency in both learning and manufacturing is critical to reduce costly defects. Learn all you can, regardless of your comfort level. Share your experiences. Each of us has something to offer. Share what you know and learn from those with different experiences and knowledge. Let’s continue to make sheet metal forming fun and exciting.