TUBULAR sheet metal components get a lot tougher to make when they need to incorporate branches. Sure, they can always be fabricated in pieces and welded together, but this approach adds a manufacturing process and can risk the creation of failure points at the joint. These kinds of complex tubular shapes are said to be no battle with bulge forming. This variant of hydroforming uses a fluid under hydrostatic pressure to expand the sheet metal within a die cavity. "The fluid pounds the metal into the female die," explains John Fritzkey, VP of engineering for Voss Industries, whose Cleveland, Ohio shop contains one of the few high-precision bulge forming operations in the US.
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