Author: European Springs

Their physical and chemical properties vary greatly, so it’s important that you know which materials to choose in order to get the most out of your stampings or pressings. The properties of steel allow it to be alloyed with other metals to create better, stronger materials, meaning you’ll be able to use stampings and pressings made from steel in a wide range of applications.

Mild Steel
If you’re looking to have springsor stampings with a mild or high degree of strength, mild steel is a great solution. It’s created from carbon and manganese (along with others in smaller quantities), and the higher the amounts of these materials, the stronger the metal is. This also reduces its formability and creates a more challenging degree of weldability. Mild steel provides a wide spectrum of properties, which means it’s also flexible and allows you to use it in a vast array of circumstances.

Stainless Steel
Stainless steels are iron-based alloys that contain at least 10% chromium. Included in its properties is a high degree of resistance to oxidation and rusting, due to a transparent film applied on the surface of the metal. Some stainless steels have low yield strength and high impact strength, making them useful for food processing equipment and car parts. Others are more malleable which, combined with their resistance to corrosion, means they can be used in exhaust systems and hot water tanks.
In general, stampings and pressings made from stainless steel have high tolerance to temperatures, both hot and cold, high resistance to oxidation processes and changeable levels of strength. Therefore, if you’re looking for these properties for your own work, stainless steel is the solution that best suits you.

Steel can be put through a heat treatment process, which is specifically created to change its mechanical properties. This versatility allows you to get stampings and pressings with variable levels of ductility, yield strength and impact resistance.

So when choosing the materials for your pressings and stampings it’s important to note that they have different properties. Steel is one of the most commonly used metals for these processes, due to its strength and resistance to corrosion. If you’d like to learn more about what we do and the materials we use, feel free to talk to us at anytime, and we’ll answer any questions you might have.

European Springs

What is it?

Stamping is the process of manipulating metal. The main item involved is called a die, which has a top and a bottom part. A metal plate is inserted between the two and pressure is applied until the plate is cut in the die's form.

To help you picture it in your mind, compare it to the process of cutting dough in the kitchen with a pasta cutter which allows you to cook your favourite tagliatelle.

One of the main advantages of the stamping process is that once you've designed a specific die you can produce infinite quantities of components with it. This is what makes stamping an ideal process of mass production.

Stamping is also a cold-forming operation, because no form of heat is introduced into the die or the metal sheet. However, the stamping process does generate friction, and that is the reason why the stamped product that exits the die is usually very hot.

Different Stamping Methods

1. Squeezing

In this process the metal is processed into a product just by applying pressure.

2. Pinching

There is a part pulled out of the metal which then turns into the product.

3. Bending

As the name suggests, the metal is bent to transform it into the product. There are different kinds of bending such as sharp bend, round bend… etc.

4. Crushing

This process involves some forging. Integrated moulding prevents little pieces of metal escaping during the forging process due to the pressure applied. It also allows stereoscopic processing.

Mechanical Presses and Hydraulic Presses

These are the two most used machines in the stamping process, and each of them comes with specific characteristics.
A mechanical press has a flywheel that stores the energy that is then transferred to the punch and to the work piece. They can have different sizes, from 20 tons up to 6000 tons. They can give up to 1500 strokes per minute when they're used at their maximal speed. They are very good for high-speed blanking, shallow drawing and making precision parts.

A hydraulic press uses hydraulics to deliver a controlled force. They are usually bigger than mechanical presses as they can weigh as much as 10000 tons. Their speed and stroke can be adjusted depending on the specifications of the product. For instance, they can deliver the full power at any point of the stroke or a variable tonnage with overload protection. Hydraulic presses are ideal for deep-drawing and compound die action.

Here at European Springs we're experts on stamping and pressing. Our expert team will work with you from the outline of your project to the delivery of the product, because your satisfaction is our main goal. Don't hesitate in contacting us today and we'll be happy to help!

European Springs

When Did Machines Start to Learn?

In 1959, the pioneer in AI Arthur Samuel stated that machine learning was ‘a field of study that gives computers the ability of learning without being explicitly programmed’. Basically, these machines are equipped with algorithms that can carry out predictions from a set of data. These algorithms build models from example inputs rather than following static programme instructions. Therefore, they can make data-driven predictions and decisions expressed as outputs.

Types of Machine Learning

1. Supervised Learning

The machine is given some example inputs and the desired outputs. The goal is to map inputs to outputs. It’s like the machine had a teacher that guided it through the process offering it different possibilities that it needs to organise.
This technique is similar to concept learning in human and animal psychology. This is, also, the most common technique to train neural networks and decision trees in machines.

2. Unsupervised Learning
In this case, the machine is left on its own because no labels are offered. This can be very useful as it allows the discovery of hidden patterns in data. However, it’s also a challenging process – the machine doesn’t know what it’s doing! That’s why rewards can be used to indicate success. Therefore, it could be said that the machine is learning through a process of trial and error – something that can be quite time consuming.

Why can this method be so useful? Well, in some cases the instructions we give to the machine might be wrong without us knowing it. For instance, some of the most well-known beliefs about backgammon were questioned when a series of computer programs (neuro-gammon and TD-gamon) became stronger than human players through unsupervised learning. This happened because the programmes discovered some principles that no one had thought of before.

3. Reinforcement Learning

The machine must perform in a dynamic environment without anything telling it when it has achieved its goal. That means that correct inputs or outputs are never presented. This is inspired in behavioural psychology, where subjects are believed to take one action or another depending on the environment.

Machine Learning in Our Everyday Lives

You know when you start watching films online and you find that the webpage is suggesting you new titles that match your tastes? That’s a way of machine learning, as the web records what you want to watch to offer you new possibilities inside what it understands as your ‘taste parameters’.

Also, self-driving cars are the essence of machine learning because they obviously need to learn from their environment to avoid any fatal mistake.

Here at European Springs we are also very proud of owning a pressing machine that learns – so it produces even better quality stamps throughout its use. The Bruderer BSTA 500-110B comes with an impressive memory system that allows it a fast and trouble-free die retooling that saves our company both time and money. It also learns to recognise which specific stamps lack the desired outstanding quality so it not only discards them but avoids making them in the future.

As you can see, machine learning is very important to us because our company’s goal is to offer you the latest technology in pressing and stamping. Contact our skilled team today to discover how we can help you with your project!

European Springs

Let’s take a look to mythology: every pantheon of gods has their own blacksmith from Hephaestus – who forged Zeus’ own armour! – to Wayland – a recurrent character in English legends. And why were they so well considered? Because metal is the source material of so many items… it makes your life easier, even if you’re a god!

Humans discovered gold, silver and copper during the Prehistory, because they are metals present in nature. They worked with them using force – that is, a big hammer. At some point they also learned more advanced techniques, such as smelting, melting, casting and riveting. But still everything was very noisy.

Then, the Iron Age came, and everyone was in love with – of course – iron, mainly because it was stronger and more resistant than bronze. However, working it was a bit of a pain because it needs a very high temperature – not like bronze. That’s why good quality steel was very rare until the 19th century!

During the Medieval Period, being a blacksmith was a very respectable profession, part of the so-called seven mechanical arts. They used charcoal in their forges resulting in the loss of a huge number of trees.This led to the use of coal as a fuel – which has the disadvantage of being contaminated with sulphur, impoverishing the quality of forged metal. Medieval blacksmiths spent a long time heating and hammering iron before forging it because they had noticed this brought better quality. The scientific explanation for this is that this method removes oxygen (which brings rust) and adds more carbon into the iron.

The Industrial Revolution brought a pretty cool invention which would change everything: the steam hammer! This machine could forge large steel and iron items. So, for the first time, stamping could be done at a large scale of production and with a relatively low cost.

The contemporary era put hydraulic and electric energy into the game. These new sources of energy make high levels of pressure possible, something that would have seemed a fantasy barely a century ago! Besides, the evolution of dies has enabled the stamping industry to create a varied catalogue of items. For instance, you can contact us and we’ll customize any of our products to accommodate it to the needs of your project!

And so, what’s the last step in the stamping history? Well, look at our new beauty, the Bruderer BSTA 500-110B, which is able to produce 1,100 stampings per minute…

At European Springs we like to think we’re helping create the future of stamping. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to discover more exciting news from the stamping industry!

European Springs

This process can be made in one single moment or through various stages and, although it's typically used on metal, in some instances it can also be used on polystyrene.
The process of stamping is incredibly useful to a variety of projects, and the more precise it is, the better it benefits you. So it's vital that you choose a company that's capable of providing accurate stampings at all stages of the process.

Save Money
With accurate stampings you're able to save money. This is because by using the latest technologies available, such as machines that work through sound and can detect even the slightest mistake in the end product, you reduce the need to repeat production. Besides manufacturing large quantities of your design for affordable prices, this process also ensures that you get your full money's worth by providing you precise stampings in a wide range of materials, such as carbon and stainless steel.

Quick Process
Due to its accuracy, the stamping process is also fast, especially useful if you require a quick turnaround. More specifically, the reason for this is that by using a single machine capable of transforming a piece of metal into anything you desire (without mistakes) there's a decrease in terms of the tools needed and, therefore, production can be finished quickly.

Flexibility
The stamping process is highly versatile, as the amount of metals that can be used is vast. Also, there’s no limit in terms of design, meaning that anything you can imagine can be created. By adding extreme precision to the process, there's no need to perform that many changes to the original design, which saves time and money – seeing as the end always comes out perfect.

Where it Can be Used
Stampings can be used in a wide variety of settings and situations. This means that by using accurate processes, you can apply stampings to engines, aircraft parts, complex electronic devices, and much more. This precision allows you to not worry about the quality of the stampings.

Here at European Springs we pride ourselves on providing only the best services in the industry. With years of experience producing stampings, you can rest assured knowing you'll always get the highest quality products with us, so feel free to discuss all of your needs with us, and we'll be more than happy to help.

European Springs