Cost factors of sheet metal stamping

One of the first things that customers want to know is the price when looking for a metal products manufacturer to do your sheet metal stamping parts. The following factors will mainly determine the cost of the metal sheet stamping components.

1. MATERIAL

What kind of metal type?

Numerous thicknesses sheet metal are available, with a large variety of metal type options in market. Choosing a stock option will cut material costs, instead of using a customized one, even if the material thickness is not exactly what your Stamping parts designer want. Also, when considering Raw material cost, a good rule to know is the brighter the finish, the more expensive the metal.

What grade?

The more common steel grades are more easily to purchase with better price. They come in with various gauge thickness, so they are applicable to many sheet stamping processes. Steel plant can accept custom order for your stamping manufacturer, but MOQ will be usually required. Then shopping steel from retailers or warehouses is a more cost-effective option if you are not producing critical or high standard stamped metal parts. The chances of getting the best grade in an amount suited to your project is increased.

What are corrosion considerations?

With the time going, steel/metal will be rusted. If your stamping components will be exposed to some certain circumstances, the parts need to be finished with Surface treatment. There are many corrosion protection procedures, such as Zinc plating, Power coating etc. that will offer surface protection but add overall cost at the same time. Another solution is choosing a different steel type. Usually, steel is the most economical choice, but perhaps it will be good to use anti-corrosion steel, like stainless steel, Aluminum or copper. So, if you already have a design engineering team, you would better to discuss with your manufacturer’s engineers to meet with them prior to production. It is a great opportunity to figure out the best material and other way to reduce costs.

2. PART TOLERANCES REQUIREMENTS

Tolerance is always a key point for any metal components, as well as stamping. Stamping involves applying an extreme pressure to blank metal pieces to produce formations of any shapes and sizes. The tighter the tolerances, the higher the cost. However, some “tricks can be used to lower stamping costs when it comes to tolerance requests.

Here are some to consider:

· To prevent breakage and waste, your manufacturer may suggest tumbling or deburring before forming

· Hole diameters should be equal to or greater than the metal stock’s thickness. Smaller holes require drilling and removing the burr, which costs more.

· If your part will have bends, it’s important to determine the inside height (H) compared to the material thickness (T) plus the required bend radius (R) for economical tooling and production

3. QUALITY CONTROL

To conduct quality assurance will cost money for your metal stamping manufacturing factory, and costs will also occur to do QA internally. These costs should be considered when you are reviewing suppliers bids, but all this does is transfer QA costs from the manufacturer to your company. 

Likewise, poor quality control and assurance can lead to increased warranty and service costs later. So some more items to consider:

· Choose a stamping parts manufacturer with on-site engineers and a stringent quality control process in place;

· Make sure quality inspections from material start to production finish;

· If stamped products are subject to automated inspections as well as human inspections, your company’s future trouble will be greatly reduced;

4. VOLUME

Production Volume, we come to the biggest determining factor in the sheet metal stamping parts cost. Higher volumes always can reduce costs, there are situations where low volume stamped sheet metal makes sense. When getting quotations, check with the manufacturers about any alternative approaches that can be adopted to reduce costs for lower quantity runs. Laser cutting with secondary operations may be more economical options. A good stamping manufacturing partner will choose the right process to match with needed volume.

5. Packing

Last but not least, Packaging finished parts is also a important factor that will effect the final part costs. Especially, if the sheet metal stamped parts need to be packed individually with certain requirements. If the surface requirements is not extremely high, then carton box with plastic bag would be good for shipping.

KEY TAKEAWAY

The above factors should help anyone in the early stages of stamping parts evaluation. But the best way to get an estimation of your sheet metal stamping costs is to contact us. We will offer you the best solution and good prices.