More manufacturers are focusing on reducing scrap from production. It is beneficial to the environment and to the manufacturer’s bottom line, and customers see a direct reduction in cost and turnaround time.
Rather than selling excess scrap to a scrap dealer—which only generates a fraction of the original material cost while adding handling and transporting costs—focusing on minimizing the amount of scrap produced in the first place is the priority. Those savings are passed onto customers to save them time and resources.
In this article, we’ll discuss three metal stamping design and production practices that reduce scrap: nesting practices, repurposing scrap for components, and identifying production techniques that use less material.
Leverage Nesting Practices
Design engineers leverage nesting practices to get the most out of each sheet of material. “Nesting” refers to setting smaller parts of the same thickness inside the window or cutout areas of larger parts within a single layout so that both parts are created in subsequent tool strokes. This generates cost and time savings by maximizing material yield and optimizing press utilization.
When planning nesting operations during the Design for Manufacturing (DFM) phase, ensure the following:
- The production volume for the larger of the two parts aligns with or exceeds the volume of the smaller part.
- The raw material thickness and mechanical property specifications are identical for both components.
- The sheet material’s grain direction is carefully evaluated relative to the bending direction, ensuring bends are made across the grain to prevent cracking.
For example, when manufacturing large automotive structural brackets that require significant central cutouts, engineering insight can identify opportunities to utilize that internal waste. By integrating secondary tooling elements into the single-stage or engineering mold layout, smaller reinforcement plates or washers can be blanked from the center section that would otherwise be discarded. This approach enables the production of two distinct components from the exact same raw material footprint, significantly lowering the per-part cost and accelerating total output.
Repurpose Scrap to Produce Parts
While nesting will not completely eliminate scrap, there are reliable options available before sending material to a recycling dealer. It is standard practice in precision stamping shops to utilize recovery dies or offal tooling to produce alternative components by feeding structural scrap into a secondary line die.
Engineers can also evaluate the structural integrity of larger offcuts to determine if they can be processed for smaller, less critical hardware components. When repurposing scrap material, it is critical to evaluate the mechanical history of the metal. Material that has undergone severe deformation or blanking near the shear zone will experience work-hardening. This localized strain reduces ductility, meaning the repurposed scrap must be carefully matched to parts with lower forming severity or simpler geometries to avoid cracking during secondary operations.
Consider Different Forming Methods
The chosen metal forming method must always deliver the design specifications at the highest quality. However, many structural components can be manufactured via multiple production routes. For these designs, evaluating alternative methods often reveals opportunities to reduce scrap, control costs, and maintain precise tolerances.
Stamping vs. Machining
Many industrial components originally designed as CNC-machined parts can be successfully converted to precision sheet metal stamping or deep drawing. Machining inherently creates substantial waste by removing material from a solid block. Stamping, conversely, forms the shape through precise pressure, using only the necessary material thickness. During initial design consultations, reviewing the application and tolerance requirements often reveals that switching to a stamping process cuts turnaround times and reduces material waste from over 60% down to less than 15%.
Stamping vs. Heavy Laser Cutting
While laser cutting is ideal for low-volume prototypes, transitioning high-volume production (such as 0.2mm to 8mm sheet metal parts) to dedicated stamping tools minimizes the material spacing required between parts. Stamping allows for tighter skeleton webs between blanks than the gas-assist spacing required by laser cutting heads, leading to a significant cumulative savings in raw material across large production runs.
Full-Scale Production Versatility: From Prototype to Volume Stamping
Minimizing process scrap requires a production partner capable of adapting manufacturing techniques as production volumes scale. Material efficiency strategies look very different at the prototyping stage compared to mature, high-volume production runs, and relying on multiple vendors to bridge this gap often introduces technical errors and alignment issues.
For low-volume projects or initial product trials, investing in hard blanking dies is rarely cost-effective. In these scenarios, deploying heavy-duty laser cutting as a direct alternative to blanking tools eliminates upfront tooling amortization while allowing for rapid, digital nesting adjustments to preserve material. As project volumes grow and transition into mass production, the manufacturing route shifts smoothly toward dedicated engineering molds and single-stage stamping tools. This progression optimizes cycle times and drives material waste down to the absolute minimum.
Managing the entire lifecycle within a single single-source manufacturing infrastructure ensures that raw material specifications, dimensional tolerances, and DFM insights remain consistent from the first laser-cut prototype to the millionth stamped part.
How is your engineering team currently optimizing part geometry to minimize material waste during production?