Tooling Tips for High-Speed Stamping

In this fast-paced world, metal stamping is essential to many industries. Manufacturers need to produce large volumes of stamped metals every day. One way to address the demand for components and parts is through “High-Speed Stamping,” which includes the tooling process.

What is Tooling?

Tooling is the foundation for stamping in the fabrication of products. It is the process of creating and designing components and machinery used to make millions of pieces. There are two sheet metal stamping processes, soft tooling and hard tooling.

• Soft tooling involves cutting, punching, and bending materials to form parts and components.
• Hard tooling, also known as sheet metal stamping, requires steel dies to deform sheet metals using a stamping press.

What is High-Speed Stamping?

High-speed stamping is necessary for mass production. There are many variables depending on the product you’re making. For instance, in the fastener industry, 500 to 1,200 strokes per minute (SPM) are not uncommon, while 60 to 80 SPM is considered high-speed in large automotive manufacturing.

Sometimes, operating at higher speeds can impose certain difficulties such as:

• Scrap-metal issues
• Tool chipping and wear
• Uneven edges and ridges
• Stock feeding problems

Tooling in high-speed stamping offers benefits:

• 打造优质产品
• 能够进行大批量生产
• 功能性和可重复性
• 延长冲压件的使用寿命

This article will give you six tooling tips for high-speed stamping that can help you prevent unwanted problems and maximize advantages as you grow your business.

Hire professionals

Hiring professionals is the priority everyone must know. When doing your project, trust only the experts to give you advice and guidance regarding your preferred result. Planning carefully and familiarizing yourself with high-speed stamping techniques, materials, and other treatments compatible with your product ensures your investment and saves you time.

Why not consider Gold Precision’s team of passionate, knowledgeable, and skilled professionals for your high-speed stamping needs?

Choose the right tooling material

Picking suitable materials for the project is basic to high-speed stamping. Different metals have distinct characteristics, affecting the quality of parts and pieces. Examining the features of the material can help you achieve the desired outcome and reduce unnecessary do overs.

Low-quality steel that is too soft or too brittle can cause severe problems during production. It can stack up in the matrix or jam in the die plate. Conversely, if the tool is too hard but lacks toughness, it can easily break or crack. Some of these material considerations are:

• High-speed steel allows tools to operate as two to three times as fast as carbon steel.
• Aluminum oxide is an excellent choice in high-speed stamping because of its durability and chemical stability.
• Tungsten carbide tools can endure high-speed stamping more than high-speed steel and has excellent stability at high temperatures.

Choose a suitable surface treatment

Selecting the best surface treatment can help you save money by reducing labor costs. Reducing friction is a factor in successful stamping. One way reduce friction is through tool coating or surface treatment.

Nitride application is a standard treatment for high-speed stampings, such as titanium nitride (TiN), titanium carbonitrides (TiCN), and titanium aluminum nitride (Ti₃AIN).

• TiN coating has better wear resistance than nitride alone but has difficulties when used in copper and stainless-steel stamping.
• TiCN coating provides a tremendously hard layer, which resists wear and reduces abrasion during production.
• Ti₃AIN coating provides optimum lubrication and prevents metal chipping. Ti₃AIN is one of the best surface treatments for high-speed applications.

Coatings can increase metal’s wear-and-tear resistance, enabling it to have a smooth finish. It can also improve a metal’s strength and life by hardening the part’s surface. Best practice is to consider coating factors such as coating process, thickness, hardness, and the substrate material.

Consider material with temper resistance and compressive strength

Tooling in high-speed stamping requires immense resistance to breakage under compression and the ability to maintain its hardness and elasticity at high temperatures. Prioritizing these metal characteristics early in the planning and designing phase, ensures stress-free production and high-quality products.

Using alloys, such as chrome, vanadium, tungsten, and cobalt, significantly affect the metal’s durability and elasticity in such applications. These materials can also help maintain the hardness of metal even after exposure to extreme heat.

Consider tool polishing

Not everyone considers this process, but polishing can undoubtedly have an impact when stamping at high speed. Polishing can remove any imperfections the metal gets from heating, melting, cutting, and grinding. Simple holes, scratches, and cracks in the primary metal can cause friction, tool wear, and heat build-up.

So, in enhancing productivity, consider tool polishing as part of the process. Always use the proper equipment, such as (1) abrasive wheel, (2) silicon carbide polishing stones, (3) mineral spirits or degreaser, and (4) variable-speed grinder with felt bob.

Do a pre-production check

Making sure that all equipment and materials are in good condition before stamping is a priority. Sometimes, we forget the pre-check, thinking, nothing can be wrong—we do this all the time. However, paying attention to detail will reward you in the long run.

Tip Summary

Tooling for high-speed stamping is hard work. Accuracy and precision can be difficult to achieve, but with the right people, nothing is impossible. We should always consider the things that matter most—hiring an expert. When you do, everything else follows, like having the right materials, treatments, and processes.

Here at Gold Precision, we give you quality parts and components with our precision metal stamping techniques. To learn more about our stamping services and products, visit us at https://www.micpressed.com/product/.