Experiencing a die-insert failure, due to tool-steel galling, after only 7500 hits sends out a call for help dealing with an automotive-seat stamping of dual-phase steel. To the rescue: a new insert machine machined from a special hardened copper-alloy casting. When its customer, Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI), could make only 7500 hits before being forced to remove a worn die insert and replace it with a freshly coated insert, Custom Tooling Systems (CTS) went back to the drawing board to find a better-a much better-solution. The Zeeland, MI, tool and die shop had successfully completed a 41-die order for JCI in 2007, valued at $10 million, yet this one die proved tricky. The die, part of a package to stamp all of the seating components of a 2008 model-year vehicle program, comprises 16 stations to stamp seat-side reinforcements. The challenge: stamping the large part from a 1.5-mm (0.059-in.)-thick dual-phase steel, Docol 800 from Swedish supplier SSAB.
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