Hot Forming and Superplastic Forming: Presses Evolution and New Applications in the Aerospace Industry

ACB (France) and its sister company Cyril Bath (USA) have a long experience in the field of hydraulic presses and metal forming for the aerospace industry in the field of structural and engines parts, through which they have acquired invaluable know-how. Power of both companies is the ability to combine two activities: presses manufacturing and parts manufacturing.

The purpose of this presentation is to show how the combination of both activities in the field of Hot Forming/Sizing and Superplastic Forming is the source of continual progress and how the press characteristics improvement can open new fields of applications.

As introduction both processes principles and corresponding presses will be shortly introduced. A short focus will be done on process simulation related to tool design and forming parameter definition. Then as example, concrete and real titanium parts will be presented.

It will be shown how SPF gives the opportunity to re-design an assembly of several parts into one single part or leads to material saving compared to traditional machining when combined with Diffusion Bonding.

The interest of Hot Forming in case of near-net-shape titanium parts manufacturing will be also illustrated and the interest of this technology will be demonstrated related to actual customer’s requirements.