News

Bend radius is a forming limit rather than a drawing detail. This guide covers the inside and outside radius convention, the K-factor behind bend allowance and bend deduction, published minimum radii by material and thickness, grain direction, hole-to-bend clearance, and the springback that shows up after the ram lifts.

Automotive metal stamping programs are approved on evidence, not on samples. This guide walks through the PPAP package a customer asks for, the five inspection gates that produce it, the record fields behind traceability, and the eight checks worth completing before a first article is submitted.

Three forces hold the metal during a fine blanking stroke, so the edge shears instead of tearing. This guide covers the clearance values behind that edge, the tolerance range suppliers publish, the thickness and hardness limits, and the production volumes where a fine blanking die never pays for itself.

One draw removes only so much metal from the blank. This guide explains the limiting draw ratio, how redraw stages and ironing passes get scheduled, when interstage annealing becomes unavoidable, and how punch radius, die radius and blank holder force decide whether a deep drawn stamping program runs three stages or seven.

A stamping process is an operation sequence, not a machine. This guide shows OEM buyers how to read a stamped part as features, order piercing, forming and cut-off, count the stations that drive tooling cost up, and match the route to compound, progressive, transfer, deep draw or fine blanking tooling.

Piece price is the simplest number to compare and the least reliable one. This guide breaks a custom metal stamping quote into tooling, material, secondary operations, finishing, inspection and freight, then shows how to score suppliers on total cost per accepted part rather than the lowest unit price.