See How Steel Becomes a Part.
Short lessons on what happens between a coil of steel and a finished part, for buyers, engineers, students and anyone new to it. Plus the calculators and a glossary.
Lessons
From Coil to Finished Part.
Five short lessons in the order steel moves through the plant. Each has an animation you can pause and step through, and none of them assume you know steel.
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Animation and gauge chart
What Gauge Means
How steel thickness is measured, and why the numbers run backward.
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Animation, 4 steps
How a Coil Becomes Blanks
Follow one coil through a blanking line, from uncoiler to stack.
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Animation, 3 steps
What Happens Inside a Die
One press stroke, slowed down, and the three kinds of die we run.
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Animation, 4 steps
How a Blank Becomes a Drawn Part
Drawing pulls a flat circle into a cup, dish or tank head.
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Animation, 4 steps
How Blanks Are Packed
Counting, capping, strapping and tagging a lift for the truck.
Work It Out Before You Call.
Six free calculators for the questions buyers and engineers ask us most. No sign-up, nothing to download.
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Blanks
Blank Weight
Weight of a blank in seven shapes or from your DXF file, and of the whole order.
Open calculator -
Blanking
Nest Calculator
The coil width and progression for six blank shapes, and how much steel you use.
Open calculator -
Coils
Blanks per Coil
How long a coil is, how many blanks it makes, and how many coils your order takes.
Open calculator -
Blanking
Press Tonnage
The force to cut your blank, from mild steel to AHSS, and the press to run it on.
Open calculator -
Stamping
Cup Blank Size
The flat blank a drawn cup starts from, and whether it draws in one stroke.
Open calculator -
Packaging
Lift Planner
Pieces per lift by weight and height limit, and how many lifts your order takes.
Open calculator
The Words on the Shop Floor.
- AHSS
- Advanced high-strength steel. Grades stronger than HSLA, used to make parts lighter without making them weaker. Harder on dies.
- Blank
- A flat piece of steel cut to shape from coil or sheet, ready for the next operation.
- Blank-through die
- A die where the punch pushes the blank down through the die opening, so the part drops out below.
- Blanking
- Cutting blanks out of coil or sheet in a press, one stroke at a time.
- Burr
- The small raised edge left where steel was sheared. Kept within a set height on the print.
- Camber
- Edge curve in a coil or strip, like a gentle bow along its length.
- Coil
- Steel strip wound into a roll, the way it leaves the mill and arrives at our presses.
- Compound die
- A die that blanks the outside and pierces the holes in the same stroke, so features line up exactly.
- Cut to length
- Cutting coil into flat sheets of a set length, with no die.
- Die
- The tooling, made of an upper and a lower half, that cuts or forms steel in a press.
- Draw ratio
- Blank diameter divided by cup diameter. Steel usually draws about 1.8 to 2 times in one stroke.
- Drawing
- Pulling a flat blank into a die to make a cup, dish or shell.
- Gauge
- A number for steel thickness; the higher the number, the thinner the steel.
- Galvanized
- Steel coated with zinc to resist rust.
- Heat number
- The mill's ID for the batch of steel a coil came from. It ties every part back to its mill cert.
- HSLA
- High-strength low-alloy steel. Stronger than mild steel at the same thickness.
- Leveling
- Running steel through rolls that bend it back and forth to take out waves and bow, so blanks lie flat.
- Lift
- A banded stack of finished blanks or parts on a pallet, ready to ship.
- Mill cert
- The mill's test report for a heat of steel: chemistry and mechanical properties.
- Nesting
- Laying blanks out on the coil to use as much steel and leave as little scrap as possible.
- P&O
- Pickled and oiled: hot rolled steel with the mill scale removed by acid and a light oil applied.
- Pitch
- How far the coil moves forward between press strokes. Also called progression.
- Progressive die
- A die with several stations; the strip moves through them and a finished part comes off each stroke.
- Re-blanking
- Cutting a new shape from a blank that was cut somewhere else.
- Skeleton
- The steel left over after the blanks are cut out. It is scrap, so good nesting keeps it small.
- Slitting
- Cutting a wide coil into narrower coils.
- Stamping
- Forming steel into a three-dimensional shape in a press: drawing, bending, piercing, embossing.
- Temper pass
- A light cold rolling that flattens the steel and sets its surface finish.
- Toll processing
- Processing steel that the customer owns and pays for; the processor charges for the work, not the steel.
- Tonnage
- The force a press can apply, in tons. Bigger blanks and thicker steel need more.
- Web
- The strip of skeleton left between two blanks, or between a blank and the coil edge.