Electromagnetic Forming - Comparison With Mechanical Forming

Comparison With Mechanical Forming

Electromagnetic forming has a number of advantages and disadvantages compared to conventional mechanical forming techniques.

Some of the advantages are;

• Improved formability (the amount of stretch available without tearing)
• Wrinkling can be greatly suppressed
• Forming can be combined with joining and assembling with dissimilar components including glass, plastic, composites and other metals.
• Close tolerances are possible as springback can be significantly reduced.
• Single sided dies are sufficient which can reduce tooling costs
• Lubricants are reduced or are unnecessary, so forming can be used in clean room conditions
• Mechanical contact with the workpiece is not required, this avoids surface contamination and tooling marks. As a result, a surface finish can be applied to the workpiece before forming.

The principle disadvantages are;

• Non conductive materials cannot be formed directly, but can be formed using a conductive drive plate
• The high voltages and currents involved require careful safety considerations
• Large sheet metal components cannot readily be formed, due to current limitations on the design of very large coils