Cold Forming
Cold forming is the process by which a component is formed using a press tool made up of a punch, die and grip ring. The material is first put through an approved heat treatment process, then it is gripped and shaped using a precision-designed punch and die. Approved heat treatments are also used to relieve stress after forming.
At Senior Aerospace Thermal Engineering we have extensive capabilities for cold draw forming of aluminium alloys, stainless steel and other metals for aerospace applications. We have seven cold draw forming presses up to 800 tonnes, enabling us to manage high-volume outputs as well as complex shapes.
Advantages of Cold forming
Cold forming provides a number of advantages over other forming methods including hot forming, superplastic forming etc.
High volume output: Cold forming is much faster than hot forming or superplastic forming, and hence is appropriate for higher volume production.
Complex shapes: relatively complex shapes can be formed by careful tool design. Example parts include ducting, external engine parts, acoustic panels and engine cowl skins
Strength: High surface profile tolerances due to uninterrupted grain orientation in work formed metals, giving increased tensile strength
Lower cost: Cold forming is lower cost than hot forming or superplastic forming and very much lower cost than machining from solid.
Our Capabilities
Materials used
- Aluminium Alloys
- Nickel and Cobalt base alloys – Stainless Steel, C263, Hastelloy X
Approvals
Senior Aerospace Thermal Engineering holds approvals from all of our major customers for cold forming including:
- Airbus
- Aircelle
- BAe systems
- Rolls-Royce
- GKN
- ITP
