Metal Stamping Material + Metal Finishing Selection Guide

Choosing an appropriate material for a progressive stamping project is about finding the right balance between part performance, manufacturability, and cost (of parts and the assemblies they go into). There may be multiple suitable options for an application, so it&#;s important to consider all of the material properties and design requirements before making a final decision.

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At CEP Technologies Corp. we specialize in small to medium sized progressive stampings for the electronics, automotive, aerospace, power protection and other industries. Our team of engineers, designers, and expert stampers provides end-to-end stamping services including prototyping, computer modeling,  tool and die building, stamping, metal finishing processes, and packaging.

Learn more about material selection, common metals used in progressive stamping, and different types of finishes for metal stampings.

How To Select the Right Material for Metal Stampings

At CEP we provide custom progressive stamping for miniature to small parts. We stamp metal coil materials between 0.002 in. and 0.080 in. thick and blanks up to 6×6 in. square. Our high speed presses range from 15 to 60 tons, and can supply customers with medium to high annual volumes of 25,000 to 1,000,000 parts. We also provide in-house tool and die building and maintenance for the lifetime of each project.

When selecting material for stamped parts and components, consider these factors:

• Cost: Material costs vary based on supply chain availability, relative rareness, and form of the raw material. Prices for precious metals like copper or gold may be higher if an entire part is stamped from them compared to thinner electroplated or selectively plated coatings. Different types of steel are often cost-effective; although, alloys may be more expensive.
• Part end-use: How and where a part will be used is a major factor in material selection. Consider things like exposure to moisture, extreme or fluctuating temperatures, dynamic physical forces, and other things that contribute to wear and tear. Also consider if high mechanical or tensile strength, electrical or thermal conductivity, solderability, weight, or other properties are important to the specific application.
• Formability: Depending on the geometry of the part, it may be easier or more difficult to bend, shear, pierce, or perform other operations on. This is especially true when tolerances are tight. Consider how each material&#;s bendability, modulus of elasticity, springback, brittleness, and hardness affect the stamping process.
• Corrosion resistance and protection: Parts that are exposed to corrosive environments such as rain, salt spray, high humidity, or harsh chemicals need extra protection to ensure a long service life. Some materials, such as stainless steel, are inherently resistant to corrosion, while others may require a protective coating like zinc or tin.
• Surface hardness: Is important in stamping because it determines the amount of force required to cut or deform the material. Higher carbon content material is generally harder and more brittle, which may affect manufacturability.

Material Selection Guide

The best material for a given application depends on the specific end use, stamping operations used, and anticipated environmental conditions. The following are common materials used in progressive stamping:

• Stainless Steel: This alloy of steel and chromium has high corrosion resistance, excellent strength, and temperature resistance.  It is available in several grades including some that are biocompatible for medical applications.
• Aluminum: This is a soft metal with excellent formability and conductivity. It is also lightweight, highly recyclable, resists corrosion and remains stable in low temperatures.
• Steel: Steel is a ferrous (i.e., iron based) metal available in several forms including hot or cold rolled steel, low, medium, or high carbon steel, and various high-performance alloys. Steel is highly formable, durable, and cost-effective. Many steels are not corrosion resistant and may require additional plating or coating. Higher carbon levels contribute hardness and brittleness and lower solderability, which may impact manufacturability or part performance and durability.
• Pre-galvanized steel: A zinc coating on the surface of steel improves corrosion resistance and reduces post-stamping metal finishing processes required.
• Nickel-plated steel: This is a pre-plated material with higher corrosion resistance than zinc coatings or plating. It reduces post-stamping finishing needs.
• Brass: A strong, durable, and highly conductive alloy of copper and zinc with good ductility, corrosion resistance, and antimicrobial properties.
• Phosphor bronze: An alloy of copper, tin, and phosphorous that is elastic and malleable, highly conductive, and very resistant to corrosion and wear.
• Beryllium copper: A copper alloy often used for high strength, high stress applications. It has high conductivity, is malleable and easy to form, and can be strengthened with heat treatment.
• Precious metals: These include gold, silver, and platinum. They are generally softer metals that are highly malleable and conductive for electrical or medical applications. Precious metals are often expensive and it may be more cost-effective to use these materials for selective plating processes instead of stamping entire parts from them.

Types Of Metal Finishings

Various types of finishes for metal stamped parts help protect the base metal from corrosion, enhance conductivity, or improve solderability and other part characteristics. Some common metal finishing processes include:

• Cleaning: Stamped parts often require cleaning to remove grease and oils. For some applications high precision cleaning is required to remove particles and contaminants. This technical cleaning can be done with various methods and solutions including bubbling water baths or vibrating baskets in cleaning solution. It is possible to achieve different cleanliness and particle size tolerances.
• Heat treating:  Heat treatment is often applied to transporting parts through an oven or industrial furnace. The high heat alters the metal&#;s grain structure to enhance hardness, smoothness, and other characteristics.
• Plating: Adding a protective outer layer of metal can be done before or after the stamping process and improves corrosion resistance, conductivity, or other properties. Common plating materials include nickel, copper, tin, zinc, and precious metals. Learn more about plating here.
  • Electroplating: An anode (i.e., a piece of the plating material) and cathode (i.e., the stamped part to be plated) are placed in an electrolyte bath with an electric current, which deposits a thin layer of metal ions on the part. An electric current deposits a thin layer of metal onto the base metal surface.
  • Barrel/immersion plating: Stamped parts are placed in a bath of metal ion solution, resulting in a thin metal coating without the use of electrical current.
  • Reel to reel plating: Finished parts are attached  to a reel-to-reel carrier system that feeds into the plating bath and then taken up onto a second reel. Parts are secured to webbing that exposes the area to be plated and the plated strip is interleaved with a paper strip to keep the parts separated. This process can also be used to pre-plate raw material blanks that will later be stamped.
  • Selective plating: Commonly used with precious metal plating, this method uses special masking material to block off areas of a part that will not be plated.
• Deburring, sanding and grinding: These methods use abrasives such as sandpaper or a grinding wheel tool to remove burrs or imperfections, smooth rough edges, and prepare the metal for further treatment.

Quality Progressive Stamping and Metal Finishes for Stamped Parts by CEP

At CEP we are committed to providing highest quality, comprehensive stamping services and rapid prototyping to customers around the world. With facilities in New York, Texas, and China we have an efficient, global reach.  to our customers. We are IATF : and ISO : certified with TUV Rheinland of North America.

Contact us to learn more about our capabilities or to request a quote for your next project.

Custom metal stamping is, by definition, designed exclusively for a specific part and its functions. Unlike mass-produced stampings, custom metal stamping is chosen when precision and complex dimensions are required to produce a unique part. This process requires the upfront development of a custom metal stamping tool that cuts and forms the part as the metal goes through the stamping press. Custom metal stampings can range from large components for automobiles and custom assemblies to micro-miniature parts for medical devices or electronics.

Techniques for Shaping Custom Metal Stampings

Stamping includes a variety of sheet metal forming processes consisting of either a single station operation where every stroke of the press produces the desired form of the metal part or could occur through a series of stages. The following techniques are used to achieve the desired shape in the press.

Bending

Bending creates a formed feature by angular displacement of a sheet metal workpiece. In some processes, one edge of the workpiece is clamped in a stationary position while the other edge is clamped by a metal tool and bent over a form to create a precise bend or shape. Alternatively, the metal piece may be pushed into or against a form.

Blanking

The blanking process removes a metal piece from the primary metal strip or sheet when it is punched through the strip/sheet. The material that is removed becomes the new metal workpiece or blank.

Coining

Coining is a forming process that uses an extreme amount of pressure to push the workpiece into a die. The die then forms the metal into a precise shape and creates permanent forms in the workpiece. Coining also smooths the edges of metal parts by striking them with a high degree of force. This removes existing burrs and hardens the metal. Coining may reduce the need for deburring, grinding, and other secondary processes at the end of the project, which saves both time and money.

Crash/Crush Forming

This process deforms the metal using only a punch and cavity. These dies do not control metal flow and cannot prevent the metal from wrinkling or buckling. They are used to form simple parts, such as brackets and braces, made from thick, stiff metals that are more wrinkle-resistant than thinner metals.

Cutting

One of the most common stamping operations, cutting trims the metal into a part by the use of extremely high force in the stamping press. Cutting operations include trimming, notching, piercing, blanking, lancing, and shearing.

Drawing

A complex drawing die is used to create large metal parts, such as automotive components. The process involves controlling the flow of metal into a cavity via a pressure-loaded draw pad to prevent wrinkling as the material flows over a forming punch.

Embossing

Embossing is a cold-forming process used for creating specific formations or designs on metal pieces. Male and female embossing components press a workpiece between them with sufficient force to form the three-dimensional feature.

Extruding

Extrusion forms the metal inside the diameter of a pierced hole, which may be used for applications such as holding fasteners during part assemblies.

Flanging

The flanging operation bends metal along a curved axis, which may be used to form a projection or the rim of a part as it relates to part assembly and stiffness requirements.

Forming

Metal stamping involves a variety of forming operations. The stamping press forms the metal material by applying tension, compression, or both. The specific type of forming operation selected depends on the material&#;s properties and the part&#;s critical dimensions, balancing formability and strength.

Ironing

Similar to the coining process, ironing employs compression to form the part by squeezing the metal along a vertical wall to achieve exact thickness and length dimensions.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Stamping Parts.

Lancing

In order to free up metal without separating it from the metal strip, lancing slices or slits the metal, which may be used in progressive dies as a part carrier.

Piercing

This metal cutting operation, also called perforating, produces a hole in a formed part or sheet metal, which may be round, square or a custom shape. The slug is then discarded.

Pinch Trimming

Pinch trimming is a special method in which the vertical walls of a drawn or stretched vessel are cut by pinching the metal.

Punching

This forming process uses a punch press to force a tool, called a punch, through the workpiece/material to create a hole and produces a scrap slug that is deposited into the die below the sheet metal.

Restriking/Sizing

Used primarily after major forming operations are complete, restriking employs an additional station in the die to finish precision details such as small embossing and sharp radii.

Shaving

An operation used to eliminate or minimize die-break, while maximizing the amount of sheared edge.  The general concept with shaving is to pre-punch the hole slightly smaller, then post-punch the hole to size, using a very tight die clearance. This can also be done on a straight or outside edge.

Shearing

Cutting force is applied perpendicular to the material, causing the material to yield and break.

Trimming

The trimming process achieves the specified profile of a stamped part by forming its perimeter or cutting away excess metal, with precision trimming designed to minimize scrap.

Custom Metal Stamping Production Methods

The method chosen for metal stamping production takes into account the complexity of the part and how metal stamping can best form that part. For precision parts with tight tolerances, the method may include the use of in-die sensors to continually monitor part quality, along with other inspection methods. The method also takes into account secondary operations, such as plating, heat treating, welding, and cleaning or sterilization.

Progressive Die Stamping

Progressive metal stamping is a stamping process that advances a metal strip from station to station performing different operations on the same part in the die until the part is complete. Conical-shaped pilots are inserted into pre-pierced holes in the strip to ensure the precision of the alignment as the part advances to guarantee the accuracy of the finished product. Since the part is attached to a metal strip throughout its formation, the entire process and parts will be out of tolerance if the strip is off by even a tiny fraction of an inch.

Progressive die stamping offers some advantages such as being a highly repeatable process and since the material is continuously fed into the stamping press, long production runs can be completed, producing more finished parts in less time resulting in lower cost per part.

Progressive Stamping Delivers High Speed Production and Lower Costs.

Transfer die stamping

Transfer die stamping uses one press to operate multiple tools. The part is removed from its metal strip so that it can be freely transferred.  A part, which can be turned or rotated, is shaped by each station until it is complete. Automation of the transfer process streamlines the operation into a single press.

Transfer dies can handle many part features in one press pass, such as holes, cut-outs or threading, which can eliminate costly secondary operations.

Transfer die stamping is typically used for large parts like frames, tube applications, draws, shells, and structural components.

Is Progressive Die Stamping or Transfer Die Stamping Best for Your Next Precision Metal Stamping Project?

Deep Drawing

Beneficial for applications requiring recessed cavities, where the depth of the drawn part exceeds its diameter, deep drawing uses blanking, swaging or sizing to deform the base material and apply recessed features.

Fine Blanking

Fine blanking is optimal for parts that require very smooth, precise edges or exceptional flatness. Fine blanking is particularly suitable for moving parts such as gears. Fine blanking is a combination of metal stamping and cold-metal extrusion techniques, requiring special presses. 

Progressive Stamping vs. Fine Blanking: Three questions OEMs Should Ask

Multi-slide / Four-slide Stamping

Multi-slide / Four-slide stamping is best suited for fabricating complex components that have numerous bends or twists and for forming wire. The difference between multi-slide and four-slide is that four-slide metal stamping machines have four moving slides while multi-slide machines have more than four slides. The slides or rams in the machines strike the material to produce the finished parts.

Multi-slide / Four-slide equipment can manufacture complicated parts with multiple, complex, or over 90° bends and twists including clips, brackets, flat springs, terminals, retainers, and wire formed parts. Both flat and round materials can be formed.

For more information, please visit Custom Copper Connector.

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