By implementing the suggestions outlined here when hitting thicker gaugue material you should find you have fewer problems when running parts, resulting in less down time and great production.
Check your Tonnage
Get in the habit of calculating tonnage whenever the material thickness is outside of your normal practice. Download Tonnage Calculator.
Consider a Coating
Coatings can be quite beneficial, especially when your hole size is near the material's thickness in size – 0.125 round hitting 0.105 material for example. View Coating Solutions.
Give up Grind Life for Strength
By reducing the tool’s standard straight before radius (SBR) and increasing the tool blend radius, you add strength to the tip of the tool but sacrifice some grind life.
Upgrade to an Insert Design
By upgrading to the insert design, generally used for cluster punching, you have more puch steel options available to you, which is helpful if your material is either tough or abrasive. Explore Insert Design Tooling.
Increase Station Size
When forming thick material, consider going to a larger station. Larger station tooling allows for more surface and holding force as well as a longer tool stroke.
For more information on working with thick material, please contact our Tooling Technicians or visit wilsontool.com/PunchingThickMaterial.
March 12, 2020