Four Trends in the Automotive-Stamping Technology

Metals and Mining Review | Thursday, August 12, 2021

Automotive stamping technology benefits auto manufacturers with advancements in tools, materials, and digitization. 

FREMONT, CA: Auto manufacturers have the advantage of using metal stamping for parts like fenders and hub caps because the dies used for these parts can be used again to meet high specifications of creating similar sized and shaped parts. With metal stamping, automotive manufacturers can create clean solid metal parts precisely and in less time.

Four trends revolving around Automotive-stamping technology:

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Hot forming

Hot forming is a common practice in metal stamping today. Sheet metals are pressed at a very high temperature in a die for heat-treating the part. Hot forming is very different from the conventional deep drawing process. It prevents any uneven surface on the metal parts by using special clamping units to hold the parts in the correct position. Hot forming is a fantastic process for designing and building hot forming dies because most die engineers and other professionals are not trained well enough in this technology.

Material evolution

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Advanced high-strength steel (AHSS) is a new class of high-tensile-strength materials that has birthed from the evolution in steel technology. These materials are designed by cold forming in traditional stamping dies and press lines at an average temperature. AHSS materials have high tensile strength than hot-formed stampings. The usage of sheet aluminum alloys by the automotive industry has increased dramatically in the past few years. Aluminum stamping processing can be challenging. Producers have designed new alloys with high-strength hot forming properties and refined common alloys for delivering better cold forming applications.

Advances in tools

The third-generation AHSS material has bought advances in forming lubricants, application methods, and thickness-measurement technologies. Advanced stamping dies should resist stress, extreme temperatures, shocks, chemical attacks and handle any in-process failure. Some stamping operations require longer production runs and designers choose carbide materials for these operations. Carbide materials have high compressive strength, withstand deflection, and maintain their hardness values at high temperatures.

Digital evolution

Digital evolution is changing the landscape of stamping technology by providing an accurate sheet metal formability analysis. The digital advancement also offers optical scanning technology to capture and digitize dies and parts produced from dies to enable quick and repeatable development of compensated die surfaces.

See Also: Top Internet of Things Solution Companies

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