Tips on sheet metal processing: How much do you know about stamping technology?
Sheet metal processing is divided into several processes, including cutting, stamping, bending, forming, welding, polishing, painting, printing, and assembly. Today, we will provide a detailed introduction to the technical knowledge behind stamping.
Stamping is a metal processing method that uses pressure equipment such as a stamping machine to deform or separate the material to produce the desired product parts, collectively referred to as stamped parts.
There are various stamping processes in the die, but here I will summarize the most common ones.
1. Blanking
A general term for stamping processes that involve removing material. These include blanking, punching holes, notching, slotting, slitting, chiseling, trimming, and cutting.
2. Design
This is a stamping process that primarily removes excess material to ensure it meets specifications.
3. Tongue Cutting
This process involves cutting a portion of the material, but not completely cutting through it. A common process involves cutting only three sides of a rectangle, leaving one side intact. This process primarily serves to determine the step distance.
4. Flaring
This process is less common and is often used to expand the end or one point of a tubular part outward into a trumpet shape.
5. Shrinking
This is the opposite of flaring, and involves narrowing the end or a point of a tubular part inward.
6. Punching
To create a hollow portion of a part, the entire material is separated by a punch and a knife edge, creating a corresponding hole size.
7. High-Precision Stamping
When a stamped part requires a fully bright cross-section, it is called "smoothing." Fine Blanking (Note: Ordinary blanking sections are divided into four areas: collapsed corners, bright areas, fracture zones, and burr areas).
8. Full Bright Blanking
Unlike high-precision stamping, full bright blanking is achieved in a single step.
9. Deep Hole Blanking
When the diameter of the part is smaller than the material thickness, deep hole blanking can be used. The difficulty of this process is reflected in the ease with which the inserts break.
10. Embossing
This process involves creating a bulge on a flat sheet of material that meets specific application requirements.
11. Forming
Many people mistake forming for sheet metal bending, which is not a serious concept. Because sheet metal bending is a type of forming, forming is a general term for all processes involving the use of fluid materials.
12. Sheet Metal Bending
A basic process in which a flat sheet of material is shaped by bending it with a male and female die insert to achieve a desired angle and shape.
13. Beading
This process is commonly used in sheet metal bending inserts for angled parts. It primarily creates a ridge in the material at the bend to reduce elasticity and maintain a stable angle.
14. Embossing
A process in which distinctive patterns are pressed into the surface of a material using a pin. Common examples include embossing letters and dots.
15. Rolling
A type of forming process in which a product shape is folded into a ring.
16. Punching
A process in which a stamped part thread is bent outward to create a pattern. A process for producing side edges of a certain height.
17. Straightening
Mainly used for applications requiring high product flatness. When a stamped part experiences flatness errors due to stress fields, a straightening process must be used to adjust the flatness.
18. Shaping
After forming, if the angles and shapes of a product deviate from the basic specifications, an additional adjustment step must be considered to ensure stable angles. This process is called "shaping."
19. Stretching
The stretching process generally refers to the process of converting flat material into a hollow part. It is primarily performed using male and female dies.
20. Continuous Stretching
Generally refers to a stretching process in which the same location of material is stretched multiple times within a strip using one or four dies.
21. Deep Stretching
Continuous stretching and deep stretching both belong to the category of deep stretching. This refers to the process in which the wall thickness of the stretched part is less than the thickness of the original material.
22. Stretching
The basic concept is similar to convex hulling, where the material is convexed. However, deep drawing generally refers to automotive parts, which belong to a relatively complex forming product series, and their deep drawing structure is also relatively complex.
23. Construction Project Die
A general term for dies that perform only one stamping process in a set of dies.
24. Composite Die
A general term for dies that can perform two or more different stamping processes in a set of dies.
25. Stamping Die
A general term for dies that use a conveyor to feed the material, sequentially arranging two or more stamping processes, and feeding them sequentially during the stamping process to ultimately produce a qualified product.