Stretch Forming
The stretch forming process is an ideal method for producing large wing leading edges, door panels and nose sections, due to lower non-recurring costs and less physical size restrictions on the plant required. The process involves the use of the whole sheet of material, and hydraulic rams are used to force the tool up into the sheet, stretching it to shape.
At Senior Aerospace Thermal Engineering, we have facilities for stretch forming sheet aluminium, stainless steel and other aerospace metals for a range of applications. We have several stretch forming presses including both sheet stretch forming and unidirectional profile stretch forming.
Advantages of Stretch forming
Stretch forming provides a number of advantages
Minimises internal stress: Stress is reduced due to the normalised grain structure of the metal after heat treatment and forming process, greatly reducing spring-back
High volume output: Stretch forming is a rapid process and well suited to higher volume output
Large parts: larger parts can be formed with Senior Aerospace Thermal Engineering’s open access cold stretch presses
Lower cost: Stretch forming is lower cost than cold draw forming due to simpler forming tools being used
Our Capabilities
Materials used
- Aluminium Alloy
- Nickel and Cobalt base alloys – Stainless Steel, C263, Hastelloy X
Approvals
Senior Aerospace Thermal Engineering holds approvals from all of our major customers for Stretch forming including:
- Airbus
- Aircelle
- BAe systems
- Rolls-Royce
- GKN
- ITP
