Benefits
Your benefits with VEC as an external design office
Design capacity for dies, fixtures and automation, bookable flexibly and thought through from a manufacturing perspective. You pay for project work instead of the fixed cost of another in-house position.
Benefits
Why companies outsource die design
Capacity without fixed costs
Absorb design peaks without creating a permanent position. You pay for project work instead of ongoing costs for staff, workplace and CAD licences.
Manufacturing-oriented, not theoretical
More than 20 years in tool, fixture and equipment making means designs that can actually be machined, assembled and run in the press.
Short decision paths
One fixed contact person instead of a chain of departments. Questions go straight to the engineer working on your project, which saves loops and time.
Neutral and independent
No ties to a tool room, no supplier interests. The design is laid out for your production, not for someone else's machines.
Fewer correction loops
Tolerance, hardening and standard parts concepts are considered from the start. That reduces rework during tryout and stabilises the series process.
Contractually confidential
NDA before the first data set, anonymised references and data handling according to your rules, also for security-relevant components.
Typical situations
When an external design engineer pays off most
- Your own design team is at capacity while the start of production is already fixed
- A progressive die or fine blanking die exceeds the available specialist experience
- Welding, milling or inspection fixtures are needed at short notice
- An existing die causes trouble and needs to be analysed and reworked
- A process should be semi-automated without procuring a full special machine
- A project needs technical leadership between customer, tool room and production
Short cases
Four typical starting points
Launch date fixed, design team full
The production launch is scheduled but the in-house design team is booked out for months. We take on the die project end to end and work to your guidelines.
Progressive diesA part without in-house die experience
A contact part from thin strip or a fine blanked part requires specialist knowledge you do not have in house. We deliver strip layout and design including a feasibility review.
Stamping & forming diesA fixture is needed at short notice
A welding, milling or inspection fixture blocks the ramp-up. We design the locating concept for manufacture, using standard parts your tool room can source quickly.
Jigs & fixturesThe process runs, but not smoothly
Scrap rates, handling effort or die service life are off target. We analyse the process and propose measures with a clear payback, from die correction to small-scale automation.
Process optimisationEconomics
What external design means commercially
An in-house design position generates cost regardless of workload: salary, workplace, training and CAD licences continue even when no die project is running. External design reverses that relationship, you book exactly the work a specific project requires.
The second lever is the quality of the layout. A die that needs several correction loops in tryout costs more than any design hour. Manufacturing-oriented layout, clean drawing derivation and a well-considered standard parts concept therefore pay off directly in shorter ramp-up times.
Frequently asked questions about collaboration
Describe your part, get a straight answer
Send us the part, the annual volume and your timeframe. We come back with a realistic view on feasibility, tooling concept and effort. No passing through several departments.