Punching 10mm disks trom thin stainless steel foil 1

[asimpson]

I am looking at making 10 mm disks and placing them on part. Disks material is 0.0127 mm stainless steel foil.

Punch and die would be my first thought in making disks however the punch and die clearance to shear metal from foil seems to be less than 0.001 mm. This I would imagine would be very difficult to achive . Perhaps my thinking is flawed.

Where yould I fet data on punching shapes from metal foil around 10 microns thick?

Many thanks.

 

[desertfox]

Hi

Consider laser cutting the foil:-

http://www.potomac-laser.com/services/materials/metal/stainless-steel/

 

[MintJulep]

Steel rule die or rotary die I think.

 

[jedward]

chemical etching should also work

 

[dgallup]

We use photo chemical etching to make foil discs although ours are a bit thicker. See suppliers like

http://www.photofabrication.com/

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[IRstuff]

How much material loss is acceptable, i.e., how big a kerf is allowable?

I would think that EDM would also be a possibility. What's your volume? Some things are amenable to batch processing, while others are not.

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[IFRs]

Steel rule die gets my vote
You could sandwich it between layers of some thicker material perhaps wood and water jet cut them

 

[asimpson]

Thanks.

Sounds like punching is not fafoured for thin foil?

 

[berkshire]

You can sometimes punch foil with a very sharp punch into a hard rubber or urethane die. If your punch is not sharp enough, the foil will fold up the sides of the punch instead of shearing.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[Compositepro]

Steel foil would be punched against a flat hardened steel anvil. The cutting edges of the tool would have a very small radius, and would not be razor sharp.

 

[IFRs]

Steel rule die is essentially punching.

 

[dvd]

Make a punch that is peaned or otherwise oversize just at the end and shear it into the die. It creates a punch with very little clearance to the die. A respectable die shop will perform this without difficulty.

 

[racookpe1978]

I think you're looking too closely at the "punching" cutting side of the problem and not enough (yet) at the "how to grab the tiny very thin very flexible disks and keep them perfectly flat and then position accurately them on the final assembly" part of the problem.

The pickup "thing" might be able to flatten or press that thin a metal against the final assembly to re-flatten out bends or edge distortion. Or, the "glue" that holds the final disks in place might be applied to back of the whole thin metal foil plate, which is then press-cut right through the glued backing. The press/die backing surface then serves both as the plate and the surface that positions and presses the foil against the final assembly.

 

[leeweston1980]

I would second chemical etching - process video here Link

Alternatively, you could look at electroforming (additive process) but you cannot electroform steel so would have to be in nickel. Link