Publications and Media
Laser Next Enhances Diversity At Diversified Tooling Group
With its four affiliated companies, Diversified Tooling
Group (DTG), Madison Heights, MI, delivers single-source solutions to the automotive, heavy truck, defense, industrial equipment, power generation, rail, and foundry industries. As its name implies, its diversified capabilities enable the company to be a full-service manufacturer of prototype and production
stamping dies, low-volume stamped parts and assemblies, as well as fabrication, machining, and assembly of highly-engineered components.
Hot stamping, also known as press hardening, forms ultra-high-strength steel (UHSS) into finished part shapes. The 22MnB5 Boron steel is heated above 900C temperature and is then formed and quenched using Hot Stamp Dies that are made by American Tooling Center for its customers who supply Hot Stamp parts to the automotive industry.
The heating makes the material extremely soft and formable, much like a stick of chewing gum, enabling the forming of deep and complex shapes. This often allows multiple parts to be formed as a single part (reducing assembly costs). The heat treatment transforms the material into the strongest sheet metal used in automobiles while eliminating nearly all spring back. This feature article outlines how Hot Stamp Dies work, and what sets them apart from conventional Cold Stamp Dies.
The automotive industry is challenged to produce vehicles with high customer appeal, improved crash performance, reduced fuel consumption, and reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to meet market demands and increasingly stringent government regulations. One of the few enabling technologies to help the automotive industry meet these multiple challenges is lightweight structural components. The automotive industry is steadily adopting lighter and stronger sheet materials, such as ultra-high strength (UHS) steels and high-strength (HS) aluminum .....
Stampers steering away from hot forming because of equipment costs and process complexity may want to consider a change of course. With automotive, and now aerospace, agriculture and possibly other markets embracing Gen 1 and Gen 2, and soon, Gen 3 cold- and hotformed advanced high-strength steels (AHSS), demand for hot-formed (aka press-hardened steel, or PHS) parts continues to accelerate.....
