Raw material for deep drawing metal must be of the highest quality and meet required specifications.
By Anthony Romero – Sales and Applications Engineer Manager.
As mentioned in previous blogs, the deep draw process requires extensive know-how and expertise from the toolmakers and engineers involved. These technical experts must design the proper layout for the metal forming process, define the succession of tools (punches, dies, fingers), choose the proper tool clearances, select the appropriate lubricants, and make other decisions crucial to the success of deep draw manufacturing.
However, even those who are highly skilled and experienced in deep draw processes rely heavily on necessary material properties such as tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation. In addition, the uniformity of the raw material thickness is critical to achieving the correct wall thickness of the final product, and a high degree of purity (i.e., lack of inclusions, porosity, and crystalline microstructures) of the metal is required to prevent tears during deep drawing. Ultimately, insistence on exceptional raw material quality is a key difference among deep draw contract manufacturers.
At Prospect Machine Products, we maintain a close relationship with domestic material suppliers in order to ensure the highest quality in our incoming raw materials. Our procurement team continuously monitors suppliers and applies an internal scoring system to their product.
We take these steps to prevent defects in final products such as waves and wrinkles, which can occur if material properties aren’t up to spec. Not only are flawed products unacceptable, correcting the problem requires greater attention from toolmakers during production, which increases manufacturing costs and reduces first pass yield rates.
“Selling steel strip to deep draw metal stampers has its unique set of challenges. The precision of the gauge, sometimes to four decimal places, the temper, edge, and surface finish must conform to deep draw quality standards. People can spend their whole career in the steel industry without fully understanding all these conditions for deep draw quality. Understanding the end use of my customer’s part is critical to our processing of their precision strip. This allows us to focus on the most critical features we need to provide to the steel they purchase from us. The deep draw stampings our customers make are very often critical components in the assembly.” – Joseph Vrabely – President, Atlantic Steel
Have a project where the quality and affordability of components is critical? We’re happy to talk with you about how PMP can deliver the parts you need and the value you want. Contact us! Email info@pmpdeepdraw.com or call 203-758-4448, X25 for our Sales Manager, Nicole Spaeth.
