From 8 to 12 September 2026, Yichen exhibited at Automechanika Frankfurt - the largest meeting point in the global automotive supply chain - at Stand M31 in Hall 4.2.
Over five days we met buyers and engineers from 8 countries, held 32 meetings at the stand, and came home with 5 new projects to quote. This is a short account of what we showed, what buyers asked, and what we are taking back to Ninghai.
Stand M31, Hall 4.2 - stamped parts on the table, tooling behind them.
Why Frankfurt Is Worth Five Days
Automechanika Frankfurt runs every two years at Messe Frankfurt. The 2026 edition brought more than 4,400 exhibitors from over 80 countries, around five percent more than the previous edition; the 2024 show drew over 107,000 visitors from 172 countries.
Halls 1, 3 and 4 hold Parts & Components, traditionally around half of the total exhibition space - the chassis, suspension, braking and driveline neighbourhood, which is exactly where our work belongs. It changes who walks up to a stand. Nobody asked what stamping is. People asked about material grades, hole position after forming, die ownership, tryout and PPAP.
That is the real value of five days in Frankfurt. A supplier evaluation that normally takes three months of emails, samples and video calls happens in twenty minutes, because the part is in the buyer's hand and the engineers who made it are standing next to it.
Twelve Parts, Six Strips, and a Lot of Questions
We brought twelve stamped samples to Frankfurt, chosen to show range rather than to look impressive: chassis and suspension brackets, shock absorber spring seats and mounting plates, control arm stampings, heat shields, precision parts, and welded and CNC-machined assemblies.
Together they cover what we do every day: material thicknesses from 0.8 mm to 3.5 mm, and grades from DC01 and DC04 through S355MC, S420MC and S460MC to DP600 and SUS430. Deep drawing, multi-station forming, flanging, high-speed piercing, stamping combined with welding, stamping combined with CNC machining.
Six of the samples travelled with their progressive strip laid out beside the finished part - and those six generated most of the conversations. A finished part shows what a supplier can deliver. A strip shows how it thinks: where the piercing stations sit relative to the forming stations, how the carrier is arranged, how much material ends up in the part and how much ends up as scrap. Several visitors spent longer on the strips than on the parts, which is usually the sign of a serious buyer.
Six samples came with their progressive strip: the fastest way to show how a die was designed.
Behind the Stand
Yichen has been manufacturing automotive metal parts since 2011, from a plant in Ninghai, Ningbo, under an IATF 16949 quality system. More than 225 customers worldwide work with us, and our parts reach mainstream carmakers through Tier-1 and Tier-2 programmes.
What makes the stand possible is that everything on it comes from the same building. We evaluate manufacturability from the drawing, recommend the forming route and press that suit the part and the volume, design and build the progressive dies in our own tool room, run the parts on our own presses, finish critical features by CNC machining, build the checking fixtures to the same datum scheme as the die, and, where a project calls for it, design the automated line around all of it.
Customers take the part of that chain they need: finished parts, the tooling alone, or a complete production line.
Some buyers only ever see the parts. Some already have presses and come to us for the dies. Some arrive with a drawing and no forming capability at all, and leave with a line. What stays the same is that one engineering team is accountable from the first feasibility review to the first production shipment.
What Buyers Asked Us
By the third day, the conversations had sorted themselves into three kinds.
Established suppliers came with a specific engineering problem: a part family moving to a higher-strength grade, a die that needs to hold tighter position after forming, a line that has to hold takt time after a design change. These conversations start in the middle, with no introductions, and they are our favourite kind - they are exactly what our engineers do at home.
Companies entering a new part family came with the drawing and the order, and questions about everything in between: which process, which press, what tooling, how to prove the parts to their customer. For them we usually start with a manufacturability evaluation, because most of the cost of a part is decided before the die is cut.
And buyers who simply needed parts wanted to know who would be making them and on what equipment. Those conversations generally ended with a drawing and an email address, which is the best possible ending at a trade fair.
What We Settle Before the Die Is Cut
Price, lead time and quality documents are the right questions to ask about a part. When tooling is involved, experienced buyers ask a different set - and our answers are the reason many of those conversations continued after the show.
Forming risks are identified during die design, using forming analysis and our own stamping experience, so tryout confirms the design instead of discovering it. Die maintenance and spare punches are planned with the tool, not after the first production interruption. Checking fixtures are built to the same datum scheme as the die, so the die and the fixture always agree about where the part is. And because the tool room and the press shop are in the same building, a strip layout can be adjusted quickly when a material grade changes mid-programme.
A checking fixture built to the same datum scheme as the die: the part is located the same way at every stage.
What We Are Taking Back to Ninghai
Three things stood out across five days, and all three shape what we build next.
High-strength steel is now routine. Springback compensation, die wear and forming limits came up on ordinary brackets from ordinary programmes, not just on flagship projects. We design tooling for that in the first strip layout.
Electrification keeps redrawing the part list. New housings, enclosures and mounting hardware appear on platforms that did not have them three years ago - usually needed in small validation quantities first and in volume later. A tooling strategy has to survive that change of volume, which is one reason we keep prototype and low-volume work on the same floor as mass production.
And automation is increasingly about people rather than cost. Several visitors described lines they cannot fully staff. That shapes what a good line looks like: fewer manual transfers, more operations inside the die, inspection built into the flow.
Thank You - and Let's Keep Talking
Thank you to everyone who came to Stand M31. The questions were sharp, the drawings were interesting, and several projects are already on our engineers' desks.
If we did not get to talk in Frankfurt, send us the part drawing and the annual volume. You will get a manufacturability evaluation back: where the forming risks are, which forming route and press fit the part, what the tooling involves, and what the checking fixture has to control. Write to sn@yichen-group.com or use the contact form at www.yichen-group.com. We sign an NDA before any drawing is shared.
The next Automechanika Frankfurt runs from 5 to 9 September 2028. We will be there again - but programmes do not wait two years, so it is better if we talk before then.
A Note on Our Two Names
Buyers comparing suppliers will come across both of ours, so it is simpler to say it here. Yichen is the export company of Shaoyi (Ningbo) Metal Technology. Same engineers, same plant in Ninghai, same tool room, same IATF 16949 quality system. Yichen is the name on the export contract and on the stand in Frankfurt; Shaoyi is the name on the factory gate.
