Quote:
Originally Posted by CobraV8
When I heard about this process for the first time about 7 years ago my initial idea was to use it for forming Cobra body parts 
What aluminum alloys do you use? How do you heat up the sheets? Also how is the pressure tight seal achieved at 900°F?
Simon |
There are many different alloys that can be used. 5083 is the best. There are some very fine grain structure alloys that work quite well, but they are most difficult (and expensive) to find.
We have also used 6061 (OK) and 5052 (pretty good). The sheets have such small thermal mass compared to the dies the sheet heats up very quickly. The dies in most presses are brought to temperature by heated platens. The seal is achieved by massive tonnage and very careful design of the sealing surfaces--and good machining practices.
David
