A Look at Sheet Metal Stamping
Sheet metal stamping is a system that uses sheet metal to create a finished product. When sheet metal is inserted into the tool or press, it is brought into the desired shape and size. Only sheets of a certain thickness can be fed into a metal stamping machine. The maximum limit for most metal stamping machines is inches.
The machine can also be designed for thicker sheets. The types of sheet metal that can be machined by metal stamping are also specific. Only certain metals or alloys such as aluminum, brass, steel, galvanized steel, stainless steel, copper, zinc and titanium can be used. You can also get the information about hot stamping machines through various online sources.
Before loading the sheet into the machine, the customer provides a prototype or at least a sketch of the final product. If the customer does not have a clear idea of what the final product will look like, most metal stamp manufacturers also offer engineering services for product design. Even some secondary services like cleaning and plating are provided by metal stamping companies after the sheet metal is stamped.
There are three main components in sheet metal stamping – the die, the punch and the fastening/holding device. The sheet is held between the workpiece holder and the die and a punch is pushed into the die, where the sheet is spread by pulling and stretching the die.
The holding device provides the limiting force needed to control the flow of the sheet metal into the mold. This force prevents the sheet from wrinkling and tearing by controlling the amount of material entering the machine. In some processes where the workpiece carrying strength is too high for the material, tensile beads are used to generate boundary forces.