Stamping

Stamping shapes sheet metal in high-speed presses using hard tooling to produce consistent, tight-tolerance parts at medium to very high volumes with low piece cost.

Overview

Stamping uses presses and hardened dies to cut, pierce, form, and draw sheet metal into precise 2D and 3D geometries. Sub-processes like progressive dies, transfer dies, deep drawing, blanking, piercing, and coining handle everything from simple flat blanks to deep, complex cups and shells. Once tooling is built, stamping delivers very fast cycle times and excellent part-to-part repeatability.

Stamping fits best when you have thin sheet parts, annual volumes in the thousands to millions, and relatively stable designs that justify the upfront tooling investment. It excels at brackets, terminals, small enclosures, washers, and shallow to moderate draw components that need good edge quality and consistent features.

Tradeoffs: tooling lead time and cost are significant, design changes after tool cut are expensive, and part geometry is limited by sheet thickness, formability, and press tonnage. Flatness, very tight forming radii, and sharp corners may require secondary operations or design compromises.

Common Materials

  • Low carbon steel
  • HSLA steel
  • Stainless steel 304
  • Aluminum 5052
  • Copper
  • Brass

Tolerances

±0.002" to ±0.005" on critical features, looser on non-critical edges

Applications

  • Electrical terminals and connectors
  • Brackets and mounting tabs
  • Automotive body and structural stampings
  • Small housings and enclosures
  • Washers and shims
  • Spring clips and retainers

When to Choose Stamping

Use stamping when you have thin sheet metal parts with annual volumes high enough to amortize tooling, and you need fast cycle times with consistent, repeatable geometry. It’s ideal for parts that can be produced from coil or strip with mostly 2.5D features, such as bends, flanges, holes, and moderate draws. Designs should be relatively stable, since revisions after tool build can be costly.

vs Forging

Choose stamping when the part can be made from sheet with modest forming loads and doesn’t need the directional strength and bulk of a forged shape. Stamping provides lower part cost and much higher throughput for thin components like brackets, terminals, and covers. Use it when dimensional precision and edge quality on sheet parts matter more than maximum mechanical properties.

vs Extrusion

Choose stamping when the part is primarily flat or shallow-formed from sheet rather than a long, constant-profile shape. Stamping is better for brackets, tabs, and pierce-heavy features with complex hole patterns. It also avoids the material waste and cutoff operations typical of bar or profile extrusions for small, thin parts.

vs Wire Forming

Choose stamping when you need features that require flat surfaces, piercings, or complex 2D outlines that wire cannot provide. Stamping handles parts with holes, slots, and detailed perimeters in a single stroke, often with integrated forming. It suits components that must interface with flat gaskets, PCBs, or mounting planes.

vs CNC Machining

Choose stamping for high-volume sheet parts where cycle time and piece price dominate and you can live within stamping’s geometric limits. Once tooled, stamping produces parts in milliseconds, far faster and cheaper than machining each profile and hole. It is ideal when you can design around uniform sheet thickness instead of needing fully 3D machined features.

Design Considerations

  • Keep material thickness uniform; avoid steps in thickness that complicate feeding and tooling and drive up die cost
  • Respect minimum hole size and edge distances (typically hole diameter ≥ material thickness, hole-to-edge ≥ 1.5× thickness) to reduce risk of burrs and edge cracking
  • Use generous inside bend radii (≥ material thickness for most steels) to improve formability and extend tool life
  • Place critical dimensions relative to clear datums and prioritize them in the drawing so the stamper can locate and control them in the die
  • Specify realistic flatness and positional tolerances for stamped parts; extremely tight callouts may require secondary operations and sharply increase cost
  • Limit very deep draws or extreme forms in one hit; design for multiple forming stages or redraws if needed to prevent tearing and wrinkling