Page 40 - MetalForming December 2015

Tooling by Design
By Peter Ulintz
A Brief History of the Tool and Die Industry
U.S. Manufacturing and Tooling Trends
Category
1998
2005
2008
2010
Percent
Change 1998-2010
Employment
Manufacturing
17,616,672
14,190,394
13,382,697
11,487,496
–35%
Tooling
162,032
119,308
107,187
89,661
–45%
Annual Payroll
Manufacturing
$679 billion
$699 billion
$728 billion
$661 billion
–3%
Tooling
$6.9 billion
$5.7 billion
$5.4 billion
$4.7 billion
–32%
Number of Establishments
Manufacturing
412,453
365,351
359,488
342,844
–17%
Tooling
9,057
7,192
6,393
5,789
–36%
Encyclopedia Britannica traces the development of modern tools and dies to American inventor and manufacturer Eli Whitney, the first to implement the concept of planned manufacturing of inter- changeable parts. Whitney preached the production of components to pre- scribed dimensions with the aid of tool- ing. This meant that the highly skilled craftsmen previously required for man- ufacturing no longer were needed, since the concept eliminated the need for additional fitting or selective assem- bly of parts.
Whitney’s tooling consisted of tem- plates (tool-guiding patterns) and rudi- mentary fixtures, the precursors to today’s tools and die. Whitney and his company successfully demonstrated the feasibility of manufacturing inter- changeable parts by mass-producing firearms for the War of 1812.
The successful introduction of inter- changeable parts and the development of machine tools, both occurring in the 19th century, brought about the modern machine shop. Then, as today, the independent machine shop was called a job shop. These shops served larger industrial facilities by fabricating tooling, machines and machine part
Peter Ulintz has worked in the metal stamping and tool and die industry since 1978. His back- ground includes tool and die making, tool engi- neering, process design, engineering manage- ment and advanced product development. As an educator and technical
presenter, Peter speaks at PMA national seminars, regional roundtables, international conferences, and college and university programs. He also pro- vides onsite training and consultations to the met- alforming industry.
Peter Ulintz
Technical Director, PMA pulintz@pma.org
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
replacements, rather than manufac- turing their own products. Eventually, some machine shops began to spe- cialize in tooling to the exclusion of other work.
The development of the power press gave rise to a demand for another form of tooling, the pressing die. This type of tooling cuts and presses sheetmetal into predetermined shapes and con- figurations. Since the tasks required to fabricate dies closely mimic those needed to produce jigs, fixtures and other tooling, many of the specialized machine shops began to call them- selves tool and die shops.
Soon after World War II, the industry welcomed numerical-control (NC) machines. NC machines used a series of holes punched on paper tape or punch cards to control their motion. In the 1960s, computers began to add flexibility to the process, thus intro- ducing computerized numerical con- trol (CNC). NC and CNC machines could precisely repeat sequences over and over, and also produce more com- plex shapes than even the most skilled toolmakers.
The last half of the 20th century wel- comed the transformation of tradi- tional tool and die shops into special-
ized job shops that produced only one form of tooling. This trend can be attributed to the growing sophistication of tooling, plus the fact that shops with the skills and equipment necessary to fabricate one form of tooling were sel- dom equipped for another. Even the single form of toolmaking called diemaking became further specialized to the point that many shops now limit themselves to dies for special applica- tions or industries.
A Changing Field
The North American tool and die industry primarily comprises small businesses using skilled, experienced employees. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 90 percent of tool and die companies employ fewer than 50 workers. These firms are gen- erally privately owned and often fami- ly operated.
The number of U.S. tool and die shops dropped by 36 percent between 1998 and 2010, more than twice the rate of decline as in the total number of manufacturing establishments. Simi- larly, employment in tool and die has dropped steeply.
Although tool and die firms are small in number and total employ-
38 MetalForming/December 2015
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