Four Strip Carrier Designs for Progressive Dies

In progressive die design, the strip carrier scheme determines the strip’s rigidity and feed stability throughout the stroke, directly affecting part precision, material utilization and die complexity. Once fixed, all subsequent station and die design follows — which makes it the first thing to settle with the die engineer at drawing review.

Four schemes at a glance

Scheme	Rigidity / stability	Material use	Typical fit
Double-side carriers	Best, high feed accuracy	Lower	First choice for most general parts
Single-side carrier	Medium, verify torsion	Higher	Constrained layouts, slender parts
Center carrier	Medium, edges free to form	High	Terminals and connectors with continuously formed edges
Cut-and-carry	Design-dependent	Highest	Parts bent on all four sides with no flat strip to carry

In brief: double-side carriers connect the strip on both sides for the most stable feed; single-side keeps one carrier and must verify feed stability; center carriers run through the strip middle leaving both edges free to form; cut-and-carry progressively lances and shrinks carriers as forming proceeds, demanding the most from design and calculation.

Three carrier design details

• Connections: balance strength against stress release; position them away from functional and cosmetic surfaces to avoid witness marks or burrs after separation;
• Carrier width: must keep torsional stiffness along feed; overly narrow carriers tear or distort between stations, accumulating feed errors;
• Lifters and guiding: match the number and position of lifters to carrier rigidity so the strip neither dips nor jams on return and feed.

Common mistakes

• Connections placed on assembly or cosmetic faces, leaving marks that affect SMT placement or fit;
• Carriers too narrow or connections too weak — mid-production tearing, downtime and batch defects;
• Overlooking burr direction after carrier separation, adding deburring work or hurting assembly.

Selection principle: strip rigidity and feed stability first, then material utilization and separation convenience. Send us your drawing and our process engineers will propose carrier and strip-layout optimizations at the review stage.