Multi Slide & Four Slide Stamping

What are Fourslide & Multi-Slide Stampings?

Slide stamping presses are another type of machine that can be used to stamp and form metal as well as wire components. The slit-to-size material is generally fed vertically vs a progressive die where the coiled material is fed horizontally. Slide presses allow many of the operations to be completed outside the tooling by hard tooling that is built into the slide machines themselves. This results in tooling dollars often being less than $20,000 and generally less than half the cost of a progressive die.

In addition, Four-slide and Multi-slide presses are also very efficient. They use less electricity than a verticle stamping press, generate less material waste because they start with near-net width material, and do not need carrier strips. That being said they can also produce huge quantities of production parts per day at competitive prices.  

Slide Machine versus a Traditional Stamping Press

Fourslide & Multi slide tooling cost is normally under $20,000. Even though the tooling can be less expensive, they can still provide competitive piece part costs.

The Fourslide, as well as Multislide presses, allow our manufacturing facility to manufacture complex components that in some cases cannot be manufactured with a progressive tool.  Material grain direction is a huge advantage. Many parts have a specified grain direction that makes slide machines the most efficient manufacturing option.

Conventional verticle stamping presses are only capable of pressing sheet metal in a single vertical direction, which can limit the types of shapes that can be formed. Sharp bends, in particular, cannot be achieved using verticle presses without using additional costly automation. On the other hand, slide stamping machines can manipulate the workpiece from 4 axes. This added versatility means that multi-sliding can handle bends greater than 90 degrees.

Cost Efficiency

There are many cost-effective reasons to consider a slide machine versus a more traditional stamping press. In many cases, material usage can be significantly reduced by manufacturing parts with a slide machine versus a press die. When using a punch press or progressive die, the material is needed on either side of the strip in order to carry the part as it progresses through the die. However, with slide machines, the material can be purchased slit to the exact width required to produce each part. The reduced material width results in the less raw material are required, resulting in a lower piece part cost.  

When using slide presses, the forming often occurs outside the die, with actions independent of the press station. In a progressive die, the forming actions are directly linked together and all must occur inside the die. Tool motions in a slide machine are independent of timing and direction from each other. This allows for adjustments to the stroke, shape, and timing of each tool to compensate for dimensional variation, tool wear, or changes in material properties and thickness. This results in tool adjustment and maintenance is much easier, due to greater accessibility and visibility of the tools in the forming and press areas.

If design changes are required for a part after the tooling has been built, changes are much easier to be made to a slide tool than a progressive die tool. Since there are various motions provided by the die head on slide presses such as forming slides, vertical stripper mechanisms, and a range of auxiliary units on the machines themselves that can be adjusted. If the same part had been tooled in a progressive die the tooling could require massive tooling dollars to make similar changes.  

In addition, Four-slide and Multi-slide machines are also very efficient.  They use less electricity than a verticle stamping press, generate less material waste because they start with a near-net width material, and do not need carrier strips. That being said they can also produce huge quantities of production parts per day at competitive prices.