A pancake die is a simple type of manufacturing die that performs blanking or piercing.^[1] Many dies perform complex procedures simultaneously (or progressively for progressive die) such as coining, piercing, forming, bending in addition to product removal and transport (for additional manufacturing procedures or packaging). A pancake die may only perform one simple procedure with the finish product being removed by hand.

An example would be a die that performs blanking of .030-inch-thick (0.76 mm) round paper gaskets without holes. This type of die would be created in one simple pass from a wire EDM after heat treating. The workpiece would then produce the punch and the die after the cut is complete. Additional work would then include adding a stripper plate to the punch plate after the punch has been mounted (on punch plate). At this point the pancake die is ready for production.