Metal Stamping for Durable Medical Equipment: Answers to the Questions DME Engineers Ask

A wheelchair, walker, or patient lift is only as dependable as the small steel parts inside it. Brake-lever brackets, anti-tip hardware, axle plates, and footrest mounts carry real loads every day, often for years, in homes, hospitals, and care facilities. When one of those parts is inconsistent, the whole assembly feels it.

For a long time, most durable medical equipment (DME) manufacturers sourced that hardware overseas. Today, more of them are asking whether a domestic supplier makes sense: shorter lead times, less exposure to tariffs and ocean freight, and an engineering team they can actually sit down with.

If you design or source components for mobility and home care equipment, you probably have questions about how metal stamping fits your program. Here are straight answers to the ones we hear most.

Which DME parts are a good fit for metal stamping?

Most flat and formed steel hardware in mobility and home care equipment is a strong candidate. If a part starts as sheet or coil and gets cut, pierced, bent, or formed, stamping is usually the most economical way to make it at volume.

Common examples we see in DME programs include:

• Brake and safety hardware: brake-lever brackets, hanger latches, anti-tip brackets
• Comfort and positioning hardware: footrest, legrest, and armrest brackets and plates
• Structural parts: axle plates, reinforcement plates, gussets, and stamped side guards
• Mounting parts: accessory mounts and brackets for walkers, rollators, patient lifts, and home care and hospital beds

Stamping isn’t limited to single parts. Boehm can join multiple stampings into a finished sub-assembly using resistance, projection, or MIG welding, or TOX clinching. That means fewer part numbers for your purchasing team and a ready-to-install assembly on your line.

A quick rule of thumb: frame tubing, plastics, foam, and upholstery are not stamping work. The brackets, plates, and hardware that tie those materials together usually are.

Can a cast, machined, or fabricated part be converted to a stamping?

Often, yes, and it’s one of the biggest cost levers available to DME manufacturers. Re-engineering castings and multi-piece fabrications into stampings is a core Boehm strength.

Here’s why conversions tend to pay off:

• Lower piece cost. A progressive die forms a part in a single press cycle instead of a series of machining or cutting steps.
• Less weight. Formed sheet steel can match the strength of a heavier casting when the geometry is designed for it. Lighter hardware matters for equipment people push, lift, and fold every day.
• Fewer parts. Several welded or bolted pieces can sometimes become one formed part, which removes assembly labor and failure points.
• Faster, steadier supply. Once the tooling is built, stamped parts run quickly and the same way every time.

The key is engineering review. Small changes, like moving a tab, opening up a hole, or adjusting a tolerance that doesn’t affect function, can be the difference between an expensive part and an economical one. Our engineers look for those changes before a die is ever built.

When should we bring a supplier in?

As early as you can. The best results come when Boehm is involved during your design phase, before the part geometry is locked. Design-in is where most of the savings live. That said, we also review existing production parts, including ones you’re currently buying overseas.

What production volumes make sense for stamping?

Stamping shines at mid-to-high volume. Boehm’s sweet spot is roughly 100,000 to 2 million or more parts per year. At those volumes, the cost of tooling spreads thin and piece prices drop well below machining or fabrication.

Lower volumes can still work when the part is larger or carries more value. A substantial bracket or plate running tens of thousands of pieces a year may justify tooling, while a small, inexpensive clip at the same volume usually won’t. If you have a family of parts, a common approach is to start with the highest-volume pieces and build from there.

Replacement and service parts matter here too. Many DME OEMs need to keep aftermarket SKUs available long after a model launches. Because Boehm maintains its dies in-house, a replacement-part program can keep running for years without re-tooling.

How big can a stamped part be?

Boehm is best suited to parts that fit within roughly a four-foot forming envelope. That covers the vast majority of DME hardware, which tends to be hand-sized brackets, plates, and mounts. Very large panels or extremely tiny parts may be better suited to other processes, and we’ll tell you so up front.

How much does tooling cost, and who owns it?

Tooling is the biggest upfront investment in any stamping program, and it’s often where buyers get sticker shock. Boehm’s low-cost master tooling program addresses that directly. We maintain master die sets, so you pay only for the die components that touch your part. That typically saves 40–60% compared with traditional dedicated tooling.

To quote tooling and piece price accurately, we’ll need your estimated annual usage (EAU). The EAU determines how tooling is amortized and which die approach makes the most sense for your program.

What materials and finishes are available?

Most DME hardware is made from carbon steel in light to medium gauges, which is squarely in Boehm’s wheelhouse. Many parts also need a protective or cosmetic finish, such as powder coat or plating, to stand up to cleaning, moisture, and daily handling. Tell us your material and finish requirements when you send drawings, and we’ll confirm how we’ll deliver them.

How do you keep load-bearing parts consistent?

When a bracket carries a brake or an anti-tip load, “close enough” isn’t good enough. Consistency comes from three things working together:

1. Well-engineered tooling. Boehm designs and builds its tooling in-house, so the die is matched to your part’s critical features from the start.
2. In-house die maintenance. Dies wear over long runs. Maintaining them in our own shop keeps parts in spec from the first hit to the millionth.
3. A documented quality system. Boehm operates under an ISO 9001:2015 certified quality management system.

The result is parts that go into your assembly the same way every time, which means fewer line stoppages and fewer field issues.

What certifications does Boehm hold? Do we need ISO 13485?

Boehm is ISO 9001:2015 certified. We supply stamped and welded components to equipment manufacturers, and the manufacturer keeps responsibility for the finished device’s regulatory compliance.

Whether your program requires a component supplier to hold ISO 13485 depends on your device classification and your own quality system requirements. For a lot of mechanical DME hardware, an ISO 9001 supplier managed under the OEM’s supplier controls is the norm. Your quality team is the right judge of that, and we’re happy to walk them through our system.

Can Boehm help us reshore parts we buy overseas?

Yes. Many DME programs still rely on offshore sourcing for stamped hardware, and the costs of that model have become harder to ignore: long ocean lead times, freight swings, tariff exposure, and limited engineering access when something goes wrong.

Boehm is located in Valley City, Ohio, within driving distance of much of the Midwest and East Coast manufacturing base. A domestic supplier means shorter lead times, simpler logistics, and engineers you can meet in person.

We’ll be straight with you about price, too. A domestic stamping won’t always match an overseas quote line for line. Where Boehm wins is total cost: smarter part design, lower tooling cost, fewer secondary operations, less inventory sitting on the water, and a supply chain you can count on.

What do you need from us to get started?

The more we know up front, the faster and more accurate your quote will be. A good starting package includes:

• Drawings and 3D solid models (if you only have a sample part, send it, and we can work from that)
• Material and finish requirements
• Estimated annual usage, plus any growth or replacement-part forecasts
• What the part does and which features are critical to function
• Where it’s sourced today and what’s driving the change (cost, lead time, quality, tariffs, or a second source)

From there, our engineers review the part for stamping efficiency, recommend any design changes that would lower cost, and quote both tooling and piece price for domestic production. For larger or more complex parts, we’ll set up a quick technical call before quoting so nothing gets missed.

Let’s talk about your next DME program

Whether you’re designing a new wheelchair, walker, or patient lift, or looking for a dependable domestic source for parts you already make, Boehm can help. Our engineers will work with you through the whole life of the part, from design review to production to replacement-part supply.

Speak to an expert or call us at 216-906-0269 to schedule a consultation.