Don’t forget the fundamentals in the metal stamping industry

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Recently I relayed to a colleague that when I was coaching 5- and 6-year-old soccer players, I taught them good passing, fancy foot work, and advanced strategies in an effort to give them a leg up, so to speak.

And then, at the first soccer game, I realized that I had neglected to teach them the most important lesson: the fundamentals. They performed great passing, maneuvered the ball well, but didn’t score. The team lost almost every game after that until it finally kicked in that they had to kick the ball into the goal to score.

In the Sept./Oct issue of STAMPING Journal, “Stamping 101: Anatomy of a hydraulic press” dissects the press into its frames, structure, and components. It defines terms and functions, describes a hydraulic press’s advantages and disadvantages, and notes best applications. In essence, the article lays the groundwork for an education in hydraulic press stamping.

The article is a companion piece to our most popular online stamping article on stampingjournal.com: “Stamping 101: Anatomy of a mechanical press.” That this article is so popular online indicates to me that there is a hunger for the very fundamentals—either because there’s a continuous stream of new personnel into a department or plant, or because some plant personnel are taught only about the specific task they have to do at the time and never fully understand where that task f its into the whole.

Sometimes, in pursuit of the most cutting-edge technologies and the latest great thing, we forget that knowledge and competency start at a base level and new knowledge builds on what we already know.

Although advanced technology has simplified many operations, it still is critical for the operators, managers, maintenance personnel, and anyone involved in the stamping process to really know the press, how it works, its parts, and what its functions are.

Art Hedrick, our Die Science columnist, has devoted several columns to the basics of die design. In the issue, he writes specifically about die guidance components and distinguishes between what their functions are—and what they are not.

Ask the Expert columnist Tom Vacca responds to a reader’s question: “Where can we find skilled labor?” Vacca contends that stamping manufacturers need to develop their own apprenticeship programs. He outlines in detail the basics and fundamentals that the apprenticeship programs should cover.

Finally, as I am writing this during FABTECH week, I feel compelled to comment that attending this tradeshow is one of the best opportunities for learning the fundamentals of stamping, dies, materials, feeds and coil systems, lubricants, presses, and how press systems work.

Got thoughts? I’d love to hear from you.