A technology being marketed as “something completely new and different in metal forming” is attracting attention in North America, as it has in Europe. Called fluid-forming, the technology applies up to 60,000 psi of water pressure to metal blanks in a specially designed machine to form what Paul Benny describes as highly-detailed, close-tolerance parts on a repeatable basis.

Benny is CEO of FluidForming Americas, of Hartsville, Tenn., which first unveiled the technology at the Fabtech show in Chicago last November. The metal-forming method was developed in Germany eight years ago and has been commercially available in Europe through FluidForming’s German parent company.

Fluid-forming produces parts with finer details and much less scrap than competitive methods such as die stamping and hydroforming, Benny said. The process shapes parts from any formable metal, and it can also be used for tube-forming. Example materials are titanium, stainless steel, copper, aluminum, and aluminum alloys.

The thickest blanks formed thus far have been 5 mm (0.2 in). Formed parts up to this thickness achieve 90-deg bends and radii of 1.5 times material thickness. Benny said the process could do thicker gauges, though such parts would lose some radii.

Fluid-forming is a stress-free process that applies uniform pressure, according to Benny. “It’s like blowing a balloon into a mold,” he explained, claiming the process routinely holds tolerances of 0.0001 in, and scrap rates, as noted, are low. One helicopter part made in Europe, Benny said, is being produced with a 0.5 percent scrap rate compared with a 90 percent rate in a legacy process.

The technology, he noted, “is not overly complicated.” Blanks, which can be preshaped to improve detail, are manually inserted into the company’s FormBalancer machine. Current workpiece sizes range from 800 by 800 mm (32 by 32 in) to 1,200 by 1,200 mm (47 by 47 in). FluidForming plans to add a next-generation machine that handles blanks of 1,800 by 1,500 mm (71 by 59 in) this year or in 2015.

The blank is inserted in a horizontal tool, either male or female. Forming is a single- or dual-plane process. The latter is done in a couple of ways, for example, forming one side of a blank and turning it over to form the other side. The water pressure is adjustable, depending on part size and shape and if multiple parts are made in one cycle.

One gallon of water runs in a cycle, with less than a quart of that used for forming. All water is recycled, to which Benny said, “It’s a very green process.”

Cycle times average 30 to 45 s. The process can be used for prototyping and commercial production. When it comes to part runs, “any number less than 500,000 is a sweet spot,” he noted.

Applications tend to be specialized. Current markets include aerospace (Airbus and Lufthansa Group are among end-users), agriculture, automotive (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche), consumer electronics (Nokia), defense, energy (Johnson Controls), transportation, marine, medical, lighting, and laboratory equipment.

One application where the process stands out is satellite dishes. Benny says fluid-forming shapes these parts better than conventional processes. The is because no spring-back occurs during forming, and there is no need to overcompensate in bending curves. The exact dish dimensions are achieved and maintained throughout shaping.

Apart from the forming machine, the only other equipment a shop needs for this process is for trimming parts. This can be done with via waterjet or laser cutting, Benny said, and even die cutting. The process is not automated — at least not yet — but he said it wouldn’t be difficult. A shop would just need a machine that automatically loads metal blanks and unloads them after forming.

The tooling needs a polished surface and must resist high pressures. As a result, Benny recommends having tooling made by companies that specialize in injection molds, as they have experience in both areas.

Although he didn’t quote prices, Benny says fluid-forming compares favorably with competitive processes. Depending on size and configuration, it can be considerably less expensive than a legacy process such as die stamping.

Benny believes that as end-users learn what they can do with the process and begin thinking outside the box in part design and testing, applications will accelerate. In Europe, some product development timelines have declined to six months from 18 months with fluid-forming. “It will be exciting to see what people do with the process once they learn its capabilities,” he remarked.

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