A professional who develops plans for single stage or progressive stage dies for stamping, forming, forging, or extrusion presses, according to blueprints of product and knowledge of press characteristics and process limitations. Responsibilities include:

• Drafts drawings of dies necessary to form complete forging, stamping, or other part.
• Determines sequence and number of die stages in which single or progressive cutting, punching, and forming will be accomplished, and type of die sets required to produce complete part, based on knowledge of dies, forming processes, and machines.
• Drafts scale drawings of each die set, delineating contours and dimensions for manufacture of die.
• Compares part drawings with wood patterns of cast dies to determine correctness of pattern dimensions and form.
• May observe setup and tryout of newly developed die set in production machine to determine need for redesign or readiness for production use.