The Tool & Die trade is:

    Tool & Die is a highly skilled, challenging, and financially rewarding trade involved with all the dies, molds, gauges, and special machinery needed to produce almost every type of manufactured product. The industry is a major partner with every automotive, aerospace, agriculture, furniture, electronics, and consumer products company in the world. Without this industry, our modern lifestyle would not be possible. There is nothing made by industry that the Tool & Die Trade doesn't touch.

    The learned skills in the Tool & Die trade are the ability and knowledge of how to take a die design, interpret and evaluate it, fabricate, and develop the required die so that the final part made from this die meets the tolerances required.

WHAT IS A METAL STAMPING DIE?

    A metal stamping die is a precisely crafted two-part metal form consisting of a top and bottom section. Normally the major components of each section are fabricated from tool steel utilizing computer programmed and controlled machining centers. These top and bottom sections are designed and fabricated in such a fashion so that when mounted in a large press capable of exerting hundreds of tons of pressure, a piece of sheet metal sandwiched between them will be formed into the desired shape. The tolerances required are normally so close that the resultant shape or part formed will be accurate to within thousandths of an inch, sometimes less than the thickness of a piece of paper or human hair.

    The skills required in the Tool & Die trade are formally learned in what is called an Apprenticeship Program. In this four to five year program, the theme is "earn while you learn." The individual is indentured with the Bureau of Apprenticeship, U.S. Dept. of Labor, has a full time job in tool and die where he/she receives over 7300 hours of on-the-job training. In addition, over 600 hours of college classroom instruction is required in seventeen Related Instruction courses. Providing the individual meets certain attendance and grade requirements, the sponsoring company will pay a portion of this person's tuition and fees for these courses.

Tooling Arbors

such as might be used on production equipment like: Back-Off machines, Tool & Cutter grinders, Turning Centers or any other type of precision production.

Precision Details

if you design or engineer machines, gauges or tooling and need a build source for some or all of the components.

Stamping Dies

M2I regularly builds progressive dies, blanking dies & forming dies.

Rework Centers

Build, Rebuild or Regrind centers for O.D./I.D. Grinders or other turning machines. High Speed steel or Carbide tipped; a variety of tapers can be accommodated.

Hand Assembly Tooling

for production manufactures we design and build a variety of Ergonomically enhanced assembly tooling, both bench mounted and free standing.

Automated Assembly Machines

we have built machines to put parts together; Take parts apart: Punch holes in parts; Drill holes in parts; Feed parts onto other machines or processes, or take them off of other machines or processes. And walk them through a series of manufacturing operations.

Production

On an As-Needed basis we can provide preproduction development, initial production quantities, handle short term overruns, or Pre-Production production.

Gages or Gauges

Modular has built many types of Gages such as Go/No Go, Attribute, continuous data (with analog or digital read out), along with many types of form fit type gages.

Engineering Services

We maintain an AutoCAD R14 /Win system in house, with drafting and engineering staff available to our customers. Electronic File Transfer can be handled point-to-point, or through our Internet connection via e-mail.

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