Hydroformingis a special type of cold-forming that uses a high pressure liquid stream tohydraulically mould a tube at room temperature.
The process involvespre-bending a metal tube and placing the preformed tube into a mould of thedesired shape and applying pressure. Under the pressure of the tubes in themould, the tubes can be perforated at the same time, thereby avoiding secondaryoperations in most cases. Hydroforming can form complex concave shapes, whichcannot be achieved with standard stamping.
Hydroforming isconsidered a cost-saving process for shaping lightweight metal forming. One ofthe advantages of this process is that it can create at threedimensional tube, while cold-stamping can only weld two shells. Thisability to retrofit thick materials is used in the chassis business.