Receiving high-quality metal stamped light fixtures should be just as easy as flipping up the light switch, but too often, that isn’t the case for OEMs, supplier programs, and other customer bases. Parts can arrive at their destination with quality concerns, finishing issues, or any other number of defects that make them unsuitable for the marketplace.
Winco Stamping has manufactured metal stamped parts for light fixtures for many decades now and we’ve learned from experience how to ensure a high-quality part – both structurally and visually – is delivered to our customers and subsequently, their customers.
Learn more how to ensure quality and finishing issues in your metal stamped light fixtures are prevented.
Intentionality in Design
When designing metal stamped light fixtures, design considerations are some of the most important aspects to make prior to any type of prototyping and tooling, let alone manufacturing. Designing for manufacturability is an engineering teams best resource to create a high-quality part with minimal – if any – finishing issues. What does the part need in order to be manufactured properly? What tolerances and bend radii need to be in place? Those questions and more need to be in focus, but there’s also the second part – designing for lighting use. Let’s break it down.
When discussing metal stamped light fixtures, the actual part itself warrants heavy attention on design specifications. This starts with material selection and specifying alloys or grades depending on material. Identifying and confidently placing a proper thickness tolerance on parts that’s consistent throughout and also gives way to realistic radii and draw depths as well is pivotal to allow consistency throughout the part.
Be sure to call out edges directly by stating a maximum burr height and a required edge-break radius. By doing so, it prevents sharp consumer contact hazards and other potential defects such as chipping powder coated spots.
Guard the Finishing Process
Treating the finishing process as part of the actual manufacturing process places a newfound importance on how your part looks. While visual aspects matter, finishing aspects can also serve a purpose beyond looks but protecting the component itself.
From the jump, it’s important to select the stamping lubricant that’s compatible with the finish of your part. This can be done by qualifying through cleaner, rinse, conversion coating, and a cure cycle.
If your part is going to feature any kind of coating, it’s critical to perform deburring operations before coating takes place to maximize the coating onto the part. Ensure that parts are both cleaned and rinsed, as these terms are not interchangeable. Lastly, it’s critical to ensure that curing times are controlled and booth and handling contamination is prevented as best as possible.
Connect With Winco Stamping for High-Quality Metal Stamped Light Fixtures
Winco Stamping’s custom metal stamping operations exist throughout multiple industries because of our ability to consistently create high-quality components in a timely and cost-effective manner. Some of our best work has served in the lighting industry with parts for metal stamped light fixtures.
Different materials must be readily available for lighting applications such as 5052 aluminum or stainless steel. Winco Stamping works with these two examples and numerous other materials every day out of our Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, facility. Our stamping process begins with our in-house tooling capabilities where we provide five raw tooling samples to ensure accuracy and consistency before manufacturing to make production as streamlined as possible.
Your components will leave our facility ready to work because of our stringent quality management systems, which have been ISO 9001 certified for over 20 years now.
Contact Winco Stamping for more information on metal stamped light fixtures and how we can make a difference in your next project.