Die (manufacturing)

“ A careful workman uses a steel die for only a short service before he returns it to the annealer, well assured that the metal, despite its seeming wholeness, has suffered severe internal strain at every blow, which, were no caution exercised, would soon reveal itself in fracture of the die, or ruined work. Facts of this kind, which every day confront the mechanic and engineer, convey a prophecy of the sensibility and memory which dawn with life. ”

“ It is not only necessary that the metal should be prepared to receive the impression of a die, but it is likewise necessary that the die should be prepared and adapted to the particular kind of metal—the image and the superscription of the king put upon it—the machinery prepared and adapted to hold the die and apply it to the metal ”

“ The first circumstance that claims particular attention in the manufacture of dies, is the selection of the best kind of steel for the purpose, and this must in some measure be left to the experience of the die-forger, who, if well skilled in his art, will be able to form a tolerably correct judgment of the fitness of the metal for the purpose, by the manner in which it works upon the anvil. ”

“ Generally speaking, casting-dies are made of machine steel; the parts which are exceptions are the heavy bases and frames, which are made of cast iron, and the dowel pins and small cores, usually made of tool steel. Except in rare instances, there are no hardened parts about a casting-die; this is the case because the melting points of some of the alloys that are die-cast are high enough to draw the temper from any hardened parts of the dies.
The ideal die is simple in construction, with as few parts as practicable ”

“ There is probably no class of die-making in which the work produced is more faithful to the dies, both in showing up the little details in the making that reflect credit on the dies, and in exposing the defects and shortcomings in the workmanship, if there be any. The castings from casting-dies or molds as they are sometimes called, may be produced in dimensions down to ten-thousandths for accuracy if necessary, and once the dies are made the castings will not vary in the slightest degree, if the working conditions are kept uniform. ”

“ For making die-castings that are to have pieces of another metal inserted, it is necessary to have a die with provisions for receiving the metal blank and holding it firmly in position while the metal is being cast around it, and of course the piece must be held in such a manner that it can be easily withdrawn from the die with the finished casting. ”

“ Taken as a whole, from ten to sixty pieces per hour are the maximum limits for speed in die-casting, and with a well-working die, of simple construction, a speed of forty pieces per hour is considered good production. It is possible, however, when the castings to be produced are small in size and simple in shape, to gate a number of them together, or rather to construct the dies so that six or more castings may be made at once. By this means it is often possible to cast five or six thousand pieces per day of ten hours, on a hand die-casting machine. ”

“ The metal for the die-casting machine is mixed in the proper proportions for the work in hand by means of a separate furnace, before being poured into the tank of the machine itself. The burners are lighted and the dies are set up on the two die-plates. As soon as the machine has “warmed up,” so that the metal is in a thoroughly melted condition, the sprue-cutting lever T is thrown back, leaving a clear passageway to the die cavities. ”

“ With this as a model, a metallic die of brass or zinc was prepared, upon which the plate of gold or silver was formed, and then swaged into contact with the die by means of a female die or counter-die of lead. ”

“ We are being hustled from life to death by experts—by mechanicians. And just as they turn out buttons and pins by wholesale methods of production, so they are now turning out the crippled and the dead by machinery. ”

“ But as a die is a mass of steel of considerable dimensions, this hardening is an operation attended by many and peculiar difficulties, more especially as we have at the same time to attend to the careful preservation of the engraving. This is effected by covering the engraved face of the die with a protecting face, composed of fixed oil of any kind, thickened with powdered charcoal: some persons add pipe-clay, others use a pulp of garlic, but pure lamp-black and linseed oil answer the purpose perfectly. ”

“ A rough part that would require little or no machining should not be die-cast, because pound for pound, the die-casting metals cost more than cast iron or steel. The casting machine cannot make parts as rapidly or of as hard metals as the punch press or the automatic screw machine. ”

“ I have known thousands of factories; and every factory I have known that is really strong or efficient has scales like a snake, and casts off its old self. All the people in it, and all the iron and wood in it, month by month are being renewed and shedding themselves. Any live factory can always be seen moulting year after year. A live spirit goes all through the machinery, a kind of nervous tissue of invention, of thought.
We already speak of live and dead iron, of live and dead engines or half-dead and half-sick engines, and we have learned that there is such a thing as tired steel. ”

“ The pamphlet itself quotes inadvertently the statement of an engineer, that “there should be a ready means of putting on the strap when the mill is in motion;” doing this is a common cause of death. Again, one man is seized by a loose end of his neckcloth, another dragged to his death out [Pg 18] of a cart, because a cloth in it is accidentally blown by the wind against machinery. ”

“ One of the first experiments in the direction of die-casting was undertaken to get out some rubber mold parts cheaply enough to leave a profit on a job that was beginning to look dubious from the financial side. ”

“ And the great cry that rises from all our manufacturing cities, louder than their furnace blast, is all in very deed for this,—that we manufacture everything there except men; we blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine sugar, and shape pottery; but to brighten, to strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, never enters into our estimate of advantages. ”

“ But apart from what are called occupation-diseases, caused by certain manufacturing processes (of which the more deadly, as phosphorus match-making, lead-glazing of earthenware and the manufacture of enamelled iron will before long certainly be abolished) , the elaborate machinery and rapid travel of the new age must needs exact a certain toll of death and [126] mutilation. The surgeon will have more to do than the physician. Frightful accidents will occur from time to time. The maim, the halt and the blind must pay the price of progress. ”

“ One can easily say that with increasing electrical development the country will come to be still greater, a country where electricity shall provide for the safety and well-being of all its people.
How is Die-Sinking Done?
Die-sinking is the art of preparing dies for stamping coins, buttons, medallions, jewelry, fittings, etc. The steel for the manufacture of dies is carefully selected, forged at a high heat into the rough die, softened by careful annealing, and then handed over to the engraver. ”

“ The deepest shadows in the water-mark being occasioned by the deepest engraving upon the die, the lightest, by the shallowest, and so forth; the die being employed to give impression by means of the stamping press and “force” to the fine wire-gauze itself, which by this means, providing the die be properly cut, is accomplished far more successfully than by any other process, and with the additional advantage of securing perfect identity. ”

“ If, however, it has many parts which must be fitted, it is usually considered advisable to provide the die with vents consisting of milled recesses a few thousandths inch deep. Several vents are provided, from which the air can escape when the metal is admitted to the dies. ”

“ If chemistry and machinery had not been at work to produce more iron and cheaper iron, how would our great modern improvements have stopped short—our railroads, our water-pipes, our gas-pipes, our steam-ships! ”

“ There's nothing wrong with dying—it just hasn't ever had the proper sales pitch!
It all began when the new bookkeeping machine of a large Midwestern coffin manufacturer slipped a cog, or blew a transistor, or something. It was fantastic that the error—one of two decimal places—should enjoy a straight run of okays, human and mechanical, clear down the line ”

“ Yet again, die forging is a very elastic system, and herein lies much of its value. Though it reaches its highest development when thousands of similar pieces are wanted, it is also adaptable to a hundred, or even to a dozen, similar forgings. In such cases economy is secured by using dies of a very cheap character; or, by employing such dies as supplementary to anvil work for effecting neat finish to more precise dimensions than can be ensured at the anvil. ”

“ Dead work is such work as is necessary to develop an ore body, but it does not produce any ore. It may be prosecuted for drainage or ventilation purposes or for creating passage-ways for men and products. ”

“ The men might have been parcels shifting one by one up to the packers’ tables and away from them, or those pieces of metal in a factory which trickle up leisurely to a whirling lathe, are seized by it, turned, poked, spun about with feverish haste for a minute by the machine, pushed out clear to resume their leisured progress while the machine jumps on the next piece and works its ordered will upon it. ”

“ At the outset we may say that it is possible to die-cast almost any piece, but it is not by any means practicable to do so. It must be remembered that to die-cast on a practical basis the dies must be constructed in such a manner that the cost of their operation and up-keep will be light, or there will be no profit in die-casting. It is impracticable to produce under-cut work, that is, work having no draft and which is therefore impossible to draw from the die. Such an instance is that illustrated at A, Fig. ”

“ A blunt point is carried by a very slow spiral movement successively over every part of the die to be copied, and is pressed by a weight into all the cavities; while a cutting point connected with it by the machine traverses the face of a piece of soft steel, in which it cuts the device of the original die on the same or on a diminished scale. The degree of excellence of the copy increases in proportion as it is smaller than the original. The die of a crown-piece will furnish by copy a very tolerable die for a sixpence. ”

“ What we want, and what we expect to obtain, is more information regarding what is done with the materials in the factory: what machinery they are put into, and how they are put in: what stages they go through, and how the stages follow one another: what wear and tear has to be endured, and how we can step in and stop the working of the machine for our own benefit at the best possible time. ”

“ In the report for the half-year next following, the deaths by machinery in factories were eighteen; one hundred and sixty-one lost the right hand, or, more generally, parts of it; one hundred and eighteen the left hand, or parts of it; two hundred and twenty had bones broken. Thirty-nine, therefore, was the number of deaths in the year last reported (a fresh half-yearly report is at present due) , and there was no lack of accidents more serious than the “rubbing off a bit of skin.” Of the factory accidents, we are also told, not five per cent. are owing to machinery. ”

“ The hot metal, of course, “shoots” through them in thin ribbons, but not enough escapes to affect the pressure on the metal which goes into the casting.
Fig. 41. Fitting Ejector-pins
No matter how carefully a die may have been constructed, or how carefully it has been assembled, there is always a certain amount of “babying” to be done before it will work satisfactorily. The casting may stick a little here, or there may be a rough spot there, and it is the successful elimination of these troubles which constitutes the production of a good die-casting. ”

“ A land of coal and iron, and of what coal and iron can produce. Not happiness, not character, not culture; neither philosophy, nor religion, nor art. Machines—appalling and ingenious complications of wheels and cogs and valves and pistons, that made more of their kind, together with unheard-of engines of death and mutilation. And factories—emplacements for machines that roared and vibrated endlessly, spinning, weaving, fabricating night and day, turning out what the world needs, but craftily fashioning it so it would not last, or what the world does not need, but that lasted only too long. ”

“ In those early days, long before the great labor-saving machines came to our help, almost everything connected with wheat-raising abounded in trying work,—cradling in the long, sweaty dog-days, raking and binding, stacking, thrashing,—and it often seemed to me that our fierce, over-industrious way of getting the grain from the ground was too closely connected with grave-digging. The staff of life, naturally beautiful, oftentimes suggested the grave-digger’s spade. ”

“ There's one thing certain, and that is, me and the rest of my brother manufacturers will have a sight finer coffins than him and his sort will have." The manufacturers shuddered, like men sitting in some deadly draught. ”

“ This production, formed of decayed vegetable matter, which in ages past nourished on the surface of the earth, as I have already shown, is again brought forth for our use, and is a testimony of the goodness and kindness of God in providing for our wants. By its heat some 10,000 locomotive engines are propelled, and many hundreds of iron furnaces are kept in work, besides those for other purposes. It moves the machinery of at least 3000 factories, 2500 steam vessels, besides numerous smaller craft, and I cannot tell how many forges and fires. ”