Die (manufacturing)

A die is a specialized machine tool used in manufacturing industries to cut and/or form material to a desired shape or profile.

Products made with dies range from simple paper clips to complex pieces used in advanced technology.

Continuous-feed laser cutting may displace the analogous die-based process in the automotive industry,[2] among others.

The workpiece may pass through several stages using different tools or operations to obtain the final form.

Additional crimping or rolling operations may be performed to ensure that all sharp edges are hidden and/or to add rigidity to the panel.

Because nomenclature varies between sources, alternate names are in parentheses: Steel-rule die, also known as cookie cutter dies, are used for cutting sheet metal and softer materials, such as plastics, wood, cork, felt, fabrics, and paperboard.

However, it most commonly refers to cylindrical shaped dies used to process soft materials, such as paper or cardboard.

A wire or rod of steel, copper, other metals, or alloy enters into one side and is lubricated and reduced in size.

For pulling a substantial rod down to a fine wire a series of several dies is used to obtain progressive reduction of diameter in stages.