When you are thinking about the multiple options that are available for working with any type of metal, many companies in the industry have chosen to use a process known as hydroforming. The manufacturing process was developed in the late 1940s and the early 1950s, and it continues to be an ideal option for adding shapes to a variety of ductile metals.
One of the main drivers in the automotive industry is the demand for faster processes and lighter components. One of the best methods for delivering lightweight components is known as hydroforming. Hydroforming enables the manufacturing of non-uniform areas by using a round-shaped tube as the feed-in material. Hydroformed component features can include a variety of cross sections that have different curved sections.
Do you own or operate a business that concentrates on creating customized and personalized motor vehicles? If you are, you will probably want to think about learning as much as you can about hydroformed components. Hydroformed components are typically made in more than one way, including tube hydroforming. Tube hydroforming is a preference for many who are responsible for completing body work and automotive designs.
Motorcycle frame manufacturing is an ideal match for hydroforming technology. Motorcycle performance is a function of power and weight. Anything that can help reduce weight on a motorcycle without compromising structural integrity pays off in performance.
While most of us tend to associate hydroforming with the automotive and cycling worlds, other industries make good use of hydroformed components as well. The music industry is one of them. Apart from the aspect of electronics and amplification, certain instruments have hydroformed components as well. Two great examples of this are the steel drum and the alto saxophone.
Hydroformed Components Keeping American Commutes Healthy and Affordable. Recently there has been a sudden uptick in the number of people who bike to work instead of driving cars or taking public transportation.
Many U.S. cities are seeing an increase in bicycle commuters, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report…Nationwide; the number of people who traveled to work by bike increased roughly 60 percent over the last decade, from about 488,000 in 2000 to about 786,000 during the 2008-2012 period (US Census Bureau).
The advantages of hydroforming are many. Mostly, they revolve around material efficiency, speed and cost savings. Traditional deep drawing methods suffer from the effects of drawing stress (on the materials) during the process. This is hard to avoid or minimize even when preventive measures are put into place. Fortunately, innovative techniques such as hydroforming address these points. The result is a more fine-tuned deep drawing process, which leads to better overall quality.
Hydroforming utilizes a pressurized oil chamber and a diaphragm which exerts pressure onto a punch. The little details like this matter all the more when you are dealing with intricate shapes or specialized designs. For example, a project that requires fine-tuning your psi would be ideal for hydroforming. Where wrinkling or warped materials would be a concern with traditional deep drawing, hydroforming affords you the high precision with pressure control.
One of the strongest advantages of hydroforming is that a wide variety of metals are still viable for this process. From stainless steel to aluminum, you don’t limit your choices here. Furthermore, not all metals or specific metal shaping scenarios are met well with traditional stamping techniques. It’s too broad of a solution, so again we round back to hydroforming as a more intricate, fine-tuned method. Cost savings play in here, too. With hydroforming, you cut down on costs related to development by eliminating the need for steel tooling and accommodating for various materials. Whatever the material, hydroforming can accommodate it.
Finally, Hydroforming is simply more efficient and offers a wider variety of solutions. It’s the best of all worlds for deep drawing.
The benefits of THF include:
American Hydroformers specializes in the tube hydroforming process. To learn more about this process and how you can take advantage of our expertise, contact us today!
Whether you’re looking to build a prototype fresh from the drawing board or to manufacture your already proven components on a small or large-scale, American Hydroformers can handle your fabricating needs from start to finish. With a huge facility and precise and specialized equipment, taking you from prototype through production is possible, all from one location.
Beginning in the 1970’s, the process of tube hydroforming has met the increasing demand for the manufacture of simple, lightweight components. Over the next few decades, this process has developed to maximize strengths and eliminate weaknesses.
Recent innovations are aimed to improve competitiveness of hydroforming technology by reducing initial investment cost, increasing production rate, and material utilization, consolidating more parts into single parts, and finding ways to eliminate drawbacks, such as excessive thinning (Journal of Materials Processing Technology).
When your product represents a structural component of your customer’s purchase it sure better be structurally sound. Who can afford a costly recall or, even worse, be responsible for a personal accident? To help ensure against part failure American Hydroformers employs exacting Finite Element Analysis (FEA) procedures.
