What Is Tooling in Manufacturing? Types & Design

Manufacturing tooling is an essential process stage to produce high-quality products to meet specifications. Final product is a resultant of technical knowledge, skill and special tools. But first, it requires to produce essential equipment which are efficient and precise. In this article, we will learn its basics, significance in production and then discuss various kinds of tools that can be used.

What Is Tooling in Manufacturing?

Tooling is designing and creating tools for parts making in manufacturing. It is also called machine tooling. It can be in different types like mold, dies or cutting tools.

Tooling Definition in Manufacturing

It refers to making different types of equipment required in manufacturing like jigs or fixtures. Effective tooling makes high-quality parts and helps in improving tool life cycle and its functionality

Tooling Meaning in Manufacturing

Tooling means better production processes in manufacturing. It improves product quality, its life cycle and increased tool life cycle. Efficient tooling reduces the cost of tooling replacement, tooling change time and overall improves process consistency.

Tooling in Manufacturing Industry

Production tools are important to have high quality final product and to increase efficiency in manufacturing.

Types of Tooling in Manufacturing

There are different types of manufacturing tools.

Machine Tooling

Machine tooling is used to shape and process material. These are like milling, lathe, grinding, drilling machines, shapers or power press.

Production Tooling

These are used in mass production such as plastic injection Molding Tools, die-cast tooling, fixtures and jigs and liquid Silicone Rubber Injection Molds.

Tooling Equipment

These are key machinery used in cutting, shaping or grinding materials such as grinders, milling machines, and lathes.

Fabrication Tooling

These are custom tools used in parts production from raw material. Their selection depends on fabricating material. These can include lathe, milling, grinding or can include CNC machines.

Mechanical Tooling

These are most commonly used production tools used in mechanical operations like machining, drilling, and cutting tools

Soft Tooling vs. Hard Tooling

Soft tooling allows rapid prototyping, and designers can innovate rapidly during production. It is best for small scale production. Hard tooling is durable and are mostly utilized for large scale production

Tooling Material

Common tooling materials are steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass and copper. Their selection depends on applications and requirements. Each material has its own drawbacks and advantages. But these are optimized by efficiency, tool optimization and cost-effectiveness.

What Is the Tooling Process?

The details about the tooling process are given below:

Overview of the Tooling Process

It is a complete process of creating tools to shape and deigns material into final products from raw material during manufacturing. It involves utilizing cutting tools, molds and jigs to shape and create parts.

Tooling Design

Tooling design involves several stages. It initiated with identifying the tool requirements, researching, developing the required tools, protype creating and testing, and finally revision of design based on feedback

Tooling System

Tooling system involves a set of hardware and software that are essential in product creating and manufacturing. It also involves tooling setup and configuring tools required for specific production.

Different Stages of Tooling

There are 3 stages of production tools which are explained below

Prototype Tooling

This is also called soft tooling. It is utilized to design and test parts. It is best suited for a low production scale.

Bridge Tooling

It is also called rapid tooling a temporary tooling solution for short-term production needs. It is a transition stage between designing and manufacturing of products.

Production Tooling

It is utilized in large scale production and is a final stage of product manufacturing.

Tooling Changes and Updates

It is a process of upgrading and modifying the tools and machines used in manufacturing. It involves setting up tools, adjustments, and running the machines after the final setup.

Why Is Tooling Important in Manufacturing?

Good production tools are essential in manufacturing. It eases the overall production process.

Tooling and Manufacturing: A Critical Relationship

Effective tooling has a critical relationship with manufacturing. It helps in creating high-quality products, increases the tool life cycle, and enhances the functionality of product.

Tooling's Role in Cost Reduction and Quality

Tooling is essential in manufacturing because it has a great impact on speed, quality and cost of production process. Manufacturing tooling is utilized in mass production; therefore, it is an important factor in production.

Benefits of Using Tooling in Manufacturing

Tooling can also help manufacturers adapt to market changes and stay competitive

Production Efficiency

Tooling reduces the chance of error and increases consistency. Intricate parts can be produced with the same quality and precision in repetition.

Part Precision

Precision tooling can increase the production process with the same quality that meets the specification. It helps to meet tight deadlines with exceptional precision and durability

Manufacturing Flexibility

Manufacturing tools provide flexibility and allow manufacturers to produce a variety of products on the same line.It reduces the overall custom tooling costs and improves the quality and efficiency of the process.

The Tooling Industry and Its Challenges

Tooling Business and Market

Tooling business and the market may face challenges in generating leads, adopting the right tools as the market demands and tactics change rapidly, in retaining customers, custom tools and most importantly budget constraints.

Tooling Manufacturer

Manufacturers normally face challenges in technological advancement to implement new tool management systems or custom tools, achieving the right tolerance, in material selection, and maintaining up time to ensure new tool breakage detection system is compatible with existing equipment.

Tooling Factory

The most common challenge a factory or industry faces is poor maintenance. Heavy workload with demanding production schedule can lead to failure. Regular maintenance and tool cleaning must be ensured which is the result of corrosion, deterioration or debris build-up over tools.

Common Issues in Tooling Manufacturing

Common issues the manufacturers face in manufacturing tools are:

Tooling Wear and Tear

It is a gradual breakdown of tool over time when it is in use from a prolonged period. The common wear and tear occur in drill bits, tool bits and tipped tools. normally it occurs due to friction and heat, abrasion and material fatigue that material encounters during production.

Tooling Changes

It is a proper process of tool replacement in a machine such as CNC machines. Tooling changes are necessary especially when different tools have a variety of size, shape and purposes. Another reason is to align correctly with the machine and workpiece and sometimes it is tool wear at different rates.

Tooling Materials and Equipment

Tool material and equipment selection involves various factors and requirements.

Tooling Material Selection

When selecting the right tooling materials or custom tools, it involves multiple factors like material's properties, the machining process, and its applications. Material properties may involve hardness, toughness, mechanical strength, elasticity and many more. Machining process involves cutting speed, feed rate and chip removal. Other factors may be workpiece material, type and shape of part and surface quality.

Common Materials for Tooling

Common materials for tooling are metals, ceramic and composites. The right material selection depends on applications, material properties and chemical stability. Metals like steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass, and copper. Ceramic involves cutting ceramics made of aluminum oxide and silicon nitride and composites like cubic boron nitride that have high chemical wear resistance and hardness at higher temperatures.

Tooling Equipment

Tooling equipment can be cutting tools, power saw, drilling machines, grinding machine and milling machine and Machining Tools. It is important to consider factors like durability and accuracy in tool selection because effective tools can help with better functionality and have a long tool life cycle.

Cost of Tooling in Manufacturing

There are multiple factors that affect the custom tools cost. These are explained below:

Tooling Cost

Tooling cost is affected by various factors such as design complexity. More complex designs cost more than normal designs. Other than that material cost, for example aluminum is more expensive than composite or other metal but it is more suitable for high volume production. Similarly size of tooling and production volume also affect the tooling cost and tooling maintenance.

Production Tool Supply Costs

It is the cost of tools which are utilized in production and covers a major section of overall production cost and tooling maintenance. Tooling cost is different for every project and is considered a consumable cost

Tooling Cost Breakdown

The breakdown of the tooling cost is explained as the cost of the tool divided by the number of parts being produced in tool life cycle and tooling maintenance. It is an important factor in manufacturing processes such as CNC machining and Machining Tools. This helps with calculating production costs and for equipment investment decisions

Tooling Design Process

The tooling design process involves multiple steps of creating plans and design of parts required to build a product.

What Is Tooling Design?

Tooling design involves material section, molding to shape the material, machining like cutting and shaping of raw materials and assembly of part. It is important in manufacturing because it affects the efficiency and quality of final product

Cycle Time and Tool Durability

Tool cycle time is the time needed to make a product or a complete production process. It is timed by actual measurement. This can be made efficient by streamlining the production process, improving equipment and system, utilizing analytics and investing in skilled labor and employee training.

How to Choose the Right Tooling for Your Needs

The right selection of tooling involves considering various factors such as project requirements, scalability, budget, tool material, security of tools or risks in involves using a particular tool and ease of use.

Choosing Between Soft Tooling and Hard Tooling

There are different factors that need to be considered while selecting hard tooling or soft tooling.

Tooling in Different Industries

Tooling has different uses in many industries. some of them are explained below individually

Tooling in Engineering

In engineering, like mechanical, civil or aerospace, tooling serves almost the same purpose of creating parts. But it has different uses in every step of product creation. For example, in tool design it is used in creating plans and components to make a final product, in dies to shape materials, in jigs and fixture, gauges, bride tooling to create prototypes between product designing and manufacturing, mold making, CNC machining, die casting and heat treatment.

Tooling in Construction

Tooling in construction normally implied to the equipment and gear and machining Tools utilized in building structures, bridges, dams or skyscrapers. These are hand tools, power tools, and machine tools. Hand tools such as screwdrivers, brushes, trowels, or wrenches, Power tools like mixers, saws, cutters, drills, or grinders and Machining tools utilizes in shaping materials by cutting, boring, or grinding.

Tooling in Software Development vs. Manufacturing

Tooling in software development and manufacturing are used in product making but both serves different purposes and processes.Software development tools are used to enhance efficiency of coding and programming while manufacturing tools are used in designing and producing parts. The software development is design-centric and focuses on continuous design and improvement. While manufacturing involves repetitive steps to produce a product.

Rely on Tuofa China for Your Tooling Needs

Tuofa China specializes in manufacturing precision machine parts and Machining Tools. These parts are not only equipped with advanced machine equipment like CNC machining center, CNC drilling and milling or CNC lathe but with the inspection equipment.

Tuofa has years of experience in machining different materials like stainless steel, aluminum alloys, titanium alloy, composites, polymers and plastics. We also simultaneously provide assorted precision parts of Lithium battery equipment, automobile equipment, liquid crystal manufacturing equipment, medical equipment, optical communication and lenses equipment.