Hi, I'm a product design student designing a knife. Wanted to know for low quantity and high quantity manufacturing. Is it cheaper to forge, stamp or waterjet the blade? The material is 4mm thick high carbon stainless steel. Thanks for the advice!
Last edited by mysticbluex3; 11-19-2012 at 01:02 PM.
You need to do some more research on the pros and cons for each type of operation. I will give you a start, using a water-jet means zero distortion.
You need to define "low" and "high" as 500,000 apple corer blades could be considered low quantities compared to their world market of probably 20,000,000.
Do some homework on your relative options and then come back and ask specific questions. The more precise your questions, the more precise the answers will be.
mysticbluex3: I suggest you cut them by laser if they are few thousands.
laser faster than waterjet, cleaner, no need for mold compared with stamping, for such as low thickness the knife will not has HAZ compared to Plasma due to the high speed of cutting using laser.
for more than that qty it would be more cost effective to stamp them using die punching.
if you need more details about the costs of making the parts in china please let me know
wish you hard luck with your project!
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