There are two types of die heights, that is  die height of the press machine and the die height.

Die height has restrictions related to the height of installing the die.

The primary height of the die is that of the press machine, and the secondary height of the die is of the die.

The die height of the press machine is shown in [Fig. 1].

In the condition in which the slide adjustment screw is raised to the upper limit and the slide stroke is lowered to the bottom dead point, the distance from the top surface of the bolster plate to the bottom surface of the slide is the die height of the press machine. In this press machine, it is impossible to install a die which die height is more than this height. If the die has a die height smaller than this height, it is possible to adjust using the height adjustment screw. In the case of a die with a low die height that is outside the adjustment range of the slide adjustment screw, a plate for height adjustment (called a parallel block) is placed above or below the die and then the die is installed.

If the die height varies, it will be necessary to rotate the adjustment screw of the press machine several times, and the time taken for replacing the die becomes long. Therefore, as far as possible, it is better to make uniform the height for all dies that are used by installing in the same press machine, thereby making the amount of adjustment small.

The die height of a press die is shown in [Fig. 2].

The die height is the height from the bottom surface of the die holder to the top surface of the punch holder in the condition at the bottom dead point when the punch and the die have mated together and the operation has been completed. In the case of a die with a structure in which the punch can penetrate the die to any extent, such as in the case of a blanking die, the depth of penetration of the punch should be decided and the height at that time is taken as the die height.

There are some people who call the die height of a press machine "shut height". The shut height is the distance from the bed surface (bolster surface) to the bottom surface of the slide under the same conditions as for the die height.