Sheet metal punching and the differences with stamping

Sheet metal punching, stamping, pressing…It’s time to be clear! Ready for this journey in the world of metalworking processes?

Often, people who are not strictly linked with metal works fields, can confuse between the sheet metal punching and the sheet metal stamping. This happens because, at first glance, the meaning of these two words might seem the same. 

On the contrary, the sheet metal punching and the stamping are really different starting from the equipment required to achieve punching and stamping.

Sheet metal punching vs sheet metal stamping

• The first ones - sheet metal punching processes - are metal forming processes realized with automatic CNC machines that use punch presses and dies realizing any kind of hole. The punch pass through the sheet metal while the dies, located on the other side of the metal piece, work as support and help punches to put more force ensuring the non-breaking of metal.  
• Otherwise, the stamping is the set of operations performed to obtain specific shapes and it includes our sheet metal punching. Stamping is in fact a consequence of others metal processes such as punching, blanking, sheet metal deep-drawing and bending. It’s the ending process useful for giving to metal pieces a specific shape to the entire piece. 

To be clear, there’s a third metal process which often is confused and it’s called pressing: the metal pressing, contrary to the sheet metal punching, is processed to give shape without breaking the metal piece. For example, pressing process is used to realize corners.

Sheet metal punching and stamping: when to choose one or the other

They both can be applied across a wide range of industries: automotive, electronics, construction, medical. etc. But if you’re choosing between metal punching or metal stamping, keep in mind some useful suggestions we’re going to give you:

• First of all, metal punching is often preferred when people need to achieve specific shape on small metal part, while stamping is used to stamp an entire piece.
• About the quantity of productions, the sheet metal punching is the best choice for prototypes, while stamping is perfect for mass production. This last metal process, in fact, is cheaper and it doesn’t require a post production coating process. This is an add value that speeds up the entire process and reduces delivery costs and times.

Minifaber's solution for punching and stamping

In Minifaber, we provide both metal punching and metal stamping service: thanks to our expert team and a costantly improved machinery, we can offer customized solutions according to your request, depends on materials, like aluminum punching.

Precisely, Minifaber is specialized in:

• finished and semi-finished metal products, designed to optimize all the stamping phases
• both small batches both large quantities of products
• high level of computerization, thanks to the integration and dialogue process of the machinery with our advanced operating systems.