Following that advice from a long-time tool designer ultimately leads to the following: Piece-part price should be the same no matter how large the part run. The traditional American way of designing and building tooling calls for robust architecture that stands up to all the pounding that stamping presses can muster. It's a great method for tooling that must last for 1,000,000 hits over a 10-year period in production of parts from high-strength materials. But what about jobs that call for, say, 5000 total parts in a two-year span? That is where domestic tool design and build runs into problems, according to Tim Stephens. Stephens, author of the Tooling by Design column in Metal-Form mg and a long-time die designer, is director of engineering for TigreSystems Corp., Tempe, AZ.
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