The craftsman spirit has supported human progress for most of our history. Trained artisans learned the skills to form products, cultivated soils for agriculture, and sailed around the world to support trade. With their experience and observation, the craftsmen discovered that alloys made metals harder. Imagine how delighted the first people were when they discovered that adding tin to copper could make the material more valuable. Trial and error taught them to create tools and weapons out of different metals. As our ability to create stronger tools grew, so did civilization.
Around the mid-16th century, humans started to view the world in a different way. Their new tools and schooling have permitted them to dig deeper into the universe and physical world, discovering not only how things operate, but also new ways of evaluating the world around them.
With the development of metal stamping sheet metal forming, we have more materials, new forming technology, and the development of new methods of forming process. At our contemporary stage of development, craftsmen and researchers must work together to learn both from the science of metal forming and from our experiences on the factory floor and in tooling and die development.
Gone are the days when vehicles were made predominantly of mild steel. Over the past 25 years, naked bodies have expanded to incorporate a variety of materials, including aluminum, magnesium, and advanced high-strength steel. Today's advanced materials are lighter and stronger than those we used 30 years ago. ​Vehicles are safer, more resistant to corrosion, and more fuel efficient.
​Vehicle parts are shaped differently today than they were 25 years ago. While art and experience may be your best tools for success, today's sheet metal employee must also grasp the emerging science and molding techniques of metallurgy.
While advanced materials have contributed to better, more accountable cars, they present new challenges for stamping plants. Once upon a time, understanding the tensile properties of your material, die design, and stamping tonnage might have been sufficient. Today, there are dozens of variables that can alter your molding results. A Progressive Die Stamping professional should know what these variables are and appreciate their impact on the forming results. Awareness and understanding can open up business opportunities and help to attain favorable results.
Suppose you are a tiered supplier, there are factors that you control and factors that you have limited influence over. Your customer will specify the geometry of the parts, the grade of the material, the width of the material, the dimensions, and the dimensional accuracy of the molded parts. You command your technology, your craft, your talent.
And these are just a few of the factors you must grasp to achieve efficient and advantageous quality component manufacturing. Your organization must grasp a myriad of variables in order to successfully shape and take advantage of all the emerging opportunities in the industry.
If you mass-produce parts, the efficiency of learning and manufacturing is vital to decreasing expensive defects. Whatever your comfort level, learn as much as you can.
Share your experiences. Each of us has something to offer. Share what you know and learn from people with different experiences and knowledge. Let's keep making metal stamping sheet metal molding fun and thrilling.