Page 45 - MetalForming April 2012

started a die-design business called Capitol Engineering Company, in Grand Rapids, MI. Stouten looked for ways to overcome the safety, efficiency and pro- ductivity challenges related to the use of single-hit dies. He began to promote the idea of leaving some scrap materi- al between parts to carry them in a strip through a single multistation die, a foreign concept to most tool and die shops and contract manufacturers.
Many of Stouten’s customers scoffed at the idea and were unwilling to risk investing their time, money or reputa- tions. After many attempts, he eventu- ally found a shop owner willing to try the concept. Stouten developed a paper strip layout and showed it to the cus- tomer, who agreed to give it a try, pro- vided that Stouten would agree to pay for the die if it failed to work.
While Stouten agreed to take on the risk, the die worked as planned. But what Stouten had not planned on was how quickly word would spread about the successful use of the progressive- die concept among area shops. Soon, many stamping companies sought to run stampings in progressive dies. Die designers at the time, of course, had no idea how to develop progressive dies, so they required training.
In 1970, the Grand Rapids chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) invited Stouten to speak about progressive dies at its monthly meeting. Stouten asked one of his designers, Arnold Miedema, to join him at that meeting. During the next two yr., Stouten and Miedema spoke at every SME chapter meeting in Michigan, and one in Sarnia, Canada. They even craft- ed some drawings, for use on an over- head projector, to illustrate their con- cepts. This ultimately led to the development of their 266-page manu- al, Progressive Dies for Designers, Engi- neers and Managers.
In 1972, SME invited Stouten and Miedema to present a three-day national seminar on progressive dies, in Dayton, OH. During the next 30 yr., the duo conducted such seminars from
coast to coast, throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, and even as far away as Singapore—a total of 133 three-day seminars.
We will never fully appreciate how much influence people like Ed Stouten have made on our stamping industry, as innovators willing to take chances and as educators willing to share with oth-
ers what they learned about progressive dies. What we do know is that Stouten, who celebrated his 90th birthday this year, played a significant role in intro- ducing progressive dies to our industry. Today his materials are routinely used in PMA seminars, die-design hand- books, industry trade magazines and some university coursework. MF
Tooling by Design
connect everywhere
Network your factories and offices with SmartPAC 2 and LETS (Line Efficiency Tracking Software)
Take advantage of
SmartPAC 2’s built-in Ethernet connectivity to communicate over your network.
Send and receive text messages, display setup sheets stored on a central server, back up your tools to a remote location, and view pressroom status over the network and internet. When you connect your equipment to LETS, you can collect production data, feed critical parameters reports automatically, view machine status in real time, and schedule a prioritized job queue for each machine.
To learn more about Wintriss Controls, please call 1-800-586-8324 or visit www.wintriss.com. ®2011 Wintriss Controls. All rights reserved.
www.metalformingmagazine.com
MetalForming/April 2012 43