Ford’s On-Demand Sheet Metal Forming
While it’s not exactly new, new, this is an advancement and who knows, in a few years, you can sit at home and stamp out a few, many or hundreds of metal diecasts …
“Ford engineers are developing a highly flexible, first-of-its-kind, patented technology to rapidly form sheet metal parts for low-volume production applications. Once fully developed, the technology (Ford Freeform Fabrication Technology, or F3T) will allow for lower costs and ultrafast delivery times for prototypes — within three business days versus conventional methods that take anywhere from two to six months.”
My dad, who passed away decades ago, would be surprised but pleased. In the early 1950’s, he worked at a Ford Stamping plant in Buffalo, NY, obviously doing it the old fashioned way using large heavy dies to pound out 3 dimensional parts from flat steel.
Combine this with 3-D printing and, who knows, maybe the car of the future can be made at home!
Thanks for pointing this out ! It has some special meaning to me.