Hydroforming is a metal forming process that uses a die molding, over which sheet metal including steel, stainless steel, copper, aluminum and more to be rapidly shaped using highly pressurized fluid, to create precisely formed shapes.
Creating the die molds is a critical part to the process, and traditionally takes days or weeks to be CNC milled to specifications. 3D printing with the ProJet 3500 and Visijet materials allows for robust die molds to be created within hours, and are usable within the same day of being created with no additional post-processing required.
These 3D printed dies can be used hundreds of times on the hydroforming equipment without loss of detail, and additional, exact die copies can be quickly created on the ProJet 3500 printers without delay.