The history of the tool trade
From handmade form to CNC-controlled production
Most things around you are made with a tool you never see: a casting mold or a stamping tool. Behind the plastic button the metal fitting or the capsule lies a piece of precision tooling that a toolmaker made. It is the hidden but crucial craft you are training for.
§When people started making many identical parts
As long as things were made one at a time there was no need for moulds and stamping tools. But when industry began producing many identical parts the need arose for tools that could press cast or stamp the same part again and again — precisely every time.
§The toolmaker as a specialist
It takes great precision to make a tool that needs to be used thousands of times. That's why the tool maker became a specialist in metal processing, measurement and fit — the one who makes the tool the rest of production builds on.
| Period | Development. | Significance for the trade |
|---|---|---|
| Before industry | Parts are made one at a time | Little need for forms/punching tools |
| Industry growth | Mass production of identical parts | Need for precise moulds and stamping tools |
| Manual machines | Lathe, milling machine, grinder | The toolmaker masters machining |
| Modern time | CNC-controlled machines | Computer-controlled, programmable processing |
§The computer comes in
With CNC-controlled machines — computer-controlled and programmable — it became possible to make even more complex parts with high precision. Today you work with both manually operated and CNC-controlled machines and learn to program them.