SIC 3465 Automotive Stampings

Contenidos

• NAICS CODE(S).
• INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT.
• BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT.
• CURRENT CONDITIONS.
• INDUSTRY LEADERS.
• WORKFORCE.
• RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY.
• FURTHER READING.

SIC 3465

This category includes establishments that primarily manufacture metal auto parts, such as body panels, hubs, and trim pieces, usually for sale to other manufacturers or for use in assembly facilities located off-site. Those firms that utilize the stamped products in the manufacture of end products in the same establishment are categorized by that end-product.

NAICS CODE(S)

336370

Motor Vehicle Metal Stamping

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

As with all manufacturers of automotive parts, stamping firms produce for two major market components: the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and the after-market or replacement parts sector. Typical components include fenders, roofs, floor pans, exhaust systems, brake shoes, and trim pieces. Such large pieces require a considerable investment in tooling and scale of operation. Consequently, businesses engaged in their manufacture are usually operated by the major automotive manufacturers or contracted by them. Small components, such as brackets, valves, and hangers, do not require the same level of sophisticated engineering investment, which allows small, independent firms to specialize in such items. As a rule of thumb, automotive manufacturers contract out any stamped part needed in volumes below 200,000 pieces annually.

The automotive stamping industry remains closely dependent on the health of the domestic U.S. automobile market. In 2003 the industry shipped products with a total value of $25.2 billion and employed 106,292 workers. The technical expertise of industry production workers is increasing rapidly as the industry adapts to new production techniques and strategies, the challenges of new metal alloys, and the competition of plastic alternatives. Because the automotive stamping industry is a major supplier to automotive manufacturers, firms in the industry are concentrated in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, near the major U.S. automakers.

BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT

The process or art of stamping metal to form hundreds or even thousands of identical parts evolved with the automotive industry. In 1912, Philadelphian Edward Budd convinced the Hupp Motor Co., the Oakland Motor Co., and Garford Motors to begin incorporating metal into the design of their car bodies instead of the traditional wood. For the next few years, cars were made using a combination of both materials. In 1914, however, the Dodge brothers moved the automotive and the stamping industries into the modern era of industrial manufacturing with an order for 5,000 all-steel touring sedan bodies.

Stamping, or cold-forming, involves the use of power-operated clamping devices. A moving die, or forming-tool, presses into a sheet of metal and against a fixed die. The metal undergoes what is known as plastic deformation to take on the desired shape and thickness. Until the 1930s, the method was more art than science. Skilled artisans would produce relatively simple dies and use their collective experience to effectively produce parts mainly by trial and error. They often used an array of special tools and rituals to trick the sheet metal into shape.

As the industry needed to produce more sophisticated components, the unitized body, which eventually replaced the frame entirely on domestic automobiles, was developed. With the unitized body, once the die design, the metal material, and the blank sheet dimensions were chosen and found to be correct, the tool-system could create thousands of duplications under the supervision of relatively unskilled labor. That cost-saving attribute appealed to the needs of mass production manufacturers...