Focus processes: fine blanking and thinning deep drawing

What tooling does fine blanking need and what drives its cost?

Sources

1. Metal Stamping Guide: Processes, Materials, Costs | Balford
   Home › Capabilities › Metal stamping guide Metal Stamping · Guide Metal Stamping: Processes, Materials and What Drives the Price Updated October 2026 · Balford Technical Team Direct answer: metal stamping cuts and forms sheet metal on a press. The process follows the part, not ...
2. Fine Blanking Operations in Precision Stamping | Balford
   With fine blanking, we can produce complex parts with tight tolerances and a superior surface finish in a single hit—no need for the multiple secondary operations that conventional stamping typically requires. The process yields near-net-shape components with minimal material waste and less post-pro...
3. Stamping Die Cost: Tooling Price & Lead Time Explained | Balford
   Number of stations. Each forming, piercing or trimming operation adds a station, a punch and a die section. Die size and press tonnage. Bigger parts need bigger die plates, larger presses and more material handling. Material and hardening. Tool steel grade, whether components are hardened and temper...
4. Custom Metal Shims & Shim Washers Made to Drawing | Balford
   What is the difference between laser cutting and blanking for shims? Cost and edge condition. Laser cutting needs no tooling, so it is the economical route up to roughly 2,000 pieces and the right choice for prototypes and profiles that are still changing; the edge carries a light heat-affected zone...
5. Metal Stamping Guide: Processes, Materials, Costs | Balford
   It stops in three places. A closed, seamless body deeper than roughly half its own diameter is not stamping — that is deep drawing, and it needs a draw die, a blank holder and often several draws with annealing between them. A part whose geometry is turned or bored from bar is machining. And a...
6. Precision Metal Stamping Services | Custom Stamped Parts
   Can Balford hold IT7 to IT9 accuracy? + We can hit IT7 to IT9 on suitable precision-stamped features, but it is not a blanket tolerance for every part. Material, geometry, feature type, distance from datums, tooling and measurement method all come into play. Capability is drawing-specific — we confi...

What an engineer still needs from you

• material and material condition (grade, temper)
• material thickness, plus the key diameter, height and wall thickness
• tolerances, burr direction and the visual acceptance standard
• annual volume - it decides whether tooling is single-hit, progressive or transfer
• surface finish, and any secondary machining, annealing or plating

This page is an engineering answer, not a quotation and not a dimensional acceptance. It is generated from Balford's published material and held to the verified company fact sheet.