stampings

Stampings are metal parts produced by punching and forming sheet metal in a stamping press using dies. The process covers blanking, piercing, bending, and forming operations to convert flat sheet stock into finished parts or intermediate shapes. Complex parts are often manufactured with progressive or compound dies, while drawing and deep drawing produce cup- or vessel-shaped components.

The tooling includes a press, dies, fixtures, and stripping equipment. Modern stamping uses mechanical presses, hydraulic presses, or servo-driven presses. Tooling costs are significant and define unit cost, and production volumes must justify the investment. The process is well suited to high-volume production with tight tolerances.

Materials commonly used include carbon and alloy steels, stainless steels, aluminum, copper, and brass, with thicknesses from a few tenths of a millimeter to several millimeters depending on part requirements. Finishing operations such as deburring, heat treatment, plating, or painting are often applied after stamping.

Applications include automotive body parts, electrical enclosures, appliances, hardware, and medical devices. Advantages of stamping include high speed, precision, repeatability, and low per-part labor costs at scale. Limitations include high tooling costs, restriction to sheet metal, possible scrap generation, and the need for secondary operations for complex free-form features.

Quality considerations include dimensional tolerances, springback, burrs, and surface finish quality. Process control and inspection methods limit variation. Environmental aspects include lubricants and coolants, waste management, and recycling of scrap.