The Secret ingredients of die making
Chapter 1: Measurement units
At GMI, precision starts with how we measure. We build and gauge our dies and punches using metric units, where the smallest increment we work with is a micron—
1 micron = 0.001 mm = 0.000039 inches.
Why does this matter?
Most American die makers work in thousandths (0.001”) or ten-thousandths (0.0001”) of an inch. These are respectable units, but they simply don’t offer the granularity or fine resolution that micron-level measurement provides. No one in the imperial system works in “0.039 thousandths of an inch,” even though that’s what 1 micron actually is.
There’s nothing wrong with imperial units—but microns allow us to measure, adjust, and finish tooling at a level of refinement that inch-based systems rarely approach.
This is one of GMI’s quiet advantages: we work in a finer unit of measurement, which translates directly into more consistent dies and more accurate, repeatable performance for the end user.