Hot Forming vs. Cold Forming Titanium: What’s the Difference?

Hot Forming

Hot forming relies on temperature, time, and pressure, making it suited for certain prominent materials. Some of these materials include titanium, Inconel, and certain grades of stainless steel. The advantages of using this technique are varied, but key benefits include accuracy and durability.

• Accurate forming – By using high temperatures, increased accuracy is achieved because of the elimination of springback in production.
• Higher surface profile tolerances – When forming titanium and high-temperature alloys, hot forming is the most ideal when handling higher surface areas. Compared to cold forming, hot forming will have the lower probability of cracking because of its ability to handle larger areas.
• Consistent thickness – This process draws the margin of the sheet inwards smoothly, rather than thinning, making hot forming ideal for providing a consistent thickness for materials. Because of this process, components are resistant to cracking.

Cold Forming

In this process, components are made using a press tool. Once these are put through heat treatment, the materials are gripped and shaped. Some materials cold forming can be used on include stainless steel and aluminum alloys.

Some of the benefits of cold forming include:

• High volume output – Cold forming is a fairly fast process, which makes it an option to consider for high-volume production.
• Complex shapes – Fairly complex shapes can be achieved through cold forming, which can include external engine parts, ducting, and more.

Hot Forming Is Our Specialty. Contact Us Today!

As a key leader in the aerospace industry, Cutting Dynamics works to provide the best parts and components for our clients. And in order to be the best, we work with the best – we recently secured a brand-new hot form press from Beckwood Corporation. The combination of this press with our in-house team’s expertise results in a significantly reduced lead time, of only 12 weeks.

To learn more about Cutting Dynamics, you can visit some of our individual product pages that show our diverse capabilities:

• Assemblies
• Composites
  • Thermoplastic composites
• Engineering
• Hydroforming
• Kitting

Reach out to our team today to learn more! We look forward to collaborating with you and your company.