Hydroforming

Learn all about hydroforming, an innovative process for which Minifaber is one of the very few companies in Italy with available machinery: advantages include use for sheet metal and specific stainless steel, aluminum and copper applications.

Due to its efficiency and application versatility, hydroforming emerges as a very relevant forming technique that can be used for a wide range of products. In addition to offering this fabrication technique, Minifaber can adapt it to customers’ specific needs to produce customized products case by case. 

Continue reading this page and find out:

• What is hydroforming?

• Its advantages 

• How this fabrication is done

• Sheet metal hydroforming

• Aluminum hydroforming

• Stainless steel hydroforming

• Minifaber's expertise.

What is hydroforming?

Hydroforming is an advanced cold deformation technique that uses hydraulic pressure to make complex, detailed, three-dimensional shapes. This process is especially popular in industries that require metal components with precise geometries and intricate contours.

Advantages

• The hydroforming technique achieves a number of structural and functional advantages, which can greatly enrich the properties of products. The key advantages of this process include

• Greater stability and precision: using a pressurized fluid instead of the punch typically used in conventional drawing means that three-dimensional products can be produced with constant thickness and low material tension, and therefore low springback. This ensures that the parts is more stable and closer to the customer's specifications. With conventional drawing, on the other hand, the same result requires more steps.

• Short die-making time: in this process, the die is basically consists of a single die, a bed on which the blank metal sheet rests, and a gasket to contain the pressurized fluid. The ease with which this tooling can be made results in low fabrication cost and quick turnaround for the first samples. 

• Greater sustainability: the hydroforming process does not require the structured lubricating oils that are needed for conventional drawing. In fact, drawing oils contain substances that are harmful to the environment and humans, such as chlorine and sulfur derivatives. The hydroforming process uses an emulsifiable oil, which is easy to remove after stamping. Instead, drawing requires an expensive washing treatment that takes a lot of energy and cleaning detergents, which themselves contain harmful chemicals. 

• Adaptability to materials: hydroforming adapts to a wide range of metals. These include stainless steel, ferrous materials, aluminum and copper, covering virtually the entire range of materials used in the cold metalworking industry.

• Lean manufacturing at Minifaber: the entire fabrication cycle of a product made using hydroforming takes place in the same department, thus optimizing the movement of semi-finished products through the various fabrication stages, in line with the lean manufacturing philosophy. In fact, semi-finished sheet metal is available from an automatic warehouse in this department, from which it is taken for subsequent hydroforming. The cycle ends with 3D laser cutting the hydroformed part to achieve the final geometry required by the customer. 

How this fabrication is done

The sheet metal hydroforming process follows a series of key steps, which ensure accurate and consistent results on various materials:

1. The flat metal sheet is placed on the die bed;

2. The die positioned on the mobile platen of the press clamps the sheet metal flat on the die bed;

3. The pressurized fluid then enters, deforms the sheet metal and pushes it against the walls of the die, making the part to size;

4. once the part has been formed, the fluid is discharged, and the press opens so that the part can be removed.

Sheet metal hydroforming

Minifaber has decades of know-how in sheet metal fabrication and provides a range of processes, including hydroforming since 2020. 

This technique can be applied to create very detailed shapes with extreme precision and stability. Thanks to controlled hydraulic pressure, sheet metal hydroforming can produce parts with constant thickness and much less springback than in conventional drawing.

Specifically, Minifaber specializes in hydroforming stainless steel, aluminum, and other metals, among the most widely used in industry. 

Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is widely used for its corrosion resistance combined with its mechanical strength. 

The hydroforming process reduces any sheet metal defects to virtually zero because the pressurized water that comes into contact with the sheet metal does not produce any kind of scratching or marking that could compromise its aesthetic appearance. 

Stainless steel hydroforming is widely used in various sectors, including the electromechanical, electro-medical, household appliance, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and more.

Aluminum

Aluminum is certainly among the most suitable materials for the hydroforming process: this technique can be used to produce lightweight, strong components without compromising aesthetic appearance. 

The electromedical, electromechanical, and aerospace sectors, for example, benefit from using aluminum hydroforming to create components with complex contours that need to be light and strong.

Choose Minifaber's expertise

With expertise gained over more than sixty years in the business, Minifaber offers a precision hydroforming service to meet the most specific industrial needs. 

In fact, our experience and fleet of advanced machines enable us to deform metals with maximum precision and control to guarantee a first-rate service.