Toys in the Sandbox

Posted by stephens on Mar 5, 2010 in Automated Transactions, Rants, Tips & Techniques | 0 comments

A friend of mine asked for some old articles I have written for MetalForming Magazine.

I stumbled across one of my favorites … and I would like to share it here:

When I saw a die design for an automotive body stamping for the first time, it was a confusing sea of intersecting lines drawn on paper with a pencil. Bond and H-lead to be exact. The only real choice was 36- or 42-in.- wide bond. Sure, some designers used HB lead, but the only decision was between wood pencils or the mechanical variety.

We designed on vertical boards 8 ft. high and 15 ft. long. We only had two types of drafting machines: Emmert and Vemco.

Those were the simple days. Jeff Baltzer used to pace up and down the bay chanting “Lines, boys. Lines.” And he could spot a bad die condition from 30 yards.

The reality today is a seemingly infinite parade of technologies, consultants and three-letter abbreviations.We live in a world where chaos reigns. This chaos is perpetuated by too many choices offered by too many consultants and experts with too many three-letter abbreviations for engineering and manufacturing technologies.

For a PDF of the entire article, please click here.