Defense Contractor Stamps Out Costs
A defense contractor asked National Qualpec to quote a machined aluminum component with a volume of few thousand pieces annually. The component was 3 inches in diameter and .612 inches deep with a very thin sidewall. Machining required most of the material to be machined away, generating lots of waste, a long cycle time, and a very expensive component.
We recognized that this component would be a good candidate for conversion to a stamping. However the low volume made a traditional progressive stamping die too expensive. If the tooling costs could be controlled, the component could be formed from .062 thick aluminum sheets, achieving significant material and cycle timesavings.
Working together our engineers and toolmakers were able to develop multiple single station dies that could be manufactured quickly and cost effectively. The tooling and first articles were completed in five weeks.
The conversion from machining to stamping reduced the price to our customer from $18 to less than $7 each. As result the customer was able to win a much larger portion of the defense contract. National Qualpec has successfully produced over 22,000 components with a cost savings in excess of $250,000 from the previous process.
