Understanding metal stamping

Metal stamping is a cold-forming process that makes use of dies and stamping presses to transform sheet metal into different shapes.

This article describes the metal stamping process and steps, presents the types of stamping presses typically employed, looks at the advantages of stamping parts compared to other fabrication processes, and explains the different types of stamping operations and their applications.

Punching and blanking refer to the use of a die to cut the material into specific forms, such as pole line hardware. Coining is a bending technique wherein the workpiece is stamped while placed between a die and the punch or press, such as sheet metal fabrication. Machines can be programmed or computer numerically controlled (CNC) to offer high precision and repeatability for each stamped piece, and this technology is widely used in furniture hardware. Four-slide stamping is a very versatile type of stamping, such as in electronics hardware, as different tools can be attached to each slide. It also has a relatively low cost, and production is fast.Hydraulic presses use pressurized hydraulic fluid to apply force to the material, such as in agricultural machinery parts. Hydraulic presses are usually used for smaller production runs to create more complicated and deeper stampings than mechanical presses, such as car spare parts.