Forming process

Transfer Press Stamping

Parts that need several forming operations in one pass — drawing, restriking, trimming, piercing and flanging at separate stations of a single die. Balford runs transfer press stamping up to 350 t, with the transfer tooling designed and built in our own tool room.

Send your drawing Compare with progressive dies

350 tPress capacity

Ø250 mmMax deep draw diameter

Multi-stationDraw, restrike, trim, pierce, flange

In-houseTransfer die design & build

What transfer press stamping is. Transfer press stamping moves a part between separate stations of one die using mechanical transfer fingers, so deeper shapes and more operations can be produced in a single press stroke than a single-station die allows — and without the carrier web that progressive dies need.

Transfer press vs progressive die vs single-operation tooling

	Single-operation die	Progressive die	Transfer press
Operations per stroke	1	2–8+ (strip kept on a carrier web)	3–8+ (part carried by transfer fingers)
Typical fit	Washers, caps, small batches	High-volume thin-wall parts	Deeper draws, larger diameters, heavier wall
Material utilisation	Lowest	Highest	High — no carrier web waste
Tooling cost	Lowest	Highest	Medium to high
Volume range where it usually wins	under ~10,000 pcs	above ~50,000 pcs	roughly 20,000–500,000 pcs
At Balford	Yes	Yes	Yes — up to 350 t

What we produce on transfer tooling

Deep drawn housings

Multi-station draw and redraw for solenoid valve housings, sensor housings and cartridge valve bodies. See solenoid valve housings and sensor housings.

Sleeves, tubes and bushings

Long, thin-wall parts where concentricity matters more than flatness. See tube assemblies and magnetic sleeves.

Cups, caps and shells

Formed closures and drawn shells with trimmed edges and pierced features produced in the same stroke sequence.

When a transfer press is not the answer

Below roughly 10,000 pieces a single-operation die is usually cheaper; very thin, very high-volume parts normally run better in a progressive die.

Tooling, and why it matters that it is in-house

Transfer tooling is unforgiving: the station sequence, the transfer pitch and the finger geometry all have to be right before the first tryout. Balford designs the strip and station layout, machines the die plates and punches, wire-cuts the openings and welds the components inside the same plant, and trials the tool on our own presses. Bulk heat treatment of the die components runs through an audited partner, with a small furnace kept on site for emergency repairs. That means a station change found at tryout is a tool room job, not a negotiation with an outside die shop.

See the machine list behind this work on the equipment list page, or read how the die shop runs on the in-house tooling design & build page. Deep drawing capability and limits are described on the deep draw metal stamping page.

Frequently asked questions

What size parts can a transfer press produce?

At Balford, up to Ø250 mm deep drawn diameter with up to 350 t. In practice the limit is set by draw ratio and wall thickness rather than press size, so the drawing is reviewed during DFM.

Is transfer press stamping cheaper than progressive die stamping?

Transfer tooling usually costs less than an equivalent progressive die because there is no carrier web to design around, and material yield is higher than a single-operation line. The breakeven depends on annual volume and how many operations the part needs.

Can transfer press parts be deep drawn as well as formed?

Yes. Drawing, redrawing, restriking, trimming, piercing and flanging can be distributed across the stations of the same die, which is why transfer tooling suits deeper parts.

Where is the tooling made?

In-house. Transfer dies are designed, machined, wire-cut, welded and tried out in Balford’s own tool room in Zhuji, Zhejiang. Slow-wire EDM and bulk die heat treatment are subcontracted to audited partners; a small in-house furnace covers emergency repairs.

Send the drawing, we will tell you if transfer tooling fits

Include material, wall thickness, annual volume and the tolerance that actually matters. We will come back with the process route, tooling concept and capacity.

Send your drawing for a DFM review

Transfer tooling normally wins above roughly 20,000 pieces; for prototypes and pilot batches see low volume stamping and prototyping.

Transfer die stamping: how to tell if a part belongs on transfer tooling

Transfer die stamping carries a formed part from station to station on fingers rather than on a strip. That single difference decides which parts fit and which do not.

Choose transfer tooling when:

The part needs more forming stages than a single-operation line can run economically, but fewer than a progressive die would need to justify its strip layout.
The draw is deeper than a carrier web can tolerate without the web distorting or the part dragging on the strip.
The wall is heavy relative to the diameter, so the part needs the material fed in stages rather than pulled from a strip.
Annual volume sits in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands — roughly 20,000 to 500,000 pieces, depending on how many stations the geometry needs.
The part is large enough that a progressive die would need an uneconomically wide coil, or the material is expensive enough that carrier-web scrap matters.

Stay with a progressive die when: the part is thin, flat, and high volume, where a carrier web costs less than the transfer system and the strip can hold the part through every station.

Stay with single-operation tooling when: the volume is below roughly 10,000 pieces, or the design is still moving. A transfer die is a sequence — changing the part after the stations are cut means re-cutting stations and re-proving the tool, which is the same penalty a progressive die carries.

What decides the cost crossover

Three things move the break-even between transfer and progressive tooling: the number of forming stages, how much material the carrier web wastes, and whether the part needs an inter-stage anneal. Where a web would be wide and mostly scrap, transfer tooling usually wins even at lower volume. Where the part is small and thin, the web costs almost nothing and progressive tooling stays cheaper.

Multi-station transfer die design

Designing the die is the part of this process that cannot be shortcut. The station sequence is fixed by the draw ratio of the material and the wall it has to reach; the transfer pitch fixes the spacing every station and finger has to respect; and the finger geometry has to hold the part without marking the surface that will later be a sealing or bearing face. Because there is no carrier web, a part that is dropped or mis-located stops the press rather than being carried past the fault — which is why transfer tooling is built and tried out in our own tool room before it runs production.