FluidForming-Hydroforming reinvented

Abstract

The FluidForming technology represents an alternative sheet metal forming approach as compared to the traditional, bladder based hydroforming, metal spinning, and sheet metal stamping processes. The machine construction allows for much higher forming pressures of up to 400 MPa/60,000 psi. The technology also enables material flow into the dies, thus, providing more material in potentially critical areas. Modular die construction allows for very cost effective solutions including plastic dies, 3D printed dies, die nesting, and split dies. This approach, in-turn, allows undercuts in the parts and generates scratch-and mostly distortion-free parts from pre-painted, pre-patterned, and pre-polished materials like AL, SS, CU, TI or any of the new high performance alloys. As a result, the technology enables a new product development approach that can focus on optimization and/or Time-to-Market while maintaining or lowering the overall Cost-to-Market. In fact, the development cycle can be accelerated to be less than a week from the CAD design to the production of highly accurate, repeatable metal parts that may not even be manufacturable with other technologies.