This paper discusses the application of sheet hydroforming technology to the forming of deep draw
aluminum automotive body panels. Over the last few years there has been a shift in the automotive industry to
focus on lightweight bodies to minimize fuel consumption. Currently, the amount of aluminum in vehicle
architectures is somewhat limited due to cost and also the inability to incorporate common body panel design to
aluminum sheet due to lower formability. Typical aluminum sheet has approximately about 30~40% of the
formability of comparative steel grades. Automotive designers have been hampered by this fact and have not
been able to successfully introduce aluminum sheet for wide range of panels. To meet these new challenges in
the industry, Amino has had to adjust and re-focus its sheet hydroforming technology. Sheet hydroforming has a
formability advantage over many types of forming methods. This paper will discuss those advantages and show
some successful applications to the automotive industry.

Download Paper