Driven by productivity

In an industry driven by high volume production, tooling used in the progressive stamping process plays a crucial role in ensuring that the needs of productivity are met and the accuracy and quality of the stamped component is maintained.

With typical stamping speeds ranging from 100 to 800 stamps per minute (spm) and the latest high speed presses such as the Bruderer BSTA200 now capable of producing 2000 spm, the demands placed upon tools has never been so challenging.

TiN and TiCN just don't work

Not only are stamping tools subjected to abrasive wear, but are also susceptible to adhesive wear that results in pick-up and galling when stamping materials such as copper, brasses, pre-tinned non-ferrous and stainless steels.

In an attempt to overcome these effects, coatings such as titanium nitride (TiN), titanium carbo-nitride (TiCN) and even Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) have been tried and tested on a range of tool steel punches and dies, yet have offered little, if any, benefit towards increasing tool performance.

Even in high wear applications, tungsten carbide has been adopted as a means of extending tool performance up and beyond those provided by tool steels alone. Yet invariably, the harder, and more brittle carbide materials have led to an increase in tool failure through edge chipping and punch breakage rather than wear alone.

Creating a new tooling standard

Developed from an industry need, Advanced Composite Structure (ACS 24/7/74) is specifically designed to dramatically improve the lifetime and performance of progressive stamping tools when forming a wide variety industry standard materials.

Advanced Composite Structure not only lays its success down to an increase in surface hardness to overcome abrasive wear, but by creating a specific and unique surface chemistry ACS 24/7/74 alleviates the affinities between the tool and workpiece material that so often result in adhesive wear - more commonly known as pick-up and galling.

Adopted by several leading electrical and connector stamping companies ACS 24/7/74 sets the benchmark as the industry standard for coated tooling.

Improvements beyond imagination

Extensive trials, six sigma studies, and a host of other empirical testing on Bruderer, AIDA, Minster, Haulick & Roos presses have proven time and again the benefits of using Advanced Composite Structure across the spectrum of both punches and dies. Improvements in tool life have been significantly extended to levels that were previously deemed unimaginable to achieve, reaching into the millions between regrinds, where previously 250,000 stampings was seen as acceptable.

In head to head trials, expensive tungsten carbide tooling were run in tandem with ACS 24/7/74 coated tool steel tools. After producing 2.5 million stampings the carbide tools had undergone a total of six regrinds and suffered from a series of micro-cracks. By comparison, ACS coated tooling produced all 2.5 million stampings without any form of stoppage or maintenance, and was still capable of producing many more stampings to follow.

Futher reading

Consider the results and benefits that ACS 24/7/74 can make not only to your stamping and forming tools but also to your company’s efficiency, productivity and profitability.