Pressing (metalworking)

Imagine you have a piece of clay that you want to flatten into a cookie shape. You could just use your hands to squish it down, but that would take a long time and it wouldn't be very flat or consistent. Instead, you decide to use a rolling pin. The rolling pin presses down on the clay and makes it flat and even.

Pressing metal is kind of like using a rolling pin on clay. Instead of clay, you have a piece of metal that you want to flatten, shape or cut. Instead of a rolling pin, you use a machine called a press. This machine has a big heavy plate that pushes down on the metal with a lot of force.

It works like this: You put the metal between two plates or dies, which are two big, flat pieces of metal with a shape cut out of them, like a cookie cutter. When you turn the press on, the upper die comes down and presses the metal between the two plates, shaping or cutting it into the desired shape.

Pressing metal is a quick and efficient way to make a lot of metal parts that are all the same shape and size. It's used to make things like car parts, bolts, and even coins! So next time you see something metal and wonder how it was made, remember that it might have been pressed into shape using a big machine.