All evidence to the contrary, I have started writing again. I teamed up with my pal Lou Kren to collaborate on an article for one of his ventures. I am my toughest critic – but I am very pleased with my work with Lou.

I also have no less than 5 book concepts in the works. At the rate I am going, it will take a couple years to get it all out there – but am close to getting the first one going. It will most likely be an engineering calculations-focused book.

I feel good overall – and I genuinely believe I am doing my best work ever.

That said, did you know that Vince Lombardi prepared his entire career to be a head coach? And no less than 20 years into his journey, he finally got the opportunity with the Green Bay Packers and helped put the NFL on the map. [my prediction is they will be in this year's Superbowl and walk away with the Lombardi trophy]

We are approaching the 25 year mark on my career. Does my dream job of building a championship-caliber die engineering and build team with owning the quoting method and die standards lurk on the horizon?

If I had THAT opportunity, the possibilities are boundless. I foresee a reversal of work going overseas back to my hometown with the right die engineering and build processes with my brand of modern die standards to guide the efforts.

I do not know if 2011 is my year or not, but I know this: I am having fun right now.

One is that I am the last surviving industry active person to have written a die standards book for an OEM. From scratch. I guess that is kind of like being the oldest person alive in a morbid way.

The second is the organization of the book is still relevant today. The organization and technical numbering system were my invention alone. What hit me was it will be 19 years strong in a few weeks. This is the longest running die standards organization format in the history of GM.

The book prior to mine was in existence for about 8 years. The book prior to that also had a completely different numbering system and content organization. That book lasted for about 5 years. The one before that was in circulation for around 15 years or so.

The key is to create something that is specific enough to be useful yet general enough to be flexible as times change. If you can combine those two characteristics, then it will stand the test of time.

The illustration below captures how I believe dies should be built based on the combination of production life and material strength:

There are three main categories of architectures: Low, Standard, and High. It works like this: Depending on the combination of production volume and material tensile strength, the low and high architectures are variations of what you would consider a typical or standard die to look like. The Low variety uses less inserts and lower grade materials. The High variety uses more inserts and higher grade materials to sustain the tool under high force and high hits conditions.

As I have mentioned before, I genuinely thought Dan did a fabulous job of presenting. His slide presentation was generally good. He spoke freely without notes or a script. Dan was relaxed and knew his topic cold. This was evident during the question and answer period.

To set the stage for the talk, the entire event centered around how the automotive industry can continue to manufacture vehicle bodies out of steel and achieve the federally-mandated Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) of 30 Miles per Gallon for cars by 2016. This is a 40% increase from where we are today.

Dan spoke about three key enablers:

1. increase the use of Advanced High Strength Steels by a factor of 3X;

2. scallop trimlines on non-Class A panels;

3. use alternate processes such as stretch forming for rail-type parts that would otherwise be stamped with form and flange dies.

We are still in the infancy stage of using AHSS. This is evident when Dan mentioned his dies have to be cut 3, 4, 5, and sometimes 7 times to compensate for springback.

I began to cringe when he added that dimensional requirements for auto bodies will get tighter. This is the beginning of the manufacturing challenges Dan spoke of.

What makes this worse? Basically this: the material definitions used in formability simulation and springback analysis software sucks. In fact, the springback analysis software itself pretty much sucks.

How does all this come together? It is simple: To achieve lightweight cars, we will have heavyweight dies.

The dies will be heavier with full inserts made of premium materials and expensive surface treatments.

Die costs will at least double, if not triple, as a result.

And everyone will be happy if the dies are cut only 2 or 3 times instead of 6 or 7. Everyone except for the consumer that will have to wait an extra year to buy that new car and pay a hell of alot more than they should for a vehicle that will save them a measily $350 a year in fuel costs.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUhoHE6kMZk

Speaking of eye candy, it is about time I update the look and feel of this site. I like this one, but I want to take it to the next level.

Look for a new theme in a week or so.

The “vote” results were pretty much split down the middle:

1. diejedi.com (60%)
2. diestandards.com (40%)
3. dies-inc.com (0%)

Fellow die guy Eric Kam mentioned something this week that helped pull it all together conceptually in my mind. Essentially, he said “diejedi.com is for the thinking die engineer … and every components companies would want to be listed on a website called diestandards.com.

I had alot of downtime due to my travel schedule this week. Thinking this through with your comments and Eric’s statement, I came up with the following plan:

Have the main site that describes the idea and markets or positions the “product” be diejedi.com. It is short, simple, and easy to remember like everyone that liked it said.

For technical reasons, I need to have subdomains. The perfect subdomain for everyday best practices is “my.diestandards.com.”

If a company with proprietary standards, like GM or Ford, want to have online die standards, it only makes sense to have subdomains like “gm.diestandards.com” and “ford.diestandards.com,” respectively.

The supplier links only show up on the diestandards.com subdomain … exactly where they are needed: right along side the die standards themselves.

This is my best of both worlds solution to the question at hand.

The argument for the “does what it says” approach makes sense. Then I got to thinking. When you go do an online search, what name comes to mind?

Google.

You never think “search.com”. And, yes, there really is a search engine called search.com.

Google “sticks”. Search.com does not.

Google (it was supposed to be Googol but they mis-spelled the name when registering the domain) rationalized their name based on the googolplex, which is a huge number (of search results).

How do I rationalize Die Jedi? The two words rhyme.

Yes, that is how simple my brain works. If it rhymes, it is easy for me to remember.

For those that are deeper thinkers than me, I would rationalize the use of Jedi quite simply (stands to reason) in terms of the Star Wars movies that folks associate the term with.

In the movies, there was much talk about “The Force” that unified all things in the universe.

With the online die standards I am proposing, the technology unifies all the scattered pieces of information needed to engineer a die. This is accomplished by replacing the paper book form with search technology.

A blog-style die standards “publication” not only unifies, it simplifies.

Larry mentioned Yoda in his comment. In the movie, Yoda wisely boiled everything down to its simplest Jedi terms. One quote that comes to mind is “Do or do not. There is no try.”

I think the name works … and by using the best of both, the site will be easy to find in search engine results.

Thanks for indulging me on this topic … would  be glad to hear any comments / feedback.

This die standards thing is a hobby for me right now as I have a bit of free time on my hands. If there is interest, I can blog my progress here.

Maybe you are a die shop, components supplier, or services company in the stamping die fabrication market that wants to advertise on a site that is targeted to your audience: die engineers and builders.

Which of these web domain names would you rather visit?

1. diestandards.com (does what it says)
2. diejedi.com (think telepathic information at your fingertips)
3. dies-inc.com (inspired by the movie Monsters, Inc.)

If you have an opinion, please click on the Comments tab at the top of this post or send me a message through the contact form.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and feedback.

That was 1992.

For the past 15 years, it has been a static PDF document.

Hoo-ha.

Why not publish die standards using WordPress blog technology?

I have spent my entire career solving business problems by using technologies that were not intended for a particular purpose or use.

Most folks call that “out of the box” thinking.

I call it “find a way or make one” doing.

Using WordPress blog technology is no different in this case. Let me explain.

Die standards should have three properties:

1. Searchable for ease of use;
2. Web-based for global accessibility;
3. Fast for publishing and commenting.

WordPress fits the bill. Even though this technology is meant for blogging and not a procedural document like die standards, it simply works. Perfectly.

Imagine the categories as topics, such as draw dies, casting construction, and pressure systems.

Each post in each category would be the traditional “section”, such as gas springs, nitrogen manifolds, etc.

I would tag each post with relevant uses to make searches easier and relevant.

Got a trim die with cams in a transfer press? Search on trim, cam, transfer and BAM! All relevant die standards would appear in one list. All the standards you need to get the job done.

How about a question on the intent of a standard while sitting in a die shop in Taiwan or Korea? Simply post a comment from your Apple iPhone. The die standards folks would get an automated email with the comment that they can post a reply to or contact the person with the question directly.

How sweet is that?

The coolest thing about my idea? Go beyond static images with videos, animation, and audio files is possible with WordPress.

Hell, you could even link to engineering files or additional information at suppliers’ websites.

Speaking of suppliers. How many times do you have to search the web for a catalog item? No more with my idea here.

I would use the blogroll area to link to all approved supplier websites / catalogs.

The best part of all this? You don’t have to be a publishing expert to use WordPress. If you can type an email, you can blog.

Ok. Maybe that is the best part for the technical folks. The best part for the management folks?

Saving a boatload of cash in publishing and printing costs to maintain die standards.

Very soon, I plan to setup a demo of what is possible. I have registered the domain diestandards.com and will update you when I get a prototype up and running (busy running around the country these days).

As promised, here is the long awaited list of top 10 things I would do today, in no particular order, if given a clean sheet to re-write die standards:

1. Screws: Use M10 socket head cap screws for everything and fewer of them.
2. Materials: Use application-appropriate materials.
3. Castings: Lighten up the walls and ribs by another 30%.
4. Adapters: With NC machining, loose adapters are no longer needed.
5. Retainers: Set perforating punches with the NC dowel.
6. Cushions: No more springs in dies. Use upper and lower press cushions instead.
7. Inserts: Make no local inserts the best inserts the rule for new tools.
8. SPA: Dump Safety Pad Areas. Use press-mounted blocks and save room in the die.
9. Surfaces: Reduce fitted sculptured surfaces by another 30%.
10. Protection: Use signature waveform on the press instead of die-mounted sensors for panel presence and panel leaving.

I know some of these items will raise eyebrows. The goal here is to reduce the tool bill and overall stamping costs. Period.

Keep in mind, I got death threats the first time around when we broke all the rules. Today, no one gives these broken rules a second thought.

The next revolution.

There are many things on my mind these days. Dies, at this point in my life, are more of a casual hobby than the obsession they used to be.

That said, I had a dream last night that Chris Colley and I were going to re-write die standards. The sequel to our collaborative effort that started back in 1991.

More on the topic soon …

Happy Thanksgiving to all the die guys out there!