Progress in Sheet Metal Forming Technology

Matched die forming technology has been used widely as a sheet metal forming method for a long time. This conventional method, however, needs a high cost and long delivery time to prepare a set of matched dies or, in many cases, several sets of dies. For more than ten years, some alternative methods using single die or non-matched dies have been developed and applied practically in various fields of industry. Elasto-forming, fluid forming, hydro-forming, and blow forming are some examples of these new methods. Recently, a dieless sheet forming technology using a reconfigurable matrix of punch elements has been developed, and started to be used in some industries such as aircraft and railroads. A new concept of dieless forming technology has also been proposed to overcome the drawback of the conventional dieless forming technology.

금속 판재 성형 기술의 진보