And she smiles, because the deepest draws are no longer a problem. They are the future. Key takeaway: Deep drawn stamping in the UK is vital for industries like automotive (EV batteries), aerospace, medical devices, and defence, offering seamless, high-strength, lightweight components where traditional fabrication fails.
The problem was a client in Coventry: Apex EV , a startup building the next generation of electric vehicle battery housings. These weren’t simple trays. They were complex, monolithic enclosures requiring near-micron precision—deep, seamless cavities that could protect volatile lithium cells from crash impacts and thermal runaway. Apex had tried fabricating the housings by welding multiple stamped pieces together, but the welds were weak points. They needed a single piece of metal, transformed into a shape deeper than its own diameter. deep drawn stamping uk
They rebuilt the process from scratch. They introduced a multi-stage drawing cycle: first a shallow pre-draw, then an intermediate redraw, then a final ironing stage to thin and smooth the walls. They replaced standard mineral oil with a high-viscosity chlorinated extreme-pressure lubricant. They even adjusted the blank holder force dynamically using sensors—too little, and the metal wrinkled; too much, and it ruptured. And she smiles, because the deepest draws are
The first week was a disaster. The blanks tore at the corners, leaving jagged scars. The second week, they solved the tearing but introduced earing —wavy ripples at the top edge caused by the metal’s grain structure fighting back. The problem was a client in Coventry: Apex