"If we only knew then what we know now, we would have designed this die differently." It makes little difference how much experience we acquire individually, or how many experienced tool makers and engineers we involve in the die-design process. Sooner or later we find ourselves uttering those dreadful words. To a great extent, metal-stamping processes succeed or fail based on the suitability of the die design. If the tooling is not designed properly, very little can be done in the press shop to transform it into a process that runs reliably and profitably. Mistakenly, many dies are deemed properly designed if they repeatedly produce parts within print specification, at a predetermined production rate, during die tryout. But this approach creates two problems. First, it simply does not make good engineering or business sense to validate a design after the product is built. Shouldn't the design be tested and validated before investing time and money in construction? Second, too often after production begins we discover that small - seemingly insignificant - changes in any number of process inputs, such as material properties, die lubrication, blank position, die temperature or tool geometry, can send the process out of control.
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