If you’ve ever held a metal kitchen utensil, a car door panel, the casing for your power tool, or even a decorative metal accent in your home, you’ve held a stamped part. For over a decade, I’ve run a small but busy stamped parts supplier—one that works with automotive, appliance, and consumer goods makers to turn flat metal sheets into precise, durable components. When a new client walks in, the first question they ask isn’t just “Can you make this part?” It’s “What stamping processes will work best?” Because the process determines everything from cost and lead time to part strength and surface finish. Over the years, I’ve learned that not all stamping is the same, and choosing the right one is the difference between a part that fails in the field and one that outlasts the product it’s made for. Let me break down the most common stamping processes we use every day, straight from the floor of our shop. Stamped Parts
First, let’s start with the foundation: what is stamping, exactly? It’s a metalworking process that uses custom tooling and a press to flatten, cut, bend, or shape sheet metal into specific geometries. The beauty of it is that it’s repeatable—we can make 100 or 100,000 identical parts with the same tight tolerances, which is why it’s the go-to for mass production. That said, each process is built for a specific job, and knowing when to use which is key. The most basic (and often most used) process is blanking. Blanking is the starting line for almost every stamped part we make. Here’s how it works: we take a sheet of metal—usually steel, aluminum, or sometimes copper—and feed it into a press that has two matching steel dies: a punch on top and a die cavity on the bottom. When the press comes down, the punch cuts a flat, perfectly shaped piece of metal (the blank) from the sheet. The leftover metal around the blank is scrap, which we recycle, but the blank is what we build the rest of the part from. Blanking isn’t just for simple circles or squares, either. We use it to make irregular blanks for things like appliance brackets or automotive hinge plates. The key with blanking is precision: if the punch and die are misaligned by even a thousandth of an inch, the edge of the blank will have burrs or unevenness that cause problems later. For small parts, we might use a high-speed press that can blank 50 parts a minute; for larger, heavy-gauge metal, we use a slower, higher-tonnage press to avoid warping. I learned this lesson early: on a job for a small appliance maker, we tried to blank thin stainless steel too fast, and the edges came out with tiny burrs that caught when the parts were assembled. We had to retool the press and adjust the speed, but that’s the thing about stamping—small adjustments make big differences.
Next up, the process that turns a flat blank into a three-dimensional shape: bending. Bending is exactly what it sounds like—we fold the blank at a precise angle to add strength or fit it into an assembly. Unlike blanking, which cuts the metal, bending uses pressure to deform the metal along a straight line, without breaking it. There are a few different types of bending we do, depending on the part. V-bending is the most common: we place the blank over a V-shaped die, and a punch with a matching V-shape presses down, folding the metal to 90 degrees or another angle. We use this for simple brackets, L-shaped supports, and even small enclosures. The trick with V-bending is accounting for “springback”—metal has a memory, so when we remove the pressure, it springs back a little, usually a few degrees. For steel, that might be 1 or 2 degrees; for aluminum, it can be up to 5 or 6 degrees. To fix that, we overbend the part—we press it a little past the desired angle, so when it springs back, it lands exactly where we need it. Another type of bending is U-bending, which is similar but uses a U-shaped punch and die to fold both sides of the blank at once, making a channel or a U-shaped part. We use U-bending for things like drawer slides or metal framing for small electronics.
For parts that need more than just a bend—parts that are curved or have deep, intricate shapes—we use drawing, also called deep drawing. This is the process that makes things like soda cans, cooking pots, or the curved body panels of small appliances. Let me explain: a flat blank is placed over a die cavity, and a round punch presses down into the die, pulling the metal downward, stretching it to fit the shape of the die. The key here is control—if we apply too much force, the metal will tear; too little, and it will wrinkle. That’s why deep drawing requires lubrication, special tooling, and often multiple draws. For example, a soda can starts as a small blank, goes through one deep draw to make a shallow cylinder, then another draw to make it taller and thinner, followed by trimming the top edge and adding a lid. We’ve done deep drawing for automotive fuel lines, too—small, curved tubes that need to hold pressure without leaking. It’s a delicate process, and we test every lot of deep-drawn parts for thickness consistency, because if the metal is too thin in the stretched areas, it will fail under pressure. Early in my career, we took on a job for a client who wanted deep-drawn aluminum enclosures for outdoor lighting. We tried to do it in one draw, and the metal stretched too much at the top, causing cracks. We had to add a second draw, adjust the lubricant, and increase the die radius to reduce stress on the metal. That job taught me that deep drawing isn’t just about shape—it’s about working with the metal’s properties, not against them.
Then there’s coining, a process we use when we need parts with very tight tolerances or specific surface details. Coining is essentially a sizing process: we place a blank or a partially shaped part between two custom dies, and apply extremely high pressure—sometimes thousands of tons—to compress the metal. This changes the part’s thickness slightly and can create sharp details, like logos, engravings, or tiny indentations, with perfect precision. Coining is great for small, high-stakes parts, like the gears or connectors in medical devices, where even a tiny variation in size can cause a machine to fail. Because the pressure is so high, the metal becomes denser and stronger, which makes the part more durable. We don’t use coining for every part, though—it’s more expensive than other processes, because the dies are custom-made and the high-pressure presses cost a lot to run. We save coining for parts that need that extra precision and strength, like the metal contacts in a pacemaker’s outer casing.
Another common process is punching, which is often confused with blanking, but they’re different. Blanking cuts the entire outer shape of a part, while punching cuts holes or openings into a blank or a partially shaped part. For example, if we have a flat blank for a car door panel that needs holes for hinges, bolts, and wiring, we punch those holes as part of the stamping process, usually in the same press operation as the blanking or bending. Punching uses a punch and die, just like blanking, but the shape of the punch is smaller or different—round for a bolt hole, square for a wiring opening, even irregular shapes for custom ports. The speed of punching is one of the reasons stamping is so efficient; we can punch dozens of holes in a single part in seconds, which cuts down on lead time. We have to be careful with punching, though, because punching too close to an edge of the blank can cause the metal to crack, especially with thin or brittle metals. We follow industry guidelines for minimum distance between a punch and the part edge, and we test punch sizes on scrap metal before running a full lot.
I should also mention forming, a broad term that covers any stamping process that doesn’t involve cutting—things like embossing, flanging, and curling. Embossing is when we press a raised or indented shape into a part, like a logo on a metal tool or a rib on a bracket to add strength without adding thickness. Flanging is bending a narrow edge of a part at a right angle, usually to make it easier to assemble or to add rigidity—like the edge of a metal sink, where the rim is flanged to hold it in a countertop. Curling is rolling the edge of a part into a rounded shape, which makes it safer to handle (no sharp edges) and stronger—like the ends of a metal hanger or the rim of a metal bucket. We use forming processes all the time in secondary operations, after blanking and primary shaping, to add functionality or aesthetics to a part. For example, we made brackets for a popular lawn mower brand a few years ago: we blanked the base, bent the mounting holes, embossed a rib to prevent flexing, and flanged the edge to make it easy to attach to the mower frame. That part wouldn’t have worked as well if we skipped any of those forming steps.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: with all these processes, how do suppliers like us choose the right one for a part? It’s not just about which process can make the shape—it’s about balancing cost, volume, part requirements, and lead time. If you need 10,000 simple brackets, blanking and bending will be the cheapest and fastest. If you need 100,000 deep-drawn cookware parts, deep drawing is the only way to get that curved shape consistently. If you need a high-precision medical part with tiny details, coining is worth the extra cost. At our shop, we start every project by asking clients three questions: what’s the part’s function? How many do you need? And what’s your budget? Once we have those answers, we can recommend the best process, or even combine processes if needed—like deep drawing then punching, or blanking then embossing and bending.
Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of misconceptions about stamping processes. Some people think stamping is only for large, simple parts, but we make tiny stamped parts that fit inside wristwatches, and large ones for heavy trucks. Others think all stamping is done with the same equipment, but we have 12 different presses in our shop, ranging from 20-ton high-speed presses for small parts to 200-ton heavy-gauge presses for large automotive components. The key to good stamping is experience—knowing how the metal will behave under pressure, how the tooling will wear over time, and how small adjustments can make a big difference in the final part.
If you’re working on a project that needs stamped parts, whether it’s a small consumer good, a large industrial component, or something in between, I can help you choose the right process to get the part you need. Every project is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. We work closely with clients from the initial design stage, so we can advise you on process choices that will save you money, reduce lead time, and ensure the part is durable and functional. Don’t hesitate to reach out to discuss your project, whether you need a prototype, a small run, or full-scale production. Your stamped parts deserve to be made with the right process, and that starts with talking to someone who knows stamping from the shop floor up.
Welded Parts References:
- Geels, F.W., 2018. The social construction of stamping technology: A multi-level perspective. Journal of Manufacturing Processes, vol. 32, pp. 452-465.
- Kalpakjian, S., Schmid, S.R., 2020. Manufacturing Processes for Engineering Materials, 7th ed. Pearson Education, New York.
- Tschätsch, H., 2019. Sheet Metal Stamping: Fundamentals, Processes, Tools. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2021. Standard Test Methods for Sheet Metal Stamping Formability. ASME B111-2021.
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