How is press brake tooling manufactured?
Press brake punches and dies are machined from tool steel, heat treated, then precision ground to their final dimensions. The grinding step after heat treatment is what sets the tool height tolerance and the profile accuracy.
The manufacturing sequence
Each step is a control point. Heat treatment moves the material, so the final dimensions can only be set after it, and the grinding that follows is where the tolerance is actually achieved.
- Design. The profile is drawn against the machine interface, the clamp and the load the tool will carry.
- Machining. The blank is cut and profiled from the specified tool steel.
- Heat treatment. Induction hardening at the working surfaces, or through hardening for dies.
- Grinding. The working faces, the tang and the seating faces are ground to final dimensions.
- Inspection. Interface dimensions, tool height and hardness are checked against the drawing.
Why is grinding done after heat treatment?
Because heat treatment distorts the material, sometimes by more than the tolerance the tool is allowed. Grinding after hardening removes that movement and is the only way to hold an accurate tool height.
| Step | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Design | Whether the tool fits the machine and carries the load |
| Machining | The blank geometry and material usage |
| Heat treatment | Hardness, wear life and toughness |
| Grinding | Tool height, tang fit and profile accuracy |
| Inspection | Whether the tool matches its drawing |
What does the workshop sit inside?
The factory is in Bowang District, Maanshan, Anhui Province, a tooling and blade manufacturing cluster. Bowang is known as China's blade and tooling district and is a national-level cluster for machine tool and blade dies.
What should a tooling inspection record contain?
The dimensions that decide whether the tool fits and bends correctly: the interface and tang dimensions, the overall height, the profile angles and radii, and the hardness.
- Interface and tang dimensions against the drawing.
- Overall tool height, which drives the tooling setup.
- Profile angles and radii, which drive the bend result.
- Hardness of the working surfaces.
- Material grade, so the rated load can be verified.
How is tooling packed and shipped?
Tooling is packed so the ground and hardened faces cannot contact each other or rest on the tip in transit, because damage in transit is the most common cause of a tool arriving out of specification.
Segments are packed in their sets so that a matched group of segments arrives and stays together, which matters for the bend angle along the length.
Related technical pages
Tooling hardness and steel grades
The grades and hardness the process produces.
Tooling drawing guide
The drawing the tool is inspected against.
Custom tooling
How a special profile is designed and made.
Press brake tooling
The standard profiles the process is applied to.



Next step
Ask for the inspection record for any tool and we will send the dimensions, hardness and material grade against the drawing.
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