3 Ways to Cut Costs From Your Stamped Metal Product Design

The team at Hudson Technologies is proud to offer a full range of metal fabrication services, including deep draw and shallow draw metal stamping.

Close collaboration is one of our core values, and not just within our team: We work with every client to ensure that their manufacturing project is optimized for quality, performance, and pricing. We carefully evaluate your needs and tailor product design to ensure reduced manufacturing costs and streamlined production, without ever compromising on finished quality.

Wondering how we keep down costs, and how you can ensure you always get the best price for your stamped metal product designs? Check out our three cost-saving tips below.

1. Consider Different Materials.

Material choice plays a huge role in the overall cost of your design. Depending on the required part size and specific project requirements, material costs can be easily managed with regard to both material type and thickness in order to maximize performance.

For example, a thin-walled aluminum part may perform just as well as a thicker-walled part made of a heavier metal, depending on the application. If that heavier metal is stainless steel, the aluminum part could come in at ⅓ the material component cost!

Carefully evaluate your applications’ temperature, environmental, strength, and chemical corrosion requirements. This will help in determining the necessary material performance while ensuring you get the best value. And don’t forget to consider specific manufacturing needs — some metals are more difficult to deep draw than others, which can drive up processing costs.

2. Keep Part Shape in Mind.

A part’s shape can play a major role in its tooling and forming requirements. For example, when considering a deep drawn metal enclosure, keep in mind that a round deep drawn case is easier to manufacture than a case with corners. Also, consider:

• Inside bottom bend radius
• Ratio of diameter to draw depth (for round cases)
• Inside corner bend radius (for square and rectangular shapes)
• Ratio of width to length to overall case height

It’s even possible to reconfigure the depth of a part’s draw; some designs can be adapted from an extreme deep draw to a lesser draw by crafting two shallower halves that are then welded together.

3. Take a Look at Different Manufacturing Options.

How many parts will you require? The scale of your project will dictate the best-value process. For example, a low-volume (<50,000 pieces per year) job would be best suited to line tooling or processing through a series of tooling setups and presses. While the part itself may end up costing more, the low investment in tooling will allow for significant savings.

High-volume runs of over 50,000 pieces, on the other, make more sense with progressive or transfer tooling styles. While these processes involve significant initial tooling costs, the production itself is highly automated, allowing for a much lower price per part.

Working With Hudson Technologies

For over 75 years, Hudson Technologies has been an industry-leading metal diaphragm designer and manufacturer, and we’re proud to assist clients throughout every step of the metal stamping process, including critical cost analysis and budgeting.

To learn more about our stamped metal product capabilities, check out our Turnkey Solutions eBook.