TABLE OF CONTENTS Tooling. Tooling is a general term used to encompass many different processes involving the design and manufacture of special tools, dies, molds, jigs, and fixtures. The most common type of tooling consists of dies that are used to stamp or blank sheet metal parts for mass production. The use of a stamping or blanking die makes it possible to produce thousands of parts with consistent dimensional accuracy at a rapid pace. This ensures that the die-produced parts will fit correctly into their next assembly stage, such as in a complex mechanical device or mechanism, and have interchangeability.
The production of detail parts from a tooling device such as a stamping die reduces the overall cost of producing industrial and consumer products in relation to the cost of the die versus the number of parts to be made on the die. Complex tooling devices are relatively expensive to produce and usually must be justified by the number of parts they produce during a set time interval. As a general rule, thousands of parts should be produced yearly to justify tooling costs and maintenance of the tools.
Die making. One of the most common tooling procedures is the design and production of dies, i.e., die making. Industry uses a great variety of dies, including
Stamping, blanking, and punching dies
Bending and forming dies
Combination or progressive dies
Forging dies
Dies for die casting metals and metal alloys
Beading dies (a form of bending die)
Extrusion dies
Drawing dies...
