Here is what a large manufacturer of HVAC duct work had to say:
“ UniPunch tooling will be the last horse that dies...they will be there forever in my opinion.”
“ We use unitized tooling when a product doesn’t warrant high dollar progressive dies. Unitized tooling allows us to manufacture these parts in multiple operations. We can pierce the part and finish it in a secondary operation.
“ We’ve got another division in this plant...a precision department...where we use a lot of unitized tooling for low
volume semi-precision parts...a couple hundred to a couple thousand parts."
“ I’ve got a UniPunch setup that produces a high volume product that is coil fed in which we punch ten holes with UniPunches, then a cutoff die shears the part, so it’s a semi-progressive setup that just runs virtually unattended all day long, just hammers away making complete parts. [The part is a notch plate...that is nailed into place in a bathroom to protect the plumbing. It’s a cover plate.] Hard tooling to make this part would be outrageously expensive because we make different sizes and lengths of them. When we change sizes, all we have to do is move the C-Frames to a different pilot hole, change the feed length of the coil, and we’re ready to go again. If we were using hard tooling it would be real expensive to make changes to the inside of a die, even with our own people making the changes. We make 10,000 of these a month, minimum, on UniPunch tooling."
“ UniPunch tooling will be the last horse that dies. They will be there forever in my opinion. In my position I deal with automation all the time. I know what’s out there and what’s available. UniPunch is unique. It doesn’t cost that much to acquire. You can set up your laser to do your prototyping, but it’s too expensive to manufacture high volume parts on a laser.”