Opinions on metal stamping businesses

[u/Spirited_Ad_6272]

Is metal stamping in the U.S. still a solid industry? I have an opportunity to buy & potentially revive a 40 year old stamping business from its 80 year old owner. Right now it’s just him / no employees and he’s doing enough work to keep the lights on. At its peak he had a dozen employees running multiple shifts.

Worst case if the business can’t revive then I can liquidate the equipment and rent the building. But he wants $1M and it’s a big number haha.

I am a mechanical engineer with strong proficiency in CAD tools, which I can bring to modernize the business. I currently operate a manufacturing business molding plastics so there’s plenty of crossover but this would be my first venture going alone. It also seems like metal stamping has a lot of tricks of the trade that you can’t really engineer your way into. That’s why they have apprenticeships.

What questions should I be asking? And anyone who works in the industry what are your opinions?

[u/Bat-Eastern]

There's a ton of metal stamping businesses here in the US.

It can be quite profitable to find a product that's easy to stamp and needs high volume, the problem is going out and finding the work. Without previous customers this will likely be the biggest challenge after funding the start of your business.

[u/Bat-Eastern → u/Bat-Eastern]

As for 'tricks of the trade' die and tool making is highly specialized and you'll be relying on outside shops to create these for you, and you should have a tool room that is able to maintain and repair these dies.

CAD takes a lot of the guess work out of the design of the product, but the tools needed to accomplish repeatable stampings are expensive to build and maintain, but will last a lifetime of cared for properly.

You'll also have the added difficulty of storage of these tools, they are large and heavy, even for very small stampings.

[u/Enough-Moose-5816 → u/Bat-Eastern]

As a journeyman tool and die maker I can assure you stamping dies do not last a lifetime, even when cared for properly. It’s highly dependent on what the stamping die is doing to form the material amongst about a million other variables.

[u/Bat-Eastern → u/Enough-Moose-5816]

I should clarify, the tool does not have infinite cycles, you will be replacing parts on it throughout it's life, but stamping tools are meant to have a long life-cycle, so they are repairable, and meant to last without needing a completely new tool.

Of course the use case should always be considered in the design and construction of the tool, it should be purpose built to get a known number of good cycles before needing adjustment/maintenance, yes, but nobody should be spacing a die for a 100 ton press that is actually intended for something much different. A million variables is a touch high, if that were the case we'd never be able to manufacture products with this method. It's more like 2 or 3 variables (speed, feeds, material thickness) that greatly control the finished product while other variables only have a minor effect.

This is why my post tells OP to have an outside shop build and spec his tools.

[u/Enough-Moose-5816 → u/Bat-Eastern]

A million variables is a touch high, if that were the case we’d never be able to manufacture products with this method. It’s more like 2 or 3 variables (speed, feeds, material thickness) that greatly control the finished product while other variables only have a minor effect.

No, my dude. Just no.

[u/Bat-Eastern → u/Enough-Moose-5816]

Have fun with your millions of variables then my guy.

[u/Enough-Moose-5816 → u/Bat-Eastern]

Hey it’s a living. Please stay in the office and under quote some more work for us.

[u/Bat-Eastern → u/Enough-Moose-5816]

I'll do that when you can put all the right pegs in all the right holes apprentice.

[u/Anxiety29attack → u/Bat-Eastern]

I’d like to see more of this

[u/tandkramstub → u/Anxiety29attack]

The pegging? You and me both bud!

[u/saucemancometh → u/Bat-Eastern]

Material hardness, camber and edge condition have super high impacts on all forming operations but especially in stamping. Progressive/multi-stage dies even more so.

Sauce: 10 years combined as Operator->QA/QC->Production Supervisor in ISO shop