surface 46 of the die plunger 28 u2032 and thereby correspondingly large forces act between the piercing section 14 and the die plunger 28 u2032 in other words the pressing force is so selected taking account amongst other things of the properties of the sheet metal part 12 and or of the element 10 that the slug 34 which is created is supported throughout the entire piercing process a movement of the die plunger 28 u2032 is first provided only after the slug 34 has been completely cut out of the sheet metal part 12 when this first starts depends amongst other things on the shape of the peripheral surface 46 and the pressing force which is set provision can for example be made that the reshaping of the piercing section 14 first takes place comparatively late and a plunger 28 u2032 is not set in movement directly after the punching out of the slug 34 the start of the reshaping process of the piercing slug 14 is shown in fig1 and 16 as a result of the thereby enhanced coupling of the section 14 and of the die plunger 28 u2032 a larger proportion of the pressing force acting on the bolt element 10 is transmitted to the plunger 28 u2032 so that the pressing force is overcome and the plunger 28 u2032 starts to deviate downwardly in fig1 and 18 a state is shown in which the die plunger 28.